Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Parents favor counseling over meds for kids' anxiety Brief
Health Behavior News Service item at
EurekAlert - "New research suggests that parents would rather send their children to counseling than give them medication for social anxiety disorder, a preference that has also been noted for childhood depression and attention-deficit disorder therapy. ... The study in the
Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics also concludes that white parents are more accepting of both medication and counseling than Latino or black parents."
Antidepressants Seem to Have Reduced Teen Suicides Reuters Health story at
Yahoo - "In the last decade, a fall in adolescent suicide rates in the U.S. has coincided with an increase in the use of drugs to treat depression. Now, new study findings strengthen this association by showing that these changes often occurred in the same geographical regions. ... The current findings, which are reported in the
Archives of General Psychiatry, are based on a study of antidepressant use and suicide rates among teens in 588 U.S. postal codes during the 1990s. The researchers analyzed data from several sources, including a major pharmacy benefit program, national suicide mortality files, and the U.S. census."
A Web-Based Screening Instrument for Depression and Anxiety Disorders in Primary Care Called to our attention in CMHA-Ontario's
Mental Health Notes, this article in the
Journal of Medical Internet Research (authored by researchers affiliated Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health)reports "preliminary validation data for a freely-available, brief, Web-based, self-report screener for major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders." The
Mental Health Notes item indicates that "Researchers view the report as a way to initiate and encourage a discussion of anxiety and depression symptoms between patients and health care professionals, as general practitioners tend to provide first-line treatment for mental health problems" - and that "a potential conflict of interest is declared by lead researcher Dr. Peter Farvolden, who is a paid consultant to Van Mierlo Communications Consulting Inc, owners of the Web-based depression and anxiety test content and software." The depression test is available at
www.depressioncenter.net/depressiontest. An alternate version, with questions about anxiety disorders appearing first, is available at
www.paniccenter.net/anxietytest.
Army Is Studying Suicide in Ranks New York Times article - "Army officials sent mental-health experts to Iraq last month to study cases of suspected suicide among ground troops and determine whether sufficient counseling was available, a Defense Department official said Monday. Pentagon officials are trying to determine whether the reported suicides can be attributed to combat stress or the growing length of tours in Iraq, or whether the numbers of deaths attributed to self-inflicted wounds are in keeping with suicide rates in the military when not deployed.
USA Today, in an article on Monday, quoted military officials as saying at least 11 Army soldiers and 3 marines had committed suicide in Iraq over the past seven months." "nyt"
Editorial: Frontier needs challenge care system
Billings Gazette editorial - "A presidential commission has called for "Transforming Mental Health Care in America" -- rightly recognizing that rural America has special needs. These needs are obvious in the states of Wyoming and Montana where the word rural falls short. Most of our vast geography is "frontier" -- where there are more antelope than people, a trip to a doctor is a half-day's drive and stigma can keep people from seeking treatment. Twenty-five percent of Americans live in rural areas. Yet the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health found: 'Too often policies and practices developed for metropolitan areas are erroneously assumed to apply to rural areas.'"
Controversial Implant Sparks 'Town Hall' Newsday story - "Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania are developing a controversial implant designed to deliver small doses of antipsychotic medicines for up to a year to people with schizophrenia. Knowing that this approach raises a host of medical and ethical issues, the researchers held a medical 'town hall' meeting last month."
