Monday, May 17, 2004

Poll finds addiction has impacted the lives of 63 percent of Americans
Faces and Voices of Recovery press release at Join Together - "People in long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol or other drugs face widespread stigma and discrimination, according to a groundbreaking, national survey released today. Overwhelming majorities say that discrimination against people in recovery is a problem in the United States today and that policies and attitudes need to be changed. A majority of those surveyed (63 percent) said there had been a great deal or some impact on their own lives as a result of grappling with addiction, and for most of them (72 percent of those who have been impacted) the addiction was among a family member..." See also the Faces and Voices of Recovery web site.  
  

Medco study reveals pediatric spending spike on drugs to treat behavioral problems
PR Newswire press release reprinted at PsycPORT - "Spending on drugs primarily used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) surged 369 percent for children under age 5 as the number of kids taking one or more prescription medicines to treat behavior-related conditions hit nearly 9 percent for those children taking as least one medication overall, according to new data released today at the Medco Health Solutions, Inc. 2004 Drug Trend Symposium..."  
  

Emergency Departments See Dramatic Increase in People with Mental Illness Seeking Care
NMHA press release - "A recent upsurge in people with mental illness seeking treatment in emergency departments is taking a significant toll on patient care and hospital resources nationwide, according to a new survey of emergency physicians conducted by the nation’s leading mental health organizations and the American College of Emergency Physicians. Six in 10 emergency physicians surveyed report that the increase in psychiatric patients is negatively affecting access to emergency medical care for all patients, causing longer wait times, fueling patient frustration, limiting the availability of hospital staff and decreasing the number of available emergency department beds..."  
  

Promoting Mental Health: Concepts - Emerging Evidence - Practice
World Health Organization report in Adobe Acrobat format that offers "a discussion on the concepts of mental health and mental health promotion, and a description of the relationship of mental health to mental illnesses; a rationale for the place of mental health promotion within public health, alongside prevention of mental illness and the treatment and rehabilitation of people living with mental illnesses and related disabilities; the various perspectives that open when considering mental health as a public health issue, the types of evidence that exist in this area, and the feasibility of mental health promotion strategies; examples of the interventions possible and the responsibility of various sectors; and a way forward of activities that could be undertaken immediately within a variety of resource settings..." See also WHO ATLAS study, noted here some time ago - "a comprehensive and systematic attempt to understand the mental health resources in the world."   
  

As many as 22,000 Iraq, Afghan war veterans already seek care from VA
Napa News story - "Nearly 18,000 soldiers who have returned from Iraq have sought care at VA health facilities, officials reported at the end of March. A separate report in mid-April said 4,000 troops from the war in Afghanistan sought care, although there is some overlap from those who served in both conflicts. ... Mental disorders were diagnosed in 16 percent of the Afghanistan veterans and 15 percent of the Iraqi veterans. ... With thousands more veterans expected to seek benefits and health care, the VA faces its biggest challenge since the early 1990s. Officials are well aware of the stakes."  
  

Imaging study shows brain maturing
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health press release at EurekAlert - "The brain's center of reasoning and problem solving is among the last to mature, a new study graphically reveals. The decade-long magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of normal brain development, from ages 4 to 21, by researchers at NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) shows that such "higher-order" brain centers, such as the prefrontal cortex, don't fully develop until young adulthood. A time-lapse 3-D movie that compresses 15 years of human brain maturation, ages 5 to 20, into seconds shows gray matter – the working tissue of the brain's cortex – diminishing in a back-to-front wave, likely reflecting the pruning of unused neuronal connections during the teen years. Cortex areas can be seen maturing at ages in which relevant cognitive and functional developmental milestones occur. The sequence of maturation also roughly parallels the evolution of the mammalian brain, suggest Drs. Nitin Gogtay, Judith Rapoport, NIMH, and Paul Thompson, Arthur Toga, UCLA, and colleagues, whose study is published online during the week of May 17, 2004 in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "  
  

Legislative panel recommends community-based prison programs (Georgia)
AP story at the Ledger-Enquirer - "A Legislative committee formed to study problems at Tutwiler Prison for women in Wetumpka has recommended that more community-based corrections programs be created to relieve overcrowding at the prison. The chairwoman of the committee, Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston, said Monday the panel recommended using recently closed mental health facilities to set up alternative corrections programs for non-violent prisoners from Tutwiler."  
  

Mental health bill in play (New York)
Democrat & Chronicle story - "People with major mental illnesses would be guaranteed insurance coverage under a scaled-back proposal made by Senate Republicans last week. The measure does not go as far as a bill backed by Assembly Democrats and mental-health advocates, but those groups said it was a starting point toward the goal of better coverage and treatment for people with mental illness..."  
  

Mental-health system has lingering troubles (Oregon)
Statesman-Journal story on the maximum security forensics program at the state hospital in Salem - "...Crowding isn’t the only festering problem in the forensics program. Bleak, antiquated buildings house the resident population. Advocates for the mentally ill say the structures are obsolete relics of a bygone era. Decades of neglect are most telling in a sprawling structure known as the J Building. The 200,000-square-foot complex derived its name from the configuration of its nine sections. They form a backward J. Located just south of Center Street, the building opened in 1883 as the Oregon State Insane Asylum. In the 1970s, it was the primary site for filming of the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest' — an indictment of mental-hospital conditions..."  
  

Mental health crisis growing in prisons UK
Medical News Today story - "The UK prison service is facing a mental health crisis, with the rates of severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, more than 10 times higher among male inmates than the general population, according to the Prison Reform Trust and mental health charity Mind. The two bodies have called on the government to reform the criminal justice system, which they say is imprisoning record numbers of men with mental health disorders. According to statistics, two-thirds of men in prison are diagnosed with a personality disorder and two-fifths show symptoms of at least one neurotic disorder, such as depression, anxiety or phobias."