NEW PULSE PUBLICATION: The inaugural issue of the PULSE Quarterly Briefing was published in late June and has already received a great deal of praise ("Brilliant" - Fran Silvestri, Director: International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership; "A triumphant inaugural issue" - Paul Lefkovitz, CEO: Behavioral Pathway Systems; "Very useful..." - Elaine Alfano, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law). The PQB comes bundled with two other services, the "PULSE Bulletin" (40 issues/year) and "Recent Resources" (10 issues /year) and organizational subscriptions include access to a set of Internet-based tools for distributing news and announcements. For details on subscriptions, please see the new PULSE Community Site.

 Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Using Medicaid to Support Working Age Adults with Serious Mental Illnesses in the Community: A Handbook A January 2005 handbook produced by HHS (and called to our attention by the Open Minds web site) that explains "how existing Medicaid options and waivers are used by states to finance a broad range of community services and supports for adults with serious mental illnesses and to demonstrate what aspects of state-of-the-art community services and supports for this population are funded by Medicaid."  
  

Antipsychotics Suppress Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Reuters Health story at Medscape - "The antipsychotic agents risperidone and haloperidol reduce manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) when used as add-on therapy with an antidepressant, results of a small crossover trial suggest. Serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressants are commonly used to treat OCD, but approximately half of patients do not respond to SRI monotherapy." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Lawmakers: Vermont slow to close state hospital Rutland Herald story - "A panel of legislators charged with overseeing mental health issues harshly criticized state officials Tuesday for taking too long to close the troubled Vermont State Hospital. The frustration was aired just four days after the Department of Justice issued a scathing report that concluded the hospital during 2004 failed to protect patients from harm, often did not develop adequate care plans and used restraint and seclusion excessively. The federal agency is threatening legal action unless improvements are made..."  
  

Hill District a microcosm of mental health challenges for African Americans (Pennsylvania) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story - "For about nine months, Earl Hill has directed mental health care at the Hill House, where the 30-year-old program is a satellite of UPMC's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. His position puts Hill on the front line of mental health wellness for black Americans and he knows that depression, anxiety, psychosis and suicide are as real as heart attacks or diabetes. Unfortunately, only one-third of Americans get the mental health care they need and for black Americans the gaps in mental health treatment and services are wider than ever. The Hill District, where many of Hill's 1,500 clients come from, is a microcosm of the mental health challenges for African Americans..."  
  

New Drug Abuse Treatment Shows Promise Science Daily story - "Patients who receive buprenorphine treatment for opioid addiction in an office--based setting are more likely than those receiving methadone treatment to be young men, new to drug use, and with no history of methadone treatment, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Approved for treating heroin and prescription opiate pain killer abuse in 2002, office--based buprenorphine holds the promise of bringing new patients into treatment. While heroin and prescription opiate pain killer abuse has substantially increased over the years, the availability of treatment has not increased with the demand."  
  

Mexican painter triumphs in spite of illness AP story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Since his schizophrenia was diagnosed in 1991, Alfonso Lorenzo Santos has divided his time between a psychiatric clinic in Cuernavaca and his tiny lime-green house in this remote mountain village. At home, he often gets so violent his neighbors chain him to a wall. Yet despite his anger and terrifying delusions, Mr. Lorenzo has become one of Mexico's most innovative folk painters, piling points upon points of paint on paper, like tiny tiles in a mosaic. To his psychiatrist, Mr. Lorenzo paints as if he were blinded by the sun and sees floating black dots in front of him. To Francesco Clemente, a celebrated Italian artist who encourages Mr. Lorenzo's work, the Mexican appears 'to see images through a telescope - he breaks things down to their elemental level.'"  
  

U.S. researchers find connection between pleasure-regulating brain chemical and anorexia AP story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Women who suffer from anorexia have increased chemical activity in a part of the brain that controls reward and reinforcement, something that may explain why they are driven to lose weight but don't get any pleasure from it, according to a new study. Researchers used brain-imaging technology on 10 women who had recovered from anorexia and 12 healthy women. In the anorexic women, they found overactivity by dopamine receptors in a part of the brain known as the basal ganglia. Dopamine is a brain chemical that is associated with regulating pleasure..."  
  

Cultural Diversity and Mental Health Story at Red Nova - "The article presents a study on identifying ethnic differences in battered women's use of health, mental health, and spiritual coping strategies, as well as differences in the perceived helpfulness of each strategy. There are a range of health and mental health effects of domestic violence that cause a woman to need help, including lacerations, bruises, gastrointestinal symptoms, depression, shame, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and insomnia. Although there has been research on the ethnic differences in help seeking among domestic violence victims in shelters, there remains a paucity of research on the types of help women are likely to seek for their symptoms. "  
  

Ministers reject concerns over mental health law (UK) Guardian story - "The government today vowed to press ahead with its controversial overhaul of mental health legislation, against the advice of MPs and peers. The Department of Health and the Home Office said the parliamentary committee that scrutinised the legislation was wrong to conclude that it would erode civil liberties. The departments today accused the joint committee on the draft mental health bill of missing the point about the proposed measures to widely extend compulsory treatment and detain people suffering from mental illnesses or personality disorders." See also Mental health committee 'misses the point' (ePolitix.com) and Rethink - Mental Health Bill concessions fail to meet concerns (Rethink press release at Politics.co.uk).