The Heavy Burden of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

http://goo.gl/apuqSb

Post-traumatic stress disorder has reached staggering levels in the American military. An estimated 7 percent to 20 percent of all service members and veterans who have served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq may have the disorder, and rising percentages of veterans from earlier conflicts are also afflicted.

The Departments of Defense and of Veterans Affairs have poured billions of dollars into treating the debilitating condition. Yet neither department really knows whether the treatments offered and applied are effective,according to a report issued Friday by the Institute of Medicine, a unit of the National Academy of Sciences, which had been asked by Congress to evaluate the programs.


Adults with Asperger's syndrome 'at higher risk of suicidal thoughts'

This won't be any surprise to adults with Asperger's.......

http://goo.gl/KAicfG

The researchers found that 66% of participants with Asperger's reported suicidal ideation, compared with only 17% of the general population and 59% of patients with psychosis.

Asperger's patients with a history of depression were four times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and twice as likely to plan or attempt suicide than those without a history of depression, according to the researchers.

In detail, the team found that 66% of patients with Asperger's had thought about committing suicide and of these, 35% had planned or attempted suicide during their lifetime.

Murphy's Law: The Curse Of Khat

http://goo.gl/G7qwE3

Khat is a plant that has grown in Yemen for thousands of years. Khat leaves when chewed give you more of a buzz than caffeine or nicotine, but less than stronger drugs. It is addictive and until the 1950s was grown by farmers for their own personal use as a stimulant. Khat was used like that long before anyone figured out how to use coffee beans to produce a stimulating liquid. One thing that kept Khat local was the fact that the leaves quickly lost their potency a few days after being picked. In other words, Khat did not travel well while coffee beans and tea leaves did. That all changed after World War II when roads, trucks and air transport became widely available. Suddenly Khat had an international market for those who could afford to pay and had a taste for it.

Khat has created another problem; the importation of powerful and often forbidden insecticides, to facilitate the growing of more Khat. Since the Khat leaves are chewed, using too much, or too poisonous (to humans) insecticide makes the users sick. Many Khat growers are more concerned with producing more Khat than they are in keeping their customers healthy. The Yemeni government is struggling to keep illegal insecticides out of the country, if only to prevent Yemeni Khat users from getting sick. Just as Colombia and Afghanistan were thrown into chaos by major drug gangs (producing cocaine and heroin, respectively) Yemen is being brought low by Khat. It is all low key and generally off the mass media radar, but it is very real.


Sugar May Harm Brain Health

From Scientific American....
http://goo.gl/W1CAI7

The new study sought to identify whether glucose had an effect on memory even in people without the disease because having it could induce other brain changes that confound the data. In the experiment, researchers at the Charité University Medical Center in Berlin evaluated both short- and long-term glucose markers in 141 healthy, nondiabetic older adults. The participants performed a memory test and underwent imaging to assess the structure of their hippocampus.

Higher levels on both glucose measures were associated with worse memory, as well as a smaller hippocampus and compromised hippocampal structure. The researchers also found that the structural changes partially accounted for the statistical link between glucose and memory. According to study co-author Agnes Flöel, a neurologist at Charité, the results “provide further evidence that glucose might directly contribute to hippocampal atrophy,” but she cautions that their data cannot establish a causal relation between sugar and brain health.

These findings indicate that even in the absence of diabetes or glucose intolerance, higher blood sugar may harm the brain and disrupt memory function.

Child abuse 'has serious consequences for brain development'

http://goo.gl/7Mns4a

They found that the individuals who had been exposed to childhood maltreatment had much smaller volumes of gray matter in certain brain areas, compared with those who had no history of child abuse.

In detail, those who had a history of child abuse had reduced gray matter in their the right orbitofrontal/superior temporal gyrus, amygdala, the parahippocampal and middle temporal gyri and the left inferior frontal and post central gyri.

The team notes that the most consistent reduction of gray matter volume among those exposed to child abuse was in the ventrolateral prefrontal and limbic-temporal regions - areas linked to cognitive control.

Since these brain regions develop relatively late - after the child abuse may have occurred - the team says this may explain why some victims of child abuse typically have compromised cognitive control.

In addition, the team found that reductions in gray matter in the right orbitofrontal-temporal-limbic and left inferior frontal regions of those with a history of child abuse remained even among those who were unmedicated, "indicating that these abnormalities were not related to medication but to maltreatment," says Radua.


Peer support specialist helps Beaverton community maintain good health


Patients at MidMichigan Medical Offices-Beaverton now have a new team member to help them get healthy and maintain good health.
Certified Peer Support Specialist Mary Beth Evans helps patients identify their strengths and develop health and wellness plans.

As a peer support specialist, she also helps patients connect to resources in the community and assists them in applying for food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits. For those seeking employment, Evans can provide vocational planning and help with job searches. She helps with budgeting, scheduling appointments and finding social and volunteer opportunities. Through the MidMichigan Community Health Services behavioral health program, Evans is a link to primary care and such services as nutritional counseling.
“My job is to connect our patients to the things they need to help them be healthier in every way — physically, mentally and socially,” Evans said. “My goal is to coach our patients to be independent and have a satisfying lifestyle.”

Ceremonial PTSD therapies favored by Native American veterans

http://goo.gl/VaM9hZ

Native American veterans battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder find relief and healing through an alternative treatment called the Sweat Lodge ceremony offered at the Spokane Veterans Administration Hospital.

In the Arizona desert, wounded warriors from the Hopi Nation can join in a ceremony called Wiping Away the Tears. The traditional cleansing ritual helps dispel a chronic "ghost sickness" that can haunt survivors of battle.

These and other traditional healing therapies are the treatment of choice for many Native American veterans, - half of whom say usual PTSD treatments don't work - according to a recent survey conducted at Washington State University. The findings will be presented at the American Psychological Association conference in Washington D.C. this August.


Deaths from prescribed painkillers 'higher than heroin and cocaine combined'

http://goo.gl/MhWqie

The researchers, from McGill University in Canada, have published their results in the American Journal of Public Health.

According to the team, the US and Canada rank number 1 and number 2 in per capita opioid consumption, respectively.

And in 2010 in the US alone, prescribed painkillers were involved in over 16,000 deaths.

Such drugs cause sedation and slow down a person's breathing, but because individuals who are abusing prescription painkillers commonly take larger doses to feel the euphoric effect, their breathing can slow down so much that it stops, resulting in an overdose.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that in 2010, over 12 million people reported using prescription painkillers without a prescription or for the feeling they cause.

Around half of all deaths due to opioids involve at least one other drug, say the CDC. This includes benzodiazepines, cocaine and heroin, as well as alcohol.


New compound to treat depression identified, may also lead to future therapy for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's

A readily create variant on ketamine, seems to have an effect on depression 1,000 times more powerful than ketamine without the side effects, at least in rat studies. Other interesting stuff as well..... 

http://goo.gl/mLlarp

"The clinical use of ketamine therapy for depression is limited because the drug is administered intravenously and may produce adverse effects such as hallucinations and sedation to the point of anesthesia," said Irving Wainer, Ph.D., senior investigator with the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Aging, Baltimore. "We found that the HNK compound significantly contributes to the anti-depressive effects of ketamine in animals, but doesn't produce the sedation or anesthesia, which makes HNK an attractive alternative as an antidepressant in humans."

HNK is one of several different compounds produced when ketamine, an anesthesia medicine-turned-antidepressant, is broken down (metabolized) in the body. Using a rat model, researchers tested HNK to see if the compound alone could produce the same beneficial effects attributed to ketamine without ketamine's unwanted side effects.