Recovery Michigan

The analysis of the data shows that cocaine consumption multiplies the risk of dying by four compared with non-consumption. Specifically, the percentage of cases among the deceased owing to sudden death in which drug consumption was detected was nearly 10%, while among the people who had died of other causes it was 2%. And in comparison with the estimated data in the general population, the proportion of people who used cocaine recently was between 13 and 58 times higher in the cases of sudden death than in the general population. Another risk factor detected was sex: the risk in men was 1'6 higher than in women.

Dear Neurotypicals Who Love or Know Someone with SPD,

In honor of Sensory Awareness Month, this post is for you.

It’s a very common theme among SPDers, especially on our group threads: how do I explain SPD to those who love and care about me and who truly want to understand?

How menthol enhances nicotine addiction has been something of a mystery. Now, Brandon Henderson at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues have shown that exposing mice to menthol alone causes them to develop more nicotinic receptors, the parts of the brain that are targeted by nicotine.

Menthol can be used medically to relieve minor throat irritations, and menthol-flavoured cigarettes were first introduced in the 1920s. But smokers of menthol cigarettes can be less likely to quit. In one study of giving up smoking, 50 per cent of unflavoured-cigarette smokers were able to quit, while menthol smokers showed quitting rates as low as 23 per cent, depending on ethnicity.

Over time, smokers of both menthol and unflavoured cigarettes acquire more receptors for nicotine, particularly in neurons involved in the body's neural pathways for reward and motivation. And research last year showed thatsmokers of menthol cigarettes develop even more of these receptors than smokers of unflavoured cigarettes.

"We hypothesize that rather than functioning primarily as a proximal or direct sub-mechanism in the etiology of SAD,vitamin D likely functions in a more foundational and regulative role in potentiating the sub-mechanisms associated with the depressive and seasonality factors," say the researchers.

Firstly, the researchers note that vitamin D levels in the body fluctuate with the changing seasons in response to available sunlight.

"For example," says Stewart, "studies show there is a lag of about 8 weeks between the peak in intensity of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and the onset of SAD, and this correlates with the time it takes for UV radiation to be processed by the body into vitamin D."

Co-author Michael Kimlin, of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, says that vitamin D also plays a part in the synthesis of both dopamine and serotonin, noting that past research has associated low levels of these neurotransmitters with depression.

"Therefore," he adds, "it is logical that there may be a relationship between low levels of vitamin D and depressive symptoms. Studies have also found depressed patients commonly had lower levels of vitamin D."

These studies were proof that depression could be treated in poor countries by lay people. Now these researchers are trying to figure out how to streamline these interventions to the minimum outlay of resources needed to maintain excellent results. Many models are being tried, which integrate mental health care into primary care, employ community health workers or piggyback therapy on to other kinds of services. But one very promising strategy is to rely on peers as therapists. “The idea is to really make it go viral,” said Vikram Patel, a psychiatrist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the leader of the Goa study.

In Rawalpindi and Goa, researchers are shifting the Thinking Healthy Program from community health workers to minimally trained peers. These projects are part of the South Asia hub of a major project financed by the N.I.M.H. to support and link global research on delivering mental health care in poor countries. The study is in its early days — results won’t come out for several years.

The high prevalence of COPD among long-stay psychiatric patients is a key reason why this group has a life expectancy 15-20 years less than healthy adults.

Researchers from Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Whittington Health reviewed case notes and assessed the lung health of 41 long-stay psychiatric patients between the ages of 22 and 78.

The results showed that

• over 8 in 10 patients (83%) were smokers, in comparison to 19% of the general UK population
• 17% of patients were found to have COPD, in contrast to just 1.7% of the general population
• 7 % had undiagnosed COPD.

COPD is an umbrella term for a group of severe lung diseases including bronchitis and emphysema, and is mainly caused by smoking.

Evidence shows that:

• people with mental health disorders in England are more likely to smoke, and to smoke more heavily than the rest of the population
• 42% of cigarette consumption is attributed to people with mental health disorders.¹

COPD is the second most common cause of emergency admission to hospital and the fifth largest cause of readmission to hospital, but remains largely undiagnosed in psychiatric patients already in hospital.

A recent analysis of prescribing patterns for first-episode psychosis suggests that more effort is needed to promote awareness of first episode-specific medication practices at community facilities. The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, and funds from the Recovery Act.

The study is among the first of several to report results from the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) project, which was developed by NIMH to examine first-episode psychosis before and after specialized treatment was offered in community settings in the United States.  RAISE seeks to change the path and prognosis of schizophrenia through coordinated and intensive treatment in the earliest stages of illness. The findings from these studies identify opportunities for improving the lives of people experiencing first-episode psychosis by highlighting ways existing treatments can be enhanced. For example, the studies make recommendations for improving coordination of mental health care and primary care, and for ensuring that medications follow established guidelines.

“Our data were for prescriptions individuals received before they started the RAISE-Early Treatment Program study.  Community mental health clinicians usually have extensive experience treating individuals with multi-episode psychosis,” said Robinson.  “The challenge for the field is to develop ways to transmit the specialized knowledge about first episode treatment to busy community clinicians. “ 

Hybrid imaging with positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) in the pituitary region of the brain is a promising tool for differentiating military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from those with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), according to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The findings also lend support to the theory that many veterans diagnosed with PTSD may actually have hormonal irregularities due to pituitary gland damage from blast injury.

MTBI involves damage to the brain from an external force, while PTSD is generally defined as a mental healthcondition that can develop after someone has experienced a traumatic event. Research has shown that up to 44 percent of returning veterans with MTBI and loss of consciousness also meet the criteria for PTSD. Differentiating PTSD from MTBI can be challenging for clinicians due to symptom overlap and, in many cases, normal structural neuroimaging results.