This trial is the first to use NAC as a pharmacotherapy for PTSD and a broad range of SUDs. The results were published online ahead of print on October 11, 2016 by the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Veterans in the NAC-treated group showed a 46% reduction in PTSD symptoms, compared with a 25% reduction in the placebo group on the Clinical-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), which assesses trauma history and symptom severity. The threshold CAPS score for diagnosis of PTSD is 50.
Craving and depression were also reduced in the NAC-treated group. The amount of craving was reduced by 81% and the frequency of craving by 71% in the NAC group, compared with 32% and 29% in the placebo group. "Craving is a key component of substance use in relapse," said Back. "If you have a medication that can really reduce craving, that will go a long way to helping people stay clean and sober." Depression, gauged using the Beck Depression Inventory, was reduced 48% in the NAC group vs. 15% in the placebo group.
NAC is available over the counter and does not cause side effects at the doses used in the study, but it degrades quickly when stored, is contraindicated in patients with asthma, and can cause nausea at higher doses and so should always be obtained and administered under a physician's supervision.
For decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs has collected — and ignored — reams of information that could have helped answer that question, an investigation by ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot has found.
Its medical staff has physically examined more than 668,000 Vietnam veterans possibly exposed to Agent Orange, documenting health conditions and noting when and where they served. For at least 34 years, the agency also has asked questions about their children’s birth defects, before and after the war.
But the birth defect data had never received scrutiny by the VA or anyone else until this year, when ProPublica, working with The Virginian-Pilot, obtained it after submitting a detailed plan describing how it would be used and agreeing to protect patients’ identities.
The analysis that followed was revealing: The odds of having a child born with birth defects during or after the war were more than a third higher for veterans who say they handled, sprayed or were directly sprayed with Agent Orange than for veterans who say they weren’t exposed or weren’t sure. The analysis controlled for such variables as age and health status.
The 21st Century Cures Act will increase the ease with which individuals can be involuntarily hospitalized in a locked ward, increase funding for institutionalized settings, and demand that states implement forced outpatient treatment in order to receive funding. Many media reports are suggesting that it will fix a broken mental health system, incorporate patient voices into clinical processes, decrease mass violence and modernize clinical trials. But will it really? Here are seven reasons why Obama's signing of the 21st Century Cures Act is less than grounds for celebration.
1. Sandy Hook and other tragedies will not be avoided by the measures contained in this bill. There is no debate at this point about the fact that individuals who are diagnosed with serious mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators. Further, they are rarely violent in the first place.
Yet, the "reform" this bill seeks was formulated largely in reaction to the tragic Sandy Hook killings in 2012. It is a product of the assumption that "mental illness" is responsible for mass acts of violence, and that the answer is more psychiatric treatment, often treatment of a coercive and restrictive nature.
However, the story that doesn't get told is that the perpetrator of that mass shooting was in psychiatric treatment and on numerous psychiatric drugs at the time of the killing. In fact, almost half of all of those who've committed homicide were on their prescribed psychiatric drugs at the time of offense. Moreover, forced treatment is associated with increased violence, as are some of the drugs being touted as the answer. Yet, with this bill, forced hospitalization in locked wards becomes a go-to response for an individual who is in extreme emotional distress.
Why does anyone think that doing more of what was already being done is the answer?
The problem in urban and rural areas was about the same in 2004 — about 1 in 1,000 births were affected. But by 2013, the rural rate had climbed to almost 8 in 1,000. In urban areas, it reached 5 per 1,000 births.
The rates correspond with women’s use of opioid drugs during pregnancy. This includes use or misuse of oxycodone and other prescription opioid painkillers, and use of illegal narcotics.
“Those five years ruined everything. My self-identity is sad, melancholic, shy, retiring and angry… never content or at peace.”
“It has hampered me all my working life.”
“Problems with relationships with the opposite sex my whole life made me think something was wrong with me.”
“I will never know the person I could have become….”
All of those comments were made by adult men who had experienced sexual abuse at the hands of clergy, particularly priests, when they were children. Collected as part of a 2010 survey, they illustrate the insidious harm that can follow individuals throughout their lives when they are badly hurt — physically or emotionally — as children.
Childhood sexual abuse is just one type of early trauma that can affect one’s life for decades — even into middle age and beyond. Research has shown that childhood trauma, ranging from parents’ divorce to alcoholism in the home, increases the odds of heart disease, stroke, depression, suicide, diabetes, lung diseases, alcoholism and liver disease later in life. It also increases risky health behaviors like smoking and having a large number of sexual partners. And it contributes to “low life potential,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
One more thing: those traumatized as children die earlier.
In it I wrote about the benefits of the plant but also about the chemicals found in it, the two we need to know about are THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (Cannabidiol). THC is the chemical that gives people the psychoactive effects and for creating a euphoria!
CBD is the chemical that is very useful in controlling a range of health conditions, however the purpose of this post is its use for controlling chronic pain.
I have been in chronic pain for over ten years and I am now a full-time wheelchair user and have been housebound this year except for medical appointments and a couple of quick outings. I take Paracetamol, Dihydrocodeine, Pregabalin (Lyrica), Nortriptyline and I wear a Buprenorphine patch and then I top up with Oramorph as needed and this year that has been a lot!
I was blown away when a friend announced that he was sending me some CBD oil from a company called Liquid Life and a vape kit. I have never been a smoker and so I was apprehensive however this oil in a vape is so smooth and has a Melon flavour.
I was nervous, any glimmer of hope that then turns out to not help leads to huge disappointment, when you are in constant pain you sort of come to terms with it and so any false hopes can be very difficult to deal with. I started using it straight away and used it before bed and again the next morning and something was happening!
It is very hard to describe what I was feeling, it’s almost like a calmness and like the pain is put to the back of your mind. I was very aware that this may be a placebo effect, people hate hearing that as they think that it means they are being accused of faking or over exaggerating the pain but the brain is a powerful thing and after all pain is generated by the brain.
It’s now two weeks since I have started Vaping CBD Oil for Pain, without a doubt it has lowered my pain, well it’s changed my response to the pain. I get grumpy as my family often tell me, the way I describe is that I am like a glass that is full to the top and so one tiny drop sends it over flowing! I cant handle much, that could be visitors, a problem with benefits or housing, a family dispute or my grandson when he is having a bad day and cries a lot. Since using the CBD in the vape I have not felt so over whelmed by the pain, I am still in pain but it is like the sharp edges have been rounded off and I feel more capable of dealing with things.
Also I have cut down the use of Oramorph massively, I was taking several doses a day and in the last week I have taken three doses, that alone makes me so happy.
CBD has no side effects, its natural and it’s working!
Many of these people experience feelings of loneliness and isolation. Sometimes, being diagnosed with a long-term condition means losing one's previous social status and connections with people.
These feelings have been documented in psychiatric literature and connected with a patient's so-called ontological security. The term refers to a sense of order, continuity, and meaning in a person's life, together with a positive outlook on the future.
New research examines the impact of having a pet on the sense of ontological security and well-being of people with mental health problems.
Of the interviewees, over 46 percent - 25 participants - placed a pet within the personal communities that help them manage their illness and everyday life.
Of these, the majority - 60 percent - placed their pet in the central, most important circle. Another 20 percent placed their pet in the second circle, and only 3 participants placed their pet in the third circle.
Patients reported various reasons why pets were so important to them. Some of them said they provided much-needed distraction from symptoms and upsetting experiences, such as hearing voices, suicidal thoughts, or rumination.
Pets also gave their owners a feeling of responsibility, which in turn made the owners feel respected by other members of society. Having a pet was seen as an effective way to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.
Caring for a pet also gave owners a feeling of being in control, as well as a feeling of security and routine. This provided participants with a sense of ontological security, by generating a sense of order and continuity to their day-to-day activities.
Finally, the feelings of acceptance and unconditional support that pets gave their owners contributed to an overall sense of meaning.
That marks an increase of nearly 5,000 deaths from 2014. Deaths involving powerful synthetic opiates, like fentanyl, rose by nearly 75 percent from 2014 to 2015.
Heroin deaths spiked too, rising by more than 2,000 cases. For the first time since at least the late 1990s, there were more deaths due to heroin than to traditional opioid painkillers, like hydrocodone and oxycodone.
In the CDC's opioid death data, deaths may involve more than one individual drug category. Many opioid fatalities involve a combination of drugs, often multiple types of opioids, or opioids in conjunction with other sedative drugs like alcohol.
In a grim milestone, more people died from heroin-related causes than from gun homicides in 2015. As recently as 2007, gun homicides outnumbered heroin deaths by more than five to one.
"There is nothing ambiguous about it," said Robert Keefe, an associate professor in UB's School of Social Work and the paper's lead author. "Church, religion and spirituality really matter when it comes to treating mothers of color with PPD symptoms."
The researchers developed and identified six specific themes based on their interviews: stress relief; feeling valued and less alone; experiencing gratitude; developing perspective; changing and developing relationships; preventing self-harm. "Some of the women talked of not wanting to wake up, but realized the church mattered and that they mattered as part of the church," said Keefe. "They hit a low point, but going to church, and engaging in prayer, meditation and listening to sermons or reading the church website, helped them to get going.