Saturday, June 30, 2012

8:12 AM 6/30/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items | General Psychiatry News | Addictions - News Review

8:12 AM 6/30/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items | General Psychiatry News |  Addictions - News Review

via NYT > Psychiatry and Psychiatrists by By DENISE GRADY on 6/28/12
Dr. Isay, a psychiatrist, won a pitched battle to persuade his own profession to stop treating homosexuality as a disease.

via Behavior and Law by Mike Nova on 6/30/12

via NYT > Psychiatry and Psychiatrists by By DENISE GRADY on 6/28/12
Dr. Isay, a psychiatrist, won a pitched battle to persuade his own profession to stop treating homosexuality as a disease.

Dr. Richard Isay, Who Fought Illness Tag for Gays, Dies at 77

The New York Times
June 30, 2012
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Dr. Richard A. Isay in 1996. He convinced the psychoanalytic world that its views on homosexuality were wrong.
The New York Times

via The Lancet by Per Helge Måseide on 6/29/12
Is mass murderer Anders Breivik sane or insane? Forensic psychiatry has been under scrutiny during his court case, which heard closing arguments last week. Per Helge Måseide reports from Oslo.

via The Lancet by Richard Horton on 6/29/12
For many non-Americans, the intense struggle between Barack Obama, an elected President who signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, and an unelected Supreme Court, which has been deliberating on the constitutional legality of the Act, has been puzzling. Irrespective of the Court's decision, which is an important but still small footnote to a dispute that will likely continue to divide Americans, the more troubling question is why one of the most scientifically and culturally advanced nations of the world has been so reticent about embracing universal health coverage? Some critics have argued that Presidents Clinton and Obama, strenuous advocates for extending health coverage, focused too much on the economics of healthcare.

Bipolar disorder (BP) patients with comorbid anxiety disorders (ADs) showed more severe clinical characteristics and psychosocial function impairment, worse response to treatment, and more substance use than those without AD. However, few studies focus on differences in neuropsychological functio...

via psychiatry - Google News on 6/28/12



Letter to a Young Psychiatrist
Psychiatric Times
Psychiatry is a profession that deeply needs honest workers who are willing to seek a knowing ignorance, to be dissatisfied, and to refuse to conform—doing so in the interest of the truth and of the profession, seeing both as inseparable.

via Home | psychiatry.org on 6/28/12

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by a decision of 5-4.

This post has been generated by Page2RSS

via psychiatry - Google Blog Search by Dr Justin Marley on 6/28/12
Thomas Kuhn's 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' was a landmark publication which helped reassess and refine the understanding of the core principles of scientific endeavour. The essence of Kuhn's work was that ...

via psychiatry - Google Blog Search by SYA on 6/28/12
By George Kleban For thousands of years, human beings have examined the functions of the human mind from traditional civilizations like Greece and Egypt.

via psychiatry - Google Blog Search by Andres Barkil-Oteo on 6/28/12
For psychiatry to save itself, it needs to embrace evidence as the standard that is applied to all practices (including psychopharmacology), return to the centre of the mental health field by embracing prescribing as only one tool among many, ...




Breivik trial: live report
AFP
The trial of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik concluded on Friday, with his defence team arguing he was sane enough to be responsible for his actions and should be acquitted or jailed, not locked up in a psychiatric institution. The 33-year ...


Daily Mail



Anti-Semitic Elmo identified as former porn purveyor
The Jewish Journal of Greater L.A.
Sandler, in his Elmo costume, was handcuffed by police in Central Park on Sunday and taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after launching into an anti-Semitic rant. But he was back in the park posing for pictures by ... An academic who ...
Beneath a Ranting Elmo's Mask, a Man With a Disturbing PastNew York Times

all 84 news articles »

via psychiatric diagnosis - Google Blog Search by Dr. Allen Frances on 5/31/12
Were any more proof needed that APA has forfeited its right to monopoly control of psychiatric diagnosis, this is the smoking gun. Psychiatric diagnosis has become too important in too many decisions affecting peoples' lives ...

via pubmed: psychiatry by pubmed on 6/29/12
73 new pubmed citations were retrieved for your search. Click on the search hyperlink below to display the complete search results:
These pubmed results were generated on 2012/06/29
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, includes over 15 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. These citations are from MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

via Psychiatric News Alert by noreply@blogger.com (Psychiatric News Alert) on 6/29/12

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may not be able to smell as well as their peers, and researchers say that olfactory function might be a useful biological marker for early diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of ADHD. Researchers at the Research Center for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran published in the June Psychiatry Investigation the results of their study of 50 participants aged 8 to 15 with ADHD who were compared with 50 controls. The two groups were matched for age, gender, and Mean School Scores (MSS). They assessed odor identification and threshold through a smell test composed of two tests of identification and detection threshold. Odor identification was assessed using chemical essences of five common odorants.

The mean Sensory Identification Score for children with ADHD and for the control group was 3.76 and 4.46, respectively. The mean for Sensory Threshold Score for the ADHD subjects and for the control group was 6.4 and 9.75, respectively. The researchers said their results do not seem to be a result of olfactory task difficulty and were not influenced by age, gender, or MSS.

Recent research has also identified rare genetic variations in children with ADHD that may help identify children at risk for developing the disorder. Read more about those findings in Psychiatric News, here.
(image: n Goldswain/Shutterstock.com)
For previous news alerts, click here.

via Clinical Psychiatry News on 6/29/12
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld the constitutionality of most provisions of the Affordable Care Act on June 28. Democrats claimed victory while Republicans resolved to repeal the law...


Sydney Morning Herald



What the Affordable Care Act Means to Mental Health
PsychCentral.com (blog)
This is huge for many people with mental health concerns. Changing employers or insurance providers often meant having to pretend that a pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis didn't exist. The new law says that you can't discriminate against a person ...
Good News for People Like Us - Supreme Court Upholds Health Care ActAbout - News & Issues

all 24,192 news articles »

via Twitter / APAPsychiatric on 6/29/12
APAPsychiatric: RT @AmerMedicalAssn: #AMAblog: Dr. Lazarus writes about how the AMA’s new strategic direction will build a better future for health care ...

via Health News by Health Editor on 6/29/12
By Amanda GardnerHealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, June 29 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s long-awaited ruling Thursday upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act means that changes to the American health care system will roll out largely as planned when the bill was signed into law two years ago, experts say.“The opinion cleared the way [...]

"General Psychiatry News" bundle created by Mike Nova

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via international psychiatry - Google Blog Search by ohkpop.com on 6/30/12
Psychiatrists from across the globe and Korea's leading game producer, NHN, gathered at the Grand International Hotel, Seoul to speak on the definitions and review the clinical research on the growing addiction Friday ...

via psychiatry - Google Blog Search by unknown on 6/28/12
MedWire News Rewarding drug-dependent pregnant women with money each time they cut down on or stop smoking is an effective way to reduce smoking levels in this population, say researchers. MedWire News.


Chicago Tribune



Tinley Park Mental Health Center's imminent closing leaves advocates ...
Chicago Tribune
Lisa Guardiola doesn't know where she would be today without the Tinley Park Mental Health Center. A two-week stay at the state-run facility got the then-34-year-old through a tumultuous time, helping her accept her diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia ...

and more »

via Twitter / NMD_online on 6/29/12
NMD_online: New Article: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Comorbidity and Clinical Implications in Patients With Severe Mental ... http://t.co/evMdyGpL

via psychiatry research - Google Blog Search by WildAlchemist on 6/29/12
According to a study which appeared more than a year-and-a-half ago, in the January 2011 journal of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers reported that an ...

Psychologists spend 6-8 years after undergraduate studies training in multiple types of therapy as well as research. Both are “doctors” (psychiatrist an MD, psychologist PhD”) Both practice evidence based therapies which ...

via psychiatry research - Google Blog Search by unknown on 6/27/12
According to a study which appeared more than a year-and-a-half ago, in the January 2011 journal of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers reported that an ...




Bullying in the Workplace Can Affect Employees
Counsel & Heal
That's according to a Canadian study published in the journal Human Relations published by SAGE. The research revealed that "merely showing up to work in an environment where bullying goes on is enough to make many of us think about quitting.

Publication year: 2012
Source:Psychiatry Research
David Kimhy, Julia Vakhrusheva, Lauren Jobson-Ahmed, Nicholas Tarrier, Dolores Malaspina, James J. Gross
Successful social functioning requires adaptive forms of emotion awareness and regulation. However, despite well-documented deficits in social functioning in individuals with schizophrenia, little is known about emotion awareness and regulation in this population. Therefore, we compared emotion awareness and regulation in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls, and then, within the schizophrenia group, we examined their impact on social functioning. Forty-four individuals with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls completed measures of emotion awareness, emotion regulation, and social functioning, in addition to control measures, including neurocognitive functioning. Compared to controls, individuals with schizophrenia displayed significant deficits describing and identifying their emotions and used significantly less reappraisal and more suppression to regulate their emotions. Among the schizophrenia group, better social functioning was associated with the ability to identify, and in particular to describe emotions, better emotion management, as well as greater use of reappraisal and less use of suppression. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that, after controlling for age and neurocognition, difficulties describing feelings accounted for 35% of the social functioning variance. The present study highlights the importance of emotion awareness and regulation in schizophrenia, pointing to their substantial influence on social functioning above and beyond the impact of neurocognitive functioning.

Publication year: 2012
Source:Psychiatry Research
Christina Lynn Boisseau, Heather Thompson-Brenner, Catherine Caldwell-Harris, Elizabeth Pratt, Todd Farchione, David Harrison Barlow
This study compared self-reported impulsivity and neurocognitively assessed response inhibition in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorder (ED), and healthy control participants. Participants completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), stop-signal reaction time task, and measures of OCD and ED symptomatology (Yale-Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale and Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire). Compared to controls, both clinical groups reported higher levels of impulsivity on the BIS-11 however; only the OCD demonstrated increased stop-signal reaction time. Heightened levels of self-reported impulsivity may reflect the experience of anxiety in both OCD and ED populations whereas a lack of inhibitory control may represent a specific behavioral deficit in OCD.

Publication year: 2012
Source:Psychiatry Research
Hong-Bo Xu, Liang Fang, Zi-Cheng Hu, Yi-Chen Chen, Jian-Jun Chen, Fang-Fang Li, Jia Lu, Jun Mu, Peng Xie
Plasma amino acids levels were measured in first-onset treatment-naïve depressed patients (n=26) and healthy controls (n=25) using a mass spectrometry-based method. One of the major findings was that a logistic regression model constructed from tryptophan, glutamine and cysteine discriminated depressed subjects from controls with a receiver-operating-characteristic curve integral of 0.90.

Publication year: 2012
Source:Journal of Psychiatric Research
M. Intakhab Alam, Sanjula Baboota, Alka Ahuja, Mushir Ali, Javed Ali, Jasjeet K. Sahni
The present study was aimed to investigate and compare the efficacy of duloxetine (DLX) loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) with DLX solution pharmacodynamically following intranasal administration. The study was further conducted to estimate DLX concentration in brain and blood. DLX was administered to albino Wistar rats either intranasally or orally in solution form (DLX solution) or encapsulated in NLC (DLX–NLC). These were evaluated in-vivo for pharmacodynamic studies for depression by forced swimming test and locomotor activity test. Intranasal DLX–NLC treatment exhibited improved behavioural analysis results (swimming, climbing, and immobility) than the DLX solution after 24 h of study. Furthermore, DLX–NLC significantly increased the total swimming and climbing time when compared with control and significantly reduced the immobility period. The intranasal DLX–NLC demonstrated improved locomotor activity when compared with DLX solution. Amount of DLX was quantified in blood and brain after the forced swimming test. The intranasal DLX–NLC demonstrated higher concentration in brain compared with DLX solution. Thus, intranasal DLX–NLC was found to be a promising formulation for the treatment of depression.

via NYT > Psychiatry and Psychiatrists by By DENISE GRADY on 6/28/12
Dr. Isay, a psychiatrist, won a pitched battle to persuade his own profession to stop treating homosexuality as a disease.

via international psychiatry journals - Google Blog Search by Amna Yousif Hammadi on 6/27/12
Journal: International journal of psychiatry in medicine. Year: 2004 Volume: 34 Issue: 1 Pages: 51-60 Many thanks in advance. Amna Yousif Hammadi Librarian - Medical Education Department P.O. Box: 4545;Dubai, UAE ...

However, a preliminary study published in the Translational Psychiatry in April this year has identified certain biological markers in blood which are found in teenagers with early-onset major depressive disorder (MDD). Thus, the study raises hopes for the development of a simple ... Data published in the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report reveals that nearly 35.6 million people worldwide live with dementia. This number is likely to rise to more than 70% by the year 2050.

4) Why Psychiatric labels are the problem. 5) Psychiatric drugs are big business and the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry is making a killing—$84 Billion per year. 6) Where to get facts—international drug regulatory ...

In the journal of Human Reproduction pioneering fertility expert, Professor Jacques Cohen said this: '…is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy ..... In 1948, NAMH gathered the world psychiatric and psychological leaders from the International Congress on Mental Health at the UK's Ministry of Health and formed the World Federation for Mental Health. Nina Ridenour, technical coordinator to the US delegation wrote in 'Mental ...

via NYT > Health by By ROBERT PEAR and MICHAEL COOPER on 6/29/12
Republican officials in more than a half-dozen states considered an option granted in the Supreme Court’s decision on the health care law.


via NYT > Health by By MANNY FERNANDEZ on 6/30/12
A day after the Supreme Court upheld most of the health care law, a blend of wariness, optimism and confusion spread amongst the uninsured of Texas.


via psychiatry - Google News on 6/29/12



Dr. Richard Isay, Who Fought Illness Tag for Gays, Dies at 77
New York Times
Dr. Richard A. Isay, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and gay-rights advocate who did not admit to himself that he was gay until he was 40, married and a father, and who won a pitched battle to persuade his own profession to stop treating homosexuality as ...

and more »


"Addictions - News Review" bundle created by Mike Nova

A bundle is a collection of blogs and websites hand-selected by your friend on a particular topic or interest. You can keep up to date with them all in one place by subscribing in Google Reader.
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  • Addiction Inbox
  • Alcohol and Alcoholism - Advance Access
  • Alcohol Alcohol: Most-Cited Full-Text Articles
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  • Journal of Addiction Medicine - Featured Articles - Editor's Picks
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  • addiction - Google Blog Search

via addiction - Google News on 6/30/12



Palm Beach State College offers addiction studies degree
Sun-Sentinel
Palm Beach County is known as a haven people in recovery, but not for those who want to get professionally trained to help addicts.Addiction-related degrees haven't been offered in the county's.

and more »

via addiction - Google Blog Search by American Board of Addiction Medicine Foundation on 6/26/12
The American Board of Addiction Medicine Foundation (ABAM Foundation) today lauded the significant findings and recommendations in the landmark report just published by CASA Columbia, Addiction Medicine: Closing ...

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12



Artists capture pain, desperation of addiction for annual competition
The News Journal
When 50-year-old Marilyn Rodriguez worked as a security guard at Episcopal Hospital in North Philadelphia, she saw her fair share of addiction. Combined with the addictions of her uncles and then husband, she was surrounded. So she turned to art.

and more »

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12

Daily Mail



Dallas NAACP wants to BAN 'racist' state lottery because it drains money of ...
Daily Mail
The Dallas NAACP chapter voted unanimously to push for ending the Texas Lottery, saying that it is preying on African-Americans, low-income people and those with little education who can least afford to waste money.

and more »

via Alcohol and Alcoholism - Advance Access by Tynjala, J., Kangastupa, P., Laatikainen, T., Aalto, M., Niemela, O. on 6/29/12
Aims: While serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) enzyme activity is a well established biomarker of excessive alcohol consumption and liver dysfunction, recent studies have also implicated it as a predictor of morbidity due to extrahepatic causes. Therefore, further information on the associations between ethanol intake and GGT activities in apparently healthy individuals appears warranted. Methods: Data on alcohol consumption and serum GGT activities were collected from 18,899 individuals (8807 men, 10,092 women), mean age 48 years and range 25–74 years, who participated in a national cross-sectional health survey. Alcohol use was assessed by detailed questionnaires and the study population was subsequently divided into subgroups according to age and gender. Body mass index and smoking were used as covariates in all analyses. Results: In men over 40 years, a reported regular consumption of 8 standard ethanol doses (‘dose’ = 12 g ethanol) or more per week was found to lead to a significant elevation in serum GGT activities, whereas those below 40 showed first significant changes not until the reported ethanol intake exceeded 14 doses per week. For women, the corresponding threshold levels were four and seven standard ethanol doses, respectively. Conclusion: The data pertaining to the present population sample indicate that rather low levels of reported regular ethanol consumption lead to elevated levels of GGT and that age over 40 markedly enhances the impact of alcohol consumption on GGT activity. The present findings should form the basis for defining safe levels of ethanol consumption and in recalibrating goals for normal limits in the clinical use of GGT measurements.

via addiction - Google Blog Search by Sadie Stein on 6/29/12
Dear Paris Review,. For the last few months I have been rotting my brain with nothing but trash. (I am ashamed to admit how trashy, but let's just say a certain mommy-porn trilogy may have been involved.) And the worst part is, ...

via addiction - Google Blog Search by Jimmy Moore on 6/29/12
Say the word “addiction” and most people immediately think of cocaine or heroine addicts, people who abuse alcohol and tobacco, or some other bad habit that is causing serious bodily damage to the addicted. Webster's ...

via addiction - Google Blog Search by unknown on 6/29/12
Leland Hunter knows all too well the perils of the prescription drug epidemic.

via addiction - Google Blog Search by marc on 6/29/12
Notice, first, that I say “resulting from” choice. Nobody choses to be addicted. But as people become increasingly hooked, they may increasingly choose to take the pill or the drink, or to gamble or purge, and that's the thing we ...

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12

Scientific American



LSD May Cure Some Addicts
Scientific American
A single dose of LSD might help curb alcohol abuse.

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12

CBS News



New gene therapy for smoking kills the pleasure of nicotine
Los Angeles Times
A new vaccine utilizing gene therapy from a group at Weill Cornell Medical in New York is a promising approach to treating cigarette addictions.
Vaccine for nicotine addictionCBS42
Vaccine for Nicotine Addiction?RedOrbit
Vaccine Shows Promise for Nicotine AddictionWall Street Journal
Fox News -allvoices -CBS News
all 187 news articles »

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12



Palm Beach State College offers addiction studies degree
Sun-Sentinel
Palm Beach State addiction studies: Located in the heart of a large recovery community, Palm Beach State College launches addiction studies degree and certficate.

and more »

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12



'Sister's' Shelton addicted to movie production
Lexington Herald Leader
Seattle-born Lynn Shelton could be the figurehead for filmmaking in an era of austerity. She made the touching three-way romantic farce "Your Sister's Sister" in 12 days with a shoestring budget. By focusing on the only production values that are free ...

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12

CBS News



Vaccine for nicotine addiction
CBS42
An estimated 46 million Americans are current smokers, and approximately 70% of them wish they had never smoked, and want to quit.
Vaccine for Nicotine Addiction?RedOrbit
Vaccine Shows Promise for Nicotine AddictionWall Street Journal
Researchers develop vaccine to treat nicotine addictionFox News
WIBW -eNews Park Forest -Ctv News
all 176 news articles »

via addiction - Google News on 6/29/12

NFL News



Quinn Pitcock: NFL teams fear video-game addiction
NFL News
Quinn Pitcock, who is trying to get back to the NFL after suffering from video-game addiction, believes teams would be more ready to take a chance on him if he had a drug problem.
A Former NFL Player Talks About Suffering From Video Game AddictionComplex.com (blog)

all 3 news articles »

via Twitter / NIAAAnews on 6/29/12
NIAAAnews: Nearly half of adult burn patients had been binge drinking before being injured, according to NIAAA-funded study: http://t.co/6l3bZXDt

Publication year: 2012
Source:Drug and Alcohol Dependence
L.O. Bauer
Background Recently, the NIH called for additional research on the topic of viral and host factors contributing to impaired cognitive and neural function in HIV/AIDS patients and their response to antiretroviral treatment. This investigation responds to that call by examining a host factor, a family history of substance dependence, often overlooked in cognitive and neuroimaging studies of HIV/AIDS. Methods We categorized 146 HIV-1 seropositive patients receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) and 92 seronegative volunteers by the presence or absence of alcohol, cocaine, or heroin dependence affecting a biological parent. Seropositive patients were further categorized by the estimated ability of their individual ART regimens to penetrate the CNS. The indicator of brain function was a 3–7Hz oscillatory electroencephalographic response (theta ERO) evoked by target stimuli presented during a simple selective attention task. Results The analysis revealed that the presence of a family history of substance dependence obscured the reduction in frontal theta ERO power accompanying the presence of HIV-1 as well as the improvement in frontal theta ERO power accompanying treatment with ART agents estimated to have greater (n =41) versus lesser (n =105) CNS penetrance. Secondary analyses employing sLORETA source localization techniques revealed that the source of the theta ERO response was similarly reduced by the presence of either HIV-1 or a family history of substance dependence. Conclusions We conclude that a family history of substance dependence complicates and obscures the subtle neurophysiological changes which typically accompany HIV/AIDS and ART. Studies of new therapeutic agents for HIV-1-associated cognitive and neurophysiological impairments must consider this complication and exclude or control it.

Publication year: 2012
Source:Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Martina Carmona-Perera, Antonio Verdejo-García, Liane Young, Antonio Molina-Fernández, Miguel Pérez-García
Background Moral judgments depend on the integration of complex cognitive and emotional processes. Addiction is associated with core deficits in both cognitive and emotional processing, which may jointly lead to utilitarian biases in moral decision-making. Methods We assessed 32 polysubstance dependent males and 32 non-drug using controls using a previously validated moral judgment task, including non-moral scenarios, and moral dilemmas that were either high in emotional salience (“personal scenarios”) or low in emotional salience (“impersonal scenarios”). Results Polysubstance dependent individuals endorsed more utilitarian choices for personal dilemmas (e.g., smothering a baby to save a group of hidden people during wartime). These choices were also perceived as less difficult. Severity of alcohol use correlated with the proportion of utilitarian judgments. Conclusion Polysubstance dependent individuals show a more utilitarian pattern of moral decision-making for personal moral scenarios.

Publication year: 2012
Source:Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Bach Xuan Tran, Nhung Nguyen, Arto Ohinmaa, Anh Thuy Duong, Long Thanh Nguyen, Minh Van Hoang, Phu Xuan Vu, Paul J. Veugelers
Background Alcohol use disorders (AUD) negatively affects adherence to and outcomes of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV/AIDS patients. This study determined the prevalence of AUD and identified correlates of alcohol consumption and drinking problems during ART in large injection-driven HIV epidemics in Vietnam. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of 1016 patients (36.2% women, mean age=35.4) in 7 hospitals in Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Ho Chi Minh City. Alcohol use problems were assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test – Consumption (AUDIT-C). Step-wise multivariate regression analyses determined the correlates of alcohol consumption, hazardous drinking, and binge drinking in HIV/AIDS patients. Results There were 55.0% patients reported ever drinking, 30.1% had positive hazardous drinking and 22.3% had binge drinking. Patients who were male, drug users, working as free-lancers, asymptomatic stage, and poorer immune status were more likely to have severe alcohol consumption, hazardous drinking and binge drinking. Drug users taking both ART and Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT), were less likely to report AUD. In non-drug users, the longer duration of ART was also associated with lower alcohol consumption and likelihood of drinking problems. In drug users, those in the 1st year ART were more likely to be at-risk drinking than other patient groups. Conclusion AUD is highly prevalent in HIV/AIDS patients taking ART in large injection-driven HIV epidemics. ART guidelines should include AUD screening and interventions. Expanding the coverage of current services for drug users, including MMT and ART, might contribute to the reduction of AUD.

Dr. Richard Isay, Who Fought Illness Tag for Gays, Dies at 77 - NYTimes


via NYT > Psychiatry and Psychiatrists by By DENISE GRADY on 6/28/12
Dr. Isay, a psychiatrist, won a pitched battle to persuade his own profession to stop treating homosexuality as a disease.

Dr. Richard Isay, Who Fought Illness Tag for Gays, Dies at 77

The New York Times
June 30, 2012
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Dr. Richard A. Isay in 1996. He convinced the psychoanalytic world that its views on homosexuality were wrong.
The New York Times 

Friday, June 29, 2012

4:28 PM 6/29/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items: The battle about Breivik's mind | Breivik trial: live report - AFP

4:28 PM 6/29/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items

The Lancet, Volume 379, Issue 9835, Page 2413, 30 June 2012
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61048-4Cite or Link Using DOI

The battle about Breivik's mind

Per Helge Måseide
Is mass murderer Anders Breivik sane or insane? Forensic psychiatry has been under scrutiny during his court case, which heard closing arguments last week. Per Helge Måseide reports from Oslo.
On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik killed eight people by detonating a bomb in the Norwegian Government's building complex. Thereafter he moved on to the idyllic Utøya Island and shot and killed 67 people, one by one, at the annual summer camp for the Labour party's youth organisation. Another two died when they tried to escape.
Shortly after the crime, Breivik's defence attorney, Geir Lippestad, told the press that he thought his client was insane. However, he has spent the past 10 weeks trying to convince the court of the opposite. “For a political activist, the worst thing thinkable is being sent to a psych ward”, Breivik told the court.
Breivik put together a large publication—2083—a European Declaration of Independence—in which a network called the Knights Templar plays an essential part. In the document, the defendant describes his alleged leadership role as a “perfect knight” in a civil war-like fight against multiculturalism and Islamisation. No one has been able to track down this network's existence. “He thinks it is his mission to decide who should live and die”, said Synne Sørheim who, together with Torgeir Husby, undertook the initial forensic psychiatric assessment, diagnosing Breivik as having paranoid schizophrenia with persistent delusions.
The Norwegian court system employs the biological principle, which means that the presence of psychosis at the time a crime is committed will automatically result in a ruling of insanity, independent of the intent of the perpetrator. Any justified doubt in this regard should favour insanity.
Persistent delusions that are culturally inappropriate or implausible are one of the possible symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. A person with this diagnosis is considered to have psychosis under Norwegian law. Cognitive abilities may remain intact, which might explain the fact that Breivik was able to successfully plan and complete his horrific attacks.
Both the methods and conclusions of the initial psychiatric report have been widely debated, including by several psychiatrists, after being leaked to the press. Critics said that Breivik's strange word usage, viewed in the first report as neologisms (made-up words or phrases that only have meaning to the speaker and often occur in the speech of people with schizophrenia), were not placed into a relevant right-wing political context. In January, the court decided that Breivik should be involuntarily observed in prison.
Health personnel affiliated with the prison testified in court and reported that they had not seen any signs of psychosis. Neither did the new forensic psychiatrists, Agnar Aspaas and Terje Tørrissen, who concluded that Breivik had dissocial and narcissistic personality disorders with paranoid traits. They believe that the excessive violence on July 22 was the result of extreme political attitudes, and not delusions. Husby and Sørheim think that right-wing extremism is not the defendant's primary issue, but a repository for his delusions. They found that Breivik displayed mental stimulation chiefly when talking about killing and violence.
Although the public was appeased with the conclusion that Breivik did not have psychosis, the Norwegian Forensic Commission, which peer reviews all forensic reports and statements, asked whether the general criteria for personality disorder were met. In court the commission also criticised Husby and Sørheim for a lack of follow-up questions when diagnosing Breivik.
It is unclear why Breivik moved back in with his mother in 2006, where he spent his days playing World of Warcraft on the internet. According to him, this was for training before the terrorist attacks. According to Husby and Sørheim this could represent the onset of schizophrenia—he quit working, began to behave strangely, and withdrew from social contact with family and friends. However, according to Aspaas and Tørrissen, his antisocial behaviour was already developed, and he may have chosen to live with his mother for practical reasons while he maintained social contact in a virtual world.
Only the first report by Husby and Sørheim was undertaken while Breivik was in isolation and the question has been raised whether he subsequently dissimilated and feigned sanity. In closing statements, because the prosecutors were in doubt, they argued in keeping with legal practice that Breivik is insane. “The most important thing is that he gets put into a cage, and is never set free. I think he knows exactly what he's done. But I'm not a forensic psychiatrist”, says a mother who lost her son in the shooting. At that moment, as people cry in a silent courtroom, Breivik is smiling. The killer cried only once during the case, while watching his own propaganda video.
The court will announce their verdict on Aug 24. Whether he will be detained as a patient or a prisoner remains to be seen.
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4:28 PM 6/29/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items

via The Lancet by Per Helge Måseide on 6/29/12
Is mass murderer Anders Breivik sane or insane? Forensic psychiatry has been under scrutiny during his court case, which heard closing arguments last week. Per Helge Måseide reports from Oslo.

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