Sunday, May 6, 2012

Highlights From APA's 2012 Annual Meeting - General Psychiatry News

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Author: Diana Mahoney Publication: Clinical Psychiatry News (Magazine/Journal) Date: February 1, 2008. Publisher: International Medical News Group Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Page: 28(1) Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage ...

A psychoanalytic slant on the world…with support from the American Psychoanalytic Foundation ... International Psychoanalysis home page ... Click Here to Read: Psychiatry's bible, the DSM, is doing more harm than good ...

Meet fellow attendees, exchange ideas and experiences, learn from a comprehensive scientific program, promote and advocate for your research and ideas, and enjoy all that Calgary, Alberta and Canada has to offer.

via DSM5 in Distress by Allen J. Frances, M.D. on 5/6/12
The whole purpose of having a manual of psychiatric diagnosis is to promote diagnostic agreement. DSM III was an important milestone because it saved the credibility and relevance of psychiatry at a time when it was ridiculed for low reliability.
read more


Overdue babies risk behavioural problems—research
The Zimbabwe Standard
Women should be aware of the risks of prolonging pregnancy, experts report in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The research was carried out in The Netherlands, where until recently it was commonplace for women to choose not to be induced if ...

and more »


Suicides abroad hard to explain
Tucson Citizen
USA TODAY spent two months investigating suicide abroad, tabulating 10 years of State Department data, searching newspapers throughout the world, reviewing thousands of studies in professional journals and interviewing psychologists, sociologists, ...

and more »

via Home | psychiatry.org on 5/6/12
from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, May 4 – 9, featuring interviews, coverage of special events, and Thought Leadership segments from leading university psychiatry programs. Also see the Daily Bulletin.

This post has been generated by Page2RSS


Doctors need to address ageing workforce
Sky News Australia
George Skowronski from St George Hospital Sydney and Carmelle Peisah from the University of NSW's School of Psychiatry said strategies were needed to retain older doctors in a safe and appropriate manner. 'Changes in processing speed and memory are ...

and more »

via Psychiatric News Alert by noreply@blogger.com (Psychiatric News Alert) on 5/6/12
Here's more news from APA's 2012 annual meeting, which is being held in Philadelphia now through May 9.


Psychotherapy Useful at End of Life, Says Expert
In this video, Lorenzo Norris, M.D., discusses methods for providing palliative psychotherapy to terminally ill patients. Norris, an assistant professor of psychiatry, associate residency director, and director of the Psychiatric Consultation-Liaison Service in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services at the George Washington University Medical Center, spoke at APA’s 2012 annual meeting. Watch the video.

Technology is changing the way information—including information vital to psychiatrists wanting to stay abreast of science relevant to quality clinical care—is disseminated, said Robert Hales, M.D., editor in chief for books at American Psychiatric Publishing (APP), at APA’s 2012 annual meeting in Philadelphia. He was the winner of APA’s 2012 Judd Marmor Award.

Assembly Elects New Officers
At today's meeting of the APA Assembly, the delegates voted to make Assembly Recorder Melinda Young, M.D., of California the next speaker-elect. They also chose Jenny Boyer, M.D., to succeed Young as recorder. At the end of the three-day meeting, Scott Benson, M.D., of Florida became the new Assembly speaker.
For previous news alerts, click here.


Overdue babies risk behavioural problems—research
The Zimbabwe Standard
Lead researcher Dr Hanan El Marroun from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Erasmus MC-Sophia in Rotterdam said post-term as well as pre-term births seemed to be associated with long-term health effects. She said “Every pregnant woman ...

and more »


Multiple thought channels may help brain avoid traffic jams
EurekAlert (press release)
"Examining the temporal structure of brain activity from this perspective may be especially helpful in understanding psychiatric conditions like depression and schizophrenia, where structural markers are scarce." The research will be published May 6 in ...

and more »

Psychiatric News by David J. Kupfer, M.D.. May 4, 2012. As of this month, the 12-month countdown to the release of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM-5] officially begins.

via psychiatric diagnosis - Google Blog Search by Typed ROBIN on 5/6/12
By Maia Szalavitz | @maiasz | May 3, 2012 | + The committee responsible for revising the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — psychiatry's diagnostic “bible” commonly referred to as the ...

Each received the psychiatric diagnosis and military discharge after reporting a sexual assault. I'm not crazy. I am actually relatively normal.Stephanie Schroeder. “I'm not crazy,” says Schroeder, who is married now, with two ...

The “disorders” in the diagnostic manual are invented by psychiatrists and placed in the DSM for the sole purpose of increasing the numbers of diagnosis that can be made. Vancouver-, British Columbia, Canada., May 5, 2012 ...


Babble (blog)

DSM-5 Changes Aren't Limited to Autism, Final Feedback Sought
Babble (blog)
The American Psychiatric Association is seeking final input on the drafted changes to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The public can give feedback on the changes from now until June 15 through the ...

and more »

via Psychiatric News Alert by noreply@blogger.com (Psychiatric News Alert) on 5/6/12
APA's 2012 annual meeting is taking place in Philadelphia. From now through the end of the meeting on May 9, you will receive highlights of meeting events and scientific sessions.

Complexities of Therapeutic Process Raise Difficult Issues
When should transference work be used in psychodynamic psychotherapy? That was one of the questions addressed by Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., in a master course titled “Challenges in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy” at APA’s 2012 annual meeting in Philadelphia today.

Findings on Deep Brain Stimulation Open Doors to Rethinking Depression Treatment
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) may be an effective intervention for treatment-resistant depression, offering a way to reconceptualize depression and its treatment, said Helen Mayberg, M.D., at APA’s annual meeting today. She was one of the meeting’s “Frontiers in Science” lecturers.


Holistic Approach to Youth With Psychosis, Substance Abuse Promotes Recovery
A holistic approach to the treatment of young people who have experienced a first episode of psychosis and who also have co-occurring alcohol and substance abuse disorders may prevent years of disability. Robert Drake, M.D., Ph.D., expounded on that theme at APA's 2012 annual meeting.

Get Expert Guidance on CBT
In this video, Jesse Wright, M.D., discusses his work in cognitive-behavior therapy and the books he has cowritten for American Psychiatric Publishing. To learn more, click on the headline and watch the video.
For previous news alerts, click here.

via Mental Health Writers' Guild by boldkevin on 5/6/12
The following comment was received from Candida Abrahamson and I thought I would feature it here so that it did not get missed.
Many thanks to Candida for reminding us….
Just reminding everyone that May is Mental Health Awareness Month, with two main areas of focus:
1. “Do More for 1 in 4″: A call to help the one in four people with a diagnosable mental illness; and
2. “Healing Trauma’s Invisible Wounds,” looking at the impact of traumatic events on both individuals and communities at large.
Please see Mental Health America for details and downloadable tool kits. Best, Candida
[Editor's Comment: Additional resources available for download are available from the Mental Health America site. I would very much like to add my encouragement to those of Candida's for members to pop across and check it out and to download those resources for themselves.]


via candidaabrahamson by candidaabrahamson on 5/6/12
A reminder that we’re in Mental Health Awareness Month, run by Mental Health America (formerly the National Mental Health Association), which is the country’s leading nonprofit dedicated to mental health. This year awareness surrounds two main themes: Do More for 1 in 4: a “call to action to help the 1 in 4 American adults who … Continue reading »

Sokratis E Karaoulanis, Alexandros Daponte, Katerina A Rizouli, Andreas A Rizoulis, Georgios A Lialios, Catherine T Theodoridou, Christos Christakopoulos, Nikiforos V Angelopoulos
Annals of General Psychiatry 2012, 11:9 (10 April 2012)

Tine K Grimholt, Mari A Bjornaas, Dag Jacobsen, Gudrun Dieserud, Oivind Ekeberg
Annals of General Psychiatry 2012, 11:10 (20 April 2012)

Is homophobia associated with homosexual ar... [J Abnorm Psychol. 1996] - PubMed - NCBI

Is homophobia associated with homosexual ar... [J Abnorm Psychol. 1996] - PubMed - NCBI

J Abnorm Psychol. 1996 Aug;105(3):440-5.

Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?

Source

Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-3013, USA.

Abstract

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.

PMID:
8772014
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
 

Journal of Abnormal Psychology was included in "General Psychiatry News" Review from "Behavior and Law"

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

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Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Journal of Abnormal Psychology® publishes articles on basic research and theory in the broad field of abnormal behavior, its determinants, and its ...

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  • Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?

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    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16492109
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  • Updates to psychiatric guide spur controversy - Washington Post | Suicide: The fourth-leading cause of American deaths abroad - Detroit Free Press - General Psychiatry News

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    Scientific American (blog)




    Updates to psychiatric guide spur controversy
    Washington Post
    A panel of psychiatrists charged with updating the reference manual used to diagnose mental illness in the United States has abandoned controversial plans to add new diagnoses for people with mild psychosis and those who are simultaneously anxious and ...
    How do controversial revisions in psychiatry's guidebook make you feel?Philadelphia Inquirer
    DSM-5 Debate: Committee Backs Off Some Changes, Re-Opens CommentsTIME
    Last chance to comment on psychiatry's controversial diagnostic 'bible'MinnPost.com (blog)
    Medscape -Psychiatric Times -Scientific American (blog)
    all 25 news articles »

    Updates to psychiatric guide spur controversy


    By N.C. Aizenman, Saturday, May 5, 7:14 PM


    A panel of psychiatrists charged with updating the reference manual used to diagnose mental illness in the United States has abandoned controversial plans to add new diagnoses for people with mild psychosis and those who are simultaneously anxious and sad — even as the committee has left in place a host of other proposals that have ignited fierce criticism from professionals in the field.

    The American Psychiatric Association revealed last week that it will scrap plans to add two new conditions to the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5 — the massive tome considered the bible of modern psychiatry.

    The first condition, “attenuated psychosis risk,” was meant to identify young people in danger of developing a full-blown psychotic disorder as they get older. But many psychiatrists complained that scant evidence exists that the symptoms — for instance, occasional mild hallucinations or delusional thinking — reliably predict later psychosis. And they warned that a diagnosis could prompt doctors to needlessly treat many youngsters with powerful antipsychotic drugs that have harmful side effects.

    More research needed

    Also gone is a proposed category for “mixed anxiety depressive disorder” that critics charged could label the challenges of everyday life a mental condition. Both categories will instead be put in a section of the DSM-5 for conditions requiring further research.

    The modifications were among a series unveiled Wednesday that will be open to a third and final round of public comment lasting six weeks, through June 15. The 162-member group charged with revising the DSM-5 could make further changes in the next several months since the final draft is not due to the printer until the end of the year, with publication scheduled for May of next year.

    David Kupfer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and chairman of the current task force, said the latest tweaks showed the committee was responding to outside opinion and comment.

    “We have not made decisions ahead of time,” he said. “I am spending 24-7 with 160 colleagues trying to do the best we can to listen to everybody.”

    But the years-long drafting process has been dogged by delays and allegations of disorganization and secrecy. That process looms large over the psychiatric association as it opened its annual conference in Philadelphia on Saturday.

    The stakes are heightened by the outsize role the DSM plays in American society. Used by medical professionals to assign patients diagnostic codes based on their symptoms, the DSM’s wording can affect what treatments a person is prescribed, whether their health insurance pays for it, what school and social services they are entitled to, and how long they can be committed by a court.

    Allen J. Frances, chairman of the committee that updated the current, fourth edition of the DSM in the 1990s, and among the most prominent critics of the latest effort, also pointed to aggressive tactics adopted by pharmaceutical companies in recent years. Eager to identify new customers, he said, they were quick to capi­tal­ize on seemingly minor expansions made to categories in the current DSM by directly marketing to the public or to primary care doctors and OB-GYNs — who, while less trained in the nuances of mental illness, prescribe the largest share of many psychiatric medications, including antidepressants.

    Echoing other critics, he complained of a raft of proposals still on the table that could unduly pathologize and stigmatize everyone from baby boomers experiencing “senior moments” — who could be classified as having a new “minor neurocognitive disorder” — to fraternity boys engaged in a series of weekend benders — who could fall under an expanded category of “addiction.”

    “The implications are way beyond anything you can imagine. . . . Add a new symptom and suddenly tens of millions of people who don’t currently qualify for a diagnosis will wake up with it and will see an ad on television or in a magazine encouraging them to get medicine,” said Frances.

    “And instead of trying to contain this issue, the DSM-5 will open the floodgates even wider.”

    Rationale questioned

    Kupfer countered that the task force is being “very careful of this issue of unintended consequences” and plans to set up the DSM-5 as a “living document” that will be continuously modified as needed in the coming years.

    He pointed to a compromise also proposed Wednesday to address another tempest that has been brewing over the task force’s original plan to eliminate a “bereavement exclusion” for depression in the current DSM.

    The exclusion holds that people mourning a death cannot be diagnosed as suffering a major depressive episode if they have been grieving for less than two months or if their symptoms are limited — for example, they experience guilt over the death but not a general sense of worthlessness.

    Members of the task force had said they worried the exclusion could prevent individuals who do suffer genuine, severe depression shortly after a loss or death from getting timely treatment. But researchers such as Jerome Wakefield, a professor at New York University who specializes in depressive disorders, have published findings concluding there was insufficient evidence to warrant removing the exclusion.

    Rather than jettisoning it altogether, the task force now proposes to include a version of it in a footnote that would explain that the normal response to significant loss, including not just bereavement but financial ruin and natural disaster, can resemble depression. The footnote then lists specific symptoms that would suggest genuine depression.

    Wakefield partly praised the idea, stating that “in a sense the footnote is actually more valid than the bereavement exclusion because it recognizes that people can have these symptoms under a variety of conditions. And that could be a tremendous advantage in terms of eliminating a lot of false diagnoses.”

    But he also worried that “putting it in a footnote has the danger that it will be ignored. . . . I still don’t understand the rationale."



    Scientific American (blog)


    Updates to psychiatric guide spur controversy
    Washington Post
    A panel of psychiatrists charged with updating the reference manual used to diagnose mental illness in the United States has abandoned controversial plans to add new diagnoses for people with mild psychosis and those who are simultaneously anxious and ...
    DSM-5 Debate: Committee Backs Off Some Changes, Re-Opens CommentsTIME
    How do controversial revisions in psychiatry's guidebook make you feel?Philadelphia Inquirer
    A Major Transformation in Psychiatry?Medscape
    MarketWatch (press release) -Scientific American (blog)
    all 25 news articles »

    _________________________________________________________






    Suicide: The fourth-leading cause of American deaths abroad
    Detroit Free Press
    USA TODAY spent two months investigating suicide abroad, tabulating 10 years of State Department data, searching newspapers throughout the world, reviewing thousands of studies in professional journals and interviewing psychologists, sociologists, ...

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    Former patients protest psychiatrist convention - Philadelphia Inquirer - General Psychiatry News

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    TIME



    Former patients protest psychiatrist convention
    Philadelphia Inquirer
    yelled Faith Rhyne, a North Carolina woman who belongs to MindFreedom International, an Oregon-based group that helped organize the protest outside the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. “Who wants obsessive-compulsive?
    How Do Controversial Revisions In Psychiatry's Guidebook Make You Feel?Insurance News Net (press release)
    This Weekend, Philadelphians Can Say “Screw You” to NormalPhiladelphia Magazine (blog)

    all 29 news articles »


    Former patients protest psychiatrist convention
    Philadelphia Inquirer
    yelled Faith Rhyne, a North Carolina woman who belongs to MindFreedom International, an Oregon-based group that helped organize the protest outside the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. “Who wants obsessive-compulsive?

    “The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality.” « International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry (ISEPP) Blog

    “The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality.” « International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry (ISEPP) Blog

    “The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality.”


    i
    Quantcast
    Des Spence, general practitioner, Glasgow - destwo@yahoo.co.uk
    Mental health should be a priority for all societies and its stigma always challenged. However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that a staggering 25% of people in the United States have a “mental illness.”1 This is so large a figure that there can be only one conclusion: psychiatry is medicalising normality. The definition of a “mental illness” is one of opinion. These opinions are drawn from a small group of psychiatric oligarchs who author the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Their opinions are polluted, however: …

    The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality

    BMJ 2012;344:e3135 (Published 02 May 2012)
    Des Spence 10.1136/bmj.e3135 22551806 ...
    ______________________________________________________________
    Courtesy of Ken Pope, Ph.D.
    The new issue of *British Medical Journal* includes an article: “The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality.”
    The author is Des Spence, a general practitioner from Galasgow. destwo@yahoo.co.uk
    Here are some excerpts:
    [begin excerpts]
    Mental health should be a priority for all societies and its stigma always challenged. However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that a staggering 25% of people in the United States have a “mental illness.”1 This is so large a figure that there can be only one conclusion: psychiatry is medicalising normality. The definition of a “mental illness” is one of opinion.
    These opinions are drawn from a small group of psychiatric oligarchs who author the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Their opinions are polluted, however: 75% of the authors of the new, fifth edition of the DSM report conflicts of interest.2
    < snip>
    Thus, tens of millions of normal but inattentive, disruptive, unruly, moody, or shy children are labelled for life as mentally ill.
    Boys are disproportionately coerced into chemical control. Figures from North Carolina show that 15.6% of children are labelled as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.3 In New Jersey one in 30 boys is considered to have autistic spectrum disorder,4 and bipolar illness in children rose 40-fold in a decade in the US.5
    Such numbers are hailed as “better” diagnosis, not the obvious calamity of overdiagnosis and childhoods lost. How will these labels affect future employment, relationships, and esteem? So, will the DSM-5 seek to reverse overdiagnosis? No. New proposals will see bereavement reclassified as clinical “depression” should it last a mere two weeks.6 The definition of ADHD is being loosened further and will consume ever more.7 A new condition, “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder,” is defined.8 Three “temper outbursts” a week and being negative, “irritable, and angry” are enough for children to be labelled forever.
    < snip>
    These changes defy common sense and will serve only to undermine psychiatry’s professional standing.
    < snip>
    DSM-5 (and psychiatry) is riddled with conflicts of interest; its definitions are soft, non-specific, and seem counterintuitive. I know that many psychiatrists believe this too, so it is time to take a stand against the mayhem of modern psychiatry.
    [end excerpts]
    The article is online — but requires a subscription — at: <http://bit.ly/KenPopeBMJCritiqueOfDSMV>
    Ken Pope
    From the comment section of the BMJ:

    ‘No More Psychiatric Labels’ petition

    5 May 2012

    Well done again to Des Spence. There are indeed many mental health professionals, including psychiatrists such as myself, who are deeply concerned about the direction of travel in our profession. We have moved away from what it is that is unique that we bring to health care, which is an understanding that meaning, relationships, and social context are all central to a deeper understanding of suffering (mental and physical) and its alleviation. Instead we have been promoting pale imitation of a simplistic ‘diagnostic’ medical model that is not supported by any strong and consistent evidence base. This has resulted, at least in part, from an unnecessary insecurity about our identity as doctors and from a shameful ‘cosying’ up to the pharmaceutical industry.
    There are now active movements campaigning against DSM 5 (see for example http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dsm5, which includes affiliations from many large international psychological and psychotherapeutic organisations), and I have started a petition to the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists entitled ‘No More Psychiatric Labels’ and calling for the abolition of using formal psychiatric systems like DSM and ICD (see http://www.change.org/petitions/royal-college-of-psychiatrists-abolish-u… ).
    The petition sets out the evidence based reasons for concluding that: Psychiatric diagnoses are not valid, use of psychiatric diagnosis increases stigma, using psychiatric diagnosis does not aid treatment decisions, long term prognosis for mental health problems has got worse, psychiatric diagnosis imposes Western beliefs about mental distress on other cultures, and alternative evidence based models for organizing effective mental health care are available.
    To read the full evidence based arguments view the ‘No More Psychiatric Labels’ paper at http://www.criticalpsychiatry.net/?p=527 or view the petition letter.

    Re: The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality

    5 May 2012

    Des Spence once again vents his low opinion of psychiatry. The confidence of his assertions indicates that he clearly knows best. Unfortunately, his attitudes are only too familiar to those of us working in mental health services; prejudice dressed up as concern for patients and academic rigour.
    I really don’t recognise Spence’s “Front line”. He uses examples that have little relevance to mental health care practised by jobbing psychiatrists in the UK to support his opinion that we are in a mental health disaster zone. He clearly does not value psychiatrists and he is entitled to his opinions. However, as he is writing in an important medical journal I would encourage him to curb his prejudices and to write, for a change, about some of the enormous advances made in mental health care over the last 20 years. More effective medications and psychological treatments delivered by improved services including assertive outreach and crisis teams as well as early intervention in psychosis.
    He should stop airing his selectively informed opinions for the sake of combative prose and think about patients.
    Competing interests:None declared

    Re: The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality

    4 May 2012

    Des Spence is correct in stating that the definition of “mental disorder” is one of opinion. A surely foundational question for psychiatry is what a “mental disorder” actually is.
    One attempt at a definition would be the one used in the UK Mental Health Act–this might be expected to be rigorous since it legitimates involuntary detention: a mental disorder is “any disorder or disability of mind.” This is no definition at all, merely a tautology.
    In fact psychiatry has no answer to the question “what is a mental disorder?”, and instead exalts a way of working it has devised: if there are sufficient phenomena at sufficient threshold, a mental disorder is declared to exist! This is as much alchemy as science.
    Competing interests:None declared

    Courtesy of Ken Pope, Ph.D. The new issue of *British Medical Journal* includes an article: “The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality.” The author is Des Spence, a general practitioner from Galasgow.

    More than half of inmates moved out of trouble-ridden prison in Venezuela - Washington Post - Forensic Psychiatry News

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    via prisons - Google News on 5/5/12
    More than half of inmates moved out of trouble-ridden prison in Venezuela
    Washington Post
    CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan government officials have transferred more than half of the inmates out of a trouble-ridden prison where gunfire recently erupted and where authorities reported two escape attempts. More than half of the inmates at La ...

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