PTSD = No Purple Heart

Posted by Stars and Stripes:

Defense officials have rejected the idea that troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder should be eligible for the Purple Heart.

“PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event; it is not a wound intentionally caused by the enemy from an ‘outside force or agent,’ but is a secondary effect caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event,” said Defense Department spokeswoman Eileen Lainez.

The matter came up in May, when a military psychologist at Fort Bliss, Texas, told reporters he felt that making troops suffering from PTSD eligible for the Purple Heart would help remove the disorder’s stigma.

1 in 10 had serious psychological distress

With the economy slipping deeper into a recession, i am positive we will be hearing/reading about the rise of mental illness.  These numbers will only rise.  To compound the problem, the people who need the care will have no insurance.  Only in America!!

A report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — said an estimated 24.3 million people ages 18 years or older experienced serious psychological distress in the past year, however, only 44.6 percent of them received any kind of mental health services.

Suicide Rates Continue To Climb

L.A. Times article notes U.S. Suicide rate has climbed since 1999. Public health officials unsure as why the rate continues to climb.

After falling for more than a decade, the U.S. suicide rate has climbed
steadily since 1999, driven by an alarming increase among middle-age
adults, researchers said Monday.

A new six-year analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
found that the U.S. suicide rate rose to 11 per 100,000 people in 2005,
from 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999, an increase of just under 5%.

22 Hours in a Chair

I recently wrote a graduate paper on the abuses that occur in some mental health facilities. I say some, because there are psychiatric facilities that are caring and humane with their treatment. Unfortunately there are facilities like this one who abuse and neglect people who often times have difficulty of taking care of themselves.

A psychiatric patient died at a North Carolina mental hospital after
nurses left him in a chair and didn’t give him any food or water for
nearly a day, according to a report cited by the News & Observer.

Steven Sabock, 50, died of a heart problem about 22 hours after someone left him on a chair in the dayroom at Cherry Hospital.

“The hospital’s security video recorded Sabock’s care from April 28,
when he choked on his medicine while a nurse stood by without helping
him, and through his day without food until his death from a heart
problem,” the paper says. “Health care technicians, according to the
report, are seen on the recording watching television through the
night, playing cards, and talking on a cell phone while they were in
the room with Sabock.”

Firms Lose Money With Hyperactive Employees

Research shows that employees who are diagnosed with ADHD do one month less work in a year then a non-ADHD counterpart. The article goes on to suggest that a cost effect approach is to screen for ADHD and provide treatment. Medical plans providing comprehensive mental health plans, that sounds like a novel idea. Secondly, can you see lawsuits coming after one of these employees is fired???? I sure can.

The results showed that people with ADHD spent 22.1 more days not doing work than other workers per year. This included 8.4 days when they were unable to work or carry out their normal activities, 21.7 days of reduced work quantity and 13.6 days of reduced work quality, according to the researchers, who are part of a WHO research grouping at Harvard Medical School.

Lead Exposure Leads to Crime

I was certainly aware of leads effect on child development. Now research suggests that lead is correlated to criminality.

Previous studies linking lead to such problems have used indirect measures of both lead and criminality, and critics have argued that socioeconomic and other factors may be responsible for the observed effects.

But by measuring blood levels of lead before birth and during the first seven years of life, then correlating the levels with arrest records and brain size, Cincinnati researchers have produced the strongest evidence yet that lead plays a major role in crime.

Mental Disorders Cost Nation $193 Billion

The cost of mental illness is only sure to rise.

Major mental disorders cost the nation at least $193 billion annually
in lost earnings alone, according to a new study funded by the National
Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The
study was published in the May 2008 issue of the American Journal of
Psychiatry.

“The results of this study confirm the belief that mental disorders
contribute to enormous losses of human productivity,” said Kessler.
“Yet this estimate is probably conservative because the NCS-R did not
assess people in hospitals or prisons, and included very few
participants with autism, schizophrenia or other chronic illnesses that
are known to greatly affect a person’s ability to work. The actual
costs are probably higher than what we have estimated.”

Schizophrenia Related to Winter Births??

Over the past several decades, a steady stream of studies has documented that people born in winter and spring have an increased risk for schizophrenia, a serious mental illness characterized by disordered thinking, hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms.

Explanations for the increased risk have ranged from the astrological — different signs of the zodiac have been associated with various mental problems — to accounts that suggested the risk came from seasonal variations in sunlight.

Mental Health Improvements at the VA

Finally some good news coming out of the VA. Veteran Affairs is attempting to improve access of mental health services. The VA is seeking to reduce the waiting time in which veterans access mental health services. They are doing this by providing 24 hour hot lines and adding same day treatment and walk-in appointments to almost all military health care facilities.

The military also is centralizing some of its mental health care assets as part of ongoing transformation, Adkins reported. For example, the Center of Excellence for Psychological Help and Traumatic Brain Injury is slated to begin initial operations Nov. 30 and should become fully operational over the next six months, she said. The center is to be located at the new National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md.

Large study on antidepressant use among children and adolescents

Duke University is launching a a large study to learn about the role of antidepressants in the treatment of children and adolescents.

The first study to be conducted under the CAPTN
umbrella is ASK, a prospective longitudinal cohort study of 2,420
children and adolescents with a depressive disorder, anxiety disorder,
obsessive-compulsive disorder or eating disorder. The study
participants will be prescribed either a selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor (SSRI) or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI).
While these two classes of medications are widely used among adults and
prescribed to approximately two to three percent of American children,
questions have arisen about potential adverse events, especially
suicidal events, associated with use of these medications. Through ASK,
information will be collected about the safety, tolerability,
effectiveness and potential benefits of these medications.