I just happened to stumble upon Jenssen’s Virtual Hallucination Video presentation called “MindStorm”.  It is a 5 minute video that gives you the prospective of living with schizophrenia.  I suggest watching.

To view MindStorm, click here.

For the first time in years, rates of birth to teens and unwed women are on the increase.  Alarmingly, low birth weight is at its highest level in four decades.  Pre-term babies have increased some 20%, the highest since 1990.  The study concludes that black and Hispanic women are typically disadvantaged relative to their white counterparts.

Steep increases since 1990 in the percentage of mothers who gained too little or too much weight (less than 16 pounds or more than 40) during pregnancy – up from 24 percent to 33 percent of all births.

A recent study finds that the “newer” antipsychotic medications nearly double the risk of dying from heart problems compared to older generation antipsychotic medications.

Researchers examined Tennessee Medicaid records covering the 15 years ending in 2005. They focused on about 44,000 users of older anti-psychotic drugs like haloperidol and about 46,000 users of newer drugs like Zyprexa, made by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co., and Risperdal, made by New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson Inc.

The study also included 186,600 people who weren’t taking
anti-psychotics but resembled the users in age, heart risk status another characteristics.  Some 1,900 participants died of sudden cardiac death over the 15 years.

Analysis found that taking either the older or the newer drugs roughly doubled the risk of sudden cardiac death. The overall rate in drug users was about three deaths per year for every 1,000 patients.

Technorati Tags: antipsychotic, medication, pharmacology

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.

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.

With economy ever turning downward, I am sure America’s ERs will continue to feel the crunch of treating the uninsured and now the insured.

People with lower incomes – roughly $64,000 for a family of four – were about twice as likely to use the ER as those from households with higher incomes. Similarly, respondents whose primary language was not English were also about twice as likely to use ERs for nonemergencies, compared to their English-speaking counterparts. Hispanics and nonwhite residents were also about twice as likely to head to the ER for illnesses that their primary-care doctor typically could have handled.

Technorati Tags: ER, Health Care, Insurance

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%.

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.”

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has released a study that your facial features impact how others perceive your facial expressions and mood. Plastic surgeons have found that many of there patients state that they “always look tired”, but do not necessarily feel tired. The article goes into some detail about perceived mood and specifics of facial details.

The old saying, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” has scientifically been proven true. A study in a recent issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), found that variations in eyebrow shape, eyelid position, and wrinkles significantly impact how your facial expressions, and subsequent mood, are perceived by others.

Being a runner myself, there are days when all you want to do is not train. Your legs are tired and sore. The weather maybe to too cold, too hot or too wet. Here is the story of Rick Bounds. 15 months ago he was told he was dying of liver and kidney disease. Today, Rick is training for this Saturday’s Pocomoke City Triathlon.

“I’m doing this for the people who are on transplant lists to let them
know there is life after tranplantation, and that they can rebuild your
body,” he said.