This is what my book is all about. Don't forget the families. Let's talk about the children and spouses of the mentally ill. The diagnosed mentally ill patient gets a lot of attention and rightfully so; but having said that, let's take time to take care of the care givers. In my opinion, without the caregivers some mentally ill persons will be on the street. My teachers aide just today told me her sister-in-law is mentally ill and currently living on the street. She said they are just waiting her out for the time that she will be either arrested or taken against her will to a psy-ward and get the medical care she desperately needs. This is the repeated story of many families around this country, sadly. Don't forget the caregivers need help and compassion as well. They are also the victims of any mental illness.
Mental illness hard on families
They often juggle desire to help loved one, fears for their own safety.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A thick sheaf of hospital discharge forms and medical records paint a grim picture of a Norcross woman tormented by demons that neither she nor her family were strong enough to exorcise.
Hospital records show that Na Yong Pak, 32, who is accused of setting her mother on fire and killing her, had been involuntarily committed to inpatient psychiatric treatment twice within the past six months. She had also been arrested twice since September for allegedly beating up her mother, 58-year-old Myong Hui Pak.
The tragedy of Hui Pak’s slaying last Tuesday has turned a spotlight on the anguish of thousands of families who are grappling with mental illness. Many feel they have nowhere to turn.
Family members said Yong Pak, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression, set her mother on fire last Tuesday because she thought she was being poisoned. She refused to take the anti-psychotic medication that doctors prescribed when she was released from a state mental health facility Jan. 29, according to her father, Gold Pak.
“She beat her mother all the time,” Gold Pak said Wednesday. “[My wife] was scared of her.”
Experts say that the problems the Pak family faced are not uncommon.
“I’ve talked to parents who have a hard time sleeping because they’re afraid of their loved one in the house,” said Lisa Roberts, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter in Cobb County. “It’s sad for the person who is ill and the family members who are suffering. They both suffer.”
Families don’t want loved ones jailed or thrown out on the street, even when they are uncooperative or violent, said Sgt. Tracy Lee of the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department. Lee is a member of the county Domestic Violence Task Force. Reluctance to see a loved one imprisoned prevents some people from seeking a protective order, because a violation of the order gets the offender jailed, he said.
Getting medical help for mental illness also can be a Catch-22. Gold Pak and his adult son sought permission from a Gwinnett probate judge to have Yong Pak involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in September. She went to Charter Peachford Hospital in Dunwoody for about a week and a half before being released, they said. Yong Pak also was taken to Georgia Regional Hospital in Decatur for a second round of inpatient treatment in December, after Norcross police arrested her on suspicion of battery against her mother. The family said Georgia Regional released her Jan. 29 following a seven-week stay.
Few families can afford long-term inpatient treatment at a private mental health facility. State mental hospitals in many instances are just a stopgap, where the patient is stabilized and then released, said Eric Spencer, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Georgia.
Spencer said local NAMI chapters in many Georgia counties can provide resources for families of people suffering from mental illness, but the state also needs to fund more treatment options. Georgia is ranked 45th out of the 50 states on per capita spending on mental health care, Spencer said.
Plenty of people do manage to live normal lives despite having a mental disorder. Ric Hershman, 50, of Lawrenceville is one of them. Hershman was hospitalized a dozen times after he began to suffer from schizo affective disorder at about age 18. At one time, he had paranoid delusions that the world was coming to an end, but now he manages his symptoms effectively with medication and therapy. Hershman now works training volunteers for NAMI.
“People with a mental illness can live productive, constructive lives,” Hershman said. “They’re on a constant road to recovery, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not functional and caring people.”
The important thing is that safety comes first.
“What we usually tell the parents is that you have to protect yourself, first and foremost,” said Spencer. “If you can’t take care of yourself, then you can’t be there to help and protect your loved one.”
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Early Death Verification
The psychiatrist who last treated my mother before she died told me that her anti-psychiotic drug she had taken for over 40 years were a direct cause of her early death at the age of 73. She, like I have stated before, lost her ability to walk, control her body functions, and was impaired on her right side due to stroke-like episodes. Her brain had severe atrophy also. So, in my opinion, it is still sad the choices that bipolar persons must make, take very powerful drugs to be able to live in the "real" world or not, that is the question.
Link Between Bipolar Disorder And Risk Of Early Death From Natural Causes
Bipolar disorder appears to increase the risk of early death from medical illnesses, according to a literature review study published as the lead article this week in the journal Psychiatric Services.
The researchers comprehensively reviewed 17 studies involving more than 331,000 patients. Evidence suggested that people with bipolar disorder have a higher mortality from natural causes compared to people in the general population of similar age and gender but without mental illness. The various studies indicated that the risk was from 35 percent to 200 percent higher. The risk is the same for men and women. The most common conditions leading to premature death were heart disease, respiratory diseases, stroke, and endocrine problems such as diabetes.
"The review of data gathered from large population studies suggests that having bipolar disorder is similar to being a smoker in terms of increasing a person's risk of early death," said Dr. Wayne Katon, a University of Washington (UW) professor of psychiatry. He co-authored the study with third-year UW psychiatry resident Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam. The article is titled, "Premature Mortality from General Medical Illnesses Among Persons with Bipolar Disorder: A Review." Katon is a noted researcher on the interplay between life-shortening medical conditions and mood disorders.
People with bipolar disorder tend to have manic phases and depressed phases in their lives. During mania, they might be too wound up to sleep, their thoughts might race, and they might have boundless energy. During depression, they might feel painfully sad, hopeless, and immobilized.
In the past, the higher premature death rate among people with bipolar disorder was attributed to a higher rate of suicide and accidents. More recently, Katon said, researchers are finding that, while rates of suicides and accidents are indeed greater among those with bipolar disorder compared to the general population, they only partly account for the higher premature death rate. Emerging evidence, Katon said, shows that the majority of early deaths among people with bipolar disorder come from medical conditions.
As psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder become more treatable, Katon said, "We're saving people from this illness and losing them to other medical illnesses."
The possible reasons for this higher risk of premature death are manifold. Many factors could be contributing to poor physical health among people with bipolar disorder, according to the published report. These include unhealthy diet, binge eating, lack of exercise, smoking, substance abuse, social deprivation, living alone, homelessness, lack of access to health services, biased attitudes of health professionals towards people with psychiatric illnesses, failure among psychiatrists to address their patient's medical problems, or delaying medical care because of the overriding need for psychiatric treatment.
Biological abnormalities associated with bipolar illness might also be shortening lives, Katon noted. The illness can stress the immune system and the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, a system that controls many body processes. Bipolar disorders also heighten the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which sets off the fight-or-flight response to stress.
Katon also noted that some new antipsychotic medications used to successfully treat bipolar disorders are safer and more comfortable for the patient in some ways than previous medications, but can cause weight gain leading to obesity and other metabolic changes that predispose people to Type 2 diabetes. Some mood stabilizers, Katon added, also are associated with weight gain and metabolic disorders.
Katon mentioned new attempts to try to reduce premature death in people with bipolar disorder. These include providing psychiatrists and other mental health professionals with guidelines and training in monitoring their patients' basic physical health and teaching them how to advise their patients about smoking cessation, exercise and other preventive measures.
"Changes are also occurring in medical schools to teach new physicians in all specialties how to recognize psychiatric illnesses and to understand the serious health risks associated with mental illness," Katon said.
Increasingly, community mental health centers are adding primary-care physicians and nurse practitioners to the staff to see patients for medical conditions, he said. Medical specialty centers are also adding mental health professionals to diagnose and treat the depression, anxiety and other psychic distress that often accompany serious illnesses.
"Psychiatrists are now on the staff of a growing number of medical specialty clinics, such as centers for diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and at primary-care centers, such as family medicine practices," Katon said. "Mental health professionals are working side-by-side with providers who treat medical illnesses. New approaches to health care and wellness programs are being tested at a number of places to find effective models for preventing premature deaths associated with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses."
----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
Link Between Bipolar Disorder And Risk Of Early Death From Natural Causes
Bipolar disorder appears to increase the risk of early death from medical illnesses, according to a literature review study published as the lead article this week in the journal Psychiatric Services.
The researchers comprehensively reviewed 17 studies involving more than 331,000 patients. Evidence suggested that people with bipolar disorder have a higher mortality from natural causes compared to people in the general population of similar age and gender but without mental illness. The various studies indicated that the risk was from 35 percent to 200 percent higher. The risk is the same for men and women. The most common conditions leading to premature death were heart disease, respiratory diseases, stroke, and endocrine problems such as diabetes.
"The review of data gathered from large population studies suggests that having bipolar disorder is similar to being a smoker in terms of increasing a person's risk of early death," said Dr. Wayne Katon, a University of Washington (UW) professor of psychiatry. He co-authored the study with third-year UW psychiatry resident Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam. The article is titled, "Premature Mortality from General Medical Illnesses Among Persons with Bipolar Disorder: A Review." Katon is a noted researcher on the interplay between life-shortening medical conditions and mood disorders.
People with bipolar disorder tend to have manic phases and depressed phases in their lives. During mania, they might be too wound up to sleep, their thoughts might race, and they might have boundless energy. During depression, they might feel painfully sad, hopeless, and immobilized.
In the past, the higher premature death rate among people with bipolar disorder was attributed to a higher rate of suicide and accidents. More recently, Katon said, researchers are finding that, while rates of suicides and accidents are indeed greater among those with bipolar disorder compared to the general population, they only partly account for the higher premature death rate. Emerging evidence, Katon said, shows that the majority of early deaths among people with bipolar disorder come from medical conditions.
As psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder become more treatable, Katon said, "We're saving people from this illness and losing them to other medical illnesses."
The possible reasons for this higher risk of premature death are manifold. Many factors could be contributing to poor physical health among people with bipolar disorder, according to the published report. These include unhealthy diet, binge eating, lack of exercise, smoking, substance abuse, social deprivation, living alone, homelessness, lack of access to health services, biased attitudes of health professionals towards people with psychiatric illnesses, failure among psychiatrists to address their patient's medical problems, or delaying medical care because of the overriding need for psychiatric treatment.
Biological abnormalities associated with bipolar illness might also be shortening lives, Katon noted. The illness can stress the immune system and the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, a system that controls many body processes. Bipolar disorders also heighten the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which sets off the fight-or-flight response to stress.
Katon also noted that some new antipsychotic medications used to successfully treat bipolar disorders are safer and more comfortable for the patient in some ways than previous medications, but can cause weight gain leading to obesity and other metabolic changes that predispose people to Type 2 diabetes. Some mood stabilizers, Katon added, also are associated with weight gain and metabolic disorders.
Katon mentioned new attempts to try to reduce premature death in people with bipolar disorder. These include providing psychiatrists and other mental health professionals with guidelines and training in monitoring their patients' basic physical health and teaching them how to advise their patients about smoking cessation, exercise and other preventive measures.
"Changes are also occurring in medical schools to teach new physicians in all specialties how to recognize psychiatric illnesses and to understand the serious health risks associated with mental illness," Katon said.
Increasingly, community mental health centers are adding primary-care physicians and nurse practitioners to the staff to see patients for medical conditions, he said. Medical specialty centers are also adding mental health professionals to diagnose and treat the depression, anxiety and other psychic distress that often accompany serious illnesses.
"Psychiatrists are now on the staff of a growing number of medical specialty clinics, such as centers for diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and at primary-care centers, such as family medicine practices," Katon said. "Mental health professionals are working side-by-side with providers who treat medical illnesses. New approaches to health care and wellness programs are being tested at a number of places to find effective models for preventing premature deaths associated with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses."
----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Likable Ideas
These items came from a different bipolar post. It is written, as you can see, from the view point of the bipolar disorder person. Like I state in my book, the family does probably share some of these ideas; but my opinion, as a person who is not bipolar, is the hardest thing about living with bipolar is the extreme patience required to live with someone who cannot think rationally most of the time. Then throw in the severe mood swings and high anger issues, and you will see that it takes a mixture of un-conditional love and super-natural patience to be able to daily keep a positive, loving attitude toward this "bipolar disorder". To be honest, since my bipolar loved one was my mother, I did not feel that I was ever given a choice of whether to love her, hate her, or continue to stay and help her. I, of course, stayed with her in my formative years, but after I left home and had the "choice" of really staying to help my blind dad with her care, did realize that I could never turn my back on her. I did love her deeply, not necessarily un-conditionally. But what I am saying is I know some people who have been married to a person who was bipolar and they chose to leave and get a divorce. I know a lot of bipolar married persons get divorces because the non-bipolar one chooses to not stay. If I were being honest, and knowing what I know about the disorder, I would have a hard time staying married to someone who has a severe illness. I hope you don't judge me too hard on that, I did say I was being totally honest. I know the bipolar disorder people are great, I work with students who are and I love them all and have total sympathy for and with them, but at the end of the day, I go to my home and they go to theirs. I do think these listed items will useful to someone who needs them though.
The Top 10 Ways to Support Your Mate. Keep in mind this is written from the point of view of the bipolar disorder “sufferer”. In the near future, we’ll revisit this topic from my wife’s point of view.
1. Give us confidence. If you can make your partner or loved one feel good about him or herself, life will be SO much easier for both of you.
2. Take an active role in our treatment. Help with med administration. Don’t count on us to be faithful to our medication, we all slip from time to time. If we are under the care of a psychiatrist or counselor, maybe a yearly session where you join us would be helpful. At a minimum, if you have questions or concerns write them down so we can take them with us to our appointments.
3. Recognize there are things we just can’t bring ourselves to do, and try to work with us on this. For example, my wife pays the bills, as my stress level goes through the roof, and I blow up at the family if I try to do it. Of course, it’s worse when I then give her a hard time for not “doing it right”. When this happens, try to be understanding.
4. Remember that we have certain strengths and super-hero abilities at times. Take advantage of this. For example, if we go hypomanic and suddenly desire intimacy for hours on end, or multiple times per day, help us out. Keep in mind our meds sometimes take this desire away for months on end, so when it does come around use this to your advantage. You might even go so far as to say “Paint the house and I’ll fulfill that little fantasy you’ve been hinting at for years…” The house will be painted in a matter of hours.
5. When we get in a really bad frame of mind, and we all do, be there for us. Don’t be afraid, don’t put up a defense against us, don’t brace yourself for something bad. Be there to talk and support. It may not be pleasant, personally I can be downright mean when in a bad frame of mind. But you’ll both be glad you were there.
6. We know when we’ve made fools of ourselves, or done something bold, brash, or stupid. We’ll be embarrassed to face you, or others affected. Don’t hang us out to dry. Step up and support us, not in a condescending way, but as you would with any loved one. Don’t say “that’s the bipolar disorder talking” or something like that. We may say that, but please let that be our decision. Accept us, don’t dwell on it, give us a hug to show you understand, and move on. We’ll be eternally grateful.
7. Embrace our diagnosis, it’s not going to change, and may not improve. Meds can control it, but we won’t be “cured”. Realize that it’s not always a bad thing, we’re still the same people we’ve always been. To look at the bright side, we now even have an official title.
8. Remember that even though we’re diagnosed, and likely medicated, things aren’t necessarily going to be easy. In fact, when the bad times come around, we now know what’s happening, and we understand why. Rather than use our old (and maybe dangerous) coping techniques, we may try harder to rein in our feelings and behaviors. This can make these episodes even more dangerous and volatile than before.
9. Help us to recognize those coping mechanisms that may not be good for us. We may not realize we are doing something, and the gentle input from a loved one may be extremely valuable.
10. Watch for triggers, and watch our behavior for clues of an upcoming change of mood or frame of mind. You are in the best position to recognize this, and to help us see and understand this.
The Top 10 Ways to Support Your Mate. Keep in mind this is written from the point of view of the bipolar disorder “sufferer”. In the near future, we’ll revisit this topic from my wife’s point of view.
1. Give us confidence. If you can make your partner or loved one feel good about him or herself, life will be SO much easier for both of you.
2. Take an active role in our treatment. Help with med administration. Don’t count on us to be faithful to our medication, we all slip from time to time. If we are under the care of a psychiatrist or counselor, maybe a yearly session where you join us would be helpful. At a minimum, if you have questions or concerns write them down so we can take them with us to our appointments.
3. Recognize there are things we just can’t bring ourselves to do, and try to work with us on this. For example, my wife pays the bills, as my stress level goes through the roof, and I blow up at the family if I try to do it. Of course, it’s worse when I then give her a hard time for not “doing it right”. When this happens, try to be understanding.
4. Remember that we have certain strengths and super-hero abilities at times. Take advantage of this. For example, if we go hypomanic and suddenly desire intimacy for hours on end, or multiple times per day, help us out. Keep in mind our meds sometimes take this desire away for months on end, so when it does come around use this to your advantage. You might even go so far as to say “Paint the house and I’ll fulfill that little fantasy you’ve been hinting at for years…” The house will be painted in a matter of hours.
5. When we get in a really bad frame of mind, and we all do, be there for us. Don’t be afraid, don’t put up a defense against us, don’t brace yourself for something bad. Be there to talk and support. It may not be pleasant, personally I can be downright mean when in a bad frame of mind. But you’ll both be glad you were there.
6. We know when we’ve made fools of ourselves, or done something bold, brash, or stupid. We’ll be embarrassed to face you, or others affected. Don’t hang us out to dry. Step up and support us, not in a condescending way, but as you would with any loved one. Don’t say “that’s the bipolar disorder talking” or something like that. We may say that, but please let that be our decision. Accept us, don’t dwell on it, give us a hug to show you understand, and move on. We’ll be eternally grateful.
7. Embrace our diagnosis, it’s not going to change, and may not improve. Meds can control it, but we won’t be “cured”. Realize that it’s not always a bad thing, we’re still the same people we’ve always been. To look at the bright side, we now even have an official title.
8. Remember that even though we’re diagnosed, and likely medicated, things aren’t necessarily going to be easy. In fact, when the bad times come around, we now know what’s happening, and we understand why. Rather than use our old (and maybe dangerous) coping techniques, we may try harder to rein in our feelings and behaviors. This can make these episodes even more dangerous and volatile than before.
9. Help us to recognize those coping mechanisms that may not be good for us. We may not realize we are doing something, and the gentle input from a loved one may be extremely valuable.
10. Watch for triggers, and watch our behavior for clues of an upcoming change of mood or frame of mind. You are in the best position to recognize this, and to help us see and understand this.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
No medical test?
On the video portion of this blog you will find several medical professionals stating that there are no current chemical or medical tests that prove what specific mental illnesses are. That is, no x-ray or blood test is going to tell us whether someone is bipolar or manic-depressive. We are all diagnosed by our symptoms that fit into a mold or category, then the trained medical staff makes an educated guess based on experience. That is pretty crazy by itself when you really think about it. All other illnesses are diagnosed by x-ray or blood tests, for example, if you have strep throat, they take a culture of your throat, send it to the lab and you get a positive or negative result. Mental illness is not a tangible diagnosis. This article talks about a study that has proven that the "grey"matter, your brain, could have early atophy if you have a mental illness. Atrophy means you have less brain in your cranium than the average person. I will say that when my mother was near death, her MRI scans were read as having severe atrophy and she was only 70-73 years old. She never had an MRI when she was early diagnosed at the age of 26. Who knows, maybe she always had early atrophy, not as much brain tissue, and maybe they might have something tangible to make an accurate diagnosis of mental illness now.
Lack Of Grey Matter In Brain Is Linked To Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder
Main Category: Bipolar
Also Included In: Schizophrenia; Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 16 Jan 2009 - 1:00 PST
A research study led by scientists from the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital in Madrid and the Network of Centres for Biomedical Research in Mental Health Networks (CIBERSAM) shows that adolescents experiencing a first outbreak of psychosis have lower levels of grey matter in their brains than healthy teenagers. Strangely, this change was seen in patients suffering from various psychoses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The aim of the study was to examine and locate differences in the volume of grey matter in the brains of healthy people (controls) and individuals diagnosed with psychotic outbreaks in infancy or adolescence. The researchers broke such psychosis down into three sub-groups schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychoses that did not fit into either of the other two classifications.
The study, published recently in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, analysed a sample of 121 people aged between 7 and 18, inclusive. All the patients and controls were examined using magnetic resonance imaging in order to detect any possible changes in the structure of their brains.
"The interesting thing was that we found common alterations among those with two types of clinically-differentiated psychoses, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and this could help to improve diagnosis of these illnesses," Santiago Reig, one of the study's authors and a researcher in the Medical Imaging Laboratory of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, tells SINC.
The study confirmed these lower levels of grey matter, the brain substance in which neurone cells are concentrated. This lack, which was shared between the schizophrenia and type 1 bipolar diaorder sufferers, means the functions of this part of the brain are "somehow atrophied".
In addition, the technique used by the experts can pinpoint the location of these alterations. For example, "patients with early psychotic outbreaks (before the age of 18) showed alterations in the medial prefrontal gyrus region of the brain, which controls processes such as cognition and the regulation of sensations", says Reig.
Improving diagnosis
"Anything that helps to detect alterations shared between distinct pathologies can help in the development of drugs and in finding common characteristics between these different diseases," the researcher tells SINC. "Results like these are fundamental for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses," he adds.
However, it is important not to draw any causal link between alterations in this area of the brain and the appearance of these pathologies. Psychiatric disorders need more complex diagnosis. What the research does show, however, is that the majority of people with schizophrenia and type 1 bipolar disorder do suffer from this lack of grey matter and the majority of healthy people have normal levels of this substance.
"We still do not know whether this loss of grey matter is caused by the disorder or not," says Reig. This is just one more piece of the puzzle to help in understanding common features of psychiatric disorders. "Maybe relating these developments with other new findings will one day help us to solve the riddle of psychiatric disorders," he concludes.
Lack Of Grey Matter In Brain Is Linked To Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder
Main Category: Bipolar
Also Included In: Schizophrenia; Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 16 Jan 2009 - 1:00 PST
A research study led by scientists from the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital in Madrid and the Network of Centres for Biomedical Research in Mental Health Networks (CIBERSAM) shows that adolescents experiencing a first outbreak of psychosis have lower levels of grey matter in their brains than healthy teenagers. Strangely, this change was seen in patients suffering from various psychoses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The aim of the study was to examine and locate differences in the volume of grey matter in the brains of healthy people (controls) and individuals diagnosed with psychotic outbreaks in infancy or adolescence. The researchers broke such psychosis down into three sub-groups schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychoses that did not fit into either of the other two classifications.
The study, published recently in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, analysed a sample of 121 people aged between 7 and 18, inclusive. All the patients and controls were examined using magnetic resonance imaging in order to detect any possible changes in the structure of their brains.
"The interesting thing was that we found common alterations among those with two types of clinically-differentiated psychoses, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and this could help to improve diagnosis of these illnesses," Santiago Reig, one of the study's authors and a researcher in the Medical Imaging Laboratory of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, tells SINC.
The study confirmed these lower levels of grey matter, the brain substance in which neurone cells are concentrated. This lack, which was shared between the schizophrenia and type 1 bipolar diaorder sufferers, means the functions of this part of the brain are "somehow atrophied".
In addition, the technique used by the experts can pinpoint the location of these alterations. For example, "patients with early psychotic outbreaks (before the age of 18) showed alterations in the medial prefrontal gyrus region of the brain, which controls processes such as cognition and the regulation of sensations", says Reig.
Improving diagnosis
"Anything that helps to detect alterations shared between distinct pathologies can help in the development of drugs and in finding common characteristics between these different diseases," the researcher tells SINC. "Results like these are fundamental for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses," he adds.
However, it is important not to draw any causal link between alterations in this area of the brain and the appearance of these pathologies. Psychiatric disorders need more complex diagnosis. What the research does show, however, is that the majority of people with schizophrenia and type 1 bipolar disorder do suffer from this lack of grey matter and the majority of healthy people have normal levels of this substance.
"We still do not know whether this loss of grey matter is caused by the disorder or not," says Reig. This is just one more piece of the puzzle to help in understanding common features of psychiatric disorders. "Maybe relating these developments with other new findings will one day help us to solve the riddle of psychiatric disorders," he concludes.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Heard this before but good to revisit
My mother's doctor shared this information with me a lot of years ago. It is good to revisit these informative data again though.
Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder Share A Genetic Cause
Article Date: 16 Jan 2009 - 0:00 PST
A new study from Sweden found evidence that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder partly share a common genetic cause; if one disorder runs in the family there is a good chance that the other will too. The researchers said their finding challenges the view that these disorders are separate entities, and call for a change in the way they are currently diagnosed.
The study was the work of lead author Paul Lichtenstein, a genetic epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and other colleagues from Sweden and the US, and is published in the 17 January issue of The Lancet.
For the study, Lichtenstein and colleagues examined records of all patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals in Sweden from 1973 to 2004 and found 35,985 cases of schizophrenia (0.40 percent of the population) and 40,487 cases of bipolar disorder (0.45 percent of the population). They then looked in the Swedish multi-generation register, which contains information about all children and their parents in the country, and identified over 9 million individuals living in more than 2 million nuclear families between 1973 and 2004.
By comparing the patient discharge data for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with the register, the researchers were able to identify parents, children, brothers and sisters who shared the disorders. Using a sophisticated statistical tool they then assessed risks for the two disorders, separately and together, for biological and adoptive parents, their children, full and half siblings, of patients with either of the two disorders. The tool they used was a multivariate generalised linear mixed model, and they assessed both genetic and environmental contributions to risks.
The results showed that:
* First degree relatives of patients whose discharge record showed they had either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were at higher risk of having these disorders.
* Having a mother or father with schizophrenia raised the risk of a person having the disorder by 9.9 times, compared with someone who did not.
* Having a mother or father with schizophrenia raised the risk of a person having bipolar disorder by 5.2 times, compared with someone whose mother or father did not have schizophrenia.
* Having a mother or father with bipolar disorder raised the risk of a person having it 6.4 times, and the risk of having schizophrenia, 2.4 times, compared with a person whose mother or father did not have bipolar disorder.
* Having a brother or sister with one of the disorders significantly increased their risk of having them too, with half siblings having a lower risk than full siblings.
* Overall, relatives of patients with bipolar disorder showed increased risk for schizophrenia, including adopted children whose biological parents had the disorder.
* Heritability for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder was 64 and 59 per cent respectively.
* For both together, the figure was 63 per cent, mostly due to additive genetic effects common to both disorders, wrote the authors.
* Shared environmental effects were small but subtantial, they added.
Lichtenstein and colleagues concluded that:
"Similar to molecular genetic studies, we showed evidence that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder partly share a common genetic cause."
"These results challenge the current nosological dichotomy between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and are consistent with a reappraisal of these disorders as distinct diagnostic entities," they added.
In a separate press statement reported by Scientific American, Lichtenstein said he and his colleages suggest there are hundreds if not thousands of genes involved in the development of these two disorders, and many of them overlap. However, many of them have not yet been discovered.
Lichtenstein said there were many large scale studies happening around the world searching for the genes behind these disorders, and he is also researching in this area. He said scientists should look not only for overlap between these two disorders but with other psychiatric conditions too, like depression for instance.
Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder Share A Genetic Cause
Article Date: 16 Jan 2009 - 0:00 PST
A new study from Sweden found evidence that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder partly share a common genetic cause; if one disorder runs in the family there is a good chance that the other will too. The researchers said their finding challenges the view that these disorders are separate entities, and call for a change in the way they are currently diagnosed.
The study was the work of lead author Paul Lichtenstein, a genetic epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and other colleagues from Sweden and the US, and is published in the 17 January issue of The Lancet.
For the study, Lichtenstein and colleagues examined records of all patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals in Sweden from 1973 to 2004 and found 35,985 cases of schizophrenia (0.40 percent of the population) and 40,487 cases of bipolar disorder (0.45 percent of the population). They then looked in the Swedish multi-generation register, which contains information about all children and their parents in the country, and identified over 9 million individuals living in more than 2 million nuclear families between 1973 and 2004.
By comparing the patient discharge data for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with the register, the researchers were able to identify parents, children, brothers and sisters who shared the disorders. Using a sophisticated statistical tool they then assessed risks for the two disorders, separately and together, for biological and adoptive parents, their children, full and half siblings, of patients with either of the two disorders. The tool they used was a multivariate generalised linear mixed model, and they assessed both genetic and environmental contributions to risks.
The results showed that:
* First degree relatives of patients whose discharge record showed they had either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were at higher risk of having these disorders.
* Having a mother or father with schizophrenia raised the risk of a person having the disorder by 9.9 times, compared with someone who did not.
* Having a mother or father with schizophrenia raised the risk of a person having bipolar disorder by 5.2 times, compared with someone whose mother or father did not have schizophrenia.
* Having a mother or father with bipolar disorder raised the risk of a person having it 6.4 times, and the risk of having schizophrenia, 2.4 times, compared with a person whose mother or father did not have bipolar disorder.
* Having a brother or sister with one of the disorders significantly increased their risk of having them too, with half siblings having a lower risk than full siblings.
* Overall, relatives of patients with bipolar disorder showed increased risk for schizophrenia, including adopted children whose biological parents had the disorder.
* Heritability for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder was 64 and 59 per cent respectively.
* For both together, the figure was 63 per cent, mostly due to additive genetic effects common to both disorders, wrote the authors.
* Shared environmental effects were small but subtantial, they added.
Lichtenstein and colleagues concluded that:
"Similar to molecular genetic studies, we showed evidence that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder partly share a common genetic cause."
"These results challenge the current nosological dichotomy between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and are consistent with a reappraisal of these disorders as distinct diagnostic entities," they added.
In a separate press statement reported by Scientific American, Lichtenstein said he and his colleages suggest there are hundreds if not thousands of genes involved in the development of these two disorders, and many of them overlap. However, many of them have not yet been discovered.
Lichtenstein said there were many large scale studies happening around the world searching for the genes behind these disorders, and he is also researching in this area. He said scientists should look not only for overlap between these two disorders but with other psychiatric conditions too, like depression for instance.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Not In cooperation (compliance) with medical advice
It really comes as no surprise that people who are living on the street or some in-mates are there because they are not taking their prescribed meds. This is the same story over and over, not new news to the family and friends of the mentally ill.
Two thirds of prisoners nationwide with a mental illness were off treatment at the time of their arrest, according to a new study by Harvard researchers that suggests under-treatment of mental illness contributes to crime and incarceration.
The study, published today online in the American Journal of Public Health, found that about a quarter of inmates nationwide had a history of chronic mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar illness and depression. Researchers analyzed data collected in 2002 and 2004 from local, state and federal correctional facilities.
While only one in three were taking medications for their illness at the time of their arrest, that number jumped to nearly two-thirds during incarceration, the researchers found
"For many of them, treatment of their mental illness before their arrest might have prevented criminality and the staggering human and financial costs of incarceration," said study author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard and a primary care physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance's Cambridge Hospital campus.
Woolhandler said the findings portend significant problems for Massachusetts, where the Department of Mental Health last week laid off about 100 case managers -- nearly one quarter of the staffers who supervise people with severe mental illness and make sure they get the services they need.
State officials said about 3,000 clients would lose their current case managers. The layoffs were in response to the state's economic crisis.
"You are going to pay a much higher cost in the future prosecuting these people and putting them in jail, where they have a right to treatment," Woolhandler said. "I don�t know how good a treatment it is, but the taxpayers end up paying."
Two thirds of prisoners nationwide with a mental illness were off treatment at the time of their arrest, according to a new study by Harvard researchers that suggests under-treatment of mental illness contributes to crime and incarceration.
The study, published today online in the American Journal of Public Health, found that about a quarter of inmates nationwide had a history of chronic mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar illness and depression. Researchers analyzed data collected in 2002 and 2004 from local, state and federal correctional facilities.
While only one in three were taking medications for their illness at the time of their arrest, that number jumped to nearly two-thirds during incarceration, the researchers found
"For many of them, treatment of their mental illness before their arrest might have prevented criminality and the staggering human and financial costs of incarceration," said study author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard and a primary care physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance's Cambridge Hospital campus.
Woolhandler said the findings portend significant problems for Massachusetts, where the Department of Mental Health last week laid off about 100 case managers -- nearly one quarter of the staffers who supervise people with severe mental illness and make sure they get the services they need.
State officials said about 3,000 clients would lose their current case managers. The layoffs were in response to the state's economic crisis.
"You are going to pay a much higher cost in the future prosecuting these people and putting them in jail, where they have a right to treatment," Woolhandler said. "I don�t know how good a treatment it is, but the taxpayers end up paying."
Friday, January 9, 2009
The Beginning
Another opinion I just formulated is this. My mother was bi-polar as was her grand-mother and I am sure this form of mental illness in my family was and is a chemical imbalance and a genetic defect. This mental illness was passed down, not created. My son in medical school just completed his clinical rotations in psy. and he said that with a mother being bi-polar, my brothers and I had a 40% chance of also being bi-polar, although we are not. But the real story is about one of my special 3rd grade students, a very sad story. Physically and sexually abused by his parents, he, his 7th grade brother and 3 years old sister became wards of the state. The sister was adopted, but the two brothers have been in and out of foster and group homes. This one 3rd grade student, 10 years old, in my opinion is manifesting mental illness. Who knows whether it is a inherited thing or the trauma of his young life. He has been on various drugs, in a foster home with a single foster mom. His meds. were changed, he hit his brothers new bicycle with a baseball bat, the brother in return hit him on the head with a rock causing a huge gash that needed staples to be fixed. The foster mom says she can't care for the brothers, so they were separated, one went to juvie for striking his brother; the 3rd grader is on his way to a psy. ward, then back into a different group or foster home, separated from his brother.So after these young men probably go through this scenario over and over again, they will be dumped out on the street at age 18 and told "Good luck". I can't imagine not having any family at all to care for me or who is concerned about my welfare at the tender age of 10 years old. No one in the whole world who "really " loves you. So let your imagination go 8 or 9 nine years into the future and see what kind of young men these guys will be when they are having to make their own way in the world. I am convinced that the 10 year old one was probably delusional today when he told me he had gotten a puppy for Christmas, that he was being adopted and all was well with him. When actually he spent Christmas in a respite home with people he never met before because he got into a fight with his brother, so all the things he told me, I am sure were things he "Wished" were happening and not the reality of his very sad life. So this is probably the birth of his very mentally ill road, starting with the adults who were supposed to love and care for him, his very parents who took a young blank slate of a child and sexually and physically abused their gift from God. No telling how his story will end. 'Nuff said. Liz.
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