In commentary published on the CNN (2/23, Brooks) website, Adam C. Brooks, a research scientist at the Treatment Research Institute, wrote, “What makes substance abuse hard to combat is the fact that addiction plays such a central role,” but “major advances in scientific research have given us a much clearer picture of addiction — what it is, what is isn’t, and what causes it.” At present, “there is no ‘cure’ for addiction.” However, the “disease can be managed and recovery is possible. The most successful treatments are modeled after treatments for other chronic, noncurable, relapsing diseases such as diabetes, hypertension or asthma.”

Related Links:

— “Addiction is not hopeless,”Adam C. Brooks , CNN, February 22, 2012.

The Time (2/24, Thompson) “Battleland” blog points out that a “wrenching chart in a new Congressional Budget Office report on how the Department of Veterans Affairs is handling wounded troops suffering” from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) “shows that nearly all the troops afflicted with both ailments remain under the VA’s care after four years of care. In contrast,” the chart, which does not grade VA’s work, says that “only 42% of the troops seeking VA care with neither diagnosis were still under VA care after four years’ treatment.”

Related Links:

— “They Don’t Seem to Get Better…,”Mark Thompson , Time U.S. Battleland, February 23, 2012.

The ABC News (2/24, Moisse) “Medical Unit” blog reports, “Elderly nursing home residents who take certain antipsychotic drugs for dementia have an increased risk of death,” according to a study published online Feb. 23 in the BMJ. “The study of more than 75,000 nursing home residents with dementia, all of whom were 65 or older, found that residents taking the drug Haldol [haloperidol] had double the risk of death as those taking Risperdal [risperidone],” with the risk being “highest during the first 40 days of treatment.”

“In fact, the risk of death associated with haloperidol (Haldol) is so high that its use ‘cannot be justified because of the excess harm,’ according to Krista Huybrechts, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues,” MedPage Today (2/24, Smith) reports. “Quetiapine (Seroquel) appeared to be the safest among six medications studied in a large cohort of people 65 and older in US nursing homes,” the study found. “While antipsychotics are not approved for people with dementia, they are widely used to help control aggression, the researchers noted.”

HealthDay (2/24, Preidt) points out, “In 2005, the US Food and Drug Administration warned that certain antipsychotic drugs are associated with an increased risk of death in elderly patients with dementia. This warning was expanded to include conventional antipsychotics in 2008, according to a journal news release.” The study authors “said that, despite the FDA action, the use of antipsychotic drugs for this patient population is likely to grow,” due to the fact that “there are a growing number of elderly patients with dementia who require some type of treatment.” Also covering the story are BBC News (2/24, Gallagher) and the UK’s Daily Mail (2/24, Hope).

Related Links:

— “Drugs Raise Death Risk in Dementia Patients,”Katie Moisse , abc News, February 23 , 2012.

Bloomberg News (2/23, Silverberg, Kazel) reports, “US states looking to balance budgets by cutting mental-health facilities and Medicaid payments risk increasing health-care costs by pushing psychiatric patients into emergency” departments. “States trimmed 9.5 percent, or more than $1.6 billion, from their mental-health spending from fiscal 2009 to 2012, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The coming budget year will be worse in some states, with Illinois looking to shutter two psychiatric hospitals and Alabama planning to close all of its except for one serving the elderly and another treating criminal cases.” According to emergency department physician Dr. William Sullivan, of the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, “if patients can’t find free or low-cost outpatient psychiatric care due to government cutbacks, they may swamp emergency rooms and raise health-care costs for all patients.”

Related Links:

— “Mental-Health Cuts by U.S. States Risk Boosting Health Costs,”Melissa Silverberg and Bob Kazel , Bloomberg Businessweek, February 26, 2012.

MedWire (2/22, Cowen) reports, “The presence of anxiety is associated with increased impulsivity in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) or major depressive disorder (MDD),” according to a study published online Feb. 13 in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. In 205 adult patients with BD and 105 adult patients with MDD, investigators “found that the presence of anxiety, either as a comorbidity or a symptom, was significantly associated with increased impulsivity in both groups. Specifically, BD and MDD patients with anxiety had mean” Barratt Impulsivity Scale “scores of 79.56 and 73.91, respectively, versus respective scores of 77.73 and 66.23 in those without anxiety.”

Related Links:

— “Anxiety linked to increased impulsivity in mood disorder patients,”Mark Cowen , MedWire News, February 22, 2012.

Reuters (2/18, Grens) reported that according to a study published online Feb. 6 in Archives of General Psychiatry, no association was found between suicide and antidepressants among children and adults taking fluoxetine or venlafaxine. In addition, results based on unpublished data, also found that antidepressants may decrease the risk of suicide in adults.

The New York Times (2/19, A25A, O’Shea, Subscription Publication) reported that at the Cook County Jail in Illinois, an estimated 2,000 of some 11,000 prisoners “suffer from some form of serious mental illness,” according to Tom Dart, the Cook County sheriff. “Dart said the system ‘is so screwed up that I’ve become the largest mental health provider in the state of Illinois.'” Unfortunately, “the situation is about to get worse, according to Mr. Dart and other criminal justice experts. The city” of Chicago “plans to shut down six of its 12 mental health centers by the end of April, to save an estimated $2 million, potentially leaving many patients without adequate treatment — some of them likely to engage in conduct that will lead to arrests.”

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric Patients With No Place to Go but Jail,”BRIDGET O’SHEA , The New York Times, February 18, 2012.

USA Today (2/21, Healy) reports, “Children whose activity choices, interests and pretend play don’t conform to expected gender roles face an increased risk of abuse and future trauma,” according to a study published online Feb. 20 in the journal Pediatrics. “One in 10 kids display gender non-conformity before age 11 and, on average, are more likely to experience physical, psychological and sexual abuse and experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood,” the study of “nearly 9,000 young adults” found, with abuse “perpetrated mostly by parents or other adults in the home,” the study authors explained.

Pointing out an opposite viewpoint, the AP (2/20, Tanner) reported, “Offering sex-changing treatment to kids younger than 18 raises ethical concerns, and their parents’ motives need to be closely examined, said Dr. Margaret Moon, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ bioethics committee,” who was not involved in the study. “Some kids may get a psychiatric diagnosis when they are just hugely uncomfortable with narrowly defined gender roles; or some may be gay and are coerced into treatment by parents more comfortable with a sex change than having a homosexual child, said Moon, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.” She stated that it’s “harmful ‘to have an irreversible treatment too early.'”

According to MedPage Today (2/21, Walsh), a second study published in the same journal found that “among children and teens evaluated for medical intervention to suppress puberty or for hormone therapy, 44% had been given a psychiatric diagnosis — most often depression — and 21% reported self-mutilation.” MedPage Today adds, “In 2009, guidelines on the treatment of adolescents with this disorder were published by the Endocrine Society, recommending delay of puberty with reversible gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogs at Tanner stages 1-2 in eligible adolescents.” The study authors wrote, “This fully reversible treatment allowed patients time until age 16 to decide, in consultation with health professionals and their families, whether to begin hormone treatment that would allow them to transition physically.” Also covering the story are CBS News /WebMD (2/20, Mann) and HealthDay (2/21, Esposito).

Now Chicago, before that LA where the LA County jail was the largest mental institution in the US. – TEA

Related Links:

— “Gender Uncertainty Risky for Kids,”Nancy Walsh , MedPage Today,February 20, 2012.

The following is Copyright 2012 by National Public Radio. Read the original and listen to the piece at NPR’s website.

A Fan’s Notes On Pro Sports, Brain Damage
By Scott Simon
National Public Radio January 28, 2012

I will watch the Super Bowl next weekend, along with several billion other people. I expect to cheer, shout and have some guacamole.

But as a fan, I’m finding it a little harder to cheer, especially for my favorite football and hockey players, without thinking: They’re hurting themselves.

Not just breaks and sprains but dangerous, disabling brain damage.

Case studies have mounted over the last year. Dave Duerson of the 1985 Super Bowl-winning Bears shot himself in the chest just after the last Super Bowl and left a note: “Please, see that my brain is given to the NFL’s brain bank.”

That’s Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which determined that Mr. Duerson’s brain had been battered by at least 10 concussions and countless other football hits that may have caused dementia, addiction and depression that led to his death.

Jim McMahon, once the team’s brash quarterback, confided at a 25th reunion that his memory is “pretty much gone.”

“It’s unfortunate what the game does to you,” he said.

The dazzling Walter Payton of that same famous team died of liver disease. But a biography published last year achingly depicts the depression and addictions Mr. Payton suffered during decades of hits: thousands in games, tens of thousands in practice.

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins is hockey’s greatest star — the skater who scored Canada’s goal over the U.S. to win a Gold Medal at the 2010 Olympic Games.

But Sid the Kid suffered a concussion last January. Who knows when, or if, he’ll play again?

Just a few weeks ago, John Branch of The New York Times wrote a heart-piercing series after 3 NHL “enforcers” — paid brawlers — died within four months last year. He focused on Derek Boogaard of the New York Rangers, who accidentally overdosed on booze and oxycodone at the age of 28.

Boston University’s Center opened Derek Boogaard’s brain and found profound damage.

Chris Nowinski, a center co-director, is a former pro wrestler who loves contact sports. But he went to a Boston Bruins hockey game shortly thereafter and says that when a routine brawl broke out, fans stood and cheered. He couldn’t.

Several former players have filed lawsuits. Sports writers and pundits have called for new rules and equipment, although most studies show new rules and equipment may do little to limit injury while players grow larger, faster, and risk more to sign million-dollar contracts.

I’ll watch the Super Bowl next week with my children and wonder how comfortable we fans can be, sitting and snacking while too many of the players we cheer entertain us and get rich at such terrible cost to themselves.

The ABC News (1/21, James) “Medical Unit” blog reported, “Women younger than 50 who survive breast cancer face an array of quality of life challenges: psychological stress, weight gain and decline in physical activity, according to a study published…in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They also struggle with reproductive issues such as infertility and early-onset menopause.”

HealthDay (1/21, Preidt) reported that investigators looked at data from 28 studies. The research “revealed that overall quality of life was reduced in” breast cancer patients 50 years of age or less, “and that mental issues were more severe than physical problems, said” the investigators. The researchers “also found that younger breast cancer patients were more depressed than women of the same age without cancer in the general population, or breast cancer patients older than 50.” Meanwhile, “premature menopause, infertility and menopause-related symptoms were more common among patients 50 and younger and contributed to their levels of distress.”