Dr. Jeff's and Dr. Tanya's Blog

Are Mental Disorders and Heart Disease Expensive Medical Conditions?

Mental health professional have long debated the health care costs of mental illness and heart conditions. An article published in Medical News Today, February 26, 2009, examines this issue. The article reports on a study published in a recent issue of Health Affairs. The researchers studied "data from...the National Health Expenditures Accounts, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the National Nursing Home Survey, and other national data sets." The results were interesting. "The study indicates that spending for mental disorders - such as anxiety, depression, and dementia - was the highest, accounting for $142.2 billion in 2005, or 9 percent of personal health spending. Heart conditions were the second most expensive condition in the United States, amounting to $123 billion in 2005, 8 percent of personal health spending...personal health spending in the United States grew by about 7 percent annually from 1996 to 2005. During the same period, economy-wide price inflation averaged only 2 percent and population growth averaged 1 percent....changes in prevalence, treatment patterns, and costs per treatment were responsible for about 4 percentage points of the average annual growth rate in personal health spending." The implications of the study are significant, particularly in light of new efforts at national health care reform. It is clear that if health care reform is going to become a reality, the true health care costs of mental illness and health disease must be given serious attention.

The Bottom Line: The results of this study confirm that mental illness and heart disorders are very costly medical conditions.

Source: Original Article

Dr. Jeffrey Speller

Dr. Tanya Korkosz

Psychopharmacology Associates of New England

www.psychopharmassociates.com

Can Yoga Help Women With Breast Cancer?

Mental health professional have long debated about the beneficial effects of yoga on mental health. An article published in Medical News Today, February 25, 2009, examines this issue. The article reports on a study published in a recent issue of Psycho-Oncology. The researchers studied "....44 women who took part in the study, with 22 undertaking the yoga classes and 22 in the waitlist control group. All of the women had breast cancer; 34% were actively undergoing cancer treatment while the majority had already completed treatment. All participants completed a questionnaire at the beginning and end of the ten week program, asking them to evaluate their quality of life through various measures." The results were striking. "The results clearly showed that the women who had been given the RY classes experienced a wide range of benefits compared to the control group (who were later all invited to attend identical RY classes)....The study found that women who started with higher negative emotions and lower emotional well-being derived greater benefit from the gentle yoga intervention compared to the control group. Women in the gentle yoga group also demonstrated a significant within-group improvement in fatigue, while no such change was noted for the control group." There are several important implications of this study. First, mind-body treatments and interventions do indeed work. These interventions should no longer be considered "fringe" therapy. Second, physicians who treat women with breast cancer should routinely refer them for yoga training. Third, women with breast cancer should be proactive in getting involved in yoga. And, fourth, public health professionals should do a better job of educating the public about the mental health benefits of yoga particularly in breast cancer patients.

The Botom Line: The resutls of this study strongly suggest that mind body treatments are beneficial for women with breast cancer.

Source: Original Article

Dr. Jeffrey Speller

Dr. Tanya Korkosz

Psychopharmacology Associates of New England

www.psychopharmassociates.com

Are Stressed Out Veterinarians at Risk for Binge Drinking And Drug Use?

Mental health professional have long been concerned about the impact of high levels of stress on Veterinarians. An article published in Medical News Today published February 25, 2009, examines this issue. The article reports on a study published recently in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology. The researchers studied "...1060 practicing vets in north Germany via a carefully-designed, self-administered questionnaire." The results were striking. "The researchers found that the likelihood of psychosocial stress increased with the number of working hours and was a consequence of time pressure due to a heavy workload, difficulties in balancing professional life with private life, insufficient free time and dealing with difficult customers...many of the vets reported symptoms of demoralization - they were frequently dissatisfied with themselves, rarely optimistic or confident and almost never felt proud.....close examination of their tobacco, alcohol and medical drug habits found that psychosocial stress at work is associated with a poor psychological state, high-risk alcohol consumption and regular drug use while demoralization is associated with tobacco consumption, problem drinking and regular drug intake...Furthermore psychosocial stress leads to demoralization which in turn leads to an increased consumption of psychotropic substances." There are several implications of this study. First, the Veterinarian professional organizations need to take a much more proactive stance with regard to educating Veterinarians about how to manage high levels of professional stress. Second, practicing Veterinarians must engage in day to day management of their stress levels and seek professional help when indicated.

The Bottom Line: The results of this study strongly suggest that highly stressed Veterinarians are at risk of drug and alcohol abuse.

Source: Original Article

Dr. Jeffrey Speller

Dr. Tanya Korkosz

Psychopharmacology Associates of New England

www.psychopharmassociates.com

Does Child Abuse Damage Brain DNA?

Mental health professionals have long been concerned about the long term effects of child abuse. An article published February 23, 2009 in Medical News Today examines this issue. The article reported on a study published online on 22 February in Nature Neuroscience. The researchers studied "...samples from 36 brains: 12 came from suicide victims who had been abused as children, 12 came from suicide victims who had no such history, and 12 came from people who had died of other causes (the controls)." The results were disturbing. "...the researchers looked at samples of the hippocampus from human suicide victims with a history of childhood abuse. The hippocampus is a region of the brain that plays a key role in regulating the stress response...They found changes in expression of the NC3R1 gene that were not present in suicide victims with no history of being abused in childhood. The changes weren't present in people who had died of other causes either...The researchers found that the child abuse victims had different "epigenetic" markings in a part of the brain that influences the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function, a stress-response that increases suicide risk." The implications of this study are significant. Parents of children who experienced abuse should be very vigilant in looking for any signs of suicidal tendencies in their children. Second, mental health professionals should routinely screen all pediatric patients with a history of child abuse for suicidal tendencies. And third, public health professionals should make greater efforts to educate the public about the dangers and long term impact of child abuse.

The Bottom Line: The results of this study strongly suggest that child abuse damages the brain and increases the risk of suicide in abuse victims.

Source: Youtube, Orginal Article

Resources: 

How to prevent and stop child abuse. Watch this top rated video from Youtube

Dr. Jeffrey Speller

Dr. Tanya Korkosz

Psychopharmacology Associates of New England

www.psychopharmassociates.com

Does Watching Violent Media Desensitize One to the Pain of Others?

Mental health professionals have long debated about the impact of viewing violent media. An article published February 20, 2009 in Medical News Today examines this issue. The article reports on two unpublished studies  conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Iowa State University professor Craig Anderson. In the first study, the researchers studied, "...320 college students who played either a violent or a nonviolent video game for approximately 20 minutes. A few minutes later, they overheard a staged fight that ended with the "victim" sustaining a sprained ankle and groaning in pain." The results of the study were disturbing. "People who had played a violent game took significantly longer to help the victim than those who played a nonviolent game - 73 seconds compared to 16 seconds. People who had played a violent game were also less likely to notice and report the fight. And if they did report it, they judged it to be less serious than did those who had played a nonviolent game." In the second study, the researchers studied, "..162 adult moviegoers. The researchers staged a minor emergency outside the theater in which a young woman with a bandaged ankle and crutches "accidentally" dropped her crutches and struggled to retrieve them. The researchers timed how long it took moviegoers to retrieve the crutches. Half were tested before they went into the theater, to establish the helpfulness of people attending violent vs. nonviolent movies. Half were tested after seeing either a violent or a nonviolent movie." The results of this study were also disturbing. "Participants who had just watched a violent movie took over 26 percent longer to help than either people going into the theater or people who had just watched a nonviolent movie." The implication of these two studies is significant for parents of young children. First, parents of young or adolescent children should carefully monitor and limit the amount of time that their children watch violent media. Second, public health professionals should make greater efforts to educate the public about the risks of children and adults watching violent media.

The Bottom Line: The results of these studies strongly suggest that watching violent media increases the risk that the viewers will be desenitized to the pain of others. 

Source: Orginial Article

Dr. Jeffrey Speller

Dr. Tanya Korkosz

Psychopharmacology Associates of New England

www.psychopharmassociates.com