Mental Health News

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As far as drug addiction goes its recently been found that using low doses of the party drug Ecstasy can cause a decline in one’s verbal memory.  Mental health does not rely alone on one’s ability to tell the difference between the voices in their head and the voices of people talking to one.  After all the brain is a vast microcosm, kind of a contradiction I know, of chemicals, nerves, and electrical signals that depends on a fine balance.  Drugs have been known to upset that balance and here’s just one more example. 

Scientists at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam followed 188 volunteers at high risk of trying ecstasy for the first time.  Of that number it turned out that about 60 individuals did indeed start using. All of the volunteers were tested on different kinds of memory skills including; attention span, verbal memory, and visual memory.  Over three years of follow up tests and observations they found that those who used ecstasy developed delayed verbal recall and verbal recognition issues.  Meaning: drug addiction can mess up your ability to remember words and their meanings.  Bad news for any writers out there using the stuff. 

So anyone who happens to come across certain people in their lives who have some trouble with a limited vocabulary.  Now you know why…well, okay not everyone with a limited vocabulary is an ecstasy user.  Maybe they all just had test anxiety? 

The researchers believe that these verbal recall problems are caused by a decrease in Serotonin which is important in several cognitive functions in the brain.  A serotonin imbalance may also lead to depression so there’s another drawback to drug addiction to that Ecstasy stuff.

On the plus side, since this is a Serotonin problem it may be completely reversible so people can get their smarts back.  Scientists are still looking into the problem. 

Remember that weird kid in elementary school who seemed to be a few crayons short of a 64 color set of Crayola crayons-you know some mental health and behavioral issues that caused problems in school, at home and amongst his peers.  Well, many times we’ve seen that kid grow up as we moved through school with him or her and saw for ourselves what researchers are only now ‘confirming’ with studies.  Early mental health problems and behavior problems lead to rejection and friendlessness amongst their peers.  Duh.

Researchers apparently studied previous reports that followed the mental health problems of children around the ages of 6 and 7 and later compared them to reports of the same kids at 12 and 13 with problems of depression, loneliness and delinquency.  The researchers gathered information on 551 children and their teachers, mothers and peers to come to this eureka conclusion.  Most of the problems that qualified as mental health and behavioral problems were anxiety and fear of change, playing by oneself, hyperactivity, and physical aggression.

It’s nice that the researchers have found the studies back up this fact of life but it’s not an amazing discovery.  Unfortunately children with strange behavior in early childhood tend to be rejected by their peers as they grow older.  One could almost compare this to pack behavior or survival instinct.  They also found that kids with mental health problems such as anxiety tended to have fewer friends, though their chances of being rejected by their peers weren’t any less than other children.  Meaning, kids who are anxious are usually shy in new situations and around new people so they aren’t likely to be the life of the party and make a lot of friends.  However, that doesn’t mean others see anything wrong with them in particular.

In recent mental health news it seems that our small friends, the laboratory mice over at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory underwent a series of harrowing foot shock treatments.  These electrifying tests were performed in order to allow their researcher handlers to find a way to halt the fear response. 

Fear and anxiety treatment in humans may soon benefit from what researchers learned from these little white mice.  Many mental health conditions such as PTSD and anxiety attacks are a result of our inability to stop experiencing learned fear from a specific traumatic event.  This happens a lot with soldiers returning home from wars.

The researchers recreated traumatic events for mice by placing them in an environment where their feet would be randomly shocked with mild currents of electricity.  Later they placed those mice back in the same environment without shocking their feet.  What makes this big mental health news? Well, the mice with elevated levels of an enzyme called, Cdk5, persistently froze up in fear even after they should have realized that their feet wouldn’t be shocked.  Other mice whose levels of the same enzyme were inhibited by researchers quickly got over their learned fear in the same environment. 

In people it’s possible that inhibiting this same enzyme in those who experience fear and anxiety can help them overcome their mental health issues faster.  Although so far this particular idea is still in the early stages of study, its possible that a drug can be created that will eliminate fear.

It was found in recently released results from a study performed by the University of Colorado that it’s possible with effort for people to make themselves forget about troubling or traumatic images.  This has some implications for the mental health recovery of victims of violent crimes and traumatic experiences. 

However, it seems that the events the test subjects were asked to forget about were on the same par with many of the same experiences that can cause anxiety depression and post traumatic stress syndrome.  During the test volunteers were given two images simultaneously, one was traumatic; usually an image of a car wreck or wounded soldiers and the other was the picture of a person.  The researchers repeatedly showed the volunteers two corresponding pictures so that the volunteers would associate the image of the person with the traumatic event.  Later on in the study, volunteers were only shown the image of the person in the hopes that the association created by researchers would cause the volunteer to remember the traumatic image in a kind of mild clinical Post traumatic stress response. 

The researchers were able to achieve the association with several volunteers and from there they started trying to undo the association!  Researchers showed the volunteers a picture of a person with the corresponding association and then simply told them to forget about the traumatic image it brought up.  It appears to have worked and after awhile the volunteers had trouble placing the person’s image with its corresponding traumatic event.  So mental health recovery for victims suffering from traumatic memories could be as easy as telling them to forget?

Though, it seems that a lot of the results could just be from a natural tendency to forget the related image after a while.  Plus the traumatic image isn’t the same as experiencing a traumatic event.

In current mental health issues, the army is trying to revamp their medical community to make them a friendlier and more understanding army for those suffering from mental conditions and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Readers who haven’t realized it previously will be shocked and dismayed to learn that the war has been very hard on American troops and up to 38% of soldiers and 31% of marines report some mental health issues after returning home from Iraq.  The stress is even worse on members of the National Guard as up to 49% of them report similar problems with PTSD and problems dealing with depression. 

This problem is expected to grow even worse with the growing number of deployments and extended time in Iraq for those already deployed!  It seems that the stresses of ill using ones troops have finally caught up with the Army and National Guard. 

This is a worse problem than it seems for the military to deal with since there is still a stigma in the armed forces against complaining about mental health issues and even admitting a need to ‘decompress’ after particularly stressful periods.  To combat this problem in the armed forces the military is working to institute what they call, better mental health assessments, stronger privacy protections and a ‘buddy system’ for those in the field.  If your partner gets that funny glazed over look in his eyes and doesn’t bounce back from threatening situations anymore, it may be time to suggest he head back to base for some quiet time and a counseling session. 

The military is also planning to loosen restrictions on security clearances by no longer asking about previous treatments for mental health issues in those who apply for a secret clearance.  I don’t know if that’s the best idea, but it’s good the army is taking the mental health status of their members into account now.

The mental health care of our kids is just as important as that of adults, maybe even more so since a mental ailment left untreated in childhood can lead to serious problems as an adult.  A recent Danish study has shown that one particular problem, thought common to childhood may actually be more harmful than once thought.  The study found that kids who experienced the iron thumb of a bully in school were more likely to need increased amounts of medication for everything from headaches to tummy aches.  This is presumably from all the duress caused by being bullied for a long period of time.

I can remember when I was but a child of 10 and met with my first real bully.  It was a short, brief experience, but was also extremely distressing.  He wanted to meet me at the flag pole before school to beat me up I wanted to stay home from school sick that day.  Unfortunently my mom didn’t feel the same when I told her about the bully and sent me to school anyway.  Not good for my mental health and I can remember the anxiety, fear and stomach upset that plagued me for the rest of the evening and the next early morning.  However, the bully problem seemed to have solved itself overnight as I never saw hide nor hair of the child again, saving my own hide from a thrashing. 

For those kids who aren’t so lucky and must endure the unwanted attentions of bullies on a daily basis the effects can build up into long standing nervous disorders and physical ailments.  So as a result the kids need more and more medications.   

As far as children’s mental health is concerned, what we should be worried about is not the fact that kids need more medications, but the underlying cause of bullying and its chronic damage to mental health and physical well-being.

A recent study released indicated that in all the admissions for drug addiction in boys and girls, the girls were more likely to enter a treatment program than boys at an earlier age.  This was across the board for different types of addictions too.  In addition, it found that while the main course into a treatment program for both sides was through the justice system, girls were more often than boys to be admitted for treatment by their families. 

It’s very difficult to accurately say what this kind of information means.  The study has shown that girls get into drug treatment programs at a younger age than boys for drug addiction.  However, it doesn’t show for certain that girls get into drugs at a younger age.  It could be that an addiction in boys is less apparent for longer than it is in girls. The acting out behaviors that are associated with drug addiction in kids could be more apparent in girls, in our society which is inclined to give emotional, unruly boys a break.  Or girls, who have a tendency to mature faster, may really be getting into drugs at an earlier age due to increased social pressure, self-consciousness, lack of positive reinforcement, etc.

The finding that girls are more often to be admitted to a drug treatment program than boys were by their families is also open for interpretation.  It’s possible again, that with the current societal values prevalent today, the behaviors associated with drug addiction and the simple fact that a girl is addicted to a drug are such an affront to the home life that families ship their girls off to a mental health clinic to get better again.  While drug use discovered in boys is to be punished and shook off as a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude, leaving them to engage in harmful drug addictions for a longer period of time.  

It could also be that boys using drugs are just more likely to take part in criminal behavior and get caught by the police, thus shunting them into the justice system for treatment. 

One thing is for certain with study findings such as these.  The answers reveal only more questions and more studies are needed.

In a recent 2005 survey of mental health recovery centers and drug treatment facilities more special programs are being tailored to specific patient groups. The most common programs being offered by mental health clinics are geared towards those with both an addiction and a co-occuring psychiatric disorder, with at least 38 percent of the facilities in the United States offering this type of program.

This is great news for the mental health industry and those suffering chronically with addiction. The road to recovery is long and tedious, but with the right programs, support from counselors and medical personnel and their own strength of will addictions can be managed and psychological conditions treated.

Other types of programs are also being offered for adult women, adolescents, seniors, post-partum moms and those with HIV/AIDS. About 83 percent of all clinics offer at least one special program with even the smallest mental health clinics offering at least the special program geared towards those with co-occuring psychological diseases and an addiction.

There are an estimated 13,371 mental health recovery facilities in the United States at this time and only one third of them responded to the survey so there may be an even greater number of facilities with special programs geared towards specific groups suffering from addictions available to the public. Anyone who has need of help in recovery from an addiction can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) hotline at 1-800-662-HELP for aid in finding a mental health recovery facility near them.