The Soloist - Events in Bozeman, MT

Wednesday, September 9th - 7:30 pm - Brick Breeden Fieldhouse - MSU - free
Convocation Address by The Soloist author Steve Lopez

Friday, September 1th - 7:00 pm - Bozeman Public Library - Free
The Soloist Movie Showing

ABC Primetime to Cover Issue of Mental Health Treatment

Tonight ABC Primetime will focus on the important issue of mental health treatment. Check your local guides for more information.

Tonight's segment will highlight the Bruce family tragedy and the Mad Pride movement.

Workplace Suicides Set Record

The U.S. Department of Labor reported last week a record 28 percent rise in workplace suicides, further evidence of the impact of the recession on the mental health of Americans. The total number of people who completed suicide last year was 251, the highest figure since the agency's Bureau of Labor Statistics began reporting. The total number of people who died on the job dropped 10 percent. That was the lowest number since 1992. (The Associated Press, 8/21/09)

October PBS Program Will Focus on Mental Health Reform

MINDS ON THE EDGE: Facing Mental Illness is a multi-platform media project that explores severe mental illness in America. The centerpiece of the project is a television program that will air on PBS stations in October 2009. The program, MINDS ON THE EDGE: Facing Mental Illness, effectively illuminates challenging ethical issues as well as systemic flaws in program and policy design, service coordination, and resource allocation that are contributing to a mental health system that is widely acknowledged to be broken. MINDS ON THE EDGE also provides a glimpse of many solutions that are currently being implemented across the country. These innovations, many shaped by the guidance and expertise of people with mental illness, offer promising solutions and hopeful direction to transform the mental health system. For more information about this project, visit http://www.mindsontheedge.org/.

Elderly people who committed suicide, described by those who knew them.

“Why do they become vulnerable when faced with the challenges of old age?"

Abstract from Suicide Prevention Resource Center

June 12, 2009

[International Psychogeriatrics] The majority of elders who die by suicide share a few similar patterns in their life histories, personal relationships, and personalities, according to a small study. They have survived considerable difficulties in life and many have become “action-oriented achievers,” usually in a work context. Those who knew them best describe them as strong-willed, stubborn, and so “closed” they could not be known at a personal level. Identifying elders with these characteristics may be a key to engaging those who are least able to either seek or accept help. [Read more]

Dating Web Site Matches Mentally Ill Singles

Friday, February 06, 2009

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Lynne had someone to spend Christmas and New Year's with this year. And that's unusual.

"It's been a long time since I've been with anybody for the holidays," the 50-year-old Albuquerque native said recently. "That was different."

Many people find dating stressful. But, for Lynne, who was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and other mental disorders at 19, dating invariably ends in disaster.

But about a month ago, Lynne began seeing a 53-year-old man she met through a dating web site designed specifically for people with mental illness.

The site — TrueAcceptance.com — was launched last year by an Albuquerque social worker to help people like Lynne find healthy relationships.

Read the full story here.

Farmer suicides spotlight lack of mental health care in rural America

The Michigan Messenger
7/23/09

Crisis help lines for agricultural workers are serving an important support role for farmers in economic distress. However, accessing mental health care can be a challenge in rural farming areas, with some residents having to travel long distances to access a mental health service provider.

“To farmers there is a real kinship with the land and livestock,” explained Dr. Mike Rosmann, executive director of AgriWellness. “Ownership of a family farm — sometimes a farm that has been in the family for generations — is the triumphant result of a multitude of struggles. Losing the farm or the livestock is viewed as an ultimate loss, one that brings shame to the generation that has let down its forebearers and has dashed the hopes of successors.”

Doctors miss depression nearly 50% of the time

General practitioners often have great difficulty properly diagnosing cases of depression, according to the results of a new study. An analysis of more than 50,000 patients finds that doctors miss true cases of depression about half the time and incorrectly diagnosis it in 19 percent of healthy people. Writing in the journal The Lancet, the researchers said: "Our results should not be interpreted as a criticism of GPs for failing to diagnose depression but rather a call for better understanding of the problems that non-specialists face." (Sciencedaily, 8/03/09)

Psychiatric Drugs Gain Acceptance

A growing number of Americans now have a positive opinion on psychiatric medications, a new study contends. About five out of six people surveyed felt psychiatric medications could help people control psychiatric symptoms. But many also expected the medications could help people deal with day-to-day stress. "This finding calls for a more targeted and selective approach in public information campaigns aimed at improving public understanding of the proper uses of psychiatric medications," said the lead author of the report, Dr. Rami Mojtabai, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (The Los Angeles Times, 7/31/09)

MSU receives $800,000 grant to train mental health nurse practitioners

Montana State University's College of Nursing has received a three-year, $814,021 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to prepare nurses to be family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners.

The new distance-based graduate option has been developed to shore up a shortage of primary mental health care providers across Montana, according to Patricia Holkup, who directs the program. "The faculty at the College of Nursing are delighted to have this opportunity to address the stark need in Montana for primary providers in mental health care," Holkup said. "The development of the new option within the state-supported Master of Nursing graduate degree program represents a collaborative effort between state-wide mental health representatives and faculty from the MSU College of Nursing."

Family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners are advanced practice nurses who provide a full range of psychiatric services to individuals and families, Holkup said. Special emphasis will be placed on preparing advanced practice nurses to deliver psychiatric mental health care to a diverse range of families and individuals living in rural communities.

Most of the state has been designated as a mental health professional shortage area, Holkup added.

The curriculum will take five semesters to complete, and six nurses will begin taking core classes this fall semester. The graduate nursing courses will be taught using Web-based distance learning technologies. Supervised clinical rotations will be completed in the students' home communities whenever possible.

In addition, a post-master's certificate will be offered.

Nurses interested in learning more about the option should visit the College of Nursing's Web site at
http://www.montana.edu/nursing/academic/mn.htm or contact Lynn Taylor, the graduate program's administrative assistant, at lynnt@montana.edu or
(406) 994-3500.

Applications for admission for the fall of 2010 are due Feb. 15, 2010.

10% of Americans Take Antidepressants

US Antidepressant Use Rises

The number of Americans using antidepressants doubled from 1996 to 2005, while the number seeing psychiatrists continued to fall, a study shows. About 10 percent of Americans—or 27 million people—were taking antidepressants in 2005, according to research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The findings highlight the need for doctors who are not psychiatrist to be trained to diagnose and manage depression so patients get effective treatment, said the study’s lead author, Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute. (USA Today, 8/03/09)

Study: Depression seen in children as young as 3

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner, Ap Medical Writer – Mon Aug 3, 5:17 pm ET

CHICAGO – Depression in children as young as 3 is real and not just a passing grumpy mood, according to provocative new research.

The study is billed as the first to show major depression can be chronic even in very young children, contrary to the stereotype of the happy-go-lucky preschooler.

Until fairly recently, "people really haven't paid much attention to depressive disorders in children under the age of 6," said lead author Dr. Joan Luby, a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis. "They didn't think it could happen ... because children under 6 were too emotionally immature to experience it."

Previous research suggested that depression affects about 2 percent of U.S. preschoolers, or roughly 160,000 youngsters, at one time or another. But it was unclear whether depression in preschoolers could be chronic, as it can be in older children and adults.

Luby's research team followed more than 200 preschoolers, ages 3 to 6, for up to two years, including 75 diagnosed with major depression. The children had up to four mental health exams during the study.

Among initially depressed children, 64 percent were still depressed or had a recurrent episode of depression six months later, and 40 percent still had problems after two years. Overall, nearly 20 percent had persistent or recurrent depression at all four exams.

Depression was most common in children whose mothers were also depressed or had other mood disorders, and among those who had experienced a traumatic event, such as the death of a parent or physical or sexual abuse.

The new study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and released Monday in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, did not examine depression treatment, which is highly controversial among children so young. Some advocates say parents and doctors are too quick to give children powerful psychiatric drugs.

Though sure to raise eyebrows among lay people, the notion that children so young can get depressed is increasingly accepted in psychiatry.

University of Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Sharon Hirsch said the public thinks of preschoolers as carefree. "They get to play. Why would they be depressed?" she said.

But depression involves chemical changes in the brain that can affect even youngsters with an otherwise happy life, said Hirsch, who was not involved in the study.

"When you have that problem, you just don't have that ability to feel good," she said.

And, in fact, Luby said she has separate, unpublished research showing that chemical changes seen in older children also occur in depressed preschoolers.

Dr. Helen Egger, a Duke University psychiatrist who also has studied childhood depression, said it is common among people in her field to first see depressed kids in their teens. Their parents will say symptoms began very early in childhood, but they were told, "Your child will grow out of them," Egger said.

Typical preschoolers can be moody or have temper tantrums, but they quickly bounce back and appear happy when playing or doing everyday activities. Depressed children appear sad even when playing, and their games may have themes of death or other somber topics. Persistent lack of appetite, sleep problems, and frequent temper tantrums that involve biting, kicking or hitting also are signs of possible depression, Egger said.

Luby said another sign is being preoccupied with guilt over common mishaps. For example, a depressed 3-year-old who accidentally breaks a glass might keep saying, "Mommy, I'm sorry I did that," and appear unable to shake off that sense of guilt for days, she said.

University of Massachusetts psychologist Lisa Cosgrove said she is skeptical about the accuracy of labeling preschoolers as depressed, because diagnostic tools for evaluating mental health in children so young aren't as well tested as those used for adults.

And Cosgrove said that while early treatment is important for troubled children, "we just have to make sure that those interventions aren't compromised" by industry pressure to use drugs.

Previous research has suggested that rising numbers of preschoolers are taking psychiatric drugs, including Prozac, which is used to treat depression.

Egger said that there is little research on the effects of psychiatric medicine in very young children, and that psychotherapy should always be tried first.

Dr. David Fassler, a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, stressed that depression in very young children is still pretty rare. However, without treatment, "it can have a devastating and often lasting effect on a child's social and emotional development," he said.

"Hopefully, studies such as this will help parents, teachers, and pediatricians recognize the signs and symptoms of preschool depression so they make sure young children get the help they need and deserve," Fassler said.