Families worry mental health cuts will send kids spiraling

By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times

A week before Christmas, Judy Powelson was awaiting her son's first visit home in nine months with a mix of excitement and trepidation.

Earlier in the year, the 17-year-old's mental illness had spiraled out of control to the point that he attacked her, kicked a teacher in the groin and was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment. But since he entered residential treatment funded in part by the state, she'd seen him go through marked improvements — getting a 3.11 GPA and being voted MVP in soccer.

Now Powelson's son, identified in court papers as T.G., is one of 20,000 students across California whose mental health services may be in jeopardy in the new year because of a line-item veto by the governor. In October, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger slashed $133 million in funding for what are known as AB 3632 services, a 25-year-old program that requires state and local education and mental health agencies to jointly provide education-related mental health services.

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Families with children who suffer from mental illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia and who depend on these services have been thrown into chaos, parents and advocates say. Several counties, including Orange and Alameda, have sent out notices indicating that the services will be discontinued in January, attorneys representing the parents said.

"If my son loses this treatment, I will lose my son," Powelson said, her voice quivering. "I will lose him to mental illness, I will lose him to the criminal justice system, to drug abuse, to suicide."

She has filed a declaration about her son's situation as part of a federal class-action lawsuit seeking to block cutbacks to or discontinuation of the services. This month, a federal judge in Los Angeles heard arguments from attorneys representing the families and various state and local agencies but said he would wait until the new year before considering whether to issue an injunction.

U.S. District Judge George Wu said it wasn't immediately clear what would happen come Jan. 14, when a temporary order restoring the funding for the services is due to expire. He said he also wanted to wait for the outcome of a separate state court case in Sacramento challenging the governor's veto, which is scheduled to be heard in early January.

"I understand that the state agencies are pointing the finger and saying, 'It's your problem, it's your problem, it's your problem,' " Wu said at the hearing, adding that each agency was "waiting for somebody to blink." But he said it wasn't the right time for him to issue an order because "it's a complicated situation.... Bad things have not happened, but may happen in the future based on how these agencies act."

Attorneys representing various state and county agencies said they were trying to determine where the funds would come from, not dodging their responsibilities. They also said the four named plaintiffs in the case were currently receiving the necessary treatment and had not been notified that it would be taken away.

"They're here prematurely," said Supervising Deputy Atty. Gen. Jennifer M. Kim, representing the governor's office and the California Department of Mental Health.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs contended that a statewide court order was immediately necessary because vulnerable children were at risk of being harmed while the case was being litigated.

"Every day, a new county is saying they can't provide the services," said Laura Faer, an attorney for Public Counsel, which filed the class-action lawsuit along with Disability Rights California and the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

David Campos, whose son is the lead plaintiff, said he felt his child was being left behind while government agencies passed the blame.

"Everybody's waiting for somebody else to take the first step," said Campos, whose son, identified as A.C. in court papers, has been receiving counseling since kindergarten. Campos and his wife, Gail, have been trying to get help for their son ever since they adopted him at age 4 knowing he suffered the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and had been neglected and abused.

This summer, their son twice attempted suicide — swallowing half a bottle of Tylenol and trying to hang himself — and landed in juvenile hall. Through AB 3632 funding, he is receiving residential treatment for oppositional defiant disorder and attention deficit hyperactive disorder in Texas.

"When I heard the news [of the cut], I felt like I had been punched in the stomach," Gail Campos wrote in a declaration submitted with the court. "My son so desperately needs these services to get better, and I don't want him to end up in the criminal system or homeless."

Powelson said the treatment for her son, who has been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, had been like the "light at the end of the tunnel" for her family.

"The bad days before turned into bad weeks and bad months. My husband used to say it was like a piano falling from a tall building," she said. "Now, in treatment, he has a safe place to fall."

Troop Discharges High for 'Pre-Existing' Psychiatric Disorders

A pair of recently released government reports shows that more military trainees are being discharged for "pre-existing" psychiatric conditions than any other reason, with those cases particularly high among Marines.

The numbers suggest the military, under pressure to find recruits for two wars over the better part of the last decade, may not be catching the signs of mental illness during the enlistment process. While ailments ranging from asthma to hearing problems to orthopedic conditions accounted for a large percentage of discharges, mental health issues were the most common cause.

The military's Medical Surveillance Monthly Report and its Accession Medical Standards Analysis & Research Activity Report both confirmed this trend -- the statistics varied drastically depending on the branch.

Among Marines, 44 percent of discharges between 2004 and 2009 for pre-existing conditions were for psychiatric complications. That percentage was 24 in the Army and 18 in the Navy. It was less than 1 percent in the Air Force. The disorders ranged from depression to ADD to bipolar disorder.

The studies tracked recruits who were discharged for conditions that surfaced within six months of joining the military -- meaning many were probably discharged during training and did not see combat.

Paul Sullivan, director of veterans advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense, said the numbers reflect the "recruiting shortfall" the military has had to deal with. He said sloppier vetting opens the door for problems to surface after new member are enlisted.

In total, 3,636 Marines were discharged for psychiatric reasons between 2004 and 2009. In the Army, 4,359 were discharged. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

However, the startlingly high number of psychiatric-based discharges for recruits comes as the Pentagon faces complaints that it may be discharging combat troops on spurious mental-health grounds. Though the military has moved to recognize more cases of post-traumatic stress disorder -- as opposed to classifying them simply as "personality disorders" -- lawmakers have complained that the military is finding other psychiatric reasons to discharge troops.

The distinction is critical in determining what kind of benefits packages the discharged service member receives -- PTSD discharges get a 50 percent disability payment and health care benefits, while others do not receive that level of help after leaving the military.

Four lawmakers wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates in October complaining that the military was discharging members for "other physical or mental conditions not amounting to disability."

"While it is a good thing that the Pentagon has moved away from unfairly discharging combat troops by erroneously claiming a service member had a (personality disorder) rather than addressing the harmful effects of combat stress, we need to ensure a new method is not being used to deny combat veterans the care and benefits they deserve," they wrote. The letter was signed by Sens. Kit Bond, R-Mo.; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

They cited Pentagon data showing that while personal disorder discharges were down dramatically over the past few years, discharges for other "physical or mental" conditions rose from 1,453 to 3,844 between fiscal 2006 and 2009. Many of those conditions were labeled as "adjustment disorder," they wrote.

"We are particularly concerned that troops who display symptoms of combat stress are being expeditiously chaptered out of the military by the medical bureaucracy prior to their condition meeting formal diagnostic criteria for PTSD or other conditions that would constitute disability," the senators wrote.

Sullivan described this "patient dumping" as a serious problem in the military.

"The military finds it more expedient ... to improperly kick out tens of thousands of troops," he said.

In a response to the senators' letter, the Army assured them that it would continue to review the circumstances for such discharges.

Thomas Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army, wrote in a memo that the Army made sure soldiers discharged due to various disorders were "appropriately screened" for PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

"The Army is dedicated to ensuring that all soldiers with physical and mental conditions caused by wartime service receive the care they deserve," he wrote.


Source: Fox News

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Please support our grant to promote the Montana Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-TALK (8255) on movie theater screens, and highway billboards.

Vote by sms texting 104356 to 73774 (PepsiFreshText), or on the web at http://www.refresheverything.com/stopsuicide

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Mental Health America of MT

Mental Illness Hit 1 in 5 U.S. Adults in Past Yea

A new survey finds that 20 percent of U.S. adults -- over 45 million people -- experienced mental illness in the past year.
Overall, 4.8 percent (11 million people) suffered serious mental illness, 8.4 million people had serious thoughts of suicide, 2.2 million made suicide plans, and one million attempted suicide, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Nearly 20 percent (8.9 million) of adults with mental illness in the past year also had a substance abuse disorder, the report found. The rate was 25.7 percent for those with a serious mental illness -- about four times higher than the rate of 6.5 percent among people without a serious mental illness,
The survey was released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Among its other findings:
* Women are more likely than men to experience mental illness -- 23.8 percent vs. 15.6 percent.
* Young adults had the highest rate of mental woes (30 percent) while those aged 50 and older had the lowest rate (13.7 percent).

"Too many Americans are not getting the help they need and opportunities to prevent and intervene early are being missed," SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde said in an agency news release.

Read more here.

The Connection Between Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Our mental health affects the way that we feel and respond to life on a daily basis. When there is something wrong or out of balance in our mental state, it is going to throw off everything until it is properly
addressed, diagnosed, and treated. There is a very definite connection that has been discovered between substance abuse and mental health, or better said, a lack of true mental health. This is not to say that every person who abuses drugs or alcohol have a mental illness, but that there is a higher rate of mentally ill addicts than those who are not.

Of course, there is also the fact that many people believe that substance abuse and addiction are mental illnesses in and of themselves. This may very well be the case, but even if it's not, substance abuse is certainly an ailment of sorts and it needs to be treated alongside the mental illness that may have brought it on to begin with.

Many times, people with a mental illness, especially one that has not been diagnosed and is not being treated by a professional, will begin to "self-medicate". This essentially means that they will seek out substances that relieve the inner pain, stress, confusion, or other negative feelings that they are experiencing. For instance, a person with severe depression may begin to take "uppers" to allow them to feel happiness, even if it's only temporary. Often, the person with the mental health problem doesn't understand why they feel the way that they do, but once they find a substance that relieves the bad feelings, they are likely to become addicted quite quickly.

When that occurs, the person is now dealing with a dual diagnosis, meaning that there is a substance abuse problem as well as an additional mental health problem and both will need to be addressed and treated. An inpatient facility is likely the place to start, where the person is going to have intensive treatment, followed by aftercare day treatment programs for the substance abuse and psychiatric treatment and monitoring for the mental illness.

It is so easy to judge people that we see who are obviously dealing with substance abuse, but there is always an underlying problem that has led to the point we are seeing today. Often, that problem has to do with a mental illness that needs to be properly diagnosed and treated by a professional.

Published by Victoria Tiegert

Mental illness stigma lingers even though people understand it's a brain disease

By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

Public perception of mental illness and addiction has changed significantly -- and for the good -- in the last 15 years. That doesn't mean, however, that people feel comfortable working or living near or being friends with someone with mental illness, according to a major new survey.

The study compared people's responses to vignettes involving mental illness and addiction to gauge public understanding of the illness and feelings toward those who are ill or addicted. The surveys took place in 1996 and 2006. The idea, the researchers said, was to assess whether major efforts to improve the treatment of mental conditions and eliminate stigma in the United States is working. Several sweeping efforts have been made in the past two decades to educate Americans on mental illness. A major theme of these campaigns is that mental illnesses and addiction are biological, brain-based, sometimes-genetic illnesses that are each "a disease like any other."

The survey finds the public has embraced that concept, but only to a point. The percentage of people who attributed depression to neurobiological causes increased from 54% of those surveyed in 1996 to 67% in 2006. Those who endorsed psychiatrists to help treat alcoholism increased from 61% to 79% in the 10-year period.

However, the willingness to associate with people with these disorders did not change much. For example, the percentage of people who said they are unwilling to work closely with someone with major depression was 46% in 1996 and 47% in 2006. The percentage of people who considered people with schizophrenia to be a danger to others was 54% in 1996 and 60% in 2006.

Though research and treatment options for people with mental illness or addiction have clearly improved, many could be held back by social stigma, said the authors of the study, led by Indiana University researchers. "Public attitudes matter," they wrote. "Attitudes can translate directly into fear or understanding, rejection or acceptance, delayed service use or early medical attention."

It may take a new approach -- something other than science-based anti-stigma campaigns -- to change public attitudes, the authors said. One such approach is to focus on the "abilities, competencies, and community integration of persons with mental illness and substance use disorders."

(Which brings to mind Los Angeles Laker's star Ron Artest and his efforts to raise money for mental health services by raffling his NBA Championship ring. Artest, who has been treated for depression, has been outspoken about the importance and value of seeking treatment. His "Win My Bling" raffle raised $120,000 in just one day last week.)

In a commentary accompanying the study, Dr. Howard H. Goldman of the University of Maryland points to encouraging signs that people with these diseases can live on equitable terms with those who have not suffered addiction or mental illness.

"We may not have eliminated social stigmatization of symptomatic individuals with mental illness," he wrote. "But improved treatment has helped many of them to make their symptoms and dysfunction less visible and less problematic."

The papers appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Two Hours At TV Or Computer Screen Linked To Psychological Problems In Kids

A child who spends at least two hours a day in front of a TV screen or computer monitor has a significantly higher risk of developing psychological problems, no matter how much physical activity they do, researchers from the University of Bristol's Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, England reported in an article published in the American Journal of Pediatrics. The more physically active children who were in front of a screen for at least two hours a day appeared to do better than their sedentary peers in emotional and peer problems, but fared worse in behavioral areas, including hyperactivity.

This latest study, called The PEACH project, assessed over 1,000 kids aged ten and eleven years. The investigators gathered data on how long they spent in front of a computer monitor and/or TV screen, as well as their mental health. The children's levels of physical activity were measured and recorded using an activity monitor.

The researchers found that those children who spend at least two hours watching TV and/or using their computer for non-homework use (recreational use) had higher psychological difficulty scores compared to their peers who spent less time in front of screens. The investigators add that the difficulty scores persisted, irrespective of how physically active the children were.

In other words, it appears that regular prolonged exposure to monitors/screens increases the risk of psychological problems, and exercise does not seem to get rid of the problem.

The authors believe that limiting a child's exposure to TV/Computer screens could play an important role in protecting their current and future mental health and well-being.

Source: "Children's Screen Viewing is Related to Psychological Difficulties Irrespective of Physical Activity"

A Teacher's Suicide: Lessons Learned

Suicide is often seen as the tip of the iceberg. When Mr Ruelas', a Los Angelos teacher, died by suicide last week, it is acknowledged that the motives are far from clear. However some have associated Mr. Ruelas' love of teaching, his despair about the recent release of teacher performance ratings and his shame at being listed as a "less than effective" teacher compelled him to take a fatal jump. I also have the experience losing someone I love to suicide and searching for answers that can bind my anguish. My mother killed herself when I was four years old and as a child psychiatrist, mother, daughter I spent 18 years asking the impenetrable question of "Why?"

The lessons learned for those of us who lose someone to suicide is that it is usually a complex set of events, biological, cultural, conscious, unconscious motives. In ninety percent of suicides there is an underlying mental illness that exacerbates how someone responds to an immediate crisis whether it is a loss of a job, a divorce, the vicissitudes in life that can leave us bereft. In "psychological autopsies" when researchers interview friends and family, someone often has suffered from depression or bipolar disorder.

When someone is depressed and suicidal they can often have lethal misperceptions. Their desperate misery can be fueled by the faulty logic that their problem is permanent and that ending their life is the only solution. If I had climbed next to Mr. Ruelas on the remote forest bridge, the kind of metaphorical outreach that I do with my patients in my office, I would have counseled him in the words of Galway Kinell in his poem to a suicidal friend, "Wait, Wait for now, the need for new love is faithfulness to the old." I would have asked him to look at the evidence that a bad report card can permanently derail a career or can he recognize that this is the "faulty logic" of depression. When someone is suicidal they can see themselves as a perceived burden and that they will not be missed.

The aftermath of Mr. Ruelas' death is a stark reminder that none of us are expendable. As an extension of Mr. Ruelas' love for his students, I want each of them to get the message that depression is a treatable illness. We have life sustaining support to help those in their darkest hours find another way.

Blog by: By Nancy Rappaport, M.D - A Teacher's Suicide: Lessons Learned

Mental Health Courts Appear to Shorten Jail Time, Reduce Re-Arrest for Those With Psychiatric Illness

Special mental health courts appear to be associated with lower post-treatment arrest rates and reduced number of days of incarceration for individuals with serious psychiatric illnesses, according to a report posted online October 4 that will appear in the February 2011 print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Mental health courts are an increasingly popular post-booking jail diversion program," the authors write as background information in the article. "Mental health courts have the laudable goal of moving persons with serious mental illness out of the criminal justice system and into community treatment without sacrificing public safety." These courts have expanded from one or two in 1997 to approximately 250 today. In general, eligible clients follow specific procedures for enrollment into the court, such as having a hearing before a mental health court judge, entering a guilty plea and agreeing to the terms of the court. Treatment is usually a condition of enrollment, and courts reserve the right to sanction defendants who violate the terms.

Specifically, in the 18 months following enrollment in the mental health court, participants were significantly less likely than those treated in the usual manner to be arrested again (49 percent vs. 58 percent). Over the same period, mental health court participants had a decline of 0.8 arrests per year (from 2.1 to 1.3), compared with a decline of 0.6 in the usual treatment group (from 2.6 to 2.0).

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by MHA of MT staff) from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Social Rejection Literally Affects the Heart

We all know that the phrase heartbroken is reflective of a social rejection. New research suggests the phrase may also have some physiological truth as researchers determine social rejection does affect the heart.

Dutch researchers have determined social rejection isn’t just emotionally upsetting; it also makes your heart rate drop for a moment.

The report is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Research has shown that the brain processes physical and social pain in some of the same regions. A team of Dutch researchers wanted to find out how social pain affects you physically.

For the study, volunteers were asked to send the researchers a photograph of themselves. They were told that for a study on first impressions, students at another university would look at the photo to decide whether they liked the volunteer.

This was just a cover story for the real experiment.

A few weeks later, each volunteer came to the laboratory, had wires placed on their chest for an electrocardiogram, and looked at a series of unfamiliar faces—actual students from another university.

For each face, the volunteer was asked to guess whether that student liked them. Then they were told whether the person actually “liked” them or not—although this was merely a computer-generated response.

Each participant’s heart rate fell in anticipation before they found out the person’s supposed opinion of them.

Heart rate was also affected after they were told the other person’s opinion—if they were told the other student didn’t like them, the heart dropped further, and was slower to get back up to the usual rate. The heart rate slowed more in people who expected that the other person would like them.

The results suggest that the autonomic nervous system, which controls such functions as digestion and circulation, gets involved when you’re socially rejected.

“Unexpected social rejection could literally feel ‘heartbreaking,’ as reflected by a transient slowing of heart rate,” the researchers write.

Source: Association for Psychological Science

Men Respond to Stress by Shutting Down

A new study finds that stressed men have diminished activity in brain regions responsible for understanding others’ feelings.

In the investigation, researchers had men look at angry faces. The results suggest the silent and stoic response to stress might be a “guy thing” after all.

“These are the first findings to indicate that sex differences in the effects of stress on social behavior extend to one of the most basic social transactions — processing someone else’s facial expression,” said Mara Mather, director of the Emotion and Cognition Lab at USC.

In an article appearing in the journal NeuroReport, Mather and her coauthors present a series of tests indicating that, under acute stress, men had less brain response to facial expressions, in particular, fear and anger.

Men under acute stress showed decreased activity not only in the fusiform face area but also decreased coordination among parts of the brain that help us interpret what emotions these faces are conveying.

In a marked sex difference, women under stress showed the opposite — women under stress had increased activity in the fusiform face area and increased coordination among the regions of the brain used in interpreting facial emotions compared to the control group.

“Under stress, men tend to withdraw socially while women seek emotional support,” Mather said.

Source: University of Southern California

Violent Crime Less Frequent in Neighborhoods with Businesses

Neighborhoods that combine residential and business developments have lower levels of some types of violent crime, suggests a new study.

The findings were equally true in impoverished areas as they were in more affluent neighborhoods, possibly offering city planners and politicians a new option in improving crime-afflicted areas, according to the researchers.

“A residential neighborhood needs more than the addition of one or two businesses to see any positive impact on violent crime,” said Christopher Browning, professor of sociology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study.

“There needs to be a sufficient density of businesses and residences throughout the community to really see the benefits.”

The findings are significant as more cities across the country move toward mixed developments as a way to bolster downtowns and run-down neighborhoods, said Browning.

The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency and was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Source:  Ohio State University

Physically Fit Kids Have Bigger Hippocampus

Children who are physically active actually boost their own brain development, according to a study by the University of Illinois.

The researchers observed 49 participants, aged nine to ten, and found that physically fit children tend to have a bigger hippocampus and also perform better on memory tests than kids who are less fit.

For the study, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure the relative size of specific structures in the brains of the child participants.

“This is the first study I know of that has used MRI measures to look at differences in brain between kids who are fit and kids who aren’t fit. Beyond that, it relates those measures of brain structure to cognition,” said University of Illinois psychology professor Art Kramer, who led the study with Laura Chaddok, doctoral student.

The study’s main focus was the hippocampus, a structure set deep in the brain and known to play a major role in memory and learning. Previous studies in older adults and animals have shown that exercise can enlarge the hippocampus. A bigger hippocampus is linked to stronger spatial reasoning and other cognitive tasks.

This study appears in the journal Brain Research.

Source: University of Illinois

Ron Artest To Auction NBA Championship Ring For Mental Health

Remember Ron Artest? The Los Angeles Lakers player who, after his team won the 2010 NBA Championship, publicly thanked his psychologist – the woman who “really helped [him] relax a lot”?

Well, it seems Artest is taking his new-found appreciation for mental health professionals a step further.

According to NBA.com, not only did the small forward appear with Rep. Grace F. Napolitano, the co-chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus and author of the Mental Health in Schools Act, at a Los Angeles middle school a couple of Thursdays ago to “to call for passage of federal legislation and encourage students to reach out to a health-care worker if they need,” but he’s also “planning to sell the championship ring as a fundraiser to put more psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists in schools.”

In the meantime, you can keep up with Ron Artest at his official website, www.ronartest.com.

High Altitude Suicide Risk?

Provocative new research suggests high altitude is in some way related to suicide risk. The assertion is challenging as the mountainous West is renowned for the beauty of its towering mountains and high deserts.

Perry F. Renshaw, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine and colleagues, report that the risk for suicide increases by nearly one third at an altitude of 2,000 meters, or approximately 6,500 feet above sea level.

The high suicide rates in the West prompted Renshaw, the study’s senior author and also an investigator with the Veterans Affairs Rocky Mountain (VISN 19) Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), to undertake the research.

“We thought it was reasonable to ask if some aspect of high altitude is related to suicide,” he said.

“Altitude was the strongest factor we could find in our study. But we believe there’s also some other factor we can’t account for yet.”

After analyzing data from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) database with information on 3,108 counties in the lower 48 states and District of Columbia, Renshaw and his colleagues concluded that altitude is an independent risk factor for suicide, and that “this association may have arisen from the effects of metabolic stress associated with mild hypoxia (inadequate oxygen intake)” in people with mood disorders.

In other words, people with problems such as depression might be at greater risk for suicide if they live at higher altitudes.

Source: University of Utah Health Sciences

Mental Illness Stigma Entrenched in American Culture; New Strategies Needed, Study Finds

A joint study by Indiana University and Columbia University researchers found no change in prejudice and discrimination toward people with serious mental illness or substance abuse problems despite a greater embrace by the public of neurobiological explanations for these illnesses.

The study, published online Sept. 15 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, raises vexing questions about the effectiveness of campaigns designed to improve health literacy. This "disease like any other" approach, supported by medicine and mental health advocates, had been seen as the primary way to reduce widespread stigma in the United States.

"Prejudice and discrimination in the U.S. aren't moving," said IU sociologist Bernice Pescosolido, a leading researcher in this area. "In fact, in some cases, it may be increasing. It's time to stand back and rethink our approach."

Stigma, the well-documented reluctance by many to socialize or work with people who have a mental or substance abuse disorder, is considered a major obstacle to effective treatment for many Americans who experience these devastating illnesses. It can produce discrimination in employment, housing, medical care and social relationships, and negatively impact the quality of life for these individuals, their families and friends.

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by Mental Health America of Montana staff) from materials provided by Indiana University.

False Memories from Simply Observing Others

Have you ever wondered if you really did something, or did you just remember the event because you watched someone else perform the action?

If so, don’t feel bad. Experts continue to gather evidence that memory is not always reliable.

Interestingly, the insight came as a team of psychologists were studying imagination, a recognized method by which false memories can be created.

In an experiment, psychologists found that people who had watched a video of someone else doing a simple action — shaking a bottle or shuffling a deck of cards, for example — often remembered doing the action themselves two weeks later.

“We were stunned,” says Gerald Echterhoff, of Jacobs University Bremen. As a result, Echterhoff and collegues changed the focus of the invesitgation to examine this phenomenon with a series of experiments.

In each experiment, participants performed several simple actions. Then they watched videos of someone else doing simple actions—some of which they had already performed, and some of which they had not.

Two weeks later, they were asked which actions they had done. They were much more likely to falsely remember doing an action if they had watched someone else do it. This happened even when participants were told about the effect and warned that it could happen to them.

Source: Association for Psychological Science

Perceptions of Life Threat Can Cause Long-Term Distress

Perceptions about one’s safety during a disaster—even from a distance—can leave emotional scarring and long-term issues with mental health.

These findings are part of a study that focused on 1,500 residents of Stockholm who had been in the disaster area during the 2004 tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean. Surprisingly, some of those displaying signs of long-term mental distress had not been affected directly by either self harm or harm to friends and family.

“A difficult experience can lead to an excess of feelings and impressions. This is normal and can be seen as a sign that the mind and body need time to work through what happened,” said Dr. Lars Wahlström of the Crisis and Disaster Psychology Unit at the Center for Family and Community Medicine (CeFAM) in Stockholm.

Part of the doctoral thesis “Disaster and Recovery,” conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, researchers had participants—all over 15 years of age—fill out a questionnaire regarding their experiences 14 months after the incident.

Results revealed that 30 percent of those interviewed were still experiencing symptoms that included post-traumatic reactions, mood disturbances or sleep issues. Of those still experiencing mental health issues, 20 percent had not been directly affected, but they had perceived their presence and experience in the region as life-threatening.

“It would seem that the very experience of threat to life leaves traces,” Wahlström said, adding that survivors of disasters could possibly be better evaluated for potential long-term effects by asking more pointed questions about their perceptions. “It might be enough for a nurse at the emergency ward to sit down for a moment and ask what the survivor has been through and how the experience felt. After survivors’ first reactions have subsided, at the latest within a month, those who felt a threat to life should be contacted again to find out how they are doing.”

Doctoral thesis: “Disaster and recovery,” Lars Wahlström, Karolinska Institute

More children in the United States are receiving diagnoses of bipolar disorder

Mental health professionals say that more and more children are receiving diagnoses of and treatment for bipolar disorder, and at younger ages. This is a serious brain disorder in which a person goes through extreme mood episodes of mania and depression, going from intense excitement and lack of focus to sadness and even suicidal behavior.

A 2007 study in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that the number of office visits resulting in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder for those under 19 was 1,003 per 100,000 people in 2002-03 in the United States. This was a dramatic uptick from 25 per 100,000 people in 1994-95.
Bipolar Disorder 101

"The prevalence of bipolar disorder in children in genuinely growing, but I think it's also because we are also becoming more aware that children who have very wild and very problematic mood swings may have bipolar disorder," said Dr. Rakesh Jain, a psychiatrist in Lake Jackson, Texas.

But another reality that's not popular among parents is that sometimes, components of the child's environment contribute to these behavioral disturbances, said Dr. Charles Raison, psychiatrist at Emory University.

There are, of course, children who genuinely have bipolar disorder, but he cautions that ideally, as a first line of defense, family support and therapy would be given to the child and problematic environments -- be it home or school -- would be improved, and then medication would be given as needed.

The story is featured inCNN.

Health News

New Study Reconciles Conflicting Data On Mental Aging

A new look at tests of mental aging reveals a good news-bad news situation. The bad news is all mental abilities appear to decline with age, to varying degrees. The good news is the drops are not as steep as some research showed, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.

"There is now convincing evidence that even vocabulary knowledge and what's called crystallized intelligence decline at older ages," said study author Timothy Salthouse, PhD.

Longitudinal test scores look good in part because repeat test-takers grow familiar with tests or testing strategies, said the University of Virginia psychologist. Factoring out these "practice effects" showed a truer picture of actual mental aging, according to Salthouse.

Still, the declines, although pervasive, are smaller than thought, according to the report in the July issue of Neuropsychology. That finding contradicts data gathered by the other major research approach to aging, cross-sectional studies, which compare the performance of different age groups at the same time.


Source:

American Psychological Association

Brain Scans May Track Childhood Psychological Disorders

Physicians are encouraged to look at brain scan data in a new way. According to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, doctors should be able to analyze the development of a child’s brain and also keep track of any possible psychological or developmental disorders after a typical five-minute scan.

“Pediatricians regularly plot where their patients are in terms of height, weight and other measures, and then match these up to standardized curves that track typical developmental pathways,” says senior author Bradley Schlaggar, MD, PhD, a Washington University pediatric neurologist and the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Associate Professor of Neurology.

“When the patient deviates too strongly from the standardized ranges or veers suddenly from one developmental path to another, the physician knows there’s a need to start asking why.”

Schlaggar and his colleagues propose a new way of looking at brain scanning data that moves beyond observing the brain from only a structural point of view. This would be especially helpful in the monitoring and treating of patients with psychiatric and developmental disorders.

According to Schlaggar, he has sent children with obvious, profound psychiatric conditions for MRI scans and received results marked “no abnormalities noted.”

“That’s typically looking at the data from a structural point of view—what’s different about the shapes of various brain regions,” he adds. “But MRI also offers ways to analyze how different parts of the brain work together functionally.”

The study is featured this week in Science.

Washington University in St. Louis

Double the Costs for Worksite Mental Illness

A new Canadian study reveals that mental illness is associated with more lost work days than any other chronic condition.

When researchers calculated the actual cost of mental health leave, they found that on average, it’s double the cost of a leave for a physical illness.

The study, published in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, looked at data tracking the short-term disability leave of 33,913 full-time employees in Ontario.

Results showed that the cost to a company for a single employee on a short-term disability leave due to mental health concerns totals nearly $18,000.

Source: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

The Take 5 to Save Lives campaign asks supporters to take 5 steps

The Take 5 to Save Lives campaign asks supporters to take 5 steps:

1. Learn the signs



2. Join the movement


3. Spread the word


4. Support a friend


5. Reach out if you need help

Visit the campaign website to learn more about these 5 steps and how you or your organization can help spread the word.



For more information: http://www.take5tosavelives.com

High Schools Pilot Suicide Prevention Program

A new model for suicide prevention seeks to use the power of peer influence to change high school suicide rates for the better.

Undertaken by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), the Sources of Strength program will be the subject of a long-term study at high schools across New York and North Dakota.

Developed in the late 1990s by Mark LoMurray alongside other tribal and rural suicide prevention workers in North Dakota, the Sources of Strength program identifies a culturally diverse group of youth leaders to change behaviors through targeted messaging activities.

According to research team leader Peter Wyman, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at URMC, the program’s objective is to “strengthen how teens handle depression, stress and other problems by training influential teen ‘peer leaders’ who work to change coping practices in their friendship networks.”

Identified youth leaders may include a mix of low-risk and at-risk teens who are trained to influence others to adopt positive coping mechanisms in connection with emotional crisis. The leaders work under the monitoring of adult mentors.

Current statistics reveal that suicide accounts for more deaths in youth and young adults aged 10 to 24 than all other natural causes combined. As many as eight percent of adolescents attempt suicide each year, with up to one third requiring medical attention.

“Sources of Strength is an innovative and promising program,” Wyman said.

Source: University of Rochester Medical Center

Can Psychological Trauma Be Inherited?

An emerging topic of investigation looks to determine if post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be passed to subsequent generations.

Scientists are studying groups with high rates of PTSD, such as the survivors of the Nazi death camps. Adjustment problems of the children of the survivors — the so-called “second generation” — is topic of study for researchers.

Studies suggested that some symptoms or personality traits associated with PTSD may be more common in the second generation than the general population.

It has been assumed that these transgenerational effects reflected the impact of PTSD upon the parent-child relationship rather than a trait passed biologically from parent to child.

However, Dr. Isabelle Mansuy and colleagues provide new evidence in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry that some aspects of the impact of trauma cross generations and are associated with epigenetic changes, i.e., the regulation of the pattern of gene expression, without changing the DNA sequence.

They found that early-life stress induced depressive-like behaviors and altered behavioral responses to aversive environments in mice.

Source: Elsevier

Ultrasound Technology Helpful in Treating Self-Harm Patients

According to a new study, radiologists, while using ultrasound technology and a minimally-invasive procedure, are able to successfully diagnose and treat patients who engage in a troubling self-harming behavior known as self-embedding.

Self-harm (or self-injury) is the general name used to describe a variety of disturbing behaviors in which a person intentionally causes harm to his or her body with no suicidal intent. It is a troubling trend among teenagers, and surprisingly, more common in girls.

The most common forms of self-injury include cutting oneself, bruising, burning, breaking bones, hair pulling, and the swallowing of toxic substances. Self-embedding–the focus of this study– takes the behavior of cutting a step further as the person will puncture the skin in order to insert a foreign object.

Sometimes these objects are left under the skin for years, and many of them have escaped detection during typical X-ray examinations. Ultrasound technology, however, is offering new hope for diagnosing and treating patients who self-embed.

Source: Radiological Society of North America

Psychological Abuse During Pregnancy Linked to Postnatal Depression

Postnatal depression is strongly linked to psychological abuse by an intimate partner during pregnancy, independent of any physical or sexual violence, according to the research of Dr. Ana Bernarda Ludermir of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil and colleagues at the School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol.

These findings are significant as most social policies currently focus on prevention and treatment of physical violence only.

A total of 1,045 women between the ages of 18 and 49 years were included in the study and interviewed during pregnancy and after delivery. The women, who were receiving care at primary health care clinics during their third trimesters, were given a questionnaire that assessed partner violence.

The findings showed that 270 (26 percent) of these women suffered from postnatal depression, and the most common form of abuse was psychological (28 percent).

Source: University of Bristol

Bipolar Does Not Increase Risk of Violent Crime

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor

A new Swedish study suggests that a person with bipolar disorder is not at increased risk of aggression. However, substance abuse associated with bipolar does increase the chance of violent crime.

The public debate on violent crime usually assumes that violence in the mentally ill is a direct result of the perpetrator’s illness.

Twenty-one percent of patients with bipolar disorder and a concurrent diagnosis of severe substance abuse (alcohol or illegal drugs) were convicted of violent crimes, compared to five percent of those with bipolar disorder but without substance abuse, and three percent among general public control individuals.

The differences remained when accounting for age, gender, immigrant background, socioeconomic status, and whether the most recent presentation of the bipolar disorder was manic or depressed.

“Interestingly, this concurs with our group’s previous findings in schizophrenia, another serious psychiatric disorder, which found that individuals with schizophrenia are not more violent than members of the general public, provided there is no substance abuse,” says professor Niklas Långström, head of the Centre for Violence Prevention at Karolinska Institutet.

According to the researchers, the findings support the need for initiatives to prevent, identify and treat substance abuse when fighting violent crime. Additionally, Långström hopes that the results will help challenge overly simplistic explanations of the causes of violent crime.

“Unwarranted fear and stigmatization of mental illness increases the alienation of people with psychiatric disorder and makes them less inclined to seek the care they need,” Långström comments.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

TNS Electrical Stimulation Helps Depression

By Traci Pedersen
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 4, 2010

A new therapy that electrically stimulates a major nerve in the brain shows promising results for relief of major depression. The treatment — trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) — reduced depression symptoms by an average of 70 percent during an eight-week study conducted at UCLA.

Major depression is a disabling brain condition resulting in depressed mood, negative effects on sleep, energy, decision-making and memory, and possible thoughts of death or suicide. The disorder affects 15 million adults in the U.S., and according to the World Health Organization, by 2020 it will be the second-largest contributor to disability in the world.

Although antidepressants have helped many people recover from major depression and resume their lives, there is only a 30 percent success rate for patients taking their first medication. If the first drug doesn’t work, patients typically continue trying a series of other antidepressants. Most of these medications have significant side effects, including obesity, sexual dysfunction, drowsiness, nausea and fatigue.

Dr. Ian A. Cook, the Miller Professor of Psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the study’s head investigator, presented the results at a recent National Institutes of Health conference on depression and other psychiatric disorders. There he noted that 80 percent of the subjects achieved remission with electrical stimulation, a significant statistic in this pilot study.

TNS Electrical Stimulation Helps Depression

Memory problems more common in men?

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — A new study shows that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may affect more men than women. The research is published in the September 7, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.Memory problems more common in men?

Meditation Improves Attitude of Teenage Boys

Researchers have discovered a particular form of meditation known as mindfulness meditation appears to improve the outlook of male teenagers.

The technique, based on the processes of learning to become more aware of our ongoing experiences, was found to increase well-being in adolescent boys.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge analyzed 155 boys from two independent UK schools, Tonbridge and Hampton, before and after a four-week crash course in mindfulness.

After the trial period, the 14- and 15-year-old boys were found to have increased wellbeing, defined as the combination of feeling good (including positive emotions such as happiness, contentment, interest and affection) and functioning well.

Source: University of Cambridge

Brain Imaging Shows Brain Changes in Depression

Traditionally, depression is suspected when symptoms that suggest impaired psychosocial functioning are present for more than two weeks. Symptoms of depression include an overwhelming feeling of sadness, difficulty to experience pleasure, sleep problems, and difficulties with engaging in everyday life.

Emerging research addresses the neural bases of depression as well as how treatment can induce changes in the brain. Modern brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are often used to view brain modulations.

This line of research expands the commonly accepted premise that depression is associated with dysfunction of specific brain regions involved in cognitive control and emotional response.


Source: European College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Attention, Couch Potatoes! Walking Boosts Brain Connectivity, Function

ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2010) — A group of "professional couch potatoes," as one researcher described them, has proven that even moderate exercise -- in this case walking at one's own pace for 40 minutes three times a week -- can enhance the connectivity of important brain circuits, combat declines in brain function associated with aging and increase performance on cognitive tasks.

The study, in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, followed 65 adults, aged 59 to 80, who joined a walking group or stretching and toning group for a year. All of the participants were sedentary before the study, reporting less than two episodes of physical activity lasting 30 minutes or more in the previous six months. The researchers also measured brain activity in 32 younger (18- to 35-year-old) adults.

Rather than focusing on specific brain structures, the study looked at activity in brain regions that function together as networks.

"Almost nothing in the brain gets done by one area -- it's more of a circuit," said University of Illinois psychology professor and Beckman Institute Director Art Kramer, who led the study with kinesiology and community health professor Edward McAuley and doctoral student Michelle Voss. "These networks can become more or less connected. In general, as we get older, they become less connected, so we were interested in the effects of fitness on connectivity of brain networks that show the most dysfunction with age."


See the entire story at: Science Daily

Suicide Stereotypes Exposed as Myths

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor

No single cookie-cutter model for suicide can explain an individual's desire to take his or her life. And that's good news, said one psychologist who studies suicidal behaviors across cultures.

To the surprise of many people, suicide is more common than homicide. Many suicide stereotypes would suggest men and women differ in their suicidal behaviors in predictable ways that hold true regardless of culture. For instance, experts have thought that women are more likely to engage in suicidal behavior than men, yet they ultimately die of suicide at a lower rate because their suicide attempts tend less often to be fatal.

That gender paradox holds up for some women in the United States but may not in other countries, according to Silvia S. Canetto of Colorado State University. Canetto’s research suggests culture is key in shaping suicide tendencies as well as how we view suicide. If suicide isn't a one-size-fits-all behavior that holds across the board, there's hope for change, she contends.

"All of a sudden you realize it's not an inevitable general, universal pattern that men are more likely to die of suicide than women," Canetto told LiveScience. "Then you can see the behavior is not fixed. It's a modifiable characteristic." And if it's modifiable, an understanding of the particulars of suicide for a particular group could help experts work to reduce suicide.

Source: LiveScience

Internet Counseling Aids Mental Health

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 9, 2010

A new study has found that psychiatrists can accurately assess a patient’s mental health by viewing web-based or e-mail files.

Specifically, University of California at Davis investigators found psychiatrists could diagnose and counsel individuals after viewing videotaped interviews that are sent via telecommunications lines.

The approach, called asynchronous telepsychiatry, uses store-and-forward technology, in which medical information is retrieved, stored and transmitted for later review using e-mail or Web applications.

Source: UC Davis

The healing effects of forests

ScienceDaily (2010-07-26) -- Forests -- and other natural, green settings -- can reduce stress, improve moods, reduce anger and aggressiveness and increase overall happiness. Forest visits may also strengthen our immune system by increasing the activity and number of natural killer cells that destroy cancer cells.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100723161221.htm#

Teenage Competition: Helpful or Harmful?

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 7, 2010

Teenage Competition: Helpful or Harmful?Are teenagers too competitive? Does being competitive influence teenage girls more than boys? Is being competitive a good or a bad thing when you’re a teenager?

New research suggests the answer is: “it depends.”

Researchers say competing to win is detrimental to girls’ social relationships and has been linked to higher levels of depression, whereas this was much less the case for boys.

However, competing to excel is beneficial to the well-being of both genders.

A new study by Dr. David Hibbard from California State University and Dr. Duane Buhrmester from the University of Texas finds that the influence of competitiveness on psychological well-being and social functioning in adolescents depends on both the type of competitiveness and the teenager’s gender.

Their findings are published in Springer’s journal Sex Roles.

Competitiveness can be both a virtue and a vice. One person’s win can be another person’s loss and the drive to be better than others, when taken too far, can appear ruthless and selfish.

Consequently, competitiveness may have social and emotional downsides and its effects are likely to differ for males and females. Indeed, research shows that competitiveness is rated both as more typical of adult males and as more desirable for males than for females.

To date, the implications of competitiveness for males and females during late adolescence – a time when high school seniors are looking to assert their identities for jobs that involve varying levels of ambition and competition, while at the same time working to establish close friendships and romantic relationships – have not been investigated fully.

Hibbard and Buhrmester’s work looks at the effect of two types of competitiveness on teenagers’ psychological well-being and social functioning in late adolescence: competing to win (that is, to dominate and outperform others), and competing to excel (that is, to perform well and surpass personal goals).

A total of 110 twelfth-grade high school students from the Richardson Independent School District in Dallas, Texas, their best same-gender friends and their parents completed questionnaires assessing a combination of competitiveness, gender-role orientation, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, loneliness, aggression, empathy, close relationship qualities, and school grades.

The authors found that teenage boys scored higher on ‘competing to win’ than girls but there were no gender differences for ‘competing to excel’ scores.

For girls, competing to win was linked to higher levels of depression and loneliness and to fewer and less close friendships. Competing to excel was linked to higher self-esteem and less depression for both genders, but was largely unrelated to social functioning.

Hibbard and Buhrmester conclude: “The overarching issue this study explored was whether competitiveness as a motivational orientation is good or bad for males and females. The findings clarify, to some degree, western cultures’ ‘ambivalence’ about competitiveness. The view that competitiveness is the road to emotional well-being is supported to the extent that one is talking about competing to improve oneself or excel. On the other hand, if one is talking about competing to win or show dominance over others, then females seem to pay a socio-emotional price.”

New Software Can Detect Depression in Blog Posts

By Jessica Ward Jones, MD, MPH Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on June 25, 2010

A new software program can tell whether a blogger is depressed.

The program scans online text and blogs, identifying not only obvious keywords, but even subtle clues that can determine the blogger’s psychological state.

“The software program was designed to find depressive content hidden in language that did not mention the obvious terms like depression or suicide,” said Professor Yair Neuman of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, who led the study.

“A psychologist knows how to spot various emotional states through intuition. Here, we have a program that does this methodically through the innovative use of ‘web intelligence,’” said Neuman.

Many people with depression are undiagnosed. While there are a number of screening tools available on the Internet, only individuals who suspect they may have depression are likely to use these tools.

To design the program, named Pedesis, Professor Neuman and his team first used extensive English language web searches to define word patterns associated with depression, analyzing the text associated with the search term: “depression is like….”

For example, the program might detect words that express different emotions, like colors that the writer uses to metaphorically describe a situation, such as “black.” Other concepts associated with depression that might trigger the software include terms like sleep deprivation, or loneliness.

To test the program they analyzed more than 350,000 texts from 17,031 bloggers. (Permission from the bloggers was obtained prior to the study.) The Pedesis software identified the 100 most depressed and the 100 least depressed bloggers.

A panel of four clinical psychiatrists reviewed the posts from each group and found that there was a 78 percent correlation between their clinical impressions based on the texts and the software’s diagnosis.

Computer-generated diagnosis or online therapy is not a substitute for human interaction, but may provide a useful screening tool. “No one can actually replace excellent human judgment,” says Neuman. “The problem is that most people are not aware of their situation and they will never get to an expert psychologist.”

Although the Pedesis program was originally designed for academic purposes, Neuman hopes that these findings could be useful clinically, to screen for potential suicides. If implemented on a widespread basis, a screening process might increase the user’s awareness of his or her condition, and provide recommendations. If the blogger agrees, he or she could seek professional help.

PTSD And Depression Common In Returning Combat Soldiers

How often do soldiers returning after seeing combat in Iraq and Afghanistan develop mental disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression?

A new study funded by the U.S. Army finds 8 to 14 percent of infantry soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan return seriously disabled by mental health problems. Between 23 and 31 percent return with some impairment.

About half the soldiers with either PTSD or depression also misused alchohol or had problems with aggressive behavior.

Psychiatrists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research anonymously surveyed more than 18,000 soldiers who served in regular army units and the National Guard. The surveys were taken both 3 months and 12 months after their return from service abroad.

The researchers conclude that it's clear even a year after deployment, "many combat soldiers have not psychologically recovered." Because the time between deployment is often only a year to 18 months for active soldiers, a "sizable proportion" are likely returning to with lingering mental health issues.

Article by Scott Hensley/NPR

Smoking While Pregnant May Raise Psychiatric Risks in Kids

By Madonna Behen
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 4 (HealthDay News) -- A woman who smokes while pregnant increases her baby's risk of developing psychiatric problems in childhood and young adulthood, a new Finnish study suggests.

While there's plenty of evidence that smoking during pregnancy puts unborn children at risk for long-term health problems such as asthma, ear infections and respiratory disease, this research is among the first to find a connection between prenatal smoking and an increased risk for mental illnesses, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression, in the mother's offspring.

Researchers at Turku University Hospital in Finland analyzed the birth records of more than 175,000 Finnish children born in the late 1980s, as well as their use of psychotropic medications as children and young adults.

Children exposed to prenatal smoking were 32 percent more likely overall to have taken a psychiatric drug than children whose mothers didn't smoke during pregnancy, the researchers found. The risk was even higher in the offspring of women who smoked more than a pack a day while pregnant. Their kids were 44 percent more likely to use psychiatric drugs than children whose moms didn't smoke.

Study author Mikael Ekblad said animal studies have shown that prenatal nicotine exposure interferes with the development of fetal brain cells. "In our previous study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics in February 2010, we found that prematurely born infants exposed to prenatal smoking had smaller frontal and cerebellar brain volumes than the unexposed infants. These brain regions are important for normal cognitive development," said Ekblad, a medical student and pediatric researcher.

The researchers collected data on all children born in Finland from 1987 through 1989. In addition to information about maternal smoking, they looked at gestational age, birth weight and five-minute Apgar scores. Using records from Finland's Social Insurance Institution, they also examined the children's use of psychotropic medications between 1994 and 2007.

Roughly 12 percent of the young adults had used psychiatric medications, and of this group, about 19 percent had mothers who smoked during their pregnancies.

The researchers found that exposure to prenatal smoking increased the risk for using all psychotropic drugs, but especially ADHD medications, antidepressants and drugs to treat addiction. For example, kids whose mothers smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day were two and a half times more likely to take stimulants for ADHD than kids whose moms didn't smoke during pregnancy.

The risk for all medication use was similar in males and females, and remained after adjusting for risk factors at birth, such as Apgar scores and birth weight.

Since mental illness often runs in families, the researchers also controlled for a possible genetic connection by analyzing records of the mother's psychiatric inpatient care prior to giving birth. "One of the strengths of our study is that we could control for maternal mental health diseases," said Ekblad, who added that the genetic effect is higher in psychiatric problems that require hospitalization.

"This is an interesting study which raises the important possibility that prenatal exposure to smoking may pose additional risks that have not been identified to date, but based on the information available so far, the effect seems to be small," said Neil Grunberg, a professor of medical psychology, clinical psychology and neuroscience at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

Grunberg also questioned whether the study adequately controlled for possible genetic and environmental factors. "In the U.S., there is a high correlation between smoking and psychological disorders," said Grunberg. In addition, many people have a family history of psychiatric disorders, even though they themselves have never been diagnosed with one, he said.

The findings were to be presented Tuesday at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Law enforcers learn about mental illness with crisis intervention training

By Jodi Hausen, Chronicle Staff Writer

A man waved a saber sword wildly in the air as his wife screamed obscenities at him. An agitated couple complained about loud music from a "weird" neighbor's apartment.

Meanwhile, a woman said her neighbors had surreptitiously installed cameras in her home and were involved in a pornography ring.

All these fictitious incidents were happening in the sky boxes at Montana State University's Bobcat Stadium Friday and law enforcement officials were there to respond to them.

Though these practice scenarios were nothing new for the 24 law enforcement officers who were handling these situations, they were doing so with a better understanding of mental illness and a new way to deal with it after participating in a weeklong crisis intervention training.

"You can write them as many citations for noise as you want, but you're really here for a mental health issue," said Gallatin County Deputy Don Peterson and a previously-trained CIT participant after officers dealt with one chaotic scene -- a wheelchair-bound drug-abusing mother and her three mentally-ill teen daughters, their two angry neighbors and a very loud boom box.

"Time (spent) now will save you time later," Peterson added.

Before CIT was instituted in the county last year, officers were less familiar with mental illness and more likely to try to resolve an aberrant situation expediently. However, calming down an agitated person with psychological issues takes time and patience, they were taught. And if the officers succeed in calming a person, it often results in fewer arrests overall and a better outcome for the person they are dealing with.

The training "definitely gives you a better understanding and different tools on how to deal with people with mental illness as opposed to feeling like you have to resolve the situation quickly," Bozeman police officer Scott McCormick said. "It slows you down."

That sentiment was repeated by Deputy Doug Lieurance after the sword-swinging man amped-up on cocaine with the screaming wife tried to barricade himself in one room and then locked himself in another. Eventually he, too, was calmed down.

"Time is on your side," Lieurance said. "He hasn't made any aggressive moves."

And though one participant saw his law enforcement training at odds with CIT philosophy in this hostage-rescue scenario, trainers argued that forcibly pulling the wife over a counter would only escalate the scene and could lead to a deadly force situation.

"Don't compromise yourself for Ms. Belligerent here," Lieurance said. "Don't make her problem your problem."

"But there's no right or wrong," Deputy Jim Andrews, who coordinates the training, said. "It's to make you think."

Put on by the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office for officers mostly from Gallatin County, volunteers (like Friday's actors) and assistants came from a variety of local and statewide agencies including Gallatin County Drug and Alcohol Services, Probation and Parole, Court Services,, Attorney's Office and Gallatin Mental Health Center, the Help Center, Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, Spectrum Medical, National Alliance of Mental Illness and Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.

This is the third CIT session in Gallatin County and the second in as many months due to demand, Andrews said.

"We've kind of rounded a corner" with this third class, Andrews said. "Before we needed to convince officers this is a good thing. But now people are talking about it and they know."

"This group rounds me out," Gallatin County Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Wade, who has been in charge of the training, said. Now about 45 percent of Gallatin County's law enforcement officers are CIT-trained, including at least one from every agency, save for Montana Highway Patrol who don't deal with these issues often.

MSU police officer Thad Winslow said the training was definitely beneficial.

"The biggest thing is just understanding the (mental health) resources that are available and on top of that just getting a better understanding that there's a lot more to why people are doing what they're doing," he said. "They're not just violating the law."

People with mental illness have new Bozeman facility

By JODI HAUSEN, Chronicle Staff Writer

The services at Gallatin Mental Health Center haven't changed but the space in which they are delivered has.

In February, the center opened Hope House and Eck House -- a mental health crisis center and a four-unit subsidized housing facility for people with mental illness, respectively.

Now, two more facilities - Gallatin County Outpatient Services and the Open Arms Drop-In Center -- have opened for business.

"We're kind of in the fogginess of moving in," Scott Malloy, director of the center, said sitting in his office during a brief break Monday.

With vaulted ceilings, wood floors and walls and furnishings in muted earth tones, all the facilities at the campus have a more homey feeling than a typical institution for patients with mental illness. Instead of fluorescent lights, numerous large windows and warm-toned lighting fixtures brighten the rooms.

The 8,700-square-foot outpatient facility boasts a dividable conference room with video-conferencing capabilities, offices and "a really awesome lobby," Malloy said, explaining that their former entryway in the Medical Arts Building on North Willson Avenue was about the size of his current office.

Next door, a fish swam around a small plastic container on an end table, waiting to be plunked back into its bowl at the new drop-in center Monday.

Clients sitting on recently-installed upholstered furniture there were pleased with their new space that houses two offices, a small meeting room, laundry, deck with barbecue and kitchen and pantry lined with red Folgers coffee containers.

"I love it," said John Watson, the drop-in center's director. "We've gone from two rooms at North Willson (to this) in two years."

The 50 mental health center employees did a majority of the moving over the weekend, along with the help of offenders sentenced to the Gallatin County work release program, Malloy said.

If there is a missing piece from the new campus, it is public transportation directly to it, both directors said. Although it us less than a half-mile walk from Bozeman Deaconess Hospital where the Streamline bus already stops, Malloy said he is hoping Streamline will add a stop off Haggerty Lane in front of the campus when the free bus service revamps its maps in the fall.

To celebrate the campus and Mental Health Month, the center, which assists up to 1,000 clients at any given time, will be hosting an open house next week and a series of talks throughout the month of May.

For more information, call 522-7357.

New Research on Suicidal Behavior

Determining who is at risk for suicide is an arduous and inexact endeavor. Even trained clinicians can miss warning signs.

Researchers have now developed an instrument they believe will help predict those at risk.

Matthew Nock of Harvard University, along with colleagues from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, modified a well-known word-association test to measure associations between life and death/ suicide and examined if it could be effective in predicting suicide risk.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a widely used test that measures automatic associations people hold about various topics. Participants are shown pairs of words; the speed of their response indicates if they unconsciously associate those words.

In the IAT version used in this study, participants classified words related to “life” (e.g., breathing) and “death” (e.g., dead) and “me” (e.g., mine) and “not me” (e.g., them).

Faster responses to “death”/”me” stimuli than “life”/”me” stimuli would suggest a stronger association between death and self.

People seeking treatment at a psychiatric emergency room participated in this study. They completed the IAT and various mental health assessments. In addition, their medical records were examined six months later to see if they had attempted suicide within that time.

The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, revealed that participants presenting to the emergency room after a suicide attempt had a stronger implicit association between death/ suicide and self than did participants presenting with other psychiatric emergencies.

In addition, participants with strong associations between death/ suicide and self were significantly more likely to make a suicide attempt within the next six months than were those who had stronger associations between life and self.

These results suggest that an implicit association between death/ suicide and self may be a behavioral marker for suicide attempts. These findings also indicate that measures of implicit cognition may be useful for identifying and predicting clinical behaviors that tend not be reported.

As Nock explains, “these results are really exciting because they address a long-standing scientific and clinical dilemma by identifying a method of measuring how people are thinking about death and suicide that does not rely on their self-report.”

He adds, “we are hopeful that this line of research ultimately will provide scientists and clinicians with new tools for measuring how people think about sensitive clinical behaviors that they may be unwilling or unable to report on verbally.”

Mahzarin Banaji, also of Harvard University and a co-author of this study, adds that this work presents a strong argument for the importance of funding basic behavioral research.

“These results are an example of basic research helping to solving a troubling and devastating problem in every society. The method we used was designed to understand the mind, but it turned into a technique that can predict disorders of a variety of sorts. One wonders why funding agencies that should know better about the value of basic research seem so naive when it comes to decisions about what is in the public’s interest.”

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 13, 2010

U.S. will allow pilots to take antidepressants

By Reuters - Fri Apr 2, 11:08 AM PDT

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it was lifting a ban on antidepressants for pilots with mild to moderate depression. To be cleared to fly, pilots who take the drugs must pass screening tests to show they have been successfully treated for at least a year.

Officials said they believed the ban had caused pilots to forego treatment or hide the fact they were taking medication to treat depression. The FAA is offering a six-month grace period for pilots to come forward without penalty if they are currently suffering from depression or are under treatment.

"We need to change the culture and remove the stigma associated with depression. Pilots should be able to get the medical treatment they need so they can safely perform their duties," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said.

Officials said they did not know how many pilots would be affected but noted that about 10 percent of the population suffers from depression.

Pilots who take antidepressants will be monitored for the length of their careers, the FAA said.

The policy applies to four antidepressants -- Eli Lilly and Co's Prozac, Pfizer Inc's Zoloft, and Celexa and Lexapro from Forest Laboratories Inc.

Dr. Fred Tilton, the FAA's federal air surgeon, said other medications may be allowed if pilots are being effectively treated with them.

Tilton said antidepressants were originally banned because older medications carried risks such as sedation that were considered unacceptable in the cockpit. Newer medications have side effects that can be manageable, he said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Steve Orlofsky))

Suicide Among the Young: How to Try to Prevent It

To the Editor:

Re “After Three Suspected Suicides, a Shaken Cornell Reaches Out” (front page, March 17):

Suicide is a tragedy, made worse when occurring in youth. Many university campuses, not only Cornell, are beleaguered by this excruciatingly painful problem. After all, they have our youth and promise in their classes, seminars and dormitories.

The continuing neglect of the major cause of suicide among youth is shocking. The bulk of coverage in the media largely misses it. It is not only about stress, long winter nights, school challenges or failures, loneliness or social isolation. After all, most people who face these stressors do not kill themselves.

Thus, although stress might precipitate it, it is about mental illness, most commonly mood and substance abuse disorders. Until we as a country face the challenge of reaching our youth and providing high-quality mental health services, until we can reduce the stigma of seeking help for psychiatric conditions, we are crippled in our efforts to stem this scourge.

Our future is our youth. We are duty-bound to reach them and maximize the likelihood not only of their survival but also of their success.

Maria A. Oquendo
New York, March 17, 2010

The writer is a professor of clinical psychiatry and vice chairwoman for education in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University.

•

Study links bullying to cognitive deficits, brain changes

By ANNE MCILROY, Toronto Globe and Mail

They lurk in hallways, bathrooms, around the next blind corner. But for the children they have routinely teased or tormented, bullies effectively live in the victims' brains as well -- and not just as a terrifying memory.

Preliminary evidence shows that bullying can produce signs of stress, cognitive deficits and mental-health problems.

Now University of Ottawa psychologist Tracy Vaillancourt and her colleagues at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario plan to scan the brains of teens who have been regularly humiliated and ostracized by their peers to look for structural differences compared with other children.

"We know there is a functional difference. We know their brains are acting differently, but we don't know if it is structural as well," said Vaillancourt, an expert in the biology of bullying.

She says she hopes her work will legitimize the plight of children who are bullied, and encourage parents, teachers and school boards to take the problem more seriously.

Vaillancourt has been following a group of 17-year-olds since they were 12. All 70 of the children were routinely bullied during those years -- teased, harassed, threatened or excluded.

Physical violence is relatively rare, she says, because their tormentors are smart enough to know it will get them into trouble.

"For many of these kids, every day is a nightmare," she said. They go to school and no one will talk to them. Someone deliberately bumps into them in the hallway, and all the other children laugh. They get called horrible names.

The researchers will start with brain scans of 15 of the extreme cases, like the child who stood in her gym uniform while other kids put her school clothes in the toilet and urinated on them.

There are also teenagers in the study who have been bullied for five straight school years.

The scientists have already shown that children who are bullied are more likely than other kids to have cognitive deficits.

They score lower on tests that measure verbal memory and executive function, a set of skills needed to focus on a task and get the job done. Mental-health problems, such as depression, are also more common.

Vaillancourt suspects they will also have a smaller hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory. Depression has been shown to be related to a smaller hippocampus. As well, animal studies have shown that chronic high levels of stress can kill brain cells. Vaillancourt says this kind of damage may help explain why children who are bullied often perform poorly academically.

She will also be looking for a smaller prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in being able to pay attention and other executive functions.

These kinds of differences have been documented in functional magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, studies of children who have been neglected or abused. Vaillancourt suspects the chronic stress of being bullied will have a similar impact.

She and her colleagues have already published research showing that boys who are bullied tend to produce more of the stress hormone cortisol. It is as if their system is in permanent overdrive.

It's the opposite for the girls; they tend to produce less cortisol than average, as though their stress response system is overly subdued.

"At some point, their brains stop reacting," said Vaillancourt, who holds a Canada Research Chair in children's mental health and violence prevention.

These changes to the brain's stress response system may be linked to the higher rates of depression among children who are regularly picked on by their peers, especially girls. The adolescent years are when peer relations are most important and when girls, more than anything, want to belong, Vaillancourt says.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

Depressed woman loses benefits over Facebook photos

A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her benefits reinstated after her employer's insurance company cut them, she says, because of photos posted on Facebook.

Nathalie Blanchard, 29, has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Que., for the last year and a half after she was diagnosed with major depression.

The Eastern Townships woman was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from Manulife, her insurance company, but the payments dried up this fall.

When Blanchard called Manulife, the company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC News this week.

She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday - evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulife said.

Blanchard said she notified Manulife that she was taking a trip, and she's shocked the company would investigate her in such a manner and interpret her photos that way.

"In the moment I'm happy, but before and after I have the same problems" as before, she said.

Blanchard said that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.

She also doesn't understand how Manulife accessed her photos because her Facebook profile is locked and only people she approves can look at what she posts.
Insurer confirms it uses Facebook

Her lawyer Tom Lavin said Manulife's investigation was inappropriate.

"I don't think for judging a mental state that Facebook is a very good tool," he said, adding that he has requested another psychiatric evaluation for Blanchard.

"It's not as if somebody had a broken back and there was a picture of them carrying ...a load of bricks," Lavin said. "My client was diagnosed with a major depression. And there were pictures of her on Facebook, in a party or having a good time. It could be that she was just trying to escape."

Manulife wouldn't comment on Blanchard's case, but in a written statement sent to CBC News, the insurer said: "We would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook." It confirmed that it uses the popular social networking site to investigate clients.

Insurance companies must weigh information found on such sites, said Claude Distasio, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association.

"We can't ignore it, wherever the source of the information is," she said. "We can't ignore it."

Blanchard estimated she's lost thousands of dollars in benefits since Manulife changed her claim.

Story by CBC News via http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/11/19/quebec-facebook-sick-leave-benefits.html

Montana mental health court shows early successes

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Officials say a new adult mental health court in Billings is showing some modest successes in its first year.

The mental health court is designed to help criminal defendants with clinical mental health disorders learn to treat their illnesses and live within the law. The program is only available to 14 people this year, but planners hope to expand the court to serve 40 people in its second year and 70 people in its third.

Billings Police Lt. Mark Cady says he's seen the court lead people who were frequently in trouble to change their ways. The program is still new in Billings, but early numbers suggest that only 10 percent of participants are going on to re-offend.

---

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

Why Symptoms of Schizophrenia Emerge in Young Adulthood

ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2010) — In reports of two new studies, researchers led by Johns Hopkins say they have identified the mechanisms rooted in two anatomical brain abnormalities that may explain the onset of schizophrenia and the reason symptoms don't develop until young adulthood. Both types of anatomical glitches are influenced by a gene known as DISC1, whose mutant form was first identified in a Scottish family with a strong history of schizophrenia and related mental disorders. The findings could lead to new ways to treat, prevent or modify the disorder or its symptoms.

full article can be found at this link

Have Your Say On New Psychiatric Manual

By Alix Spiegel

Finally, after years of work, the American Psychiatric Association has put out the list of mental illnesses it intends to include in its new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Have your say on a new psychiatric guide.

A new guidebook to the psychiatrist's couch is coming.

The DSM, as it's called for short, is incredibly influential. Doctors use it to diagnose patients, of course, but insurance companies also consult it in their decisions about reimbursements. Courts, schools, governments and researchers also turn to the manual for guidance on behavior that deviates from normal.

The manual and the secretive process for its drafting have attracted their share of controversy over the years. And the APA has been careful to say that this is a "proposed draft" of the new DSM, the fifth edition. For the first time, the group is inviting "public input."

Anyone--including you--can log on and tell the nice people working on DSM their thoughts about, say, the new proposed Temper Dysregulation Disorder. You have 10 weeks to speak up.

The people at the APA say they are doing this because they want to be transparent and take advantage of the Internet, but doing this could create some problems.

There are quite a few hot-button changes like the elimination of Asperger's that are sure to inflame passions. What will the APA do if Asperger's groups rally the troops and organize a write-in campaign? Will Asperger's be put back?

The APA has made a big deal of the DSM being the product of an intense scientific process. So if the group changes the contents based on interest group politics, they open themselves to fresh criticism that the DSM is less scientific than claimed.

Fish oils 'beat mental illness'

Taking a daily fish oil capsule can stave off mental illness in those at highest risk, trial findings suggest.

A three-month course of the supplement appeared to be as effective as drugs, cutting the rate of psychotic illness like schizophrenia by a quarter.

The researchers believe it is the omega-3 in fish oil - already hailed for promoting healthy hearts - that has beneficial effects in the brain.

A "natural" remedy would be welcomed, Archives of General Psychiatry says.

"The finding that treatment with a natural substance may prevent, or at least delay, the onset of psychotic disorder gives hope that there may be alternatives to antipsychotic drugs," the study authors said.

“ If young people can be treated successfully with fish oils, this is hugely preferable to treating them with antipsychotics ”
Alison Cobb Mind

Antipsychotic drugs are potent and can have serious side effects, which puts some people off taking them.

Fish oil supplements, on the other hand, are generally well tolerated and easy to take, say the scientists.

The international team from Austria, Australia and Switzerland tested the treatment in 81 people deemed to be at particularly high risk of developing psychosis.

Natural choice

Their high risk was down to a strong family history of schizophrenia, or similar disorders, or them already showing mild symptoms of these conditions themselves.

For the test, half of the individuals took fish oil supplements (1.2 grams of omega-3 fatty acids) for 12 weeks, while the other half took only a dummy pill. Neither group knew which treatment they were receiving.

Dr Paul Amminger and his team followed the groups for a year to see how many, if any, went on to develop illness.

Two in the fish oil group developed a psychotic disorder compared to 11 in the placebo group.

Based on the results, the investigators estimate that one high-risk adult could be protected from developing psychosis for every four treated over a year.

They believe the omega-3 fatty acids found in the supplements may alter brain signalling in the brain with beneficial effects.

Alison Cobb, of the mental health charity Mind, said: "If young people can be treated successfully with fish oils, this is hugely preferable to treating them with antipsychotics, which come with a range of problems from weight gain to sexual dysfunction, whereas omega-3s are actually beneficial to their general state of health.

"These are promising results and more research is needed to show if omega-3s could be an alternative to antipsychotics in the long term."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8490937.stm

Published: 2010/02/02 00:02:02 GMT

© BBC MMX

Self-Control Just Might Be Contagious

MONDAY, Jan. 18 (HealthDay News) -- If you spend time with people who exhibit self-control -- resisting the death-by-chocolate cake after a restaurant meal, for instance -- you can expect your own self-control to be pretty good, too, according to new research.

But the opposite seems true, too: Spending time with people with less-than-ideal self-control will influence you negatively, the researchers found.

"Before, we knew people tended to hang out with other people who were like themselves," said Michelle vanDellen, a visiting assistant professor of psychology at the University of Georgia, who led the research, which was published online in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

"But in these studies, we actually show there is a direct effect of our friends' behavior on our own behavior," vanDellen said. The findings apply, she said, "not only to the people we [choose to] hang out with, but those we are forced to hang out with," such as co-workers on the job.

The conclusions came from five studies conducted by vanDellen and her co-author, Rick Hoyle of Duke University.

The best study, she said, and the most fun, involved 71 participants and two plates of food -- one stacked with carrot sticks, the other with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The participants either watched someone exhibit self-control by eating the carrots and leaving the cookies, or vice versa. Later, the participants took self-control tests (not involving cookies and carrots). Those who had watched a person eat cookies did less well than those who had watched someone eat carrots.

In another study, the researchers found that 36 participants randomly assigned to think of a friend with good self-control persisted longer on a handgrip test used to measure self-control than did the participants assigned to think about a friend with bad self-control.

Another study involved assigning 42 people to list the names of friends with good and bad self-control. As the participants took a test designed to measure self-control, a name was flashed very briefly on a computer screen. Those who saw the name of a friend with good self-control did better on the test than those who saw the name of a friend with poor self-control.

The researchers also assigned 112 people to write about a friend with good self-control, a friend with bad self-control or an outgoing friend. Those who wrote about a friend with good self-control did best on a test of self-control, those who wrote about a friend with bad self-control did worst and those who wrote about an outgoing friend scored in between the others.

In the fifth study, 117 people were randomly assigned to write about friends with good or bad self-control. Those who wrote about a friend with good self-control did better on word identification tests related to self-control, the researchers found.

"I think the message is really two-fold," vanDellen said of the research. "The first is, one way you can improve your behavior is by finding social networkers that support you." It makes sense, she said, to seek out people you know have self-control if you want to boost your own.

The other message, she said, is accountability. The research suggests that others aren't just watching your behavior when you show a lack of self-control but might actually be influenced by it. If a woman's husband is trying to lose weight, for instance, the last thing she should do is act like a lazy person who doesn't exercise in front of him, she said.

The research findings make sense, said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis. "Surrounding yourself with motivated, healthy people improves your odds of staying in control," she said.

Diekman said that's certainly the case with healthy eating. "When it comes to making healthy choices, we know that it is easier to skip dessert, limit portions or purchase the right foods if others we are with support these behaviors," she said.

By Kathleen Doheny HealthDay Reporter Copyright © 2010 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.