Global Mentalists News Round Up

The usual collection of the wonderful, the weird and the wishy washy MH related – or not – stories from America, Australia and the UK.

Yes; it’s verbose.

The voluntary euthanasia topic continues to provide event on event. I’ve debated the importance of this (in my own head) to mental health – and, on the back of the “Suicide is not an option” post – I think it’s still fairly relevant to us. Capacity and all that.

For the benefit of anyone who just woke from a 72hour coma – we start with a touching story from Hannah Jones who has refused a clinically indicated heart transplant, which has certainly taken the global media’s interest. Now it’s not voluntary euthanasia per se – as she’s not actively seeking to die. She just wants the medical do-gooders (who often bear false promises) to leave her alone, thanks.

Hannah Jones, who suffers from a rare form of leukaemia, told doctors that she believed the treatment was too risky and that she would prefer to enjoy her remaining days in the company of family and friends.

Puts a different perspective on the debate for free access to “top up drugs” to drag out a limited life ‘s shelf-life even longer when a 13 year old girl can accept the risks of living without medical intervention with arguments like: “I know there is a big waiting list for heart transplants, and I am happy to save someone else’s life“. But judge ye not Mr Ian….

At the other end of the “it’s my life, piss off and leave me alone” scale – we follow up an Aussie story reported previously:

SYDNEY woman Shirley Justins, who killed her partner with a euthanasia drug, has been sentenced to 22 months periodic detention. Justins, 60, was found guilty last month of the manslaughter of Graeme Wylie, 75. Wylie, her partner of 18 years, was killed with a lethal dose of the barbiturate drug Nembutal at his Cammeray home in Sydney in 2006.

Periodic detention, in this instance, refers to weekends in a low security prison. The crux of this case seemed to depend on the fact that Wylie’s dementia was too far progressed to assure capacity and had been refused assisted suicide in Switzerland for this reason.

That’s the sort of case that just screams “Advance Directive”.

Australian press reports on another study into the effects of SSRIs and CBT;

The study involved 488 children aged 7-17 who had either separation anxiety disorder, generalised anxiety disorder or social phobia. They were given one of the therapies on their own, or a combination of the two, for 12 weeks. Just over 80 per cent of those who had the combination treatment responded, compared with 60 per cent for CBT alone and 55 per cent for the SSRI, the study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows.

It tells us little new – but does add to the collateral.

As a quirky aside – is this the end of the handkerchief as we know it?

[T]he user fills the bottle with warm distilled water, mixes in a packet of isotonic sodium solution and squirts the slightly salted water gently up one nostril until the solution drips out the other side. Then she repeats it with the other nostril.

Indeed, this patented Sinus Rinse was independently developed and marketed for sinus sufferers at a steady rate amongst the industry. The article continues:

On a segment of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, a regular guest, extolled the virtues of nasal irrigation, hailing neti pots as the answer to just about any sinus-related ailment. Across the country, demand for these miniature tea kettles soared. NeilMed was ready and cashed in, selling tens of thousands of neti pots in a matter of weeks.

So is Oprah going into pharmaceutical advertising? And is it ethical of Dr Oz to promote products?

Or should I just stop being so picky – if something is good for the people – it’s good for the people and ends justifies the means?

The Time May Be Right for Investing in Medicine article suggests tho:

Shares of drug makers and suppliers of medical products and equipment were sold less aggressively than many other stocks in the worst of the recent declines.

Obviously, he didn’t see the Oprah Winfrey show.

Back to MH issues – and here is an interesting twist on what was already a concern; the collusive nature of internet social network support groups – this one is specific to persecutory delusions.

Type “mind control” or “gang stalking” into Google, and Web sites appear that describe cases of persecution, both psychological and physical, related with the same minute details — red and white cars following victims, vandalism of their homes, snickering by those around them.

Mr. Robinson said in an interview that that he has been tortured and abused by gang stalkers and by “neurological weaponry” since leaving the Navy in 1982. “To read the stories and the similarity of the harassment techniques that were going on, to hear about the vandalism, appliance tampering and all the other things were designed to drive a person crazy, who do you go to with this?” he said. “People will say you are delusional.”

Yes, they would.

Two scientists have developed a new theory on mental disorder:

Bernard Crespi, a biologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and Christopher Badcock, a sociologist at the London School of Economics, who are both outsiders to the field of behavior genetics — have spelled out their theory in a series of recent journal articles.

Their idea is, in broad outline, straightforward. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression.

Neither of these real Doctors are real doctors so I’m not sure it counts.

Interesting enough – Professor Layard was from the LSE and wrote the health care policy for treatment of depression. Mental health care is now apparently being lead by economists.

Another article studies aggression in youths:

When the aggressive youths watched people intentionally inflicting pain on another, the scan showed a response in the part of the brain associated with reward and pleasure. The youths who were not aggressive didn’t show the same brain response. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Biological Psychology, suggests that the brain’s natural impulse for empathy may be disrupted in the brain of a bully, leading to increased aggression.

Once again; we dive into the debate of cause or effect. The full pdf study is available via the article link – it doesn’t seem to identify if the 8 aggressive youths were systematically physically abused or not. In fact, it says nothing about the rest of their bio or anything of their politicoculturalpsychosocioenviroeconomical background as far as I could make out. Obviously none of it’s relevant.

Over to the UK and AT LAST! A therapy that I can engage in: Making people cry

It makes nine out of 10 people feel better, reduces stress, and may help to keep the body healthy. It’s also free, available to almost everyone, and has no known side effects, other than wet tissues, red eyes and runny makeup. Crying may not be a blockbuster drug, but the latest research suggests it’s highly effective at healing, and that it improves the mood of 88.8 per cent of weepers, with only 8.4 per cent feeling worse. So beneficial is it that the researchers suggest there may be a case for inducing crying in those who find it difficult to let go.

Evidence-based therapeutic gains to “making people cry”. I wonder if it would stand up in the NMC?

A call from the Independent to get girls to name their Mary-Lou Foof Foof before they get to 36 months please -

A 1997 study by the psychologist and author Daphne de Marneffe found that although 96 per cent of boys aged between 15 and 36 months had been taught the word penis, only 52 per cent of girls had been given a specific name for their genitals. And 40 per cent of girls were given no word at all.

C’mon girls – you know how important it is in the pre-school to be able to point to your Virginia and personify it. Apparently. Why is it important? It doesn’t say.

It continues:

According to the FPA, children up to the age of 4 should be given the correct names for all their body parts. (Any child who can say “hippopotamus” can manage “testicles”.)

Yes, we should all be taught at an early age how to identify something as “bollocks”.*

More theories abound in the Independent -

Does rain cause autism?

*Refer comment above.

And in the Times -

Can a spa treatment cure depression?

*Refer comment above.

And in the Telegraph – Good news.Apparently the previous advice on being overweight as being bad for you is not exactly true:

A 450-pound man has been released from jail early because he was too large for his cell.

Anyhow, back to UK MH -

Under-age drinking:

A child under 10 undergoes hospital treatment for alcohol-related problems once every three days in England, according to government figures released on Sunday.

You’d think someone would talk to him about it eh? Perhaps he’s in the Haringey Council area?

And the number of under-age drinkers being treated overall jumped 40% in just one year

Is it any wonder when the government promised a tax hike on alcopops? It’s like calling “last orders”.

And all despite the fact we are spending double the amount on anti-alcoholism drugs than 10 years ago.

The National Health Service now spends just under £2.25 million on the medication, up from £1.08 million in 1998. The figures were revealed in a parliamentary answer to James Brokenshire, the Tory MP for Hornchurch. Most of the money has been spent on two drugs, Antabuse and Campral.

But we know alcoholism is nothing but a medical problem. We just need the right drug, eh?

Young mums at increased risk of depression:

[A] researcher at the School of Psychology at Cardiff University, said: “Young mums can be very vulnerable and it is clear from these results that they need much more support, not only after the birth, but before as well.

Hmmm… yes, prophylactic treatment is definitely indicated.

But the Guardian reports on Post Natal Depression as perhaps being of the “genetics cause mental health” variety:

The most severe form of postnatal depression, which affects one in 500 new mothers and has been linked to suicide and infanticide, could be genetic, according to new research.

It is also claimed, in a separate piece of research, that thousands more women could suffer postnatal depression than currently thought, with up to 17,250 late-onset cases a year in the UK going undetected.

Finally, and to return to the NY Times, a report on a shortage of British sperm.

A shortage of sperm donors in Britain has led to long waits at clinics and even caused some clinics to stop offering donor sperm, fertility specialists are reporting, and they are calling for nationwide changes to increase the supply.

One theory is that British sperm donations have been outsourced to India – yet, another speculates the decline is due to the wastefulness of our most prolific British wankers turning to self-flagellating all over the internet instead of into a cup.

It continues:

The doctors also called for better advertising to potential donors.

I see an opportunity for a new twist on the MN caption competition.

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