Friday, August 31, 2007 12:30 PM
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR FDG-PET imaging shows changes in brains of young adults who abuse alcohol Changes in the brain that are normally seen in older patients with alcohol related dementia are now being identified in young adults that abuse alcohol. Neuropsychological tests have largely failed to reveal deficiencies in brain function in young adults who abuse alcohol. However, according to Josephine Wilson, Ph.D., and colleagues at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, brain images in young adults who abuse alcohol show diminished changes in the same areas as older patients with alcohol related dementia. The study consisted of 20 men, ten of which drank 25 or more alcoholic beverages a week, and ten, the control group, who did not drink. The men were all of the same age, did not use recreational drugs, and had no history of traumatic brain injury. The study administered FDG-PET imaging and a wide rage of neuropsychological tests.
Brain images observed several differences between the brains of the young adults who abused alcohol in the study and those that did not. Specifically, there were noticeable differences in the left cerebral hemisphere of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, in the right cerebral hemisphere of the primary visual cortex, and in the fusiform gyrus of the temporal lobe. The study, however, according to Dr. Wilson, found “… no statistically significant difference between drinkers and abstainers for any of the neuropsychological measures obtained.” The following is an excerpt of an article from Medpage Today that reviews the findings:
Changes in the brains of young alcohol abusers appear to occur even though neuropsychologoical tests fail to reveal deficiencies.
The same areas of the brain in these 21- to 25-year-old self-identified heavy drinkers that show diminished changes on imaging are the areas that are affected in older patients with pronounced neurological deficits, found Josephine Wilson, Ph.D., of Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and colleagues.
"This is an early warning signal that these changes are taking place at an early age," said Dr. Wilson, who presented her findings at the of the American Psychological Association meeting.
Suzan Streichenwein, M.D., a psychiatrist in West Palm Beach, Fla., commented that "it really is scary to see these same changes in the brain scans of these young men that we see in patients with alcohol-related dementia."
Click here to read the entire article from Medpage Today
Click here for information about treatment options for alcohol addiction
link to this post  Friday, August 24, 2007 4:29 PM
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR Crystal methamphetamine use is on the rise among young adults According to data retrieved from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, methamphetamine use is rising in the US among young adults between the ages of 18-26. The data consisted of a sample of 14,322 respondents from across the United States. According to the findings, 2.8% of respondents said that they had used meth within the last year; 1.3% of respondents said that they had used meth within the last month. There were several commonalities among the users such as white or Native American ethnicity, poverty, being a school dropout, use of other drugs, father's incarceration, and living outside of the Northeast. Surprisingly, Native Americans had a higher risk for meth use than whites. The findings also suggested that women who use meth have an increased risk of selling drugs and engaging in "risky sexual behavior." Many of the respondents that had reported meth use claimed that they used only a couple of times per month. When use is not frequent, physical indicators of meth habits may not be present and clinicians should ask young adults if they are using meth. The following is an excerpt of an article from Journal Watch that reviews the findings:
Crystal methamphetamine use, most prevalent in young adults, has been little studied. To learn more about rates of use and associated factors, these researchers examined confidential self-reported data from 14,322 nationally representative young adults (age range, 18–26) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Crystal methamphetamine use in the past year was reported by 2.8% of respondents and in the past 30 days by 1.3%. Of those reporting past-month use, 37% had used it once in that month, 31% two to three times, and 32% four or more times. Factors associated with past-year use were male sex, U.S. birth, being white or Native American, living outside the Northeast, being a school dropout, use of other drugs and alcohol, poverty, father’s incarceration history, and high novelty seeking. Compared with whites, Native Americans had an especially increased risk for crystal methamphetamine use (odds ratio, 4.2).
Click here to read the entire article from Journal Watch
Click here to find out about options for treatment of methamphetamine
link to this post Friday, August 17, 2007 1:04 PM
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR Obesity reported in sufferers of childhood abuse According to a report in the July issue of Pediatrics, women who have experienced sexual abuse in childhood are significantly more likely to be obese with onset occurring during the early 20’s. The study focused on 84 sexually abused females ages 6-16 that had experienced childhood sexual abuse and 89 females within the same demographic that had never experienced abuse. The study, which began in 1987 and ended in 2006, found that 42 percent of the abused population was obese by the mean age of 24, whereas 28 percent of the control group was obese by the same age. Additionally, the study found that obesity progressively increased after its onset in the early 20's. The following is an excerpt of an article from Psychiatric News that discusses the study:
An association between sexual abuse and later obesity has been suspected for years. A new prospective study illuminates the extent of such a connection.
Girls who were sexually abused are more likely to become obese than those who were not abused, but that difference does not show up until early adulthood, according to a report in the July Pediatrics.
Clinicians should not only treat young victims of abuse but should maintain a close watch on increasing body mass index (BMI) at least into their patients' early 20s, said the researchers.
However, they do not argue that there is a causal link between sexual abuse and obesity or that obesity is an inevitable outcome of abuse.
"We simply wish to underscore the need for systematic study of the mechanistic and mediating processes that would help to explain the connection between childhood abuse and late obesity," wrote Jennie Noll, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at the Cincinnati Children's Medical Center and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and colleagues.
In application, doctors and clinicians should keep a close watch on the body mass index of patients that have experienced abuse.
Click here to read the entire article from Psychiatric News
Click here for more information on compulsive overeating
link to this post Wednesday, August 08, 2007 9:41 PM
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR Want to lose weight? Try thinking like a thin person Evidence that CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) is effective in weight loss is receiving continued support. Therapists such as Judith Beck, PhD, and director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research in Philadelphia, have been using CBT for decades with great success. Beck, who started using CBT as a treatment method for weight loss twenty-five years ago, has found CBT to be so successful in this regard that she instituted a weight-loss program at Beck Institute a year ago. During the course of the year, Beck reports that women in the program have lost anywhere from a pound a week to a pound a month and have kept it off.
The secret, she says, is “to think like a thin person.” According to Beck, when one begins to change their thinking patterns eating behaviors will permanently change. For example, the thin person may identify hunger as a normal feeling that they wait to appease until their next scheduled meal. In contrast, the obese person may have developed a pattern of eating immediately to deal with their hunger; CBT can change such behavioral patterns.
Other studies have revealed similar findings. A Swedish randomized clinical trial published in March 2005 in the journal of Eating and Weight Disorders also found positive results when utilizing CBT for eating disorders. The study focused on 62 obese persons, 43 of which were controls, who were given group CBT for weight loss over a ten week period. The CBT group lost an average of 17 pounds by the end of the ten week period. What is most impressive is that the same group had lost on average five more pounds by the end of an 18-month follow up period.
The following is an excerpt of an article from Psychiatric News that reviews the study: During a recent interview, Beck shared with Psychiatric News the philosophy underlying her CBT weight-loss program. Many diets lead to weight loss over the short term, but people often regain the weight that they have lost. Thus, if they want to lose weight permanently, they have to start thinking like a thin person, and this change in thinking will then lead to permanent changes in their eating behaviors. She gave the following examples of changes in thinking that can contribute to successful weight loss: - Change fundamental ideas about hunger. People who have never struggled with losing weight usually have quite different ideas about hunger than do those who struggle with it. The former tend to think of hunger as normal, tolerable, and that even when you sense it, you should wait until your next meal to eat. The latter are apt to think of hunger as bad, intolerable, and in need of instant fixing. "So unless people change this fundamental idea about hunger, chances are that, at some point, they are going to start eating out of control again," Beck said.
- Develop a nutritional eating plan and then identify those thoughts that are likely to get in the way of implementing it. In other words, they need to counter ideas that lead to overeating such as "dieting is too hard" or "it's not fair that I have to diet."
- Write down the reasons they want to lose weight and read the list every day, not just at a regular time, but at times when they are hungry or craving food. People fighting obesity have to remind themselves over and over again why their goal is so important.
- Remember in moments of temptation to say, "Okay, I have a choice. I can eat this food that I hadn't planned to eat and get momentary pleasure and then feel badly afterwards, or I can remind myself of all the reasons why I want to lose weight and feel very good about myself."
- Learn how to say no to food pushers—family members and friends who enable overeating. And learning to say no means changing thinking patterns. It means stop worrying about disappointing other people and convince yourself that losing weight is a legitimate, important goal and that, as Beck put it, "I'm entitled to stick up for myself as long as I do it nicely in order to control my eating."
Click here to read the entire article
Click here to visit Brookhaven’s facts page about compulsive overeating
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Thursday, August 02, 2007 7:33 PM
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR Is obesity contagious? A recent study in the July 26th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found a surprising link between obesity and relationships. The study revealed that the spread of obesity is often person-to-person in nature. A friend, sibling, or spouse, for example, of an obese person, all have an extremely increased chance of becoming obese themselves. The study focused on a group of 12,067 people with a body mass index of 30 or higher that were all a part of the Framingham Heart Study from 1971 to 2003. The specifics are as follows:
- Among Spouses, if one was obese, the other had a 37% increase in the chance of becoming obese.
- Among siblings, if one was obese, the other had a 40% increase in the chance of becoming obese.
- Lastly, and most shocking, among friends, if one was obese, the other had a 57% increase in the chance of becoming obese.
The study also found gender to be an important variable. Person-to-person connections among the same sex reported a much higher instance of shared obesity. Researchers theorize that the reason for shared obesity among person-to-person relationships is that those who are close to us, especially of the same sex, help us to determine what an appropriate body size is. The following is an excerpt of an article from Medpage today that further discusses the study:
Obesity tends to spread throughout a person's social and family ties, even as far as a friend's friend's friend, researchers found.
When individuals become obese, it dramatically increases the chance that their friends, siblings, and spouse will also gain weight, Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard, and James H. Fowler, Ph.D., of the University of California San Diego, reported in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Surprisingly, the researchers found, the greatest effect was not among those sharing the same genes or the same household, but among friends, even those living apart.
What appears to be happening, the investigators said, is that obese persons change what they see as appropriate body size, and they come to think it is acceptable to be bigger, inasmuch as those among them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads. Other mechanisms might include food consumption, but the data did not permit a detailed examination of this factor, they said.
Click here to read the rest of the article
Click here to visit Brookhaven’s facts page about compulsive overeating
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Rolf B. Gainer, Ph.D., Diplomate ABDA, is the Chief Executive Office at Brookhaven Hospital and the Vice President of Rehabilitation Institutes of America. Dr. Gainer has been involved in the design and operation of treatment programs since 1977.
Stephen Harnish, MD is the Medical Director of Brookhaven Hospital. Dr. Harnish is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and is well known in Oklahoma for his informative radio and television appearances.
Aric Thorpe, MHR, is Brookhaven Hospital's Pastoral Liaison Representative. He conducts the quarterly Minister's Lifeline series and provides mental health information to pastors and clergy.
Sarah McGee serves as the Community Education Provider for Brookhaven Hospital. She provides information on mental health and drug and alcohol treatment to healthcare professionals in Oklahoma and surrounding states. |
