The Mental Health Social Worker

Scans Hint at Why It Can Be Unhealthy Even at the Top

Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with social status, according to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health. They found that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order – or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors. Circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money.

“Our position in social hierarchies strongly influences motivation as well as physical and mental health,” said NIMH Director Thomas R Insel, M.D. “This first glimpse into how the brain processes that information advances our understanding of an important factor that can impact public health.” (more…)

Long-term maintenance treatment is likely to sustain improvement and prevent recurrence among adolescents with major depression, according to an NIMH-funded study published in the April 2008 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study, led by Paul Rohde, Ph.D., of Oregon Research Institute, analyzed data from the Treatment of Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS), a large, NIMH-funded trial in which depressed teens were randomized to one of three treatments for 36 weeks—fluoxetine (Prozac), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) or a combination of both. (more…)

Several variations within the same gene act together to raise the risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), new NIMH research suggests. The gene produces a protein that helps make the brain chemical serotonin available to brain cells.

OCD, an anxiety disorder, affects an estimated 2.2 million Americans age 18 or older. Symptoms usually begin sometime between childhood and early adulthood.  The rituals and intrusive, unshakeable thoughts of OCD sometimes become severely disabling.  (more…)

News Date: 04/06/2008
Outlet: Philadelphia Inquirer
Contact: Cook, Bonnie

Scott S. Metheny’s presentation on the choking game starts with a 911 call.

Hi, I have an emergency, a distressed boy can be heard telling the operator. My little brother might be dead.

OK, why do you think he’s dead? the operator asks.

Because there’s a rope around his neck tied to a bunk bed, and he’s all purple and stuff, the crying child says.

There’s a shocked silence in the Upper Moreland Middle School auditorium in Hatboro as Metheny, an Upper Moreland Township patrolman, drives home his point.

The taped young voice belongs to Samuel Mordecai, 13, of Paradise, Calif. On May 6, 2005, he found the body of his twin brother, Gabriel, who had strangled himself while playing the choking game. (more…)

A new 17-year study of 176 boys, ages 6 to 12, who were treated with the stimulant medication methylphenidate (marketed as Ritalin and other brand names) shows that the risk of substance abuse during late adolescence and into early adulthood is related to the age at which the boys began taking stimulant medications. For the first time, the new study shows that risk of substance abuse was lowest in the group of boys who began stimulant treatment for ADHD at an earlier age.

Specifically, the rate of drug abuse (excluding alcohol dependence or abuse) in those who had started taking methylphenidate early in the disease process (at age 6 or 7) was similar to the rate in a group of healthy comparison subjects. On the other hand, the rate of drug abuse was statistically significantly higher among those who had begun methylphenidate treatment at later ages, between 8 and 12. (more…)