ScienceDaily (May 7, 2008) — A team of McGill University scientists has discovered important differences between the brains of suicide victims and so-called normal brains. Although the genetic sequence was identical in the suicide and non-suicide brains, there were differences in their epigenetic marking – a chemical coating influenced by environmental factors.
The Midwestern Higher Education Compact has just released The Ripple Effect of Virginia Tech, a report detailing what policies colleges have implemented as a result of the tragic events in Blacksburg, Virginia in April 2007. Most notable has been the expansion and perfection of emergency notification systems. Less visible or detectable this early after the tragedy are changes to admission procedures and other strategies for recognizing and responding to student behavior.
Arlington, Va. - The American Psychiatric Association (APA) applauds House passage of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, which overhauls key features in Medicare coverage of treatment for mental health, most notably by reducing the discriminatory 50 percent coinsurance patients must pay for outpatient mental health services to the same 20 percent co-payment charged for all other Medicare Part B services. The House passed H.R. 6331 by a vote of 355 to 59.
Washington—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a precedent-setting 5-4 decision, reversing a May 2007 ruling of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and holding that the imposition of the death penalty for child rape violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and its Louisiana Chapter filed an amicus curiae brief in Kennedy v. Louisiana (https://www.socialworkers.org/assets/secured/
documents/ldf/briefDocuments/Kennedy%20v.%20Louisiana.pdf) arguing that the death penalty for child rape harms the victims it is intended to help. The Court adopted the reasoning in NASW’s brief as support for its conclusion that the death penalty is a disproportionate consequence for a crime that does not result in the death of the victim. NASW was joined on the brief by several coalitions of sexual assault treatment providers from across the nation. (more…)
New AJP Analysis Details Differences Between Medications’ Effects
ARLINGTON, Va. (June 2, 2008) - Psychiatric and behavioral symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease-such as anger, agitation, aggression, and paranoid thoughts and ideas-may improve with the use of second-generation antipsychotic medications, a new federally funded study has found. Improvements were seen both in global measures and in measures of specific symptoms. In addition, the analysis indicates that particular symptoms may respond better to different second-generation antipsychotic medications.
The new analysis of data from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness-Alzheimer’s Disease (CATIE-AD), funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, will be published online ahead of print by The American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. The report will appear online1 under AJP in Advance (http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/pap.dtl) on June 2, and will appear in print in the July issue of AJP. (more…)