The Mental Health Social Worker

Fostering Non-Academic Talents Can Help Build Self-Esteem and Protect Against Mental Health Problems

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WASHINGTON—Black first-graders – especially girls – who are already performing poorly in school are at risk of being depressed by the time they reach junior high, according to an analysis of hundreds of African-American students in Baltimore. Therefore, researchers say, focusing early on what such youngsters are doing well may help build self-esteem and guard against a downward spiral. (more…)

Antipsychotic medications can reduce the risk of violence among people with schizophrenia, but the newer atypical antipsychotics are no more effective in doing so than older medications, according to a recent analysis of data from the NIMH-funded Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE). The study was published July 1, 2008, in the British Journal of Psychiatry. (more…)

Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because brain development goes awry during adolescence and young adulthood, when the brain is eliminating some connections between cells as a normal part of maturation, results of a study suggest. The new report appears online July 8, 2008 in Molecular Psychiatry.

Comparing a group of adolescents and young adults who had recently had their first bout of schizophrenia with a group of healthy peers, researchers found that this loss of tissue began around the same time and in the same brain areas in both groups. But the rate of loss was more pronounced and covered a greater area of the brain’s surface in the youth with schizophrenia. (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…)

HIV-positive people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse are less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior if they receive a group intervention designed to help them cope with their traumatic history, according to an NIMH-funded study published April 1, 2008, in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Previous research has found that people living with HIV are more likely than the general population to have experienced sexual abuse during childhood. Those with a history of sexual abuse are also more likely to engage in unprotected sexual behavior that can contribute to the spread of HIV and AIDS. In addition, the psychological consequences of childhood sexual abuse, such as low self-esteem, avoidance, and self-destructiveness, are associated with risky sexual behavior. (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…)

ARLINGTON, Va. (April 1, 2008) - Treatment of children with stimulant medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) does not increase the risk of substance abuse later in adolescence and early adulthood.

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…)

Analysis Finds Competitive and Individual-Type Learning Lead to Lower Achievement, Poorer Social Interaction

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WASHINGTON—Students competing for resources in the classroom while discounting each others’ success are less likely to earn top grades than students who work together toward goals and share their success, according to an analysis of 80 years of research.

Competitive environments can disrupt children’s ability to form social relationships, which in turn may hurt their academic potential, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Cary J. Roseth, PhD, David W. Johnson, PhD, and Roger T. Johnson, PhD, reviewed the last eight decades of research on how social relationships affect individual behavior and achievement. Their findings are published in the current issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association. (more…)

Multiple Genetic Glitches Disrupt Pathways Critical for Brain Development

People with schizophrenia have high rates of rare genetic deletions and duplications that likely disrupt the developing brain, according to studies funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

These tiny anomalies were found in 15 percent of adult onset schizophrenia patients and 20 percent of child and adolescent onset patients, compared with only 5 percent of healthy participants. Collectively, the mutations carried by patients were significantly more likely than those in healthy participants to disrupt genes involved in brain development — potentially implicating hundreds of genes in the illness, which affects about 1 percent of adults. (more…)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reports that on an average day in 2006, US youth used the following substances for the first time:

• 7,970 drank alcohol
• 4,348 used an illicit drug
• 4,082 smoked cigarettes
• 3,577 used marijuana
• 2,517 used pain relievers non-medically

Counselors may wish to access a practical guide to prevention strategies in each of these areas created by SAMHSA, including a comprehensive list of print and electronic resources, that is posted on the agency web site.

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Research conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network has found harassment and bullying as a result of family structure to be a significant concern for children in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families. The report, “Gay…Families and Education,” also suggests that LGBT parents exhibit a greater involvement in their children’s education.

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Four teams of scientists, using resources supported in part by NIMH, have pinpointed two different sites in the genome, each conferring a different type of genetic risk for autism. At one site, risk genes appear to be inherited. At the other, risk stems from spontaneous mutations, not seen in the genetics of the parents. In both examples, evidence suggests the suspect genes are critical for development of brain circuits impaired in autism.

In the inherited form of risk, people with autism were more prone than healthy controls to have certain versions of a gene on Chromosome 7. In the spontaneous form, one percent of autism was traced to a conspicuous “hot spot” of missing or duplicated genes on Chromosome 16. (more…)

Combined Factors May Change Biology of Stress-response System as it Develops

A traumatic event is much more likely to result in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults who experienced trauma in childhood – but certain gene variations raise the risk considerably if the childhood trauma involved physical or sexual abuse, scientists have found. The research was conducted with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, and others. (more…)

WASHINGTON—Workplace bullying, such as belittling comments, persistent criticism of work and withholding resources, appears to inflict more harm on employees than sexual harassment, say researchers who presented their findings at a conference today.

“As sexual harassment becomes less acceptable in society, organizations may be more attuned to helping victims, who may therefore find it easier to cope,” said lead author M. Sandy Hershcovis, PhD, of the University of Manitoba. “In contrast, non-violent forms of workplace aggression such as incivility and bullying are not illegal, leaving victims to fend for themselves.”

This finding was presented at the Seventh International Conference on Work, Stress and Health, co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology. (more…)

Study shows when kids’ actions reflect their awareness that some outcomes are worth chasing more than others

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WASHINGTON—Hang on, parents. After the terrible twos come the goal-oriented threes. Kids seem to grow into the ability to act in pursuit of goals outside of what they can immediately sense sometime around that age, according to a new study published in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). (more…)

Internet Offenders Target Teens, not Young Children—Rarely Use Force, Abduction or Deception

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WASHINGTON—Contrary to stereotype, most Internet sex offenders are not adults who target young children by posing as another youth, luring children to meetings, and then abducting or forcibly raping them, according to researchers who have studied the nature of Internet-initiated sex crimes.

Rather, most online sex offenders are adults who target teens and seduce victims into sexual relationships. They take time to develop the trust and confidence of victims, so that the youth see these relationships as romances or sexual adventures. The youth most vulnerable to online sex offenders have histories of sexual or physical abuse, family problems, and tendencies to take risks both on- and offline, the researchers say. (more…)

A 20-week group therapy program focusing on cognitive behavioral and skills training, when used in conjunction with usual care, helped reduce symptoms of borderline personality disorder and improve overall functioning, reported NIMH-funded researchers. Their findings were published online February 15, 2008 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Borderline personality disorder is a serious mental illness noted by unstable moods, behavior and relationships. Each year, 1.4 percent of adults in the United States have this disorder, which is widely viewed as being difficult to treat. However, recent advances in treatment research for specific symptoms of borderline personality disorder, such as dialectical behavioral therapy to reduce suicidal thinking or behavior, have shown reasons to continue exploring options for therapy. (more…)

People with major depression accompanied by high levels of anxiety are significantly less likely to benefit from antidepressant medication than those without anxiety, according to a study based on data from the NIMH-funded Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study. The study was published online ahead of print in January 2008, in the American Journal of Psychiatry. (more…)

Brain’s Amygdala Region Less Responsive to Other People’s Distress Signals

The callous, unemotional characteristics of some children and adolescents who bully or steal or have other severely disruptive behavior problems may have partial roots in a brain area called the amygdala. 

The amygdala responds to distress cues from other people; cues that normally would elicit empathy from observers. But it is less responsive to such cues in youth who have both callous, unemotional characteristics and disruptive behavior problems, report NIMH investigator Abigail Marsh, Ph.D., and colleagues.  Results of their research appeared online February 15 in the American Journal of Psychiatry. (more…)