Kids on Drugs (it’s not what you think)

You have to see this, if you haven’t already. Anyone who is interested in topics like mental health, pediatric health, teaching children, pharmaceutical research, or what to do about children with unusual behaviour should watch and pay attention. This is a 56-minute video called The Medicated Child, and it was aired on PBS recently. It really struck a nerve with me, both as a mother and as an adult with bipolar disorder.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1316921025#

What do you think?

MRIs: so this is what a normal kid looks like…

I can’t decide which I like best – the database itself or the information-sharing. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is gathering information on what a normal kid’s brain looks like so they can share the information with people who are researching developmental disorders like autism.

NIMH described the latest release of data on their website today. They studied over 500 kids, from infants to young adults, using MRI brain scans, physical exams, psychological exams, and measurements of hormonal activity. The point was to catch each kid at different points in their life, get all of this information for that age, and wait a couple of years before doing it again to see what changed. The younger ones got tested more frequently because development occurs faster in the younger years.

The project, called The NIH Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development, is looking at things like brain size, memory function, motor skills, language development, and general social skills.

Their focus in this study is only on kids with no health problems. This way, they can pass on the information to people who are trying to figure out why some kids don’t develop normally, who can then compare the “normal” scans and physiological data to that of those kids and study what’s different. Hopefully, we’ll all learn something soon about why the brain can sometimes go haywire in childhood, and whether there is anything we can do to keep it from happening.

If you’re wondering how they got the kids to lie still for the MRI, I read somewhere else that the younger ones are usually scanned while they are sleeping. Trust me – telling most two-year olds to lie down and be still while they’re awake is like asking most puppies to calm down when you come home. That research environment must have been a real trip.

They have a vaccine for WHAT???

Just when you think nothing can surprise you anymore…

http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2009/cocaine-vaccine-cuts-drug.html

Isn’t that the point?

I was reading an article on MSNBC this evening entitled, “Insurers escalate criticism of health overhaul.” Apparently, the health insurance industry commissioned a cost analysis from PriceWaterhouseCoopers that projected higher premium costs for privately insured individuals over the next several years.

Let’s see. We’re going to require that health insurance companies accept all applicants, we’re going to take away their right to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and we’re going to increase their customer base because of that. Meanwhile, we’re going to legislate a series of give-and-take taxes, credits, and conditions to level the paying field (no, that’s not a typo). Finally, either they will raise their rates and watch their customer base decline in favor of public programs, or they will find a way to control costs and keep their customers.

No – wait. They just said that the legislation will raise their rates again, and that would be bad. The health care reform bill will raise their rates for them. It will be all someone else’s fault that we’ll be paying higher premiums, not theirs.

Do you think there will ever come a time when the insurance industry will see raising rates as a choice instead of a mandate?

Suicide Intervention

1-800-273-TALK. Call this number if you are thinking that it’s time to end it all. Why? You might appreciate it later when you’re in a better frame of mind. It might help you understand that there are people out there that really do care. It might help you see that those thoughts might be just a symptom of something bigger that’s messing up your mind. If that’s all it is, wouldn’t you want to find out what’s wrong so you can get back to the life you really want to live?

There are more and more studies being done to understand how big of a problem this really is in our country. Here are just some of the highlights:

http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/66/4/398

Most suicides committed by males age 18-24 had psych problems at age 8.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2009/black-teens-especially-girls-at-high-risk-for-suicide-attempts.shtml

Female black teens are at risk for suicide, even if they have never been diagnosed with a mental illness.

http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/165/suicide.cfm

Around one percent of adult Americans planned to commit suicide last year, and half of those actually tried it. A little under four percent of adult Americans admitted to thinking about it, and that number almost doubled when they looked at just those between 18 and 25 years old. How many of us aren’t even admitting that we think about this?

Call 1-800-273-TALK. I’ll bet they’ll help even if you’re just worried about someone that is close to you. Pull the old “my friend has this problem” if you need to. Just talk about it with someone who deals with this stuff all the time, and try to find out if there’s something bigger going on that’s making it easier to think that way. You might be surprised at the change it makes in your mood and your motivation to move forward.

Funny Pills

Question: What’s the funniest thing in the wonderful world of healthcare right now?

Answer: Those five-minute pill commercials where it takes longer to get through the FDA disclosures than it does to talk about the benefits of the pill. If someone could make a late-night infomercial with a bunch of those strung together, I might be able to ditch my sleeping pills. (Ah – but then, they probably don’t want that.)

The Wounded Town Hall Concept

This isn’t your father’s town hall meeting anymore. This is disturbing.

The coverage of the local town hall meetings across the country has been interesting, to say the least. I don’t know whether some of the townspeople are shooting themselves in the foot or having trouble extracting it from their mouth. The yelling, the rudeness, the harsh words that have nothing to do with healthcare – you’re being compared with primates, for Pete’s sake.

These town hall meetings are supposed to be a forum in which we the people can voice our concerns in person. Our elected officials are making time to listen to us, and in some cases, we’re showing appreciation by blowing up on them. We’re going backward, not forward – and by “we,” I mean the bellowing, belligerent blowhards that keep disrupting the meetings. This isn’t productive conversation. This is the Middle Ages, complete with ignorant peasants and public stonings largely due to hearsay.

If you need to yell at public officials because you’re unhappy with the current healthcare bill, you need to know that you’d get your point across better with a carefully-worded question based on mutual respect and the need to clarify what the hell is going on. You don’t have to agree with the politician at the podium, but it would be a good idea if you respect him or her as a person and realize that this person is probably not personally responsible for the bottleneck.

You’d get more done if you stay on point, too. You won’t solve anything by telling a speaker that they will go to hell for what they’re doing. The subject is Healthcare, not Religion. And by the way, your God is probably pissed at the way you’re trying to make that call for Him.

Get a grip, people, and save the yelling for your therapist. Don’t let the angry rants of others get in the way of your ability to think for yourself. Make good use of the time at those town hall meetings, because if you want your voice to be heard – if you don’t want to be dismissed as an out-of-control, crazy jerk – you might want to present your justifiably strong opinions in some sort of civilized manner.

The Chromosome 6 Connection

Did you know that there may be a genetic link between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia?

Yep. Take a look at this. Apparently there were three different genetic variation research studies going on recently. (“Genetic variation” is a nice way of saying your heredity has screwed you in some way.) All of them point to one particular chromosome that had problems in both schizophrenic and bipolar patients – #6.

We all have 23 pairs of chromosomes, and that’s where our genes are. The last pair is the most famous, because it determines whether a person is male or female. Chromosome pair #6 (only named that because it’s the 6th largest chromosome) is already known for genes that regulate immunity, among other things. So, not only do we have a common link between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, autoimmune conditions are probably a part of the mix as well. (“Autoimmune” is a nice way of saying that your own body is screwing you in some way.)

The director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is now wondering if they should redefine the diagnostic categories of mental illnesses. Good for him – the answer is YES. We would be one step closer toward the possibility of an accurate diagnosis and relevant treatment for all of us. Keep learning, people.

The Tuesday Morning Question of the Week

Is it ever appropriate to write the sentence “You need me!” in a cover letter?

What do you say when you’re sending out your 400th resume of the month and you realize that your cover letter has to stand out among 4,000 others? Which line from the job search handbook actually works in real life? Successful job seekers? Hiring managers? Anyone?

The Difference between Capitalist Taxation and Socialism

It’s April – have you filed your taxes yet?  Are you going to?  Of course you will – you consider yourself a law-abiding citizen and you’re afraid of the IRS.

There is a case to be made about how taxation borders on socialism.  The ‘redistribution of wealth’ argument has been staring us in the face ever since the beginning of the 20th century, when the tax code began to take shape and become enforceable.  Most people agreed, however, that financing a war or two was a little too daunting for volunteer efforts, so off we went.

When the tax code began to allow for social programs and complicated business practices, it began to get messy.  Various administrations began to use it as a motivational tool for different purposes, and eventually to manipulate the economy. 

Did we go too far with that?  There’s a question – but I’m not qualified to answer that one.  I’d love to hear the answer, though.

The difference is that, while taxation is meant to be somewhat of a mandatory collaborative effort to provide common services to the people, our government and our tax code are kept in check by Congress – the representatives of the people.  If we don’t like how they do things, we can replace them.

In a socialist government, the government doesn’t just keep the economy in check, the government owns the economy.  They own the resources and don’t allow for private ownership.  They plan the economy, they manage the distribution of the GDP, and they make sure everyone gets some no matter who earned what, all without respect for private enterprise.

We are nowhere near socialism.  For instance, whether or not President Obama’s bailouts were the right thing to do is debatable, but they don’t qualify as socialism for the same reason that sane bank presidents generally insist that you prove that you are responsible with your money before they lend you enough to buy a car or a house.  In a way, they own the property, but only until you pay it off.  That’s not socialism.  That’s just good business.

Property taxes have always been around in some form, but we are still free to own the property.  Income taxes have been around for years, but we are still free to start our own businesses and charge our own prices.  Our government has been running the country for over two hundred years, but we are still free to elect our own representatives to participate in setting policy.

In America, there is no danger of us giving up our property rights, our entrepreneurial spirit, or our free market economy.  In this country, we can implement social programs without practicing socialism.

Socialism is not in the future of the United States of America - not even with a qualifier of “if we don’t…“.

The loud voices of the people do serve a purpose.  Be loud to keep things in check, though, not to scare people about something that isn’t going to happen.