Special Features

Study Shows Guilt-Based Anti-Drinking Ads May Actually Increase Binge Drinking

Dennis Miller — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:06:33 +0000

radio/audio/Adam_Duhachek_031210.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

A new study shows that anti-drinking ads which employ scare tactics or guilt may produce the opposite of their intended effect for young people, and can actually increase the likelihood of binge drinking. Researchers theorize that the ads, which showed either people being violently ill after drinking or the consequences of an alcohol-related car accident, may trigger an innate defensive coping mechanism in which viewers feel such consequences are unlikely to affect them, but only occur to other people.

“What we argue and found evidence for is that this is related to some sort of defensive mechanism,” says Adam Duhachek, Ph.D., a marketing professor at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and one of the study’s co-authors. “Typically, how these ads have been explained is that if you scare people or make them feel too badly in...

Beyoncé Lends Her Name and Support to Phoenix House Vocational Training Program

Robin Jay — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:52:23 +0000

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer at www.BehavioralHealthCentral.com

Multi-talented recording artist and actress Beyoncé is lending her name to a New York treatment center’s vocational training program for cosmetology. The Beyoncé Consmetology Center joins an impressive array of existing vocational training centers that are an integral part of Phoenix House’s unique approach to drug and alcohol treatment. Phoenix House is the nation’s leading non-profit provider of substance abuse treatment and prevention services, serving more than 7,000 men, women and teens at more than 120 programs in 10 states.

Beyonce first became involved with Phoenix House while she was preparing for her role as former heroin addict Etta James in the 2008 feature film Cadillac Records. As part of her research, Beyoncé met with women in treatment at the Career Academy. Inspired by the stories of addiction and recovery she heard, she later donated her salary from the film to the...

Bill Clinton: Beverage Calories in Schools Drop 88 Percent – ‘Breathtaking Progress’ ...

Robin Jay — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:20:58 +0000

radio/audio/BillClinton2.mp3 Click here to listen to the discussion with President Bill Clinton.

By Robin Jay, Editorial Director for www.BehavioralHealthCentral.com

First, the bad news: It’s a startling statistic that could lead to future catastrophic health outcomes if this trend doesn’t change: One in three children in America is overweight or obese.

"Childhood obesity is a complex problem, and there is no one single solution. The core of the problem, however, is that many of our children and youth are consuming too many calories," said Clyde Yancy, M.D., president of the American Heart Association and medical director for Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. "School is a unique environment where students make food and beverage choices with limited supervision and begin to set food preferences that last into adulthood.”

Now, the good news: America's leading beverage companies have delivered on a three-year...

Life Four Years After Traumatic Brain Injury – An Exclusive Talk with Journalist Lee Woodruff ...

Robin Jay — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:12:29 +0000

radio/audio/LeeWoodruff2.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio interview with Lee Woodruff.

By Robin Jay, Editorial Director at www.BehavioralHealthCentral.com

This is Robin Jay with www.BehavioralHealthCentral.com . Joining me today is Lee Woodruff, a Good Morning America contributing journalist, and also the wife of Bob Woodruff, the ABC World News Tonight co-anchor who was injured in Iraq in 2006 in a devastating roadside bombing that left him in a coma for five weeks. Lee told BHC that Bob had been in Iraq for his eighth assignment and was traveling down what was supposed to be a very safe road to do a story about where the troops were in terms of training and handing over to the Iraqi forces. He was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device that had been buried in the road just minutes before the convoy went down. The shrapnel hit Bob in the head and in the...

Dual Diagnosis Treatment Outcomes Prove Compassionate Family-Integrated Care at WestBridge Works

Dennis Miller — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:16:46 +0000

The first in a three-part series on treating co-occurring disorders

radio/audio/MarkGreen.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio interview.

By Robin Jay, BHC Editorial Director at www.BehavioralHealthCentral.com

Nearly seven out of 10 people who have major mental illness are also dependent on drugs or alcohol, and, conversely, people with drug dependence have a high rate of mental illness. Yet despite these sobering statistics, our fractured American healthcare system has traditionally siloed people who need care for co-occurring disorders.

“There’s been a historical schism between these two fields and, unfortunately, patients have gotten lost in the gaps,” says Mark Green, M.D., Medical Director for WestBridge Community Services, a private, non-profit, organization in Manchester, N.H. and Cambridge, Mass., dedicated to providing evidence-based treatment of individuals and their families who experience co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders. “Psychiatric providers didn’t really know how to treat addictions and would bump them over to...

Substance Abuse: Addiction Expert Dr. Ralph Tarter on Targeting Treatment Intervention

Dennis Miller — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:19:34 +0000

Third in Our Series of Five Conversations With Noted Addiction Specialist

radio/audio/Ralph_Tarter3_030410.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

Today on Behavioral Health Central we continue our five-part series of interviews with noted addiction treatment expert Ralph Tarter, Ph.D., Director of the NIDA-funded Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research (CEDAR), and a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. Dr. Tarter has published 11 books, more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, and 71 book chapters. He is currently researching the bio-behavioral risk factors which underlie the risk for substance use disorders within a developmental perspective.

In today’s conversation, the third in a series of five interviews on addiction treatment, he reviews what his research has shown to be the most effective approach to targeting treatment intervention for objective evaluation.

Dr. Tarter believes what’s missing from too many treatment programs is the recognition of...

Teen Depression and Suicide – The Death of Marie Osmond’s Son Michael Blosil

Robin Jay — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:23:40 +0000

In sad news from Los Angeles on February 26, the world learned that the 18-year-old son of Marie Osmond, Michael Blosil, had jumped to his death from his eight-story Metropolitan apartment building on Flower Street. Reports said Michael, who was a freshman studying apparel manufacturing at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandizing, had that evening sent a text message to a female friend who lived in his building, saying he left a note for her in his apartment. In the note, Michael wrote that the girl was his only friend and that he was very unhappy. It’s also been said that the note references his feelings of depression – a condition for which he entered rehabilitation for treatment in 2007.

The alarming news about Blosil’s death brings to the media forefront grim statistics about teens, depression and suicide. According the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide is the third...

Tiger Woods Case Prompts Question: Is Sex Addiction Real?

Dennis Miller — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:35:50 +0000

Editor’s Note: Recently Dr. Reef Karim, a prominent Beverly Hills Psychiatrist, Addiction Specialist, Relationship Therapist and Director of The Control Center at www.thecontrolcenter.org , appeared on ABC’s Nightline to discuss whether sex addiction is real, following reports of Tiger Woods having entered rehab for treatment for sex addition.

Dr. Karim is a regular contributing writer for BehavioralHealthCentral.com and presented this overview to answer the question: Is Sex Addiction For Real?

By Dr. Reef Karim, Psychiatrist and Director of The Control Center

The Tiger Woods situation has put the spotlight on sex addiction and it currently shines bright. At the office water cooler, in bars, restaurants, people are asking the same question:

Is sex addiction for real?

Yes, the term “sex addict” can be conveniently used as a label for a husband who cheats on his wife or a girlfriend who cheats on her boyfriend or a celebrity who needs to go to rehab...

CASA Releases Report Revealing High Cost of Failing to Treat Prisoners for Substance Abuse

Dennis Miller — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:11:30 +0000

radio/audio/Susan_Foster022610.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

To download the full report in PDF format, click here .

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) today released a comprehensive report on the cost and consequences of untreated substance abuse disorders in the nation’s correctional system, entitled Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population. CASA describes the 144-page report as “the most exhaustive analysis ever undertaken to identify the extent to which alcohol and other drugs are implicated in the crimes and incarceration of America’s prison population.” The report is a follow-up to CASA’s first analysis of the issue, Behind Bars, released over a decade ago.

The situation remains grim. “A key finding is that 65 percent of inmates behind bars in America today meet medical criteria for a substance use disorder,” says Susan Foster, CASA’s Vice President and Director...

Rosalynn Carter Opens Discussion on A Hidden Shame: Death in Georgia's Mental Hospitals

Robin Jay — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:39:11 +0000

by Robin Jay, BHC Editorial Director

Former First Lady and Carter Center Mental Health Program founder Rosalynn Carter provided opening remarks on February 16 for an examination of the current crisis facing the mental health system in the state of Georgia. Carter Center Mental Health Program Director Dr. Thom Bornemann moderated a panel of key stakeholders who explored potential solutions, including Charles Willis of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network; Dr. John Gates, board member, The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving, Georgia Southwestern University; and Andrew Penn of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

What led to the discussions was a history of striking and disturbing issues. The landmark 2000 Supreme Court ruling...

Watch the Bipartisan Meeting on Health Reform Live From Washington, D.C.

Dennis Miller — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:58:22 +0000

Legislative leaders from both parties meet with President Obama today for six-hour meeting on health reform at the Blair House in Washington, D.C. Watch the meeting live here.

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

New Study Shows Positive Emotions May Reduce Heart Disease Risk

Dennis Miller — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:27:53 +0000

radio/audio/Karina_Davidson_022410.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

A new study shows that people who maintain a positive outlook on life have a significantly lower risk of heart disease. The study, whose lead author was Karina Davidson, Ph.D., director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, showed that increased levels of positive emotions, or positive affect, are linked to a 22-percent lower risk of heart disease. The study’s results were recently published in the European Heart Journal (full-text available here ).

Dr. Davidson told Behavioral Health Central that the study appears to be the first to detect such a link between a positive emotional state and cardiovascular health. “Certainly mood and heart health have been studied extensively,” she explains. “This is, to our knowledge, the first study that has found that objectively or professionally assessed positive affect...

Personalized online FOCUS support program helps adults with ADHD

Robin Jay — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:21:43 +0000

By Robin Jay, BHC Editorial Director

Because nearly 8 percent of children are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s a condition that many people stereotype as a pediatric condition. But what often gets overlooked is that for many people with ADHD, the condition is a lifetime issue — it doesn’t always dissipate upon adulthood. In fact, about 10 million American adults are estimated to have ADHD.

Knowing that adults with ADHD need lifestyle support that doesn’t end when a patient grows too old for pediatric care, Shire recently re-launched FOCUS, a free, online patient support program for adults taking once-daily Vyvanse_^® (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) Capsules CII for the treatment of ADHD. FOCUS is the only online, branded personalized patient support program that provides tips and tools for adults diagnosed with ADHD taking a prescription medication. It is designed for...

Rate Hikes Reenergize Health Reform Debate as Sebelius Demands Explanation from Anthem Blue ...

Dennis Miller — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:48:57 +0000

White House posts its own health reform package in preparation for televised conference with congressional leaders Thursday

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

The election of Republican Scott Brown last month to take Sen. Ted Kennedy’s former Massachusetts Senate seat put a damper on momentum for health reform in Congress. With the victory, Republicans now have the 41 votes they need to block passage of any Senate action under normal rules. But the recent announcement by Anthem Blue Cross of California that it plans to raise rates on its individual plans by up to 39 percent seems to have provided the spark needed to get the stalled reform process moving again.

Following the announcement of the rate hike, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to Anthem, a subsidiary of Wellpoint, demanding an explanation for the steep hikes at a time when Wellpoint’s corporate profits are soaring. "With...

Tiger Woods Breaks His Silence to Apologize for His Infidelity

Dennis Miller — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:37:17 +0000

As golfers played the links at the Sawgrass Clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida today, many players crowded inside the clubhouse to listen to golf legend Tiger Woods break his silence about his marital infidelity. With his wife not present, Tiger told his audience that he was “deeply sorry for his irresponsible, selfish behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated.”

Three months ago, the issue of infidelity surfaced the day after Thanksgiving when Tiger was involved in a minor car accident outside his Florida mansion. Tiger acknowledged that yes, he is in rehabilitation (for sex addiction,) and that, yes, he plans to return to his golf career.

On his personal website this morning, it was posted that “While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between him and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were...

Study Finds SSRI Antidepressant Treatment May Aid Stroke Victims

Dennis Miller — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:54:48 +0000

radio/audio/Ricardo_Jorge021810.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

A new study has found that SSRI antidepressants may help non-depressed stroke victims recover cognitive functions more quickly following a stroke. The study found that escitalopram (trade names Lexapro, Cipralex or Seroplex), used at relatively low doses, can help stroke patients regain cognitive functions such as verbal and nonverbal memory. The study was recently published in the Archives of General Psychiatry and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Lead author Ricardo Jorge, M.D., an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, says the study focused on non-depressed stroke patients after researchers had noticed that stroke victims prescribed the medication for depression seemed to do better with cognitive functioning. Researchers decided to test whether a smaller dosage might have a similar effect for stroke patients who were not depressed. “We knew...

Age of Both Parents Linked to Autism Risk, Study Finds

Dennis Miller — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:19:37 +0000

radio/audio/Janie_Shelton_021610.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

A recent epidemiological study has shed new light on the role of both parents’ ages in a child’s risk of autism. The study found that older mothers appear more likely than younger ones to have a child with autism. It also found that having an older father can also contribute to the risk, but most notably only when the mother is under 30.

The study, published in the journal Autism Research, analyzed the records of close to five million births in California throughout the 1990s, Researchers correlated parental age with the 12,159 cases of autism diagnosed among those children. Lead author Janie Shelton, a graduate student in epidemiology at the University of California, says the study found a remarkably consistent trend of a higher risk of autism among children of older mothers. “We found that maternal age has...

Study Finds Nicotine Replacement Therapy More Effective and Safe When Used For Longer Than ...

Dennis Miller — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:50:27 +0000

radio/audio/Robert_Schnoll_021210.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

The standard recommended length of time for using a nicotine patch is eight weeks. But does this recommendation fall short of giving smokers who are trying to quit a fair chance of succeeding? And is it even necessary to limit users to that amount of time to avoid any health risk?

A new study adds weight to the growing evidence that for many smokers, eight weeks of nicotine replacement therapy simply isn’t enough. In fact, the study found that smokers who stay on the patch for six months — three times longer than currently recommended — have a far better chance of kicking the habit for good. “The quit rate at week 24 was about 32 percent compared to about 21 percent for those given eight weeks of treatment,” says Robert Schnoll, Ph.D., lead author of the study,...

“Reality Tour” Exposes Teens to Reality of Substance Abuse

Dennis Miller — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:05:21 +0000

radio/audio/Carmen_Ambrosino_020910.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

Classroom lectures, assembly-hall speeches and informational brochures can give teens the facts on drug and alcohol use, but fall short of offering a direct, realistic and emotional experience of drug abuse’s often devastating consequences. The interactive educational experience called Reality Tour® is designed to add that element to drug education programs. Created by Norma Norris of Candle, Inc., Reality Tour takes participants through many of the potential consequences of drug abuse with staged but realistic simulations of a drug arrest, overdose, funeral and other events an addict may experience.

The Reality Tour experience includes innovative computer software that adds a personal dimension to each child's Reality Tour experience, a 40-minute parent/child coping skills segment, and a self-assessment tool that offers suggestions for activities parents and children can do to help prevent drug abuse, including a six-week challenge to...

Addiction Expert Ralph Tarter, Ph.D.: How Family Dynamics Can Both Cause and Prevent Addiction

Dennis Miller — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:09:35 +0000

Second in a Series of Five Conversations With Noted Addiction Specialist

radio/audio/Ralph_Tarter_2_020410.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

Addiction is often described as a family disease, and with good reason. On any number of levels — genetic, behavioral, psychological, cultural and environmental — a person’s family history and dynamics are strong determinants of his or her risk of later addiction. But is this risk level written into our genetic code and therefore predetermined and unchangeable? Or are there in fact strategies that families and behavioral professionals can follow to significantly reduce that risk?

Noted addiction expert Ralph E. Tarter, Ph.D., of eCenter Research says that in fact there are many powerful strategies and parenting behaviors that can sharply reduce a child’s risk of becoming a substance abuser later in life, no matter what may be encoded into their genes. “There are a number of important, simple...

Common Ground Emerges in the Methadone vs. Drug-Free Recovery Debate

Dennis Miller — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:54:35 +0000

radio/audio/Ira_Marion_020210.mp3 Click here to listen to the interview with Ira Marion.

radio/audio/Bob_Stewart_Jane_Nickles_NA_012810.mp3 Click here to listen to the interview with Bob Stewart and Jane Nickels of Narcotics Anonymous.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

The field of opioid addiction treatment is no stranger to controversy. Since the introduction of methadone as part of the harm-reduction approach to treatment in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the field has had to contend with persistent stigmatization and many false myths about this clinically proven recovery technique. But there has also been a long-running schism about methadone occurring within the recovery community itself — one that has perhaps been equally if not more damaging to addicts seeking recovery: the divide between those who believe in medication-assisted addiction treatment and the attitude among some in the 12-Step recovery community that if you’re still taking a drug, you’re not really in recovery.

The good news is this divide appears to...

A Clinical Look at Hoarding with A&E Television Psychologist Suzanne Chabaud

Dennis Miller — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:08:47 +0000

radio/audio/SuzanneChabaud.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

Click here to see video clips from A&E's Hoarders series.

Awareness of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has increased tremendously over recent years, but there’s one lesser-known condition that can be a symptom of OCD that affects more than three million Americans: it’s called hoarding, or compulsive hoarding syndrome.

Hoarding is the excessive collecting of items, along with the inability to discard them. It often creates such cramped living conditions that homes may be filled to capacity with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter. Interestingly, not all people who hoard have other OCD symptoms and researchers are working hard to understand hoarding as a mental health problem. To help spread awareness about hoarding and the help available to treat it, the A&E Television Network produces a real-life program called Hoarders.

Hoarders is a real-life, unscripted look inside the lives of people whose inability to...

Call for Writers: BHC Needs Your Professional Expertise and Insight!

Jennifer Hageman — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:01:20 +0000

Become a BHC blog host or contributing writer today to share your message with our audience of thousands of behavioral healthcare professionals.

Over the past year, BehavioralHealthCentral.com has emerged as one of the internet’s leading sites for comprehensive daily news, analysis, intelligence and insights on the behavioral healthcare industry. Now, the only thing missing is you!

We’re actively seeking well-informed, authoritative thought leaders in behavioral healthcare — knowledge powerhouses who want to share their cutting-edge insights, practical applications, “how to” solutions and evidence-based case studies to support the practice of high-quality behavioral healthcare. We invite you to consider sharing your expert perspective with your industry peers as one of our regular blog hosts or contributing writers.

Speak Your Mind

If you're an expert in mental health or substance abuse treatment and have something to say about what’s going on in this industry, BehavioralHealthCentral.com offers three interactive opportunities:

Become a BHC...

How Healthcare Reform Could End The Stepchild Status of Primary and Behavioral Healthcare: A ...

Robin Jay — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:59:02 +0000

By Robin Jay, BHC Editorial Director

Ted Epperly, M.D., FAAFP, a family physician in Boise, Idaho, who follows a patient-centered medical home model of care that incorporates behavioral health, is board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In recent months, he has spoken with President Obama on several occasions about his concern related to the shortage in primary care and the incentives (or lack of incentives) our country offers medical students to consider primary care. He says that primary care and behavioral healthcare providers have been considered 'stepchildren' in the past, but that he’s confident healthcare reform efforts in Congress could provide some remedy.

Dr. Epperly wrote in an AAFP statement earlier this year, “If America is to right the ship of health care and turn it toward a system of higher quality, improved efficiency, better outcomes, less cost, and decreased geographic and ethnic disparity, it must increase the...

First-Ever Consensus Treatment Guidelines Issued for Autistic Children With Gastrointestinal ...

Dennis Miller — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:34:43 +0000

Multidisciplinary panel finds little evidence to support dietary interventions as a treatment for autism.

radio/audio/Timothy_Buie_012610.mp3 Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

It has long been suspected that autistic children have a higher incidence of gastrointestinal disorders, but until now, there’s no been no uniform set of diagnostic and treatment guidelines to help medical professionals and parents manage the problems. With that in mind, Timothy Buie, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist from Harvard University and Mass General Hospital, last year convened and chaired a multidisciplinary panel to examine the evidence and reach a state-of-the-science consensus on best practices. The group has now published their conclusions as the field’s first-ever comprehensive set of guidelines for evaluating and treating gastrointestinal disorders among children with autism.

Dr. Buie says the unique multidisciplinary makeup of Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) clinics helped make such an effort possible. “We at Mass. General have a...