Mental Illness Archives - searchfortruth.info

Road to Recovery: Employment and Mental Illness

February 21, 2019October 17, 2017 by admin

INTRODUCTION

Individuals with mental illness are a diverse group of people, with a wide range of talents and abilities. They work in all sectors of the U.S. economy, from the boardroom to the factory floor, from academia to art. Employment not only provides a paycheck, but also a sense of purpose, opportunities to learn and a chance to work with others. Most importantly, work offers hope, which is vital to recovery from mental illness. Our nation must invest in vocational strategies that work. The good news is that there are a number of effective supported employment programs. However, despite approximately $4 billion annually in federal funding for supported employment, employment rates for people with mental illness—which were abysmal to begin with—have declined even more over the last decade. This distressing trend is attributable to a number of factors. For example, many state vocational rehabilitation programs...

Public Conceptions of Mental Illness in 1950 and 1996: What Is Mental Illness and Is It to be Feared?

February 21, 2019October 20, 2017 by admin

In the 1950s, the public defined mental illness in much narrower and more extreme terms than did psychiatry, and fearful and rejecting attitudes toward people with mental illnesses were common. Several indicators suggest that definitions of mental illness may have broadened and that rejection and negative stereotypes may have decreased since that time. Howevev, lack of comparable data over time prevents us from drawing firm conclusions on these questions. To address this problem, the Mental Health Module of the 1996 General Social Survey repeated a question regarding the meaning of mental illness that was first asked of a nationally representative sample in 1950. A comparison of 1950 and 1996 results shows that conceptions of mental illness have broadened somewhat over this time period to include a greaterproportion of non-psychotic disorders, but that perceptions that mentally ill people are violent or frightening substantially increased, rather than decreased...

State Laws Affecting the Voting Rights of People with Mental Disabilities

February 20, 2019October 21, 2017 by admin

In California

The Legislature shall provide for the disqualification of electors while mentally incompetent CAL. CONST. art. 2, § 4.

A person shall be deemed mentally incompetent, and therefore disqualified from voting, if, during the course of any of the proceedings set forth below, the court finds that the person is not capable of completing an affidavit of voter registration in accordance with Section 2150 and a conservator is appointed or the person has pled not guilty by reason of insanity. CAL. ELEC. CODE § 2208(a). If the proceeding under the Welfare and Institutions Code is heard by a jury, the jury shall unanimously find that the person is not capable of completing an affidavit of voter registration before the person shall be disqualified from votin...

Mental Illness as a Barrier to Marriage Among Mothers With Out-of-Wedlock Births

February 14, 2019August 12, 2017 by admin

Abstract: This study explored how mental illness shapes transitions to marriage among unwed mothers using augmented data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. We estimated proportional hazard models to assess the effects of mental illness on the likelihood of marriage over a five year period following a non-marital birth. History of diagnosed mental illness was obtained from the survey respondents' prenatal medical records. We found that mothers with diagnosed mental illness were about two thirds as likely to marry as mothers without mental illness, even after controlling for demographic characteristics, and that the association is explained little by measures of human capital, relationship stability, partner selection, cognitive ability, and substance use.

One third of births in the United States are to unmarried parents. The proportions are considerably higher than that for minority parents. While many unmarried mothers eventuallymarry (82 percent of whites, 62 percent of Hispanics, and 59 percent of blacks, according to Graefe and Lichter 2002)...

Managing Mentally III, Nuisance Offenders: The Consequences of Restricted Civil Commitment and Decentralized Funding

February 13, 2019August 14, 2017 by admin

High rates of mental illness among the growing, visible, urban homeless population provoke public pressure to "do something" to eliminate this "public nuisance." Conviction and jailing on misdemeanor charges provides only temporary incarceration in alneady overcrowded local jails, while, since the 1970s, restrictive commitment standards have limited the availability of civil commitment to hospitalize non-violent mentally ill people.

To encourage development of community-based mental health services and reduce the fiscal domination of state mental hospitals, some states have decentralized funding of mental health services. Under decentralization county officials make commitment decisions and distribute funds to state hospitals and community programs, on a fee-for-service basis.

Many political compromises were required to pass this decentralizing legislation in Ohio. One such compromise has the state retaining financial responsibility only for those state hospital patients committed through criminal processes. The resulting structure of financing and decision making may encourage some local officials to use criminal commitment procedures to manage nuisance offenders.

Deinstitutionalization and Its Discontents:

December 20, 2018August 15, 2017 by admin

INTRODUCTION

Mental illness is real. 10 percent of children and 25 percent of adults in America struggle with serious emotional and mental disorders which cause significant daily functional impairment.

Mental illness is pervasive. 4 of the 10 leading causes of disability in the United States are mental disorders. Children, adolescents and adults from all classes, backgrounds, faiths, and walks of life suffer. Mental illness is ruinous. 31 percent of homeless adults have a combination of mental illness and addiction disorder. Adults living with serious mental illness die 25 years earlier than other Americans. Over 90 percent of those who die by suicide have a mental disorder. 24 percent of state prisoners and 21 percent of jail prisoners have mental illnesses. 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have at least one mental disorder. Over 50 percent of students with a mental disorder drop out of high school...

Excited Delirium

November 24, 2018October 9, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Excited (or agitated) delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death, often in the pre-hospital care setting. It is typically associated with the use of drugs that alter dopamine processing, hyperthermia, and, most notably, sometimes with death of the affected person in the custody of law enforcement. Subjects typically die from cardiopulmonary arrest, although the cause is debated. Unfortunately an adequate treatment plan has yet to be established, in part due to the fact that most patients die before hospital arrival. While there is still much to be discovered about the pathophysiology and treatment, it is hoped that this extensive review will provide both police and medical personnel with the information necessary to recognize and respond appropriately to excited delirium...

Excited Delirium Strikes Without Warning

November 24, 2018October 9, 2017 by admin

Learning Objective

• Discuss the pathophysiology of excited delirium • Recognize the signs and symptoms excited delirium • Identify the treatment for a patient presenting with excited delirium

Key Terms

Bells Mania: A condition that manifests with mania and fever in which the patient becomes exhausted due to mental excitement. Benzodiazepine: A medication that results in sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant and amnesic action. Dissociative agents: Medications that produce a trance-like state by causing interruption of cerebral association pathways between the limbic and cortical systems. Dopamine: A catecholamine neurotransmitter produced in several areas of the brain, including the substantia nigra. Excited delirium: A condition that manifests as a combination of delirium, psychomotor agitation, anxiety, hallucinations, speech disturbances, disorientation, violent and bizarre behavior, insensitivity to pain, elevated body temperature and superhuman strength. Neuroleptic malignant syndrome: A condition that causes delirium and death as a result of abrupt withdrawal from psychiatric medication that blocks dopamine re-uptake....

The Thyroid and the Mind and Emotions | Thyroid Dysfunction and Mental Disorders

November 24, 2018October 10, 2017 by admin

The Thyroid and the Mind and Emotions

Summary of an address to the Kitchener-Waterloo Area Chapter

The psychiatric disturbances which accompany hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, the two commonest thyroid disorders, mimic mental illness. People with an overactive thyroid may exhibit marked anxiety and tension, emotional lability, impatience and irritability, distractible overactivity, exaggerated sensitivity to noise, and fluctuating depression with sadness and problems with sleep and the appetite. In extreme cases, they may appear schizophrenic, losing touch with reality and becoming delirious or hallucinating. An underactive thyroid can lead to progressive loss of interest and initiative, slowing of mental processes, poor memory for recent events, fading of the personality's colour and vivacity, general intellectual deterioration, depression with a paranoid flavour, and eventually, if not checked, to dementia and permanent harmful effects on the brain. In instances of each condition, some persons have been wrongly diagnosed, hospitalized for months, and treated unsuccessfully for psychosis....

What’s the Difference Between a Delusion and a Hallucination?

November 22, 2018October 11, 2017 by admin

Delusions are a symptom of some mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophreniform disorder. Hallucinations, on the other hand, tend to only appear in people with schizophrenia or a psychotic disorder.

Delusions

Delusions are false or erroneous beliefs that usually involve a misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences. Their content may include a variety of themes (e.g., persecutory, referential, somatic, religious, or grandiose).

Persecutory delusions are most common; the person believes he or she is being tormented, followed, tricked, spied on, or ridiculed. Referential delusions are also common; the person believes that certain gestures, comments, passages from books, newspapers, song lyrics, or other environmental cues are specifically directed at him or her.

The distinction between a delusion and a strongly held idea is sometimes difficult to make and depends in part on the degree of conviction with which the belief is held despite clear contradictory evidence regarding its veracity....

Disgust And Psychiatric Illness: Have We Remembered?

November 20, 2018October 14, 2017 by admin

Abstract

It has been argued that disgust has been forgotten by psychiatry. An overview of recent research on disgust is provided. Findings suggest that disgust is a predictor of the development of specific psychiatric conditions.

Research suggesting that disgust has a role in psychiatric illness has emerged (Phillips et al, 1998). Although a well-developed theory of disgust exists in the literature (Rozin & Fallon, 1987), it does not indicate how extreme disgust reactions relate to psychopathology. Briefly, disgust is readily distinguished from other emotions, has robust behavioural correlates such as avoidance and distinct facial expressions, and has specific physical effects such as nausea. Disgust follows a developmental pattern whereby the aforementioned reactions are taught by caregivers, generally as a defence against oral ingestion of items considered contaminated.

At its core, disgust means ‘bad taste’. The notion that disgust might have evolved from the food rejection system is evidenced by the gagging...

Prevalence And Experience Of Harassment Of People With Mental Health Problems Living In The Community

November 20, 2018October 14, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Background The levels and experiences of harassment of people with mental health problems in the community compared with those of the general population have not been explored.

Aims To measure the levels and experience of harassment experienced by people with mental health problems in the community in Scotland and compare them with the general population.

Method Experiences of harassment were collected by interviewing 165 individuals with mental health problems and a control group of 165 people from the general population.

Results Harassment in the community was found to be twice as common for individuals with mental health problems (41%) than for those in the general population (15%). The harassment commonly involved verbal abuse referring to the individual's mental health problems and was committed primarily by teenagers and neighbours.

Conclusions Harassment has a significantly higher prevalence among individuals with mental health problems living in the community and is believed to have...

Exploring The Link Between Unemployment And Mental Health Outcomes

November 20, 2018October 16, 2017 by admin

The U.S. economy shed over 10 million jobs from 2007 to 2009 and gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by more than 5 percent — the largest decline since World War II. The unemployment rate soared from 5 percent to well over 9 percent, leading this period to be dubbed the Great Recession. At the height of the Great Recession the average bout of unemployment lasted half a year and some estimates suggest that half of the unemployed were out of work for more than two years. This was an economically devastating epoch in our nation’s history.

Psychologists (Eisenberg and Lazarsfield 1938) and sociologists (Jahoda et al. 1933) have argued as far back as the Great Depression that unemployment damages emotional health and undermines the social fabric of society. Psychologists draw a conceptual connection between involuntary joblessness and mental health in numerous ways such as: incomplete...

Surreptitious Practices In The Management Of Persons With Serious Mental Illnesses – Perspectives From The Schizophrenia Research Foundation

November 20, 2018October 17, 2017 by admin

Abstract

The aim of this communication is to briefly describe the surreptitious practices and management of non-adherence, observed at the services offered by the Schizophrenia Research Foundation. Screening of records at our services for documentations of this practice and the efforts made to deal with non-adherence and concealed treatment was done. Surreptitious practices in SCARF's out-patient services and in community outreach programs have been documented. Efforts to manage non-adherence include educating families on pharmacotherapy and strategies of dealing with non-adherence. At the level the patient, individualised and group strategies deal with the issues addressing lack of insight, acceptance of the disorder, or dealing with perceived side effects are held. Ethical principles of autonomy, justice, beneficence, and respect are adopted in implementing these strategies. There are potential advantages and disadvantages of adopting surreptitious treatment strategies in persons with serious mental illnesses. There is a need to formulate rigorous guidelines for the management of non-adherence...

Mental Fatigue Impairs Physical Performance In Humans

November 20, 2018October 17, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Mental fatigue is a psychobiological state caused by prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity. Although the impact of mental fatigue on cognitive and skilled performance is well known, its effect on physical performance has not been thoroughly investigated. In this randomized crossover study, 16 subjects cycled to exhaustion at 80% of their peak power output after 90 min of a demanding cognitive task (mental fatigue) or 90 min of watching emotionally neutral documentaries (control). After experimental treatment, a mood questionnaire revealed a state of mental fatigue (P = 0.005) that significantly reduced time to exhaustion (640 ± 316 s) compared with the control condition (754 ± 339 s) (P = 0.003). This negative effect was not mediated by cardiorespiratory and musculoenergetic factors as physiological responses to intense exercise remained largely...

Mental Illness as a Barrier to Marriage Among Mothers With Out-of-Wedlock Births

November 18, 2018October 18, 2017 by admin

Abstract: This study explores how mental illness shapes transitions to marriage among unwed mothers using augmented data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. We estimate proportional hazard models to assess the effects of mental illness on the likelihood of marriage over a five year period following a non-marital birth. Diagnosed mental illness was obtained from the survey respondents' prenatal medical records. We find that mothers with mental illness were about two thirds as likely as mothers without mental illness to marry, even after controlling for demographic characteristics, and that human capital, relationship quality, partner selection, and substance abuse explain only a small proportion of the effect of mental illness on marriage

One third of births in the United States are to unmarried parents. The proportions are considerably higher than that for minority parents. While many unmarried mothers eventually marry (82 percent of whites, 62 percent of Hispanics, and 59 percent of...