By Lisa Esposito
Subtle problems with memory and thinking skills — known as mild cognitive impairment — often precede Alzheimer’s disease, and a new study finds that men are at higher risk for these troubles than women.
Lead researcher Rosebud Roberts and her colleagues looked at 1,450 people from Olmsted County, Minn., who were between 70 and 89 years old and free of dementia in October 2004. Some three and a half years later, 296 had become mildly impaired.
New cases of mild cognitive impairment were consistently higher among men, except in the 85 to 89 age group. Overall, the risk was 40 percent higher for men.
Having a high school or less education was also linked to greater risk, and the study found that the combination of being male without college education brought an “unexpectedly high risk” of impairment that did not involve memory loss.
Full story at USA Today
By Benedict Carey
When does a broken heart become a diagnosis?
In a bitter skirmish over the definition of depression, a new report contends that a proposed change to the diagnosis would characterize grieving as a disorder and greatly increase the number of people treated for it.
The criteria for depression are being reviewed by the American Psychiatric Association, which is finishing work on the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or D.S.M., the first since 1994. The manual is the standard reference for the field, shaping treatment and insurance decisions, and its revisions will affect the lives of millions of people for years to come.
In coming months, as the manual is finalized, outside experts will intensify scrutiny of its finer points, many of which are deeply contentious in the field. A controversy erupted last week over the proposed tightening of the definition of autism, possibly sharply reducing the number of people who receive the diagnosis. Psychiatrists say current efforts to revise the manual are shaping up as the most contentious ever.
Full story at The New York Times
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By Bob Jordan
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie, in his State of the State address last week, called for “second-chance” laws, giving substance abusers an opportunity for treatment ahead of jail time. The Republican governor received support from key Democratic lawmakers Monday.
Sens. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, and Sandra Bolden Cunningham, D-Hudson, announced a package of bills they’re sponsoring to reform segments of the state’s criminal justice system and provide for rehabilitation of offenders.
One of the bills (S-881) amends the existing statute to give judges and prosecutors additional discretion to admit certain offenders into a “drug court” program to emphasize substance abuse treatment over incarceration.
Full story at My Central Jersey
By Allen Frances
The three major “epidemics” of psychiatric illness occurring during the past 15 years — childhood bipolar, autism and attention deficit disorder — have all mainly involved children. And two new DSM-5 proposals that also apply mostly to youngsters –“psychosis risk” and “temper dysregulation” — may trigger the next fads in psychiatric mislabeling. Giving a name to difficult problems that are poorly understood provides a kind of false comfort, but the label often doesn’t really add to the understanding and may carry risks of its own — especially unnecessary treatment, stigma and wasted resources.
Two questions naturally come to mind. Why are the recent epidemics in psychiatric disorder all concentrated on children? And why is this happening now? Ten interacting causes together provide an answer:
1). Youngsters are inherently more difficult to diagnose than adults. By virtue of their youth, they have a very short track record of symptom presentation and evolution, often have atypical clinical pictures influenced by developmental factors, by drugs and by family, school and peer stressors, and may be unable or unwilling to freely share what they are really experiencing. The lack of diagnostic clarity invites fanciful and faddish labeling.
Full story at Huffington Post
Subtle problems with memory and thinking skills — known as mild cognitive impairment — often precede Alzheimer’s disease, and a new study finds that men are at higher risk for these troubles than women.
