Quantum Units Education

A researcher at Harvard Medical School is studying which substance use disorders are more common among people with different types of mental illness, and when they tend to develop. He hopes his research will one day be used to prevent drug and alcohol disorders among people with mental illness through early counseling, detection and treatment.

Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, the McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, is investigating at what age people tend to develop mental health problems and substance use disorders. “I am looking at when these problems develop, and at interventions to try to prevent a pileup of problems,” he says. “Often, when a person comes in for mental illness treatment, they already have several problems. For instance a young person with social phobias, depression or anxiety may start using alcohol to self-medicate, so by the time we see them, they have mental health issues and a drinking problem.”

At the recent American Psychiatric Association annual meeting, Dr. Kessler discussed his goal of reaching people with mental health issues before they develop alcohol or drug disorders, known as secondary prevention. “If a person comes in for treatment of depression, social phobia or anxiety, we need clinicians to warn them they may also be at high risk of substance use disorders because of self-medication. We need to look at children, adolescents and young adults being treated for mental illness, and examine their risk for substance use. Find out if they are using drugs or alcohol as a crutch, and if they aren’t, give them the tools to prevent them from starting. Clinicians don’t normally think this way.”

Full story of substance abuse in mental illness at DrugFree.org

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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education

Almost one in five boys of high school age, and 11 percent of school-age children overall, have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United States, according to new government data.

Many doctors are concerned that ADHD diagnoses and medication are overused in children, The New York Times reports.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found an estimated 6.4 million children ages 4 to 17 had received an ADHD diagnosis at some point. This represents a 16 percent increase since 2007, and a 53 percent increase in the past 10 years.

The findings come from a CDC study of children’s health issues, which included interviews with more than 76,000 parents nationwide.

About two-thirds of those diagnosed with ADHD receive prescriptions for stimulant drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin. These drugs, while they can be very effective in treating the disorder, also have the potential for addiction, anxiety and even psychosis, the article notes.

Full story of ADHD diagnoses in teens at DrugFree.org

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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education

About half the marriages in the United States end in divorce, and there are many reasons why these relationships do not endure. One reason for divorce and marriage problems has been linked to emotional disconnection disorder, also known as alexithymia.

Why some couples don’t communicate

Sometimes it seems that the more ways we have to communicate with each other (phone, text, email, fax, snail mail, video), the less adapt we are at doing so. Marriage is a relationship that can thrive when communication is good between partners but suffer miserably when it is not.

At the University of Missouri, researchers examined the prevalence of alexithymia among 155 heterosexual couples. The study was headed by Nick Frye-Cox, a doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Full story of marriage problems at Emax Health

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As this country moves into a new era of how we approach the treatment, prevention and administration of illness, we must keep the rubric of co-occurring disorders at the forefront. One would be hard pressed to find a higher rate of co-occurring disorders than in the field of behavioral health, where more than 70 percent of those treated for substance abuse also have a mental health disorder.

There is no shortage of data pertaining to the dangers of co-occurring disorders. Those with such a condition die an average of eight years earlier than those with only one behavioral health disorder. High rates of tobacco use are also prevalent in co-occurring patients. For those with co-occurring disorders, physical safety and overall health risks are great and the chances for successful treatment are small. Yet co-occurring disorders are not the exception—they are the norm.

It is estimated that 8.9 million adults have co-occurring disorders—that is they have both a mental and substance use disorder. Unfortunately, fewer than eight percent of individuals receive treatment for both conditions, with 55.8 percent receiving no treatment at all. The consequences of undiagnosed, untreated or under-treated co-occurring disorders can be severe. They include homelessness, incarceration, suicide and early mortality.

Full story of affordable care act at DrugFree.org

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Three studies conducted as part of Wayne State University’s Systems Biology of Epilepsy Project (SBEP) could result in new types of treatment for the disease and, as a bonus, for behavioral disorders as well.

The SBEP started out with funds from the President’s Research Enhancement Fund and spanned neurology, neuroscience, genetics and computational biology. It since has been supported by multiple National Institutes of Health-funded grants aimed at identifying the underlying causes of epilepsy, and it is uniquely integrated within the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at the Wayne State School of Medicine and the Detroit Medical Center.

Under the guidance of Jeffrey Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics (CMMG) and professor of neurology, the project brings together researchers from different fields to create an interdisciplinary research program that targets the complex disease. The multifaceted program at Wayne State is like no other in the world, officials say, with two primary goals: improving clinical care and creating novel strategies for diagnosis and treatment of patients with epilepsy.

Full story of epilepsy treatment at Science Daily

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