From the New York Times, BBC:
The drugs most widely used to manage aggressive outbursts in intellectually disabled people are no more effective than dummy pills for most patients and may be less so, researchers are reporting.
The finding, being published Friday in the journal Lancet, sharply challenges standard medical practice in mental health clinics and nursing homes in the United States and around the world.
From the New York Times and the Washington Post:
The Child Study Center at New York University said on Wednesday that it would halt an advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness of children’s mental and neurological disorders after the effort drew a strongly negative reaction.The two-week-old campaign, created pro bono by the advertising agency BBDO, used the device of ransom notes to deliver ominous messages concerning disorders like autism, depression, bulimia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.Advocates for children with autism and for other special-needs children said the ads reinforced negative stereotypes.
Earlier post here.
From the New York Daily News and the New York Times:
The NYU Child Study Center has launched an ad campaign that features “ransom notes” warning of the dangers of disorders like autism, ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The notes are prompting outrage and demands for removal among many of the groups they are designed to represent.
Officials at NYU say the ads are not intended to offend, but rather to call attention to the lack of treatment for the disorders. Parents and disability advocates say the ads reinforce stereotypes, stigmatize people who have the disorders, and make the disorders themselves seem somehow criminal.
Protests have been launched by (more…)
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Author Christopher Lane believes psychiatry and pharmacology have set the bar for mental illness so low that almost anyone can trip over it.
In his new book, “Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness,” Lane tries to explain how this came to be by taking a close look at how psychiatrists rewrote their “bible” —- the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM —- during the past 30 years.
Powerful antipsychotics used to subdue elderly; Huge Medicaid expense.
From the Wall Street Journal:
In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, AIDS drugs or medicine to treat high-blood pressure.
One reason: Nursing homes across the U.S. are giving these drugs to elderly patients to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Nearly 30% of the total nursing-home population is receiving antipsychotic drugs, including 21% of the patients who don’t have a diagnosis of psychosis, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, known as CMS.
In the Blue Room of the White House, beofre the Kennedy Center honors, from left, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese, Diana Ross, President Bush, Brian Wilson, Laura Bush, Steve Martin (White House Photo)
Of the five artists to receive lifetime achievement awards at the Kennedy Center Honors gala this weekend, two have had disabling conditions.
Pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher for years lost the use of his right hand to a neurological condition and went on to record critically acclaimed one-hand interpretations of works by Maurice Ravel, Benjamin Britten and others. He has since regained use of the hand.
Brian Wilson, lead singer and co-founder of the Beach Boys, songwriter and music producer, has publicly discussed his depression and mental illness.
Other honorees this year were actor, comedian and writer Steve Martin; singer Diana Ross and filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
From Vanity Fair: The essays in “An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Care for Family” (William Morrow, 304 pages, $24.95), edited by Nell Casey with a foreword by Frank McCourt, are
“revelatory glimpses into the everyday agonies and occasional flashes of rapture caregivers experience.”
Melanie Lauwers, writing in the Cape Cod Times, says this collection of short stories and essays
… may help comfort you or inform you or simply let you see some aspect of your own life and be able to remark, “That’s so true.”
More than 50 million people in the United States have disabilities, a number that is growing rapidly as the population ages. Experts say disability will soon affect the lives of most Americans. This blog attempts to explore what we know about disability, and to chronicle the efforts of people who are seeking new ways to address familiar challenges.
Join veteran journalist Patricia E. Bauer as she sifts through current news and commentary, bringing you the best information about what's happening now and what it may mean for you and your loved ones.
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