LinkBlog
Crying Shame - a Priory Group survey about stigma and mental illness in Britain (pdf)
6 Golden Rules for Conquering Performance Anxiety by David Leisner
Freedom from Fear's On Target Summer/Fall 2007 newsletter - an anxiety & depression resource (PDF)
Switching between monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and SSRI or tricyclic antidepressants (.doc format)
blog roll
- Agoraphobia
- Anxiety 2 Calm
-
Anxious Living : An Exploration
into Social Anxiety - Dare to Dream
- Dear Tobacco
-
Dr. Deborah Serani's:
Psychological Perspectives - Fast Weight Loss?
- Finding the Confidence
- GNIF Brain Blogger
- Legacy of War
- Mental Health Minutes
- My Brain: My Friend, My Enemy
- My Wife Has Agoraphobia!
- Neurophilosophy
- Out of the silence - site for young people with mental illness
- PTSD Combat
- The Happiness Guy
- The Last Psychiatrist
- The Trouble With Spikol
-
WebMD: Anxiety and
Stress Management - We Worry: A Blog for the Anxious
recommended links
Depression Is Real Coalition
-
ABIL: Agoraphobics Building
Independant Lives -
Agoraphobia and Panic
Disorder Foundation -
Anxiety Disorders Association
of America - Anxiety Network Australia
- Anxiety-Panic.Com
- AnxietyZone
- Army Behavioral Health
- BrainPhysics - OCD
-
Canadian Network for Mood
and Anxiety Treatments - Children of Hoarders
- Choices in Mental Health (UK)
-
Dart Foundation: Gateway to PTSD
information -
David Baldwin's
Trauma Information Pages - EMDR Institute, Inc.
- EMDR Network Japan
- Fear of Flying course (free)
- Healthy Minds
- Information for People with Anxiety Disorders
- Internet Guide to REBT, CBT
- Living with a Brain Disorder
- Morita Therapy
- Mayo Clinic : Depression
- Mayo Clinic : GAD
- Mayo Clinic : OCD
- Mayo Clinic : Panic Attacks
- Mayo Clinic : PTSD
- Mayo Clinic : Social Anxiety
-
Medicines.org.uk - Anxiety &
Depression guides - Mind-Your-Mind Canada
- National Center for PTSD
-
National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) - No Such Thing As Crazy
- OCD Action, UK
- OCD Ireland
- Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
- Open Minds, Open Doors
- Out of the silence - site for young people with mental illness
- Paniccure.com
- Partners With PTSD
- Prescription Drug Information
- Psychiatric Service Dog Society
- PsychNews
-
Rational Emotive Behavior
Therapy (REBT) - Sane Australia
-
Shyness & Social Anxiety
Service of Australia -
Social Phobia/Social Anxiety
Association - Social Anxiety Support board
-
South African Depression &
Anxiety Group - Suicide Prevention Help
-
tAPir - the Anxiety Panic
internet resource -
The Panic Center (Free
CBT based programs) - The School of OCD
- UN-WHO Drug Trials Database
- U.S. Army Behavioral Health - PTSD
"just don't smoke"
Yul Brynner
- Menthol cigarettes harder to quit
- Secondhand smoke in cars serious threat to kid's health
- Starting smoking young increases addiction risk
-
Smoking doesn't slim girls;
stunts boys' growth - 40 reasons why you should quit smoking
- Pregnant smokers 'prime' their kids to smoke
- Smoking related coronary artery disease quickly reversed if young smokers quit
- Not ready to quit? Try cutting back
- Half smoking again within year of lung cancer surgery
- Cutting back 'compensation' increases toxin load per cigarette
- Tobacco companies upped nicotine level 11% since 1998
- Workplace passive smoke increases lung cancer risk
- Hooked by genes: The DNA sequences cigarette companies love
- Smoking causes long lasting changes to brain's bio chemistry
- Nicotine receptor stimulant trebles the odds of stopping smoking
- Bupropion, nortriptyline double chances of quitting
- Nicotine's powerful role in reinforcing smoking
- Pregnant smokers raise child's risk of stroke, heart attack
- Smoking linked to pancreatic cancer
- Neurobiology of Smokers' Cravings
- 'Low cancer risk' cigarettes as deadly as regular kind
- Quitting reduces lung cancer death risk by 70%
- Fetal nicotine exposure linked to teen attention problems
- Outdoor second-hand smoke exposure can harm
- Response to day's first cigarette predicts ease of quitting
- 'Healthy' children of smoking parents aren't really so healthy
- Children of smokers have up to five times higher levels of a nicotine toxin
- Smoking increases risk of dementia
- Smoking kills even after quitting
- Antenatal second hand smoke exposure increases child's psychological problems
- Smoking could kill 1 billion this century: WHO
- Just 1 cigarette can lead to nicotine addiction
- Smokers less likely to survive early stage lung cancer
- Smokeless tobacco delivers carcinogens more efficiently than cigarettes!
- Smoking permanently turns on genes that increase lung cancer susceptibility
- Secondhand smoke a health hazard for pets too
anti torture campaign
- Torture experts write APA policy
- [APA] still rocked by torture debate
- Petition for psychologists
- AMA president says APA "did not accurately represent our ethical guidelines"
- Psychologists Aiding Torturers
-
Annual conference endorses
APA's torture policy :( - Physicians for Human Rights call on Congress to vote No on Military Commissions Bill
-
Torture is a Form of Trauma;
Trauma Causes PTSD - Psychoanalysts' association condemns torture use
- Humiliating, inhumane or degrading treatment IS torture
- Two American psychologists accused of war crimes. U.S. DoD investigating.
- DoD report proves psychologists central to POW/detainee abuse (pdf)
- 40 psychologists demand APA change policy on torture (pdf)
- Did the American Psychological Association turn a blind eye to torture for medicine precribing rights?
- Will psychologists still abet torture?
Deputy Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Lt. General John (Jeff) Kimmons, has stated that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through abusive interrogation methods in the last 5 years.
monument, Monmouth County
New Jersey.
PTSD continues to hit WTC rescuers and recovery workers hard
New findings from the WTC health registry show rates were highest among volunteer workers, lowest among police officers
Thousands of World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers were still suffering serious mental health effects three years after the disaster, the Health Department reported today. New findings released from the World Trade Center Health Registry show that one in eight rescue and recovery workers (12.4%) likely had post-traumatic stress disorder when they were interviewed in 2003 and 2004.
The new data come from the World Trade Center Health Registry's initial survey of nearly 30,000 rescue and recovery workers. The respondents ranged from police officers and firefighters to clergy and construction workers. The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) varied significantly by occupation, with rates ranging from 6.2% among police officers to 21.2% among unaffiliated volunteers (those who were not working with an organization such as the Red Cross). The prevalence of PTSD in the U.S. population is roughly 4% at any given time.
Like the unaffiliated volunteers, workers from non-emergency occupations such as construction, engineering and sanitation also suffered particularly high rates of PTSD. It is unlikely that these workers had gone through disaster preparedness training or had experience with previous emergencies, both of which can help buffer psychological trauma.
People who started work on or soon after 9/11, or who worked for longer periods, were also more vulnerable to PTSD. For all occupations except police, the risk of PTSD was greatest among those who worked at the site for more than three months. The finding suggests that shortening work periods, and limiting exposure of those who have less prior exposure to trauma, might help reduce PTSD rates in future emergencies.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder can be devastating, affecting people's families and work lives," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City Health Commissioner. "People with PTSD are also more likely to suffer from depression and substance abuse. The Registry helps us gauge the persistence of these problems over time. It also helps us inform the public and the medical community about the health effects of 9/11, so that people can get the best possible care."
The survey found that firefighters developed PTSD at nearly twice the rate of police officers (12.2% versus 6.2%), a finding consistent with past research. The discrepancy is not well understood, but the authors offer several possible explanations. It may reflect the rigorous screening that police recruits undergo, but it could also reflect under-reporting by police officers who fear being judged unfit for duty. In addition, firefighters lost six times as many comrades as police officers, suggesting that grief may have compounded the trauma and the risk of PTSD.
Sustaining an injury, or having to evacuate a building, raised the risk of PTSD in nearly all of the groups surveyed. But other risk factors affected only certain types of workers. Performing search and rescue work raised the risk of PTSD for engineering and sanitation workers, but civilian volunteers were more likely to suffer if they engaged in firefighting or light construction work. This suggests again that working outside of one's area of expertise can place people at risk for developing PTSD.
The new findings highlight the value of disaster preparedness and training for all types of emergency responders, and point to concrete steps that could help minimize PTSD in future disasters:- Use shift rotations to reduce workers' and volunteers' duration of service at emergency sites.
- Establish mental-health services to address the needs of rescue and recovery workers who have received less disaster training than police and fire staff.
Perrin MA, DiGrande L, Wheeler K, et al. Differences in PTSD Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors Among World Trade Center Disaster Rescue and Recovery Workers Am J Psychiatry 2007 Sept;164:1385-1394 [Abstract]
|
Update on efforts to learn more about WTC-related illness |
|
The NY Health Department has linked all survey participants with mental-health issues to LifeNet, a 24-hour hotline operated by the Mental Health Association of New York City. LifeNet provides an assessment, information and referrals and assists the caller in determining an appropriate place for care. When a person is in crisis, LifeNet will refer to a Mobile Crisis Team and will follow up to ensure contact is made. If you or someone you know is suffering with PTSD, or any other emotional or substance abuse problem, call 311 and ask for LifeNet. Services are available in multiple languages. All 71,000 WTC Health Registry registrants are being re-surveyed to learn more about their current health status. So far, nearly 60% of registrants have responded. The re-survey will help determine whether respiratory and mental health conditions have persisted five to six years after the disaster. Because of its size, the registry can illuminate patterns that would elude individual physicians and provide valuable guidance to affected groups. Previous findings from the WTC Health Registry can be found at www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/wtc/materials.html. The NY Health Department is also conducting a separate study of respiratory health among registrants and analyzing records to see whether the disaster has had affected cancer incidence. The Department - along with the Fire Department, Mount Sinai Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital - is also updating guidelines for treating adults with WTC-related illness. The same group is developing guidelines for treating affected children. |