Methamphetamine addiction has spread like a wild fire across the country. Here is some details about consequences of meth addiction.

Narconon

Methamphetamine can cause a variety of cardiovascular problems. These include rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and irreversible, stroke-producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain. Hyperthermia (elevated body temperature) and convulsions occur with methamphetamine overdoses, and if not treated immediately, can result in death.

Chronic methamphetamine abuse can result in inflammation of the heart lining, and among users who inject the drug, damaged blood vessels and skin abscesses. Methamphetamine abusers also can have episodes of violent behavior, paranoia, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. Heavy users also show progressive social and occupational deterioration. Psychotic symptoms can sometimes persist for months or years after use has ceased.

Acute lead poisoning is another potential risk for methamphetamine abusers. A common method of illegal methamphetamine production uses lead acetate as a reagent.

Treatment of Meth addiction has been particularly difficult. Success rates have been as low as 20%. So it is indeed good news when a breakthrough presents itself.

Dare To Dream MH Library

A common antidepressant, bupropion, can reduce the craving for methamphetamine, providing the possibility of a drug treatment for the powerfully addictive stimulant, according to a study by UCLA researchers published today. Dr. Thomas F. Newton, a UCLA psychiatrist who led the study, found that subjects who were given bupropion reported a lesser high after a meth injection as well as a less intense craving after watching a video of actors favorably portraying meth use.

The next step is more research to see if Wellbutrin can be consistently helpful. Meanwhile, the medication is readily available and one of the successful medications for treating depression.

Dare To Dream MH Library - Psychologist Driven to Help Hurricane Victims

The Red Cross doesn't have enough mental health people in its data base, volunteering. I got an e-mail from the American Psychological Association, saying the Red Cross needs mental health volunteers. This was sent to every licensed member of the APA.

Looking for a way to contribute to your skills to disaster relief? Call your local Red Cross. Click the link above to read of her experiences.

Dare To Dream MH Library - Suicide Prevention Guides

In a typical high school classroom, three students -- one boy and two girls -- have attempted suicide over the past year. Since the U.S. Surgeon General's "Call to Action to Prevent Suicide" in 1999, focus has increased on suicide as a public health crisis -- which results in 30,000 deaths a year among all Americans -- but much remains to be done.

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) -- focusing on an area of special need -- has published a set of guides to support people who attempt suicide, are treated in hospital emergency rooms, and survive. An estimated 30-50% of individuals who die from suicide have made previous attempts. "The guides bridge a gap in suicide prevention strategies," said NAMI executive director Michael J. Fitzpatrick. "They offer support to people most involved in crisis of a suicide attempt and are intended to reduce the risk of additional attempts."

Each set consists of three brochures in English -- addressing the different audiences -- and are intended for distribution in emergency rooms and other professional settings. Sample copies have been sent to approximately 400 hospital emergency departments around the country. The first two titles also are provided in Spanish.

* Taking Care of Yourself After an Attempt * Taking Care of Yourself and Your Family After an Attempt * Helping Patients and Their Families After an Attempt

NAMI developed the guides in partnership with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, Education Development Center, funded by the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Copies can be downloaded for free or purchased on-line at http://www.nami.org/suicidebrochures at cost of $30.00 for a set of 50 brochures (10 of each version) or 50 of one title.

CONTACT: Alexis O'Brien of NAMI, 1-703-312-7893, or alexiso(at)nami.org URL: http://www.prnewswire.com http://www.nami.org www.prnewswire.com Copyright (C) 2005 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.

Grand Rounds is a tradition in many hospitals around the country. Here is an on-line version. A touching story from hospital impact. This is one weeks post from Grand Rounds 2.05, a rotating column of medical professionals.

I once spoke with one of the most famous hospital CEOs in America. Out of all the things he could have shared with me that day, he talked to me about a cleaning lady in his hospital. This is the story he told...

A patient was in a coma and her grieving family sat around her. The patient had been completely unresponsive for weeks. Then, a particular cleaning lady unknowingly and deeply moved this family - simply by doing her job with a smile and by singing/humming a sweet tune under her breathe. The family noticed that the patient actually responded to this far-off cleaning lady's humming ever so slightly - a twitch of the eye, a tear. The family asked the cleaning lady to come in and sing to their loved one in the coma. Without hesitating, the cleaning lady put down her mop, came into the room, and sang an angelic tune. It was a tender, moving moment for the whole family - another tear flowed down the patient's face. A few days later, the patient died, but the family was so moved by the event, that they wrote the hospital, wanting to thank that anonymous cleaning lady.

This week's grand rounds is dedicated to that unnamed hospital cleaning lady, and to all those in healthcare who do their job with a smile on their face and a sweet tune on their hearts.

Book Review: The Emotional Toolkit - Seven Power-Skills to Nail Your Bad Feelings, by Darlene Mininni, Ph.D., St. Martin's Press.

Managing emotion has never been a part of school curriculum, nor has it been a regular part of parenting. Parents learn about managing emotion from their parents in a disorganized anecdotal fashion teased out by trial and error. A particularly adverturous child may have many opportunities for learning, while a child that is shy and/or particularly compliant has relatively few. The family style of emotion management is based on a coping method passed on informally from generation to generation by word of mouth. Our modern culture lacks the traditional rites of passage that help ensure we learn the skills of adulthood. Yet emotion management is the single most important skill that determines our social and economic success and ability to maintain our mental health. As a psychotherapist over the past 28 years, I have found that a major part of what I do is educating people on what their emotions mean and how to cope with them.

I recently had the good fortune of obtaining a copy of Dr. Darlene Mininni's book, The Emotional Tookit. This book is well organized and chock full of most every tool I can think of that will prepare the average person for managing the emotional rollercoaster of adulthood in a complicated world. Although written particularly for women using many real life examples from the author's clinical experience, the skills are just as applicable to men and simple enough to be incorporated in a pre-teen training curriculum. The skills are described in an easy to understand way with many examples of how they can be applied in situations we are all familar with. I greatly appreciate this book and will recommend it to my clients.

A new study of Seasonal Affective Disorder, a variety of depression that seems to be associated with winter has had a history of being successfully treated by intense light 45 minutes twice a day during the winter season. The problem has been that people have a tough time adhering to a daily schedule of 90 minutes of intense light. The side of the issue is that the lights are quite expensive, in the area of $350 or more. As a rule, insurance doesn't readily pay for the lights.

University of Vermont

Only six percent of the CBT participants met the criteria for depression at the one-year follow-up, while 40 percent of light-exclusive participants met the depression criteria during the winter season of the next year. The majority of light therapy users reported having a hard time adhering to the recommended twice-daily 45-minute light box sessions at the end of six weeks of study treatment.

Rohan's research offers compelling evidence that CBT talk therapy by itself may be an effective treatment for SAD and may offer some long-term benefits over light therapy. "Sitting in front of a light box every day of the fall and winter promotes sedentary behavior and is hard for people to maintain over time," she says. "Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a time-limited treatment and appears to have better long-term effects."

Combining therapy with light may be even more effective according to the study.