Electro-shock therapy sees a resurgence, despite controversial past

The patients are rolled on gurneys into a small screened-off area at Park Royal Hospital every 15 minutes with assembly line regularity.

One is a woman in her 60s, who, like the others, gets a momentary jolt of electricity sent through her head, causing a brain seizure and her body to tense for several seconds. The hope: That this treatment - the electroconvulsive, or "electro-shock," therapy - will ease the symptoms of her bipolar disorder that has so far not responded well to drugs.

The procedure, one of thousands performed at Park Royal since the 76-bed hospital opened last year, has worked on the woman in the past, says Dr. Ivan Mazzorana, who performs all of them on patients here. And, he said, it's likely to do so again. These days, the treatment goes by its more clinical-sounding acronym, "ECT."

"When you bring it up, most people say, 'Oh my God! Not ECT, that's something from the past,'" Mazzorana said. "It's a very simple procedure, safer, and it's a lot quicker than the medication."

Electroconvulsive therapy today is a procedure widely accepted by the medical community and one, absent a rare court order, that is done with patient consent. But it is also a treatment that lingers in the public imagination as a crude medical holdover almost as dated as bloodletting. Many outside of psychiatry are surprised to learn that the procedure still exists at all.

Despite that, ECT has seen a resurgence at many U.S. health centers in recent decades, experts say, and is now doing a brisk business here in Southwest Florida. Read more >>

Cost of health care to rise 72% in Indiana

Get ready to shell out more money for individual health insurance under Obamacare ... in some states, that is.

While many residents in New York and California may see sizable decreases in their premiums, Americans in many places could face significant increases if they buy insurance through state-based exchanges next year.

That's because these people live in states where insurers were allowed to sell bare-bones plans and exclude the sick, which has kept costs down. Under Obamacare, insurers must offer a package of essential benefits -- including maternity, mental health and medications -- and must cover all who apply. But more comprehensive coverage may lead to more expensive insurance plans.

Under Obamacare, all Americans must have insurance coverage starting in 2014 or face penalties of $95 or 1% of family income, whichever is greater. Enrollment in the exchanges begins October 1, with coverage kicking in in January. Plans will come in four tiers, ranging from bronze to platinum. Read more >>

Study: 70 Percent Of Americans On Prescription Drugs

Researchers find that nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescriptiondrug, and more than half receive at least two prescriptions.

Mayo Clinic researchers report that antibiotics, antidepressants and painkiller opioids are the most common prescriptions given to Americans. Twenty percent of U.S. patients were also found to be on five or more prescription medications. The study is uncovering valuable information to the researchers about U.S. prescription practices.

“Often when people talk about health conditions they’re talking about chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes,” Dr. St. Sauver stated in a Mayo Clinic press release. “However, the second most common prescription was for antidepressants — that suggests mental health is a huge issue and is something we should focus on. And the third most common drugs were opioids, which is a bit concerning considering their addicting nature.” Read more >>

Financial strain pushes many veterans to the breaking point

Hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been flying home to a fresh fox hole: A debt crater that’s sucking in entire military families and could be helping to fuel the veteran suicide crisis.

A bad job market, a long backlog for federal disability benefits, and occasionally unwise spending habits have been conspiring to strain the financial and mental health of many veterans, experts say.

"We keep hearing of suicides rising. How much pressure do you think one person can take?" asks Christopher Fitzpatrick, deputy director of VeteransPlus, a nonprofit that has fielded more than 170,000 calls from ex-service members with imminent financial concerns.

"No one wants to talk about the fact that there are other reasons, besides PTSD, for suicide at 2 in the morning. You know how we know? We have an online form people use to contact us, and we get those emails — they’re sent at 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning. People are reaching out, literally: 'Can you please help me? I’m losing everything.'" Read more >>

Connecticut Suicides At 20-Year High Fueled By Economic Downturn

Suicides reached a 20-year high in the state last year, fueled by a jump in deaths among men ages 40 to 59 — and experts suggest it might have something to do with the economic downturn. Of Connecticut's 288 suicides among men last year, 139 — nearly half — were those from 40 to 59, according to state statistics. There were a total of 371 suicides in 2011, including 83 women.

There is some evidence to suggest increased suicide is associated with the economic downturn, according to Gerard Sanacora, professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. But, he said, it's difficult to say with certainty the cause of the increase in suicide among middle-aged Connecticut men, particularly based on one year of data. "I think it's fair to say it may be related," he said.

Sanacora said that a Swedish study, to be published later this year, found a direct correlation between the amount of time a man remains unemployed and the risk of suicide. If depression leads to increased drug and alcohol abuse, the suicide rate can increase even more, Sanacora added. "It's complicated ..." he said.

The most recent state suicide numbers bear out a relatively recent trend experts have found, according to James Siemianowski, a spokesman for the state Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services. Although he could not comment directly on the suicide statistics released by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Siemianowski did say experts have been seeing an uptick in suicide among middle-aged men and women for a mix of reasons, including unemployment, failing health and poor relations with family. Read more >>

The Ignorant Neophyte’s Guide to Unemployment

Image by alles-schlumpf via Flickr

salon.com/blog - Cap'n Parrotdead

Whenever I see Facebook and Blog posts full of enthusiasm and optimism from the newly unemployed, I’m torn between laughing out loud and crying for the pitiable, ignorant neophyte. They talk about their illustrious work history, the success they’ve had in the workplace, how hard they’ll work at lining up that dream gig while showing the brainless bureaucrat that laid them off how foolish they were. Hey, Newbie, you may have hung the moon on your last job, but no one gives a shit. Moon hangers are a dime a dozen. I’d LMAO for real if it weren’t just so naive and sad.

Having now been unemployed for over a year, I’ve learned a few things that I’d like to share with you newbies. We’re talking cold hard truth here, folks, and it ain’t pretty. The cold hard truth is that the old paradigms don’t exist anymore. Whatever you think you know, you don’t. Trust me. You don’t.

If there are any Senators or Congressmen reading this, you’d be well advised to pay attention. Maybe you can actually come up with a useful solution or some-a that alleged stimulus money, whatever and wherever that actually is.

1. You don’t exist as a living, breathing human being. Double this one if you’re over 50. If you think I’m kidding, wait until you’ve posted hundreds of resumes and dozens of applications and can’t even get an acknowledgement. It’s a sad state of affairs when the rare rejection feels like validation.
2. Since they stopped counting people who’ve given up, you only partially exist even as a statistic. Here’s the breakdown: Living, breathing human being: 0. Statistic: 0.25 to 0.50. Stings a little, don’t it?
3. COBRA. I don’t know how you’ll pay for it on unemployment but I hope you got it and I hope your insurance has good mental health provisions. You’re going to need it to cope with the anger, frustration, damaged interpersonal relationships and overwhelming sense of worthlessness that you’re about to face.
4. Be prepared to be told that you’re lazy, unmotivated and undeserving of the Unemployment Insurance that YOU paid into when you were working... and that’s just from your elected officials. How does it feel to be sucking on the public teat, you worthless maggot? I know. I KNOW! Oh, and keep your chin up.
5. Your spouse doesn’t understand. He or she may care and sympathize, and they certainly have plenty of their own pain and fear to deal with, but they simply don’t know what it feels like to be a throw away non-person.
6. Try not to take it personally when well meaning friends or family tell you about a carpet cleaning job. So what if you spent 25 years building a career? This is what’s left to you but guess what? 150 other non-persons are competing for that suck-ass job; that what’s REALLY left to you.
7. If you complain about that suck-ass job that you’re not going to get anyway, you’ll be told to take it. ‘A job is a job’, they’ll say from their lofty perch up there in the land of the employed and fully extant. Never mind that it was never offered.
8. You know that economic recovery we keep hearing about? Don’t get your hopes up. Whatever it is they mean by ‘economic recovery,’ it’s a safe bet that it doesn’t apply to you. Sure, your economy could use some recovering but not like it will six months from now.
9. There are actually working people who envy you. They think you are on permanent vacation. I guess they forgot that vacations are supposed to be fun and often include jet skis and motel sex. They are half right, though, about the permanent part.
10. Here they are, the two most useful words you will hear through all of this: underground economy. Personally, I don’t even want to think about what an unmitigated disaster this would have been without the dog breeding income my wife has produced. Cash in, puppies out; living, breathing widgets!
11. Pay special attention to that last one, newbie. It doesn’t necessarily need to be underground but I concluded long ago that the only way I’m going to find a job worth having is to make my own. I’ve been working for months to accomplish that and I’ll soon be telling you all about it. I suggest you do the same.

Okay, so I’ve been a little cheeky with this post but hear me now and believe me later: every word of it is the God’s honest truth. Sorry to burst your little bubble, Sunshine, but I don’t make this shit up. I just report it. My wife says that I always sound so bitter about this subject. Can you imagine?

Now, Ms. Potential Employer what couldn’t even bother to properly reject me, if you’ll just kiss Cappy’s rosy red rump, we can all get on with our little lives.

Peace. Out.

Suicide Hot Line Calls Surge From Joblessness

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Scott Martelle
In one of the darkest tallies of the nation's still-sputtering recession, experts say financial desperation has played a significant role in increased calls to suicide-prevention hot lines -- and likely has led to increased suicide rates.

While government statistics on suicides often lag by two or three years, experts say the easier-to-track calls to hot lines have grown significantly. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which operates 24-hour crisis help lines around the country, reported an increase of 18 percent from January to May this year. The rates have fluctuated wildly, from 13,424 in January 2007 to a peak of 59,500 two months ago.

Dr. John Draper, director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, said it's hard to tell whether the increased pace reflects more people needing help, or whether it's the effects of media attention on the problem and increased outreach by crisis counselors.

But Draper has no doubt the need is there. Federal mental health programs funneled an extra $1 million to the Lifeline last year to increase outreach in 20 programs targeting heavily stressed places, such as Michigan. And past studies, Draper said, have shown a correlation between unemployment rates and suicide rates.

"There is no reason to believe this would be different," he said. "There is very appropriate concern at the federal level. While we don't have the data yet, we're not waiting."

There are indicators the U.S. suicide rate has climbed. An informal tally of 19 states by the Wall Street Journal in November found an increase of 2.3 percent in the 2008 suicide rate over the 2007 rate. Other news outlets around the nation have recently reported a troubling flow of suicides and murder-suicides by people facing crippling financial troubles, including:

* An armed man facing foreclosure in Chattanooga, Tenn., who called police early July 1 threatening suicide. Authorities said that after officers arrived, the man talked with them from the porch of his house and then burst down the steps waving his gun while screaming, "Suicide by cop!" He died in a hail of bullets.

* A husband in Santa Ana, Calif., who called police later that same day to say he had shot his wife while she slept and then overdosed on Valium in a murder-suicide pact the morning they were to be evicted from their apartment. He survived and has been charged with murder.

* A husband and father in Anaheim, Calif., facing foreclosure and a mountain of credit card debt, last month shot and killed his wife, critically wounded their 3-year-old son, shot at but missed their 5-year-old son and then killed himself, police said. More...

Three in 10 Americans say they or someone in their household has lost a job

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GARY LANGER/ABC
When the pink slip comes, trouble follows – financial, but emotional as well. Three in 10 Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they or someone in their household has lost a job in the past year -- a new high. And the impacts can be devastating: Beyond financial hardship, large numbers report anger, stress and depression as a result.

Click here for PDF with charts and questionnaire.

Given the state of the economy – 10.2 percent unemployment, 17.5 percent including those who've given up looking – "surprise" is the least common reaction measured in this survey. Nonetheless, more than half of those who report a layoff in their household, 52 percent, were surprised by it.

Other emotional responses range higher: Nearly all – 90 percent – report personal stress as a result of the layoff. Sixty-two percent, anger. And 58 percent, depression. As percentages of the full population, those compute to 27 percent of all Americans with stress, 19 percent angry and 17 percent suffering depression in response to the loss of a job.

There's also, of course, financial hardship: Among those who've sustained a job loss in the household, 86 percent report money trouble, and 62 percent say it's been serious.

RE-HIRE – There are some positive (or at least less negative) outcomes: Among people who report a job loss in the last year, just fewer than four in 10 say the person who'd been axed has been able to find a new job. The flipside: Of them, 51 percent say it's for less pay.

Just 15 percent report finding a better-paying job; the remaining third lined up new work for about the same money.

When new jobs are unavailable, the pain is especially severe: Depression soars to 70 percent among people laid off and still out of work, compared with 40 percent of those who've lost one job but found another. Experiencing a "great deal" of financial hardship, naturally, also soars among those who haven't found another job. So does pessimism about the economy's future. More...