How to treat alcohol withdrawal craving symptoms?

The complications involved in drinking of alcohol and the number of alcoholics is increasing day by day. However, the number of available medications to treat alcohol use disorders is very low. Recently a new treatment was developed by the scientists to lower the alcohol withdrawalcraving symptoms that involves administering low doses of Buprenorphine.

Currently, the incidence of psychiatric problems is progressin. Considering psychiatric disorders, substance associated disorders, especially alcohol and stimulants induced disorders have been considered as progressive problemsAlthough the number of deaths and other problems caused by drinking of alcohol is raising, however, the number of medications available to treat alcohol use disorders is very low. 

The FDA indicated use of buprenorphine is for the treatment of pain and opioids withdrawal .Now, we are administering buprenorphine as a new access for the treatment of severe alcohol withdrawal craving, because we think and theorize that (our rationale) biochemistry engaged in opioid dependence is mainly similar to that of alcohol (both substances increase the level of endorphins and enkephalins).  Read more....................

Psychiatry and Religion, What Psychiatrists and Religion Professionals Can Do?

It's not uncommon for a Psychiatrist to hear such question when He /She prescribe medications for a Psychiatric Disorder and he has to give an answer. And while thinking about the answer he has to put into consideration the cultural and religious beliefs of the patient and how to avoid challenging them and at the same time he has to explain scientific terms in a simple way. 

If you're not familiar with the Jinn this is one of the beliefs according to Islam that Jinns are completely separate creatures created by Allah from fire and they all serve God like angels and culturally people believe that they can possess someone and usually the first thing to in some societies is to seek help from Sheikhs or someone who could cast the Jinn out or does the Exorcism. Among Christians they also believe in Satanic Possessions as it is mentioned in the Bible and they usually seek Priests help before they go to a Mental Health Professionals. Read more......................

Child, Adolescent and Young Adult Suicides

The incidence of suicide increases rapidly throughout teenage years. While globally suicide rates are approximately 1 per 100,000 in the age group 10-14 years,they rise almost 10-fold in age group 15-19 years. This phenomenon is not unexpected, as it coincides with major developmental changes of a maturing young person. Suicide rates stabilize in early adulthood.

Suicides in adolescents are impacted by a variety of factors including: psychological, psychiatric, genetic, social and cultural factor. Although there are several studies focusing on adolescent suicide and suicidal behaviours, only a limited number compare characteristics of child and adolescent suicides, or adolescent and young adult suicides. Considering major developmental differences between these groups, the aim of the current analysis was to examine demographic, psychosocial and psychiatric differences in suicides in three youngest age groups – children/early adolescents (10-14 years), late adolescents (15-19 years) and young adults (20-24 years) - in Queensland, Australia, between 2002 and 2011. Read more............

Mobbing in Academia

Conflicts are assumed to be the natural and inevitable aspects of human interaction, and may create functional or dysfunctional consequences according to the way that they are handled. One of the earliest pioneers in the behavioral movement was Mary Parker Follett. Rather than assuming classical management’s stronglyhierarchical position of power in organizations, Follett asserted that power should be cooperatively shared for the purpose of resolving conflict. Creative conflict resolution involves cooperatively working with others to devise novel solutions, often resulting in strong interpersonal benefits.

Many researchers and practitioners have identified reactions to conflict as among the main causes of mobbing in organizations. Mobbing is the nonsexual harassment of a coworker by a group of other members of an organization for the purpose of removing the targeted individual(s) from the organization, or at least a particular unit of the organization .Mobbing involves individual, group, and organizational dynamics. Read more....................

Why Teenage Risk Taking Behavior is Going Too High?

The study of adolescent risk taking behavior gained popularity in 1990’s as it become increasingly evident that majority of morbidity and mortality life was behavioral in origin. The term risk taking behavior has been defined behaviors that increase the likelihood of adverse physical, social or psychological consequences. These behaviors are usually established during childhood, and arepreventable. 

Overviewing the risk taking behavior one can observe that it include a number of potentially health damaging behavior like alcohol/ drug use, unintentional injuries/violence behavior (including suicide), tobacco use, unhealthy dietary intake, irrational driving, physical inactivity and sexual behavior which contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among adults and youth. The World Health Organization estimates that 70% of premature deaths among adults are due to behavioral patterns that emerge in adolescence, including smoking, violence, and sexual behavior. Read more..........

Differences in Happiness-Increasing Strategies Between and Within Affective Profiles

In well-being research, positive and negative affectivity, have emerged as fundamental dimensions of human flourishing . The positive affect is a dimension that moves from pleasant engagement (e.g., enthusiastic and active), to unpleasant disengagement (e.g., sad and bored). Individuals high in positiveaffect are characterized by enthusiasm, activity, alertness, “hardiness” (i.e., control, commitment and challenge), and experience a greater appreciation of life, feel more secure and confident, and have more positive social relations. That is, a general disposition towards a positive attitude both over time and varying circumstances . 

The negative affect dimension moves from unpleasant engagement (e.g., anger and fear) to disengagement (e.g. calm and serene) reflecting expressions such as anger, contempt, guilt, shame, fear and depressiveness . These two dimensions of affect are seen as two independent dimensions in which individuals might experience either high and/or low affectivity, thus, leading to the possibility of four different combinations. Read more..............

CHECK OUT HOW MOTIVATIONAL PROGRAM CAN HELP QUITTING SMOKING IN PSYCHIATRIC INPATIENTS

Smoking and poor mental health appear tightly entangled, as smoking prevalence, morbidity and mortality are clearly higher in psychiatric patients than in the general population . Hospital stay can be considered as an opportunity to treat tobacco dependence and smoke-free environments requiring temporary abstinence are hypothesized to promote smoking cessation. 

However, despite smoke-free policies, mental health settings still face tobacco-related difficulties. The number of smokers remains alarmingly high, and they seem to adapt to indoor smoking bans and continue smoking outdoors. Smoking rates decline less among individuals with mental health problems than in the general population. Read more........

Family Skills Training Intervention for ADHD: Putting the Child Back into Child Therapy

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common behavioral health concerns in children and adolescents, with a prevalence rate of 2% to 9% worldwide . Children with ADHD present with executive functioning impairments and behavioral challenges that negatively affect their daily functioning across everyday settings . These difficulties place them at greater risk for suffering adverse outcomes throughout the life span, including disruptions in relationships (with parents, peers, and teachers), academic problems, chronic behavioral difficulties, and delinquency and substance abuse in adolescence.

At this time there are only four empirically-based treatments considered to be best practices for treating ADHD: medication, Behavioral Classroom Management (BCM), Behavioral Parent Training(BPT), and behavioral peer interventions in recreational settings. While each of these may be incorporated within a more comprehensive treatment plan, a major limitation of psychosocial interventions is that they predominantly work with adult caregivers without fully incorporating the participation of the child with ADHD. Thus, treatments tend to focus on the child as the beneficiary of behavioral strategies, but fail to directly engage the actual patient to promote better self-management skills or coping strategies.  Read more........

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder Treatment with Olanzapine and Methylphenidate

ADHD prevalence rates ranged from %3 to % 7 in school-aged children. It is known that the disorder is more common boys than girls in both epidemiological and clinical samples. ADHD can co-exist with many diseases. The most important comorbidities are conduct disorder and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder because of the effects on impairing functionality. In the patients with ADHD itis reported that the incidence of conduct disorder is % 20 to % 50 anddisruptive mood dysregulation disorder is 86.9%.Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is characterized by impairing and chronic irritability. The patients respond to frustration with extended temper tantrums, verbal rages, and/or aggression toward people or property. Abnormal mood specifically anger or sadness present at least half of the day on most days and of sufficient severity to be noticeable by people in the child’s environment.

In treatment of ADHD most common used pharmacological agent is methylphenidate. Atypical antipsychotics can be added to treatment in some cases because of unsatisfactory clinical response and comorbidities.In this case report, we discussed the treatment of a 8-year-oldmale patient with methylphenidate and olanzapine, who has ADHD, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and conduct disorder.

Case: The case, who has consulted with the day clinic of Kocaeli University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, is 8-yearold male and a third grade student. It has been deducted that the case includes some serious problems such as; temper tantrum, hyperactivity, lying, taking things which don’t belong to him without permission, and telling he will hurt himself when he’s mad. After the consultation with him and his family it has been determined that the symptoms of the case have started when he was attending preschool at the age of 6 and his symptoms have increased when he started first grade at the age of 7. Read more...............

Parental Bonding and Early Maladaptive Schemas

According to the prevailing theory until the mid’50s about the nature of emotional relationships, individuals were searching for contact with other people, only to ensure basics needs such as food or sexual contact. However, after the publication of studies confuting this theory, revised his attachment theory, claiming that the type of attachment developed in early infancy will afterwards affect the ability to establish relations, as well as the type and duration of relationships.

According to the attachment theory, the quality of parentchild relationship plays an important role in the psycho-emotional development of the individual. Since allinfants interact with others, every human being develops an attachment bond. Even children who have been abused by a parent or caregiver, generate a kind of attachment. Forms of attachment are established depending on the preexisting experiences and the quality of the relationship with the parent or caregiver.The importance and the role of cognitive patterns were first acknowledged by Beck. He considered that experiences of early childhood modulate basic schemas about the external environment and the self. Additionally Young, who developed the schema therapy, underlined the role of early dysfunctional schemas in the existence of psychopathology and personality disorders in adulthood. Read more...........

 

Parental Behavioral Control as a Moderator between Close Friend Support and Conduct Problems

People under the age of 18 commit 16.2% of reported violent crime and 26.1% of reported property crime (United States Department of Justice). Hence, there is a need to understand precursors to delinquency to inform early intervention/prevention. Delinquency can be conceptualized as engaging in conduct problems, consistent with the diagnostic criteria of conduct disorder (CD), according to theInternational Classification of Diseases (ICD-10; Word Health Organization). The current study investigates the interactive effect of two previously studied protective factors against conduct problems: parental control and close friend support. Specifically, this study elaborates upon previous research by testing the existence of an optimal amount of parental control, defined as parental rule-setting, and its potential moderating influence on the protective benefits, commonly attributed to close friend support.

Conduct problems:  The diagnostic criteria for all three subtypes of CD (Confined to the Family Context, Unsocialized, and Socialized) outlined in the ICD-10 , call for marked antisocial behavior such as: cruelty to others or animals, destruction of property, fire setting, stealing, repeated lying, running away from home and severe disobedience. The three subtypes are differentiated by the relationships in a child’s life. CD Confined to the Family Context is characterized by conduct problems and disturbed relations at home only. Unsocialized CD is characterized by solitary conduct problems that occur in any environment other than solely at home, and are paired with poor quality friendships. Conversely, Socialized CD is characterized by conduct problems in the presence of meaningful friendships, often with peers who also engage in delinquent acts. Hence, CD exists in a variety of family and peer contexts that may influence the development of conduct problems. This differentiation among types of CD provides interesting clues into factors that may be associated with conduct problems. Read more.............

Investigating the Relationship between Psychopathic Personality Traits and Decision Making Deficits in a Prison Population

For many years, the concept of psychopathy has spoken vividly to people’s imagination and it received substantial attention in empirical studies . Even though psychopathy is not included officially among the personality disorders in the Diagnosticand statistical manual of mental disorders, both 4th and 5th editions(DSM-IV-TR; DSM- 5) and International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, tenth revision (ICD-10), it is widely accepted as a real and potentially detrimental phenomenon. The definition of psychopathy by Hare is applied most. According to this definition, psychopathy is portrayed by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioural characteristics, such as egocentricity, impulsivity, lack of remorse and empathy, shallow affect, manipulativeness and persistent violation of social norms. 

Hare divides these traits across two factors; factor one refers to remorseless, cold personality traits (callous unemotional traits), while factor two refers to aspects of an antisocial and impulsive lifestyle. Despite the global use of this concept, there are still different views on the exact nature of the core features of psychopathy, which could be clarified by gaining more insight in its neurocognitive underpinnings. Indeed, growing neuroscientific evidence points to specific neurocognitive deficits in people suffering from psychopathy. For example, problems have been found in people with psychopathy with respect to focussing attention to emotional cues, either leading to low distractability by these cues or to reduced facilitation by emotional helpful clues.  Read more..............

Does Homicide Influence Psychiatric Hospitalization to a Mental Health Facility?

There have been much public discussions on the state of crime, especially homicide, in the Caribbean). In 2007, a group of scholars from the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica, West Indies, conducted a national stratified random sample cross-sectional survey of 1,338 respondents. They found that crime was the leading national problem identified by the respondents (i.e., 44/100). Prior to 2007, the issue of crime was a problem in the Caribbean to the point where a conference was held in Barbados in 1999 - Tourism and Crime Conference in the Barbados – in order to address the challenges, find solutions, examine the consequences and control the escalating crime and violence phenomena.

Despite the efforts of criminologists, demographers, sociologists and public policy specialists, the crime problem persist following the meeting of scholars in 1999. Then in 2012, a new group of academicians empirically linked murders andpolitics, and in 2015, Bourne and colleaguesexamined the psychology of homicide in Jamaica and argued that crime is at a pandemic stage. Such disclosures speak to the continued unresolved difficulty to address the crime problem, especially homicide, by governments.Undoubtedly, the rate of homicide in the Caribbean is an issue and rightfully so; but, there is no such focus on psychiatric conditions. Read more..........

Adolescent African American Males Characterizations of Healthy Dating Relationships

Adolescent African American (AA) males are frequently portrayed as perpetrators of interpersonal and teen dating violence (TDV). Despite this depiction, non-sexual TDV is largely reciprocal in nature with both partners likely to be perpetrators and/or victims. Calls for prevention efforts are increasingly directed toward both males and females. Yet, a paucity of programs and research begin with the premise that what males’ value in a dating relationship is positive and worth building upon. Programs that specifically target adolescent males are often framed around raising awareness of abusive dating dynamics, promoting gender equitable attitudes and social norms. The foundation of these programs partially rests upon the embodiment of attitudes by males that may legitimize or tolerate violence perpetration. This is not to dismiss the laudability of such programs or existing data on male perpetration of dating violence and its concomitant attitudinal correlates (i.e., masculinity norms). It is to underscore the need to also acknowledge and build upon males’ positiveattitudinal processes. Efforts must be made to promote healthy masculinity and deconstruct unhealthy stereotypical depictions.

Scant research has investigated the qualities that minority adolescents, particularly AA males, attribute to a healthy dating relationship. Among AA and Latino youth, Guzman and colleagues found that teens put a high value on respect, which encompasses dynamics such as being faithful and not cheating. Yet, adolescents in the study had low expectations for experiencing these qualities in their own dating relationships. Males did express the idea that teens, especially girls, need to respect themselves in order to demand respect. In perhaps the only study examining the meaning of respect in romantic relationships among low-income AA youth, Gowen and colleagues found that respect is about being “treated right”.  Read more.........

The Impact of Maternal Eating Disorders and Spousal support on Neurodevelopmental Trajectories in their Toddlers

Parental mental disorders compromise parental functioning and are associated with greater negative cognitions and emotions about the parental role as well as with less adaptive parenting behaviors, including greater maternal stress, poorer availability to the child’s needs and less age appropriate stimulation of the child. Evidence also indicates a link between the type of parental and child mental difficulties . Given that eating disorders are defined bypathological eating as well as significant shape and weight concerns, it stands to reason that this type of maternal mental disorder is empirically linked with over-preoccupation with the child’s weight, many problems in feeding, and greater eating psychopathology in offspring as reported by both parents and children. However, in addition to these specific risks of feeding and eating problems, maternal eating disorders may be associated with a broader impact on child outcomes.

Beyond their ability to provide their child with healthy, varied nutrition that lays the foundation for a developing brain, parents are key players in their children’s cognitive development. Parents struggling with a mental disorder may find that the parental behaviors that facilitate early childhood intellectual development, namely flexible adaptation to the changing abilities and interests of their toddler, constitute a tremendous demand on their mental resources and add further stress that exacerbates typical parenting challenges. Recently, an association was found between maternal eating disorder history and delayed cognitive and psychomotor development among their toddlers whose age was 18-42 months old. Read more.................

Frontal Lobe Meningioma Masquerading as Depressive Disorder

Meningiomas are a diverse set of tumors thought to arise from the arachnoid cap cells, which reside in the arachnoid layer covering the surface of the brain. Meningiomas account for approximately 25% of all primary intracranial neoplasms; most of them are benign and their incidence increases with age. These tumors can arise anywhere, most commonly within the skull and at sites of dural reflection (falx cerebri, tentorium cerebelli, venous sinuses. Meningiomas are extremely slowed growing and often asymptomatic. Small tumors (e.g., <2.0 cm) are usually incidental findingsat autopsy without having caused symptoms. Larger tumors can cause symptoms depending on the size and location. The frontal lobes of the brain are notoriously “silent”: Benign tumors such as meningiomas that compress the frontal lobes from the outside may not produce any symptoms other than progressive change of personality and intellect until they are large. Patients with such tumors are often referred first to psychiatrists, and the correct diagnosis may emerge only when the tumor has grown large and has begun to displace the brain.

Case History: A 60 year old female was brought to psychiatric outpatient department with two months history of headache and altered behavior in form of remaining aloof, not talking much and remaining sad and gloomy most of the time. She had no past or family history of any psychiatric illness. There was no history of any co morbid medical condition or substance abuse. Upon further enquiry, the patient acknowledged having lost interest in all pleasurable activities and feeling easily fatigued by minor activities. In addition she complained of lack of sleep and appetite since past month. On Mental State Examination she was an elderly female, well kempt with decreased psychomotor activity. Rapport was easily established. Her speech was non spontaneous, low in volume and tone with increased reaction time. She verbalized her mood as “low” but attributed it to constant headache that was bothering her. Her affect was depressed. Read more...............

Sexual Behaviour and Sex Practices among Secondary School Students in Enugu

Childhood and youth are both periods of accelerated learning, and a time during which young people can acquire the necessary knowledge, attitude, values, and skills that can help them to maintain healthy behaviour, and avoid behaviours that put them or others at risk. Secondary school students represent a sexually active group. Their sexual behaviour will influence the spread of HIV to others at risk. They are also at a vantage stage of development in which they are receptive to information and intervention. Furthermore, schools representstrategic institutions where STI/HIV/AIDS prevention and health promotioneducation should begin.

The prevalence of adolescent STI’s including HIV/AIDS, pregnancy and school dropout rates are high in Nigeria. In response to this, Nigeria’s reproductive health policy focuses on preventing risky sexual behaviours during adolescence. Part of the obstacles to the programme is inadequate and incomplete information on the sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of adolescents and partly because it is not taught in a formal setting. Given the early age at which many young people become sexually active, there should therefore be special emphasis on early information and education of pre adolescents and adolescent boys and girls, both in school and out of school. As adolescents mature and become sexually active, they face serious health risks with regard to STI’s.

Most face these risks with too many sexuality myths, too little factual information, guidance about sexual responsibility and access to health care. In the early days of HIV/ AIDS epidemic, national AIDS programmes and community groups seeking to stem the tide of HIV spread had no choice but to experiment with prevention programmes. The was no way of knowing with certainty what prevention strategies would work best, especially for convincing people to change their sexual or other risk behaviours. After more than a decade and half of experience, what does work is to create a supportive social environment in which people can be informed about the whole range of options for safe sexual behaviour. Read more..............