Eating Disorders: Take your seats class time to learn!

Today we are going to explore the different Eating Disorders according to the DSM-IV-TR. Here we go...

Anorexia Nervosa

-Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height: Weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight <85% of that expected or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected.

-Fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though under weight.

-Disturbance in the way one's body weight or shape are experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.

-Amenorrhea (at least three consecutive cycles) in postmenarchal girls and women. Amenorrhea is defined as periods occurring only following hormone (e.g., estrogen) administration.

Subtype- Restricting type-During the current episode of anorexia nervosa, the person has not regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior (self-induced vomiting or misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas).

               Binge-eating–purging type- During the current episode of anorexia nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior (self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas).

Bulimia Nervosa

-Recurrent episodes of binge eating characterized by both:

                 * Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat during a similar period of time and under similar circumstances

                 *A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode, defined by a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating.

-Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior to prevent weight gain: Self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, diuretics, enemas, or other medications, fasting, excessive exercise.

-The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behavior both occur, on average, at least twice a week for 3 months.

-Self evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight.

-The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa.

Subtype-Purging type- During the current episode of bulimia nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

               Nonpurging type- During the current episode of bulimia nervosa, the person has used inappropriate compensatory behavior but has not regularly engaged in self-induced vomiting or misused laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (NOS)

Eating disorder not otherwise specified includes disorders of eating that do not meet the criteria for any specific eating disorder. For instance, maintaing normal weight despite meeting criteria for Anorexia, or repeatedly chewing and spitting out, but not swallowing, large amounts of food.

Finally, both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are more commonly seen in girls and women. Estimates of female-to-male ratio range from 6 : 1 to 10 : 1.

This concludes today's lesson...

Have good one y'all

YES

Eating Disorders Week

The next few posts will be all about eating disorders. We will learn about what the different disorders are, who it effects, recent studies and treatment for this disorder. We will also be interviewing an art therapist who has primarily worked with those who suffer from eating disorders. Today's post will be coming soon and it will review the different eating disorders....stay tuned!!!

YES

Interesting links and articles

Hi guys,

Don't have too much time today, but I thought I'd post some interesting articles for your weekend(when your sitting out and tanning...supposed to be in the 70's here in the Northeast)

Just click the link and you're on your way!

1) The Science of Swearing

2) Blood Pressure Drug Linked with lower PTSD Symptoms

3) The Psychology of Video Games

May the Fourth be with you on this TGIF!!!

Y

Sports and Mental Health

In the wake of three incidents that have captured the sports nation; the alleged suicide of former NFL player and two NBA stars who have been unable to control their anger, thought it might be apropos to talk about it. Over the past 24 hours, I wondered if athletes in general don't obtain services and if that is true...why? One answer could be the same reason why anyone doesn't obtain services: Stigma. But are there other reasons?

In New Zealand, psychologist Karen Nimmo said "A survey by the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association found 35 percent of recently-retired players suffer feelings of despair or depression...Sport (associations) need to be realistic about the number of … serious problems that athletes face. There are a number of good sports psychs, but I don’t think sports have yet realized that they need to place attention on clinical issues in sport", as reported by New Zealand Herald newspaper.*

Dr. Chris Stankovich, a sports and culture psychologist made a point after he wrote an article in 2010 in the response to an NFL receiver, Kenny McKinley, who committed suicide, that "hopefully some of the smarter GM’s will see that by adding a line in the budget devoted to mental health will yield a return on investment and more than pay for itself – on and off the field". Furthermore, he wrote yesterday in regards to the alleged suicide by another former NFL player Junior Seau, that he believes that pro-athletes are not being educated once they are "retired" on how to adjust to a normal life(eerily similar to veteran coming home from war...interesting).**

Countless athletes in past and current suffer from anxiety and depression. Within the last couple of years Major League Baseball and the National Football League have started realizing that mental health is a problem when in the past it has been relegated to "shake it off, and get back in the game". Athletes are now seeking treatment. For instance, New York Mets' pitcher Mike Pelfrey, and Milwaukee Brewers' pitcher Zach Grienke both treated for an anxiety disorder. Running Back Rickey Williams reported that he was battling depression while playing, and Wide Receiver Brandon Marshall reported that he was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.

With the suspension of Metta World Peace aka Ron Artest, who elbowed a player, is most notably been in psychotherapy for some time now for anger management. Though, he has donated time and money for mental health awareness it gives you an idea that although people who have mental health problems who seek treatment, it takes time and real effort to reduce those problems. 

Conversely, Do you think Amare Stoudemire needs anger management counseling? Maybe, it is possible  that he overreacted, that doesn't mean he needs counseling. If it becomes a trend then there might be a case, but mental health professionals still need to assess what is going on to prevent it from happening again.

Each league, front office, and retirement services need to address mental health issues while they are playing as well as when they are retired. Mental health isn't like a broken bone, cast and in 6 weeks you're good to go, its a life long battle that people who suffer from it need to work on. They need to employ professionals and help deal with the issues on and off the field/court. 

*Fears for top athletes' mental health

**Junior Seau's Suicide is another example of the difficulties of sports retirement

Happy Thursday! (& Lets go Devils and Knicks!)

YES       

Growing Pains: Bullying & Violence may speed aging

Last week a study was published that childhood bullying and violence have the DNA decay associated with elder adults. It was found that a specific chromosone, Telomeres, is affected in children with violence-related stress. Telomeres, which prevent DNA from unraveling, get shorter each time cells divide, which limits the number of times cells can divide. Early breakdown indicates poor survival and chronic disease. The study was conducted out of Duke University and was a longitudinal study. As reported by US News and World Report, the Duke team found that children with a history of two or more kinds of violent exposures -- such as domestic violence, frequent bullying or physical abuse by an adult -- had significantly more telomere loss than other children. Idan Shalev, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology and neuroscience at Duke University's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, said "this is the first time it has been shown that our telomeres can shorten at a faster rate even at a really young age, while kids are still experiencing stress." 

The majority of studies that are conducted in world of psychology are treatment and assessment based. Meaning, after psychological event happens this is how to treat or when we assess a person we should look for this or that, but what about preventative measures? Granted, we cannot predict that a child or even an adult will be exposed to any amount of bullying or violence, but if we are able to educate the masses better, maybe we can avoid the decay of that chromosome and allow kids to be kids and develop emotionally at the right times.

Make your Monday not Mundane!

YES

Abuse and Money

Short little post.

I read today via Yahoo! news "that Trauma is the leading cause of the death of children in this country. The effect of trauma on productive life years lost exceeds that of any other disease. The economic cost of 50 million injuries in the year 2000, alone, was $406 billion. This includes estimates of $80 billion in medical care costs, and $326 billion in productivity losses. And the predicted cost to the health care system from interpersonal violence and abuse ranges between $333 billion and $750 billion annually, or nearly 17 to 37.5 percent of total health care expenditures."  

Yes, you read correctly BILLIONS of dollars and ranges over a 1/3 of health care treatment. That means that there is a large population that have endured some sort of trauma in their life. That number may even be more with the trauma that is not being reported or treated. I am surprised about the amount of revenue, but not surprised that it is a big chunk of treating trauma. I would also not be surprised if those numbers increased with treating our veterans over the past couple of years... 

Enjoy this little diddy!

YES

Childhood Trauma=Schizophrenia

Good morning, 

Last week there was a study that was published that children who experience trauma are 3x more likely to develop schizophrenia. Researchers at Liverpool and Maastricht University in the Netherlands, are the first bring together and analyze the findings from more than 30 years of studies looking at the association between childhood trauma and the development of psychosis, as reported by Sciencedaily.com in the article Childhood trauma linked to schizophrenia. The article explains how the study was conducted and the results that were calculated. Professor Richard Bentall, from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, said in the article: "Our findings suggest that studies on the neurological and genetic factors associated with these[schizophrenia, bipolar, psychotic disorders] conditions, which are not yet fully understood, are more like to advance our knowledge if we take into account a patient's life experiences. We need to know, for example, how childhood trauma affects the developing brain, as well as whether there are genetic factors that increase vulnerability or resilience to traumatic events..These questions will need new research strategies, such as studies comparing traumatized children who grow up to be psychologically healthy and those who go on to develop mental illness. Looking at the brain or genes only is unlikely to tell us what we need to know in order to treat a patient effectively." 

Despite the recent research that has been published, I am still on the fence about this research. With regards to this study, while it may give us a lot of information to help treat these children, we aren't going to now treat 7 y/o or an 8 y/o who has been through excessive trauma with the same medication as 35 y/o chronic schizophrenic. That isn't what the research is saying, but why would knowing this help combat the possible organic deficiency in a person? We cannot control the trauma at that point, and we would not be able to control the fact that this person has excessive levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Unless, we treat these types of children with the same medication to prevent them developing schizophrenia. Furthermore, schizophrenia is Dx in about 1% of the population, if this is study is a good indicator that number will increase. 

I just don't know...Thoughts ClinicallySpeaking nation?

Happy Monday!

YES