This is for Herrad at Access Denied.
I remember reading it a long time ago and it's amazing that almost nothing was done to use this amazing tool. The vast majority of studies are from the eighties.Department of Psychology and the Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine, Queen's University at Kingston, 78 Barrie Street, Kingston, Ont., Canada K7L 3N6.
"Despite intriguing and suggestive clinical observations, no formal research has assessed the possible sparing of musical recognition and memory in Alzheimer's dementia (AD). A case study is presented of an 84-year old woman with severe cognitive impairment implicating AD, but for whom music recognition and memory, according to her caregivers, appeared to be spared. The hypotheses addressed were, first, that memory for familiar music may be spared in dementia, and second, that musical recognition and memory may be reliably assessed with existing tests if behavioral observation is employed to overcome the problem of verbal or written communication. Our hypotheses were stimulated by the patient EN, for whom diagnosis of AD became probable in 2000. With severe problems in memory, language, and cognition, she now has a mini-mental status score of 8 (out of 30) and is unable to understand or recall standard instructions. In order to assess her music recognition abilities, three tests from the previous literature were adapted for behavioral observation. Two tests involved the discrimination of familiar melodies from unfamiliar melodies. The third involved the detection of distortions ("wrong" notes) in familiar melodies and discrimination of distorted melodies from melodies correctly reproduced. Test melodies were presented to EN on a CD player and her responses were observed by two test administrators. EN responded to familiar melodies by singing along, usually with the words, and often continuing to sing after the stimulus had stopped. She never responded to the unfamiliar melodies. She responded to distorted melodies with facial expressions - surprise, laughter, a frown, or an exclamation, "Oh, dear!"; she never responded in this way to the undistorted melodies. Allowing these responses as indicators of detection, the results for EN were in the normal or near normal range of scores for elderly controls. As well, lyrics to familiar melodies, spoken in a conversational voice without rhythmic or pitch clues, often prompted EN to sing the tune that correctly accompanied the lyrics. EN's results provide encouraging support for our hypotheses that sparing of musical memory may be a feature of some forms of dementia and that it may be reliably and quantitatively assessed through behavioral observation. The contrast between EN's response to music and her mini-mental status is dramatic. The article concludes with several considerations why music may be preserved in dementia and suggestions to guide future research."
I believe that many of you never have danced it.
"On Friday August 23 - a week after the discovery of the bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Suffolk - police on the other side of the country received a call that a 22-year-old student had gone missing from her home in Sketty, a suburb of Swansea. Unfortunately, by the time South Wales police located Vanessa Brunt, lying unconscious in undergrowth a few yards from her home, it was too late. Depressed by a two-year battle with mental illness that had forced her to abandon her law studies at Cambridge, she had apparently taken an overdose of pills and died in hospital a few hours later.If that was all there was to Brunt's short life and tragic death it would not warrant further comment, being simply a footnote to a summer of parental anguish. But drugs campaigners and doctors argue that, unlike Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, Brunt's death might have been avoided. Indeed, they claim that if Hoffmann-LaRoche had taken their concerns about the severe psychiatric side effects associated with its anti-malaria medication, Lariam, more seriously seven years ago, Brunt mightnow be enjoying a brilliant career at Cambridge. According to Vanessa's parents, it was their daughter's experience with Lariam during her gap year abroad in south-east Asia in 1999 that started her on a downward spiral."
It's a very good article that approaches many aspects of Lariam scandal:
It's worthy reading the whole article."Now there is growing suspicion that psychiatric reactions to the drug may lie behind a series of killings at a US army base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In a three-week period this summer, four soldiers recently returned from tours of duty in Afghanistan allegedly murdered their wives then, in two cases, turned their guns on themselves. Although US army epidemiologists say they are perplexed by the killings, drug campaigners point out that three of the soldiers had been taking Lariam and had reportedly experienced dramatic mood changes that coincided with the administration of the weekly anti-malaria pill. In the case of Master Sergeant William Wright, a special operations officer who had been taking Lariam on and off for 10 years, family and friends noticed that after his return from Afghanistan he became prone to sudden rages and silences. Wright, who was jailed in July on suspicion of murdering his wife, is now said to be in a psychotic state."
"But, the more I looked at these linked news articles, blog posts, YouTube videos and tweets, the more upset I got. A few of them really brought the tears on for me. I decided I needed a little art therapy, so I went over to Polyvore and created a collage.
I think what got it all started--the feeling of the intense feelings, I mean--was a news article at CBS about the recent rise in reports of child abuse. I searched the topic "child abuse" at YouTube to see if the news video was posted there. You know me, the cyber klutz: It's the only way I know how to post videos here at my blog."
"The upper echelon of psychiatry has become so corrupt, complacent, and out of touch with the daily dealings in clinical care, that anyone who makes political decisions in this field that shows no consideration to the impact of diagnosis and care of psychiatric disorders as previously defined as appropriate and responsible, should be removed from whatever office or level of impact on care matters for the sake of patients and responsibly invested clinicians.I have nothing more to say.
"And, where warranted, criminal investigations should be considered and implemented to show there are ramifications for irresponsible, unethical, unwarranted behaviors and interventions in clinical care that cause harm and malfesance. In other words, it is time for people who give a damn about the profession of psychiatry to stand up to the alleged leaders of this field and tell them to go to hell--just retire or find an alternative line of work. Leave the profession to those who take health care seriously and respect the Hippocratic Oath and practice based on principles and documented treatment interventions, not about money or standing in the profession."
Every time I receive this kind of offer I think I'm not doing a good job. I did a quick visit to Allvoices. Still don't know what to think but and instead of feeling grateful for the compliment I think that if I was really doing a good job there would be no way anybody would do me a proposal like that.Hi ,
Tara Marinello
I came across your blog at Blogger.com. It is very interesting. If you are interested, I would like to extend an invitation to join Allvoices. It is a citizen journalist site. We discuss, debate and write about everything under the sun here.The site has a lot of people who are passionate about writing and use this as a tool to make a difference.
Allvoices also has an incentive programme for writers who can earn up to $10,000 cash. You can visit http://pea.to/p2 for more details and register.
Thanks,
Tara
I have already posted on this great project to raise awareness.
"Julie Mulvany’s paper “Disability, impairment or illness” compares the work of sociologists on mental illness with the work of sociologists on disability. In disability studies, the medical model of disability, in which the person with a disability is seen as having a deficit and therefore being less able to participate in the world, is contrasted with the social model of disability, in which a person with functional impairments of mind or body is seen as disabled by the ways society has excluded people with such differences from the practices of ordinary life. Mulvany argues that sociologists of mental illness have a great deal to learn from the social theory of disability, and her argument is a rich one. She faults disability studies for paying little attention to psychiatric illness, and does a great job at building bridges between the two areas of study. She writes without resorting to jargon and gives a strong argument for her main claim." (emphasis mine)
Now it's my turn:"But then consider my case: it's taken me two decades to get to where I am now in my understanding and criticism of the mental health industry. Does anyone want to kick me around because I wasn't saying the same things in print in 2004? Or 1999?
We all get to our own truths in life at our own speed--Behrman, me and you.
And I'll tell you something else: if the Nemeroffs, Kellers and Biedermans of the world renounced their pharma monies, conflicted research and so on and mended their ways, I'd forgive them. Chances of that happening are pretty much zilch, but if they did, I would."
"Olavo, who is my psychiatrist, prescribed me Lamitor because he knew that it would be the best for me. Although it was for sale it was still being on trial by psychiatrist but he had access to informations because he worked in California University. This is the med I take till today."
"Some behavioral side effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants have been known for a long time. Since the introduction of thesecontinue reading...
drugs in the 1990s, publications have regularly reported behavioral side effects in children and adolescents, including excitation, motor restlessness, social disinhibition, and above all self-injurious ideation and behavior. Clinical trials provide only limited data. Although these data suggest that some self-injurious and suicidal behavior may indeed occur in children and adolescents receiving SSRIs, they are too disparate to specify the frequency of these acts. Clinical trials provide useful data about drug efficacy, but their methodology is inappropriate for determining the frequency of such side effects. SSRI and suicidality: the data are difficult to read. Although some epidemiologic data suggest that SSRIs may increase the risk of occurrence of self-injurious and suicidal behavior in children and adolescents, other epidemiologic data show that the rate of suicide mortality in children and adolescents has decreased since the introduction of SSRIs. No known mechanism explains how SSRIs might increase the risk of these behavioral side effects. It is clear, however, that these effects are not particular to children and adolescents but may also be observed among adults. SSRIs must be used rationally and carefully in children and adolescents. They should not be administered routinely in youth with obsessive-compulsive or depressive disorders. Their use should be reserved for severe disorders or when psychotherapy alone has been shown to be inadequate, and when they are used, efficacy and side effects must be monitored carefully and frequently." (emphasis mine)
Patrick Leer's wife has multiple sclerosis since 1989 and in 2004 he entered for this project."The National Family Caregivers Association educates, supports, empowers and speaks up for the more than 50 million Americans who care for loved ones with a chronic illness or disability or the frailties of old age."What Patrick did was unite people in blogs, exchange informations and make the concept "caregiver" that is already known and has some institutions spread. There is already the autism caregiving linked to CaregivinglyYours. This is an inspiration to talk about health problems. It's amazing how little is done and said about those who are not healthy.
 |  | ||
| Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive"This two-part documentary investigates the reality of living with bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. | ||
Comedian, actor, author and film-maker Stephen Fry meets celebrities and members of the public who talk frankly about the impact the condition has on their lives.
During the two programmes, Stephen Fry talks in detail about his own experience of having bipolar disorder. He recounts his suicide attempt after walking out of the West End play Cellmates in 1995, and the continuing severe mood swings he has to endure.
Stephen interviews other celebrities with bipolar, including Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, Hollywood star Richard Dreyfus and British comedians Tony Slattery and Jo Brand.
He also meets ordinary people and their families coping with the condition and talks to them about some of the possible triggers. They all speak candidly about how bipolar disorder has affected their day-to-day lives.
At a recent seminar on bipolar disorder at St Andrew's University, Stephen was asked by an audience of psychiatric students and practitioners about his reasons for making the programme.
Stephen: I'm in a rare and privileged position of being able to help address the whole business of stigma, and why it is that the rest of society finds it so easy to wrinkle their noses, cross over, or block their ears when confronted with an illness of the mind and of the mood - especially when we reach out with such sympathy towards diseases of the liver or other organs that don't affect who we are and how we feel in quite such devastating complexity.
Stephen: I approach it from the point of view of one who suffers, according to a psychiatrist at least, from cyclothymia which is sometimes called 'bipolar light'.
I take that to mean I have most of the benefits of hypomania, a slightly less psychotic form of energy, vitality and exuberance and some, one hopes, creativity.There are certainly spending sprees but happily very little promiscuity. That's just my good fortune in this regard.
Stephen: I'm fortunate enough not to be medicated or, so far as I can tell, need medication. But the idea that once you start on medication and each time you go off it you seem to get worse is a very grim one. It really is a very serious condition.
Stephen: We've tried to approach the condition from all kinds of angles. We've looked at the issue of self-medication. How so many people try and do the one thing they can in our culture that allows them to control their moods, however detrimentally in the end, with street drugs and alcohol.
We've looked at the whole aspect of sectioning and visited hospitals in some of the most deprived areas in Europe, such as Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
One of the most important things we've discovered is just how common a condition it is, and how it seems to affect everyone throughout our society, both here and in the US.
"It's rather splendid to think of all those great men and women who appear to have presented symptoms that allow us to describe them as bipolar, whether it's Hemingway, Van Gogh, Robert Schumann has been mentioned ... Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath ... some of them with rather grim ends."
During the documentary Stephen Fry participates in a bipolar mood disorder study. He talks to Professor Craddock and his research team at the universities of Cardiff and Birmingham. It's the largest study of individuals with bipolar disorder in the world. You can find out more about the research and how to take part on the Cardiff University website.
You may also be interested in the National Bipolar Twin Study being carried out at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London. This research is looking at the genetic and environmental factors that influence bipolar disorder. It's currently looking for more twin volunteers to take part."
This is from BBC. As always I like to show good things and people who are of great value beyond any doubt.
Posts
All Comments
I'd like to set the record straight. I'd like to explain what was not mentioned in the article in the Wall Street Journal. I'd like to explain that WHILE i was still employed by
Bristol Myers Squibb, I spoke at a DBSA convention in Sacramento and to an audience of hundreds of people and disclosed the fact that I suffered from side effects - - akathasia and cognitive impairment - - from Abilify (and this was at an event at which BMS was a sponsor). But until then, even after I complained about my side effects to my doctor, Dr. Mark Frye, a BMS consultant, I was begged not to discuss my side effects and that "we'll prop you up on other meds until things 'even out.'" They tried. It didn't work. I ultimately told a BMS employee at the time (now at Otsuka) that I suffered from side effects and was no longer taking the drug. I was told that it wasn't "necessary to bring this up." So finally, I spoke up about my situation - - in public - - and then wrote about it - - on about.com/bipolar - - and BMS made sure that those statements were removed. I was convinced by my own doctor and several BMS employees that it was "normal to have side effects and that there was no reaason to go off Abilify." I disagreed. I finally came off Abilify and went public with the story. I was constantly reminded by more than 15 people managing me, that "it was all fine." I told the truth. I wasn't re-hired. Curiously, even after BMS/Otsuka knew that I had side effects and was NOT on the drug, I was asked to speak - - six months later - - as a successful patient for a 50th Anniversary Celebration for Otsuka in L.A. I was offered $50,000. I turned down the invitation. I was also told that it was "okay" to speak for Otsuka, because it was a separate company from BMS. I have always told the truth about my experience with Abilify. But more importantly, BMS made every effort to cover up the truth. And now, because I'm blowing the whistle on them, they don't even have a real comment, except for, "we didn't know." They knew EVERYTHING. It's curious that my doctor and their medical director, Dr. Mark Frye, is no longer employed by them. I think people will be curious to see his medical records which he kept of my treatment and perhaps to learn more about media training that BMS gave to me. Or to see the speeches that they wrote for me. There's a lot that was not reported in a 3,000 word front page story. But I think the real story here is that companies like BMS not only hide side effects (like akathasia), but do whatever they can do when they see that they spokesman, the guy who launched their big drug, is failingt on it. - - Andy Behrman, LA, CA