21. Canadian journal gives meaningful update on mental health issues

By Tom O'Connell

The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health, published in Toronto, reports on meaningful developments regarding mental health issues, including addiction. Here are some thought-provoking highlights:

•     Ecstasy causes brain damage--Ecstasy, a synthetic drug used at all-night rave parties, causes brain damage, a new study has found. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University did PET scans on the brains of 14 people who reported heavy use of the drug. They found damage to nerves in the brain that release serotonin, which is believed to help regulate mood, memory, perception of pain, sleep and other factors.

•      Depression in older women--Depression among older women can increase their risk of death, equaling the risks associated with cigarette smoking, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco found. They tracked death rates of more than 7,500 women older than 67 years, reports Reuters. The depressed women had almost a 50 percent increased risk of mortality in general, and an 80 percent greater risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. More effort is needed to detect and treat depression to enhance lives and reduce mortality, the researchers conclude.

•     Teen marijuana users depressed--Teens who use marijuana heavily are more likely to report depressive behaviors or to run away from home. Among the teens who used marijuana weekly, 24 percent had thought about suicide and 24 percent had run away from home in the past six months, according to data from the 1994-96 U.S. National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse. Users were more likely to be 16 or 17, white, and living in an urban area in a  single-parent home than non-users.

•     Impotence an anti-smoking hook--Anti-smoking campaigns are beginning to capitalize on the long-known fact that smoking can cause impotence and fertility problems in men. "Cigarette smoking causes sexual impotence," reads a new warning label on packages in Thailand....The hope is that these messages will deter those who haven't been warned off smoking by threats of cancer, emphysema or heart disease.

•     Prozac not worth the cost--Prozac and similar anti-depressants cost much more than older anti-depressants, but their benefits of reduced side effects are relatively small, a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests....SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are not considered any more effective than older drugs (tricyclic anti-depressants), but are marketed as having fewer side effects. They cost at least seven times more.

•     Beer ads linked to teen drinking--Children pay more attention to televised beer ads featuring animation or celebrities than soft drink ads or public service announcements, and are at a higher risk of drinking more when they're older as a result, a 12-year study from the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, California found.

•     Kids over-prescribed drugs--Infants and preschool children are increasingly being prescribed psychotropic drugs to treat common behavior problems, but not necessarily appropriately, reports the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry....Ritalin prescriptions in Canadian school-age children increased by 300 percent over a four-year period. In the U.S. there was a large increase in prescribed SSRIs, sertraline (Zoloft) in particular....There's also "no evidence" that these medications are helpful in behavioral difficulties for which they were prescribed, such as sleep problems, feeding disorders or general behavior problems.

•     Problem gambling a family affair--Genetics help explain roughly 50 percent of a person's likelihood of becoming a pathological gambler, according to an analysis of more that 3,300 twin pairs, reports a study at Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in St. Louis, Missouri. ...Results are supported by other biological research showing physiological changes in problem gamblers, as well as the role of inherited factors in disorders related to pathological gambling, such as depression, alcoholism, antisocial personality disorder and anxiety disorder.

•     Beneficial effect of cognitive therapy vs. drug therapy--A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry indicates that cognitive behavioral therapy effectively prevents relapse in depressed patients and challenges the assumption that long-term drug therapy is the only way to go....During the 20-week experiment, antidepressant drug use was tapered and discontinued, and no further antidepressants were given during the two-year follow-up unless the patient relapsed.

The Centre for Addition and Mental Health in Toronto is a valuable source of relevant information. You may find the web site for its Journal at www.camh.net/journal.

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