According to a study published in the February, 2009 issue of the journal, Pediatrics, it appears that binge drinking, defined as four or more drinks on a single occasion, by pregnant women in their second and third trimesters increased the liklihood that their children would manifest symptoms of hyperactivity disorder by age 4. Here is a snippet from the article:

After controlling for a range of prenatal and postnatal factors, any episodes of consuming 4 drinks in a day were independently associated with higher risks for mental health problems (especially hyperactivity/inattention) in girls at the age of 47 months and in both genders at 81 months. There was no association with IQ scores at 49 months after adjustment for confounders. The consumption of 4 drinks in a day continued to carry risk for mental health problems (especially hyperactivity/inattention) in the absence of regular daily drinking.

You can access the whole article by clicking here.

Parental smoking enhances the liklihood of their teens smoking

Both my parents smoked when I was growing up and neither I nor any of my other 4 siblings became smokers. However, a study published in the February, 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics found that kids 12 - 17 are more likely to smoke if their parents smoke and the tendency is increased if both parents smoke as compared to just one. Here is a brief snippet from the article:

Parental smoking was associated with a significantly higher risk of smoking initiation in adolescent offspring. In addition, the likelihood of offspring smoking initiation increased with the number of smoking parents and the duration of exposure to parental smoking, suggesting a dose-response relationship between parental smoking and offspring smoking. Offspring of parents who had quit smoking were no more likely to smoke than offspring of parents who had never smoked. The effects of parental smoking on offspring initiation differed by sex (with a stronger effect of fathers' smoking on boys than girls), developmental period (with a stronger effect of parental smoking before the adolescent was age 13 than afterward), and residence of parents (with effects of fathers' smoking being dependent on living in the same household as the adolescent). Parental smoking was also associated with stronger negative reactions to adolescents' first cigarette, a potential marker of the risk of progression to higher levels of use.

You can read the whole article by clicking here.

An additional concern about smoking is that it is also predictive of other substance abuse, so cigarettes are considered a gateway drug in our current society.

At GCASA we offer smoking cessation services to our clients who would like to stop smoking and we work hard to prevent smoking to begin with with programs such as Smoke Free NOW.

RAP does a great job and in need of financial support

The Daily News had a great article in Saturday, January 31, 2009 paper on RAP, the Regional Action Phone. GCASA depends on RAP for its after hours service and for its Tip Line.

RAP is having financial difficulties and they are looking for donations. I encourage you to think about making a donation to RAP which does a great job serving our community, 24/7/365.

You can access the article the Daily News by clicking here.

Nothing like a good night's sleep

As a psychotherapist I have often found that clients with mood disorders and substance abuse disorders have significant problems with their sleep patterns. This then leads to a viscious cycle in the sense that it is hard to know whether the mood disorders and substance abuse problems are contributing to the sleep disturbance or whether it is the sleep disturbance which is contributing to the mood disorder and substance abuse problems. Whichever way it is, the two are closely linked.

I have found that when clients start sleeping well again the mood disorders and substance abuse disorders improve. So the clinical question becomes, "How do you help clients sleep better?" There is too quick a move to pharmacological treatments with sleeping aids. I think antidepressants can help but the benefit on sleep usually is not immediate and it takes a few weeks. However, counseling around good sleep practices known as "sleep hygiene" can be very helpful to people.

To read more about the study reported in the Psychiatric News on January 16, 2009, click here.

Superbowl Sunday is for gamblers what New Year's Eve is for alcoholics

From the Sacramento Bee on February 1, 2009:

--Super Bowl Sunday, it has been said, is to gambling addicts what New Year's Eve is to alcoholics. That is, an occasion to go off on a dangerous bender.

An estimated $90 million will be bet at Nevada casinos on today's game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers. And that's not counting the illegal gambling taking place in living rooms and sports bars, via the Web with offshore bookies, as well as the friendly wager at the office.

Just how much does gambling permeate the Super Sunday gestalt? You can bet on everything from which team wins the coin toss to the duration of the national anthem to how long it takes for the first penalty to be called. "The Super Bowl," says Mike Osborne, executive director of Harbour Pointe, a compulsive gambling treatment center in Maryland, "is a gateway to a long road of self-destruction for many people."

Osborne should know. He is a recovering gambling addict, starting as a teenager betting on football and other sports, and watching it take over his life as an adult.

His self-destruction was nearly total: He lost his job and served jail time for embezzlement; he lost his family after pawning his wife's wedding ring and returning his kids' Christmas presents unopened; he lost his sense of self as he wandered the streets homeless and suicidal.

Those days are behind Osborne now. But he knows that gambling addiction, like alcoholism and substance abuse, never really goes away. It's a constant battle to stay vigilant in a society where gambling is not only tolerated more than other addictions but actually is state-sanctioned in the form of lotteries and tribal casinos.

"The largest enemy we face is public ignorance," Osborne says. "It may seem like it's harmless fun. It is not."

Indeed, pathological gambling has been classified since 1980 as an impulsive control disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

According to a 2007 study in the journal Analysis of Gambling Behavior, 6.2 percent of visits to a general practitioner involved problem gambling. A 2006 report by the California attorney general's office found that gaming addicts cost the state an estimated $1 billion annually in lost work time and crime.

And although it's been estimated in several studies that as much as 3 percent of the population has a gambling problem, awareness and treatment lag behind that of alcohol and drug abuse.

Clients with co-occuring disorders much more likely to be psychiatrically hospitalized than clients with mental illness or substance abuse disorders.

According to a study in Psychiatric Services in January, 2008, clients with co-occuring disorders were 3 - 4 times more likely to be hospitalized than clients with mental illness only, and 10 -20 times more likely to be hospitalized than clients with a substance abuse disorder only. Here is a snippet from the article:

Clients with co-occurring disorders were three to four times more likely to be hospitalized than clients with mental illness only and ten to 20 times more likely to be admitted than clients with a substance use disorder only. The average number of inpatient days per admitted client differed across states by more than 100% for each diagnostic group (Figure 1). Despite the divergence in absolute values across states, in each state the length of inpatient stays were longest for admitted clients with mental illness only, followed by those with co-occurring disorders and those with a substance use disorder only. Yet across all clients, not just those admitted, the annual average number of hospital days per group was highest for the group with co-occurring disorders



GCASA treats many patients with co-morbid psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. We have MICA (Mentally Ill Chemical Abuser) specialists who work in both our clinics in Batavia and Albion and we collaborate closely with the Mental Health Clinics in both counties.

High cormobidity between intimate partner violence and behavioral health problems

Behavioral health clinicians have known for years that there is a high association between intimate partner violence and mental health and substance abuse disorders in men. Now a study in the Jan/Feb, 2009 has found data to support the relationship. You can access the article by clicking here.

It has bothered me for years that these men are referred for "anger management" classes as if this is merely a matter of learning how to control one's temper. This is part of the picture but unless the underlying disorders are dealt with, anger management alone won't do much good.

Here at GCASA, we attempt to help the whole person with their problems which often include relationship problems and anger management problems which are symptoms of their mental health and substance abuse disorders.