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1577
West Ridge Road
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2280
East Avenue
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Rochester,
NY 14615
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Rochester,
NY 14610
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|
Phone:
(585) 865-7446
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Phone:
(585) 473-4913
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|
Fax:
(585) 865-7531
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info@employeehealthsystems.com
Typically,
when we think of addictions, we think of drugs or alcohol. But according
to researchers at the Harvard University Medical School's Division of
Addictions, pathological gaming (compulsive gambling) is increasing
at the alarming rate of 50% over 20 years. But according to lead researcher
Dr. Howard Shaffer, much of this phenomenon is occurring "under
the radar" because gaming has grown more socially accepted in recent
years due the proliferation of casinos, state sponsored lotteries, and
even church bingo games. The fall months, which feature increased exposure
to televised baseball playoffs and football coverage, are particularly
difficult times for those afflicted with this "invisible"
disorder.
The research
indicates that men are more likely to be addicted gamblers than women;
that 20% more college students suffer gaming addictions than youth in
general; that adolescents are nearly five time more susceptible to pathological
gambling than adults; that there are no significant diferences between
Midwest, Western and Eastern states; and that those with substance abuse
or psychiatric illnesses are nine times more likely to experience this
pathology than the population at large.
Might
you be a compulsive gambler, either potentially or actually? If you
answer "yes" to at least seven of the following questions,
you may have a serious problem that should be addressed immediately:
1. Is
gambling affecting your job or work performance in any way?
2. Is gambling affecting your home life and family relationships?
3. Is gambling affecting your reputation?
4. Do you ever feel remorse and self-reproach after gambling?
5. Do you ever gamble to pay debts or solve financial difficulties?
6. Does gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing, do you feel compelled to return as soon as possible
to win back your losses?
8. After a win, do you feel compelled to return and win more?
9. Do you often gamble until yur last dollar is gone?
10. Do you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Do you ever sell something to finance your gambling?
12. Are you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Does gambling make you care less about the welfare of your family?
14. Do you ever gamble longer than you planned?
15. Do you ever gamble to escape worry or trouble?
16. Do you ever consider committing an illegal act to finance your gambling?
17. Does thinking about gambling affect your sleep?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you
the urge to gamble?
19. Do you have the urge to celebrate good fortune by a few hours of
gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self-destruction as a result of gambling?
For immediate help and/or additional information, please consider contacting your Employee Assistance Program, Problem Gambling Referral Line (800) 994-8448 or logging on to gamblersanonymous.org.
Is a "good death" still eluding too many Americans? A new study suggests that this is the case.
After
interviewing the survivors of more than 1,500 people who died in 22 states,
researchers found that dying patients commonly did not get enough pain
medication and emotional support.
Families
also complained that communication and even basic respect were often lacking
from the professionals providing care. The report appears in The Journal
of the American Medical Association.
The
findings, said the lead author, Dr. Joan M. Teno of Brown Medical School,
suggest that "changing the culture of dying" will require a
vast amount of work.
Sixty-seven
percent of the people whose cases were examined died in hospitals or nursing
homes, and that is where change is most needed, the researchers said.
Poor
pain management, for example, was 60 percent more likely to occur in a
nursing home than in a private home where the patient was getting hospice
care, the study reported.
About
a fifth of those interviewed said the patients had not always been treated
with respect. Compared with a private home, this was two and half times
as likely to occur in a nursing home and three times as likely to occur
in a hospital. Survivors often said that they, too, did not receive enough
emotional support.
Vital
Signs, Eric Nagourney
Cognitive
therapy and medication are regarded as equally effective in treating depression.
But they work in very different ways, according to a study released recently
comparing brain scans of depressed patients before and after treatment.
The
study, which was published in The Archives of General Psychiatry,
involved 14 patients who attended 15 to 20 sessions of therapy and 13
comparably depressed patients who were treated with paroxetine, an antidepressant
better known by its brand name, Paxil.
The
cognitive therapy provided for the patients aimed to reduce depression
by teaching them to recognize and derail negative habits of thought.
The
study's senior author, Dr Helen Mayberg of the Rotman Research Institute
of Toronto, said scientists had speculated that the therapy had a "top
down" action on the brain; changes beginning in the cortex, the area
dealing with higher reasoning, go on to affect other areas of more basic
functioning.
By
contrast, research has suggested that antidepressants work as "bottom
up" agents, working first on areas like the limbic system that play
a big role in memory and basic emotions.
The
brain scans supported this analysis, the study said. The scans showed
that the therapy led to changes in the use of parts of the frontal cortex
that were not changed in the patients who took Paxil. Those patients,
by contrast, showed changes in the brain stem and parts of the limbic
system where the cognitive therapy appeared to have no effect.
Dr.
Mayberg said the findings could help explain why a combination of the
two approaches was often better than either one alone. "They're having
effects on areas that don't overlap," she said.
Since some patients respond to one kind of therapy but not the other, the research could lead to better tailoring of treatment, she said.
Sleep Experts Debate Root of Insomnia: Body, Mind or a Little of Each
After
a night of poor sleep, what could be more enticing than a nap the following
day? But for insomniacs, even napping is difficult.
"Insomnia
patients, when you give them a nap opportunity during the day, they
can't fall asleep, even though they say they are tired," said Dr.
Michael H. Bonnet, professor of neurology at Wright State University
School of Medicine and director of the sleep laboratory at the Dayton
Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The
observation is one piece of evidence that it is not just everyday worries
that keep people from getting a good night's sleep. Dr. Bonnet said
he believed that insomnia had a physiological component and that insomniacs
tended to be hyperaroused, accounting for thier difficulty in napping.
Studies
by him and others show that compared with sound sleepers, insomniacs
have higher heart rates and body temperatures, as if they were in danger
and preparing to fight or flee.
"Their furnace is turned up higher than control individuals,"
he said.
Dr.
Bonnet simulated insomnia in healthy young sleepers by giving them the
caffeine equivalent of 12 cups of coffee a day for a week. By the end
of the week, they had become more anxious, as shown on a personality
test. Some researchers suggested that lack of sleep caused the anxiety.
But
Dr. Bonnet did another experiment involving healthy sleepers who did
not take caffeine but were awakened every time an insomniac in the next
room woke up, so that the sleep patterns were identical. At the end
of the week, the healthy sleepers had not become more anxious. And they
were able to fall asleep faster than insomniacs could.
Dr.
Bonnet said he concluded that it was the body's arousal, from the caffeine
in the first experiment, that had caused the anxiety, not the lack of
sleep.
Not
everyone supports the physical cause theory, however. Some believe insomnia
is caused by worries about daily life. Others, like Dr. Michael L. Perlis,
an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the sleep research
laboratory at the University of Rochester, say that if worry is keeping
people awake, it is worry about not being able to sleep.
Some
people, Dr. Perlis said, "say you are awake because you are worrying."
"I
would say you are worrying because you are awake."
Dr.
Perlis said he thought insomnia was caused by a conditioned response
that produces changes in the brain or central nervous system. After
a while, he said, merely walking into the bedroom is enough to cause
brain activation. "You're going to walk in that room and you're
going to wake up," Dr. Perlis said.
Some
people undergo behavioral therapy to treat their insomnia. To make sleep
more likely at night, they are told not to compensate for lost sleep
by going to bed earlier or napping. To associate the bedroom with sleep
only, they are told not to watch television in bed and to leave the
bedroom if they wake during the night and cannot get back to sleep.
Dr.
Charles Morin, professor of psychology at Laval University in Quebec,
found in an oft-cited study that patients getting behavioral therapy
did better in the long run than those taking sleeping pills because
the effects of the pills wore off after they stopped taking them.
"With
medication we tend to get quicker results, but with behavioral therapy
we get longer-lasting benefits," Dr. Morin said. But neither therapy
works that well, he added. "Very few people actually become good
sleepers with treatment."
By Andrew Pollack, The New York Times
Atkins, South Beach or Dr. Phil? An expert rates the books
The
South Beach Diet gets a rave review as a "healthy version"
of the Atkins diet in a roundup of popular diet books released by the
Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Bonnie
Liebman, a nutritionist with the Washington-based consumer group, read
20 diet books for the wrap-up and advises people to "tread carefully
when choosing a diet book. They need to recognize that authors don't
need evidence to back
up their claims."
Her
reviews are in the January/February 2004 issue of Nutrition Action
Healthletter.
*
The South Beach Diet by cardiologist Arthur Agatston is a "healthy
version of the Atkins diet that's backed by solid evidence on fats and
heart disease." The diet plan outlines foods - whole grains, healthy
fats, fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables - that "are very close
to what health experts are recommending," Liebman says.
*
The Ultimate Weight Solution by Phil McGraw, more commonly known
as TV's Dr. Phil, is a "tough-love manual" that recommends
eating mostly healthy foods but doesn't offer recipes.
*
Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins, considered
the low carb bible, allows people to eat too much red meat, which may
raise the risk of colon or prostate cancer, she says. Plus, if people
keep going back to the induction phase, "the lack of fiber, vegetables
and fruit may raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diverticulosis
and constipation," Liebman says.
*
Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook offers "mostly healthy
foods," and the program's sensible advice "is used by millions."
*
The New Glucose Revolution by Jennie Brand-Miller, Thomas Wolever
and others recommends fairly healthy foods, but the advice is difficult
to follow because the glycemic index, a system devised by scientists
to tell dieters how rapidly glucose enters the bloodstreams after food
is eaten, varies so much for each food.
*
Eat Right 4 Your Type by Peter D'Adamo and Catherine Whitney,
which advises eating different foods depending on one's blood type,
is "about as scientific as a horoscope," Liebman says. One
claim she finds preposterous; That Type A women with a family history
of breast cancer consider introducing snails into their diet.
In
a separate story in the newsletter, public interest center nutritionist
David Schardt says there are no studies that prove Shape-Up! supplements,
endorsed by Dr. Phil, for apple and pear body types "promote weight
loss in anyone."
But
Brent Dobbs, chief operating officer of Shape-Up, says, "Each ingredient
does have a significant amount of research behind it. We make no claim
that these are magic pills."
On
the product label of Shape Up! Shakes, Dr. Phil says they contain "scientifically
researched levels of ingredients that can help you change your behavior
to take control of your weight," but Schardt says they're "just
run-of the-mill powder" made from milk, fiber and vitamins.
Dobbs
says the company plans to change the wording on the shakes. He says
they are "high in fiber and low in calories, and qualify as a meal
replacement."
Some of the supplements recommended by the Atkins program such as carnitine have not been proven to be effective in helping people lose weight, Schardt says. The newspaper could not reach a spokesman for the Atkins program for comment.
By Nanci Hellmich, USA Today
The above articles were gathered from a variety of news sources.
Employee Health Systems 2004
|
1577
West Ridge Road
|
2280
East Avenue
|
|
Rochester,
NY 14615
|
Rochester,
NY 14610
|
|
Phone:
(585) 865-7446
|
Phone:
(585) 473-4913
|
|
Fax:
(585) 865-7531
|