"Few soldiers come back from war without terrible images and events in their head," Dr. Fortunato said. Many "suck it up and soldier on" in the combat theater because they have no choice. But when they return home, these issues can percolate to the surface as nightmares, flashbacks and other problems.

Fortunato's program (Warrior R & R Center) uses "rehearsal therapy" to help participants confront their most painful memories and experiences. "The soldier tells the story, as painful as it is, over and over until you've emptied it of its emotional punch," he said. "They are never going to forget the story, but it doesn't have to have the grip on their guts that it did before."[link]

I will be opening a page on my Website that will introduce some of our Expressive Art Pictures by our Warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. I have received their permission to post them and thank them for allowing me to display their creative contributions. 15-Minute StressOut Program Webpage.

This picture, on the front page of my website, was drawn by Robert Peek today in Nancy Schwartz's, Expressive Arts Class, in our Warrior Restoration and Resilience Center, Wm. Beaumont Army Medical Center, Ft. Bliss, TX.

Rob is a remarkable artist, great human being, and professional soldier. He was seriously wounded while serving in Iraq. I have known this Service Member for several months and am honored to be part of his treatment team. Please feel free to comment and I will pass on your notes to our soldiers.

Jerry  More >

You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”

In the beginner’s mind there is no thought, “I have attained something.” All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thoughts of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something. The beginners mind is the mind of compassion, it is boundless. Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, pp. 21-22.

"DSM:
Diagnosing for Status and Money - A Critical Look at the DSM and the economic forces that shape it."


In principal, mental health diagnoses can be helpful to clinicians and researchers in their formulation of treatment, research and communication with other professionals. Unfortunately, the DSM has been shaped by economic and political influences rather than by scientific and medical ones. The DSM assigns diagnoses in a biased manner, resulting in more harm than good to our patients, their families and society at large while delivering huge profits to pharmaceutical companies. Women, children, minorities, lower income and older people are the groups most likely to be negatively affected by the biases presented in the DSM.

A newly published article: DSM: Diagnosing for Status and Money
Online Course for 4 CE Credits: DSM: Diagnosing for Money and Power

DSM Recap:

The DSM has been called the billing bible of psychiatry and has become one of the most influential texts in the field of mental health.

The DSM is a powerful tool of social control: its criteria are used to judge who is normal or abnormal, sane or insane or who should remain free or be hospitalized against their will.

Most texts and graduate and postgraduate courses present the DSM as an objective, scientific document. It is neither.

The DSM is primarily driven by the psychopharmacological industry, which reaps huge profits from each new diagnosis that can be treated with medication.

The frame of the DSM is distorted by a primarily intra-psychic-individual focus and tends to ignore contextual factors. It does not address what cannot be solved with a pill. It does not appropriately address patients who, in fact, are wrestling with social problems, such as sexism, racism, or homophobia, or existential anxieties regarding loneliness or death. Unfortunately, using the DSM, the dis-ease of such patients will be redefined as medically treatable maladies.

The DSM perpetuates the myth that the medical-mechanistic model can simply be applied to psychology.

Some clinicians have used the DSM categories as a form of "name calling".

Accordingly, the DSM gives some therapists an illusory feeling of power and superiority driven by the "power to name".

DSM-based research has repeatedly been shown to be of questionable validity and is, in fact, very unreliable.

Since its inception in 1952, the DSM has consistently viewed pathology as residing within the individual. Subsequent revisions in 1980 and 1987 have evolved toward a more firmly biological perspective.

In response to insurance companies' need for increasing specificity in diagnoses and the psychopharmacology industry's need for new markets, the number of available diagnostic labels rose from 297 in 1994 to 374 in 2000. The upcoming DSM V is likely to include hundreds more "new" (and profitable) mental disorders.
DSM is big business, not only for its publisher, the American Psychiatric Association, but even more so for the psychopharmacological industry, which profits from prescriptions written for the ever-increasing numbers of DSM disorders.
DSM pathologizes many normal and healthy behaviors:

Shyness: You are mentally ill if you are very introverted or extremely shy.

Grief: God forbid if you intensely grieve the loss of a beloved one for more than six months.

Depression: You must be mentally ill if you respond to real life issues or injustices with deep sadness and intense despair. (For more, see our online course: Depression.)

Anxiety: You must be mentally ill if your reaction to the existential reality of mortality or loneliness involves profound or debilitating anxiety. (For more, see our online course: Anxiety.)

Lack of Sexual Interest: Lack of sexual interest is often not a mental disorder. Many women may have good reasons to avoid sex that may stem from domestic abuse, overwork or other reasons. Kaschak and Tiefer (2001) discussed Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD) as "a textbook case of disease mongering by the pharmaceutical industry..." or what they call the "medicalization industry." (For more, see our online course: Feminist Sex Therapy.)

Spirited Children: DSM casts a very broad net around the ADHD diagnosis, and often includes millions of spirited, strong-willed, and highly gifted and creative children. It results in huge profits for medicating psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies. (For more, see our online course: ADHD: Myths or Facts.)
Online Course for 4 CE Credits: DSM: Diagnosing for Money and Power

Over 90 Online Courses


Email Dr. Ofer Zur
Visit the Zur Institute website.
Phone: 707 935-0655
Fax: 707 935-3918

Because breathing charts the life rhythms, the way we breathe signals the disposition of our energies. Agitation or excitement causes the breath to be uneven and rapid; but when we are calm and balanced, our breathing is even, slow, and soft. We can also change our mental and physical states by the way we breathe. Even when very upset, we can calm and balance ourselves by breathing slowly and evenly.

When you are aware of your breath, your whole life becomes balanced. Even when you find yourself in situations which arouse great anger, frustration, or pain, you can dissolve the disturbance by just being aware of your breathing, slightly paying attention and making the breath calm, slow, and rhythmical.” Tarthang Tulku, Kum Nye Relaxation,

Most people seem convinced that since the body inevitably shows the "ravages" of Time, similar ravages must therefore affect the mind, the spirit. Not true. What is most important is that in our lives we have learned through the mind, the mind that is our spirit, and that is what will remain even when the body breaks down.

Drugs Offer No Benefit in Curbing Aggression, Study Finds
By BENEDICT CAREY, NY Times

Published: January 4, 2008

The drugs most widely used to manage aggressive outbursts in intellectually disabled people are no more effective than placebos for most patients and may be less so, researchers report.

The finding, being published Friday, sharply challenges standard medical practice in mental health clinics and nursing homes in the United States and around the world.

In recent years, many doctors have begun to use the so-called antipsychotic drugs, which were developed to treat schizophrenia, as all-purpose tranquilizers to settle threatening behavior — in children with attention-deficit problems, college students with depression, older people with Alzheimer’s disease and intellectually handicapped people.

The new study tracked 86 adults with low I.Q.’s in community housing in England, Wales and Australia over more than a month of treatment. It found a 79 percent reduction in aggressive behavior among those taking dummy pills, compared with a reduction of 65 percent or less in those taking antipsychotic drugs.

The researchers focused on two drugs, Risperdal by Janssen, and an older drug, Haldol, but said the findings almost certainly applied to all similar medications. Such drugs account for more than $10 billion in annual sales, and research suggests that at least half of all prescriptions are for unapproved “off label” uses — often to treat aggression or irritation.

The authors said the results were quite likely to intensify calls for a government review of British treatment standards for such patients, and perhaps to prompt more careful study of treatment for aggressive behavior in patients with a wide variety of diagnoses.

Other experts said the findings were also almost certain to inflame a continuing debate over the widening use of antipsychotic drugs. Patient advocates and some psychiatrists say the medications are overused.

Previous studies of the drugs’ effect on aggressive outbursts have been mixed, with some showing little benefit and others a strong calming influence. But the drugs have serious side effects, including rapid weight gain and tremors, and doctors have had little rigorous evidence to guide practice.

“This is a very significant finding by some very prominent psychiatrists” — one that directly challenges the status quo, said Johnny L. Matson, a professor of psychology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, co-author of an editorial with the study in the journal Lancet.

While it is unclear how much the study by itself will alter prescribing habits, “the message to doctors should be, think twice about prescribing, go with lower doses and monitor side effects very carefully,” Dr. Matson continued, adding:

“Or just don’t do it. We know that behavioral treatments can work very well with many patients.”

Other experts disagreed, saying the new study was not in line with previous research or their own experience. Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, said that Risperdal only promotes approved uses, which in this country include the treatment of irritability associated with autism in children.

In the study, Dr. Peter J. Tyrer, a professor of psychiatry at Imperial College London, led a research team who assigned 86 people from ages 18 to 65 to one of three groups: one that received Risperdal; one that received another antipsychotic, the generic form of Haldol; and one that was given a placebo pill. Caregivers tracked the participants’ behavior. Many people with very low I.Q.’s are quick to anger and lash out at others, bang their heads or fists into the wall in frustration, or singe the air with obscenities when annoyed.

After a month, people in all three groups had settled down, losing their temper less often and causing less damage when they did. Yet unexpectedly, those in the placebo group improved the most, significantly more so than those on medication.

In an interview, Dr. Tyrer said there was no reason to believe that any other antipsychotic drug used for aggression, like Zyprexa from Eli Lilly or Seroquel from AstraZeneca, would be more effective. Being in the study, with all the extra attention it brought, was itself what apparently made the difference, he said.

“These people tend to get so little company normally,” Dr. Tyrer said. “They’re neglected, they tend to be pushed into the background, and this extra attention has a much bigger effect on them that it would on a person of more normal intelligence level.”

The study authors, who included researchers from the University of Wales and the University of Birmingham in Britain and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, wrote that their results “should not be interpreted as an indication that antipsychotic drugs have no place in the treatment of some aspects of behavior disturbance.”

But the routine prescription of the drugs for aggression, they concluded, “should no longer be regarded as a satisfactory form of care.” [link]  More >

All we need to bring to meditation is ourselves, for our bodies and minds are the foundations of meditation. Breath, which is like a coordinator of body and mind, is the essence of being that integrates them.

Ms. Rommes has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., a progressive illness that permanently damages the lungs and is usually caused by smoking. Once thought of as an old man’s disease, this disorder has become a major killer in women as well, the consequence of a smoking boom in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. The death rate in women nearly tripled from 1980 to 2000, and since 2000, more women than men have died or been hospitalized every year because of the disease.

"The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession's history, are the foundation of social work's unique purpose and perspective:

service
social justice
dignity and worth of the person
importance of human relationships
integrity
competence.

This constellation of core values reflects what is unique to the social work profession. Core values, and the principles that flow from them, must be balanced within the context and complexity of the human experience."

I appreciate that you take the time to read these brief posts. Please feel free to respond to my logs/blogs. As a professor of social work, I am interested in learning how students, professionals and others feel about these practices and issues related to our core values.

Note: Photo by Mike Connealy  More >

We can create a beautiful universe. When our problems become our friends and supporters, like gifts or contributions, we no longer have any problems. Then we have freedom from inner conflict; we have inner peace, the highest freedom there is. (Tarthang Tulku, Openness Mind)

Volunteers Needed Throughout the World--Come Join our New Civilization, Global Touch Project - Humanity Needs Us Now!

Global Touch Program-
Our Las Cruces Health Promotion Team with Elders would like to introduce and teach you to give the 15-Minute StressOut Program with Elders—a program designed to give ethical, safe, skillful, and nourishing touch with elders.

Our StressOut Program Experience is often described as {link:http://jerryvest.pages.web.com/id5.html

Using acupressure and other skillful techniques, coordinated with the breath to balance our body, mind, emotions and spirit, is a heartfelt or empathic experience for both the giver and receiver of this partner massage.

While systematically applying pressure points and introducing the 'laying-on-of-hands,' we ask that givers and receivers maintain an awareness of their breath throughout the activity. While we refer to our "stressout program" as a chair like massage, it may be more accurate to describe the mindful experience as a partner meditation - relaxing, yet energetic. (See 15-Minute StressOut Program - [link]

During this past year, our volunteers – seniors, NMSU social work, nursing and health science students, caregivers, in-home care workers, senior staff, and others gave over 3,800 “stressouts”(chair-like massage) in nursing homes, diabetic health clinics, day care and in-home care services.

REQUIREMENTS:

1) Volunteer for minimum of 2 hours per week in one of the settings identified;

2) Participate in orientation and training session;

3) Administer (6)stressouts with friends, family, colleagues, others;

4) Report (6)evaluations of your work.

RECEIVE:

1) Free Instructional DVD, Protocol & Guidelines for the Ethical Use of Safe, Skillful and Nourishing Touch;

2) Partnership & Certification in our healthy touch organization committed to advancing the quality of lives, health and relationships of elders on a global scale; [link]

3) An exchange of energy, love, respect, and good will knowing that you have contributed through skillful touch to help support the basic human need requirements for elders and others to live a healthy, dignified and respectful life.

CONTACT:

Jerry Vest, ACSW/LISW/LMT, Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University, School of Social Work, (505)524-2379 and email: geraldvest@comcast.net

or

Francesca Smith, LBSW, City of Las Cruces, In-Home Services Manager, (505) 541-2460 and email: fsmith@las-cruces.org

SEE ATTACHMENTSincluded in our Homepage – [link]

1) Protocol

2) Ethical Guidelines for Safe, Skillful and Nourishing Touch

3) Partner Certificate (example)

4) Good Samaritan News

NOTE:The American Diabetes Association selected our research article, "Alternative Health Practices in Ethnically Diverse Rural Areas," using the 15-Minute StressOut Program as the primary intervention, with diabetic patients and their families as "Best Practice Research" during the past decade.,(See Abstract No.8--point & click on this link)
[link]

Become a Global Partner-

If you wish to be a volunteer, schedule an in-service training program in your agency/community or know of care-givers and others who may be interested in learning our ethical, safe, skillful and nourishing touch program for all populations, please let us know.

We will help you develop your orientation workshop/training program and send you a free Instructional DVD and Power Point Program Outline. We suggest that our volunteers/givers, give a minimum of 2 hours a week of skillful touch-"stressouts." After meeting our requirements and submiting your evaluations, we will add your name to our list of Certified Team Members}. [link]  More >

The mind provides us with a vital energy that is responsive to every moment. Developing awareness of this hidden resource is the gateway to real freedom and peace, a true refuge in a crowded and frustrating world. (Tarthang Tulku, Hidden Mind of Freedom)

I am going to introduce some more 'grist for the mill' on the relationship of the mental health industry and the drug corporations or Big Pharmas as they are called. I am also going to introduce the power of the Internet and forums to advance our goals. I will continue to identify the dangers that exist with these powerful corporations while they continue to influence and control their/our clients who wish to participate in our community mental health programs. The psychiatry industry, by virtue of their medical license, have the sanction to diagnose, label, and give every person/patient/client a number that represents a disorder in their DSM handbook.

Today, the NY Times introduced two articles related to the drug industry and their relationship with psychiatry. It is apparent to many of us that the public should be aware of psychiatry, this classification system and why we have such excessive costs of drugs and treatment. Also, the Insurance Corporations are also part of this coalition to control the private records, and to maintain the categorization patients for payment and for auditing purposes, as well.

Abstracted from NY Times article:

Billions of $'s given to doctors by drug companies to prescribe their drugs. How long will our politicians, professional organizations and communities allow this to happen?

Drug company representatives are a major presence. They sponsor Journal Club (where trainees learn to review new data and research), they pay for many of our weekly speakers and regularly offer free dinners for the residents and faculty. They enjoy free access to our mailboxes and regularly detail our trainees in their offices, hallways and in our little kitchen.

This is not uncommon. Meredith Rosenthal at the Harvard School of Public Health reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that the industry spends roughly $15.7 billion annually marketing medications, with $4.8 billion dedicated to detailing individual physicians, or roughly $6,000 to $11,000 a doctor a year.

Studies indicate that most physicians meet with pharmaceutical representatives four times a month.

Studies also reveal that most physicians erroneously believe the representatives do not influence prescribing habits.

When doctors and trainees meet with reps, they change their prescribing habits and are far more likely to prescribe the drugs described, even when they are more expensive or have no benefit over alternatives. They are also more willing to request illogical changes to hospital guidelines that govern which drugs can be prescribed.

Estimates suggest that roughly $1 billion was spent advertising antidepressants to health professionals in 2000.

[link]

COMMENTARY; Drug Companies Get Too Close for Med School's Comfort

By DAN SHAPIRO
Published: January 20, 2004

In an 2002 article, Dr. Peterson wrote: ''Despite the lack of evidence of a significant difference in efficacy between older and newer agents, clinicians perceive the newer agents to be more efficacious -- these findings are significant as they highlight the discrepancy between empirical evidence and clinical practices and suggest that other factors influence clinicians' medication choices in the treatment of depression.''

The effect is easy to see in our department. The antidepressants fluoxetine, known popularly as Prozac, and paroxetine, known as Paxil, are now generic and cost patients and insurers pennies a day. Newer, rival drugs including sertraline (Zoloft), escitalopram (Lexapro) and Venlafaxine (Effexor) are 5 to 20 times as expensive.

In the last seven years, I have watched our residents prescribe the newest medications almost exclusively.

[link]


Do view this short video on "the tragic consequences of drugging our children.

[link]


Note: Picture by Mike Connealy  More >