Penn State Gets New Mental Health Center?

It isn't just the VA spending money for "research" on PTSD but also the National Institute of Mental Health. Take a look at how long Cognitive therapy has been around.

Penn receives $6.4 million from NIMH for new mental health center

WHYY

Anne Hoffman

October 25, 2017

A $6.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will fund a new research center at the University of Pennsylvania to study how evidence-based treatment can better circulate to more therapists and mental health care providers.

University of Pennsylvania (Ashley Hahn/PlanPhilly

Researchers want to try to reduce the “research to practice gap” in mental health.

Rinad Beidas, an assistant professor of psychiatry and director of implementation research at Penn, said it takes 17 years for a small percentage of research to make its way into community settings.

“That means that if an innovation today was developed to treat a particular condition, it’s likely that a patient with that condition today may never get that innovation,” she said. “And if they do get it, it will be many years in the future … there is a growing sense and understanding in the literature that that’s not acceptable.”

Take cognitive behavioral therapy, for example. It was developed in the 1960s, and though it’s been proved to work, lots of providers still don’t use it.

read more here

National Institute of Mental Health Takes on the DSM

UPDATE
Mental Health Researchers Reject Psychiatry’s New Diagnostic ‘Bible’
TIME
By Maia Szalavitz
May 07, 2013

Just weeks before psychiatry’s new diagnostic “bible”—the DSM 5— is set to be released, the world’s major funder of mental health research has announced that it will not use the new diagnostic system to guide its scientific program, a change some observers have called “a cataclysm” and “potentially seismic.” Dr. Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute on Mental Health, said in a blog post last week that “NIMH will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories.”

The change will not immediately affect patients. But in the long run, it could completely redefine mental health conditions and developmental disorders. All of the current categories — from autism to schizophrenia — could be replaced by genetic, biochemical or brain-network labeled classifications. Psychiatrists, who are already reeling from the conflict-filled birth of the fifth edition of the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, are feeling whipsawed.

“I look at the data and I’m concerned,” says Insel. “I don’t see a reduction in the rate of suicide or prevalence of mental illness or any measure of morbidity. I see it in other areas of medicine and I don’t see it for mental illness. That was the basis for my comment that people with mental illness deserve better.” Adds Hollander, “There’s been a huge gap between some of our basic science information and our ability to develop new treatments because those don’t necessarily map onto DSM diagnoses.”
read more here

But will they also look at the different types of PTSD based on cause of the trauma? There is a huge difference between the type of PTSD combat veterans and law enforcement end up with from what someone surviving a natural disaster. A different type of PTSD that firefighters and emergency responders end up with as well.

National Institute of Mental Health Takes on the DSM
By LINDA HATCH, PHD


A week ago the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) published its intention to work towards and devote research funding to a new system for mental health diagnoses as an alternative to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association. The various incarnations of the DSM have been dubbed the “gold standard” of diagnostic criteria for mental disorders and have provided a common framework for practitioners, researchers and insurers to relate to.

The trouble is that the DSM has never been any good as a basis for understanding and treating mental disorders because it is built, as the NIMH announcement says, out of collections of symptoms rather than identifiable or understandable disorders.
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Defending resilience training while suicides went up unnonscionable conduct

How many times have you read about the DOD spending $140 million on teaching resilience? I know I've read that countless times over the last couple of years and reports seem to be just fine and dandy with that amount of money. They seem to have no problem believing that it was money well spent even though the number of suicides has gone up, even though the number of programs to prevent suicides has hit over 900. Even though they have been doing all of this funding and ducking since 2007.

Things like this from 2010

$33.8 billion for ACS accounts for efforts affecting our entire Air Force—from the development and training of our Airmen to regaining acquisition excellence. Airmen and Families. The Air Force is proud of its commitment to supporting its Airmen and families. The nearly two decades of sustained combat operations has imposed extraordinary demands on them and underscores the need to remain focused on sustaining quality of life and supporting programs as a top priority. To help address the demands, in 2010 the Air Force executed the Year of the Air Force Family and highlighted support programs focused on three outcomes: Fostering a Strong Air Force Community; Strengthening an Airman's Sense of Belonging; and Improving Airman and Family Resiliency. Includes $37 million to reduce the likelihood of a repeated Fort Hood tragedy, $8 million in Resiliency Training and $1.5 million for Chaplain Recruitment for 2012 (Air Force, General Norton Schwartz, February 17, 2011

and this

$1.7 Billion Provides $1.7 billion to fund vital Soldier and Family programs to provide a full range of essential services to include the Army Campaign for Heath Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention; Sexual Harassment/Assault Expanded Survivor Outreach Services to over 26,000 Family members, providing unified support and advocacy, and enhancing survivor benefits for the Families of our Soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice. ★ Graduated more than 3,000 Soldiers and Civilians from the Master Resilience Trainer course. ★ Surpassed one million Soldiers, Civilians and Family members who have completed the Army’s Global Assessment Tool to begin their personal assessment and resilience training. (Reported in 2011 for 2012 by the Army) $3 Billion for Resilience from the Marine Corps/Navy incorporated in the distribution report for war ships.

and this

The $125-million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program requires soldiers to undergo the kind of mental pre-deployment tests and training that they have always had to undergo physically. Already, more than 1.1 million have had the mental assessments.

But reporters don't seem interested in the fact that the above is a just a taste of what has been going on an is public record. Each year the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force give a posture statement to Congress about what they have accomplished with the money they received as well as what they need and what they plan on doing with it.

We stopped talking about $125 million a long time ago and I've collected data on hundreds of billions, not millions spent on the notion people can be trained to be resilient even though many experts have said it is basically hogwash. Other than that, all you have to do is look at the results. Higher suicides, higher attempted suicides, higher calls to suicide prevention hotline and the rest of the bad that comes with telling these men and women that combat is nothing you can't overcome if you train right.

You can read this report DOES COMPREHENSIVE SOLDIER FITNESS WORK? CSF RESEARCH FAILS THE TEST

Army Program Aims to Build Troops' Mental Resilience to Stress
PBS
Dec. 14, 2011

In 2009, the Army launched a program designed to help the country's 1.4 million people in uniform cope after tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. Betty Ann Bowser reports on the goals of the $140 million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness initiative, and the controversy it has created.

Watch Army Program Designed to Alleviate PTSD for Troops... on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Transcript
JUDY WOODRUFF: Even as U.S. troops leave Iraq this month and, in three years, will depart Afghanistan, the psychological wounds of war will last for some time.

The NewsHour's health correspondent, Betty Ann Bowser, reports on a new Army program to help families and soldiers cope and the questions surrounding it.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Here at Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army has always trained its soldiers to hit the bulls eye. And it's always taught the importance of staying fit. Now the Army is trying to teach its soldiers new skills to fight a war in unchartered territory in the human mind.

STAFF SGT. GABRIEL PRICE, U.S. Army: Everything begins with a thought. Everybody say that with me. Everything begins with a thought.

CLASS: Everything begins with a thought.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Staff Sgt. Gabriel Price is a trainer in the largest psychological program in the Army's history. Called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, it's being given to virtually all 1.1 million people in uniform.

STAFF SGT. GABRIEL PRICE: There are some emotions out there that we don't handle so well.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: The long years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced alarming increases in post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD, depression and suicide.

So the Army is betting 140 million taxpayers' dollars that it can do something about those problems by changing the way soldiers think about bad experiences. But, officially, leaders say there's another reason.

Brigadier Gen. Rhonda Cornum is the senior commanding officer of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

BRIG. GEN. RHONDA CORNUM, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness: The real goal of this program is to give everybody in the Army certainly, and to include families and civilians, the opportunity to become as psychologically strong as they can.

The psychological training was developed by psychologist Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. The Army gave his school a $34 million no-bid contract to develop and run the program.

Seligman is known as the father of positive psychology, which says that people can lead happier lives by learning how to better process negative thoughts. His theories are the basis of the Army program.

BRYANT WELCH: They had schoolchildren, each night, write down three positive things about themselves. And then they noticed in a follow-up study that those children felt better about themselves.

But to go from that to saying that we can have a soldier in a foxhole who says positive things about himself and follows the precepts of this program, is going to watch his buddy blown to smithereens and spend four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and come out feeling better about himself, there is a shallowness to the assessment that, from my vantage point, I find abhorrent.

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As you can see by the results of what happened over the last few years, abhorrent has been proven right. This is also from PBS About 53 percent of those who died by suicide in the military in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, had no history of deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan, according (pdf) to the Defense Department. And nearly 85 percent of military members who took their lives had no direct combat history, meaning they may have been deployed but not seen action. (December 2012)

While this is from National Institute of Mental Health
DEPLOYMENT: The suicide rate was highest among those who are currently deployed (18.3 deaths per 100,000) and dropped after deployment (15.9 per 100,000). For the entire TAIHOD dataset (from 2004 through 2008), 23 percent of the soldiers studied were currently deployed, 42 percent had never been deployed and 35 percent had been previously deployed but were not currently deployed. (2011) Last time I checked, 25+35=60% so even this report is wrong because it adds up to 102% but I think they were just rounding off.

Army conducts largest mental health study

What good will another study do considering THEY NEVER DO ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT THEY HAVE ALREADY LEARNED? Redeployments increase the risk of PTSD but they keep doing it. Suicides and attempted suicides went up but they kept repeating the same programs that failed. More studies are not the answer. Learning for what they already discovered in the last 40 years is!

Army conducts largest mental health study
12th Public Affairs Detachment
Story by Sgt. Joshua Holt

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – The Army Study To Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members research team is currently conducting a study to better understand the risks and factors associated with mental health, stress and suicide.

The Army STARRS research study is a partnership between The National Institute of Mental Health and the U.S. Army to identify the factors that may pose risks to soldiers’ emotional well-being and overall mental health.

“It’s the largest study of mental health risk and resilience that the military has ever conducted,” said Dr. Kevin Quinn, medical psychologist, NIMH program officer, Army STARRS. “We want to understand what might put a soldier at risk or what might make a soldier resilient to things that can increase or decrease the potential for suicide.”

“What we need to do, and what the study is designed to do is to contact a lot of soldiers,” said Quinn. “We’re on track with all the studies to have interviewed or surveyed 100,000 soldiers.”
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New Talk Therapy Shows Promise for PTSD

If what you are getting for treatment does not work, don't give up. Talk to your doctor to try something else. Everyone is different.

New Talk Therapy Shows Promise for PTSD
By RICK NAUERT PHD
Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
July 30, 2012

University of South Florida (USF) researchers report that brief treatments with Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) substantially reduces symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

ART is a form of talk therapy that uses back-and-forth eye movements as an individual fluctuates between talking about a traumatic scene, and using the eye movements to help process that information.

In ART, the eye movements are thought to be conducive to sorting out problems quickly through increasing the integration of activities in the left and right sides of the brain. The eye movements also seem to help an individual process information by producing a deep feeling of relaxation.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), PTSD has become an epidemic in the United States. Recent NIH statistics show more than 7.7 million American adults and as many as 31 percent of war veterans suffer from PTSD. They experience mild to extreme symptoms, often with greatly impaired quality of life and physical and psychological functioning.
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VA/NIH Award $6 Million for Substance Abuse Research

VA/NIH Award $6 Million for Substance Abuse Research

Studies to Fill Knowledge Gaps about OIF/OEF Service Members

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs is partnering with the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) to award $6 million in grants for
research examining the link between substance abuse and military
deployments and combat-related trauma.

"VA has a commitment to meet the full range of our Veterans' physical
and mental health care needs, and that includes addressing substance
abuse," said Dr. Joel Kupersmith, VA's chief research and development
officer. "This coordinated research effort is one more way we are
turning that commitment into action."

NIH agencies taking part in the initiative are the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and
the National Cancer Institute.

Several studies will look at treatment seeking patterns -- why and when
Veterans ask for help, and why many don't. Scientists will also explore
treatment strategies, including cognitive behavioral therapy and
Web-based approaches, as well as the most effective therapies for
soldiers who have other disorders, such as depression and substance
abuse.

Researchers will also determine if early intervention can improve
outcomes. Other projects will focus on how Veterans readjust to their
work and families after returning from war.

Institutions receiving the grants include Brandeis University; Dartmouth
College; the Medical University of South Carolina; the National
Development and Research Institutes in New York City; the University of
California, San Francisco; the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; the
University of Missouri in Columbia; and the VA medical centers in West
Haven, Conn.; Philadelphia; Little Rock, Ark.; and Seattle.

"These research projects will give us important information about the
ways that combat stress and substance abuse affect returning military
personnel and their families," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow.
"This knowledge will be used to improve our prevention and treatment
approaches, which we hope will reduce the burden of combat-related
trauma. Working cooperatively with VA and other partners will help in
finding solutions for this shared concern."

VA NIH Award 6 Million for Substance Abuse Research

Mental trouble is no less real

Mental trouble is no less real
By Mark M. Rasenick
August 2, 2009
Men and women serving in our armed forces are returning home with not only broken bodies, but broken brains. According to a recent Pentagon health survey, 31 percent of Marines, 38 percent of Army soldiers and 49 percent of National Guard members suffered from anger, depression or alcohol abuse after they came home from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Army recently announced that it will fund the largest study ever undertaken about suicide and the mental health of military personnel.

Researchers will try to identify the risks and the factors that may protect soldiers from mental health problems.

The problems in the military cut across the entire U.S. population. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 25- to 44-year-olds in the U.S. Depression impairs 15 million Americans each year. That's more people than are affected by cancer, AIDS or coronary heart disease. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression.
read more here
Mental trouble is no less real

Subconscious Restructuring offered for free after NIMH rejection

There is not one single program that works for everyone. We are all different. What works for some will not work for others but we really have to wonder why NIMH would block this. Are they blocking it to get more data or is there another reason?

Depression Cure and Evidence-based Suicide Intervention Model for U.S. Army Blocked by NIMH from Scientific Review

Depression Cure and Suicide Intervention Model Rejection by NIMH Inspires Offer of Free Help from the Developer.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 7, 2009 -- Despite an unprecedented crisis in military suicidality, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has rejected the only evidence-based proposal - the Burris SR process - to cure post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide in the U.S. Army.

The rejection shocked proposal scientists, former Marine officer, combat veteran and psychotherapist Dr. Ron Clark, the Principal Investigator (PI), and former USAF officer, psychologist and co-PI Dr. Jeff Litchford.

The Burris SR process proposed by the doctors has a record of success over its 25 year history, and it has established itself as the only evidence-based program process in mental health. The model, referred to by Drs. Clark and Litchford as "Subconscious Restructuring (SR)," is well-suited as the program of choice to overcome PTSD/suicidality problems of combat-returning U.S. Army military personnel and their families. It teaches depressed, traumatized and suicidal service personnel and their families how to restructure their subconscious, and replace dysfunctional components with more appropriate goal-oriented words, pictures, thoughts, emotions and behaviors. When symptoms of depression are present, as in the case of PTSD and suicidality, the Burris SR intervention is especially effective.
go here for more
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2009/5/prweb2391824.htm

NIMH has booklet on PTSD

While this is very easy to read, it depends on the reader if it leads them to want to know more. I hope it does.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
By National Institute of Mental Health(National Institute of Mental Health) An easy-to-read booklet on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that explains what it is, when it starts, how long it lasts, and how to get help.
Table of Contents
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
What is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD?
Who gets PTSD?
What causes PTSD?
How do I know if I have PTSD?
When does PTSD start?
How can I get better?
How PTSD Can Happen: Janet's Story
Facts About PTSD
Don't Hurt Yourself
Contact us to find out more about PTSD.

Tsunami trauma still haunts victims

Sunday, June 1, 2008
NIMHANS: Tsunami trauma still haunts victims


June 1, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: The Tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean in December 2004 is now history. But
four years after the devastation, people affected by Tsunami are still in trauma. Their psychiatric morbidity is quite high and children are the worst-hit. The Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences conducted a study on people affected by Tsunami and compared the data with those of normal population. About 12,000 victims were interviewed as part of the study to establish psychiatric morbidity and the extent of mental trauma they had undergone.

"People are still traumatised. The effect will continue for some more time. In case of children, it may continue for life," NIMHANS assistant professor of psychiatry Dr

Suresh Bada Math, told this correspondent. A meta-analysis of 160 studies of disaster victims found that post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorders, and panic disorders were identified.

The team found that 475 survivors had at least one psychiatric diagnosis. Of these, 244 were displaced survivors residing in the Port Blair relief camps, and 231 were in the Non-Displaced Survivors Group from Car-Nicobar Island. The most common psychiatric problems observed in the survivors’ group were adjustment disorder in 178 (37.5 per cent), depression in 102 (21.5 per cent), panic disorder in 57 (12 per cent), PTSD in 53 (11.2 per cent), anxiety disorder not otherwise specified (NOS) in 26 (5.5 per cent), and other disorders in 16 (3.4 per cent). The "other" disorders were noted in children and adolescents by their parents, and included dizziness, vertigo, startle response, sleep-wake cycle disturbance.

go here for more

http://syedakbarindia.blogspot.com/2008/06/nimhans-tsunami-trauma-still-haunts.html

TBI updates from NAMI

Action Alert: BIAA proudly endorses the Heroes at Home Act of 2007 as a critical step forward in meeting needs of service members with TBI. You can help! Click here

March 23, 2007: The Statement of Brain Injury Association of America President/CEO Susan Connors Endorsing Public/Private Collaboration to Meet TBI Care Needs is Available Here
Learn more about the Bob Woodruff Family Fund

NAMI Launches Veterans Resource Center on Mental Health; Online

NAMI Launches Veterans Resource Center on Mental Health; Online
November 6, 2007
Arlington, VA—The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has established an online Veterans Resource Center www.nami.org/veterans to help support active duty military personnel, veterans and their families facing serious mental illnesses such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia.

"We are a nation at war," said NAMI executive director Michael J. Fitzpatrick. "The war includes mental illness. Many veterans who return from active duty face a second war at home, confronting profound mental health problems. Their families also are affected."

The Center’s resources include a growing compilation of fact sheets, self-help information, online discussion groups, research and policy updates, and links to government agencies and other private organizations. NAMI has made the Center a priority to meet a growing need.

Almost a third of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq confront mental health problems. In 2006, the suicide rate in the Army reached its highest level in 26 years.

Approximately 30% of veterans treated in the Veterans health system suffer from depressive symptoms, two to three times the rate of the general population.
Earlier this year, the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives told NAMI’s annual convention that more Vietnam veterans have now died from suicide than the 55,000 who were killed directly during the war in the 1960s and 70s.

Approximately 40% of homeless veterans have mental illnesses. Approximately 57% of this group are African American or Hispanic veterans.

Families of soldiers deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq face increasing pressures from repeated and longer tours of duty. Unlike civilian suicide rates, greater numbers of young soldiers are taking their own lives, with broken relationships or marriages considered to be factors.

"The human toll of any war is felt for years to come," Fitzpatrick said. "NAMI hopes to expand the Center’s resources over time and provide whatever support we can through our other programs."
click post title for the rest

PTSD number game still playing at a trauma center near you

Battle Continues Over Vietnam PTSD Numbers
Forbes - NY,USA
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder involving nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks linked to event "triggers" that develop ...

but wait,,,don't believe it. As posted many times, the DAV had a study in 1978 and they placed the number of PTSD Vietnam Vets at 500,000. The number in this release are false. All you have to do is look back at what was found and how the figures were found to know what is or was real. They are forgetting one huge factor. How many we lost because of PTSD and suicide and homelessness causing early deaths.