Ambien could be a nightmare for those with PTSD, study says
MSN News
By Michelle McGuinness
June 18, 2013
Psychologists found that taking Ambien may make people with anxiety or PTSD remember negative memories more strongly.
People with anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder who take Ambien to help them sleep may be resting uneasy.
Psychologists at the University of California campuses in Riverside and San Diego found that Ambien may actually make people remember and respond more strongly to negative memories.
The schools said in a news release that zolpidem, the main ingredient in Ambien, enhances a process that occurs while we're sleeping and moves information from short-term to long-term memory.
read more here
Showing posts with label University of California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University of California. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
U.S. Marine Corps an Orgy Palace of Stoned, Drunk, Horny Teens?
There is a picture that goes with this story that I will not be posting. This is not your Dad's Marines that's for sure.
While the vast majority of the men and women serving this country are fully serious about their position, there are many of a new breed that are clearly not up to the challenge. The DOD changed the rules to allow people in by lowering the standard in order to fill recruitment needs for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Gangs in the military are a problem as well. This story is not just one of adolescent boys entering into the man's world of tough Marines. It goes much deeper than that. Is this a sign of the attitude causing an increase in military rapes? This study addresses girls as willing but we really need to wonder if this idea about sex is carried over into deployment and beyond. Where is the leadership on any of this? What are the Marines doing about this? Has discipline been forgotten? What does this say about the rest of the Marines when something like this comes out? Is it an isolated case of a group of young Marines or is this a problem across all bases? Next, what the hell is wrong with the female Marines? Don't they understand what they are doing?
While the vast majority of the men and women serving this country are fully serious about their position, there are many of a new breed that are clearly not up to the challenge. The DOD changed the rules to allow people in by lowering the standard in order to fill recruitment needs for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Gangs in the military are a problem as well. This story is not just one of adolescent boys entering into the man's world of tough Marines. It goes much deeper than that. Is this a sign of the attitude causing an increase in military rapes? This study addresses girls as willing but we really need to wonder if this idea about sex is carried over into deployment and beyond. Where is the leadership on any of this? What are the Marines doing about this? Has discipline been forgotten? What does this say about the rest of the Marines when something like this comes out? Is it an isolated case of a group of young Marines or is this a problem across all bases? Next, what the hell is wrong with the female Marines? Don't they understand what they are doing?
U.S. Marine Corps an Orgy Palace of Stoned, Drunk, Horny Teens, New UCSF Study Suggests
Mon Jan 05, 2009 at 12:59:00 PM
By Matt Smith
While doomsayers bemoan America's ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center may have turned up a brilliant silver lining.
Thanks to desperate recruiting methods required to staff those wars, the U.S. Marines may be turning military service into a male sexual fantasy land, where recruits are paid actual money to cohabitate with drunk, stoned, horny teenage girls.
UCSF scientists tested and surveyed 2,157 female U.S. Marine recruits -- out of 2,288 possible respondents -- with an average age of 19. Researchers found that the young women were more than twice as likely as non-military young women to be infected with venereal diseases. And the recruits were prone to engage in behaviors likely to get them sick again.
The sexually-precocious female recruits "perceived that sex is more likely and enjoyable under the influence of alcohol, and were heavy alcohol and drug users before recruit training entry," according to a November 2008 UCSF study titled "Relationships among Sociodemographic Markers, Behavioral Risk, and sexually transmitted infections in U.S. Female Marine Corps Recruits."
Sunday, November 23, 2008
PTSD:“Killing really changed me.”
When I was in Ohio for the IFOC conference, I was interviewed by another chaplain who is also a therapist. I told her about the depth of cuts. They come in all sizes when we're talking about PTSD. Combat soldiers have the deepest cuts because they are exposed to horrific events more often and they are also forced to kill. The second comes the police officers, there again, horrific events and often they are force to kill. The third level are the National Guards, reservists and firefighters. They are exposed to horrific events as well, but in their core, they do what they do in order to help. Most never think of having to take a life when they enter into the world of the citizen soldiers but they find themselves in combat between Iraq and Afghanistan, a rock and a hard place. The numbers are higher for the citizen soldiers but I believe the depth of the wound is higher in the soldiers, then the Marines, Navy and Air Force. Each time they kill, the cut of the wound sinks deeper.
I do not come to this conclusion lightly. It's from years of communicating with them online. It comes from listening to them from different walks of life. Just as I believe the God factor plays a huge role in the wounded warriors, also from what they've said, it does not take a lot to see what connects them and what makes them different.
I do not come to this conclusion lightly. It's from years of communicating with them online. It comes from listening to them from different walks of life. Just as I believe the God factor plays a huge role in the wounded warriors, also from what they've said, it does not take a lot to see what connects them and what makes them different.
Study: PTSD rates higher for troops who kill
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Nov 22, 2008 12:51:21 EST
CHICAGO — New research presented at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies shows post-traumatic stress disorder rates are higher in service members who have had to kill someone.
Shira Maguen, health sciences assistant clinical professor at the University of California, began her research when she realized that the Vietnam vets she treated at the San Francisco VA Medical Center were “really struggling with taking another life,” she said, adding that they often told her: “Killing really changed me.”
She started hearing the same complaint from veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but found “there’s not much discussion” about the issue in VA and Pentagon research. She and her colleagues decided to look into past research to see if there was a correlation between those who had killed and those who had mental health issues. They found that killing is “strongly predictive of PTSD.”
She talked to 259 veterans involved in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, and found that if a person had killed someone, they were 3½ times more likely to have symptoms of PTSD than someone who hadn’t killed.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_ptsdkill_112208w/
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Study Identifies Risk Factor for PTSD
Oct. 21, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Study Identifies Risk Factor for PTSD
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – A study that tracked police cadets from training through induction into the force is the first to report that people who show exaggerated startle responses while being threatened with harm may be more likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Researchers studied 138 police academy cadets, both men and women, who were in training in urban academies in New York and California, and found that cadets who were more easily startled were also more likely to develop symptoms of PTSD once on the force for a year.
PTSD affects about 7.7 million American adults age 18 and older, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and is especially likely to occur following interpersonal violence. Given the violent nature of their work, urban police officers are about twice as likely as civilians to develop the disorder. Yet, mere exposure to violence and traumatic stress is not enough to predict who will get PTSD.
“We need to find out who is likely to head down this path, particularly among those who put themselves in harm’s way,” said Nnamdi Pole, Smith College associate professor of psychology and the study’s lead researcher. “If we can help figure out a vulnerability in advance, we can help those at risk to avoid going down that path.”
Pole conducted the study with colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, and funding from the NIMH. It is slated for publication in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Long before PTSD was a recognized psychiatric diagnosis, distressed trauma survivors complained about being easily startled, according to Pole. Though the understanding of PTSD has changed in many ways over the years, “exaggerated startle” has remained on the list of core symptoms.
This investigation — part of a new push to study people who are the likeliest candidates for PTSD (prospective) as opposed to people who already have PTSD (retrospective) – indicates exaggerated startle may be more than just a symptom of PTSD but also an early warning system, or risk factor, for PTSD.
To trigger the startle effect, study participants wore headphones that did not provide any sound until an unexpected moment when they gave off a sudden loud noise. In the seconds following that burst of noise, researchers measured participants’ eye blinks, heart rate and sweat responses. Importantly, participants heard several startling sounds while also maintaining an awareness of an approaching threat, which in the study was a mild electric shock.
Researchers gathered the participants together again one year later – a year into their exposure to police-related trauma – and identified two significant findings. Those who had exhibited the strongest startle reactions while anticipating threat of shock and those who were unable to moderate their physiological responses after repeated startles were more likely to exhibit symptoms of PTSD after a year of police work.
Given the findings, said Pole, eventually science may be able to assist those with a propensity for PTSD to either avoid risky careers or perhaps to strengthen the vulnerabilities revealed by the startle testing so that future officers may function optimally in high risk environments.
The research team which, in addition to Pole, includes Thomas C. Neylan, Christian Otte, Clare Henn-Hasse, Thomas J. Metzler and Charles R. Marmar, will continue to gather data throughout the police officers’ first five years of service during which time the officers’ rate of PTSD is expected to rise.
-30-
Office of College Relations
Smith College
Garrison Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
Kristen Cole
Media Relations Director
T (413) 585-2190
F (413) 585-2174
kacole@email.smith.edu
http://www.smith.edu/newsoffice/releases/NewsOffice08_014.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Study Identifies Risk Factor for PTSD
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – A study that tracked police cadets from training through induction into the force is the first to report that people who show exaggerated startle responses while being threatened with harm may be more likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Researchers studied 138 police academy cadets, both men and women, who were in training in urban academies in New York and California, and found that cadets who were more easily startled were also more likely to develop symptoms of PTSD once on the force for a year.
PTSD affects about 7.7 million American adults age 18 and older, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and is especially likely to occur following interpersonal violence. Given the violent nature of their work, urban police officers are about twice as likely as civilians to develop the disorder. Yet, mere exposure to violence and traumatic stress is not enough to predict who will get PTSD.
“We need to find out who is likely to head down this path, particularly among those who put themselves in harm’s way,” said Nnamdi Pole, Smith College associate professor of psychology and the study’s lead researcher. “If we can help figure out a vulnerability in advance, we can help those at risk to avoid going down that path.”
Pole conducted the study with colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, and funding from the NIMH. It is slated for publication in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Long before PTSD was a recognized psychiatric diagnosis, distressed trauma survivors complained about being easily startled, according to Pole. Though the understanding of PTSD has changed in many ways over the years, “exaggerated startle” has remained on the list of core symptoms.
This investigation — part of a new push to study people who are the likeliest candidates for PTSD (prospective) as opposed to people who already have PTSD (retrospective) – indicates exaggerated startle may be more than just a symptom of PTSD but also an early warning system, or risk factor, for PTSD.
To trigger the startle effect, study participants wore headphones that did not provide any sound until an unexpected moment when they gave off a sudden loud noise. In the seconds following that burst of noise, researchers measured participants’ eye blinks, heart rate and sweat responses. Importantly, participants heard several startling sounds while also maintaining an awareness of an approaching threat, which in the study was a mild electric shock.
Researchers gathered the participants together again one year later – a year into their exposure to police-related trauma – and identified two significant findings. Those who had exhibited the strongest startle reactions while anticipating threat of shock and those who were unable to moderate their physiological responses after repeated startles were more likely to exhibit symptoms of PTSD after a year of police work.
Given the findings, said Pole, eventually science may be able to assist those with a propensity for PTSD to either avoid risky careers or perhaps to strengthen the vulnerabilities revealed by the startle testing so that future officers may function optimally in high risk environments.
The research team which, in addition to Pole, includes Thomas C. Neylan, Christian Otte, Clare Henn-Hasse, Thomas J. Metzler and Charles R. Marmar, will continue to gather data throughout the police officers’ first five years of service during which time the officers’ rate of PTSD is expected to rise.
-30-
Office of College Relations
Smith College
Garrison Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
Kristen Cole
Media Relations Director
T (413) 585-2190
F (413) 585-2174
kacole@email.smith.edu
http://www.smith.edu/newsoffice/releases/NewsOffice08_014.html
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