Indeed, it’s easy to see how so many have become more than just dependant on their mobile devices and social networks – for many users, the need to keep from missing out on something that could be great is too much to take.  As Gregory noted,” That need for constant communication may stem from something being dubbed the “fear of missing out,” a sense that people think there is something better going on than the activity they are participating in at the moment. That need turns into a compulsion to be constantly connected.”

As technology users are quickly integrating devices and constant communication into their daily lives, the stress of having to stay connected or of finding out what others are doing and feeling like your life doesn’t measure up can cause serious discontent in even the most experienced technology user, although the experience does vary from user to user.

While social networking is still a relatively new form of communication, there are certainly indicators that its use, or overuse, could have potentially negative effects on some users.  Those who suffer from social anxiety or who are prone to having feelings of being “left out” or always missing out on activities may find themselves hurt when they use social media, as it can glamorize other people’s lives and give us a feeling that someone is always doing something better.  For some individuals, this can lead to feelings of sadness or can even intensify feelings of loneliness, making it important to think about how you are using social media in your life.

How Social Media May Be Hurting Your Feelings is a post from: Birmingham Maple Clinic

BMC Featured at Oakland Counseling Association's Agency Event

On February 3, 2012,  Birmingham Maple Clinic was presented at Oakland Counseling Association’s Agency in the round event.  Oakland Counseling Association hosted the event and luncheon for about 100 attendees at Oakland Schools in Waterford, MI. The program was geared toward school counselors, crisis intervention counselors, social workers and psychologists from Oakland County Public Schools. Guests were able to visit with Birmingham Maple Clinic therapists and other organizations that service the community. Birmingham Maple Clinic shared information about mental health services offered at the clinic and the range of specialties and areas of expertise of the highly trained therapists. Many attendees reported positively about experiences making referrals to Birmingham Maple Clinic.

OCA Event is a post from: Birmingham Maple Clinic

When it comes to money, the JRA study suggests that parents should be more aware of how their feelings and actions are affecting their child’s mental health well-being.  According to Canadian news site FinancialPost.com, parents can take action to protect their kids from their own money troubles by keeping conflicts about money away from kids and fighting the urge to blame the other parent for economic woes due to a divorce or job loss.  Most importantly, the article notes that parents should value their time with their children, instead of focusing on money problems or worrying about other day to day issues.  This is especially important in cases of divorce where the child is most often spending more time with one parent over another and may feel additional stress due to child support issues.

Marriage, family and relationship counseling can reduce the stress that personal and financial issues put on children in the household and can improve family relationships overall.  By improving communication, learning how to express emotions in an appropriate way and exploring how to resolve conflicts in a more efficient manner, families can nurture their relationships with each other, making them more able to tackle the tough issues in life without disrupting the mental health of their children.

Are Your Money Troubles Hurting Your Children? is a post from: Birmingham Maple Clinic

Just as with a romantic relationship in its infancy, when children are young, parents spend much more time nurturing fondness, empathy, and admiration in their little glorious bundles of joy. Likewise, young children tend to be more affectionate and admire their parents deeply in their early life. This is the foundation of an emotional relational bank account.

As children grow into teens, busy schedules, sarcastic comments, irritability, disappointments and misunderstandings tend to erode the foundation and withdraw from the account. Just as in financial markets, it is important to prevent bouncing checks by investing in accounts often and taking the time to rebuild after a large withdrawal.
Relationship expert John Gottman has identified that it takes five positive interactions to outweigh each one negative to keep a healthy relationship balanced. Social learning theorist and expert, Gerald Patterson, also identified that there must be five positive interactions between parent and child to prevent rejection.

The consequences of rejection in the parent-child relationship are mighty. When there is a breakdown in healthy communication at home for teens, several elements can all be anticipated. Teens are more likely to join deviant peer groups, engage in rebellious and/or dangerous behaviors such as drug or substance abuse, develop low self-esteem, and even ultimately face the rejection of previously supportive adults.

In his work with marriages, John Gottman has identified four criteria that when present make a marriage vulnerable to divorce. He calls these “The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.” His research shows with certainty that when these communication behaviors are observed in a marriage the marriage will fail. Finding remedies for these criteria is necessary for relational success. It is no surprise that when these are present in parent-child relationships the household environment is also doomed. Thankfully, there are solutions to these nasty invaders.

The first horseman is Criticism. Criticism is attacking the other person’s personality or character. You may be thinking you have never intentionally attacked your child’s personality or character but chances are if you have entered into an argument with the intent of making someone “right” and someone “wrong,” you have.
If you have ever started a dialogue with your child with the phrases “You always…”, “You never…”, or “Why are you so….”, you have participated in criticism. To remedy this horseman the first step is to go back to that 5:1 ratio. Think of 5 lovely, wonderful qualities or behaviors of your child for every one complaint. You may even write them down and keep them to yourself or choose to share them with your child.
Next, make specific directions and requests. Avoid statements like “Why are you so lazy?” and replace with “Start your homework, now, please.” When parents make specific commands the groundwork is more readily laid for the children to have more admiration and appreciation by reinforcing compliant behavior rather than focusing on character flaws, which creates the opposite.

Teens are especially comfortable dishing out criticism to parents. Validate your child’s concerns while teaching an important lesson. If your child starts to complain about you in a critical way, let them know you would love to hear their concerns but first they need to list five positives the parent does for them for each complaint. This will help to get your child out of that critical mode, feel validated and heard, and reduce defensiveness on your part.

The next horseman is Contempt. Contempt is Criticism kicked up a notch. Contempt includes insults, name-calling, hostile humor, sarcasm, threats, sneering, and eye rolling. Contempt is psychologically damaging. To remedy Contempt parents should avoid sarcasm, threats, and yelling. Parents should model self-care and boundaries by monitoring their body for signs of flooding and taking responsibility when out of line. Good or bad, children do as their parents do. When parents take responsibility for themselves and their actions children will too.

The third horseman is Defensiveness. This is seeing yourself as the victim. Signs of defensiveness are “yes-butting,” cross-complaining, repeating self without listening to the other person. To reduce defensiveness in yourself and/or your child teach empathic listening techniques. Starting softly, maintaining eye contact, repeating what you hear the other person saying, avoid interrupting, sticking to one issue at a time, avoiding bringing up the past are all strong empathic listening skills. Consider asking yourself some of the following questions:

• “What can I learn from this?”
• “What are the core emotions being expressed by my child?”
• “What does he/she really want?”
• “Perhaps, is this just a puff of hot air that can be ignored?”

The last horseman according to Gottman is Stonewalling. Parents may think they are avoiding conflict by silence or creating distance but what they convey is disapproval and separation that leave their child vulnerable to getting support from deviant peer groups, substance abuse, or both. On the small scale, avoiding storming off, slamming doors, and silent treatment can prevent Stonewalling.

Another remedy is to hold family meetings. Family problem solving can be done with the whole family present or with just a specific parent and child. Family meetings can be held routinely at a regularly scheduled time or made randomly as needed. To make family problem solving successful the Four Horsemen need not be invited.

Using healthy empathic communication skills should be encouraged. Start the meeting by setting a goal. A good goal statement is specific, positive, small, and says what you want to accomplish. Can this goal be realized in a week or two? Use your goals to build steps to the next place that you want you and your family to reach with your communication.

Next, brainstorm ideas. Take turns, use humor, write down all ideas, and enlist all members’ opinions. Consider solutions by weighing pros and cons. Without throwing out an entire suggestion consider if part of the idea may be useful. Can suggestions be combined? Does everyone agree?

Lastly, write an agreement. Be short and specific, say who will do what and include where and how. Schedule a time to review the plan to see how it is working. Once you put all of your hard work into action try it for a limited time like a week and evaluate how your problem solving worked. Troubleshoot and make adjustments as necessary.
Families using this problem solving method early on tend to set the groundwork for a family that values its members, fosters appreciation, listens and responds appropriately without defensiveness, and makes each member feel positive about their contributions to the family.
References

1. Gottman, J. (1999) The Seven Principles for Making your Marriage Work. New York.
2. Patterson G. and M. Forgatch (2005). Parents and Adolescents Living Together: The Basics. 2nd Edition.

Patterson, G. and M. Forgatch. Parents and Adolescents Living Together: Family Problem Solving. 2nd Edition.

(First released 2/1/2012 by Cosozo Magazine at http://cosozo.com/article/parent-teen-communications)

Parent-Teen Communication is a post from: Birmingham Maple Clinic

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“There are differences in treatment outcomes for people with addictions who experience stress-induced drug cravings and those whose cravings are induced by drug cues,” said Marc Potenza, professor of psychiatry, child study, and neurobiology and first author of the study. “It is important to understand the biologic mechanisms that underlie these cravings.”

The researchers conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging scans of 30 cocaine-dependent individuals and 36 control subjects who were recreational drinkers. While undergoing brain scans, researchers then presented subjects with personalized cues (situations or events) the participants had indicated were personally stressful and other cues involving cocaine or alcohol.

As expected, cocaine-dependent individuals showed greater activation in broad regions of the brain linked to addiction and motivation than the control subjects. Patterns of activation between the groups, however, differed markedly in men and women when presented with stress or drug cues.

Potenza said the findings suggest that women with cocaine dependence might benefit from stress-reduction therapies that specifically target these cravings. Men, on the other hand, might derive more benefit from elements of cognitive behavioral therapy or 12-step programs based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The senior author of the paper is Rajita Sinha of Yale. Other Yale authors are Kwang-ik Adam Hong, Cheryl M. Lacadie, Robert K. Fulbright, and Keri L. Tuit.

The study was supported by the Yale Stress Center, Women’s Health Research at Yale, the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and grants from the National Institutes of Health and its Office of Research on Women’s Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Yale University. The original article was written by Bill Hathaway.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Addicts’ cravings have different roots in men and women is a post from: Birmingham Maple Clinic

Whether you’re dealing with an emotional bully (see previous post about adult bullies) or other difficult situation, one of the first steps is to comfort yourself and manage your emotions. The part of the brain that is responsible for decision-making and planning cannot function as well when you are filled with emotion. Acting on emotions without the thoughtfulness of the logical part of the brain usually means trouble.

Even when you’re in the right about a situation, if you act impulsively and emotionally it’s unlikely others will listen. They’ll tell you to calm down and don’t get so upset. This situation happens frequently for the emotionally sensitive and they soon believe no one listens to them. They also may find themselves reacting first and regretting later.

There are ways to learn to not act immediately on the feeling you are having. Mindfulness is a skill that helps you develop a pause between feeling and acting so you’re not ruled by whatever emotion you are experiencing.  Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “Paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”

Marsha Linehan, the creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, lists three How Skills and three What Skills of mindfulness. The What Skills, meaning what you do, are observe, describe and participate. Observe means to see what is present and real without coloring it with interpretation or assumptions. Observe is to see the facts of a situation. Describe is to put words on what you see without judging. You can see that the chair is red. Saying the chair is a horrid shade of red would be a judgment. Participate means to participate fully in events with full awareness of what you are doing. This means you’re not daydreaming or half-aware or clouded by emotion that you aren’t paying attention to what is actually happening.

The How Skills are how you do the What Skills: One-Mindfully, Nonjudgmentally, and Effectively. One-Mindfully means to do only one thing at a time and to have your attention fully on whatever you are doing. Non-judgmentally means to just experience without labeling good or bad and Effectively means to do what works.

In the case of the adult bully, observing and describing what happened is the first step: doing this in a nonjudgmental way may be difficult. Effectively is key. Regardless of whether the other person is being fair or behaving in reasonable ways, how can you be most effective in coping with his behavior?

Wait until you are calm enough to think clearly.  Strong emotions seem to compel people to take some action whether it’s to fight or run away or tend and befriend. The body is poised to act, not think or plan. This system was effective when human surivival depended on avoiding a tiger or a lion, but doesn’t work so well in most of the situations people fact today.

The urge to do something to protect yourself against a perceived threat can be very strong, but in most situations the urgency is not real. Acting impulsively, without thinking through the action, can make the situation worse. Then one crisis is followed by another and then another.  Impulsive efforts to solve the problem usually create more problems. Soon it may seem like your life is one crisis after the other. That can be discouraging and only makes your emotional state worse. Being mindful of your emotions and your internal experience without acting on your urges and impulses is an important skill. You learn that the emotion will pass.

Be Aware of and Name Your Emotions. When you observe and describe your internal state, that is one step in managing your emotions. For some, this means taking time to identify the specific emotions they’re feeling: Jealousy, Hurt, Anger, or Fear?

Sometimes anger acts as a shield against feeling hurt or scared. Knowing that your anger is a secondary emotion and that your primary emotion is fear will help you manage your feelings effectively. Knowing what you are feeling gives you more of a sense of control and gives you ideas about what action to take.

Some people have great difficulty identifying feelings and distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations that are the basis of emotions. This characteristic is called alexithymia. If someone is alexithymic, then learning how emotions are expressed in the body is important. Sadness is often felt in the throat, chest and belly. Anger is felt in the neck, head, shoulders, hands and arms. Fear is felt in the belly, head, face, chest, and throat.

Sometimes focusing on the body sensation, such as your throat feeling tight, is more helpful than repeating in your head how anxious you are. Saying “I’m so anxious,” repeatedly may actually feed the emotion.

These are beginning steps in managing your emotions. Not acting on your emotional urges takes practice, but the peace you gain by not acting impulsively is well worth the practice time.

photo credit: AbigailPhotography

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Last reviewed: 29 Jan 2012

APA Reference

Hall, K. (2012). Coping With A Stressful Situation: Managing Your Emotions. Psych Central.
Retrieved on January 30, 2012, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/emotionally-sensitive/2012/01/coping-with-a-stressful-situation-managing-your-emotionss/

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Coping With A Stressful Situation: Managing Your Emotions… is a post from: Birmingham Maple Clinic

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A psychology technique that encourages patients to think positively and gain confidence helped some with high blood pressure and heart disease stick to medication and exercise goals, according to new research.

But the strategy — known as positive affect and self-affirmation, or just positive affirmation — didn’t always lead to obvious health benefits. And it’s unclear whether any improvements in lifestyle would have continued after the extra encouragement stopped.

“In general, the idea is that as people feel positively about what they’re doing, they’re more likely to be energized and sustain that over time,” said Dr. Geoffrey Williams from the University of Rochester, New York, who wrote a commentary published with three new studies on positive affirmation in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The studies addressed health goals in three groups of patients. In one, African-Americans with high blood pressure were encouraged to stick more closely to their medication plan. In the other two, people who had asthma or who’d recently had a stent inserted into blocked arteries agreed to exercise more.

All patients were given workbooks and made contracts with doctors about their goals.

Half of the participants in each study — the positive-thinking groups — also received small gifts in the mail, and were encouraged to incorporate things that made them happy into their everyday lives and to think about proud moments when they were having trouble sticking to their goals.

In the high blood pressure study, the extra encouragement led to limited success. Slightly more people in the positive-thinking group took their medications; in total, that group took 42 percent of its recommended doses, compared to 36 percent in the “control” group. But there was no difference in changes in blood pressure between the groups after a year.

The researchers calculated that 16 hypertensive patients would need to get the extra support, encouragement and gifts for one more to adhere to a medication plan.

The intervention had no clear effect on physical activity in asthma patients. Regardless of whether or not they were given the encouragement and told to think positively, the patients burned an extra 400 calories per week on average by the end of the year-long study.

There was some benefit in patients who received extra exercise encouragement after having a stent inserted. More than half of them surpassed the goal of burning an extra 336 calories per week after a year, compared to just over one-third of patients who were taught about exercise, but didn’t get positive affirmation.

“Overall it’s safe to say that self-affirmation… can help patients to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors,” said Dr. Gbenga Ogedegbe from the New York University School of Medicine, part of the NYU Langone Medical Center, and the lead researcher of the blood pressure study.

The theory of improving health and lifestyle through upbeat thinking is related to the “positive psychology” movement, which encourages the study of happiness, rather than focusing only on mental illness.

Ogedegbe said it’s possible that combined with other behavioral strategies and improvements in care, positive thinking and affirmation can lead to actual reductions in blood pressure in some hypertensive patients, as well as other health benefits. But it’s unclear from this study if that’s the case.

One limit of all the new studies, according to Williams, is that they didn’t track whether patients continued to take their medication and exercise after the extra encouragement and gifts stopped — which would be important if the strategy was going to be useful in the real world.

“We need people to be able to carry this out themselves after we have (finished) working with them,” Williams told Reuters Health.

Ogedegbe said that he and his colleagues are currently looking at how well the strategy works in combination with other health interventions, as well as how costly it would be outside of a research study.

For now, he told Reuters Health, “The simple message is that patients have to remain positive, even in the face of obstacles.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/fO01ME Archives of Internal Medicine, online January 23, 2012.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

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Survivors of Hurricane Katrina have struggled with poor mental health for years after the storm, according to a new study of low-income mothers in the New Orleans area.

The study’s lead author, Christina Paxson of Princeton University, said that the results were a departure from other surveys both in the design and the results. The researchers were able to collect data on the participants before Katrina and nearly five years after the August 2005 storm, finding a persistence of poor mental health and gaining insights into how different types of hurricane-related stressors affect mental health.

“On average, people were not back to baseline mental health and they were showing pretty high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms. There aren’t many studies that trace people for this long, but the very few that there are suggest faster recovery than what we’re finding here,” said Paxson, who is Princeton’s Hughes-Rogers Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “I think the lesson for treatment of mental health conditions is don’t think it’s over after a year. It isn’t.”

In addition to helping mental health professionals aid survivors of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, the research may guide policymakers in addressing areas that had a significant impact on the women in the study, such as home damage and rebuilding.

The paper appears in the January issue of the journal Social Science and Medicine. Paxson’s co-authors were Elizabeth Fussell, an associate professor of sociology at Washington State University; Jean Rhodes, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston; and Mary Waters, the M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.

The project began in 2003 as a study of low-income adults enrolled in community college around the country, including three sites in New Orleans. The initial questionnaire contained questions about education, income, families and health. After Hurricane Katrina, some of the researchers decided to try to continue to track the New Orleans-based participants.

“I realized right away that the kinds of information we had on mental and physical health were very rare in disaster studies,” Waters said. “Researchers never know if people are suffering because of the disaster or if they had underlying conditions that would have led to depression or poor health even before the disaster hit.”

The sample size in the study was made up of 532 low-income mothers, most of whom were African American and whose average age was 26. They were interviewed in two follow-up surveys – tracked down largely through their unchanged cellphone numbers, though they were spread across 23 states – about 11 months and nearly five years after the storm.

Due to the makeup of the sample, Paxson cautioned that the study’s results cannot be assumed to apply to the population as a whole, but they shed light on natural disasters’ effects on a particularly vulnerable group.

The surveys helped rate the women on two signs of poor mental health: psychological distress and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Researchers measured psychological distress using a series of questions (also in the initial questionnaire) typically used to screen for anxiety and mood disorders, asking about feelings such as sadness, hopelessness and nervousness experienced over the last 30 days. They measured PTSS using a test used to identify individuals at a high risk of meeting the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder; for example, the women in the study were asked how often they thought about the hurricane in the last seven days and whether they had thoughts about the storm that they could not suppress.

The researchers found that even after four years, about 33 percent of the participants still had PTSS, and 30 percent had psychological distress. Though levels for both conditions had declined from the first follow-up 11 months after the hurricane, they were not back to pre-hurricane levels.

The researchers had also interviewed the study participants about the types of stressors they had experienced during the storm: home damage, traumatic experiences the week of the hurricane (such as being in danger or lacking food, water or necessary medical care), or death of a friend or relative.

Paxson and her collaborators found that these stressors played a role in whether the participants suffered from psychological distress or PTSS, or both. For the most part, the hurricane stressors, especially home damage, were associated with the risk of chronic, long-term PTSS alone or in combination with psychological distress.

“I think Katrina might be different from a lot of natural disasters in the sense that it completely upended most people’s lives,” Paxson said. “About two-thirds of the sample is back in the New Orleans area, but almost nobody lives in their old home. So they’re living in new communities. They’ve been disrupted from their friends and their families. The whole fabric of their lives has really been changed.”

Demographer Narayan Sastry, a research professor in the Population Studies Center and Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, said that the study makes an important contribution toward understanding the medium- to long-term effects of Katrina on mental health.

“The most significant aspect was its study of long-term outcomes that were assessed at multiple points in time, including prior to the hurricane – a unique feature of this study,” said Sastry, who is familiar with the study but was not involved in it. “The results are important not just for designing policies and programs to help address any ongoing mental health problems being experienced by survivors of Hurricane Katrina, but also in devising the best response to help people who are affected by natural disasters in the future.”

Sastry added that the study found very similar levels of psychological distress as his work on a broader, representative sample of the pre-hurricane population of New Orleans.

Paxson and her collaborators plan to further examine the data from their surveys, and to continue tracking the women in the sample. Some avenues for further study include looking at how genetics may have a played a role in the mental health responses, examining the hurricane’s effects on physical health, and tracking the educational and mental health outcomes of the children of the women in the sample. They also plan to publish a book that combines the survey results with in-depth interviews with some of the women.

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Survivors Of Hurricane Katrina Struggle With Mental Health Years Later, Study Says is a post from: Birmingham Maple Clinic

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In the past year, 45.9 million Americans above the age of 18 years, or 20% of 18 year-olds, experienced mental illness, according to a new national report. Mental illness amongst those aged between 18 and 25 years (29.9%) was more than double as high, compared with people aged 50 years or older (14.3%). The report also demonstrated that in the past year, adult women (23%) were more likely to have experienced mental illness, compared with 16.8% of men.

According to criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994), mental illness amongst adults above the age of 18 is defined as having had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder, excluding developmental and substance use disorders. Figures from The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health show that during the past year 11.4 million adults, representing 5% of the adult population, suffered from serious mental illness. Serious mental illness is defined as seriously impairing a person’s functionality, meaning a substantial interference or limitation of one or more life activities.

SAMHSA’s strategic initiative on substance abuse and mental illness prevention and recovery aims to help states, territories, tribal governments, and communities in adopting evidence-based practices, to provide health education in terms of prevention and to develop effective policies, programs, and infrastructure to help tackle these problems. New programs are underway nationwide to reinforce communities’ capacities to better cater for those suffering from mental illness.

SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde declared:

“Mental illnesses can be managed successfully, and people do recover. Mental illness is not an isolated public health problem. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity often co-exist with mental illness and treatment of the mental illness can reduce the effects of these disorders. The Obama Administration is working to promote the use of mental health services through health reform. People, families, and communities will benefit from increased access to mental health services.”

Mental illness has a considerable economic impact in the United States, costing about $ 300 billion in 2002. The World Health Organization states that in developed countries, mental illness accounts for more disability than any other group of illnesses, including heart disease and cancer.

Reports of treatment statistics suggest that in the past year, 4 in 10 people suffering from any mental illness received mental health services (39.2%). For those suffering from serious mental illness, the rate of treatment was significantly higher (60.8%).

According to the report, an estimated 8.7 million American adults seriously contemplated suicide in the past year, of which 2.5 million reported to have made suicide plans and 1.1 million attempting suicide. People in crisis or those who know someone who may be at immediate risk of attempting suicide are advised to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or visit their website where they receive instant free and confidential 24 hour crisis counseling. The Lifeline is open 24/7 to anyone in need throughout the country, every day of the year.

The report demonstrates that rates for substance dependence were substantially higher in those who experienced either any mental illness or serious mental illness, compared with adults without mental illness during the past year. Those who did (20%) tended to be over three times more likely of meeting the criteria for substance dependence or abuse during the past year, compared with those who had not experienced mental illness (6.1%), whilst the rate for those with serious mental illness was even higher at 25.2%.

SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde commented:”These data underscore the importance of substance abuse treatment as well.”

Ileana Arias, Ph.D., Principal Deputy Director of CDC stated:

“Mental illness is a significant public health problem in itself, but also because it is associated with chronic medical diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer, as well as several risk behaviors including physical inactivity, smoking, excessive drinking, and insufficient sleep. Today’s report issued by SAMHSA provides further evidence that we need to continue efforts to monitor levels of mental illness in the United States in order to effectively prevent this important public health problem and its negative impact on total health.”

The report also shows important findings of mental health issues amongst teens aged 12 to 17 years. It states that in the past year 1.9 million youths between the ages of 12 to 17 years, i.e. 8% of this population, suffered from a major depressive episode. According to the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994), a major depressive episode is defined as a time span lasting a minimum of two weeks in which a person experiences a depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities and had at least four of seven additional symptoms described in the Manual.

Furthermore, the report also reveals that youths aged between 12 to 17 years with a major depressive episode in the past year have more than double the rate of past year illicit drug use (37.2%), as compared to their counterparts who were depression-free during that period (17.8%).

For the full survey of this report please click here.

The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health recruited about 67,500 people aged 12 years and older from all over the country. Due to its statistical power, it is the nation’s premier source of statistical information on the scope and nature of many behavioral health issues affecting the nation. For more information about SAMHSA click here.

SAMHSA is a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. Its mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America’s communities.

Written by Petra Rattue

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