Interface Consultation Services, PLLC

Stress hormones appear to rapidly exacerbate the formation of brain lesions that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at UC Irvine. The findings suggest that managing stress and reducing certain medications prescribed for the elderly could slow down the progression of this devastating disease. In a study with genetically modified mice, Frank LaFerla, professor of neurobiology and behavior, and a team of UCI researchers found that when young animals were injected for just seven days with dexamethasone, a glucocorticoid similar to the body's stress hormones, the levels of the protein beta-amyloid in the brain increased by 60 percent. When beta-amyloid production increases and these protein fragments aggregate, they form plaques, one of the two hallmark brain lesions of Alzheimer's disease. The scientists also found that the levels of another protein, tau, also increased. Tau accumulation eventually leads to the formation of tangles, the other sig...

The assessment, diagnosis and treatment of these disorders when they are co-occurring is extremely challenging. They require a clinician who is aware differential diagnosis and the complexity of treatment for this population. Treatment considerations BD, alcoholism, and SUD are chronic relapsing disorders that require a longterm treatment approach to ensure continuity of treatment between episodes. It is important to emphasize preventive and recovery issues. Self-help activities, including participation in dual-diagnosis self-help groups and consumer advocacy groups , such as the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance ( www.dbsalliance.org ), should be considered. Psychotherapy has a crucial role in the overall treatment of patients who present with multiple psychosocial needs and dysfunctions. Psychotherapy also has an essential role in cementing the therapeutic alliance, enhancing treatment and medication adherence, and addressing relapse prevention and recovery issues. Michigan is ...

It seems to me that clients who have moved significantly in therapy live more intimately with their feelings of pain but also more vividly with their feelings of ecstasy; that anger is more clearly felt but so also is love; that fear is an experience they know more deeply but so is courage. And the reason that they can thus live fully in a wider range is that they have this underlying confidence in themselves as trustworthy instruments for encountering life. – Carl Rogers

Timothy Joe Souders was determined to be mentally ill and a prisoner in Jackson, Michigan. He died after he was reported in restraints "agitated, disoriented and psychotic" report written by federal monitor assigned to scrutinize medical care for the prison. What a shame that this happened? Why was this inmate unable to receive the mental health treatment he needed? Are the guards educated about mental health symptoms? It is always easier to look back and say we could have, should have, would have....What the real question is how to we change policies, procedures and educate so this does NOT happen again.

A small NIH-funded study that followed 12-to 14-year olds over four years suggests that specific behaviors can help predict which youth will begin to use tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana. Monique Ernst, M.D., Ph.D., of the NIMH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, and colleagues at the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported in the June issue of Pediatrics that aggression in early adolescence predicted initiation of tobacco and marijuana use , while impulsivity predicted initiation of alcohol use. More aggression predicted initiation and use of more substances. However, diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with or without conduct disorder, or of ADHD with anxiety and depression did not predict which of the youth would begin to use substances. The distinction may help pediatricians and others to better focus prevention efforts on the adolescents who are most vulnerable to substance use. Most studies of this age group have focused on substance use, abuse, and depe...

Pharmacology of Personality Disorders By Joseph Triebwasser, MD and Larry J. Siever, MD, Psychiatric Times URL: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=191000148 July 2006, Vol. XXIII, No. 8 If psychopharmacology sometimes feels like walking a fine line between undertreatment and overtreatment or between letting patients suffer and turning to medications as an "easy fix," then the psychopharmacology of personality disorders can feel like walking a tightrope without a net. Unfortunately, the published literature is helpful only up to a point. There are not many peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials, given the prevalence and debilitating nature of some of the personality disorders. Studies have tended to be comparatively small and, especially in light of the chronic nature of much Axis II pathology, short in duration.1 Few, if any, trials have compared in size and scope to the large government- or industry-funded studies of the major mood and p...

A brief overview of Interface Consultation Services current endeavors: I. Blog Focus - We continue to post 2-3 times a week on ICS and Counseling Connections . II. " High Risk Mental Health Emergenies" Book - Craig in the process of writing a book and he is in his second chapter. Go Craig! III. PESI Seminars Behavioral Managed Care - How to get what your clients Need. High Risk Mental Health Emergencies - "How To" Techniques & Interventions Clients in Crisis: Assess, Intervene and Succeed IV. Telemental Health Triage - We continue our day-to-day service commitment to Riverwood Center to provide professional triage services so their consumers are assured efficient and timely access to mental health services, appropriate level of care assignments and expert telephone crisis triage. V. MPRI - Michigan prisoner Re-entry initiative - ICS is discussing the possibility of being regional healthcare coordinators for the Southwest Michigan Region. VI. Utilization ...

People with "body dysmorphic disorder" are 45 times more likely to commit suicide than people in the general population, a new study shows. The findings underscore the importance of recognizing and treating this "often secretive" psychiatric disorder, Dr. Katherine A. Phillips, the study's co-author, told Reuters Health. Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, have a distorted body image and think obsessively about their appearance, often for hours a day, explained Phillips, who is at Butler Hospital and Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island. The disorder frequently leads to self-loathing and social isolation, she added. It is not uncommon for people with BDD to tell no one about their condition, even a spouse or very close friends. Studies have suggested that up to 2.4 percent of people have BDD, Phillips said. While most of us have concerns about appearance, she added, a person with BDD obsesses about these concerns and is virtually crip...

Self-Injury is also termed self-mutilation, self-harm or self-abuse. The behavior is defined as the deliberate, repetitive, impulsive, non-lethal harming of one’s self. Self-injury includes: 1) cutting, 2) scratching, 3) picking scabs or interfering with wound healing, 4) burning, 5) punching self or objects, 6) infecting oneself, 7) inserting objects in body openings, 8) bruising or breaking bones, 9) some forms of hair-pulling, as well as other various forms of bodily harm. These behaviors, which pose serious risks, may by symptoms of a mental health problem that can be treated. The effective treatment of self-injury is most often a combination of medication, cognitive/behavioral therapy, and interpersonal therapy, supplemented by other treatment services as needed. Medication is often useful in the management of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, and the racing thoughts that may accompany self-injury. Cognitive/behavioral therapy helps individuals understand and m...

There's an epidemic among the affluent -- a 200 percent increase in depression among children in the upper classes, according to psychologist Madeline Levine. Levine is the author of the recently published "The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids" (Harper Collins), and she recently spoke at the New Canaan Library and at Just Books Too in Greenwich. "Affluent kids have three times the rate of depression, three times the rate of anxiety disorders and substantial rates of substance abuse and psychological disorders such as eating disorders and cutting than other socio-economic groups in the U.S.," she told the group of approximately 20 women who had come to hear her speak at the New Canaan Library. Later that evening, she spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at Just Books Too. The book grew out of Levine's 25-year practice treating children and adolescents. About eight year...

Dr. David Mee-Lee presented recently in Southwestern Michigan to mental health professionals as Michigan attempts to integrate their mental health and substances abuse services. He addressed many of the attitudes and mispreceptions of mental health clinicians around substance use disorders. "That client has relapsed for the 3, 4, 5 X times there is nothing we can do for them." He compared this to a heart patient who has presented in the ER with his 3, 4, X times due to a heart attack or heart complications. We would never turn away the heart patient but people have turned away the chronic substance addicted patient. There is an element in freewill and lifestyle choice for both of these patients but their is also a genetic component as well that the patient has no control over. Michigan's move towards integration will assist the patients and clients with better care and also improve clinicians skills as well as reduce stigma and negative attitudes towards people with subs...