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Psychotic symptom and cannabis relapse in recent-onset psychosis: Prospective study.

ORYGEN Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Locked Bag 10, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria Australia, 3052.

BACKGROUND: Cannabis use appears to exacerbate psychotic symptoms and increase risk of psychotic relapse. However, the relative contribution of cannabis use compared with other risk factors is unclear. The influence of psychotic symptoms on cannabis use has received little attention. AIMS: To examine the influence of cannabis use on psychotic symptom relapse and the influence of psychotic symptom severity on relapse in cannabis use in the 6 months following hospital admission. METHOD: At baseline, 84 participants with recent-onset psychosis were assessed and 81 were followed up weekly for 6 months, using telephone and face-to-face interviews. RESULTS: A higher frequency of cannabis use was predictive of psychotic relapse, after controlling for medication adherence, other substance use and duration of untreated psychosis. An increase in psychotic symptoms was predictive of relapse to cannabis use, and medication adherence reduced cannabis relapse risk. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between cannabis use and psychosis may be bidirectional, highlighting the need for early intervention programmes to target cannabis use and psychotic symptom severity in this population.

PMID: 16880483 [PubMed - in process]

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Medical Cannabis Is A Blunt Tool

Main Category:
Article Date: 28 Jul 2006 - 0:00am (PDT)

IF anecdotes and ancient medicine are to be trusted, cannabis is a wonder drug. Yet results of clinical trials have been mixed and its use in modern medicine remains limited. Now it seems the reasons may be practical as much as political and cultural: there are fundamental problems with how our bodies respond to the stuff.

Some compounds in cannabis, including THC and cannabidiol, interfere with a natural signalling system throughout our brains, nerves and immune system. This system, which produces its own cannabis-like compounds called endocannabinoids, plays a role in many medical conditions including pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, depression and schizophrenia.

Because the system is so widespread, smoking or ingesting cannabis is bound to have varied effects, including its influence on the mind. Now it seems that even with purified cannabis extracts, changing the amount, time or place of a dose could produce completely opposite effects on the body, according to evidence presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) meeting in Vienna earlier this month. This could explain why the medical benefits have proved so difficult to harness.

In one study, Vincenzo Di Marzo of the National Research Council in Pozzuoli, Italy, boosted levels of an endocannabinoid called andandamide in rats engineered to develop an Alzheimer's-like disease. This appeared to protect the rats from memory loss and nerve degeneration. But if the rise was prolonged, cannabinoids became ineffective or even damaging.

Beat Lutz of the University of Mainz in Germany found a similar paradox in models of epilepsy in mice. Anandamide is synthesised during epileptic fits, providing a natural calming effect. “If we apply cannabinoids we should protect from seizures,” says Lutz. “But no, we actually get worsening of seizures in mice.”

He believes he has found the reason. The main class of cannabinoid receptor, called CB1 receptors, occurs in two distinct populations of neurons, those that excite neighbouring neurons and those that inhibit them - so cannabinoids can have opposite effects depending on which neurons they hit. David Baker, a multiple sclerosis expert at University College London has found the same problem in MS. Mice that have been engineered to have a condition like MS and no CB1 receptors suffer much worse nerve damage than those with normal CB1 receptors, suggesting that cannabinoids are involved in protecting against the nerve damage seen in MS. But other experiments in mice have shown that cannabinoid signalling also prompts release of stress hormones called glucocorticoids that can kill neurons.

The greatest anecdotal evidence for the medical benefits of cannabis comes from its painkilling properties, and animal models have produced promising results. Yet even here new evidence suggests that an endocannabinoid called NADA binds not only to cannabinoid receptors but to a completely different class of receptor as well, where it mimicks the effect of a pain-producing chemical called capsaicin, says J. Michael Walker of Indiana University in Bloomington, who also presented his research at FENS. This may explain why human trials of cannabis for the treatment of pain have produced mixed results.

“The problem with cannabis is that there's no way of targeting the drug to any particular place,” says Baker.

The answer will be to manipulate the system from within, he says. New ways of amplifying natural cannabinoid release include reuptake inhibitors that prolong this release just as Prozac does for serotonin. Such methods look promising for a range of conditions from pain and cancer to nerve degeneration and MS.

Other methods now being tried in the lab include the manipulation of enzymes that make and deliver endocannabinoids, as well as compounds that stimulate and block them. Drugs that bind to CB1 receptors and alter their efficiency are also being discovered, says Roger Pertwee, director of pharmacology at GW Pharmaceuticals, based in Porton Down Science Park, Wiltshire, UK. His company developed Sativex, the first pharmaceutical cannabis extract to gain clinical approval.

Ironically, the first offshoot of endocannabinoid research to gain clinical approval, last month, has the opposite effect to cannabis: Acomplia (rimonabant), an appetite suppressant, works by blocking CB1 receptors (New Scientist, 8 July, p 5).

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Beyond Evidence: The Moral Case for International Mental Health
Vikram Patel, Ph.D., Benedetto Saraceno, M.D. and Arthur Kleinman, M.D.

Introduction

The global burden of disease attributable to mental, neurological, and substance use disorders is expected to rise from 12.3% in 2000 to 14.7% in 2020 (1). This rise will be particularly sharp in developing countries. Research has documented the socioeconomic determinants of many disorders, the profound impact on the lives of those affected and their families, and the lack of appropriate care in developing countries. The enormous gap between mental health needs and the services in developing countries has been documented in international reports, culminating in the World Health Report 2001 (2). This evidence has increased the profile of international mental health, but action still remains limited. With every new public health challenge, mental health is once more relegated to the background. We argue that moral arguments are just as important as evidence to make the case for mental health intervention. At the center of these moral arguments is the need to reclaim the place of mental health at the heart of international public health. We consider some moral arguments for international mental health and an example from another area of public health in which the moral case was an important enough argument for making policy changes and implementing interventions.

No health without mental health
Mental health is closely linked with virtually all global public health priorities. Alcohol abuse is a major risk factor for unsafe sexual behavior, and persons with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) have high rates of cognitive impairment and depression (3). Stress and anxiety predispose to myocardial infarction, and the latter leads to higher rates of depression (4). Maternal depression is associated with childhood failure to thrive in developing countries; failure to thrive can lead to developmental delays and psychiatric problems in later life (5). Alcohol abuse and personality disorder frequently precede violence and depression, and suicide frequently follows (6). The moral case is that there is no health without mental health. Mental health interventions must be tied to any program dealing with physical health.

Mental disorders are treatable in developing countries
Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of locally feasible treatments for depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse in developing countries (7–9). All these studies share one finding: mental illnesses can be treated with cheap and technically simple treatments. The work of committed grassroots organizations demonstrates how this sector has been implementing mental health interventions at low cost (10). The moral case is that it is unethical to deny effective, acceptable, and affordable treatment to millions of persons suffering from treatable disorders. Community and primary care treatment programs must be generously supported by donor agencies.

Paying for new psychiatric drugs
Many developing countries were able to produce generic versions of drugs because of a less rigid enforcement of international patent regulation. Since a substantial proportion of drug costs are met out of pocket, this allowed newer medications to be accessible to low-income groups. This situation was changed with the enforcement of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights international agreement in 2005. The agreement dictates that any drug patented after 2005 will not be available except at the price set by the company that holds the patent (11). Governments can exempt diseases that are life-threatening or national emergencies from the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights charter. Mental illness does not figure as an exemption category. The moral case is that the mentally ill have a right to access affordable, evidence-based treatments. Mental illnesses must be excluded from the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights charter.

Reversing the brain drain
The most startling finding of the World Health Organization Atlas report is the impossibly enormous inequity in the distribution of mental health manpower in the world (12). A tiny fraction of this manpower resides in regions of the world where over 90% of the global population lives. Despite this glaring inequity, the demand for specialists in richer countries only grows, worsening the brain-drain of mental health resources from developing countries. The vast majority of these professionals have been trained in publically funded medical schools. The moral case is that the people of poor countries should not be paying for the mental health care of those living in the richer world. There needs to be an acknowledgment that institutions in developed countries have an ethical obligation to facilitate the return of professionals and to foster long-term partnerships with developing countries to build mental health capacity.

Violating human rights

There is a history of human rights violations of persons with mental disorders across the world, but today the most disturbing examples are found in developing countries. The Asia edition of the newsmagazine Time from Nov. 24, 2003, detailed contemporary accounts of the lives of people living in mental hospitals in Southeast Asia. Patients, typically long-term residents, lose contact with their families, rarely see a mental health professional, are treated with old drugs with severe side effects, are offered few rehabilitative therapies, are kept in crowded wards with no hint of dignity, and are given unmodified electroconvulsive therapy. The Erwadi tragedy in India in 2001, where over 20 persons with mental illness were burned to death when a fire swept the healing temple where they were chained to their beds, reminds us of human rights abuses that take place under the guise of traditional medicine. The stigma of mental illness is so great that the mentally ill are unable to gain employment, finish schooling, marry, live independently, or have their care paid for by insurance companies. The moral case is that the rights of the mentally ill continue to be denied by many sectors in society. We need to provide technical and financial support for hospitals to reform, to enable the development of community care programs, to raise mental health literacy in the community and among health workers, and to ensure that basic rights are monitored and enforced.

Social change and mental health

Most developing countries are witnessing social and economic changes at a pace that is unparalleled in history. Not everyone has benefited from these changes. Economic change is coupled with migration from rural to urban areas, disrupting social networks and household economies. The decrease of trade barriers reducing costs of consumer items is coupled with cheap imports, leading to unemployment of small-scale entrepreneurs and farmers. The reduction in state budgets is being most acutely felt in social spending, where they are most needed. The rising tide of suicides and premature mortality in some countries, as vividly seen in the alcohol-related deaths of men in Eastern Europe and the suicides of farmers in India, indigenous peoples in South America, and young women in rural areas in China, can be at least in part linked to rapid economic and social change (13, 14). The moral case is that mental health problems are not a luxury item on the health agenda of the poor and marginalized. Mental disorders must be included in programs directed to promoting the health of the poor and mental health indicators used to evaluate the larger social impact of globalization.

The overwhelming majority of the 400 million persons with mental disorders globally are not being provided with even the basic mental health care that we know they should and can receive. Research evidence will not reduce this inequity. To make a change, the moral case must be heard.

Consider the moral argument that persons with HIV/AIDS in developing countries had the right to access antiretroviral drugs, that the state had to provide them for free, that drug companies had to reduce their prices, that apparently complex treatment regimens could be provided by primary health care providers with appropriate training and support, that discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS had to be combated vigorously, and that knowledge about HIV/AIDS was the most powerful tool to combat stigma. These arguments were moral and human rights based. The arguments were made by a coalition of academics, community leaders, people living with HIV/AIDS, rock stars, and public heroes. The case they made was so compelling that governments from India to South Africa changed their policy on antiretroviral drugs. Drug companies agreed to reduce prices of medicines. The World Health Organization decided on 35 as their lead initiative, aiming to get antiretroviral drugs to 3 million people by 2005.

We believe that the time is ripe for such a global mental health advocacy initiative that makes the moral case for the mentally ill. It is unacceptable to continue business as usual. Borrowing from the lessons of our colleagues in other areas of public health, such an initiative could take the form of a Global Alliance for Mental Health, under the umbrella of the World Health Organization, in which mental health professionals work alongside patients, families, and public health groups. The practical design of policies, programs, and interventions is most likely to be effective when articulated with a moral orientation toward sufferers of mental illnesses. The Alliance’s primary goal would be to spearhead a movement to increase access to evidence-based care, perhaps a 510 program to get 5 million untreated patients into treatment and rehabilitation programs by 2010. Equally important goals would be to combat stigma through concerted campaigns directed at various sectors of society and to strengthen the capacity of health systems to care for the mentally ill. A key task would be to mobilize the massive resources needed to support mental health program development in poor countries.

Mental health professionals in rich countries have an important role to play. They can be advocates to their own health systems to ensure that the moral case is heard and appropriate actions supported. As individuals, they can commit their time to activities that tackle some of the issues on the international mental health agenda. We believe that our ultimate professional goal as mental health professionals in a globalized world is to secure a reasonable opportunity for people with mental disorders to achieve better health outcomes. We already have the evidence we need to make the case for international mental health; it is the moral argument that we now need to make.

Footnotes
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Patel, Sangath Centre, Alto-Porvorim, Goa India 403521; vikram.patel{at}lshtm.ac.uk (e-mail). Drs. Patel, Saraceno, and Kleinman report no conflict of interest.

References
Murray CJL, Lopez AD: Alternative projections of mortality and disability by cause 1990-2020: global burden of disease study. Lancet 1997; 349:1498–1504
World Health Organization: The World Health Report 2001: Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope. Geneva, WHO, 2001
Catalan J (ed): Mental Health and HIV Infection. Psychological and Psychiatric Aspects. London, Taylor & Francis, 1999
Penninx BWJH, Beekman AT, Honig A, Deeg DJH, Schoevers RA, van Eijk JTM, van Tilburg W: Depression and cardiac mortality: results from a community-based longitudinal study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001; 58:227
Patel V, Rahman A, Jacob KS, Hughes M: Effect of maternal mental health on infant growth in low income countries: new evidence from South Asia. BMJ 2004; 328:820–823
World Health Organization: World Report on Violence and Health: Summary. Geneva, WHO, 2002
Chatterjee S, Patel V, Chatterjee A, Weiss H: Evaluation of a community based rehabilitation model for chronic schizophrenia in a rural region of India. Br J Psychiatry 2003; 182:57–62
Patel V, Araya R, Bolton P: Treating depression in developing countries. Trop Med Int Health 2004; 9:539–541
Wu Z, Detels R, Zhang J, Li V, Li J: Community-based trial to prevent drug use amongst youth in Yunnan, China. Am J Public Health 2002; 92:1952–1957
Patel V, Thara R: Meeting Mental Health Needs in Developing Countries: NGO Innovations in India. New Delhi, Sage Publications, 2003
Patel V, Andrade C: Pharmacological treatment of severe psychiatric disorders in the developing world: lessons from India. CNS Drugs 2003; 17:1071–1080
World Health Organization: Atlas Country Profiles of Mental Health Resources. Geneva, WHO, 2001
Sundar M: Suicide in farmers in India. Br J Psychiatry 1999; 175:585–586
Phillips MR, Liu H, Zhang Y: Suicide and social change in China. Cult Med Psychiatry 1999; 23:25–50


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Europe's mental health strategy

Responsibility extends beyond health authorities

Many countries in western Europe are experiencing increasing numbers of sickness spells and early retirements due to mental disorders and problems.1 However, the importance of good mental health is still not acknowledged universally. In the era of the information society, mental stressors are public health threats of increasing magnitude.

A recently presented green paper by the European Commission on mental health promotes discussion on the relation between the European Union's strategic policy objectives and the mental health of Europeans.2 The paper builds on the Helsinki Action Plan of the World Health Organization's European Ministerial Conference on Mental Health 2005.3 The potential adoption of a union-wide mental health strategy later this year could signal an upgrade in the status of mental health issues within the union and within each member state.

The paper acknowledges the need for European action on mental health. Each year, about 60 000 European Union citizens die from suicide, more than the total annual deaths from road traffic accidents.4 Meanwhile, many countries still have no suicide prevention policy,5 even though evidence based measures for suicide prevention are effective and available.6 The economic consequences of mental health problems—mainly in the form of lost productivity—are estimated to be 3-4% of gross national product.7 In any given year a quarter of Europeans are likely to be affected by mental disorders,8 while only 25% of these will have contact with formal health services.9

The new mental health strategy proposed by the green paper should focus on the promotion of mental health, preventive actions, social inclusion, and the protection of the rights of people with mental disorders, as well as on developing a European mental health information system. The lessons of the successful control of infectious and cardiovascular diseases indicate that the road to improved mental health among populations lies not in investment in mental health services but in promotion and prevention activities. Yet these remain challenging, as individual, familial, and societal determinants of mental health often lie in non-health domains such as social policy, education, and urban planning. Promising new evidence has, however, indicated that effective interventions exist10: interventions in local communities,11 home visiting programmes,12 and school programmes13 are some examples of effective interventions for improving mental health.

Mental health is a marginal issue in existing European Union health infrastructures, and there is no specific unit devoted to mental health either in the European Commission services or at the European Centre for Disease Control. Though the need for a mental health information system is acknowledged in the paper, it does not suggest any sustainable European infrastructures for monitoring and information dissemination. There is an obvious need for new European institutions to complement and support national activities; such structures could include a European clearinghouse for evidence on mental health interventions, an institute providing guidelines on mental health practice, and an observatory for mental health. None of these activities exist today on a sustainable basis in spite of the achievable European benefits that would be gained.

The European Commission has been given the chance to take a lead and contribute to the introduction of progressive national and regional mental health policies in Europe. Many countries have neglected the need for a comprehensive mental health policy for too long.5 For the most part, mental health is seen as a matter for health authorities only, and many existing policies focus on the development of services. The commission can change this pattern by advocating the inclusion of mental health not only in European public health policy but also in social and employment policy; research policy; and freedom, justice, and security policies. Such a shift would likewise transform the alcohol policy of the European Union, in which mental health considerations have so far been notoriously overshadowed by trade considerations.

The commission's green paper is open for consultation by member states, organisations, and individual citizens (http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_determinants/life_style/mental
/green_paper/consultation_en.htm
).
Input into the consultation will help shape the future mental health of Europeans. The European Parliament's response to the green paper is scheduled for September and is an opportunity to raise awareness and political commitment for mental health issues.

Mental health is a major challenge for European health policy. Good mental health contributes to prosperity, solidarity, and social justice, and cannot be achieved by the health sector alone. All sectors have to be involved in the promotion of mental health.

Kristian Wahlbeck, professor

STAKES National Research and Development Centre of Welfare and Health, PO Box 220, Helsinki 00531, Finland
(kristian.wahlbeck{at}stakes.fi )

Vappu Taipale, director general

STAKES National Research and Development Centre of Welfare and Health, PO Box 220, Helsinki 00531, Finland


Competing interests: None declared.
References

Järvisalo J, Andersson B, Boedeker W, Houtman I, eds. Mental disorder as a major challenge in prevention of work disability. Social security and health reports 66. Helsinki: Social Insurance Institution, 2005.

European Commission, Health & Consumer Protection Directorate-General. Green paper. Improving the mental health of the population: towards a strategy on mental health for the European Union. Luxembourg: EC, 2005. (http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_determinants/life_style
/mental/green_paper/mental_gp_en.pdf
.)

WHO Regional Office for Europe. Mental health: facing the challenges, building solutions. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2005. (www.who.dk/document/E87301.pdf.)

WHO Regional Office for Europe. European health for all database (HFA-DB). www.euro.who.int/hfadb (accessed 24 Feb 2006).

European Commission, Health & Consumer Protection Directorate-General. Mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention across European member states: a collection of country stories. 2nd ed. Luxembourg: EC, 2006. (www.imhpa.net/fileadmin/imhpa/Country_stories/FINAL.pdf.)

Mann JJ, Apter A, Bertolote J, Beautrais A, Currier D, Haas A, et al. Suicide prevention strategies. A systematic review. JAMA 2005;294: 2064-74.
Gabriel P, Liimatainen M-R. Mental health in the workplace. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2000.

Wittchen H-U, Jacobi F. Size and burden of mental disorders in Europe—a critical review and appraisal of 27 studies. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2005;15: 357-76.

Alonso J, Angermeyer C, Bernert S, Bruffaerts R, Brugha TS, Bryson H, et al for the ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 Investigators Scientific Committee. Use of mental health services in Europe: Results from the European study of the epidemiology of mental disorders (ESEMeD) project. Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl 2004;(420): 47-54.

Doughty C. The effectiveness of mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention in children, adolescents and adults. A critical appraisal of the literature. NZHTA Report 2005;8(2).

Hawkins D, Catalano R, Arthur M. Promoting science-based prevention in communities. Addict Behav 2002;27: 951-76.

Olds DL. Prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses: from randomized trials to community replication. Prev Sci 2002;3: 1153-72.

Patton GC, Glover S, Bond L, Butler H, Godfrey C, Di Pietro G, et al. The Gatehouse project: a systematic approach to mental health promotion in secondary schools. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2000;34: 586-93.

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Terapia cognitivo-comportamental para síndrome da fadiga crônica: estudo multicêntrico, randomizado e controlado

Cognitive behaviour therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome: a multicentre randomised controlled trial

Judith B Prins, Gijs Bleijenberg, Ellen Bazelmans, Lammy D Elving, Theo M de Boo, Johan L Severens, Gert Jan van der Wilt, Philip Spinhoven, Jos W M van der Meer

Histórico: terapia cognitivo-comportamental (TCC) parece ser um tratamento promissor para síndrome da fadiga crônica (SFC), mas a aplicabilidade desse tratamento fora de serviços especializados é questionada. Nós comparamos TCC, grupos de suporte e evolução natural em um estudo randomizado em três centros.

Métodos: de 476 pacientes com diagnóstico de SFC, 278 eram elegíveis e concordaram em participar. Noventa e três foram designados para TCC (ministrada por 13 terapeutas recentemente treinados para essa técnica), 94 foram designados para grupos de suporte e 91 tiveram evolução natural da doença. Avaliações multidimensionais foram realizadas na linha basal, em 8 meses e em 14 meses. O desfecho primário foi gravidade da fadiga (em uma lista individual para avaliação de força) e disfunção (perfil de impacto da doença) em 8 e 14 meses. Os dados foram analisados por intenção de tratamento.

Resultados: 241 pacientes tiveram dados completos (83 TCC, 80 grupo de suporte, 78 evolução natural). Em 14 meses, TCC foi significativamente mais efetiva do que ambos os grupos controles para gravidade de fadiga (TCC vs suporte 5,8 [2,2-9,4]; TCC vs evolução natural 5,6 [2,1-9,0]) e para disfunção (TCC vs suporte 263 [38-488]; TCC vs evolução natural 222 [3-441]). Grupos de suporte não foram mais efetivos para pacientes com SFC do que evolução natural. Entre o grupo TCC, melhora clinica significante foi observada na gravidade da fadiga em 20 de 58 (35%) pacientes, em Karnofsky performance status para 28 de 57 (49%), e em melhora auto-referida para 29 de 58 (50%). Fatores prognósticos para desfechos após TCC foram um mais alto senso de controle como preditor de maior melhora e um padrão passivo de atividade e foco em sintomas corporais como preditores de pior melhora.

Conclusão: TCC foi mais efetiva do que grupos de suporte e que evolução natural em um estudo multicêntrico com vários terapeutas. Nosso estudo demonstra uma proporção mais baixa de pacientes com melhora do que em estudos de TCC com um menor número de terapeutas, porém mais hábeis.

Fonte: Lancet 2001; 357: 841-47

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