This workshop will review the nature of diagnosis in psychiatry and the history of the DSM process, describing the strong and weak points of this approach to classification of mental illness. It will then examine each of the major groupings of the manual, identify the major problems, and indicate where DSM-5 has made changes and where it has not.
Date & Time: February 28th, 2014 (9:30AM – 4:30PM).
Location: Park Inn & Suites OAK Room 898 West Broadway Vancouver, BC.
Register by January 10th, 2014 to take advantage of our EARLY BIRD RATES!
To register for the Early Bird rate visit:
http://psychologists.bc.ca/civicrm/event/info?id=109&reset=1
1. To understand the scientific and ideological bases of the DSM system.
2. To examine limitations of the DSM, but to indicate how future research might illuminate diagnostic problems.
3. To examine each of the major diagnoses in psychiatry and to review how DSM-5 deals with them.
Dr. Paris has been a member of the McGill psychiatry department since 1972. Since 1994, he has been a full Professor, and served as Department Chair from 1997 to 2007. Dr. Paris is currently a Research Associate at the SMBD-Jewish General Hospital, and heads personality clinics at two hospitals. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Dr. Paris has 185 peer-reviewed articles, and is the author of 17 books and 44 book chapters. Dr. Paris is an educator who has won awards for his teaching.
Sexual abuse of children and adolescents can have serious health consequences for victims. Early studies have revealed that child sexual abuse is associated with an increased risk of later mental and physical health problems and risk-taking behavior. The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich, the Psychosomatics and Psychiatry Department at Zurich’s University Children’s Hospital and the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Zurich discovered that sexual abuse is alarmingly widespread in a representative sample of more than 6,000 9th grade students in Switzerland.
Sexual harassment via the Internet is mentioned most frequently
Among the study participants, mainly between 15 and 17 years old, roughly 40 percent of girls and 17 percent of boys reported they had experienced at least one type of child sexual abuse. Relative to boys, sexual abuse without physical contact was reported twice as often in girls and sexual abuse with physical contact without penetration three times more often. Both genders reported “sexual harassment via the Internet” as the most frequent form of abuse. This form of sexual abuse was experienced by roughly 28 percent of girls over the course of their lifetimes and by almost 10 percent of boys. At just under 15 percent for girls versus 5 percent for boys, “molested verbally or by e-mail/text message” was the second most common form of abuse. Just under 12 percent of the surveyed girls and 4 percent of the surveyed boys reported having been kissed or touched against their will. Approximately 2.5 percent of the girls had already experienced sexual abuse with penetration (vaginal, oral, anal or other); among boys, this figure was 0.6 percent.
The results of the Zurich study are comparable to those of an earlier Swiss study which was conducted in Geneva between 1995 and 1996 in a similar age group asked similar questions. The prevalence of sexual abuse with physical contact is almost unchanged today. However, sexual abuse without physical contact occurs far more frequently. “We believe that this difference can be attributed to harassment via the Internet, e-mail, or text messaging. This type of sexual abuse was not surveyed back then”, explains Dr. Meichun Mohler-Kuo, senior research scientist at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich.
The majority were victimized by juvenile perpetrators
Just over half of the female victims and more than 70 percent of the male victims reported that they had been abused by a juvenile perpetrator. Furthermore, most of the victims of sexual abuse with physical contact knew the perpetrator – for instance, they were partners, peers, or acquaintances. “This new trend towards the majority being juvenile perpetrators, and being peers and acquaintances, is in contrast to the Geneva study, and might indicate increased violent behavior among adolescents”, explains Dr. Ulrich Schnyder, Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at University Hospital Zurich. And he adds: “Our results also differ considerably from official police reports, according to which perpetrators are usually adult, male relatives.” This would seem to indicate significant under-reporting of abuse to officials.
The majority did not disclose sexual abuse
Only about half of victimized girls and less than one-third of victimized boys disclosed their sexual abuse experiences. The disclosure rate is even lower with more severe forms of sexual abuse. Most victimswho do disclose, do so to their peers; less than 20 percent to their families. Fewer than 10 percent of victims reported the sexual abuse to police. “Compared to similar studies from other countries, the disclosure figures in the Swiss study are low. The reluctance in reporting incidents of this kind to family members or authorities makes timely intervention more difficult,” concludes Dr. Schnyder.
ᔥhttp://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch
Photo by Bob MacDonnell, courtesy of Connecticut College.
Researchers at Connecticut College tested lab rats and found eating Oreos activated more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to drugs of abuse.
Connecticut College students and a professor of neuroscience have found “America’s favorite cookie” is just as addictive as cocaine – at least for lab rats. And just like most humans, rats go for the middle first.
In a study designed to shed light on the potential addictiveness of high-fat/ high-sugar foods, Professor Joseph Schroeder and his students found rats formed an equally strong association between the pleasurable effects of eating Oreos and a specific environment as they did between cocaine or morphine and a specific environment. They also found that eating cookies activated more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to drugs of abuse.
Schroeder, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Connecticut College, will present the research next month at the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego, Calif.
“Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do,” Schroeder said. “It may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.”
Schroeder said he and his students specifically chose to feed the rats Oreos because they wanted a food that is palatable to humans and contributes to obesity in the same way cocaine is pleasurable and addictive to humans.
The research was the brainchild of neuroscience major Jamie Honohan, who graduated in May. She worked with Schroeder and several other students last year to measure the association between “drug” and environment.
On one side of a maze, they would give hungry rats Oreos and on the other, they would give them a control – in this case, rice cakes. (“Just like humans, rats don’t seem to get much pleasure out of eating them,” Schroeder said.) Then, they would give the rats the option of spending time on either side of the maze and measure how long they would spend on the side where they were typically fed Oreos.
While it may not be scientifically relevant, Honohan said it was surprising to watch the rats eat the famous cookie. “They would break it open and eat the middle first,” she said.
They compared the results of the Oreo and rice cake test with results from rats that were given an injection of cocaine or morphine, known addictive substances, on one side of the maze and a shot of saline on the other. Schroeder is licensed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to purchase and use controlled substances for research.
The research showed the rats conditioned with Oreos spent as much time on the “drug” side of the maze as the rats conditioned with cocaine or morphine.
Schroeder and his students then used immunohistochemistry to measure the expression of a protein called c-Fos, a marker of neuronal activation, in the nucleus accumbens, or the brain’s “pleasure center.”
“It basically tells us how many cells were turned on in a specific region of the brain in response to the drugs or Oreos,” said Schroeder.
They found that the Oreos activated significantly more neurons than cocaine or morphine.
“This correlated well with our behavioral results and lends support to the hypothesis that high-fat/ high-sugar foods are addictive,” said Schroeder.
And that is a problem for the general public, says Honohan.
“Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability,” she said.
