In the movies and among many teens and college students, the perception is that pot is relatively harmless. It mellows you out and the worst side effect is a bad case of the munchies, right? Not according to a new study. An article published in the latest issue of the professional journal Archives of General Psychiatry shows a much scarier potential effect of marijuana. It turns out that a chemical called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), found in pot, increases the brain processes that can lead to symptoms of psychosis.

So what does that mean for the average person? Can smoking pot lead to psychosis? Are there are other possible health concerns uncovered by this new study?

Previous research has found that THC can induce symptoms of psychosis in healthy people and worsen psychotic symptoms in people already experiencing them. Long-term cannabis use is also associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, the study suggests.

The study is groundbreaking in another way: Its findings are the first to use images of the brain to demonstrate that the reason symptoms of psychosis arise in marijuana users may be because THC interferes with the brain’s ability to distinguish between stimuli that are important, and those that aren’t, according to the study.

The study, led by Dr. Sagnik Bhattacharyya, a psychopharmacologist at King’s College in London, included 15 healthy men with minimal previous marijuana use. The researchers used functional MRI scans to observe the men’s brains after they took pills containing THC, cannabidiol or a placebo. The resulting images showed changes in the areas of the brain that are believed to be linked to symptoms of psychosis. Men taking THC had increased activity in the prefrontal cortex but lower activity in the region called the striatum, changes that the study says could be attributed to THC’s ability to alter the brain’s levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

While those in charge of the study don’t go to far as to say that prolonged marijuana use will make you psychotic, the findings are interesting and provide just one more argument for abstaining from pot use.

Marijuana Addiction Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with marijuana addiction, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about drug treatment, financing or insurance.

Thanks to the Federal Mental Health Parity Act of 2008, employers who provide health insurance plans for mental and substance use disorders are now required to provide benefits that are equal to those given for general medical care. But three years later, is this act actually making a difference in the number of individuals seeking treatment?

Sadly, parity in insurance coverage of substance abuse treatment has not led to increased use of this service or an increase in costs, according to new research. That doesn’t mean the Parity Act has failed, though. In fact, it has done what it was designed to do — lower out-of-pocket expenses for covered individuals.

Those who were against the passing of the Parity Act, argued that if coverage was made more readily available, use will rise dramatically. Experts argue that’s not the case.

“There is always a fear that for substance abuse and mental health, every time a plan is more generous, the utilization will skyrocket, the costs will be so high, and all the insurance companies will start complaining that they won’t be able to afford these services. But this is not true,” lead study author Vanessa Azzone, PhD, researcher and biostatistician in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News.

“I think these findings, along with those found in other studies, clear the air for all the people who have been criticizing parity law for mental health treatment,” Dr. Azzone added.

While previous research on the impact of mental health parity mandates has helped to pave the way for the passage of federal legislation, there have been few studies on the effects of parity mandates for substance abuse treatment benefits. That will continue to change as parity laws remain in place and time passes, allowing for more studies.

Drug Abuse Treatment

If you or someone you love is in need of drug abuse treatment, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

It’s official: The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) has officially recognized that addiction is not solely related to substance misuse and is, in fact, a chronic brain disease.

For decades, addiction specialists and those battling substance abuse have had to fight against the stigma that addiction is some sort of character flaw or personal weakness. But experts have long known that “at its core, addiction isn’t just a social problem or a moral problem or a criminal problem. It’s a brain problem whose behaviors manifest in all these other areas,” ASAM Past President Michael Miller, MD, said in a news release.
“The disease is about brains, not drugs. It’s about underlying neurology, not outward actions,” added Dr. Miller, who oversaw the development of the new addiction definition.

This new definition of addiction was based on findings from brain circuitry studies prompted by more than 80 experts who came together four years ago to begin the process. Previous research has shown that addiction affects neurotransmission in the reward area of the brain, triggers craving of addictive behaviors based on memories of previous experiences, and alters areas that govern impulse control and judgment.

Highlights of the new definition include a description of addiction as a primary disease, which means “it’s not the result of other causes such as emotional or psychiatric problems.” ASAM also notes that addiction is a chronic condition, and so should be treated, managed and monitored over a lifetime. The new definition also acknowledges that the disease drives behaviors that others might not understand. It also makes clear that addiction is not a choice, even though choice plays an important role in getting help.

Experts hope this new definition will help decrease the stigma of addiction. By decreasing the stigma, treatment professionals believe it will lessen the barriers to individuals getting the help they need.

Drug Addiction

If you or someone you love is battling drug addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Working moms are less likely to show symptoms of depression than stay-at-home moms, MSNBC.com reports, citing a new study. Working moms aren’t off the hook, though. Those who are harder on themselves when it come to setting realistic expectations at balancing work and family end up having higher rates of depression than their more laid-back counterparts.

Researchers analyzed survey results from 1,600 married US women between the ages of 22 and 30 who had children at home. The information was collected as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and asked women’s opinions on a series of statements that seemed to hold outdates ideas on working women and family. Researchers then went back and measured levels of depression in the women at age 40.

Overall, women who were employed either full or part time were less likely to be depressed than those who stayed at home. Signs of depression included difficulty concentrating, feeling lonely, sad or restless, having trouble sleeping or getting going in the morning and feeling unable to shake the blues.

But working women surveyed who were less sure about the ability of women to balance careers and family were also less apt to show symptoms of depression than women who thought it was going to be easy to do both, according to the study.

“The findings really point to the mismatch between women’s expectations about their ability to balance work and family. Women still do the bulk of household labor and child care, even when they’re employed full time,” said study author Katrina Leupp, a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Some of the women who think it’s not difficult to work and take care of kids may also be buying into the “supermom” complex — pressuring themselves to be overachievers in all aspects of life, Leupp said.

Treatment experts know that addiction rates are higher for those who suffer from mental health disorders including depression, so the findings are of interest to those who work to treat substance abuse. But treating co-occurring disorders like addiction and mental health issues simultaneously – often referred to as “dual diagnosis treatment” – success rates are higher than regular addiction treatment.

Co-occurring Disorders Treatment

If you or someone you love is in need of substance abuse treatment, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Could routine mental health screenings for high school students become the norm? A new study suggests it could be a valuable tool in identifying adolescents at-risk for mental illness and connecting those adolescents with recommended follow-up care. The study, reported by Science Daily, included nearly 2,500 high school students and was the largest school-based study conducted to-date by the TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University. Findings are published in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Conducted between 2005 and 2009 at six public high schools in suburban Wisconsin, results found that nearly three out of four high school students identified as being at-risk for having a mental health problem were not in treatment at the time of screening. Of those students identified as at-risk, a significant majority (76.3 percent) completed at least one visit with a mental health provider within 90 days of screening. More than half received minimally adequate treatment, defined as having three or more visits with a provider.

“The value of school-based screening is reinforced by this study and highlights TeenScreen’s unique ability to help teens whose mental health problems would otherwise go unidentified,” said Leslie McGuire, MSW, TeenScreen’s deputy executive director, and an author of the paper.

The computerized screening, designed to identity depression, anxiety and several other mental health conditions, took approximately 10 minutes to complete.

The Mental Health and Drug Abuse Connection

Adolescence is an important window for intervention because 50 percent of all lifetime mental health disorders start by age 14, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Untreated depression and other mental health problems can lead to school failure, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, and criminal involvement. Most tragically, untreated mental illness can lead to suicide — the third leading cause of death among adolescents. Research has shown that most young people with mental illness can be effectively treated and lead productive lives.

Undiagnosed Issues Lead to Self-medicating

A high percentage of adults undergoing substance abuse treatment have been found to have underlying mental health issues ranging from depression and bipolar disorder to anxiety and PTSD, which can contribute to or exacerbate an addiction. Treatment experts know undiagnosed mental health issues can be dangerous because they can cause individuals to turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate. Dual Diagnosis treatment for mental health and addiction has been proven to be very successful, though.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment

If you or someone you love is in need of treatment for a co-occurring disorder, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

We’ve been saying it for a while now: Mental health issues and addiction often go hand in hand. And even for those who don’t turn to drug addiction or alcohol addiction, the problem is still sizeable. We hear so much about heart disease and cancer, but in 2008 the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that brain disorders accounted for about 13 percent of the global disease burden, a greater percentage than both cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

The World Mental Health Survey, published in 2008 and covering 28 countries, estimated that one in three adults suffers from a mental disorder including bipolar, depression, PTSD, anxiety and many others. That’s a staggering number. And a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, pulled together data from surveys to reveal that 6.8 percent of adults had moderate to severe depression.

The new report is an update on a 2005 paper that estimated that 27 percent of the European Union population was affected by mental disorders each year. The higher figure resulted from the addition of 14 previously excluded disorders, many of which affect children and the elderly, meaning that the frequency of mental disorders has probably not gone up substantially.

Still, the numbers are so high that we don’t have to see a huge increase to become alarmed. With so many suffering from mental health issues, there is a high incidence of self-medicating, with alcohol, prescription meds or illegal drugs. Individuals don’t get treatment for their symptoms or don’t feel it’s working so they turn to other methods to feel better. Before long, they have an addiction to deal with as well as their underlying mental health issues. In the treatment world, this is called dual diagnosis, and a high percentage of those entering substance abuse treatment arrive with these co-occurring disorders.

For decades, the stigma surrounding mental disorders has kept some from seeking treatment and pushed others to keep their treatment secret. That shame can also contribute to addiction. Fortunately, in recent years the stigma has lessened and increasing education will continue to help sufferers feel like they don’t need to hide their diagnosis.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment at La Paloma

If you or someone you love is in need of dual diagnosis treatment or other help, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about dual diagnosis treatment, financing or insurance.

A new TLC show may be stretching the definition of “addiction.” The program My Strange Addiction profiles individuals who can’t stop from compulsively performing a range of behaviors that span from the regular to the disturbing. One man continually eats broken glass while a woman obsessively cleans, exposing herself and her children to strong chemical fumes around the clock. Another woman puts her life in danger by sleeping with her running blow dryer.

One question a show like this raises is are these issues true addictions? While they’re definitely problems that affect the individual’s life in a negative way and impact those around them, do they meet the criteria for addiction?

Addiction Defined

The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV), the current official text on which diagnoses are based, use seven criteria for determining substance dependence. To be diagnosed, the person would have to have at least three of the criteria within the same year.

The seven criteria for substance dependence are:

• Tolerance, marked by a need for increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect or diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of the substance
• Withdrawal, manifested by either withdrawal syndrome for the substance or the substance is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
• The substance is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended
• There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use
• A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance
• Important social, occupational or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of substance use
• The substance use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the substance

The individuals appearing on My Strange Addiction may not fit the clinical definition of an addict, but their disorders are real and do require professional help for mental health disorders that underlie these dangerous behaviors. Also, with this kind of behavior, substances such as drugs or alcohol can easily be exchanged for other behaviors, so it’s important to monitor the problem closely.

Addiction Help

If you or someone you love is battling an addiction or co-occurring disorder, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

For a long time, no one in the public eye wanted to speak out about mental health issues because of the stigma attached, but as problems like depression and bipolar are better understood, sufferers are becoming more vocal. New York Jets backup quarterback Erik Ainge recently went public with his ongoing use of pot, alcohol, cocaine, heroin and prescription meds, the latter of which became an addiction. Ainge also announced that he suffers from bipolar disorder, a condition that likely contributes to his drug abuse.

Experts aren’t surprised to hear about Ainge’s co-occurring disorders. Studies have shown that a high percentage of all addicts have a co-occurring mental health issue like depression, bipolar, trauma or PTSD. They often begin using to self-medicate those issues and eventually become addicted. Addiction experts have found that treating addiction and any underlying mental health addiction together in a dual diagnosis program is the most effective, providing the best chance at long-term sobriety.

As a professional athlete, Ainge had achieved something that is the dream of hundreds of thousands of little boys (and some grown men). And yet he was living in a way that would destroy that career through drunk driving, multiple overdoses, several relapses, and missing the entire 2010 season because of his addiction, ESPN reports. In the late stages of his addiction, Ainge admits he was taking 25 Percocet at a time. Then five hours later, he’d do it again.

Ainge says he’s been clean since July 17, 2010 — his longest stretch of sobriety since he was 11. Now he’s trying to help others by speaking out about his addiction and mental illness. His future in football remains uncertain, but he’s putting his sobriety first. “It’s not like I’m fine and I’m cured and I’m ready to go, gung-ho, back at it,” he tells ESPN. “I want this to be the last time that I ever have to try to get clean, and I’m going slowly.”

Co-Occurring Disorder Treatment

If you or someone you love is battling an addiction or co-occurring disorder, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

It’s often thought of as a little harmless experimentation. Everyone does it, right? Even the current and former presidents have admitted to smoking pot. But a new Dutch study shows that smoking marijuana as a teenager or young adult raises your risk of having psychotic symptoms later in life.

Researchers found that those who started smoking pot had double the risk of developing psychotic symptoms, according to a recent report in USA Today.

“This cements much more firmly the reality that marijuana use in adolescence is a risk factor, along with the other genetic, environmental and socioeconomic risk factors, for developing psychosis,” said Dr. Kathryn Kotrla, associate dean and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Round Rock.

The findings were first reported in the March 1 issue of the BMJ and detail the study led by Jim van Os at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The findings are based on data on about 2,000 individuals in Germany who were 14 to 24 years old when they enrolled in the study, and who were then followed for 10 years. The results seem to show that marijuana use actually precedes the onset of symptoms, suggesting a possible cause-and-effect relationship.

This is newsworthy because some 16 million people in the U.S. alone use marijuana regularly, and most started smoking in their teens. It is the third most widely used addictive substance after tobacco and alcohol.

Marijuana Use

If you or someone you love is battling a marijuana addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Even as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is transferred to a rehabilitation facility, the tragic shooting spree in Arizona that killed six and wounded 13 is still fresh in the nation’s consciousness. The horrific incident has led to much speculation about whether anything could have been done to stop 22-year-old suspect Jared Lee Loughner.

In the days since the shooting, Loughner’s father, friends and former community college classmates have come forward. They paint a picture of another tragedy, a young man dealing with serious mental health issues.

There were enough complaints at college that Loughner was suspended and warned not to come back without a mental health evaluation. There were also postings attributed to Loughner on websites including MySpace and YouTube that one expert told CNN show “classic signs of psychosis.” Loughner’s own father admits his son was “out of control” prior to the incident.

Forensic psychologist Kathy Seifert told CNN that Loughner’s postings were “absolutely psychotic,” adding that he should have been evaluated for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism or other mental illnesses.

Other reports – including a hospital visit for alcohol poisoning, an arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia and a failed attempt to enlist in the Army due to a positive drug test — suggest that Loughner may have turned to illicit drugs and alcohol in an attempt to self-medicate. This is common among those with mental health issues, leading to what experts refer to as co-occurring disorders (when addiction is paired with another disorder that precipitates or aggravates the substance use).

Obviously, many individuals with mental health problems aren’t violent, and it would be an added tragedy if Loughner’s actions were to make the public afraid of harmless individuals who are struggling valiantly against a mental health disorder. The focus now is on justice for the victims and to find positive outcomes from this senseless tragedy. Increased understanding of mental health issues and addiction can be part of that if people will only make the effort.

Co-occurring Disorder Treatment

If you or someone you love is battling an addiction paired with a mental health issue, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.