Category: Mental Health

On This Day … 07 October

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People (Births)

  • 1927 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist and author (d. 1989).

R.D. Laing

Ronald David Laing (07 October 1927 to 23 August 1989), usually cited as R.D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness – in particular, the experience of psychosis.

Laing’s views on the causes and treatment of psychopathological phenomena were influenced by his study of existential philosophy and ran counter to the chemical and electroshock methods that had become psychiatric orthodoxy.

Taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of lived experience rather than simply as symptoms of mental illness, Laing regarded schizophrenia as a theory not a fact.

Though associated in the public mind with anti-psychiatry he rejected the label. Politically, he was regarded as a thinker of the New Left.

Laing was portrayed by David Tennant in the 2017 film Mad to Be Normal.

Schizophrenia: Lung Cancer & End-of-Life Care

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Research Paper Title

Palliative and high-intensity end-of-life care in schizophrenia patients with lung cancer: results from a French national population-based study.

Background

Schizophrenia is marked by inequities in cancer treatment and associated with high smoking rates. Lung cancer patients with schizophrenia may thus be at risk of receiving poorer end-of-life care compared to those without mental disorder.

The objective was to compare end-of-life care delivered to patients with schizophrenia and lung cancer with patients without severe mental disorder.

Methods

This population-based cohort study included all patients aged 15 and older who died from their terminal lung cancer in hospital in France (2014-2016).

Schizophrenia patients and controls without severe mental disorder were selected and indicators of palliative care and high-intensity end-of-life care were compared.

Multivariable generalised log-linear models were performed, adjusted for sex, age, year of death, social deprivation, time between cancer diagnosis and death, metastases, comorbidity, smoking addiction and hospital category.

The analysis included 633 schizophrenia patients and 66,469 controls.

Results

The schizophrenia patients died 6 years earlier, had almost twice more frequently smoking addiction (38.1%), had more frequently chronic pulmonary disease (32.5%) and a shorter duration from cancer diagnosis to death.

In multivariate analysis, they were found to have more and earlier palliative care (adjusted Odds Ratio 1.27 [1.03;1.56]; p = 0.04), and less high-intensity end-of-life care (e.g., chemotherapy 0.53 [0.41;0.70]; p < 0.0001; surgery 0.73 [0.59;0.90]; p < 0.01) than controls.

Conclusions

Although the use and/or continuation of high-intensity end-of-life care is less important in schizophrenia patients with lung cancer, some findings suggest a loss of chance.

Future studies should explore the expectations of patients with schizophrenia and lung cancer to define the optimal end-of-life care.

Reference

Viprey, M., Pauly, V., Salas, S., Baumstrack, K., Orleans, V., Llorca, P-M., Lancon, C., Auquier, P., Boyer, L. & Fond, G. (2020) Palliative and high-intensity end-of-life care in schizophrenia patients with lung cancer: results from a French national population-based study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. doi: 10.1007/s00406-020-01186-z. Online ahead of print.

On This Day … 06 October

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People (Births)

  • 1915 – Carolyn Goodman, American psychologist and activist (d. 2007).
  • 1934 – Marshall Rosenberg, American psychologist and author (d. 2015).

Carolyn Goodman

Carolyn Elizabeth Goodman (née Drucker; 06 October 1915 to 17 August 2007) was an American clinical psychologist who became a prominent civil rights advocate after her son, Andrew Goodman and two other civil rights workers, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi, in 1964.

Politically active until age 90, Goodman came to wide public attention again in 2005. Traveling to Philadelphia, Mississippi, she testified at the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen, a former Klan leader recently indicted in the case. On 21 June 2005, the 41st anniversary of the killings, a jury acquitted Killen of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.

Marshall Rosenberg

Marshall Bertram Rosenberg (06 October 1934 to 07 February 2015) was an American psychologist, mediator, author and teacher.

Starting in the early 1960s he developed Nonviolent Communication, a process for supporting partnership and resolving conflict within people, in relationships, and in society.

He worked worldwide as a peacemaker and in 1984 founded the Center for Nonviolent Communication, an international non-profit organisation for which he served as Director of Educational Services.

Gamification & Mobile Mental Health Interventions

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Research Paper Title

Gamification as an approach to improve resilience and reduce attrition in mobile mental health interventions: A randomized controlled trial.

Background

40% of all general-practitioner appointments are related to mental illness, although less than 35% of individuals have access to therapy and psychological care, indicating a pressing need for accessible and affordable therapy tools.

The ubiquity of smartphones offers a delivery platform for such tools.

Previous research suggests that gamification-turning intervention content into a game format-could increase engagement with prevention and early-stage mobile interventions.

This study aimed to explore the effects of a gamified mobile mental health intervention on improvements in resilience, in comparison with active and inactive control conditions. Differences between conditions on changes in personal growth, anxiety and psychological wellbeing, as well as differences in attrition rates, were also assessed.

Methods

The eQuoo app was developed and published on all leading mobile platforms. The app educates users about psychological concepts including emotional bids, generalisation, and reciprocity through psychoeducation, storytelling, and gamification.

In total, 358 participants completed in a 5-week, 3-armed (eQuoo, “treatment as usual” cognitive behavioral therapy journal app, no-intervention waitlist) randomized controlled trial. Relevant scales were administered to all participants on days 1, 17, and 35.

Results

Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed statistically significant increases in resilience in the test group compared with both control groups over 5 weeks.

The app also significantly increased personal growth, positive relations with others, and anxiety.

With 90% adherence, eQuoo retained 21% more participants than the control or waitlist groups.

Conclusions

Intervention delivered via eQuoo significantly raised mental well-being and decreased self-reported anxiety while enhancing adherence in comparison with the control conditions.

Mobile apps using gamification can be a valuable and effective platform for well-being and mental health interventions and may enhance motivation and reduce attrition.

Future research should measure eQuoo’s effect on anxiety with a more sensitive tool and examine the impact of eQuoo on a clinical population.

Reference

Litvin, S., Saunders, R., Maier, M.A. & Luttke, S. (2020) Gamification as an approach to improve resilience and reduce attrition in mobile mental health interventions: A randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 15(9), pp.e0237220. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237220. eCollection 2020.

Linking PTSD and the Parents of Children with Cancer

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Research Paper Title

Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms among Lithuanian Parents Raising Children with Cancer.

Background

The study aims to evaluate post-traumatic stress symptom expression among Lithuanian parents raising children with cancer, including social, demographic, and medical factors, and to determine their significance for the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Methods

The study was carried out in two major Lithuanian hospitals treating children with oncologic diseases. The cross-sectional study included 195 parents, out of which 151 were mothers (77.4%) and 44 were fathers (22.6%). Post-traumatic stress symptoms were assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. To collect the sociodemographic, childhood cancer, and treatment data, we developed a questionnaire that was completed by the parents. Main study results were obtained using multiple linear regression.

Results

A total of 75.4% of parents caring for children with cancer had pronounced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The female gender (β = 0.83, p < 0.001) was associated with an increased manifestation of symptoms, whilst higher parental education (β = -0.21, p = 0.034) and the absence of relapse (β = -0.48, p < 0.001) of the child’s disease reduced post-traumatic stress symptom expression.

Conclusions

Obtained results confirmed that experiencing a child’s cancer diagnosis and treatment is extremely stressful for many parents. This event may lead to impaired mental health and increased post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) risk; hence, it is necessary to provide better support and assistance to parents of children with cancer.

Reference

Baniene, I. & Zemaitiene, N. (2020) Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms among Lithuanian Parents Raising Children with Cancer. Children (Basel, Switzerland). 7(9), pp.116. doi: 10.3390/children7090116.

On This Day … 03 October

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People (Deaths)

  • 2014 – Benedict Groeschel, American priest, psychologist, and talk show host (b. 1933).

Benedict Groeschel

Benedict Joseph Groeschel, C.F.R. (23 July 1933 to 03 October 2014) was an American Franciscan friar, Catholic priest, retreat master, author, psychologist, activist, and television host.

He hosted the television talk programme Sunday Night Prime (originally Sunday Night Live) broadcast on the Eternal Word Television Network, as well as several serial religious specials.

He founded the Office for Spiritual Development for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. He was Associate Director of the Trinity Retreat House for clergy and executive director of St. Francis House.

He was professor of pastoral psychology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York and an adjunct professor at the Institute for Psychological Sciences in Arlington, Virginia. He was one of the founders of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and among his close friends were Mother Teresa, Mother Angelica and Alice von Hildebrand.

Pastoral Psychology

One application of the psychology of religion is in pastoral psychology, the use of psychological findings to improve the pastoral care provided by pastors and other clergy, especially in how they support ordinary members of their congregations.

Pastoral psychology is also concerned with improving the practice of chaplains in healthcare and in the military.

One major concern of pastoral psychology is to improve the practice of pastoral counseling. Pastoral psychology is a topic of interest for professional journals such as Pastoral Psychology, the Journal of Psychology and Christianity, and the Journal of Psychology and Theology.

In 1984, Thomas Oden severely criticised mid-20th-century pastoral care and the pastoral psychology that guided it as having entirely abandoned its classical/traditional sources, and having become overwhelmingly dominated by modern psychological influences from Freud, Rogers, and others.

More recently, others have described pastoral psychology as a field that experiences a tension between psychology and theology.

On This Day … 02 October

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People (Deaths)

  • 2011 – Peter L. Benson, American psychologist and academic (b. 1946).
  • 2012 – J. Philippe Rushton, English-Canadian psychologist, theorist, academic (b. 1943).
  • 2013 – Gottfried Fischer, German psychologist, therapist, and academic (b. 1944).

Peter L. Benson

Peter Lorimer Benson (1946-2011) was a psychologist and CEO/President of Search Institute.

He pioneered the developmental assets framework, which became the predominant approach to research on positive facets of youth development.

J. Philippe Rushton

John Philippe Rushton (03 December 1943 to 02 October 2012) was a Canadian psychologist and author. He taught at the University of Western Ontario and became known to the general public during the 1980s and 1990s for research on race and intelligence, race and crime, and other apparent racial variations. His book Race, Evolution, and Behavior (1995) is about the application of r/K selection theory to humans.

Rushton’s work was heavily criticised by the scientific community for the questionable quality of its research, with many alleging that it was conducted under a racist agenda. From 2002 until his death, he served as the head of the Pioneer Fund, an organisation founded in 1937 to promote Eugenics, which worked actively with the Nazi party to promote theories of racial superiority and inferiority, and has been described as racist and white supremacist in nature and designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Rushton was a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and a onetime Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Gottfried Fischer

Gottfried Fischer (13 September 1944 to 02 October 2013) was a German psychologist, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst.

He is considered to be the founder of psychotraumatology in Germany and has been director of the Institute for Clinical Psychology and Psychological Diagnostics at the University of Cologne from 1995 to 2009.

On This Day … 01 October

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People (Births)

  • 1940 – Phyllis Chesler, American feminist psychologist, and author of the best-seller, Women and Madness (1972).
  • 1950 – Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, English neuroscientist, academic, and politician.

Phyllis Chesler

Phyllis Chesler is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women’s studies at the College of Staten Island (CUNY).

She is known as a feminist psychologist, and is the author of 18 books, including the best-seller Women and Madness (1972), With Child: A Story of Motherhood (1979) and An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir (2013). Chesler has written on topics such as gender, mental illness, divorce and child custody, surrogacy, second-wave feminism, pornography, prostitution, incest, and violence against women.

In more recent years, Chesler has written several works on such subjects as anti-Semitism, Islam, and honor killings. Chesler argues that many western intellectuals, including leftists and feminists, have abandoned Western values in the name of multicultural relativism, and that this has led to an alliance with Islamists, an increase in anti-Semitism, and to the abandonment of Muslim women and religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries.

Susan Greenfield

Susan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, CBE, FRCP is an English scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords. Her research has focused on the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. She is also interested in the neuroscience of consciousness and the impact of technology on the brain.

Greenfield is a senior research fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford, and was a professor of Synaptic Pharmacology.

She was chancellor of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh between 2005 and 2013. From 1998 to 2010, she was director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In September 2013, she co-founded the biotech company Neuro-bio Ltd, where she is Chief Executive Officer.

World Habitat Day

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Introduction

World Habitat Day is marked on the first Monday of October each year, and is recognised by the United Nations to reflect on the state of towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. The day is also intended to remind the world that everyone has the power and the responsibility to shape the future of towns and cities. World Habitat Day was first celebrated in 1986 in Nairobi, Kenya, and the theme chosen for that year was “Shelter is My Right”.

Background

The United Nations General Assembly decided that this should be an annual event and the first Monday of October was chosen. The day is celebrated in many countries around the world and various activities are organised to examine the problems of rapid urbanisation and its impact on the environment and human poverty.

Themes

Annual themes for World Habitat Day have been diverse and have included “Shelter for the Homeless”, “Our Neighbourhood”, “Safer Cities”, “Women in Urban Government”, Cities without Slums” and “Water and Sanitation for Cities”.

Philosophy

UN Habitat makes plain the need to plan cities in order to avoid the chaotic development of urban sprawls and all the associated problems that are created as a result.

Cities after all are engines of growth. Many people from rural areas in the world long to move to cities in order to realise their dreams for a better life. Often this dream is not realised, but people continue to flock to cities for no other reason than a vague promise of a better future and prosperity.

A well-planned city can bring just that. Cities can be centres for economic activities and urban challenges can be addressed and opportunities can continue to be afforded to both current and future residents. Those who are successful succeed in getting jobs or starting their own businesses, which in turn creates more employment opportunities.

On the other hand, cities can also become a setting in which marginalisation, inequality and social exclusion can abound. Access to adequate housing is a prime factor in ensuring that this is avoided.

Another important factor is that as the world’s climate continues to change, there is an ever-increasing risk of natural disasters. This risk is particularly significant in the Caribbean Region and Central America, where countries such as Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Bolivia have higher levels of poverty and where their cities are exceptionally vulnerable due to their population density and diversity.

High levels of population density, coupled with poor building techniques have given rise to shanty towns that have no proper infrastructure, no community organisation and no security of tenure. In the event of a disaster of any kind, a complete breakdown can result in a chaotic situation and enormous loss of life.

Habitat Scroll of Honour

The UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award was launched by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in 1989. It is currently the most prestigious human settlements award in the world. Its aim is to acknowledge initiatives which have made outstanding contributions in various fields such as shelter provision, highlighting the plight of the homeless, leadership in post conflict reconstruction and developing and improving human settlements and the quality of urban life.

The award, a plaque engraved with the name of the winner and their achievement, is presented to the winners during the Global Observance of the World Habitat Day.

International Day of Older Persons

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Introduction

The International Day of Older Persons is observed on 01 October each year.

On 14 December 1990 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 01 October as the International Day of Older Persons as recorded in Resolution 45/106.

The holiday was observed for the first time on 01 October 1991.

Purpose

The holiday is celebrated by raising awareness about issues affecting the elderly, such as senescence and elder abuse.

It is also a day to appreciate the contributions that older people make to society.

Similarities to Other Days

This holiday is similar to National Grandparents Day in the United States and Canada as well as Double Ninth Festival in China and Respect for the Aged Day in Japan.

The observance is a focus of ageing organisations and the United Nations Programme on Ageing.

Annual Themes

  • 1998 & 2000: Towards A Society for All Ages.
  • 2004: Older persons in an intergenerational society.
  • 2005: Ageing in the new millennium.
  • 2006: Improving the Quality of Life for Older Persons: Advancing UN Global Strategies.
  • 2007: Addressing the Challenges and Opportunities of Ageing.
  • 2008: Rights of Older Persons.
  • 2009: Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of Older Persons: Towards a Society for All Ages.
  • 2010: Older persons and the achievement of the MDGs.
  • 2011: The Growing Opportunities & Challenges of Global Ageing.
  • 2012: Longevity: Shaping the Future.
  • 2013: The future we want: what older persons are saying.
  • 2014: Leaving No One Behind: Promoting a Society for All.
  • 2015: Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment.
  • 2016: Take A Stand Against Ageism.
  • 2017: Stepping into the Future: Tapping the Talents, Contributions and Participation of Older Persons in Society.
  • 2018: Celebrating Older Human Rights champions.
  • 2019: The Journey to Age Equality.
  • 2020: Pandemics: Do They Change How We Address Age and Ageing?

How Do People Celebrate International Day of Older Persons?

The celebration of International Day of Older Persons is done to create awareness and empathy regarding the well being of the elderly.

People usually celebrate the day by spending time with their grandparents, visiting old age homes and N.G.O’s and cooking or baking them. Some kids also give greeting cards to their elderly on this day.