WASHINGTON, May 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A diagnosis of lupus is almost certain to cause emotional turmoil and distress for persons suffering with the chronic disease and their family members. The physical strains of treatment and lifestyle adjustments required by the debilitating autoimmune disease can seem overwhelming to the young women who account for eighty percent of new cases. Lupus is a chronic life-threatening disease which causes the immune system to attack the body's own tissue and organs.

Each person's emotional response to lupus is different. It is estimated that half of the 1.5 million Americans with lupus experience some type of emotional problem because of their illness. Feelings of confidence can quickly be shattered. Loss of self-esteem can be a serious problem leading to mood swings and depression.

Elderly Sleep Woes Linked to Increased Suicide Risk

ISLAMABAD: Chronically troubled sleep may be a marker for an increased risk for suicide in the elderly, a new report suggests. "The association exists even after you control for depression," said lead researcher Rebecca Bernert, a clinical psychology doctoral student at Florida State University. "This finding is important, because sleep disturbances are amenable to treatment, unlike other risk factors, such as past suicide attempts. Sleep problems can be undone," she said. In the study, Bernert reviewed health data on almost 14,500 elderly people aged 67 to 90 years old, tracked over a 10-year period. During this period, 21 individuals committed suicide. When each suicide was matched to 20 randomly-selected controls, the researchers found that sleep disturbances, independent of depression, predicted an increased risk for eventual death by suicide.

News briefs from around Kentucky at 5:58 a.m. EDT

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a popular target of anti-war groups, is being saluted by a veterans group for supporting military efforts in Iraq.

The ad, slated to run in multiple markets for a limited time, is the latest salvo in a strategy by supporters and opponents of the war to try to influence McConnell by taking to the airwaves.

Evolving Treatments for Panic Disorder

To The Editor: In the Feb. 2007 issue of the Journal, Barbara Milrod, M.D., et al. (1) reported a randomized controlled trial in which psychoanalytic psychotherapy was superior to applied relaxation in the treatment of panic disorder. Opponents of psychoanalytic therapies often level the criticism that little (if any) research exists that demonstrates the efficacy and durability of these approaches. We therefore applaud the efforts of Dr. Milrod et al. to manualize psychoanalytic therapy and to test its effects in a randomized controlled trial.

One of the great challenges with psychiatric disorders such as panic, however, is that many different interventions can appear to work at any given time. Therefore, the scientific task is to weed out those procedures that may appear to work from those that can be trusted to work reliably, not only because these trusted procedures have passed muster in controlled trials, but also because we have some directly verified knowledge about the mechanism through which they have produced positive outcomes.

Counselors bring experience, compassion to patients

The Jackson County Memorial Hospital Counseling Center at 1200 East Tamarack Road in Altus announces the addition of Stanley Mitchell and Kim Wright to its staff of licensed clinical social workers.Mitchell is a graduate of Florida State University with a Master's degree in social work; he is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). His experience in the health care field includes acute and chronically ill patients and clients in both the inpatient and outpatients settings.His career began at an Oklahoma City ministry serving American Indian families. He continued by graduating from Southwestern Theological Baptist Seminary with a master's degree in religious education with a concentration in social work. He worked for over nine years providing grief and loss counseling with a hospice organization.On staff at the JCMH Counseling Center, Mitchell provides individual and family counseling specializing in grief and loss, life adjustment issues, minor anxiety and depression and spiritual issues.

Valopicitabine Combined with Standard of Care Cleared Hepatitis C ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA, USA | June 12, 2007 | Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDIX) today announced results from a phase II study designed to evaluate triple combination therapy, consisting of valopicitabine (NM283), Idenix's lead drug candidate for the treatment of hepatitis C, pegylated interferon and ribavirin compared to pegylated interferon and ribavirin, the current standard of care, in patients infected with the genotype-1 strain of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). This study demonstrated no pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic drug-drug interaction between valopicitabine and ribavirin. The triple combination showed consistently higher rates of HCV PCR-negativity, defined as serum HCV RNA levels below 20 copies/mL, compared to the standard of care at every point analyzed in this study. Additionally, the tolerability of the triple combination was satisfactory, with only three discontinuations from the study."I am very encouraged to observe this degree of viral clearance coupled with a very low rate of discontinuations in patients treated with the triple combination of valopicitabine, pegylated-interferon and ribavirin in this study," said Dr.

Family links suicide to Telstra’s work targets

INCREASING performance targets and plans to install satellite tracking in his work van caused a Melbourne Telstra line technician to commit suicide, his friends and family believe.

Former workmate of Mr Dousset John Hitchiner said he was well respected by his colleagues but became increasingly depressed under Telstra’s new time-based performance system, which did not allow for preventative maintenance or for tasks to be finished satisfactorily.

Seriously injured, she just keeps swimming

Despite my dysfunctional childhood (worse than most, I pride myself on thinking), and having survived three painful and severe bouts of agoraphobia (in long-term remission after YEARS of counseling), I grew up to be a respectable mother of two wonderful daughters, and a registered nurse with a professional career that would impress many - even myself at times.

On the fateful day of September 7, 2003, my husband I innocently and with the best of intentions went to church. That day, in the blink of an eye, my life changed drastically. We were taking a tour of a brand new addition to the church; it was the first day that the new addition was open to the church public, a grand opening after a long capital campaign and similarly long and somewhat challenging construction period. Between the two morning church services, on the informal self-guided tour, we found ourselves in the lowest level of the old part of the church, which was now unrecognizable from its earlier "life." We followed a series of winding hallways, which we surmised to be our mode of transmission into the actual new addition to the building.

What are the values and inconsistencies in patients who are depressed?

A group of investigators of the University of Jena has attempted to identify these aspects in the May issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

In this study, the Authors used the Intrapersonal Conflict Test to assess cognitive inconsistencies in goals or values.

Compared with controls, patients with depressive disorders showed significantly more inconsistencies within different goals/values, as well as between goals/values and their perceived realization.