Follow Bill's pledge to
get in shape!

Schizophrenia Digest CEO and founder Bill MacPhee is making a pledge to get in shape, and he plans to post his progress in a bi-weekly blog accessible through the Inspiration and Information newsletter.

Bill, who says he has been concerned with his weight all his life -- and especially since being diagnosed with schizophrenia more than 20 years ago -- is determined to get into shape by living an overall healthier life, and he encourages other consumers to make a similar weight loss pledge. He has no intention of joining a gym or subscribing to costly meal plans; instead his weight loss strategy focuses on four fundamentals: healthy eating, portion control, exercise and emotional balance (identifying triggers for eating, such as boredom or sadness). His start date is April 9.

Bill will update his blog every two weeks to coincide with the release of the Inspiration and Information newsletter every second Friday. Watch for his first posting in the next issue, scheduled for release on April 20. Don’t forget to send this newsletter to a friend if you know someone who would enjoy following Bill’s progress.

In the meantime, well-wishers can send Bill an email at publisher@szdigest.com to offer him words of encouragement.

New writers wanted

Schizophrenia Digest is looking to grow its pool of freelance writers in both Canada and the United States. Preferably, candidates will have a background in journalism and/or communications and possess excellent writing and organizational skills. An interest in mental health issues would be considered an asset. We are also looking for freelance photographers with a keen eye for creative and dynamic photos. If this sounds like you or someone you know, contact our Editor-in-Chief, Dianne Duckett, at editor@szdigest.com. Please include samples of your work.

Your voice counts

The Consumers and Advocates Network of the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at CHEO (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario), in partnership with Parents for Children’s Mental Health & Youth Net/Réseau Ado, is circulating a petition for change to Ontario’s child and youth mental health system.
The petition, addressed to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Official Opposition leader John Tory, and Ontario New Democratic Party leader Howard Hampton, was initiated because of concerns over wait times for Ontario children and youth struggling with a mental health issue, and the need for timely community-based mental care.

News

MacPhee disappointed by provincial budget

(Fort Erie, Ont.) – Schizophrenia Digest CEO and founder Bill MacPhee says he was disappointed by the spring budget tabled March 22 by Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara, and the fact that mental health in Ontario appears to be of little concern to our provincial leaders.

Specifically, MacPhee says the Province is not doing enough to support mentally ill individuals whose entire monthly incomes come from disability programs.

“The government said they’ll give another two per cent to those  receiving ODSP (Ontario Disability and Support Program) benefits, but that really only works out to about $20,” says MacPhee, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 24. “Here in Fort Erie we’re looking at our water and sewer rates alone going up 11 percent.”

MacPhee also gave the provincial budget a “thumbs down” for its lack of commitment to timely treatment for people with mental illness in a crisis.

“Sure, they say they’re going to spend $135 million to further reduce wait times – and that’s great – but what about the people who show up at the emergency room needing psychiatric care? Do those reduced wait time promises apply to them?”

MacPhee’s criticisms of the provincial budget were in sharp contrast to the applause he gave to the federal government earlier in the week for its commitment to create a nation mental health strategy within the next three years.

On March 19, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, in tabling his government’s 2007 budget, promised $10 million in start-up funds over the next two years and $15 million in annual operating funds beginning in 2009-10 to establish a Canadian mental health commission to lead the development of a national mental health strategy.

-30-

Birth order may affect schizophrenia severity

(London) – A recent study of materno-fetal genotype incompatibility suggests younger siblings born into families affected by schizophrenia may have a more severe form of the disorder than their older counterparts.

Fiona Gaughran and colleagues from King’s College London looked at the effect of birth order in 150 sibling pairs with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder and found that while birth order had no effect on the severity of the worst-ever episode of illness, later children were more likely to show deterioration from their pre-morbid level of functioning than earlier-born children.

The researchers’ finding show that younger siblings developed schizophrenia earlier than their older siblings, at an average of 23.2 versus 24.7 years. But birth order did not predict response to neuroleptics or the course of the disorder

The researchers found that older and younger siblings had similar levels of pre-morbid work and social function, but that the younger siblings did worse after the illness began, therefore indicating factors specific to disease progression in the disorder.

However, the researchers acknowledge that in addition to reflecting increased exposure to maternal immune reactions, the severity of the disease in later-born children can also be linked to other variables, such as parental age, parental health, increased maternal stress in later pregnancies, and differing social environments, which were not measured in the study.

-30-

NCCBH releases recommendations for improved continuum of care

(Las Vegas, NV) – Looking to bridge the gaps between inpatient and outpatient settings for people with schizophrenia, the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, during its 37th annual conference Las Vegas, March 25-28, released a list of recommendations for continued care, formulated by a 24-member independent panel of experts.

The panel--including representatives from leading accrediting bodies and hospital and community treatment organizations, as well as consumers, family members, researchers, state authorities, and psychiatric leaders--was brought together to develop a consensus approach to coordination between inpatient and outpatient settings and engage people with mental illness in continued care

“Millions of Americans experience schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses and the most vulnerable period in their recovery is the transition from the hospital to local, community-based services, said Linda Rosenburg, NCCBH’s president and chief executive officer. “If they don’t get continued care, we must all face the serious human, social, and financial consequences.”

There are nine recommendations in total, spanning the administrative, professional, and human elements required to ensure complete continuity of care. Encouraging collaborations between hospital and community-based organizations; using a quality improvement approach to enhance continuity of therapy by benchmarking performance and outcomes standards at the organizational level; and focusing on the “Pull Model” of transition from inpatient to outpatient care by involving community providers in the transition before patients are discharged from the hospital topped the list of recommendations.

The complete list of recommendations is available on the NCCBH’s Website at www.nccbh.org.

-30-

Gene discovery could lead to tailored drug therapy for addiction

(Washington, DC) – Scientists supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have identified genes that may increase a person’s ability to quit smoking. The breakthrough research, conducted by George Uhl, MD, at NIDA’s Intramural Research Program and a team led by Jed Rose, MD, at the Centre for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research at Duke University Medical Center, brings researchers a step closer to tailoring individualized drug therapy for addiction based on an individual’s unique genetic makeup.

Uhl and his colleagues performed a genome-wide analysis on the DNA of two types of nicotine-dependent individuals: one that was able to successfully quit smoking cigarettes and one that was not.

“We identified 221 genes that distinguished successful quitters from those who were unsuccessful,” Uhl said in a media release issued this week. “We know the functions of about 187 of these genes, but 34 have functions that are unknown at present. We also found that at least 62 of the genes that we had previously identified as playing roles in dependence to other drugs also contribute to nicotine dependence.”

The study, published on Monday in the journal BMC Genetics, marks the first time scientists have been able to identify genes involved in the ability to quit smoking.

“It marks a movement from identifying the genetics of addiction vulnerability to identifying the genetic basis of successful abstinence,” said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, MD. “This knowledge could impact the success rate of cessation programs by helping health care providers choose the most appropriate treatment based on individual differences.”

-30-

Brain tissue reveals possible genetic trigger for schizophrenia

(Chapel Hill, NC) – University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill scientists may have identified a molecular mechanism involved in the development of schizophrenia.
In a study of postmortem brain tissue of adults who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, the researchers found that levels of certain gene-regulating molecules—called microRNAs—were lower among schizophrenia patients than in people who were free of psychiatric illness.

“In many genetic diseases, such as Huntington’s Disease or cystic fibrosis, the basis is a gene mutation that leads to a malformed protein, explained Diana Perkins, PhD, the study’s lead author and a UNC psychiatry professor. “But with other complex genetic disorders--such as schizophrenia, many cancers, and diabetes--we find not mutated proteins, but correctly formed proteins in incorrect amounts.”

Since the 1950s, scientists have known that the genetic code stored in DNA is first transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), which is then the template from which the body’s protein building blocks are made. MicroRNAs are a newly discovered class of mRNA that does not carry the code for a protein; instead they act by binding to matching pieces of the protein-coding mRNA, thus preventing the translation of mRNA to protein.

In the UNC study, researches compared postmortem prefrontal cortical brain tissue of people with schizophrenia to people who had no psychiatric illness. They noticed a significant difference in the microRNA expression profile; 15 microRNAs were expressed at a lower level and one at a higher level in the brain tissue from persons with schizophrenia.

Perkins and her colleagues acknowledge the study was a pilot project, and that more research with larger tissue samples is necessary.
The research findings were published last week in the online edition of the journal Genome Biology.

-30-

CTOs’ affect still unknown: review

(London) – Following a thorough review of international research, a report coming from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London last month states it is unclear whether community treatment orders (CTOs) benefit or harm consumers.

The authors of the report--Rachel C. Churchill, Matthew Hotopf, and Gareth S. Owen--reviewed 72 empirical studies from six countries (including four from Canada). Eighteen studies also examined how different stakeholders perceived CTOs (the perceptions were mixed), while 14 studies suggested that, around the world, the characteristics of CTO clients were notably similar.

Furthermore, the authors of the report could not conclusively say how CTOs affected key outcomes, including hospital re-admission and clients’ quality of life.

-30-

Radio personality signs on as MHA spokesperson

(Alexandria, VA) – Jeff Bell, a long-time radio and news veteran in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento areas, is the new official spokesperson for Mental Health America’s soon-to-launch Real Lives online program. Bell, who has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), will campaign for others with mental health conditions to tell their own personal stories of living with OCD, depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and other mental health conditions that affect more than 58 million Americans each year.

“I’m very fortunate to be in a position to share my voice--not only as a radio personality, but also as an obsessive compulsive--and it’s my great hope that I might encourage others silenced by the stigma of mental illness to share their voices and stories,” Bell said in a March 27 media release. “The more we who are living and coping with a mental illness speak out about our experiences, the more we can help our nation learn.”

Real Lives is a multi-year, online communications initiative designed to humanize mental illnesses and tell the personal stories, both triumphant and painful, of those living with mental health conditions. Through these compelling and real-life stories, Mental Health America will work to institute needed change on how Americans view mental health.

The Real Lives Website is the hub of the initiative, allowing people to contribute their stories. Some may choose to do this because it helps them come to terms with their experience; others may do so for other reasons, including a desire to help others, to educate, or to leave a legacy.

Those interested in contributing their story to Real Lives can visit www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/action/share-your-story.

Coming Events

Schizophrenia Digest CEO and founder Bill MacPhee will bring his honest and inspiring story of life after being diagnosed with schizophrenia to Belleville, Ontario, this spring, when he appears as the keynote speaker at the Faith and Hope in Mental Health Conference, April 28, at Quinte Christian High School.

If you are interested in booking Bill as a speaker at your event, contact him directly at 1-866-672-3038 or via email at publisher@szdigest.com. Bill’s presentation is also available in DVD format, as is his 2005 Person to Person interview with TV Ontario’s Paula Todd (air date March 22, 2005). Both are certain to be valuable additions to any mental health library. Each DVD costs $25 plus shipping and handling, or buy both DVDs and save $10. Contact Marty Climenhage at assistant@szdigest.com for details.

Additionally, you can meet Bill at the Family Matters Conference--Building Your Tool Kit, May 3-5, in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Schizophrenia Digest will also be present at the following 2007 mental health conferences:

American Psychiatric Association (www.psych.org) – San Diego, California; May 19-24
Mental Health America (www.mentalhealthamerica.net) – Washington, D.C.; June 6-9
National Alliance on Mental Illness (www.nami.org) – San Diego, California; June 20-24
World Fellowship for Schizophrenia & Allied Disorders (www.world-schizophrenia.org) – Toronto, Ontario; September 27-30
American Psychiatric Nurses Association (www.apna.org) – Orlando, Florida; October 3-6
24th Annual Pittsburg Schizophrenia Conference – Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; November 30

-30-

In the next Schizophrenia Digest

(U.S. Release Date: April 30, 2007; Canadian Release Date: May 14, 2007)

Learn about the therapeutic benefits of psychosocial clubhouses in our Spring 2007 cover story.