Medicated Musings

Medicated Kids and BiPolar Diagnosis

2011-11-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

In an age where there's immense distrust for the government and everything 'big' it's a bit surprising so many opt for the easy way out to control their kids. Rather than raising kids like we used to lazy parents seek out other solutions like drugs.

I guess it's not entirely surprising. So many people prefer the easy way out, and in a largely consumer oriented society the 'quick' and easy fix is best. What's easier than pills? Placate the will by stuffing pills down your kid's throat.

So many are misdiagnosed. Yes, the science is improving, but the astronomical increases in child diagnosis for things like bi-polar is incredibly high. It's time we reject the radical push by big drug companies and instead opt for more holistic approaches to raising kids.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/11/moody-teens-wrongly-diagnosed-with-bipolar-disorder-psychiatrist-claims/

Stupid Christians Continue Healthcare Debate

2011-08-08T15:33:00.001-07:00

All the way to the Supreme Court too:

The Thomas More Law Center doesn't like the fact more Americans might get health insurance because in their minds Jesus would hate it if more people got better healthcare. It's of the devil to be poor and get health care access. (I'm being sarcastic.)

Seriously though Thomas More Law Center v. Barack Hussein Obama, seeks to determine

“If the Act [Obamacare] is understood to fall within Congress’s Commerce Clause authority, the federal government will have absolute and unfettered power to create complex regulatory schemes to fix every perceived problem imaginable and to do so by ordering private citizens to engage in affirmative acts, under penalty of law…”

That's fine and dandy, we get it, Republicans do'nt like big government. I don't really either, but I know that when it comes to health the private sector isn't providing healthcare to all, only those who can afford kt.

And lastly, don't ever, for a moment, equate all of this nationalistic pride with Christianity. The 'Kingdom' of God is not, unequivocally, connected with the Christianization of America and the rise of Republican governments.

Keep on Sipping Your Latte

2011-06-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

A study in Europe determined a correlation between social drugs (coffee in this case) and symptoms commonly seen in patients with bi-polar disorder.

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Food/bipolar_disorder_patients_use_coffee_0701110438.html

I for one won't stop sipping on my morning cup of Joe. The results are not so much a deterrent to drink coffee as it is stating the obvious: caffeine has an impact on your brain.

Update on drug Ziprasidone

2011-05-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.internalmedicinenews.com/news/mental-health/single-article/ziprasidone-less-effective-for-bipolar-patients-with-elevated-bmi/e9b956dd3c.html

If it involves you.....

Bi Winning?

2011-04-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

Charlie Sheen is either really sick or he's sick to the head (as in pathetic.)

It's one thing to suffer from a mental disorder, it's quite another to leverage it for personal gain.

So let's assume Shene isn't sick, then he's brilliant, but a sick kind of brilliant. If you can put on a show like he has in the past month all of the sake of publicity, you have a kind of sick pathetic quality. You may be brilliant in generating exceptional attention, and for raking in monies in the 15 minutes of fame.

But to do that off the back of people's voyeurism for a train wreck is sad.

I think Sheen is sick.

You be the judge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aSa4tmVNM

I also find it sick for rubber neckers to go to his shows and treat him as a God. Pathetic humanity stoops to such lows at times. The only solution? STOP GIVING THIS MAN ATTENTION. So simple, we'll be fed what we demand, and right now I say good riddance to a blight on the mental health world.

Get help man.

I hear Lithium demand is up

2011-01-14T16:01:00.001-08:00

I assumed it was because bipolar disorders are on the rise.

Turns out new electric car batteries use lithium too.

Who knew....

So I guess it wasn't a rush at the drugstore for more lithium after all :P

From Child’s Game to the Big Leagues part 2

2010-11-29T12:09:00.000-08:00

Part 1 of this article located here:

Intensive Care Unit staffing with intensivists who are doctors with special training in critical care.

Leapfrog safe practices score NQF endorsed safe practices.

Evidence exists that implementation of these would decrease preventable errors. These principles are feasible in the short term and patients understand their value. Buyers of health care be they companies or individuals can identify these practices. If all hospitals applied at least the first three ‘leaps’ over 57,000 lives could be saved a year.

Leapfrog Group advocates the education of participants in comparing health care providers Accountability is achieved by partnering with medical centers. They recognize facilities that provide high quality care. Leapfrog Group is also educating benefits consultants and brokers to get their support.

Leapfrog has created a valuable forum where useful information is publicly available that will give patients and businesses the tools they need to be informed buyers of true health care.

http://www.leapfroggroup.org

From Child’s Game to the Big Leagues Part 1

2010-11-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

Which is a better motivator rewards or rules? The answer is obvious, yet this truth is often forgotten and ignored in the world of business and politics. In the quest for health care reform even the word reform carries a lot of negative baggage.

Yet the tenets that American society was based on can advance positive change. The entrepreneurial creative characteristics of American business culture may be the answer health care needs to experience transformation.

For profit health care organizations must compete for patients. Sure it may seem that patients need them more than the medical center needs patients. But if patients were given enough information they would select the medical center that would give them the ideal outcome for their situation. Currently there is more public information available to buy a car than to choose a hospital or doctor. The non profit Leapfrog Group wants to change that.

It was in 2000 at a business roundtable that the idea for Leapfrog Group was initiated. The forward thinking businesses at that session wanted to use their clout in numbers, services, products, and buying power to provide health care organizations with incentives to improve patient safety and therefore health care quality. The businesses decided on a mission statement. In purchasing health plans on behalf of their employees they ‘would trigger giant leaps forward in safety, quality, and affordability of health care.”

Their mission statement is based on four principles. The first is that US health care is far from reaching its potential for quality, safety, and value for the dollar. The second is that quality will improve more quickly if there are incentives. Leapfrog wants to buy on principle with a “critical mass” of US businesses and therefore encourage other businesses to join. By championing certain innovations they will become widely used and better understood by the public.

Currently 30% of hospitals nationwide participate in Leapfrog’s annual hospital survey. They are rated on quality and safety practices that are National Quality Forum endorsed and should be standard in all medical centers. The four that are emphasized are:

Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE) this software is designed to prevent errors in medication prescription, an area where adverse events should be greatly reduced.
Evidence Based Hospital Referral (EHR) based on scientifically proven criteria, for example the number of procedures performed each year.

The conclusion of this article next week

Rethinking vaccines...

2009-10-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

I remember reading a book, Might have been Freakonomics. I read about ignorant mother's who, since they couldn't 'see tuberculosis' tehy wouldn't vaccinate their kids.

BEcause there hasn't been a case of mumps in years they wouldn't get their kids vaccinated.

Because they heard something on the news about vaccines linked to autism they weren't going to get their kids accinated.

Even though the news is wrong, there is no link to autism, and wrong again when it comes to reported cases of mumps, and wrong again when they determined h1n1 vaccines were safe, dumb moms and fearmongering news agencies perpetuate the lies.

Vaccinate your kids. Yes, measles is mostly gone but in case you haven't noticed we have airplanes now, and they go everywhere, and we have big airports that bring people in from everywhere. worldwide these diseases exist, and tehy can come back if enough dumb people don't get vaccinated.

But then again, i guess the first to die off will be the idiots. fitting.

rant over.

A Journey into Nursing

2007-01-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there was a young girl who wanted to be a doctor. She even wrote about it in first grade. Especially because then she could be the one giving the shots. All through high school she still thought about being a doctor, she even volunteered in a hospital, but never really envisioned her dream as a reality and life came in and swept her up and she ended up doing all kinds of other things that had nothing to do with medicine.

Many years later, as she was expecting her first child, her mother came to visit her for Christmas. When her mother arrived the Wannabe realized that something was very wrong. Her initial impression was that her mother may have had a stroke. Her mom would sit in the same position for hours, not realizing that time had passed. One day it took her 5 hours to get ready. She was also losing control of her bladder functions. So on the day after Christmas the Wannabe's mother in law drove them to the hospital.

Once in the ER there was a 2 hour wait to even be triaged (you wrote down what was wrong with you on a piece of paper and turned that in to the nurse, who then decided what order you would be triaged in). But once in triage Wannabe's mom was immediately given a bed in the ER. A CT scan was ordered and the dubious "shadow" showed up. Wannabe's mom was transferred upstairs (med/surg) where no one felt like they should tell Wannabe anything. She had to fight really hard to be sure that her mom was treated well. Eventually she was able to find the Doc (who rounded at 5:30am) who said "Your mom has cancer" and Wannabe was like "She has cancer and she had a stroke?" Oh, the shadows on Mom's brain are the cancer...

Then Wannabe's mom was transferred to the Oncology floor and the new Doc called (a 7 mos pregnant) Wannabe at home at 7:30pm and said "If we don't start Chemotherapy right now your mom will die within the week" So of course we started the chemo. And Mom wilted, it made her much sicker than she was. And one day, on the brink of a nervous breakdown, Wannabe asked a nice nurse if she could just explain what was going on with her mom.

The nurse was so loving and kind and she read Wannabe the chart in English. Basically, Wannabe's mom had Stage IV lung cancer, it was everywhere in her body: lungs, lymph, breast, skin, blood, and brain. There is no coming back from it says the nurse, she is terminal. Something the Doc had never thought to say. And the nurse helps to arrange hospice care.

Less than two months after diagnosis Wannabe's mom dies. One week to the day after that, Wannabe's son is born 3 weeks early via c-section. Again she encounters some amazing nurses. And one day she wakes up and realizes...It is the nurses who give the shots! The nurses are the ones who really give the care and make a difference in peoples lives. All this time she has wasted thinking that she would have to go through hoops to go to medical school with a husband and a child, but no, she could go to nursing school.

And that is the story of how I got my head out of my butt and realized what is truly important to me.