CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health articles from September 2002

CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health archives from September 2002

CAMH garden takes root. (News from the Centre).
September 22, 2002... The Schizophrenia and Continuing Care Program's community partnership with FoodShare, a non-profit organization that works with communities to improve access to affordable and nutritious food, has expanded to include the development of a market...

A night of heroes and humanitarians. (News from the Centre).
September 22, 2002... On May 2, the CAMH Foundation hosted its ninth Courage to Come Back Awards and Dinner. Almost 900 people attended to hear the stories of seven courageous award recipients. This annual event is a major initiative that helps break down the stigma...

Queen Street site redevelopment plans move forward. (News from the Centre).
September 22, 2002... A major focus for CAMH over the past few years has been planning the redevelopment of the Queen Street site. CAMH reached another milestone in this process earlier this year with the completion of the Functional Program (a description of...

Note from the editor.
September 22, 2002... As was mentioned in the previous two issues of the Journal, we're making some changes that will allow us to continue to provide you with the information you want in an appealing format. Following a readership survey sent out with the...

Addiction acupuncture a useful adjunctive therapy.(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2002... The May/June 2002 issue of the Journal included a summary in the Research Update section entitled "Acupuncture ineffective treatment for cocaine addiction." It is important to note that the summary referred to the results of a study evaluating...

Help for gambling addictions goes on-line.(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2002... I am the Webmaster of an on-line self-help group for compulsive gamblers. The name of our site is Compulsive Gamblers Hub (CG Hub). We are a non-profit, self-supporting Web site. Our purpose is to share our experience, strength and hope with...

Linking child abuse and schizophrenia.(Letter to the Editor)
September 22, 2002... We are concerned that through your research update headline, "Child abuse may trigger schizophrenia," in the May/June 2002 issue, you may be making the classic mistake of confusing cause and effect. There are certainly other explanations for...

Response from the editor. (Letters to the Editor).
September 22, 2002... Our mandate at the Journal of Addiction and Mental Health is indeed, as you say, to educate as well as communicate. It is also our mandate to provide our readers with a variety of perspectives on the issues we explore. The research updates we...

New clinic takes sex outside the bedroom. (Profile).
September 22, 2002... HEALTH, MARRIAGE, FINANCIAL SECURITY AND PERSONAL SAFETY may be jeopardized when a person with a sexual addiction pursues a "fix." Sexual addiction afflicts people in all walks of life--including Hollywood celebrities, a U.S. president and even...

Report urges integration of concurrent disorder services. (News).
September 22, 2002... "This admission, that admission, this specialist, that specialist, but nobody's really doing anything, nothing's really getting done, just a whole bunch of appointments going nowhere." THIS KAFKA-ESQUE SITUATION MAY SOUND LIKE A COMEDY OF...

Take 1000 mg of heroin and call me in the morning? (News).
September 22, 2002... MEDICALLY PRESCRIBING HEROIN TO PEOPLE ADDICTED TO THE drug has been debated for more than 20 years in the Netherlands. So it seems timely that the Dutch government commissioned the Central Committee on the Treatment of Heroin Addicts to study...

Cigarette smoke--that's what girls are made of. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... Parents who smoke around the time of a child's conception may increase the likelihood that the child will be a girl. Researchers at the Fukuda Ladies Clinic in Hyogo, Japan, reached this conclusion after studying the smoking habits of the...

Placebo's effect on brain similar to Prozac. (Research Update).
September 22, 2002... Treatment of depression with placebo results in many of the same changes in brain function as treatment with the antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine). Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio treated 15...

Antipsychotic doses may be higher than necessary. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... How we dose antipsychotic medications in illnesses such as schizophrenia may warrant re-evaluation, based on recent findings. This is the implication of new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Scientists used...

Single gene triggers violent behaviour in mice. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... The loss of a single gene is all it takes to turn normal mice into violent killers. Mice born missing the gene Nr2e1 display such dramatically violent behaviour that they have been dubbed the "fierce" mutation. Accidentally discovered in...

Group therapy may be best for minor disorders. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... Group psychotherapy may be more effective than traditional clinical management in the treatment of minor psychiatric disorders, at least in the short term. Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil recruited 83 people with mild or...

Internet could increase number of problem gamblers. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... People who gamble on the Internet are more likely to be problem gamblers than those who engage in more traditional forms of gambling, according to research from the University of Connecticut Health Center. Of 389 patients at the Center who...

Risk of alcohol dependency may be detected in blink of an eye. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... Adult children of parents with alcohol dependency have been found to exhibit limited emotional reactions to unpleasant images, which may serve as an early indicator of susceptibility to alcohol-related problems. Researchers at the Veterans...

Naltrexone may reduce urge to steal. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2002... The drug naltrexone, often used in the treatment of alcohol addiction and other urge-related disorders, may reduce the urge to steal among people with kleptomania. Researchers at the University of Minnesota studied 10 outpatients who reported...

When new motherhood hurts--the hidden shame of post-partum depression. (News).
September 22, 2002... "I felt I was completely on the bottom rung. A complete failure as a mother, as a wife, as a person." "Each time I faced the decision to seek help, I felt more anxiety and delayed it--until I reached what I felt was a crisis state." ...

The human side of drug farming. (News).
September 22, 2002... LAST WINTER, THE GOVERNMENT OF COLOMBIA LAUNCHED A major military offensive against leftist guerrillas. Government soldiers, some of them riding U.S.-made helicopters, attacked troops from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, in...

Checks and balances: psychiatric institutions move to enshrine client rights. (focus on ethics).
September 22, 2002... MATT, AN INVOLUNTARY CLIENT AT RIVERVIEW Hospital, a psychiatric institution in British Columbia, is upset to see an unfamiliar blue pill mixed in with his regular medication. When told it's a new anti-psychotic drug prescribed by his...

Putting human research on trial: research with vulnerable populations raises ethical issues. (focus on ethics).
September 22, 2002... A 25-YEAR-OLD HOMELESS MAN WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA is experiencing terrible side effects from an antipsychotic drug that isn't very effective. He is offered $200 to go off that drug and begin taking a new drug as part of a clinical trial that...

To report or not to report: laws weave tangled web for addiction clinicians. (focus on ethics).
September 22, 2002... CONSIDER TWO SCENARIOS: AN ADDICTION CLIENT shows up for an appointment with a therapist or physician completely intoxicated. Another client is being assessed for the first time by a therapist and mentions having recently driven home from a...

Who cares for the elderly? Seniors suffer in an age of limited health care resources. (focus on ethics).
September 22, 2002... When Shakespeare said, "There is small choice in rotten apples," he could well have been prophesying some of the difficult decisions about who gets treatment in health care facilities and programs in the modern era. Indeed, allocating...

Q & A: integrating ethics into the mental health and addiction fields. (focus on ethics).
September 22, 2002... The following is based on an interview with Gordon DuVal. He is a bioethicist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. He is also assistant professor with the Department of...

The Belly of the Beast: addiction up close and personal.(Book Review)
September 22, 2002... MOVING. HUMAN. POIGNANT PERSONAL. REAL. These are words that come to mind in trying to describe Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane's Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast. "Required reading" is also a phrase that comes to mind,...

Psychiatry in Canada: a cooler Canadian take.(Book Review)
September 22, 2002... IT IS A MEASURE OF HOW MUCH HAS CHANGED IN CANADIAN psychiatry that of the 29 authors in this volume, 13 are from Toronto and only two are from Montreal--and those are francophone psychiatrists. Fifty years ago, when psychiatry began to...

Eating Disorders and Obesity: a comprehensive guide to a growing problem.(Book Review)
September 22, 2002... THE PREVALENCE OF OBESITY IN BOTH CHILDREN AND ADULTS IS rising quickly worldwide and is among the most troublesome health problems considered by the World Health Organization. Indeed, the demand for treatment for eating disorders has increased...

Downloaded.
September 22, 2002... Numbers on the Net The Internet has become an expedient, cost-effective means of disseminating statistical reports for government and public organizations. Here are some current releases. Tobacco or Health in Ontario Available at...

Safe injection facilities: Canada's ethical and legal obligations. (The Last Word).
September 22, 2002... INJECTION DRUG USE PRESENTS A GROWING HEALTH CRISIS FOR Canada. People who inject drugs face serious potential health risks, including overdoses and blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. One partial solution is the...

Conferences.
September 22, 2002... CANADA 46th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Children's Residential Centres October 16-19 Vancouver, British Columbia tel (301) 738-6460 fax (301) 738-6461 e-mail info@aacrc-dc.org web www.aacrc-dc.org 52nd...

Construction of the soul. .(Ethics and Architecture symposium)(Editorial)
September 22, 2002... In today's complex landscape, space has become something of perpetual reorganization; and virtual space something of an ironic safe haven. Cities that were first formed on the contours of the land, are now gridded sprawls of skyscrapers, strip...

Constructing ethics and the ethics of construction: John Ruskin and the humanity of the builder.
September 22, 2002... In the grandeur of this cathedral, the act of seeing transforms from a necessity to a luxury. There is no aspect of the structure that fails to surprise and astonish the eye. I am attracted to the word "surprise" because it seems to me that...

Architecture as eternal delight: reflections on the attack of the World Trade Center.
September 22, 2002... The airplanes that attacked the Twin Towers on September 11 unleashed forces of nature whose awesome magnitude is rarely experienced in modern cities. I am speaking about the natural energy of fire and gravity. The impact of the airplanes...

(Re)examining the Citicorp case: ethical paragon or chimera.
September 22, 2002... The architect for the fifty-nine-story Citicorp Center tower completed during 1977 in midtown Manhattan was the much-celebrated Hugh Stubbins. The renowned structural engineer William LeMessurier was responsible for the conception and design of...

Gardens of the righteous: sacred space in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
September 22, 2002... Man is different from other creatures in that only he can aspire to know God and in this lies his only fulfillment; but he can either choose or deny this glorious possibility. St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) I have long been convinced of...

The Mishkan as metaphor-form and anti-form: on the transformation of urban space.
September 22, 2002... If we have been created to endure the same suffering, to be doomed to the same prearranged death, why give us lips, why eyes and voices, why souls and languages all different? (1) Edmond Jabes At the center of steel and stone in our...

When the other appears on the scene.(ethics)
September 22, 2002... This article is derived from an exchange of four letters with Cardinal Martini. The following letter is Eco's reply to a question the cardinal had asked him: "What is the basis of the certainty and necessity for moral action of those who, in...

Erasing "economy": Derrida and the construction of divine economies.
September 22, 2002... In a pre-emptive verbal strike rejecting calls by foreign leaders for the U.S. to join the international effort to back the Kyoto agreement that aims at curbing global warming through the reduction of [CO.sup.2] emissions, George W. Bush...

Providence and the biology of purpose.
September 22, 2002... meaning, according to psychologist Victor Frankl, colors human nature. The search for meaning represents an innate human urge. Failure to find meaning leads to existential frustration, boredom, and, in some cases, mental ill health (see Shek,...

Crossing boundaries: virtue or vice for the twenty-first century?
September 22, 2002... The cloning of "Dolly" the sheep in 1997 is now old news. The ability to reproduce individuals through somatic cell nuclear transfer has been accomplished in at least five species, the latest being that of the cat. In November 2001, scientists...

Inner space as sacred space: the temple as metaphor for the mystical experience.
September 22, 2002... Amidst graceful pines and dried cow turds there is a shrine atop a steep sloping hill. I go there to make offerings on its sacrificial alter. To begin I offer the sacrifice of time, then the dimensions of space--of height, breadth and width....

Ise.(Poem)
September 22, 2002... ISE. (Poetry) MICHEL ENGLEBERT for S. Yamashita There is a secret to it: a distinction made between the meditation point and the point of the meditation. Twice every generation the craftsmen who dismantle Ise Shrine assemble...

The priest. .(Poem)
September 22, 2002... THE PRIEST. SUSAN WHITMORE He writes his sermon by candlelight, Smoking hand-rolled cigarettes And stripped to his shorts by the fire, Loving despite promise the self he strokes. The priest knows he holds his people Between...

4 White dresses. .(Poem)
September 22, 2002... 4 WHITE DRESSES. (Poetry) MARY ZABOGLIO DONOVAN If we are lucky, there will be 4- my first was baptism, a time of water and being named. My mother put me in cotton eyelet and seed pearls. Soon, my pink tongue sticking...

The mystery of suffering revisioned. (Books).(Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us)(Book Review)
September 22, 2002... Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us Beacon Press, 2001. $26.00 (cloth). When does the image of a suffering and dying Savior cease being...

Artistic vision. (Books).(Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue)(Book Review)
September 22, 2002... Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue Baker Books, 2001. S21.99 (cloth). Art and theological aesthetics are uneasy partners. For theologians who consider aesthetics, questions of beauty and the relationship of beauty to...

From eugenics to eugenics. (Books).(Playing God?: Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate)(Book Review)
September 22, 2002... Playing God?: Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate Chicago, 2002. $21.99 (cloth). It's hard to find a book that is really worth reading, let alone exciting, on any aspect of biotechnology. So...

Seeing Mary. (Books).(God-Sent: A History of the Accredited Apparitions of Mary)(Book Review)
September 22, 2002... Roy Abraham Varqhese God-Sent: A History of the Accredited Apparitions of Mary Crossroad, 2000. $39.95 (cloth). My seven-year-old daughter and I were recently watching a documentary on attempts to authenticate the Marian...