Category: Health Care

Diagnosing the Wrong Deficit

What if attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms  are indicators of  sleep deficits?

A recent opinion piece by Vatsal G. Thakkar in the New York Times Sunday Review (4/27/13)  Diagnosing the Wrong Disorder, asks the question, “What if a substantial proportion of cases are really sleep disorders in disguise?  

Thakkar, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine, raises some important questions and issues. Partly because of personal experience with a misdiagnosed sleep disorder  Thakkar wrestles with the chicken-and-egg problem of causality between attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and sleep deficits. He questions whether the presence of the condition gives rise to enduring problems with sleep or whether sleep problems give rise to symptoms that mimic those of A.D.H.D.

Insufficient sleep is no laughing matter. This essay is an important one for post-secondary disability support providers, special education teachers, parents and anyone struggling with A.D.H.D. symptoms or fatigue.

Insufficient sleep also contributes to other serious  health risks as shown in the slide show found here: Sleep Deprivation Effects: 8 Scary Side Effects Of Too Little Shut-Eye.  Healthline.com  also has an article discussing deprivation:  16 Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Body.

Mental illness is One of the Leading Causes of Disability in the United States

Nearly 20 percent of Americans — 44.5 million adults — experienced some sort of mental illness over the last year, according to a new report from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Agency (SAMHSA).

The report details state by state the percent of the population who has suffered a mental illness.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are treatable, and the vast majority of people who experience anxiety disorders can be helped with professional care. Unfortunately in the past year only 37.9 percent of adults with mental health problems received any type of care,” SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde said in a statement. “The chasm between need and care is costly both in terms of personal health because of missed opportunities to prevent disability and health care expenditures related to illness such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.”

The report counts “mental illness” as any sort of mental, behavioral or emotional disorder that is diagnosable from the DSM-IV. The disorder must cause “substantial functional impairment” or must be defined as a serious mental illness that requires treatment.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

EU funded Research Project to Develop Exoskeleton that Could Help the Disabled Walk Again

A recent post at gizmag.com reports on a project in the UK called Mindwalker.   This new EU-funded research poses the potential to give patients the ability to walk again, with the aid of a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton dubbed “Mindwalker.”

“The Mindwalker (or Mind-controlled orthosis and VR-training environment for walk empowering) project proposes that the damaged spinal cord be bypassed altogether, instead routing brain signals directly to a robotic exoskeleton in a bid to get patients back on their feet. Its development involved researchers collaborating across several European countries.

“Mindwalker was proposed as a very ambitious project intended to investigate promising approaches to exploit brain signals for the purpose of controlling advanced orthosis, and to design and implement a prototype system demonstrating the potential of related technologies,” explained Michel Ilzkovitz, project coordinator at Space Applications Services in Belgium.

The system implements BNCI (brain-neural-computer interface) technology, which can be used to convert either EEG (electroencephalography) signals from the brain, or EMG (electromyography) signals from patient’s shoulder muscles, into electronic commands. The electronic commands are then used to control an exoskeleton attached to the user’s legs.”

To read the full article:  Mindwalker mind-controlled exoskeleton could help the disabled walk again.

gizmag.com covers the full spectrum of emerging technologies, invention and innovation – from automotive to aerospace, from handhelds to supercomputers, from robotics to home automation, the site reports on all major announcements across more than 30 categories.