Woman’s psychiatrist implanted horrific false memories

By Nightdesk, Herald-Tribune
Health and Fitness

The memories that came flooding back were so horrific that Lisa Nasseff says she tried to kill herself: She had been raped several times, had multiple personalities and took part in satanic rituals involving unthinkable acts. She says she only got better when she realized they weren’t real.

Nasseff, 31, is suing a suburban St. Louis treatment center where she spent 15 months being treated for anorexia, claiming one of its psychologists implanted the false memories during hypnosis sessions in order to keep her there long-term and run up a bill that eventually reached $650,000. The claims seem unbelievable, but her lawyer, Kenneth Vuylsteke, says other patients have come forward to say they, too, were brainwashed and are considering suing.

“This is an incredible nightmare,” Vuylsteke said.

Castlewood Treatment Center’s director, Nancy Albus, and the psychologist, Mark Schwartz, deny the allegations. Albus pledged to vigorously fight the lawsuit, which was filed Nov. 21 in St. Louis County and seeks the repayment of medical expenses and punitive damages. As in repressed memory cases, which typically involve allegations of abuse that occurred during childhood, the outcome will likely hinge on the testimony of experts with starkly different views on how memory works.

Nasseff, who lives in St. Paul, Minn., stayed at Castlewood from July 2007 through March 2008 and returned for seven months in 2009. She was struggling with anorexia and as a resident of Minnesota, which requires insurers to cover long-term eating disorders, she could afford to stay at the center, which sits on a high bluff in the suburb of Ballwin overlooking a park and meandering river. Most states, including Missouri, don’t require such coverage.

The entire story is here.

Moral Psychology and Information Ethics

Moral Psychology and IE

Posted with permission from C.R. Crowell.

Practice Guidelines Regarding Psychologists' Involvement in Pharmacological Issues

A psychologist can download this document for future reference.

There is a link to this document under "Relevant Links".

APA Pharmacological

'Sexting' Not Very Widespread Among Kids, Teens

By Todd Neale
Senior Staff Writer
MedPage Today
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD

Sexting does not appear to be a common behavior in children and teens, and usually does not result in legal trouble when only minors are involved, two studies showed.

In a survey of adolescents ages 10 to 17, less than 10% reported appearing in or creating nude or sexually suggestive images or receiving such images in the preceding year, according to Kimberly Mitchell, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center in Durham, and colleagues.
Only 2.5% had appeared in or created (as opposed to having received) these images, a percentage that dropped to 1.3% when a strict definition of sexually explicit -- something that could be classified as child pornography -- was used, the researchers reported in the January issue of Pediatrics.

In a separate study, led by Janis Wolak, JD, also at the New Hampshire center, the researchers found that most cases of youth sexting that came to the attention of law enforcement did not result in arrests, except for incidents involving adults.

Although the results are somewhat reassuring, Mitchell and colleagues wrote, "receiving and thus possession of potentially illegal images among young people is widespread enough that education about this and its consequences is strongly warranted."

This story is here.

Abstract: Prevalence and Characteristics of Youth Sexting: A National Study

Abstract: How Often are Teens Arrested for Sexting? Data From a National Sample of Police Cases

Many Suicidal Teens Make First Try Before High School

By Molly McElroy

News and Information

University of Washington

Thoughts about killing oneself and engaging in suicidal behavior may begin much younger than previously thought. While about one of nine youths attempt suicide by the time they graduate from high school, new findings reveal that a significant proportion make their first suicide attempt in elementary or middle school.

In a study published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, nearly 40 percent of young adults who said they had tried suicide said that they made their first attempt before entering high school.

The researchers also found that suicide attempts during childhood and adolescence were linked to higher scores of depression at the time of the attempts, validating for the first time that young adults can reliably recall when they first attempted suicide.

“Young adults who end up having chronic mental health problems show their struggles early,” said James Mazza, lead author and professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington. “This study suggests that implementation of mental health programs may need to start in elementary and middle schools, and that youth in these grades are fairly good reporters of their own mental health.”

Adolescence can often be a struggle for some youth with ongoing pressures of drugs, alcohol, sexual relationships and sexual orientation. At the same time, they’re becoming more autonomous.

The entire press release is here.

UCLA breach: Do Not Take Data Home

By PAMELA LEWIS DOLAN

amednews.com

Even if practices think they have a strong data security plan in place, too often a new breach occurs that reminds them there are always additional steps that can be taken, or that certain vulnerabilities were overlooked.

The most recent reminder came through the UCLA Medical Center, which issued a public notice on Nov. 4 saying that a former employee's computer external hard drive that contained information about 16,288 patients was stolen during a house burglary. Although the data were encrypted, a piece of paper containing the password needed to unencrypt the data also came up missing after the burglary.

UCLA said in the notice that the records did not contain Social Security numbers or financial information. But they did include first and last names and possibly birth dates, addresses and medical record numbers and information. The data ranged from July 2007 to July 2011. The theft occurred in September, and UCLA said it took until November to determine who was affected and obtain valid addresses for notification. The employee whose home was burglarized ended his employment with UCLA in July.

The entire story is here.

Texas Physician Pleads Guilty in Whistle-Blowing Nurses Case

By Robert Lowes
Medscape News Today

Rolando Arafiles Jr, MD, today pled guilty to criminal charges in a state court in Winkler County, Texas, for retaliating against 2 nurses who had anonymously reported him in 2009 to the Texas Medical Board (TMB) over the quality of his patient care.



Anne Mitchell, RN and Vickilyn Galle RN



The case set off a national conversation on the protection afforded healthcare whistle-blowers.

The 2 nurses, Anne Mitchell, RN, and Vickilyn Galle, RN, had worked with Dr. Arafiles at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit, Texas. Once they were identified as the whistle-blowers by a county investigation that Dr. Arafiles instigated, the nurses were charged with misuse of official information, which is a third-degree felony, and fired. The charge against Galle was dropped, and a jury last year quickly found Mitchell not guilty.

Today, the 59-year-old Dr. Arafiles pled guilty to 1 count each of misuse of official information and retaliation, which is also a third-degree felony. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and fined $5000. A press release issued by the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott stated that with today's plea, Dr. Arafiles admits to urging former Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts Jr and former Winkler County Attorney Scott Tidwell to strike back against the nurses.

On November 4, he signed an order with the TMB to voluntarily surrender his state medical license effective November 11. He faced the possibility of the board revoking his license on account of a felony conviction.

The entire story is here.

Pfizer Settlement on Foreign Bribery Charges

By Christopher Matthews
The Wall Street Journal Blogs

So that’s how it got started.

The government’s sprawling foreign bribery sweep into the pharmaceutical industry was built, in a large part, on information Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson provided about their competitors, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal Monday.

Not surprisingly, ratting on your competitors has its rewards.

Pfizer will pay more than $60 million to settle alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to people familiar with the matter. The sum could have been higher had Pfizer not cooperated with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $70 million in April to settle its FCPA probe, and likewise benefited from dropping a dime on its competitors.

The two companies’ cooperation contributed to a government investigation that has affected several major drug companies, also including Merck & Co., AstraZeneca PLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, according to the people familiar with the investigations. The four companies last year said in regulatory filings that they received letters of inquiry from the Justice Department and the SEC. The companies have said they are cooperating with investigators.

The entire story is here.

Payments to Doctors by Pharmaceutical Companies Raise Issues of Conflicts

By EMILY RAMSHAW and RYAN MURPHY

The Texas Tribune

Published by the New York Times

Thousands of Texas doctors, researchers and medical experts — including more than 100 who are employed by the state and are paid with taxpayer dollars — routinely supplement their salaries with income from pharmaceutical companies.

Drug companies pay medical professionals for a wide range of activities, from speaking engagements to consulting. While legal, the practice raises questions about potential conflicts, and whether the interests of patients may be compromised.

From 2009 to early 2011, at least 25,000 Texas physicians and researchers received a combined $57 million — and probably far more — in cash payments, research money, free meals, travel and other perks, according to data culled from 12 drug companies and provided by the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica.

Dozens of these medical professionals were paid more than $100,000 each during that period. And 114 were professors, physicians, psychiatrists or researchers who were already paid a salary by the state — in some cases more than a half-million dollars a year. These state employees brought in nearly $3 million combined from pharmaceutical companies from 2009 to early 2011, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of the ProPublica data.

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But the financial relationships raise questions about the influence of drug companies on prescribing patterns or research results. The practice “puts patients and tax dollars at risk,” said Lee Spiller, the policy director for the Texas branch of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a nonprofit mental health watchdog. “It taints the whole process. I’d hate to think donations were shaping state mental health policy in particular.”

The entire story is here.