PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

CAMH selected as field trial site for DSM-5

2010-10-06
(Press-News.org) For Immediate Release - (October 5, 2010) –Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has been selected as one of seven adult field trial sites in North America and the only site in Canada to test proposed diagnostic criteria for the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Used by health professionals around the world, DSM is the manual that provides descriptions, symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders. CAMH is participating in field trials to help assess the practical use of proposed DSM-5 criteria in real-world clinical settings.

"We are honored to be selected as one of the field trial sites," said Dr. Michael Bagby, Director of Clinical Research at CAMH. "Our role in the development of DSM-5 is a reflection of CAMH's standing in medical research, particularly in the field of psychiatry and mental disorders." APA has reported that the selection process was very competitive; only 11 organizations were chosen from the 65 that submitted proposals to be considered for a field trial site, and CAMH was the only Canadian site chosen.

The field trials held at CAMH will be led by Drs. Bruce Pollock, Michael Bagby and Kwame McKenzie. Disorders being studied at CAMH include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, attenuated psychotic symptoms syndrome, and personality disorders. Clinicians participating in the field trial will evaluate new and existing patients at different stages of treatment using the proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and measures.

The field trial design will address several important aspects of the proposed diagnostic criteria, including: Feasibility: are the proposed criteria easy for clinicians to understand and to use? Clinical Utility: do the proposed criteria do a good job in describing patients' psychiatric problems and help clinicians make decisions about treatment plans? Reliability: are the same conclusions reached consistently when the criteria are used by different clinicians? Validity: how accurately do the diagnostic criteria reflect the mental disorders they are designed to describe?

In addition, the field trials will test new tools that help clinicians evaluate the severity of symptoms, and whether patients are improving over time; as well as "cross-cutting dimensional assessments" that measure symptoms that occur across a wide range of diagnoses, such as sleep problems.

"The clinicians and researchers at CAMH demonstrate the highest level of expertise in mental health research and clinical care," said David Kupfer, M.D., chair of the DSM-5 Task Force. "This field trial research is a part of a critical phase in development of DSM-5 and will give us the information we need to better understand how the proposed revisions affect clinicians' practices and, most importantly, patient care."

The field trials follow a public comment period in which more than 8,000 written comments on the draft diagnostic criteria were submitted to the DSM-5 web site by clinicians, researchers and family and patient advocates. Submitted comments were reviewed by DSM-5 Work Groups and resulted in further refinement of the criteria. The field trial results will help further refine the criteria and provide invaluable information for DSM-5, to be released in May 2013.

### More information on all of the participating field trial sites and the specific disorders being tested is available on www.dsm5.org.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's leading addiction and mental health teaching hospital. Integrating clinical care, scientific research, education, policy development and health promotion, CAMH transforms the lives of people impacted by mental health and addiction issues.

The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society whose physician members specialize in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental disorders, including substance use disorders. Visit the APA at www.psych.org and www.healthyminds.org.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

T cell discovery shows promise for type 1 diabetes treatment: UBC-CFRI study

2010-10-06
A research team from the University of British Columbia and the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI) at BC Children's Hospital has identified the role of a type of T cell in type 1 diabetes that may lead to new treatment options for young patients. Also known as juvenile diabetes, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease primarily affecting children and young adults. In patients with type 1 diabetes, the body attacks itself by destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas that regulate glucose, or blood sugar. Led by Rusung Tan, a Pathology professor in the ...

Science survey ranks top biopharma employers

2010-10-06
### For the complete business office feature with individual company rankings, go to dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.opms.r1000097. The article will be posted at this URL address the evening of 7 October 2010. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org) and Science Signaling (www.sciencesignaling.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated ...

Bricks made with wool

Bricks made with wool
2010-10-06
Spanish and Scottish researchers have added wool fibres to the clay material used to make bricks and combined these with an alginate, a natural polymer extracted from seaweed. The result is bricks that are stronger and more environmentally-friendly, according to the study published recently in the journal Construction and Building Materials. "The objective was to produce bricks reinforced with wool and to obtain a composite that was more sustainable, non-toxic, using abundant local materials, and that would mechanically improve the bricks' strength", Carmen Galán and ...

Neanderthals had feelings too, say University of York researchers

2010-10-06
Pioneering new research by archaeologists at the University of York suggests that Neanderthals belied their primitive reputation and had a deep seated sense of compassion. A team from the University's Department of Archaeology took on the 'unique challenge' of charting the development of compassion in early humans. The researchers examined archaeological evidence for the way emotions began to emerge in our ancestors six million years ago and then developed from earliest times to more recent humans such as Neanderthals and modern people like ourselves. The research by ...

Umbilical cord blood not suitable for assessing allergy risk

2010-10-06
Allergies occur when the defence mechanisms of the immune system malfunction and misread normal substances entering the body as invading pathogens. Antibodies are part of our biochemical arsenal for combating viruses, bacteria, parasites and other alien substances, but during an allergic reaction the antibody, known as IgE, is directed against usually harmless substances such as grass pollen, nuts, pets or eggs. Asthma and allergies are chronic diseases that reduce quality of life and pose an economic burden on society. New parents have therefore previously been asked if ...

Light drinking during pregnancy does not harm child's behavioral or intellectual development

2010-10-06
Light drinking during pregnancy does not harm a young child's behavioural or intellectual development, reveals research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. A previous study of 3 year olds drew similar conclusions, but the authors wanted to rule out possible delayed "sleeper" effects in older children. They used data from the Millennium Cohort Study - a large study tracking the long term health of children born in the UK - drawing on a representative sample of 11,513 children born between September 2000 and January 2002. Participants' ...

Overhaul 'made-to-order' drugs, which cost NHS millions, urges DTB

2010-10-06
The provision of made-to-order drugs ("specials") in primary care is expensive, often unnecessary, and associated with legal pitfalls, says the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). It calls for a major overhaul of the practice, in a review of the evidence in this month's issue. Bespoke drugs or "specials" are medicines made specifically to meet the needs of individual patients, so may be prepared in formulations and strengths which differ from those of standard licensed medicines. They might be prescribed, for example, when a patient can't or won't swallow tablets ...

Persistently noisy workplace more than doubles heart disease risk

2010-10-06
A persistently noisy workplace more than doubles an employee's risk of serious heart disease, suggests research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Young male smokers seemed to be particularly at risk, the findings showed. The researchers base their findings on a nationally representative sample of more than 6,000 employees, aged from 20 upwards, who had been part of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2004. This involved detailed household interviews, to include lifestyle and occupational health, ...

Mice with human body's defenses

2010-10-06
Therapeutic antibodies can be an efficient alternative when common drugs do not work anymore. However, antibodies obtained from blood of animals such as mice could not be used: The human immune system recognizes them as foreign and rejects them. In an international cooperation, scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany have now succeeded in developing a promising approach to solve this problem; with the help of human stem cells they generated mice with a human immune system, which were then vaccinated to produce human monoclonal ...

Powerful free radical causes lung damage from oxygen therapy

Powerful free radical causes lung damage from oxygen therapy
2010-10-06
AUGUSTA, Ga. – The most toxic free radical appears responsible for much of the lung damage that can result from oxygen therapy in the critically ill or injured, Medical College of Georgia researchers report. Within just a few days, ventilators and oxygen chambers used to significantly increase oxygen levels can also dramatically increase levels of peroxynitrite, an oxidant powerful enough to break down DNA and cause proteins to malfunction, said Dr. Yunchao Su, pharmacologist in the MCG Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies. Oxygen toxicity is the most severe side ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Sensitive ceramics for soft robotics

Trends in hospitalizations and liver transplants associated with alcohol-induced liver disease

Spinal cord stimulation vs medical management for chronic back and leg pain

Engineered receptors help the immune system home in on cancer

How conflicting memories of sex and starvation compete to drive behavior

Scientists discover ‘entirely unanticipated’ role of protein netrin1 in spinal cord development

Novel SOURCE study examining development of early COPD in ages 30 to 55

NRL completes development of robotics capable of servicing satellites, enabling resilience for the U.S. space infrastructure

Clinical trial shows positive results for potential treatment to combat a challenging rare disease

New research shows relationship between heart shape and risk of cardiovascular disease

Increase in crisis coverage, but not the number of crisis news events

New study provides first evidence of African children with severe malaria experiencing partial resistance to world’s most powerful malaria drug

Texting abbreviations makes senders seem insincere, study finds

Living microbes discovered in Earth’s driest desert

Artemisinin partial resistance in Ugandan children with complicated malaria

When is a hole not a hole? Researchers investigate the mystery of 'latent pores'

ETRI, demonstration of 8-photon qubit chip for quantum computation

Remote telemedicine tool found highly accurate in diagnosing melanoma

New roles in infectious process for molecule that inhibits flu

Transforming anion exchange membranes in water electrolysis for green hydrogen production

AI method can spot potential disease faster, better than humans

A development by Graz University of Technology makes concreting more reliable, safer and more economical

Pinpointing hydrogen isotopes in titanium hydride nanofilms

Political abuse on X is a global, widespread, and cross-partisan phenomenon, suggests new study

Reintroduction of resistant frogs facilitates landscape-scale recovery in the presence of a lethal fungal disease

Scientists compile library for evaluating exoplanet water

Updated first aid guidelines enhance care for opioid overdose, bleeding, other emergencies

Revolutionizing biology education: Scientists film ‘giant’ mimivirus in action

Genetic variation enhances cancer drug sensitivity

Protective genetic mutation offers new hope for understanding autism and brain development

[Press-News.org] CAMH selected as field trial site for DSM-5