Due Date | Marriage and Depression | Children of Divorce and Ritalin - 6/7/07

Thu Jun 7 12:25:12 EDT 2007

- WHEN I MESS UP, I JUST STAY MESSED UP

> One important correction.  The due date for the Head Start Marriage Education
> Grants is *JULY 24th*, not June 24th as you indicated in your correction to
> the list.  Just want to head off some potential panic....  ;-)
> 
> Michael

I clearly need a day off!  Or, maybe some Ritalin......

Here AGAIN (maybe three times is the charm) , is the link to the newly
announced Head Start Grants with the corrected DUE DATE of July 24th.
- diane 

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/Modification_to_YD0040.html

##########################
- MARRIAGE AND DEPRESSION
Philadelphia Daily News
June 6, 2007 
Jenice Armstrong | Marriage & depression
WHEN YOU'RE single, the last thing you need is pressure about getting
married.

> "Romantic love is associated with dopamine. This is a natural stimulant. It's
> a feel-good stimulant," explained Fisher, whose latest book is "Why We Love,
> the Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love."
> 
> "You can sustain the feelings of romantic love in a long-term, good marriage.
> 
> "Marriage is good for you. If it works, it's good for you," continued Fisher,
> who's also the chief scientific officer on a new Internet dating site called
> Chemistry.com. "It gives you sense of purpose . . . It provides you with
> regular sex."

> Researchers also discovered that even though the depressed people they studied
> had more marital conflict and less happiness in their marriage, being married
> still boosted their mood.
> 
> "Well, they went from ground zero up to 60 percent," Fisher speculated.
> "That's good. We're an animal that's built to form pair bonds. We do it
> everywhere in the world."

Isn't it bad enough that wedding season is here? With it comes family
gatherings and the inevitable questions such as, "when are you going to get
hitched?"

The last thing singles need is anything else to make them feel anxious about
their romantic future. But I'm going to toss another one out anyway:
Marriage can help you ditch the Paxil and other meds for depression.

Kidding aside, everyone knows tying the proverbial knot is no guarantee of a
lifetime of happiness or even of staying off a therapist's couch. But
researchers at Ohio State University have a new study out showing that being
married can help alleviate depression.

It doesn't even have to be a great union, either, to have that impact. Just
having someone nearby - even if you're not wild about the person - seems to
help people feel less gloomy.

Yesterday, I spoke with Helen Fisher, renowned relationship expert at
Rutgers University, who said the findings make sense.

For article, see: 
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20070606_Jenice_Armstrong___Marriag
e___depression.html

Or, try this one: http://tinyurl.com/2cqlnu

###########################
- CHILDREN OF DIVORCE TWICE AS LIKELY TO BE PUT ON RITALIN

Children of divorce twice as likely to be put on Ritalin
Edmonton sociologist says there may be a variety of explanations
The Star (Edmonton Canada)
June 06, 2007
Helen Branswell
Canadian Press

Children whose parents divorce are nearly twice as likely to be prescribed
Ritalin in the aftermath of the split, a Canadian study reports.

But the author, a sociologist from the University of Alberta, cautions
against concluding that children of divorce are over-prescribed the drug,
which is used to treat Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, or
ADHD.

Lisa Strohschein says the data she used can only identify the phenomenon and
cannot reveal why Ritalin use rates are double when children of divorced
parents are compared to children whose parents stay married.

"I've got the what, but not the why," Strohschein says from Edmonton.

Strohschein suggests there may be a variety of answers. Some kids may need
the drug to cope with the stress of the split, some kids may have ADHD and
some kids may be getting a drug they don't really need.

"The problem is I can't be clear about it," she says.

"I mean, I would love to be able to say, `Yes, it's divorce. That's the
problem,' but it's not necessarily so. It could just be our perceptions
about divorce  and that's the thing that makes me really cautious here.

"(But) I don't want to come out on the other side, either and say, `Ritalin
is bad,' because I think it clearly does help some kids."

The psychiatrist-in-chief of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto says
the study should serve as a reminder to doctors to move cautiously when
prescribing Ritalin or other methylphenidate-based drugs to children in
these circumstances.

"What we need is a deeper understanding of this issue, at the level of the
primary care practitioners," Dr. Abel Ickowicz says.

"If we are going too quick to prescribe medication, like Ritalin, like
methylphenidate, we may not only be masking the normal process of adaptation
to divorce, but we may be contributing to the degree of distress the
children of divorce are experiencing."

The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, used data
gathered by Statistics Canada through its National Longitudinal Survey of
Children and Youth. The survey, which was first conducted in 1994, is
completed every two years. Strohschein used data collected between 1994 and
2000.

The study notes a number of potential explanations for the doubling of the
usage rate.

One possibility is that the stress of the divorce aggravated a child's
existing behavioural problems to the point where Ritalin would actually be
helpful, she hypothesized.

It is known that ADHD can run in families. In addition to passing on the
condition to their children, parents with ADHD-type behaviour might be more
likely to divorce  a theory that points toward appropriate use of the drug.

Another possibility is that in divorce, the natural emotions children
experience  anxiety, sadness, anger  might manifest themselves in
behaviour that is mislabelled as ADHD-like, or that parents and doctors may
be anticipating problematic behaviour because of the stress of divorce.

The study suggested this type of rationale would reflect inappropriate use.

Dr. Anton Miller, a developmental pediatrician and child health researcher
at the University of British Columbia's Centre for Community Child Health
Research, says it's possible no single answer applies across the board for
these children.

"None of them is an outlandish kind of suggestion. They probably all have
some validity," he says.

[[ Or, maybe they should look at the changes in parents after divorce -
maybe the tolerance of single parents changes - they are less able to cope
with their child's behavior.  Or, maybe after divorce, a child loses the
protective factor of the parenting team with its built in system of checks
and balance -"He doesn't need drugs." "Hey, don't spank him." etc- diane ]]

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