WHO'S AFRAID OF THE ONLINE TROLL? By Wendy Harmer

February 29, 2012

Trolls…

I've had a few.

But, then again…

Too few to mention.

We're having this encounter online.

Not down the shops, not in a car park, in a footy grandstand or in a slow-moving queue.

I can't see you. You can't see me.

In cyberspace, no-one can see your face when you’re shouting mindless, ugly abuse.

I was reminded of this yesterday when, stuck in a traffic jam my fellow drivers wound down their car windows to watch a disturbing road rage incident unfold.

Shouts. Swearing. Fists shaking. Cars refusing to move after the lights turned green as the argument raged. Ugly stuff. Frightening.

Those of us nearby were noting number plates and had 000 on speed dial. A few got out of their cars to see what was up. We acknowledged each other with a nod, knowing we were there as witnesses in the event things became physically violent.

That sort of support is not there when you are at home, alone and the abuse comes through on your computer screen.

It can make you feel very vulnerable indeed.

There's hardly a human posting their opinion online who hasn't complained of being bombarded with ugly, cruel and explicitly violent comments from anonymous 'trolls'.

NB: In internet slang, a 'troll' is someone who makes comments with one aim in mind – to provoke and upset.

Doesn't matter if you are male or female; whether you're in the depths of despair or celebrating your triumphs, seems there's always some 'anonymous' who is there to rain on your parade. To make you feel small and unworthy.

Now we have the chance to peek behind the mask thanks to a brilliant report from News Ltd. journalist Claire Connelly who interviewed three such 'trolls'.

Source: http://thehoopla.com.au/afraid-big-bad-troll//

Older Adults Do Get a Good Night's Rest, Survey Finds (3/1/2012)

Older Adults Do Get a Good Night's Rest, Survey Finds

Sleep disturbances, daytime fatigue not a given in later years.

By Lisa EspositoHealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) -- The older you get, the better you sleep, according to new research that challenges conventional wisdom that a good night's rest is harder to come by with age.

In a survey of 150,000 adults, people in their 70s and 80s had the fewest complaints of sleep disturbance, while those between the ages of 18 and 24 had the most. Except for a bump in complaints in middle age, sleep appears to improve steadily over the course of a lifetime.

One big implication of the study is that health-care providers should not just dismiss poor sleep as a normal part of aging, said study author Michael Grandner, a research associate at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

The study, which appears in the March issue of the journal Sleep, looked at responses to a phone survey conducted in 36 U.S. states and territories. People described how often they had experienced sleep disturbance or daytime drowsiness in the previous two weeks.

"In women, you saw very clear increases in both sleep disturbance and daytime tiredness [in middle age]; in men you also saw an increase in later middle age," Grandner said. "I think in women, you're seeing an effect of pre-menopause and menopause. With men, it's a little later. That's where career peaks -- and peak stress -- occurs, in the later 50s."

Men in that age group are also at higher risk of sleep apnea and other health problems, he noted.

Health problems -- especially depression -- had a significant effect on sleep, the survey found.

"One of the most important findings was that depression was a significant predictor for sleep problems," said Michael Vitiello, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, and an expert on sleep and aging.

"I applaud the investigators for this labor-intensive and comprehensive examination of the question," he said. "I've been on the 'It isn't aging, it's illness' bandwagon for many years. It's a treatable disorder. Much of the sleep disturbance seen in older adults is not driven by aging, but by illness."

Healthy older people sleep better, both experts said. They don't necessarily nap more, and dozing off at the opera or movies is by no means a given.

In his own research, Vitiello said, "we looked at napping in older adults -- but not as large a sample, and found that, like sleep complaints, napping is driven by illness burden. If an older person complains [of sleep problems], something's going on and it needs to be dealt with. A physician shouldn't say, 'OK, you're old.' "

Treatment could include referring a patient to a sleep clinic or to a psychiatrist, Vitiello said. And Grandner said patients have been helped by combinations of psychotherapy and relaxation therapy.

Because of the nature of the study -- a "cross-sectional" survey -- the authors said they can't conclude that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between aging and sleep.

Vitiello did point out some methodology issues with the survey, such as an overall response rate of only 40 percent. And, because the study was landline based -- no cellphones -- he added that could affect participation rates among different age groups.

"The common knowledge is that sleep deteriorates with age," Grandner said. And, he added, many sleep-lab studies have shown "certain aspects of sleep get worse as you get older. Older people tend to take longer to fall asleep, they have more awakenings. A lot of the restorative and healing functions of sleep tend to happen less in older people.

"However, what we found [in the study] was that even if their sleep objectively might be worse, their experience of their sleep is better," he said. Part of the explanation may be that older people have other health problems that leave sleep issues lower on their radar. "Somebody who's much younger [might have] a much higher expectation of how they're going to sleep," he said.

It could also be that people in poor health -- who are more likely to have sleep problems -- are less likely to survive to older ages, he said.

For his part, Vitiello said, "If you're healthy, you're probably sleeping quite well, even into your 80s. So, if you see an older person who is having a lot of problems staying awake during the day, you shouldn't just excuse that as, 'Oh, that's just an old-people thing.' "

Source: http://www.womenshealt.gov/new/news/headlines/662278.cfm/

'Co-Occurring' Disorders May Explain Change in Autism Diagnosis (1/23/2012)

'Co-Occurring' Disorders May Explain Change in Autism Diagnosis

As symptoms of other conditions become more apparent, labels may vary, study suggests.

By Jenifer GoodwinHealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Many children with autism also have other developmental or psychiatric conditions, including learning disabilities, speech delays, attention or seizure disorders and anxiety.

According to new research, some of those co-occurring conditions may explain why autism diagnoses often change as children get older.

In a survey by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, more than one-third of parents with children between 6 and 17 years old reported that their child's diagnosis of autism had changed over time.

"We don't know what changed the diagnosis. However, we want to deliver the message that it's important to look at the other coexisting conditions, evaluate them before you make a diagnosis, and also recognize these conditions vary by development age," said study author Li-Ching Lee, an associate scientist in the epidemiology and mental health departments at the School of Public Health.

Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by problems with social interaction, communication and restricted interests and behaviors.

In the study, researchers used 2007-2008 survey data from the parents of nearly 1,400 children aged 3 to 17 who had received a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including autism, Asperger disorder -- a mild form of autism, and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified.

Parents were asked if their child currently had a diagnosis of autism or an ASD, or had had one in the past.

Nearly 26 percent of parents of children aged 3 to 5 reported a change in diagnosis, the researchers said. Nearly 34 percent of parents of children aged 6 to 11 and 35 percent of the parents of 12- to 17-year-olds reported their child was diagnosed with autism at some point but no longer was considered to have autism, the researchers found.

Overall, children with two or more co-occurring developmental or psychiatric conditions were five times more likely than kids with fewer coexisting conditions to continue to have an autism diagnosis, the researchers said.

Kids who had a moderate-to-severe learning disability were 11 times more likely to continue to have an autism diagnosis over time, while kids with a developmental delay were nine times more likely to retain an autism diagnosis, the study authors said.

Researchers didn't look at why certain conditions are associated with a change in autism diagnosis. But some of the symptoms of various development and psychiatric conditions can overlap, so it's possible that having certain ones can lead to a misdiagnosis until the child gets older and their issues become more clear, according to the study.

For example, kids diagnosed with a hearing problem showed a tendency to "lose" their autism diagnosis over time. Researchers speculated that behaviors that initially resembled autism symptoms -- not responding or not engaging -- were later discovered to stem from impaired hearing.

The study is published in the February issue of Pediatrics.

Dr. Joseph Horrigan, assistant vice president and head of medical research for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, cautioned not to make too much of the findings. The children weren't actually followed over time, nor were they actually examined, a methodology that would be the "gold standard" of research.

Because the results were based on a telephone survey, Horrigan said, "I'd be a little cautious about over-interpreting whether this means there's likely to be change in an autism diagnosis or a loss of an autism diagnosis for a given individual."

Nor did researchers look at kids whose diagnosis went the other way -- that is, they were initially not diagnosed with autism but were later diagnosed with it.

However, the findings highlight how often kids with ASD experience other conditions, some of which may be treatable with medications or with educational interventions. These include anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, epilepsy and learning disabilities.

"Up until the recent past, there's been a tendency to spend most of the time and energy on the autism and the autism diagnosis, and thinking about a treatment package that's keyed directly to the autism," Horrigan said. "What's important here is they are highlighting some of the most common co-occurring disorders, a number of which are readily amenable to treatments."

An estimated one in 110 U.S. children -- many more boys than girls -- has autism, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: http://www.womenshealth.gov/new//news/headlines/660958.cfm/