‘This is a devastating loss’

ST. HELENS, Ore. – A mental health worker was killed on Sunday while delivering medication to a man in St. Helens.

The crime happened around 8 a.m. in the 200 block of South 15th Street at a home that is run by Columbia Community Mental Health.

The suspect, who is in custody, lives there. Police identified him as 30-year-old Brent Redd. Investigators say Redd stabbed Warren to death and then called 9-1-1 to report what he had done.

Redd himself was injured and taken to a hospital for treatment. Police did not say whether he had hurt himself or had possibly gotten injured during a struggle with Warren.

Evidence technicians recovered a knife later in the day that they believe was the murder weapon. At this point, police do not know what led to Redd’s actions.

“No, we really don’t,’ St. Helens Police Chief Steve Salle’ said. “The investigation is focusing on not only what happened, but why it happened.”

Those who live nearby told us the neighborhood is a peaceful one and this is the first sign of violence they have seen. “Yeah, this is a quiet place,” said Patrick Birkle.

We spoke with Columbia Community Mental Health’s director, Roland Migchielsen, by phone and he told us he has never seen something like this happen in his 25 years of working in mental health.

Migchielsen said Warren had worked for Columbia Community Mental Health for a decade as a support worker who made sure clients had their medications and other needs taken care of. She made home visits to check on them and he said it was not unusual for her to be doing so on a weekend.

“She was a real good worker,” Migchielsen said. “We had her for 10 years and this is a devastating loss.”

We asked Migchielsen about the suspect (pictured at right), but he said he could not give us any information due to confidentiality laws. At this point Redd will remain hospitalized at least through Monday and then he may face charges.

Former employees of Columbia Community Mental Health that we talked to said they believe mental health workers should not be alone when checking on patients who are living in the community.

“They should double them up,” said Jerome Fesler, whose wife was delivering medication to the suspect just a few weeks ago before she quit over concerns for her safety. “They should have someone else. They should be working in pairs, plain and simple. You know, two people is always better than one. You’ve got someone there that if something does happen, they can call for help.”

We spoke with family members of the suspect and they said he had complained to mental health workers that his anti-psychotic and anti-depression medication was being reduced in preparation for a planned surgery.

Redd’s family also told us that he had been in prison and institutionalized for trying to kill his mother and that he should have been under closer supervision, not out in the community, especially if his medications were being cut back.

Statement from Columbia Community Mental Health

Jennifer Warren died today after receiving injuries on her job as a mental health worker. She had worked for Columbia Community Mental Health for 10 years. The incident occurred during a scheduled visit with CCMH client Brent Redd in St. Helens.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jennifer’s family and friends after this terrible incident. We are working closely with law enforcement and will also jointly launch a swift and thorough independent investigation to ensure the safety of our mental health workers who are on the front lines every day,” said Roland Migchielsen, Executive Director of Columbia Community Mental Health and Mary Claire Buckley, Executive Director of the Psychiatric Security Review Board in a joint statement.

Migchielson added, “Jennifer was an excellent and kind mental health worker who served her community well. She was widely respected by her co-workers and clients.”

Redd has been under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board since April 2007 after pleading Guilty Except for Insanity for attempted murder of a family member. He was sentenced to the PSRB for 20 years. He began serving his term at the Oregon State Hospital where he remained until September 2010 when he began receiving local community treatment through conditional release under the jurisdiction of the PSRB.

“Public safety is the first concern of the Psychiatric Security Review Board,” said Buckley. “Today’s tragic incident is the first time in 34 years when any client under the Board’s jurisdiction has been alleged to have committed a violent act of this nature.”

There are currently 615 individuals under the Board’s jurisdiction with 415 under conditional release in the community. Since 1978, the Psychiatric Security Review Board has supervised more than 1,400 individuals who have been found guilty except for insanity with a recidivism rate of 2 percent.

Bipolar fleas and early warning signs!

It’s that time of the year again – spring. Our interest in life literally springs up, our moods and love life improve and many patients with bipolar disorder begin to experience their first signs of hypomania.

Call it a seasonal effect, blame it on light or the forthcoming changes in our social routines, spring appears to be a period that every bipolar and their family should keep an eye on.

So what better time than now to write about our bipolar fleas – the early warning signs of manic and depressive relapses?

I recently had an incident with my lovely dogess Iano – a beautiful and proud royal boxer. We went to my sister’s country house and Iano as usual enjoyed her time there. This time, however, before our departure I noticed some insects running over her body. A sickly dog had been around our house and somehow he managed to pass quite a handful of fleas to her. She usually keeps herself so clean that it had never occurred to me that fleas could take over her perfect body.

I tried to remove her fleas one by one but the more I was staying there the more fleas kept on coming to her. So I put her in my car and drove her quickly down my flat – far away from any infected areas. On our way there we bought some anti-flea shampoo from a pharmacy and made plans about how to disinfect her.

Iano was beginning to get irritated by the fleas but she was still happy enough on her way back. I eventually managed to remove all her fleas (one by one), and to isolate her for a good few hours in a disinfected bathroom. The next day she was taken to our vet for a routine check-up, and I kept an eye on her for possible infections for the next week or so. She is better than ever now, and I think she even liked all the attention that she got that day.

During the entire incident, I couldn’t help thinking how similar fleas are to the bipolar symptoms that come just before manic and depressive relapses. For whatever reason, they just start cropping up on you, and if you don’t pay attention or your significant other does not pick them up, then what will usually happen is that they will start growing up on you. They will also start multiplying.

They like having company. It’s very unlikely that you will have only one symptom. The more you delay doing something about them, the worse they will get. You will eventually relapse and the consequences along with your available treatment options are likely to be far more painful than if you had been proactive about the whole situation.

Getting into the rush of doing something quickly may not be the easiest or the most pleasant thing to do. It may not even be the right time for you or your family. But if you wish to prevent your forthcoming relapse – it’s always the right time. Self-management definitely works – early on.

There are things that you can do just by yourself to take notice of your early warning signs and to calm them down, but getting help from your family and your treatment providers are important steps to consider, and when necessary, to take. Yes, you may not want to worry your family or your therapists with every mood change or every bad or very good day that you have, but keeping them in mind and getting to them quickly is important.

I couldn’t help thinking about the pain my dear Iano would have suffered if those bloody fleas had started to grow on her. And I am so happy to see that she got through the whole ordeal almost unscratched, that I wish for every bipolar patient to keep well and to keep well by acting quickly and by having the right people and resources in place to help manage their early warning signs before they relapse.

I won’t get into the science of the bipolar early warning signs in this article. As a matter of fact, we know quite a lot about your bipolar fleas but I would like to run a little survey with you to see what changes you notice in your behavior, thinking, or mood prior to any manic or depressive relapses (use this form here).

Try to describe them in your own words – there is no need to use any psychiatric lingo. Then we can see whether we are in agreement with the literature, and I will write a bit more on what we know about the early warnings signs of bipolar disorder. I am also looking forward to your comments in our comments section.

Until our next blog post enjoy your spring life and keep an eye out for any bipolar fleas.

Bipolarly yours,

Dr. Yanni Malliaris

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    Last reviewed: 20 May 2012

Carter House: ‘It helps me cope’

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By Katie Scarvey

kscarvey@salisburypost.com

Kenneth Smith has had to deal with some pretty scary things in his life.

While many of us are frightened by things and circumstances around us, Smith must confront frightening things in his own head.

“When I’m at home, I tend to hear voices,” he says.

That began when he was in his 20s, he recalls.

The voices were threatening and destructive. “They would tell me to kill my family and stuff,” he says.

Smith’s life was altered so profoundly that he couldn’t make it to work many days and lost his job at Food Lion. He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

Before coming to Carter House in Salisbury, he’d been in and out of the hospital, he says.

Now, he’s managing his mental illness, living by himself and receiving plenty of support from Carter House, which helps teach him life skills.

Being around people is good for him, he says.

Now that he’s part of a community and receiving effective medication, he’s keeping the voices at bay.

“I don’t hear them as much when I’m here — it’s when I’m alone,” he says.

“It’s like a battle going on inside my head,” he says. Although he knows that it’s caused by a chemical imbalance, it feels like “good against evil,” he says.

“Now I just open up my Bible and start reading.”

Carter House — often referred to simply as The Clubhouse — is a haven for him.

“Without this place, I wouldn’t have nowhere to go,” he says. “When my mom died, my friend J.C. was right here for me.

“It’s real good to have friends. All the friends I have here are like family to me.”

Kathy Torrence has also found a lot of friends at the Carter House.

She likes to work in the snack bar there, where you can buy a can of potted meat for 35 cents.

Kathy’s been coming for a while, and it’s a blessing, she says. She’s made a lot of friends and she reaches out through an inspiration group she leads on Wednesdays.

“That’s what I need: friends. They’re not judging. They accept you as you are, where you are.”

When she’s alone, she gets depressed and scared, she says.

“I need to be around people,” she says. “The Clubhouse offers that, the privilege to be around people.”

Carter House, which is part of RHA Behavioral Health Services, serves adults like Smith and Torrence who are struggling with severe and profound mental illness, including schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and depression. Carter House offers psychosocial rehabilitation (PSR). With its emphasis on peer support and social interaction, the PSR model is designed to help minimize the need for ongoing professional intervention.

The program began as a partial hospitalization program in the basement of the old Tri-County Mental Health location, which became one of the Department of Social Services sites on Mahaley Ave. Several of the psychiatrists there felt that more support could be provided to those diagnosed with a mental illness.

They had heard of the clubhouse model being used in a New York facility called The Fountain House. After visiting Fountain House, they decided to begin a program locally, which was called Victory House.

Sam and Mary Oma Carter were strong mental health advocates in the community and the state, having two sons of their own diagnosed with mental illness. They provided support for the program and helped the clubhouse move to North Main Street, where the name was changed to the Carter House in honor of their dedication to the program. The Carter house is now located at 600 West Innes St.

Karenda Harris is a team leader at Carter House and explains that clients get coping skills and strategies from their peers and also from life class groups.

They learn practical things, such as budgeting skills, how to comparison shop, pay bills, learn computer skills and cook, she added.

Rick Costello has been coming to Carter House for four days a week for 10 years now, since he moved here with his mother, Carol Hylton, from Maryland.

“I found out I have depression,” he says.

The support he finds at the Carter House is important to him.

“We can all talk about our illnesses and learn about each other’s,” he says. “It helps me cope with it.”

David Dickerson, 54, moved here from Houston a few years ago. He’s dealing with schizophrenia and manic depression and says his issues are “kind of serious,” including hallucinations — “real scary things” like snakes or Bigfoot, he says.

He remembers when he began hearing voices.

“They were loud, real loud.”

“I’d say, ‘Shut up, leave me alone.’ It was insane stuff. It was really negative talk, like devilish. I felt like the devil was taking over. I didn’t know what to do.”

It was three or four months before his parents found out. By that time, he’d lost his job at a hardware store. He ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

Right now he’s hopeful because he’s on a new monthly injectable medication that he believes is helping control his hallucinations and helping him not to feel paranoid, as though people are talking behind his back.

The Carter House is also helping him, he says.

“I can’t sit around and do nothing.”

If he does start to hear voices, he says he gets on the phone with his doctor right away. He feels safe these days, he says.

The Carter house has meant a lot to her, says client Barbara Valentine, who says her recovery has been helped along by the Carter House.

“I was really messed up,” she says. “The Carter House helped me to socialize, be independent.

“It’s meant to much to me,” she says. “We have a lot of love here, and support. It’s been a wonderful place for me to come.”

It’s also helped her understand her diagnosis, she says.

“It’s like a family here. It’s a place to come, chill out, relax.

“I don’t know what I’d do without it. I love it here.”

Carter House services are paid for by Medicaid, which also helps provide transportation for clients.

To learn more about the Carter House, call Karenda Harris, team leader, at 704-633-1835.

Message to those battling mental illness: "You’re not Alone" – WCSH

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AUGUSTA, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Hundreds took a stand against mental illness and suicide on Sunday.

The Red Barn restaurant partnered with the Maine chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) to put on a fundraising walk. Red Barn owner Laura Benedict organized the walk because she struggled with depression a decade ago, and since then has lost close friends to suicide and helped family members cope with mental illness.

Among the walkers was the family of Gauge Barnes, who took his own life in 2009 at the age of fourteen. Gauge’s mother Lanee became an avid advocate for mental illness awareness, training police officers all over the state in crisis management. Sadly, Lanee Barnes also took her own life on Mother’s Day. Her husband Shawn and her son Ridge say they are now that much more determined to embrace life.

“It’s definitely determination,” Shawn Barnes said. “We made a pact, we’re going to live, and we’re going to wake up every day and live life. Life is for living and no matter what you need to keep going, take that step.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental illness and needs non-crisis support, they can call the Maine Warm Line 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-866-771-WARM (9276). If you or someone you know is in crisis and seeking immediate professional intervention for a life threatening issue, you can call the statewide 24 hour Crisis Line at 1-888-568-1112. NAMI Maine also runs their own confidential, non-crisis help line , available Monday through Friday, between 8:00 am and 4:30 pm at 207-622-5767.

You can find additional resources on NAMI’s website.

NEWS CENTER

Onset Periods of Depression Linked to Different Dementias

Recurrent depression from midlife through late life increases the risk of vascular dementia, suggesting a progressive etiologic association with vascular disease, a large, long-term retrospective cohort study has shown.

When depression begins only in late life, it might be part of the Alzheimer’s disease prodrome, the researchers found.

Whether treatment of depression could help prevent or delay the onset of either type of dementia was not established in the study.

A growing body of evidence has shown depression to be associated with a higher risk of developing dementia; however, it is has not yet been established how the disorders relate to each other.

For their research, published in the May 2012 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry (2012;69:493-8), Deborah E. Barnes, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and her colleagues examined sets of records for 13,535 subjects (57.9% female, 24.2% nonwhite). All were between the ages of 40 and 55 and were members of the Kaiser Permanente health system in the years 1964 through 1973, when they participated in a voluntary health exam in San Francisco and Oakland as part of their membership.

The 1964-1973 exam asked subjects whether they often felt “unhappy or depressed,” and positive answers were considered by Dr. Barnes and her colleagues to be indicative of depression symptoms at midlife. The same patient records were screened for depression diagnoses and hospitalizations between 1990 and 2000, and then for dementia diagnoses between 2003 and 2009. None of the included study subjects had dementia at baseline or in 2003, at the onset of follow-up.

Dr. Barnes and her colleagues found that 14.1% of subjects had depressive symptoms in midlife only, 9.2% in late life only, and 4.2% in both. After the investigators adjusted for comorbidities and demographic factors, the hazard of any form of dementia increased by about 20% for people with midlife depressive symptoms only (HR, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.07-1.32]); by 70% for late-life symptoms only (1.72 [1.54-1.92]); and by 80% for people with both (1.77 [1.52-2.06]).

When vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease were analyzed separately, subjects with midlife depressive symptoms only did not have a significantly increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (HR, 1.06 [95% CI, 0.85- 1.33]) or vascular dementia (HR, 1.24 [0.90-1.72]). Those with late-life depressive symptoms saw a twofold increase in Alzheimer’s risk (HR, 2.06 [95% CI, 1.67-2.55]). Those with both midlife and late-life symptoms, meanwhile, had more than a threefold increase in vascular dementia risk (HR, 3.51 [2.44-5.05]).

“There has been an ongoing debate in the field as to whether the association between depression and dementia reflects an etiologic relationship or whether depression is a prodromal symptom of dementia. Our results suggest that the answer may differ depending on the dementia subtype,” Dr. Barnes and her colleagues wrote.

The recurrence of depression in late life “may reflect a long-term process of subclinical cerebrovascular changes that may predispose toward development of [vascular dementia],” the investigators wrote; however, they acknowledged, other mechanisms could also increase vulnerability to dementia among individuals prone to depression. Future studies are needed to learn whether the treatment of depression “may help to maintain cognitive function and delay dementia onset,” Dr. Barnes and her colleagues reported.

Bridges to Recovery Now Offers Inpatient Treatment for Bipolar Disorder

Bridges To Recovery

An effective alternative to a hospital environment for patients suffering from many types of mental health disorders including bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety obsessive compulsive disorders, grief support and other issues.

Pacific Palisades, CA (PRWEB) May 19, 2012

Bridges to Recovery is a residential treatment center in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Bel Air, California. The treatment center offers an effective alternative to a hospital environment for patients suffering from many types of mental health disorders including bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety obsessive compulsive disorders, grief support and other issues.

Bridges to Recovery has been treating mental health disorders since 2003 and now in 2012 it offers several treatment centers for those who are looking for bipolar residential treatment in Los Angeles, or for treatment for a host of other mental illnesses. These centers offer licensed adult residential treatment programs, with one-on-one in-depth psychotherapy sessions to help people recover from their illnesses. The first-class treatment centers are like a home away from home with a helpful, friendly environment. Bridges to Recovery offers treatments that help their clients through a difficult time. They aid with the establishment of healthy life routines, all the while building the clients’ self esteem. These both aid the client to not only get well, but to stay well long-term. Anyone that is looking for depression treatment centers in California should check out one of the many locations that Bridges to Recovery has. These residential treatment centers can help get you or your loved one the treatment they deserve. If you’re looking for an OCD residential treatment center in LA, look no further than Bridges to Recovery. Their licensed, trained staff is kind, professional and understanding. They have an excellent success rate and have been successful treating clients who have not recovered by using other treatment methods. Clients with a dual diagnosis – both mental health and substance abuse – will be treated for the underlying mental health problems that are causing the chemical dependency.

For treatment for bipolar disorder treatment, panic attacks, OCD, mood regulation, Borderline Personality Disorder and other psychiatric disorders visit Bridges to Recovery.com to find a location nearby. Contact them through the website or call 1-877-386-3398. You can either speak with the staff to ask more questions, have them send you more information, or make an appointment to take a tour of one of the first-class facilities. This is an open-door facility that is open 24/7. The doors are never locked to keep patients in. This provides patients with peace of mind. Bridges to Recovery is a private-pay program, meaning they do not accept insurance payments. They will help clients bill their insurance companies by providing invoices and records.

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NATO Blog: Obama, world leaders arrive for summit

One of the men facing terrorism charges after arrests in Bridgeport had quit his job as a cook last fall to join the Occupy movement, his uncle said today.

“He can be confrontational,” Michael Chase said of his 24-year-old nephew, Jared Chase. “If he’s pressed, he tends to lash out. I really can’t envision him doing this on his own, coming up with an idea to do something that radical.”

Chase and two other men in their 20s are charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism and possession of an explosive or incendiary device, their attorney and police said early Saturday.

The arrests were the result of a month-long investigation into a group suspected of making Molotov cocktails — crude bombs usually created by filling glass bottles with gasoline, according to law enforcement sources and police records obtained by the Tribune.

Michael Chase said he was shocked by the charges.

“I’m not surprised that he’s in the protest movement because he’s been with it for awhile, but it’s a whole different aspect when you start talking about committing acts of terror using anything, and it’s really not his style,” Michael Chase said. “He’s had brushes with the law in the past and bumping heads with the police and so forth.

“It would not surprise me if during an arrest he was charged with resisting arrest, but it’s shocking to me that he would be charged with planning to commit an act of terror using any kind of device that would create the kind of havoc that a Molotov cocktail (would cause).”

Jared Chase lived in a tent for a time after joining Occupy and traveled with other members of the movement to Rhode Island, Washington, D.C. and Miami before arriving in Chicago last month, his uncle said.

Jared Chase was not politically active before joining Occupy, so his decision to leave his job for the movement came as a surprise, his uncle said.

“He wasn’t involved in any of that stuff before,” his uncle said. “He complained about the economy like everybody else, but certainly he wasn’t active about doing anything about it. I was a little surprised because he obviously had to quit his job to spend time in the tent, so to speak, and I had to give him a hard time because I thought that was the wrong move.”

Michael Chase said his nephew had mentioned one of the other suspects, Brian Church, in recent phone conversations, but not the other suspect, Brent Betterly.

Chase’s Facebook page, verified by his uncle, includes a link to a news story about a May Day protest in Chicago with a photo of protesters blocking the entrance to a bank in the Loop. Chase writes on the page that he is pictured in the photo.

In another post, Chase writes that the building where he was staying in Miami with other Occupy members was raided by the FBI and police. The post says he was the only person put in a police car and ends with, “(expletive) you pigs.”

Mental problems top illness for GIs

More active-duty troops were hospitalized for mental illnesses last year than any other major malady, a new military report says.

The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center said 21,735 troops from the services were admitted to hospitals because of mental problems, up dramatically from previous years.

Most were men, with mental disorders the leading cause of hospitalizations for soldiers and Marines — the services that have carried the greatest burden in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hospitalization rates for all causes among active-duty troops were up during the past decade, with one in every 15 troops treated, but mental-illness admissions grew 50 percent over the past five years.

“It is not surprising to see the increase in hospitalizations for mental-health disorders among service members,” Army Col. Robert Lipnick, a spokesman for the Silver Spring, Md.-based center, said Friday, noting that the Pentagon has encouraged GIs to seek help.

“In addition, there has been increased screening for and emphasis placed on detection of mental-health disorders,” he added. “Also, the effects of repeated deployments and prolonged exposures can’t be overemphasized.”

Mental disorders long have been a byproduct of war, as have injuries and back, shoulder and knee problems. But the center reported a steep rise in the number of days soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have been hospitalized because of mental disorders since 2005.

That coincides with the explosion of an insurgency in Iraq that claimed the lives of 3,422 U.S. troops from 2004-2007, the majority of those who died during the war. The report, which did not include reservists who’ve played major combat roles, also hinted at the toll mental illness has taken on the military and its hospitals.

It said mental disorders required far longer hospital stays than most other illnesses and injuries, with care running a month or more. Average stays are three days, while fewer than 5 percent of hospitalizations ran more than nine days.

Health surveillance center figures show that 13,003 soldiers were hospitalized for mental illnesses, a mark 70 percent higher than for Marines, while 6,126 sailors, airmen and Coast Guard personnel were admitted.

Still, a sailor, airman or Coast Guardsman was most likely to be admitted to a hospital for pregnancy and deliveries than mental problems. Until last year, pregnancy and delivery-related care were the most likely reasons active-duty troops were admitted to a hospital.

Admissions fell into a small slice of mental-illness categories that included anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse and “adjustment reaction,” a short-term disorder in which people fail to cope with events such as divorce.

Kim Ruocco, whose husband, a Marine Super Cobra gunship pilot, killed himself in 2005, said breakups often trigger a crisis, and added that wives have forced their spouses to get help at emergency rooms.

“Some of them do, but it takes a lot to get to that point because you don’t want to make things worse for him and you don’t want to betray him,” she said. “If they’re dragging their husbands into their hospital, they’re in a bad way.”

The statistics reflect a trend seen in suicides among troops in the wake of the 2003 invasion. The Army’s suicide task force reports that 95 soldiers have taken their own lives this year, 10 of them at two posts in Texas: Fort Hood and Fort Bliss. The Army lost 282 soldiers to suicide last year, a record 164 of them active-duty troops.

As in past years, the victims are often young enlistees with one or more combat tours. They’re often based at installations that have played key roles in both wars, but suicides are just one of the Pentagon’s worries.

Before he retired, the Army’s vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, expressed concern about a 64 percent rise in violent sex-crime offenders from 2006 to 2011. The Pentagon has launched a crackdown on a problem that has been marked by junior enlisted men attacking young women.

Ruocco said the hospitalization trend not only reflects efforts to help troops, but the reality that a long war finally has caught up with them.

“I think they really are exhausted and their families are starting to fall apart,” she said, “and they’re starting to really have difficulty reintegrating into their communities as they’re getting out.”

File Sharing, BitTorrent Linked to Depression

Earlier this week we talked about ‘90s band the Counting Crows’ stunning return to near-relevance through the magic of online file sharing. The band’s lead singer compared BitTorrent to the radio, and hopes that giving away a few songs will serve as an effective promotional tool.

Unfortunately, just as the world was getting excited about the Lazarus-like effects of sharing things online, here comes a new study out of the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The results? In the paper’s own words:

“We have identified that average packets per flow, peer-to-peer (octets, packets and duration), chat octets, mail (packets and duration), ftp duration, and remote file octets show statistically significant correlations with depressive symptoms.” 

Or, more simply, more time spent illegally downloading music, chatting online, and checking email, among other things, generally means more depression. To be clear, the paper does not state that any of these activities cause depression. It’s just that people who do them all the time are more likely to be depressed.

Torrentfreak.com summarizes the study’s methodology here. Basically, researchers followed 216 undergraduates on-campus Internet usage. It then compared its usage findings with a self-rated depression test to come up with these results.

The key difference between this study and similar efforts conducted in the past is that it uses actual Internet use data instead of surveys filled out by participants. In theory, this should make it more accurate.

The paper draws a couple of conclusions from the results, most of which can basically be summarized as “what do you expect when you spend all day alone on the computer.” More seriously, the study suggests that heavy Internet use, even ostensibly social use like chatting, can have an isolating effect.

Of course, none of this is new. People have been crowing over Facebook (FB)-related depression for a while now and a study published a few months ago pointed out that people with low self-esteem tend to rely more on online interactions.

What we’re left with is a question of causality, a question which the researchers don’t really try to answer. They do suggest monitoring Internet use as an early indicator of depression symptoms, a move that has also been suggested for Facebook.

Seems a little intrusive, but you never know what’s going to work.

Attorney questions mother of slain girl about inconsistencies in testimony

BOONVILLE, Ind. —
BOONVILLE, Ind. — Ryan Shelby is the one on trial for murder, but questioning Friday in Warrick Circuit Court focused on Jessica Oesterle, Shelby’s ex-wife and the mother of the slaying victim.

Shelby, 35, is charged with murder, false informing and obstruction of justice in the Nov. 1, 2009, death of Alexis Oesterle, his 15-year-old stepdaughter. Her body was found in the backyard of their house near Rockport, Ind. The trial was moved to Warrick County because of pretrial publicity about the case in Spencer County.

At the start of the trial, Shelby’s attorney Anthony Long told jurors he would attempt to prove Jessica Oesterle had a volatile relationship with her daughter and that she was the real killer.

Prosecutors are arguing Shelby left the house on Nov. 1, called Jessica Oesterle with a story about his car breaking down, near Reo, Ind., and then went back to the house and killed Alexis while she was gone. Shelby confessed to the killing during a 4-1/2-hour police interrogation but pleaded not guilty after his arrest.

Spencer County Prosecutor Kelly Corne told the court Friday that she had recordings of two calls made “by someone named Ryan” from the Spencer County jail in November and December 2009. She is expected to finish presenting the prosecution’s case next week.

Alexis’ body was found behind a storage shed in Shelby’s backyard at 78 E. Grissom Ave., where the family was living at the time. According to trial testimony, police believe she was stabbed and beaten near the backyard fence and dragged by her feet to the shed.

In court Thursday, Jessica Oesterle called Alexis her princess and said they had a close mother-daughter relationship until they moved to Rockport with Shelby. She said that Alexis was upset because she had no friends there and was being picked on at school because she was bi-racial, and that coupled with financial and domestic stress at home caused her to act out.

She said Shelby and Alexis had a good relationship until the couple began arguing, and he left the home for a 30-day period in August 2009 and took their baby with him. That upset Alexis, she said.

However, defense attorney Anthony Long spent the day grilling Jessica Oesterle about the state of her relationship with Alexis and the events leading up to her death.

During Long’s cross-examination Friday, Jessica Oesterle conceded that after the death she repeatedly told police that she didn’t believe Shelby would hurt Alexis.

Long used Alexis’ mental health records to show that Jessica Oesterle was having difficulty with her daughter, who frequently slapped her and became violently angry — behavior that started months before the contentious break up between Shelby and Jessica Oesterle.

He played Spencer County 911 calls Jessica Oesterle made May 6, 7 and 9, 2009, asking police for help with her unruly daughter. Another call that Alexis made on May 8 was entered into evidence but not played.

He used a certified copy of Alexis’ Deaconess Cross Pointe records to show that Alexis had been admitted there May 21, 2009, and stayed six days. According to the records, the visit happened after Alexis tried to overdose on prescription medications at school and told a teacher that she was going to hurt her mother, threatening to throw Jessica Oesterle under a car and to runaway.

Those same records said Jessica Oesterle had been diagnosed bipolar

and that she had said she was taking the depression medication Lexapro but it gave her homicidal thoughts and that Alexis said the reason she got mad all the time was because her mother took pills and acted high.

Questioned about it by Long, Jessica Oesterle said she did tell the therapist that but denied what Alexis said was true.

The records gave Alexis a good prognosis if she continued with follow up counseling, but Jessica Oesterle testified that she never took Alexis for that, and later in June 2009 her daughter attempted an overdose and spent eight days at in treatment at another facility.

Jessica Oesterle said she removed Alexis from treatment there against the medical advice of the staff.

Also in court Friday, Oesterle said that she filed to divorce Shelby in August 2009 after he left with their baby but that a judge ultimately awarded Shelby custody and her visitation. Four days later they moved back in together.

She said at the time of Alexis’ death that she was making plans to move to take her daughters and move to Ohio with her parents — something she said hadn’t told police.

Long questioned Jessica Oesterle about inconsistencies in her recollection of events the night of Alexis’ death and about why she did not report Alexis missing all day Nov. 2 or try to look for her. She had testified that Alexis had the cellphone she shared with her and that there was no gas in her pickup truck.

But Long questioned why she didn’t try to use a neighbor’s phone or walk to the Rockport police station about a mile from her house.

The trial will resume at 1 p.m. Monday with more cross examination of Jessica Oesterle.