Cleveland Kidnap Women Move from Victims to Survivors

The three women who were kidnapped, beaten and held in captivity for a decade in a Cleveland home appeared to be "genuinely happy" in an upbeat video they posted on YouTube today.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight took one step closer to recovery, according to Jennifer Marsh, vice president of victim services for the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN).

"When I was watching the video, it seemed as though they were making the transition from victim to survivor," said Marsh. "I am happy they have found support and it seems as if they are moving along the path of recovery."

"One of the things that struck me was how sincere they were and how genuinely happy they appeared to be," she said.

"Clearly, what they were reading was very scripted, but that doesn't take away from what they are saying. Speaking on camera is challenging for anyone and they have probably had limited interactions over the course of their captivity."

Catch up on all the details of the Cleveland kidnapping case.

Each of the women appeared separately in the 3-minute, 33-second video. Berry and Knight made a brief statement, while DeJesus answered questions from someone off camera, followed by her father, Felix DeJesus, and then her mother, Nancy Ruiz.

Berry, who with her 6-year-old daughter fought her way out from under their accused captor, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, was the first to speak. She appears calm and happy and smiles frequently in the video, which was filmed July 2.

"First and foremost, I want everyone to know how happy I am to be with my family and my friends, it has been unbelievable," said Berry, who was the most composed. "I want to thank everyone who has helped me and my family through this entire ordeal. Everyone who has been there to support us has been a blessing, to have such an outpouring of love and kindness. I am getting stronger each day and having my privacy has been helping immensely. I ask that everyone continues to respect our privacy and give us time to have a normal life."

Ariel Castro pleads not guilty to alleged crimes against the Cleveland women.

The three women looked healthy and strong in the video, all with stylish new haircuts. Knight, who had been held captive the longest and had allegedly been repeatedly beaten, wore a pair of designer-type glasses and spoke last.

"I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face and with my head held high and my feet firmly on the ground," she says. "Walking hand-in-hand with my best friend, I will not let the situation define who I am. I will define the situation."

Marsh said that she noticed all three women were making eye contact with the camera and DeJesus was interacting with her parents.

"You could tell that [DeJesus] was happy, and her parents also seemed sincere," said Marsh. "I felt as though her mom appealed to other families who had children take and came from such a genuine place. Never give up hope."

DeJesus' mother Ruiz thanked The Cleveland Courage Fund, which was set up by the Cleveland Foundation to help the girls readjust to life. It has already raised $1 million.

Thanking her community and neighbors, Ruiz says, "Every single one, they know who they are. Awesome. So people, I'm talking not just about people but parents in general that does have a loved one missing, please do me one big favor. Count on your neighbors. Don't be afraid to ask for the help, because help is available."

The women's alleged abductor Castro has pleaded not guilty to 329 counts of rape, torture and murder for allegedly keeping the three women in his home. The former school bus driver is also accused of the aggravated murder of a fetus for allegedly forcibly causing an abortion in Knight, whom he is accused of impregnating, a charge that could potentially carry the death penalty.

Castro allegedly snatched Berry, DeJesus and Knight between 2002 and 2004 and imprisoned them, sometimes restrained by chains. Berry was 16, DeJesus was 14, and Knight was 20.

The women were freed on May 6 when Berry cried out for help from behind a closed screen door, getting the attention of neighbors.

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Cancer Survivors And Partners More Prone To Anxiety Than Depression

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Academic Journal
Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;??Depression
Article Date: 05 Jun 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Cancer Survivors And Partners More Prone To Anxiety Than Depression

Long-term cancer survivors are not at a much higher risk of developing depression compared with healthy people, but they are more likely to experience anxiety.

The finding was published today in The Lancet Oncology and outlines that not only are the survivors at risk for anxiety, but their partners face similar levels of depression and higher levels of anxiety than the survivors themselves.

Lead author Alex Mitchell from Leicester General Hospital in the UK said:

"Depression is an important problem after cancer but it tends to improve within 2 years of a diagnosis unless there is a further complication. Anxiety is less predictable and is a cause for concern even 10 years after a diagnosis. However, detection of anxiety has been overlooked compared with screening for distress or depression"

By 2020, the number of people diagnosed with cancer annually is expected to exceed 21 million.

Cancer survivors are living longer - close to 70% of patients live for at least five years after diagnosis, however, not much is known about cancer's impact on the mental health of survivors and their families.

The current study revealed that while levels of depression in adult cancer survivors two years or longer after diagnosis are almost identical to adults with no history of cancer (11.6% vs 10.2%), survivors are significantly more likely to develop anxiety (27%), increasing to 50% likelihood in the 10 years or more after diagnosis.

Additionally, survivors and their partners seem to experience similar levels of depression, but partners seemed to experience even more anxiety than survivors (28% vs. 40.1%).

The meta-analysis and systematic review analyzed 43 comparisons in 27 publications involving close to half a million participants, documenting the prevalence of anxiety and depression in adults with cancer at least two years following diagnosis.

Mitchell concluded:

"Our results suggest that, after a cancer diagnosis, increased rates of anxiety tend to persist in both patients and their relatives. When patients are discharged from hospital care they usually receive only periodic check-ups from their medical teams and this autonomy in the post-acute period can be anxiety provoking.

Further, the provision of rehabilitation and specialist emotional help is currently patchy. Efforts should be made to improve screening for anxiety and increase follow-up support for both survivors and their families."

A similar study conducted in 2007 suggested that partners of cancer survivors are at risk for the same stresses as cancer survivors themselves over the long term. In some cases these partners experienced more quality of life-related effects than the survivors.

Written by Kelly Fitzgerald
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Visit our anxiety / stress section for the latest news on this subject. "Depression and anxiety in long-term cancer survivors compared with spouses and healthy controls: a systematic review and meta-analysis"
Alex J Mitchell, David W Ferguson, John Gill, Jim Paul, Paul Symonds
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Depressive symptoms are linked to premature death among Cancer Survivors

Main category: Cancer / Oncology
Also included in: Depression;??Colorectal cancer;??Lymphoma / leukemia / myeloma
Article Date: 20 may 2013-0:00 PDT current ratings for:
Depressive symptoms are linked to premature death among Cancer Survivors

Surviving cancer depressed are twice as likely to die prematurely than those who do not suffer from depression, regardless of the site of the cancer. This is according to a new study, Floortje Mols and his colleagues, from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Their work is published online in the Journal from Springer to Cancer survival.

The prevalence of cancer is on the rise, as are the number of people who are cured of their cancer or live with it as a chronic disease. This is partly due to the aging of the population and more effective treatments. Thus, many of these survivors face persistent problems due to cancer and its treatments, such as a high prevalence of depression.

Mols and the team considered whether symptoms of depression observed between one and ten years after the diagnosis of cancer were related to an increased risk of premature death of two or three years later. Their work focused on endometrial cancer survivors, colorectal, lymphoma or multiple myeloma, where little work by watching this possible link was made so far.

They analyzed data collected from several major surveys on the population in 2008 and 2009. A total of 3,080 cancer survivors completed questionnaires to identify the symptoms of depression.

The authors found that depression increased the risk of death: high levels of depressive symptoms clinically were more common in those who died than those who survived. Overall, after controlling for treatment, cancer type, comorbidity, and metastasis, cancer one-to-ten years suffering from depression survivors were two times more likely to have died at the beginning.

The researchers conclude: "attention to the recognition and treatment of depressive symptoms in this group of patients is the key. The next step is to study possible mechanisms that could explain the association between depressive symptoms and the death from cancer. We also need to better understand if the treatment of depressive symptoms in cancer patients have effects extend the life. ?

Article adapted by Medical News Today press release original. Click on "references" tab above for the source.
Visit our cancer / Oncology section for the latest news on this subject. Mols, f. et al. (2013), depressive symptoms are a risk factor for all-cause mortality: results of a prospective study on the population among 3,080 cancer survivors from the register of profiles, Journal of Cancer survival. DOI 10.1007/s11764-013-0286-6
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Exercise and Green Tea May Help Breast Cancer Survivors Beat the Blues

Exercising and drinking green tea may help prevent depression among breast cancer survivors, according to the results of a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.[1]

Depression is a major concern among breast cancer patients and survivors. Some estimates report that the prevalence of depression in this population is as high as 55%.[2] Depression can reduce quality of life and also potentially affect survival.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University conducted a study to determine whether lifestyle factors prevented depression among breast cancer survivors. They analyzed activity levels; food, tea, and alcohol consumption; smoking; and supplement use among 1,399 Chinese women who were treated for breast cancer in Shanghai, China, between 2002 and 2006.

Eighteen months post-diagnosis, 26% of women experienced depressive symptoms and 13% met the criteria for clinical depression. Women appeared to benefit from regular exercise—exercisers were 20% less likely to be mildly or clinically depressed. Furthermore, the higher the exercise level, the lower the likelihood was for depression. When compared with non-exercising women, those who exercised two hours per week were 28% less likely to be depressed, and those who exercised more than that were 42% less likely to be depressed.

Regular consumption of green tea also appeared to reduce the risk of depression. Among the 183 women who drank tea, the risk of depression was about 36% lower compared with the non-tea drinkers. The majority of tea drinkers (90%) reported drinking green tea.

The researchers concluded that regular exercise and tea consumption could help prevent depression among breast cancer survivors.

References:

[1] Chen X, Lu W, Zheng Y, et al. Exercise, tea consumption, and depression among breast cancer survivors. Journal of Clinical Oncology [early online publication]. January 4, 2010.

[2] Burgess C, Cornelius V, Love S, et al. Depression and anxiety in women with early breast cancer: Five year observational cohort study. British Medical Journal. 2005; 330: 702.

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Weight Lifting May Not Increase Lymphedema Risk Among Breast Cancer Survivors

It may be safe for breast cancer survivors to lift weights, including upper-body exercises, without increasing risk for lymphedema. These results were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Lymphedema refers to swelling of the arm due to an accumulation of lymph fluid. It commonly affects women who have had axillary (underarm) lymph nodes removed for the staging of early breast cancer. The extensive removal of lymph nodes (known as axillary lymph node dissection) is more apt to cause lymphedema than the removal of only a small number of nodes (known as a sentinel lymph node biopsy), but lymphedema can occur following either procedure.

Because of concern that upper-body exercise may increase the risk of developing lymphedema or worsen existing lymphedema, breast cancer survivors are sometimes advised to avoid heavy lifting and other upper-body exercises. These recommendations, however, are based on little evidence.

Determining whether weight lifting is safe for breast cancer survivors is important because this type of exercise can provide important benefits, including an increase in bone density.

To determine whether breast cancer survivors may perform upper-body weight-lifting exercises without increasing risk for lymphedema, researchers compared lymphedema incidence between women who lifted weights and women who did not. Participants had completed treatment one to five years prior to the study and had at least two lymph nodes removed. None had clinical signs of lymphedema when the study began.

Those in the weight-lifting group were given gym memberships and 13 weeks of weight-training instruction. Instruction was provided twice a week and involved very gradual increases in the amount of weight used. After 13 weeks, women in the weight-lifting group continued their exercise programs for nine months without instruction. The remainder of study participants performed no exercise. When the study was completed, women in the no-exercise group were offered a one-year gym membership with 13 weeks of instruction.

At one year the following results were available for 134 participants:

11% of participants in the weight-lifting group experienced incident breast cancer-related lymphedema (determined by an increase in arm swelling of 5% or greater during 12 months) compared with 17% in the no-exercise group.In the weight-lifting group, among women who had five or more lymph nodes removed, 7% experienced incident breast cancer-related lymphedema versus 22% in the no-exercise group.

The researchers concluded that slowly progressive weight lifting does not increase the incidence of lymphedema among women who have been treated for breast cancer. Weight lifting is known to have many health benefits, and it may be safe for many breast cancer survivors to perform this type of exercise. It remains important, however, that all exercise programs are first discussed with a doctor.

Reference: Schmitz KH, Ahmed RL, Troxel AB, et al. Weight lifting for women at risk for breast cancer-related lymphedema. JAMA [early online publication]. December 8, 2010.

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Sexual Function an Issue for Breast Cancer Survivors

About 70% of breast cancer survivors reported in a recent study that they had difficulty having sex, according to an article published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

The many physical and emotional changes that follow a cancer diagnosis can affect sex and intimacy. Two of the most common sexual concerns expressed by women after a cancer diagnosis are loss of libido and vaginal dryness.

Factors that may influence the likelihood of sexual problems among breast cancer survivors include body image (which may vary by type of surgery) and hormonal therapies such as aromatase inhibitors.

To better understand how a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment affects sexual function and body image, researchers evaluated 1,011 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer within a year of the study.

70% of participants reported sexual dysfunction.Factors associated with a higher incidence of sexual dysfunction included being postmenopausal, experiencing menopausal symptoms, and using aromatase inhibitors. 77% of participants reported menopausal symptoms, which made them twice as likely to experience problems with sexual function. This association was strongest among women taking aromatase inhibitors.Body image issues were associated with a higher rate of sexual dysfunction.Treatment with tamoxifen was not associated with a higher rate of sexual dysfunction.

A majority (70%) of breast cancer survivors in this study experienced problems with sexual function. The researchers conclude that sexual dysfunction is more common among women taking aromatase inhibitors, as use of these drugs may cause menopausal symptoms, such as vaginal dryness, which may make intercourse painful and less pleasurable overall. Because problems such as vaginal dryness can be treated, women are advised to discuss concerns about sex and sexuality with their healthcare provider. Women may also find it helpful to talk openly with their partners about how their sexual needs have changed. It is also important to note that some women without a history of breast cancer complain of sexual dysfunction, so some of the symptoms reported may not be attributable to breast cancer and/or it’s treatment.

Reference: Panjari M, Bell RJ, and Davis SR. Sexual function after breast cancer. Journal of Sexual Medicine [early online publication]. September 23, 2010.

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Some Evidence of Mild “Chemo Brain” in Breast Cancer Survivors

Breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy are at risk for mild cognitive deficits (sometimes referred to as chemo brain) after treatment, according to the results of a study published early online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. ?

A large portion of breast cancer patients will ultimately receive adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients undergoing chemotherapy have long complained of a phenomenon referred to as “chemo brain.” Chemo brain refers to changes in cognitive function, such as loss of memory and inability to think clearly or perform some daily functions. Thus far, researchers have not been able to pinpoint the cause of chemo brain, but studies are ongoing to evaluate brain structure and function in order to better understand the effects of chemotherapy on the brain.?

There is mixed evidence regarding the scope and duration of chemo brain. Many studies have not focused on the post-chemotherapy period and thus have produced little data regarding the long-term effects of chemotherapy on the brain. ?

Researchers from the Moffitt Cancer Center conducted a meta-analysis of 17 studies that included 807 patients previously treated with standard-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer. The goal was to evaluate cognitive functioning in breast cancer survivors more than six months after being treated with chemotherapy. The studies included neuropsychological tests categorized according to eight cognitive domains: attention, executive functioning, information processing, motor speed, verbal ability, verbal memory, visual memory, and visuospatial ability.?

The results of the analysis indicated that patients treated with chemotherapy had mild impairments in verbal ability and visuospatial ability compared to non-cancer controls. Cognitive impairment varied across survivors; however, the researchers reported that age, education, time since treatment, and hormonal therapy did not seem to have an effect on the observed cognitive deficits. ?

The researchers concluded that, on average, cognitive deficits in breast cancer patients who were previously treated with chemotherapy are mild and are limited to verbal and visuospatial abilities. They suggest that this information can be used to educate patients regarding the long-term impact of chemotherapy so that patients can develop interventions and modifications to cope with cognitive effects. Breast cancer patients who experience cognitive deficits may need to visit a neuropsychologist for evaluation and coping strategies. ?

Reference:?

Jim HSL, Phillips KM, Chait S, et al. Meta-analysis of cognitive functioning in breast cancer survivors previously treated with standard-dose chemotherapy. ?

Posted September 17, 2012

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