ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 28, 1996 TAG: 9605290057
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: health notes
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran o May 29, 1996.
The 800 number given in Tuesday's Health Notes for a Virginia Tech
research project to help panic attack sufferers was incorrect. Persons
can reach the project leaders at (540) 231-3235 or (540) 231-6914.
If you know what it's like to have your heart race out of control and to feel the unfounded fear of a panic attack, Virginia Tech's psychology department wants you.
Since September, graduate student Allison Roodman has been conducting a research project in which panic attack sufferers use workbooks to analyze and help control their reactions.
So far, 100 people, ages 20 to 75, are enrolled, and based on preliminary responses, many have been able to reduce their reactions with the self-help program, Roodman said last week.
The program is done entirely by mail, and it's not too late to enroll. If you are accepted, there is a small fee for the books and workbooks you'll need. For that, you will be given feedback and a maintenance program.
For more information, call (800) 733-1123, 231-3235 or 231-6914, or e-mail Roodman at aroodmanvt.edu.
Statistically, the Tech group follows the norm - about three-fourths female to one-fourth male. According to a study conducted for SmithKline Beecham drug company, women are twice as likely as men to say they or someone they know has had a panic attack.
The study also found that men are about twice as likely as women to discount a panic attack as a medical disorder, and to suggest that an attack was a sign of mental instability, imagination or an attempt to get attention.
The study, conducted by Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, N.J., also found that crowded settings prompted the attacks for one in three sufferers. Some people fear crowded places so much that they won't even go outdoors.
SmithKline makes Paxil, an antidepressant recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of panic attacks.
Body time
Mark a lunchtime appointment for June 14, and attend the research forum at the Roanoke Valley Graduate Center. It's a chance to chomp on your brown-bag lunch and activate your brain at the same time.
The center, on Church Avenue Southwest, has been running a series of lectures and June's is "Slowly Unwinding a Biological Clock." Gene Block, vice provost for research at the University of Virginia and director of the National Science Foundation Center for Biological Timing, will speak. His lecture was originally scheduled for January - before we had to deal with the daylight-saving time change - but he was snowed out.
In addition to explaining why we get jet lag or sleep disorders when we change time zones, he promises to explain the "cellular nuts and bolts" of the biological clock.
To get more information or reserve a seat, call 857-7900.
Compulsive?
Bill Ford, who has become a celebrity for overcoming obsessive compulsive disorder, will tell how he did it June 5 from 7 to 8 p.m. at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital's Rehabilitation Center Auditorium.
Obsessive compulsive disorder involves repetitive, irrational thoughts and actions, such as constantly washing hands or continuously checking something.
Ford, who has been profiled on the television program, "Dateline NBC," is the national spokesperson for OCD. He is a clinical social worker in Milwaukee. He also spoke here last fall in a forum sponsored by Lewis-Gale Foundation.
On the program with Ford will be Carilion physicians Dr. Davis Scheiderer and Dr. Richard Seidel. They will discuss treatment strategies.
To register for the program, call 981-7641 or (800) 422-8482.
Sources
For a brochure on stuttering, which can be a temporary condition for one in four children, call American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, (800) 638-8255 or write ASHA, 10831 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. 20852.
* * *
The 1996 Virginia Medicare Supplement Insurance Premium Comparison Guide is out and available free by calling the State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance at (800) 552-7945. The guide includes rates for consumers ages 65, 70, 75 and 80 and individuals under 65 who are disabled.
Two other publications that target senior citizens also are available: "A Guide to Health Insurance for People with Medicare Supplement Insurance" and "A Shopper's Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance."
In addition, you can get someone from the bureau to conduct a retirement or preretirement seminar by contacting Olivia Claud at (804) 371-9389.
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