Every so often, the drug that scientists are certain will serve one purpose in fact serves a completely different one. Take scientists for Pfizer’s research center who developed an angina treatment that they gave to their subjects, who had very little of the response the scientists originally had thought, but. . .the male volunteers came […]
November 28, 2012
If you throw mental illness and addiction into one cesspool, take the graduated weight for that side of the equation, and then go about seeing how your second side fares, you might find yourself arguing that mental illness is more disabling even than cancer, with no uncertain rooms for margin. Think I’ve totally lost my […]
November 20, 2012
You may remember as far back as three and a half months ago when I brought down in the blog a graph that made it quite clear that, as Americans, we were both paying more than members of any other civilized country, and–to boot!–our rates of survival were surprisingly low. If you didn’t get a […]
November 20, 2012
Published in November 13′s Molecular Psychiatry, the results of a double-blind, one-month, placebo-controlled study found that an opioid receptor antagonist reduces a binge-eater’s preference for sweet, high-fat foods. B. Timothy Walsh, a professor of psychopharmacology at Columbia University and chair of the DSM-5 Eating Disorders Work Group, said, ‘This study attempts to take advantage of an […]
October 29, 2012
This past Friday China passed its very first law designed to protect the rights of the mentally ill. Wang Shaoli, deputy head of the Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, a leading psychiatric hospital, told the Chinese newspaper Xinhua that “[u]nder the new law, all sections of the society, including the government, non-governmental organizations and families, bear responsibilities in […]
October 22, 2012
Sometimes the time for an app has just come. Launched on World Mental Health Day on October 10, a new mental health app already has more than 1,500 downloads and a #3 ranking among free Health & Fitness apps–and, lest we forget, a mention on Twitter by none other than Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spokesman who […]
October 10, 2012
I like to think that stigma surrounding mental illness has gone the way of the patents on the big blockbuster medications–it’s just expired and other views, less expensive on the psyche, have moved in to fill its place. Celebrities and the otherwise famous ‘come out,’ shattering the illusion of the mentally ill as hapless, disenfranchised, […]
October 9, 2012
Everybody loves a bargain, and, in honor of World Mental Health Day October 10, What’sMyM3, a highly rated mental health app, is cutting its price by a third to the bargain basement cost of $0.99. If you check out the app on the iPhone you’ll find the description currently includes this little ad-let: “October is Mental […]
October 5, 2012
We know one thing for sure that’s typical for the atypical (or second generation) antipsychotics. They’ve caught on like a house on fire. The atypicals are the top-selling class of drugs today, with revenues in 2010 of about $14.6 billion and $18.2 billion in 2011. They have even surpassed the blockbuster statins that treat high cholesterol (think Lipitor) and […]
October 2, 2012
Next week is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Established by Congress in 1990 thanks to efforts by the tireless National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), it occurs every year during the first week of October to raise awareness about mental illness. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 26.2% of adult Americans (that’s […]
October 1, 2012
Let’s say you wanted to find a biological indication of your bipolar disorder, or your husband’s, or your child’s. You’d have good reason for looking for one. Biological markers could ,in theory, clarify the diagnosis (no more, ‘she’s just a drug abuser,’ or ‘maybe he’s just got an irregular depression’), might actually find out what phase […]
September 30, 2012
(credit to AslanMedia) October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And it pays to be aware and increase awareness, since breast cancer occurs with staggering frequency, leaving almost no one in the country without some connection it. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention notes: Not counting some kinds of skin cancer, breast cancer in the […]
December 30, 2012
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