ECT, TMS, antidepressants, Ketamine–ever thought you’d heard of just about every way there is to treat depression? Well here’s one I bet you haven’t heard of: Sleep deprivation. That’s right: doctors have found that depriving patients of sleep can ease their symptomatology–and can do so faster than antidepressants. Ann Wirz-Justice, Ph.D, of the Chronobiology and […]
Why write about ECT today? Isn’t it yesterday’s news? Actually, in the words of health writer Melissa Dahl (msnbc.com, 8.6.2008), “the practice has been making a quiet comeback.” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next” did nothing to help make ECT fashionable. In fact, according to the 2003 Sixth Edition of The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, it […]
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, […]
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 8, 2012 by candidaabrahamson
Wednesday, October 10th, is the 20th World Mental Health Day, part of Mental Illness Awareness Week, October 7-13th. What, pray tell, does World Mental Health Day actually mean? you may be asking. Lucky for you the World Health Organization has come along as the answer to your prayers. They write pithily on their site: “World Mental Health […]
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 […]
The UK-based Mind: For Better Mental Health is a mental health charity whose mission is to be there “to make sure anyone with a mental health problem has somewhere to turn for advice and support.” They have an information and advice section, helpline numbers to call, ideas of what to do if you’re in crisis, information on […]
Do you remember how, many, many years ago, in a era before political correctness, we used to refer to people we thought were totally ‘off’ as ‘head cases’? Frankly I thought that term had gone out with the “Dukes of Hazard,” but I was doing my dose of mental health research, keeping up in the […]
A friend attended a well-known residential program for bipolar disorder, and what was one of the therapeutic offerings, bless my English-major heart, but a poetry group? So I got to thinking. . . I love poetry [I didn't have to think hard for that]–is it possible it has medicinal powers? [I have of course begun a […]
; “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would be not one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die […]
Although I appreciate all efforts on behalf of mental illness, including those by app developers, I think some readers sensed a degree of cynicism behind my first post on assessing depression via app, since I had the wild and crazy idea that people who felt they might be suffering from depression should probably get a […]
Before blundering blindly ahead and reading yet another post of mine, take this ‘pre-reading’ quiz, the kind that are all the rage for elementary school students to take before reading, for–here’s my fancy teacher lingo–activating prior knowledge and helping establish a schema for reading (like it?). It’s a one question quiz, and here’s the thing–you […]
January 29, 2013 by rfinkel
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