Giving the lie to the common assertion that Congress accomplishes nothing, in the 110th Congress, in 2007, Rep. Albert Wynn, a Democrat from Maryland who represented the 4th district from 1993 to 2008, brought to the floor a bill for which… Continue Reading
On Sunday begins the 41st Annual National Suicide Prevention Week. The American Association of Suicidology is behind the week, and I just love their mission statement, with absolutely no messing around: “The goal of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is to… Continue Reading
Today begins 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… Continue Reading
Unlike the lovely Ms. Diller, I love to exercise. It gets me going in the morning, it gives me energy throughout the day, it fights the ravages of age. I love it enough to want to talk about it–a lot.… Continue Reading
About one in every 10 Americans takes an antidepressant these days. A Center for Disease Control and Prevention Data Brief, “Antidepressant Use in Persons Aged 12 and Over: United States, 2005–2008,” shares some interesting statistics about how usage has grown,… Continue Reading
You might think mental illness (MI) affects only a small few–but you’d be thinking wrong. According to Kessler et al in the “Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication,” published in 2005, 26.2% of Americans… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
So back to Dan White, the San Francisco city supervisor who had been let go–and had returned to plow bullets into Mayor George Moscone and his own supervisor, Harvey Milk. And how he got away with, well, murder. To make… Continue Reading
“From 2010 to 2030, the total projected cancer incidence will increase by approximately 45%, from 1.6 million in 2010 to 2.3 million in 2030. This increase is driven by cancer diagnosed in older adults and minorities. A 67% increase in… Continue Reading
I think we all, if we’re forced to fess up about it, have some sort of sense of what is better for us to eat, depressed or not depressed, and what is generally–how to put this delicately?–junk? I mean, if… Continue Reading
“The largest mental health provider in the state of Illinois is the Cook County Jail.” ~ Tom Dart, Cook County (IL) Sheriff Thus Tom Dart welcomes you to the largest mental health facility in the state of Illinois–Cook County jail. Just… Continue Reading
Unlike most of the Awareness Months, Weeks, or Days I cover, Mental Health Awareness Week is a grassroots public education campaign–it wasn’t designated by the Senate, it isn’t supported by an organization that’s been around since the time of… Continue Reading
