On Monday, the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) is going public with their statement about mental illness (which is a wee bit confusing, as I already know what they’re going to say, and if I know it, it’s fair to say at least a few other people do, making it no longer private, but there you […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The American Psychiatric Association is asking for your help in creating mental health parity in the U.S. The background of their call to action reads as follows: “As we approach the fourth anniversary of the enactment of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) on October 3, 2008, we are asking for your […]
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 […]
In time for World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, 2012, let’s do some myth-busting. Although they don’t seem like likely candidates, and although the myth persists that suicide is most common among the young, the elderly have the highest suicide rates of any age group. Even though in 2006 the elderly (we’re starting with […]
Sometimes it’s just hard to know what to make of statistics. For example, according to The Humor Blog, 0.3% of all accidents in Canada involve a moose and only 30% of people can flare their nostrils, and according to another Crazy Statistics post more than ten people a year are killed by vending machines. Just […]
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 […]
Three posts ago we started wondering why the U.S. spends more per capita than any other nation for healthcare–and falls behind even below-average spenders in life expectancy. Part I showed the staggering visual of U.S.’s disproportionate spending, part II addressed some common misbeliefs about why our healthcare costs are so high. Even those of us who […]
In Part I we learned the unpleasant, nay, shocking, truth that sometimes my parents were wrong (I see no need to tell them, though, so let’s keep it between us). They were sure that in life one got what they paid for–yet, as evidenced by the graph you simply must see in the last post, […]
May 17, 2013 by rfinkel
1