Article Archives: June July August September
Senate bill OKs druggists’ sharing patient files
San Francisco Chronicle - May 30 - A bill that would allow pharmacies in California to share patient prescription information with third-party businesses working for drug makers was approved in the state Senate 21-16 Thursday.
Read the rest of the article http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/30/BA3C1105KS.DTL
Mayo Clinic - May 29, 2008 - Everyone has ups and downs in life. When does feeling down, sad or depressed mean that you have a clinical depression that requires treatment? Does treatment always mean prescribing medication? Not always.
Read the rest of the article http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/depression-blog/MY00058
SAMHSA Honors ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘Monk,’ ‘Dirt’ at Star-Studded Voice Awards in Los Angeles
SAMSHA - May 29, 2008 - Writers and producers from “The Sopranos,” “Monk,” “Dirt,” Reign Over Me, and others were honored at the 2008 Voice Awards last night by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), hosted by award-winning actor and mental health advocate Joe Pantoliano and Hairspray film star Nikki Blonsky, at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
Read the rest of the article by SAMSHA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin.) http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/0805285209.aspx
Memorial Day Is an Excellent Opportunity to Focus on the Needs of Our Veterans in California
California Progress Report - This Memorial Day while you are enjoying a backyard BBQ take a moment to ponder this little known fact: on any given night in California over 50,000 veterans are homeless, while other veterans may be suffering from mental health issues or experiencing difficulty transitioning back to work. Among the many needs and challenges we face as a state, appropriate care for our veterans must be a priority.
Read the rest of the article http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/05/memorial_day_is.html
Hushing Up Crisis Of Suicide, Mental Scars
Courant -May 25, 2008 - Dr. Ira Katz, chief of mental health services for the Department of Veterans Affairs, sent an e-mail to a VA colleague this past February that read:
“Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before somebody stumbles on it?”
Read the rest of the article http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/commentary/hc-commentarymargolis0525.artmay25,0,4610803.story
Urgent Issues in Mental Health Now: An Expert Interview medscape today With Thomas R. Insel, MD
Medscape - “On behalf of Medscape, Elizabeth Saenger, PhD, former Editorial Director, Medscape Psychiatry & Mental Health, interviewed Thomas R. Insel, MD, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, about the current state of psychiatry and mental health in the United States. Dr. Insel explores where we have made the most progress in research and clinical practice and discusses the clinical challenges that must be addressed as the field progresses.”
Read the rest of the article http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/573812?src=mp&spon=12&uac=100952DX
Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Book review)
Medscape - Therapeutic responses to mental illness have cycled through periods of enthusiasm, skepticism, and then abandonment after some new healing fad arrives. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the latest response to undergo this cycle. After a rapturous reception upon their introduction in the late 1980s, which persisted until the emergence of uncertainty during the early years of the 21st century, we are now witnessing a rising chorus of cynicism and disbelief about these drugs. Charles Barber’s Comfortably Numb joins the increasingly long list of books that are written for a general audience and question the widespread use of SSRIs.
Read the rest of the article http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/572322?src=mp&spon=12&uac=100952DX
What Women Should Know About Depression - By National Alliance on Mental Illness
Health Digest News - Learning what you can about depression is always a smart idea but it may be even more important for women.Statistics show that women are twice as likely as men to be affected by depression, regardless of race or ethnic background. As many as one in eight women will experience depression.
Read the rest of the article http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Women_s_Health_260/What_Women_Should_Know_About_Depression.shtml
Scientists test brain pacemakers for depression
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a new frontier for psychiatric illness: Brain pacemakers that promise to act as antidepressants by changing how patients’ nerve circuitry fires.
Read the rest of the article http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ij2MwClz2ehLINfS2HEnAWQJnAggD90TCSSO0
Juilliard Dropout Plays Skid Row, Battles Schizophrenia: Book Review
Bloomberg - Steve Lopez was walking to his downtown Los Angeles office when he saw a man dressed in rags playing Beethoven on a two-stringed violin. Beside him was a shopping cart filled with all his worldly possessions.
Read the rest of the article http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aL24.kW1PDJ8&refer=muse
California Progress Report - The California Senate rejected a bill this week by a vote of 17 to 17 (21 needed to “pass”) that would have allowed the sharing of a patient’s confidential medical information regarding prescription drugs among a pharmacy, third party corporations and pharmaceutical companies. The bill was granted a second chance to pass the Senate next week.
Read the rest of the article http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/05/a_victory_for_p.html
Video Highlights from the APA 161st Annual Meeting: Complete Coverage of the APA meeting on Medscape
Brain Reserve and the Prevention of Dementia
Both can be accessed through MedScape. Registration is required but there is no fee: http://www.medscape.com/psychiatry
More education needed on ‘youth’s greatest disabler,’ schizophrenia
The Canadian Press - Nigel Bart first had an inkling that something was different about him when on a trip to B.C. after high school graduation he tried to summon the wind.
His family had entered a sailboat race, but there was no wind that day. “An urge in me thought that maybe if I prayed hard enough I could somehow make the wind blow and make our sailboat win the race,” he says.
“So I closed my eyes and I started gesturing with my hands, kind of like making the wind blow, like conducting an orchestra. That was the first clue.”
Read the rest of the article here
D.C. depression briefing hails Jordan Burham
Philadelphia Inquirer - May 24, 2008 - WASHINGTON - Joe “Joey Pants” Pantoliano, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of Ralphie on The Sopranos, spoke at a congressional briefing on the stigma of mental illness yesterday. So did the actress Marcia Gay Harden. And Minnesota Rep. Jim Ramstad.
Read the rest of the article here
Newsweek - May 22, 2008 - Max Blake was 7 the first time he tried to kill himself. He wrote a four-page will bequeathing his toys to his friends and jumped out his ground-floor bedroom window, falling six feet into his backyard, bruised but in one piece. Children don’t really know what death is, as the last page of Max’s will made clear: “If I’m still alive when I have grandchildren,” it began.
Rest the rest of the article http://www.newsweek.com/id/137517?GT1=43002
Is Obesity a Mental Health Issue?
Healthline - May 22, 2008 - At one time it was commonly believed that overweight and obese people were compulsive eaters, anxious, depressed, under stress, or trying to compensate for inadequate upbringing, family conflict, or other deficiencies in their lives. But since then, when almost everyone seems to be getting heavier and obesity has become a national political issue, both experts and the public are turning away from the idea that weight gain is a personal emotional problem.
Read the rest of the article http://www.healthline.com/sw/hr-nl-is-obesity-a-mental-health-issue
New Options for Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia
PsychCentral - May 22, 2008 - Emerging strategies to treat preschool-aged children with significant clinical depression as well as those severely depressed adults who do not respond to standard treatments — such as antidepressants and psychotherapy — were highlighted at a recent conference.
Read the rest of the article http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/05/22/new-options-for-depression-anxiety-schizophrenia/2336.html
Postpartum Depression Strikes New Fathers, Too
US News and World Report - May 21, 2008 - The birth of John Hyman’s first child didn’t fill him with the joy he might have hoped for. Far from treasuring every minute with his son, the Rockville, Md., college writing instructor reacted by teaching more courses just to get himself out of the house. “I didn’t know what my role was there,” recalls Hyman, 51. His wife, by contrast, bonded instantly with their son, Jake, now a teenager. “Betsy fell in love. It was primal,” he says. “I didn’t have that experience. I thought I was broken. I remember thinking this was a dirty little secret I would have to deal with.”
Read the rest of the article here
Researchers testing potential treatment for schizophrenia
Woodbridge Sentinel - May 21, 2008 - For the past five years, lead researchers Dr. StevenM. Silverstein, of Metuchen, and Dr. Stephanie Marcello, of Princeton, with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)- University Behavioral Healthcare, Newark, have been applying a reward-based learning and attention-shaping method to enhance skills training in schizophrenia patients.
Read the rest of the article http://ws.gmnews.com/news/2008/0521/front_page/006.html
Governor’s May Revision Budget 2008-09 - Link to Department of Finance CHHS budget
California Health and Human Services Agency Budget revisions http://www.chhs.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx
Mental health groups join forces for troops
Stars and Stripes - May 20, 2008 - WASHINGTON — A coalition of mental health groups announced plans Monday to establish a nationwide network of psychiatrists, psychologists and other experts to provide free counseling to combat veterans and their families…
Read the rest of the article http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54942
State tax on millionaires funds housing for mentally ill
Ventura County Star - May 19, 2008 - Mentally ill tenants at the Harvard Place Apartments once faced three choices in housing: scrounging up substandard rentals they could afford, staying with relatives or residing in a group home…
Read the rest of the article http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/may/19/living-well-courtesy-of-rich-state-tax-on-funds/
Brain Scans as Mind Readers? Don’t Believe the Hype
Wired - May 19, 2008 - ’So here’s your brain,’ the doctor says, as the center of my mental life pirouettes before me, rendered in electric blues and reds. Daniel Amen, MD, manipulates the screen image with a few taps on his keyboard.
Read the rest of the article http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-06/mf_neurohacks
Health Care Providers’ Lawsuit Aims To Halt Medi-Cal Pay Cuts
California Healthline - May 6, 2008 - On Monday, a coalition of health care groups and providers filed a lawsuit that seeks to block California from reducing reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal providers by 10% on July 1, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program, and Denti-Cal is the branch of the program that provides dental care (Fernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, 5/6)…
Read the rest of the article http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2008/5/6/Health-Care-Providers-Lawsuit-Aims-To-Halt-MediCal-Pay-Cuts.aspx?topicID=37
California’s Mental Health System May Be Headed for Crisis
California Healthline - April 14, 2008 - Family members, loved ones and health care professionals who work with mentally ill patients are familiar with the cycle:
A person with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or another mental illness will function in society for a while until the pressure becomes too great, medication is missed or some trauma — emotional or physical — pushes too far. The situation moves into crisis mode, and the person requires emergency attention — medical, law enforcement or both.
Read the rest of the article http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2008/4/14/Californias-Mental-Health-System-May-Be-Headed-for-Crisis.aspx?a=1
Breakdown: A Special Times Report on Mental Health in California - Los Angeles Times
“For California’s estimated one million people with mental illness, life is a daily struggle. Times reporters Scott Gold, Lee Romney and others are chronicling their lives and the strained system meant to serve them.” Among the articles is ”Schizophrenia takes a daughter away,” published Dec 29, 2007, about a well-to-do Orange County family struggling to cope with their daughter’s symptoms and their struggle with treatment to stabilize her condition.
Valeria Godines’ Bipolar Struggle - Orange County Register
Disclaimer: Articles posted here are not meant to reflect the views/beliefs of the site administrator and it may be highly possible to find articles that contradict each other. The administrator does not own stock or is affiliated with any company, nor holds membership in any mental health organizations.
