I don’t always trust the way the government uses its funds to research on health. If you ask me why all that negativity, I turn to you: Do these studies look like good ways of using around a couple hundred… Continue Reading
Preparing for ECT: You can make a difference Lest you try to discount my advice by thinking, “Wait a minute, that can’t happen to me. That gal’s off the charts!” I acknowledge–fully–that in the field of mental health I’ve spent much… Continue Reading
I’m a recipient of a Google Alert on Bipolar Disorder. This just means that Google automatically notifies me when there’s new news (as opposed to the old kind, I guess) on the web on BD. It can be from news… Continue Reading
If report cards and parent reports are to be believed, I’ve been a “hard worker” and “overachiever,” within a short time from exiting the womb. I think I sucked my thumb harder than most. I share this fascinating piece of… Continue Reading
Yup it’s still Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. In fact, I stand corrected. It is the Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. And I have a sneaking suspicion that you’ve forgotten that–that to you it’s Cord Blood Awareness… Continue Reading
Having bipolar disorder isn’t exactly a kick. Now that it’s all the trend for famous people to have it, perhaps sufferers feel a bit better–but so often the names call up a manic hilarity. Think Jim Carey or Rowan Atkinson… Continue Reading
“The data are in, and it is clear that . . .a[n] experiment has failed: despite decades of research and billions of dollars invested, not a single mechanistically novel drug has reached the psychiatric market in more than 30 years.”… Continue Reading
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun –Ecclesiastes 1:9 You know, I’d say there’s a better than even chance that when King Solomon wrote those words–let’s… Continue Reading
Do you know how many medications are FDA-certified to treatbipolar depression? Come on–give it a a try. Do I hear 15? 10? The SSRI’s (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) can boast 6 on the market: Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Luvox, Paxil, and… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
