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‘Money Has Never Made Man Happy’: But Therapy Has

  “Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.” ~ Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin knew a lot on an extensively large… Continue Reading

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Wondering Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? You Might Be Surpised Who Already Is

I may not be in the majority here, but I think teaching is a great job. My sister, my two daughters, and I all taught English at some point or other in our careers. Now, English may not be the… Continue Reading

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Three Biggest Pharmaceutical Lawsuits of 2012: Psychiatric Drugs Focus of All Three

“A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money.” ~ Everett Dirksen, Congressman What Senator Dirksen knew about government spending is these days being applied to drug company fines. And it seems these penalties… Continue Reading

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Talking Your Way to Health?: Psychotherapy for Bipolar

Sometimes bipolar disorder (BD) can be a tough row to hoe. There are intermittent hospitalizations, mood instability even when you think you’re at your best, medications with side effects that don’t bear speaking about–and a wee bit of stigma, too.… Continue Reading

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The Patent at Any Price: The Fight For Market Exclusivity in Psychiatric Medications

Hidden in a small blurb in the “Corporate Watch” section of this week’s Wall Street Journal was a piece on pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly and its blockbuster antidepressant medication Cymbalta. Lilly’s U.S. market exclusivity for the drug was set to… Continue Reading

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Woefully Unprepared: America and the the Mental Health Needs of the Elderly

“The burden of mental illness and substance abuse disorders in older adults in the United States borders on a crisis.” ~ Dr. Dan Blazer, Duke University Stating the obvious can be a particularly irritating habit. Exclamations of “it’s hot!” when the temperature… Continue Reading

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Forget the Ambien and Prozac–Just Put Away Your Cell Phone, Part II

Perhaps you’ll recall from our last post (with the same clever title as this, only a ‘Part I ‘ in place of ‘Part II,’ as these things go) the following: –>Young adults ages 20-24 are heavy information and communication technology (ICT)… Continue Reading

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Forget the Ambien and Prozac–Just Put Away Your Cell Phone, Part I

It strikes me as fairly incomprehensible  how attached people are to their mobile phones–even in our family, which is of course a bastion of mental health. We’ve got one family member who sleeps with hers, one who watches sports games… Continue Reading

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What’s In? What’s Out? The Popularity Contest in Psychiatric Drug Use

“Popularity is the easiest thing in the world to gain and it is the hardest thing to hold.”  That’s what Will Rogers famously thought–but he had obviously never met Xanax. Sometimes looking at the trajectories of various medications for mental… Continue Reading

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Breaking News: GlaxoSmithKline to Plead Guilty Over Marketing of Antidepressants

Today, I am pleased to announce that the Justice Department and our law enforcement partners have reached an historic $3 billion resolution with the pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, LLC, to resolve multiple investigations into the company’s sales, marketing, and pricing practices.… Continue Reading

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The Drug That’s Getting a Second Chance: Thioridazine and Cancer Stem Cells

Even when still available, Thioridazine was anything but a first-line drug in treating psychosis or schizophrenia–and that was before it was withdrawn from the market. In the class of the first-generation or ‘typical’ antipsychotics, its main purpose was to treat… Continue Reading

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Why The Armed Forces Are Looking to Black Women For Answers: Suicide in the Military, Part III: And the Soldiers??

“I Will Survive!”: But Can You Teach That To The Armed Forces? And, really–can you? That’s the question on everybody’s mind? For we began discussion with the devastating suicide statistics in the military, which contrasted so starkly with those of… Continue Reading