PTSD and violence

Thanks to Jonathan S. for sending this article from Neurocritic, taking a look at the New York Times’ series on veterans. Check it out here.

liz | 3:48 PM | Uncategorized

Back

Sorry to have been delayed in posting. Isn’t depression a bear? Or a black dog, anyway, as Churchill said? From Joe, on a subject that is near and dear to my heart:

“Legislation signed to enhance care and treatment of prisoners with
serious mental illness”

liz | 10:30 PM | Uncategorized

Top o’ the morning

This weekend was a little bleak. The high point was playing fetch with a border collie. But I felt like I had slipped away from reality in an uncomfortable way.

Not long ago, however, I think I mentioned Mental Health America’s most recent report: Ranking America’s Mental Health: An Analysis of Depression Across the States. Yesterday Joe sent me an email about that study, saying,

In this day and age, how to make a report on our nation’s mental health suspect in one easy lesson: “This report was supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.”

Ugh. He’s so right.

liz | 10:41 AM | Uncategorized

R.I.P. Rhonda Smith

A woman was found dead of a gunshot wound (possibly homicide) in Bucks County, Pa., and is being lauded by her family for her years-long struggle with bipolar disorder. From the Morning Call:

Rhonda Smith was very open about her illness and planned to write a book about her struggles with it, her father said.

”She was a fighter and never gave up,” he said, adding that his daughter was taking prescription medications. ”She kept thinking that she was going to beat it.”

I wish she had time to write that book.

Read more about Rhonda here.

liz | 8:21 AM | Uncategorized

Britney

Thanks to Susan S. for sending the below. I’ve been depressed, and thus haven’t posted. I decreased my Effexor and thought it would be okay. I did that because the akathisia was bothering me. Well, I’m going to increase it again. I feel like crap. So until then, thanks, Susan, for being such a peach.

The article is so weird. I can’t believe the therapists at the annual winter conference of the American Psychoanalytic Association convened to discuss how out of control the media is about Britney’s diagnosis. The fact that the Association’s conference topic landed in a media report by the Associated Press is no accident, I assure you. There’s a PR person at the Association who wanted to get press, and knew the Britney topic would do it. It’s so meta meta!

Therapists Say Stop ‘Diagnosing’ Britney

liz | 5:47 PM | Uncategorized

Wishful thinking

Joe G. caught this hilarious Google error.

liz | 12:24 PM | Uncategorized

Thinking outside the box

Below is part of a press release from Renhuang Pharmaceuticals, announcing a new treatment for depression.

Renhuang Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Renhuang” or the “Company”, stock symbol: RHGP.OB), a leading Chinese integrated drug developer, manufacturer and distributor, today announced the successful laboratory production of lyophilized syringin powder, its new powder injection anti-depression and fatigue drug. Renhuang expects this new drug to become its next revenue growth driver. At 90% purity, the syringin portion in the sample drugs meets the criteria of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). Renhuang is expected to soon start clinical trials to evaluate both the efficacy and the safety of this new drug for depression and fatigue patients.

Lyophilized syringin powder for injection is developed independently by Renhuang as a new form of pure Chinese herbal medicine that does not have any of the side-effects of other synthetic anti-depression drugs commonly used by patients around the world. Renhuang is in the process to file an invention patent application for this new drug with the State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C (SIPO). The product is expected to be classified as a “Class One” new drug by SFDA representing a major breakthrough in anti-depression drug development worldwide. This new drug can also be used as anti-exhaustion treatment, wound stancher and healthy gland growth nutrition.

Renhuang Pharmaceuticals Announces Breakthrough in Study of New Form of Anti-Depression Chinese Medicine

liz | 2:57 PM | Uncategorized

Happy MLK Day

I’ve got a few stories for you to start off your day. The first is of a young man who was suffering from depression and threw himself out of the ninth story of his apartment building. Amazingly, he survived, and now he and his parents are trying to educate people on the subject of teenagers and suicidality. It has a complementary video presentation. The package is a pretty good job done by Philadelphia’s “paper of record,” the Inquirer. Go here to check it out.

Next up is a heartbreaking tale of veteran Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and murder that was published in the New York Times. I won’t say more about it, but it touches on the linkage between mental illness and potential violence, which is always overblown by the media. Maybe the only time it makes sense to discuss it so thoroughly, as in this story, is when someone has been to war and has been desensitized to killing. Go here, but bring tissues and a sense of outrage.

Finally, below is an article Susan S. thought we might be interested in.

Depressed surrogate mum tries for baby number eight

liz | 10:54 AM | Uncategorized

Happy Headline of the Week

Some Mentally Ill Find ‘Fabulous’ Residence

liz | 12:38 PM | Uncategorized

Legal defense

Geoffrey Venter has to be careful — as a British American, his run-of-the-mill teenage mistakes could get him deported rather than just grounded. But his lawyer, Ramiro Castro, is going to try every defense in the book to keep him here with his family, including this one:

“He’s young. He’s been here almost all his life. He has no immediate family anywhere else. He expressed remorse. And he has this bipolar attention deficit disorder,” Castro said.

Oof. Bipolar ADD. That’s rough.

Modesto teen gets second chance from immigration service

liz | 10:25 AM | Uncategorized