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.

Posted by liz at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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"

Posted by liz at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by liz at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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.

Posted by liz at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Posted by liz at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Joe G. caught this hilarious Google error.

Posted by liz at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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.

Posted by liz at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

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

Posted by liz at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some Mentally Ill Find 'Fabulous' Residence

Posted by liz at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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

Posted by liz at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Think it's too early to dole out awards for 2008? Then read the below fabulousness from Joe, reacting to NAMI's 2008 conference theme of Tomorrowland Today.

So much optimism, so much systemic anosognosia. While organizations are free to make different representations to different audiences, it is difficult to accept NAMI's bold assertion that "Tomorrow has arrived!" After all, NAMI gave our nation's mental health system a grade of D in 2006. The idea that "Tomorrow has arrived!" might only be true in Fantasy Land. (It seems appropriate that NAMI's 2008 conference is being held in Orlando, the home of Disneyland and in the state which ranks 48th (2006) in per capita public mental health spending.)

Tomorrow has arrived!

"Improved treatments; new social supports for employment, housing, and a host of other services needed to sustain recovery; significant progress in the realm of criminal justice; widespread education efforts and a strong and vital consumer movement - these and other innovations are making possible what just a few years ago seemed unattainable for many persons will mental illness - recovery!"

I guess I should go down to our county psychiatric hospital and tell the 300+ inpatients that they are no longer being discharged to the shelters but are actually being housed. Then I'll go over to the county jail and tell those on the psychiatric pods that they are receiving treatment beyond medication alone. Then I'll go stop by but one of our community mental health centers where eighty percent of the 2500 consumers in its outpatient division receive no treatment other than medication and tell them that that they are receiving improved treatments. Then I'll go down to the sheltered workshop which receives three hundred referrals a year yet but could only relate one individual's post program outcome and tell them that they are receiving new social supports for employment. Then I'll go national and call those who comprised the 34% increase in the number of individuals on SSI by virtue mental illness in the five years ending 2006 and tell them they might well be on the path to recovery. I guess I could but my peers and I have to live in the real world of Today Land.

Joe, you kick butt.

Posted by liz at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We haven't had this category for a while, but Masale Wallah helps us out with the below satirical piece from the Utne Reader. If you're British, you'll be best equipped to tell me if it's Funny or Offensive.

Not Depressed, Just British! A new take on mental health

George Farthing, an expatriate British man living in America, was diagnosed as clinically depressed, tanked up on antidepressants, and scheduled for a controversial shock therapy when doctors realized he wasn't depressed at all, he was just British!

Farthing, a man whose characteristic pessimism and gloomy perspective were interpreted as serious clinical depression, was led on a nightmare journey through the American psychiatric system. Doctors described Farthing as suffering from pervasive negative anticipation: a belief that everything will turn out for the worst, whether it's trains arriving late, England's chances of winning any national sports events, or his own prospects of getting ahead in life. The doctors reported that the satisfaction he seemed to get from his pessimism was particularly pathological.

'They put me on everything -- lithium, Prozac, St. John's wort,' Farthing says. 'They even told me to sit in front of a big light for half an hour a day or I'd become suicidal. I kept telling them this was all pointless, and they said that was exactly the sort of attitude that got me here in the first place.'

Dr. Isaac Horney, a psychotherapist, explored Farthing's family history and couldn't believe his ears. Farthing spoke of growing up in a gray little town where it rained every day, of treeless streets lined with identical houses, and of passionately backing a football team that never won. Although Farthing had six months of therapy, he mainly wanted to talk about the weather. 'I felt he wasn't responding to therapy at all,' says Horney, who recommended electroconvulsive therapy.

Farthing takes up the story: 'Hopeless case? I was all strapped down on the table, and they were about to put the rubber bit in my mouth when the psychiatric nurse picked up on my accent and said, 'Oh my God, I think we're making a terrible mistake!'' Identifying Farthing as British changed the diagnosis of clinical depression to rather quaint and charming. He was immediately discharged from the hospital with a selection of brightly colored leaflets and an I Love New York T-shirt.

Posted by liz at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Honoring Those Who Make a Difference for Mental Health

It’s time to thank mental health consumers once again for giving a voice to people with mental health problems. The Voice Awards honor mental health consumer leaders for their contributions in reducing stigma and discrimination.

If you know of a mental health consumer who has led efforts to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illnesses, demonstrated that recovery is real and possible, and made a positive impact on their workplace, community, and/or school, please nominate them for a 2008 Voice Award. Additional consideration will be given to nominees who have made a positive impact within special populations, such as racially and ethnically diverse groups and young adults ages 18 to 24.

Nominations are open to anyone, are free,
and there is no limit to the number an individual can submit.

Nominate at www.voiceawards.samhsa.gov.

Mental health consumer nominations are due Friday, January 18, 2008.

The Voice Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in Los Angeles in May 2008. More details about the awards ceremony to follow!

Posted by liz at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SADly, Seasonal Affective Disorder is with us for quite a while still. Here are some tips from the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Natural Medicine: Natural Treatments for Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or winter depression, is very common in the Pacific Northwest. The lack of sunlight in winter is thought to contribute to symptoms of SAD, including loss of energy, mild depression, oversleeping, overeating and carbohydrate cravings. Fortunately, there are several natural ways to combat these symptoms.

Light therapy is one of the easiest, non-invasive, natural ways to treat SAD and research supports its use. Light boxes providing 10,000 lux are used to stimulate light exposure with a goal of 30 minutes of direct facial exposure in the morning.

Fight carbohydrate cravings, which can contribute to and aggravate feelings of depression. Eat healthy protein from sources such as nuts, eggs, lean meats and beans regularly and with each carbohydrate serving. Choose complex carbohydrates such as fruits, grains and vegetables instead of simple ones such as white flours and sugars.

Research supports the benefits of exercise for depression, but it can be tough to exercise in the winter in the Northwest. Finding an exercise buddy may encourage daily movement and help keep you motivated. Gyms are a good place to find indoor recreation, exercise classes and equipment to keep you out of the dark.

There is a connection between low vitamin D levels and SAD. Vitamin D, actually a hormone, needs UVB sun exposure to be processed in the body. It's important to check blood levels of 25-OH vitamin D first as there are toxicity concerns. Most data supports daily doses of 2000 IU of vitamin D3. Food sources include cod, salmon, sardines, herring and fortified cereals and milks. You also can plan a sunny winter vacation to increase your levels of this "sunshine vitamin."

Other nutrients useful for SAD include omega-3 fatty acids, B-vitamins, melatonin, St. John's Wort and amino acids such as 5-HTP and L-tryptophan. Each of these therapies has the potential for drug interactions, so it's important to talk with a naturopathic physician about safe, appropriate dosage.

--Melissa McCarty, ND, naturopathic physician and resident, Bastyr Center for Natural Health

Posted by liz at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a provocative topic, that's for sure. From Susan S., who shares herself quite bravely:

This past fall when I was suicidal I tried to get a gun in NJ. I was honest on the application and said I had been hospitalized.

I was told I couldn't even apply and the man ripped up my application. He told me honestly, the way I had answered other questions the application wouldn't have gone through,

I then went to both Pennsylvania and Conneticut , as well as Manhattan, and all forms were denied.

At the time I was real pissed, I look at it now that maybe someone was looking after me. Because when these moods hit me and I get suicidal ideation, it would be to easy to take the gun out and eat it. Instead, I got to fight the feelings and not give in. It's hard. Right now I don't even know if it is worth it, but I got to keep fighting in the hope it will get better again.

Posted by liz at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From time to time, I've been accused of not sufficiently representing the Republican point of view. Mea culpa. Perhaps the below comment will go a little way toward mitigating that. It also shows why this issue of mental health and gun ownership can trouble some people. Thanks to Linda L. for sharing:

Both my husband and I have been baker acted or marchment acted. He is conservative Republican who believes in the right to bear arms. However, we decided to sell his passed away father's guns that were locked in a safe in our house.

We both feel safer now. Not that we would hurt each other, it was more of safety for keeping ourselves from harming ourselves.

Does that make any sense?

Posted by liz at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Much to everyone's chagrin, I remain permanently conflicted on the subject of gun ownership for people who have been 302'ed in the wake of violent behavior. I hate to deny anyone their rights; on the other hand, I don't understand why owning a gun should be a right. So the ambiguity comes, in part, from my gun-control politics rather than my mental health advocacy.

Now a task force in North Carolina is recommending a strategy to keep all people with involuntary commitments from buying guns:

Now-confidential information about involuntary commitments to mental hospitals should be used to deny handguns to people with such a record, according to a draft report of a task force's recommendations on campus safety.

The recommendation is one of several that the task force plans to release Thursday. The News & Observer of Raleigh obtained a draft report of the recommendations Wednesday.

The task force recommends a new law that would require that counties provide information about involuntary commitment orders to the national background check database. The proposed law could prevent people with mental illness from buying guns.

Sounds Orwellian, right? On the other hand, as the Herald Sun reports:

Mental health information is provided to the system now. But it typically is not revealed unless the person applying for a gun permit signs a waiver.

So the change is in the waiver, not in the data collection -- which makes the lede of this article somewhat misleading. The waiver change is significant, and that should have been the highlighted matter.

NC panel recommends gun permit changes for mentally ill

Posted by liz at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

And I don't just mean via Hilary or Obama. This blog is undergoing massive change, and I feel the need to prepare you. More details later.

Posted by liz at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Joe writes:

Sometimes a reporter fails in his or her duty to inform the community. Here is one perfect example in an article which happens to deal with ECT. At the onset, the reporter asserts an absolute which is not the case, "In Vermont, patients are given complete medical and psychiatric examinations when they enter the hospital." The Vermont State Hospital came under criticism for failing to provide any physical examination let alone a "complete" physical examination. It was reported on December 11, 2007 that, "The monitors found areas of worry. They called it 'dangerous' that the hospital doesn't provide every new patient with a physical examination. 'You can't treat patients psychiatrically without knowing their physical status.' "

How many persons who have been in a psych hospital or on a psych unit have experienced a complete medical examination?

Posted by liz at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

That's what people have been saying for a long time, but never as emphatically as this past week, when things spiraled completely out of control for the former pop star. I feel sorry for her, but it isn't easy. She taxes the mind and spirit of the most sympathetic blogger. Thanks to Susan S. for sending me the latest Brit posts from TMZ.com. This morning I found something on MSNBC.com, which is supposedly more reputable. Hah.

Sources: Spears suffering from bipolar disorder

Posted by liz at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thanks to Jon S. for sending me a book review of Shock Therapy from Slate.com. The review is not so much a summary of the book's content, but an argument for ECT's validity as a psychiatric treatment. The review is written by Barron H. Lerner, author, most recently, of When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine. Lerner avers that over the years, ECT's efficacy has been called into question by brief cultural moments such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which he cites twice. He also writes:

Also influential was a 1974 New Yorker article by renowned medical writer Berton Roueche, who claimed that ECT caused permanent memory loss. Because the woman featured in Roueche's essay was not a representative case, her story exaggerated the importance of a real, but limited, side effect.

Lerner cites "hundreds of studies from a wide variety of institutions" that "claimed [ECT] was effective." He does not cite the ethical questions of research funding and compromise among ECT's proponents, nor the most recent studies showing that ECT does not have substantial benefit beyond a few short weeks. Further research on memory loss has shown that it can, indeed, be permanent, and that cognitive deficits can be long-term.

Lerner is Angelica Berrie-Arnold P. Gold Foundation associate professor of medicine and public health at Columbia University, the same institution where Harold Sackheim, ECT's leading proponent, works. I wonder if they ever have lunch. They'd have a lot to talk about. But that's just a specious observation. More interestingly, in 2005 Lerner reviewed a book called The Lobotomist by Jack El-Hai, which is a medical biography of the "founder" of the lobotomy, Walter Freeman. I read that book too, and enjoyed it, though I find Lerner's interpretation of it -- as a sort of contextualized defense of Freeman's behavior -- oddly skewed. It seems Lerner is pinning some of his own opinions on El-Hai, but I'm not convinced El-Hai felt the way Lerner describes:

The physician who had been compared to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele actually appeared to have helped many people. For example, Harry Dannecker, an Indiana man with a long history of anxiety and depression, had been suicidal before he underwent a lobotomy in 1937; during World War II, completely recovered, he worked long hours in a war-materials plant. Among the pieces of evidence stressed by El-Hai are thousands of letters from grateful patients. Freeman and Watts, one wrote, "saved my mind and set my spirit free."

So, was lobotomy a reasonable intervention for a desperate problem or a routine cause of harm, as Christine Johnson, whose grandmother had a lobotomy in 1954, charges? ...

One difficulty in assessing the procedure arises from the nature of Freeman's research. He kept in touch with as many patients as possible, even traveling across the country to find them. Yet since he conducted no controlled studies, interpreting his data is difficult. For example, since mental illness in any particular patient may wax and wane, it is possible that some patients' symptoms might have improved even if portions of their brains had not been cut away. And grateful letters may represent a skewed sample. Still, it is hard to deny that some patients who had been institutionalized for years lived apparently satisfactory lives after undergoing lobotomy — even, in rare cases, becoming lawyers or physicians, according to El-Hai.

Those last words are key -- "according to El-Hai." Sometimes book reviewers are able to hide behind them to propel their own points of view, which is one of the great pleasures of book reviewing. Have an opinion but risk little for having it.

Lerner is clearly an accomplished and sophisticated thinker. But he specializes in ethics. Given that focus, I'm wondering if he really did his homework when "reviewing" Shock Therapy. Maybe he'd argue he doesn't have an agenda. If that's true, why does Slate's home page link to his review with the headline: "How Cuckoo's Nest ruined shock therapy for the rest of us"?

The Body Electric's New Look: Why shock therapy deserves its mini-revival.

Posted by liz at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

And Republican House Rep. Anne B. Donahue disagrees.

So we want to believe that if our community hospitals can just add a few more bolts to the doors and to forcibly inject medications into patients who don't comply with a doctor's treatment plan within a week, they will be able to "handle" such patients quickly and efficiently.

We are willing to build a new, cheaper non-hospital institution for those who don't respond to medications, but we do not want to recognize that this component is primarily for our own self-interest, to allay our fears about the tiny number of those whose symptoms do include violence.

We don't seem to be interested in understanding the need for providing both the kind of top-flight inpatient care that is needed for all highest-severity illness, and for the collaborative alternatives that we are trying to encourage among "willing" patients of every other kind.

Involuntary medication acts to divide

Posted by liz at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Reuters:

Gulu is a province in Northern Uganda with a population of 120,000 residents and the site of internally displaced persons camps which house more than 1 million internees. It is located about 110 miles north of the Ugandan capital of Kampala. The clinic there will represent the first sustainable psychiatric service for victims in war-torn Northern Uganda. Doctors and caregivers will treat diseases caused by mass violence and terrorism: psycho-trauma, traumatic depression, PTSD and anxiety syndromes. The clinic opening also marks the opportunity for the PCAF to operate on the frontlines of post-conflict regions and at the same time gather data on the treatment of highly traumatized Ugandans.

"This clinic will serve as a lifeline for an increased number of Ugandans suffering from psychological trauma and marks the first true test of our unique clinic model and our private/public partnership with the government, the academic community and the churches," said Stephen Alderman, co-founder of PCAF. "It is the second leg of a three phase program to help heal the mental wounds of all survivors in this war-torn country."

[Image is not of children who have mental illnesses. They're simply Ugandans.]

Posted by liz at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mankato police kill naked intruder

Family: Man shot needed help

Mankato police kill man wielding broken glass

Posted by liz at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)