My comment section has been hijacked by spam, so if your comments are not getting posted quickly -- or at all -- that's why. It's not because I don't like you. I do!

Here are some things to keep you busy this weekend:

An excellent UK roundup of the new research on the inefficacy of antidepressants

Eli Lilly gets cool-dissed by the FDA on its long-acting version of Zyprexa. Heh.

Blood tests for bipolar?
A book review of Manic: A Memoir

Wyeth and Solvay break ties over the issue of profitability of psychosis drugs

Clozapine and Olanzapine battle it out for kids with psychosis

Abilify approved for kids. Great.

Posted by liz at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Okay, granted, I'm not the New York Times, but I thought you might want to know who I'm voting for when Pennsylvania's potentially irrelevant primary takes place. Last night's debate cinched it for me, for many reasons. I really was fairly undecided until last night.

Among the many interesting things Sen. Obama said, I appreciated his approach to the question of the relationship between African-Americans and Jews in the United States:

"... what I want to do is rebuild what I consider to be a historic relationship between the African-American community and the Jewish community.

You know, I would not be sitting here were it not for a whole host of Jewish Americans, who supported the civil rights movement and helped to ensure that justice was served in the South. And that coalition has frayed over time around a whole host of issues, and part of my task in this process is making sure that those lines of communication and understanding are reopened.

When I ... had the honor of giving a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in conjunction with Martin Luther King's birthday in front of a large African-American audience, I specifically spoke out against anti- Semitism within the African-American community. And that's what gives people confidence that I will continue to do that when I'm president of the United States.

Cool, dude.

Posted by liz at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

From the Sunday Observer:

Depression may seem like unrelieved misery to its sufferers, but the author of a controversial new book insists the condition is highly beneficial to the human species and can ultimately lead to great achievements.

In a new appraisal of the disorder, an eminent consultant psychiatrist argues that, far from being a modern malaise, depression has been with us for thousands of years and survived because it can give people an increased resilience to cope with life's challenges. ....

'We see it as a defect - often patients see themselves as broken in some way - whereas I think of it as a defence mechanism. It has simply adapted in the human species to actually give us some long-term benefits.

'Essentially, depression can give us new and quite radical insights - it can give us a way of responding effectively to challenges we have in life. In its severe form it is terrible and life-threatening, but for many it is a short-term painful episode that can take you out of a stressful situation for a while. It can help people to find a new way of coping with events or your situation - and give you a new perspective, as well as making you more realistic about your aims.'

How depression makes you stronger

Posted by liz at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

I know the name of this category seems kind of glib, but I actually take it seriously. Each time a celebrity comes out of the closet, so to speak, about their mental illness, it challenges stereotypes. I appreciate people risking themselves this way. The below is from the Associated Press:

For the first time since entering a psychiatric hospital in January, Delta Burke is speaking out about her depression, saying she remembered having anxiety as early as kindergarten.

In a two-part "Entertainment Tonight" interview airing Thursday and Friday, Burke said she needed "an adjustment under a physician's care" after the five medications she was taking no longer worked. Now she's on two medications, Burke said.

By coming forward, Burke hopes to help remove the stigma surrounding depression. Burke said she would like people to pursue mental help the same way they might with another illness.

Burke's depression has at times been debilitating. One of her lowest moments came while she was starring in the long-running series "Designing Women."

"I was parked in the car in the hills with a gun and a bottle of Xanax beside me, trying to recover from harsh words said in the tabloids," she said. "I just wanted the pain to go away."

But she insisted she wasn't going to commit suicide, saying: "I didn't want to die. If I ever really wanted to be dead, I'd be dead."

Burke, who also struggles with hoarding, said she recognizes it's a problem.

"At one time I had 27 storage units. I don't have a big enough house!" she said. "My mom had it, it's my mother's fault. She saved the diaper I came home from the hospital in!"

Posted by liz at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thanks to Michelle M/E for giving me a heads up about the below article by journalism professor and former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Q. Nomani. Britney Spears' illness certainly is a tough case for celebrity journalism. How much is too much? What is a public person entitled to, in terms of privacy? I've long debated this myself because I've been tempted to write about Britney and then felt appalled by my own instincts, and then frustrated that I was even in the position of questioning myself, given the way that Britney has courted the media in the past. So thanks to Nomani and the Los Angeles Times for giving me the kick in the ass that I needed. I think Asra is right.

Leave Britney alone

The young star is in a fight for her life against mental illness.

By Asra Q. Nomani

I'll never forget the first time I saw my brother strapped to a gurney. I was just a teen, and he'd been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, an illness akin to schizophrenia that causes mood swings, psychosis and violent outbursts. Our family had just committed him for psychiatric treatment, and I wept, shouting into the air, "I want my brother back." At home, my parents sobbed. But at least we went through this anguish in private.

So it's impossible for me to find any entertainment value in the public harassment of Britney Spears, who was released from the psychiatric ward of UCLA Medical Center last week. And as a journalist, I doubt there is news value in it either.

Mental illness doesn't always elicit compassion; it's hard to see, so it's hard to understand. Perhaps in the wake of Spears' breakdown, California mental health advocates will lobby to change the state's involuntary commitment laws so that those who are sick get treatment, even if they don't realize how badly they need it. In the meantime, all of us should reflect on the fact that we wouldn't be so cruel to somebody diagnosed with another disease. Would we make a sideshow of someone with a brain tumor?

It's easy to blame the paparazzi and celebrity gossip websites, and, granted, they are the worst. TMZ promoted a video of Spears crying with the headline, "Britney Spears on Suicide Watch?" Over a photo of Spears sitting on a curb after her fight with her manager, PerezHilton.com scrawled "Britwreck."

But the mainstream media are complicit. After Spears' release (over the objection of her family), A.J. Hammer, host of CNN's "Showbiz Tonight," stumbled over the pronunciation of Spears' supposed medications; the words "Burning Britney Questions!" rolled across the bottom of the screen. "Britney's Mental Illness" was the cover of a recent People magazine. The Daily Telegraph's website featured this headline: "Mad Britney Spears detoxed by doctors," with a link, "See pictures of the drama here."

By exploiting Spears' moment of vulnerability, media companies have crossed the line of basic moral decency. To me, this includes Wenner Media, owner of US Weekly and Rolling Stone, which just published an expose of Spears' mental illness, and even Barbara Walters, who recently reported on Spears' mental health issues on "The View."

Enough. Time Warner Inc. (parent of CNN, People, AOL and Entertainment Weekly), News Corp. (the Rupert Murdoch firm that owns Fox News and papers around the globe) and others should halt all coverage of Spears until she is healthy. Let's leave Britney and her family alone.

Responsible journalists long ago came to the ethical determination not to publish the names of rape victims or to air the most gruesome of terrorist videos. We can do the same here. We can get off this maniacal roller coaster that is Britney Spears coverage to remember one important fact: This is a 27-year-old in a fight for her life.

My role model in this debate is photographer Nick Stern, who quit his job Feb. 1 with the Splash news agency because he couldn't stomach shooting the Spears story any longer. "It's not journalism. Sooner or later, someone's going to get killed," he told the Independent in London. "Possibly Britney herself."

Even aspiring journalists are making the right call. At Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies, where I'm a journalism professor, senior Erin Delmore walked off the set of a campus TV talk show. "I'm so done with the Britney coverage," she said. "End it."

Last week, I wrote to my editor at People and told her that I couldn't continue working as a stringer for the magazine. I'm not being holier than thou. I wasn't always kind to my brother about his illness. I scolded and nagged him. I called him lazy when he didn't make his bed, unmotivated when he didn't get a job and uncaring when he forgot our birthdays. It's taken more than 20 years for me to understand, deep within my soul, that his mental illness is like a brain tumor, or cancer, or diabetes. It is a disease. It has symptoms such as anosognosia, which means that a person doesn't think they have an illness, and flat affect, which saps emotional expressiveness. Right now, there is no cure.

When I realized not long ago how cruel I had been, I told my brother what I now tell Britney and her family: "I'm sorry."

Posted by liz at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This year I'm gearing up for a historical primary vote and election, so today seems to hold more meaning. I have been sitting on the fence between Hilary and Obama for a long time now. One big concern is: Come November, who can beat the Republicans? A woman or an African-American? Because that's what I care about -- beating the GOP. So in the spirit of cynicism rather than voting my conscience, I'll vote for whoever will have more traction against the GOP. If y'all have any advice, I'd love to hear it.

Oh, and I apologize to my Republican readers. I'm a lifelong Dem and won't be swayed. But we can still be friends, right?

Posted by liz at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I won't pretend to understand at all what was going through Stephen Kazmierczak's mind when he killed six people and wounded more, then took his own life, at Northern Illinois University this week. It does sound, however, as though he was suffering from mental illness and had recently stopped taking his medication. What a tragedy. I mourn for Ryanne Mace (pictured) and the other five dead, as well as everyone else who has been traumatized by this event. This goes back to Dawdy's post about mental illness and violence: The vast majority of us who have mental illnesses do not commit mass murders, and those who do must be held accountable. Kazmierczak held himself accountable -- which is another tragic piece of the picture.

Also, read this about Latina Williams, who killed two and took her own life. Not because it represents what people with mental illnesses do, but because as readers who are interested in the way the media represents these issues, we need to be aware of what's happening out there. Two school shootings in one month by people with alleged mental "problems" -- you'll be hearing about this for a while.

Posted by liz at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes Philip Dawdy and I really are the same person, despite the differences in gender and geographic locale. I applaud today's post, which he fears will cause him to lose readers but I hope will inspire more people to give him kudos.

Disturbed By Comments

Posted by liz at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ah, another crapy holiday during which people get depressed because they've got no one to celebrate with.

OR

Ah, another beautiful recognition of the love that we have in our hearts and share with each other.

Whatever your perspective, I hope you've had a good day, and will have a good night. Treat yourself tonight -- maybe not with a diamond, but ... with ice cream? Right, Susan?

Posted by liz at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Depression is a strange animal. Sunday I slept all day, and it wasn't enough. Monday I went to work, but had to come home and go back to bed and sleep for many hours more, and it wasn't enough. Today I woke up, felt too exhausted, and called in sick so I could sleep until just a few minutes ago. It's still not enough. I'm not consciously trying to make the world go away, but that's the result. After all these years, of course, I know this will go away, so it doesn't really worry me anymore. But it's weird when I'm in it and I'm in my bed and I feel like I can't wake up.

Adding to the misery is a series of constant migraine headaches, which I've now decided to solve by not consuming anything -- the only solution I can think of. Eliminate the triggers and they can't get to you. It's a shame there's a pint of yummy mango sorbet in my freezer, though. Nothing beats depression like mango sorbet, you know?

I'm going through some rough times right now, both professionally and personally. Professionally, I have this new full-time job that I love, but that doesn't pay me enough. So I continue with the journalism for PW, which I also love and which mitigates the financial sting. But doing both is overwhelming, and I don't know how to make it better.

Personally, I'm beginning to wonder about some choices I've made. I can't get into it all now, but I'm on the cusp of a big birthday, and it's causing me to rethink who I am and what I should be doing in my personal life. Who do I want to be in the next decade? I lost 10 long years to my illness -- I don't even remember most of my twenties -- and I feel like I've got to make every second count now. I want to live an authentic life, to be my true self. Who that person is, well, that's the puzzle. It's enough to send me back to bed.

I asked my psychiatrist if he could help me, pharmacologically, with my depression this time. As usual, he said no. He doesn't believe my depression should be treated with pills when it's like this. He believes in psychotherapy instead. He's a true example of my contention that there are good psychiatrists out there who aren't beholden to Big Pharma. Guess I'm stuck with the talking cure.

Posted by liz at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

If I could tell people to read just one thing this year, I'd tell them to read Charles Barber's piece in Sunday's Washington Post, in which he talks about the way that recovery involves more than just meds. It's excellent. Here's an excerpt:

Larry Davidson, a Yale researcher on recovery from severe mental illness, has examined the data and found that this model is flawed, at least in the field of mental health. "In the medical model, you take a person with a mental illness, you provide treatment in the hopes of reducing symptoms, and then they're supposed to approximate some notion of normality," he told me. "Our research shows the opposite. You take a person with a mental illness, you then reduce the discrimination and stigma against them, increase their social roles and participation, which provides them a reason to get better in the first place, and then you provide treatment and support. The issue is not so much making them normal but helping them get their lives back."

Also check out the transcript of an online chat he did with WaPo readers here.

Posted by liz at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

People are worried about me, which I appreciate. That's why I love doing this blog. I have been a little depressed, but the reasons for my not being here for a few days is more complex. So don't worry. I'm okay. I'm as happy and content as these cute kitties. More or less.

Posted by liz at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From the AP:

As many as 121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007, an increase of some 20 percent over 2006, according to preliminary figures released Thursday.

The number who tried to commit suicide or injured themselves for some other reason jumped six-fold in the last several years — from 350 in 2002 to about 2,100 incidents last year. Officials said an unknown portion of that increase was likely due to use of a new electronic tracking system that is more thorough in capturing health data than the previous system.

For more of the bad news, click here.

Posted by liz at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have been woefully inadequate in paying attention to Furious Seasons, but today there's an interesting post on a new FDA warning about suicidal ideation, etc., in relation to Lamictal and Topomax. You can get all the pertinent info from Dawdy, as usual, but he writes:

It's not clear to me what the implications are for treatment with these drugs in bipolar disorder, but they cannot be very good. In coverage by the New York Times, doctors stressed that the benefits of these drugs outweighed the risks both in treating bipolar disorder and epilepsy. But the more important question is what patients think--doctors sometimes forget that it's patients' butts that are on the line--and how they respond to the warning. Obviously, people diagnosed with epilepsy don't have a lot of options for controlling seizures. Aside from Lithium, patients with bipolar disorder don't have many options either.

As a patient who is on both Lamictal and Topomax, I feel I can speak to Dawdy's questions. For me, Lamictal has been an absolute lifesaver. My breakthrough magic-bullet medication cocktail has been Seroquel and Lamictal, with other stuff thrown in as needed. Lamictal keeps my mood even, while the Seroquel keeps the psychosis at bay. Without the Lamictal, I cycle ... unpleasantly, to put it mildly. At this point in my treatment, I would never consider going off of it. In fact, anticonvulsants have been extremely effective in controlling my mood symptoms, but I struggled for a long time with side effects. I no longer suffer from any side effects from the Lamictal, though I know from Dawdy's post that the initial stages of treatment are apparently quite risky. That being said, I worry sometimes about villifying medications that can benefit people. What if I had seen a warning and decided not to try a drug that has truly saved my life? Just had to put that out there.

I take the Topomax for migraines, and I've gone from a migraine a day to about two a month. It's been incredible. But I have no opinion on it for psychiatric concerns. The main side effect for me has been loss of appetite and resultant weight loss, and I'm ashamed to say that I've enjoyed that side effect. I've only been taking the Topomax for about six months, but lordy, I'm glad those headaches have diminished.

FDA Issues Suicidality Warning For Mood Stabilizers

Posted by liz at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)