I’m not a native New Englander, as anyone who talks to me for more than 3 minutes knows. I’ve lived in many different and diverse areas of the country, so it’s given me a flavor for the unique cultures that different regions offer. Texas. Ohio. South Florida. Delaware. Spent a lot of time in San […]

The New York Times on Sunday examined how mental health practitioners “are feeling an economic pinch, partly because of insurance reimbursement schedules that they say have not kept pace with their expenses.” The Times profiles several mental health professionals who maintain that fees negotiated by insurance carriers have forced them to increase their patient loads […]

Researchers have developed a simple three-question screening test to sort bipolar depression from unipolar depression.
There are important reasons to distinguish between the two, such as that different treatments are necessary, the symptoms of bipolar depression are slightly different, and mood stabilizers and other preventative measures can help with future depressions - which otherwise tend to […]

Quote of the day…. Bad tippers, watch out!!

Terence Banich had been outed as a bad tipper, and he didn’t even know it. He popped up on the cheapskate list at BitterWaitress .com, berated by a server at a Chicago restaurant for leaving a $3 tip on a $200 bill. Informed of his tipping infamy, Banich […]

A study published in the March American Journal of Psychiatry found a stronger association between schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases than previously suspected.
Dr. William W. Eaton, of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and colleagues analyzed information about 7,704 schizophrenia patients and their parents from three databases (the Danish Psychiatric Register, the National Patient Register, and a […]

A study just released boasts dramatic improvements in ADHD symptoms in children who took fish oil supplements, which contain Omega 3 fatty acids.
94% of the children in the study, aged 12-15, started out with moderate or severe ADHD, an inattention scale rating of 94% and a severe impulsivity rating of 89%. After three months of […]

McMan’s Depression and Bipolar Web is a great site hosting articles written by John McManamy, a medical journalist who also has bipolar disorder. Among his archives is this story about the prominence of depression in bipolar disorders.
Only in recent years has research shown that people with bipolar disorders spend more time depressed than manic or […]

A recent comment in another’s blog got me to thinking — why do people not blink at the cost of consumer goods such as a dishwasher, car, or such, but think twice before coughing up the $50 or $20 (insurance co-pay) or $80 for their therapist?
A part of it has to do with the kind […]

I just wanted to write a quick follow-up to the two studies published earlier this week in the New England Journal of Medicine on the STAR*D research initiative.
A lot of the news stories written since these results were published suggest a very positive view of the study. For instance, the Associated Press’s medical writer […]

This month, Britannica released a response (PDF) to an article that appeared in the Dec. 15, 2005 issue of Nature. The one disturbing issue in this response from Britannica (agree, disagree, I don’t care) is that Nature refuses to provide Britannica with the raw data from the experiment.
The minute an organization or author is […]

A research review study by John Bola, assistant professor at the University of Southern California School of Social Work, found no solid evidence that untreated early episodes of psychosis cause long-term harm. This will undoubtedly stir controversy over the current American Psychiatric Association’s recommendation that schizophrenia patients receive antipsychotic drugs for at least the […]

Levy: (Some) Attention Must Be Paid!
Continuous partial attention is a term to describe a specific phenomenon, which was coined by Linda Stone, a former Apple and Microsoft executive. The phenomenon is familiar to anyone who has a Blackberry or finds themselves continuing to type (an email, an IM, whatever) in their computer while talking to […]