Theories of what causes ADHD seem to grow with each day. There are a variety of biological and environmental theories that tend to get most of the press and truthfully have the most credibility. However, nutrition research has made a link between some food additives and ADHD. Specifically, some additives found in popular soft drinks […]

Tonight, Katie Couric interviewed both the mother of Rebecca Riley (the former is charged in the latter’s death) and Dr. Joseph Biederman, the guy who basically helped “invent” childhood bipolar disorder (as we reported here and here, ). The mother is basically implicated in killing her child because she overmedicated the child. And yet, the […]

Recent research is showing that people who struggle with migraine headaches and depression often have a history of abuse from childhood. The idea is that somehow the abuse “primes” the brain for migraine, meaning that people are more susceptible to them later as adults.
Her recent study published in the journal Neurology, reported that […]

We give a big kudos to the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee for running advertisements on their respective public buses, in an effort to better educate the public about mental illness and its continuing stigma in many people’s minds:

“Out of Nowhere,” the artwork featured on this bus sign by Patricia Obletz, was inspired by the […]

If you’re in the greater New York City area or northern New Jersey area, I’d encourage you to consider attending a comedy benefit for suicide prevention on Oct. 18 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Jim Florentine is organizing […]

We missed the discussion of bipolar disorder on Oprah that occurred on Monday of this week, but Furious Seasons caught it. He believes the program “paint[ed people with bipolar disorder] as inherently violent and dangerous.”
After watching a recording of the program, I’d have to agree. I’m all for public education and the widespread information that […]

You may have not noticed, but The New York Times started a new health blog this week, by the experienced health writer Tara Parker-Pope, whose last gig was at the Wall Street Journal. We’re looking forward to adding this blog to our regular list of daily reads.
Now, I’d write that paragraph even if Tara hadn’t […]

The Oct. 1 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry will release both a study and editorial suggesting that a set of suicidal gene markers have been discovered. That is, people with these markers have a higher incidence of suicidal thinking (which is often the precursor to suicidal action). This is a significant finding, […]

According to today’s New York Times, Americans are increasingly facing a happiness gap — men are becoming more relaxed and happier than women. It’s an article that describes how two recent studies appear to have come to similar conclusions. Yet the devil is always in the details.
The thesis is intriguing:

Since the 1960s, men have gradually […]

“Bipolar depression” refers to someone who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but is the midst of a depressive episode (one-half of what defines bipolar disorder). While a type of medication call a mood stabilizer helps people when they are feeling manic, antidepressants — the typical treatment for depression — don’t seem to work as […]

What is all this online social networking stuff really about? Perhaps it just our modern version of portraits, of a modern narcissism that fits in with our oh-so-modern lifestyle.
That is Christine Rosen’s thesis for her essay in The New Atlantis, Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. She makes some interesting points:

As researchers at the Pew […]

You have to love the patchwork society we live in. Trouble spot over here? Throw money at it. Trouble spot over there? Here, have some more money.
So with little discussion or debate, the glorious U.S. Dept. of Education has decided to give Va. Tech nearly $1 million to help them with their obvious difficulties in […]