There’s a real stigma around mental health. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) says mental illness affects 1 in 4 American adults each year, but most people with treatable mental disorders do not seek treatment. In fact, over half of the children aged 8 to 15 with a mental illness never receive treatment. Some […]

Nothing is more traumatic than sudden loss. Anyone who’s ever experienced a late-night phone call from a hospital or police station understands how quickly grief can enter life. Losses aren’t always sudden; sometimes, life forces people to prepare for grief in advance. Having a relative diagnosed with late-stage cancer is the sort of situation that makes […]

In the year 2012, physicians wrote out over 259 million prescriptions for opioid pain killers. This staggering number is enough to provide one prescription to every adult in the country. At the same time that doctors are prescribing more and more opioids, opioid addiction and misuse has reached epidemic proportions. Deaths due to opioid overdose […]

According to a new study that was presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 Meeting this May, mental health diagnoses (and treatments) are growing for children with parents in the military. The study The study was led by Elizabeth Hisle-Gorman, MSW, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University’s F. Edward Hebert […]

The legalities, health benefits and behavioral and mental implications related to marijuana have attracted political attention from many different communities. In an important election year, marijuana has been a hot topic for debate and is still controversial. With a strict federal ban but very lenient regulations on the statewide level, the legalities of this natural […]

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly referred to a multiple personality disorder, is a rare and controversial disorder that is characterized by identity fragmentation rather than the growth of two different personalities. The name of this disorder was changed in 1994 to address its accurate definition and is recognized by the DSM-5 as a mental health […]

“You are what you eat.” This well-known phrase addresses the tie between what people consume and their physical health. But what about how it affects someone’s mental health? A recent research study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has found that certain types of gut bacteria can be used to enhance […]

The Federal Drug Administration approval for a chewable amphetamine – in what The Fix calls “a tasty, convenient package” – for ADHD children six and older is “a recipe for people to request it and then sell it,” warns Mukund Gnanadesikan, a youth psychiatrist in California. “I’m not a big fan of controlled substances that […]

Most of us have had it happen – where we weren’t even thinking about trying something until we saw a do-it-yourself video or photo slide share – then we’re suddenly consumed with the urge to experiment. This can be as innocuous as a yummy dinner recipe replicated or a funny story of a “Pinterest Fail.” […]

The Psychiatric Ratings using Intermediate Stratified Markers (PRISM) project is a €16.5 million public and private European consortium that will use advanced technology to unearth the causes of social withdrawal. PRISM isn’t looking for an antidote to shyness. Acute social withdrawal is often a harbinger of schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and depression. This article examines how PRISM […]