Publications on Mental Health Topics

What Shopping Addiction Really Looks Like — and How to Quit, by Molly Triffin, TIME, Dec 3 2015.

“Maybe you have a lust for shoes or overdid itbuying for your newborn. Many of us have had the occasional shopaholic episode — and gnarly credit card hangover. But for some people, the impulse to whip out the plastic crosses the line from a moment of weakness to a full-fledged addiction. Shopping addiction may sound a bit far-fetched, but researchers say it’s a legitimate issue. “It’s when someone spends so much time, energy, and money buying — or even thinking about buying — that it seriously impairs their life,” April Benson, PhD, author of To Buy or Not to Buy, says. ”

Light May Work on Nonseasonal Depression, Study Finds, by Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, Nov 24 2015.

“Bright light therapy has been used effectively for seasonal affective disorder, the kind of depression that comes on at a specific time every year, often the dark days of late fall and winter, and then lifts. Now a new study has found that it may work to treat nonseasonal depression as well. ”

Boston Health Care for the Homeless Will Open a Safe Room for Heroin Highs, by Dana Guth, Boston Magazine, Nov 23 2015.

“The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) has a new strategy to combat the opiate epidemic: a supervised safe room for heroin highs. The small, unassuming space, located at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street, an area nicknamed “Methadone Mile,” is slated to open in January. It will be staffed 24/7 by a nurse and an outreach worker, there to check users’ vital signs. The room will offer a refuge for up to 10 people at a time. ”

THE COST OF LOVE: CARING FOR ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL OR DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES, by CRAIG PHILLIPS, PBS, Nov 20 2015.

“The care of aging adults is a problem we all face, especially with more and more Americans living longer, but caring for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD) makes the aging process all the more challenging ”

ADHD meds may be a prescription for bullying, by University of Michigan, ScienceDaily, Nov 20 2015.

“Kids and teens who take medications like Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are twice as likely to be physically or emotionally bullied by peers than those who don't have ADHD, a new University of Michigan study found. At even higher risk were middle and high school students who sold or shared their medications--those kids were four-and-a-half times likelier to be victimized by peers than kids without ADHD. ”

US transgender people solemnly mark a deadly year , by Marisa Taylor, Aljazeera America, Nov 20 2015.

“Anti-transgender violence has killed at least 21 people across the United States in 2015, according to rights activists who gathered on Friday to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, in which the trans community honors it members killed in acts of violence. ”

How technology is transforming mental healthcare, especially after midnight, by Lena H. Sun, The Los Angeles Times, Nov 17 2015.

“Digital behavioral health is increasingly viewed as a way for organizations to improve patients' overall health, reduce unnecessary and expensive hospitalizations. and comply with laws requiring insurers to provide mental-health benefits at the same level as benefits for other medical care. Some technologies are narrowly focused, such as cognitive therapy sessions that people do on their own, like they might use an online program to learn a foreign language. There are also myriad smartphone applications designed to help people track and manage their emotions. Some can alert a provider of a possible problem by monitoring how much an individual moves around or talks to others that day. Thomas Insel, who just stepped down as director of the National Institute of Mental Health to join Google, says technology used the right way can transform access to mental healthcare and improve the quality of services. "This isn't the fix for everything, but just a starting point when you realize that 55% of the counties in the United States have no mental-health personnel," he said in an interview. ”

Parental Equality, NOT “Adoption Equality”, by Mirah Riben, The Huffington Post, Nov 12 2015.

“Children need and deserve for both parents raising them to have full parental rights. Children need this regardless of their parents’ sexual orientation. Thus, same sex couples are fighting for what they are calling “adoption equality.” ”

To Prevent Addiction In Adults, Help Teens Learn How To Cope, by Elaine Korry, NPR, Nov 12 2015.

“Addiction is a pediatric disease," says Dr. John Knight, founder and director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Boston Children's Hospital. "When adults entering addiction treatment are asked when they first began drinking or using drugs, the answer is almost always the same: They started when they were young — teenagers," said Knight. ”

Behind Bars, Vets With PTSD Face A New War Zone, With Little Support, by Quil Lawrence, NPR, Nov 5 2015.

“Most treatment for PTSD involves winding down from the combat mind-set, and learning not to treat the world around you like a war zone. But behind bars, mental health treatment is rare and VA health care is suspended. ”

Stereotypes About Teens Can Undermine Parents' Confidence, by Aimee Cunningham, NPR, Nov 5 2015.

“Raising teens is commonly perceived to be a total drag. Indeed, moms and dads of adolescents report feeling less capable than parents of younger children. And what parents think about adolescence can affect how competent they feel when dealing with their teens. ”

More U.S. high school students smoke only pot, not cigarettes, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters , Oct 28 2015.

“As fewer U.S. high school students exclusively smoke cigarettes and cigars, more of them are using marijuana, a recent study suggests. Overall, the proportion of teens in grades 9 through 12 who only smoked traditional tobacco products declined to 7.4 percent of students in 2013 from 20.5 percent of students in 1997, the study found. However, exclusive use of marijuana more than doubled from 4.2 percent of students to 10.2 percent over the study period. ”

As U.S. braces for Syrian refugees, mental health services lag, by Megan Cassella and Serena Maria Daniels, Reuters, Oct 28 2015.

Support, not two in cockpit, key to reducing pilot suicide risk, experts say, by Victoria Bryan, Reuters, Oct 27 2015.

“Seven months after a pilot apparently crashed an airliner into a mountainside, killing himself and 149 other people, experts said better support for pilots with mental health disorders would do more to reduce the risk of pilot suicide than requiring that two people be in the cockpit at all times. ”

Could Depression Be Caused By An Infection?, by Bret Stetka, NPR , Oct 25 2015.

“Late last year, Turhan Canli, an associate professor of psychology and radiology at Stony Brook University, published a paper in the journal Biology of Mood and Anxiety Disorders asserting that depression should be thought of as an infectious disease. "Depressed patients act physically sick," says Canli. "They're tired, they lose their appetite, they don't want to get out of bed." He notes that while Western medicine practitioners tend to focus on the psychological symptoms of depression, in many non-Western cultures, patients who would qualify for a depression diagnosis report primarily physical symptoms, in part because of the stigmatization of mental illness. "The idea that depression is caused simply by changes in serotonin is not panning out. We need to think about other possible causes and treatments for psychiatric disorders," says Canli. ”