Free Republic

Is there a time for you, as a Christian, to tell somebody that you will no longer have anything to do with them? And, if so, how do you do that in a Christlike manner?

During a recent talk regarding my book, “Blessed with Bipolar,” I was stumped by the question, “How does a person get to where you are now from where you were in the psych ward?” I actually have a 380 page answer to that question. What stumped me was the question behind the question: “How do I get my bipolar daughter into treatment?”

New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows... --snip-- The F.D.A. has approved antipsychotic drugs for children specifically to treat schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder. But they are more frequently prescribed to children for other, less extreme conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, aggression, persistent defiance or other so-called conduct disorders — especially when the...

The Army is severely short of enough mental health professionals to properly attend to soldiers after eight years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Pentagon and Congress are asking whether that shortage may have played a role in the ability of the accused Fort Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, to elude detection despite a spotty work record and suspicious behavior. Hasan’s competence and radicalism stirred concern among his fellow students and superiors and he was counseled for proselytizing to his patients, but he nevertheless progressed in his schooling and his military career throughout his six years at...

Autism and schizophrenia may be two sides of the same coin, suggests a review of genetic data associated with the conditions. The finding could help design complementary treatments for the two disorders. Though autism was originally described as a form of schizophrenia a century ago, evidence for a link has remained equivocal. One theory puts the conditions at opposite ends of a developmental spectrum. To investigate, Bernard Crespi, an evolutionary biologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues gathered data on all known genetic variants associated with each condition, then looked for patterns of co-occurrence. The researchers found...

Early signs suggest the number of suicides in the U.S. crept up during the worst recession in decades, according to a Wall Street Journal survey of states that account for about 40% of the U.S. population. Available data, still incomplete, suggest that this recession, like past ones, coincided with an uptick in suicides. The data from 19 states find an increase in suicides in the recessionary year of 2008 from 2007. Those states historically account for about half of annual suicides in the U.S. Calls to suicide hotlines are rising. And suicides in the workplace and the military -- a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Associated Press is reporting that a source has told them the shooting suspect in Thursday's attacks on the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas is Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, an Army mental health professional. The attacks on Ft. Hood left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman, who is said to be Hasan, and apprehended two other soldiers suspected in the attack. According to the AP, a defense official said Hasan was a mental health professional—either an Army psychologist or psychiatrist. It's not known if he was treating people at the post. The...

Study: 85 Percent of Women Say Abortions Cause Mental Health Issues London, England -- A new report from researchers at a university in New Zealand indicates 85 percent of women who had abortions report negative mental health issues as a result. The report is the latest from professor David Fergusson and his team showing abortions cause problems for women. http://www.LifeNews.com/int1371.html

Northwestern research finds drugs aim at wrong target CHICAGO --- More than half the people who take antidepressants for depression never get relief. Why? Because the cause of depression has been oversimplified and drugs designed to treat it aim at the wrong target, according to new research from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The medications are like arrows shot at the outer rings of a bull's eye instead of the center. A study from the laboratory of long-time depression researcher Eva Redei, presented at the Neuroscience 2009 conference in Chicago this week, appears to topple two strongly held...

The evidence is mounting that the President is suffering from depression or worse. Here is a summary of the observable evidence: a. Anger is a classic symptom of depression. Remember the terribly angry speech on health care President Obama gave in September? b. Distancing oneself from reality is another symptom. Is not this clearly going on with the President and his apparent inability to address the serious issues in the war in Afghanistan? How is it otherwise conceivable that the Commander-in-Chief doesn’t even speak to his general in 70 days? Perhaps if things were going well in the war, we...

Because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. Ralph and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Ralph suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there. Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled him out. When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now...

The prevalence of mental health disorders in this country has nearly doubled in the past 20 years. Who is treating all of these patients? Clinical psychologists and therapists are charged with the task, but many are falling short by using methods that are out of date and lack scientific rigor. This is in part because many of the training programs—especially some Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) programs and for-profit training centers—are not grounded in science. A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, by a panel of distinguished clinical scientists—Timothy Baker...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A woman charged in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping who was court-ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment will have a competency review hearing next month. A Utah district court calendar shows Wanda Eileen Barzee will appear before Judge Judith Atherton on Oct. 23. It will be the first time Barzee has appeared in court since doctors at the Utah State Hospital began to forcibly medicate her in May 2008 in an effort to make her competent. If Barzee remains incompetent for trial, the state could seek to have her civilly committed.

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday. About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday. About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found. "Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans," Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry. "Not...

HAVING BIPOLAR vs. BEING BIPOLAR (excerpt from the book, "Blessed With Bipolar: 36 God-Given Gifts of Manic Depression) I have bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder does not have me. Bipolar disorder is not, my identity. It is not who I am. Bipolar disorder impacts my personality, emotions, and behavior. It does not dictate what I think, believe, say, or do. There are blessings that come with “having bipolar disorder.” “Being bipolar,” on the other hand, would be nothing but a burden. If I think of myself as “being bipolar” (or of bipolar as being my being), then I am controlled by...

RICHMOND, Va. – Missing mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. Cho killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, then committed suicide as police closed in. His mental health treatment has been a major issue in the investigation of the shootings. A memo from Gov. Tim Kaine's chief legal counsel to victims' family members says Cho's records and those of several other Virginia Tech students were found July 18 in the home of Dr. Robert...

I cracked up – for the first time - on June 4, 1988, three weeks short of completing my Masters degree in Psychology. Some would say I had a nervous breakdown. The psych ward doctors said it was major depression. I say that I saw just how evil my sin is in the eyes of God and it scared the hell out of me. I cracked up, broke down, and de-pressed. I cobbled together some mad reality and blew a fuse. I despaired, decompensated, detached, and derailed. I lost my mind, never to be the same again. Thanks be to...

NEW HAVEN — SNIPPET: "Thompson was charged over the weekend with the June 6 carjacking at Church and Chapel streets and is under investigation for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail over the fence at the Yale power plant at 18 Tower Parkway June 7. He told Detective Wayne Bullock that Allah instructed him how to “melt down” the plant, according to documents filed in court Monday. It didn’t cause any damage." SNIPPET: "Police recovered the stolen Nissan Sentra. After Thompson’s confession, bomb technicians spent hours in a wooded grove near the Kimberly Avenue bridge after he claimed he had buried...

Arlington, VA (AHN) - Mental health experts are recommending the reclassification of prolonged bitterness as a mental disorder. They are proposing the inclusion of post traumatic embitterment disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for the fifth edition due for publication in 2012. The mental ailment is described is a pathological reaction to one negative life event like conflict at work, being laid off, divorce, ailment or separation in which the victim views the event as unjust and a violation of his basic belief and values. Dr. Michael Linden, the German psychiatrist who named the behavior, explained...