Free Republic

A Harvard Law School graduate is suing the New York Board of Law Examiners, blaming her failures to pass the bar exam on the board's refusal to grant accommodations for her disability. Tamara Wyche eventually passed the bar in 2015, but claims that her legal career had already been damaged by the two prior failures. Wyche, 29, suffers from debilitating panic attacks and requested that the board allow her to take the exam in a separate room from other test-takers, provide extra time and stop-clock breaks to decrease the stress level, according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said this week that he was prepared to sign a measure banning abortion at 20 weeks without an exception for rape or incest because it’s only “in the initial months” that victims are “most concerned” about access to care. Walker, who is expected to announce his run for president at the end of the month, said that such an exception didn’t matter and that he would sign the bill regardless. “I mean, I think for most people who are concerned about that, it’s in the initial months where they’re most concerned about it,” Walker said. “In...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who experience the anxiety, racing heartbeat and rapid breathing of a panic attack have a higher risk of a heart attack or stroke, researchers said on Monday. "Our study adds panic attacks to the list of emotional states and psychiatric symptoms that have been linked to excess risk of cardiovascular disease and death," wrote study author Dr. Jordan Smoller of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Previous research found people with persistent feelings of depression, anger and hostility are at higher risk of heart attack, according to the study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The...

LONDON, December 2, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study published in the current issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry has revealed that 43% of gays, lesbians and bisexuals have a mental disorder. The study carried out by the Imperial College in London surveyed 1285 respondents from these groups. Mental problems included anxiety, sleep disturbance, panic attacks, depressive moods or thoughts, problems with memory or concentration and compulsive behaviour or obsessive thoughts. The researchers noted that there is a dearth of research into the mental health of gay men, lesbians and bisexual men and women in the UK. The study found...

Sudden heart-pounding panic attacks are most likely caused by abnormalities in the brain, new evidence suggests, reinforcing earlier research on animals. People with panic disorder, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health, have drastic reductions of a type of serotonin receptor, called 5-HT1A, in three areas of the brain. The findings, reported last week in The Journal of Neuroscience, lend credence to the suspicion that serotonin dysfunction plays a role in the disorder. "This provides evidence for what we've been telling patients all along," said Dr. Dennis S. Charney, chief of the mood and anxiety disorders research program...