May 2013
4 posts
5 tags
Awareness Times Two: Anxiety/Depression and...
If you’re anything like me (and let’s hope for your sakes you’re not), being aware really takes a lot out of you. With ‘aware’ having synonyms like ‘cognizant,’ ‘mindful,’ ‘wide-awake,’ ‘vigilant,’ and ‘wary’ (I took ‘conscious’ alright–I’m pretty sure… View Post
3 tags
May is National Mental Health Awareness Month and....
Let’s just say I’m a slow starter.
I mean, I think I ate solid foods on time and all that – but when it came to riding a bike, four, five, and six passed me by before there was any success on a two-wheeler.
The lovely sound of ‘teen’ at the end of my age… View Post
3 tags
May is Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness...
Yup, it’s May, and, therefore, thanks to House Resolution #1005, passed 4/1/08, it’s also Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month. [If you’re into politics, or are just plain curious, the House passed the Resolution by a vote of 414-0—for… View Post
3 tags
Things Are Sure Different Around the Health World...
I’m an Apple girl, through and through, dedicated to my trifecta of a Macbook Pro, an iPhone 5, and an iPad [not yet a mini, but you can’t have everything. (I really mean you can’t have everything the second it comes out, but it sounded better the… View Post
April 2013
6 posts
2 tags
Sickness, Grief, and . . . the Loss of the Self:...
Linda Logan married her high school sweetheart. She is a mother of 3 children, a Ph.D. in geography, a former co-teacher at M.I.T.
And she suffers from bipolar disorder–badly. It has ravaged her life.
But she has come back to talk about it in a fresh… View Post
Not that, too! Anxiety can shorten your life.
Frankly, I’m anxious.
I spent a good amount of time trying to think of a way to put it that involved less brutal honesty, perhaps some more word craft–a bit of extra verbiage that might distract from such an unplesant truth.
But, ‘sometimes I worry’ was… View Post
Who Knew? New Off-Label Uses for Well-Known Drugs,...
Recall in Part I that, although Pfizer’s angina treatment did little for the chest pain, it changed multiple thousands of lives in the bedroom when the scientists reincarnated it as Viagra. And date rape drug ketamine earned itself some points from ‘the… View Post
Who Knew? New Off-Label Uses for well Known Drugs,...
Every so often, the drug that scientists are certain will serve one purpose in fact serves a completely different one. Take scientists for Pfizer’s research center who developed an angina treatment that they gave to their subjects, who had very little of… View Post
Predicting Longevity
Look, it’s not like I have anything against the crystal ball. In fact, I use the exquisite glasses my mother left me for the holiday of Passover, and they happen to be crystal. But I’m just a wee bit skeptical about its powers to predict how many more… View Post
Are You Reading This After Midnight? More Thoughts...
“Up All Night” by Elizabeth Holbert, a nice piece in the March 11 New Yorker, reprises the research of Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer, an anthropologist with an alternate model to our 11pm to 7am “ideal sleep schedule.”
In The Slumbering Masses” Wolf-Meyer looks… View Post
March 2013
3 posts
Tolerating Insomnia is Halfway There--Part 2
If my hypothesis (see previous post, Part 1) proves correct that fear of insomnia increases insomnia, successful treatment should involve mastery of the fear. We know from both experience and from cognitive-behavioral theory that avoiding the source of… View Post
Is fear of insomnia like fear of...
What are two major miseries of our well-off modern society? Obesity and sleeplessness. No surprise that they seem to be connected; looks like those who fail to get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight.
They’re connected in another way: for… View Post
Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in their paper ”Policy Impact: Prescription Painkiller Overdoses,” declared prescription drug abuse “an epidemic” in the United States. By far the biggest factor in prescription drug abuse is an eruption in… View Post
January 2013
8 posts
Sleep Deprivation and Depression--Everything You...
Sleep Deprivation and Depression–Everything You Don’t Expect ECT, TMS, antidepressants, Ketamine–ever thought you’d heard of just about every way there is to treat depression?
Well here’s one I bet you haven’t heard of: Sleep deprivation. That’s right: doctors have found that depriving patients of sleep can ease… View Post
ECT--The Less Than Shocking Story, Part II
ECT–The Less Than Shocking Story, Part II Georgios Petrides, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, found in a study of 253 patients with severe depression that the remission rate was 87%. Interestingly the statistics… View Post
ECT--The Less Than Shocking Story, Part I
ECT–The Less Than Shocking Story, Part I Why write about ECT today? Isn’t it yesterday’s news? Actually, in the words of health writer Melissa Dahl (msnbc.com, 8.6.2008), “the practice has been making a quiet comeback.”
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next” did nothing to help make ECT fashionable.… View Post
ADHD becomes a trend
ADHD becomes a trend Certain things become trendy. Everyone’s wearing boxy jackets, and anyone cool is drinking Cosmos. Brooklyn itself has become a trend, hard as it is to imagine, and who doesn’t have an iPhone 5?
But in a trend much less desirable, attention… View Post
ADHD becomes a trend
ADHD becomes a trend Certain things become trendy. Everyone’s wearing boxy jackets, and anyone cool is drinking Cosmos. Brooklyn itself has become a trend, hard as it is to imagine, and who doesn’t have an iPhone 5?
But in a trend much less desirable, attention… View Post
Bullying--It's All In the Mind
Bullying–It’s All In the Mind “My son is miserable in his first few months of high school,” his suffering mother told me. “He’s picked on for being short again.” Jeffrey comes from short parents, but he was little even by their standards. After much thought (and more worry), his… View Post shared via WordPress.com
Sharing Bad News With Your Children--This Is Not...
Sharing Bad News With Your Children–This Is Not the Dark Ages Last week I received the following question: “I’m undergoing tests to determine if my cancer has recurred. I won’t have the results for a week or two. Is it best to tell my adult children that I’m worried, or keep the situation from them until I know for… View Post shared via WordPress.com
Yikes! What if my kids DO listen?
Yikes! What if my kids DO listen? My last post stated firmly that you can’t tell your kids what to do since you can’t make them do it. You can, however, make yourself do something (such as go to your room).
Only a couple days after the post, a teenage client reported with pride that he… View Post shared via WordPress.com
December 2012
2 posts
3,520 parenting books--and my kids still won't...
3,520 parenting books–and my kids still won’t listen to me! According to the Bowker Books in Print database (courtesy of the WSJarticle “New Ways to Get Kids to Behave”), the number of parenting books published or distributed rose from 2,774 in 2007 to 3,520 in 2011. I’ll bet most folks reading those are not… View Post shared via WordPress.com
Highly-anticipated obesity drugs: Have we got it...
Highly-anticipated obesity drugs: Have we got it right this time? In June of this year, the Food and Drug Administrationa approved the first weight-loss drug in 13 years with its approval of Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc’s Belviq.
Belviq was one of three weight-loss medications hoping for approval by the FDA after initial… View Post shared via WordPress.com
November 2012
4 posts
Mental Illness More Malignant than Melanoma
Mental Illness More Malignant than Melanoma If you throw mental illness and addiction into one cesspool, take the graduated weight for that side of the equation, and then go about seeing how your second side fares, you might find yourself arguing that mental illness is more disabling even than… View Post shared via WordPress.com
info@fosterdance.com
I am interestested in taking a smattering of your dance classes, particularly the Ballet-focused ones, one called Adult Contemporary, and your BeMoved.
I am not currently enrolled in class–can I just go right ahead and sign up for what intererests me,… View Post shared via WordPress.com
How Do Generic and Brand Name Drugs Differ?
How Do Generic and Brand Name Drugs Differ? “Although generic drugs are chemically identical to their branded counterparts, they are typically sold at substantial discounts from the branded price. According to the Congressional Budget Office, generic drugs save consumers an estimated $8 to $10… View Post shared via WordPress.com
Need help controlling binge eating? Never fear, an...
Need help controlling binge eating? Never fear, an opioid receptor antagonist is here. Published in November 13′s Molecular Psychiatry, the results of a double-blind, one-month, placebo-controlled study found that an opioid receptor antagonist reduces a binge-eater’s preference for sweet, high-fat foods.
B. Timothy Walsh, a professor of… View Post shared via WordPress.com
October 2012
6 posts
September 2012
3 posts
The Simplest Move You'll Ever Make For Mental...
The American Psychiatric Association is asking for your help in creating mental health parity in the U.S.
The background of their call to action reads as follows:
“As we approach the fourth anniversary of the enactment of the Mental Health Parity and… View Post shared via WordPress.com
August 2012
15 posts
“U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a Chicago Democrat who took a hushed medical leave...”
– Jesse Jackson Jr. undergoing treatment for bipolar disorder, Mayo Clinic says
