Who's Left Out of the DSM-5 Debate? Consumers and, it Appears, Science Writers
This was my final post as a blogger for Psychology Today.com. After two years and 110,000 page views, its editors decided my contributions "no longer met their editorial needs." Coincidence? You decide.
View ArticleWhat If Mental Illness is a Universal Experience? A Path Away from Stigma to...
An opinion piece, borne of personal experience and a decade of mental health reporting, arguing in favor of many proposed changes to the DSM-5 that would allow early intervention for common mental...
View ArticleThe stigma question: Interviewing "Real Faces" Behind Mental Illness
When I first pitched a series of stories exploring access to mental health care in the wake of state budget cuts, I expected to encounter some difficulty finding subjects.
View Article2013 Promises to Be Banner Year For Big Pharma
Depression, bipolar disorder, seasonal allergies, insomnia and gastro reflux disease (GERD) are just some of the "diseases" that tripled and quadrupled in the population thanks to direct-to-consumer...
View ArticleNew Uses For Bad Pills
Pharma isn't going to deliver disappointing earnings to Wall Street just because it has few new drugs coming online and has failed at its very purpose. It is recycling old for brand new uses.
View ArticleWhen The Publication Plan Is Ready, The Research Will Appear
Researching, writing and submitting papers to medical journals--and reworking and finessing them if accepted--is a demanding, time consuming job which drug companies have made into pay dirt.
View ArticlePenny-Wise, Pound-Foolish: The Price of Underfunded Community Mental Health...
In 2003, Texas decided only to treat three mental health diagnoses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. Everyone else—and everyone who suffered from these but was misdiagnosed or...
View ArticleLaura’s Law: A Program For Severely Mentally Ill People Who Refuse Treatment
A California law designed to help people who have serious mental illness and refuse treatment has only been fully implemented in rural Nevada County, north of Sacramento. San Diego County is...
View ArticleBudget woes gut mental health care in Chicago; Can Medicaid expansion ease...
Mental health providers in Illinois acknowledge that the state is in a dire budget situation. They say they have become more resourceful, finding ways to continue serving their patients and hope that...
View ArticleWill Risperdal Settlement Change Anything?
Many say the only justice that will get Big Pharma's attention is frog marching the CEOs off to prison and/or cutting them off from their lucrative public trough of Medicare, Medicaid and military...
View ArticleManaging mental illness in rural Northern California: Two women share their...
Reporter Alayna Shulman profiles two women living with mental illness in rural northeast California, where services can be scarce. “You’ve just got to keep going, and you’ve just got to cling to the...
View ArticleSome chronically homeless people haunted by mental health issues (Part 1)
Among Ventura County’s chronically homeless, 37 percent reported a mental illness in the 2015 count. Some officials believe the real percentage is likely higher because the annual survey relies on...
View ArticleIf off-label marketing is 'speech,' why even have the FDA?
It has always been legal for U.S. doctors to prescribe drugs for off-label uses but marketing of off-label uses has been illegal.
View ArticleAre mentally ill offenders in California jails safe?
On August 27, 2015, sheriffs at the Santa Clara County Main Jail found a 31-year-old inmate with a history of mental illness dead in his cell. His body was covered in feces and vomit. The medical...
View ArticleMentally ill fall deeper into crisis on the streets of California's Shasta...
“Every day is stressful out here," says 49-year-old Kim Stanley, who is homeless and suffers from mental illness. "You’re tired; you’re exhausted ... and when people treat you badly for no reason,...
View ArticleTwo deaths in one jail in one month: How are we treating mentally ill inmates?
California’s jails were built to hold inmates for relatively short sentences — usually just a few months. But now local law enforcement is grappling with how to hold offenders for long periods of time,...
View ArticleDisability agency blasts Sonoma County jail’s treatment of mentally ill
“We were really struck by the fact that people were incredibly acute in their need,” a disability rights attorney said after touring Sonoma County's main jail. “Higher than we’ve seen in units that are...
View ArticleFamily's experience helps Korean Americans change mindset about mental illness
The shocking call came a decade ago from campus police at UC Berkeley. Kwang Ho Kim's son, a straight-A student, had dumped all his clothes on the bed and set them on fire.
View ArticleWhen The Publication Plan Is Ready, The Research Will Appear
Researching, writing and submitting papers to medical journals--and reworking and finessing them if accepted--is a demanding, time consuming job which drug companies have made into pay dirt.
View ArticlePenny-Wise, Pound-Foolish: The Price of Underfunded Community Mental Health...
In 2003, Texas decided only to treat three mental health diagnoses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. Everyone else—and everyone who suffered from these but was misdiagnosed or...
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