Lunch is okay, but pencils are not

Pharma wriggles
Full Story | Topics: education, ethics, pharmaceutical | Comments (0)

When the press gets it right. . .
Three items of note
Full Story | Topics: addiction, anxiety disorders, depression, press, reform, schizophrenia, stigma | Comments (0)

Drug to stop smoking
Patients can be burned by side effects
Full Story | Topics: addiction, pharmaceutical, research | Comments (1)

When disclosure isn't enough
Pharma, the APA, and the media
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About the APA
Highlights. . .
Full Story | Topics: bipolar disorder, medication, recovery, schizophrenia, therapies | Comments (0)

What's in an FDA approval
FDA approval, watchdogs and court cases: what this means for you
Full Story | Topics: depression, FDA, legal, medication | Comments (0)

New York City steps up
New York City opens help for 9/11 victims still struggling with mental health or substance use disorders.
Full Story | Topics: anxiety disorders, disaster, PTSD | Comments (0)

Shame on McCain
Would John McCain's policy of excluding pre-existing conditions effect people needing mental health care?
Full Story | Topics: insurance, politics | Comments (0)

All hail a muscular press
Hail a muscular press
Full Story | Topics: hospitals, politics, press, states | Comments (0)

Insurance, business interests favor Senate's parity bill
Insurance, business interests favor Senate's parity bill
Full Story | Topics: Congress, insurance, politics | Comments (0)

Wellstone Equity Act needed
Wellstone Equity Act needed
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More on pharma influence
More on pharma: tracking prescribing habits of doctors, and the FDA.
Full Story | Topics: courts, FDA, pharmaceutical, policy | Comments (0)

Pharma influence grows
Pharms spends more on lobbying while we spend more on drugs.
Full Story | Topics: Congress, pharmaceutical, politics | Comments (0)

Northern Illinois University
Events at Northern Illinois University remind us that complex problems need complex answers.
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Bush budget bad news
Phyllis Vine

With 84 million people suffering from mental illness and substance abuse disorders, Bush budget proposals are entirely insufficient. Now it's up to Congress, and the rest of us to respond.
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Mental illness and public safety: let’s tell the truth
by Phyllis Vine

As measures to protect public safety with gun laws move through state houses, too often the word “dangerous” is being used to modify “mental illness.” Do laudable efforts to halt violence belong on the shoulders of people with a mental illness? Isn't it time we started to wrestle with the truth?
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, stigma, testimony | Comments (2)

FDA's "no comment"
by Phyllis Vine



Despite complaints over several months about side effects when substituting Budeprion XL 300, a generic antidepressant for the branded Wellbutrin 300 XL, the FDA has taken no steps to alert consumers or physicians.


Full Story | Topics: FDA, medication | Comments (0)

The other 398,150
by Phyllis Vine

How does strengthening commitment laws help people who need service in the community? Budget shortfall or not, Virginia needs to do more than pay lip service to needed reforms.


Full Story | Topics: community care, hospitals, human rights, legal, politics | Comments (0)

This campaign misfired
by Phyllis Vine

The Child Study Center withdraws "Ransom Notes."


Full Story | Topics: ADHD, advocacy, children, depression, eating disorders, OCD, stigma | Comments (0)

Florida calls for end of trans-institutionalization
by Phyllis Vine


A bold report to Florida's governor recommends sweeping changes to address failures in the criminal justice and mental health system. “Transforming Florida’s Mental Health System" can guide significant reform.


Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community care, courts, diversion programs, housing, human rights | Comments (1)

. . .from the APHA, Nov. 5-7
by Phyllis Vine
The American Public Health Association annual meeting in Washington, DC, has a number of events discussing a range of issues from Monday's session on empowering consumers in mental health treatments to disaster preparedness, school based reforms. Read summaries of selected sessions, including Dr. Ron Manderscheid's presentation about PTSD and returning vets.


Full Story | Topics: advocacy, consumers, disaster, military, PTSD, research, stigma, suicide, workplace | Comments (0)

Generic antidepressant not equal to patented product
A generic antidepressant has different action and side effects.


Full Story | Topics: depression, FDA, medication, pharmaceutical | Comments (1)

Meeting the crisis in veteran health
Rates of combat-related PTSD, anxiety disorders and depression are climbing off the charts for veterans and their families. But will competing blue-panel commissions slow progress in closing the gaps in the veteran health crisis?
Full Story | Topics: Congress, military, politics, PTSD, Veterans Affairs | Comments (1)

"Canvas:" A family portrait
by Phyllis Vine
"Canvas" is an honest and textured portrayal of an ordinary family managing the uncertainties schizophrenia brings to their lives. Marcia Gay Harden (Mary), Joe Pantolino (John) and Devon Gearhart (Chris) give stunning performances of living on the margin of Mary's illness and hospitalizations while they face an uncertain future. Writer and director Joseph Greco writes without sensationalizing a painful story.

Full Story | Topics: family, insurance, schizophrenia | Comments (0)

Wall Street eyes psychiatric care
by Phyllis Vine
Wall Street believes there's money to be made in conglomerates owning psychiatric services. Some of these companies have been acquiring hospitals and treatment programs in anticipation of changing federal law. What does this mean for who shapes treatments leading to recovery, and who benefits?
Full Story | Topics: hospitals, insurance | Comments (0)

The SCHIP debate heats up
by Phyllis Vine
An MIWatch Commentary addresses the intense reaction to the Bush administration's edict revising the States Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Full Story | Topics: children, Congress, insurance, politics | Comments (0)

Why SCHIP matters to the mental health community
by Phyllis Vine
The States Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has huge implications for access to mental health providers and sustained treatments for an additional 3.3 million kids. Who could object?
Full Story | Topics: children, insurance, politics, therapies | Comments (0)

Representative Patrick Kennedy on Parity
Testimony of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) before the House Ways and Means Committee on Health, March 27, 2007, on behalf of mental health parity insurance.
Full Story | Topics: insurance, testimony | Comments (0)