Did You Know
One-in-four nursing home residents received antipsychotic medication.

Read more on the website of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality about antipsychotic medicines that were used to control "behavioral symptoms of dementia, such as agitation, irritability, and aggression. This was despite an FDA warning in 2005 that antipsychotic use is associated with an increased risk for death."...

Posted on: March 11, 2010 | Comments (0)
Topics:
France dropped transsexuality from mental disorders.

"Last month, France became the first country in the world to remove transsexualism from its official list of mental disorders," writes Gaëlle Faure in Time Magazine. Read more....

Posted on: March 3, 2010 | Comments (0)
Topics: diagnosis
Researchers discovered a gene associated with depression and bi-polar disorders.

Read Genes and Circuitry, Not Just Clinical Observation, to Guide Classification for Research about the overlap of depression and bipolar disorder on Chromosome 3, one of the many genes researchers believe will one day influence classification, diagnosis and treatment....

Posted on: February 3, 2010 | Comments (1)
Topics: bipolar disorder, depression, genetics, research
The first conference sponsored by consumer/survivors was held in 1972.

Click here to download a pdf of The History of the Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Movement....

Posted on: January 27, 2010 | Comments (0)
Topics: advocacy, consumers
More children in Pennsylvania had access to mental health care than in any other state.

Click here to find your state. The average nationwide was 60 percent, with a low of 42 percent in Texas and a high of 82 percent in Pennsylvania. The 2007 statistics were compiled by the National Survey of Children's Health....

Posted on: January 6, 2010 | Comments (0)
Topics: children, mental health, states
Prescription drug prices rose nearly 9 percent in 2009.

Read more in the New York Times about the increase in the cost of drugs based on analysis by Credit Suisse and IMS Health which tracks the pharmaceutical industry. This amounts to $21 billion more than expected and the hikes anticipate changes in negotiation over drug pricing should health reform succeed....

Posted on: November 16, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: pharmaceutical, reform
Last year about 30.9 million people drove under the influence of alcohol.

Read more from the National Institute of Drug Abuse about patterns of drivers, age 12 and older, reporting alcohol and drug use....

Posted on: November 10, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: addiction, alcohol
Re-arrest for people with a mental illness is higher than for ex-inmates generally.

Read more about restoring benefits and re-establishing life in a community: LIFELINES: Linking to Federal Benefits for People Exiting Corrections published by the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law....

Posted on: October 30, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: community programs, jails, prisons
Syphillis accounted for about 20 percent of the admissions to mental hospitals 100 years ago.

Read more about this is in the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Illness....

Posted on: October 19, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: diagnosis, hospitals
Half the nation's marriage and family therapists are in California.

Read more about the disproportionate distribution of services to meet need in the October issue of Psychiatric Services....

Posted on: October 12, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: services
Lithium's effect was discovered accidentally by an Australian doctor experimenting with guinea pigs.

Read more about the process by whiche Dr. John Cade learned that lithium had a calming effect in the laboratory. To test the properties of lithium, Cade used took it himself before giving it to 10 patients on an experimental basis....

Posted on: October 5, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: bipolar disorder, depression, medication, research
Mental Illness Awareness week was first proclaimed by Pres. George Bush 20 years ago.

Read the proclamation signed 20 years ago, Sep. 29, 1989. This year Mental Illness Awareness week will be observed Oct. 4-11....

Posted on: September 29, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: advocacy
More than half of all prisoners in the United States have a mental illness.

Read more from the opening statement of Sen. Dick Durbin at the (Sept. 15, 2009) Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings, "Human Rights at Home: Mental Illness in U.S. Prisons and Jails."...

Posted on: September 16, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: human rights, jails, prisons
Twice as many adolescents who drink live with fathers who have alcohol disorders.

Read more about this study from SAMHSA....

Posted on: September 4, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: adolescents, alcohol
The cost of second generation atypical drugs average $10 a day.

"Off Label Use of Antipsychotic medications in the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System" appears in the September issue of Psychiatric Services. Abstract available....

Posted on: September 1, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: medication, Veterans Affairs
Three out of 10 people have a mental health crisis and two-thirds of them receive no treatment.

To read more from The Lancet series about global mental health services, download Barriers to Reform (pdf)....

Posted on: August 24, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: therapies, treatment programs
An equal number of Americans prefer status quo taxes instead of universal health insurance.

For information about this, and findings of other polls, see Kaiser Health News. The poll reflects a CNN opinion poll taken May 14-17, 2009....

Posted on: August 18, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: insurance, policy
POLL: Primary care and mental illness

. . .do you have both?

Posted on: August 18, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics:
Medicaid spent $137 for a day of home health service compared to $1447 for one day in the hospital.

Read more from a report titled Olmstead. from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health...

Posted on: August 3, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: community programs, housing, Medicaid, recovery
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most frequently taught evidence-based therapy during clinical training.

Read more about the lack of training clinicians in evidence-based therapies in "National Survey of Psychotherapy Training in Psychiatry, Psychology, and Social Work," by Myrna M. Weissman, et. al, in the Archives of General Psychiatry....

Posted on: July 27, 2009 | Comments (1)
Topics: psychiatry, research, therapies, treatment programs
Spending on antipsychotic medication reached $13.1 billion in 2007, third highest of all drugs.

Read more about atypical antipsychotic medication in Health Affairs....

Posted on: July 21, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: medication
Four in ten people with schizophrenia say they have gotten no treatment in the previous 6 - 12 months.

Read more about this in Schizophrenia Bulletin...

Posted on: June 29, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: schizophrenia, treatment programs
In China, 8 percent of those with a mental illness ever sought help.

Read more about this study of China between 2001 and 2005 in The Lancet....

Posted on: June 15, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: mental health
Medicaid accounts for 42 percent of state mental health revenues.

Read more about Medicaid and Medicare from National Health Policy Forum....

Posted on: June 11, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: Medicaid, Medicare
When there is a dual diagnosis, mood disorders are most likely to be associated with substance use disorders.

Read more about dual disorders from AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)....

Posted on: May 26, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: bipolar disorder, depression, diagnosis, drug use
It takes 17 years for scientific knowledge to become incorporated into routine practice.

Download Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century (2001), from the Institute of Medicine....

Posted on: May 14, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: psychiatry, research, therapies
Half of the counties in the US have no mental health professionals.

Read more of this testimony before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, April 30, 2009....

Posted on: May 5, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics:
Depression is a risk factor for suicide in the elderly.

Read more from the National Instutitue of Mental Health....

Posted on: April 28, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: depression, elderly, suicide
Bipolar disorder ranks 6th of causes of disability worldwide.

Read more from Psychiatric Services....

Posted on: April 20, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: bipolar disorder
200,000 teens were enrolled in residential treatment programs, wilderness camps, and boot camps in 2004.

Read more and download the GAO (Government Accounting Office) report at Teen Advocates USA....

Posted on: April 13, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: adolescents
More than 470,000 people sought mental health services from community health centers.

Read more about community health centers and Recovery Act grants....

Posted on: April 6, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: community programs, reform
Schizophrenia is more common than Alzheimer's.

Read more from the Merck Manual....

Posted on: March 29, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: schizophrenia
Florida opened the nation's first drug court 20 years ago.

Read more about Florida....

Posted on: March 9, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics:
Suicide rates are highest for people 65 and older.

Read more from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)....

Posted on: March 2, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: elderly, suicide
Clifford W. Beers founded Mental Health America 100 years ago.

Read more about the origins of the nation's oldest mental health advocacy organization (originally called National Committee for Mental Hygiene)....

Posted on: February 23, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: advocacy, reform
There are 76 million people with alcohol use disorders throughout the world

Read "Alcohol misuse needs a global response" in The Lancet....

Posted on: February 9, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: alcohol
Overall costs of substance abuse and addiction exceeds $500 billion.

Read more from the National Institute of Drug Abuse....

Posted on: February 2, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: addiction, drug use
Every 1% increase in unemployment, increases the pool of uninsured by 1.1 million.

Read more from the Kaiser Family Foundation....

Posted on: January 26, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics:
Suicide rates are highest among those 65 and older.

Statistics available from the National Institute of Mental Health....

Posted on: January 20, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: elderly, suicide
More than 95 % of the elderly receive their mental health services from primary care providers.

Findings from this study published in 1996 are repeated in a 2005 review of psychiatric epidemiology. Registration required to read more....

Posted on: January 12, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: elderly, psychiatry
Thorazine was originally intended for use as an anti-histamine.

To read more about the accidental discovery of this, and other drugs used in psychiatry, see Neuron....

Posted on: January 4, 2009 | Comments (0)
Topics: medication, pharmaceutical, research
Between 12% and 17% of combat soldiers take antidepressants.

Read the story in Time Magazine....

Posted on: December 29, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics:
In 1955, there were 560,000 people in state hospitals.

Read more about the movement to empty state psychiatric hospitals....

Posted on: December 15, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: hospitals
America spends one-sixth of the economy ($2 trillion) on health care.

Read more from America's Health Rankings....

Posted on: December 8, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: economy
Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were among the most expensive reasons for hospitalizations.

Download The National Hospital Bill from HCUP (Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project)....

Posted on: November 30, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics:
One in five hospitalizations is due to a mental disorder.

Read the report based on 2006 data from the Agency for Health Research and Quality....

Posted on: November 17, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: hospitals
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson, won five Oscars in the 1976 Academy Awards.

Read more about this film....

Posted on: November 10, 2008 | Comments (1)
Topics: hospitals
In 2008 Houston had more of its police force trained in crisis intervention than any other city.

Read more about this from the HPD crisis intervention team....

Posted on: November 3, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: police
School-based settings accounted for treatment for emotional or behavioral problems for roughly 3 million adolescents.

Read the report from the Office of Applied Studies....

Posted on: October 27, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: schools, students, treatment programs
Neuropsychiatric conditions account for 14 percent of the global burden of illness.

Read more in The Lancet....

Posted on: October 20, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics:
Nearly 70 percent of individuals with serious mental illness smoke.

Read this press release from the New York Department of Health....

Posted on: October 15, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: chronic illness
Journalist Nellie Bly went undercover in 1887 to write Ten Days in a Mad-House, an expose` of the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island.

Click here to read this book....

Posted on: October 10, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: hospitals
People with a psychiatric diagnosis accounted for 7.6 million hospital admissions in 2005.

Read the report from Healthcare for Uninsured....

Posted on: October 7, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: diagnosis, hospitals
The number of private psychiatric hospitals declined to 269 in 2000 from 475 in 1992.

Read more from a SAMHSA report (p. 56)....

Posted on: October 2, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: hospitals
The number of private psychiatric hospitals declined to 269 in 2000 from 475 in 1992.

Read more from a SAMHSA report (p. 56)....

Posted on: October 2, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: hospitals
Worldwide, more than 1 million people take their own lives every year.

Read more about this statistic from the UN....

Posted on: September 29, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: suicide
Boys are twice as likely as girls to be diagnosed with ADHD.

Posted on: September 23, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: ADHD, children
More than 11 million people with chronic health problems lack insurance.

Read more in an article in the New York Times....

Posted on: September 22, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics:
Phobias are the most common disorder for women.

Read more from Healthy Minds, a program of the American Psychiatric Association....

Posted on: September 20, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics:
Training police for crisis intervention started in Memphis, Tenn., in 1988.

Read more about activities of the Memphis police....

Posted on: September 17, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: diversion programs, police
345,000 people with a mental illness are in prisons.

Read more from the American Prospect....

Posted on: September 13, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics: ethics, human rights, military, prisons, psychiatry
Eighty percent of those not seeking treatment for mental illness or substance abuse cited cost.

Read more at Healthcare for Uninsured....

Posted on: September 9, 2008 | Comments (0)
Topics:
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