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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: mental illness

mental illness stories: 48 news summaries

21 - 40 of 48 Stories | << Prev 1 2 3 Next >>

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 Debate Swirls Over
 Purple Heart for PTSD 

Proponents say honor would reduce stigma; medal devalued, foes counter

May 19, 08 7:11 PM CDT
(Newser) - Members of the US military are debating whether Purple Heart medals should go to troops with post-traumatic stress disorder, the Military Times reports. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said, "It’s clearly something that needs to be looked at,” but foes argue it would devalue the honor for... More »

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US military • mental illness • PTSD • Purple Heart

NIU Shooter Saw Himself as Sensitive Victim

Kazmierczak's essays trace path from group home to dean's list

Apr 21, 08 12:39 PM CDT
(Newser) - Steven Kazmierczak didn’t leave a note before his deadly February shooting spree at Northern Illinois University, nor clues to his motivations on his computer or cell phone. But in essays for graduate-school applications, the Chicago Tribune reports, the future killer writes extensively about his life and his mental problems—... More »

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mental illness • school shooting • psychology • Northern Illinois University • shooting • Steven Kazmierczak • social work

Walker Reveals Pain of Multiple Personalities

Former gridiron star's book describes 'out of control' mental illness

Apr 15, 08 4:21 PM CDT
(Newser) - Former football star Herschel Walker has written a book revealing his struggles with dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. Walker says the disease was so serious it ruined his marriage and led him to endanger his own life, CNN reports. The 1982 Heisman Trophy winner blames the... More »

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mental illness • Herschel Walker • dissociative identity disorder

Book review

Politicians: They're
All Crazy

Blair, Bush, JFK all went nuts, argues ex-doctor and politician

Apr 15, 08 3:56 PM CDT
(Newser) - It’s no wonder George W. Bush and Tony Blair messed up in Iraq: They were crazy. At least that’s ex-British politician David Owen’s belief. In his new book, In Sickness and in Power, the ex-doctor explores the health of leaders throughout time. Bush and Blair were... More »

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Tony Blair • John F. Kennedy • mental illness • book reviews • leadership • book • George W. Bush • David Owen

Don't Expect a 20th Nervous Breakdown

Term goes the way
of smelling salts as experts seek accuracy

Apr 15, 08 10:11 AM CDT
(Newser) - “Nervous breakdown” has long been a catchall for psychological conditions as varied as depression and schizophrenia. But as psychiatric patients emerge from stigmatized isolation—and as the DSM fattens—scientists are chucking the antiquated term in favor of a more descriptive and accurate taxonomy. “I haven’t heard... More »

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depression • psychiatry • schizophrenia • mental illness • bipolar disorder • psychiatric disorders • nervous breakdowns

 She Painted Bolero 

Brain disease led Ravel to compose 'Bolero;' and a scientist to paint it

Apr 8, 08 11:14 AM CDT
(Newser) - Struck down by a degenerative brain disease, mathematician and scientist Anne Adams lost much of her ability to do even simple scientific tasks. But the disease also unleashed a fierce artistic creativity, as her brain rewired itself to compensate for the damage. Among her work is a painting that represents... More »

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dementia • art • mental illness • brain damage • pi • frontotemporal dementia • Ravel • Bolero

Schizophrenia Gene Find Surprises Scientists

Glitches vary from person to person

Mar 28, 08 6:08 AM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists have tracked down the genetic roots of schizophrenia, but in a surprising twist researchers found that the genetic errors to blame often vary from person to person, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The discovery suggests that multiple glitches in the genetic code are behind schizophrenia, with the exact combination unique... More »

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mental health • autism • schizophrenia • mental illness • genetic mutation • genes • genetic research

Feds Map Drug and Mental Problems by State

Vermonters smoke a lot of pot, Utah adults suffer high rate of mental ills

Mar 6, 08 8:25 AM CST
(Newser) - Vermonters smoke the most pot and Utah has the lowest drinking and marijuana rates among young people in the nation—but the highest rates of adults reporting mental health problems. Those are some of the nuggets uncovered in a fascinating new report by government researchers who made a state-by-state examination... More »

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cocaine • binge drinking • alcohol abuse • mental illness • marijuana • substance abuse • drug abuse • survey • underage drinking

House Passes Mental Health 'Parity' Bill 

Requires comparable insurance coverage for illnesses of body, mind

Mar 6, 08 3:00 AM CST
(Newser) - The House has passed a bill requiring most group health insurers to provide comparable coverage for treatment of mental illness and addiction as they do for physical illness, the New York Times reports. "Illness of the brain must be treated just like illness anywhere else in the body,"... More »

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Nancy Pelosi • health insurance • Senate • mental health • House of Representatives • mental illness • addiction

Super-Strong 'Skunk' Pot Linked to Psychosis

Officials debate reclassifying drug as seizures of potent dope soars

Feb 6, 08 12:21 PM CST
(Newser) - Seizures of a super-strong strain of marijuana nicknamed "skunk" have risen sharply in the UK and experts say it could be causing an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis, the Daily Telegraph reports. Skunk is up to four times more potent than regular herbal cannabis, and now accounts for 80% of... More »

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drugs • United Kingdom • schizophrenia • mental illness • marijuana

Co-Pilot Cuffed
in Midair After Breakdown

Toronto-London flight makes emergency landing in Ireland

Jan 30, 08 2:14 PM CST
(Newser) - An Air Canada flight from Toronto to London had to make an emergency landing Monday in Ireland after the co-pilot suffered a mental breakdown in midair, the Telegraph reports. The pilot started screaming God's name while at the controls of the Boeing 767; crew members removed him from the cockpit,... More »

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airline industry • mental illness • air travel • Air Canada • co pilot

Therapists Want End to Britney Diagnoses

Identifying mental illness through media inaccurate, dangerous

Jan 24, 08 8:20 PM CST
(Newser) - The media loves to publish experts' diagnoses of Britney Spears, but assessing a patient's mental condition from gossip columns is irresponsible—and it's giving therapists a bad rep, concluded some professionals at an American Psychoanalytic Association summit. "Brains don't have a checkbox," one analyst told the AP, but... More »

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media • Britney Spears • psychiatry • paparazzi • mental illness • psychology • bipolar disorder • therapist

Homeless Vets Spark Outcry: Haven't We Learned?

1,500 back from Iraq now in poverty

Jan 20, 08 4:22 PM CST
(Newser) - Iraq war veterans are suffering from stress, turning to alcohol, and falling into poverty—a fate that prompts some to ask whether the US has learned from tragedies of veterans past. Washington has identified 1,500 Iraq vets as homeless and helped about a third, but echoes of Vietnam persist... More »

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Afghanistan • US military • mental illness • homeless • PTSD • Iraq veterans • Iraq war

Army Lapses Led to Suicide
of Mentally Ill Soldier

Rate at all-time high
in Iraq, Afghanistan

Dec 20, 07 12:50 PM CST
(Newser) - Depressed and constantly reprimanded by his superiors, Pfc. Jason Scheuerman shot himself in his Iraq barracks in 2005—raising serious questions about how the military handles mental illness, the AP reports. Scheuerman's was one of a record 152 Army suicides in Afghanistan and Iraq, but his parents had to fight... More »

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Iraq • Afghanistan • suicide • depression • Iraq death toll • mental illness • US Army • Jason Scheuerman

Omaha Shooter Led Troubled Young Life

He spent time
in institutions for psychiatric problems

Dec 6, 07 10:42 PM CST
(Newser) - The Omaha youth who went on a shooting rampage in a busy mall spent much of his later teen years in institutions and foster care because of behavioral and psychiatric problems, CNN reports. Robert Hawkins' trouble began five years ago, when he was sent to a treatment center after threatening... More »

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murder-suicide • violence • mental illness • suicide note • shooting • guns

Iraq Vet Faces Life Over Suicide Try

Shrinks say she's mentally ill, but Army calls it 'psychobabble'

Dec 2, 07 4:15 PM CST
(Newser) - First Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside faces possible life in prison. Her crime? Attempting suicide in Iraq. At a military hearing this week, her diagnosed mental illness was spurned by superiors as an "excuse” and labeled “psychobabble." Suicide tries remain illegal in a military culture that scorns mental disorder,... More »

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Iraq • Saddam Hussein • prison • mental illness • psychology • Walter Reed Army Medical Center

FBI's Mental Health Gun-Ban List Doubles

Addition highlights scope of 'background check loophole'

Nov 29, 07 5:38 PM CST
(Newser) - Spurred by April shootings at Virginia Tech, new reporting of mental health data has doubled the number of Americans banned from purchasing guns on such grounds, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said today. Nearly 220,000 names have been added to the FBI list, highlighting the data-sharing gap that allowed shooter... More »

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FBI • mental health • list • mental illness • background check • Michael Mukasey • Virginia Tech shootings • gun ban • guns

Compulsive Shopping Linked to Mental Woes

Disorder affects both sexes equally

Oct 25, 07 10:13 AM CDT
(Newser) - Nearly 6% of the population suffers from compulsive buying, which is often linked to other problems with control and mood disorders, according to research in the American Journal of Psychiatry. About the same percentage of women and men are shopaholics, and addicts are likely to be young, near the limit... More »

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finances • psychiatry • antidepressant • shopping • mental illness • addiction • obsessive compulsive disorder • compulsive buying

Education Staves Off Alzheimer's

But seems to speed progress of disease once it sets in

Oct 23, 07 4:17 AM CDT
(Newser) - Higher levels of education help delay the onset of Alzheimer's, but once the disease takes hold, mental decline is faster among those with more schooling, researchers have found. Each year of  education is linked to a 2.5 month delay in accelerated memory loss, according to the study in Neurology.... More »

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elderly • dementia • medical research • mental illness • brain damage • neurology • Alzheimer's Disease

Va. Tech Never Knew of Shooter's Disorder

Cho was exposed to ridicule for condition

Aug 28, 07 5:28 AM CDT
(Newser) - Fairfax County school officials knew that the outcast student who shot dead 32 people at Virginia Tech had selective mutism, a serious social anxiety disorder that prevented him from speaking in many situations. But federal privacy laws blocked disclosure of that information to Virginia Tech, reports the Washington Post.  More »

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Virginia Tech • Seung-Hui Cho • privacy • mental illness • Fairfax • mutism • selective mutism

21 - 40 of 48 Stories | << Prev 1 2 3 Next >>


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