In over 20 years of teaching college classes, CUNY Professor Bill Ferns has met many students who were suffering from mental distress. Some were severe cases, such as the student he witnessed having a psychotic episode, while others were more subtle, like the student facing family pressure to go into a career he didn’t want or those who were overwhelmed trying to balance school and work. ...

The July 21rst edition of the NIH/NIMH Research News Update highlights new information that includes evidence-based prevention of suicide in the military, depression is more strongly related to stress rather than a gene, more on stimulants and sudden death, a brief one-time intervention helps to reduce sexually transmitted diseases in African American males, and the NIH to launch the "connectome" project of ...

The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) released a free video to promote awareness of the symptoms of depression and its potential treatments. In fact, they encourage public distribution of this video at schools, workshops, and other public functions. Preteen or adolescent males and females are the targeted audience. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psychotropic, and combined treatments are advoc ...

The Beck Institute, a non-profit organization headed by Aaron Beck, M.D., created The Soldiers Suicide Prevention to provide a central resource for suicide prevention mental healthcare services for the proud men and women of our fighting forces. Healthcare providers can also receive Cognitive Therapy-based suicide prevention training. As a strong supporter of our fine military personnel, I urge our readers ...

Today's "NIH/NIMH Research News Update" can be best described as brief yet very important. There is new information about the use of stimulant medication for ADHD and sudden death in children, cognitive therapy for depression to help at risk teens, Citalopram is no better than placebo in children with Autism, and the search to identify suicide risk factors for persons receiving anti-depressant treatment. ...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Mental Health (NIMH) have been somewhat quiet lately with the research news. For today's NIH/NIMH Research News Update, I rounded up several interesting new announcements/studies that include: potassium linked to schizophrenia, increased funds for suicide prevention, and ADHD medication linked to improved school performance. ...

This review covers an open access article* that investigates prevalence rates of adult non-medical (illicit) methamphetamine use. Check the end of this post for a link to download a free PD of the original journal article. This is truly a sad topic because chronic methamphetamine use can lead to not only major physical health problems, but also to psychosis, suicide, violent behavior, sexual promiscuity, an ...