Mental Illness

"We've Got Issues": Big Pharma might not be lying

Amy Tuteur, M.D. — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:20:00 PST

A hundred years ago it was rarely diagnosed in children. In the intervening timespan the number and type of diagnoses have exploded. Moreover, the number and type of treatments have also exploded. The favored treatment usually involves powerful medications with serious side effects. Big Pharma has made a fortune from these medications and is constantly searching for new variations to patent and sell.

"The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives"

Laura Miller — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:01:00 PST

Tyrannical invalids are a mainstay of literature -- the gold standard being Aunt Ada Doom in Stella Gibbons' classic comic novel, "Cold Comfort Farm" (highly recommended, as is the 1995 film starring Kate Beckinsale), who dominates her family from the bedroom where she has remained, largely unseen, since beholding "something nasty in the woodshed" as a child. Creative types know all about how an apparent weakness can be parlayed into a strength; many were sickly, shy or merely unathletic kids who turned to pen, paintbrush or chemistry set for consolation. What good is sitting alone in your room? Let us count the ways. As Brian Dillon, an Irish journalist and the author of "The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives," sees it, there's an "obvious and intimate link" between "health anxieties" (well-founded or not) and the genius of his celebrated subjects. For them, "hypochondria was both an illness and a cure."

There's a six-lane traffic jam in my head!

Cary Tennis — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:03:00 PDT

Dear Reader,

Republican politicians have no empathy

Joe Conason — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:11:00 PDT

In the lyrical conclusion of President Obama's speech on healthcare, he talked about the emotions and experiences that drove his late friend Sen. Edward Kennedy to work so tirelessly and passionately for universal coverage. He tried to describe what Kennedy must have felt as two of his children suffered through bouts of cancer. Ordeals such as those, said the president, had helped Kennedy to understand the "sheer terror and helplessness" of parents whose children are stricken by serious disease, and lack the means to save them.

After OCD: What next?

Cary Tennis — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:11:00 PDT

Dear Reader,

My 19-year-old son is out of control

Cary Tennis — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:15:00 PDT

Dear Cary,

Critics' Picks: Suicide boys

Heather Havrilesky — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:24:00 PDT

HBO's "Boy Interrupted," premieres Monday, Aug. 3, at 9 p.m.

The Army denies that combat stress causes homicide

Michael de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:19:00 PDT

The harsh combat in Iraq, including potential war crimes that were witnessed by soldiers, contributed to a series of brutal murders by soldiers based at this Army post near Colorado Springs after they returned home, according to a hard-hitting Army study released Wednesday. Many of the findings in the study, which was announced by senior Army brass at a press conference on the post, mirror those in Salon's Coming Home series, which identified a pattern of preventable homicides and suicides at Fort Carson among soldiers who served in Iraq with combat stress and failed to receive proper medical treatment.

My wife is bipolar. Should I leave and take the kids?

Cary Tennis — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:17:00 PDT

Dear Cary,

My mother is crazy -- what can I do?

Cary Tennis — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:10:00 PDT

Dear Readers,

There are four people living in my head

Cary Tennis — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:15:00 PDT

Dear Reader,

Tale of the secret Army tape

Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:45:00 PDT

In a story published yesterday, Salon reported on a surreptitious tape recording of an Army psychologist telling a patient last June that he had been pressured not to diagnose soldiers as having post-traumatic stress disorder. The soldier, whom Salon dubbed Sgt. X to protect his identity, recorded the Fort Carson, Colo., psychologist, Douglas McNinch, twice describing pressure to label soldiers with "anxiety disorder" instead of PTSD. The diagnosis of anxiety disorder could result in improper treatment and lower disability payments if the Army discharges a soldier from the military. "It's not fair," McNinch said on the tape. "I think it's a horrible way to treat soldiers."

"This report does not find pressure to change clinical diagnoses"

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:35:00 PDT

"I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD"

Michael de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:38:00 PDT

"Sgt. X" is built like the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he rode in while in Iraq. He's as bulky, brawny and seemingly impervious as a tank.

The monster inside my son

Ann Bauer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:42:00 PDT

On Feb. 14 I awaken to this headline: "Professor Beaten to Death by Autistic Son."

Soldier suicides skyrocket

Mark Benjamin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:59:00 PDT

The Senate Armed Services Committee hearings Wednesday on the rising suicide rate among U.S. ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan revealed some frightening new data, but did little to investigate the underlying causes of what is emerging as one of the darkest, most disturbing legacies of the wars.

Coming home: The conclusion

Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:04:00 PST

Two days after the election, the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, released a list of the 13 issues requiring "urgent attention and continuing oversight" from the new administration and Congress. Listen to any politician. Surf the Web. Open a newspaper. You can probably draw up a list yourself pretty quickly, given the recession, two wars and killer peanut butter.

"That young man never should have come into the Army"

Michael de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:50:00 PST

Late on the night of March 11, 2006, Kenneth Eastridge got in a fight with his girlfriend. It ended with his arrest for a felony.

"You're a pussy and a scared little kid"

Michael de Yoanna and Mark Benjamin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:46:00 PST

Fellow soldiers in Iraq called John Wiley Needham "Needhammer" for his toughness. They also saw him as somehow charmed, because the tall blond Army private from Southern California always seemed to be just far enough away from danger. People died next to Needham; Needham survived.

"Kill yourself. Save us the paperwork"

Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:54:00 PST

It was unseasonably warm for November in Colorado as Heidi Lieberman approached the door of the Soldiers' Memorial Chapel at Fort Carson. She walked past a few of the large evergreens that dot the chapel grounds and then entered the blockish, modern beige and brown chapel topped with a sharp, rocketlike steeple.