In the News

The chaotic process of reuniting thousands of migrant children and parents separated by the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy poses great psychological risks, both short- and long-term, mental health experts said on Friday. So does holding those families indefinitely while they await legal proceedings, which could happen under the president's new executive order.

Before I worked behind the wire, I figured the people prowling our jails and prisons were the kind of sociopaths you see in films, like Tony Montana and Hannibal Lecter. But that changed with my first correctional psychiatry job back in 2015. I learned I was all wrong about the makeup of America's correctional population and quickly realized the correctional system has largely assumed medical care of our country's seriously mentally ill.

"I hate and love talking about suicide," Laura Green admitted to a group of food and beverage professionals Monday night. "It's a horrible thing to talk about; it's an important thing to talk about. It's a scary thing for me to talk about because I want it represented in a way that's appropriate."

CHICAGO — A spike in suicide rates in the United States has cast fresh light on the need for more effective treatments for major depression, with researchers saying it is a tricky development area that has largely been abandoned by big pharmaceutical companies.

U.S. health authorities said on Thursday that there had been a sharp rise in suicide rates across the country since the beginning of the century and called for a comprehensive approach to addressing depression. The report was issued the same week as the high-profile suicides of celebrities Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade.

Mental illness is a real issue which haunts many people; however, there is one particular demographic that is consistently overlooked—those who are African American. Many African Americans have created a culture where they are taught to keep your business to yourself, and if you need help, then talk to your pastor or suck it up because no one has time to deal with your whining.

Mary Rose O'Leary has shepherded three children into adulthood, and teaches art and music to middle-school students.

Despite her extensive personal and professional experience with teens, the Eagle Rock, Calif., resident admits she's often perplexed by their behavior.

"Even if you have normal kids, you're constantly questioning, ‘Is this normal?'" says O'Leary, 61.

When I was growing up, my father thought about ways to kill himself as regularly as I outgrew my shoes. There were pills to my penny loafers, carbon monoxide to my jelly sandals, razors to my Doc Martens. I was 4, 10 and 28 when he made his most damaging attempts.

We found him: on the side of the road, on the side of the bed, in my grandmother's garage where he'd tried to make a tomb of the giant powder-blue Oldsmobile we called Orca.

If you take Prilosec or Zantac for acid reflux, a beta blocker for high blood pressure, or Xanax for anxiety, you may be increasing your risk of depression.

More than 200 common medications sold in the U.S. include depression as a potential side effect. Sometimes, the risk stems from taking several drugs at the same time. Now, a new study finds people who take these medicines are, in fact, more likely to be depressed.