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May 16, 2018

"Well, you look like you're doing great," my primary care physician cheerfully informed me.

I stared at her from the examination table in disbelief. I had just told her that I wasn't enjoying being with my children and was having trouble doing what needed to be done at work and at home. As a health journalist, I had interviewed dozens of physicians and psychologists. I knew that being unable to live one's life was the big red flag signaling it was time to get help.


May 16, 2018

WHAT WE EAT AND HOW WE eat it are closely associated with our emotions and mental health. A growing body of research is revealing not only the power of particular nutrients to increase well-being, but also the multifaceted ways in which our attitude and choices regarding food impact our state of mind.


May 16, 2018

In Stephen King's The Shining, the character Jack Torrance epitomises the popular horror trope of crazed killer who can no longer distinguish reality from hallucination. As Jack slowly descends into madness, he befriends a number of murderous spirits who eventually convince him to kill his wife and son – or die trying.


May 16, 2018

"I'm not able to authorize payment."

It's a line I've heard many times in the five years I've been practicing psychiatry, so I was ready for it. I'd been on the phone for 45 minutes telling the insurance company representative how my patient came into the hospital emergency room so depressed he could hardly function. How he'd missed nearly every day of work for the last few weeks and was close to losing his job.


May 16, 2018

In an interview last year, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Munchin told Axios that job automation was "not even on our radar screen," citing that the risk was still "50 to 100 more years away." But even if an employment apocalypse doesn't come to pass, fear of an automated future may be making Americans sicker today, according to a study published recently in the journal Social Science & Medicine that shows a correlation between automation risk and worsened physical and mental health at the county level.


May 16, 2018

At a growing number of research centers across the country, scientists are scanning brains of patients with depression, drawing their blood, asking about their symptoms, and then scouring that data for patterns. The goal: pinpoint subtypes of depression, then figure out which treatments have the best chance of success for each particular variant of the disease.


May 16, 2018

HUMACAO, P.R. — A social worker, Lisel Vargas, recently visited Don Gregorio at his storm-damaged home in the steep hillsides of Humacao, a city on Puerto Rico's eastern coast near where Category 4 Hurricane Maria first made landfall last September.


May 8, 2018

Black Californians are more likely to experience mental health problems than other ethnic groups, and they are less likely to get the care they need, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study, by Santa Monica-based Rand Corp., shows a connection between untreated mental health problems and multiple absences from work, which can take an economic toll on individuals and families in the form of lost pay and even lost jobs. That dynamic disproportionately affects communities of color.


May 8, 2018

Even surrounded by fellow commuters, scanning a phone that connects you to thousands of peers, you sometimes can't help but feel lonely. If that describes you, rest assured: You're not alone.

In fact, in a new survey from the health insurance provider Cigna, nearly 50 percent of American respondents reported feeling socially isolated. More surprisingly, the most afflicted group in the survey wasn't the retired or elderly, as is traditionally believed. Instead, it was young adults: Gen Z-ers—those currently between 18 and 22 years old—are the loneliest generation.


May 8, 2018

Military personnel may be endangering their own brains when they operate certain shoulder-fired weapons, according to an Army-commissioned report released Monday.

The report, from the Center for a New American Security, says these bazooka-like weapons pose a hazard because they are powered by an explosion just inches from the operator's head.