In the News
Anorexia, bulimia and binge eating affect tens of millions of Americans, but eating disorders remain very difficult to treat, in part because it's not clear what goes wrong in the brain.
"We don't really have a lot of information on what kind of brain changes, what kind of underlying pathology may be not only contributing to brain disorders, but also caused by brain disorders, as induced by an altered diet," said Dr. Sabina Berretta, scientific director of the brain bank — formally called the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center — at McLean Hospital.
The anxiety keeps coming in waves.
And right now, for Fernando Hernandez and the hundreds of thousands of young DACA recipients whose fate lies in the hands of a polarized Congress and a mercurial president, the despair is crashing in.
Mady Ohlman was 22 on the evening some years ago when she stood in a friend's bathroom looking down at the sink.
"I had set up a bunch of needles filled with heroin because I wanted to just do them back-to-back-to-back," Ohlman recalls. She doesn't remember how many she injected before collapsing, or how long she lay drugged-out on the floor.
A growing shortage of psychiatrists across the U.S. is making it harder for people who struggle with mental illness to get the care they need — and the lack of federal funding for mental health services may be to blame.
After the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last month, President Trump promised to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health." But his 2019 budget proposal doesn't devote much funding to mental health care.
Ever since the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., law enforcement and other officials have been calling for changes in the Baker Act, a Florida law that allows involuntary commitment for 72 hours of people who are an imminent danger to themselves or others. If the Baker Act had been easier to deploy, they think, Nikolas Cruz, the accused shooter, would have been taken and treated before his horrible act.
However this law may be reformed, it will never be able to get people with serious mental illness the treatment they need.
Right now, Florida first responders can get medical coverage under workers' compensation, but not lost wages, if they are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder on the job. The Florida Senate approved a bill last weekend that would cover lost wages for first responders with PTSD, and the House followed suit on Monday.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott is now saying he will sign the bill.
Police departments nationwide have started teaming up officers with therapists in situations involving the mentally ill, largely in the hope of avoiding the type of incident that recently landed a New York Police Department sergeant on trial for murder.
Michael Callahan, an outgoing 43-year-old carpenter, landed in a Los Angeles County jail last September because of what he said were "bad decisions and selling drugs."
He had uncontrolled diabetes and high blood pressure when he arrived, but his health was the last thing on his mind. Consumed by a meth addiction, he hadn't taken his medications for months. "When I got here, I was a wreck," said Callahan, who is stocky and covered in tattoos. "My legs were so swollen that if I bumped them they would break open."
Lawmakers will begin debate next month on a bill that would require doctors to screen new moms for mental health problems – once while they're pregnant and again, after giving birth.
But a lot of doctors don't like the idea. Many obstetricians and pediatricians are afraid to screen new moms for depression and anxiety.
Pregnancy is often portrayed as a wonderful time in a woman's life, filled entirely with happy and hopeful emotions. And it is, for some lucky women. But the reality for a large percentage of pregnant women doesn't match this image.