Posted on February 4, 2019
Forbes Health
The study in Nature Microbiology combined data from the microbiomes of 1,054 people enrolled in the Flemish Gut Flora project with self-reported and physician-diagnosed depression data. Using bioinformatics analyses, the researchers were able to identify certain groups of bacteria, which were either positively or negatively correlated with mental health. Two groups of bacteria in particular, Coprococcus and Dialister, were consistently found to be at low numbers in people with depression.
READ MOREPosted on February 3, 2019
NPR
In 2007, Ashoor Rasho and 12,000 other inmates with mental illness sued the Illinois Department of Corrections, alleging that the agency punishes inmates with mental illness instead of properly treating them. A settlement was reached in 2016, when the state agreed to revamp mental health care and provide better treatment. But a federal judge has ruled that care remains "grossly insufficient" and "extremely poor." The agency has not hired enough mental health staff to provide care to everyone who needs it.
READ MOREPosted on January 29, 2019
The New York Times
Reports on the use of music to cope with mental illness. Ronald Braunstein, who has bipolar disorder formed the Me2/Orchestra, which is comprised of musicians and supporters that have been touched by mental illness.
READ MOREPosted on January 8, 2019
Mother Jones
Chicago’s Cook County Jail is the biggest single-site jail in the United States. It’s also one of the biggest mental health care providers in the country. About a third of the jail’s 6,000 or so inmates have been diagnosed with a mental illness, and many of them were sent to the facility after the state reduced funding for hospitals and community caseworkers during the economic recession.
READ MOREPosted on January 4, 2019
Washington Examiner
Reports that the administration is urging states to change a rule that will give psychiatric patients more places to stay while they receive treatment for serious mental illness. The change would pay for Medicaid patients to get mental health care for up to 30 days in a facility, such as a hospital, even if it has more than 16 psychiatric beds.
READ MOREPosted on December 5, 2018
NPR
Reports that researchers have traced a connection between some infections and mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, shows that a wide variety of infections, even common ones like bronchitis, are linked to a higher risk of many mental illnesses in children and adolescents. The findings support the idea that infections affect mental health, possibly by influencing the immune system.
READ MOREPosted on December 5, 2018
Marketwatch.com: Moneyish
Provides expert advice on how to combat stress and depression during the most wonderful time of the year.
READ MOREPosted on December 3, 2018
The Hill
An opinion piece that looks at the fact that the shortage of psychiatrists who accept insurance in the United States is a serious problem and makes the case for policies that will encourage psychiatrists to take insurance by improving reimbursement and reducing the headache of taking insurance.
READ MOREPosted on December 3, 2018
The New York Times
Provides an in-depth look at the benefits of psychiatric advance directives (PAD) for patients with serious mental illness which allows them to specify the treatment they want if they become too sick to say so.
READ MOREPosted on November 28, 2018
USA Today
Reports that suicide rates are up 30 percent in the U.S., yet funding lags behind that of all other top causes of death, leaving suicide research in its "infancy."
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