This week at Mental Health Notes, I recommended checking out John La Puma and the book he wrote with Rebecca Powell Marx, Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine, as well as I Dose, which claims to be “the perfect Binaural Beats experience.” I also introduced you to Frank Calloway and the Cover America Tour, and then asked you what you thought about Barack Obama’s stance on mental health parity and to share good stories about mental health.

In the world of mental health news, UC Irvine researchers may be quickening the pace to finding more effective medications to treat panic disorders now that they’ve found out how to “switch off” the traumatic feelings bad memories can bring about, and Oregon Health & Science University researchers may have a drug that could help people addicted to alcohol quit drinking. An international group of researchers have found that the proteins that modify DNA are more expressed in people who commit suicide and may help identify underlying causes of depression, while another group of researchers supported by the National Institute of Mental Health may have discovered why some mothers develop postpartum depression and others don’t.

Regarding mental health advocacy, Dr. Waqas. A. Awan would like to pass along news of the new Web site MyFamilyHealth.com, which “allows people to connect with their relatives and track family health history.” The DBSA’s 2008 National Conference: The Power of Peers is drawing closer (September 10-14), and you can still take advantage of Advance Rates if you register before August 3.

Here at b5media’s Health & Wellness Channel, we’re as busy as ever! Mental Health Notes was featured at Best Health Mag yesterday, and a whole slue of us is in the Health & Wellness Channel are in included in eDrugsearch.com’s “The World’s Top Blogs On Health and Medicine.” Liz at Alzheimer’s Notes shares an informative video about the “creation of Leeza’s Place, an oasis for caregivers and loved ones dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease,” and Angelique at Breaking the Mirror issues a call for advice for a man suffering from postpartum depression and an eating disorder. Susan at Grounded Fitness explains why yoga can help make you happy, and Grace at Kids Health Notes offers a nice round up of blog contests and giveaways, while Karen at Pink Ribbon Review talks about the benefits and downfalls of emotional writing.

Oh, and Kristen at Lively Women has one of the worst. bruises. ever.

If you have something you’d like featured in next week’s Saturday Sanity, shoot me an email with “Saturday Sanity” (or similar) in the subject line and we’ll take it from there!

Image: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Saturday Sanity: Tons Of New Mental Health Research

Friday I asked you if mental health was going to play a role in the way you voted this November, and coincidentally, I received an email from Barack Obama Saturday letting me know about his stance on mental health parity.

Yeah, I know, I didn’t really get an email from Barack Obama, but after I sent an email to the candidates (thanks to a Mental Health America campaign), at least one of Obama’s people took the time to let me know about his stance on mental health parity.

Anyway, I thought I’d share the email with you lovely readers:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting me about mental health and the treatment of mental illness. As you may know, mental illness affects approximately one in five American families, and we must do more address this issue. The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that untreated mental illnesses cost the U.S. more than $100 billion per year. As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, I worked to improve mental health services for people with serious problems who are going untreated and undiagnosed.

It is important to end discrimination against those with mental illness, and that’s why I support the bipartisan Paul Wellstone (D-MN) Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, an updated version of legislation that Senator Wellstone championed for over a decade in Congress. This bill works to end discrimination against people suffering from mental illness and addiction.

I also support mental health parity. When suicide is responsible for more deaths in America than AIDS and homicides combined, we must act. That’s why I have championed efforts to improve awareness of mental illnesses and provide timely and appropriate treatment, and why I cosponsored the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007. Parity means that we don’t allow group health plans to impose treatment or financial limitations on mental health benefits that are different from those applied to medical or surgical services. The bill closes the loopholes that allow discrimination in coverage that does not apply to other illnesses.

I’m proud of my record on this issue. I helped pass mental a health [sic] parity bill as an Illinois state senator that requires coverage for serious mental illnesses to be provided on the same terms and conditions as are applicable to other illnesses and diseases.

Thank you again for contacting me on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

So, there you have it.

I haven’t yet received a response from John McCain (and I doubt I will; the moment I sent the email to Barack Obama, I received an email letting me know they received my email and would respond when they could, but I didn’t receive such a confirmation or promise from McCain’s people), but you can read McCain’s Mental Health Statement, which was his response to the questionnaire the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) sent all candidates a while back.

I was much more pleased with the contents of Obama’s email than I was the contents of McCain’s Mental Health Statement. Actually, McCain’s Mental Health Statement ticked me off a little bit. But, more on that later.

In the meantime, what do you all think of what Barack Obama (or, Barack Obama’s people) had to say in his email?

The above image is owned by fellow West Virginian transplanted mountaineer and is being used according to these Creative Commons attributions.

Post from: Blisstree

What Do You Think Of Barack Obama’s Stance On Mental Health Parity?