A new study suggests bipolar and schizophrenia should be classified as the same diseases. Australian psychiatrists are alarmed as they fear doing this could affect the way sufferers are treated.

Doesn’t it seem all too often that people are trying to lump mental illness under one common diagnosis or even a small handful?
There are hundreds of types of cancers, why is it so difficult to grasp the idea that there just might be just as many types of mental illnesses that should be handled very differently others?
I’m no expert by any stretch, but I would think classifying these two very different …read more

Well, this is an interesting new take on suicide prevention.
According to Byron L. Lam, M.D. of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, and his colleagues, “improved treatments of visual impairment and factors causing poor health could potentially reduce suicide risk.”
This news comes to me via Science Daily article Visual Impairment May Be Associated With Higher Suicide Risk, but the findings came to Lam and colleagues after a study (supported by grants from the National Eye Institute and the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health) that reviewed data from national health surveys taken between the years …read more

During Celebrity Health Week, I wrote two posts about schizophrenia: Celebrities and Schizophrenia and Tell Me More about Schizophrenia: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatments.
However, had I known about NAMI’s Schizophrenia: Public Attitudes, Personal Needs Web site I would have definitely included it.
The Web site:

Gives a summary of the schizophrenia survey. For example, did you know an average time period of eight and a half years passes between the time a person’s schizophrenia symptoms first surface until the time the person first receives schizophrenia treatment? You can also see the methodology of the survey.
Provides an analysis section, broken down into three parts …read more

I keep no secrets about my love affair with coffee; however, I know lots of folks steer clear of coffee because of the negative mental and physical effects it has on them such as making them nervous, jittery, unable to sleep, speeding up their heart rates, and in some cases even causing convulsions and delirium.
I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was…hmm…almost 20 years old, I believe, but I like to think in the last six years I’ve become quite seasoned. I know what brands I like and don’t like, I know the store chains with which I can trust …read more