At first blush the case of Esmin Green, a Jamaican immigrant who died unattended on the floor of a Brooklyn psychiatric emergency room, is outrageous. She’d been left in a chair in a waiting-room for 24 hours before falling off that chair and dying. It hardly seems possible that a patient requiring hospitalization would have […]

Over the last two weeks there have been a number of shooting-sprees across the US. The most recent was at Northern Illinois University. It turns out the shooter had been in treatment for a mental disorder:University Police Chief Donald Grady said Friday that Kazmierczak had become erratic in the past two weeks after he stopped […]

As I do most days I just did a Google News search on “bipolar disorder.” I noticed that most of the top-listed stories were about Britney Spears and her latest pathetic publicity stunt; I didn’t actually read the stories but from the headlines I surmise that rumor has it she’s bipolar.My first thought was, “Whew! […]

The initial series of posts are complete. You can view them in order at The Heart of the Matter. From here on, things will work just as any other blog does … I’ll offer occasional insights in the world of mood-disorder treatment, going into the future.

Unfortunately, I have few answers to offer to all of the many problems I’ve cited above (in my initial series of posts which you can read, in order, at The Heart of the Matter). They’re beyond my expertise, and in most cases, are beyond anyone’s skill, at this point.My message is simple: Despite the problems, […]

Let’s get down to one of the most contentious aspects of mental health care in the U.S., today. Managed care was invented in the early 1970’s, as a way to hold down spiraling health-insurance costs. It has since become an institution all its own, a true driving force behind how mental illnesses are treated — […]

I’ve referred to depression as a perception disorder, several times. I’d like to explore this in greater depth, as it affects how depressives relate to life. Note that I will be making some gross generalizations here — but even if these assertions don’t apply to everyone, experience has shown me that they’re valid observations nonetheless.Depressives […]

One of the problems with discussing clinical depression, is the word “depression” itself. Many people confuse a state of clinical depression — i.e. the mental illness that manifests as (sometimes periodic) states of sadness — with the normal depressed emotions that people experience from time to time. They are not the same, however. In fact, […]

Depression. Or, “clinical depression.” Whatever you call it, it seems to be everywhere, these days.Go into any bookstore, and you see dozens of volumes on depression, in the self-help or psychology sections. Ditto for many libraries. Watch television or listen to radio, and you’ll hear commercials for antidepressant medications. Read the newspaper and listen to […]

OK, so the last thing this world needs is another blog … ! I hope this will be different than most, however, since I plan to focus on mood disorders (depression and bipolar disorder, once called “manic depression”) and their treatments, from the point of view of having one. I’ll look at developments in the […]