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Honoring Psychiatrist Carl Bell
This August we lost a towering figure in American community psychiatry. Carl Bell, M.D., died suddenly on Aug. 2 at the age of 71. Among community psychiatrists, Bell was a luminary whose work on cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic factors in mental illness was seminal. Bell’s influence—as a clinician, researcher, educator, mentor, public health advocate, and activist—was vast, broad, and deep.
Treatments are Available for the So-called Winter Blues
As we move toward winter with shorter daylight hours and falling temperatures, many people begin to feel the cloud of seasonal depression. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that occurs seasonally, typically in the winter months. SAD is not just the winter blues – SAD is a subtype of major depressive disorder. It can also occur during summer, but it is much less common that time of year.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder and a Culture of Perfection
Body dysmorphic disorder is an obsessive-compulsive related disorder that has garnered some media attention recently. Contrary to the offhand way it sometimes referred to in the media, body dysmorphic disorder is a serious mental health condition with potentially severe consequences. Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder are preoccupied with what they see as flaws in their physical appearance. They believe they look ugly or abnormal. These flaws are not noticeable to others or only seem to others as very minor.
Possible Link Between Personality in High School and Dementia Risk
Can a person’s personality type in high school increase their risk of dementia late in life? A new study finds a connection between certain personality types and an increased risk of dementia later in life. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry in October 2019, looked at data on more than 80,000 participants in the Project Talent, a national sample of high school students in 1960, and Medicare data on dementia more than 50 years later, between 2011 and 2013.
Deep Brain Stimulation Shows Promise for People with Severe Depression
A new study finds potentially long-lasting benefits of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for people who have not responded to other treatments for severe depression. DBS is commonly used to treat Parkinson’s disease and it is also approved to treat epilepsy, essential tremor (a neurological disorder that causes shaking), dystonia (a movement disorder) and obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is being studied to treat other conditions, including treatment-resistant depression.