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Mental Health: Community and Coping

From bipolar disorder to depression to generalized anxiety disorder, About.com has a range of community forums to support those interested in mental health issues.

More on Mental Health:

Mental Health Spotlight10

Mental Health Blog with Apply Now

Shootings at Fort Hood; alleged gunman is mental health worker

Friday November 6, 2009

Thirteen people were killed and several more wounded in a shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday.

The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist at Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, has been taken into custody.

Hasan is a licensed psychiatrist and has treated soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder. Military officials say Hasan had recently received orders to deploy to Afghanistan.

For updates, see CNN.com.

Trauma Therapy from the Client's Perspective

Friday July 28, 2006

Bonnie Burton is a trauma survivor who writes about therapy from the inside. As a gifted writer, she conveys some essential truths about the process of therapy, and shatters some stereotypes along the way. Her experiences with good therapists and not-so-good therapists are essential reading for client and therapist alike.

Ms. Burton's own experience of therapy convinces her, for example, that trauma survivors don't always make the best trauma therapists. This is especially true if they never completed their own therapy. She has seen them react with fear and dissociation in response to traumatic material or negative emotions expressed in a session.

While we don't learn who her current therapist is, it is clear that they are working together toward healing. She writes with clarity and maturity; and without a chip on her shoulder. It is a privilege to publish an article from a guest author who is such an articulate therapy client. This article will help me be a better therapist.

Read Bonnie Burton's insightful article.

Resilience

Wednesday July 26, 2006
©Jupiter MediaWhy do some people develop post-traumatic stress disorder after a trauma and others remain symptom free? We are still trying to understand resilience, one characteristic of good mental health.

Researchers studying survivors of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack have been surprised to find many of them to be free of PTSD symptoms. Resilience was less common among people who were actually in the buildings or in the immediate area, but the researchers report that even for "highly exposed individuals" the frequency of resilience never fell below one third.

Read more about resilience and the World Trade Center research.

Sustained Release Schizophrenia Drug may be available Soon

Monday July 24, 2006
AstraZeneca announced last week that they have submitted a New Drug Application to the FDA for a sustained release version of their antipsychotic medication Seroquel (quetiapine). The company reports the new medication has a "short titration period" - meaning that patients may receive a therapeutically effective dose of the medication as soon as the second day of treatment.

Drug companies come out with new versions of their medications just before the patent on the existing version expires, but Seroquel's patent does not expire until 2011. Israel's Teva Pharmaceuticals filed an FDA request to produce a generic version of quetiapine last year and they were promptly sued by AstraZenica. Was this a factor in the early request for a sustained-release version? Read more...

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