Tag Archives: Mental Health

New Health Care Law

Health Reform has a Mental Health Trojan Horse

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The new coverage of mental illness covers a vast array of the “worried well,” who have no neurological or mental disorders but simply have problems in living:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, “One in 5 Americans will have a mental health illness this year and almost half will have a mental illness in their lifetimes. Yet 10 million people didn’t get the mental health care they needed last year, and 20 million didn’t get substance abuse services.”

[Yet] the American Psychiatric Association (APA) claims that more than 50 percent of Americans are mentally ill in their lifetime – and recent APA studies dwarf that statistic. Moreover, the problems that qualify as “mental disorders,” all those listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), are virtually without limit.

Interesting Links

Hits & Misses – 2009/8/25

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Canadians go to Detroit for care: sometimes Canada pays the bill.

More than half of ER nurses have been assaulted on the job.

Video games have mental health benefits.

Colleagues complain about doctor who helped Wikipedia publish 10 Rorschach ink blots. (Think what could happen next: revealing the secrets of shamans and witch doctors?)

This economist says we don’t spend enough on health care.

Interesting Links

Hits & Misses – 2009/3/23

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A wee bit of good news for carnivores. “The incidence of all cancers combined was lower among vegetarians than among meat eaters, but the incidence of colorectal cancer was higher in vegetarians.”

People who believe in the afterlife make the greatest effort to avoid it. “Terminally ill cancer patients were nearly three times more likely to go on breathing machines or receive other invasive treatments if religion was an important part of their decision-making process.”

What’s the right pace for moderate exercise? Channeling the Bee Gees as you move comes very close.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCAjmuA1HDk 

“Staying Alive”

Interesting Links

Hits & Misses – 2008/12/16

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The More They Scan, the More They See. This is actually an interesting problem, explained exquisitely (as usual) by Gina Kolata in a piece in the New York Times:

Scans – more sensitive and easily available than ever – are increasingly finding abnormalities that may not be the cause of the problem for which they are blamed.

"Oh, my God, look at all those abnormalities. They might be dangerous," said one doctor. "Some are, some aren't, but it ends up leading to a lot of care that's unnecessary."

But how does anyone know what's abnormal? Patients getting scans are people with problems. Most people don't get a scan if they are feeling just fine.

A Touch of Class. "Imagine you're in a dark room, running your fingers over a smooth surface in search of a single dot the size of this period. How high do you think the dot must be for your finger pads to feel it? A hundredth of an inch above background? A thousandth?" [link]

Answer: One micron high, or 1/400,000th of an inch.

Some Chinese Get Mental Health Care, Even if They Don't Need It.

Local officials in Shandong Province have apparently found a cost-effective way to deal with gadflies, whistle-blowers and all manner of muckraking citizens who dare to challenge the authorities: dispatch them to the local psychiatric hospital. [link]