When attending college with mental illness, two different treatment options often present themselves: treatment by professionals or self-medication. When I was in college, more opportunities presented themselves for self-medicating. 

Mental illness is now more readily addressed in college institutions, and therapy is almost always included in the health plan offered by the school. The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 now enables a person with mental illness to obtain a "pass/illness/ disability card" from their treatment providers on campus to give to their professors offering varying school policies for extensions, and more time when taking exams. (Not everyone will need to do this, but it is valuable information to have.)

Read on

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder involving nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks linked to event "triggers" that develop after exposure to combat or other extremely disturbing events.

In the years following the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the actual number of veterans psychologically scarred by what they had encountered in the war became the subject of heated controversy.

Read on  

The rodents have a genetic flaw that prevents their brain cells from producing a protein called SAPAP3, according to a Duke University Medical Center-led study.

SAPAP3 plays an important role in the transmission of signals between brain cells.

Mice lacking this protein were afraid to move out of the corner of their cages and compulsively groomed their faces until they bled.

"The mice that could not produce this protein exhibited behaviors similar to that of humans with OCD, a compulsive action coupled with increased anxiety," team leader Guoping Feng, a Duke molecular geneticist, said in a prepared statement.

Read on  

Until this point, the agency hadn't approved any drug for the treatment of adolescent schizophrenia. For bipolar disorder, only lithium is approved for use in adolescents aged 12 and older.

"The FDA has approved Risperdal for treating schizophrenia in adolescents 13 to 17 and for the short-term [three-week] treatment of bipolar I disorder in children and adolescents 10 to 17," Dr. Thomas Laughren, director of the Division of Psychiatry Products at the agency's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said during a midday teleconference.

Read on