Do people have mental health illnesses, diseases, disorders, or conditions? — Formerly, social stigma and personal shame clipped the wings of many who wanted to discuss their mental health experiences. Now people flock to the internet to share stories of living with mental health conditions. But what terms should reporters, therapists, doctors, or anyone else use to discuss other people’s depression…

A little knowledge can help prevent panic and other complications. — “Hey, I don’t use street drugs, why would I have to worry about withdrawal?” Millions of Americans, if they even consider the topic, probably hold similar thoughts. But tens of millions of Americans this year faced involuntary interruptions of their medication supplies. Whether you take prescription medications, street drugs, or…

Ketamine works for depression and pain, but evidence beyond that is weak. — As so often happens with my adult ADHD patients, Mike zoomed into our online session 14 minutes late, buzzing with excitement. “Why didn’t you tell me that ketamine works for ADHD? I’m gonna try it!” He had just watched several videos on websites for ketamine infusion clinics, touting the powerful…

Your connections add more than just fun to life. — Friends and fun go together, and it’s not just alliteration. We go bowling and hiking with our friends. We share books and podcasts and jokes. We explore new shops together. We join in meals and concerts and shows. Movies and television shows highlight the joys of friendship. Friends enrich our…

Melatonin works better to reset clocks than to sedate humans. — Melatonin use in the US surged five-fold over the last twenty years, driven by people looking for a natural and accessible remedy for problems with sleep. But compared to many prescription sleep medications, melatonin is only mildly sedating. Melatonin’s major mode of moderating sleep is through effects on our internal…

Confusion and stigma contribute to misidentifying mental health conditions. — Troubles with diagnosis plague psychiatry. We lack simple, objective biological measures, such as genetic markers, brain images, or blood tests, to definitively identify particular disorders. If the psychiatric labels we’ve defined don’t match actual biological conditions, then we are unlikely to ever find useful biological markers.

Comedy’s compatible with teaching about science and medicine. — Trigger warning: this article may contain jokes that some people don’t consider funny. But it contains no guns, nor, to beat a dead horse to death, steeds of the Lone Ranger. Why do writers so often use humor in articles about politics and current events, or in memoirs, yet shun…

Gender agendas control who has access to male hormones. — The FDA designates as controlled substances a number of highly addictive and dangerous medications, like opioid painkillers and stimulants. But the list of controlled substances also contains one natural chemical produced in the bodies of all men and women: testosterone. …

Zuranolone looks like a game-changer for postpartum depression — Women are twice as likely as men to become depressed. Depression is most likely to strike women at the end of pregnancy, what we call postpartum depression. (PPD). PPD is more common than any other medical complication after delivering a baby, occurring in as many as 17% of new mothers…