Mental Disorders

If Your Adolescent Has an Eating Disorder: An Essential Resource for Parents By Timothy Walsh, M.D., and V.L. Cameron Oxford University Press/$9.95 It is heartbreaking to have a child with an eating disorder. But it's worse if you don't feel you have support, good information or a roadmap to recovery. This book, If Your Adolescent Has an Eating Disorder, is an excellent way to get grounded. It contains some of the best information you will find on the subject. In 2003, the nonprofit Annenberg Foundation Trust launched an Adolescent Mental Health Initiative, setting up seven commissions on mental disorders that begin between ages 10 and 22. The result: a mammoth treatise called Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders (2005)

Almost 50 percent of Americans will develop a mental illness at some point in their lives, a new study has found, and most will not receive the proper treatment. Researchers led by Harvard epidemiologist Ronald C. Kessler fanned out across the country to assess the rates of mental illness in dozens of U.S. communities in a survey conducted from 2001 to 2003. Thousands answered questions about their thoughts and behavior, in a detailed assessment called the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth revision)

Echoing Vietnam and other wars, combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan has triggered symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among many troops returning home. Researchers reporting in a medical journal today found that 15 percent to 17 percent of the combat troops who served in Iraq suffered from at least one of the three disorders - yet few sought help because they feared being stigmatized. A somewhat lower proportion, 11.2 percent, reported symptoms of mental distress after serving in Afghanistan, but most also kept their problems secret.

The ads seem to be everywhere, on TV, in magazines, doctors' offices, the Internet: Are you feeling tense? Having difficulty sleeping? Scared of criticism? If so, they suggest, the answer could be a pill -- an antidepressant, to be exact. The drugs that revolutionized the treatment of depression a decade ago now are increasingly used to treat anxiety disorders, mental illnesses that can cause paralyzing worry or intense fear of social situations. Caused by a deficiency in brain chemistry, the disorders can indeed be remedied by potent mood-altering medications such as Paxil and Effexor.

Is the incidence of mental depression rising? The best answer seems to be, no one knows, or will know until the world of medical science perfects diagnostic technique. But there is progress. In 1988, J. Raymond DePaulo Jr. of Johns Hopkins Hospital co-authored a book, Coping With Depression. Now, covering some of the same ground, he has a new book out, Understanding Depression, written with Leslie Alan Horvitz (John Wiley & Sons, 288 pages, $24.95, softbound) -- because so much has been learned in the interim, both as to the nature of such illness and as to its treatment.

The killing of a 9-year-old Frederick boy has prompted a renewed push for a state law that would keep sexual predators locked up after they have completed their prison terms. Supporters of the measure, which has failed three times in the Maryland General Assembly, say such a law would have saved the life of Christoper Lee Ausherman, who was sexually assaulted and killed in November. Authorities have charged Elmer Spencer Jr., 46, a man with a history of convictions for sex crimes, in Christopher's death.

THE ATTACK by Richard E. Vats on the rigor of Surgeon General David Satcher's report is long on rhetoric and short on science. The report reflects the best evidence on the epidemiology of mental disorders from the world's leading experts, who were contributors and reviewers for the document. As underscored by the Surgeon General, the worldwide magnitude of the problem of disability attributable to mental disorder is reflected in a recent study of the global burden of disease conducted by the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Harvard School of Public Health.

State psychiatrists said yesterday that Albert Sims, the 78-year-old accused of gunning down a neighborhood boy last summer in East Baltimore, suffers from a mental disorder and cannot stand trial.A hearing is scheduled for late next month to determine if Sims is a danger to society.Sims could end up at the state's prison for the mentally impaired, in a nursing home or released on bail until it is determined that he can be tried, said Mitchell A. Greenberg, his attorney.Greenberg said his client suffers from organic brain damage that went undetected until this incident.

Medical ethicists meeting in Baltimore yesterday unveiled a 20-point national proposal aimed at better protecting people with mental disorders who take part in medical research.The draft report, which will be formally considered Tuesday by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission at a meeting in Miami, calls for a raft of new regulations as well as a standing federal panel to weigh in on research involving individuals with impaired decision-making skills.Although the plan may undergo some last-minute revisions this week, it is expected to be approved.

Parents who have a mental illness are at a higher risk of abusing or neglecting their children, a Johns Hopkins University study has found.In a study of nearly 10,000 parents, 58.5 percent of those who abused their children suffered from a mental illness, as did 69.3 percent of parents who neglected their children, Dr. Yuriko Egami reported in a recent issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry."