Last week I took a few days of leave from my job to join a group gathered with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation to problem solve on how to bring marginalized people into mainstream lives of value to them and their communities - including those with physical disabilities, mental...

On Monday October 26, 2009, a psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston was seriously assaulted by a patient in one of the hospital's psychiatric outpatient clinics. Are people with mental illness more violent? Incidents such as this one, while infrequent, are sensational and spread like a viral...

Over 40 years ago Maurice Sendak gave children and grownups a tale about a boy, family and fantasy that seems like it will last forever. With courageous creativity Spike Jonze has taken Sendak's book and produced a visually astounding and psychologically turbulent film that warrants recognition in its own right.

How many times have you seen on TV or read in the paper of a DUI (driving under the influence) to later find out this person has offended before? Someone is killed every 22 minutes in the USA from an alcohol related crash. Someone is injured in an alcohol related...

Co-written with Michael B. Friedman, LMSW

One in four Americans suffer from a mental or substance use disorder each year; 50% during the course of their lifetimes. In other words, these conditions are more common than diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Yet only 40% get any treatment for these common,...

Greek mythology tells the story of a great hero known for his personal beauty and contempt for others who make the mistake of falling in love with himself. The gods find their just punishment in having Narcissus gaze upon himself in a forest pool only to discover that his love...

This article is co-written by Henry Chung, MD.

One half of mental illnesses appear by the age of 14 and two thirds by the age of 24. These are the years when youth leave home for college or go on to university. In other words, mental illnesses, including alcohol and...

I recently was at the office of a specialty doctor for a skin problem I have had for some time. He is a distinguished clinician and teacher in his field and I have consulted him for seven years. My appointment was a routine monitoring visit to check to see if...

Our country has been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq for over eight years. Opinions vary powerfully about our entry into these wars and our exit strategies. But we are learning to separate our feelings about recent wars from its warriors. Support for American soldiers is strong, though I have...

Not so long ago the remarkable, and enormously successful, social commentator Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece in the New Yorker called "Late Bloomers". I recently reread it wearing my psychiatrist lens, particularly the lens of believing that people with mental illnesses can and do recover.

Gladwell's thesis, in my...

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly will pay the largest penalty ever, over $1.4 billion, to the US Justice Department for marketing a medication, Zyprexa®, without proof of its effectiveness with certain conditions and plenty of reason to be concerned about its side-effects. Other recent media reports have revealed how a number...

Over a year and a half ago, the NYS Commissioner of Mental Health, Dr. Michael Hogan, and I wrote a state agency advisory entitled Bipolar Disorder in Children: Why Are The Rates Rising?. This week a panel convened by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) recommended approval of three antipsychotic...

I was at a policy forum in early June in NYC convened after the release of two groundbreaking reports:

1. The distinguished Institute of Medicine's (IOM) report that urged early detection and treatment of mental and emotional disorders in youth.


2. The very influential US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations...

I read recently that the United States Air Force was "making available" the drug modafinil (Provigil®) to pilots on long missions. Modafinil is a type of stimulant approved by the FDA for narcolepsy and sleep apnea (resulting in severe daytime problems staying awake). I knew that stimulants like Ritalin® and...

New York City is solving homelessness, naysayers notwithstanding. According to the city's latest count, conducted on January 26, 2009, and released on Wednesday March 4,
there are an estimated 2,328 unsheltered individuals living in New York City, down from 3,306 a year ago, a 30% reduction. Brooklyn, the...