Will Baum, LCSW

NYT:  Push to Market Pill Stirs Debate on Sexual Desire

[M]any experts say that unlike sexual dysfunction in men — which has an obvious physical component — sexual problems in women are much harder to diagnose. And among doctors and researchers, there is serious medical debate over whether female sexual problems are treatable with drugs. Some doctors advocate psychotherapy or counseling, while others have prescribed hormonal drugs approved for other uses.

Headlines (same survey) tell a story:  Talk therapy as good as antidepressants.  But Americans prefer drugs for depression.  Go figure.

Another for Memorial Day:  Embedded therapists protect National Guard members’ mental health.

“Some of the best conversations I have with them are at one in the morning in a Humvee during a training exercise”…The soldiers want to talk about everything, from the trauma they suffered in losing friends to family, job, finances and other post-deployment adjustment problems. He refers those with serious problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, for further help.

NYT on the rise of telemedicine: The Doctor Will See You Now. Please Log On.

“The technology has improved to the point where the experience of both the doctor and patient are close to the same as in-person visits, and in some cases better,” says Dr. Kaveh Safavi, head of global health care for Cisco Systems…

NYT on PatientsLikeMe.com and CureTogether.com:  When Patients Meet Online, Are There Side Effects?

Some people share their health information for the sake of the greater good. Yet they typically have no way of knowing whether their health profiles contribute directly to the development of more effective treatments — or are simply mined to create more effective drug marketing.

NYT: South Korea Expands Aid for Internet Addiction.

Thanks partly to government counseling programs, the estimated number of teenagers with symptoms of Internet addiction has steadily declined, to 938,000 in 2009, from more than a million in 2007, the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety said in April.  But the number of addicts in their 20s and 30s has been increasing, to 975,000 last year.

From NPR: Mental Health Apps: Like A ‘Therapist In Your Pocket’.

[On one app,] [t]hroughout the day at random times, a “mood map” pops up on a user’s cell phone screen. “People drag a little red dot around that screen with their finger to indicate their current mood”…Users also can chart their energy levels, sleep patterns, activities, foods eaten and more, she says.

In the military, mental health hospitalizations continue to rise.

Last year was the first in which hospitalizations for mental disorders outpaced those for injuries or pregnancies in the 15 years of tracking by the Pentagon’s Medical Surveillance Monthly report.

Grim report:  Mentally ill people are sent to jail more often than hospital.

As a result of the deinstitutionalization movement that began in the 1960s, though, “it is now extremely difficult to find a bed for a seriously mentally ill person who needs to be hospitalized,” Pavle and his co-authors write. In 1955, they write, there was one psychiatric bed for every 300 Americans. In 2005, there was one for every 3,000 Americans

An especially alluring set of news headlines at PsychCentral today:

• Scientists Closer to Finding Cure for Alcoholism
• Your Dementia Risk Rises if Spouse Has Dementia
• Electromagnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for Depression
• Some Mood Disorders Stay with Us As We Age
• Social Media Doesn’t Help in the Classroom
• Older Men Benefit From Talking About Sex
• Exploring Causes for Postpartum Depression
• Insight on Late-Life Depression