It is disturbing that about 4% of patients in mental hospitals have used razor blades, knives, or broken glass to slash themselves on the arms or legs or body. (That number is approximately fifty times larger than in the population as a whole.) Of these people, most are in their twenties, three out of four [...]
The predisposition to depression definitely runs in families. Studies have shown that the “first-degree” relatives—parents, children, and siblings—of depressives are two or three times more likely to become depressed than the relatives of a normal control group.
The genetic link is particularly strong among manic-depressives, approximately 50% of whom have at least one parent afflicted with [...]
It is a mysterious fact of human nature mat patients are generally not compliant. They don’t take
their full dose of penicillin, they forget to bring their blood pressure pills on weekend trips, and they self-regulate, increasing or decreasing the dosage, often by at least 40%. Studies have shown that only 50% of the time do [...]
The sensational press coverage that Prozac has received is due partly to the growing public awareness of depression over the past two decades. Educational programs sponsored by groups such as the American Psychiatric Association, the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association, and my own Foundation for Depression and Manic Depression in New York City, have helped [...]
Between 1.3% and 10.1% of all American women suffer from bulimia nervosa, a serious, sometimes even fatal syndrome that causes them to attempt to control their weight by alternating binges of compulsive eating with vomiting and laxative abuse. A study of 387 bulimic women divided them into three equal groups. One group was given 20 [...]