As a lifelong overachiever, I always thought I could handle stress well. In my early years of high school, I juggled varsity sports, music, clubs, debate, work, and a busy social life, all while maintaining straight A’s. I had dreamt of attending an Ivy League university since I was 12, and in high school, I did everything in my power to make that a reality…
Introducing RE-SET: A New Program for Young People with Risk Factors for Psychosis and Related Conditions
For the last 25 years, there has been progressively greater interest, from clinicians as well as researchers, in the prevention of psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. As a result, programs have been established worldwide to treat young people who are at higher risk for developing psychosis, often referred to as “clinical high risk.” This summer, the Resilience and Prevention Program and the Psychosis Clinical and Research Program of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry partnered to create the Resilience Evaluation-Social Emotional Training (RE-SET) Program. RE-SET is a specialized outpatient program…
“Subclinical” Psychotic Symptoms in Adolescents: What Do They Mean?
Mental health disorders such as ADHD, depression, and anxiety are routinely screened for in pediatric practices (1), so that children and adolescents who may have these conditions receive the help they need as soon as possible. However, psychotic symptoms that are “subclinical” – that are not severe enough to be considered a true psychotic symptom but are similar in content to a psychotic symptom—are not typically assessed by pediatricians…
Risk Factors for Serious Mental Illness: Not Just “What,” but “When.”
As with most medical illnesses, risk for mental health problems depends both on things we can control, and things we cannot. Primary care doctors tell us that our risk for having a heart attack is increased if we are older, or if we have a family history of heart problems – but also if we are overweight, smoke…
Prevention in Psychiatry: Why Now?
Advances in the prevention of medical illnesses have transformed the human experience and lengthened the human life span by several decades during the past two centuries (1). Examples of these advances include modern sanitation and clean water initiatives, early childhood and adult vaccines, antibiotics, and more recently, the range of clinical tools used for the early detection and prevention of heart disease and many types of cancer (2).
Psychiatry, however, has lagged behind other fields of medicine in the domain of prevention, despite the fact that psychiatric disorders are extremely common…
Community-Academic Partnership to Improve the Psychiatric Care of Justice-Involved Individuals with Serious Mental Illness
Community perspective by Donna Winant. Academic perspective by Carol Lim, MD, MPH…
Leaving the Therapist’s Office Behind: Getting Evidence-Based Emotion Regulation Skills to Youth with Criminal Justice System Involvement
Youth involved in the criminal justice system have unaddressed mental health needs, which have been shown to significantly increase their risk of re-offending and re-incarceration (1). Thus, it is a top priority to equip these youth with emotional health strategies to boost their mental health…
The Crime Is Not The Person: Assessment and Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress in Correctional Settings
As a psychiatrist, my calling is to deeply listen to the people who come to me for help, and to help them understand who they are and how they’ve come to be in their present circumstances. Indeed, a central task of a mental health provider is to help people learn…
How Racism Affects Mental Health, Policing, and Incarceration
In October 2016, a resident in New York City (NYC) called 911 stating that their neighbor, Ms. Deborah Danner, was acting “erratic”, by yelling and screaming. The NY Police Department sent over an officer…
Article: Understanding and Coping with Substance Use and Mental Health
Substance use problems, including alcohol and drug misuse, are much more common in people with mental health challenges than in the general population. For example, about 50% of people with serious mental health challenges experience problematic substance use at some point in their lives, compared to only about 15% of people without a mental health condition. Why are the rates of substance use problems so much higher in people with a mental health condition?…