Read about Mental Health and Substance Abuse in the Local, National and International News.
The Opioid Epidemic
America’s Other Epidemic: The Opioid Crisis Is Worse Than 4 Years Ago. NPR, November 18, 2020.
Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges for Opioid Sales. New York Times, October 21, 2020.
Message from Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use about Recovery Month 2020. SAMHSA. September 1, 2020.
‘We are here for you’: Offers of help go out as opioid overdoses jump in COVID-19 era. By Will Cleveland, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. May 14, 2020.
Job loss, anxiety, isolation: Coronavirus is a prescription for more opioid use. By Mary Bono, Opinion, USA Today. April 16, 2020.
Officials worry of potential spike in overdose deaths amid COVID-19 pandemic. Alexander Mallin, ABC News. April 15, 2020.
COVID-19: Potential Implications for Individuals with Substance Abuse Disorders. National Institute on Drug Abuse. March 12, 2020.
The death toll of the opioid epidemic is higher than originally thought, researchers say. By Meryl Kornfield, The Washington Post. February 28, 2020.
Democrat: Lawmakers need to approach opioid crisis as ‘a chronic situation’. By Julia Manchester, The Hill. February 26, 2020.
House candidate in Arizona suspends campaign after drug overdose. By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN. February 25, 2020.
DEA: The US opioid crisis is ‘ever-increasing’. By Adriana Belmonte, Yahoo News. February 20, 2020.
Opioid crisis prompts construction company, other businesses to tackle addiction in the workplace. By Elizabeth Fite, Chattanooga Times Free Press. Feb 2, 2020.
How America’s prisons and jails perpetuate the opioid epidemic. Medications for opioid addiction work. Most prisons and jails don’t offer them. By German Lopez, Vox. Jan 31, 2020.
Drug overdose deaths fell in 2018 — but were still near record highs. It’s the first drop in overdose deaths in decades. But maybe don’t celebrate yet. By German Lopez, Vox. January 30, 2020.
Some universities should get a failing grade when it comes to the opioid crisis. Opinion. By Julia DyReyes, Philadelphia Inquirer. January 29, 2020.
Are we making progress or stuck in neutral with the opioid crisis? Opinion. By Adam Bruggeman, The Hill. January 27, 2020.
How Philly plans to combat the nation’s worst big-city opioid crisis in 2020. By Aubrey Whelan, Philadelphia Inquirer. January 21, 2020.
Study links Medicaid expansion to 6 percent reduction in opioid overdose deaths. A new study suggests the Medicaid expansion could help fight the opioid epidemic. By German Lopez, Vox. January 10, 2020.
Many Addiction Centers Lack Anti-Opioid Meds: Study. By Alan Mozes, US News. January 22, 2019.
Why Grieving an Overdose Death is So Hard. By Joseph Kirkpatrick, DrJFK.com. October 3, 2018.
COVID-19 and Mental Health
Top Tips To Decrease Coronavirus Anxiety & Improve Emotional Well Being. Mental Health America. June 30, 2020.
25 Million Students on COVID-19: ‘Depression, Anxiety and Loneliness’ Hitting Peak Levels. John Koetsier, Forbes. May 23, 2020.
How to Reduce Your Risk of PTSD in a Post-COVID-19 World. By Jennifer Taitz, The New York Times. May 20, 2020.
Experts Say It’s Like Getting A Mental Health “Stimulus Check” From Your Peers. By Denise Brodey, Forbes. April 26, 2020.
Mental Health and Coping During COVID-19: Managing Anxiety and Stress. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Coronavirus: Why healthcare workers are at risk for moral injury. BBC News. April 6, 2020.
Coronavirus Pandemic Takes Toll on Mental Health: Interrupted Treatments, heightened anxiety and enforced isolation cause lasting damage, especially to those with existing conditions. By Ruth Bender and Rachel Pannett, Wall Street Journal. April 9, 2020.
Long-term social distancing may be traumatic. Here is what to expect and what to do. By Madeline Holcombe, CNN. April 9, 2020.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder during COVID-19. University of Michigan, Department of Psychiatry.
PTSD and Veterans
There’s More Than One Right Way to Treat PTSD in Veterans. By Kacie Kelly, Military.com. February 18, 2020.
For Some Vets, Peer Counseling May Be More Helpful Than Traditional Mental Health Treatment. By Alyssa Jeong-Perry, The American Homefront Project. February 4, 2020.
Wounded Warrior Project: PTSD is Treatable. By Mike Richardson, Military Times. February 14, 2020.
PTSD in Veterans: Know the signs and ways to cope. By Nicole Blanton, Baylor College of Medicine. November 11, 2019.
Injections Founds to Successfully Treat PTSD Symptoms in Veterans. By Ben Kesling, The Wall Street Journal. November 6, 2019.
Virtual Reality PTSD treatment has ‘big impact’ for veterans. By Tomos Morgan, BBC News. October 1, 2019.
Statistics on PTSD in Veterans. Although it’s a widespread problem for service members, PTSD is treatable. By Elaine K. Howley, US News. June 28, 2019
General Mental Health News
Peer counseling seen as salve for first responders’ stress and despair. By Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix. February 28, 2020.
Mental-Health Research Ask: What Is ‘Recovery’?: There are many ways to measure mental distress. But it’s far harder to predict, or even describe, the improvement that often follows. By Benedict Carey, The New York Times. February 25, 2020.
The Distorted Reflections of an Eating Disorder: The mirror became a cruel optical illusion: I kept crunching, tucking, sweating and squatting, but my reflection just got uglier. By Abby Sher, Voices Section, The New York Times. February 25, 2020.
Mental health: How we’ve improved and where we need to do better in 2020. Some of the most significant advancements in the last 10 years reveal just how far we have to go. By Nicole Spector, NBC News. January 10, 2020
How bigotry created a black mental health crisis: Racism has led to misdiagnosis, incarceration instead of treatment. By Kylie M. Smith, Made by History Section, The Washington Post. July 29, 2019.
Racial Disparities in Mental Health and Criminal Justice. By Leah Pope, National Alliance on Mental Illness. July 24, 2019.