Two thunderous standing ovations highlighted this year’s APA meeting. They were as different as you could imagine. An intimate conversation with Brooke Shields about her battle against nature’s cruelest mood disorder – postpartum depression – and Dr. John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) reading a paper he wrote in which he […]
Postpartum Psychosis
What do we know about the cause of postpartum psychosis? Hormones, especially estrogen, have a significant effect on mood. Estrogen raises serotonin. When estrogen drops precipitously, as it does premenstrually, postpartum, and at the onset of menopause – the brain serotonin levels drop. In women who are sensitive to low […]
“They found Andrea Yates not guilty,” my receptionist said to me Wednesday afternoon. I was delighted and surprised. I felt proud to be a Texan. Twelve jurors were able to do the right thing in spite of an almost impossible legal standard complicated by obstacles and hurdles imposed by a […]
The Supreme Court this week turned their back on patients with severe psychiatric illness – as in “we ain’t lettin’ no crazy people off the hook.” They also turned back toward the dark ages where psychosis was thought of as totally mysterious, or demonic possession. After reviewing a case where […]
The legal system has again failed and is directly responsible for the hung jury in Collin County, Texas. The Dallas Morning News front page article for Friday, 2-24-06 reads "Jurors deadlocked in Plano mother’s murder trial." This whole story is so bizarre, that unlike the recent memoir "Pieces," this one […]
Please, somebody wake me up and tell me I’ve been having a bad dream. I didn’t just read that the District Attorney in Collin County has charged a Plano woman, Dena Schlosser, with capital murder. She can be put to death for taking a phrase in the Bible literally and […]