Mental Health: Choosing a Doctor and Therapist
... Choosing the right doctor and/or therapist for your mental health needs may seem like a daunting task. Determining the appropriate type of doctor for your specific needs is a very important step towar...

Alzheimer''s Disease Information Page
... Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized in the brain by abnormal clumps (amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (neurofibrillary tangles) compose...

Multi-Infarct Dementia Information Page
... Multi-infarct dementia (MID), a common cause of dementia in the elderly, occurs when blood clots block small blood vessels in the brain and destroy brain tissue. Probable risk factors are high blood p...

In Harms Way: Suicide in America
... Suicide is a tragic and potentially preventable public health problem. In 2000, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S.1 Specifically, 10.6 out of every 100,000 persons died by suicide...

Medications
... This booklet is designed to help mental health patients and their families understand how and why medications can be used as part of the treatment of mental health problems. It is important for you to...

Rural Mental Health Research at the National Institute of Mental Health
... The nearly 60 million Americans living in rural and frontier areas have the same kinds of mental health problems and needs for services as individuals who live in urban and suburban areas. Among rural...

Anxiety Disorders
... Anxiety disorders are serious medical illnesses that affect approximately 19 million American adults.1 These disorders fill people's lives with overwhelming anxiety and fear. Unlike the relatively...

The Numbers Count
... Mental Disorders in America Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 22.1 percent of Americans ages 18 and older—about 1 in 5 adults—suffer from a diagnos...

Step on a Crack...
... Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder People with Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD), an anxiety disorder, suffer intensely from recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compuls...

Borderline Personality Disorder
... Raising questions, finding answers Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behav...

Brain''s Reward Circuitry Revealed in Procrastinating Primates
... Using a new molecular genetic technique, scientists have turned procrastinating primates into workaholics by temporarily suppressing a gene in a brain circuit involved in reward learning. Without the ...

Landmark Survey Reports on the Prevalence of Personality Disorders in the United States
... An estimated 30.8 million American adults (14.8 percent) meet standard diagnostic criteria for at least one personality disorder as defined in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic an...

Gene Hunting
... Many years of research have demonstrated that vulnerability to mental illnesses—such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, early-onset depression, anxiety disorders, autism, and attention deficit hype...

The Impact of Mental Illness on Society
... "...the burden of psychiatric conditions has been heavily underestimated..." The burden of mental illness on health and productivity in the United States and throughout the world has long been underes...

Women Hold Up Half the Sky
... Women and Mental Health Research Mental illnesses affect women and men differently—some disorders are more common in women, and some express themselves with different symptoms. Scientists are only n...

Depression
... In any given 1-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million American adults, suffer from a depressive illness5 The economic cost for this disorder is high, but the cost in human s...

Depression: What Every Woman Should Know
... Life is full of emotional ups and downs. But when the "down" times are long lasting or interfere with your ability to function, you may be suffering from a common, serious illness—depression. Clinic...

Let''s Talk About Depression
... Sure, everybody feels sad or blue now and then. But if you're sad most of the time, and it's giving you problems with your grades or attendance at school your relationships with your family an...

Going to Extremes
... Bipolar Disorder There is a tendency to romanticize bipolar disorder. Many artists, musicians, and writers have suffered from its mood swings. But in truth, many lives are ruined by this disease; and ...

Teenage Brain: A work in progress
... New imaging studies are revealing—for the first time—patterns of brain development that extend into the teenage years. Although scientists don't know yet what accounts for the observed changes...

The Power of Accutane: The Benefits and Risks of a Breakthrough Acne Drug
... By Michelle Meadows Acne plagued Julie Harper throughout high school and college. She depended on makeup and wore her hair down over the side of her face. She gave up chocolate and french fries, only ...

Chairs, Houses & Visual Clutter: Watching the Brain at Work
... Watching the Brain at Work Is the brain hard-wired for houses? When NIMH neuroscientists Dr. James Haxby and colleagues flashed pictures of faces, houses and chairs in front of subjects while their me...

Seeing Our Feelings
... Imaging Emotion in the Brain In the last few years, there has been a revolution in the study of emotions. Our emotions—love, fear, anger, desire—give coloration and meaning to everything in life. ...

Escaping the Prison of a Past Trauma: New Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
... by Tamar Nordenberg January 18 marks the anniversary of a mighty adrenaline rush for Kellie Greene. She went sky diving on that day last year, in search of a high-flying thrill to overwhelm her trauma...

When Fear Holds Sway
... Panic Disorder Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations,...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
... In recent years, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been a subject of great public attention and concern. Children with ADHD—one of the most common of the psychiatric disorders that...

Attention Disorder: Overcoming the Deficit Abuse of Attention Deficit Drug Can Be Deadly
... by Dixie Farley "I really see a difference in my grades. Without it, I don't think about things. I can't pay attention." --Christy Rade, 16, Des Moines, Iowa, commenting in the Aug. ...

Delirium
... Delirium is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that occurs frequently in patients with cancer, particularly in those with advanced disease. Occurrence rates range from 28% to 48% in patients with advanced ca...

Depression
... Depression is an illness that affects the body, mood, and thoughts. About twice as many women suffer from depression as men. People who are depressed may feel hopeless, worthless, very sad, and have n...

The Invisible Disease: Depression
... Depression is a serious medical condition. In contrast to the normal emotional experiences of sadness, loss, or passing mood states, clinical depression is persistent and can interfere significantly w...

Unraveling Autism
... Autism, a brain disorder that affects 1 to 2 in 1,000 Americans,1 too often results in a lifetime of impaired thinking, feeling and social functioning—our most uniquely human attributes. Autism typi...

Youth in a Difficult World
... Not all children enjoy the "carefree" days of childhood. Unfortunately, when things start to go wrong, people often despair of being able to repair the damage. NIMH has made research on diagnosis, ear...