Pfizer today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Geodon® (ziprasidone HCI) Capsules for maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder as an adjunct to lithium or valproate in adults. The approval is based on clinical data demonstrating that Geodon is an effective and generally well-tolerated adjunctive treatment for long-term symptom control in patients with bipolar disorder. [More]

The Association of Hispanic Healthcare Executives and the National Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Health today announced the launching of their social media campaign, which will partner Hispanic media, the country's leading Hispanic professional health associations and Hispanic consumers. [More]

The national commander of The American Legion applauds the Senate for their overwhelming support of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009 with a resounding 98-0 vote yesterday. “This legislation will improve the lives of so many veterans and their families,” said National Commander Clarence E. Hill. “Especially those with serious health care challenges.” [More]

Research by the University of Warwick and the University of Manchester finds that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money. The research has obvious implications for large compensation awards in law courts but also has wider implications for general public health. [More]

Every year, thousands of youngsters in Ontario experience a mental health crisis, yet the vast majority end up waiting months for psychiatric assessment and treatment because of the severe shortage of these specialists. Now a groundbreaking new program is bridging the gap between kids and care. [More]

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine (SOM) has received a Robert Wood Johnson grant to fund a Public Health Practice Based Research Network called The Ohio Research Association for Public Health Improvement (RAPHI). [More]

While fewer teens are drinking alcohol in 2009 than a decade ago, binge drinking, use of cannabis and prescription drugs remain a concern, according to the 2009 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) released today by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. [More]

Thanks to a $50,000 grant from the California Bipolar Foundation (CBF) to post-doctoral research fellow Dr. Illyas Singec at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (BIMR), a research team headed by Dr. Evan Snyder (along with co-investigators Drs. Dieter Wolfe and Lawrence Brill), was able to accumulate sufficient preliminary data to win an extremely competitive Grand Opportunities (GO) grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to explore the molecular basis of Bipolar Disorder (BPD). [More]

As flu season got underway this fall, Dr. Catherine Monteleone, an allergist, noticed that her office started to receive an unusually high number of calls from people with egg allergy. They previously had avoided flu vaccines because of their sensitivity to eggs. This year, with all the attention being paid to the novel H1N1 influenza, those patients want to be protected against flu, and they contacted her to find out if they are candidates for inoculation. [More]

On November 9, 2009, Honorable Speaker of the Senate Ron Ramsey, and Honorable Senator Mark Norris issued the first proclamation in support of a Mental Health initiative in the state of Tennessee. This is a major breakthrough to benefit people living with bipolar disorder in the State of Tennessee, and support The Brilliance in Bipolar Initiative. [More]

An estimated 26,000 Nova Scotians live with bipolar disorder. Often stigmatized in popular culture, the experience of bipolar disorder varies from one person to the next and almost always has a drastic impact on how individuals think, behave and function. [More]

A bi-partisan effort to decrease and prevent childhood obesity was introduced today in the Ohio Senate and Ohio House of Representatives, with the strong support of the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children coalition. The Healthy Choices for Healthy Children legislation is co-sponsored by Senator Kevin Coughlin (R-Cuyahoga Falls) and Senator Eric H. Kearney (D-Cincinnati) in the Ohio Senate. [More]

"The Transcendental Meditation Program, a widely-used standardized program to reduce stress, showed significant decreases in blood pressure and improved mental health in young adults at risk for hypertension," said David Haaga, PhD, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at American University in Washington, D.C. [More]

A new study published in the current issue of Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health (vol. 64, No. 3) shows that this combination of night work, overtime and shortened sleep can contribute to the development among police officers of the metabolic syndrome, a combination of unhealthful factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), primarily heart disease and stroke. [More]

A study by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking. [More]