Health Care

Antidepressants: Now Commonplace, and Evolving

July 2, 2007 · As antidepressants become more commonplace in society, how has their use affected mental health in America? Dr. David Fassler, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, offers his perspective.

Health & Science

Treatment Addresses Life with Severe Mental Illness

July 2, 2007 · Assertive Community Treatment is a method for helping people with severe mental illness. ACT is a comprehensive approach that addresses a patient's basic needs — how to do laundry, how to manage a budget, how to get a job — as well as dealing with deeper psychological issues.

Movie Reviews By David Edelstein

Eeew, Sick: Health Care, a Rat Chef and 'Die Hard'

June 29, 2007 · David Edelstein says Sicko is Michael Moore's best film yet, Ratatouille towers like an Eiffel among animated comedies and the latest Die Hard doesn't make you want to — quite. Web Extra: Watch Clips

Walk-In Trauma Centers Give Vets a Welcome Home

June 28, 2007 · The first storefront mental health clinics helped Vietnam vets transition home almost 30 years ago. Now, these Vietnam vets are bringing their sons, back from Iraq and Afghanistan, into the centers, which offer a welcoming alternative to VA hospitals.

Autism Poses Extra Obstacles for Blacks

June 28, 2007 · Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the country. When it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of autism, several studies found some real stumbling blocks for minorities.

Your Health

Fat-Dissolving Injections: Too Good to Be True?

June 28, 2007 · Called lipo-dissolve, the procedure claims to dissolve fat through a series of soybean-based injections. But critics point out the procedure isn't approved by the FDA, nor has it been rigorously tested.

Iraq Vet Seeks Out the War's Hidden Wounded

June 27, 2007 · Retired Navy Chaplain Mike Colson returned from serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Now he's trying to help vets who may not know they have the same problem. He calls himself the dog catcher for trauma.

Interviews

Michael Moore Trains Eye on Health Care

June 26, 2007 · Michael Moore is known for causing corporations and public officials some discomfort in documentaries such as Roger and Me and Fahrenheit 9/11. In his latest picture, Sicko, he casts a critical look at the U.S. health care system.

Drug Industry Mines Physicians' Data to Boost Sales

June 26, 2007 · Every day, thousands of representatives from pharmaceutical companies visit physicians to get them to prescribe the company's newest drugs. What some doctors don't realize is that drug salesmen know exactly what drugs an individual doctor prescribes. And they use that information to hone their sales pitches. But critics contend it is an invasion of privacy.

Global Health

S. African Research Focuses on AIDS Orphans

June 24, 2007 · South Africa's University of the Witswatersrand launches a project to reduce the number of children orphaned by AIDS. The goals are to increase the survival rate of HIV-infected mothers and to inhibit the spread of HIV from mother to child.

Health & Science

FDA Issues New Standards for Diet Supplements

June 23, 2007 · The Food and Drug Administration has delivered long-delayed rules on how diet supplements are manufactured, packaged and labeled. Critics say that the rules may help a little, but there is still no evidence that the widely used products are completely safe or effective.

Movies

Moore's 'Sicko' Lands Blows on U.S. Health Care

June 22, 2007 · Director Michael Moore's latest documentary, Sicko, is an indictment of the U.S. health care system. Melissa Block sizes up Sicko — as entertainment and expose — with film critic Bob Mondello and science correspondent Joanne Silberner.