Boulder Colorado Flatirons with Longs Peak in the background
Callin version of the show is HERE.
Psychologists say they can't meet the growing demand for mental health care
For the third consecutive year, many psychologists across the country say they are seeing patients struggle with worsening symptoms, many of them needing longer treatment times.
Those are among the findings of an annual survey by the American Psychological Association, released this week. The APA first launched this survey in 2020 to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on practicing psychologists.
A majority of psychologists reported that more people are seeking mental health care this year, adding to already long waitlists. Over half (56%) said they had no openings for new patients. Among those who keep waitlists, average wait times were three months or longer and nearly 40% said that their waitlist had grown in the past year.
The Downer About Uppers
Adderall is America’s new legal drug of choice. Is it fueling the drug crisis?
The return of meth in the mid-1990s could, of course, just be attributed to declining taste for cocaine, or to an accident of efficiency. What makes it interesting, culturally speaking, is that it was more or less simultaneous with the return of pharmaceutical amphetamine — and with the explosion in ADHD diagnoses.
WHAT IF CHILDHOOD VACCINES CAUSE ADHD?
A question from Jenny Hatch…
Then, in the 1990s — by which time ADD had become lumped together with ADHD as a single disorder — diagnoses began to boom. In 1997, when the CDC first surveyed the prevalence, six percent of American children were diagnosed with ADHD. Today, the figure is ten percent. The reason for the change is not perfectly clear. It may have been increased public awareness and testing, or shifts in diagnostic criteria, or both. What almost certainly fueled the trend was when, in 1991, the federal government said that students with ADHD diagnoses could receive special education services.
What the return of amphetamine suggests, then, is a social shift in these preferences. Some might argue that this shift represents a desire to serve the needs of those with ADHD. But the way amphetamine prescription has outpaced ADHD diagnosis suggests that there are more “goods” being pursued than just relieving the suffering of a few. Rather, we see a willingness to prioritize some people’s joy in the high over others’ suffering in the crash. This is, of course, exactly the kind of prioritization that any market in addictive goods — from amphetamine to alcohol — looks to encourage, because it is how profits are made, whether by big pharma or the little drug pusher. In this view, the dramatic increase in drug production both responds to our social shift and further entrenches it.
If history is any indication, we will eventually learn our lesson. Americans went through one go-around with amphetamines in the postwar decades, and now we are doing it again. Drugs come and go in cycles, and at some point we will decide that letting tens of thousands die, and putting millions of children on drugs for life, comes at a cost we no longer wish to bear. But we are not there yet. And there is little sign we will be there for some time to come.
BREAKING: Elise Stefanik Absolutely Explodes At Harvard's President And Calls For Her Resignation
During a House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) ripped into Harvard President Claudine Gay over actions taken to punish acts of antisemitism on Harvard's campus.
Conor McGregor hints at presidential election bid in 2025
His tweet is up to five million views!
Text:
Potential competition if I run. Gerry, 78. Bertie. 75. Enda, 74. Each with unbreakable ties to their individual parties politics. Regardless of what the public outside of their parties feel. These parties govern themselves vs govern the people. Or me, 35. Young, active, passionate, fresh skin in the game. I listen. I support. I adapt. I have no affiliation/bias/favoritism toward any party. They would genuinely be held to account regarding the current sway of public feeling. I’d even put it all to vote. There’d be votes every week to make sure. I can fund. It would not be me in power as President, people of Ireland. It would be me and you. 🙏🇮🇪
Drug shortages hit record highs
Drug shortages in the U.S. have hit a record high and lawmakers warn they could mean life or death for millions of patients. A House committee is investigating what Congress can do to the supply chain to make sure doctors don’t have to keep rationing essential drugs like cancer treatments.
Health experts agree the shortages of hundreds of generic drugs need urgent attention.
But they’re still trying to build consensus on a remedy.
Healthy Families Podcast Episode #15 Drug Shortages, especially Adderall