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Latest News Around the Web

More Adults Being Diagnosed With ADHD As Number Of People Seeking Evaluations Rises, Physicians Say

The AP (1/27, Stobbe ) reports, “More adults are being diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.” Diagnoses have been increasing “for decades but seem to have accelerated in the last few years.” One study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report “suggested that more than 15 million U.S. adults – roughly 1 in 17 – have been diagnosed with ADHD.” ADHD “always starts in childhood, but about half of adults with it are diagnosed when they are 18 or older.” Some physicians “say the number of people coming in for evaluation is skyrocketing.”

Related Links:

— “Rise in diagnoses is prompting more US adults to ask: ‘Do I have ADHD?’,”Mike Stobbe , AP, January 27, 2025

Women Experience More Severe Early PTSD Symptoms Than Men, Study Suggests

HCPlive (1/25, Derman) reported, “A new study found women experience more severe early PTSD symptoms than men, with re-experiencing and avoidance symptoms identified as the strongest and most interconnected symptom clusters.” The researchers said their “findings underscore the importance of understanding both gender similarities and possible differences in the development of early PTSD symptoms.” The investigators added, “Such understanding may provide valuable insights into the mechanisms driving later development of PTSD.” The findings were published in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology.

Related Links:

— “Study Identifies Gender Differences in Early PTSD Symptoms,”Chelsie Derman, HCPlive, January 25, 2025

Health agency communications put on pause

The AP (1/22, Stobbe , Aleccia , Perrone ) reports, “federal health agency communications with the public” have been put on a freeze “through at least the end of the month.” According to the Associated Press, agency staff leaders were told in a Tuesday memo that “an ‘immediate pause’ had been ordered.” In addition to public communications, the pause “also applies to anything intended to be published in the Federal Register, where the executive branch communicates rules and regulations, and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientific publication.”

Related Links:

— “Trump administration freezes many health agency reports and online posts,”Mike Stobbe and Jonel Aleccia , AP, January 22, 2025

Pregnancy Increases Risk Of Mental Illness Among Women With MS, Research Indicates

HealthDay (1/23, Thompson ) reports research indicates that “pregnancy increases the risk of mental illness among women with multiple sclerosis (MS).” Investigators found that “pregnant MS patients have a higher risk of mental illness both during gestation and in the first years after they give birth, researchers” found. The data indicated that “overall, women with MS have a 26% increased risk of mental illness during pregnancy and a 33% increased risk after giving birth, compared to women without” MS. The research was published in Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Pregnancy Increases Mental Health Risk in MS Patients,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, January 23, 2025

Foundation News

Adolescent Depression Awareness Program Wins 2010 Outstanding Merit Award

At the MPS annual meeting in April, the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry presented its 2010 Outstanding Merit Award to the Adolescent Depression Awareness Program of the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins.

The Board was particularly impressed with this outstanding program, which through student, parent and teacher education seeks to increase awareness of adolescent depression and bipolar disorder while reducing the stigma associated with these illnesses.

In addition, the foundation awarded Honorable Mentions to the Southern Maryland Community Network in Prince Frederick, which offers essential services to persons with severe and persistent mental illness, and to Helping Other People through Empowerment, Inc. Wellness and Recovery Center in Baltimore, which assists adults with mental illness in becoming empowered to rejoin mainstream society by increasing awareness of available resources through peer support.

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry established the annual Outstanding Merit Award for a worthy program in Maryland that accomplishes one or more of the following:

  • Increases public awareness and understanding of mental illness
  • Enhances the quality of care for psychiatric illness
  • Reduces the stigma of mental illness

The award, open to the entire Maryland community, carries a prize of $500.

Related Links:

– Johns Hopkins Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP)
– Southern Maryland Community Network
– Helping Other People through Empowerment

Honorary Director Dr. Eugene Brody Passes

Eugene B Brody, M.D., honorary director of the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry, passed away on Saturday, March 13, 2010. As noted in the Baltimore Sun, Dr. Brody was “a globally known mental health figure who had been chairman of the department of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and later was dean for social and behavioral studies.”

A more complete obituary from LexisNexis can be found at AllBusiness.Com which chronicles his postgraduate work at Yale University School of Medicine and the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, his work during World War II as a captain in the Army Medical Corps serving as chief of the neuropsychiatric service in hospitals of the European command, through his work with America’s inner cities and much much more. He served as psychiatric consultant to the international military tribunal that conducted the war-crime trials of former Nazi military and civilian officials at Nuremberg.

Related Links:

– Eugene Brody Obituary, Baltimore Sun, March 17, 2010.

APA Psychiatric News Covers Love from Depression

The American Psychiatric Association’s Psychiatric News for February 5, 2010, featured the Foundation’s Love From Depression outreach campaign. Besides Love from Depression, the article describes other outreach programs the Foundation has done and continues to do, ranging from public service announcements on radio, clinician meetings, and the Outstanding Merit Award.
Related Links:
– “Innovation Marks Foundation’s Public-Education Outreach,” Rich Daly, Psychiatric News, February 5, 2010
– Love From Depression
– Foundation Radio Ads
– Outstanding Merit Award 2010