The co-occurrence of mental illnesses is well established. In 2005, a group of researchers at Harvard University reported that across 10,000 people, one in four met criteria for a single disorder, of these nearly half had two disorders, and over a quarter had more than three disorders. People with, say, PTSD, depression and a substance use disorder […]

It may sound stupid and naive to say this, but regardless of today’s vote to go ahead and build a mammoth new mental health facility, the balance of moral force has finally shifted in LA County. Yes, a majority of the five county supervisors (Barger, Hahn, and Ridley Thomas) voted for their last-minute and ill-thought […]

“Some people dislike diagnoses, disagreeably calling them boxes and labels,” writes Esmé Weijun Wang in the first essay of her new book, The Collected Schizophrenias.” [B]ut I’ve always found comfort in preexisting conditions. I like to know that I’m not pioneering an inexplicable condition.” One of the more frightening things about any painful experience that isn’t […]

Commercial and Medicare Advantage plans pay mental health providers in their networks significantly lower rates than traditional Medicare pays, which likely reduces access for patients, Congressional Budget Office analysts found. Using claims data from the Health Care Cost Institute, the researchers found that average in-network rates for two categories of common mental health services in commercial […]