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Serendip's mental health resource lists are intended to provide access to web materials which we believe are of continuing usefulness in discussions of mental health issues. This "News" section is aimed at helping people be aware of possible "growing points" relevant to mental health discussions, news reports which offer what may become important new perspectives on mental health, relating either to mental health itself or to related social, political, and economic phenomena that impact on it.

December, 2001

  • Internet Leash Can Monitor Sex Offenders, December 31, 2001
    Officials in Sangamon County, Ill., are using software to restrict the Internet communications of sex offenders.

  • Mental Health Sad?: Maybe It's Hormones on Overtime, December 25, 2001
    Now a new study suggests that like animals that hibernate or migrate when the days become shorter, people with SAD may have biological clocks that are reset by seasonal changes in the availability natural light.

  • Health Care Is New Darling of Pork Barrel Spending, December 25, 2001
    Pork barrel spending used to mean roads and bridges. Now health care projects are also singled out by Congress to receive tens of millions of federal dollars.

  • Blacks Who Voted Against Bush Offer Support to Him in Wartime, December 25, 2001A striking component of President Bush's immense public approval is his high level of support from black Americans, hardly any of whom voted for him.

  • Doctor to Face U.S. Charges in Drug Case, December 23, 2001
    An Indiana doctor was arrested on federal charges that he defrauded Medicaid by illegally prescribing hundreds of doses of OxyContin.

  • Moderate Drinking May Prevent Mental Decline, December 22, 2001
    A new study found that moderate drinking could protect the brain against the mental decline associated with aging.

  • Study Shows Strong Link Between Problem Drinking, Gambling, December 22, 2001
    A new study reveals a strong link between alcohol dependency and gambling problems.

  • Violence Affects Children in Many Ways, December 22, 2001
    A new report shows that children who have witnessed violence are more likely to miss days of school, get poor grades, and exhibit emotional problems.

  • Pictures of the Mind: fMRI and Mood Disorders, December 22, 2001
    Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors may help patients suffering from such distinct illnesses as major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

  • Killings Increase in Many Big Cities, December 21, 2001
    Homicides have increased sharply this year in many large cities, a development that may signal a return to rising crime rates.

  • Few States Track Prescriptions as a Method to Bar Overdoses December 21, 2001
    Public health and law enforcement officials say too few states are monitoring the over-prescribing of the painkiller OxyContin.

  • Study Finds Teenagers Smoking Less; Campaign Is Cited, December 20, 2001
    A national study showed that teenage smoking has fallen sharply since peaking in 1996.

  • Senate Approves Bill to Expand Federal Role in Public Education, December 29, 2001
    The Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that sets a 12-year timetable for closing gaps in student achievement, and mandates annual testing for grade-school children.

  • New Wave of the Homeless Floods Cities' Shelters, December 18, 2001
    With unemployment rising and housing costs still high, cities around the country are experiencing a sudden wave of homelessness.

  • Study Finds Addiction Drug Ineffective, December 14, 2001
    A new study found that naltrexone, an anti-alcohol-dependence drug, doesn't help people with severe alcoholism stop drinking.

  • Study Tracks Children Treated for Nonfatal Gun Injuries, December 14, 2001
    A new study found that 115,000 children and adolescents throughout the United States were treated for nonfatal gun injuries from 1993 to 1997.

  • Number of Executions Falls for Second Straight Year, December 14, 2001
    The pattern can be partly attributed to states re-examining the fairness of capital punishment.

  • Back to School, December 13, 2001
    The current education bill will do more harm than good,saddling our school systems with federal requirements they cannot afford to meet.

  • British Life Is Fractured Along Racial Lines, a Study Finds, December 12, 2001
    A government report said that whites and ethnic minorities in Britain were leading separate lives with no contact and no sense of belonging to the same nation.

  • Congress Reaches Compromise on Education Bill, December 12, 2001
    The agreement gives President Bush his first domestic legislative victory since Democrats took over the Senate.

  • Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease: Overlapping or Synergistic Pathologies?, December 8, 2001
    For the first time, new animal models that express multiple transgenes provide the tools to dissect the pathogenic pathways and to differentiate between additive and synergistic effects.

  • Terrorist Attacks Cause Spike in Treatment Requests, December 8, 2001
    More Americans are seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction -- one result of the emotional damage caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and threats of impending attacks.

  • Forget More of What You Thought About Memory, December 7, 2001
    Surprising new results out today suggest that new neurons can destroy memories, which may keep the brain from overloading. It's not quite time for a paradigm shift, says one observer - but almost.

  • Science and Society Divide European Culture, December 7, 2001
    Half of Europe is totally uninterested in science and two out of three Europeans say they are poorly informed about scientific issues, according to a survey of 16,000 individuals from the 15 nations of the European Union.

  • Yet More Evidence That Many Drugs Cause Same Addiction, December 7, 2001
    A common mechanism links intake of different kinds of addictive drugs with the orbitofrontal cortex, which is the seat of compulsive behavior and"go-no-go" decision-making.

  • U.S. Appeals Court Hears Debate on Race-Based Admissions, December 7, 2001
    The constitutionality of race-conscious admissions policies at the University of Michigan was debated before a federal appeals court in Cincinnati.

  • Suspect Protein Doesn't Shut Brain Development "Window", December 3, 2001
    An NIMH-supported research team has disproved a widely held theory about how critical periods in brain development are regulated, narrowing the search for the mechanisms underlying neural plasticity.

  • Special Education Increases Cut From Bill, December 1, 2001
    Lawmakers rejected an attempt to guarantee multibillion dollar increases for special education as part of a sweeping education bill.

  • Women More Susceptible to Ecstasy Brain Damage, December 1, 2001
    A preliminary study finds that women may suffer more brain damage than men from taking the drug ecstasy.

  • VPC: Study Released on Child Homicide Victims, December 1, 2001
    The Violence Policy Center announces the release of a study of handgun murders of children up to age 17, which shows that "nearly one third of kids murdered with handguns are shot and killed by other kids."



    Back to Mental Health Project.

    These resource lists are being maintained by Debbie Plotnick, working with Paul Grobstein, Department of Biology, and James Martin, School of Social Work and Social Research, at Bryn Mawr College. Suggestions for additions to the list are welcome, as are more general thoughts about how to most effectively make available information, and promote conversation, about issues of mental health. Contact dplotnic@brynmawr.edu - pgrobste@brynmawr.edu - jmartin@brynmawr.edu.


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