Helping Families Cope
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about his role in helping families cope when they learn they are going to have a child with a genetic abnormality of some type. "My main job in those situations," Dr. McCabe expla...
Addictive Personalities
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about so-called "addictive personalities." He explains that the term itself is probably a misnomer, because there is no single personality configu...
Links Between Addictions
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, discusses the fact that, "...many different addictions tend to go together." He explains that, "...the probable reason is that there are certain persona...
Bipolar Disorder
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about bipolar disorder, explaining the cyclical, up and down nature of the illness. Dr. Leuchter notes that it tends to run in families, then discusses the use of mood stabilizers like...
Schizophrenia
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about schizophrenia, a mental health disorder that he states affects about one percent of the population. Dr. Leuchter explains that schizophrenia is what's called a "thought disorder....
Alzheimer's Disease and Aging
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about the way Alzheimer's disease sometimes presents itself as people age. Dr. Leuchter also discusses the impact of the illness, particularly when the afflicted individual has lost pa...
Alzheimer's Disease: Prevention and Protection (Part One)
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about the possible links between intellectual activity and Alzheimer's disease. "I'm a firm believer in use it or lose it," Dr. Leuchter explains. He also notes that, "...the rates of ...
Suicide (Part Two)
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about the correlation between suicide and age. Dr. Leuchter explains that the risk for suicide goes up during adolescence and then again after middle age, particularly among elderly wh...
Stigma of Mental Illness, The
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about the stigma of mental illness. The manifestations of that run the gamut from patients avoiding treatment, to insurance companies providing little or no psychotherapy benefits.
Good Health
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about what constitutes good health. Dr. Leuchter explains that good health means not only feeling good, but being able to engage in activities fully and without restriction.