Results tagged “psychiatric disabilities” from Photoethnography.com Blog

I've written about psychiatric service animals before, but this is a new twist.

The New York Times Magazine from last week has a wonderful article about the growing trend of psychiatric medicine for dogs, cats, and other pets. I'd heard of puppy prozac, but there's also meds for doggy OCD and kitty obsesity.

Soon, our psychiatric service animals will need their own psychiatric service attendants!

"The Psychiatric Service Dog Society (PSDS) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to responsible Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) education, advocacy, research and training facilitation. We provide essential information for persons disabled by severe mental illness, who wish to train a service dog to assist with the management of symptoms. We consult regularly with mental healthcare providers in their efforts to learn more about PSD. We also host an online community of service dog handlers veteran and new..."

http://www.psychdog.org/

WebMD cites a study from the recent issue of Molecular Psychiatry on the incidence of mental illness in American adults:

• 1.7% developed alcohol dependency
• 1.51% developed major depression
• 1.12% developed generalized anxiety disorder
• 1.02% developed alcohol abuse
• 0.62% developed any panic disorder
• 0.53% developed bipolar I disorder
• 0.44% developed a phobia
• 0.32% developed drug dependency
• 0.32% developed social phobia
• 0.28% developed drug abuse
• 0.21% developed bipolar II disorder

Although the rates seem low, the author points out that the risks are greater than those for lung cancer, stroke, or cardiovascular disease.

Read the article on WebMD.

A reporter from Kyodo News has been interviewing me the past several months about Bethel, looks like a translation of the original story made the English section of the Kyodo website:

http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=307467

I hate how they have to post my age!

Karen