July 31, 2009
Mental Illness
How just one joint could wreck your mental health
Irish Daily Mail (Tue, 28 July 2009)
Cannabis causes mental illness and even one-off users show signs of behaviour linked to schizophrenia, pioneering research showed yesterday. It found in tests on 22 healthy students and academics that half showed an acute psychotic reaction when injected with the main active ingredient of the drug. And it detected a series of similarities to symptoms of schizophrenia in their responses.
Eating Disorders
New brain scans `shed light on anorexia'
Evening Herald (Mon, 27 July 2009)
Anorexia sufferers may have abnormal brain signals which affect how they feel hunger, how they see their bodies and their motivation for change, according to new research.
Suicide Prevention
Woman wins fight to clarify law on assisted suicide in UK
Irish Times (Fri, 31 July 2009)
Debbie Purdy won a landmark appeal to the highest court in Britain yesterday in her battle to clarify the law on assisted suicide.
New move to tackle effects of recession on suicide rates
Irish Times (Tue, 28 July 2009)
A national programme is being launched by the HSE tomorrow in an effort to offset the potential impact of the recession on suicide rates.
11% increase in male self-harm
Irish Medical Times (Tue, 28 July 2009)
Last year saw a dramatic 11 per cent increase in male deliberate self-harm cases, the National Suicide Research Foundation has revealed. In total, 11,700 deliberate self-harm presentations involving 9,218 individuals of both genders were made to hospital emergency departments in 2008.
Lewis returns to role as Good Samaritan by pushing his pins
Irish Independent Review (Sat, 25 July 2009)
Top fashion designer Richard Lewis jumped at the chance to design the new 'Always There' pin for the Samaritans' fundraising campaign as he once worked for them and years later found himself ringing them when he was at a low ebb. Richard has created a gold-plated pin featuring two stylish figures. The pins, which cost €2 each, are available online at www.samaritans.org.
