What's Inside:
FDA Orders "Black Box" Warning on Antidepressants Prescribed for Children and Teens

President’s 2003 Report Languishes a Year Later

First Person: Acting in Our Own Best Interest

Back to School Kit Give Parents Practical Ways to Reach Kids

Campus Mental Health Problems On the Rise

Lessons Learned: MHA Takes Mental Health Back to School

From the MHA Field

June Meeting Drew Experts, Advocates to the “Fight for Justice”

NMHA Tools You Can Use

Research in Brief

Suicide in the Military Increases
Twenty-six members of the U.S. Air Force took their own lives through the end of July, compared with 37 suicides for all of 2003, Air Force statistics show. Air Force officials don’t have a specific cause for the increase; none of the 26 people had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. At least 60 percent of members of the military who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and have symptoms of a mental disorder have not sought help, a July 1, 2004, New England Journal of Medicine study indicates.

Link Between Eating Disorders, Suicide and Cholesterol?
People who have anorexia nervosa and low cholesterol levels are more likely than others to kill themselves, a new study indicates. The study, published in the July/August edition of Psychosomatic Medicine, didn’t show a casual relationship between the condition and suicide, but the researchers say that depressive symptoms in people who had anorexia were alleviated when their cholesterol levels rose.

People With Chronic Illness Feel Sting of Higher Premiums
People who have chronic illnesses, including those who have private health insurance coverage, are having a much more difficult time affording medical care than in the past due to higher premiums and co-payments, according to a Sept. 23 study by the Center for Studying Health Systems Change. As a result, effective care for those with depression and other chronic conditions — particularly those with low incomes — has become even less attainable.