Mental Health

Sleep-deprived brain cells respond sluggishly, say researchers who recorded directly from the tired brains of people they'd kept awake for 24 hours.

Sleepless Night Leaves Some Brain Cells As Sluggish As You Feel

3:20pm November 06, 2017

by Jon Hamilton

Scientists have found an underlying reason why it's dangerous to drive when you're sleepy. Brain recordings show cells involved in perception fire more slowly in somebody who has been up all night.

Austin City Council member Delia Garza attended the Women's March on Austin with colleagues Pio Renteria and Austin Mayor Steve Adler at the Texas State Capitol in January.

Facing Discrimination In Public Life, Latinos Stay Positive About Government

8:12am November 01, 2017

by Ashley Lopez

Even as 1 in 7 Latinos says he or she has encountered discrimination while voting or participating in politics, 60 percent of Latinos report that local government represents their views well.

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Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who helped expose the Flint water crisis, speaks during a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10, 2016.

Flint Residents Confront Long-Term Health Issues After Lead Exposure

4:00pm October 31, 2017

by Samantha Raphelson

Lead exposure is known as "a silent pediatric epidemic" that many children in Flint, Mich., will struggle with years after the water crisis is resolved, says pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha.

Brain scans may help mental health professionals unravel clues about which people are most likely to commit suicide.

Brain Patterns May Predict People At Risk Of Suicide

9:50pm October 30, 2017

by Jon Hamilton

A computer program learned to identify people thinking about suicide by studying brain activity patterns associated with words like "death" and "trouble."

Interactive devices like Alexa and Google Home are becoming more common fixtures in homes these days. What kind of impact does that have on kids?

Alexa, Are You Safe For My Kids?

7:42am October 30, 2017

Talking to a device that talks back can be entertaining and educational for children. But psychologists say children can develop relationships with these devices that can be different than adults.

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Despite increased access to overdose rescue kits containing opioid antidotes like naloxone, Pittsburgh paramedic James Dlutowski says the government should focus efforts on funding for addiction treatment.

'They Need Help': Trump Faces Backlash For Slow Response To Opioid Crisis

3:24pm October 26, 2017

by Samantha Raphelson

A paramedic in Pittsburgh says he and his team respond to opioid overdoses "probably at least daily." President Trump declared the crisis a public health emergency on Thursday.

Julie Eldred is back at home in Massachusetts now. But she was sentenced to a treatment program for opioid addiction as part of a probation agreement, then sent to jail when she relapsed. Some addiction specialists say that's unjust.

Court To Rule On Whether Relapse By An Addicted Opioid User Should Be A Crime

5:00am October 26, 2017

by Deborah Becker

The high court in Massachusetts is weighing legal and scientific evidence to decide whether a woman convicted of larceny violated the terms of her probation by relapsing into drug use.

Scientists Work To Overcome Legacy Of Tuskegee Study, Henrietta Lacks

7:22pm October 25, 2017

by Rob Stein

An influential Harlem church is trying to help the National Institutes of Health overcome reluctance by some African-Americans to participate in a medical study of 1 million diverse Americans.

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Want to get smarter? Brain training games don't seem to help with that.

In Memory Training Smackdown, One Method Dominates

10:06am October 23, 2017

by Jon Hamilton

A comparison of two memory training methods often used by scientists found that one was twice as good as the other. But neither succeeded in turning people into cognitive superstars.

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The teen protagonist in John Green's latest novel, Turtles All The Way Down, has a type of anxiety disorder that sends her into fearful "thought spirals" of bacterial infection and death.

For Novelist John Green, OCD Is Like An 'Invasive Weed' Inside His Mind

2:47pm October 19, 2017

by Terry Gross

"It starts out with one little thought, and then slowly that becomes the only thought that you're able to have," Green says. His new novel, Turtles All The Way Down, is about a teenage girl with OCD.

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