Mental Health

Doctors and patients are using ketamine to treat severe depression, even though the anesthetic and psychedelic club drug has not been approved by the FDA for that purpose. It's not without risks.

Writer Greg O'Brien was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease five years ago. He describes what it was like to hear the news — and break it to his family.

Do 22 veterans really take their lives daily? Despite this number becoming a rallying cry for activists trying to prevent suicide among vets, new research suggests the statistic is a bit of a guess.

Studies showing that a treatment works are more likely to be published than those with a negative result. So talk therapy and drug therapy for depression are probably less effective than thought.

When a 23-year-old who has tried to kill himself visits family, he must mentally prepare to resist hurting himself with their guns, he says. Gun access can make suicidal impulses harder to fend off.

Sometimes, no matter how hard an emergency team works to save a life, the patient dies. A nurse finds that pausing after the frenzy to honor the loss helps him and others cope — and avoid burnout.

Scientists have found that working in one's 60s and 70s is associated with better physical and mental health. Even part-time work may be enough to reap the benefits.