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Excessive emailing/texting: The newest addiction?
In June 2008, the British Broadcasting System (BBC) published a story about two adolescents in Spain undergoing treatment at the Child and Youth Mental Health Centre near Barcelona for dependency on their mobile phones. Studies out of South Korea, China and Australia have also raised questions about potential cell phone addiction. While concerns around the globe about compulsive emailing and texting via cell phone are growing, the jury is still out on whether or not this behavior actually constitutes addiction. [More]

Vermont’s Challenges for Change seeks reductions via efficiencies
Last November, the Vermont Department of Mental Health faced budget cuts in excess of $20 million for the 2011 fiscal year. When the legislature adjourned its session in the wee hours May 13, the cut had been trimmed to about $3 million. Credit a slightly improved economy, a few more federal dollars and a state budget approach called Challenges for Change. [More]

New Hampshire Hospital trims services/staff
Budget shortfalls are once again prompting staff and service cuts in the Green Mountain State. According to Nancy Rollins, associate commissioner for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), both programmatic and physical changes planned for New Hampshire Hospital are intended to accommodate patients' needs and work within a reduced budget. [More]

Lawsuit seeks delay or revision of parity regulations
The fight for full parity between mental health and physical health care coverage could soon be drawing to a close...or not. [More]

Providing care is an ongoing challenge
Mental health care doesn't carry the stigma it once did and more is understood about mental health disorders than ever before. Yet millions of those meeting the criteria for a psychological disorder still don't receive care, presenting an ongoing challenge in how to improve access and make sure effective treatments are delivered. [More]

Firms place limits on mental health treatment
Psychologists may be seeing more managed care from their patients' insurers. Faced with increasing costs, some employers and insurers are controlling utilization by authorizing limited numbers of sessions and requiring forms or phone calls to allow additional sessions. [More]

Programs seek to assist children with mental health issues
Given that around one-quarter of adults in the U.S. meet the criteria for a mental disorder, it may not be so surprising that an estimated one in five children do. [More]

Is excessive tanning a disorder?
You've perhaps known someone with a seemingly insatiable need to tan, no matter how bronzed he or (probably) she already is. And though these so-called "tanorexics" will probably never enter therapy for their sunbathing habit, there do indeed appear to be some psychological factors that entice people to ignore the well-publicized health risks. [More]

Military Support Program running out of funds
A Connecticut program that provides behavioral health services to soldiers and their families is seeking federal funding to continue. [More]

Vermont Senate nixes proposal to track free drug samples
In May, the Vermont Senate passed overhaul legislation that includes creation of three new health care models, places a cap on annual hospital budget increases and initiates three pilot programs that will explore payment reform options. One provision originally in the bill but eliminated before the final vote is a plan to track free drug samples, a decision that is drawing mixed reactions. [More]

Q&A: Theory: Psychological development has two dimensions
A school of thought, first introduced in the 1970s, holds that depression and perhaps most mental illness, stems from disruptions in psychological development. Introduced by Sidney J. Blatt, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychology at Yale University, the theory contends that psychological development has two basic dimensions: a sense of self and a relationship with others. Any disruptions or an exaggerated emphasis on either dimension will lead to mental disorders. [More]