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National Research Meeting Highlights Adversity as Threat to US Wellbeing

By David L. Shern, Ph.D. and Andrea K. Blanch, Ph.D.

The Power of Community

By Andrea Blanch, Ph.D. and David Shern, Ph.D.

Two weeks ago, Liberia was officially declared “Ebola free.”  Liberia was ground zero of the Ebola epidemic, with confirmed cases in all 15 counties and almost 5,000 Ebola-related deaths.  Chronic poverty and years of civil war had devastated the country’s health care system. At the height of the epidemic, containing the disease seemed almost impossible.  But the last reported case was in March.

What Did We Learn from Sandy Hook?

By David L. Shern, Ph.D. and Andrea K. Blanch, Ph.D.

Kansas City Gets it Right

By Andrea Blanch, Ph.D. and David Shern, Ph.D.

New Thinking on Mental Illness Diagnoses

By David Shern, Ph.D. and Andrea Blanch, Ph.D.

In a recent New York Times Op-ed, T.M. Luhrmann expands on a recent paper by the British Psychological Association on redefining mental illness.  She makes several important points about mental health symptoms and our strategies for addressing them.

Doing well by doing good

By David Shern, Ph.D. and Andrea Blanch, Ph.D.

Whenever doing the right thing and doing the smart thing coincide, it increases the chances that something will happen. Elsewhere, we have presented data demonstrating that investments in prevention, especially in early childhood, have lifelong positive impact. They also save money. Econometric models by the Washington State Institute of Public Policy estimate that these prevention programs save many more dollars than they cost. They are smart public investments as well as the ‘right’ thing to do.

Treatment is Prevention: An Argument for Trauma-Informed Mental Health Treatment

By Andrea Blanch, Ph.D. and David Shern, Ph.D.

Measles, Vaccinations and Prevention in Behavioral Health: Do We have “Behavioral Health Vaccines”?

By David Shern, Ph.D. and Andrea Blanch, Ph.D.

Precision Medicine, Mental Disorders and Toxic Stress

By Andrea Blanch, Ph.D. and David Shern, Ph.D.

As Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health wrote in a recent blog, precision medicine is a hot new topic in the research world. The basic idea is simple: Get the “right treatment at the right time to the right person” by addressing the underlying cause of the disorder, not the symptoms. In practice, accomplishing this goal may be a bit more complicated. 

U.S. Faces Severe Challenges to its Health and Wellbeing

By Andrea Blanch, Ph.D. and David Shern, Ph.D.

On many measures, our society is now considerably less safe, healthy, and economically productive than other comparable countries. Toxic stress and trauma, especially when coupled with genetic vulnerability, are seriously eroding our public health, social stability, and world leadership. 

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