Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

A Shot in the Dark: Can Vivitrol Help Us Control Our Addictions?

May 7, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
vivitrol-shot

Editor's Note: The post originally appeared on The Fix, a Pacific Standard partner site. In a better world, alcoholics and addicts could control their addictions medically via a one-a-day pill or, better yet, a monthly shot. With no side effects, this magic bullet would remove the craving and compulsion to get high. Of course, the need to escape—“self-medicate”—the pain of living in your own skin would remain, but antidepressants, 12-step, and other groups and therapy, if not sobriety itself, could go a long way to controlling that, too. This hypothetical, er, cocktail of ... Read More

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Listening to Music Aids in Stroke Recovery

June 5, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Recovering from a stroke is an arduous, frustrating process. But newly published research suggests at least some struggling patients can enhance their progress through a simple and pleasurable activity: listening to music. Frequent exposure to favorite melodies is a painless and “inexpensive way to help stroke patients cope with the adverse emotional and psychological impacts of stroke, as well as to support their cognitive recovery, especially in the early post-stroke stage,” write the University of Helsinki’s Teppo Särkämö and David Soto of Imperial College London. Their ... Read More

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Are Cities Like Lehman Brothers or AIG?

November 20, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

Philadelphia in early November 2008 was in the midst of celebrating two unprecedented victories: a World Series championship, just the second in franchise history, and the election of the country's first black president, to whom locals had given 83 percent of their votes. "In city government, we were trying to figure out which day to tell citizens we now have a $1 billion deficit," said Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter. Should they interrupt the ticker-tape parade or rain on the election party? The city's fiscal situation would only deteriorate further over the coming months, ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics, Politics, The Idea Lobby
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Mental Illness Champions Found Down Under

November 21, 2008 • By • 1 Comment

Part IV of a four-part series looking at the sorry state of treating the mentally ill — beyond warehousing people in institutions or prisons — and the tentative efforts to improve the situation. Part I looked at the scope of the problem and the downbeat assessments by experts; Part II examined how the severely mentally ill end up in prison instead of receiving help. Part III noted that some locales have good ideas but those are few and far between. In Australia, if a 15-year-old boy starts hearing voices or even starts to skip school or act out in the classroom, a national program ... Read More

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Recovery Model Shows Promise in Helping Mentally Ill

November 19, 2008 • By • 4 Comments

Part III of a four-part series looking at the sorry state of treating the mentally ill — beyond warehousing people in institutions or prisons — and the tentative efforts to improve the situation. Part I looked at the scope of the problem and the downbeat assessments by experts; Part II examined how the severely mentally ill end up in prison instead of receiving help. Patrick Kaufmann hit bottom, but it took a long time. Reeling from depression and struggling with schizophrenic delusions, all he wanted to do was take drugs and be left alone. Fortunately, his family and an innovative ... Read More

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