Mental Health in the News: July 7, 2022

By Dr. David Woo - July 7, 2022

Welcome to Madison Avenue TMS & Psychiatry’s Mental health in the News weekly update. Below are some current news events relating to mental health and mental health treatments.

How Does the News Affect Mental Health and What Can You Do?

Alarming news stories can be enticing, but they can also spark fear and significantly affect stress levels. It can be difficult to escape media-induced stressors in a world that is so connected via the internet, as we are often alerted to current events even when we aren’t trying to stay tuned. As a result, people are chronically agitated by this nearly constant exposure to bad and alarming news, and there is evidence to suggest that this leads to increased anxiety and depression. When someone experiences fear and tragedy vicariously through the media, it triggers the body’s fight or flight response, releasing stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline. Overproduction of these hormones can lead to certain symptoms, such as fatigue, trouble sleeping, and even depression. 

The news brings people up close to horrific events, and the trauma that experience incurs can be significant. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the media has constantly relayed the damage, the lives lost and destroyed, and the economic consequences. Many people, gripped by the horrors of these stories, get hooked to the fear-driven news cycle, drastically impacting their mental health.

In addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle around nutrition and exercise, it is important that people with a predisposition to fear and depression limit their exposure to bad news. Depressed individuals should seek treatment when experiencing symptoms. Options may include therapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, and/or antidepressant medication. Another effective option is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), an FDA-approved and non-invasive treatment that can reduce symptoms of depression, even for patients who don’t find relief from medication.

To read the original news article, click here.

NYC Launches ‘CONNECT’ to Improve Mental Health

New York health officials have announced the launch of a new program, called Continuous Engagement between Community and Clinic or CONNECT. The goal of this new approach is to improve the city’s mental health care system and to provide more New Yorkers with the mental health services they need by bridging gaps in the current model and expanding traditional mental health services.

This is a timely new endeavor as the city rebounds from COVID-19. The pandemic and the resulting loss of loved ones, social connections, jobs, ways of living, and consistent health services have had a drastic impact on mental health, especially for low-income residents.

Struggles with housing, food, and income are known mental health predictors, and CONNECT aims to tackle mental health issues at these root causes. Dr. Michael McRae, Acting Executive Deputy Commissioner of Mental Hygiene, acknowledges the difficulty of taking care of one’s mental health while dealing with constant unknowns, such as what will someone eat or where will they sleep. CONNECT will offer assistance with housing, employment, food pantries, and legal advocacy; services above and beyond the classic realm of the mental health field. NYC mayor Eric Adams believes CONNECT will offer the type of compassion and support that New Yorkers deserve.

CONNECT will also expand access to services beyond traditional clinical settings, branching out into the communities to meet those in need, where they are. Each clinic will be staffed with a full-time community liaison tasked with improving clinical priorities and creating solutions to improve clinical functionality. New clinic sites in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, will help as many as 900 new patients via virtual and in-person services.

To read the original news article, click here.

Analysis and 10-Year Forecast of the Digital Brain Therapy Market

The Digital Brain Therapy Market research report helps client companies develop strategies and business plans by providing analysis of worldwide key players, both private and governmental competitors, to inform on industry trends across the market. Using a methodology that is compliant with the Market Research Society and the non-profit organization, Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals, involving secondary research through company reports, online literature, databases, and press, as well as interviews with industry participants and experts regarding market size, growth, and trends to verify secondary research findings, the Digital Brain Therapy Market report offers an up-to-date outlook and analysis of the geographic presence, revenue, and product portfolio of thousands of relevant groups in the Digital Brain Therapy Market.

To read the original news article, click here.

Dr. David Woo

Dr. Woo has been seeing patients in private practice since 2002, always with the goals of combining evidence-based medicine with psychodynamic psychotherapy and collaborating with other mental health professionals to ensure the best possible outcomes for his patients. He has been certified to administer TMS at his practice since 2017. His greatest clinical interests include helping patients suffering from depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder.