A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Melinda Tankard Reist Girlfriend and Dolly can be commended this year for taking strong stands on alcohol and drugs. This issue of GF is no exception, with ‘The High Life’ exploring the harms of smoking marijuana. When celebs boast about it – such as Miley Cyrus posting a photo of herself smoking pot with the [...]
MOST people would agree that some drugs are worse than others: heroin is probably considered to be more dangerous than marijuana, for instance. Because governments formulate criminal and social policies based upon classifications of harm, a new study published by the Lancet on November 1st makes interesting reading. Researchers led by Professor David Nutt, a [...]
A few months ago I wrote a piece highlighting the different rates of ADHD diagnosis in Australia compared to those in France. It appeared that ADHD could be something of an “Aussie thing.” Last weekend, I read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald that highlighted the risks associated with ADHD medication, and rates [...]
In the weeks since that Miley Cyrus performance at the VMAs, more fuel has been poured onto the fiery debate around the overtly sexual messages our kids are receiving thanks to the media. Add this to the heady mix of alcohol, violence and drug use with the apparent rise of such related anti-social behaviour [...]
Researchers examining the ways illicit drugs are bought and sold through the internet have discovered a sharp rise in the number of people using the online market place to sell Australians cannabis and ecstasy. The study, by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, is the first to monitor sellers of illicit drugs to Australians. [...]
The hunt is on for a faster-acting, more effective antidepressant. Current treatments for depression, including drugs like Prozac and Celexa, often take a month or more to give patients relief—and they don't work for everyone. Now, researchers and several pharmaceutical companies are testing medications that early studies are showing can lift mood in just a [...]
Drugs derived from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression. Scientists believe the chemical psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, can turn down parts of the brain that are overactive in severely depressive patients. The drug appears to stop patients dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies. However, a bid by British scientists [...]
I think Dolly may be improving (if only it would drop the model search!) Forty eight pages into Dolly’s April issue and I was beginning to wonder if there was anything worth commenting on. Yes there was a promotion of the Dolly model search, but I’d already gone to town on that in the last [...]
The prestigious scientific journal Nature asked its readers specifically about their use of three cognition enhancing drugs: methylphenidate (Ritalin), a stimulant normally used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder but well-known on college campuses as a 'study aid'; modafinil (Provigil), prescribed to treat sleep disorders but also used off-label to combat general fatigue or overcome jet [...]
In last week’s newsletter I wrote about the sense of relief that students feel upon the completion of their studies and how the media exacerbates this by reporting on the HSC every day. You can set your watch by it can’t you? Seriously. Well, twenty-four hours before NSW student sat for their first [...]
