Sally Satel is a psychiatrist, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and author known for her critiques of politicized medicine and public health orthodoxies. She contributed articles to The Weekly Standard between 2001 and 2007, covering topics including mental health policy, the pharmaceutical industry, trauma studies, and the intersection of politics and science. She is the author of several books, including *PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine*.
It often takes a tragedy to inject some sanity into mental health law. The death of Kendra Webdale is an unforgettable example. In January 1999, Webdale was pushed in front of a New York City subway train by a man with schizophrenia. In her memory, the state legislature quickly passed Kendra's Law…
Last month a series of letters appeared in Science. They were written in response to a study by trauma researchers at Columbia University who examined the extent of long-term stress in Vietnam veterans.
Unprotected
"DEAR DR. SATEL: You are an ideologically constipated coward." So begins one of several dyspeptic communications I've received recently from Vietnam veterans and others.
Artificial Happiness
IMAGINE YOU ARE HOOKED UP to a machine three times a week for hours at a time. The machine extracts deadly bodily toxins from your blood that your kidneys can no longer clear themselves. You come back from these dialysis sessions exhausted and depressed; meanwhile, dialysis itself takes a toll on…
The Republican War on Science
SCIENCE POLICY-WATCHERS now have the President's Council on Bioethics in their crosshairs. As the council has Bush's ear on issues such as stem-cell research, many scientists complain that the council's membership, revised at the end of February, tilts too far to the pro-life, anti-therapeutic…
JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS the Department of Health and Human Services released the National Healthcare Disparities Report. It documents an all-too-familiar problem in public health: the poorer health status of individuals on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder and the fact that they often…
MENTAL HEALTH PARITY is back as an important issue in Congress. The idea is to have the government require employers to pay for treating mental conditions the same way they pay for treating physical diseases. This approach sounds like a boon for people with psychiatric illness, but it's not. It…
DR. STEPHEN BEZRUCHKA, a physician with the University of Washington School of Public Health, has made the startling claim that income inequality is the major cause of our nation's health problems. Writing in Newsweek's My Turn column, he dismisses the role individuals can play in safeguarding…