Women and Mental Illness
For broadcast starting February 6, 2008

Women are more likely to have clinical depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. And their roles - particularly as mothers – can further compound their mental health problems. This program explores both the biological and social forces shaping women’s experience of mental illness. Guests include Charlotte Willis, a mother and participant in the Thresholds Mothers Program, Rush Medical College professor of psychiatry Nada Stotland, documentary maker and women’s studies professor, Allie Light, and Harvard University psychiatrist Lee Cohen.

Host Dr. Fred Goodwin begins the show by pondering why women predominate in certain internal mental disorers, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. He relates the trend to that fact that women, in general, have a greater sensitivity to emotional dynamics, but also acknowledges the role of hormones.

We hear next from Charlotte Willis, a mother of four and participant in the Thresholds Mothers Project. Willis says she “was blessed,” she had a job, children, and a partner. But the young mother then developed schizophrenia, she had paranoid thoughts and felt like her “brain was melting.” Willis was hospitalized and treated, but she lost custody of her children and it took seven years to get them back. Today, Willis, who now lives with her children, credits the Thresholds project with turning her life around. You can find out more about the Thresholds Mothers Project from their website, www.thresholds.org, or write to them at Thresholds Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centers, 4101 North Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60613.

Dr. Goodwin is then joined by Dr. Nada Stotland, a professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College and a Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics/Gynecology at the Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. Dr. Stotland traces the predominance of depression in women both to the fact that women have more internal biological changes and to their position in society. Dr. Stotland says that relative powerlessness increases any group’s risk of depression. But when all kinds of mental illnesses are considered – including anti-social behavior and substance abuse – Stotland says that the numbers of men and women with mental illness are roughly equal. If you’d like to contact Dr. Stotland, you can write to her at The Wellington Center, 919 West Wellington, Chicago, IL, 60657.

Dr. Terry Pearlstein then joins the show by phone to discuss premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Dr. Stotland expresses concern that PMDD might stigmatize women. But Dr. Pearlstein says the diagnosis, which applies to between 3 and 8 percent of cycling women, can validate the experience of those women. They also discuss the recent FDA approval to market fluoxetine - which is also sold as Prozac – as a premenstrual treatment called Serafem.

Next, we hear from Allie Light, an Oscar-winning film-maker, who made the documentary “Dialogues with Madwomen.” Light reads from her essay, “The Thorazine Shuffle,” which was included in the collection Out of Her Mind, published by Modern Library. Light describes a period of her life 30 years ago when she felt depressed and detached and ultimately checked herself into a hospital. She then speaks with The Infinite Mind’s Sharon Lerner about coming to terms with this experience. You can email Allie Light at zinalight@aol.com or write to her at 264 Arbor Street, San Francisco, CA, 94131.

Dr. Goodwin’s next guest is Dr. Lee Cohen, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cohen discusses his program, which helps women decide whether and how to take psychiatric medications during pregnancy. Dr. Cohen says that certain drugs, such as Depakote and Tegretol, could cause birth defects in developing fetuses. He says that the abundance of data on Prozac show it does not cause such problems. For more information about Dr. Cohen’s program at Massachusetts General Hospital, you can visit its website at http://healthcare.partners.org/womens/profile.htm Or write to Dr. Cohen at Massachusetts General Hospital, WACC Room 815, 15 Parkman Street, Boston, MA, 02114.

Finally, commentary from John Hockenberry, who discusses the recent revelation that Richard Nixon took Dilantin for depression during the Watergate crisis. Hockenberry says that the sympathy extended to most people with mental illness “ends at the door of the White House

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