Jayson Blair

The last two weeks have had me repeating a phrase that I learned many years ago from my high school journalism teacher, the astute and sapient Anne Sharp, when we either came across or created an image to represent the dangers of school administrators attempting to spin us, the student newspaper. The final image was of upright tiger wearing a brim hand with a card on it reading "press." The tiger was sitting in front of a picnic basket on a blanket and a person was sitting across from them. The caption read something like (and I'm sure we got the quote from somewhere; I just can't remember), "Doing business with the press is a bit like having lunch with a tiger, you don't know whether you are having lunch or you are the lunch." For those disinclined to my wrapping, winding, wreathing stories, I simplified the principle behind why I don't like doing media interviews, "Once you've been bitten by a tiger, you are a little hesitant to stick you...

Several clients have benefited from two recent books I've tripped across for students with attention deficit disorder who are headed off to or back to college. The first book is " M aki ng the Grade with A+DD: A Student's Guide to Succeeding in College with Attention Defici t D isorder " and " Survival Guide for Colleg e Students with ADHD and ADD. " "Survival" confirms some good tips for selecting colleges, living arrangements and other issues for students with attention deficit disorder, while I would list "Making the Grade" as a must-read - I've already given away five copies in the last two months to client's who are college students, and recommended it to two others - akin to how Kay Redfield Jamison's "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness" is a must read for anyone with or who knows someone with bipolar disorder and how Brooke Shield's "Down Came the Rain" is a must-read for anyone wh...

A film crew from WebMD - the award-winning website that blends expertise in medicine, journalism, communication and content - came by this morning to record an interview with me and shadow me for a day as I worked with clients. It was exciting. Along with the Mayo Clinic , WebMD has some of the most clear, comprehensive and evidence-based information on mental health on the Web. The WebMD film crew met me a little after 6:15 am and followed me through my morning routines, including taking medicine, to the office for a case management meeting, then a two-hour IEP meeting for a student at a high school, two sessions with clients at the office and then the sit-down interview. Two clients -- one with attention deficit disorder and one bipolar disorder -- and several colleagues -- including Dr. Bill Ling, a noted nueropsychologist and Dr. Maggie Avedisian, a top-flight psychologist for adults and adolescents -- agreed to be filmed by the WebMD crew. Details on when the film will be availab...

After some recent successes with adolescents and young adults in college (and some older adults) who have the inattentive type of ADHD (called attention deficit disorder or ADD), I listened with great interest yesterday to a talk given by Dr. Yvonne Pennington at the CHADD "Ages and Stages of Learning and AD/HD" conference in Baltimore. Dr. Pennington is an author, an expert on positive parenting and ADHD/ADD and the mother of Ty Pennington, the host of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." I am always fascinated by experts who learn the bulk of their expertise from their own lives. Dr. Pennington focused on techniques that can be used, with or without medication, to help those with ADD/ADHD, and examined workplace issues, gender, genetics, medication, diagnosis, identification and evaluation, learning and treatment options, including ADHD/ADD coaching. Lots of helpful information to bring back to my clients and into treatment planning.

A month ago I was referred a client with attention deficit disorder who had been kicked out of his school because he was found with a mild opioid prescription pill. His parents were concerned and found deeper substance abuse problems that the school was unaware of after they investigated. With the help of his psychiatrist, who referred him to me, I was able to put together a treatment plan that the the Fairfax County School Board's Hearings Office -- the discipline arm of one of the nation's largest and highest performing school system's -- credited with their decision to allow him to return to school. Whooohooo!

Just finished listening to Frederick M. Jacobsen, MD, a psychiatrist-scientist and clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, give a cool talk last night at the GWU Hospital auditorium on research on the response of people who have bipolar, depression and ADHD/ADD to strong emotional stimuli, a surgical treatment for depression, diagnosing bipolar disorder, the bipolar spectrum and the degenerative nature of mania and depression (e.g. more episodes increases the likelihood of more and worse episodes). Dr. Jacobsen pioneered research into the use of Trazadone, an anti-depressant, as a sleeping medication, and has a special interest in bipolar. He is a researcher, a teacher and treats patients. Dr. Jacobson discussed research by Helen Mayberg, M.D., a professor at Emory, into the reactions at patients with bipolar, depression and ADHD/ADD have in the amygdala portion of the brain when given stimuli. The amygdala is the region of the brain that governs memory and em...