Illness

Photo: Getty ImagesIf your child uses Singulair (or a generic version) to manage their asthma or allergies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants you to know they could be at a higher risk for mental health side effects, including agitation, depression, sleeping problems, and suicidal thoughts and actions. The FDA, out of concern that…

Photo: ShutterstockA regular cold and flu season is bad enough when you’ve got kids bringing home germs left and right all winter. But this year, we get to throw an ominous-sounding coronavirus disease into the mix, too. This coronavirus, called COVID-19, has been all over the news for the past month; as parents, what do…

Photo: ShutterstockThere’s this thing that happens when a person sees a brand new human. Their hands, which just moments before they had complete control over, turn into large magnets that pull straight up and out with a primal need to touch that baby. It’s bad enough to endure months of randoms rubbing your pregnant stomach;…

There are the hospital visits you expect—a planned surgery, for example. And then there are the visits you don’t expect—such as when you have to rush your baby, who was born with a congenital heart defect, to the emergency room just days before Christmas. Carly McClure’s daughter, Joanna, spent last Christmas in the hospital. She’ll…

Officer Brian Cregg checks in with a man who says he is homeless and living in his car in Concord, N.H. In Concord, as in many parts of the Northeast, widespread use of meth is new, police say, and is changing how they approach interactions with people who seem to be delusional. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide…

Photo: Getty Images The bad news is, I’ve been disposing of my son’s dirty, germy tissues wrong for the whole first half of his childhood. The good news is, some things are about to change around here. When my kid gets sick, he blows his nose. A lot. And this is what the end table…

Public health agencies are investigating hundreds of cases of lung disease related to vaping and electronic cigarette use. Picture Alliance/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Picture Alliance/Getty Images Public health agencies are investigating hundreds of cases of lung disease related to vaping and electronic cigarette use. Picture Alliance/Getty Images An outbreak of severe lung disease…

Photo: John Keeble (Getty Images) You’ve likely always suspected that vaping wasn’t the healthiest habit for anyone, let alone teenagers, to pick up. And now it seems we are collecting proof of that, as hundreds of people across the country are contracting a severe lung illness linked to vaping—and many of them are teens or…

Enlarge / A person exhales vapor while using an electronic cigarette device in San Francisco, California on Monday, June 24, 2019. Cases of severe lung disease linked to vaping rose from 94 to 153—a jump of over 60%—in just five days, according to an update by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Saturday,…

TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. The search for a biological understanding of mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and panic disorder, is the subject of the new book, "Mind Fixers," by my guest, Anne Harrington. She writes about the revolution in medications to treat mental illness and why it's…