At a time when most college applicants will soon learn whether they have been admitted to their school of choice, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America survey of leading universities and liberal arts colleges aims to increase awareness of the pressing need for schools to provide adequate counseling services. The survey found that liberal arts colleges reported a higher proportion of students using mental health services than at national universities by about 10 percent. One reason may be that liberal arts colleges are twice as likely as national universities to offer an unlimited number of free counseling sessions to students; two in five did so, compared to one in five among national universities. The study states that almost three in 10 national universities and two in 10 liberal arts colleges reported an increase in the severity of mental health problems among their student patients. Liberal arts colleges have proportionally more counselors on staff than national universities do, but because liberal arts students use counseling services so much more often, the actual availability of counselors is disproportionately lower than at national universities. Nearly three times as many national universities have a counseling center professional who specializes in treating anxiety disorders than at liberal arts colleges. read more

This spring has had its rocky moments, with the retirement of prospective closer Keith Foulke and an injury to starter Cliff Lee (stomach strain). The Twins will miss Radke, and they’ll also miss promising Matt Garza who, for some unexplained reason, didn’t make the rotation. No question the Twins have some tremendous pieces, including the Cy Young winner (Santana, hands down the best pitcher in baseball), MVP (Justin Morneau) and batting champion (Joe Mauer) from last year, plus All-Star closer Joe Nathan. Michael Cuddyer had a nice offensive breakout last season, and Torii Hunter, heading into the final year of his contract, is a leader on and off the field. The pitching focus will be on Meche, but the genuine excitement in camp, pitching-wise, was over Zack Greinke, the one-time top prospect whose career was nearly brought down by an anxiety disorder. Capsules by Bill Reader, section editor; Written in Stone and division rankings by Larry Stone, Seattle Times baseball reporter. read more

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe and often chronic anxiety disorder that can develop following exposure to an event involving actual or perceived threat to the life or physical integrity of oneself or another person. Exposure therapy is a set of treatment procedures designed to help individuals confront feared but safe thoughts, situations, objects, people, places, or activities that elicit anxiety or are otherwise avoided because they are perceived as dangerous by patients with PTSD. Exposure to feared but safe situations is a major component of treatment for other anxiety disorders such as phobias, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic disorder/ agoraphobia. For PTSD, exposure therapy typically involves imaginal exposure to the trauma memory in which patients are instructed to close their eyes and recall the traumatic event by imagining that it is happening right now while simultaneously describing out loud what is being remembered. read more