Mental Health

A teenager accused of plotting to bomb his high school is a straight-A student whose parents sought help from mental health experts after he slammed his head into a wall last week, authorities said Monday. Ryan Schallenberger's parents took him to a hospital three days before his Saturday arrest after he made a 4-inch dent in the wallboard, prosecutor Jay Hodge said at a court hearing.

A survey of 6,008 South Los Angeles high school students shows that many are frightened by violence in school, deeply dissatisfied with their choices of college preparatory classes, and -- perhaps most striking -- exhibit symptoms of clinical depression. "A lot of students are depressed because of the conditions in their school," said Anna Exiga, a junior at Jordan High School who was one of the organizers of the survey.

Adolescents who were adopted as infants are significantly more likely to have a psychiatric disorder than those who were not adopted, a study released Monday has found. The researchers -- emphasizing that most of the adoptees in the study were psychologically healthy and faring well -- the said that as a group those adolescents faced a greater risk for two psychiatric conditions: attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.

The Long Beach Police Department did not deploy its pioneering mental health team Saturday night when an officer fatally shot a mentally ill Samoan American man as he left a neighborhood birthday party, a department spokesmen said Monday. Events moved too quickly to call in mental health experts to work with Roketi Su'e, 46, before he was shot near his Long Beach home, department spokeswoman Nancy Pratt said Monday.

Yesenia Rangel, 12, looked out her window on a Friday morning in February and saw several officers with the letters "ICE" on their sleeves. Yesenia immediately called her neighbors to warn them that immigration officers were outside their Compton apartment building. Then she watched in tears as officers handcuffed her father and took him away. During the three weeks he was detained, Yesenia said, her schoolwork suffered and she could barely sleep.

. -- Kristofer Goldsmith was so distressed about the prospect of returning to Iraq that he decided he was willing to kill himself to avoid serving a second tour. The Army had mandated an extension of his three-year contract, which had been set to expire, as his unit was set to deploy to Baghdad as part of the troop surge. The day before he was to ship out in May 2007, he washed down a dozen Percoset with more than a liter of vodka.

Popular mixed martial artist Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was hospitalized Wednesday for a mental health evaluation after acquaintances flagged down a patrol car outside his Irvine home, telling police they were concerned for his well-being. It was the second brush with the law in two days for Jackson, who lost his Ultimate Fighting Championship light-heavyweight title July 5 by unanimous decision against underdog Forrest Griffin.

Terrorist attacks, floods, fires and other disasters aside, sometimes it can be better to just zip your lip when it comes to personal problems too. Among girls ages 8 to 14, for example, those who dwell on personal concerns with friends -- such as whether Jason likes them or why they weren't invited to Taylor's party -- are likely to be anxious and depressed, according to a study in the July 15, 2007, issue of the journal Developmental Psychology.

"The MORE [Virginia Tech students] can talk about what they've lived through, the more that they can be encouraged to emote . . . that gives them some security and insulation against burying those feelings and then having them surprise them later in life."

Senior physicians with the veterans health system in Los Angeles told the top U.S. military officer Saturday that the Pentagon needs to overhaul the way it discharges troops because hundreds are leaving the armed forces with undiagnosed combat-related mental health problems. Several of the physicians, including the system's chief of staff and its top psychiatrist, advocated mandatory mental health screenings for all service members who retire after serving in war zones.