Mental Illness

Is the compulsion to hoard things a mental disorder? How about the practice of eating excessively at night? And what of Internet addiction: Should it be diagnosed and treated? As the clock ticks toward the release of the most influential of mental health textbooks, psychiatrists are asking themselves thousands of complex and sometimes controversial questions. The answers will determine how Americans' mental health is assessed, diagnosed and treated.

A 68-year-old pedophile who preyed on young boys should remain in a state mental facility because he is "not curable," a prosecutor said in opening statements to an Orange County jury Thursday. Sid Landau "has no boundaries" when it comes to children and deserves to stay in state custody where he has been housed for the last seven years and continue treatment, said prosecutor Amy Pope. Landau has admitted to abusing 10 boys.

A mentally ill man who broke his neck in a Glenn County jail cell and is now a quadriplegic has filed suit in federal court, alleging jail officials violated his constitutional rights by denying him mental health care and using excessive force to subdue him with Taser guns and pepper spray. In addition to monetary damages, the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S.

It is a rare piece of gun legislation that finds the National Rifle Assn. and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence on the same side, but President Bush signed such a bill Tuesday. The measure, Congress' response to last year's Virginia Tech shootings, is the first significant federal attempt to tighten gun laws.

A young man reportedly taking the antidepressant Prozac has a history of significant psychiatric troubles, including self-cutting, obsessive thoughts and anxiety. But among the 27-year-old's current teachers and acquaintances, he has a reputation as a caring, dependable friend and a highly motivated student. Surely, say mental health professionals, this recovery was brought about by Prozac.

A U.S. citizen who was wrongly deported to Tijuana last year while in the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the county and the federal government, alleging that his constitutional rights were violated. Pedro Guzman, 30, who is developmentally disabled, was missing for nearly three months before he was found in Mexico and released to his family, his attorneys said.

A mentally ill Chico man who became quadriplegic in a Glenn County jail during a psychotic episode last year agreed to a plea deal Thursday that could result in a misdemeanor criminal record and probation rather than years in a state prison or mental institution. Reynaldo Cabral, 24, had faced three counts of attempted murder for trying to strangle his girlfriend and holding a paring knife to her neck during a bout of psychosis early last year.

Dr. Frank J. Ayd Jr., a psychiatrist who pioneered the field of psychopharmacology when he began treating schizophrenics with Thorazine in the early 1950s, died in his sleep March 17 at Lorien Mays Chapel Health Care Center in Baltimore. He was 87. At a time when the psychiatric establishment rejected the notion that mental illness was rooted in biology, Ayd championed the use of medications to adjust brain chemistry and relieve a patient's suffering.

The tactic echoed the unthinkable cruelty of the Iraqi war zone. The target was a crowded family restaurant. And the accused would-be attacker, who was wounded when his bomb went off prematurely in the restaurant bathroom, was a hulking 22-year-old who police say has mental problems.

In A LAND where citizens are implored to shop as an expression of patriotism, where little girls can attend summer camp cruising the stores of a mall, and where the average credit-card holder is $1,673 behind in payments, buying things in the United States is more than a hunt for daily provisions. It's a national pastime, a form of therapy, a means of self-expression. But for more than 1 in 20 Americans, shopping is something darker.