A Qualitative Investigation Into Faith and LGBTQ Identities in a Nonclinical Sample of Readers of the Dear Abby Column: The Dear Abby Project.

ABSTRACT: To better understand the relationship between faith and LGBTQ+ identity, we conducted a qualitative analysis of 86 respondents to a general question posed through the Dear Abby column. Responses were anonymized and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Analysis revealed six themes, reflecting a diversity of lived experience from community rejection to acceptance, and self-rejection to feelings of acceptance by God. Despite frequent media portrayals of conflict between faith and LGBTQ+ identity, the reality is more complex, and faith and LGBTQ+ identity development can be complementary.

A proposed role for the psychiatrist in the treatment of adolescents with type I diabetes.

Type I diabetes is a chronic illness that most frequently develops during childhood. As a medical doctor with an understanding of psychology and human development, the psychiatrist is in a unique position to guide the child or adolescent with diabetes and his family through the typical lifestyle adjustments that are encountered when diagnosed with diabetes. This article presents an overview of the diagnosis and management of type I diabetes, reviews the ways in which diabetes will interact with child development, and discusses the increased rates of eating disorders and mood disorders among children with type I diabetes. There is a distinct role for the psychiatrist to be involved in the diabetes care team of children and adolescents diagnosed with type I diabetes and this role can be medically crucial.

The Growing Regulation of Conversion Therapy.

Conversion therapies are any treatments, including individual talk therapy, behavioral (e.g. aversive stimuli), group therapy or milieu (e.g. "retreats or inpatient treatments" relying on all of the above methods) treatments, which attempt to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. However these practices have been repudiated by major mental health organizations because of increasing evidence that they are ineffective and may cause harm to patients and their families who fail to change. At present, California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Washington, DC, and the Canadian Province of Ontario have passed legislation banning conversion therapy for minors and an increasing number of US States are considering similar bans. In April 2015, the Obama administration also called for a ban on conversion therapies for minors. The growing trend toward banning conversion therapies creates challenges for licensing boards and ethics committees, most of which are unfamiliar with the issues raised by complaints against conversion therapists. This paper reviews the history of conversion therapy practices as well as clinical, ethical and research issues they raise. With this information, state licensing boards, ethics committees and other regulatory bodies will be better able to adjudicate complaints from members of the public who have been exposed to conversion therapies.

Ground one.

The events of September 11th, 2001, have had long-lasting effects on our culture, interpersonal relationships, understanding of evil intent and terrorism, and approach to and treatment of trauma states. This article is a personal account of September 11th by a junior attending psychiatrist as he experienced it from St. Vincent's Hospital, the closest level-one trauma center and coordinated medical response center to the World Trade Center.