Expert on suicide, manic-depression to speak at Dartmouth College conference March 31

Posted 03/20/00

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and author of books about manic-depressive illness and suicide, will give a public address titled "The Stigma of Mental Illness" at 10 a.m. Friday, March 31, at Dartmouth College. The event will be held in the Hopkins Center's Alumni Hall and is free and open to the public.

Jamison is recognized as an expert on manic-depressive illness. Her book An Unquiet Mind detailed her personal struggle with the disease, which drove her to attempt suicide as a young adult. Her most recent book, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, was published in 1999 by Knopf Publishing.

Jamison's speech is part of an invitational symposium on psychiatric disabilities sponsored by the Academic Skills Center at Dartmouth College. The symposium will address the recent increase of students at selective colleges identifying themselves as having psychiatric illnesses and how those institutions can assist these students to complete their courses of study.

More information about the speech is available by contacting Amy Ashcraft at (603) 646-2014.

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: A black-and-white publicity photograph of Jamison is available for digital transmission.