A breakdown of nervous breakdowns

Dean Burnett: A nervous breakdown is a familiar concept, but many would struggle to explain what one actually is

Fathers-to-be, trust me, watching your children being born is not traumatic

Ally Fogg: Media misrepresentation of research into life-threatening labour complications has real and harmful consequences

Dad’s care home has been hit by the norovirus

Rebecca Ley: I haven't seen Dad for a long time, but I'm six months pregnant and don't want to get the vomiting bug

Sleep is not the new sex. It’s more important than that

Suzanne Moore: We're all tired, but what lies behind our national self-diagnosis of insomnia? Like most things, I blame this one on Thatcher

NHS recognises that mindfulness meditation is good for depression

Mia Hansson: Scientists have now discovered how mindfulness meditation can give patients control over levels of depression, anxiety and chronic pain

Far from the Tree: A Dozen Kinds of Love by Andrew Solomon – review

Tim Adams is moved by a study of how disability, crime or illness test the limits of parental love

Legalising gay marriage may improve health and reduce healthcare costs

Qazi Rhaman: Research in the US suggests that allowing same-sex marriage improves the health of lesbian, gay and bisexual people

Why reading fiction with friends is therapeutic too

Lynsey Hanley: Prescribing self-help books to people with depression is good, but the social benefit of reading groups also empowers

How useful are self-help books for treating depression?

New research suggests self-help books could treat depression better than antidepressants or therapy, relatively cheaply and without side-effects. Dr Luisa Dillner

The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz – review

Stephen Grosz's collection of case histories makes the case for psychoanalysis in the subtlest of ways, writes Alexander Linklater