Yearly Archives: 2012
Madness Radio: Daniel Hazen On Abolishing Prisons
First Aired 5-1-2012
What is it like for a prisoner diagnosed with mental illness? Should we have more mental health treatment in prison -- or...
Scientific American Reviews the DSM
In a continuing series, Scientific American analyzes the "Trouble at the Heart of Psychiatry's Revised Rule Book."
Article āĀ
Part 1: Psychiatrists Are About to Shift...
How Many Deaths Will It Take Till We Know?
Each time I see the initials for Mad In America, MIA, I think of the Vietnam war and lost young men. I remember engraved...
Canada Announces National Mental Health Strategy
Announcing what The Lancet calls "the first-ever national mental health strategy," Canada's Mental Health Commission released "Changing Directions, Changing Lives," a plan intended to...
Boycott DSM5? Why Not?
Captain Boycott was the British land agent for Lord Erne of County Mayo who, in 1880, was ostracized from the local community as part...
Risk Management vs. Dignity of Risk
What does āriskā really mean? Is it something to be afraid of and avoided at all costs, or something to be embraced?
“How One Flawed Study Spawned a Decade of Lies”
Forbes magazine dives into the controversy swirling around former DSM task force chairman Robert Spitzer, and his recanted study of "reparative therapy," with an...
Accused Trayvon Martin Killer was Previously Prescribed Adderall
George Zimmerman, accused of killing unarmed Trayvon Martin while communicating with police dispatchers who tried to restrain him, was prescribed Adderall (a stimulant) and...
“Zoloft Defense” to Start Monday
The defense phase of the trial of Anthony Nicholas Orban begins on Monday, with Mr. Orban's lawyer presenting evidence that Orban was so overwhelmed...
Mental Illness is the Leading Cause of Military Hospitalizations
Since 2001 almost $2 billion have been spent on drugs to treat mental illness and PTSD in soldiers, but mental illness is still the...
Dissociative Experiences Mediate Childhood Trauma/Auditory Hallucinations
Researchers in SpainĀ assessed 71 patients diagnosed with psychoses for dissociative experiences, trauma, delusions and hallucinations. Childhood trauma was positively associated with dissociation (r =...
Benzos in 30% of NYC’s Overdose Deaths; ER Visits Soar
The NYC Department of Health reports that 30% of the city's 2009 overdose deaths were tied to benzodiazepines, and that benzo-related emergency room visits...
Judge Allows Zoloft Defense in CA Rape Case
A former southern California police detective and Iraq war veteran charged with rape will be allowed to argue that an over-prescription of antidepressants for...
“Father of Modern Psychiatry” Feels He Owes An Apology
Robert Spitzer, chair of the DSM-III task force and referred to as "the father of modern psychiatry" in a front-page story on the New...
Consumer Reports: Long-Term Benefits of ADHD Drugs Uncertain
Consumer Reports, looking at an analysis of more than 400 studies of ADHD medications, concludes that the apparent benefits of the drugs wear off...
Pa. Court Hears Arguments in Dismissed Risperdal Case
A lawyer for Pennsylvania urged seven justices of the Pa. Commonwealth Court yesterday to allow the state's case against Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Janssen...
Shanghai’d in Recovery
I am honored to share the story of one family that has learned about the power of language, hope and letting go with love so that every family member can grab on to a life worth living.
CIAD & Community-Based Housing for Adult Home Residents in New York City: The Struggle...
Sixteen million dollars are sitting in Albany, waiting to be converted into fifteen hundred apartments for adult home residents presumed to have serious mental...
Benzos May Increase Cancer Risk
Researchers in Taiwan found in a retrospective analysis of data from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance systemĀ concerning 59,647 patients from 1996 to 2000 that...
Behavioral Therapy (Including Parents) More Effective for ADHD than Drugs
Stimulant medication does not improve the academic performance or test scores of theĀ 9% of all children in the U.S. diagnosed with ADHD, according to...
Cognitive Remediation with Functional Skills Training Effective in Schizophrenia
Researchers from Canada and the U.S. report, in findings published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, that cognitive remediation robustly improved neurocognition after 12...
Coercion
I am a psychiatrist who believes that involuntary treatment is rarely effective in the long run but I am also a psychiatrist who sometimes forces people into hospitals against their will.
Pennsylvania Court to Hear Appeal of Dismissed Risperdal Lawsuit
In 2002, Pennsylvania state investigator Allen Jones discovered improprieties that lead to a succession of multi-billion dollar awards and settlements against Johnson & Johnson...
Fast-Moving Bill in Congress Would Weaken FDA Oversight of New Drugs and Devices
Congress is moving quickly to pass a bill that would authorize higher industry fees for the FDA in exchange for speeding up the approval...
Fewer Involuntary Admissions by Psychiatrists than Physicians
In October of 2006 Switzerland enacted a law requiring a certified psychiatrist - rather than a physician or resident - to compel an involuntary...
