Yearly Archives: 2012
The Real Suicide Data from the TADS Study Comes to Light
Last week, Robert Gibbons reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry that fluoxetine was not found to increase the suicide risk in children compared to placebo. But if we closely examine the suicide data from the TADS trial, which at first glance seems to support Gibbons' conclusion, we find a trail of hidden data and scientific scandal.
60 Minutes, The SSRIs, and The Dirty Little Secret
Last night, 60 Minutes presented the work of Irving Kirsch, who has been researching the placebo effect in antidepressants for many years. We discuss.
Turning a Child’s Intensity to Greatness
My passion in the medication debate stems from my clinical work with families with challenging and intense children. I got to see that with 2-3 weeks - at most within 2-3 months for the most difficult children - that the very same intensity that had gone awry became the very fuel for that child's greatness.
Aubrey Ellen Shomo – Long Bio
FIXING A BROKEN WORLD
Diagnosed with a psychotic disorder at eight years old, transgendered essayist Aubrey Ellen Shomo (born Justin Michael Shomo) would spend most...
Aubrey Ellen Shomo – Short Bio
Fixing A Broken World: A psychiatric survivor activist contemplates the mental health system, stigma, science, law and culture, politics, and the practical realities of fighting...
What Do Psychiatrists Say When They Talk to Each Other?
Last week I attended a lecture presented at the Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds at a major Southeastern University. The presenter, a psychiatrist employed...
60 Minutes to Cover Antidepressant/Placebo Controversy This Sunday
Lesley Stahl interviews Irving Kirsch of the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School this Sunday's edition of 60 Minutes. Stahl says the implication...
Some Avoid Antipsychotics Because They Value Psychosis
Side effects, mistrust, stigma, forgetfulness and lack of insight have all been studied as reasons that up to 75% of people with a schizophrenia...
Howard Glasser – Short Bio
Awakening Children to Their Greatness: Creator of the Nurtured Heart Approach and the Inner Wealth Initiative, Howard Glasser writes of ways to help children...
Howard Glasser – Long Bio
AWAKENING CHILDREN TO THEIR GREATNESS
Howard Glasser is the founder of the Children’s Success Foundation and creator of the Nurtured Heart Approach™ and the Inner...
The Manifesto of a Noncompliant Mental Patient
I see it everywhere: People with mental illness need medication. It sounds reasonable.
Today, there are even political organizations that seek to make it easy to force a person to take it.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy is Effective in Bipolar Disorder
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy increased mindfulness, lowered depressive mood symptoms, lessened attentional difficulties,...
Childhood Maltreatment Reduces Hippocampal Volume
Researchers at Harvard University, in the largest and most detailed study on the topic to date, found that childhood maltreatment is significantly associated with...
Benzo Discontinuation Improves Quality of Life and Reduces Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Researchers in Japan find that tapering or reducing benzodiazepines has a positive effect on quality of life, verbal and working memory, and psychiatric symptoms...
Non-Drug Therapies Outperform Drug Therapies in Preventing Relapse
In a study of 597 outpatients who were perceived as likely nonadherers to oral antipsychotic interventions, Spanish researchers found that relapse was lower in...
Responding to Madness With Loving Receptivity: a Practical Guide
In my last three blogs I posed the question- "If madness isn't what psychiatry says it is, then what is it?" Now I'm asking-...
Hugh Middleton – Short Bio
Medical Essentials from England: A Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Member of the Royal College of Physicians and a medical practitioner of...
Hugh Middleton, MD – Long Bio
MEDICAL ESSENTIALS FROM ENGLAND
Hugh Middleton, MD, MRCP, FRCPsych, is Associate Professor at the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham and NHS...
Beliefs About Illness and Rehabilitation Predict Outcome in Depression
Researchers in Germany found that in a sample of 98 patients, beliefs about illness and rehabilitation predicted outcome for depression independent of medical or...
Antidepressants Have No Effect On Bipolar Depression
In a review of 68 articles published between 2005 and 2011, Israeli researchers found that most well-controlled studies failed to show a significant effect of...
Mental Health Homes Open Their Proverbial Doors in New York: Caveats, Part II
Given the length of this blog and the subject matter it addresses, I’ve divided it into two parts. Part II appears immediately below, Part...
African-Americans More Likely to be Diagnosed Schizophrenic
In a study of 610 psychiatric inpatients and outpatients from six academic medical centers across the United States, African Americans were almost three times...
England Seeks to Stop Antipsychotics For Dementia
English health minister Paul Burstow is seeking to outlaw the 'silent scandal' of inappropriate antipsychotics for dementia by proposing legislation that imposes up to...
Antipsychotic Use Does Not Correlate With Conversion to Psychosis
Researchers in Brazil find, in a meta-analysis, that only 30% of youth deemed to be of ultra high risk of psychosis do in fact...
David Healy Critiques Gibbons’ Reanalysis of Antidepressants and Suicide
David Healy critiques the reanalysis by Robert Gibbons of antidepressants and suicidality in children and adolescents that was reported on this page yesterday. He...
