Yearly Archives: 2013

An article in Nature Reviews Neuroscience about low sample sizes suggests, according to The Guardian, that "the likelihood that any claimed effect (based on...

A process that turns brains into something like clear Jell-o offers "a much more precise picture of what is happening in the brains of...

On March 18th, Ronald Pies, a psychiatrist based in Lexington, Massachusetts, wrote a letter to the New York Times. He argued in favor of the usefulness and harmlessness (when well used) of psychiatric diagnosis and wondered as to the misgivings so many seem to have. The Times invited its readership to participate in a dialogue by submitting responses to Pies’s piece. Laura Delano, Paula Caplan and I were among the relative few who managed to get our voices heard. Pies had the last word, though: He gave just two short sentences to my dispatchment, and summarily disregarded so many years of pain and loss and abuse of power.

Nutrition and Mental Health: Julia's interest in nutrition and mental illness grew out of her own research showing poor outcomes for children with psychiatric illness despite...

NUTRITION AND MENTAL HEALTH Julia J Rucklidge, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New...

Nutrition and Mental Health: Bonnie has published on the biological basis of mental health – in particular, the contribution of nutrition to brain development and function,...

NUTRITION AND MENTAL HEALTH Bonnie J. Kaplan, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine (Department of Paediatrics, Department of Community Health Sciences) at the University of...

Power and Alternatives: Tamasin is a public health doctor in England. She writes about power issues in the mental health system and alternatives to...

POWER AND ALTERNATIVES Tamasin Knight is a public health doctor from England who is interested in power issues in the mental health system and alternatives...

“Fastidiousness to religious practices” may be a sign of mental illness, according to an article on Time Mgazine's website. "It’s not unusual that children...

Gary Greenburg writes in the New Yorker that "The D.S.M. has enormous impact on the public health. It determines which conditions insurers will cover,...

Eli Lilly & Co. will pay an undisclosed amount to settle the lawsuit of the parents of a South Dakota boy who committed suicide...

Military.com reports that doctors from the Department of Veterans' Affairs are continuing to prescribe tranquilizers such as Valium and Xanax despite the VA's guidelines...

Bruce Levine writes in Take Part that "Recognizing the limitations of professional treatment can be sobering but can also serve as motivation for nonprofessionals...

In 1956, Lou Lasagna was on his way to being the most famous doctor in the United States; an advocate for controlled clinical trials of both the safety and effectiveness of medication, as well as for a revision to the Hippocratic Oath to include a holistic and compassionate approach to medicine. Then, caught in the nexus of reason, regulation, and the pharmaceutical machine, his star fell.

Those of us, the survivors, who speak from experience, with nothing to gain from sharing our stories and in fact a hell of a lot to lose, risk having them revised or repudiated at every turn by the very people who, and paradigm which, sickened us. I’m simply trying to tell my story as I lived it, because I know exactly what I went through and why, and I don’t think anyone else should have to suffer this way if they need not do so.

I hope this will be of help to people who hear voices and their friends and supporters. I also hope it will be helpful to the voices which are parts of many people's lives. Many voices I have come across and the people that hear them are convinced that their voices are spiritual in nature. I take an agnostic position on this, and therefore endeavour to respect different spiritual understandings. My intention is not to explain all voices psychologically but to help people make peace with their voices so they can get on with their lives.

Rufus May is a psychologist in Bradford, England. He believes everybody can flourish with the right support network. His work is part of an...

Rufus May has worked for 19 Years as a clinical psychologist in the NHS in England. He is a trustee of the Bradford Soteria...

UNE Center for Global Humanities and its founding director, Anouar Majid, host Joanna Moncrieff on "The Myth of the Chemical Cure: The Politics of...

The Onion satirizes the ADHD "epidemic": "'As horrible as the diagnosis was, it was a relief to finally know,' said Beverly. 'At least we...

Since I left the psychiatric prescribing trenches and came south for the winter, I’ve been staying in a beach town within driving distance of a technology metropolis. I take breaks from my writing and walk to the beach. There, I meet and talk with the winners of the American dream. They are intelligent, highly educated and financially successful. They take their beach vacations here.

I remember the first time I read the Bill of Rights. I was a child suffering with extreme states and didn’t have any idea what I was experiencing. I believed and I was told that I was different. At the same time, I watched my mother get fired from a job she worked so hard for and went to school for, because of a diagnosis. I then watched all her rights stripped away in psychiatric hospitals. Through it all I felt hope because of those rights contained in the Constitution.

Deron Drumm is the Executive Director of Advocacy Unlimited, the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Rights Protection...

Deron Drumm is the Co-Executive Director of Advocacy Unlimited in Wethersfield, Connecticut. He self-identifies as having experienced extreme, altered and addictive states. He writes and...