Yearly Archives: 2013

I am returning to the subject of psychological formulation after rather a lengthy gap, during which controversy about the forthcoming 5^th edition of DSM has continued to grow – sign the petition ‘Stop the Insanity’ at  www.dsm5response.com if you share others’ concerns about the creeping medicalisation of everyday life and the risks that it poses.

Ben Goldacre write about scientific triumphalism, dirty pharmaceutical research, and his Ted Talk in the Huffington Post. Article →

It’s taken me a while to write part 2 of this series, and honestly I’ve been torn between several compelling topics. But, here I land. Just a brief re-cap before I get rolling: The foundation of this ‘False Arguments’ series is that sometimes I, you, we... all get drawn into arguments and belief systems that are based on a particular starting point that is assumed to be, or acted upon, as if they are valid.

It’s been the kind of contemplative, hibernating winter that’s left us ready for an action-packed spring. Jacks and I spent two months living in a little house in the woods finishing our first solo books and revising the classic Icarus text Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness...

The Carlat Blog writes about a service that calls itself "'the simplest and most convenient way to solve the most common medical conditions that...

From the New York Times, on the changes that have come to psychiatry: "Then, like many psychiatrists, he treated 50 to 60 patients in...

Pfizer may face lawsuits regarding improper marketing of Neurontin after a Boston court reinstated lawsuits that had been denied class-action status by lower courts....

A psychiatrist writes in the Psychiatric Times, "While the diagnostic categories of DSM-III and DSM-IV (and soon DSM-5) have provided the basis for much...

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has asked the U.S. government to clarify how the possibilities for nonconsensual medication in psychiatric institutions comply with their obligations under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - i.e. the obligation to ensure that no one is subjected to torture and ill-treatment. This is the fruit of successful advocacy by Maxima Kalitventsev and myself; we went to Geneva last month to meet with members of the Human Rights Committee and urge them to ask questions related to forced psychiatry and psychiatric profiling as violations of our human rights.

A few months ago I had the great honor of speaking with Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations, after a talk he had given locally here in Washington, DC. We spoke about eCPR and there was a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life. He looked deep into my eyes and said, “We are in the same line of work. We are peacemakers.” It was a profound statement that inspired me to think more about eCPR as a tool of peacemaking.

Journalist/humorist Jon Ronson’s TED talk “Strange Answers To The Psychopath Test” addresses the DSM, diseasing normality, faking mental illness, and the psychopathy of former CEO “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap. The Huffington Post, for their TED Weekends section, asked me for a reaction to Ronson’s talk—but then refused to print my blog because, a Huffington Post staffer emailed me, “the TED Weekends team said that the wording of the post was too strong.” Below is the original post.

Dr. Oz looks at the research on antidepressants today, finding that they are over-prescribed, may be counter-productive or harmful, may not work at all,...

An Irish journalist poses as a student and receives seven prescriptions for antidepressants from seven psychiatrists, with little or no information either taken or...

"Diagnosis: Human", a New York Times op-ed, deftly and stirringly captures the paradoxes of the ADHD medication explosion: "My son was no angel (though...

Editor's Note: To ensure the security of her job, the author has opted to use only her first name. My relationship with the mental health...

Salon notes that "The glut of diagnoses and subsequent medication raises a whole raft of questions about what’s happening with our children, and how...

Salon looks at the use of psychiatry and psychopharmacology to treat traumatized chimps in captivity. The opportunity for a revisionist look at psychiatric rationale in...

Truthout reviews the use of psychotropic medications to control prison inmates. Article →

Autism rates are on the rise, with the latest report from the US Centers for Disease Control showing 1 in 50 children to be affected.  Prozac, the first of the SSRI antidepressants, was launched in 1987 and sales have risen since then. Estimates are that up to 13% of US pregnancies are exposed (or around 500,000 US pregnancies per year). Available scientific data from animal and human studies raise serious concerns that exposure to SSRIs during pregnancy damages the developing brain and may cause neurodevelopmental abnormalities, including autism.

In these days of sequestrations, budget cliffs, and congressional gridlock, everyone is feeling pressured to cut back, cut corners and find the most inexpensive way to accomplish anything and everything. For those of us who have been working so hard over the past decades, this leads to the obvious question, "can we afford recovery?" I mean, after all, it is usually cheaper to just give someone a drug than to invest in the time and effort needed to bring human spirits back alive to strive and thrive. So I decided to look at this question, from the vantage point of my own singular life.

The Huffington Post" Jonathan Appel quotes C.H. Waddington in discussing Jon Ronson's TED Talk about the DSM-5; "There is a congruity between our apparatus...

Allen Frances, writing in the New York Post, asks "Is a kid who is more interested in playing outside than sitting in a classroom...

Adam Urato is Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. He cares for pregnant women daily as an attending maternal-fetal medicine...

Adam Urato is Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, and an attending maternal-fetal medicine physician at Tufts Medical Center and...

The Cochrane Library reports that "many older people with Alzheimer's dementia and NPS (neuropsychiatric symptoms) can be withdrawn from chronic antipsychotic medication without detrimental effects...