Yearly Archives: 2017
Spirituality and ‘Mental Illness’
Is the suppression of spirituality in the West the reason for our struggle and suffering labeled as mental illness? Are we medicated to numb the pain and psychospiritual protest related to the felt wrongness in our modern lives? Here’s what I learned from my trip to India.
Collaborative Care Effective for Older Adults with Depressive Symptoms
A new study suggests that depressive symptoms in older adults can be improved with non-invasive behavioral activation techniques. These approaches appear to have a preventative effect, serving to prevent further depressive symptoms from developing.
Too Much Emotional Intelligence is a bad Thing
From Scientific American: High levels of emotional intelligence may be associated with increased stress as well as feelings of depression and hopelessness.
Article →Â
Trump Chooses Gottlieb to run FDA; Big Pharma Relieved
From Reuters: President Trump has selected Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a conservative health policy expert with deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry, to lead the FDA.
Article...
What Happens to Your Brain When you Take Xanax
In this video from Business Insider, psychopharmacologist and psychiatrist Dr. Samoon Ahmad explains the impact of Xanax on the brain and discusses some of...
Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness
In Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness, Bruce Cohen explains the expanding power and influence of psychiatry in terms of its usefulness to the capitalist system — the more useful it is, the more power it is given, and the greater its power, the more useful it becomes.
Your Anxiety is a Political Issue
From Extra Newsfeed: Anxiety is a political issue, resulting directly from marginalization and structural inequality. The solution to anxiety is not self-help culture but activism...
Informed Patient? Don’t bet on it
From The New York Times: Informed consent in health care is disturbingly uncommon. As a patient, it can be helpful to utilize a few strategies to be...
Conflicts of Interest Found in Psychotherapy Research
Research highlights the need for conflict of interest transparency and management in systemic reviews of psychological therapies.
Aliveness and Social Justice: Teaching the Principles and Practices of Open Dialogue
Over the past seven years, I have been teaching open dialogue principles and practices in a variety of settings. This blog will focus on the development of a training program, now based in Manhattan, and what I’ve learned from running this program and teaching this approach in the US.
Workplace Bullying may be Linked to Long-Term Health Issues
From Psychological Science: A recent study shows that workplace bullying is associated with significant mental health and physical health problems for employees, including longer sick leaves...
DARPA’s Brain Chip Implants: Breakthrough or Total Disaster?
From Gizmodo: Some researchers believe that deep brain stimulation - a surgical procedure involving the implantation of electrodes that send electrical signals to specific areas...
Potential Dangers and Dubious History of Alternative Medicine
From MinnPost: Two recent articles have exposed some of the potentially dangerous effects of alternative treatments including homeopathy and acupuncture, as well as corruption in...
SSRIs: Minimal Effectiveness and High Risk
If psychiatry were a bona fide medical field, a meta-analysis of this quality yielding these results would send Richter 9 shock waves through the profession. But the publication of this study on February 8 generated no discernible concern within the profession.
Patient Advocacy Groups Accept Drug Industry Funds
From The New York Times: A new study has found that more than 80 percent of the nation's patient advocacy groups accept funding from drug...
Your Brain as Laboratory: The Science of Meditation
In this guest blog for Scientific American, John Yates explores the ways that many meditation practices qualify as science.
"In the history of meditation practices that qualify...
How Brain Scientists Forgot That Brains Have Owners
From The Atlantic: Five neuroscientists have published a new paper arguing that the field of neuroscience has become too focused on technology and has de-prioritized the...
Most Off-Label Prescribing of Antidepressants Lacks Strong Scientific Evidence
A new study, published in the British Medical Journal, investigates the prevalence of off-label prescribing for antidepressant medication in primary care settings.
Take a Flyer Off a Wall: Six Hours in the Hole
Once your body enters a police car or an ambulance, it doesn’t matter what labels you carry or what the apparent “symptoms” are. It doesn’t matter if you even have any label at all. The moment you acquire a mental illness is when someone who doesn’t like you decides that you have one.
Major National Newspaper Looking for Drug Withdrawal Stories
From the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry: A major national newspaper is looking for people in the UK willing to share recent stories of negative effects...
Girls’s Powerful Insight on Trauma
From The Atlantic: A recent episode of the TV show Girls renders a poignant portrayal of gender-based violence and explores the individual and collective impact of...
The Role of Pets in Supporting People Living with Mental Distress
From The Mental Elf: Recent research confirms what many animal lovers already know - that pets can play a major role in improving people's mental...
Giovanna: Withdrawing from SSRI Antidepressants After 23 Years
We talk to Giovanna from Australia who was prescribed an antidepressant aged 17 and tried many times to withdraw over the next 23 years. She shares her experiences with us including the advice and support that she received and her hopes for the future.
Tweeting while Medicine Burns (Psychopharmacology Part 2)
This is the world that lies in store for us. It is not the world of traditional medicine, where drugs treat diseases to restore the social order. It is a world in which medical interventions will potentially change that order.
Victims of Success: An Update from Mad in America Continuing Education
Within days of announcing the webinar and providing the link to register, we were deluged with enrollments. It turns out that a great many professionals, advocates and clinical managers are interested in learning about Open Dialogue and its application to an American community.
