Yearly Archives: 2017
Preventing Suicide in the UK â a Policy and Practice Divide
The Place of Calmâs innovative Peer Support Approach means suicidal people can stay up to 24 hours in a safe place in the community and receive practical and emotional support from trained professionals who have their own lived experience of mental health challenges. Evidence suggests that it saves lives and is cost effective. Yet its funding is now due to be cut.
ISEPP Offers Critiques of Mainstream “Mental Illness” News Items
The International Society for Ethical Psychiatry & Psychology, an organization whose mission is to the use standards of scientific inquiry to address the ethics...
SAMHSA’s Rose-Colored Lens
SAMHSA should be commended for undertaking an important educational task with laudable goals. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that SAMHSAâs Recovery to Practice module on medications for psychiatrists is a very minimal and even misleading attempt at educating psychiatrists.
Researcher Acknowledges His Mistakes in Understanding Schizophrenia
Sir Robin Murray, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience in London, states that he ignored social factors that contribute to âschizophreniaâ for too long. He also reports that he neglected the negative effects antipsychotic medication has on the brain.
Service Dogs, Allergies and Trauma: Making Spaces Inclusive
Obstacles to accessibility are increasing in mental health settings, as well as settings designed to be alternatives to psychiatry, which ideally should be accessible to people with disabilities â including disabling allergies.
Health Professionals Must Fight a Trump Administration Expansion of Torture
Psychologist Stephen Soldz writes for STAT: "It was profoundly distressing to hear Donald Trump on the campaign trail vowing a return to abusing prisoners...
Many Patient Advocacy Organizations Are Funded By Industry
New research investigates the financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) of patient advocacy organizations (PAOs) in the United States.
“Prisoners or Patients?” NJ Psych Hospitals Restrict Patient Rights
As of Jan. 1, visitors at New Jersey's state psychiatric hospitals can no longer bring in food, beverages or items to patients. The new policy also prohibits...
Antidepressant use During Pregnancy may Increase Risk of Birth Defects
Use of antidepressants increased the risk of organ-specific malformations in women with depression
CYP Testing to Help Prevent Dangerous Adverse Drug Reactions
Drug-drug interactions can be extremely dangerous, even if the CYPs are genetically normal. The picture becomes even more grim if we take into account drug-gene interactions. Genetic testing for variants in the CYP enzyme system will definitely save lives.
Mental Health First Aid: Another Psychiatric Expansionist Tool
Mental health literacy doesn't just mean the acquisition of some information and skills; it also means accepting the psychiatric hoax: "attitudes that promote recognition and appropriate help-seeking." Â The goal is not just the dissemination of psychiatry-friendly information, but also the active conversion of skeptics to the psychiatric cause.
FDA Memo Rebuffs Many Suggestions for Expanding Off-label Marketing
"After weeks of anticipation, the FDA has issued a lengthy memo about the extent to which so-called off-label information about medicines may be disseminated...
Brain Scans Cannot Differentiate Between Mental Health Conditions
A new study analyzing over 21,000 participants found that differences in activation of brain regions in different psychological âdisordersâ may have been overestimated, and confirms that there is still no brain scan capable of diagnosing a mental health concern.
Surviving and Thriving After a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia
I have wanted to go public with my story ever since I started getting so dramatically better via holistic means, but I consistently chickened out. It wasnât until I hopped on a plane to Boston to meet other psychiatric survivors at the Mad in America Film Festival in 2014 that I found the community and forum to do so.
Soteria Shelter Program in Hungary: Crisis as Danger and Opportunity
We believe that if we do no harm, crisis is not only danger but opportunity. We do not âtreatâ anybody or force anyone to do anything. We are together in order to help the people in crisis by means of our presence. Our ethical motto is: âIt can happen to you, too.â
STAT on Changes Coming Under President Trump
On Trump's Inauguration Day, STAT reporters discuss the biggest questions surrounding his administration's impact on healthcare and science policy. "Will improvements in patient care...
Antidepressant Use May Increase Risk of Hip Fractures in Older Adults
Study finds antidepressant use is linked to increase in hip fractures in community-dwelling older adults with and without Alzheimerâs disease.
Peer-run Organizations Help People with Criminal Justice Involvement Return to the Community
Because of the enormous obstacles confronting individuals with behavioral health conditions who have been incarcerated, many peer-run organizations have risen to the challenge and have created programs to help these people rejoin the community.
“I Didnât Believe I had an Eating Disorder. But the Threat of Forced Feeding...
In this opinion piece for STAT, Carrie Arnold wades into the ethical debate over forced treatment in a case that "has set off a firestorm...
BPS Releases Review of Alternatives to Antipsychotics
BPS releases report encouraging behavioral interventions for people with dementia, rather than antipsychotics
Allen Frances and the “Overdiagnosing” of Children
What Dr. Frances calls "massive mislabeling" is not the assignment of psychiatry's spurious labels as such, but rather what he calls the overuse of these labels. This notion of conservative, careful and accurate diagnosis is a common theme in Dr. Frances's writing, but in fact, it's an empty exhortation, because the criteria are inherently vague and ill-defined.
“Final decision? Why the Brain Keeps on Changing its Mind”
For Aeon, neuroscientist Stephen Fleming, discusses new studies attempting to understand the process through which 'changing one's mind' occurs in the brain. "Psychologists have long...
Acute Respiratory Failure More Likely in COPD Patients Prescribed Antipsychotics
Researchers recommend that healthcare professionals be vigilant regarding the signs of respiratory failure among patients with COPD who are receiving antipsychotics, especially during the initial treatment phase.
Is Schizophrenia Associated with Brain Volume Changes Independently of Medication?
Duncan Double, on his Critical Psychiatry blog, published a series of posts exploring the effects of antipsychotics on brain volume and the contention that...
