Yearly Archives: 2017
Antidepressant to Blame for Frank Sinatra’s Failing Health
From Fox News: According to Frank Sinatra's manager Eliot Weisman, Sinatra suffered from several adverse effects of the antidepressant Elavil during his final years.
"...there was...
Agency and Activism as Protective Factors for Children in the Gaza Strip
Researchers recommend a âpolitically-informed focus', including activism, when assessing children and designing interventions in areas of chronic political violence.
More Bad News About Smartphones â When Will We Heed the Warnings?
We might expect that there would be a reasonable response to an overwhelming body of evidence that our tech usage patterns must be altered or consequences will only become more dismal. Yet as we are learning, trends seem to be running contrary to what the advice begs us to consider.
Racism is Literally Bad for Your Health
From WBUR: Racially motivated discrimination and abuse have tangible, measurable negative effects on health. Not only do daily acts of prejudice and discrimination lead to...
Dr. Jay Joseph: Why Schizophrenia Genetic Research is Running on Empty
Dr Jay Joseph discusses the evidence that psychiatry puts forward in support of the claim that mental disorders have an important genetic basis and the reasons why psychiatry is still searching after many decades of failed attempts.
Blaming Mental Health Won’t Solve Gun Violence, Says APsaA
According to a new statement released by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), the causes of firearm violence are complex and multifactorial, and gun violence...
Why Disease and Illness Are Concepts of the Body
If you loosen the association between the concepts of illness and disease and the body, the words cease to have any discriminative power. They are no longer able to pick out a particular category of unwanted situations and become synonymous with generic terms like âproblemâ or âdifficultyâ. They become meaningless.
Neoliberalism May Have a Devastating Effect on Mental Health
From The Independent: Policies that privilege neoliberal values are having a devastating effect on people with complex mental health needs. In the UK, people with severe...
Alcohol, Pot Dependent Teens Less Likely to Meet With Success
From Psych Central: According to a new study, teens who are dependent on marijuana and alcohol are less likely to marry, go to college, or work...
Coping With Trauma in the Classroom
From the Stamford Advocate: Increasing numbers of students have been affected by trauma; almost half of American adolescents have experienced an adverse childhood event. It...
Pharmaceutical Industry Gifts Linked to Costlier Prescribing Practices
New study finds that pharmaceutical industry gifts to medical providers in Washington D.C. are associated with higher cost, higher volume prescribing behavior.
Study Suggests Having Kids in Foster Care Bad for Mothers
From CBC News: A recent study shows that having a child taken into foster care has detrimental effects on the mother's mental health and may reduce...
Is Spanking Harmful? Study Finds Link With Future Mental Illness
From The Kansas City Star: A new study from the University of Michigan has found a link between spanking and serious problems in adulthood including mental health...
Christmas Songs Played on a Loop Can be Bad for Mental Health
From Providr: Many retail stores have already begun rolling out Christmas decorations and playing Christmas music. A clinical psychologist recently warned that playing Christmas music...
Crazy or Wise? Learning From Those Who Have Transcended Psychological Crisis
The documentary CRAZYWISE, released earlier this year, challenges Western ideas of human suffering by considering the concept that extreme states can be processes of transformation and that other cultures might have something to teach us.
Vampire Medicines
In this piece, Dr. David Healy describes the various factors contributing to the lack of awareness surrounding the harmful and potentially dangerous effects of...
Psychiatrist Who Revolutionized Family Therapy Dies at 96
From The Washington Post: Salvador Minuchin, the psychiatrist who played an instrumental role in pioneering family therapy, died on October 30th at age 96. Minuchin was...
How a Focus on Rich Educated People Skews Brain Studies
From The Atlantic: Neuroimaging studies have traditionally scanned the brains of unrepresentative samples, focusing on Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic populations. Although the results...
Treatment of Insomnia Reduces Paranoia and Hallucinations
Treating insomnia using online cognitive-behavioral therapy appears to improve a variety of mental health concerns.
Mental Illness Vs. “Bad” Behavior
Allen Frances has claimed that "It's a great mistake to confuse bad behavior with mental illness." Yet two of the so-called mental illnesses (conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder) consist essentially of "bad" behavior, while in at least six others, "bad" behavior is an integral part of the problem.
Conflicts of Interest at World Conference of Science Journalists
From HealthNewsReview.org: The 10th World Conference of Science Journalists, which occurred recently in San Francisco, received $600,000 total from pharmaceutical and healthcare product companies. In...
More Lavish the Gifts to Doctors Means Costlier Drugs Prescribed
From The New York Times: A new study found that when drug companies give gifts to doctors, the doctors prescribe higher quantities of â and more expensive â...
So Much Care It Hurts: The Impact of Unneeded Treatment
From Kaiser Health News: A growing number of patients and doctors are becoming concerned and speaking out about overtreatment, including unneeded scans, tests, surgeries, and...
The Power of Placebo is Strengthened by Having a Warm and Competent Practitioner
The effect of individual expectations on treatment outcomes is found to be influenced by physician attributes.
Drug Company Sales Reps Should be Banned From Hospitals
From STAT: Despite evidence that drug company sales reps skew prescribing habits, relatively few hospitals have taken the step of barring them. This is a...
