Yearly Archives: 2019
Decontextualized Depression and PTSD Diagnoses Fail Indigenous Communities
A case analysis of an American Indian woman illustrates how the DSM diagnostic criteria misrepresent the lives of indigenous people.
People, Heal Thyselves: Nigeria’s New Mental Health Approach
From The Guardian: Informal mental health support networks like Nigeria’s MANI are becoming more prevalent around the world as people realise that health systems cannot cope with mental illness.
Marci Webber Granted a Conditional Discharge
In 2010, Marci Webber killed her four-year-old daughter during a psychotic episode that erupted while she was on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity. A judge has now ruled that she should be discharged from a mental hospital.
How Social Dynamics at School Impact Teen Suicide
Teen suicide risk is influenced by relationships with adults and teachers, perceived popularity, close friendships, and school connectedness.
Schizophrenia and Suicide: Is There a Drug Connection?
From The Baltimore Sun: In current psychotropic trials, there are more dead bodies in the active treatment groups than in the placebo groups. That's quite different from what happens in the trials of drugs that really work.
Antidepressant-Induced Mania: When My Mind Became a Literal Hell
The amount of anxiety I felt on these medications — and for a couple of years after — was unfathomable. I felt as though I was trapped in an air-tight vat, constantly gasping for breath. And my thoughts were guided by my state of constant worry and panic.
Zoloft Does Not Improve Depression, Even in Severe Cases, Study Finds
Despite their finding, the researchers suggest that SSRIs be given to people who do not meet criteria for depression or anxiety.
Is It Time to Make Peace With Voices?
From Discursive of Tunbridge Wells: Hundreds of years of ignoring voices has only made them more desperate and challenging. Is it time to respectfully invite them to the peace table?
Tensions in Mental Health Care in China: An Interview with Zhiying Ma
Anthropologist Zhiying Ma explores mental health care in China, including tensions between Western psychiatry and socially-oriented local frameworks.
Fired for the Truth by Dr. Karan R Gregg Aggarwala
Just yesterday evening they let us know you were gone
Joanne the plans they made for you
Did not go through
The job description just did not...
Johann Hari: This Could Be Why You’re Depressed and Anxious
From TED: I was only able to start changing my life when I realized my depression was not a malfunction. It's a signal. Your depression is a signal. It's telling you something.
The Problems with the DSM Mask a Dark Reality We’re All Complicit In
It would be comforting to conclude that the people in charge of such projects as the DSM are perhaps a little sociopathic or deviously immoral. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. We are all inextricably bound to, and complicit in, the problem we are attacking.
‘Shocking’ Study: Most Common Antidepressant Barely Improves Depression
From The Telegraph: The new trial of sertraline is by far the largest to be conducted without the involvement of the pharmaceutical industry.
‘Disturbing Staff Abuses,’ ‘Serious Staff Violations’ of Law at DC’s St. Elizabeths Hospital
From Washington City Paper: By law, hospitals can only use restraints as a last resort. In 2018, St. Elizabeths used them almost 20,000 percent more than in 2013.
“Please Be Normal!” My Experience Working for NAMI
At my job with a NAMI affiliate, I heard daily from people who looked at family members with “mental illness” as non-people, non-human, the “other.” In the office, it was no different. If NAMI had a tagline, it would be “Please be normal like us.”
Economic Deprivation and Social Fragmentation Drive Suicide Rates in US
Major study finds that economic deprivation and a lack of social capital are driving increasing rates of suicide in the U.S.
Why I’m Glad I Did Not Complete the Mental Health Counselor Education Program
One needs no psychiatric or counseling degree to have the common sense of displaying some good manners in a profession that claims to be all about helping people. I’m glad I did not get further involved within a field that seems to be so hypocritical and moody.
How to Involve Youth in Their Own Mental Health Care
Clinicians play a key role in empowering adolescents and their parents to make decisions about their mental health treatment.
Prescription Drugs Are No Cure for Deprivation
From The BMJ Opinion: The highest proportion of patients receiving prescriptions for antidepressants and opioids is located in areas of greatest social deprivation.
Antidepressant Use Associated With More Violent Suicide Attempts
A new study found that taking an antidepressant medication was associated with a heightened risk of suicide using violent means.
Prozac Maker Paid Millions in Secret Deal in Mass Shooting Lawsuit
From USA TODAY: Eli Lilly vigorously shielded the payment for more than two decades, defying a Louisville judge who fought to reveal it because he said it swayed the jury's verdict.
10 Reasons Why Psychiatry Lives On—Obvious, Dark, and Darkest
No matter how clearly the scientific case is made that psychiatry is a pseudoscientific institution, it continues to retain power. When we recognize that scientific truths alone are not setting society free, we begin to shift our energy to different strategies.
Antidepressant Use Does Not Prevent Suicide, Study Finds
A new study has found that antidepressants are ineffective for reducing suicide attempts. Researchers report that the risk of suicide is particularly high in the first month after starting an antidepressant.
Therapy Gets More Effective Over Time While Antidepressants Decrease in Effectiveness
New review of long-term depression data finds psychotherapy more effective over time whereas antidepressants decrease in effectiveness.
The Rise of the Digital Asylum
The digital pill Abilify MyCite, which is now being introduced into the market, foretells of a future where such technology is used to monitor the behavior, location and "medication compliance" of a person 24 hours a day.
