Yearly Archives: 2019
Loneliness Cure: Red or Blue Pill?
Does this "loneliness pill" concept amount to encouraging people to stay in their homes and take a pill rather than get socially connected in their communities or reach out to those who need it? Even if a pill could generate the same effects as physical and emotional closeness between humans, is it the right thing to do?
Exploring Alternate Pathways to Voice-Hearing
Authors propose various pathways to the phenomena of voice-hearing in clinical and nonclinical populations.
Institutional Corruption in the Cochrane Collaboration
My story is not just about the personal costs of speaking truth to power. This is a story about institutional corruption and one of the worst show trials in academia that you can imagine. I have written a book that documents the truth, backed by leaked board room recordings, private emails and testimony from concerned citizens.
Facebook Is Predicting If You’ll Kill Yourself. That’s Wrong
From The Guardian: Facebook is taking on the role of a healthcare provider; the suicide predictions are its diagnoses and the wellness checks are its treatments.
Funder Fragility and Forced Collaboration
Dear Funder, You say you want to work on health equity but can you walk the talk? Do you care about hearing the actual community? Do you REALLY want data-driven, accurate info to balance harm vs benefit? Or do you just want to keep your status quo? Dear Funder, Don't be fragile. Move beyond your blind spots. Our people matter.
15 Signs You Had An Emotionally Abusive Parent But Didn’t Know It
From Bustle: Once someone is able to understand what they experienced, they can become aware of how it impacts them as an adult and can work to make changes.
New Study Investigates Cannabidiol (CBD) for Psychosis
A new study examines the effects of CBD as an adjunct therapy to antipsychotic medication for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Talk Radio Therapy: Buenos Aires Psychiatric Hospital Radio Program Brings Healing
From VICE: "We don’t correct or force whoever got lost in the universe of words to return to the fold...We provide the water to a dry riverbed so that it can return to being a river."
New Study Finds Limited Effectiveness for Antidepressants After Stroke
The researchers found that although antidepressants had a slight short-term effect on reducing the likelihood of depression diagnosis, there was no long-term improvement, nor any improvement in motor functioning.
OxyContin Maker Explored Expansion Into ‘Attractive’ Anti-Addiction Market
From ProPublica: In internal correspondence, Purdue Pharma executives discussed how the sale of opioids and the treatment of opioid addiction are "naturally linked."
Meta-Analysis Finds Asking About Suicidal Thoughts Does Not Predict Suicide
A recent meta-analysis finds that the association between reported suicidal ideation and later suicide is low.
‘Full Moral Status’ Part II: How to Achieve Safety, Parity, and Change
If you want to leave the system and the drugs and get your diagnosis removed, the following guide might stimulate some effective action. Like with many of life's challenges, having excellent re$ources could potentially gain these results more quickly, but the most important elements are attitude, awareness and strategy.
Benzos Increasingly Prescribed for Dubious Indications, Study Shows
From Lown Institute: The largest increases in benzo prescriptions from 2003 to 2015 were for conditions for which opioids used to be prescribed, like back pain and chronic pain.
“I’m Not Going, You Can’t Make Me!”: A Community Approach to School Refusal
Consider an imaginary child called Jack who has been avoiding school as much as possible for a month. Standard practice would be cognitive-behavioral therapy or psychoactive drugs to help Jack deal with his anxiety. But what if Jack's social network instead mobilized to help him regain the role of student?
The War on Antidepressants: Why We Need to End it for Public Benefit
In the interest of the patients who are currently experiencing withdrawal reactions and the many more who will suffer withdrawal effects in the future, we need to end this “war.” Academic psychiatry must address these problems and conduct thorough research on withdrawal reactions.
Medical Marketing Has Skyrocketed, While Oversight Remains Limited
From Medical Xpress: Direct-to-consumer advertising increased most rapidly, from $2.1 billion (11.9% of total spending) in 1997 to $9.6 billion (32% of total spending) in 2016.
Non-Pharmacological Interventions More Effective For Health in Schizophrenia
Review compares the effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for improving physical health outcomes in people diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Our Cities Are Designed for Loneliness
From VICE: The confluence of our built environments and human connection is where many urban planners are now looking to solve what has become a pervasive problem.
Racial Discrimination a Clear Contributor to Youth Mental Health Disparities
Greater perceptions of discrimination during adolescence are linked to more depressive and internalizing symptoms.
Orthodox Madness
The Orthodox believe that we are all mentally ill due to sin and that the Orthodox Church is the hospital for the soul, the psychiatric hospital with God being our Psychiatrist, the Physician of our souls. Orthodox belief regarding the human psyche may appear to be pure madness, even delusional, from the perspective of modern western medical science.
More Evidence for the Lasting Psychological Impact of Lead Exposure in Childhood
New research points to numerous harmful effects of high-level lead exposure in childhood on adult mental health and personality characteristics.
ASIST Suicide Prevention Training: “Safe” for Who?
Ever since the cops and CPS were called on me by someone at an ASIST Suicide Prevention training, I've been trying to see it all as a gift. What better proof to counter those who claim it's "safe" to tell than what happened to me? What better evidence that our system responses are seriously off track? It wasn't safe. Not for me.
Separate, Unequal and Overlooked: Inside Black America’s Opioid Crisis
From U.S. News & World Report: The black opioid crisis is criminalized and largely ignored, even as statistics show black opioid users dying at a skyrocketing pace.
Opioids May Cause Depression and Worsen Chronic Pain
“Converging lines of evidence now suggest that depression—a common comorbidity in the setting of chronic pain—may in some patients represent an unrecognized yet potentially reversible harm of opioid therapy.”
I’ve Been Committed To A Psych Ward Three Times — And It Never Helped
From BuzzFeed News: “I don’t know how anyone gets better in [that place]...There was no care. I just sat there with the nurses and begged them to let me go.”
