Yearly Archives: 2019
When Doctors Don’t Listen
From SAPIENS: I know how fragile life is in the throes of illness and how easily it can be clipped with the shears of domination and misunderstanding.
Climate Change Negatively Impacts Mental Health, Study Finds
Climate change-related extreme weather and increasing temperatures associated with higher rates of mental health challenges.
Polypharmacy Associated with Cognitive Decline in Elderly Patients
Study finds that elderly patients taking at least 5 medications were at increased risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation
From Buzzfeed News: "Burnout combines an intense yearning for a state of completion with the tormenting sense that it cannot be attained."
United Nations Rep Brings Attention to Human Rights Violations in Psychiatry
Dr. Dainius PĹ«ras argues that the status quo in mental health treatment is no longer acceptable and demands political action to promote human rights.
Inner Compass and The Withdrawal Project
Inner Compass Initiative provides information, resources, tools, and connecting platforms ​to facilitate more informed choices regarding all things "mental health" and to support individuals and groups around the world who ​wish to leave, bypass, or build community beyond the mental health system.
Surviving Antidepressants – Antidepressant Withdrawal
Volunteer-led peer-support for tapering off psychiatric drugs and for withdrawal syndrome and tips about coping with symptoms.
Paroxetine Paxil Seroxat SSRI Withdrawal
Formed to help and support those in need of help coming off of the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) known by the name of PAXIL, SEROXAT or generically as PAROXETINE.
Living with Akathisia
Support for anyone living with Akathisia. Akathisia is a state of agitation, distress, and restlessness which may arise as a side effect of taking or withdrawing from certain medications.
Healing From Benzodiazepines
Healing From Benzodiazepines – A positive support group for those withdrawing from Benzodiazepines. We also provide a safe space for loved ones. We focus on helping our members with positive distractions, resources and practical coping skills.
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Psychiatric Violence Survivor Movement
My question to the mental health reform movement, the mad movement, the critical psychiatry movement — whatever we call our movement — is: Will we join the movement to make real change, to get to the heart of human freedom and work to fulfill the promise of democracy against control by monied elites?
The FDA Is Still Letting Doctors Implant Untested Devices Into Our Bodies
From The Washington Post: Medical devices and implants, many untested in humans, are associated with 1.7 million injuries and more than 80,000 deaths over the past decade.
Better Outcomes Off Medication for Those Recovered from First-Episode Schizophrenia
A new study has found that of 10 people who were fully recovered from their first episode of schizophrenia (FES), those not taking antipsychotics did better in terms of cognitive, social, and role functioning—and reached full recovery more quickly.
Fake Science and Checking Sources
The field of psychiatry is awash with systematic reviews, meta-analyses and other published articles proclaiming various discoveries. But can this research be trusted? Let's examine one such article, "Suicide prevention strategies revisited: 10-year-old review," in which the author claims that the "anti-suicidal effects of clozapine and lithium have been substantiated."
Let’s Talk Withdrawal
Let’s Talk Withdrawal – a closed group that discusses a wide range of issues to do with dependence, withdrawal and iatrogenic harm from all classes of psychiatric drug. We also exist to share information and research on psychiatric drugs and withdrawal.
FL Psychologists Could Prescribe Medication Under New Bill
From WJCT: If passed, Florida would become the sixth state to allow psychologists to prescribe medication. Similar bills have been passed in IA, ID, IL, NM and LA.
Antidepressant Withdrawal: An Unknown Disorder?
Antidepressant withdrawal is no longer an unknown disorder since knowledge on this topic has grown enough to be translated into practice. As proposed by George Engel in 1977, medical doctors, including psychiatrists, can observe and listen to their patients and develop a program to treat withdrawal and restore health.
Sharp Rise Seen in Kids’ Mental Health ER Visits
From WebMD: Mental health issues are sending more and more kids and teens to hospital emergency rooms, and that increase has been most dramatic among minorities.
The Never Ending Story: How 2nd Story Respite House Was Saved
We had built relationships with provider and peer organizations and NAMI. We had learned how to interface with the system and share the peer perspective. Ultimately, our relationships saved us. We had worked to start our own organization with the same providers who now were in position to step forward in our defense.
In Screening for Suicide Risk, Facebook Takes On Tricky Public Health Role
From The New York Times: Facebook, critics said, has assumed the authority of a public health agency while protecting its process as if it were a corporate secret.
Psychologists Advise How to Help and Minimize Harm Working With Migrants and Refugees
While well intentioned, providers and volunteers can do more harm than good at the border. The Global Psychosocial Network issues guidelines on how to work for the benefit of migrants and refugees.
Harsh Nazi Parenting Guidelines May Still Affect German Children of Today
From NPR: The Nazis wanted children who were tough, unemotional and unempathetic, and they understood that withholding affection would support that goal.
Study Identifies Psychiatric Patients at Greatest Risk of Coercion
In an effort to reduce coercion, researchers isolate associated factors including age, relationship status, location, and diagnosis.
When the Hospital is Sick
At my job as an inpatient mental health counselor, I had to confront the reality of a hospitalization system with serious and devastating flaws. I felt immensely powerless and understood how my coworkers could end up so negligent, numb, and at times abusive. And I understood how patients could become violent or self-injurious after years in these dismal hospitals.
Flexible Treatment Planning Improves Depression Outcomes in Youth
Researchers explore the effects of augmented treatment at various points in interpersonal psychotherapy for adolescents diagnosed with depression, highlighting previously unidentified critical decision points (i.e., relatively early in the treatment sequence).
