Around The Web

On the latest Pharmanipulation podcast, hosts  Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman and Caroline Renko  interview psychologist Dr. Gretchen LeFever Watson and journalist Robert Whitaker about the...

From Psychology Today/John Read, PhD: A new study documents the dissatisfaction of 1,200 patients with their doctor's knowledge and expertise regarding antidepressant withdrawal.

From Terry Baranski/Healing the Self: Western Medicine is firmly entrenched in three fundamental ideologies when it comes to chronic mental and physical pathology: A disease-based perspective, symptom-focused treatment, and mind/body separation.

From CPTSD Foundation: If I were to fit into one ‘label,’ then it would definitely be that of complex trauma, as ‘complex’ is my middle name, I have been told.

From Psychology Today: Psychology is dominated by a worldview most of the world does not have. Its premises are considered myths from the standpoint of Indigenous psychology.

From Reuters: Musk said his company Neuralink, which is one of over a dozen companies developing brain implants, will make the paralyzed walk, the blind see and eventually turn people into cyborgs.

Dr. Emily G. McDonald of the Canadian Deprescribing Network gives a grand rounds presentation on polypharmacy, medication overload and deprescribing.

From The Washington Post: Under the Baker Act, kindergarteners can be forcibly committed to psych centers for exams. Advocates say the process is traumatic without being helpful.

From CNN: Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said the video is a "commentary on how inhumane law enforcement officials treat people who are having a mental health crisis as criminals rather than treating them as people who are in need of help."

From AP: Family and attorneys say Irvo Otieno, 28, was subjected to brutal treatment at a local jail and then at the state hospital where he died during the admission process.

Peter Gøtzsche and Maryanne Demasi review efficacy of "interventions to help people withdraw from depression drugs."    

From NPR: Heumann was a major American civil rights hero who was working to spread knowledge of disability civil rights to the moment she died earlier this month at age 75.

From Thomas Pynchon: Atmospheric forces channel suddenly through the individual, the release point of a larger, pressured system. At the moment of crisis, all attention goes to the diode.

From Krishnamurti Foundation Trust: and Charles Eisenstein: It’s not because there is something wrong with you that you can’t make yourself get with the program. It’s that there is something wrong with the program.

From The Stanford Daily: Colleagues say Marc Tessier-Lavigne tried to keep hidden the findings of an inquiry into his 2009 Nature paper that had made a splash in the Alzheimer's research world.

From Aeon: In order to understand and heal mental distress, we must see our minds as existing in relationships, not inside our heads.

From IIPDW: This is an important moment as the journal is widely read by GPs, who are the main prescribers of SSRI antidepressants in the UK.

From The New York Times: A pandemic-related loosening of telehealth laws in 2020 allowed for the prescribing of controlled substances remotely, and this led to an increase in the availability and marketing of ketamine and other drugs.

From STAT: The start-up, cofounded by Tom Insel, claimed to have developed a "biomarker" that could analyze users' typing speeds, typos, and tapping and scrolling patterns for early signs of cognition and mood changes.

From Fierce Biotech: The embattled regulator, Billy Dunn, has been accused of having had a too-cozy relationship with the pharma company Biogen prior to the approval of their Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm.

From Insider: The PHQ-9 — the quick tool that made many primary care doctors more comfortable prescribing antidepressants — was designed by a "marketing man" working for Pfizer.

From The Guardian: After years journeying through the traditional healthcare system, could radical alternatives save my son from an endless cycle of hospital stays and drugs?

From Spirituality and Psychology: "Higher states of consciousness" or "spiritual experiences" represent a way of seeing and relating to the world which was once normal to human beings, but which we have lost.

From The Tao of Fully Feeling: Individuals who choose or are coerced into only identifying with "positive" feelings often wind up in an emotionally lifeless middle ground – bland, deadened, and dissociated in an unemotional "no-man's-land."

From The Progressive Magazine: We want to think of mental health facilities as safe, compassionate places to get help in a crisis. But unless you’ve been a patient in one of these places, it can be difficult to grasp just how carceral and punitive they often are.