“Veterans’ PTSD and Brain Injury Deserve Focused Research on New Treatments”
For STAT, Magali Haas reports on a research summit organized to improve the treatments available for PTSD. “If the goals are ambitious, the obstacles...
“You Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying”
Among the reasons for listening carefully to others, this article in Nature adds, "People's conscious awareness of their speech often comes after they've spoken,...
The Hidden Epidemic of Sexual Dysfunction Experts Are Blaming on SSRI Antidepressants
From The Daily Mail: Patients on antidepressants are not being warned of the risk that the pills could permanently ruin their sex lives, experts say.
Against the Biomedical Model of Mental Illness
From Invisible Illness: The biomedical model of mental illness is a reductionist paradigm that focuses excessively on locating biomarkers and neural correlates of emotional distress at...
‘Peak’ Podcast Ep. 7 – Micah Ingle: Psychology and Its Meta-Transformations
From Peak Podcast: MIA writer and Consciousness and Society PhD student Micah Ingle discusses his journey with psychology and where he sees it going.
The Great Psychoanalysts 1: Donald Winnicott
From The Philosophers' Mail: Donald Winnicott, an English pediatrician and child psychoanalyst, deserves a place in history for drawing attention to the significance of parenting in...
‘Doctors Gave Me Depression Pills I DIDN’T Need for 20 Years’
Luke Montagu writes in the Daily Mail, "Six years after taking my last dose of antidepressants, I am still suffering from their effects. I...
We Need to Move on From Self-Care to Something Outside of Capitalism
From The Guardian: Rather than just seeing ourselves, we need to recognise that our health and fates are inextricably linked to our fellow human beings and find collective care.
People in Mental Health Units Need a Voice. That’s Why I’m Helping Them to...
From The Guardian: "Mentally ill" and other disabled people have a disproportionate exposure to the workings of the (often violent) state – that’s why it’s so important our voices are heard.
The Disturbing Rise in Benzodiazepine Prescriptions
From Psychology Today: For every 100 adults nationwide who saw a doctor from 2014-16, 27 left with a prescription for the psychiatric drug.
Research Shows Art Courses Can Improve Mental Wellbeing
From PsyPost: A new study has found that a course of arts-on-prescription can provide a significant improvement in mental wellbeing, including in those with very...
Do We All Have Alzheimer’s? Drug Makers Might Want You to Think So
From The Baltimore Sun: Recent efforts indicate that Biogen is trying to persuade adults who occasionally misplace their keys that they not only have Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), but that MCI is an early form of Alzheimer’s disease.
In Ontario, a Battle for the Soul of Psychiatry
From The Globe and Mail: A proposal made by the Ontario Ministry of Health in January would radically limit psychotherapy provided by psychiatrists and family physicians.
“My Suicide Attempt and My Struggles to Get Help”
Marine corps veteran Thomas Brennan tells of his PTSD, suicide attempt, and entry into the psychiatric system that he describes as "three days that convinced...
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."
Suffering From Nature Deficit Disorder? Try Forest Bathing
From NPR: People who live in urban areas may experience a poorer quality of life due to spending insufficient time outdoors. In a new book, Forest...
“6 Hospitalized, One of Them Brain-Dead, After Drug Trial in France”
Six men were hospitalized and one was pronounced brain dead after participating in a phase 1 clinical drug for a mood, anxiety, and motor dysfunction drug manufactured by Bial and administered by Biotrial. Carl Elliott, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, said investigators should look into questions like how much the men were paid and whether they properly consented to the trial. “Many Phase 1 trial volunteers are poor and unemployed, and they volunteer for trials like this because they are desperate for money,” he said. “This means they are easily exploited.”
Our Gut Feelings Are Not Luxuries | Gabor Maté, MD
From Sustainable Human: When we are alienated from our gut feelings, we no longer have a sense of reality, nor a sense of truth.
Brain Drugs and Corporate Climbers
-There's rising use of "cognitive enhancement" and energy-increasing psychiatric drugs among stressed workers and ambitious executives.
Tectonic Shift Towards “Precision” Psychiatry or Away from Scientific Credibility?
-Duncan Double critically evaluates a recent article by National Institute of Mental Health Director Thomas Insel about a "tectonic shift" towards "precision" psychiatry.
JRC Wins Court Battle to Use Electric Shock on Disabled Students
From NBC News: Disability rights activists, former residents and the state of Massachusetts have for decades pushed to stop the use of the shock device or shut down the school altogether.
“We Need to Unlock the Brain’s Secrets—Ethically”
-The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has released a report on key ethical challenges facing the BRAIN Initiative.
“Science as Social Control: Political Paralysis and the Genetics Agenda”
A marvelous article on Truthout shows how a paper on the genetics of academic achievement - which found that only 2% of academic achievement...
Nov. 1 Zoom: Meet Voyce Hendrix, Former Executive Director of Soteria House
From Rethinking Psychiatry: Voyce will discuss his time at the original Soteria House in San Jose, CA, an alternative to the medical model for schizophrenia that ran from 1971 to 1983.
“Will following positive psychology advice make you happier and healthier?”
In Mind the Brain on PLOS Blogs, James Coyne reviews some high-profile speakers' claims about the science of positive psychology, and examines more closely whether simply thinking positive thoughts or doing small, good things for yourself can significantly improve overall health, well-being and happiness.