FDA Approval of First Digital Pill Based on ‘Weak Evidence’
From Medscape: Investigators found that the data submitted to the FDA were limited to trials that only assessed whether patients could use the product as intended.
Young People Are Being Prescribed Dangerous Antidepressants
From The Guardian: These drugs can raise young people’s energy level before they act to raise their mood, especially in the early months of use.
The Mad Music of Seeing Sounds and Hearing Light
-Paintings by an artist who has synesthesia, and a study that found no brain-based evidence to support it being a "disorder."
Waking From Sleep: Natural Spirituality | Steve Taylor, PhD
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.
Benzodiazepine Use May Become Long-Term
From Psychiatric News: According to a new study, patients who take antidepressants simultaneously with benzodiazepines are at an increased risk of becoming long-term benzodiazepine users.
Article...
The Couch and the Cushion: Why Mindfulness Is No Substitute for Therapy
From Tricycle: The Buddhist Review: When I was performing mindfulness meditation practices, I was basically alone. With my analyst, I was not. And that seems to have made all the difference.
How to Talk to Kids About Coronavirus
From The New York Times: "Try to maintain a routine as much as you possibly can. Rebecca Kanthor, a Shanghai-based reporter, wrote a piece...
APA Condemns Sharing of Immigrant Youths’ Therapy Notes With ICE
From the American Psychological Association: "For this administration to weaponize these therapy sessions by ordering that the psychotherapy notes be passed to ICE is appalling,” said APA President Sandra L. Shullman.
Reading ‘Girl, Interrupted’ in the Psych Ward
In this piece for Electric Lit, Anne Thériault shares how the book Girl, Interrupted helped her survive her 72-hour hold in a psychiatric ward following a suicide attempt.
"The psychiatric...
“A Compassionate Approach Leads to More Help, Less Punishment”
“Published in the journal PLoS ONE, a new set of studies suggests that compassion—and intentionally cultivating it through training—may lead us to do more to help the wronged than to punish the wrongdoer. Researchers found compassion may also impact the extent to which people punish the transgressor.”
Your Brain Secretly Works With Other Brains
From Mindful: Part of being a social species is that the people around us influence our body budgets and rewire our brain. Little by little, our brains tune themselves as we interact with others.
“The Way We Diagnose Mental Illness Might Be A ‘Mistake'”
The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test", which chronicles the meteoric growth of the DSM in "chaotic editorial meetings in a small...
The Future of Mental Health Diagnosis Goes Beyond the Manual
From WIRED: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the so-called "Bible of Psychiatry," is approaching its 70th year. It should be its last.
Moral Injury: A Systemic Issue in Medicine
From The Atlantic: The term "moral injury" describes what happens when health care workers following a calling to help others confront a system that cares only about profit.
New CDC Head Peddled Controversial ‘Anti-Aging Medicine’
From Forbes: Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, who was recently appointed as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has a history of marketing...
David Egilman, Doctor Who Took On Drug Companies, Dies at 71
From The New York Times: His testimony as an expert witness in some 600 trials helped plaintiffs win billions of dollars in cases involving malfeasance by pharmaceutical makers.
How Early Relationships Can Define Reality – For Better or Worse
From Jay Reid Psychotherapy: Kids will do an amazing amount of shape-shifting to get their parents to be willing to care for them.
“’Blind Spot’ for Civilian PTSD”
Speaking to Medscape about PTSD, Jeffrey Lieberman likens our current treatments with SSRIs, tricyclics and therapy to "treating tuberculous by putting people in sanitariums or polio with iron lungs, or Alzheimer's disease with these cholinomimetic drugs.” "They are symptom-improving, but they're not disease-modifying,” he adds. “They're just not sufficient…”
“No Excuse for Adderall Abuse”
According to the University of South Dakota's The Volante, "In 1993, about four percent of American college students used prescription drugs for nonmedical uses, according...
My Feelings Are Not My Enemies
From On Being: "I don’t need to look far for the source of my opinions about emotions. Then, as now, I lived in a...
The Myth of the 30 IQ Point “Communication Range”
From Neuroskeptic: The idea that two people who have an IQ difference of more than 30 points cannot communicate with one another is not based...
Evolution Doesn’t Care What You Think a Brain Region is Called
From Medium: While naming brain regions is crucial to the study of neuroscience, it may also be misleading. These names may oversimplify our understanding of...
“A Soldier Fights Off the Cold”
A soldier's story, in the New York Times, speaks for more than people in the military: "I feel an obligation to tell my story,...
‘Restraint and Seclusion’ Harms Kids. So Why Is It Used in Schools?
From The Washington Post: What if you went five days a week to a school that regularly locked you up or physically held you down? Most of us would walk in ready for a fight, not to learn.
Donald Trump’s Drug Czar is Very High on Forced Rehab
From Vice: Donald Trump's expected nominee for director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Congressman Tom Marino, is a proponent of mandatory inpatient...