Why Are So Many People Dying From Opioid Overdoses?
From The Guardian: In a society where unemployment is prevalent and people feel isolated from friends, family, and community, opioid use has become a coping...
Depression — or Antidepressants — More Linked to Cause of Crash?
-Peter Hitchens argues that the public discussion about the Germanwings crash has to start distinguishing between whether depressed people should be flying and whether people taking antidepressants should be.
New Tool to Assess Usefulness of Clinical Guidelines
From Medical Xpress: A new tool, G-TRUST (the Guideline Trustworthiness, Relevance, and Utility Scoring Tool) has been developed to help clinicians assess the usefulness of...
Risks of Preterm Births for Developing Brains
-Nature explores our growing understanding about the risks of preterm births for the development of children's brains.
FDA Repays Industry by Rushing Risky Drugs to Market
From ProPublica: "The FDA is increasingly green-lighting expensive drugs despite dangerous or little-known side effects and inconclusive evidence that they curb or cure disease. Once...
“Mental Illness and Familial Influences”
"Let us be clear that claims about established genetic or biochemical causation for mental distress are, as things stand, entirely fictional," writes Dr Lucy...
4 Reasons Gratitude is Good for You
From USA Today: Gratitude has been shown to have both physical and mental health benefits. Here are a few ways to cultivate our feelings of gratitude...
“Personal Responsibility Within Health Policy: Unethical and Ineffective”
For BMJ Blogs, Phoebe Friesen argues that including “personal responsibility” in health care policy can end up penalizing those who engage in stigmatizing behaviors....
“World Benzo Awareness Day, First Step To End Global Dependency Woes”
“In a bid to raise awareness towards the global epidemic of abuse on Benzodiazepine or ‘benzos’ abuse, a global campaign dubbed as World Benzo Awareness...
“The Inmates Seem to Have Taken Over the Asylum”
Allen Frances writes, in the Huffington Post, a "plea to the American Psychiatric Association, to the National Institute of Mental Health, and to the...
Why U.K. Doctors Are Doling Out ‘Social Prescriptions’
From CBS Radio: U.K. doctors are increasingly prescribing social interventions — community based solutions such as art classes, gardening clubs, and walking groups — as an alternative...
“How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented”
In the Atlantic, Todd Rose explains that the concept of the “Average person” is actually a relatively new idea in history. The invention of...
Senate to Decide on Funding of National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Senator Cory Booker is circulating a letter in the Senate to support for the President’s budget request for funding the National Child Traumatic Stress...
A Glimpse Inside US Mental Health Detention Centre
From The Sun: New York photographer Lili Holzer-Glier was recently allowed inside the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago, where 35 percent of inmates...
ASAN Condemns White House Autism Proclamation
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has voiced opposition to the President's autism proclamation and participation in Autism Speaks' "Light it Up Blue" Campaign. The...
The Pharmaceutical Industry is No Stranger to Fake News
From STAT: The notion of "fake news" has recently become a widespread topic of discourse. However, the pharmaceutical industry has been using tactics that involve spreading...
“The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts”
The New York Times echoes the "Rat Park" experiment in an article that quotes a researcher: "“Eighty to 90 percent of people who use...
Misconduct, Intentional and/or Institutional, in Science and Finance
Neuroskeptic compares misconduct as it occurs in science to that of finance, finding that deliberate rule-breaking such as that of Bernie Madoff and others,...
“Do Feelings and Morality Mix?”
A philosopher explains how feelings influence right and wrong. “Could using modern scientific tools to separate the soup of moral decision-making—peeking into the brain...
ACEs and Toxic Stress: How We Can Heal Children’s Brains
From Attachment & Trauma Network, Inc.: "As a trauma and emotion-centered psychotherapist, I am relieved that children are now being screened for toxic stress. Thinking...
“Sometimes Embracing Emotional Distress Is the Best Medicine”
“An unfortunate side effect of the biological revolution of psychiatry is in perceiving emotional discomfort as undesirable or bad, something we shouldn’t feel, something...
“Antipsychotic Medication for Children Could Have Lasting Effects, Research Suggests”
Neuroscientists have just released the results of a study on the long-term use of antipsychotic drugs in children. The growing brain adapts to the...
“MIT Students Turn Their Brainpower Toward Suicide Prevention”
After seven suicides in two years, students have come together to develop community building interventions including a texting hotline, artificial light boxes, and conversation...
Don’t Tell Me to Shut Up: The “Et Tu, Brute” Stigma of “Mental Illness”
From Psych Central: "After sharing my eccentric journey to recovery in a new book, I’ve been accused of being anti-psychiatry. I’m not anti-psychiatry. I’m...
“‘I Wrote a New Story for My Nervous System’ — Neurosculpting, Neuroplasticity”
In the words of Monica Cassani; "This is so EXCITING. I listened to this with such complete and total delight. This interview with Lisa...
