What Care for the Criminally Insane Can Teach Us
In this piece for The Pew Charitable Trusts, Michael Ollove reports on Oregon's model of intense care and supervision for those found guilty except for insanity.
"Oregon’s model...
“When Meth Was an Antidepressant”
The Atlantic compares the use of meth as a “top-line antidepressant” in the 1930s to the 1950s to debates over the use of medicinal marijuana today. “It’s an example of how pharmaceuticals, at their core, are drugs. They’re chemicals that were mixed together and believed to be beneficial to humanity, until they weren't.”
The Placebo Effect is Amplified When Doctors Appear Likeable
From The British Psychological Society: A new study found that the placebo effect is enhanced by the impression of warmth and competence.
"Howe and her team...
On Mentally Ill People Dealing with “Sane” People’s Violence
Jack Bragen writes in the Berkeley Daily Planet about the impacts on people's minds of the war and violence going on around them. "Someone...
“Psychiatry in Crisis! Mental Health Director Rejects Psychiatric “Bible” and Replaces With… Nothing”
John Horgan of Scientific American writes that "in a move sure to rock psychiatry, psychology and other fields that address mental illness, the director...
Garth Daniels Sues Psychiatric Hospital Over Forced ECT
In Melbourne, Australia, Garth Daniels is suing a hospital and two doctors after he claims they administered electroconvulsive therapy, or ‘shock therapy', treatments against his will. "Daniels has been shocked 31 times in the last four months and he's also been tied to his bed with velcro straps for much of the year."
“Psychosis, healing and rebirth”
Our friend Monica Cassani muses "Psychosis is, among (many) other things, also, quite often, a deep attachment to one’s (not consensually reasonable) thoughts and...
Inside Croatia’s Pioneering Mental Health Center
From The Guardian: The oldest asylum in the Balkans has now been transformed into an unlocked mental health center. The patients have begun living in...
Critical Psychiatry: “Stop Psychiatric Abuse”
On his Critical Psychiatry blog, Duncan Double offers his response to Peter Gøtzsche’s and Peter Breggin’s latest blogs on forced treatment. “They want to...
An Eminent Psychiatrist Demurs on Trump’s Mental State
In this opinion piece for the New York Times, Allen Frances, chairman of the task force that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental...
NIMH to Host Live ECT Q&A on March 17th
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will hold a live Facebook event on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on Thursday, March 17, 2016 from 4-5 PM...
“The Nixon-Masked Man Who Helped End Homosexuality as a Disease”
In a Forgotten History article for the Daily Beast, Brandon Ambrosino tells the story of the 1972 meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. There,...
Introducing the Doing the Right Thing Award
From STAT: STAT has recently awarded the first-ever Doing the Right Thing (DiRT) Award to the American Diabetes Association and its flagship journal, Diabetes, for championing correct...
This is What Self-Care Really Means
In this piece for Thought Catalog, Brianna West redefines self-care as actions we take to build a life that feels fulfilling, not a reprieve from...
The Psychedelic Miracle
From Rolling Stone Magazine: Both the underground practice of and aboveground research on the use of psychedelic drugs to heal PTSD, as well as depression, anxiety,...
The Power of Sharing Stories
From YES! Magazine: "As Joe Clemons was growing up, he used to listen to family members share stories. Some stories were imaginative and rousing,...
Is The Microbiome our Puppeteer?
“My message today is that your state of gut will affect your state of mind. To have a healthy brain, we may need a...
“For One Condition, the Drugs Came Before the Disorder”
An investigative report in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel explores the pharmaceutical industries involvement in the creation of the ‘mental illness’ known as Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder...
‘Shocking’ Study: Most Common Antidepressant Barely Improves Depression
From The Telegraph: The new trial of sertraline is by far the largest to be conducted without the involvement of the pharmaceutical industry.
“Will Pfizer Overcome Generic Antidepressant Market?”
Pfizer’s patents on Xanax, Zoloft, and Effexor have run out and generics are now coming to market. The company is also facing lawsuits from...
What Fanon Still Teaches Us About Distress in Post-Colonial Society
From The Conversation: "Fanon ultimately viewed institutionalised care as a mode of disciplinary power in the regulation of people. He saw it as a...
Your Anxiety is a Political Issue
From Extra Newsfeed: Anxiety is a political issue, resulting directly from marginalization and structural inequality. The solution to anxiety is not self-help culture but activism...
“Attention Deficit After Kids’ Critical Illness Linked to Medical Tubes”
Past research has revealed the children who get hospitalized in the intensive care unit are more likely to develop the symptoms associated with ADHD....
“Woman Hospitalized Involuntarily Wants Legal Aid for Mental Health Hearing”
A Canadian woman is attempting to assert her right to a lawyer in order to fight an involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. While homeless, the patient...
“Making Theater Autism-Friendly”
-The Atlantic reports on the growth of "autism-friendly" movie theaters, sports arenas and now live theaters.
