Around The Web

Updates on critical psychiatry postings across the Internet.

Opioid Conflict-of-Interest Reveals Big Pharma’s Ties to Doctors

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From CBC News: A McMaster University committee has been assigned to develop new opioid-prescribing guidelines for Canada's doctors. While the rules explicitly prohibited anyone with ties...

Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze

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From ABC: The self-help and self-improvement industry are more popular and widely accepted than ever. However, the moral imperative to constantly think positive and always...

‘A Little Bit of OCD’: The Downside of Mental Health Awareness

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From The Guardian: People often claim to experience mental health problems only to excuse their unpleasant or hurtful behaviors. This can exacerbate prejudice toward those...

We Must Defeat the Tories for the Sake of Our Mental Health

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From The Daily Mirror: According to U.K. academics and mental health groups, five more years of Tory rule would greatly exacerbate people's mental health and cause...

Some Social Scientists are Tired of Asking for Permission

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From The New York Times: The Department of Health and Human Services's Office for Human Research Protections recently revised its rules for social science research. Studies...

How an Ancient Singing Tradition Helps People Cope With Trauma

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From YES! Magazine: Lament singing, an ancient tradition once observed for spiritual purposes during funerals, weddings, and times of war, is now seeing a revival in...

Unreliability of fMRI Emotional Biomarkers

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From Discover Magazine: A recent study found that neural responses to emotional stimuli are highly variable even within the same individual, which could hinder researchers' ability...

How Does the Brain-Body Connection Affect Creativity?

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From Big Think: Recent studies show that walking helps people think more creatively and originally. In three different studies, 81%, 88%, and 100% of participants...

The Empathy Machine

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From Aeon: We typically think of empathy as an emotions-based state that involves feeling another's distress or joy. However, cognitive, rationalist empathy involving reasoned perspective-taking may...

A Standing Meditation for Self-Care

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In this piece for On Being, Sharon Salzberg discusses the importance of self-care and describes a meditation technique that can help increase self-love and self-compassion.

Trump’s Pick for Mental Health ‘Czar’ Highlights Rift

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From The New York Times: President Trump's nominee to direct SAMHSA, Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, who is a strong proponent of the medical model of psychiatry,...

What It Feels Like When Your Identity is Heavy

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In this piece for Science of Us, Jesse Singal describes the burdensome stress of being a member of a minority group and having an identity...

New Podcast – is it Really Mental Illness?

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From the University of Liverpool News: In a new podcast, Dr. Peter Kinderman, the vice-president of the British Psychological Society, argues that emotional distress is...

We Need to Stop Prescribing Antidepressants in Primary Care

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In this op-ed for Pulse, Des Spence argues the case for dramatically reducing antidepressant prescriptions, as antidepressants are often completely ineffective and unnecessary. "Clearly psychological pain,...

In Praise of Defiance

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From Aeon: Throughout history, psychiatry has pathologized defiance and continues to label individuals who resist authority and stand up for their rights as mentally ill....

MHE Launches New Video on Article 27 of the UN CRPD

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Mental Health Europe has launched a new animated video explaining Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 27...

Doctors Too Reliant on Pfizer’s Depression Questionnaire

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From The Telegraph: Depression is being overdiagnosed due to doctors' reliance on a nine-question form designed by pharmaceutical company Pfizer to assess patients for depression. Article...

What Know-it-alls Don’t Know, or the Illusion of Competence

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In this piece for Aeon, Kate Fehlhaber investigates why some people are overconfident in their knowledgeability and skills, despite holding inaccurate beliefs or being less competent...

FDA Proposes That Doctors Learn About Acupuncture

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From STAT: The FDA is now recommending that physicians learn about a variety of approaches to pain management, including non-pharmacologic therapies such as chiropractic care...

Group Homes for People With a Disability Must be Phased Out

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From ABC: More than 100 academics have published an open letter to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to hold a royal commission investigating abuses and...

Here’s a Great This American Life Segment About Being Neurotic

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From Science of Us: This week's This American Life, which addresses questions regarding whether extraterrestrial life exists, reveals a great deal of truth about what it...

What the Fidget Spinners Fad Says About Disability Discrimination

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From Thinking Person's Guide to Autism: For decades, autistic and developmentally disabled people have been conditioned and coerced into behaving like neurotypical people, including suppressing...

The Effects of Exercise on Depression

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From CNN: Exercise may help in reducing depression. Click here for a video on the benefits of exercise for people struggling with depression, including one man's...

What a New University in Africa is Doing to Decolonize Education

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From The Conversation: A new university in Africa is taking steps toward decolonizing the social sciences, including assigning students non-English texts, studying non-textual sources, and...

Instagram Worst App for Young People’s Mental Health

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From CNN: A British study found that Instagram has a negative effect on young people's mental health, especially on young women's body image. The Royal...