“Crazy Like Us: How the U.S. Exports Its Models of Illness”
Psychology Today writes "The fears of many European psychiatrists may soon be realized. Earlier this week, Psychiatric News reported that the American Psychiatric Association has begun petitioning the...
How Loneliness Is Tearing America Apart
From The New York Times: "According to a recent large-scale survey from the health care provider Cigna, most Americans suffer from strong feelings of loneliness and...
Harsh Nazi Parenting Guidelines May Still Affect German Children of Today
From NPR: The Nazis wanted children who were tough, unemotional and unempathetic, and they understood that withholding affection would support that goal.
“Why Self-Compassion Works Better Than Self-Esteem”
For The Atlantic, Olga Khazan interviews psychologist Kristen Neff about the difference between self-esteem and self-compassion. “The best way to think about the problem...
How Many Billions a Year Will the DSM-5 Cost?
An article by Allen Frances in Bloomberg examines the economic impact of the DSM's increasing pathologization of human behavior.
Article →
Social Farming Ireland Shown to Have Positive Outcomes for Mental Health
From AgriLand: Social farming is ideally placed to contribute to people’s recovery, providing opportunities to re-engage with life, with nature and with other people.
Psychiatrists Discuss Concerns About Peer Support
Dr. Sunny Aslam writes a brief report in Psychiatric Services about working alongside mental health peer support employees, based on feedback he obtained from...
Certify All Election Candidates’ Mental Health?
-A second prominent Russian politician is proposing that all candidates for elections should have to produce a psychiatrist's certification of their mental health.
“Operate on This Mother so That we can Take her Baby”
The Telegraph reports on a pregnant Italian mother who, having flown to England for a two-week training had a panic attack which lead to...
53% of Docs Still Not Transitioning to Value-Based Care
From Modern Healthcare: There has been a recent uptick in the number of doctors transitioning to value-based care, but 53 percent of physicians still have not...
“Florida Doctor Pleads Guilty to Fraud — Years After Complaints About His Prescribing”
Charles Ornstein at ProPublica reports on how long it took regulators to take action against the top prescriber of antipsychotic drugs in Florida’s Medicaid...
Yoga and the Vagus Nerve
Monica Cassani explains that yoga can accomplish the same effect on the vagus nerve as implanted vagus-nerve stimulators.
Beyond Meds →
The Way Out Of Burnout
In this piece for 1843, a psychoanalyst explains why for people feeling “burnt out,” simply trying to relax doesn’t always work.
"Burnout involves the loss of the...
“Mental Illness vs Brain Disorders: From Szasz to DSM-5”
Psychiatric Times dips into Thomas Szasz's thinking, considering the proposition that "By definition, a disease of the mind is impossible. Disease requires a physical...
The Psychiatric “Prescribing Cascade”: A Patient Story
From Lown Institute: It wasn’t until Steve was admitted to the hospital for multi-organ failure that a gastroenterologist set him on a path to deprescribe his psychiatric medications.
That Time When the Psychiatric System Went Too Far… | Joanne Cacciatore
From Dr. Joanne Cacciatore: A few very persistent scholars have finally succeeding in declaring that extended expressions of grief indicate 'mental illness' — a move that offends many.
Google Will Now Ask Users: “Are You Depressed?”
From Yahoo! Finance: Google is launching a new search feature that will help check whether users are depressed. People who make depression-related queries will now...
“The Truth about Psychedelics and Mental Illness”
-New York Magazine discusses two recent studies that looked at the long-term relationships between use of psychedelics and the development of mental illnesses.
Psychiatry is a Disaster Area in Healthcare That Needs Attention
In this piece for The BMJ, Dr. Peter Gøtzsche points out several of the major problems with the drug-based paradigm of psychiatric care as well as...
“Too Much Coercion in Mental Health Services”
Richard Bentall writes in The Guardian on the "routine" coercion in the U.K. mental health services, and on patients who are "voluntary in name...
Release Prisoners from the Psychological Torture of Solitary
From the New York Daily News: "One candidate for New York governor, Cynthia Nixon, wants to abolish solitary confinement in our prisons. To New...
“The ‘Seriously Mentally Ill’ are NOT Dying 25 Years Earlier Because of Failure to...
Alt_Mentalities corrects the record on why people with mental health diagnoses are dying young.
Article →
GSK Releases Raw Data from Study 329
The inimitable 1 Boring Old Man stumbles on previously unreleased raw data from GlaxoSmithKline's controversial study of paroxetine in adolescent depression (study 329). The data...
Think You’re Seeing More Drug Ads on TV? You Are.
From The New York Times: TV drug ads have dramatically increased in the past few years. According to Kantar Media, a firm that tracks multimedia advertising,...
“Connection Between Pfizer and Synthetic ‘Zombie’ Drug”
An illegal drug that was originally developed by Pfizer Inc. is behind a spate of overdoses in Brooklyn that sent more than two dozen...
