PTSD, Psychotropic Medication Increase Dementia Risk
From Healio: Researchers recently found that veterans diagnosed with PTSD and prescribed antidepressants or atypical antipsychotics are at a higher risk for dementia than veterans...
Update on DSM-5 by 1 Boring Old Man
1 Boring Old Man does a status analysis of the DSM-5, finding that the DSM-5 has moved beyond the restraint of earlier versions, which...
“New Anti-Drug Program Teaches Teens To Resist Psychiatrist’s Constant Pressure To Use Drugs”
The satirical news site the Onion took aim at psychiatrists and overprescribing to children and adolescents last week with this headline. “A lot of...
‘Clearly a Game’: Opioid Lawsuit Settlements Give Tax Breaks to Drug Firms
From USA TODAY: "When corporations deduct settlements for wrongdoing [from their taxes], the public is doubly harmed," said a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.
“Mental Distress Is Not An Illness”
Philip Hickey, PhD, of the valuable blog Behaviorism and Mental Health, explicates the fuzzy distinction between "disorder" and "illness" when it comes to mental health,...
Bias Against Fat People is So Endemic We Don’t Recognize It
From Medical Xpress: People from all marginalized backgrounds are subjected to microaggressions and hostility every day, which has serious physical and mental health consequences. But our...
“Cop Stalks Woman, Has Her Committed When She Rejects Him”
-AlterNet reports on a lawsuit that accuses a police officer of abusing his mental health law powers.
Schizophrenia and Suicide: Is There a Drug Connection?
From The Baltimore Sun: In current psychotropic trials, there are more dead bodies in the active treatment groups than in the placebo groups. That's quite different from what happens in the trials of drugs that really work.
To the Bone: The Trouble With Anorexia on Film
From The Atlantic: The new Netflix film To the Bone, which tells the story of a woman's struggle with anorexia, reflects our culture's morbid fascination and...
“Forgiving Others Can Protect You From Depression”
A new study out of the University of Missouri examines the relationship between forgiveness and depression. Medical Daily reports, “while your therapist might tell you to forgive yourself when times get tough, it’s not always just self-forgiveness that decreases depression. Rather, forgiving others seems to have the most positive impact.”
Critical Psychiatry Network 2017 Conference Report
From Critical Psychiatry: The Critical Psychiatry Network's 2017 conference raised a variety of issues and featured a range of differing perspectives pertaining to the societal...
Stop Labelling People Who Commit Crimes ‘Criminals’
In this piece for Aeon, Kimberley Brownlee argues that labelling people who commit crimes as "criminals," "offenders," or "perpetrators" is dehumanizing and reductionistic, defining a...
Group Plans Protest Against the World Congress of Psychiatry
The International Association Against Psychiatric Assault (IAAPA) plans to protest against the World Congress of Psychiatry this October. The IAAPA considers it a "provocation"...
Could an Intensified Version of Normality Be the Real Cause of Mass Shootings?
-Since research has dispelled many of the common beliefs about the causes of mass murders, is it time for us all to look inward for the real roots?
More Dangerous Than Opioids – Benzo Overprescription
From The Lown Institute: Opioids aren't the only drug being dangerously overprescribed. The overprescription of benzodiazepines, a psychoactive drug with potentially excruciating side effects and...
Activists, Suicide Prevention Groups Seek Bans on Conversion Therapy for Minors
From NPR: "Conversion therapy...is telling somebody that there's something fundamentally broken with them and...it needs to be fixed. That's a lot of trauma."
How the Life Coaching Industry Sells Pseudo-Solutions to Our Deepest Problems
From Current Affairs: The cultural pressures to become a self-made individual have intensified at the same time that sources of social support have decreased. Enter the life coach.
When Anxiety or Depression Masks a Medical Problem
From The New York Times: The mind and body are more connected than we often think — symptoms of anxiety and depression may result from...
“How Journalists Can Help Hold Scientists Accountable”
Today, science journalists’ motivations "align very nicely with what the scientists themselves want, which is publicity for their work," says Charles Seife, a veteran...
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...
This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone.
From The New York Times: The problem of multiple medication use, or polypharmacy, that first emerged a decade ago among young people in foster care and low-income settings, has now gone mainstream.
Challenging the Relentless Rise of Depression in Young People
In this piece, Dave Traxson discusses the social and cultural factors contributing to the rise of depression among young people in Britain, arguing that...
Third Member of Prestigious FDA Panel Resigns Over Approval of Alzheimer’s Drug
From CNBC: The FDA approved the new drug from Biogen, priced at $56,000 per year, despite a near-unanimous "no" vote from a key advisory committee.
Treating the Lifelong Harm of Childhood Trauma
From The New York Times: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, who has emerged as one of the country's strongest voices calling for a national public health...
No Evidence for Psychiatry’s Depression Claims, Report Three 2022 Research Reviews
From CounterPunch: The public has routinely heard proclamations that depression is a neurobiological phenomenon or brain disease, but recent major research reviews refute these claims.
