“Institutional Corruption Blamed for Dramatic Increase in Drug Adverse Events and Deaths”
Pharmaguy investigates the rise of adverse event reports filed each year and reports on a new article in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics ("Institutional...
Is it Always Wrong to Try to Convince Children Not to Change Genders?
-A prominent Canadian psychiatrist argues that "gender identity disorder" has no biological basis, and therefore all "conversion therapy" should not be outright banned.
“Study Ignites Debate Over Non-Drug Treatment For Schizophrenia”
"Last month," says WBUR Boston, "the Lancet published a study looking at the effects of cognitive therapy on patients with schizophrenia who refused to take medication...
New Group Takes on Drug Prices and big Pharma
From NBC: A new patients' rights advocacy group called Patients for Affordable Drugs is fighting for lower drug prices. Because the group does not receive funding...
“The Psychiatric Drug Crisis”
Gary Greenberg write in the New Yorker that "the psychiatric-drug industry is in trouble… In the past few years, one pharmaceutical giant after another—GlaxoSmithKline,...
Trees and Your Mental Well-being
Trees reduce anxiety, stress and distress, and improve memory and concentration, says an op-ed published in Business Insider that includes links to many other...
Psychologists Criticized For Roles In Forcing “Psycho-interventions” On The Unemployed
-"Curing unemployment is a growth market for psychologists. Job Centres are becoming medical centres, claimants are becoming patients, and unemployment is being redefined as a psychological disorder."
“When the Evidence-Base Doesn’t Agree”
Christopher Gill, a Global Health specialist at Boston University, reports on his comparison of the strength of the evidence from meta-analyses and Cochrane meta-analyses....
How to Really Help LGBT Teens Thrive
From The Atlantic: Although acceptance of LGBT individuals is growing, LGBT teens still on average experience lower life satisfaction and more depression than their straight peers,...
fMRI Imaging is Less Reliable Than Many Realize
-An interview with a physicist from the UC Berkeley Brain Imaging Center about the strengths and weaknesses of brain imaging science.
Negative Studies about Antidepressants (Still) Less Likely to Be Published
-Pharmaceutical companies and psychiatric researchers still "aren't telling you the whole truth" about treating anxiety.
Weight Training May Help to Ease or Prevent Depression
From the New York Times:Â Lifting weights might also lift moods, according to an important new review of dozens of studies about strength training and...
“Nature and Nurture: Human Brains Evolved to be More Responsive to Environmental Influences”
"We found that the anatomy of the chimpanzee brain is more strongly controlled by genes than that of human brains, suggesting that the human brain is extensively shaped by its environment no matter its genetics," said Aida GĂłmez-Robles, postdoctoral scientist at the GW Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology and lead author on the paper. "So while genetics determined human and chimpanzee brain size, it isn't as much of a factor for human cerebral organization as it is for chimpanzees."
Peer-to-peer App for Stress, Depression, Anxiety Support
-A peer-to-peer application that trains people to consult with each other reportedly produced positive results for reducing stress, depression and anxiety.
“Child Who Just Lost Balloon Begins Lifelong Battle With Depression” (The Onion)
The humor newspaper The Onion satirizes the conversion of transient human emotions into lifelong illnesses, reporting that "Shortly after losing grip of a helium-filled...
“Respite from the Storm”
-There's a resurgence in interest in small peer-run centers that help people who might otherwise land in psychiatric hospitals.
ACLU Suing Officials on Behalf of Traumatized Separated Families
From Truthout: "We think that the family separations was so extreme and so unprecedented that if ever there was a case warranting damages, it’s this one," an ACLU spokesman said.
Weaving Beauty Into the Tapestry of the Pandemic
From Psychiatry Today: We want to be sure that just as when we treat psychiatric illness with medications or psychotherapy, there are no unintended consequences
Can Mad People’s Voices Find a Place Within Academia?
-An article In Disability and Society asks why iacademic research approaches which "at first seem inviting and like they might even help to disrupt psychiatric control," so often seem to "ultimately resort to marginalising mad people’s own knowledge."
Profile of J&J CEO Alex Gorsky
1 Boring Old Man reviews the rise, and possible fall and its implication, of Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky; who has built his...
“Hearing Voices: tracing the borders of normality”
-Rhianna Goozee discusses the development of the Hearing Voices Movement and how research has blurred the lines between "healthy" and "normal" minds.
Brain Drugs and Corporate Climbers
-There's rising use of "cognitive enhancement" and energy-increasing psychiatric drugs among stressed workers and ambitious executives.
“Study Finds Risks for Teens of Mothers Who Took Certain Antidepressants”
“Adolescents whose mothers took certain antidepressants while pregnant with them are more than four times as likely to become depressed by age 15, compared with...
PhRMA Ups Lobbying by 30 Percent This Year
From The Hill: The pharmaceutical industry's top trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), has increased its federal lobbying expenditures by 30...
“Is There a Link Between Mental Health and Gun Violence?”
In the New Yorker, Maria Konnikova explores various philosophical and scientific questions -- and reviews some of the recent research -- related to possible...
