Around The Web

-"I knew my psychiatric practice was forever changed the day a patient arrived with a manila folder stuffed with printouts and announced that it contained the contents of a Google search that he had done on me."

-Two Harvard University psychologists discuss how to be a more "mindful" clinician.

-Ashley Zlatopolsky writes about how receiving a benzodiazepine for anxiety led to a severe, problematic addiction.

-Belgian psychologist Eiko Fried argues that depression is not a discrete disease, but a cluster of independent symptoms that reinforce each other.

-Pacific Standard examines the research into teenagers who commit violent crimes, and finds that their "brains" seem less to blame than their economic status.

-Nearly one in five families in New South Wales, Australia admitted that they give tranquilizing drugs to their children during long road trips.

-A psychiatrist asserts that psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies never promoted the idea that serotonin deficiencies could cause depression, and suggests that no one at Mad in America has evidence that they did.

-A recent debate involving Neuroskeptic and other panelists with backgrounds in neuroscience and psychology asked if science's growing problems can be fixed.

-A peer-to-peer application that trains people to consult with each other reportedly produced positive results for reducing stress, depression and anxiety.

-A recent report from the Union of Concerned Scientists graded the level of employee freedom of speech at 17 US federal agencies.

-A recent study of 1,099 children, adolescents and young adults found poverty associated in a dose-response manner with poorer brain development.

-Ronald Pies and Duncan Double discuss Pies' recent claim in Psychiatric Times that no psychiatrists believe or assert the unproven notion that schizophrenia is a biological brain disease.

-MIA Blogger Monica Cassani discusses a video from psychiatrist Russell Razzaque exploring what he learns about the human psyche from practicing meditation.

-The National Institute of Mental Health reports that HIV can infect brains very quickly and lead to a variety of psychiatric symptoms.

-The pharmaceutical industry spent $4.53 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising in the US in 2014, up 18% from $3.83 billion in 2013.

-Discover's Neuroskeptic and Scientific American's John Horgan discuss neuroscience and bad science on Bloggingheads.tv

-The US government has been "chipping away" at the FDA's powers in order to speed up drug approvals.

-A prominent Canadian psychiatrist argues that "gender identity disorder" has no biological basis, and therefore all "conversion therapy" should not be outright banned.

-Various experts weigh in on whether the boom in diagnosing psychological and physical problems as being caused by "low testosterone" is "disease-mongering."

-Neuroscientist Jonathan Roiser grapples with why it is that neuroscience has continued to have difficulties helping improve psychiatric treatments.

-An interview with psychiatrist Julie Holland about her new book, "Moody Bitches."

-A fired government health economist says that his research was showing that 60,000 Americans now taking antipsychotic medications will die prematurely.

-Pharmaceutical policy researcher Alan Cassels critically reviews a spate of effusive news coverage about a tiny, experimental study of a drug treatment for Alzheimer's.

-Slate reports on proceedings as the US Supreme Court considers whether police should have to "accommodate" people who seem to have a mental disability.

-The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has released a report on key ethical challenges facing the BRAIN Initiative.