Around The Web

-A satirical post about "nostalgia disorder" by a medical student looks a lot like the real thing.

-Public Citizen analyzed public comments on proposed government rule changes for drug company sales representatives.

-MIA Blogger Dick Russell recounts the story of his son and Malidoma Somé.

-Retired social worker David Moyer writes about his son's long battle with what is either "a mental disorder" or effects from serious physical problems.

In The Lancet, psychiatrist and MIA Blogger Andrew Scull discusses the themes in his book Madness In Civilization. "Mental illness haunts the human imagination,"...

-Some online counseling services have half-hidden disclaimers that they aren't actually providing "counseling."

-Peter Hitchens argues that the public discussion about the Germanwings crash has to start distinguishing between whether depressed people should be flying and whether people taking antidepressants should be.

The British Psychological Society's "Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia" report is criticized in two successive articles by Editor in Chief Emeritus Ronald Pies of Psychiatric Times.

-"I'm sorry this blog post turned out to be so polarizing," writes Shrink Rap psychiatrist Dinah Miller. "No one has ever called me 'evil' before."

-The director of the Office for Civil Rights discusses the latest wave of data breaches of American citizens' health information.

-John Horgan defends a celebrity's right to challenge scientists on vaccines, and points to psychiatry as an example of the dangers of simply deferring to supposed scientific experts.

-A review of Jon Ronson's new book exploring the rising power of social media to reinforce social norms.

-MIA Blogger Ted Chabasinski is featured in an excerpt from Richard Cohen's "41 Days An Unfinished Documentary."

-The Atlantic investigates the scientific evidence -- and lack thereof -- for Alcoholics Anonymous and other types of addiction treatment.

-The US National Center for Youth Law has launched an "action campaign" to persuade government officials to reduce the psychiatric drugging of children in foster care.

-Vox interviews the author of the most read article in the history of PLoS Medicine.

-John Horgan criticizes psychiatrist Richard Friedman's effusive portrayal of a study that allegedly identified the "feel-good" gene in humans.

-Neuroskeptic previews an upcoming debate, in which he's involved, on the topic of whether science is "broken."

-Vox interviews the founders of a platform for sharing peer reviews of scientific articles.

-Healthy Debate discusses some experiments with doctors paying their patients to engage in healthier behaviors.

-A psychiatric study widely hailed in Swedish media which led to new treatment guidelines was a "fraud," states health reporter and researcher Janne Larsson.

-The iPhone is becoming a diagnostic tool drawing medical and mental health data from millions of potential customers.

-A second prominent Russian politician is proposing that all candidates for elections should have to produce a psychiatrist's certification of their mental health.

-Satirist and scientist James McCormack and his band return with a parody of Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

-Former American Psychiatric Association president Jeffrey Lieberman talks about "the most distrusted, feared and denigrated of all medical specialties."