Around The Web

From Kaiser Health News: "Two torturous days later, Jeff Duncan came home. While he returned to rehab, the Duncans decided their approach wasn’t working....

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

From Psychology Today: Informed consent isn't possible if known harms are minimized or presented in ways that are faulty and misleading.

The BBC reports that the number of people in Scotland taking antidepressants has increased by 5% in the past year with most of the patients being women and those in the poorest parts of the country. “We are now looking at the flabbergasting statistic of more than one in seven people in Scotland being prescribed antidepressants this year,” Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said. “We urgently have to look at better alternatives than simply parking people on medication in the hope things don't get any worse, with no aspiration for complete recovery."

From The Onion: "Much of the time these researchers didn’t even bother to test a hypothesis or collect data, but instead just tortured student volunteers for amusement."

From Reuters: The Court rejected a bid to overturn a $70 million jury verdict against the company for its failure to warn of the risk of breast enlargement in children.

“A new study is giving insight into how long-term care patients in the province are progressing — or, in some cases, worsening — over time. It found those living in central Newfoundland are more likely to be given antipsychotic drugs they don't need.”

From BBC Sounds: For a limited time: Listen to a new sitcom pilot by George Mason about an optimistic but struggling single dad dealing with long-term mental health issues.

Peter Campbell, one of the pioneers of the mental health user and survivor movement in the UK, is remembered in a blog post by the activist collective Recovery in the Bin.

From Fox News: "You can’t just carve the world into 'disorders' and think you’re doing an adequate job of determining someone’s mental health needs," said UCSF professor Dr. Jonathan Shedler.

For STAT news, Pharmalot correspondent Ed Silverman reports on a new guideline being drafted by the FDA that adds new rules that could restrict...

For STAT news, Judith Graham reports on the escalating crisis of depression, burnout, and suicide among physicians. “Male doctors are 1.4 times more likely to kill...

In this interview with Jackie Dent, President of Clear Spot Club, social work lecturer Emma Tseris explains how labelling someone with an anxiety disorder fails...

In this blog for Statistical Modeling, Causal Interference, and Social Science, Andrew Gelman critiques the Association of Psychological Science's upcoming convention.

In this two-part video series for AdvancingMentalHealth.org, attorney Gary Brown questions the constitutionality of psychiatric confinement and discusses forced treatment from a legal perspective. Part I →­ Part II →­

Psychiatric Times reflects on the rise of ketamine as an antidepressant, MDMA (ecstasy) for the treatment of PTSD, and cannabis' use for neuropathic pain...

From Wellcome Collection: It has long been assumed that great writers and artists must be touched by madness. However, no link between artistic talent and...

From The New England Journal of Medicine: "The social determinants of health — and physicians’ sense of powerlessness in the face of them — seem...

From Robert Beshara: "I am pleased to announce that on behalf of the Critical Praxis Collective, I have put together a website which will...

From The American Lawyer: "A federal appeals court has thrown out a $3 million verdict awarded last year to the widow of a former Reed...

A team of American pediatric physicians has published an article in the journal Pediatrics examining the many ways in which medical overdiagnosis may be...

From CNN: Many of the cases are young Marines who have not deployed overseas or been in combat -- a situation observed in other branches of the military as well.

The November/December issue of the Psychotherapy Networker is called "Depression Unmasked: Exposing a Hidden Epidemic." It includes articles such as, "Can Mood Science Save...

Eleanor Longden and John Reed look at the "relationships between childhood adversity and the presence of characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia."  They conclude: "The current...

From Monthly Review: What Baran and Sweezy saw in the 1960s as the trend toward the psychological dissolution of working-class families and individuals has today become nothing less than a ubiquitous cancer responsible for the decline of whole communities.