Sunday Oddity: “How do you diagnose and treat an illness that doesn’t linguistically exist?”
Canoe.ca reports on the doings of Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Stanley Kutcher, previously exposed by MIA Blogger Alison Bass for his role as a co-author...
New Antidepressant Shows Little Benefit, Significant Risks
Patient Drug News advises avoiding use of the antidepressant Vortioxetine (also called Brintellix or Trintellix), because the most recent evidence from the FDA shows...
Half of Us are Mentally Ill — Or are These Numbers Finally Going Too...
The Australian Bureau of Statistics states that some 45 per cent of Australians aged 16 to 85 have been mentally ill at some point...
NIMH Webinar Explains New Way of Categorizing Mental Disorders
The US National Institute of Mental Health is providing public access to a video of a webinar explaining the Research Domain Criteria initiative and...
Should Antipsychiatry Embrace the Disease Model?
Critical Psychiatry mentions the upcoming Sedgwick Conference, and links to a retrospective appraisal by two British academics of the central ideas in Peter Sedgwick's...
The Hidden Costs of Paying Physicians More to Diagnose Dementia
A plan from the British government to pay doctors for every diagnosis of dementia that they make is an act of "folly," writes physician...
“Should Suicidal Students Be Forced to Leave Campus?”
In The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv discusses an apparently common practice among some US universities to expel students who attempt suicide -- even when...
The Vicious Cycle of Depression and Lack of Exercise
Does depression make us lethargic, or does lack of exercise make us depressed? The Mental Elf tries to answer this question, and reviews a...
How are Professional Artists Similar and Different from People Diagnosed with Schizophrenia?
People "who are prone to psychosis" in its most "extreme" forms, such as delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thought, have been found to also show...
Neuroscientists Recreate Ghostly Presences in Laboratory
Neuroscientists have been able to consistently recreate in people the feeling of another person or ghostly entity hovering nearby, according to a study reported...
How Similar Was the Experience and Treatment of WWI Shell Shock to Modern PTSD?
In The Conversation, Cardiff University psychiatrist Stefanie Linden discusses her own research, reviewing old records of World War I veterans and their experiences of...
“Can psychedelic trips cure PTSD and other maladies?”
The Washington Post explores some of the history of research into the therapeutic potentials of even just one session with a psychedelic drug, and...
“The 100 most followed psychologists and neuroscientists on Twitter”
The British Psychological Society's Research Digest has compiled a list of what it claims to be the 100 psychologists and neuroscientists who have the...
NIMH Director Insel Proposes Solutions to Lack of Reproducibility in Research
National Institute of Mental Health Director Thomas Insel laments the lack of reproducibility in such a large majority of mental health-related research. He describes...
“Failed Replications: A Reality Check for Neuroscience?”
In Discover, Neuroskeptic discusses a new study that "attempted to replicate five different papers which, together, reported 17 distinct positive results in the form...
Lancet Editorial Argues for Better Science in Mental Health
An editorial in the Lancet Psychiatry suggests that mental health professionals rely more on intuition and "good intentions" than "good science," and that needs...
Why Do Congenitally Blind People Never Get Diagnosed with Schizophrenia?
"A long-standing enigma in psychiatry has been why no-one has been able to find someone who has both congenital blindness and a diagnosis of...
Previously Hidden Data Shows Anti-flu Drug Linked to Psychosis and Suicides
"(A)t least 70 people have died, many of them by suicide, after Tamiflu-induced episodes," reports Newsweek, in an article about the popular anti-flu drug...
Smartphone Mental Health Apps — Effective Treatment or Just Invasive and Misleading?
Wired examines some of the latest self-surveillance mobile apps that people are using to help themselves manage their own behaviors.
"Through the discreet and...
Pavlov
The history, personality, and dogs of one of the western world's most well-known names in behavior research, Ivan Pavlov, is the subject of an...
“4 Surprising Advantages of Being Depressed”
PsyBlog reviews a recent study that found people who feel depressed are more effective and efficient than others at certain types of activities.
"The researchers...
“From Birth to Death, Diet Affects the Brain’s Health”
LiveScience reports from the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, and provides brief summaries of a plethora of recent research into the effects of diet...
Are We In Danger of a New Wave of Eugenics?
Biopolitical Times discusses the recent historic decision by the government of North Carolina to compensate 7,000 victims of its forced sterilization programs that continued...
“Preventing the Onset of Psychosis: Not Quite There Yet”
Robert Heinssen and Thomas Insel of the National Institute of Mental Health argue in Schizophrenia Bulletin that the balance of evidence does not support...
“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...
