At What Point Does Altering a Memory Become Unethical?
The state of the science and ethics of using biological techniques to alter or "erase" traumatic memories is explored in The Atlantic. With "reconsolidation,"...
Common Off-label Drug for Autism No Better than Placebo
The Alzheimer's drug memantine (also known as Ebixa or Namenda) is being regularly used off-label in the treatment of childhood autism, Asperger’s, and Pervasive...
Psychiatrists Discuss Concerns About Peer Support
Dr. Sunny Aslam writes a brief report in Psychiatric Services about working alongside mental health peer support employees, based on feedback he obtained from...
“The Future of Psychiatry May Be Inside Your Stomach”
The Verge reviews the growing body of evidence of the psychological impacts of different types of gastrointestinal microbes, and interviews Boston-area psychiatrist James Greenblat...
“When psychiatrists are on Facebook, their patients can get a case of TMI”
Washington Post columnist Steven Petrow gets a friend recommendation from Facebook, and it turns out to be his current psychotherapist, who isn't using any...
Use of Psychiatric Services “Skyrocketing” in Turkey
The number of people seeking psychiatric treatment in Turkey rose from 3 million people in 2009 to almost 9.2 million in 2013, according to...
ADHD and “The Merchants of Speed”
Pediatrician and UCSF professor Lawrence Diller has issued the fourth of a four-part memoir on Huffington Post, recounting the rise of ADHD medicating and...
“ADHD treatment market value to reach $9.9 bn by 2020”
According to business intelligence firm GBI Research, the ADHD medication market will rise in value from $6.9 billion in 2013 to $9.9 billion by...
Wikipedia Page Gone, But RxISK Presses On to Educate about Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction
The English-language page on Wikipedia about Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) was removed earlier this year, re-posted, and removed again in July, but according to...
“High-volume Care, Not Good Care”
WSJ Live interviews cardiologist Dr. Sandeep Jauhar about his new book, Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician. Jauhar describes "the perverse incentives of...
Sunday Meditation: Are Non-ordinary States “Freeing” the Brain to Truly See?
On his blog Metaphysical Speculations, Bernardo Kastrup challenges conventional psychiatric assumptions that the brain produces and controls consciousness. Kastrup cites two recent studies published...
Greenberg on DSM: “There are many… who wonder about the sanity…”
"There are many practitioners, including psychiatrists, who wonder about the sanity and the soundness of the enterprise in general," Gary Greenberg tells the Australian...
Few Seniors Have Advance Directives, Yet Doctors Don’t Like It When They Do
In MinnPost, Susan Perry discusses a JAMA Internal Medicine study that found that, within 48 hours of being hospitalized, almost half of adults aged...
Conference on Re-Visioning Madness & Extreme States
On December 12-14, California's Esalen institute will host a conference called, Re-Visioning Madness: Compassionately Responding to People in Extreme States. "Esalen co-founders Richard Price...
“Mental Health and Social Insanity”
"Robin Williams’s body was scarcely cold when liberal commentators began using the tragedy of his death as publicity for suicide hotlines and professional mental...
Internal Eli Lilly Documents Added to Online Archive
Internal Eli Lilly records about the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa have been added to the University of California's online, publicly accessible Drug Industry Documents Archive...
“The Computer Will See You Now”
The Economist reports on "Ellie," a programmed, virtual psychologist designed by researchers at the Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles, who has a...
Sunday FM: Music Therapy Comes to Life in Documentary
A new documentary coming to theatres around the US over the next few months explores Dan Cohen's Music and Memory program and its emotional...
Controversy Over Popular Game: “Psychiatric Ward — Enter if you dare, escape if you...
The Toronto Transit Commission has removed billboards for a popular escape game after The Toronto Star reported on four complaints about its mental health-themed...
More High-tech Surveillance for Better Mental Health?
High-tech surveillance could help improve people's mental health cost-effectively, according to a commentary in The Guardian. "any existing capacities of tablets, smartphones and even...
What Happens When Paranoid Feelings that You’re Being Watched are Correct?
McGill News reviews the new book Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness, and discusses its themes with co-author McGill Canada Research Chair in Philosophy...
Hearing Voices Researched at Edinburgh Book Festival
Researchers from Durham University's Hearing the Voice project are attending the Edinburgh International Book Festival through August as part of a study, asking both...
“When Will Mental Illness Finally Yield to Science?”
Newsweek writer Alexander Nazaryan overviews the recent "kick in the rear" provided to brain science by hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, and...
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...
Is Daydreaming as Vital to Mind-health as Focusing on Facts?
"If you’re feeling overwhelmed, there’s a reason: The processing capacity of the conscious mind is limited. This is a result of how the brain’s...
