“I Overmedicated My Kid: Big Pharma’s Attention Obsession Puts Children at Risk”
Daniela Drake, MD, writes on Salon about her son's misdiagnosis of ADHD - later found to be an auditory processing disorder and an allergy...
“The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Fight Against Gun Control”
Paul Woodward of Beyond Meds critiques the Washington Post's report on the reduction of gun control, and increase in mental health-care budgets, following Sandy...
“Serotonin Deficiency May Not Cause Depression After All”
Salon magazine reports on an article in October's Translational Psychiatry that finds "rather than a shortage of serotonin, a lack of synaptogenesis (the growth...
Thomas Insel on “A New Approach to Psychiatric Research”
Thomas Insel, in an interview for the Boston Globe, discusses the historical tension within psychiatry about "being medical," saying "Freud himself was apoplectic about...
“What to Ask Your Doctor Before Going on Antidepressants”
Roger Colvin, PhD, considers the problem of withdrawal from antidepressants for the Huffington Post.
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“Operate on This Mother so That we can Take her Baby”
The Telegraph reports on a pregnant Italian mother who, having flown to England for a two-week training had a panic attack which lead to...
“Nonconformity and Freethinking Now Considered Mental Illnesses”
From The Unbounded Spirit, which "was created with the sole purpose of providing valuable and interesting information that will provoke its readers to get into...
“Alleged Perils Of Left-Handedness Don’t Always Hold Up”
An NPR blog critiques the reliability of a study that found an increased risk of schizophrenia diagnosis among left-handers.
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“An Overabundance of Caution”
Under Canada's Mental Health Act (MHA), police respond to anonymous calls expressing concern about a person's mental health, often leading to that person's detainment...
“Psychosis Risk Syndrome is Back to Haunt Us”
Allen Frances adds to his catalog of DSM-5 mistakes with the return of the controversial - and ultimately rejected - "Psychosis Risk Disorder", under...
“What’s it Really Like to Take Antidepressants?”
Britain's HealthTalkOnline.org offers videotaped interviews with 36 people in their homes, talking about their decision to take antidepressants and the impact of that decision...
“Suffering From Depression? Take a Course of Surf Lessons! Doctors Prescribe Watersports for Young...
A pilot program of Britain's national health service prescribes surfing lessons for youth with anxiety disorders. 'What is great is it doesn’t feel like therapy...
“Are Mental Illnesses Real?”
The Institute for Emerging Ethics & Technologies offers a three-part exploration of the questions revolving around mental illness & diagnosis, wending through Szasz, mental...
“What is the Brain Telling Us About the Diagnoses of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder?”
An article in Biological Psychiatry that asks "Is Aberrant Functional Connectivity A Psychosis Endophenotype" inspires reflection on how new findings of brain science suggest rethinking...
“The Entrepreneurs of Outrage”
The Washington Post's Michael Gerson writes on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as an example of how "aspects of...
“Forget the Headlines – Schizophrenia is More Common Than You Might Think”
The U.K.'s Guardian writes "Schizophrenia isn't a specific, rare or rigorously defined illness. Instead, it covers a wide range of often unrelated conditions, all...
“The Schizophrenia Stereotype Scares the Sufferer Too”
Britain's The Independent tells the story of Lloyd Dres, a 44-year-old former stock trader, who has been trying to make sense of the "paranoid...
“My Suicide Attempt and My Struggles to Get Help”
Marine corps veteran Thomas Brennan tells of his PTSD, suicide attempt, and entry into the psychiatric system that he describes as "three days that convinced...
“Are Benzodiazepines and Antidepressants Making Us Sicker?”
Naturopathic doctor Lauren Deville reviews "Anatomy of an Epidemic" and the evidence that the "chemical imbalance" theorized to underlie mental illness is not only...
“The Way We Diagnose Mental Illness Might Be A ‘Mistake'”
The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test", which chronicles the meteoric growth of the DSM in "chaotic editorial meetings in a small...
“MHRA Consultant Calls for Antidepressant Use in Young”
Bob Fiddamen dissects the issue of suicidality, bizarre behavior and antidepressants in light of BMJ Open's publication of "Suicide-related events in young people following...
“Dr. Lieberman and ’60 Minutes’”
Phil Hickey of Behaviorism and Mental Health picks apart 60 Minutes' segment interviewing E. Fuller Torrey (Untreated mental illness an imminent danger?), and APA...
“SHIT Happens”
David Healy posits the Secret Health Ingredient in Treatment (SHIT) . . . "In the early twentieth century SHIT was some supposedly secret magic...
“The Allen Frances – Lucy Johnstone Debate”:
Dr. Philip Hickey does the play-by-play on Allen Frances' interchange with Lucy Johnstone about prospective "overreaching" paradigm shifts in mental health. Johnstone, Frances fears,...
“The Best Predictor…” (of Pharmaceutical PR Campaigns)
1 Boring Old Man points out the link between (possibly spurious) research findings and a subsequent wave of media articles and ad campaigns based...
