In Florida, Showing Mental Health Struggles Could Get a Child Detained
From The Washington Post: Under the Baker Act, kindergarteners can be forcibly committed to psych centers for exams. Advocates say the process is traumatic without being helpful.
“Taking Media Out of Social Occasions”
“Social media’s link to jealousy and depression is well-chronicled,” Kara Baskin writes in the Boston Globe, “and the recent holidays — when all sorts of unsavory emotions bubble forth anyway — amplify it.”
The Tapering Team: “Medications: Where Do We Stand in Psychiatry?”
From Underground Psychiatry: "The insurance companies, the patients, and the doctors are addicted to the tablets. So we are all stuck in the system. And only if you put the health of the patient as the purpose of your treatment, then you can change it.” ~ Pharmacist Paul Harder
Immigrants Suffer Higher Rates of Psychosis
From The Conversation: Research suggest that immigrants experience psychosis at rates two to five times higher than non-immigrants, likely due to exclusion and discrimination. Maintaining...
St. Elizabeths Has Increased Usage of Restraints on Patients, Report Says
From The Washington Post: “On multiple occasions, St. Elizabeths staff disregarded the legal and policy requirements of using restraint and seclusion that were promulgated to prevent widespread use and abuse,” the report said.
“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...
“Breaking News Consumer Handbook: Health News Edition”
Listen: NPR’s On the Media talks about how bad health information ripples through the news. Gary Schwitzer of HealthNewsReview.org cautions against other problematic health reporting in a Breaking News Consumer's Handbook: Health News Edition.
SUD Patients’ Confidentiality a Quiet Victim of the CARES Act
From Filter: "The three possible uses of this information that the Cares Act permits are: treatment, and obviously, you would want treatment providers to...
Your Psychiatrist Might be Wrong
From Pakistan Today: Psychiatry may lack scientific objectivity in comparison with other fields of medicine.
"The mind sciences – psychology or psychiatry – have always been...
Self-Care Won’t Save Us
From Current Affairs: "In a time where people—especially millennials, at whom this particular brand of self-care is aimed—are increasingly talking about their struggles with...
“We Need to Better Detect Depression but that Shouldn’t mean more Medication”
The Conversation explores the proposition that "while it is important that the detection of depression is improved and that suffering is alleviated, simply writing...
They Called for Help. They’d Always Regret It.
From The Atlantic: Two families called 911 to get help for their sons. They didn’t know that they’d be thrusting them into a complex and often brutal system.
No Philosophy of Neuroscience?
-Neuroskeptic wonders why neuroscience has apparently never had any "big ideas" or schools of thought.
Racism is Literally Bad for Your Health
From WBUR: Racially motivated discrimination and abuse have tangible, measurable negative effects on health. Not only do daily acts of prejudice and discrimination lead to...
The Battle for the Soul of Psychiatry: Ronald W. Pies, MD
From Psychiatric Times: Dr. Aftab and Dr. Pies revisit various criticisms of psychiatry, and discuss the profession’s relationship with its critics.
Wellcome Photography Prize 2020 Explores Poverty + Mental Health
From the British Journal of Photography: One of the categories in this year’s Wellcome Photography Prize, currently calling for entries, is Mental Health. The open call is inviting projects like Siân Davey’s commission that will counter visual clichés and stigmas associated with mental health conditions.
How PhRMA Finally Lost: The Inside Story of the Group’s Biggest Lobbying Failure in...
From STAT: On January 1, it became official: A change took effect that will cost the industry nearly $12 billion over the next 10 years.
“Why US Law on Guns and Mental Health Needs to Change”
-New Scientist discusses the reasons that eight US professional health organizations "collectively took a stand against a law that on the face of it, seems like plain common sense."
“Pentagon Wants Psychologists to End Ban on Interrogation Role”
Only months after the American Psychological Association voted to ban psychologists from “advanced interrogation” facilities like Guantánamo Bay prison the Pentagon is asking them to...
I Spent 16 Months of My Childhood Locked in a Warehouse
From HuffPost: The warehouse was occupied by a "tough love" drug rehab program called Straight Inc., which the ACLU branded "a concentration camp for throwaway teens."
Tackling the Growing Problem of Overmedication
From Knowable Magazine: Every day, 750 older adults are hospitalized due to serious side effects from medications, including falls, allergic reactions and internal bleeding. And with each additional medication prescribed, the risk of an adverse reaction increases by 7 to 10 percent.
‘Father of Black Psychology’ Joseph L. White Dies at 84
From Times Union: Joseph L. White, a psychologist, social activist, and teacher who helped pioneer the field of black psychology, has died at age 84.
"In the...
Trapped in a Psych Ward: Michigan Doc Pre-Signed Blank Forms That Can Rob You...
From ABC7/WXYZ Detroit: Patients, parents, and employees are coming forward to talk about their experiences at some Michigan hospitals with psychiatrist Dr. Nagy Kheir.
We’ve Got the Mental Health Crisis All Wrong
From OK Doomer: Almost everything in our culture attempts to convince us that mental health is a personal responsibility, a performance we owe to society, not the result of a society where we take care of each other.
“’Tortured Artist’ Meme Lacks Good Evidence”
“That vision of the ‘tortured artist’ — the belief that there is a strong link between creativity and mental illness — is deeply embedded...
