Around The Web

From Okayplayer: Twenty-four years ago, The Notorious B.I.G. laid the blueprint for rappers on how to rap about the trauma they’ve experienced.

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...

From COE Commissioner for Human Rights: While the additional strain generated by the pandemic is new, the mental health situation and lack of services has been a neglected human rights crisis in Europe for a long time.

From Psychology Today/John Read, PhD: A new study documents the dissatisfaction of 1,200 patients with their doctor's knowledge and expertise regarding antidepressant withdrawal.

From the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics: The American Psychological Association's participation in "enhanced interrogation" and other forms of torture is indicative of the need...

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...

Dr. Sterling's grand rounds lecture looks at why U.S. deaths of despair are the highest in the developed world, what our species' needs are for a healthy lifecycle, and what happens when those needs are frustrated.

Pharmalot’s Ed Silverman reports that a number of generic drugs, sold by Novartis and Teva Pharmaceuticals, may be pulled off of the shelves after...

On The New York Times Opinionator Blog, Diana Spechler has written a series entitled “Going Off,” relating her experience transitioning to a life without...

-The Conversation has run a seven-article series discussing the history, politics and philosophical underpinnings of ethically questionable medical research.

From Disability Visibility Project: CBT as a modality is based around gaslighting. It's about telling a patient that the world is safe, bad feelings are temporary, and that pain is a 'faulty or unhelpful' distortion of thinking.

-Time magazine looks at the effects of a number of relaxation techniques on depression and anxiety in elderly people.

“Wealth in the United States can buy many things: education, homes, vacations. It can even buy the best doctors and diet, but it can't buy health.” Why not? Asks Yessenia Funes. Researchers find that inequality in society leads to shorter lives for everyone.

"Almost 30 years ago a group of clinicians in Finland decided to treat psychosis differently. Their approach, known as Open Dialogue, has impressive recovery...

From The New York Times: CorePower, the country’s largest yoga studio chain, has a distinctly profitable approach: It enlists teachers as salespeople and incentivizes them with bonuses.

Sonja Lyubomirsky's book examines the false assumptions we all have about what makes us happy, and points in the direction of how to actually...

From The Conversation: University students are increasingly using "smart drugs," including amphetamines and Modafinil, to enhance their academic performance. These drugs tend to be addictive and...

From Newsweek: "The World Health Organization no longer considers gender incongruence—a condition experienced by some transgender people—as a mental disorder. The United Nations health agency...

1 Boring Old Man reviews the decline in inter-rater reliability from the DSM-II to  the DSM-5. 1 Boring Old Man →

1 Boring Old Man has been a very busy (old) man, with more background on the Philadelphia gynecomastia trial, notice of unrepresentative sampling for clinical...

-A presentation at the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society Congress, that showed a doubling and tripling of the risk of dying within 6 months for people with Parkinson's if they were taking antipsychotics.

-Is the World Health Organization moving towards developing tighter ties with corporations through its new "Framework of Engagement with non-State Actors"?

“The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of pharmaceutical treatment for low sexual desire in women has launched a heated debate over the dangers and benefits of medicalizing sex,” Maya Dusenbery writes in the Pacific Standard. Is “female Viagra” a feminist victory or a product of clever faux-feminist marketing by Big Pharma?

"Terrorism researchers are trying to understand how young people in Europe become radicalized, by looking for clues in the life histories of those who have committed or planned terrorist acts in recent years, left the continent to join ISIS, or are suspected of wanting to become jihadists. A mixture of sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and psychologists, such researchers are drawing on information generated by police, judicial inquiries and the media, and, in some cases, on interviews. They also study factors at play in prisons and socially-deprived areas. Some of their insights are summarized here.”

From STAT news: "Far be it from us to tell 23andMe how to run its business, but if it or any other DNA company wants to...