As Foundation for ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis Cracks, Fallout Spreads
From KFF Health News: The campaign against excited delirium seeks to transform the way police deal with people undergoing mental health crises. “This is really about saving lives,” said attorney Joanna Naples-Mitchell.
FDA Warning and Matthew Perry’s Death Darken Ketamine’s Glow
From The Washington Post: Federal health authorities are intensifying their scrutiny of the drug ketamine for "treating mental health disorders," as the mind-altering compound grows in popularity despite the lack of regulatory approval for such use.
The Infant as Reflection of Soul: The Time Before There Was Self
From World Association for Infant Mental Health: By the time most of us reach adulthood, we have not only lost the capacity to regularly access states that we achieved routinely as infants, but we have also lost awareness of that loss.
Can the Rate of Antidepressant Prescribing Be Reversed?
From Psychology Today: “Population dependence on mood pills looks like a fantastic marketing strategy, but it must be over-the-top and we must be missing something," said psychiatrist and professor Eugene Breen in Dublin.
Idaho Keeps Some Psych Patients in Prison, Ignoring Decades of Warnings About the Practice
From ProPublica: A temporary program for “dangerously mentally ill” patients has continued for five decades, despite calls from critics to provide better care. Soon, Idaho will be the only state still using prisons to house patients who face no criminal charges.
Irish Orgs. Pledge to Adopt ‘Human Rights-Based Approach’ to Mental Health Care
From The Irish Times: A new training approach to mental health care was launched by the Irish Mental Health Commission, coinciding with a report finding the use of restraints and seclusion has been decreasing in the country.
Trauma? Not Me
From CPTSD Foundation: When I talk to people in the workplace about trauma, all the air gets sucked out of the room and they try to change the subject as quickly as possible. I am curious about what is driving this response.
Mental Health App That Cost Australian Taxpayers $33m Did Not Result in ‘Clinical Outcomes’
From The Guardian: Dr Piers Gooding, a senior research fellow with Melbourne Law School, said: “Digital approaches are often presented as an unquestioned good, particularly in the mental health field...There is hype around digital technology like AI – and industry pressure – that can shut down critical reflection."
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.
A School Promised Not to Send Kids to the ER for Misbehavior – But...
From AP News: Schools across the country are sending children to the ER for psych evaluations in response to behaviors prompted by bullying or frustration over assignments.
Antidepressants and the Tangle of Treatment-Related Suicidality
From Psychiatry at the Margins: What can be said with quite some certainty, says clinical psychologist Martin Plöderl, is that antidepressants overall do not decrease suicidal behavior.
Experts Call for Reversing Rate of Antidepressant Prescribing in UK
From The Guardian: An open letter to the government from experts and politicians says rising antidepressant usage "is a clear example of over-medicalisation."
Psych Patient Held Against Will Discharged After FOX31 News Inquiry
From FOX31 Denver KDVR: “I suspect they’re extending his stay here so they can keep on using his insurance until it expires at the end of the month,” said the man's cousin, who contacted Fox 31.
It’s OK to Never ‘Get Over’ Your Grief
From The New York Times: Traditional mourning practices were designed to preserve a place for the dead among the living, to help mourners carry the weight of their grief not by getting over it but by maintaining their relationship with the deceased.
A Mindbody Approach to Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal
From gustav f./unlearnwithdrawal.substack.com: What we call ‘protracted withdrawal’ is not technically withdrawal; it’s more like withdrawal memories that the brain has learned to play back over and over again.
Crisis Hotlines, Like Canada’s New 988, Promise Confidentiality. So Why Do So Many Trace...
In commentary for the Globe and Mail, Rob Wipond, MIA contributor and author of Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions,...
Why a Sufi Approach to Healing ‘Mental Illness’ Is So Powerful
From Psyche: In Sufi shrines, rituals of attunement offer sufferers a path beyond the fear and isolation of their mental distress.
Why the DSM Is Mostly False | Nassir Ghaemi, MD
From Psychiatry Letter: The DSM is a social construction, based on “pragmatism” much more so than science, and as such should only be used administratively at present.
Understanding the Medical Industry to Protect Yourself
From The Real Truth About Health: Mary J. Ruwart, PhD, Robert Whitaker, and John Abramson, MD delve into institutional corruption, misinformation, the shift from prevention to treatment, and the urgent need for healthcare reform.
On Systemic Personal Boundary Violations, Low Self-Esteem, and Superiority Complex
From Gary Sharpe, PhD: Just like at the individual level, where folks with low self-esteem and superiority complex tend to seek each other out in toxic relationships, so too do the down-trodden people and the "elites" negatively feed off of each other at the group level.
Our Millions Year-Old Embodied Wisdom: Kinship and the Indigenous Worldview
From Kindred Media: The dominant worldview considers the cosmos fragmented, amoral and disenchanted and has led to the disruption of ecological systems, including child development, worldwide.
Podcast with Robert Whitaker on the Media
From Mad in Norway podcast: Birgitte Valla from Mad in Norway interviews Robert Whitaker on the media in psychiatrist. English discussion begins at 4...
Don’t Give Symptom-Free People Alzheimer’s Drugs
From The Hastings Center: It’s not even clear that patients who actually have Alzheimer’s disease should take these drugs, because they don’t improve symptoms.
What Can Psychedelic Science Teach About Psychosis?
From Aeon: In the 1960s, psychedelic research was driven underground. Now it’s re-emerging – with lessons for the study of psychosis.
Beyond Police and Psychiatrists: Chicago’s Plan to Transform Community Mental Health
From Jacobin: The Treatment Not Trauma approach seeks to build a bottom-up human infrastructure for community care that seeks “mental health for all by involving all.”
