Mental Health Concerns Not “Brain Disorders,” Say Researchers
The latest issue of the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences features several prominent researchers arguing that mental health concerns are not “brain disorders.”
United Nations Report Calls for Revolution in Mental Health Care
In a new report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Dainius Pūras, calls for a move away from the biomedical model and “excessive use of psychotropic medicines.”
Researchers Recommend Diagnosing Social Adversity Rather than Individual Disorders
Already-existing ICD codes provide a diagnostic alternative to biomedical models of health by contextualizing suffering within psychosocial conditions, yet these codes are underutilized.
Study Finds Heavy Metal Music Beneficial to Mental Health
A new study highlights the role heavy metal music plays in the mental health of adolescents facing adversity.
Experiences of Depression Connected to Declining Sense of Purpose
In-depth interviews find that those who screened positive for depression did not explain their experience in terms of diagnostic symptoms.
Psychologist Debunks Common Misconceptions of Maslow’s Hierarchy
Utilizing Maslow’s published books and essays, psychologist William Compton delineates common myths and attempts to respond to them.
How Western Psychiatry Harms Alternative Understandings of Mental Health
An anthropological look at the Global Mental Health (GMH) movement suggests several ethical problems and contradictions in its mission.
Trauma Resiliency Model: A New Somatic Therapy for Treating Trauma
Report presents new body-based therapeutic approach for shock and complex developmental trauma.
Psychotherapy Less Effective for People in Poverty and Those on Antidepressants
A new study finds poorer depression and anxiety outcomes in psychotherapy for people in economically deprived neighborhoods and those on antidepressants.
This is the Truth About Personality Disorders
From The Independent: Armchair diagnoses of personality disorders are a rising trend, from speculations that President Trump has narcissistic personality disorder to viral articles about discerning...
Mental Health Professionals and Patients Often Disagree on Causes of Symptoms
A new study finds that clinicians’ disregard for mental health patients’ insight into their own condition may be detrimental to treatment.
The Power Threat Meaning Framework One Year On
The team that developed the Power Threat Meaning framework as a diagnostic alternative reflects on the response to the framework after one year.
Belongingness Can Protect Against Impact of Trauma, Study Suggests
A new study explores feelings of belongingness as a protective factor for childhood trauma and adult mental health outcomes.
Philosophers Challenge Psychiatry and its Search for Mechanisms of Disorder
Attempting to locate the mechanisms of psychiatric disorder is a step in the wrong direction and fails to challenge potentially unjust social practices.
“Silent” Forms of Child Abuse Strongly Tied to Depression
Psychological abuse and childhood neglect are strongly associated with depression in adulthood, according to a meta-analysis of childhood trauma and depression published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders. “The findings clearly highlight the potential impact of the more ‘silent’ types of childhood maltreatment (other than physical and sexual abuse) on the development of depression,” the researchers conclude.
Psychotherapy is Less Effective and Less Accessible for Those in Poverty
A special issue explores the connection between poverty, mental health, and psychotherapy.
Western ‘Depression’ is Not Universal
Derek Summerfield, consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust, challenges the assumption that Western depression is a universal condition.
Psychology Needs New Concepts and Healing Models for Racial Trauma
Contemporary empirical research explores new ways to conceptualize and heal racial trauma through anticolonial and sociohistorical lenses.
The Paradox of White Americans’ Mental Health
Are White Americans’ poor mental health outcomes caused by Whiteness?
A Biopsychosocial Model Beyond the Mind-Body Split
Can a renewed biopsychosocial approach, grounded in an updated philosophy, foster person-centered medicine, and psychiatry?
Recovery: Compromise or Liberation?
The 90s were labeled - rather optimistically - as the ‘decade of recovery.’ More recently, recovery has been placed slap bang central in mental health policy. Is supporting recovery pretty much good common sense? Or is the term being misused to pressure those suffering to behave in certain ways?
United Nations Statement Criticizes Medicalization of Depression on World Health Day
"There is a need of a shift in investments in mental health, from focusing on 'chemical imbalances' to focusing on 'power imbalances' and inequalities"
Time for a Paradigm Shift in School Psychology Interventions
Why do ineffective classification and intervention processes linger in school psychology, and what’s the alternative?
An Alternative Perspective on Psychotherapy: It is Not a ‘Cure’
Kev Harding argues against conceptualizations of therapy as a ‘cure’ to an ‘illness’ and instead offers alternative approaches.
We Still Buy the Lie That Chemical Imbalances Cause Depression
From Quartz: Despite its inaccuracy, the chemical imbalance theory of mental illness continues to persist in public consciousness. The prevalence of this myth may be...
