Increasing Physical Activity in Schools May Improve Mental Health

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A new article suggests integrating physical activity throughout the day may help to address the mental health of students.

Environment is a Primary Factor in Transition to Psychosis

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Researchers (including Jim van Os) find, in a three-year cohort study of 1272 people at possible genetic risk of psychosis, that "most transitions (to psychosis)...

Psychotherapy is Less Effective and Less Accessible for Those in Poverty

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A special issue explores the connection between poverty, mental health, and psychotherapy.

Correcting Misconceptions of Trauma-informed Care with Survivor Perspectives

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Trauma-informed approaches have the potential to promote recovery but must involve survivors and service-users to prevent the experience of retraumatization within psychiatric and mental health services.
humanity at the dawn of posthumanism

Reclaiming Humanity at the Dawn of Posthumanism: Conversation with Darcia Narvaez

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The postmodern zeitgeist of the past few decades encourages us to believe that we can endlessly reinvent ourselves untethered to our human biology. But the explosion of research on the microbiome reminds us that we are deeply embedded in an ecosystem that lives within us and around us, without which we cannot survive.

Daniel Mackler:Motivators for Growth

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Therapist and folk artist Daniel Mackler discusses the major barriers to creating a more effective and compassionate psychiatric system, as well as the practice of Open Dialogue in Finland, and recognizing pain as a motivator for growth.

Belongingness Can Protect Against Impact of Trauma, Study Suggests

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A new study explores feelings of belongingness as a protective factor for childhood trauma and adult mental health outcomes.

Lancet Psychiatry’s Controversial ADHD Study: Errors, Criticism, and Responses

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Amid calls for a retraction, Lancet Psychiatry publishes articles criticizing the original finding and a response from the authors.

Researchers Make a Case for a “Theory of Nothing” in Psychology

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What meaning do psychological constructs really hold, and how are they operationalized and statistically modeled within psychology research?

Researchers Develop New Model for Understanding Depression

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Acknowledging that current depression treatments are failing many people, researchers from Michigan State and MIT have developed a new model for understanding how multiple psychological, biological, social and environmental factors contribute to depression.

45% of Children and Adolescent Inpatients Prescribed Antipsychotics

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In a rare long-term study of antipsychotics used in children and adolescent inpatients, the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT followed 3,851 consecutive admissions...

An Alternative Perspective on Psychotherapy: It is Not a ‘Cure’

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Kev Harding argues against conceptualizations of therapy as a ‘cure’ to an ‘illness’ and instead offers alternative approaches.

Combining Art Therapy and Mindfulness for Refugees

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A new article, published in The Arts in Psychotherapy, describes the ways art therapy and mindfulness have benefitted refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong.

Researchers Suggest Traumatic Experiences May Cause Psychotic Symptoms

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A new study in JAMA Psychiatry investigates the relationship between trauma and psychotic experiences.

Knowing Patient’s Story Improves Odds of Happy Ending

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The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has released a toolkit that will help physicians identify and respond to key social determinants impacting their...

Trauma Resiliency Model: A New Somatic Therapy for Treating Trauma

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Report presents new body-based therapeutic approach for shock and complex developmental trauma.

Philosophers Challenge Psychiatry and its Search for Mechanisms of Disorder

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Attempting to locate the mechanisms of psychiatric disorder is a step in the wrong direction and fails to challenge potentially unjust social practices.

Researchers Call for Structural Competency in Psychiatry

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Structural competency in psychiatry emphasizes the social factors shaping patient presentations and encourages physician advocacy.

Emotional Child Abuse Just as Harmful as Physical Abuse

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Different types of child abuse have equivalent psychological effects, according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry. It has previously been assumed that emotional and verbal abuse could have different or less harmful impact on a child’s psychology than physical or sexual abuse, but research now suggests that these forms of abuse can be just as damaging.

Outcomes of Childhood Bullying on Young Adults’ Wellbeing

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A qualitative study explores young adults’ childhood bullying experiences.

A Biopsychosocial Model Beyond the Mind-Body Split

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Can a renewed biopsychosocial approach, grounded in an updated philosophy, foster person-centered medicine, and psychiatry?

The Role of Intergenerational Trauma in the Perpetuation of Childhood Maltreatment

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A new study examines the role parent borderline pathology plays in the perpetuation of childhood maltreatment.

The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia – Version III

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The Division of Clinical Psychology of the British Psychological Society published a paper titled Understanding Psychosis and SchizophreniaThe central theme of the paper is that the condition known as psychosis is better understood as a response to adverse life events rather than as a symptom of neurological pathology. The paper was wide-ranging and insightful and, predictably, drew support from most of us on this side of the issue and criticism from psychiatry.  Section 12 of the paper is headed "Medication" and under the subheading "Key Points" you'll find this quote: "[Antipsychotic] drugs appear to have a general rather than a specific effect: there is little evidence that they are correcting an underlying biochemical abnormality."

It is Time for Global Mental Health to Acknowledge Sociostructural Determinants of Distress

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Researchers call for action to address social challenges and inequalities that obstruct mental health and well-being globally.
scrooge christmas carol

Dickens’ Christmas Carol: A Psychiatric Primer of Character and Redemption

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Scrooge’s character was forged from his own emotional pain. Indeed, we can change the course of our lives through facing and mourning that pain. Want, deprivation and cruelty create the evils of the world. Mourning and trust, in the context of love, are its antidotes.