Prozac Preschool
From Pacific Standard: Young children are increasingly being prescribed psychiatric drugs. However, there is very little research on the safety and efficacy of psychotropic drugs...
Study Finds Mistreatment and Psychological Distress Among LGBT Prisoners in the US
The rate of incarceration for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals is roughly three times that of the general population and they experience significantly higher rates of victimization and mistreatment in prison.
Study Explores Impact of Urban vs. Rural Upbringing on Stress Response
A new study investigates the relationships between early-home environmental factors and later-life physiological response to psychosocial stressors.
“Addressing Trauma as a Health Risk”
Edward Machtinger, MD, director of UCSF's Women's HIV Program, nearly 84 percent of patients with HIV/AIDS died from trauma, such as physical abuse, neglect, substance...
Researchers Faked Data on Epigenetics of Bipolar Disorder
The British Journal of Psychiatry has issued a retraction of an article purporting to have identified evidence of the epigenetic aspects of bipolar disorder,...
“How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Premature Aging”
For Time, Jeffrey Kluger reports on a new study suggesting that “adverse experiences in childhood can hasten the telomere burn-down, leading to premature aging...
“Why We Need to Abandon the Disease-Model of Mental Health Care”
In a guest blog for the Scientific American, Peter Kinderman takes on the “harmful myth” that our more distressing emotions can best be understood as symptoms of physical illnesses. “Our present approach to helping vulnerable people in acute emotional distress is severely hampered by old-fashioned, inhumane and fundamentally unscientific ideas about the nature and origins of mental health problems.”
Review of the Evidence: Childhood Adversity High in Schizophrenia and Other Disorders
Researchers from Australia and the UK found that people with a schizophrenia diagnosis almost four times more likely than controls to have a history of...
Systemic Racism Erodes Mental Health, Study Finds
New research out of the United Kingdom examines the cumulative impact of systemic racism on the mental health of minorities over time. The study,...
How Culpable Are Educators and Psychologists in Youth Suicide?
In this piece for Medium, Karen Kilbane discusses the ways that contemporary psychological theories, diagnoses, and behavior modification programs are harming the mental health and emotional...
An American Public Health Crisis – the ‘Pair of ACEs’
From The Huffington Post: Adverse Childhood Experiences such as physical and emotional abuse, domestic violence, and homelessness often occur in the context of Adverse Community...
Using Paint, Pen on Paper or Song to Revisit Trauma
From The Conversation: The literary, visual, and performing arts can play an important role in helping people process trauma, especially for those who have difficulty...
Four-Part Series on Drug Abuse, Trauma, and How to Heal It
In this four-part series on drug abuse and trauma, Parents Opposed to Pot provides an overview of the impact of adverse childhood experiences, how they persist, and...
Parental Conflict Changes Emotion Recognition in Children, Study Finds
Study suggests interparental conflict causes lasting damage in the way children are able to recognize and process emotions.
Why I Am Willing to Die on the Governor’s Doorstep
Whistle Blown. On October 5th, 2014, I began an indefinite duration Hunger Strike upon the State of Colorado. I'm doing this because I have hard evidence of a pattern of plea coercion and child abuse coverup at Boulder County Mental Health Center, Inc. in the form of a wire recording of one of their employees, Dan Shearer.
Study Finds Connection Between Trauma and Psychosis in Children
Researchers connect the impact of early trauma to the development of psychosis in children as young as 7 years old.
Schema Therapy: Working With Complex Clinical Presentations
From The British Psychological Society: Dr. Susan Simpson provides an introduction to schema therapy and its uses in treating people who have been diagnosed with...
Labels Initiates Core Social Support, Lose Peripheral Ties
Article Abstract:
Although research supports the stigma and labeling perspective, empirical evidence also indicates that a social safety net remains intact for those with mental...
Dickens’ Christmas Carol: A Psychiatric Primer of Character and Redemption
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.
Is Mental Illness Real?
From The Guardian: Conceptualizing emotional distress or suffering as the result of a biological, genetic illness may be stigmatizing and inaccurate, and may lead to...
“Transgender Veterans Have High Rates of Mental Health Problems”
A new study finds that ninety percent of military veterans who identify as transgender have at least one mental health diagnosis. “Traumatic brain injuries...
Childhood Stress Alters Memory and Brain Structure
Researchers from the universities of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New Orleans collected MRI scans and assessments of executive functioning and stress exposure from 61...
Brief Trauma-Focused Psychotherapies Effective for Children with PTSD
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Writing Therapy both reduce PTSD symptoms in children who experienced a single traumatic event.
“The Miseducation of Frank Waln”
Studies of modern Native Americans have shown that “historical trauma,” the name that social workers give to the perception of historical loss passed down through...
“Cortisol Levels in Children’s Hair May Reveal Future Mental Health Risk”
The Guardian covers research out of Australia that found that levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol in the hair of 70 nine-year-old children corresponded to the number of traumatic events experienced by the child. “Childhood is an imperative and sensitive period of development, and when things go wrong it can have lifelong consequences, not just on mental health, but also on general health.”
