âPsychotic Symptoms in Children on Stimulants. What are the Implications for the Clinician?â
âA little background digging revealed to me that this study is the tip of a new iceberg relative to ADHD diagnosis, stimulant treatment, and...
âWhy Are So Many Children on Antipsychotic Drugs?â
âDo they make people less aggressive? Yes, sometimes they do. Will they sedate people? Absolutely. Will they make kids easier to manage? They will,â Robert Whitaker tells Liz Spikol for Philadelphia Magazine. âBut I know of no study that shows that medicating these kids long-term will help them grow up and thrive. The developing brain is a very delicate thing. The narrative is that these side effects are mild, and thatâs just not true, and that the benefits are well-established, and so often theyâre not.â
Becoming a Hearing Voices Facilitator
For three days in December, I was fortunate enough to attend the Hearing Voices Facilitator Training held in Portland, OR. This training expanded my understanding of the voice hearing experience and equipped me with a number of tools to use in facilitating hearing voices support groups. Grounded in a feeling of community, the training was dynamic, emotionally therapeutic, and educational all at the same time â a crystal clear example of how support groups themselves might manifest in the lives of their members.
Letters to the Editor: âThe Treatment of Choiceâ
Readers respond to the New York Times article, âThe Treatment of Choice,â about innovative programs for psychosis and schizophrenia that involve patients and their families in treatment decisions. âNarratives of success counter a drumbeat of faulty links of mental illness and violence, inaccuracies which serve only to further stigmatize and isolate individuals with psychiatric illness.â
Study Examines Womenâs Experiences of Hearing Voices
An international group of researchers from multiple disciplines has published a historical, qualitative, and quantitative investigation into voice-hearing in women. The interdisciplinary project, freely available from Frontiers in Psychiatry, explores how sexism, exploitation, and oppression bear on womenâsâ experiences of hearing voices.
âPrograms Expand Schizophrenic Patientsâ Role in Their Own Careâ
Benedict Carey at the New York Times covers the push for new programs that emphasize supportive services, therapy, school and work assistance, and family education, rather than simply drug treatment.
Book Review: “Overmedicated and Undertreated”
A former pharma executive has broken ranks with the industry in a new book by reporting how multiple psychiatrists, schools, and his desperate hopes pressed him to allow higher and higher doses of antipsychotic medications. The result: his 15-year-old son's death from Seroquel.
âThe Rise and Fall of the Blockbuster Antipsychotic Seroquelâ
Martha Rosenberg highlights how the popular antipsychotic Seroquel is a perfect example of how direct-to-consumer advertising made billion dollar blockbuster drugs possible before side-effects...
âResearch Shows Sexual Abuse May Cause Schizophreniaâ
âGroundbreaking research in New Zealand shows sexual abuse may cause schizophrenia.â "The biggest myth about schizophrenia is that it's a solely biological disorder," co-author...
âHealing Voicesâ Documentary Announces Grass Roots Non-Theatrical Release
The producers of âHealing Voicesâ â a new social action documentary about mental health â have announced an innovative plan to release the film via community screening partners in a coordinated one-night global event. Written and Directed by PJ Moynihan of Digital Eyes Film, âHealing Voicesâ explores the experience commonly labeled as âpsychosisâ through the stories of real-life individuals, and asks the question: What are we talking about when we talk about âmental illnessâ? The film follows three subjects â Oryx, Jen, Dan â over nearly five years, and features interviews with notable international experts including: Robert Whitaker, Dr. Bruce Levine, Celia Brown, Will Hall, Dr. Marius Romme, and others, on the history of psychiatry and the rise of the âmedical modelâ of mental illness.
âDoes Schizophrenia Exist on an Autism-Like Spectrum?â
The results of epidemiological studies of the prevalence of hallucinations strongly imply that psychosis exists on a spectrum, according to the Scientific American. This suggests âthat the standard treatment for a psychotic episode might be due for an overhaul.â
âThe Vacuum of the Mind: A Self-Report on the Phenomenology of Autistic, Obsessive-Compulsive, and...
In this monthâs Schizophrenia Bulletin, a person diagnosed with autism, OCD, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and major depressive disorder provides a first-hand close reading and description of their own psychiatric experiences.
Massachusetts Launches New Strengths-Based Early Psychosis Program
ServiceNet, a mental health and human service agency in western Massachusetts, received a three year, two million dollar grant to launch a program designed to support young adults who have recently experienced their first episode of psychosis. The Prevention and Recovery Early Psychosis (PREP) program is funded by the Massachusetts department of mental health and is designed to treat psychosis as a symptom, not an illness, resulting from other illnesses, substance abuse, trauma, or extreme stress.
Disease Theory of âMental Illnessâ Tied To Pessimism About Recovery
Researchers recently completed a first of its kind, large-scale international survey of attitudes about mental health and they were surprised by the results. According to their analysis published in this monthâs issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders, people in developed countries, like the United States, are more likely to assume that âmental illnessesâ are similar to physical illnesses and biological or genetic in origin, but they are also much less likely to think that individuals can overcome these challenges and recover
NIMH: RAISE Study to Have Immediate Clinical Impact
In a Science Update, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that Medicaid services is already taking steps to implement âcoordinated specialty careâ (CSC) in response to the RAISE study released last week. âThe RAISE initiative has shown that coordinated specialty care for first episode psychosis is better than the standard care offered in community clinics. However, covering the cost of coordinated specialty care can be challenging. When Medicaid agrees to pay for effective treatment programs, patients in need benefit.â
New York Times Issues Correction on RAISE Study Report
Last Tuesday, The New York Times and several other outlets (including Mad In America) reported on the highly-touted results of a study on psychosocial treatment for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now, claims made about the study, which the âTimes called âthe most rigorous trial to date,â are coming under increased scrutiny.
RAISE Study Out Of Sync With Media Reports
Writing on his 1 Boring Old Man blog, Dr. Mickey Nardo reflects on the media frenzy around the RAISE study and asks why the prescription data has not been released. He adds skepticism about the political motives of the potentially overblown results, which he sees as a clear push for increased mental health funding.
$8 Million Awarded to Family Of Man Who Died in Risperdal Trial
A California jury ruled that Johnson & Johnsonâs Janssen Pharmaceutical and a psychiatrist were responsible for the death of 25-year-old Leo Liu. During a clinical trial for Risperdal, Liu died of a heart injury that was âfurther complicatedâ by the drug and ignored by the study doctors. Janssen was found 70% responsible for Liuâs death and ordered to pay $5.6 million to the family.
Confusion Over Antipsychotic Dosing Data in RAISE Study
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that schizophrenia patients in an experimental treatment program (RAISE) who experienced better outcomes had been on lower doses of antipsychotics than normal. However, the article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on Tuesday did not divulge any data on the varying antipsychotic drug doses in the different study groups.
Landmark Schizophrenia Study Recommends More Therapy
Results of a large government-funded study call into question current drug heavy approaches to treating people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The study, which the New York Times called âby far the most rigorous trial to date conducted in the United States,â found that patients who received smaller doses of antipsychotic drugs with individual talk therapy, family training, and support for employment and education had a greater reduction in symptoms as well as increases in quality of life, and participation in work and school than those receiving the current standard of care.
âHearing Voices: The People Who Say Talking Back is the Only Answerâ
Journalist Emma Reynolds profiles Amanda Waegeli, Ron Coleman, Nathan Grixli and Lyn Mahboub about their experiences coming to the Hearing Voices Network (HVN). HVN was established 10 years ago in Australia and provided a support group that encouraged people to listen to their voices rather than trying to block them out. The group now operates in 25 countries.
Long-Term Social Supports Needed After Onset of Psychosis
New data on the effects of social support after early onset of psychosis suggests that patients with intense social support function better than those without such help, but than once supports are removed the effects diminish.
Hearing Voices Network Responds to Susan Inman HuffPo Piece
On Saturday morning, Susan Inman, writing for HuffPost Canada, published âWhat Youâre not Hearing About the Hearing Voices Movement.â In it, she criticizes HVM for âfailing to differentiate between the needs of people who actually have psychotic disorders and those who don't.â On Sunday the Bay Area Hearing Voices Network published an open letter in response, writing: âMs. Inman has profoundly mischaracterized hearing voices networks (HVNs) and also demonstrates a troubling lack of understanding of the empirical literature on psychosis, optimal psychosocial intervention and recovery.â
Compassion and the Voice of the Tormentor
I'd like to share some personal thoughts on the nature of the Hearing Voices group method, and the insights that this kind of support generates. Through these groups, a tradition of mutual healing is being created that honors subjective experiences, and sharing our stories with each other in this way propels this exciting movement forward.
“A Preliminary Taxonomy of the Voices Inside Your Head”
-BPS Research Digest reports on growing efforts to understand the voices that virtually everyone hears in their heads.