“Is Time Outdoors the Key to Helping Veterans Overcome PTSD?”
Abbie Hausermann, MSW, LICSW, discusses why ecotherapy works for former service members. “The aim of these ecotherapy programs and services is to connect veterans...
Trauma, Memory, and Mental Health
In this episode of ABC Radio National's All In The Mind, Lynne Malcolm interviews three experts about the impact of trauma on our memory and mental health. One guest,...
How Trauma Lodges in the Body
In this episode of On Being, psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk discusses the role that bodywork including yoga and eye movement therapy can have...
This is Solitary
In this piece for The Atlantic, Natalie Chang explores the devastating psychological trauma of solitary confinement.
"That is the legacy and the cost of solitary confinement: The...
Colleges Get Proactive in Addressing Depression on Campus
From The New York Times: The number of college students with mental health concerns is rapidly increasing, straining many universities' mental health and counseling centers. Colleges...
PTSD, Psychotropic Medication Increase Dementia Risk
From Healio: Researchers recently found that veterans diagnosed with PTSD and prescribed antidepressants or atypical antipsychotics are at a higher risk for dementia than veterans...
“Veterans’ PTSD and Brain Injury Deserve Focused Research on New Treatments”
For STAT, Magali Haas reports on a research summit organized to improve the treatments available for PTSD. “If the goals are ambitious, the obstacles...
Changing Society’s Whole Approach to ‘Psychosis’
Fifteen years ago this month we were sitting together in the basement of Peter’s house. We had felt a sense of despair at the widespread misinformation and atrocious stereotypes that were dominating media coverage of mental health at the time. We felt that our profession had a responsibility to challenge these stereotypes, and that as psychologists we had something unique to contribute. That was the time when research into the psychology of psychosis was beginning to burgeon, and many of our findings challenged not only the stereotypes but – perhaps more significantly - much ‘accepted wisdom’ within mental health services as well.
CNN: Are Medications An Effective PTSD Treatment?
"CNN's Carol Costello explores Operation Tohidu, an experimental rehabilitation program to help veterans with PTSD." Operation Tohidu founder, Dr. Mary Vieten claims PTSD is not a mental illness and "there is no reason to medicate someone who has been traumatized by their war experience." When asked what percentage of soldiers returning with PTSD do not need drugs she responds, "100%."
Depression, Anxiety, PTSD: The Mental Impact of Climate Change
From CNN: The growing climate change crisis is leading to various types of trauma, including increased natural disasters, economic loss for farmers, and forced migration, all...
Veterans with both PTSD and Dementia More Likely to be Prescribed Antipsychotics
Researchers found that veterans with both conditions had higher odds of being prescribed second-generation antipsychotics than those presenting with just PTSD.
Scuba Diving’s Effects on Flashbacks
NPR reports on veterans struggling with traumatic flashbacks who've found peace in exploring underwater. "I went through group therapies. I was actually institutionalized for...
PTSD and Antidepressants Linked to Diabetes
A JAMA Psychiatry study found links between PTSD, type 2 diabetes, and antidepressants.
A Veteran Wonders: How Will My PTSD Affect My Kids?
In this piece for The Atlantic, Brooke King reflects on how her trauma currently affects and may continue to affect her children, as well as...
Interview With Black Lives Matter Cofounder Patrisse Khan-Cullors
In this interview for Vice, Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrisse Khan-Cullors discusses her efforts to fight for the civil rights of marginalized communities and to speak...
“Can psychedelic trips cure PTSD and other maladies?”
The Washington Post explores some of the history of research into the therapeutic potentials of even just one session with a psychedelic drug, and...
All Tip, No Iceberg: A New Way to Think About Mental Illness
From The Conversation: The search for a single, identifiable cause underlying each mental disorder has yielded very few useful results. New research suggests that a network...
Intensive Care Patients at High Risk for PTSD, Psychiatric Symptoms
People who survive life-threatening illnesses in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital are at high risk for depression and anxiety and nearly...
Mental Health is Different for People of Color in These 3 Ways
In this piece for Rest for Resistance, Dom Chatterjee discusses the white-centricism of mental health as well as the specific ways that the mental health system...
I Took My First Antidepressant, and the Effects Were Frightening
In this opinion piece for The Guardian, Deborah Orr tells of her frightening experience with intense disassociation that occurred after starting an antidepressant.
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At What Point Does Altering a Memory Become Unethical?
The state of the science and ethics of using biological techniques to alter or "erase" traumatic memories is explored in The Atlantic. With "reconsolidation,"...
Here’s How Witnessing Violence Harms Children’s Mental Health
From The Conversation: Witnessing violence, via both media coverage of disturbing events and in-person aggression, can have a serious, long-term impact on children's mental health.
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Psychiatry Must Stop Ignoring Trauma, with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk explores his field's long, complex, and stubborn history with trauma. Dr. van der Kolk explains how psychiatry as a...
To Treat Pain, PTSD and Other Ills, Veterans Try Tai Chi
From NPR: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a new program that offers wheelchair tai chi classes in order to help veterans manage...
Should We “Hit Delete” on Bad Memories?
Canada's CBC Radio has produced a one-hour documentary for its "Ideas" program exploring the science, therapeutics and ethics of our burgeoning capability to erase...