Study Confirms Higher Suicide Risk for Sexual Minority Adolescents

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Researchers report that sexual minority adolescents have considered, planned, and attempted suicide substantially more than their heterosexual peers.

“When Pills Are the Problem”

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In the context of the Silicon Valley suicides, one mother offers her story about her daughter. “It’s my premise that not only the culture of Silicon Valley, but also, almost more importantly, the nature of the remedies that are being proposed in the name of mental health counseling, are to blame in these deaths.”

Loneliness as Lethal: Researchers Name Social Isolation a ‘Public Health Threat’

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Researchers present loneliness as a health threat facing a growing number of Americans.

Linking Screen Time, Smartphones, and Stress Among Young Adults

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New review ties increased screen time to increasing anxiety and depression among young adults throughout the United States.

Quitting Smoking May Help with Depression

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A new study suggests that smoking cessation is related to depressive symptom improvement, but that depression may also make it harder to quit.

FDA Pans Depression Patch For Children and Teens

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The FDA released a report in July of a trial on children and adolescents of the selegiline (Emsam) transdermal patch for treatment of depression,...

“I am 16 and the Education System is Destroying my Health”

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“This is an article about how our education system is ruining young people’s lives. Nobody is listening to the teachers who say it, so perhaps someone will listen to me,” sixteen-year-old Orli writes in the Guardian. “Nothing is so important that it’s worth risking your health over, not even the piece of paper you get, age 16, to tell you whether or not you’re good enough.”

Collaborative Care Effective for Older Adults with Depressive Symptoms

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A new study suggests that depressive symptoms in older adults can be improved with non-invasive behavioral activation techniques. These approaches appear to have a preventative effect, serving to prevent further depressive symptoms from developing.

Suicides Under Age 13: One Every 5 Days

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From CNN: From 1999 to 2015, 1,309 children ages 5 to 12 died by suicide in the U.S. That means that on average, one child under...

Being Bullied by Age Eight Linked to Depression in Adulthood

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There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that being exposed to bullying in childhood can contribute to mental health problems later in life. In a new study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, the researchers found that children who reported being bullied at age eight were significantly more likely to seek treatment for mental health problems by age twenty-nine.

Daughter of a Psychiatrist

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Here I was, 15 years old and already in a long-term treatment facility. I was, on paper: crazy! This entire time, all the adults in my life had been speaking for me. I never felt like I was any of the things they said, but I went along with it. What else could I have done? Every time I rebelled, it only confirmed to my mother what she thought of me.

Effects of Exercise on Depression Underestimated, Review Finds

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A new meta-analysis finds that the large antidepressant effects of exercise may have been underestimated in previous reviews. This latest report, published this month...

Antidepressants During Pregnancy Increase Risk of Psychiatric Diagnosis in Children

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New research, based on data from almost a million children in Denmark, suggests that children of mothers who use antidepressants during pregnancy are more likely to be diagnosed with autism and psychiatric disorders.

Therapy Gets More Effective Over Time While Antidepressants Decrease in Effectiveness

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New review of long-term depression data finds psychotherapy more effective over time whereas antidepressants decrease in effectiveness.

“How Open Data Can Improve Medicine”

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“Those who possess the data control the story.” In the wake of the reanalysis of the infamous Study 329, where scientific data claiming the antidepressant Paxil was safe and effective for teens was egregiously manipulated, researchers are pushing for open access to raw data. “The issue here, scientists argue, is that without independent confirmation, it becomes too easy to manipulate data.”

Major Review Finds Antidepressants Ineffective, Potentially Harmful for Children and Teens

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In a large review study published this week in The Lancet, researchers assessed the effectiveness and potential harms of fourteen different antidepressants for their use in children and adolescents. The negative results, familiar to MIA readers, are now making major headlines.

Classism in Disguise

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For everyone who goes on psychiatric drugs, the reason comes back to power imbalances in their personal life. Women who's husbands “make all of the money” and have an unequal share of the power, kids who's parents have power over them—frequently people who have less money and security, therefore less platform for authority than those around them. Mental illness is not in fact an illness but an unequal division of power and sense of security in a social group.

Largest Meta-Analysis of Antidepressants Finds Doubled Risk of Suicide in Youth

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The largest-ever meta-analysis of antidepressant trials appeared yesterday in the British Medical Journal. Researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration reviewed 70 trials (involving 18,526 subjects), to find that - counter to the initially-reported findings - antidepressants doubled the risk of suicide and aggression in subjects under 18. This risk had been misrepresented in the original study reports, the authors say, and suggest that the risks to adults may be similarly under-reported.

Reanalysis of STAR*D Study Suggests Overestimation of Antidepressant Efficacy

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Reanalysis of the original primary outcome measure in the STAR*D study suggests STAR*D findings inflate improvement on antidepressant medication and exclusion criteria in conventional clinical trials results in overestimation of antidepressant efficacy.

Economic Deprivation and Social Fragmentation Drive Suicide Rates in US

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Major study finds that economic deprivation and a lack of social capital are driving increasing rates of suicide in the U.S.

Systematic Review Finds Antidepressants Double the Risk for Agitation and Violence in Healthy Volunteers

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The Nordic Cochrane Center conducted a systematic review of existing research trials on antidepressants and found that the drugs doubled the risk of feelings...

Blood Test for Depression Announced

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Researchers testing the blood of 14 teenage subjects with major depressive disorder and 14 with no disorder for a set of candidate biomarkers from...

Suicide in the Age of Prozac

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During the past twenty years, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and American psychiatry have adopted a "medicalized" approach to preventing suicide, claiming that antidepressants are protective against suicide. Yet, the suicide rate in the United States has increased 30% since 2000, a time of rising usage of antidepressants. A review of studies of the effects of mental health treatment and antidepressants on suicide reveals why this medicalized approach has not only failed, but pushed suicide rates higher.

The Scarlet F: Why Fat Shaming Harms Health

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From Harvard Public Health: Weight stigma, or prejudice toward people of size, can have a significant impact on both mental and physical health. On the other...

“Children Today Suffer From a Deficit of Play”

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Boston College Psychologist Peter Gray writes for Aeon about the impact of the gradual erosion of children’s’ play in the United States. “Over the...