New Study Examines User Experience of Discontinuing Psychiatric Medications
Researchers find that support and self-care were helpful for users during discontinuation, but that mental health professionals were not very helpful.
Powerful Opioid Suspected in 10-year-old Miami Boy’s Death
From STAT: A 10-year-old boy from Miami recently died from a fentanyl overdose, becoming one of the youngest victims of the opioid crisis.
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Rise in Children With Mental Health Concerns After Terror Attacks
From The Guardian: According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the number of children and young people seeking mental health support has spiked since recent...
People of Great Britain! Our Beast Descends Upon Your Children
Scientific evidence indicates that antidepressants do not help children. In light of such high risks to the child’s wellbeing, these psychiatric chemicals are clearly doing more harm than good. What kind of society would permit this assault on its children?
Drugs for Bad Behavior Cause Alarming Weight Gain in Kids
From National Post: Antipsychotic drugs are increasingly being prescribed to children as young as two for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, aggression and behavior problems. A...
Study Finds Hearing Voices Groups Improve Social and Emotional Wellbeing
Hearing Voices Network self-help groups are an important resource for coping with voice hearing, study finds.
Methylphenidate: How to Avoid Importing the American Disaster?
Even though it is extremely unlikely that in France we would reach the kinds of percentages we see in the USA, where in some states nearly 10% of children are treated with methylphenidate or other psychostimulants not used in France, overprescription is highly probable. Why?
Researchers Identify Patterns in Antidepressant and Long-Term Benzodiazepine Use
The researchers found that, of those who were initially prescribed both antidepressants and benzodiazepines, approximately 12% went on to engage in long-term benzodiazepine use.
Psychologist Who Set Standard for Diagnosing ADHD Dies at 84
From The New York Times: Keith Conners, the psychologist whose work established the first standards for diagnosing and treating what is now known as attention...
How Severe, Ongoing Stress Can Affect a Child’s Brain
From AP News: In response to research showing the long-term health impact of adverse childhood experiences, pediatricians, mental health specialists, educators and community leaders are...
Large Study Confirms Elevated Risk of Diabetes When Prescribed Antipsychotics
A large longitudinal study finds once more that being prescribed antipsychotics significantly increases the risk of diabetes.
When Anxiety or Depression Masks a Medical Problem
From The New York Times: The mind and body are more connected than we often think — symptoms of anxiety and depression may result from...
Irish Teen Seeking Abortion Put In Mental Hospital (The Onion)
From The Onion: “Thank God that in America our mental health facilities are too poorly funded for something like this to happen.”
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Over 16,000 Australian Children Prescribed Antipsychotics
From The Sydney Morning Herald: New data from Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme shows that a total of 16,570 Australian toddlers, children, and teens under 17 were...
Researchers Find Brief Intervention for Preventing Self-Harm Ineffective
“These interventions also have the potential to increase rumination and negative affect, and potentially self-harm repetition, by serving as unhelpful reminders of negative experiences in the lead-up to the index self-harm event or during hospital treatment.”
Dr. Andrew Weil Says We’re Taking Too Many Medicines
From The New York Times: According to Dr. Andrew Weil, who is best known for popularizing the concept of integrative medicine, the problem of overmedication...
Families Sue Health Insurers to Cover Wilderness Therapy
From The Boston Globe: An increasing number of families are filing lawsuits against insurance companies that refuse to cover wilderness therapy for their children's mental...
African American and Hispanic Youth Discontinue ADHD Treatment at Higher Rates than White Youth
Study examines racial and ethnic disparities in the quality of care for Medicaid-enrolled children starting ADHD medication.
Unanswered Questions in New Mental Health Screening Program for Children
An article presents new screening tools for pediatric depression and anxiety—but fails to answer its own questions about efficacy.
Schizophrenia Deconstructed
After a few weeks it became clear to me the complete lack of comprehension that I faced as a person claiming to have been cured of psychosis. Being a schizophrenic claiming to no longer suffer from schizophrenia only made me seem more schizophrenic due to the current culture of psychiatry.
Psychological Research Fails to Capture Human Diversity, Researchers Call for Action
Data demonstrate an overreliance of non-representative and non-diverse sampling biases in psychological research.
French and American Approaches to “ADHD”
It now looks as if the U.S. approach to mental health is fast gaining purchase in a country that formerly boasted a great, perhaps too sophisticated (Lacan et al.) psychoanalytic tradition, but also a holistic psychosocial tradition when dealing with psychological disturbance in children.
Is the US Education System Producing a Society of Smart Fools?
From Scientific American: According to Cornell University psychologist Robert Sternberg, the U.S. education system is entirely focused on developing and rewarding students' analytic intelligence -...
Study Explores Correlates of Low-Level Physical Activity and Psychosis
A study examines the variables correlated with low levels of physical activity in persons diagnosed with psychosis in low and middle-income countries
An Open Letter to the President’s Commission on Combating Addiction and the Opioid Crisis
The Commission was addressed by organizations engaged with various aspects of addiction treatment. Much of the input seemed apropos, but one voice was missing. Speakers failed to include even one practicing physician or advocate for the pain patients who have been blamed for the so-called “opioid epidemic.”
