Patients With Schizophrenia Show Better Work Functioning Off Antipsychotics

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20-year follow-up study finds that after four years, patients not prescribed antipsychotics have significantly better work functioning.

“Diagnostic Dissent”: Experiences of Individuals Who Disagreed With Their Diagnosis

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Researchers investigate the first-person experiences of people who disagreed with their psychiatric diagnosis of psychosis.

Researcher Acknowledges His Mistakes in Understanding Schizophrenia

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Sir Robin Murray, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience in London, states that he ignored social factors that contribute to ‘schizophrenia’ for too long. He also reports that he neglected the negative effects antipsychotic medication has on the brain.

Safety Analysis Weighs Harms and Benefits of Antipsychotic Drugs

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The researchers find that the drug effects for reducing psychosis are small and that treatment failure and severe side effects are common.

Psychiatrist Describes Role in Open Dialogue Model of Care

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Psychiatrist outlines varying roles in Open Dialogue model, fostering service-user and family agency through meaningful conversations with a team of providers.

Brain Imaging Shows Trauma-Related Differences in DID

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has a complicated and controversial history. In this study, published in PLoS 1, researchers from London and the Netherlands explore...

The Slow Torture of Mary Weiss

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Dan Markingson was floridly psychotic and unable to give informed consent when University of Minnesota researchers coerced him into an industry-funded drug study. His mother, Mary Weiss, warned the researchers that Dan was in danger of killing himself, but she was ignored. Dan committed a violent suicide in 2004. Last week, after fighting the university and research regulators for nine years, Mary suffered a severe stroke. Her struggle for justice is in serious danger.

The Role of Context, Language, and Meaning in Hearing Voices

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Sociocultural context, language, and sense-making process are among concepts that can help hearers and providers better understand the phenomenon of hearing voices

Exploring Alternate Pathways to Voice-Hearing

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Authors propose various pathways to the phenomena of voice-hearing in clinical and nonclinical populations.

Environment is a Primary Factor in Transition to Psychosis

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Researchers (including Jim van Os) find, in a three-year cohort study of 1272 people at possible genetic risk of psychosis, that "most transitions (to psychosis)...

Major Risks from Drug Interactions in Common Psychiatric Polypharmacy

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It is very common for psychiatric patients, especially those diagnosed with schizophrenia, to be prescribed two or more psychiatric medications at once, and this...

Do Family Interventions for Psychosis Translate in China?

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Researchers explore how family interventions for psychosis might be adapted to China’s emerging integrated mental health care landscape.

Psychotic Experiences Are Not Strongly Associated With Schizophrenia

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Although psychotic experiences (PEs) and schizophrenia are thought to share similar etiological risk factors, PEs also co-exist with depression and, according to research from...

Emotional Child Abuse Just as Harmful as Physical Abuse

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Different types of child abuse have equivalent psychological effects, according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry. It has previously been assumed that emotional and verbal abuse could have different or less harmful impact on a child’s psychology than physical or sexual abuse, but research now suggests that these forms of abuse can be just as damaging.

Off-Label Antipsychotic Use Among Children Soaring

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Researchers from Philadelphia and Baltimore find, in a study of Medicaid records for 50 states and the District of Columbia, that antipsychotic prescribing to...

Confusion Over Antipsychotic Dosing Data in RAISE Study

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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.

Study Suggests Long-Term Antipsychotic Use May Result in Poorer Cognitive Functioning

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Association found between long-term antipsychotic use and poorer performance on cognitive tasks in adults diagnosed with ‘schizophrenia.’

Victim Blaming: Childhood Trauma, Mental Illness & Diagnostic Distractions?

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Why, despite the fact that the vast majority of people diagnosed with a mental illness have suffered from some form of childhood trauma, is it still so difficult to talk about? Why, despite the enormous amount of research about the impact of trauma on the brain and subsequent effect on behaviour, does there seem to be such an extraordinary refusal for the implication of this research to change attitudes towards those who are mentally ill? Why, when our program and others like it have shown people can heal from the effects of trauma, are so many people left with the self-blame and the feeling they will never get better that my colleague writes about below?

Antipsychotic-induced Sexual Dysfunction Underreported

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Researchers found some antipsychotics to be worse than others for causing sexual dysfunction.

University of Minnesota Psychiatry: A Pattern of Research Abuse

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KMSP News has aired a report of yet another mentally ill man pressured to enroll in a study of an unapproved antipsychotic drug, with near-disastrous results. His story bears a striking resemblance to the case of Dan Markingson, who committed suicide in a University of Minnesota study in 2004.

“Forget the Headlines – Schizophrenia is More Common Than You Might Think”

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Despite the headline, this article in The Guardian reviews the notion that schizophrenia is "a wide range of often unrelated conditions, all of which...

Both Older and Younger Parental Age Linked to Mental Health

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Recent research has focused on a seemingly high rate of psychiatric disorders in the offspring of older fathers.  New research in JAMA Psychiatry, using...
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Enjoying the Road Less Traveled

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The people that my son and I continued to consult with over the years didn't talk of mental illness as a brain disease, a chemical imbalance, or a problem with one's genes. Depending on the therapy, they spoke in terms of restoring life force energy, changing cellular vibration, learning to listen and understand, and building a self.

NIMH: RAISE Study to Have Immediate Clinical Impact

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In a Science Update, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that Medicaid services is already taking steps to implement “coordinated specialty care” (CSC) in response to the RAISE study released last week. “The 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.”