Friday, March 24, 2023

Screening for Perinatal Depression: An Effective Intervention, or One That Does More Harm Than Good?

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Why does the U.S. describe perinatal screening as providing a proven benefit, while the task forces in the U.K. and Canada see no evidence of such benefit?

“Making a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear”: Erick Turner on How Publication...

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Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Erick Turner about publication bias in antidepressant trials, compromised psychotherapeutic research, and a culture of journal worship.
Illustration depicting prescription bottles on a grass background. One is tipped over and a magnifying glass examines the spilled pills

A New Paradigm for Testing Psychiatric Drugs Is Needed

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This paper reviews the problems with the usual double-blind, placebo-controlled trials on which drug approvals are based, and advocates for a stricter form of testing psychiatric drugs with patient-relevant outcomes, real comparators, long-term outcomes, and assessment of harms.

Chemicals Have Consequences—Antidepressants and Pregnancy: An Interview With Adam Urato, MD

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Adam joins us to discuss what we do and don’t know about the effects of antidepressants on babies and mothers and the importance of counselling in order to aid families in making important decisions about pharmaceutical drug use.

Black Movement Leaders: Lost & Found

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As some of us get caught up in lamenting the whiteness of our movement, we are actively losing the stories of Black leaders.

Teen Arts Exhibition: Beyond Labels And Meds: What It Feels Like To Be Me

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28 teen artists share the power of their creativity in this collection of profoundly moving, courageous, and beautiful artwork.

Psychiatry’s Cycle of Ignorance and Reinvention: An Interview with Owen Whooley

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Ayurdhi Dhar interviews sociologist Owen Whooley about psychiatry's stubborn perseverance in the face of recent DSM embarrassments and the failures of the biomedical model.
A painting depicting clouds with lightning over the sea at sunset

Breaking the Cycle: How I Overcame Intergenerational Trauma and Became a Peer Advocate

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How did that young Puerto Rican girl who very much disliked seeing a therapist when locked up in the juvenile system end up working in the mental health field as an adult?
Beata Pawlikowska, a blonde White woman, smiles while holding a manuscript and a pen, sitting at a table in a home.

Threatened for Telling the Truth: Polish Journalist Speaks Out

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Now I’m under attack, with threats of violence flung at me alongside threats of lawsuits. And all because I shared the large body of peer-reviewed research that contradicts the mainstream assumptions of psychiatry.
Three photos: Saraceno on the left, the statue of Giordano Bruno in the middle, and Oaks on the right.

Allies for Human Rights in Mental Health: Psychiatric Survivor David W. Oaks Interviews WHO...

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"Psychiatric practice is too often violating human rights, too often incapable of understanding the suffering of people, too often unable to provide help to people who need housing, work, money, respect, inclusion and instead are receiving psychotropic drugs, electroshock, physical restraint, isolation."

Project LETS: Building Peer-Led Mental Health Alternatives on Campus

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Founder and Executive Director Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu talks about the organization's work to support struggling students and end discrimination against them.

A Revolution Wobbles: Will Norway’s “Medication-Free” Hospital Survive?

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We interview Ole Andreas Underland, Director of the Hurdalsjøen Recovery Center in Norway which provides “medication-free” care for those who want such treatment or who want to taper from their psychiatric drugs. Ole Andreas explains why the success of this pioneering approach might threaten its future.

Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2022

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A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2022 as chosen by our readers.

Ten Years of Rocking the Boat: Reflecting on Mad in America’s Mission and Work

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Continuing our 200th podcast, staff members join us to discuss reinvigorating MIA continuing education, science writing and blogs, personal stories, community commenting and family resources.

Celia Brown, R.I.P.: Psychiatric Survivor, Pioneer, and Global Activist for Change

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Celia Brown, a psychiatric survivor and activist who was revered — even beloved — for her foundational and ongoing efforts in mental health advocacy and the peer movement, has died after a battle with cancer.

Changing Narratives: Reflecting on Mad in America’s Mission and Work

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For our 200th podcast interview, we are joined by members of MIA staff to reflect on Mad in America's mission and work over the last decade.

And Now They Are Coming for the Unhoused: The Long Push to Expand Involuntary...

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Mayor Adams' plan to "involuntarily remove" unhoused people has met with backlash from activists and the unhoused, who say it violates their rights and further entrenches systemic racism.

Shedding the Limits of “Severe Mental Illness” Labels

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When people seeking help are relegated to “the Other,” how can they ever form a “therapeutic alliance”? Without collaboration, treatment devolves into coercion and oppression. We must change our language and relationships so new narratives can be born.

Books Under Review: Fall 2022

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Reviews of three recent books reflecting various perspectives on the mental health system.

David Healy – Polluting Our Internal Environments: The Perils of Polypharmacy

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On the MIA Podcast, Dr David Healy discusses World Tapering Day, antidepressant treatment and sensory neuropathy and the difficulties that can be encountered when trying to deprescribe.

The Nurtured Heart Approach Goes Mainstream: Research and Experience Support “Celebrating Greatness in Every...

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The Nurtured Heart Approach represents a massive shift in thinking—about schooling, about children and how to raise them, about how we regard those with intensity, and about the medical model pathologizing them.
A zombie hand bursts from a grave. On the headstone is written "Serotonin theory: Rest in peace?"

The Serotonin Zombie: Authors of New Study Try to Breathe New Life into the...

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Despite new claims that their study provides "clear evidence" linking serotonin and depression, their data actually supports the opposite conclusion: serotonin levels did not correlate with depression.

Anders Sørensen – Tackling Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Through Research and in Practice

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Anders Sørenson is a Danish clinical psychologist with a special interest in psychiatric drug withdrawal. He has undertaken research which assesses the state of guidance on psychiatric drug withdrawal and paid close attention to tapering methods with the aim of identifying approaches which might make withdrawal more tolerable for people.

ADHD Diagnosis Leads to Worse Quality of Life, Increased Self-Harm in Kids

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When comparing kids with the same symptoms who were either diagnosed with ADHD or not, those who received the diagnosis had worse outcomes.
A set of brain scans in blue on black backgrounds

A Neuroscientist Evaluates the Standard Biological Model of Depression

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Current evidence does not support a biological hypothesis of depression. It is far better predicted by levels of childhood trauma, life stress, and lack of social supports.