Married Individuals with Schizophrenia Show Better Outcomes, Study Finds
14-year study of a rural sample in China shows those who were married had higher rates of remission from schizophrenia.
Waking Up is Hard to Do
Finally I’m moving in the right direction, rescuing myself from the pernicious grip of psychotropic drugs. It’s been exceptionally challenging, dealing with the adverse physiological reactions my body’s been going through. Waking up may be the toughest thing to do. Ultimately, the way I see it, it’s the only thing to do.
Social Prescribing May Improve Self-Esteem and Mental Well-Being
Systematic review suggests social prescribing benefits individuals with mental and physical health issues, but more program evaluations are needed.
Spiritual Side Effects of Psychiatric Medication: From Helpful to Harmful
The larger narratives put forth by psychiatry and neuroscience often eclipse the equally important stories of lived experience. The easiest way to understand how people are engaging spiritually with their prescriptions is to hear it in their own words.
Patients With Schizophrenia Show Better Work Functioning Off Antipsychotics
20-year follow-up study finds that after four years, patients not prescribed antipsychotics have significantly better work functioning.
“Virtual Autism” May Explain Explosive Rise in ASD Diagnoses
New clinical case studies have found that many young children who spend too much screen time—on TV’s, video games, tablets and computers—have symptoms labeled as “autism.” When parents take away the screens for a few months the child’s symptoms disappear.
Researchers Find Inadequate Reporting of the Dangers of Ketamine Treatment for Depression
Researchers report that dangerous side effects are not being adequately reported in the trials of ketamine for depression.
New Collaborative and Feedback-Informed Family Therapy Approach
Attempts to bridge the gap between research and practice result in a family therapy approach which employs clients as co-researchers.
Little Porcupine Goes to the Psych Ward
I was so anxious about having to raise three boys alone that I felt I was going insane. So I thought of going to see a psychiatrist. I was looking for Carl Jung. Instead I found a system where they give you pills, whether you need them or not.
Prescription for Murder ABCD
The Anything But the Company Drug playbook involved digging deep into the medical records of the person reporting a problem in order to find the ingrown toenail at the age of two that was possibly the cause. And of course if something else was possibly the cause, then we can’t conclude that our drug did it.
Prenatal Exposure to Psychotropic Medication Linked to Long Term Cognitive Impairment
School aged children exposed prenatally to psychotropic medication show poorer outcomes in cognitive ability.
Study Suggests Mania More Common in Psychosis When Antidepressants Used
A prospective cohort study of those labeled high risk for psychosis finds a higher prevalence of antidepressant use among those who develop manic symptoms.
Death By Placebo
When people waste all their time and effort on futile attempts to fix fake chemical imbalances instead of addressing their real issues (since there supposedly are none), their issues will persist and build up. Hyping placebos to be miracle pills thus builds up false hopes, which sets a person up for big letdowns that can lead to suicide.
Providing Social Welfare Can Save Billions of Dollars, Researchers Say
Researchers suggest that treatment is more effective and healthcare costs are reduced when contextual care is implemented that addresses social and economic needs.
Part II: Michelle Starts Prozac and Sees the Devil
By 2011, anyone who read the scientific literature would have known that children cannot tolerate SSRIs and should not be given them. Neither Conrad nor Michelle seemed to have been warned about the common adverse effects (such as nightmares and compulsive suicidality) of the SSRI antidepressants they were on.
Childhood Bipolar Disorder More Rare Than Previously Claimed, Study Finds
Re-examination of meta-analytic claims finds the prevalence of pediatric bipolar disorder is close to zero.
What Does it Mean to be Anti-Psychiatry? Thoughts of a Cartoon Anteater
How did I get here? What turned me from loyal acolyte into fearsome-clawed rebel, itching to take on the high priests of psychiatry? Well, there is nothing like being given a taste of psychiatry’s vile medicine for igniting the revolutionary furnace and getting it glowing white hot.
Psychoanalyst, Show Some Modesty
Recently the American Psychoanalytic Association reaffirmed its members’ right to pronounce on the mental health of public figures—in particular, the controversial Donald Trump. Like the many objectors to the Goldwater Rule in the APA, our psychoanalysts act as if they’re above such a trivial restriction. They are not.
In Chronic Patients, Antipsychotics Have Limited Efficacy in Reducing Symptoms
A large review and meta-analysis of 167 studies across 60 years dissects placebo-controlled randomized controlled trials of antipsychotic drugs.
Michelle Carter: Did She Text Her Boyfriend to Death?
Today a Massachusetts judge sentenced Michelle Carter for the crime of manslaughter in the suicide death of her boyfriend. I was the only psychiatric and medication expert on either side in this trial, and I testified on behalf of Michelle. Other than perhaps her lawyers, I probably know more about the true story than anyone else.
Arts Participation May Improve Mental Well-Being and Social Inclusion
Introductory arts courses at Open Arts Essex show improvements in mental well-being and social inclusion for individuals with mental health challenges.
Adam Maier-Clayton: Assisted Suicide and Mental Illness
If we describe “death with dignity” as a benefit, a good thing, a release and relief and a mercy for people with chronic unbearable and unmanageable pain, why do we also describe exclusions from assisted suicide for people with mental illness as a protection rather than discrimination?
New Study Asks Doctors About Barriers to Deprescribing
Researchers interviewed doctors about the barriers that prevent them from being able to decrease excess medications.
Would Discovering the Biology of “Mental Illness” Explain its Cause?
Researchers are constantly hunting for chemical variations in people with emotional problems. But even if chemical differences are someday found, why would we assume that these chemical processes cause abnormal behaviors or moods, as opposed to being mere correlates of them at the chemical level?
Findings Linking Depression to Abnormal Brain Activity Questioned
Meta-analyses fail to replicate findings linking abnormal brain activity to depression.
