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.
Study Finds Mistreatment and Psychological Distress Among LGBT Prisoners in the US
The rate of incarceration for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals is roughly three times that of the general population and they experience significantly higher rates of victimization and mistreatment in prison.
Senate Slated to Rubber-Stamp “Mental Health Czar” This Tuesday
This new “Mental Health Czar,” as it is popularly known, will preside over a SAMHSA that is supposed to be far more friendly to the mental health industry. The approval ceremony is scheduled for streaming on the US Senate HELP (Health Education Labor Pensions) Committee website this Tuesday at 2:30 pm EST.
Voices in our Heads: The Prefrontal Cortex as Parasite
As I considered the voice I heard talking to me in my own head, it occurred to me that what was happening was, more or less, a later development of the brain talking to a more basic and earlier level of consciousness, one which was not verbal itself and was, in fact, the actual seat and locus of my real awareness.
If You Don’t Have a Brain…
When we force people to take psychiatric drugs, or lie to get them to take the drugs, we are not only harming the organ of their body called the brain—we are harming their capacity to think and to feel and to know themselves. We are limiting their personality and identity, and the expression of their soul.
Half of First-Episode Patients Respond to Antipsychotics
No placebo controlled trials provide evidence of antipsychotics in first-episode psychosis.
Brief Trauma-Focused Psychotherapies Effective for Children with PTSD
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Writing Therapy both reduce PTSD symptoms in children who experienced a single traumatic event.
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.
A System Built on Fear
Experiences such as pain, turmoil, trauma and grief aren’t separate from the person—they shape how that person sees the world, how they cope with the world. To separate those experiences from the person, to call them sick, feels barbaric. It feels as if humans are being taught to fear being human.
Is Xanax Really the Bad Guy?
While any effort to generate awareness and potentially curb the benzodiazepine epidemic is commendable, we have to ask ourselves, is Xanax just the scapegoat in this situation? Will legislative action and media attention for only one benzodiazepine out of so many make any difference?
Providers Fail to Report Information on Suicide Prevention Services
Researchers investigate services related to suicide prevention across mental health providers in England.
Has Psychiatry Gone Uniquely Astray?
Science is supposed to be evidence-respecting and thereby open-minded; psychiatry is presently not. But is psychiatry really unique in this respect? Is it the only field of medicine where dogmatically held theories contrary to evidence have held sway for long periods?
9 Questions the US Senate Should Ask Dr. McCance-Katz
Mental health agencies are mainly asking about her positions regarding “recovery” and “peers,” but here are some tougher questions for President Trump's new "mental health czar": Do you support court-ordered psychiatric drugging? Do you endorse the use of federal money for it? Why aren’t non-drug alternatives offered to Americans?
Makers of Risperdal Sued for Breast Development in Boys
Thousands of boys and young men are lined up in courthouses around the country to sue J&J for gynecomastia caused by taking Risperdal as young children. The condition is irreversible except by surgical removal. Collectively, they have become known as the Risperdal Boys.
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?
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.
“Maybe You Need Meds”: From Passive Patient to Finding My Voice
I made journaling non-negotiable. I started sitting in nature and running trails. I practiced being present and prioritized sleep. These things are often seen as what you do if your problems aren’t really that bad. But to me, these are the things I do to save myself every day.
