Tweeting while Medicine Burns (Psychopharmacology Part 2)

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This is the world that lies in store for us. It is not the world of traditional medicine, where drugs treat diseases to restore the social order. It is a world in which medical interventions will potentially change that order.

Victims of Success: An Update from Mad in America Continuing Education

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Within days of announcing the webinar and providing the link to register, we were deluged with enrollments. It turns out that a great many professionals, advocates and clinical managers are interested in learning about Open Dialogue and its application to an American community.

Despite Increase in Treatments, Prevalence of Mental Health Issues Climbs

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Findings show that despite increases in treatment availability, the prevalence of mental health issues has not decreased.

Letter to my Classmates on our 40th Reunion

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It is hard for me to feel celebratory on the occasion of our 40th reunion. As my career winds down, I feel more disappointment and dismay than the glow of lifelong achievement.

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (A Book Review)

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In a work of quite remarkable scholarship, Ohler has traced how an enterprising drug manufacturer realised the potential of methamphetamine and managed to sell it to the High Command as a very valuable but entirely harmless drug that would allow soldiers to do without sleep for days.

Lyme is ‘All in Your Head’ – A Wake-up Call to Mental Health Professionals

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Sufferers are desperate for mental health professionals to understand Lyme so that they will know to consider it as a potential differential diagnosis before plying a patient with psychotropic meds that may make matters worse.

Tweeting While Psychiatry Burns

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Part one of a lecture given at a British Neuropsychiatric Association meeting on February 22 under the heading of Psychopharmacology: 1952–2017. In slide 2, you see Tokyo University on fire. The students have occupied the Department of Psychiatry and stay for ten years.

Experts Concerned That Depression Screening Will Lead to Overdiagnosis

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Behind the U.S. task force recommendation to screen all children and adults for depression.

A Curse for a Cursed Profession

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In “polite society,” cursing is largely verboten. Let me suggest, however, that if done in the correct spirit and adroitly, cursing can be a highly useful type of anti-oppression work. On top of which, it can be personally liberating.

Transition into Poverty May Worsen Child and Maternal Mental Health

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Transitioning into poverty linked to behavioral issues in children, but may be mitigated by mother’s mental health.

Our Coming to Mad in Aotearoa

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Madness cannot be separated from our cultural contexts. Our dream is that there are spaces for people of all cultures and countries who experience living with, through and beyond madness to tell their unique stories. We have created Mad in Aotearoa for all the people in our country.

Transformations to Liberation

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My goal was to change my relationship with my voices from one that was adversarial to one in which I experienced them as allies. I was successful in that I now look at my voices, visions and other experiences as teachers, as gifts. It has not been an easy journey.

A New Paradigm for Psychiatry: Answering the Call from the UN

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Once biochemical psychiatry is discarded, which will inevitably happen, what will replace it? The approach I will describe here is consistent with the nature of consciousness itself, with the neuroscience of the brain, with child development and attachment.

Psychosis for Mental Health?

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What if we took individuals who are experiencing emotional crises called 'psychosis' and offered them safe spaces of respite? Similar to the psychedelic trip, environment, supportive relationships, and interpretation of experience appear key to whether the experience of psychosis is transformative or destructive.

How Big Pharma and the Medical Doctors Killed my Father

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When the nurses tried to give him other medications, my father refused. They accused him of being “combative” and “uncooperative,” and they injected him with the highly toxic, incredibly dangerous, mind-bending antipsychotic HALDOL.

The Sedated Society: the Real Story of our Prescribing Epidemic

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BBC 5 live ran a recent piece that aimed to explore why antidepressant prescriptions have doubled in the last ten years. Unfortunately, it failed to address the drivers of this epidemic – industry-backed diagnostic inflation and the lax regulation of medicines.

Editorial Misconduct: Finnish Medical Journal Rejects Paper on Suicide Risk

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Editorial misconduct is as serious as scientific misconduct, and doctors should know how dangerous antidepressants are, at all ages. I have therefore uploaded my correspondence with the Finnish Medical Journal regarding my paper they rescinded their offer to publish.
Mickey Nardo (photo by Abby Nardo)

Farewell Mickey Nardo, 1 (not very) Boring Old Man

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Mickey studied how the intimacy between leading academic psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical companies had impacted our profession. His blog was a treasure trove of analysis and information. Mickey did some heavy lifting, and for that we are all indebted.

Mickey Nardo: Tangled up in Life

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Mickey Nardo died yesterday. Here is a brief account of his career, chiseled out of him for the Restoring Study 329 site. What strikes me most is his interest in the tangles people end up in. This certainly is a theme that ran through his blog.

Committed: The Battle Over Involuntary Psychiatric Care

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Dinah Miller and Annette Hanson are psychiatrists who blog at Shrink Rap. On one topic we agree — the subject of involuntary care is the most contentious and troubling topic for psychiatry. To their credit, they have directed an enormous amount of attention to this subject in their latest book.

Disobedience: What Can We Risk?

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It is possible to heal, and at the same time healing also means restoring the part of oneself that can face violence and disobey to protect what is most sacred. I am that sacred, and so are you.

SMILES Study: Depression and Nutrition

The question this study asked was: In adults with depression who eat a poor diet, does teaching them about nutrition have an impact on their mental health? At the end of the 12-week intervention, the answer was: Yes.

Patient Race Associated with Varied Psychiatric Treatment Experiences

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Findings point to association between race and the mental health care experiences of African-American and White veterans.

Why I Resigned From The Mighty

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The apprehensions I'd initially had about joining the team returned to my mind. I'd allowed my original cautious disposition to be overtaken by optimism when I had accepted a position of contributing editor with The Mighty, but my hopes were about to be dashed.

Trials Comparing Treatments for Depression Favor Pharmacotherapy when Statisticians Involved

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A meta-analysis looks at the effects of researcher background on study findings for trials comparing pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy for depression.