Married Individuals with Schizophrenia Show Better Outcomes, Study Finds

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14-year study of a rural sample in China shows those who were married had higher rates of remission from schizophrenia.
antidepressants withdrawal

Letter to The New York Times: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Can’t Quit

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Ten years ago, the recent New York Times article entitled “Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Can’t Quit” would have shocked me. I would have dismissed serious medication withdrawal as rare. But I tell my patients something different today.

Peer-run Organizations Help People with Criminal Justice Involvement Return to the Community

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Because of the enormous obstacles confronting individuals with behavioral health conditions who have been incarcerated, many peer-run organizations have risen to the challenge and have created programs to help these people rejoin the community.

Senate Quietly Rubber-Stamps Trump’s “Mental Health Czar”

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This “Mental Health Czar” appointment is moving below the radar of many people. The US Senate should be asking some tough questions of Dr. McCance-Katz before deciding on her confirmation. Everyone should contact their Senators, now!

What Are Best Practices For Psychosis And What Gets In The Way?

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Research investigates clinicians’ perspectives on best care practices and the complicated realities of providing care in the face of agency limitations and mechanized interventions.

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.
workhouse inmates

So What is Mental Disorder? Part 2: The Social Problem

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The English Workhouse was designed to deter people from seeking state assistance, and Victorian asylums were designed to care for poor people whose behaviour was disruptive to Workhouse routines. Madness, previously viewed as an interesting, if inconvenient, manifestation of humanity, came to be seen as a social problem in need of correction.

Adolescent Suicide and The Black Box Warning: STAT Gets It All Wrong

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STAT recently published an opinion piece arguing that the black box warning on antidepressants has led to an increase in adolescent suicide. It is easily debunked, and reveals once again how our society is regularly misled about research findings related to psychiatric drugs. STAT has lent its good name to a false story that, unfortunately, will resonate loudly with the public.

Policies to Reduce Antipsychotic use Among Elderly are Failing

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Research reveals that rates of antipsychotic prescribing to the elderly in the UK have not dropped despite national recommendations.

Study Privileges the Voices of Persons Hospitalized Against Their Will

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How people are treated after being hospitalized can either help them to overcome the traumatic effects of coercion or make them worse.

Teacher Wellbeing Matters for Student Mental Health

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Teacher’s personal wellbeing plays a role in students’ mental health outcomes, suggests a new study.
Profile of a bearded man head with a symbol of neurons in the brain

A Brain for Our Emancipation

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In times of crisis, we are required to adapt to conditions of suffering to safeguard capitalist production. We are asked to adapt our flexible brains to a hostile environment, and the possibility of transforming that environment is suppressed.
global mental health asia pacific

TCI ASIA Pacific: Engaging the Global Mental Health Movement in Dialogue

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The "North driving the South" phenomenon has evoked a strong counter response from TCI Asia Pacific and allied organizations (from Africa and Latin America) — especially when we know by now that the western model of psychiatry, based on colonial practices of isolation, seclusion, and coercion, is a failure.

We Do Not Have Everything We Need

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It’s healthier to figure out how to be with each other and care for each other than continue to engage in the destructive lie that we already have everything we need "inside ourselves."

Evidence Distortion in Medicine Explained in One Single Chart

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15 positive and 15 negative studies of antidepressants were reported to the FDA. But while all 15 positive trials were published, only 7 negative trials were.

New York’s Mayor: We’re out of Ideas, so It’s “Back to the Cuckoo’s Nest”...

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A psychiatrist obsessed with violence among the mentally ill, Torrey is dedicated to promoting involuntary hospitalization.

Researchers Question the “Adequacy and Legitimacy” of ADHD Diagnosis

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A new article, just published online in the journal Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, presents research suggesting that the diagnosis of ADHD is philosophically inadequate.

Rates of ADHD Diagnosis and Prescription of Stimulants Continue to Rise

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Two new articles find that rates of ADHD diagnosis and stimulant prescription continue to rise all over the world.

Helping People Come Off Medication—Bad for Business?

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The message in journal editorials, comments and opinion articles, is that 'this new study shows great promise' and that 'we need further research'. My interpretation is: 'give us the money and we will be happy to carry this out'. With the implied promise that, once this new research has been done, we will get a better world. Sadly this is rarely ever the case.

Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Suppressive Action as an Important Tool to Control Information

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You had better be able to back up what you say with enough force to overcome any opposition; this rule applies to both inmates and staff.

Study Explores Meanings of Bipolar Disorder to Those Diagnosed

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The narratives about Bipolar Disorder promoted by drug companies may influence how those diagnosed understand themselves.

Researcher Challenges Clinical Effectiveness of Antidepressants

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A new article in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine addresses common misinterpretations of the efficacy research on antidepressants.

Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 5: Survival Kit for Young Psychiatrists in a Sick...

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Inaction by the medical profession regarding the prescribing of psychiatric drugs to children and adolescents is a form of child abuse and neglect, and institutional betrayal.

Greed Disguised as Science: How a Multitude of Factors Led to the Opioid Crisis

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Opioids are now the leading cause of mortality from overdose, accounting for 91 deaths every day. The context and key players that created and contributed to the opioid epidemic must be brought into sharp focus if we are to have any hope of stemming the tide of this public health crisis.
dead end

Our Movement Has Failed (So Far) – Here’s How To Change That

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The leadership of our mental health advocacy groups agree that money has corrupted democracy in the US and this has resulted in blocking potential for real reform. But they aren’t willing to act on connecting their small single-issue efforts with the larger movement against corruption. Why?