Professor Sir Robin Murray: Reframing Psychotic Illness

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An interview with Sir Robin Murray, who is a Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry. He is perhaps best known for helping to establish the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia, and for his work on the environmental risk factors relating to schizophrenia.
biogenetic

Behavioural Geneticist Robert Plomin: “There Are No Disorders, There Are Just Quantitative Dimensions”

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It is encouraging to hear leading scientists such as Plomin acknowledge that psychiatric diagnoses are fundamentally arbitrary and that the idea of a “cure” does not make sense with regards to psychological issues.

Researchers Document Protracted Withdrawal from Antidepressants

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Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome characterized by long-term adverse experiences after coming off of antidepressants.
Poster for the documentary film "Cured"

In a PBS documentary, ECT Is Bad for “Curing” Homosexuality, but Great for Depression!

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A new documentary about gay activists' defeat of the APA ends with a disclaimer that ECT is "effective" for severe depression. Bruce Levine spoke with the filmmakers.

Manic and Mistreated

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I was shaking and crying as I told a stranger everything about my life, and they looked at me like I was a criminal. Like I was crazy. I started to think maybe I was.
DNA particles and diffused glowing lines, 3d rendering

Major Depression: The “Chemical Imbalance” Pillar Is Crumbling—Is the Genetics Pillar Next?

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A more detailed critical evaluation of molecular genetic studies, which have failed to discover genes shown to cause depression.
planet

Moving On

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Although I saw a number of counselors and therapists for my dependency issues, they were unable to help me. Therapists saw my unhappy childhood experiences as part of me, part of who I was, but I did not see it that way. I imagined the experiences circling around outside of ‘the real me’ like moons around a planet, standing between me and the outside world.

Psychological Support for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal

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We discuss the release of guidance which has been specifically written to support UK psychological therapists and their clients in having discussions about taking and withdrawing from psychiatric drugs. The guidance is a collaboration between counsellors, therapists, psychologists, peer support specialists and psychiatrists.

Antidepressant Use in Pregnancy Harms Child Development, Untreated Maternal Depression Shows Benefit

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In this new study, exposure to maternal anxiety in utero also harmed child development.

Venomagnosia

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In Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants, Dr. Peter Kramer makes two arguments that I agree with. The trouble for me is that Kramer’s clinical vision seems strangely rose-tinted. He is an advocate of using antidepressants to treat depression, but he doesn’t seem to see any of the problems antidepressants cause.
smartphones

More Bad News About Smartphones – When Will We Heed the Warnings?

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We might expect that there would be a reasonable response to an overwhelming body of evidence that our tech usage patterns must be altered or consequences will only become more dismal. Yet as we are learning, trends seem to be running contrary to what the advice begs us to consider.
candy corn

Suicide & Candy Corn: The Utility and Challenges of Risk Assessments

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Researchers admit their suicide risk assessments work only about as well as random guessing, and they can lead to harm. We can instead focus on finding new ways to form connections that might help tether someone to this world.
on antidepressants everything is fine

Are Antidepressants Enabling the Population to Tolerate the Intolerable?

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Just how sad is our current state of affairs that it causes so much of the population to feel depressed and/or anxious? Just how much are these drugs changing the state of our society as a whole? Are the drugs desensitizing the population to the point that it will tolerate social conditions it would otherwise find intolerable?
ADHD

Parenting Changed My Perspective on “ADHD”

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My experience of raising a son who was bright and creative but didn’t fit the mold helped me to approach my restless, impulsive students more compassionately and creatively.

Soteria Shelter Program in Hungary: Crisis as Danger and Opportunity

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We believe that if we do no harm, crisis is not only danger but opportunity. We do not “treat” anybody or force anyone to do anything. We are together in order to help the people in crisis by means of our presence. Our ethical motto is: “It can happen to you, too.”
continuing education

Is Remaking Psychiatric Care Possible?

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The failures of our current drug-based paradigm of psychiatric care tell of a pressing need for systemic changes in psychiatry. But as we discovered when marketing our new continuing education course on this topic, it's always difficult to promote radical change.
police killings

End Police “Wellness Checks.” Now.

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If you are a mental health worker or advocate, there's a way to help dismantle police brutality and systemic racism in the U.S.

Remembering Jay Mahler

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“I’ve spent 58 years in the public mental health system—10 years surviving it and 48 trying to change it.” That’s how Jay Mahler—psychiatric survivor, activist, leader—described his experiences.
power threat meaning framework

“The Power Threat Meaning Framework”: A New Perspective on Mental Distress

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Many of us have drawn attention over the years to the problems and shortcomings of psychiatric "diagnoses." The Power Threat Meaning document draws together the various threads in this debate and blends them into a coherent, cogent, and highly readable account.

“I Found My Lion’s Roar”: Ro Speight on Combining Peer Support and Open Dialogue

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MIA's Ana Florence interviews recovery advocate Ro Speight about her journey from receiving Peer Support to working as a facilitator in Peer Partnered Open Dialogue.

Orthodox Madness

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The Orthodox believe that we are all mentally ill due to sin and that the Orthodox Church is the hospital for the soul, the psychiatric hospital with God being our Psychiatrist, the Physician of our souls. Orthodox belief regarding the human psyche may appear to be pure madness, even delusional, from the perspective of modern western medical science.

Researchers: Antidepressant Use in Children Increases Suicide, No Evidence of Benefit

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Noted antidepressant researcher, Michael Hengartner, summarizes the latest research on the use of antidepressants in children and adolescents.
criminal psychiatry

People Don’t Recover So Spectacularly from Criminal Psychiatry

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Psychiatry and Catholicism have too much in common, both founded by men, upon questionable source materials. I knew I was in danger, not being helped.
Signpost showing many different directions

De-Meaning Psychotherapy: The New Psychiatric Critic

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I reject psychiatry. But I also reject the critic. In the final analysis psychiatric abolition must be a deeply personal act.

Insane Medicine, Chapter 7: Industrialised Psychotherapy Markets Western Folk Psychology (Part 1)

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Sami Timimi explores the common factors that influence therapy’s success, the evidence base for psychotherapy, and the over-promotion of CBT.