NY Times to Bonnie Burstow: May You Not Rest in Peace
In its obituary of Bonnie Burstow, the New York Times published a comment from historian Edward Shorter that was both vile and slanderous. Burstow, if she had been alive, could easily have set the record straight.
Hearing Veteran Narratives is Key to Suicide Prevention
Current suicide assessment practices of the VA are reductive and do not allow for the individual’s narrative to be heard.
Psychiatry, Capitalism, and the Recuperation of Psychedelics
For a psychiatrist trained to conceptualize within the medical model, psychedelics will at worst be a novel pharmacotherapy altering broken neural pathways, and at best remain an intervention targeting a multidimensional “mental illness” rather than a communion with the magical yet essential dimension of the human experience.
The P-Value Problem in Psychiatry
Stanford researcher writes that readers should check the effect size of results instead of looking at the p-value.
Can a Conceptual Competence Curriculum Bring Humility to Psychiatry?
Training for conceptual competence in psychiatry provides a new way forward to address theoretical and philosophical issues in mental health research and practice.
WARNING: May Cause Moral Failure
As the SNRI molecules sluggishly evacuated my bloodstream and I progressively regained my emotions, the gravity of what I had done descended upon me. I couldn’t believe I had actually been capable of committing several crimes over an extended period of time, without stopping to think about the risks to my wife and kids, or even myself.
John Read – UK Esketamine Approval – Not so Fast
An interview with Professor John Read who joins us to discuss the UK licensing of esketamine nasal spray (Spravato) for so-called ‘Treatment Resistant Depression’. John led a group of 12 academics and professionals who wrote to the UK regulator expressing concerns.
Big Pharma Meets Big Diagnosis, Big Courts, and Big Psychiatric Hospitals
Gottstein’s book is The Pentagon Papers of the traditional mental health system, because he exposes a mind-blowing number and variety of cold-blooded, calculating actions on the part of Eli Lilly in trying to hide what it knew to be the devastating effects of its hugely profitable Zyprexa.
How Dissenting Voices are Silenced in Medicine
Researcher criticizes the many ways opposing viewpoints and dissenting voices are squashed in the field of medicine.
Reimagining Healthcare
The conventional Western classification systems of health conditions are based on flawed science shaped by reductionist, hierarchical, and profit-driven ideologies. THEN wants to create a new paradigm built upon principles drawn from systems science, the life course perspective, developmental neurobiology, and other evidence-informed studies.
Nuanced History of Asylums Shows Context Matters
A bottom-up approach to understanding the history of asylums allows us to learn from past successes and failures in the mental health system.
School Discipline is Racially Biased and Increases Misbehavior
School discipline that punishes minor misbehavior may increase adolescents’ misconduct and lead to racial inequalities in school discipline.
Where Are the Results of These Five Clinical Trials of Antidepressant Drugs?
The results of five large-scale clinical trials of antidepressants have never been made accessible to the public, a data set compiled by an international team of researchers shows. Their discovery highlights the incompleteness of available data on the safety and efficacy of antidepressant drugs.
Transgender Children Development Consistent with Current Gender, Not Sex Assigned at Birth
Transgender children show strong identification and preferences stereotypically associated with their current gender identities, not their sex assigned at birth.
Researchers: Antidepressant Withdrawal, Not “Discontinuation Syndrome”
Researchers suggest that the pharmaceutical industry had a vested interest in using the term “discontinuation” in order to hide the severity of physical dependence and withdrawal reactions many people experience from antidepressants.
Ready, Fire, Aim: Mainstream Psychiatry Reacts to the UN Special Rapporteur
In a commissioned commentary, two psychiatrists assailed the Special Rapporteur’s "anti-psychiatry bias." Their commentary reads as a crude ad hominem attack on the Rapporteur himself in order to divert attention from his well-founded conclusions about mainstream psychiatry.
Wendy Dolin – Making Akathisia a Household Word
An interview with Wendy Dolin who talks about the work of MISSD, the Medication-Induced Suicide Prevention and Education Foundation in Memory of Stewart Dolin, a non-profit founded to raise awareness of the tragic consequences of drug-induced akathisia.
How President Trump and Dr. Drew Got It Wrong on Deinstitutionalization
Compounding the lack of participation of former and current patients, a major theme of the summit was that Americans diagnosed with “serious mental illness” should not be able to make their own treatment decisions.
Can Psychiatry Respond to Mad Activism?
Psychiatrist Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed explores a way forward for psychiatry in responding to the Mad activism of service users.
Committed at 16: Memories of a State Hospital
While most of the sting is gone, even now — almost sixty years on — I can’t get through a single day without thinking about shock treatment and the state hospital. I regularly have dreams or nightmares about being lost in a strange place and someone making me feel like dirt.
Psychology and Poverty: An Interview with APA President Rosie Phillips Davis
MIA’s Gavin Crowell-Williamson interviews psychologist Rosie Phillips Davis about her presidential initiative to address deep poverty.
MIACE 2020: New Approaches to Working With People Who Are Suicidal
In March, MIA Continuing Education is launching an 11-seminar course that will provide new insights into understanding the factors driving the increase in suicide, and tell of “therapeutic” approaches that “demedicalize” suicide and offer new ways to help people in crisis.
Bringing Structural Competency to Global Mental Health
Structural competency is put forth as a framework that addresses social and structural determinants in global mental health.
How to Change Psychology to Address Racial Health Disparities
Psychology can only deal with racial health disparities effectively by incorporating critical race theory and intervening at a structural level.
Amanda Burrill: Self-Advocacy and Self-Belief – Escaping Psychiatric Drugs
An interview with Amanda Burrill, who, after a successful career as a Surface Warfare Officer and Rescue Swimmer in the US Navy, was on track to continue her career as a professional triathlete and marathon runner. Around the time of her discharge, she was prescribed a cocktail of psychiatric medications that caused physical injuries, leading to an early end to her rapidly accelerating career.
