Brain Imaging Results Biased by Lack of Representative Data

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What does "normal" brain development throughout childhood look like? It may depend on your demographics.
drug dealers

Warning to Parents: Psychiatry is How Kids Get High and Die in the USA

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Street drug dealers and stimulant-peddling doctors both get clients high and addicted for profit. So there is really no difference between what they do except that doctors are more ‘successful’ at it, since they enjoy many advantages over illicit dealers and can get away with doing it legally.

Psychologists Push For New Approaches to Psychosis: Part 2

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The authors of the report expand upon the traumatic and sociopolitical factors underlying presentations of psychosis and “schizophrenia.”

“Prisons Without Bars” – Forced Institutionalization of People with Disabilities

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In the wake of deinstitutionalization, we no longer have the vast asylum system we once did. Instead, something more insidious has taken root — for-profit institutions that call themselves neurorehabilitation centers, group homes, and other official-sounding names.

David Mielke: Educating in the Era of Psychiatric Diagnosis

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This week we interview psychology graduate and teacher David Mielke who has become increasingly concerned about the number of children in the education system that have a psychiatric diagnosis and are on psychiatric drugs.
DNA in hand

Schizophrenia Genetic Research – Running on Empty

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The time has come to halt the massive failure that has characterized schizophrenia molecular genetic research, and to thoroughly reassess what critics have always said are the severely flawed family, twin, and adoption studies that inspired and helped justify this research.

Antidepressant Use May Increase Risk of Diabetes

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New study confirms previous evidence that antidepressant use is linked to developing type 2 diabetes.
rilke

Channeling Dead German Poets: Taking Other People’s Alternate Realities Seriously

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I believe that the greatest problem that we have with “psychosis,” voicehearing, and “schizophrenia” in the modern world is a simple lack of comprehension on the part of other people that what we experience is actually real, even if it might seem intractably bizarre from the outside.

Study Examines Overdiagnosis of Mental Health Disorders in Childhood

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Are diagnoses of mental disorders among children and adolescents in developed countries disproportionate to disease prevalence trends?
mushrooms

To See An Atom: Psychosis and Ecology

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Having smelled colors, heard ghosts, grown ecstatic, glimpsed Gaia, chatted with cartoons, and been overwhelmed by persistent paranoia and fear while under the influence of LSD, a modified fungus, I cannot distinguish how such plant-induced experiences differ from what psychiatrists call psychosis.
opioid epidemic

Companies That Fueled the Opioid Epidemic Should Fund Efforts to End It

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The quickest way to restore safe use of opioid prescription is to insist that the drug companies that promoted the overuse of opioids now create a pot of money to develop powerful TV, radio, and print ads, free continuing education offerings, and drug rehabilitation research.

Researchers Confirm That Relative Age Impacts ADHD Diagnosis

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The youngest children in a class are more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis than their peers.

Psychologists Push For New Approaches to Psychosis: Part 1

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Psychologists and people with experience of psychotic symptoms publish a report on new ways of understanding psychosis.
child abuse

Child Abuse, Mental Health and Mental Illness

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Psychiatrists and medical doctors don’t ask who was hitting who and how often in your family. These questions would largely put them out of business and invalidate their industries. These questions would make a mockery of their many years of schooling and many prescription pad options. But these questions would also heal.

Olga Runciman: Moving Beyond Psychiatry

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This week on the Mad in America podcast we interview Olga Runciman. Olga is an international trainer and speaker, writer, campaigner, and artist. In this interview, we discuss Olga’s professional and personal experiences of the psychiatric system and how she now helps and supports healing and recovery in others.
rethink

Rethinking the Validity of Schizophrenia on World Mental Health Day

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An open letter launched on World Mental Health Day, supported by people with lived experience, friends, family members, workers and researchers, calls on Rethink Mental Illness, one of the major English mental health charities, to co-create a new conversation about the diagnosis “schizophrenia.”

New Research Documents Widening Mortality Gap for Bipolar and Schizophrenia

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Analysis of longitudinal data from 2000-2014 demonstrate mortality gap is widening between persons with a diagnosis of bipolar or schizophrenia compared to the general population
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?
MIACE withdrawal course

The Continuing Education Course on Withdrawal from Psychiatric Drugs is Here!

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A full picture of the seven webinars that comprise our upcoming psychiatric withdrawal course, with presenters including Sandra Steingard, Peter Breggin, Kelly Brogan, Carina Hakansson, Will Hall and a panel of survivors. The course begins on October 24th and slots are filling fast!
puppet master

The Misuse of Collaboration and Therapy to Deter People From Discontinuing Medication

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Gabriel Ivbijaro and Lucja Kolkiewicz produce five pages dedicated to improving adherence with psychiatric medication through collaborative care and the implementation of modified CBT. The use of the word ‘collaborative’ in this context is misleading.

JAMA Article Challenges CBT as Gold Standard for Psychotherapy

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A review of CBT research findings raises questions about its status as the “evidence-based” psychotherapy of choice.
World Mental Health Day

Seven Points to Ponder for World Mental Health Day

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Why do I inwardly cringe at the approach of things like “Mental Illness Awareness Week” and “World Mental Health Day”? Because I’m mentally preparing myself for the onslaught of societally-approved messages about human suffering, messages ranging from the ill-informed to the downright dangerous.

World Mental Health Day 2017: Challenging the Messages – A Call to Action

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If we can have a presence and visibility, this could be life-changing for individuals with no current access to the bigger truths about psychiatric theory and practice. So let's infiltrate and disrupt the hashtags #WMHD2017 #worldmentalhealthday and share messages of hope, healing, validation and solidarity!

School Culture May Contribute to Overdiagnosis, Study Finds

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Officials at a school that was more focused on ADHD diagnoses described children’s behavior in terms of individual illnesses, taking children out of the context of their social interactions, race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
wooden people sculpture

Knowledge of Mental States and Behaviour: Insights From Heidegger and Others

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Applying the methods of natural science to human activity is sometimes necessary, but it cannot enlighten us about the nature of that activity or the reasons that motivate and sustain it. Instead, insights must come from our own and others’ experiences.