Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Care Homes Over-Prescribing Drugs for Residents with Dementia

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FromĀ The Guardian: According to a new Human Rights Watch report, U.S. nursing homes are inappropriatelyĀ prescribing antipsychotics to an estimated 179,000 residents with dementia each...

Critical Psychologist On How Scientific Research Can Influence Public Policy

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Critical participatory action research conducted on the higher education programs offered in prison leads to mobilized advocacy and shifts in public policy.

Depression Test May be Inaccurate for Black Adolescents, Study Finds

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Researchers find that psychometric properties in the CES-D, developed for White adults, may not adequately measure the lived experience for Black adolescents.

Most Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertisements Do Not Adhere to FDA Guidelines

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Few DTC drug advertisements fully adhere to FDA guidelines, the overall quality of information provided in DTC advertisements is low, and some advertisements market off-label indications.

Mylan Pharmaceuticals Admits their Drug is the Probable Cause of My Son’s Suicide

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A couple of days ago, after two years of fighting, I received Mylan Pharmaceuticals assessment of the causal link between their drug Fluox and my son's suicide. Their conclusion is identical to that of the New Zealand drug regulator Medsafe, that the SSRI antidepressant Fluoxetine is the probable cause of Toran's death. The rating of 'probable' includes an assessment that Toran's suicide was 'unlikely to be attributed to disease or other drugs.'

ā€œPsychotic Shooters on the Open Frontier of Profitā€

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At CounterPunch, Joseph Natoli connects Big Pharma, mass shootings, and rampant inequality. He writes: ā€œThe Brave New World soma strategy to deal with a population that, were they not doped up, might violently disrupt that brave new world, is useful if a society is ā€˜creatively destroying’ a growing number of its population each day. While the poor have daily evidence of their poverty, a collapsing middle class live in the illusion that they are middle class and just a short distance, not from ruin, but from fame and fortune. They are, in short, heading for a catastrophic break-down. Big Pharma is already set to give us all a ā€˜soft landing.ā€™ā€

Schizophrenia’s Tangled Roots

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FromĀ Sapiens: Researchers are increasingly recognizing the role that social and environmental factors, including childhood abuse, stressful events, and poverty, play in the development of...

Replacing Pain with Pain: Hazards of Antidepressant Use for Chronic Pain Relief

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The paradox of relieving chronic pain with an antidepressant (and a new set of symptoms).

“25 Years of Madness and Modernism”: A Review

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In this piece for theĀ Centre for Medical Humanities, James Whitehead reflects on the 25th anniversary celebration of the publication of Louis Sass'sĀ Madness and Modernism. "A...

Mental Health Awareness Month: Seven Things to be Aware of

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In this piece forĀ Truthout, Noel Hunter lists seven facts it is important to be cognizant of during Mental Health Awareness Month, from the influence...

Study Finds Deteriorating Mental Health Among Poor White Americans

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Researchers find evidence of low socio-economic status White Americans’ rising distress and declining well-being since the mid-1990s.

The Role of Racial Bias in the Overdiagnosis of Schizophrenia

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Researchers detect disparity between white and African American patients diagnosed with schizophrenia when symptoms of a mood disorder are present.

Justifiably Maladjusted

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FromĀ Unbound: In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached that he was proud to be psychologically maladjusted to racism, slavery, segregation, religious bigotry, and economic...

Stigmatizing Language in Medical Records Affects Patient Care

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FromĀ Medical Xpress:Ā A recent study found that the language used in a patient’s chart notes may affect how well that patient is treated, and how...

Psychologists Surveyed Hundreds of Alt-Right Supporters

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FromĀ Vox: Recently, psychologists Patrick ForscherĀ and Nour Kteily surveyed members of the alt-right to build the first psychological profile of their movement. Compared to the...

Bernie Sanders Opposes Califf for FDA Post Cites Industry Ties

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Bernie Sanders joins numerous public health groups and opposes Robert Califf's nomination to lead the FDA over industry ties.

ā€œReport Finds Florida Foster Kids Put on Psychotropic Drugs Without Following Proper Proceduresā€

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After the 2009 suicide of a seven-year-old foster kid who had been on two ā€œblack boxā€ medications intended for adults, Florida updated its policies to protect vulnerable children from over-prescription. Unfortunately, according to a report by Orlando Weekly, ā€œfoster children are still being put on psychotropic medications without caregivers following proper procedures.ā€

Failure to Report, Patients at Riskā€

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"A STAT investigation finds that ā€œMost research institutions — including leading universities and hospitals in addition to drug companies — routinely break a law that requires...

Study Finds Racial Differences in Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment

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Black patients are almost twice as likely as their white counterparts to be diagnosed with schizophrenia while whites are significantly more likely to receive a diagnosis of anxiety or depression, according to a recent study published in the journal Psychiatric Services. The researchers also found that the likelihood of receiving psychotherapy for any diagnosis (34%), regardless of race or ethnicity, was much lower than the likelihood of receiving a psychotropic medication (73%).

“I Was Just Following Orders”: a Seroquel Suicide, a Study Coordinator, and a “Corrective...

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Out here in Minnesota, where the snow is gently falling, many of us are hunched over our computers, puzzling over a document just posted by the state Board of Social Work. It concerns the death of Dan Markingson (or as the document calls him, ā€œClient #1ā€). Markingson, of course, was a young man under a commitment order who was coerced into a profitable Seroquel marketing study at the University of Minnesota over the objections of his mother, and whose condition spiraled downward until he committed suicide.

Largest Survey of Antidepressants Finds High Rates of Adverse Emotional and Interpersonal Effects

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I thought I would make a small contribution to the discussion about how coverage of the recent airline tragedy focuses so much on the supposed ā€˜mental illness’ of the pilot and not so much on the possible role of antidepressants. Of course we will never know the answer to these questions but it is important, I think, to combat the simplistic nonsense wheeled out after most such tragedies, the nonsense that says the person had an illness that made them do awful things. So, just to confirm what many recipients of antidepressants, clinicians and researchers have been saying for a long time, here are some findings from our recent New Zealand survey of over 1,800 people taking anti-depressants, which we think is the largest survey to date.

Brief Trauma-Focused Psychotherapies Effective for Children with PTSD

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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Writing Therapy both reduce PTSD symptoms in children who experienced a single traumatic event.

Few Counselors Are Trained to Treat Racial Trauma

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FromĀ ThinkProgress: A new study found that the majority of counselors in the United States are not prepared to identify or treat race-based trauma, which...

Psychics Who Hear Voices Could Be on to Something

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In this piece forĀ The Atlantic, Joseph Frankel compares and contrasts the voice-hearing experiences of self-describedĀ psychics and mediums with the experiences of people diagnosed with...

The Slow Torture of Mary Weiss

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Dan Markingson was floridly psychotic and unable to give informed consent when University of Minnesota researchers coerced him into an industry-funded drug study. His mother, Mary Weiss, warned the researchers that Dan was in danger of killing himself, but she was ignored. Dan committed a violent suicide in 2004. Last week, after fighting the university and research regulators for nine years, Mary suffered a severe stroke. Her struggle for justice is in serious danger.