Globalization

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

Depression, serious psychological distress, and suicide attempts have risen substantially since the early 2000s among young adults – what’s changed?

Meta-analysis gives updated recovery and remission rates for persons identified as having a first-episode psychosis and those diagnosed with schizophrenia.

As an increasing amount of research seeks to address the epidemic of loneliness, conceptual clarity is needed.

A new study suggests needing to appear perfect to others leads to mental health stigma and a higher risk of untreated psychological distress.

Participatory action approaches in bioethics research used to decrease coercion and seclusion in psychiatric treatment.

According to a study published in this month’s British Journal of Psychiatry, people diagnosed with depression in high-income countries are more likely to limit...

Lack of “right care” causes physical, psychological and financial harm to patients

A new critical review of the latest Lancet global mental health report finds that while the movement claims to take a public health approach in its rhetoric it continues to focus on culturally inappropriate individual-level interventions.

“In Gallup's annual measure of 25 major U.S. business sectors, the percentage of Americans with a positive view of the pharmaceutical industry dropped from 40% in 2014 to 35% this year, while the percentage with a negative view rose from 36% to 43%.”

Researchers explore pathways of healing racial trauma in Latinx immigrant communities.

Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR), one of the groups that led the push for changes to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) collusion in the CIA torture program (as detailed in the Hoffman report), is again calling on the APA for a change in policies.

Canadian study finds that social service spending is associated with a decrease in mortality and increase in life expectancy.

A new study, published in BMJ Open-Access this week, found a significant link between the level of air pollution in a community and the mental health of the children living there. After controlling for socio-economic status and other potential variables, researchers in Sweden discovered a strong association between the concentration of air pollution in a neighborhood and the amount of ‘antipsychotic’ and psychiatric drugs prescribed to children. The link remained strong even at pollution levels well below half of what is considered acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In this piece for Vision Magazine, Danit Felber details the U.S. pharmaceutical industry's efforts to stomp out foreign competition. "What does this mean practically? A nonprofit...

Researchers found participants were less likely to dehumanize those with whom they disagreed when they heard their voices.

Transitioning into poverty linked to behavioral issues in children, but may be mitigated by mother’s mental health.

A Nigerian study finds that more than three-quarters of patients improved, even when only 13% were prescribed medication.

The use of machine learning algorithms (known as artificial intelligence) in the medical field raises a slew of ethical concerns.

Researchers present loneliness as a health threat facing a growing number of Americans.

In this interview for Broadly, Lauren Greenfield speaks about her new documentary, "Generation Wealth," which takes a sobering look at our societal addiction to the...

In many respects it is difficult to fault the report Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia, recently published by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP)[i]; indeed, as recent posts on Mad in America have observed, there is much to admire in it. Whilst not overtly attacking biomedical interpretations of psychosis, it rightly draws attention to the limitations and problems of this model, and points instead to the importance of contexts of adversity, oppression and abuse in understanding psychosis. But the report makes only scant, fleeting references to the role of cultural differences and the complex relationships that are apparent between such differences and individual experiences of psychosis.

Dr. Dainius Pūras argues that the status quo in mental health treatment is no longer acceptable and demands political action to promote human rights.

Google has hired the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Thomas Insel, with plans to create “a wearable sensor to measure mood, cognition and anxiety.” Gizmodo points out the problems with this idea:“One can easily imagine a message popping up on some poor desk jockey’s monitor: ‘You’re not in the right mood today. Please take a day of unpaid leave.’ Or, worse: ‘We’ve detected signs of mental instability, based on how you’ve been talking and sleeping. Please report to a doctor immediately.’”

Psychologist Roy Eidelson comments on the Society for Military Psychology’s criticism of the Hoffman report, which exposed the collusion between the APA and the CIA’s torture program. He writes, “the leaders of APA’s military psychology division have offered a very dark vision for the profession of psychology – a vision that we must reject, both individually and institutionally.”