The Failure of āSpit For Scienceā: No Genetic or Neurological Pathways for Substance Abuse
Despite finding no meaningful correlation between genes and substance use, high-profile geneticists misleadingly conveyed optimistic results.
Healing From Psychiatric Drug Harm, Part 1: First Steps
I needed to teach my nervous system, via different types of neuromuscular reeducation, that it was safe to move again. Before I could walk, I had to crawl, literally.
‘Bear Our Pain’: The Plea for More Black Mental Health Workers
From NPR: Dr Rhea Boyd says racism's toll threads through the psyche, manifesting in many ways, and shaping the youngest of brains.
Why Are Ketamine Ads Following Me Around the Internet?
From The New York Times: A pandemic-related loosening of telehealth laws in 2020 allowed for the prescribing of controlled substances remotely, and this led to an increase in the availability and marketing of ketamine and other drugs.
Meds vs. No Meds? My Search for Freedom of Mind
I have stayed on the same daily, 10 mg dosage of Abilify for the last few years. Although I am compliant, I am not satisfied: I do not feel whole. I do not feel authentic.
Overuse of Psychiatric Drugs is Worsening Public Mental Health, Doctor Argues
A new research article asserts that the overuse of psychiatric drugs may create neurobiological changes that hamper long-term mental health recovery.
Combatting Structural Racism and Classism in Psychiatry: An Interview with Helena Hansen
MIA interviews psychiatrist and anthropologist Helena Hansen about bringing structural competency to psychiatry while rebuilding communities.
Human Rights Abused on Mental Health Wards
From the Morning Star: Ruth Hunt looks at how excessive medication and violence have become part and parcel of "mental health treatment."
Robert Whitaker Answers Reader Questions on Mad in America, the Biopsychosocial Model, and Psychiatric...
On the Mad in America podcast this week we have Robert Whitaker with us to answer questions sent in by readers and listeners.
Mad/Cripistemologies of Pandemic Parenting: Insights for Our āPost-COVID-19ā Present
Respondents described the grief and rage associated with being socially isolated while healing from childbirth and caring for a newborn, in some cases, entirely on their own.
Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing āProfound Risks to Societyā
From The New York Times: A.I. developers are "locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one ā not even their creators ā can understand, predict or reliably control," said an open letter signed by tech leaders and researchers.
Babies Feel Pain More Intensely Than Adults, Brain Imaging Study Finds
From Return to Now: Researchers found that babies are actually four times more sensitive to pain than adults, even though painful procedures are still routinely performed on them with no pain relief.
Tara Thiagarajan: Mental Well-being Better in Venezuela than in United States: Why?
Tara Thiagarajan is founder and chief scientist of Sapien Labs, a nonprofit organization that runs the Mental Health Million Project, we discuss its annual Mental State of the World Report, which uses an online survey to track mental wellbeing among internet-enabled populations around the world.
What We Have Always Known but Psychiatry Forgot
When I came off my last medication, my psychiatrist said to me, āYou will get sick again.ā Psychiatry has always been sure that I would never recover from bipolar disorder.
The Ups and Downs of Online Therapy
Now that the novelty has worn off and we are able to step back and analyze the situation, what does the switch to teletherapy portend for our profession?
Whoopi Goldbergās Mom Forgot Her Children After Undergoing Electroshock
From Page Six: āYeah, I had no idea who you were," Goldberg's mother, Emma Harris, had told her. "I just knew I never wanted to go back to that hospital. So I had to do everything I could. If they said the sky was green... Iād say, 'Yes, the sky is green.' āCause I never wanted it again.ā
Researchers Plan to Retract Landmark Alzheimerās Paper Containing Doctored Images
From Science: The study has been cited nearly 2500 times, and would be the most cited paper ever to be retracted, according to Retraction Watch data.
What Can We Learn from Alcohol? A Paradigm Shift in How We View Distress
The effects of alcoholāboth positive and negativeāhave a lot to teach us about the biomedical view of psychiatric diagnoses and the drugs prescribed to treat them.
The Case of Joshua Spriestersbach: If This Is a Horror Story, What Does it...
Spriestersbach was imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for almost three years. The more he told the doctors that he was not Thomas Castleberry, the more they believed that he was psychotic.
Ecotherapy/Nature Therapy/Green Therapy
Do you love hiking, backpacking, gardening or taking walks in beautiful places? Ecotherapy explores how our relationship with nature is an essential and therapeutic part of our humanity.
Behind Rolling Stoneās Hatchet Job on a Psychiatrist Critical of Neoliberal Capitalism
From CounterPunch: Why did Rolling Stone attempt to associate Joanna Moncrieff, author of the recent serotonin study, with the right-wing in order to discredit her forĀ its readers?
Neurodiversity Is a Scientific Revolution
Although I experience distress acutely, I donāt have a disease, a bug, or an error. I have a body. When my circumstances are untenable, my body protests.
Does Official Recognition of Peers Undermine Their Work?
Recognition of peers under Medicaid could undermine their interventions by morphing them into a hybrid of traditional medical and clinical recovery principles.
The Politics of Distress: A Discussion With Dr. James Davies on His New Book,...
James Davies on the medicalization and individualizing of distress and its connection to neoliberal ideology, and the need to focus on pervasive inequality and other social causes.
The Power of Distress in an Unhealthy World
From Psychology Today/Joanna Cheek MD: Diagnoses take on a life of their own, when we try to treat "the depression" instead of addressing the problem itās signaling.