Christy Huff, Medical Director of Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, Dies
From Benzodiazepine Information Coalition: Dr. Huff was a cardiologist who experienced a benzodiazepine injury firsthand, leading her to become a fierce advocate for better education and safe tapering of these drugs.
Undisclosed Financial Conflicts of Interest in the DSM-5: An Interview with Lisa Cosgrove and...
On the Mad in America podcast we talk with Lisa Cosgrove and Brian Piper about their BMJ paper entitled "Undisclosed Financial Conflicts of Interest in the DSM-5 TR: Cross-Sectional Analysis"
From a Paranoid Schizophrenia Diagnosis to a Peer Researcher in Nigeria
The mental health system needs to adopt the principle of holistic care, promoting fundamental rights and the relevance of family support.
Parents Must Reclaim the Central Role If Growing Crisis Among Children Is to End:...
From Irish Examiner: "Parents must surrender their point of view that there’s something wrong with the child and see that it’s the relationship that’s in trouble and the child’s behaviour is just a function of that," says physician Gabor Maté, who works with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness.
Beyond Greenspaces and Mental Health: The Power of the Wild
Tensions of sustainability, climate change, and global mental health: grassknots, greenspace, and climate psychology.
ADHD and the Pitfalls of Reification: An Interview With Sanne Te Meerman
From Terapeutiska Tankar: Reification happens when constructs that describe but do not explain behaviors, such as ADHD, are mistaken for causes of behavior.
Can Madness Save the World? Where R.D. Laing—and Star Trek—Meet
What if the only choice we can really make, and trust, is the irrational, even mad, choice to love? What would saving the world look like then?
Putting JAMA Psychiatry and MIA to the Genetic Test
We can assess whether Mad in America readers or JAMA Psychiatry readers are being provided with the most robust scientific literature.
How Scapegoats Experience Traumatic Invalidation
From Rebecca Mandeville, LMFT - Scapegoat Recovery: Traumatic invalidation is usually found in systems where people are marginalized; so this would be, for example, the family scapegoat, who is the marginalized person in the family system.
Animal Theory of Emotion: Emotion Is Not a Disorder
Too many people see themselves as having mental disorders when what they have is emotion, and in some cases, a great deal of it.
Charles Spencer’s Story of Boarding School Abuse Is Haunting
But parents are still sending children away to board, and it’s still dangerous.
Antidepressant Use in Pregnancy Harms Child Development, Untreated Maternal Depression Shows Benefit
In this new study, exposure to maternal anxiety in utero also harmed child development.
Psychiatrist for UK’s Most Dangerous Prisoners Campaigns for a Trauma-Informed Justice System
From Shaun Attwood: "What's happened with the child trauma, the child abuse, the childhood neglect...is lack of agency in the adult. And unless they've got agency, they can't stop doing bad things," says UK psychiatrist Bob Johnson.
Interpersonal Caring as an Act of Resistance Among Socially Marginalized
Some of the most marginalized and stigmatized people in a community are those with psychiatric diagnoses and those who are HIV positive.
Trapped in a Psych Ward: Michigan Doc Pre-Signed Blank Forms That Can Rob You...
From ABC7/WXYZ Detroit: Patients, parents, and employees are coming forward to talk about their experiences at some Michigan hospitals with psychiatrist Dr. Nagy Kheir.
In Defense of Open Dialogue Research
One of the original Open Dialogue researchers responds to a paper presenting a prejudiced and selective review of the scientific literature.
Psychedelics Doctor Admits Relationship With Former Patient Who’s Now Dead
From BristolLive: Dr. Ben Sessa has said he knew the woman had a history of self-harm and overdoses but was not aware that she had tried to take her own life during the course of their relationship.
Deprescribing Psychiatric Drugs to Reduce Harms and Empower Patients: Interview with Psychiatrist Swapnil Gupta
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews psychiatrist Swapnil Gupta on psychiatric drug discontinuation, drug cocktail risks, patient choice, and the need for trust and transparency.
Never Waste a Good Depression: Family Therapy Challenges the Seductive Shortcut of Psychiatric Drugs
The widespread use of psychiatric drugs reduces important conversations about the problems of being human while limiting our options for problem-solving.
Study Highlights Difficulty of Antipsychotic Withdrawal
New research finds insomnia, anxiety, and depression are common symptoms of antipsychotic withdrawal, highlighting difficulties of discontinuation.
Discussing the ‘Obsession’ With Childhood Disorder Labelling
From Sociology Lens Insights: In recent decades, we have too often passed the buck of social problems to children who lack the power to say no to stigmatizing psychiatric labels.
Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS): How the Last Step to Recovery Became the Final Step...
How persistent, unbearable suffering, due to prolonged withdrawal from antipsychotics prescribed as a sleeping medication, led to euthanasia.
Suit Blasts 4 NJ State Psych Hospitals for Violent Conditions, ‘Unconstitutional’ Policies
From NJ Spotlight News: “Imagine living in an environment where even the most basic choices are taken away from you...and, in place of psychiatric treatment, you face both boredom and violence on a daily basis,” said Bren Pramanik, a Disability Rights New Jersey attorney.
How Psychiatrists Responded to the Launch of Our New ECT Survey
Amid mostly rude and unprofessional jibes, there were also some legitimate points, which are addressed here.
The Psychiatrist Who Got Hooked on Antidepressants — Now, He Helps Others to Quit
From The Times: Although Dr. Mark Horowitz wondered whether the pills were to blame for a growing raft of health complaints “I thought it was the right thing to do,” he says, “like taking your vitamins.”
