Making Mental Health an Ongoing Priority: A Patch Adams Approach
My brother’s sudden death and Mental Health Awareness Month spurred me to spend May making small, very personal efforts to both honor his memory and move the mental health conversation forward.
How Far Has Psychiatry Really Come? Historical Practices Versus Modern-Day Psychiatry
The basic assumptions behind unethical practices like lobotomies and insulin shock therapy are still the foundation on which psychiatry’s main treatments are built today.
Seclusion, Restraint and Coercion: Abuse ‘Far Too Common’ in Mental Health Services Across the...
From The Telegraph: The WHO has called for 'considerable' changes in countries of all income levels, citing widespread use of forced admission and treatment; manual, physical and chemical restraint; physical, verbal, psychological and sexual abuse; and unsanitary living conditions.
Caught in a Trap: Psychiatric Sabotage by Liam Kirk
From Asylum Magazine: Liam Kirk explains what happened when he took part in the RADAR trial to try to come off anti-psychotic medication.
An American History of Drugs and Addiction, Part 7: The Harm Reduction Revolution
Many of the harms associated with drugs were very much rooted in policy choices rather than in the nature of the drugs being used, or even addiction in general.
They Lost Their Loved Ones to Covid. Then They Heard From Them Again
From CNN: Research suggests at least 60 million Americans experience "after death communications," or ADCs, and that they occur across cultures, religious beliefs, ethnicities and income levels.
Pets More Effective for Grief Support than Humans, Study Finds
A new study explores effective forms of grief support, finding that animals are more effective than humans in providing support.
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 4: Withdrawing from Psychiatric Drugs (Part 6)
Peter Gøtzsche gives advice on what withdrawal symptoms may look like and explains the dangers of—and alternatives to—forced treatment.
EMDR in a Nutshell: Healing from Trauma
Rather than medicalizing distress, EMDR provides a way of healing from trauma. EMDR isn't about trying to treat the symptoms of an illness. It's about healing from the root cause.
The New Opium of the People: Why Our Mental Health Sector Has Failed
From iai News: By sweeping the social causes of distress into the private corners of self, our mental health sector has helped stifle collective and community action.
The Transformational Qualities of Hearing Voices Groups
Results from a national study show the transformational qualities of Hearing Voices groups, including their egalitarian structure and the genuine connection they foster.
Mikhaila Peterson Podcast: The Dangers of Psychiatric Medication
From Mikhaila Peterson: Mikhaila interviews Drs. Jim Wright and David Cohen on the reality behind psychiatric medications like the ones that nearly destroyed her and her father's lives.
The Worst Thing: How My Mother’s Death Pushed Me to Overcome OCD
The goal of creating a legacy for my mother required that I go beyond managing my symptoms to confronting my OCD at its roots. I had to fundamentally change my understanding of anxiety.
The FDA Is Failing the American People
From MedPage Today: From this vantage, the FDA looks like an agency whose goal is to preserve pharmaceutical profits.
In Past Two Decades, Dramatic Rise in Elderly Taking Drugs That Can Lead to...
From The Washington Post: In 2017, an estimated 94 percent of older adults received a prescription for a drug that increased their risk of falling, up from 57 percent in 1999, and their rate of death caused by falls more than doubled during the same period.
FDA Approves Failed Alzheimer’s Drug
The FDA approved Biogen's failed drug aducanumab, overriding the 10-0 recommendation of its own advisory committee. Three panel members resigned in protest.
Psychotherapy Is Safer and Less Expensive Than Drug Treatment
In 1991, we conducted a study and found that psychotherapy saved money compared with drug treatment. We also found rampant overprescribing.
Why Aren’t Patients Being Told Truth About Electric Shock Therapy?
From The Daily Mail: More than half of NHS hospital trusts contacted under a recent audit used ECT information leaflets with seven or more inaccurate statements about the controversial procedure.
Barriers to Shared Decision Making in the Prescription of Antipsychotics
Researchers push for a renewed focus on true shared decision-making for patients diagnosed with psychosis.
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 4: Withdrawing from Psychiatric Drugs (Part 5)
Withdraw from psychiatric drugs at your own speed—according to what you feel. Don’t reduce again before you feel stabilised on the previous dose.
‘Mental Health Film Comment’ Podcast: Miranda Spencer on ‘Framing Britney Spears’
From Mental Health Film Comment: MIA Staff Writer Miranda Spencer discusses Britney Spears' conservatorship and media portrayal of the star's emotional struggles.
Boy, Interrupted: A Story of Akathisia
I watched my son’s life change almost overnight. He developed akathisia from antidepressants, taken as prescribed for just a few weeks for garden-variety anxiety.
Third Member of Prestigious FDA Panel Resigns Over Approval of Alzheimer’s Drug
From CNBC: The FDA approved the new drug from Biogen, priced at $56,000 per year, despite a near-unanimous "no" vote from a key advisory committee.
WHO and the Sea Change in Mental Health: Interview with Michelle Funk
MIA's Ana Florence interviews Michelle Funk about her leadership of the new WHO guidelines on rights-based mental health.
SAVE TRIESTE’S MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM
From Change.org: The mental health system in Trieste, Italy, which for decades has been widely recognized as a model for good community care, is under threat of being dismantled by a new political faction.
