Understanding Mental Illnesses, and Ourselves
I trained in psychiatry in the 1950s. I saw psychiatry switch from trying to help patients to understand themselves better to trying to find a drug that would relieve their symptoms.
Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of CBT Interviews Robert Whitaker
From the Ottawa Insitute of CBT: The Thoughts on Record podcast speaks with Whitaker about the core themes of his book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.
Charity: Hundreds of Thousands With Mental Health Conditions Being Chained
From The Guardian: âShackling people with mental health conditions is a widespread, brutal practice that is an open secret in many communities,â said Kriti Sharma of Human Rights Watch.
Teenage Hockey Player Working to Destigmatize ‘Mental Health Issues’
From ESPN: "No one with mental health issues should be called a burden," said Morgan Urso. "And that is the stigma I am trying to end."
Insane Medicine, Chapter 3: The Manufacture of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Part 1)
Both the idea that there are some characteristic brain-based abnormalities for those diagnosed with ADHD, and that the medications used have specific properties that target a disease processâlike a chemical imbalanceâare false.
Promising Preliminary Results from a Small Study of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy
A new study offers promising results for psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for depression.
Whoâs to Blame for the Lost Soul of Psychiatry?
An interview between Drs. Aftab and Pies reveals a deep mistrust of patients' reports of their own experiences, and devolves into a game of semantics in an attempt to prove psychiatry's relevance.
âMental Healthâ, Extreme States and Shamans
From holisticelephants: The extreme âsymptomsâ in our modern age are trying to tell us about problems we need to solve as a community before society blows up like a volcano.
Researchers: Antidepressant Use in Children Increases Suicide, No Evidence of Benefit
Noted antidepressant researcher, Michael Hengartner, summarizes the latest research on the use of antidepressants in children and adolescents.
Stepping Into Oneâs Inner Radiant Space
It is hard to step out of the space of diagnoses because of the power it holds. The âdoctorâ who inflicted on you the awful label of âschizophreniaâ or âbipolarâ damages you because of the power he holds.
Insane Medicine, Chapter 2: The Scientism of Psychiatry (Part 2)
Paying attention to the science tells us that we need to look beyond formal services. People need connection and meaning as well as basics such as safety, housing, and work.
Would More Social Justice Make You Happier?
From Greater Good Magazine: A new study finds that, after social capital, a countryâs level of social justice is the second strongest predictor of people's life satisfaction.
âWhere Is Rudy?â: Giulianiâs Checkered Track Record as a Pharma Consultant
From STAT News: As a consultant, he has the dubious distinction of having advised two of the most notorious prescription drug makers, whose business practices jeopardized the health of countless Americans.
The Psychologist Who Sparked the Gay Rights Movement
From Aeon: âWhat is called this year âevilâ and whatever, next year may constitute the blessing of the human race.â ~ U.S. psychologist Evelyn Hooker
‘We Need Prison Time’: Purdue’s Belated Guilty Plea Gets Skeptical Reaction
From The Guardian: "Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family were directly responsible for inflicting immeasurable harm on communities around this country," said the lawyers for plaintiffs in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation case.
When Psych Diagnosis Means Life-or-Death
One label in the DSM that applies to cognitive abilitiesââIntellectual Disabilitiesââis crucial in determining whether people accused of crimes in some US states will be executed.
The Need for Acknowledgment of Context Within Approaches to Mental Distress
Mental distress is often perceived as something devoid of context, as an individual medical condition or a failure instead of a human condition linked to the social context one exists in.
Abuse Survivors Fight for Justice After Police Drop Investigation at Child Mental Health Unit
From The Independent: Survivors of the Hill End Hospital Adolescent Unit in St Albans, UK, said they were sexually abused, filmed during strip searches, beaten, punched and sedated as a punishment.
The Reckoning in Psychiatry Over Protracted Antidepressant Withdrawal
Medically-induced harmâaffecting tens of millions of people worldwideâhas taken the field decades to take seriously.
The Spin Doctors: “ADHD” Research
We now spend over twenty billion dollars a year on treatment for something called âADHD.â For that amount of money, we could pay the mid-career salaries of an extra 365,000 teachers or 827,000 teachersâ aides.
Anticholinergic Drugs Increase Risk of Cognitive Decline
A new study finds that anticholinergic drugs, like antidepressants and antipsychotics, are associated with mild cognitive decline.
Insane Medicine, Chapter 2: The Scientism of Psychiatry (Part 1)
Wherever you find mental health services to have expanded, you find a parallel increase in the numbers who have been classed as disabled due to a mental health disorder.
UK âSleepwalkingâ to Mental Health Crisis as Pandemic Takes Its Toll
From The Guardian: Health experts and charities have said that lockdown uncertainty, fear, isolation and loneliness will be exacerbated by the colder and darker months ahead.
Researchers: It’s Time to Stop Recommending Antidepressants for Depression
Researchers review a new synthesis of the existing evidence and conclude that the harms of antidepressants outweigh any benefits.
Voting While âMentally Illâ: A Legacy of Discrimination
Legal and practical barriers to voting disenfranchise people judged "mentally incompetent." The centuries-old, unclear laws and regulations also disproportionately affect people of color.
