Why Are Dementia Patients Getting Risky Psychiatric Drugs?
From HealthDay: "It's not a great thing to be exposing their brain to these drugs when the brain is already having trouble dealing with the changes going on from the dementia,' said geriatric psychiatrist Dr. Donovan Maust.
How to Embrace the Effects of Psychedelics Without the Drugs
From Elemental: Developed by Drs. Stan and Christina Grof, holotropic breathwork can induce a fully hallucinogenic state in which emotional and psychological healing can occur.
UN Special Rapporteur Dainius Pūras: Biomedical Approach “Still Has an Important Role to Play”
In Pūras' new UN report, his use of biomedical language seems at odds with his message to move beyond the medicalization of distress.
Dear “Psychology Today”: Believe Incest Survivors
Incest survivors are the neglected heroes of the #MeToo movement. Yet when it comes to entrenched narratives that silence incest survivors, mainstream media continues to propagate these harmful myths unchecked.
Born Addicted to Valium: Understanding a Lifetime of Symptoms
Withdrawal felt like: evil feeding on my soul, my spirit being tortured, not being able to feel love, constantly feeling like I was falling in a dark tunnel, and wanting to get out of my body.
Deep Sleep “Therapy” in Australia in the 1960s & ’70s: Could Something Like This...
Psychiatry has a history of continuing to perform harmful, even deadly procedures. But does it still happen? Medication-induced akathisia filled two and a half pages of the DSM-IV. Why was it written out of the DSM 5?
Inequities in Mental Health Services: It’s Time for a Reckoning and Rectification
Clinical education must include more training in macro skills that help build the supports, policies, and community infrastructures under-served clients need.
Beliefs Have a Social Purpose. Does This Explain Delusions?
From Psyche: Rather than delusions being "irrational," in many cases they are a direct response to sustained threat in a person’s environment.
SSRI Withdrawal’s Elephant in the Room: Tardive Akathisia
Slower tapering of antidepressant dose is generally more comfortable. However, success or failure after stopping completely mostly relates to whether tardive akathisia occurs.
Mainstream Mental Health Services Are a Disaster
From Uncancelled: Mental health services have become the mouthpieces of an industry of decontextualising and individualising hurt, fear, sadness, and anger.
Moving Beyond Psychiatric Diagnosis: Lucy Johnstone, PsyD
From Psychiatric Times/Conversations in Critical Psychiatry: "We are dealing with people with problems, not patients with illnesses, and the whole paradigm—the 'DSM mindset'—needs to change."
Psychiatry and the Selves We Might Become: An Interview with Sociologist Nikolas Rose
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews the well-known sociologist of medicine, Nikolas Rose, about the role psychiatry plays in shaping how we manage ourselves and our world.
An American History of Drugs and Addiction, Part Two: Immigrating to a Temperance Culture
As Prohibition was taking hold on the East Coast in response to European immigrants, equal efforts for Prohibition were occurring on the West Coast, fueled by racist caricatures of Chinese immigrants.
Covid-19 Is Amplifying the Toxic Effects of Modern Life
From Elemental: The combination of social isolation and dependence on technology leaves us alone and trapped in our own minds.
Antipsychotics Associated with Severe COVID-19 and Fatal Outcomes
A new study has found a strong association between antipsychotic drugs and higher rates of severe cases of COVID-19.
A Ketamine-Like Spray Is Approved to Treat Suicidal Behavior
From The Cut: While ketamine is a somewhat controversial drug, the nasal spray’s approval comes at a time when doctors are concerned about increased suicide rates amid a seemingly never-ending pandemic.
CDC: One Quarter of Young Adults Contemplated Suicide During Pandemic
From Politico: The toll is falling heaviest on young adults, caregivers, essential workers and minorities.
Who Is a Danger to Others: The “Mentally Ill” or the Powerful?
If the cultural and socioeconomic structures of society had, from the beginning, allowed me to function, and even thrive, I undoubtedly never would have felt a need for antidepressants and “therapy.”
Researchers Doubt That Certain Mental Disorders Are Disorders at All
From Forbes: In a new paper, biological anthropologists call on the scientific community to rethink mental illness as a response to adversity rather than a chemical imbalance.
NICE Recommends Antidepressants Not Painkillers for Chronic Pain
From BBC News: The advisory body's draft guidance recommends antidepressants, acupuncture or psychological therapy for chronic pain not caused by an injury or other medical condition.
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.
Abolition Must Include Psychiatry
From the Disability Visibility Project: Those of us who have survived psychiatric incarceration know that not only did the asylum never die — it is, and always was, another prison.
Why Black Psychology Matters
From Psychology Today: Black psychologists such as Joseph White articulated the principles of a positive and strengths-based psychology prior to the formation of positive psychology.
Behavioural Geneticist Robert Plomin: “There Are No Disorders, There Are Just Quantitative Dimensions”
It is encouraging to hear leading scientists such as Plomin acknowledge that psychiatric diagnoses are fundamentally arbitrary and that the idea of a “cure” does not make sense with regards to psychological issues.
Some Conflicts of Interest in Medicine Cannot Be Managed, Should Be Banned
From The BMJ Opinion: While greater transparency about the nature of financial interests is important, on its own, such a move is unlikely to mitigate the risks to patient safety and may make matters worse.
