Non-drug Approaches

From the National Post: An independent report found that disabled people were being unjustly confined in a Nova Scotia psychiatric hospital. Law professor Archie Kaiser...

From Aeon: For the most part, the field of scientific psychology has adopted a Cartesian, individualistic understanding of the self. However, it is more likely...

A review of dietary drug supplements for depression in the May issue of the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services finds that...

Researchers in Salzburg, Austria found that 20 participants who had attempted suicide at least once showed a significant reduction in hopelessness (P < 0.0001),...

While antidepressants are the most commonly used long-term treatment for depression, the efficacy of these drugs after one year is unknown. In a commentary for The Lancet, psychiatrists Rudolf Uher and Barbara Pavlova suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) now has the most substantial body of evidence for long-term treatment for major depressive disorder.

Newborn rats can "learn" the fears their mothers have, and then will carry those same fears for the rest of their lives, according to...

What if it were the sun that could cure you; would you have the courage to go and find it? Would you wear sunscreen? If...

“Meditating before running could change the brain in ways that are more beneficial for mental health than practicing either of those activities alone,” Gretchen...

Two companies have committed to FDA review for video games that they claim can be used to treat “ADHD,” but many scientists remain skeptical. “At the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry on Wednesday, Akili Interactive Labs presented data from a pilot study of its video game, Project: EVO, that showed some positive results in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).”

To coincide with World Mental Health Day on October 10th, 2015, Verso Books, the largest independent and radical publishing house released a series of blogs on mental health and critical and antipsychiatry. The posts include pieces on R.D. Laing, colonialism, women’s oppression, delusions and art, “The Happiness Industry,” and social and institutional oppression.

From the New York Times: On Inauguration Day, Karen Pence announced her support for the mental health profession of art therapy. While many art therapists...

In the second part of a two-part series on philosophy and psychiatry, Vincenzo Di Nicola describes an alternative model of psychiatry that rejects some of...

In this piece for Thought Catalog, Brianna West redefines self-care as actions we take to build a life that feels fulfilling, not a reprieve from...

“The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of pharmaceutical treatment for low sexual desire in women has launched a heated debate over the dangers and benefits of medicalizing sex,” Maya Dusenbery writes in the Pacific Standard. Is “female Viagra” a feminist victory or a product of clever faux-feminist marketing by Big Pharma?

What does the new DSM-5 have in common with an Alfred Hitchcock mystery?  They both use a plot device, a “MacGuffin,” to drive the story. Hitchcock explained a MacGuffin as on the one hand “ridiculous”, “non-existent”, “empty” and inherently without meaning, and at the same time the central point around which the entire story turns.  Which narratives, and whose, are served by the "diagnosis MacGuffin”? Are there more socially desirable alternatives to replace this particular plot vehicle? 

From The Guardian: A 35-year-old man who had been in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for 15 years has shown signs of consciousness after receiving...

[M]y play, SHADES, and my film, "Is Anybody Listening?" are about people who have experienced major troubles, even trauma or other tragedies, who have dark secrets that torment them, but who use connection, love, humor, and creativity to come through, even to heal. And no one in the play or the film is pathologized.

From The Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care: The Hearing Voices Research and Development Fund has been awarded a $300,000 grant to expand their...

What meaning do psychological constructs really hold, and how are they operationalized and statistically modeled within psychology research?

"Incarcerated thieves, drug dealers and murderers may not be the typical group you imagine doing yoga," says Scientific American, "but recent studies show that...

After seven suicides in two years, students have come together to develop community building interventions including a texting hotline, artificial light boxes, and conversation...

Yoga helped me explore and reconnect with the body I’d abandoned and abused for years. My pain and sadness had me living exclusively in my mind, my body nothing more than a battleground for my inner wars. Through yoga and meditation, I slowly began to love myself again, learning to treat myself with care and respect. I felt a greater sense of self-awareness, and a sense of connection to something greater. This was a drastic contrast to the days when I felt as if god had forgotten about me, or like I was a mistake not meant for this world.

From Scientific American: The effectiveness of a particular medical treatment is often highly subjective and dependent on each individual's definition of the term "effective." Many...

A website for "survivors of medical abuse, through psychiatric drugs and other medications, and are looking for healthy ways to support our minds and...

The Division of Clinical Psychology of the British Psychological Society published a paper titled Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia. The central theme of the paper is that the condition known as psychosis is better understood as a response to adverse life events rather than as a symptom of neurological pathology. The paper was wide-ranging and insightful and, predictably, drew support from most of us on this side of the issue and criticism from psychiatry.  Section 12 of the paper is headed "Medication" and under the subheading "Key Points" you'll find this quote: "[Antipsychotic] drugs appear to have a general rather than a specific effect: there is little evidence that they are correcting an underlying biochemical abnormality."