Robert Whitaker Missed the Mark on Drugs and Disability: A Call for a Focus...

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Robert Whitaker extended one of his core arguments from Anatomy of an Epidemic in a blog postĀ last week. His argumentĀ revolves around the claim that psychiatric drugs are the principal cause of increasing psychiatric disability, as measured by U.S. social security disability claims. But does this really explain the rise in recipients of these SSI & SSDI benefits?

REFOCUS Psychosis Recovery Intervention Ready for Trials

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A new pro-recovery manualized intervention ā€“ called the REFOCUS intervention ā€“ has been developed and will now be evaluated in a multisite randomized control trials. The strengths-based intervention, which focuses on promoting relationships, is outlined in the latest issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Vail Place Focuses on Collective Work for Mental Health

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Minn Post did a feature story last week on Vail Place, an alternative mental health treatment center run on a community ā€œclubhouseā€ model where the nearly 900 members and staff work side by side to run the centerā€™s activities. Vail Place was founded in Hopkins, Minnesota in the early eighties by mental health activists and family members as a community for psychosocial rehabilitation. ā€œThe work isnā€™t therapy,ā€ a member explains. ā€œItā€™s growth. Itā€™s ā€˜I cansā€™ rather than ā€˜I can'ts.ā€™ And thatā€™s important for mental health and survival.ā€

Intergenerational Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences

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The daughters of children evacuated from Finland during World War II show an increased number of psychiatric hospitalizations.

Is There an Optimal Sleep Duration for Adolescents?

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A new study finds ideal sleep duration differs in adolescents for peak mental health and academic outcomes.

What is Brain Fog: The Mental Fatigue That Ruins Your Mood

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FromĀ ZME Science: More people than ever before are regularly experiencing "brain fog," a collection of symptoms including fatigue, inability to focus, memory deficiency, confusion,...

Effects of Exercise on Depression Underestimated, Review Finds

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A new meta-analysis finds that the large antidepressant effects of exercise may have been underestimated in previous reviews. This latest report, published this month...

Psychologists Advise How to Help and Minimize Harm Working With Migrants and Refugees

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While well intentioned, providers and volunteers can do more harm than good at the border. The Global Psychosocial Network issues guidelines on how to work for the benefit of migrants and refugees.

ā€œResearch Shows Sexual Abuse May Cause Schizophreniaā€

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ā€œGroundbreaking research in New Zealand shows sexual abuse may cause schizophrenia.ā€ "The biggest myth about schizophrenia is that it's a solely biological disorder," co-author...

Mediterranean Diet Improves Mental Health, Study Finds

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A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and fish has repeatedly been found to improve mental health.

Neurosexism: Study Questions Validity of Gender-based Neuroscientific Results

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Neuroscientific results that class humans into two categories, ā€œmaleā€ and ā€œfemale,ā€ tend to reify gender stereotypes by giving them the appearance of objective scientific truth.

Psychologists Push For New Approaches to Psychosis: Part 2

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The authors of the report expand upon the traumatic and sociopolitical factors underlying presentations of psychosis and ā€œschizophrenia.ā€

Do We Need More Hospital Beds?

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In an article published by the Treatment Advocacy Center, The Shortage of Public Hospital Beds for Mentally Ill Persons, the authors (D. J. Jaffe and E. Fuller Torrey) present the idea that we have far too few hospital beds in this country, and because of that there has been a dramatic shift towards the diversion of people labeled with mental illness into prisons and homelessness. Their answer to this issue is that we should radically increase the amount of hospital beds and we should also dramatically increase our reliance on outpatient treatment in the form of mandated involuntary medication programs. As many people know here, the TAC has been highly influential politically and the authors of this paper have been instrumental in getting laws passed that mandate the outpatient use of psychiatric drugs for people who have been civilly committed.

A Social Psychiatry Manifesto that Takes Social Context Seriously

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A re-visioned approach to social psychiatry aims to understand the broad influence of social life on mental health.

Psychologists Argue for Decolonial Approach to Global Poverty

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Individualist psychological models of poverty pathologize poor communities, decolonial approaches that emphasize context and interdependence may be more sustainable.

How Does Mindfulness Work?

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A new study explores how mindfulness impacts self-compassion and meaning in life to increase mental health and wellbeing.

Family Oriented, Home-Based Treatment Best for Youth with Symptoms of Psychosis

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A pathbreaking new study out of Finland suggests that early intervention programs for youth experiencing psychotic-like symptoms may see the greatest improvement when treatment works within the home rather than in a hospital setting. The research, to be published in next monthā€™s issue of Psychiatry Research, found greater improvement in functioning, depression, and hopelessness among teens in a new need-adapted Family and Community oriented Integrative Treatment Model (FCTM) program.

Study Explores Connections Between Diet and ā€˜Serious Mental Illnessesā€™

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Study finds that individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression have diets that are more inflammatory and higher in calories.
integrative mental health

8 Years of Mental Health Research Distilled to 4 Infographics

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Pictures are worth a thousand words. So Iā€™ve chosen pictures to distill the mountain of mental health research Iā€™ve examined over the last eight years. Three infographics summarize research on psychiatric drugs, and one asserts why I think Integrative Mental Health is the best path available for mental health recovery.

Review Examines Complementary Approaches for Pain Conditions

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A review published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings used U.S.-based clinical trial evidence to examine the efficacy of complementary health approaches for chronic pain management....

Troubling Mental Health Nurse Education

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Mental health nurse education in not sufficiently critical of institutional psychiatric practice. Its formal curricula in universities are often undermined by the informal curricula of practice environments. As an institution, mental health nursing pays insufficient attention to both these issues because it is an arguably un-reflexive and rule-following discipline.

Yoga Improves Quality of Life for Elementary Students

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A new study finds that a school-based yoga program improves third gradersā€™ emotional and psychosocial quality of life.

Yoga Intervention Effective in Reducing Depressive Symptoms

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Researchers find that yoga and controlled breathing reduced symptoms in individuals diagnosed with depression.

More Research Needed on Climate Change-Related Ecological Grief

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Researchers outline the concept of ecologically driven grief due to climate change and recommend future research to better understand the psychological impact of climate change.

Women are Flocking to Wellness due to Sexism in Healthcare

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FromĀ Quartz:Ā Seeking healthcare in the medical system can be a dehumanizing experience for women: doctors often dismiss women's pain as psychological rather than physiological, and...