Can a Conceptual Competence Curriculum Bring Humility to Psychiatry?

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Training for conceptual competence in psychiatry provides a new way forward to address theoretical and philosophical issues in mental health research and practice.

Reimagining Healthcare

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The conventional Western classification systems of health conditions are based on flawed science shaped by reductionist, hierarchical, and profit-driven ideologies. THEN wants to create a new paradigm built upon principles drawn from systems science, the life course perspective, developmental neurobiology, and other evidence-informed studies.

Psychiatry in Need of “Fundamental Rethinking”

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Prominent researchers in psychiatry urge the field to move away from a rigid biological focus toward social and psychological perspectives to meet the needs of today’s world.

Non-Medical Treatments for PTSD Effective, Study Suggests

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Group-based MBSR and PCGT therapies effective as a complementary treatment for PTSD.

A Blueprint for an ‘Ecosocial’ Person-Centered Psychiatry

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New article pushes for a shift from a psychiatry centered on brain circuitry toward an 'ecosocial' view of mind, brain, and culture.

No Brain Connectivity Differences Between Autism, ADHD, and “Typical Development”

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Neuroscience researchers find no differences in brain connectivity between children with diagnoses of autism, ADHD, and those with no diagnoses.

There is More to Mindfulness than the Brain

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According to Lifshitz and Thompson, mindfulness is best understood as “complex orchestration of cognitive skills embodied in a particular social context.”

Mental Health Concerns Not “Brain Disorders,” Say Researchers

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The latest issue of the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences features several prominent researchers arguing that mental health concerns are not “brain disorders.”

New Evidence for Brain-Gut Link in Depression and Quality of Life

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The first ever population-level study of the brain-gut connection in humans finds evidence for a link between gut bacteria and mental health.

Philosophers Challenge Psychiatry and its Search for Mechanisms of Disorder

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Attempting to locate the mechanisms of psychiatric disorder is a step in the wrong direction and fails to challenge potentially unjust social practices.

Large Rigorous Study Debunks Popular Gene-Environment Theory of Depression

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A large and rigorous meta-analysis fails to find support for the gene-environment interaction theory of depression.

New Study Finds That Lavender Extract Eases Anxiety

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A new study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience has found that the smell of lavender extract has an anxiolytic effect.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation No Better Than Placebo for Treatment-Resistant Depression

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A new study in JAMA Psychiatry found that transcranial magnetic stimulation was no better than placebo for treatment-resistant depression.

Questioning the Philosophical Assumptions of Neuroscience Research

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Are philosophical misunderstandings behind the failure of neuroscience to provide useful clinical research?

Experts Question the Benefits of Brain Imaging Research for OCD

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Two experts—a leading neuroscientist studying OCD, and a psychiatrist specializing in OCD treatment—question whether expensive brain imaging research has added anything to the treatment of OCD.

Social Scientists Question Growing Neuro Discourse

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Anthropologists analyze discourse surrounding anthropological engagement with the neurosciences in an editorial recently published in Medical Anthropology.

Scientists Fight Against the Myth of the Normal or Optimal Brain

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A new study out of Yale University uses evolutionary biology to debunk the idea that there is a “normal” or “optimal” brain.

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Can’t Directly Alter Brain Patterns, Researchers Find

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Due to the thickness of the scalp and skull, transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) is incapable of targeting networks of neurons in the brain.

Trauma Resiliency Model: A New Somatic Therapy for Treating Trauma

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Report presents new body-based therapeutic approach for shock and complex developmental trauma.
limbic system brain

Psychotherapy is THE Biological Treatment

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Psychotherapy addresses the brain in the way it actually develops, matures and operates. The process for brain change involves deactivation — disuse, not utilizing the old brain map; and then creating a new one. Psychotherapy can deactivate maladaptive brain mappings and foster new and constructive pathways.

Brain Imaging Results Biased by Lack of Representative Data

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What does "normal" brain development throughout childhood look like? It may depend on your demographics.

Findings Linking Depression to Abnormal Brain Activity Questioned

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Meta-analyses fail to replicate findings linking abnormal brain activity to depression.

Brief Trauma-Focused Psychotherapies Effective for Children with PTSD

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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Writing Therapy both reduce PTSD symptoms in children who experienced a single traumatic event.

New Data on the Adverse Effects of Meditation and Mindfulness

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Study reports on the less-examined findings of difficult and painful meditation-related experiences.

United Nations Report Calls for Revolution in Mental Health Care

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In a new report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Dainius PĆ«ras, calls for a move away from the biomedical model and “excessive use of psychotropic medicines.”