Psychosis as a Basic “Disturbance of Self”
Researchers in Australia and the U.K. found that a basic disruption of the sense of ownership of one's experience and a lack of self-agency...
Psychosis Overlaps With Anxiety and Depression
In a representative community sample of 3021 adolescents and young adults, researchers in The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.K. found that 27% of...
Some Avoid Antipsychotics Because They Value Psychosis
Side effects, mistrust, stigma, forgetfulness and lack of insight have all been studied as reasons that up to 75% of people with a schizophrenia...
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy is Effective in Bipolar Disorder
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy increased mindfulness, lowered depressive mood symptoms, lessened attentional difficulties,...
Childhood Maltreatment Reduces Hippocampal Volume
Researchers at Harvard University, in the largest and most detailed study on the topic to date, found that childhood maltreatment is significantly associated with...
Benzo Discontinuation Improves Quality of Life and Reduces Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Researchers in Japan find that tapering or reducing benzodiazepines has a positive effect on quality of life, verbal and working memory, and psychiatric symptoms...
Non-Drug Therapies Outperform Drug Therapies in Preventing Relapse
In a study of 597 outpatients who were perceived as likely nonadherers to oral antipsychotic interventions, Spanish researchers found that relapse was lower in...
Responding to Madness With Loving Receptivity: a Practical Guide
In my last three blogs I posed the question- "If madness isn't what psychiatry says it is, then what is it?" Now I'm asking-...
Beliefs About Illness and Rehabilitation Predict Outcome in Depression
Researchers in Germany found that in a sample of 98 patients, beliefs about illness and rehabilitation predicted outcome for depression independent of medical or...
Cognitive Therapy Shown to be Effective For Schizophrenia
Researchers report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry that cognitive therapy improved both positive and negative symptoms in "low-functioning" patients with...
Voice Hearing as a Dissociative Rather Than Psychotic Phenomenon
Researchers in England review in depth the evidence for voice hearing as dissociation, rather than psychosis, and suggest that voice hearing is a common...
Adverse Childhood Events Contribute Significantly to Most Mental Health Problems
John Read and Richard Bentall write in the British Journal of Psychiatry about the growing understanding and acceptance of the significant role adverse childhood...
Religion and Spirituality Protect Against Depression
In The American Journal of Psychiatry, a longitudinal study of 114 persons at high risk for depression found that those who reported more religiosity...
Legal Coercion, Recovery, and Human Rights
Mary O'Hagan, an international mental health leader with lived experience, writes on the paradox of increasing legal coercion of psychiatric patients, even as the...
Stress Associated With Brain Shrinkage in Healthy People
In studies of healthy people experiencing stress, Yale researchers found tissue loss in brain areas regulating emotion, self-control and other behaviors.
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Early Trauma, Social Stress Accompany Psychosis
Researchers at Emory University find that childhood trauma, sensitivity to psychosocial stress and a heightened biological response to stress are associated with the onset...
Evidence That Sadness When Bereaved is Not Illness
While the DSM-IV recognizes that depressive symptoms are sometimes normal in bereaved individuals, this "Bereavement Exclusion" is targeted for elimination from the DSM-V. However...
After 25 Posts on this Website, Dr. Mark Foster is Terminated by his Employer
On September 18, 2010, Mark Foster, a family physician in Littleton, Colorado, began his “Letters From the Front Lines” blog for this website. In...
SAMHSA, Alternatives, and the Story of an Opportunity Lost
In the last chapter of my book Anatomy of an Epidemic, I noted that if our society is going to stem the epidemic of...
”Broken Brains” and “Beautiful Minds”
When I first interviewed Brandon Banks, in the spring of 2008, while researching Anatomy of an Epidemic, he had recently entered Elizabethtown Community College...
