“What Are Delusions – And How Best Can We Treat Them?”

6
For The Conversation, psychologist John Done, from the University of Hertfordshire, explains his approach to discussing delusions with his patients. Done recommends more qualitative...

“Politicians and Experts Meet at Parliament to Explore Record Antidepressant Prescribing and Disability”

1
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence is meeting today, May 11th, to discuss evidence of the link between the rise in disability...

“CDC Warns that Americans May be Overmedicating Youngest Children with ADHD”

5
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data indicating that as many as 75% of young children who are diagnosed with...

Mindfulness Therapy Can Prevent Depression Relapse, Review Finds

0
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may be more effective at reducing the risk of depressive relapse compared to current standard treatments with antidepressant drugs. A...

“Bullied Children Need Support Not Antidepressants”

0
Nick Harrop, a campaign manager at YoungMinds, supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing, said antidepressants for children should never be the only course of action....

Group Mindfulness Shows Promise Reducing Depression Associated with Hearing Voices

10
A new study out of Kings College London found that twelve sessions of a group mindfulness-based therapy relieved distress associated with hearing voices while reducing depression over the long-term. The person-based cognitive therapy (PBCT) intervention had significant effects on depression, voice distress, voice controllability and overall recovery.

“Why So Many Smart People Aren’t Happy”

2
The Atlantic interviews Raj Raghunathan about his new book, If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? “If you were to go back to the...

“New Counseling Toolkit Helps Boys and Girls Club Address Kids’ Real-Life Issues”

1
The staff at Minneapolis’ Southside Village Boys and Girls Club are implementing  a specially targeted free interactive counseling toolkit designed by a team of volunteers...

Suicide Rates Rise While Antidepressant Use Climbs

16
Multiple media sources are reporting on new data from the CDC revealing a substantial increase in the suicide rate in the United States between 1999...

Highly Cited JAMA Psych Paper Retracted for “Pervasive Errors”

0
A study, comparing the effects of antidepressants combined with psychotherapy for severe depression to antidepressants alone, has been retracted and replaced by JAMA Psychiatry....

Finding Clarity Through Clutter

13
For the last three years, I have been working with people, labeled "hoarders," who have become overwhelmed by their possessions in their homes. This has been some of the most interesting, challenging and thought-provoking work I have ever done. It is also an area that, I think, highlights all of the issues that challenge us in helping people who feel overwhelmed, for whatever reason.

“Can Psychological Treatments be Harmful?”

2
The side effects of antidepressants are well known – nausea, dry mouth, constipation and loss of interest in sex. But what if your depression is being...

“Psychotherapy is a Biological Treatment?”

0
A BJPsych editorial this month argues that the target of psychotherapy, like pharmacotherapy, is diseased neural functioning. On his Critical Psychiatry blog, Duncan Double disagrees. “To suggest...

“Mental Illness Mostly Caused by Life Events Not Genetics, Argue Psychologists”

61
According to psychologists, “mental illness is largely caused by social crises such as unemployment or childhood abuse.” If this is so, why are we...

The Experiential Democracy Project: A Depth Approach to the Legislative Process

3
The basic idea of the experiential democracy project is to supplement conventional legislative or other forms of diplomatic and moral deliberation with person-centered (“I-Thou”) principles of encounter. These principles, which derive from existential-humanistic psychology and person-centered therapy, stress the attempt to engage participants to more intimately understand each other, and through this context to more intimately understand each other’s often conflicting positions on issues of moral import.

“Suppressing Traumatic Memories Can Cause Amnesia, Research Suggests”

1
Research on how the suppression of traumatic memories can reduce our ability to form new memories has implications for such controversial trauma-related phenomena as...

“’Yalom’s Cure’ is a Meditative Immersion into Leading a Psychologist’s Life”

0
The LA Times reviews a new film about Irvin David Yalom, existential psychologist, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford Unversity. "’Yalom's Cure’ dispenses an...

“Psychosis: With Early, Informed Intervention, There’s Hope”

0
Columnist Nev Jones writes about the lack of adequate care for people in the US experiencing a first-episode of psychosis. “Evidence-based (or informed) psychotherapies...

“Reducing Future Suicide Attempts by Forging Connection”

2
A new study published Tuesday in PLOS Medicine may offer evidence for an intervention for people who have already been hospitalized for a suicide attempt.  The...

Flibanserin’s ‘Effects’ Do Not Outweigh Harms, Review Finds

7
Despite concerns about the risk to benefit ratio, the FDA approved flibanserin (Addyi) to treat low female sexual desire in August. In a new...

Troubling Mental Health Nurse Education

30
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.

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

14
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 month’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.

“Early Behavior Therapy Found to Aid Children With A.D.H.D.”

3
“Children with attention-deficit problems improve faster when the first treatment they receive is behavioral therapy — like instruction in basic social skills — than...

“MIT Students Turn Their Brainpower Toward Suicide Prevention”

4
After seven suicides in two years, students have come together to develop community building interventions including a texting hotline, artificial light boxes, and conversation...

Minority Discrimination Linked to Psychosis

14
A study published in this month’s issue of the Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology found that perceived discrimination related to minority status may precede...