Does Conflict of Interest Disclosure Worsen Bias?
The editors of PLoS Medicine examine the question of whether financial conflict of interest disclosures increase or decrease the problem of bias. Although "disclosure...
Little Lasting Benefit From ECT
The relapse rate after short-term ECT is high, according to a study in the Journal of ECT, "owing to resistance to medication in these...
SSRIs: More Harm Than Good
Beginning with an "evolutionary analysis" and a review of serotonin's role in the body, researchers from Canada and the U.S. conduct a thorough review...
Exposure to Violence Alters Children’s DNA, Life-Long Health
In a sample of 236 children recruited from the Environmental-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, researchers from Duke University and King's College London found that children...
Fewer Antipsychotics, More Nurses Will Improve Care and Save Money in Nursing Homes
The Center for Medicare Advocacy advised yesterday that nursing facilities could realize huge savings by eliminating "inappropriate and life-threatening" antipsychotic drugs. The statement added...
Compulsory Hospitalization Does Not Improve Outcomes
Researchers in Israel followed 320 patients who had been admitted involuntarily with schizophrenia diagnoses. 157 (49%) left the hospital against medical advice (AMA), and...
The Celebrated Cell Phones of Calaveras County
Calaveras County, CA is being honored for a novel hospital diversion program. By giving cell phones programmed to reach key supporters to repeat users...
Fantasy Video Game Zaps Depression in Adolescents
SPARX, an interactive video game in which significantly depressed adolescents shoot down "GNATs" (Gloomy Negative Automatic Thoughts) in a quest to restore the balance...
Publication Bias in Literature on Antidepressants for Autism
Researchers at the University of Michigan reviewed published and unpublished trials of serotonin receptor inhibitors (SRI) for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)....
Income Differentials Cause Mental Illness
Data from the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey showed that early-onset mental disorders were associated with reduced household income in high and...
Schizophrenia Prevents Cancer; Antipsychotics May Cause It
In a review of all 59,233 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in Sweden between 1965 and 2008, researchers from Sweden and the U.S. identified 6137...
Do Benzos Deserve a Major Role in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders?
Researchers at the University of Milan and King's College, London thoroughly reviewed the literature available on Medline and Cochrane regarding the use of benzodiazepines...
Antidepressants Keep GIs Fighting
MIA Blogger Bruce Levine talks with American Free Press about the increasing use of psychotropic medications in today's military.
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Are ADHD Drugs Causing PTSD?
In an opinion piece in today's New York Times, Richard A. Friedman notes the increase of PTSD in the miliatary from .2% in 2002...
Psychedelics and Depression
The Sunday New York Times Magazine special edition, "Health is All in Our Minds," explores the use of psychedelic drugs to help people cope...
Post-Prozac Nation: The Science and History of Treating Depression
The Sunday New York Times Magazine traces the history and controversy around serotonin, "imbalance theory," deep-brain stimulation and more; including references to Irving Kirsch and placebos,...
Blood Test for Depression Announced
Researchers testing the blood of 14 teenage subjects with major depressive disorder and 14 with no disorder for a set of candidate biomarkers from...
Sexual Side Effects of Medications in Young People
The effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers on young people's psychosexual development receive little attention or research, says Kaitlin Bell Barnett (author of "Dosed:...
Federal Regulators Urge Cuts in Antipsychotics for Seniors
An Office of the Inspector General report says that nearly nine out of 10 prescriptions for antipsychotics given to Medicare beneficiaries are for unapproved uses....
Psychotic Symptoms/Childhood Trauma Common in Primary as Well as Psychiatric Care
Researchers in Finland reviewed questionnaires filled out by 911 primary and psychiatric care patients over 16 years of age. They found that more than...
Mania is Not Strongly Associated With Violence
A review of New South Wales court documents from 1992 to 2008 found that only 12 of 272 people found not guilty by reason...
Overlap Between Borderline and Bipolar
Researchers in Australia investigate the growing evidence that childhood trauma predisposes individuals to both bipolar and borderline syndromes, with the intention of examining areas...
Recovery: Personal, Achievable, and Multidimensional
Interviews with 30 individuals three to five years after initial treatment for a first-episode psychosis found that a majority considered themselves to be recovered,...
Training the Brain for Well-Being
Experience shapes the brain, for better or worse. Richard Davidson & Bruce McEwen review the ways that adverse early experience create measurable changes in...
Symptoms do not Correlate with Quality of Life in Schizophrenia
Researchers in France found that among 306 outpatients followed for a year, quality of life remained stable relative to subjects' expectations and perceptions about...
