Mad in America

In 2006, the Danish Health Authority warned against combining antipsychotics with benzodiazepines because it increases mortality by 50-65% . But what do we see in the medical records? Virtually all patients with psychosis receive one or more antipsychotics and also benzodiazepines.

If it is true that mental health is not psychiatry and that mental disorder is part of a distress that has its origin in a complex of factors, which in a somewhat too simplistic way are defined as bio-psycho-social, then I believe that psychiatry cannot omnipotently take charge of it but that it must find a less reductive interpretation than the currently dominant one.

If the dominant psychiatric paradigm does not radically change, which unfortunately has been embraced by Psychologists, Social Workers, Nurses and other professionals involved in the provision of mental health services (without this meaning that I question their humanity), the tragedy of the way we approach and treat/care for people who experience mental suffering will continue and be reproduced, and even worse, as a non-tragedy.

My study investigates the data available in all three sources and finds that they are incomplete and inconsistent, making any conclusions about patient groups’ conflict-of-interest and funding unreliable.

What is the effect of experiencing safety and why can it be transformative for you as Dr. Stephen Porges describes? I hope to be able to take you along in this, for many, complex matter. This science is nice, but what can you do with this knowledge?

Recently, the government has come out with two strategic documents dealing with 'mental health and suicide prevention'. Important documents for our future. One extends over the years 2025-2026. The other over the years 2025-2034.

OVERESTIMATED BENEFIT: - If more than minimal improvement is required, a strikingly large proportion of patients do not receive a meaningful effect from antipsychotics. Trond Aarre (pictured) believes that the requirement of a high probability of effect of compulsory treatment according to the Mental Health Act is unlikely to be met.

This question, provocative in itself, is meant merely as an invitation to debate. It arises from the state of real malaise in which we find ourselves, oppressed by a closed psychiatric ideology defined by its role as a dogmatic science that, when it comes to the object of its research, has only been able to define its diversity and incomprehensibility, translating them concretely into social stigmatization.

After all, who has not thought, after reading endlessly about what goes on in the heads of either mental patients or therapist-cum-psychiatrists; what are they all hoping to achieve if not to transcend the clinical-psychiatric framework?

“It wasn't psychiatry or medication that helped me. It was getting out of the abusive environment I was living in.”

I believe that the evolution of knowledge and its practical applications depends on an attitude of constant review and reflection. I also believe that we should look at what we do with condescension and humility. I miss debates in Psychiatry about how we are practicing and what results we are reaping with what we do.

Health ministries must pay fines of $100,000 per day. Celeste Fernández explains the impact of the ruling, which requires the national Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the City of Buenos Aires to pay daily fines for failing to comply with the national mental health law passed 15 years ago.

Mental health is not just a medical issue; it is a societal concern that demands collective responsibility. Ireland has an opportunity to reimagine its mental health services, moving beyond crisis-driven, medicalised care towards a compassionate, community-based model that truly supports recovery and inclusion.

Factors like abuse by in-laws, diminished patience, children’s well-being, and religious beliefs influence Pakistani’s women’s suicidal thoughts and attempts.

We all know that humans are social creatures; as mammals we live in packs, we are not solitary, but our belonging to the group is an essential part of how our species has survived historically. What's more, our brains have changed little since we lived as hunter-gatherers on the savannah, meaning that our desire to belong to the group is still an important psychological mechanism in all of us

It was not only me who had something wrong, it has never been only me. My book here is my testimony to that. I have also received help that helped, and continues to help me, – that help is a contributing factor to why I am where I am in my life today, and a large part of the reason why I can even process, and all the damage that has been done.

The article wants to underline the need for critical sense by professionals and users in the evaluation of new pharmacological therapies , both in the subject contemplated in the article, but also in the evaluation of new pharmacological therapies proposed on the market

If I were to seek treatment now with my own difficulties, I would hardly get it, at least not for the years it took then. Few people are in wards for years anymore, as I was. Finland has exactly the same mental health law, which governs, for example, the implementation of compulsory treatment.

In April 2022 I was 'sick' for more than six weeks. I had called in sick a few times because it was getting to be too much. I had started therapy and needed time to process. It is rightly called PROCESSING. And what a rotten job that is, processing. Anyway, I had to make an appointment with the company doctor. I picked this up promptly with the assistant and had immediately planned a telephone intake on my free Wednesday morning. And then, in mid-April, I was whistled back by my organization: I was expected to report in Utrecht, in person.

Since January 2023, I have offered a digital room for conversations about how we can understand and manage mental health problems without diagnoses and psychotropic drugs. The room has come to be called Digitalt torgmöte and has been open once a month.