Neuroleptics for Children

May 18, 2013

Of all the evils perpetrated by American psychiatry in the past 60 years, the administration of neuroleptic drugs to children is arguably the worst.  And it is a practice that is growing each year. The essential purpose of these drugs is to make people more docile and more easily managed by destroying brain tissue.  The [...]

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Different Perspectives

May 17, 2013

On June 1, 2012, I wrote a post titled There Are No Mental Illnesses. Yesterday a comment came in on this post.  Here’s a quote: “When my brother was thirty years old, he started to see objects, which was far away, like hawk. His “mind” wanted to understand it, so he started to think he [...]

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The Problem with DSM

May 17, 2013

There’s an interesting article in the NY Times Sunday review.  You can see it here.  It was written by Sally Satel MD, a psychiatrist, currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The article is called:  “Why the Fuss Over the DSM-5?”  Dr. Satel’s central point is that psychiatrists only treat symptoms anyway and [...]

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Thomas Insel’s Paper – Still Under Attack

May 15, 2013

It’s widely known that Thomas Insel, MD, Director of NIMH, recently proclaimed that the DSM’s diagnostic categories are invalid, and that this agency would no longer use these categories as the basis for research.  But he went on to reaffirm his agency’s commitment to a biological model of “mental illness” and to funding research into [...]

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Dr. Insel Changes His Mind

May 15, 2013

Well, as I guess everybody knows by now, Dr. Insel has changed his mind.  On April 29, he stated that the weakness of DSM “…is its lack of validity.”  He went on to express the view that his agency, NIMH, (the US government’s mental health research arm) “…cannot succeed if we use DSM categories…”  You [...]

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Talk Therapy for Schizophrenia

May 14, 2013

There’s an interesting article on Vermont’s Seven Days.  It’s called Burlington’s HowardCenter Tries a New Approach to Treating Mental Illness: More Talk, Fewer Meds.  You can see it here.  (Thanks to Steven Coles on Twitter for the link.) Apparently Vermont’s Department of Mental Health is promoting a “new” kind of treatment for psychosis:  talk therapy.  [...]

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It’s a Great Day for Humanity

May 13, 2013

Today, after two years of deliberation, the Division of Clinical Psychology (which is part of the British Psychological Society)  issued a Position Statement on the Classification of Behavior and Experience in Relation to Functional Psychiatric Diagnosis.   It is subtitled “Time for a Paradigm Shift.”  You can see it here. The DCP summarizes its paper as follows: [...]

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The Empire Strikes Back: APA Responds to NIMH

May 13, 2013

BACKGROUND On May 3, 2013, David Kupfer MD (DSM-5 Task Force Chair) responded to Thomas Insel’s April 29th unequivocal attack on the validity and usefulness of DSM.  You can see Dr. Kupfer’s response here.  Essentially Dr. Insel said that the categories set out in the DSM did not correspond to anything in the real world, [...]

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SSRI’s During Pregnancy and APGAR Scores

May 12, 2013

There’s an interesting article on this topic by Hans Jensen et al, in the February 21, 2013 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.  You can see an abstract here. The authors conducted a register study on all pregnant women in Denmark from 1996 to 2006, linking data from the Medical Birth Register, the Psychiatric [...]

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“You must take these pills for life.” Or is it for death?

May 12, 2013

There’s an important article (here) on Monica Cassani’s website BeyondMeds in which she tackles the myth that once a person has been assigned a “diagnosis” of schizophrenia, he/she must take neuroleptics for life. Here’s a quote: “Unfortunately, at this juncture in history many people who get labeled with psychiatric illness these days do not have [...]

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Great Article by Brett Jason Deacon

May 11, 2013

In the current issue of Clinical Psychology Review (April 8, 2013), you will find a very interesting article by Brett Jason Deacon, PhD, who is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming.  The article is called The Biomedical Model of Mental Disorder: A Critical Analysis of its Tenets, Consequences, and Effects on [...]

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ECT – New and Improved?

May 10, 2013

I’ve just come across a strange article on Mad in America.  It’s called Researchers look at therapeutic benefits of ketamine.  You can see it here.  It doesn’t identify an author, but it’s from the University of Manchester. The opening paragraph says: “The largest trial into the use of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) in the UK in [...]

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Psychiatry – Embracing a Social Paradigm?

May 8, 2013

There’s an interesting article in the May 2013 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.  It’s called “The future of academic psychiatry may be social” by Stefan Priebe, Tom Burns, and Tom K. J. Craig.  You can see it here. The abstract states: “The past 30 years have produced no discoveries leading to major changes [...]

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Mental Distress Is Not An Illness

May 7, 2013

BACKGROUND Sam Thompson (University of Liverpool) posted the following tweet on April 27: Can anyone point me to a good, succinct summary of the case for equating mental distress with illness?  (serious, non-sarcastic question) On the face of it, this looks like a straightforward question, and one might think that a straightforward answer could be [...]

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Transforming Diagnosis: The Thomas Insel Article

May 5, 2013

BACKGROUND On April 29, Thomas Insel, Director of NIMH, published a paper called Transforming Diagnosis.  You can see it here. Dr. Insel is critical of DSM: “While DSM has been described as a ‘Bible’ for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each.” “The weakness is its [...]

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Social Effect of DSM

May 5, 2013

I keep two dictionaries on my desk.  The first is a 1964 Webster’s; the second is a 2009 Webster’s.  This morning I looked up the word “depression” in both books. 1964: n. 1. a depressing or being depressed.  2. a depressed part or place; hollow or low place.  3. low spirits; dejection.  4. a decrease in [...]

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“Mental Illness” Under Fire

May 3, 2013

There’s a very interesting article by Paris Williams on Mad in America, The “Mental Illness” Paradigm: An “Illness” That is out of Control.  You can see it here. The author gives us a compelling critique of the “mental illness” model, and also presents us with an alternative paradigm. The alternative is: “… to see those [...]

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Do We Need More Mental Health Services?

May 2, 2013

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, there were a great many calls for “more mental health services” or “better access to mental health services.” Many of us on this side of the fence groaned, because we knew that any official or private response to this call would be on the lines of more [...]

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Bereavement: An “Opportunity” for Psychiatry

May 1, 2013

There’s a new post on Mick Bramham’s website called “A time to grieve, a time to console, and a time to profit?”  You can see it here. You might have thought that, given the adverse publicity that pharma has been receiving in recent years, they would be easing up on their expansionist agenda. But you [...]

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More Antidepressant Risks

April 30, 2013

There’s an article in Science Daily (April 29, 2013) titled “Antidepressants Linked with Increased Risks After Surgery,” which I found courtesy of Monica on Twitter.  You can see it here.  The article is a report of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.  You can see an abstract of the study here. The study was [...]

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Psychiatry and the Other Professions

April 29, 2013

I don’t have precise figures, but I would guess that psychiatrists constitute less than 5% of the professional staff in the mental health system  The other 95% are psychologists, counselors, social workers, case managers, behavior analysts, case aides, art therapists, occupational therapists, job coaches, etc., etc… All of these other professions have specialized training, both [...]

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Suicide Risk with Antidepressants

April 28, 2013

There has been a great deal of discussion on this topic in recent years.  Families of suicide victims tend to blame the pills; the pharma companies blame the depression for which the pills were prescribed. Personally, I’ve read and heard a good many reports from people who have taken the pills and shortly afterwards experienced [...]

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Another Good Website: by Mick Bramham

April 28, 2013

I recently came across Thinking About Mental Health: Myths, treatment risks & alternatives.  You can find it here. It’s written by Mick Bramham, from Dorset, England. Here are some quotes: From the post Depression: Serotonin Imbalance? “The whole idea of antidepressants supposedly correcting chemical imbalances has more to do with drug company marketing than evidence-based science.” [...]

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Neuroleptics Increase the Risk of Osteoporosis

April 27, 2013

We’ve all known for a long time that neuroleptic drugs damage brain cells.  But now it seems clear that they also increase the risk of osteoporosis and consequently bone fractures. There’s an article about this in the International Journal of Endocrinology, dated March 2013.  It’s titled Osteoporosis Associated with Antipsychotic Treatment in Schizophrenia, and was [...]

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Mood Disorders and Stem Cells

April 26, 2013

Thank you to Tallaght Trialogue for drawing my attention to Blue Horizon Stem Cells (you can see their website here) and a recent article they’ve written titled Mood Disorder (here). The article contains a very brief discussion of the term mood disorder, including a mention of “major depressive disorder” and “bipolar disorder.”  It then goes [...]

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More on Postpartum Depression

April 26, 2013

I recently wrote a post on postpartum depression which has generated a certain amount of negative comment.  For this reason, I thought it might be helpful to clarify some points. DEFINITION AND EXPLANATIONS The DSM makes no mention of postpartum depression as such.  The closest it comes is major depressive disorder with postpartum onset.  In [...]

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Postpartum Depression Not an Illness

April 24, 2013

BACKGROUND The primary purpose of the bio-psychiatric-pharma faction is to expand turf and sell more drugs.  This is a multi-faceted endeavor, one component of which is disease mongering.  This consists of using marketing techniques to persuade large numbers of people that they have an illness which needs to be treated with drugs. With regards to [...]

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Internet Addiction: A Bad Habit, Not An Illness

April 23, 2013

The DSM-5 drafting committee considered including Internet addiction in the upcoming revision, but eventually backed off, at least for now.  Apparently they decided to put it in the category “requiring further study.”  So it’ll be in DSM-6. Meanwhile, people are being given the “diagnosis” anyway – and of course, the “treatment.” AN ILLUSTRATIVE CASE I’m [...]

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Separation Anxiety Disorder: Now Also for Adults

April 22, 2013

BACKGROUND The “diagnosis” of separation anxiety disorder has been around since DSM-III.  In DSM-IV it is defined as “…excessive anxiety concerning separation from the home or from those to whom the person is attached.”  (DSM-IV-TR p 121).  The APA’s prevalence estimate is 4%. This “diagnosis” is listed under the heading: “Other Disorders of Infancy, Childhood, [...]

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The Power of Words to Shape Attitudes

April 21, 2013

I recently wrote a post called:  Do Major Tranquilizers Make Things Worse?  The post was based on a study by Drs. Harrow and Jobe in which they speculated that the high relapse rate of “schizophrenics” who stop taking their drugs may have more to do with drug withdrawal than the supposed drug efficacy. Monica, at [...]

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Psychiatry is a Lost Cause

April 20, 2013

It is easy to vilify psychiatrists.  Their spurious conceptual framework, toxic “treatments’ and blatantly corrupt links to pharma make them easy targets.  Their destructive activities, to which they resolutely cling, invite criticism which they steadfastly ignore.  Any thoughts that perhaps they had seen the errors of their ways have been dashed by the soon-to-be published [...]

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Do Major Tranquilizers Make Things Worse?

April 19, 2013

BACKGROUND On March 19 of this year an article by Martin Harrow and Thomas Jobe was published in the Schizophrenia Bulletin:  Does Long-Term Treatment of Schizophrenia with Antipsychotic Medications Facilitate Recovery?  You can see it here.  The term “antipsychotics” embraces drugs such as Haldol, Risperdal, Thorazine, etc…  I prefer the term major tranquilizers, because it [...]

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A Survivor’s Story: The Dark Threads

April 17, 2013

I have just read The Dark Threads, by Jean Davison (Accent Press Ltd, 2009) It’s autobiographical, and describes with great detail and insight how a young woman of 18 years, whose only problem was acute shyness coupled with a yearning for some meaning in life, made the mistake of visiting a psychiatrist. Jean describes how [...]

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The Bereavement Exclusion and DSM-5

April 16, 2013

In DSM-IV, a “diagnosis” of major depressive disorder is based on the presence of a major depressive episode. A major depressive episode, in turn, is defined by the presence of five or more items from the following list during a two-week period: (1) depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by [...]

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GPs Prescribe More Psychotropic Drugs than Psychiatrists

April 16, 2013

Psychiatrists, when challenged about the massive increase in psychotropic drug prescriptions, sometimes point out that the bulk of this prescribing is done – not by them – but by primary care doctors (GPs). Although the psychiatrists’ claim in this regards may be true, it is also somewhat misleading.  The “illnesses” for which these drugs are [...]

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Kidney Failure and Depression

April 15, 2013

I’ve come across a 2007 study review paper by Suzanne Watnick, MD.  It’s called Depression in the End-stage Renal Disease Population on Dialysis, and you can see it here.  (“End-stage” in this context simply means the complete or almost complete loss of kidney function with no expectation that it will return.  It does not imply [...]

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Conversion Disorder

April 14, 2013

In DSM-IV, conversion disorder is described as distressful symptoms (or symptom) of voluntary motor or sensory function that “suggest” a neurological or other illness even though no actual pathology is present, and there is reason to believe that the problem is psychological in origin.  It has sometimes been called hysterical blindness, hysterical paralysis, hysterical anesthesia, [...]

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Another Blood Test for Depression

April 13, 2013

Today, courtesy of Talla Trialogue on Twitter, I have read an article by Shari Roan called Blood Test for Depression Proves It’s Not All In Your Head.  You can see it here. The article appears to be an interview with Lonna Williams, the CEO of Ridge Diagnostics.  This company is reportedly introducing a blood test [...]

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Now – by Popular Demand – Ritalin for the Elderly!

April 11, 2013

In the old days, which I well remember, misbehavior in school was considered a disciplinary problem.  This included not paying attention, fidgeting, not applying oneself to one’s work, talking, interrupting the teacher, etc., etc., etc… Then the APA decided that these various activities were really symptoms of a mental illness, and thereby created the ever-burgeoning [...]

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Psychiatric Spin

April 10, 2013

BACKGROUND A couple of weeks ago (March 23), the New York Times did a feature on “Defining Mental Illness.”  They invited Ronald Pies, MD (a psychiatry professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Tufts University) to submit a brief paper on this topic.  Various people with opposing views were allowed to respond, and finally Dr. [...]

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