A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders

There was an interesting article published on April 12, 2014 in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. It’s called The Efficacy of Antidepressants on Overall Well-Being and Self-Reported Depression Symptom Severity in Youth: A Meta-Analysis, by Gary Spielmans and Katherine Gerwig, both of the Psychology Department, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota. The authors conducted a word-search in Medline, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register, and identified 8 studies that met their criteria. They combined the data from these studies and concluded: ...

On July 28, I published a post called Simon Says: Happiness Won’t Cure Mental Illness. The article was essentially a critique of a post written by British psychiatrist Simon Wessely, who is the current President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. In his post Dr. Wessely had stated: "…you can come at this from the other direction i.e. that by treating their mental illness, patients will inevitably become happier as their suffering is alleviated. And I certainly can’t argue with that." ...

On July 22, Just Another Word Press.com site ran an article called Evolution not revolution: My thoughts on the DCP’s call for a paradigm shift. The website is owned and operated by MTAS Psychology, an agency providing psychological therapy and expert witness services in Manchester, UK. The article is unsigned. The primary focus of the article is the paradigm shift paper issued on May 13, 2013 by the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology. That paper, as readers may remember, drew attention to “conceptual and empirical limitations” inherent in psychiatry’s so-called diagnostic system, and called for a paradigm shift – “towards a conceptual system not based on a ‘disease’ model.” ...

Professor Simon Wessely, who was recently installed as President of Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, has just written his second post in that capacity. It’s called Happiness: The greatest gift that I possess? The background to Dr. Wessely’s article is the recent launching of the UK’s Centre Forum’s Mental Health Commission’s report: The pursuit of happiness: a new ambition for our mental health. This is a very interesting report, the gist of which can perhaps be gained from these quotes: ...

On July 17, I wrote a post on the use of neuroleptic drugs as chemical restraints in nursing homes. The article generated some comments, one of which touched on some very fundamental issues which, in my view, warrant further discussion. The comment was from drsusanmolchan and read as follows: "All drugs can be dangerous toxic chemicals when not used appropriately. While many valid points are made in this article, it’s very one-sided and could be considered biased in that it’s written by a psychologist. I’ve seen many patients and families benefit from their use. ...

On July 15, I wrote a post called Psychiatry Debunks the ‘Myths.’ In that article I focused on the myth-debunking of Cognitive Psychiatry of Chapel Hill, but in researching the topic for that post, I came across a psychiatry resident named Shan (no last name) who blogs on a website called Exploratory Encephalotomy. With regards to the name of the website, Dr. Shan explains on his About the blog page: "…'exploratory encephalotomy' implies opening up somebody’s brain in order to search for something. To the best of my knowledge, it’s not a real medical procedure yet…" ...

There’s an interesting article in the July-August 2014 issue of the AARP Bulletin. It’s called Drug Abuse: Antipsychotics in Nursing Homes, and was written by Jan Goodwin. AARP is the American Association of Retired Persons. Jan Goodwin is an investigative journalist whose career, according to Wikipedia, “…has been committed to focusing attention on social justice and human rights…” The article is essentially a condemnation of the widespread and long-standing practice of using neuroleptic drugs to suppress “difficult” behavior in nursing home residents. ...

Psychiatry has always had its share of critics, but in the past two decades these criticisms have increased in frequency and intensity. Psychiatry's underlying concepts are being denounced as spurious to the point of inanity, and its practices are being accurately and forcefully exposed as destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing. Psychiatry has no rational or logical response to these criticisms. Its leadership and its rank and file remain stubbornly blind to the arbitrariness and invalidity of its so-called diagnoses, the unquestioning adoption of which distorts their perceptions of people and their problems. ...

On June 18, the British Medical Journal published an article by Christine Lu et al, titled Changes in antidepressant use by young people and suicidal behavior after FDA warnings and media coverage: quasi-experimental study. Here’s the conclusion paragraph from the abstract: "Safety warnings about antidepressants and widespread media coverage decreased antidepressant use, and there were simultaneous increases in suicide attempts among young people. It is essential to monitor and reduce possible unintended consequences of FDA warnings and media reporting." ...

I recently came across the May 2014 issue of The Costco Connection, which is published by Costco Wholesale. This is the first time I’ve seen a copy of this magazine, and I would describe it as a catalog/lifestyle periodical. There are lots of ads for Costco’s own products, and the articles are wide ranging, topical, and easy to read. This particular issue was drawn to my attention because on page 57, there’s an article titled Blues Clues. The subtitle is: “Physical pain is one of the unexpected signs of depression.” The author is Jodi Helmer, a freelance journalist. ...