A Norwegian psychiatrist has written a book for children with the title «Pappa’n min er syk i tankene sine», which translates into «My daddy is ill in his thoughts». I applaud her wish to help children understand what is going on when a parent is having mental problems. I also disagree with the belief system she writes within, the idea that depression and anxiety and psychosis are illnesses of the thoughts or brain. ...
Joanna Moncrieff is an eminent British psychiatrist, a founding member of the Critical Psychiatry Network, and the author of several papers and books, including The Myth of the Chemical Cure and Bitterest Pills. I have discussed both of these books on this website, and I recommend them highly. Dr. Moncrieff speaks out clearly and fearlessly about the concepts and practices that drive modern psychiatry. In both of the books mentioned above, Dr. Moncrieff advocates a shift from a disease-centered model of drug action to a drug-centered model. ...
In December 2012, Mark Olfson, MD, et al, published an article in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The title is National Trends in the Office-Based Treatment of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Antipsychotics. The authors collected data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys for the period 1993-2009, and looked for trends in antipsychotic prescribing for children, adolescents, and adults in outpatient visits. Here are the results: Age Increase in no. of antipsychotic prescriptions per 100 population (1993-2009) 0-13 0.24-1.83 (almost 8-fold) 14-20 0.78-3.76 (almost 5-fold) 21+ 3.25-6.18 (almost 2-fold) The authors provide a breakdown of the diagnoses assigned to the children and adolescents during the antipsychotic visits. ...
On November 28, I put up a post on the adverse effects of benzodiazepines, including the potential for protracted and serious withdrawal problems. Since then I’ve become aware of a helpful and interesting resource in this area. It’s called Benzo Info, and is on Monica Cassani’s blog, BeyondMeds. Monica has first-hand experience of benzodiazepine withdrawal, and her comments and suggestions are always helpful, supportive, and insightful. She also provides a comprehensive list of links to other materials dealing with specific aspects of this problem, including forums and support groups. ...
On November 25, Mad in America posted a link to an article in the Journal of Neurological Sciences. The article is by Harnod et al, and is titled An Association between Benzodiazepine Use and Occurrence of Benign Brain Tumors. The authors studied the records of 62,186 individuals in Taiwan who had been prescribed a benzodiazepine for at least 2 months between 2000 and 2009. They compared the incidence of brain tumors in these patients with the incidence in patients in a matched-pairs control group. The hazard ratio for benign brain tumors (benzo group vs non-benzo group) was 3.15 (95% confidence interval: 2.37-4.20). The hazard ratio for malignant brain tumors was 1.21 (95% confidence interval: 0.52-2.81). What this means essentially is that one can be 95% confident that the benign tumor association is real, but that the malignant tumor result might have arisen by chance. ...
ECT, or shock treatment as it’s sometimes called, is a controversial topic. Adherents describe it as safe and effective; opponents condemn its use as damaging and ineffective. But it is still widely used in the US and in other countries. The treatment consists essentially of passing sufficient electricity across the brain to cause a seizure. Clients are anesthetized during the process. It is used primarily in cases of severe depression. Typically, shock treatment is administered twice a week until the depression remits or until no further improvement is noted in two successive sessions. Most courses of treatment involve about eight sessions. ...
Dr. Joanna Moncrieff is a UK psychiatrist and a founding member of the Critical Psychiatry Network. In 2009 she wrote The Myth of the Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment. Her latest book, The Bitterest Pills, was published earlier this year, and is about neuroleptic drugs (the so-called anti-psychotics). You can get an idea of the tenor and scope of the work from the table of contents: Curse or Cure: What Are Antipsychotics? Chlorpromazine: The First Wonder Drug Magic Bullets: The Development of Ideas on Drug Action Building a House of Cards: The Dopamine Theory of Schizophrenia and Drug Action The Phoenix Rises: From Tardive Dyskinesia to the Introduction of 'Atypicals' Looking Where the Light Is: Randomised Controlled Trials of Antipsychotics The Patient's Dilemma: Other Evidence on the Effects of Antipsychotics Chemical Cosh: Antipsychotics and Chemical Restraint Old and New Drug-induced Problems The First Tentacles: The 'Early Intervention in Psychosis' Movement The Antipsychotic Epidemic: Prescribing in the Twenty-first Century All is not as it Seems There are 39 pages of references at the back. Here are some quotes: ...
I’ve recently come across a new website that is challenging the illness approach to depression. It’s depressionwars.com and is written by Char Leander, an industrial sociologist. Char became interested in this topic when she saw “…the epidemic of emotional disorders in the workplace.” She also recounts some personal experience with depression. Here are some quotes from her November 11 post Fight Back Against Depression: "You have to fight back against depression as disorder! The walls of depression may be high, but higher still are the invincible mental walls erected around the concepts of disorder, mental illness, and disease." ...
ANOTHER VIDEO FROM DR. LIEBERMAN On October 28, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, made another video. This one is titled An Important Look at Mortality in Mental Illness: A Decade of Data on Psychotropic Drugs, and was made for Medscape. You can see the transcript at the same site. Medscape is a web resource for medical practitioners. The video is Dr. Lieberman’s commentary on an article that appeared in JAMA Psychiatry online on August 28: Comparative Mortality Risk in Adult Patients With Schizophrenia, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Participating in Psychopharmacology Clinical Trials, by Arif Khan, MD, et al. ...
On September 27, Psychiatric Services, a journal of the APA, published an article called Blog Brings Doctors, Patients Together to Address MH Issues. It was written by Vabren Watts, a Psychiatric News Journalist. The article is a booster piece for the recently-formed CFYM (Care For Your Mind): "…an online forum for people with mood disorders—along with their families and psychiatrists—to discuss the mental health care system and changes that may affect them under health care reform." ...