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 the opportunity for recovery because they are encouraged to stay ill by a system that all too often impedes psychological growth by use of excessive psychotropic drugs. This over-use of medication also kills people. The average life-span of people taking these medications is 25 years shorter than people who do not take these drugs. The drugs cause a long laundry list of problems only some of which are diabetes, obesity, heart conditions and a shrinking brain." ...

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 Psychotherapy Research. You can see it here. The article is a critique of the biomedical model from a theoretical and a practical perspective. The author has managed to elucidate a comprehensive range of criticisms of the biomedical model, and has blended them together into a coherent and compelling account. ...

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 more than 30 years will look into how the use of the Class C drug ketamine might reduce the side effects of ECT for those being treated for severe depression." ...

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 in psychiatric practice. The rules regulating research and a dominant neurobiological paradigm may both have stifled creativity. Embracing a social paradigm could generate real progress and, simultaneously, make the profession more attractive." ...

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 found. But this is not the case, because ultimately it boils down to a matter of definition. And psychiatry is a field where definitions are notoriously fuzzy. MENTAL DISORDER ...

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 lack of validity." This has created quite a stir, in that it appears to support the position of those of us who have been criticizing the DSM on these kinds of grounds for decades. It also suggests a fundamental rift between the NIMH and the APA, two groups who up till now had appeared to be joined at the hip. The article has generated a great deal of comment. So far, there’s been nothing from the APA. ...

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 force, activity, amount, etc. 5. a period marked by slackening of business activity, much unemployment, falling prices and wages, etc. ...

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 conditions we generally refer to as 'mental illnesses' as instead the natural manifestations of an individual’s struggles with the fundamental dilemmas inherent in simply being alive." ...

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 of the same. The same spurious concepts; the same pseudo-illnesses; the same destructive drugging; the same destructive electric shock “treatment”; the same involuntary confinement; and the same stigmatization and loss of empowerment. ...

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 would be wrong. The APA has declared open season on bereavement, and although DSM-5 won’t be released for a few more weeks, Eli Lilly is already grooming their SNRI Cymbalta as a “treatment” for this pseudo illness. ...