Posts

On January 27, I posted Maternal Attachment in Infancy and Adult Mental Health. In this article I reviewed a longitudinal study by Fan et al. The main finding of the study was: “Infants who experience unsupportive maternal behavior at 8 months have an increased risk for developing psychological sequelae later in life.” In my article, I pointed out that the correlation between the low maternal attachment ratings and subsequent "mental health" issues was not perfect, so clearly this was not the only factor involved in the adult children's subsequent problems. But I also made the point that what we do as parents affects how our children function in adulthood. For me this is simply an obvious fact of life that tragically has been barred from discussion by the psychiatric mantra – that all significant problems of thinking, feeling, and/or behavior are genetic-linked brain illnesses, and that parents couldn’t have impacted the outcome one way or the other. ...

There's an interesting article by Angela Fan et al, in Comprehensive Psychiatry, October 28, 2013. It's titled Association between maternal behavior in infancy and adult mental health: A 30-year prospective study. The data for this investigation were gathered as part of a wider longitudinal study. PROCEDURE ...

In November 2013, the British Medical Journal published Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: are we helping or harming? by Rae Thomas, PhD, Psychologist, Australia; Geoffrey K. Mitchell, MB BS, FRACGP, PhD, Professor of General Practice, Australia; and Laura Batstra, PhD, Psychologist, Netherlands. The article is part of a series on the dangers of overdiagnosis. Here are some quotes: "Prevalence and prescribing rates for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have risen steeply over the past decade, partly in response to concerns about underdiagnosis and undertreatment." ...

In DSM-5 – Dimensional Diagnoses – More Conflicts of Interest? which I posted on December 23, 2013, I drew attention to the fact that David Kupfer, MD, in his position as head of the DSM-5 Task Force, was vigorously promoting a dimensional model of assessment while at the same time was positioning himself to benefit financially if such a system were to be adopted by psychiatry generally. ...

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, has expressed concern about the rise in the number of people being assigned a “diagnosis” of ADHD. He has put up a video on Medscape, Explaining the Rise in ADHD. There is a transcript with the video. Dr. Lieberman is responding to a December 14, 2013, New York Times article The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder, by Alan Schwarz, and a December 18 editorial in the same paper titled An Epidemic of Attention Deficit Disorder. ...

The Royal College of Psychiatry is the UK equivalent of the American Psychiatric Association. On January 14, they announced that Professor Simon Wessely has been elected as their next president, and that he will take office on June 26, 2014. Dr. Wessely is an eminent psychiatrist who has been knighted by the Queen for his services to psychiatric medicine. In their press release, the Royal College reported that Dr. Wessely’s priorities as President will be: ...

There’s a new study in the January 2014 issue of the BMJ: Grigoriadis et al, Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn: systematic review and meta-analysis. Thanks to Nanu Grewal for the link. PPHN is a relatively rare condition. The authors report that the estimated prevalence is about 1.9 per 1000 live births. The disease is essentially a failure of the newborn’s circulatory system to switch from oxygen supply via the placental blood, to oxygen supply via the baby’s own lungs. The condition is usually diagnosed at birth or shortly thereafter. Symptoms include: rapid and difficult breathing, fast heart rate, and blue skin color. PPHN is a serious condition. A 2010 article by Robin Steinhorn, MD, states: ...

January 21 (tomorrow) is National Hugging Day here in the US, and newspapers and other media outlets will be encouraging us to distribute hugs generously and indiscriminately. We will be “educated” on the benefits of hugs, not only to our emotional well-being, but to our health and welfare generally. In my local paper, I came across a mindbodygreen.com article on this topic. Here are some quotes: "Hugs strengthen the immune system. The gentle pressure on the sternum and the emotional charge this creates activates the Solar Plexus Chakra. This stimulates the thymus gland, which regulates and balances the body's production of white blood cell" ...

Joel Yager, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado at Denver School of Medicine. He started his career as a US Army psychiatrist in 1969, and has held a wide range of clinical and teaching positions in the intervening years. He has received numerous awards, including lifetime achievement awards from the National Eating Disorders Association (2008) and from the Association for Academic Psychiatry (2009). He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, many of which are concerned with the training of psychiatrists. ...

There’s a debate on this topic scheduled for 12:00 p.m., March 11, 2014, at Wasserstein Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event is free, and open to the public. The debate is sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center For Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. This is the same group that produced the recent symposium on Institutional Corruption and Pharmaceutical Policy. The debate will be moderated by I. Glen Cohen, Professor Law at Harvard and Co-Director of the Petri-Flom Center. ...