The National Institute of Health (NIH) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary U.S. Government agency responsible for medical research. The NIH has 27 sub-departments, one of which is the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The NIMH has an annual budget of $1.5 billion, which… Continue Reading
An Interesting Post On Depression
There’s some interesting reading at Mercola.com posted April 6, 2011. Dr. Mercola states that depression is not an illness! – and that this bogus illness was created by psychiatrists and drug companies in order to sell drugs! No surprises there for regular readers of this site. Unfortunately Dr. Mercola doesn’t take the logic far enough. … Continue Reading
DSM and Disability
Every society in every generation makes errors. Some of the errors are minor. Some are major. One of the great errors of the 20th century was this: we accepted the spurious notion that a wide range of life’s problems were in fact illnesses. This spurious notion was initiated with good intentions – to provide shelter… Continue Reading
Drugs, Placebos, and Life
I have recently read a very interesting book by Irving Kirsch, PhD. It’s called The Emperor’s New Drugs, and the central theme of the work is that antidepressants are only very slightly more effective than placebos (i.e. sugar pills), and that the difference is not clinically significant. The logic is cogent and the research is… Continue Reading