Antipsychotics, Restraints, and Seclusion Raising Concerns
From ABC Australia: Australia's high rate of antipsychotic prescriptions, as well as the frequent usage of restraints and seclusion, has raised concerns among Australian mental health advocates, researchers,...
When the Cure is the Cause
From Undark Magazine: In late 1970, a pharmacologist discovered that an antibiotic drug designed to cure a disease called SMON (subacute myelo-optic neuropathy) was actually causing...
Social Work Professionals Face Creeping Fascism
From Rabble: The regulatory body for social workers and social service workers in Ontario — the Ontario College for Social Workers and Social Service Workers — is...
Links Between Benefits and Mental Ill-Health Could be Recorded
From Vox Political: In a new proposal in the medical journal The Lancet, Kate Allsopp and Peter Kinderman have called for mental health professionals to record psychosocial...
In Opioid Battle, Cherokee Want Their Day in Tribal Court
From The New York Times: The opioid epidemic is wreaking havoc on Cherokee families and putting Cherokee children at risk. Now, the Cherokee Nation has...
Think You’re Seeing More Drug Ads on TV? You Are.
From The New York Times: TV drug ads have dramatically increased in the past few years. According to Kantar Media, a firm that tracks multimedia advertising,...
Preventing Long-term Benzodiazepine Use
Researchers Identify risk factors for long-term benzodiazepine use to prevent harmful effects.
How Psychology Undermines Feminist Activism
In this piece for the Feminist Current, Tove Happonen argues that the therapy model pathologizes women's responses to systemic injustice, aiming to change their emotional reactions...
The Inaugural “Shkreli Awards!”
This piece for the Lown Institute lists 10 of the most egregious examples of profit-mongering and lack of empathy in healthcare in 2017. These examples include...
Researchers Present Structural Competency Training Model for Psychiatrists
Researchers argue that a structural competency and social determinants of health approach must be made central to psychiatry training.
2017: A Wake-up Call on Mental Health and Human Rights
At Mental Health Europe, we see 2017 as having been a crossroads for mental health and human rights. Let’s ensure that this yields concrete change in 2018 with the support of like-minded communities ready to take the discussion to the next level and truly enact this as a civil rights movement.
Florida’s “Free Kill” Law – A Death Trap for the State’s Populace and Visitors
Florida’s Wrongful Death Act essentially denies residents and visitors alike the right to live once they enter a hospital. The law has been dubbed “Free Kill” because while it can cost money to correct mistakes, keep hospitals safely staffed and update equipment, it is free to kill.
BPS Opposition to Benefit Sanctions is Debated
From The British Psychological Society: The BPS has published a letter calling on the government to suspend the benefits sanction system, as sanctions may harm...
Researchers Push for Transparency of Mental Health Outcome Data
A new analysis of UK mental health data suggests the way organizations deliver mental health services can alter patient outcomes.
The Other Foucault
From The Nation: In two new books, Foucault: The Birth of Power and Foucault's Last Decade, Stuart Elden investigates some of the unexplored aspects of Michel Foucault's...
A Response to Columnist Dr. Greg Smith at the Aiken Standard
In this five-part series for the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, Nicole L. critiques a recent article by Dr. Greg Smith that was highly laudatory of benzodiazepines. Click...
Changing Law That Lets Mentally Ill Stay on the Streets
From the San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco city officials are hoping to change the law that allows homeless individuals with mental health diagnoses to stay on...
It’s Time for Full Legal Equality for People With Diagnoses
In this piece for the National Survivor User Network, Liz Sayce argues that people with mental health conditions will continue to stay silent about their...
Reducing Antipsychotic Use May Improve Health for People with Mental Health Diagnoses
A new study offers radical solutions for improving the cardiovascular health of people with mental health diagnoses: reducing antipsychotic prescriptions..
Researchers Call for Structural Competency in Psychiatry
Structural competency in psychiatry emphasizes the social factors shaping patient presentations and encourages physician advocacy.
When Legal Drugs Harm and Illegal Drugs Help
From Scientific American: In a day and age when people are increasingly becoming addicted to prescription drugs, and increasingly helped by the therapeutic effects of illicit...
Whistleblower Files Lawsuit Against AstraZeneca
From the Chicago Tribune: Former drug sales representative Allison Zayas became a whistleblower against her old company, AstraZeneca, after learning that a combination of Seroquel...
Mental Health Seclusion Rates Increase
From Stuff: More than 800 New Zealand mental health patients were held in seclusion at some point last year, representing a six percent increase in...
“If You Wanted to Kill Yourself, You Would Have Done It”
From The Independent: The notion of choice is increasingly being used to discourage suicidal people from seeking help. Many people's suicidal thoughts and actions are...
Anticholinergic Medications Linked to Dementia Similar to Early Alzheimer’s
A new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, investigates the effects of anticholinergic medications, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, on cognition in older adults diagnosed with schizophrenia.
