Critical Influence of Nutrition on Psychosocial Wellbeing in Childhood
The bidirectional relationship between diet and nutrition and social, emotional, and educational factors among European youth.
My Daughter’s Story
I am now haunted by guilt that my daughter never really had a chance for anything like a normal life, because of the choices that were made for her. Choices made with the 'best' medical advice of the day, which I had never quite accepted as correct, but in the end largely complied with for lack of any clear alternative.
Study Examines the Difficulty of Withdrawing from Antidepressant Drugs
Correcting unnecessary long-term antidepressant use is difficult and met with apprehension by providers and service-users.
APA: Drop the Stigmatizing Term “Schizophrenia”
I believe that the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization should follow the lead of several countries that have already retired the term "schizophrenia" from their vocabularies. The time is now to drop this stigmatizing, hope-disabling, scientifically controversial term.
A Call for Obligatory Diagnostic Reporting and Appeals Mechanisms
Psychiatric diagnoses are ballooning in scope and in numbers, many have dramatic and life-changing consequences, reliability levels are poor, co-morbidity levels are high, and the validity of many are doubtful. Despite all this, they have escaped any kind of regulation. It's time for that to change.
Children Diagnosed with ADHD Younger are More Likely to get Multiple Medications
New research demonstrates that children diagnosed with ADHD at younger ages are more likely than those diagnosed later to receive multiple medications within five years of their diagnosis.
Beyond Critique: Psychologists Discuss Diagnostic Alternatives
The Journal of Humanistic Psychology compiles diverse research offering diagnostic alternatives toward a paradigm shift in mental health care.
The Issue of Over-Diagnosing in Psychiatry
From The Concordian: On October 30th, Dr. Joel Paris, a professor of psychiatry at McGill University, gave a lecture about the dangers and consequences of...
Effects of Racism on Depression in Black College Women
Black college women endorse more perceived stress and depressive symptoms than White college women, highlighting the impacts of racism.
How Culpable Are Educators and Psychologists in Youth Suicide?
In this piece for Medium, Karen Kilbane discusses the ways that contemporary psychological theories, diagnoses, and behavior modification programs are harming the mental health and emotional...
Agency and Activism as Protective Factors for Children in the Gaza Strip
Researchers recommend a ‘politically-informed focus', including activism, when assessing children and designing interventions in areas of chronic political violence.
So Much Care It Hurts: The Impact of Unneeded Treatment
From Kaiser Health News: A growing number of patients and doctors are becoming concerned and speaking out about overtreatment, including unneeded scans, tests, surgeries, and...
Psychiatry’s Greatest Harm: Its Lies Have Poisoned Our Entire Culture
Psychiatry’s harms extend far beyond those people it ‘treats’ — they are undermining our society’s entire foundation. In just thirty years in America, the medical model's widespread acceptance has largely undone the huge adaptive potential that millions of years of brain evolution had provided.
Western ‘Depression’ is Not Universal
Derek Summerfield, consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust, challenges the assumption that Western depression is a universal condition.
A Brave New World – Somatic Psychiatry in the Spotlight
Historically, psychiatric diagnoses were never intended to signify literal brain diseases. They used to be a shorthand and a guide to point to the psychological issues that presented. This is how it still should be today. The way diagnosis is now used is a travesty.
Mirror, Mirror: Study Challenges Notion of a Narcissism Epidemic Among Youth
One study indicates that pointed fingers incriminating youth for narcissism may be pointed in the wrong direction.
Vikas Saini: Protecting Patients From Excessive Medicine
In this piece for the BMJ, Jeanne Lenzer profiles Vikas Saini, a cardiologist who is working to fight against excessive medical treatment. His work with...
Scales Assessing Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Lack Cross-Cultural Validity
Researchers find few existing "psychopathology scales" are appropriate for global utilization.
Warning to Parents: Psychiatry is How Kids Get High and Die in the USA
Street drug dealers and stimulant-peddling doctors both get clients high and addicted for profit. So there is really no difference between what they do except that doctors are more ‘successful’ at it, since they enjoy many advantages over illicit dealers and can get away with doing it legally.
Billion Dollar Deals and How They Changed Your World
A new BBC documentary, "Health," investigates the deals struck between health professionals and pharmaceutical companies. The documentary includes an interview with Dr. James Davies, co-founder of the...
Study Examines Overdiagnosis of Mental Health Disorders in Childhood
Are diagnoses of mental disorders among children and adolescents in developed countries disproportionate to disease prevalence trends?
Researchers Confirm That Relative Age Impacts ADHD Diagnosis
The youngest children in a class are more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis than their peers.
School Culture May Contribute to Overdiagnosis, Study Finds
Officials at a school that was more focused on ADHD diagnoses described children’s behavior in terms of individual illnesses, taking children out of the context of their social interactions, race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Study Finds Increasing Minimum Wage can Decrease Child Maltreatment
Increasing the minimum wage - even modestly - can lead to less cases of child abuse in the home.
Challenges in Measuring Low-Value Healthcare
Differences in patient-centric versus service-centric measures make quantifying low-value care difficult.