Q&A: My Child’s School Is Pressuring Me to Give Him Stimulants
My eight-year-old son has trouble paying attention in school. He's always been very active and easily bored. The school had him evaluated by the school psychologist, who thinks he has ADHD. They are pressuring me to get him on stimulants and threatened to call Child Protective Services if I don’t. I feel very uncomfortable with this, but they seem to think it's the only answer. What should I do?
Are Psychiatric Medications Safe? The FDA’s Answer May Surprise You
From the Inner Compass Initiative: The real responsibility for determining if a drug is "safe enough" or "worth it", said the Deputy Director for Safety at the FDA’s Division of Psychiatry Products, lies with individual physicians and patients.
National Survey: Students’ Feelings About High School Are Mostly Negative
From Yale News: Ask a high school student how he or she typically feels at school, and the answer you’ll likely hear is “tired,” closely followed by “stressed” and “bored.”
School Discipline is Racially Biased and Increases Misbehavior
School discipline that punishes minor misbehavior may increase adolescents’ misconduct and lead to racial inequalities in school discipline.
Transgender Children Development Consistent with Current Gender, Not Sex Assigned at Birth
Transgender children show strong identification and preferences stereotypically associated with their current gender identities, not their sex assigned at birth.
Committed at 16: Memories of a State Hospital
While most of the sting is gone, even now — almost sixty years on — I can’t get through a single day without thinking about shock treatment and the state hospital. I regularly have dreams or nightmares about being lost in a strange place and someone making me feel like dirt.
5 Things to Know as Calif. Starts Screening Children for Toxic Stress
From California Healthline: Starting this year, routine pediatric visits for millions of California children could involve questions about touchy family topics, such as divorce, unstable housing or a parent who struggles with alcoholism.
Lawsuit Over Teen’s Diagnosis, Treatment Heads to Trial
From AP: The suit was brought against Boston Children's Hospital by the parents of Justina Pelletier, who in 2013 was placed into state custody after a dispute over her diagnosis and put in a psychiatric unit.
The Real Myth of the Schizophrenogenic Mother
Acknowledging the role of trauma inflicted by a given individual’s mother is not the same as laying all blame for “mental illness” at the feet of motherhood. Meanwhile, a mountain of evidence has accumulated linking schizophrenia to sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and many other categories of adverse childhood experiences.
Study Links Emotional Intelligence and School Achievement
A new meta-analysis highlights a positive relationship between student emotional intelligence and academic achievement.
No, Dr. Friedman: The Solution to Teen Suicide is Not So Simple
In the largest newspaper in the world this week, one of the largest problems in the world was proposed as having a very simple solution. No, the answer to our suicide crisis among youth is not to encourage more teens to embrace more treatment. It’s to pursue multifaceted answers to a complex, multifaceted problem.
Experiences of Depression Connected to Declining Sense of Purpose
In-depth interviews find that those who screened positive for depression did not explain their experience in terms of diagnostic symptoms.
The Invisibles: Children in Foster Care
Millions of current and former foster children experience multiple kinds of trauma, as documented in a six-part investigative series published in the Kansas City Star this month. Too often invisible, these young people deserve our attention and our care.
Screenings Alone Won’t Prevent ACEs—We Must Address Community Trauma
From California Health Report: Traumatized communities experience a breakdown in connection and trust, which gives rise to hopelessness and makes ACEs more likely to occur.
Does Facebook Use Improve Social Connections or Weaken Attention?
A network analysis of participants’ social media use and well-being reveals complex links with social capital but a minimal association with attentional control.
Healing Youth with Nature and Connection: An Interview with Peter Mayfield
An interview with Peter Mayfield, founder and Executive Director of the Gateway Mountain Center. Peter talks of his journey from mountaineering to his role as an educator and mentor, and how enabling children and adolescents to connect with nature has such a profound effect on their health and wellbeing.
After Fatal School Shootings, Antidepressant Use Surges Among Survivors
From the Los Angeles Times: "School shootings represent a tiny fraction of gun deaths in America, but they are uniquely potentially traumatizing, and may have much larger indirect costs."
Growing Research Connects Nutrition and Mental Health
A new article reviews studies in the field of nutritional psychiatry and how nutrition can prevent and treat mental health issues.
A Dreaded Part of Teachers’ Jobs: Restraining and Secluding Students
From NPR: "There's a tension within me of knowing that if I am to restrain a student, then I'm essentially putting forth a situation that's going to create trauma for that student."
Peter Breggin and Michael Cornwall – Stop the Psychiatric Abuse of Children
An interview with Drs. Peter Breggin and Michael Cornwall who discuss their new initiative, Stop the Psychiatric Abuse of Children (SPAC!). SPAC! was formed in response to the introduction of the Monarch eTNS, an electrical stimulation device worn on a child’s forehead at night that was fast-tracked by FDA with little testing.
Toxic Schools Worsening Toxic Stress: The Destructive Reign of Standardized Education, Pathology, Medication and...
From HERE This NOW: Advances in science in the last thirty years help us realize the fallacy of "mind over matter," yet we still hold an entrenched belief that children and adults possess 100% conscious control over their behavior.
Researchers Address Dangers of Polypharmacy and Inappropriate Medication Use
A new special issue brings together articles exploring the harmful effects of simultaneous multiple medication use.
How Antidepressants Shape Young Women’s Sense of Self
Young women’s narratives indicate ways antidepressants have shaped their sense of self.
Their Kids Died on the Psych Ward. They Were Far From Alone
From the Los Angeles Times: Following almost every death at a psychiatric facility in California, the facility continues operating and does not face a financial penalty. Meanwhile, families remain unaware of the hospitals’ track records.
Rates of Opioid Use Remain High Among US Adolescents
Researchers investigate trends in opioid use, prescriptions, misuse, and access reported by adolescents and young adults.
