Everyone has their own story, some fortunate, some less so. Mine is a story of abuse, neglect and mental illness, and the long road… Continue Reading
Allen Frances and the Increasing Use of Antidepressants
On May 16, 2018, the prestigious and venerable psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, gave an interview to Christiane Amanpour on CNN. You can see the video here. It’s titled How Antidepressant Withdrawal “Can Trap People”. Here’s how the interview opened: CA: “So you know, I just wanted to start by saying that who knew that antidepressants… Continue Reading
Elimination of the Bereavement Exclusion: History and Implications
INTRODUCTION The bereavement exclusion was formally eliminated in the spring of 2013, with the publication of DSM-5. The exclusion was a provision in earlier editions, that a “diagnosis of major depressive disorder” could not be assigned to a bereaved person, even though he or she met the criteria, unless certain additional considerations were met. The… Continue Reading
More on the Biological Evidence for “Mental Illness”
On January 10, 2017, I put up a post titled The Biological Evidence for “Mental Illness”. It was published simultaneously on Mad in America. The post was a response to an earlier comment from Carolina Partners in Mental Healthcare PLLC, which included the assertion “mental illnesses have a long history of biological evidence.” In my… Continue Reading
The Biological Evidence for “Mental Illness”
On January 2, 2017, I published a short post titled Carrie Fisher Dead at Age 60 on Behaviorism and Mental Health. The article was published simultaneously on Mad in America. On January 4, a response from Carolina Partners was entered into the comments string on both sites. Carolina Partners in Mental Healthcare, PLLC, is a… Continue Reading
Allen Frances: Still Blaming Everyone But Himself
On May 7, Allen Frances, MD, posted an article on the HuffPost site. The piece was titled Antidepressants Work, But Only For Really Depressed People. Superficially, the article presents itself as a call to limit the prescribing of the so-called antidepressant drugs to severe cases; but the piece can, I suggest, be more accurately characterized… Continue Reading
The Germanwings Crash: Flying Under the Influence
On March 24, 2015, a twenty-seven-year-old German pilot named Andreas Lubitz flew an Airbus A 320 into a French mountainside, killing himself and the 149 other people on board. Mr. Lubitz was co-piloting the flight, and he caused the aircraft to crash by locking the pilot out of the flight deck and setting the autopilot… Continue Reading
Gender Wage Gap and Depression/Anxiety
In their January 2016 issue, the journal Social Science and Medicine published Unequal depression for equal work? How the wage gap explains gendered disparities in mood disorders, by Jonathan Platt, MPH, Seth Prins, PhD candidate, Lisa Bates, PhD, and Katherine Keyes, PhD, MPH. All the authors work at Columbia’s Department of Public Health. Here’s the… Continue Reading
Book Review: Depression Delusion, by Terry Lynch, MD, MA
In this truly remarkable, and meticulously researched, volume, Dr. Lynch annihilates psychiatry’s cherished chemical imbalance theory of depression. Every facet of this theory, which the author correctly calls a delusion, is critically analyzed and found wanting. Example after example is provided of psychiatrists promoting this fiction, the factual and logical errors of which are clearly… Continue Reading
You Are Stronger Than What You Think
No, I’ve never used the services of psychologists, never took a “pill.” But I have felt under sudden Depression and Anxiety, like any of you. Self awareness is necessary. To know when you are not acting “normal.” If we keep hoping for something to happen in an unrealistic way, on denial, and at the end… Continue Reading
Depression: A Different Perspective
I have recently come across an interesting paper: How to Understand and then Escape from Depression. It’s written by Saul Youssef, a professor of physics at Boston University. The central theme of the paper is that persistent or chronic depression is caused by “…an unconscious withdrawal of participation in a person’s own internal decision making… Continue Reading
Antidepressant Drugs and Suicide Rates
In 2010, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica published a study by Göran Isacsson et al. The paper was titled Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression. Here’s the conclusion: “The finding that in-patient care for depression did not increase the probability of the detection of antidepressants in suicides is difficult to explain other than by the assumption that… Continue Reading
Recurring Depression
I am 46 years old and have taken antidepressants (Lexapro, Paxil, now Zoloft) for 10 years. But the reason I began taking them wasn’t due to my own need for relief from depression or anxiety. It was actually an effort to improve my relationship with my husband at the time. He suffered from depression and took medication, but said… Continue Reading
Cures For Brain Disorders
On January 18, Thomas Insel, MD, published an article on The World Economic Forum Blog. The article is titled 4 things leaders need to know about mental health. Dr. Insel is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. The World Economic Forum “is an International Institution committed to improving the state of the… Continue Reading
Depression/ ADHD
I was searching Google for effects of propaganda on the human psych, and stumbled upon this site. After reading a few stories, I felt I had to share my own. When I was in high school I was depressed. To the point where I was a walking text book definition. Failing grades, poor hygiene, isolation. All the signs were… Continue Reading
More Bogus Conclusions From More Bogus Research
Robert Findling, MD, is a pediatrician and a psychiatrist. He is the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and Vice President of Psychiatric Services and Research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. On July 31, Dr. Findling published a brief video (and article) on Medscape: Adverse Events Caused by a Drug… Continue Reading
Antidepressants and Overall Wellbeing
There was an interesting article published on April 12, 2014 in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. It’s called The Efficacy of Antidepressants on Overall Well-Being and Self-Reported Depression Symptom Severity in Youth: A Meta-Analysis, by Gary Spielmans and Katherine Gerwig, both of the Psychology Department, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota. The authors conducted a word-search in… Continue Reading
Simon Says: Happiness Won’t Cure Mental Illness
Professor Simon Wessely, who was recently installed as President of Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, has just written his second post in that capacity. It’s called Happiness: The greatest gift that I possess? The background to Dr. Wessely’s article is the recent launching of the UK’s Centre Forum’s Mental Health Commission’s report: The pursuit of… Continue Reading
What If You Should Be Depressed?
i have been very depressed three or four times. always it was the same cause. i’ve never had the experience of being depressed for no reason. i’ve never gone to bed feeling fine and woke up feeling depressed.i think i’ve acquired enough sophistication to say:i can’t imagine anyone under the same circumstances not becoming very depressed, crying constantly,… Continue Reading
Suicidal Behavior After FDA Warnings
On June 18, the British Medical Journal published an article by Christine Lu et al, titled Changes in antidepressant use by young people and suicidal behavior after FDA warnings and media coverage: quasi-experimental study. Here’s the conclusion paragraph from the abstract: “Safety warnings about antidepressants and widespread media coverage decreased antidepressant use, and there were… Continue Reading
The Propaganda Is Everywhere
I recently came across the May 2014 issue of The Costco Connection, which is published by Costco Wholesale. This is the first time I’ve seen a copy of this magazine, and I would describe it as a catalog/lifestyle periodical. There are lots of ads for Costco’s own products, and the articles are wide ranging, topical,… Continue Reading
A Client’s Perspective on “Mental Illness”
A very important and compelling article was posted on Mad in America on June 18. It’s by Andrew L. Yoder, and is called An Open Letter to Persons Self-Identifying as Mentally Ill. Here are some quotes: “My physician was not so cautious. He was a very pleasant man that always seemed to take his time… Continue Reading
Do We Underestimate the Benefits of Antidepressants?
On April 19, 2014, The Lancet published an article titled Do we underestimate the benefits of antidepressants? by German psychiatrists Mazda Adli and Ulrich Hegerl. The Lancet, founded in 1823, is a weekly, general medical journal which since 1991 has been owned by Elsevier, a private, Amsterdam-based, publishing house with offices in the UK, USA, and… Continue Reading
Depression vs. Normal Unhappiness
Alex Langford is a British trainee psychiatrist. He blogs at The Psychiatric SHO, and on April 21, he posted an article titled Antidepressants are not ‘happy pills.’ Thanks to Jean Davison for the link. The article is an impassioned attack on psychiatry’s critics. Here are some quotes, with my responses: “I am sick and tired… Continue Reading
Antidepressants Make Things Worse in the Long Term
In June 2011, Rif El-Mallakh, MD, et al. published an article, Tardive dysphoria: The role of long term antidepressant use in inducing chronic depression, in Medical Hypotheses. The article is a thorough and wide-ranging study review. Here are some quotes from the abstract: “Treatment-resistant and chronic depression appear to be increasing.” “Depressed patients who ultimately become… Continue Reading