On April 26, 2015, Jeffrey Lieberman, former president of the American Psychiatric Association, stirred up controversy by calling investigative journalist Robert Whitaker a “menace to society [3]” on CBC radio [4] because Whitaker, in his book Anatomy of an Epidemic [5], had challenged the long-term effectiveness of psychiatric medication. But is it Whitaker or Lieberman who is a menace to society? Lieberman, the APA president through …
China’s Unaddressed Mental Health Problems – CESAR CHELALA
China has a complex history in the treatment of the mentally ill. In 1849, the first mental institutions in the country were founded by Western missionaries. One of them, Dr. John G. Kerr, instituted some principles which are even valid today. Among those principles were the following: mentally ill patients shouldn’t be blamed for their actions; those that were hospitalized …
Psych Meds Put 49 Million Americans at Risk for Cancer – Dr. Kelly Brogan, M.D.
With 1 in 5 Americans taking a psychiatric medication, most of whom, long term, we should probably start to learn a bit more about them. In fact, it would have been in the service of true informed consent to have investigated long-term risks before the deluge of these meds seized our population over the past thirty years. You may be …
Elementary-age suicides: rate rising among black children
Youth suicide is a major problem – the second-leading cause of death among adolescents in the US – but research into the trends has tended to exclude young children, say authors analyzing the numbers. Their analysis looks exclusively at the group aged 5-11 years and finds that while the rate has remained steady overall, an increasing proportion of young black …
Why Big Pharma is not addressing the failure of antidepressants – Colin Hendrie And Alasdair Pickles
Around a quarter of people experience depression at some point in their lives, two-thirds of whom are women. Each year more than 11m working days are lost in the UK to stress, depression or anxiety and there are more than 6,000 suicides. The impact of depression on individuals, families, society and the economy is enormous. Front-line therapies usually include medication. All the commonly …
Psychiatric Hospitals: On Being Sane In ‘Insane Places” – Dr. Gary G. Kohls
In 1973, D. L. Rosenhan published a ground-breaking psychiatric study in January 19 issue of Science magazine. The article exposed a serious short-coming in the psychiatric hospitals at the time, and therefore it became very controversial. Dr. Rosenhan, a professor of psychology and law at Stanford University, designed the study to try to answer the title question: “If sanity and insanity …
Anxiety Speeds Cellular Aging – Maylin Rodriguez-Paez
We’ve always known that anxiety takes a toll on the human body. Anxious people are more likely to suffer from heart disease and other diseases, for example. To date, however, we haven’t been too sure about anxiety’s effects on aging. Interestingly enough, a new study shows anxiety shortens telomeres, the end caps of DNA. The results were published online in …
Obamacare: Death to Physicians? Suicide Rates Climb Since ACA Passed – Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D
Chaos and disruptions in medical care have had one tragic and destructive effect that no one is addressing: the deaths of more than 2,000 physicians by suicide since Obamacare was passedby means of strong-arming and bribery. Physicians in general have a higher rate of suicide than other professional groups and the general public. Women physicians’ suicide rates are reported to …
MIT’s Suicide Rate Far About National Average – Veena Trehan
Last week NPR ran a story about recent suicides at MIT which highlighted the “imposter syndrome,” in which students feel like a fraud, dismissing their earlier accomplishments. The article also emphasized other non-academic factors in stress. I believe the not-so-subtle attempt at victim blaming downplayed MIT’s contributions to its students’ poor mental health. For many years, MIT’s rate of suicide was far above the …
Suicide, A Worldwide Epidemic – GRAHAM PEEBLES
A friend recently asked to meet for coffee. ‘I’ve had some more bad news,’ his text said. A ‘fifty something’ year old friend had taken his own life the day before. Jack had hanged himself from a tree in a public park on the outskirts of London; it was his fourth attempt. He had four children. This was the second, …