May 15: Don't charge people with mental health problems for overdrafts, charity tells banks -
more than half of Mind survey respondents say they have gone without food due to crippling debt.

May 1: Psychologist's non-drug approach provokes storm of reactions - psychiatrists call NHS clinician's work “dangerous”. But other professionals give support

April 18: Anti-depressants: which research should we believe? SSRIs are clinically beneficial, says the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. But a high-profile study claims they are no more useful than placebo for mild and moderate depression. Who is right? Report by Adam James

EXCLUSIVE:
April 18: Underground recovery - Clinical psychologist Rufus May explains why, when using a non-drug approach to help a doctor who heard voices, he had no choice but to work in secret.

EXCLUSIVE:
April 14: "Unlikely" that key genes cause schizophrenia - according to most comprehensive genetic study of its kind. Report by Adam James

April 11: Launch inquiry into social worker stabbing, says MP - Philip Ellison, 47, left, killed during a visit to Preston supported housing for people with mental health problems

Comment:
April 9, 2008: This tide's already changed
The recovery approach in mental health is not new. Our research-based recovery model has been operating across the world for 10 years, say Phil Barker and Poppy Buchanan-Barker.

Comment
April 2, 2008: The anti-psychotic myth exposed?
Anti-psychotics are not effective long-term, shrink the brain and almost triple the risk of an early death, a London NHS psychiatrist and academic has written in a new book. Has the mental health establishment got it wrong over the true validity of such drugs, asks Adam James

April 2: Mental health TV drama seen by 1.3 million - Poppy Shakespeare was a dramatisation of the book, left, by Clare Allen who spent ten years as a patient at a London day centre. What did you think?

March 26: More people should have therapy for "problem anger” urges charity - there is mounting evidence linking anger with heart disease, stroke, cancer and violence, states report

March 20: 'Recovery' approach in mental health is idea 'whose time has come' - charity bids to present principles behind “empowering” philosophy of care

March 20: Psychiatric patients launch test case for right to smoke while detained - patients could be only group of people banned from smoking "in the privacy of their own home", judges told

Feb 29: New therapists to "cure" 450,000 depressed and anxious people in three years, says government - trainee psychologists, nurses and graduate workers will each have up to 250 patients per year, Alan Johnson, left, announces

Feb 20: No increased suicidal behaviour of children after anti-depressant reduction - study rebuffs concerns after doctors were advised not to prescribe SSRIs to under 18s

Feb 14: Patient strangles woman on Rochdale psychiatric ward - Telahum Tedola attacked Rosalyn McManus, pictured left, because she accused him of being a spy.

Feb 14: Appoint good leaders to end violence on psychiatric wards, urges psychiatrist - Paul Lelliot calls for change after audit finds most nurses on psychiatric wards have been assualted

Feb 1: Lewis doubts worth of Henderson Hospital - minister questions the effectiveness of underthreat therapeutic community

Feb 1: Psychiatric wards are “frightening and dangerous” - Mental Health Act commissioners say they are also "tougher, scarier places” than they were 10 years ago.

Jan 31: It's no joke - website visitors reprimand authors of offensive comments after fire at Southampton psychiatry unit

Jan 23: Psychiatric nurse cautioned after falling in love with patient - Karen Brock found to have failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries

EXCLUSIVE:
Jan 16: Schizophrenia psychologist launches 'coming off' psychiatric drugs website - Rufus May, left, fears medication withdrawal effects are confused with illness symptoms

Jan 16: Stigma is no laughing matter - Adam James profiles Sue Baker, head of the largest ever campaign to tackle the stigma linked to mental health

Jan 16: 'The Henderson saved my life' - here's why the acclaimed personality disorder unit should stay open, writes Kath Lovell

Jan 10: Private psychiatric units increasingly used to detain patients - new figures show 24 per cent increase of detentions in independent hospitals

Jan 10: ADHD drug prescribing soars in Scotland - more than 8 per cent of Scottish people aged 15 and over take antidepressants daily, new figures also reveal

Mental health comment:
Jan 10, 2008: The wrong advice - The national clinical guideline on depression is flawed, acts as a mouthpiece for pharmaceutical firms and pays lip service to the views of service users. We must now challenge it, says Malcolm Learmonth

Dec 18, 2007: Government is two years late on mental health home treatment promise - finds the National Audit Office

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