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Listed 2004 news archive

Dec 21: Significant increase in psychiatrist and psychologist recruitment, reports mental health tsar - But Louis Appleby report shows staff shortages remain problem in mental health services

Dec 13: MPs get Christmas card highlighting meager benefit amount for psychiatric inpatients - £15.90 per week is simply not enough, says Mind.

Clinical psychology comment
Dec 13: The usefulness of self harm - Self harm can be an imaginative way to cope with trauma. To avoid shaming people who self harm clinical psychologists should not assume that self harm is wrong, argues Sam Warner

Dec 13: Discharge rules from medium secure units in Wales to be reviewed after stabbing - investigation identified failure in "12 hour missing" rule

Dec 13: Council apologises for not funding place for learning difficulties boy detained in adult psychiatric unit for 18 months - council to pay the 18-year-old and his mother £30,000 for distress caused.

Dec 6: No evidence that SSRI antidepressants likely to increase suicidal behaviour, watchdog announces - guidelines also issued for treatment of depression

Nov 29: Draw up public mental health strategy, psychiatrists urge government - There's no choice in mental illness, says statement from Royal College of Psychiatrists after public health white paper launch.

Book extract
Nov 29: Remembering the lunatics of The Great War - Peter Barham tells the stories of 'shell-shocked' First World War soldiers sent to Napsbury War Hospital, near St Albans, Hertfordshire

Nov 16: Reform of system for regulating psychiatric drugs outlined by ministers - Commission for the Safety of Medicines members can not have interests in pharmaceutical industry.

Nov 16: Draft mental health bill risks breaching rights of patients and would be unworkable - parliamentary committee hears

Nov 16: Women's wing of Mad Pride mental health group to launch - "Mad Chicks" backed by Lynne Segal, professor of psychology and gender studies

Nov 8: "I am the first active mental health service user working as a university professor" - claims academic Peter Beresford in award-winning essay

Nov 8: American state's plans to screen population for mental health problems met with fierce criticism - Illinois seen as testing ground for controversial policy

Nov 8: National ward round code bid - social worker pushes for professional 'code of good practice'

Oct 29: UK independence party accused of "shocking" discrimination against people with mental health problems - party bans people "with a record of serious mental illness"

Comment:
Oct 25: Want to reduce mental health stigma? Then let me film inside psychiatric wards - urges BBC Scotland's health correspondent Eleanor Bradford

Oct 25: Mental health is losing out in Scotland - Richard Norris says government talk of mental health being a priority does not match the figures

Oct 21: Professor of psychological medicine claims half of journal articles written by those with interest in selling researched drugs - health select committee also told drug firms bribe doctors and "ghostwrite" articles

Oct 19: Psychotherapists and counsellors' code of conduct and register plan welcomed - "For the first time clients will be protected," says Phillip Hodson

Oct 19: Professionals urged to provide evidence to inquiry into mental health of elderly

Clinical psychology comment
Oct 11: More work less therapy - If clinical psychologists really want to assist clients they should focus on helping them find employment as much as providing cognitive therapy, argues Peter Kinderman

Oct 11: Autistic man held informally in a psychiatric hospital without safeguards for sectioned patients had rights breached - government must therefore amend mental capacity bill, says Mencap

Book extract:
Oct 11: My way to recovery Suzy Johnstone was diagnosed with manic depression. Her book, The Naked Bird Watcher, was dedicated to the professionals responsible for her care.

Oct 5: Government at risk of failing to meet mental health health service targets, says report - progress of Labour's 10-year plan to improve mental health care is "patchy" says mental health charity

Sept 27: Do more to expose elderly abuse in care homes, psychiatrists urged - Charles Morris suggests psychiatrists too often just "shake their head" in dismay when witnessing unprofessionalism or abuse

Sept 21: Mental health charity banned from unveiling statue of Winston Churchill in a straitjacket - protest against mental health stigma was bad taste, Rethink organisation told.

Sept 21: Prozac must have suicide warning - advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration agree antidepressants can cause some young people to become suicidal.

Sept 21: Psychiatrists back government bid to step up early intervention for children with mental health problems - plans unveiled in national service framework for children, young people and maternity services

Sept 9: Government publishes revised draft mental health bill - but it is greeted with universal condemnation from bodies representing mental health professionals and service users.

Sept 6: More than half of psychiatric inpatients verbally or physically threatened by other patients or staff, survey reports - but MIND's survey's validity likely to be questioned due to small sample

Sept 6: British Psychological Society hits back at claims it is prejudiced towards overseas clinical psychologists - Martin Seager accuses society of being "arrogant, elitist, and unaccountable"

Sept 6: American parents sue GlaxoSmithKline over Seroxat

Sept 6: Mental health unit in Cornwall investigates deaths of three patients over four months - none of deaths being treated as suicide.

Aug 30: GlaxoSmithKline to pay £1.4m to settle charges it hid research that Seroxat could increase suicidal behaviour in children

August 26: Psychiatrists rebuke colleagues over remarks on self harming patients - concern after people who self harm described as "wilfully immature"

August 23: Warning that Efexor antidepressant is associated with increasing number of suicides and accidental fatal overdoses - deaths equivalent to 8.5 for every million prescriptions

Aug 20: Most mental health care professionals treat service users with respect and dignity, according to report by NHS watchdog - media, professional bodies and voluntary sector should, therefore, stop their "constant denigration" of mental health services and staff, says mental health tsar Louis Appleby

August 4: Clinical psychology publishes landmark critique of ADHD and use of psychiatric medication for children - "overzealous" mental health professionals prescribe "addictive and brain-disabling" drugs, argue clinicians

Exclusive: July 29: Second SSRI anti-depressant maker accused of suppressing evidence that drug causes suicidal behaviour - Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, faces American lawsuit

July 29: Treat people who self harm with respect, new guideline urges professionals - A&E staff should also receive specialist training, NICE recommends

July 27: Warning that Seroxat may increase the risk of suicide in young adults to be issued throughout Europe - but Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency issues no warning to British doctors, reports independent.co.uk

July 27: Mental health trusts given go-ahead to apply for foundation status

July 26: Treating depression in later life
We need to implement the evidence that exists - bmj.com editorial

July 19: Revised draft mental health bill to be published in September

July 19: People diagnosed with mental illness to be protected from discrimination at work

July 19: Psychiatrist who in American founded pioneering non-drug treatment project for people in psychosis dies - Dr Loren Mosher described as a "Schindler" of psychiatry

July 19: Compulsion and psychiatry—the role of advance statements: Liberation cannot be handed to the oppressed by the oppressor - bmj.com editorial

July 12: Senior educational psychologist reprimanded for failing clients due to being "swamped" with work and personal misfortune - case serves as warning for private practitioners

July 12: Trust could have to pay £3.8m to mental health patient who fell from building

July 4: Men twice as likely to commit suicide as women, according to National Statistics research

July 4: Melvyn Bragg to be honorary fellow of Royal College of Psychiatrists - as are mental health law expert Dr Genevra Richardson and Princess Anne

July 4: Antidepressants and suicide: what is the balance of benefit and harm - clinical review in British Medical Journal

Profile: July 4: Verse with a quirk - profile of Carol Batton, described as the poet laureate of the mental health "survivor's" movement

June 28: Trust admits "shortcomings" after woman found dead 15 days after being discharged from psychiatric ward - family is awarded £235,000 in damages

June 28: GlaxoSmithKline to publish results of clinical trials on internet in a bid to rebuild reputation after Seroxat controversy - drug firm denies decision is a result of legal action

June 28: Ritalin-pioneering psychiatrist suspended for undermining patients' trust in treatment

June 28: Government launches scheme to tackle mental health stigma

June 21: Government might follow example of US plans and screen population for mental illness, according to psychiatrist - But would Bush's controversial policy allowed to be adopted in the UK?

June 21: Excessive variation in standard of care for schizophrenia patients in Scotland, report reveals - but NHS Quality Improvement Scotland found progress in improving services.

June 21: Campaigners warn measures in new mental health capacity bill will fail unless advocates are available

June 21: Early intervention for first episode psychosis - British Medical Journal editorial

Draft mental health bill latest
June 15: Government unlikely to push through reform of mental health law before general election - there's not enough time for mental health bill say mental health charities and professional bodies

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June 14: Regulatory body to warn some SSRI antidepressants can cause adults to become suicidal

June 14: Social exclusion unit reveals how millions of lives are destroyed by the stigma of mental health problems - increasing discrimination at every level of society

June 14: Mental health problems cost Northern Ireland £3bn

June 14: Psychoanalysts line up for therapeutic row - professional body enraged by website address that is too close to home, reports societyguardian.co.uk

June 7: Ex porn editor launches mental health magazine with charity - 'There There' to be available in GP surgeries.

June 7: Glaxo faces Seroxat fraud lawsuit - claims that firm suppressed results of studies showing Seroxat was no more effective than a placebo and even harmful.

June 7: Government launches national network "to raise standard of mental health and social care research"

June 7: Mental illness should be recognised as a disability, - says parliamentary committee

June 7: Mental health hospital staff need better training, says National Institute for Mental Health guide

May 30: Psychiatric wards 'to get spot checks' following concerns about standards of care - new monitoring bid by the Mental Health Act Commission

May 30: Almost half of youngsters in council care in Wales and Scotland have mental health problem - according to government's data agency National Statistics

May 30 Big Issue co-founder joins publisher promoting work by people diagnosed with mental health problem - Chipmunka Publishing gets profile boost

May 30: Munchausen syndrome by proxy and sudden infant death - Education and Debate article in the British Medical Journal

May 17: Benefits for patients of allowing mental health nurses to prescribe yet to be proven, says government adviser

May 17: Most people with mental health problem feel isolated, says report by mental health charity - lack of relationships and social support, stigma and discrimination to blame

May 10: Patients who have experienced side effects of psychiatric drugs will be able to report direct to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency - new proposals for "yellow card" scheme being considered by Department of Health.

May 10: Psychiatric patients in Romania violated, says human rights group - Amnesty International calls for urgent reform of psychiatric hospitals in the eastern european country.

May 10: Plaque unveiled at former Nazi Germany psychiatric institution to honour murdered psychiatric patients

Repercussions for mental health professionals following David Bennett inquiry
May 3: All mental health staff to receive anti-racist training - ministers accept recommendation of inquiry into the death of David "Rocky" Bennett in 1999
April 24: Restraint training to go ahead for all mental health nurses

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May 3: Alcohol and drug abuse causing dramatic escalation of violence against staff and patients in Scottish psychiatric wards - patients ask nurses to be given extra powers to search fellow patients and visitors

April 19: Psychiatrists support Scottish mental health charity's call for need for independent research into psychiatric drugs - Scottish Association for Mental Health survey reveals 60% of service users found medication unpleasant.

April 19: 50,000 people with mental health problems 'left to rot' - warns the charity Rethink. But health minister Rosie Winterton puts the case for the government.

April 4: Psychosis early intervention network to drive forward innovation - £360,000 to be granted to the network run by the National Institute for Mental Health and mental health charity Rethink.

April 4: Inquiry into self-harm amongst 11-25 year olds launched

April 4: Kosovan asylum seekers should not be sent home before mental health needs are assessed, urges charity

April 4: GPs 'forced' to overprescribe antidepressants - survey shows 80% of doctors believe they are writing too many prescriptions for SSRIs

March 28: Research funding boost for National Institute for Mental Health

March 28: SSRI antidepressants must carry warnings that people might become suicidal while taking them - US drug regulator states

March 23: British Psychological Society still to announce date of investigation report into suspended chief executive - hotel bills a concern for the society

March 22: People with mental health problems have to lie to get everyday financial services, study reveals - researchers claim companies break disability law

March 21: Chief exec of Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency criticises charity boss for provoking "alarm" and "confusion" over antidepressant safety - Richard Brook faces rebuffal after accusing Committee of Safety on Medicines group of negligence over its investigations into SSRI antidepressants.

March 21: Mental health services of Welsh trust are threadbare, says Commission for Health Improvement report - chronic shortages of psychiatrists partly blamed

March 15: MIND's chief executive resigns from expert group reviewing safety of antidepressants - Richard Brook accuses regulatory agency of negligence

March 9: Health services needs "better" understanding of why and when a patient should consult a psychiatrist - urges top level report

March 9: Services should work together to ensure people leaving psychiatric hospitals have choices, - says Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

March 9: Two antipsychotic drugs should not be used for dementia patients - Committee for the Safety of Medicines recommends

March 9: Holy disorders - Is anorexia so different from the suffering of female saints throughout history? asks the Guardian

Feb 29: Physical restraint harms patients with learning difficulties - says National Patient Safety Agency report

Feb 29: 'Management of anorexia nervosa revisited; early intervention can help - but some cases still need tertiary inpatient care' - British Medical Journal editorial

Feb 22: London trust dismisses fears that drug dealers will be drawn to psychiatric unit

Feb 22: Psychiatrist who first studied LSD and schizophrenia dies aged 86 - obituary to Humphry Osmond,who introduced the word "psychedelic" to describe the effects of hallucinatory drugs

Feb 15: Government unlikely to act upon call for appointment of mental health and ethnicity "tsar" to combat racism in the NHS

Draft mental health bill latest:
Feb 15: Revised draft mental health bill will not satisfy critics, admits government - "I think we will be able to give a lot of reassurance, but there will be some people who just want a different bill," says Health Minister Rosie Winterton

Feb 15: Controversial disease dropped from Prozac product information - Lilly forced to drop one of the disorders it had previously listed for antidepressant

Feb 15: Cut down on benzodiazepine prescriptions, GPs warned

Feb 8: Ashworth Hospital patient who was 'lost in psychiatric system' to sue for £150,000

Feb 8: GlaxoSmithKline 'held back' data on SSRI anti-depressants for children - latest developments in the SSRI controversy. Plus, advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration warn that SSRIs may increase suicidal thinking among children.

Feb 8: 'Abscess' of NHS racism revealed - verdict follows investigation into the death of patient at Norvic Clinic psychiatic unit in Norwich.

Feb 8: Psychiatric patient jailed for attack on staff at Royal Edinburgh Hospital

Feb 1: Psychological therapies recommended for people with eating disorders - NICE approves CBT and other psychological interventions

Feb 1: Leading clinical psychologist describes feelings of "helplessness" and "uncontrolled weeping" after taking neuroleptic - Richard Bentall also speaks about his own experience of depression

Feb 1: Psychiatrist quits over 'fears of safety' in East Surrey Hospital's accident and emergency department

Feb 1: SANE charity to tackle Sun editor over coverage of Shipman suicide

Jan 27: Delay conceded in report on death of black patient in Norfolk Mental Health Care Trust clinic - reports the Guardian

Jan 26:Royal College of Psychiatrists supports rehab care which has patient "recovery" as its aim

Jan 26: 'I feel robbed. I thought I'd die in there' - Out of Broadmoor Hospital after 25 years, playwright Janet Cresswell talks to the Independent newspaper

Jan 26: Strike by nurses averted at Cumbrian psychiatric unit - reports BBC

Jan 26: New psychiatric units should be built to house prisoners with mental health problems, the chief inspector of prisons has recommended.

Jan 26: Guide launched for GPs and other primary care professionals who care for people with severe mental health problems

Profile: Jan 18: Stating his allegiances - Mental health tsar Prof Louis Appleby has taken much of the flak over the draft mental health bill. But where do his allegiances really lay? With the government, psychiatrists or service users?

Jan 18: British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy to complain over reality television show featuring sleep deprivation - 'Shattered' show was "misconceived and dangerous"

Jan 18: Mental health professionals urged not to ignore the views of carers - president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists says professionals who fail to listen to carers do so "at their peril".

Jan 18: BMJ editorial: Cognitive dysfunction in older people after non-cardiac surgery - Amber Selwood and Martin Orrell

Jan 18: UNICEF to launch psychological rehabilitation of Bam children

Jan 18: Decision to close Northumberland mental health unit put on hold

Draft mental health bill latest:
Jan 12, 2004: Mental health tsar indicates government to specify in more detail the conditions under which people can be detained - "There is no dark government intent behind the bill, says Louis Appleby. "It just did not feel in the end that we had got the right message about the criteria underwhich compulsion powers might be used."

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