| 
 April
26: Double standards - Psychiatrist
Duncan Double (left) was once suspended from his NHS job for "deficient"
practice. Double tells Adam James that he believes it was
because he opposed psychiatry's biomedical approach
Profile:
Oct
5: 'ADHD is biobabble' -
Psychiatrist
Sami Timimi explains why he believes ADHD is a "cultural construct"
and how he weans children off ADHD drugs. Plus, psychminded exclusively
publishes a chapter, co-written by Timimi, from a new book, Making
and Breaking Children's Lives.
Mental health
comment
June
6: Our acute problem - To
alleviate the culture of violence on inpatient psychiatric wards
exposed by a Healthcare Commission audit, psychologists should have
more of a role in care, argues Rufus May. There should also
be more service user "consultants" helping manage wards
and training of staff. But above all, says May, we need more
non-medical residential alternatives to hospital care.
Mental
health comment
Feb
7, 2005: Compassion not compulsion
- psychiatric treatment by force amounts to state-sponsored violence,
says Rufus May.
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
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
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
June
14: Regulatory body to warn some SSRI antidepressants can cause
adults to become suicidal
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.
March
15: MIND's chief executive resigns from expert group reviewing safety
of antidepressants - Richard Brook accuses regulatory agency
of
negligence
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
1: Leading clinical psychologist describes feelings of "helplessness"
and "uncontrolled weeping" after taking neuroleptic
- Richard Bentall also speaks about his own experience of depression
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
Dec
20, 2003: Psychiatric patients should be protected from compulsory
treatment, argues long-time critic of psychiatry -
Thomas Szasz provokes criticism from psychiatrists who are also
service users.
Dec
19: Finding a way out of paranoia - a report on the
first self help group for people with extreme paranoia. Will it
make as big an impact on how 'delusions' are viewed as the Hearing
Voices Network continues to do with 'aural hallucinations'?
Oct
12: Psychology is so critical, only Marxism can save us now...
- Is critical psychology becoming just another commodity in the
academic market place, asks Ian Parker, professor of psychology
at Manchester Metropolitan University. Plus has the British Psychological
Society's agreement to be in discussions with the government on
the draft mental health bill weakened the position of the Mental
Health Alliance?
Sept
11: Is post-traumatic stress disorder a valid diagnosis?
Pat Bracken does not think so
August
29: President of the American Psychiatric Assocation meets with
hunger strikers protesting against psychiatric practice - latest
from this unprecedent action by US mental health campaigners.
Also see: August
23: US newspaper reports on a hunger strike by former psychiatric
patients protesting against drug firms' "stranglehold"
on psychiatry - Research by Mary Boyle, head of the doctoral
program in clinical psychology at the University of East London,
is quoted in the article as supporting the strikers' view
August
16: Pushing for compassionate and ethical psychiatric nursing
- Profile of Prof Phil Barker, psychiatric nurse and therapist who
has established his own consultancy promoting recovery after getting
fed up with the "diminishing returns" of academia
July
28: Bad behaviour by children is being falsely attributed to ADHD
and autism, claims Professor Priscilla Alderson.
Not true, responds educational psychologist Barry Bourne in the
Times newspaper. Plus:
Professor Peter Hill, adviser to the government on children's medication,
gives his views to the Guardian
on Ritalin
July
20: Social inequalities, madness and the system: where are we?
Mark
Bertram argues mental health service providers should attend more
to how disadvantage effects people's lives.
June
14: Seroxat banned for under-18s - the latest from the Guardian
.....
ECT news:
May
10: Shock tactics - Prof Phil Barker hopes new advice on ECT
treatment will lead to more responsible use of a 'dubious therapy'.
....
May
10: GPs accused of not reporting Seroxat suicides - reports
the Guardian
May
3: Seroxat maker abandons 'no addiction' claim - reports the
Guardian
May
3: Pharmaceutical
firm broke advertising rules over antidepressant - reports the
Guardian
March
30: SSRIs drug review halted over GlaxoSmithKline share links
- reports the Guardian
March
9: Psychiatrist who helped declassify homosexuality as mental illness
dies
- Dr John Fryer was, evidently, an important individual in the history
of psychiatry and mental health.
March
16: Coroner calls for inquiry into Seroxat - reports
the Guardian
Feb
23: Taking refuge. Prof Erica Burman argues black and minority
ethnic women are being prejudiced against in the provision of refuges
Feb
2: Observer newspaper report - Forty years since Valium came
on the market the alleged suffering and battle for compensation
from addiction continues...
Note:
To get a sense of the breadth and severity of patients' complaints
of Valium and similar drugs, go to www.benzo.org.uk
run by a former physicist from his Bournemouth flat.
Jan
30: Schizophrenia: A scientific delusion? Dr Jonathan Bindman
reveals a significant swing in opinion at the Institute of Psychiatry's
public debate on whether 'schizophrenia exists'
Jan
20: US psychiatrists' concern over drug sales reps sitting in on
treatments
January
1: "Manifesto" for mental health survivor workers launched
Dec
26, 2002: BMJ editorial: Bradford psychiatrists ask is it time to
move beyond the mind-body split - Dr
Phil Thomas and Dr Pat Bracken argue against a philosophical position
which they describe as an article "of faith for most doctors,
psychiatrists, and psychologists" and which "undermines
our ability to comprehend fundamental aspects of human suffering".
Dec
15, 2002: User Involvement and mental health: Critical reflections
on critical issues - Mark Bertram argues that while professionals
remain resistant to new ways of working, the service user movement
will remain powerless.
Oct
20: Profile of Susan Machin, former Ashworth social worker now fighting
for rights as a barrister - compelling story of the whistle-blower
whose testimony helped lead to changes at the high secure unit which
she now visits as a lawyer.
Oct
20: BMJ review on Panorama's "The Secrets of Seroxat"
- how plausible was this documentary on the addictive component
to Seroxat?
Oct
20: Website celebrates 75th anniversary "festwebschrift"
of Ronald Laing - the Glaswegian psychiatrist may still be controversial,
but to many he remains inspiring.
Oct
9: Women and Mental Health: A Brief Global Analysis - Mark Bertram
questions how gendered division of labour and family responsibility,
poverty and violence, contribute to women's mental ill health.
Sept
9: Summer of fear and protest: University of East London psychologist
reflects on a demonstration against the draft Mental Health Bill
- professionals and service users take to the streets against this
controversial proposed bill.
Aug
30: 'ADHD is not a brain disorder' Dutch Commission finds psychiatric
claim false - what do you think of this claim by the Church
of Scientology?
Aug
21: Psychiatrists, lawyers, and service users unite against proposed
mental health bill - is there anyone who supports this bill?
July
15: 'Six week stay in Hindu temple as good as medication' report
researchers - interesting read for those who believe the efficacy
of psychiatric medication is often over-stated
April 30: Another blank on schizophrenia gene - so will such
a gene ever be found?
April
23 Mentally-ill win human rights ruling
April
12: BMJ debate; The time has come for "post-psychiatry?
- Norfolk psychiatrist
Duncan Double proposes a social model for psychiatry
March
19: A Beautiful Mind; 'Cinematic Glorification of Psychiatric Drugs'?
- Mental health campaigners argue this film was influenced by clinicians
with a traditional medical model of mental illness
March
7: "Mad
in America" book critical of psychiatry -
the latest publication (by writer Robert Whitaker) from the US to
challenge traditional psychiatry
Feb
8: Guardian report of scandal of scientists who take money for papers
ghostwritten by drug companies
Jan
25: Critical psychiatry conference in Birmingham to "renew
mental health services" - A group of psychiatrists continue
to throw down a challenge to their profession
Jan
20: Biobank UK: Concerns in relation to mental health problems
- Doubts remain as to what extent genes can explain mental health
problems
Jan
15: Abuse 'triggers schizophrenia' claim NZ psychologists -
Some argue that childhood abuse is alarmingly unde-addressed in
understanding psychotic experiences.
Jan
11: Report on how support is growing for The Hearing Voices Network
- Psychminded looks at the influential user-led organisation
Other critical
minded articles (February-March 2002):
Making your decision count - "Here
in Bradford psychiatrists have made the remarkable step of giving
some of their power away to users" Profile of Peter
Relton who works for Bradford's Home Treatment Service. Relton is
the first UK service user who can help make 'clinical' decisions
about patients catered fo by an NHS psychiatric service.
Managing mania - Profile
of former teacher Lynn Clayton who managed her manic depression
for 30 years
A shocking experience - Patient
Sarah Panton has spent many hours in libraries researching ECT.
She thinks the controversial treatment is “unlawful”.
Psychology tackles psychosis
– Clinical psychologist Anne Cooke outlines how some professionals
are rethinking psychotic experiences .
A new vision for voices – If
it was not for social psychiatrist Prof Marius Romme the Hearing Voices Network might not
have been established when and how it did. He outlines his views
Using your resources
-
Bradford’s Home Treatment Service uses five times less medication
on its patients. It is also the first NHS service to employ a user
who can make clinical decisions.
Distress to policy - Profile
of pioneering former patient and academic Peter Beresford
Seeing the person behind the symptoms
- Nurse Ian Murray discusses his views on self-harm
The house that users built – Leeds’
Dial House is paving the way for user-led services
Making meaning from tragedy –
Bradford psychiatrist Phil Thomas listened attentively to his former
patient Sharon Lefevre on her views of self-harm.
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Psychminded. All rights reserved
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