collaborative practice

Stopping antidepressants

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) has recently issued information about stopping the taking of prescribed antidepressants. It covers the following topics: What are antidepressants? What symptoms might you experience when stopping antidepressants and how severe can they be? What causes antidepressant withdrawal symptoms? Who is affected by antidepressant withdrawal symptoms? How can I tell if it is withdrawal symptoms, or my depression/anxiety coming back? Does this mean that antidepressants are addictive or can cause dependence? When and how to stop antidepressants Examples of tapering plans Appendix 1: Risk of withdrawal symptoms with individual antidepressants Appendix 2: Potential types of withdrawal symptoms The provision of this information is a welcome step – one that the RCP’s counterparts in the USA (the…
Read more

Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

“An updated edition of the classic history of schizophrenia in America, which gives voice to generations of patients who suffered through “cures” that only deepened their suffering and impaired their hope of recovery” This book has been written by award-winning journalist…
Read more

Animal-Assisted Interventions as an Adjunct to Therapy for Youth: Clinician Perspectives

This paper – co-authored by Erin Flynn, Jaci Gandenberger, Megan Mueller and Kevin Morris – has been published in the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. The abstract says: “Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) are increasingly used as a complementary therapy in clinical…
Read more

The case for funding psychedelics to treat mental health

“Scientists are developing psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, into a treatment for depression.” Reporting for Vox, Sigal Samuel writes : “… drugs like traditional antidepressants are, at best,  only a partial solution . While their effectiveness has been hotly contested over the past…
Read more

Cultural Perspectives on Mental Wellbeing: Spiritual Interpretations of Symptoms in Medical Practice

This book has been written by Dr. Natalie Tolbert. The publishers say: “As human migration brings an ever more diverse range of people, cultures and beliefs into contact, Western medical systems must adapt to cater for the different approaches it encounters…
Read more

Are mental health disorders ever purely biological?

“Think about the basic framework of this proposition: an animal that has evolved for millions of years, roughly 350,000 in the present form, experiences its greatest century to date in terms of population expansion, while simultaneously billions of our brains…
Read more

Pharmaceuticals as a market for “lemons”: Theory and practice

“Markets for ‘lemons,’ in which customers fall victim to a product or service with flaws, and sellers profit from not disclosing hidden risks or dangers, are a theoretically rich but unexplored domain for social scientists studying information asymmetry, where sellers…
Read more

Interview with Prof. John Read about the campaign for an independent review of ECT

This video-interview with Prof. John Read was conducted by Dr. Lucy Johnstone as part of the A Disorder For Everyone online festival, held September 18, 2020. It includes a discussion of ECT compared to the placebo effect, the risks of brain…
Read more

Should we, can we, halt the rise in prescribing for pain and distress?

“Prescribers may want to move towards a ‘selective-use protocol’ based on individualised trial of medication and change depending on immediate and short-term response, 5  rather than the indiscriminate current ‘offer to all with a diagnosis’ method of practice.” Written by Prof….
Read more

The trouble with antidepressants: why the evidence overplays benefits and underplays risks

“Widespread prescribing has not reduced mental disability or suicide, raising questions about the assessment of evidence on effectiveness and safety of antidepressants” This essay by John B. Warren has been published the British Medical Journal (BMJ). It begins: “Depression can be…
Read more

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox:

Your email address will not be passed to any other organisation. It will only be used to send you new posts made on this website.

MENU