The new strain of cannabis that could help treat psychosis | Society | The Guardian

Dr David Potter has overseen the production of nearly 2m cannabis plants, mostly for medical research or the production of the cannabis-based multiple sclerosis drug Sativex…

Potter has seen the extreme effects of both substance abuse and schizophrenia in his role as a magistrate for his local court. He recounts a recent case where a seemingly pleasant teenager, suffering from acute and sudden psychotic illness, had turned to alcohol and become violent.  “He ended up smashing someone’s teeth out for not really any reason at all,” says Potter. The defendant, now diagnosed and medicated, will still be found guilty despite his temporary insanity. “In court it just struck me what a nice chap he was.”

Study finds some schizophrenics do well without long-term antipsychotics – Chicago Tribune

“Patients who go off antipsychotics may drop off the radar of medical professionals, who mostly focus on the sickest patients, researchers say. And, in an era of intense stigma, patients who are off antipsychotics and functioning well are unlikely to discuss their experiences openly.”

” by the fifth year of the study, the schizophrenia patients who were off antipsychotics for extended periods actually were doing better than the patients who were on antipsychotics — perhaps because they had been less ill to begin with.”

The Myth of Ritalin’s Effectiveness

It’s all about relationships…

A structured learning resource for effective mental health peer work

Inner City Cadre Project (Sydney, Australia)

Funded by the Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP Salary Trust

A Community Project of St Vincent’s Inner City Health Service

The intention [here] is to provide a structured learning resource which will assist people to understand the requirements and skills for effective peer work.

Recovery from mental ill health is an individual experience which takes place in a broader social, political and historical context.

We are uniquely placed as peers to support people’s recovery in many different working environments. Peer workers support clients’ recovery not only through utilising their lived experience of mental ill health but drawing on the strategies they employed and skills they learned in the pursuit of health and wellbeing.

Peer workers bring their experience and skills not only to support and advocate for clients, but to collaborate and partner with clients and colleagues.

Mad studies brings a voice of sanity to psychiatry | Peter Beresford | Society | The Guardian

“Recovery” was meant to be the bright new idea of mental health policy. For many service users, however, it has become code for cutting support and trying to push people off benefits and into employment. The rhetoric of “user involvement” carries less conviction as the sector is reshaped more by a push to privatisation than by the appeal for parity of esteem with physical health policy….

Mad studies brings a voice of sanity to psychiatry | Peter Beresford | Society | The Guardian.