In the past, people suffering from delusional beliefs might have thought that they were Napoleon or that the KGB was tapping their phone. These days, many believe that they’re the star of a movie or a reality television show, even when they’re not.
Joel Werner reports from New York on the under-recognised influence of culture on mental health. The Truman Show Delusion.
The episode recreates the creation of delusion in easy top understand form – even suitable for children.
Posted in Audio, Australia, Formulation, Neurology, New Psychiatry, Paranoia, Real world, Recovery, Social constructionism
“The “therapeutic alliance” between clinician and client is a key ingredient in successful treatment, responsible for better clinical outcomes and lower rates of dropout. Biogenetic explanations held by clinicians can impair the therapeutic relationship and those held by clients can impede their recovery.” Nick Haslam
Blame it on biology: how explanations of mental illness influence treatment
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.”
Posted in Cannabis, Chemical Imbalance, psychedelics, Research
The Island Where People Forget to Die – NYTimes.com.
“…their daily routine unfolded much the way Leriadis had described it: Wake naturally, work in the garden, have a late lunch, take a nap. At sunset, they either visited neighbors or neighbors visited them. Their diet was also typical: a breakfast of goat’s milk, wine, sage tea or coffee, honey and bread. Lunch was almost always beans (lentils, garbanzos), potatoes, greens (fennel, dandelion or a spinachlike green called horta) and whatever seasonal vegetables their garden produced; dinner was bread and goat’s milk. At Christmas and Easter, they would slaughter the family pig and enjoy small portions of larded pork for the next several months… “
Does schizophrenia have genetic roots? …the best that geneticists have done is to identify 128 gene alleles (variants) that are “associated” with schizophrenia. This means that these gene variants might be “risk factors” for schizophrenia at most, but they scarcely can be thought of as causes.
Generally, prolonged withdrawal syndrome is not recognized by medicine. You will find very few doctors to diagnose it and still fewer to treat it. This is a collection of links that might help you educate yourself so that you can find more appropriate care when the time comes as well as hopefully avoiding falling ill at all.
Why do psychiatric drugs have withdrawal syndromes? – Beyond Meds.
“to resolve criminal and civil liability” for “promotion for uses not approved as safe and effective… and payment of kickbacks to physicians and to the nation’s largest long-term care pharmacy provider.” This is the “largest health care fraud settlements in U.S. history, including criminal fines and forfeiture totaling $485 million and civil settlements with the federal government and states totaling $1.72 billion.”
Posted in Biological Psychiatry, Chemical Imbalance, Drug myths, Harm, Human rights, neuroleptics, Pharma, Stigma, USA
