This paper offers real-world examples of how therapists can avoid resorting to coercive interventions while attempting to respectfully help those in severe distress. (Author is responsible for content.)
Category: NeuroPsyche
Six (6) *brief* news alerts for independent mental health: MindFreedom International News – 12 December 2009
These “inconvenient truth” brain damage medical studies — confirmed
by repeated animal studies, brain scans and autopsies — are now well
known throughout the medical field, but are almost never explained to
the general public, who are often the ones to pay for these expensive
prescriptions.
…
Op Ed: Choice in Mental Health is a Human Right (Mind Freedom International)
Many of the
medications currently provided are typically associated with
significant medical risk, are often experienced as subjectively
harmful, and their long-term effectiveness remains controversial.
Furthermore, there are widely researched psychosocial alternative
treatments likely to be at least as effective for many, with fewer
harmful effects.” …
Boehringer bets on female libido drug (FierceBiotech)
“This drug has the potential to finally open the door to acceptance of the idea that decreased desire can be something that involves a dysfunctional way the brain works, and not only a bad partner,”
said research Jim Pfaus
…
Clozaril (clozapine) [netdoctor]
Clozapine is restricted to treating schizophrenia in people who have not
responded to, or are intolerant of, other treatments, as it can cause rare, but
serious side effects. It is also used for treating psychotic illness in people
with Parkinson’s disease where other treatments have not worked.
Psychopharmacology: Atypical Antipsychotic Dosing: The Effect of Smoking and Caffeine
The width of the therapeutic window determines the clinical
significance of the plasma level changes associated with smoking
and caffeine intake. Compared with olanzapine, clozapine has a
much narrower therapeutic window. Several of clozapine’s side effects
are dose related: plasma levels higher than 1,000 ng per milliliter
have been associated with toxicity, including seizure risk and severe
sedation. …
‘Massive’ weight gain in kids on atypicals (FiercePharma)
The study has several implications. One, it’s more evidence that the atypicals,
once considered vastly superior to first-generation antipsychotics because of a
“favorable” side-effect profile, may not be that much better, just different.
Rather than risking tardive dyskinesia and akathisia as patients using first-gen
antipsychotics are, patients on atypicals risk major weight gain and metabolic
changes. …
Ray Sandford Victory Day: No Forced Shock Ever! (Mind Freedom International)
Ray’s last forced electroshock was on USA tax day, 15 April 2009.
By
coincidence the 15th of April was also the date of the very first
forced
electroshock, back in 1938 in Italy, when the subject cried out:
“Non una
seconda! Mortifierel” which means in Italian, “Not another!
It’s deadly!” …
Smoking, High Blood Pressure, and Diabetes May Lead to Dementia (From Medscape Medical News CME)
Previous research suggests that traditional cardiovascular risk factors may be
independent predictors of dementia, but this evidence is counterbalanced by
research findings that controlling chronic illness, such as maintenance of
normal blood pressure levels among older adults with hypertension, fails to
reduce the risk for dementia. The current study examines a large cohort of
adults followed up for more than a decade to better understand the relationship
between cardiovascular risk factors and the incidence of dementia. …
Homocysteine, Vitamin B12, Folate and Cognitive Functions: A Systematic and Critical Review of the Literature (Medscape CME)
An association between neuropsychiatric or neurological disorders (e.g.
‘subacute combined degeneration of the cord’) and vitamin Bsize=2>12 (cobalamin) deficiency has been recognised since
pernicious anaemia was first described in 1849 …