A few links to articles that caught my eye this week:
- The Rise Of Marketing-Based Medicine // Pharmalot “We propose that while evidence-based medicine is a noble ideal, marketing-based medicine is the current reality…
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- Learning to Sit with Depression: The Boulder Center for Mindfulness Psychotherapy — Mindfulness of our emotions is not the same as acting out the emotion and it is not wallowing in feeling bad. It is the process of literally “sitting” with the emotion: nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to fix, just being 100% present with the emotion as an object to observe and investigate with care. This shift in relationship from subjective reactivity, in which we are continually hijacked by our emotions, to an objective relationship, in which we can be with our emotions in a state of inner silence, has an immensely powerful healing effect. It literally creates a space in which the emotion can change from within. So, if you feel overwhelmed by anxiety, fear, worry, guilt or depression, then Mindfulness Meditation Therapy will be of great value to you.
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- Informed Consent Bill On Psychotropics Back In NJ // Pharmalot — “Some doctors still are not taking the time to explain the risks associated with these meds,” (in my experience it seems like most doctors don’t take the time)
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- Slow breathing reduces pain — The findings offer an explanation for prior reports that mindful Zen meditation has beneficial effects on pain and that yogic breathing exercises can reduce feelings of depression. These results also underline the role that a person’s positive or negative attitude can have on their feelings of pain. (and given there are thousands of years of experience in these disciplines, they are often worth pursuing)
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- Antidepressants May Complicate Breast-Feeding on Yahoo! Health
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- Diabetes, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies « Urocyon’s Meanderings — Most people who have taken psych meds have some sort of blood sugar problem. This is a very good alternative view and understanding of how to cope with some of those issues.
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- Seroquel XR’s New Ad Spit, Bristle and Fury — Here, they are positioning their Seroquel XR as a fix for “bipolar depression.” They show scene after dreary scene of miserable looking people who have half faded into the grays and browns of their equally dreary environments, all while an instrumental from Badly Drawn Boy plays in the background. Oddly, one thing that separates this ad from a lot of the others is that it doesn’t switch to bright scenes of people laughing with friends at parties or rolling around in green, sun bathed fields. It stays pretty gray, though one woman does find the strength to get up off the couch. At least in that respect it’s a little closer to reality, considering a lot of people’s experience with this drug and others like it.
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- Brain scan diagnoses misunderstanding of diagnosis MindHacks — “There have been a lot of media stories in the past week about a study from the US military supposedly showing that a new form of brain scan can diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in army veterans. Although interesting, the study doesn’t show any such thing and this is an example of a common misconception that regularly appears as a form of ‘new biological test diagnoses mental disorder’ story.”