More links from the week:
- Saving Normal? Spit, Bristle and Fury — “It’s interesting to see someone in psychiatry addressing the notion of false epidemics of mental disorder when a committee decision and ever changing public opinion are all that separate a “real” epidemic from a false one. That said, committee decisions and public opinion have proven quite powerful and if you look back, the release of each DSM has brought on a rash of newly mentally ill. If history proves a good indicator, there will be millions of people who are normal today and mentally ill in 2013 — all thanks to a book with the power to categorize and medicalize the human condition. How much sorrow is too much? How excited can you be about everyday things before you are manic? And now with the proposed introduction of psychotic risk syndrome, anyone who isn’t deemed mentally ill can be subject to the book’s reach simply out of fear that they may be in time.”
- New Drug Strategy for Depression? | Psych Central News –“A new study suggests a new approach to pharmaceutical management of depression may be just on the horizon. The emerging opinion has scientists interested in a group of brain chemicals that are involved in virtually all of our brain activity. The study shows that compared to healthy individuals, people who have major depressive disorder have altered functions of the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid).” Since this research is dealing with GABA receptors and we know that benzodiazepines work on GABA to terrible detriment to those who withdraw, I can’t help but think again, this line of thinking is flawed. Leave my GABA alone. Thanks very much.
- FDA May Prosecute More Pharmaceutical Execs — Pharmalot
- Vitamin D lifts mood during cold weather months — PhysOrg.com