Psych news for today:
- Alternative medicine isn’t taught to doctors in medical school | KevinMD.com — this is written as though it’s a surprise that doctors don’t know anything about herbs or supplements to those who conducted the study. I’ve never been under the illusion that they in general know anything about even simple good nutrition.
- Psychiatric Manifestations in Thyroid Patients: Written by Douglas Bremner MD
- Why I’ll never take the Pill again’ The Independent —In the past year, on top of the depression, I had been experiencing intense anxiety and paranoia that over time developed into a constant sense of dread. Explosions of rage came about from my unease, causing arguments with my boyfriend. The smallest disagreement slipped me into a cycle of anger and hopelessness. I felt I was losing my mind. I was taking the brand Yasmin, which I had requested from my doctor after reading in magazines about its amazing skin-clearing and weight-loss side effects. My sisters and many of my friends were also taking it. Yasmin was marketed aggressively in the US, and news of its supposed benefits spread quickly to young women in the UK. The New York Times recently described Yasmin as the “go-to drug brand for women”, which has been sold as a “quality-of-life” treatment. Last year the American FDA, in a landmark move, ordered Bayer Pharmaceuticals to produce a retraction commercial that qualified its claims. According to Dr Doug Bremner, author of Before You Take That Pill, Yasmin became the most complained-about drug on medications.com, which monitors the side-effects of popular drugs. Its unique element, the synthetic progesterone drospirenone, which has been linked in 74 lawsuits held against the manufacturer to serious physical side-effects such as blood clots, could also cause extreme mood changes.
- BBC4 to screen mental health documentary on sectioning | Media | guardian.co.uk — The media sinks to new lows in the exploitation of the vulnerable. (for those in the US, “sectioning” is the word used for commitment to a psychiatric ward)
- Moms, Intuition, and the Case Against Drugging Our Kids | CommonDreams.org — a parents discovery about how much diet affected her child’s mental health.