They're not even trying to avoid it---from MedScape: Metabolic Monitoring in Patients Prescribed Antipsychotics Abysmal January 28, 2009 — Among insured patients newly prescribed second-generation antipsychotics, monitoring of blood glucose and lipid levels falls far short of 2004 American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines, researchers report. The guidelines are based on substantial evidence that these drugs... Continue Reading →
Children and psych drugs—a critique
Nothing new here in this piece from the Patriot Ledger by Jacob Azerrad, but it's a nice song to the choir against the medicalization of normal child behavior. In a 2007 “60 Minutes” episode, Katie Couric focused on the short life of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley of Hull. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 3, she... Continue Reading →
A rant and a rave—gotta clear my chest
I've been dying to write this post all day. Whether I post it or not will remain to be seen. Today again I've been profoundly ill. I got up and had to go back to bed with nausea and pain for 3 hours. It's 3 pm now and I'm again barely functioning. My main emotion... Continue Reading →
No fixing “chemical imbalance”….
This video is excerpted from a full length documentary entitled "The Truth about 'Schizophrenia': Loren Mosher & Bob Whitaker visit Zuzu's Place." Loren Mosher was the first Chief of Schizophrenia Studies at NIMH and the founder of Soteria House, the wonderful residential treatment center where drugs were not used for psychotic individuals and there was... Continue Reading →
“Madness” as a spiritual and awakening journey
A reader passed on this piece to me in an email. I wrote the author and asked permission to publish it here. I highly recommend you look at his entire website. The man is doing truly inspired and wondrous work that had it's inception in a spiritual emergency that he writes about below. Another version... Continue Reading →
Yes, recovery can be lasting and real
Part of the reason some people are so skeptical about real and complete recoveries is because a lot of people who achieve it move on. The don't hang around the mental health blogosphere and most of them don't go into working in mental health like I probably will. Most of them go off and live... Continue Reading →
“Powerful antipsychotic medicines are being used far too cavalierly in children”
So begins the first sentence in this NYTs article. Powerful antipsychotic medicines are being used far too cavalierly in children, and federal drug regulators must do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks, a panel of federal drug experts said Tuesday. More than 389,000 children and teenagers were treated last year with Risperdal, one... Continue Reading →
Psych drugs kill people and psychiatrists aren’t even doing appropriate screening
Medical Monitoring Often Missing From Care of Patients From Psychiatric News November 7, 2008 Psychiatrists are told that they must assume responsibility for screening and monitoring severely mentally ill patients at high risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. Studies of lab orders for patients receiving second-generation antipsychotic (SGA) medications reveal that few are... Continue Reading →
Meanderings and Soteria House
This is an edited version of something I posted the first month I wrote this blog about a year and a half ago. I've grown since I wrote this and learned more about treating mental health issues naturally, I've left most of this piece unchanged, even though there is much more to add on this... Continue Reading →
The weight is dropping off
I always wondered what would happen once the neuroleptics (antipsychotics) were gone. Would my body, fat for so many years, just stay that way? I suspected yes. I somehow figured my body had simply learned to be fat. There are lots of studies on obesity that suggest the body wants to be the weight it... Continue Reading →
Excerpts from interviews with two different psychiatrists this week
I will make virtually no comments. Why don't all of you have at it? From The New York Times. A Conversation With Nancy C. Andreasen Q. AND WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND? A. I haven’t published this yet. But I have spoken about it in public lectures. The big finding is that people with schizophrenia are... Continue Reading →