This post is by Doctor Getting Sober. Does a Diagnosis Make a Difference? My last post – The Retreat led to an interesting discussion about depression and anti-depressants in the comments section amongst fellow bloggers. I had been to my GP as I’m off work so needed a sick note. I asked my doctor to …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is factitious disorder imposed on another, also known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. While Munchausen by proxy is likely the name that’s most recognizable, the name for the disorder in the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical …
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings by Dr. Randolph M. Nesse digs into the science of evolutionary psychiatry to understand why mental illness persists, He explains that while the illnesses themselves aren’t evolutionary adaptations, our vulnerabilities to them may have had evolutionary purposes. He takes the rather refreshing approach of acknowledging both the good and the bad …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is diathesis-stress model. This week’s term may sound a bit obscure, but bear with me, because it’s actually quite relevant. A diathesis-stress model, also known as stress-vulnerability model, is used to explain the course of a mental disorder …
What Is… a Diathesis-Stress Model of Mental Illness Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is anosognosia. I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard this term before, so let’s break it down. Agnosia is an inability to recognize people or things. Nosology is the classification of diseases. Throw the two together, and you get …
This is a follow-up to a recent post on why I think direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs is wrong. This post is going to look specifically at marketing by drug companies aimed at health care professionals. Primarily this relationship between Big Pharma and psychiatry involves targeting physicians, as they’re doing the majority of the prescribing. …
Big Pharma & Psychiatry: Cozier Than They Should Be? Read More »
The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression by psychiatrist Edward Bullmore presents inflammation as a new frontier in tackling depression. The author’s bio at the beginning of the book reveals that he works at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. He doesn’t try to be subtle about disclosing this, and I didn’t pick up any overt …
I became a nurse in 2004, which was before I became mentally ill. Even then, I wasn’t a fan of using a 1-10 mood rating scale with my patients. It struck me as a bit of a cop-out, and a poor substitute for actually exploring with the person how they were feeling. Adventures in hospital …
Why I Hate the 1 – 10 Mood Rating Scale for Depression Read More »
From abuses in asylums to horrific “experiments” in Nazi Germany, the anti-psychiatry movement arose in response to perceived abuses within the mainstream psychiatric establishment. Yet has the movement actually brought about any sort of positive change for those people living with mental illness? Or has it generated more of an academic debate that’s had a …
Is the Anti-Psychiatry Movement Helping Mentally Ill People? Read More »
While some sources of trauma are time-limited, others occur repeatedly over prolonged periods of time. The term complex PTSD is used to capture the profound psychological harm these people exposed to the latter have experienced, including changes in self-concept, problems with emotional regulation, distorted perceptions of the perpetrator, and impaired relationships with others. Diagnostic systems …
