fatty acids and suicide risk

Lowered levels of a specific fatty acid has been found to increase the risk of suicide:

fatty acids and suicide risk

Is schizophrenia really a brain disease?

Something to ponder:

Is schizophrenia really a brain disease?

quotations on madness 7

If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather. Try to understand the blackness, lethargy, hopelessness, and loneliness they’re going through. Be there for them when they come through the other side. It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it is one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you will ever do. ~ Stephen Fry

second moon-walker on depression and Robin Williams

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has posted on his Facebook page about his own experiences with depression and the suicide of Robin Williams:

I regarded Robin Williams as a friend

copy cat suicides

A suicide by a young person is linked to a significant increase in subsequent in "copy-cat" self-inflicted deaths. This article tells more:

Are Copycat Suicides Real?

flu in pregnancy increases the risk of bipolar disorder in the child

A research article which tells how pregnant mothers’ exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly fourfold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood:

flu in pregnancy and bipolar disorder

chromosomal abnormalities in schizophrenia

The latest research on this topic here:

Schizophrenia's Genetic Skyline Rising

social anxiety in adolescents

A fairly new podcast on social anxiety disorder in young people:

Social Anxiety in Adolescents

neuropsychiatry of anorexia nervosa

Here is a link to some new research on what is happening in the brain in cases of anorexia nervosa:

Novel Research in the Neuropsychiatry of Anorexia Nervosa

heroin addiction

An article about heroin addiction in the United States:

Heroin Addiction: A Chronic Disease, Like Any Other

Advances in Psychiatry: Understanding Indigenous Cultures

Here is an interesting article by a psychiatrist working in New Zealand:

Advances in Psychiatry - Understanding Indigenous Cultures

musical madness 8

quotations on madness 6

stigma

some statistics

a cure for depression

why we choose suicide

living with bipolar type II

anxiety disorders and panic attacks

eating disorders from the inside out

depression is a disease of civilization

Psychocracy and Community

Those of you who know me personally will recognise that I have no religious leanings whatsoever. However, here is a sermon from a minister about the rise of  psychiatry and its association with the drugs industry. It's definitely worth reading:

Psychocracy and Community

a song about medications that every nurse should watch

psychiatric drugs and informed consent

Do patients who are prescribed psychiatric drugs really give informed consent? Are they told the potential negative effects of the drugs, or are they just told the positives? Here's a link to an article that may answer those questions:

A Model Consent Form for Psychiatric Drug Treatment

Antipsychotics Linked to Cognitive & Memory Impairments

Finnish reseachers report in Schizophrenia Research that antipsychotic use is associated with cognitive and memory impairments. The University of Oulu team studied forty people diagnosed with schizophrenia and 73 controls at the ages of 34 and 43 years. “Higher antipsychotic dose-years by baseline were significantly associated with poorer baseline performance in several dimensions of verbal learning and memory, and with a larger decrease in short-delay free recall during the follow-up,” they observed.

“The use of high doses of antipsychotics may be associated with a decrease in verbal learning and memory in schizophrenia years after illness onset,” the researchers concluded. “The results do not support the view that antipsychotics in general prevent cognitive decline or promote cognitive recovery in schizophrenia.”

Lifetime use of antipsychotic medication

a pill for everything

not necessarily a bad thing