more on cannabis decriminalisation

After California decriminalized marijuana, teen arrest, overdose and dropout rates fell. Read more here.

no direct link between being tough on drugs and tackling the problem

The UK government’s comparison of international drug laws, published on Wednesday last week, represents the first official recognition since the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that there is no direct link between being “tough on drugs” and tackling the problem. The full report is available here.

placebo effect

A great explanatory video about this phenomenon is available here:

The Placebo Effect

preventing suicide

"Every 40 seconds a person dies by suicide somewhere in the world. “Preventing suicide: a global imperative” is the first WHO report of its kind. It aims to increase awareness of the public health significance of suicide and suicide attempts, to make suicide prevention a higher priority on the global public health agenda, and to encourage and support countries to develop or strengthen comprehensive suicide prevention strategies in a multisectoral public health approach."

The full WHO report is available here:

Preventing Suicide - A Global Imperative

benzodiazepine use and Alzheimer's - is there a link?

A research article available from the link below seems to suggest that there is:

benzodiazepine use and risk of Alzheimer's

depression in pregnancy and the postpartum period

A July 2014 report on the antidepressant treatment of this phenomenon is available at this link:

Antidepressant treatment of depression in pregnancy

World Alzheimer Report 2014

"The World Alzheimer Report 2014, Dementia and Risk Reduction: An analysis of protective and modifiable factors critically examines the evidence for the existence of modifiable risk factors for dementia.

It focuses on sets of potential modifiable risk factors in four key domains: developmental, psychological and psychosocial, lifestyle and cardiovascular conditions. The report makes recommendations to drive public health campaigns and disease prevention strategies.

The report which was researched and authored by Prof Martin Prince, Prof Emiliano Albanese, Dr Maëlenn Guerchet and Dr Matthew Prina on behalf of the Global Observatory for Ageing and Dementia Care which is hosted at the Health Service and Population Research Department, King’s College London."

The full report is available at this link:

World Alzheimer Report 2014

St. Catherine of Siena

This 14th century Italian nun (1347-1380) has been described by some as the first recorded case of anorexia nervosa. She ate nothing for long periods of time, her only sustenance coming from communion wafers.

"For many years she had accustomed herself to so rigorous an abstinence, that the blessed eucharist might be said to be almost the only nourishment which supported her. Once she fasted from Ash Wednesday till Ascension-day, receiving only the blessed eucharist during that whole time."

taken from Vol. IV of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company.

This extreme example of fasting was frowned upon by clergy, and her own priest-confessor ordered her to eat properly. Catherine replied that she could not do so, describing the situation as an illness. The condition worsened to such an extent that by the beginning of 1380 she could neither eat not swallow water. 

"With the new year a great bodily change came over her, but still she struggled to continue her work, though now it was pain to her not only to eat, but even to swallow a sip of water, so that she was tormented with thirst."

taken from "St. Catherine of Siena" by Alfred W. Pollard (1919), published by Sidgwick & Jackson, London, England.

By the beginning of February she could no longer use her legs.

"She was so emaciated that her bones could be easily counted. She appeared withered, and her face worn and sunk, and it no longer presented the same beauty as formerly........Her body was then reduced to the state in which painters represent death; her limbs seemed to be those of a mere skeleton covered with a transparent skin. Her strength was so annihilated that she could not turn herself from one side to the other."

taken from "Catherine of Siena - A Biography" by Josephine E. Butler (1894; 3rd edition), published by Horace Marshall & Son of London, England.

Ultimately the condition led to her death in Rome on 29 April 1380.

evolutionary psychiatry

This website has a load of really interesting articles regarding evolutionary psychiatry:

evolutionary psychiatry

Examples include:

Is Gluten Causing Your Depression?

A Tangled Web: Wheat, Schizophrenia, and Infection

The Gut-Brain Connection, Mental Illness, and Disease

Coffee and Suicide

Folate and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

A Psychosis Caused By Our Immune System

Suicide and Vitamin D

vintage reads on substance abuse that you might have missed

advertisement for ECT machine

another reason not to take benzodiazepines

Research is indicating that the long-term use of benzodiazepines increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease development:

Long-term use of anxiolytics linked to Alzheimer's disease

latest research on the genetics of schizophrenia

An article from Psychiatric News on the latest research on the genetics of schizophrenia:

Dozens of schizophrenia risk loci identified

an experiment in dementia care

A video about the village of Hogewey in the Netherlands, where every resident has severe dementia:

Hogewey

yet another full film

Based on the only novel by American writer Sylvia Plath, which was semi-autobiographical. Plath committed suicide a month after the novel was first published in the United Kingdom (1963).

The Bell Jar

another full film

This time, a film from 1957 about a woman with a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder:

The Three Faces of Eve

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