Description: It is not a big secret so you have likely heard or read references to findings that antidepressant medications do not work for somewhere around 30% of those to whom they are prescribed and that most of those for whom they DO work will find at some point that they no longer work, and… Read more »
Posts Categorized: mental illness
Which Treatment is Best for Self-Harming and Suicidal Teens?
Description: Perhaps you have heard about the alarming increases that are being observed in rates of self-harming behavior and suicidal thoughts and actions among teenagers. These stats are often discussed in relation to the question of whether they might be linked to recent generational jumps in use of social media and the attendant shifts in… Read more »
Human Basics: The Silent Treatment
Description: Have you ever had another person give you the silent treatment as in ignore you and not respond to or interact with you even when you were in the same room as them? Oh, and I should add, if this HAS happened to you was the person giving you the silent treatment over 5… Read more »
Mental Health Thermometers
Description: You drop into your doctor’s office and tell them you are not feeling well. Assuming COVID is not the issue (which would likely be picked up at the front desk of the clinic using screening questions) what is one of the first things the doctor will likely do? Take you temperature, right? (Or ask… Read more »
CBT Works But Is Its Theory Wrong?
Description: You know what Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is, don’t you? It is, perhaps the most widely used approach to therapy taken by psychologists treating clients with depression, anxiety and many other symptoms of mental illness or the lack of wellbeing. I suspect you also know something of what CBT involves: The challenging of irrational,… Read more »
Is Microdosing (With Hallucinogens) Effective or is it a Placebo Effect?
Description: Here is a “design a study” challenge. You may have run across discussions of recent research looking at the therapeutic use of drugs that are or were considered recreational and illegal, e.g., LSD, Ecstasy, or Psilocybin (magic mushrooms). What you may not have run across yet are discussion of more recent research looking at… Read more »
Neurofeedback: Breakthrough or Meh?
Description: Using even limited brain wave recording equipment such as externally applied recording electrodes rather than expensive brain scanning devices, it is possible to detect and describe patterns of brain wave activity and to distinguish between brain wave patterns associated with, say, a lack of attention (in ADHD) as compared to between brain wave patterns… Read more »
Schizophrenia: What’s In a Name?
Description: You have heard the term stigma before, right? It involves the stubborn attachment of negative assumptions or beliefs to a socially marked situation or circumstance. Stigma also is viewed as the inappropriate, ongoing, application of those negative beliefs or assumption when they really should not be in play. For example, imagine you have met… Read more »
Post Partum Depression in Males?
Description: If I told you that a parent of a newborn infant was struggling with depression, but told you nothing else, what sort of person would come to mind? With your image of that person in mind, think about what their presenting symptoms would include. OK, now, did it even occur to you as an… Read more »
Conflicting Statements Regarding the Supply of and Demand for Mental Health Services During Covid
Description: Consider the titles of the two articles listed immediately below in the Sources section of this post. They both appeared on the same day in the same online media source and were illustrated by the same photo (see either article). Before going to look at either article think for a minute about how you… Read more »
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