Recently added articles from Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry:
Forgotten Practices and Sins of Omission
Oct 01, 2008; ... The idea is not at all new, but I would like to focus here on the thought that sins of omission are as unethical as sins of commission. Failure to use good practice is perhaps the least-obvious ethical sin. In some cases, what we know to do and do not do can be worse than what we do. To ...
Homicidal Ideation Causally Related to Therapeutic Medications
Oct 01, 2008; ... Five patients with hepatitis C (HCV), three of whom were treated with peginterferon alfa-2 (IFN) and two who were not treated with IFN, developed homicidal ideation (HI) during a 4-year period. Following accepted rules for determining causation, there appeared to be a causal relatedness between ...
Breaking Out of the Mainstream: The Evolution of Peer Support Alternatives to the Mental Health System
Oct 01, 2008; ... The consumer/survivor/ex-patient (c/s/x) movement has been instrumental in the development of a variety of peer-support alternatives to traditional mental health services in both the United States in Canada. This article explores the role of the c/s/x movement in the creation of such ...
The Reality of Persecutory Beliefs: Base Rate Information for Clinicians
Oct 01, 2008; ... When an individual describes persecution, how does one know whether this constitutes reality or a delusion? An erroneous clinical decision can lead to unnecessary treatment or lack of appropriate treatment. Knowledge of base rates of relevant events can inform the decision-making process and ...
Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications
Oct 01, 2008; ... Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications . Peter Breggin. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008, 400 pp., $26.95 (hardcover). Quite arguably, everybody knows what to expect from Peter Breggin. He'll detail the extensive risks of psychiatric drugs ...
EDITORIAL
Apr 01, 2008; ... The first issue of Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry for 2008 marks a change in the editorial management of the journal. The new editorial team would like to thank Laurence Simon and Louis Wynne for their contributions to the journal over the past few years. The new editorial team ...
Why Psychiatric Drugs "Work": The Attribution of Positive Effects Due to Psychological Factors
Apr 01, 2008; ... While outcome research has attempted to elucidate the real benefit of any treatment through randomized, double-blind studies, the role of placebo and other psychological reactions has been given scant but growing attention. This article examines the nature and power of the placebo in the context ...
Exposure to SSRI Antidepressants In Utero Causes Birth Defects, Neonatal Withdrawal Symptoms, and Brain Damage
Apr 01, 2008; ... Pregnant mothers should avoid taking SSRI antidepressants-they are hazardous to the developing fetus, cause withdrawal symptoms in the newborn baby, and induce biochemical and morphological abnormalities in the brain. If pregnant mothers need help with sad or anxious feelings, they should seek ...
Once the Wheels Are in Motion: Involuntary Hospitalization and Forced Medicating
Apr 01, 2008; ... In the wake of the recent killings at Virginia Tech, this article expresses a fear that laymen and professionals alike may overly react toward someone who seems somehow odd or different by regarding that individual as dangerous and a candidate for hospitalization . Even before this tragic ...
Is Social Anxiety Making Us Depressed?: A Social Evolutionary Hypothesis for Why SSRIs Work
Apr 01, 2008; ... In the developed world, the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has skyrocketed since 1988, when Prozac was first released in the United States. Biomedical psychiatry's explanation for their success is an unsubstantiated hypothesis that claims SSRIs treat a chemical imbalance ...
Practical Applications: 22 Guidelines for Counseling and Psychotherapy
Apr 01, 2008; ... This article describes 22 principles for the conduct of therapy or counseling, most of which are also applicable to all human relationships. The creation of a safe space and a caring, trustworthy relationship is essential to therapy and basic to the helping process. Conducting therapy requires ...
Pharmacological Treatment of College Students With Psychological Problems
Apr 01, 2008; ... Pharmacological Treatment of College Students With Psychological Problems . Leighton C. Whitaker & Stewart E. Cooper (Eds.). Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, 2007, 271 pp., $56.00 (hardcover), $32.00 (softcover). This is an unusual look at the current college handling and treatment ...
EDITORIAL
Jan 01, 2007; ... Two programs of national scope (one almost finds oneself saying pogroms) are currently aimed at the invidious labeling of people as mentally ill. Both programs have as their aim not the humane caring for traumatized people but the mere labeling of them for purposes of profit. The first involves ...
It's a Crime: Reexamining the Successful Use of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder as a Legal Defense to Child Sexual Assault in the Canadian Case of R. v. Borsch
Jan 01, 2007; ... This article discusses the 2006 Canadian case of R. v. Borsch in which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was successfully used as the basis for an insanity defense in a child sexual assault case. It is argued that there is no scientific evidence of a causal link between PTSD and violent ...
Mental Health Professionals as Pawns in Oppressive Practices: A Case Example Concerning Psychologists' Involvement in the Denial of Education Rights to Roma/Gypsy Children
Jan 01, 2007; ... This article examines a 2006 European Court of Human Rights judgment concerning educational discrimination against Roma children in the Czech Republic and the involvement of educational psychologists in the case. The court held the school to be the proper final arbiter on the question of the ...
Ethics of CIA and Military Contracting by Psychiatrists and Psychologists
Jan 01, 2007; ... There have been extensive, systematic violations of human rights by American psychiatrists, psychologists, and neurosurgeons throughout the second half of the twentieth century. These violations have occurred at the leading medical schools with funding from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ...
Full Disclosure: Toward a Participatory and Risk-Limiting Approach to Neuroleptic Drugs
Jan 01, 2007; ... Following the many clinical studies of neuroleptic treatment and the resulting practice guidelines and algorithms that have been established by various psychiatric associations, there seems to be little room for considering other treatment concepts that may be at variance with these guidelines: ...
Psychiatric Diagnosis as a Precursor to Research Difficulties in Mental Health
Jan 01, 2007; ... The starting point for most mental health research is psychiatric diagnosis. If diagnoses are controversial or unreliable, then the results of the research will be difficult to interpret and its value will be undercut. The most widely used system of psychiatric diagnosis is found in the American ...
An Open Letter to Lou Wynne
Jan 01, 2007; ... Dear Lou, You and I have spoken often about the damage done to the field of psychology because of its uncritical acceptance of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and its imitation of psychiatry. We've discussed how mainstream psychiatry's insistence that ...
ECT Damages the Brain: Disturbing News for Patients and Shock Doctors Alike
Jan 01, 2007; ... Something most remarkable and unexpected has occurred in the field of psychiatry. Led by lifelong defender and promoter of shock treatment Harold Sackeim, a team of investigators recently published a follow-up study of 347 patients given the currently available methods of electroshock, including ...