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Archive for March, 2015

a clinical impression…

( OPINION )

David Healy has up a post about the Pilot Suicide/Murder last week [Winging it: Antidepressants and Plane Crashes]. There’s also one on his Rxisk site by Julie Wood [Pilots and Antidepressants]. Meanwhile, the Psych Listserves and Twitter feeds have been abuzz with speculations that this was an SSRI [or other Psych Med] reaction. David, who […]

clinician trumps ideology…

( OPINION )

Sometimes, frustration and impossibility are necessary components of learning. Try looking around on the Internet for something that captures the essence of the difference between legal and ethical, between the Rule[s] of Law and a Code of Ethics. There’s plenty to find, sure enough, but something about the last thing I found isn’t quite it, […]

the exposome…

( OPINION )

Strategic Plan: Director’s Message NIMH by Tom Insel 03/26/2015 … This update of our Strategic Plan is a commitment to take a fresh look at our horizons so that we can refine priorities and energize our path of discovery. We know that some scientists reject the concept of “directed science,” believing that science rarely follows […]

jettison schizophrenia? no thanks…

( OPINION )

Picking up where I left off in jettison schizophrenia?…, I’m talking about my objections to getting rid of the diagnostic category called Schizophrenia for the last century. First, some case examples: Recently, I mentioned the first case assigned to me as a psychiatry resident, a woman I called Gloria [back to the drawing board…] who […]

jettison schizophrenia?…

( OPINION )

Schizophrenia: a critical psychiatry perspective Current Opinion – Review by Joanna Moncrieff and Hugh Middleton 2015 [full text on-line] Purpose of review The term ‘schizophrenia’ has been hotly contested over recent years. The current review explores the meanings of the term, whether it is valid and helpful and how alternative conceptions of severe mental disturbance […]

making sense…

( OPINION )

The Board of Regents has closely followed the work of the external review panel and is aware of OLA’s findings. Chair Beeson and Regent Simmons have already created a plan for the Board to take an active role in shaping the University’s action plan. The Board will provide ongoing implementation oversight through its Audit Committee […]

ethics…

( OPINION )

par·a·digm  (pr-dm) noun noun: paradigm; plural noun: paradigms 1. [technical] a typical example or pattern of something; a model. The case of Dan Markingson is a paradigm representing something terrible, a period in our medical history when the scientific processes designed to evaluate medications for use in the treatment of illness were perverted and used […]

from Minnesota: Dan Markingson revealed…

( OPINION )

This report was released at 2:00 PM today from the Minnesota OFFICE OF THE LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR:* A Clinical Drug Study at the University of Minnesota Department of Psychiatry: The Dan Markingson Case This is the one released last week by group of six experts appointed by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection […]

put a cork in it…

( OPINION )

In November [2014], the NIH announced  that it was going to put some teeth into the ignored requirement that completed Clinical Trials post their results in the Results Database of ClinicalTrials.gov [see speaking of about time!…, Honoring Our Promise: Clinical Trial Data Sharing and promises, promises…]. I had looked at the ClinicalTrials.gov Results Database several […]

inertia…

( OPINION )

I’m old enough to have been in training when the classic version of Manic Depressive Illness was still the predominant view – a familial Illness characterized by recurrent episodes of either Mania or Severe Depression that began in adulthood. After the coming of the DSM-III, the domain of that diagnosis expanded in multiple dimensions, and […]