27.9.13

Norsk studie om barndomstraumer og bipolar lidelse

Our results suggest that childhood trauma is associated with a more severe course of bipolar illness. Further, childhood abuse (physical and sexual), as well as emotional abuse and neglect were significantly associated with accelerating staging process of bipolar disorder.

Studien Patterns of childhood adverse events are associated with clinical characteristics of bipolar disorder foreligger i fulltekst.

22.9.13

- En fantastisk seier

Aktivister har oppnådd en fantastisk seier, blogger psykolog Bruce Levine.

It is an amazing victory for mental health treatment reform activists and Robert Whitaker. On August 28, 2013, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director, Thomas Insel, announced that psychiatry’s standard treatment for people diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses needs to change. 

After examining two long-term studies on schizophrenia and psychoses, Insel has come to what was previously considered a radical conclusion: in the long-term, some individuals with a history of psychosis do better off medication.

- Myte og feil fremstilling

Serious effects have been obscured because the frank descriptions provided by early clinicians were replaced by a vision of the drugs as a cleverly targeted, sophisticated and essentially benign treatment. And despite no convincing evidence to support the theory, the view emerged that they work by reversing an underlying “chemical imbalance” or other such abnormality rather than by inducing an abnormal or altered state.

Les Story of antipsychotics is one of myth and misrepresentation av psykiater Joanna Moncrieff.

20.9.13

Studie om stemmer og livshistorie

In 94% of cases, it was possible to clearly formulate the underlying emotional conflicts embodied by the voices (e.g., low self-worth, anger, shame and guilt). Representations for voice identity (e.g., disowned aspects of self, a family member, a past abuser) were formulated in 78% of cases. It is proposed that many individuals hear voices that make psychological sense in the context of life events, and that this information can be clinically applied in ways that serve personal recovery.

The origins of voices: links between life history and voice hearing in a survey of 100 cases
av Dirk Corstens og Eleanor Longden

Les også: 
Psykiatri: Om å høre stemmer av psykiater Dag Coucheron

13.9.13

Nevroleptikafunn skremte forskere

Relapse Duration, Treatment Intensity, and Brain Tissue Loss in Schizophrenia: A Prospective Longitudinal MRI Study


Foto: Hege Orefellen
XIV World Congress of Psychiatry
The researchers ... analyzed the effect of medication on the brain tissue. Although results were not the same for every patient, the group found that in general, the higher the anti-psychotic medication doses, the greater the loss of brain tissue.

“This was a very upsetting finding ... We spent a couple of years analyzing the data more or less hoping we had made a mistake. But in the end, it was a solid finding that wasn’t going to go away, so we decided to go ahead and publish it. The impact is painful because psychiatrists, patients, and family members don’t know how to interpret this finding. ‘Should we stop using antipsychotic medication? Should we be using less?’”

8.9.13

Joanna Moncrieff med ny bok

Psykiater Joanna Moncrieff kommer med ny bok. Den heter The Bitterest Pills: The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs.

Traumer predikerer psykose, men bedring når traumene tar slutt

Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) have demonstrated that exposure to childhood trauma (physical assault and bullying) is linked to psychotic experiences, (such as hearing voices), and in turn the cessation of traumatic experiences led to a significant reduction in the incidence of psychotic experiences.

Les mer hos Science Daily

6.9.13

Anmeldelse av Drøm i våken tilstand

Bokas forfattere er blitt møtt ut fra virkelighetsbristen, altså på faktumet, tilstanden, og ikke på innholdet i psykosen, bildene, det som må fortolkes. Når virkelighetsbristen ikke søkes løst gjennom en fortolkende virksomhet, men ved å overse bildene og den personlige livshistorie, kan det vel ikke lede til annet enn fremmedgjorthet, hvilket også er en virkelighetsforstyrrelse, om enn en som samfunnet aksepterer. 

Les den fine bokanmeldelsen hos Forskerforum.