It’s a funny thing, being diagnosed with a mental disease. As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, instead of a scientific tests, most mental illness diagnoses are made after you’ve talked to someone, answered specific questions, even completed a questionnaire. I know that someday diagnosing... Read more →

I’m never surprised at the power big pharma has over the media, especially media directed at physicians. For once, I’d like to talk back. Here’s a perfect opportunity! I’m going to talk back at an article recently posted to MedScape.com — a source of very informative, thoughtful,... Read more →

How do thoughts, emotions and social environment influence people diagnosed with breast cancer? A report by Falagas and his colleagues looked at and compared 46 studies investigating psychological and social factors that affect breast cancer survival rates. The results are not entirely conclusive. The... Read more →

A recent finding of the Nun Study identifies oral disease as a potential risk factor for dementia, with conclusions indicating that a low number of teeth — fewer than ten — may be an accurate predictor of dementia in later life. Furthermore, the study showed that subjects with the fewest... Read more →

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affects 10 to 15 percent of the U.S. population, predominately women, and can produce severe abdominal pain, bloating, and changes in bowel habits. No physical abnormalities can be identified on examination, and patients are often left with suboptimal symptomatic treatments... Read more →

As the field of genetics advances it is likely that treatment with antidepressants will be tailored to your personal genes. A study published by the National Institute of Mental Health in the American Journal of Psychiatry states that certain genetic markers directly corresponded to an increased risk... Read more →

I keep hearing that all our children are being diagnosed ADD. Perhaps this comes from our fear of being maligned, diagnosed, and forced to conform to some dystopian, fascist mind control future in the making. Or perhaps it’s fueled by our morbid fascination with subcultures of freaks. Hence, this... Read more →

Earlier this week, I attended the annual general meeting at the Canadian Mental Health Association (Vancouver - Burnaby branch). As always, people who have used the CMHA’s services over the years stood up and told their stories. What remained most with me was one person mentioning that at a certain... Read more →

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that between 1992 to 2004, the rate of hospitalization for depression has increased approximately 81% for females and 30% for males aged 5-19 years. In 2004, more than 5,000 US children and adolescents committed suicide and an additional... Read more →

After reviewing your comments and based on the video discussed in the last article, I’ve decided to review some of the general themes often cited by opponents of psychiatry. Here is the first anti-psychiatry argument. Psychiatry applies subjective labels to patients. Do we do more harm than good... Read more →

An estimated 4.5 million older people currently have Alzheimer’s disease, and researchers predict that by 2050 the number could nearly triple to 13.2 million. But several promising recent developments in the study of Alzheimer’s disease may one day lead to new methods of diagnosing, preventing... Read more →