Articles Tagged ‘psychiatry’

Anti Stigmatization | By February 14, 2008 | By Robert Yourell, MA | 3 Comments

Brain Damage, Part I: Clinical Complacence

People with ADD get a day, but brain damage gets the month of March. March seems like a good month for brain damage awareness. However long the winter feels, March is when spring starts to enter our minds. The first warmer breezes are not far off (if you’re in the northern hemisphere and you’re out of the more tropical regions). And indeed, for many of those recovering from brain damage it is a long winter, and the first hints of hope and recovery offer some welcome warmth. Read more →

Why Electroconvulsive Therapy Works | February 10, 2008 | 7 Comments

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has a bad reputation, due in part to the graphic media portrayals we see in films like One Flew Over the Cuckooâ€™s Nest and A Beautiful Mind, and probably also in part to an innate distaste for the idea of receiving electrical shocks to the brain. Despite the popular... Read more →

Green Tea and the Fight Against Parkinson’s Disease | January 31, 2008 | 1 Comment

Parkinson’s disease is the second commonest neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, affecting 1% of the over-65 population and 2% of the over-80’s. Recent research (1) published in Biological Psychiatry from the Institute of Biophysics, Academia Sinica in Beijing indicates that... Read more →

OCD Study a Boost for Non-Drug Advocates | January 30, 2008 | 3 Comments

I sometimes wonder, as I wait for yet another prescription to be filled, how my life would have been different if I didnâ€™t take that first Zoloft 12 years ago. How would the last decade have played out had I, say, taken some herbs, enrolled in daily yoga classes, or visited a holistic doctor instead... Read more →

Tailored Antidepressants | December 31, 2007 | 1 Comment

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 →

Spirituality and Mental Health, Part IV of IV: Health-Centric Spirituality in Psychotherapy | December 05, 2007 | 4 Comments

Consider the spiritual elements that I pointed out from research on spirituality and health in the previous parts of this series. They were: meaning, gratitude, peace, confidence, sense of identity, and acceptance. The somatic (body mind) approaches to psychotherapy, including EMDR, tend to “unlock”... Read more →

Spirituality and Mental Health, Part III of IV: Psychotherapy Beyond Words | November 27, 2007 | 3 Comments

Is there Energy in Psychology? I was conducting debriefing after a workplace suicide. The problems ran far deeper than a single suicide, because it turned out to be symptomatic of a drug culture that pervaded the workplace. A bald-headed man came in and said he was afraid because he had a heart condition.... Read more →

Spirituality and Mental Health, Part II of IV: Spiritually Integrative Neurology | November 21, 2007 | 5 Comments

In this article, we’ll look at some active ingredients of spirituality that are supported by research. Since they turned out to be God-optional, I’ll call this SIN (spiritually integrative neurology). Active vs. Passive: Locus of Control in Spirituality To understand spirituality and health,... Read more →