We are shaking things up with this round of Brain Blogging in our thirty-second edition. This time, we are stripping off the fat and giving you exactly what you want: short excerpts that highlight each article with a clear link to the blog. If you were left out in this round, just leave a comment with... Read more →

Despite the fact that functional MRI was discovered in the early 90’s, scientific research related to its clinical applications is still at an early stage. The first paper on the use of functional MRI (fMRI) in Alzheimer’s disease came out as late as 1999. Today, fMRI is being intensively... 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 →

Recent research on behavioral characteristics displayed by anorexia nervosa (AN) and anorexia nervosa recovered (ANR) patients point strongly towards an anomalous pattern of activation of the pre-frontal cortex. Unlike in normal women, where food triggers off a reward system in the brain, AN and ANR... Read more →

If you’re looking for a different approach to a mental health concern, a clinical trial may be a good fit for you. Clinical trials, where new drugs and treatments are tested, are an important step in the study and treatment of mental health disorders. At any given time, thousands of trials go... 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 →

Are you reading this at work during your lunch break? Has anyone come into the lunchroom to tell you about the cold they had lately, or their children’s chicken pox, or their aging father’s hip replacement? I bet this happens quite a bit. Just about everyone talks about these maladies, small... Read more →

Of all the mental health disorders, the two most common, and perhaps the most disruptive and distressing, are schizophrenia and bipolar. Even though the two share few similarities in symptoms and characteristics, they are both treated and medicated very differently. Schizophrenia is the most devastating... Read more →

Interviewee: Joy, age 31-35, from Washington with anxiety and cancer. I was happily married, life was good wonderful even. My husband left when I found out I had cancer, stating he is gay. I am cancer free now. I have never been diagnosed. Have been treated for anxiety in 2003 used effexor, no therapy …... Read more →

Interviewee: Hua, age 16-20, from China was diagnosed with “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I was diagnosed in May 2004 in China but suffered from it for four years.” Well, I can write a book to describe everything. I’m an OCD expert. Internet is where i obtained all those infos. Reading... Read more →

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately 1 percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime — more than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year. Dr. Kristin Cadenhead, UCSD Department of Psychiatry discusses this mysterious... Read more →