On Wednesday, Google announced a Health Advisory Council to “help [Google] better understand the problems consumers and providers face every day and offer feedback on product ideas and development.”
Unfortunately for Google, their little council of just 21 members leaves out so many components, professions and wide swaths of understanding “health,” it’s almost being seen as either […]

You know, I get pretty tired of reading so many therapist and doctor blogs in the blogosphere and when I go to read up about who the person writing the blog is, I find they are blogging “pseudonymously.” They won’t say much about who they are, where they practice, their experience, or — most […]

We’re going to try something new for our Friday entries, and look back on what we were talking about in the past on Psych Central. Some of our readers don’t realize we’ve been doing this for 12 years now, and so have a rich history of past articles, editorials, and blog entries that we still […]

A unique political issue has emerged that involves voting rights and people who have been found not guilty of crimes by reason of insanity. Lawmakers in Rhode Island are pushing to take away voting rights for these people, which has sparked some very interesting debate that drawns in politics and psychology. I think this is […]

One of our member’s blogs, Fighting the Darkness, has a post that comments on John Travolta’s recent declaration against psychiatric medications. I’m not sure why the media gives attention to what any particular Hollywood star thinks on these matters.
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate and, well, newsworthy, to report on what researchers and scientists think […]

Last month, we saw a flurry of new studies released related to the ground-breaking, large-scale depression study called STAR*D. STAR*D will likely provide data for researchers to continue to publish upon for many months to come.
Two of the studies dealt with what happens when an antidepressant treatment fails. What do people do next, and […]

If you’re a person in recovery from an illness like bipolar you’ve probably heard the phrase “meaningful work” and know it’s considered to be a cornerstone of wellness. Like many of you (I read your blogs too) I’ve had a really hard time keeping jobs over the years. Partly that’s the illness (I’ve impulsively/stupidly quit […]

Police released some details of the toxicology report from the Virginia Tech killer’s body, and found no trace of any prescription, or illicit, medication. Nor were there any found in his home. Almost immediately after the shootings there were antipsychiatry activists claiming that antidepressants drove him to it, but that inflammatory rhetoric has now been […]

The cornerstone of The Trevor Project is the 18-minute film Trevor, a comedy/drama about a gay 13-year old boy named Trevor who, when rejected by friends and peers because of his sexuality, makes an attempt to take his lifem which won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
The Trevor creators established The […]

The push to improve military mental health continues. Part of the new package of changes includes a massive proposal to hire psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. I’m glad to see that the military is going beyond policy changes and is actually going to allow for more services. Not only does this bode well for mental […]

An editorial in the Boston Globe discusses the growing backlash against putting children on psychiatric medication. The main point is that despite the risks, medication for children with psychological problems can be an effective treatment. What I hope is happening on a larger scale is that people are grappling with the philosophical question of what […]

As many news organizations reported this past week, a study on 241,000 Norwegian 18- and 19-year-olds found a small difference in IQ, which the researchers attributed to family dynamics, not biological or genetic differences.
And that’s the key take-away from the research. Not, as most media organizations are headlining that “First Born Have Higher IQs.” Because, […]