Previous studies have found that psychedelic use may occasion lasting improvements in mental health, but the effects of psychedelic use on suicidality have been unknown. Now, a new study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology has examined the use of classic psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and mescaline), to determine whether they might be protective with regard […]
A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford shows that mental illnesses reduce life expectancy by 10-20 years, a loss of years that’s equivalent to or worse than that for heavy smoking. The researchers say the figures should galvanize governments and health and social services to put a much higher priority on how […]
Neurobiologists are using genetic engineering to reprogram skin cells – of patients with schizophrenia and other neurological disorders – and grow them into brain cells, creating mental diseases-in-a-dish for experimentation and industrial-scale psychiatric drug discovery. The researchers, Fred Gage, a professor of genetics at the Salk Institute, and Anirvan Ghosh, a neurobiologist at the University […]
Doctors may not like talking about it, but it’s becoming much more prevalent. A recent McGill University survey found that around 20 percent of general physicians have prescribed placebos for their patients, while more than one-third of psychiatrists have prescribed placebos or pseudoplacebos. Psychiatry professor and study author, Amir Raz, said the prescribing of pseudoplacebos […]
What’s wrong with being shy? And when did other ordinary human behaviors in children and adults become psychiatric disorders treatable with powerful, potentially dangerous drugs? These are the questions posed in a new book by Northwestern University scholar Christopher Lane, questions that are already creating waves in the mental health community. In Shyness: How Normal […]
