“Once I became my diagnosis, there was no one left to recover.” Yesterday's Pat Deegan post led me to Dr. Daniel Fisher's work on mental illness recovery. He promotes an "empowerment" model of recovery that he contrasts with a "rehabilitation" model of recovery. According to this vision, one is capable of recovering from the mental … Continue reading “Disease” and recovery
Category: Research
Deconstructing “it works”
Healthcare, etc. has a great post deconstructing what it means to say a treatment works: What exactly does it mean when we say that a treatment works? Do we mean the same thing for all treatments? Are there different ways of assessing whether and how well a treatment works? I am sure you've guessed that … Continue reading Deconstructing “it works”
Intellect no shelter from cognitive bias
In a recent post I shared my observation that, as the usefulness of many psychotropics have been cast into doubt by a growing body of evidence, many people who used to chide questioners to "follow the evidence" now resort to anecdotes to defend their advocacy for these drugs. (And, denigration of other methods.) One story … Continue reading Intellect no shelter from cognitive bias
Coming of Age on Zoloft
An interesting take on anti-depressants from a writer who has benefited from them: The mainstreaming of medication has bred confusion about what’s normal. In some sectors, we’ve grown so vigilant about the possibility of having a mental disorder that this vigilance becomes counterproductive, a source of anxiety in itself. Every negative emotion becomes a potential sign or … Continue reading Coming of Age on Zoloft
An exciting time for pharma
Ugh! This Join Together article reads like a ad for pharma: Many people struggling with alcohol dependence who could benefit from medication are not receiving it, according to an expert who spoke at the recent American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting. “Antidepressant prescribing is 100 to 200 times as great as prescriptions for medications approved to … Continue reading An exciting time for pharma
Depression, exercise, research and the media
A recent study on treating depression with exercise encouragement and advice has caused quite a stir. Check out the headlines. But the paper itself says the following: The main implication of our results is that advice and encouragement to increase physical activity is not an effective strategy for reducing symptoms of depression. Although our intervention increased … Continue reading Depression, exercise, research and the media
What we spend on health
This infographic is from a report on obesity and it's set off a debate its accuracy. But it gets at a point I've made before. And, the more I learn, the clearer it becomes that this general principle applies to medical problems, mental health problems and addiction. To me, this doesn't make a case for … Continue reading What we spend on health
Failure to rescue
Atul Gawande found that hospitals have high rates of variance in post surgical complications but the reason is not what he expected. But there continue to be huge differences between hospitals in the outcomes of their care. Some places still have far higher death rates than others. And an interesting line of research has opened … Continue reading Failure to rescue
Revenge and the reward system
I've often wondered about all of AA's emphasis on resentment and whether research will end up provide an evidence-base for all the attention it receives in the steps, literature and discussion. I found this, from a recent episode of On Being, very interesting: Mr. McCullough: And if you look at the brain of somebody who has just … Continue reading Revenge and the reward system
Road traffic crashes and prescribed methadone and buprenorphine
Last year, a study questioned whether buprenorphine patients should be allowed to drive because 60% tested positive for other drugs. Now, another study reaches similar findings: Background Opioids have been shown to impair psychomotor and cognitive functioning in healthy volunteers with no history of opioid abuse. Few or no significant effects have been found in opioid-dependant … Continue reading Road traffic crashes and prescribed methadone and buprenorphine
Recovery Review 