Post by Admin on Mar 13, 2021 12:55:20 GMT
Think it's best to list most of the MIA articles in one place -
Sherry Julo, Ed White and John Read – Online Support Groups for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/online-support-groups-psychiatric-drug-withdrawal/
This week on the MIA podcast, we discuss a recent paper that considers the support provided by online support groups when people seek help for psychiatric drug withdrawal. The paper is entitled ‘The role of Facebook groups in the management and raising of awareness of antidepressant withdrawal: is social media filling the void left by health services?’ It was published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology in January 2021 and the authors are Sherry Julo, Ed White and John Read.
“In June 2020, the groups had a total membership of 67,125, of which, 60,261 were in private groups. The increase in membership for the 13 groups over the study period was 28.4%. One group was examined in greater detail. Group membership was 82.5% female, as were 80% of the Administrators and Moderators, all of whom are lay volunteers. Membership was international but dominated (51.2%) by the United States (US). The most common reason for seeking out this group was failed clinician-led tapers.”
Audit of Electroconvulsive Therapy Reveals Poor Administration and Monitoring
The report concludes that institutional practices are insufficient to guarantee the safety of patients who undergo electroconvulsive therapy.
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/audit-electroconvulsive-therapy-reveals-poor-administration-monitoring/
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) passes electricity through the brain to cause a seizure in patients. In light of current debates about this controversial treatment, an audit examined thousands of cases where ECT was used in England. The audit found multiple failures in the monitoring and accreditation of ECT clinics.
The authors, led by psychologist John Read, report that many patients are receiving ECT against their will, clinics are not complying with the law regarding compulsory treatment, and the use of treatment efficacy assessments by clinics has decreased to 30% or lower. In response to the findings, Read added:
“ECT is a potentially very dangerous procedure which, if it is to be used at all, requires the most stringent scrutiny. Relying on the Royal College of Psychiatry to monitor ECT clinics is not working because of their obvious conflict of interest. It is hard for them to acknowledge that a treatment used by some of their members causes high rates of memory loss and is largely ineffective, so their monitoring is half-hearted and tokenistic.”
Do Antidepressant Medications Prolong Depressive Episodes?
An evolutionary psychologist suggests that antidepressants thwart depression’s function to help us resolve complex social problems.
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/antidepressant-medications-prolong-depressive-episodes/
Advances in evolutionary understandings of depression as an adaptation – like pain or anxiety – suggests that depression plays an adaptive role in resolving complex social issues. This view, called the analytical rumination hypothesis (ARH), posits that depression may have evolved precisely to facilitate prolonged dwelling on the issues that bring us down. In a new article in the flagship journal American Psychologist, Vanderbilt Psychology Professor Steven Hollon applies this evolutionary perspective to explain the lackluster results of antidepressants for depressed individuals.
Hollon argues that interventions like antidepressant medications (ADMs) disrupt the rumination process by masking symptoms and prolonging the underlying depressive episode, leaving it unresolved. Cognitive therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy, on the other hand, can do a better job at addressing the neurobiology of the underlying episode to the extent that they facilitate the resolution of complex social problems.
“To the extent that [the ARH] is true, then any intervention that facilitates the functions that depression evolved to serve is likely to work better in the long run than one that simply anesthetizes the pain,” Hollon writes.
Study Highlights Challenges for Mental Health Peer Specialists
Role clarity, supervisor flexibility, peer input, and professional development top list of needed supports for mental health peer specialists.
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/study-highlights-challenges-mental-health-peer-specialists/
A team of researchers across the United States recently released research in Psychiatric Services in Advance detailing the best ways to support and supervise peer specialists in the mental health workforce. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with four peer specialists and five supervisors and their personal experience with peer specialists, the authors were able to unpack a number of support and supervision strategies to best support peer specialists.
Ana Stefancic, a psychiatric researcher at Columbia University, led the study. The authors write:
“As the peer workforce grows, a need emerges to develop and disseminate evidence-based approaches for supporting and supervising peer specialists,” conclude the authors. “Lessons learned and strategies discussed in this column suggest key areas that can be further explored and targeted for development to advance the reach, impact, and value of peer specialists in behavioral health organizations.”
Sherry Julo, Ed White and John Read – Online Support Groups for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/online-support-groups-psychiatric-drug-withdrawal/
This week on the MIA podcast, we discuss a recent paper that considers the support provided by online support groups when people seek help for psychiatric drug withdrawal. The paper is entitled ‘The role of Facebook groups in the management and raising of awareness of antidepressant withdrawal: is social media filling the void left by health services?’ It was published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology in January 2021 and the authors are Sherry Julo, Ed White and John Read.
“In June 2020, the groups had a total membership of 67,125, of which, 60,261 were in private groups. The increase in membership for the 13 groups over the study period was 28.4%. One group was examined in greater detail. Group membership was 82.5% female, as were 80% of the Administrators and Moderators, all of whom are lay volunteers. Membership was international but dominated (51.2%) by the United States (US). The most common reason for seeking out this group was failed clinician-led tapers.”
Audit of Electroconvulsive Therapy Reveals Poor Administration and Monitoring
The report concludes that institutional practices are insufficient to guarantee the safety of patients who undergo electroconvulsive therapy.
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/audit-electroconvulsive-therapy-reveals-poor-administration-monitoring/
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) passes electricity through the brain to cause a seizure in patients. In light of current debates about this controversial treatment, an audit examined thousands of cases where ECT was used in England. The audit found multiple failures in the monitoring and accreditation of ECT clinics.
The authors, led by psychologist John Read, report that many patients are receiving ECT against their will, clinics are not complying with the law regarding compulsory treatment, and the use of treatment efficacy assessments by clinics has decreased to 30% or lower. In response to the findings, Read added:
“ECT is a potentially very dangerous procedure which, if it is to be used at all, requires the most stringent scrutiny. Relying on the Royal College of Psychiatry to monitor ECT clinics is not working because of their obvious conflict of interest. It is hard for them to acknowledge that a treatment used by some of their members causes high rates of memory loss and is largely ineffective, so their monitoring is half-hearted and tokenistic.”
Do Antidepressant Medications Prolong Depressive Episodes?
An evolutionary psychologist suggests that antidepressants thwart depression’s function to help us resolve complex social problems.
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/antidepressant-medications-prolong-depressive-episodes/
Advances in evolutionary understandings of depression as an adaptation – like pain or anxiety – suggests that depression plays an adaptive role in resolving complex social issues. This view, called the analytical rumination hypothesis (ARH), posits that depression may have evolved precisely to facilitate prolonged dwelling on the issues that bring us down. In a new article in the flagship journal American Psychologist, Vanderbilt Psychology Professor Steven Hollon applies this evolutionary perspective to explain the lackluster results of antidepressants for depressed individuals.
Hollon argues that interventions like antidepressant medications (ADMs) disrupt the rumination process by masking symptoms and prolonging the underlying depressive episode, leaving it unresolved. Cognitive therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy, on the other hand, can do a better job at addressing the neurobiology of the underlying episode to the extent that they facilitate the resolution of complex social problems.
“To the extent that [the ARH] is true, then any intervention that facilitates the functions that depression evolved to serve is likely to work better in the long run than one that simply anesthetizes the pain,” Hollon writes.
Study Highlights Challenges for Mental Health Peer Specialists
Role clarity, supervisor flexibility, peer input, and professional development top list of needed supports for mental health peer specialists.
www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/study-highlights-challenges-mental-health-peer-specialists/
A team of researchers across the United States recently released research in Psychiatric Services in Advance detailing the best ways to support and supervise peer specialists in the mental health workforce. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with four peer specialists and five supervisors and their personal experience with peer specialists, the authors were able to unpack a number of support and supervision strategies to best support peer specialists.
Ana Stefancic, a psychiatric researcher at Columbia University, led the study. The authors write:
“As the peer workforce grows, a need emerges to develop and disseminate evidence-based approaches for supporting and supervising peer specialists,” conclude the authors. “Lessons learned and strategies discussed in this column suggest key areas that can be further explored and targeted for development to advance the reach, impact, and value of peer specialists in behavioral health organizations.”