Psychology Today

The exponential growth in the use of psycho-stimulants, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotic drugs often harms children more than helps them. This Checklist to help clinicians think through the necessary steps before prescribing medicines.

Accumulating evidence now proves that much of arthroscopic (keyhole) knee surgery may be unnecessary because the results are no better than placebo. This is an especially startling finding because this is the second most common surgical procedure in the world (after cataract surgery).

There is no worse death than a hospital death. Dying well means dying at home. This requires preparation and preparation requires recognizing that dying is a necessary, and indeed desirable, part of life. Preparing for a good death may be one of the best decisions you will ever make in your life.

The most difficult patients often eventually form the deepest relationships and have the most satisfying outcomes. We are most important and make the biggest difference in the lives of the people who need us most, even if the day to day is not always smooth. With redirection, what was once the power to destroy can now become the power to heal and create.

In Greek myth, Cassandra was cursed with the gift of seeing the future without having any power to change it. I now know the feeling. What a mess.

Treatments that work well for most don't work well for all. And even effective treatments have side effects and complications. This is true of medication and surgery—and it is also true of psychotherapy.

Randomized placebo controlled studies have been the gold standard in medical research, but some believe they have been so corrupted by Pharma that they cannot be trusted.

People diagnosed with serious mental illness-schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or sever depression- die 20 years early because of a combination of lousy medical care, smoking, lack of exercise, complications of medication, suicide, and accidents. They are the most discriminated against and neglected group in the US, which has become probably the worst place in the developed

I have known dozens of mothers who have lost children to suicide. None ever really got over it. All remained intermittently haunted and forever felt a hollowness in life. But life must go on and a serving mother explains how she found new meaning and purpose.

Psychiatry and Recovery have compatible and complementary contributions to make in treating mental illness and in advocating for better funding and community care.

DSM 5 will give drug companies running room to continue their disease mongering of female sexual disorders- hyping questionable DSM ills as a means of pushing pills.

Sexual selection has powerfully influenced psychology and psychology has powerfully influenced evolution.

Now that DSM 5 is in press, my new mission is saving normal.

DSM 5 will inappropriately label as mentally ill 1 in 6 people with cancer and heart disease; 1 in 4 with irritable bowel and fibromyalgia; and 1 in 14 who are not even medically ill. DSM 5 rejected the simple wording changes I suggested that would have helped correct this problem.