Canadian Mindscape Monitor

Sorry, dear readers, that we’ve been delinquent in our posts. Too much work, too little pay for this blogging (i.e. none!) etc etc… But we do feel it’s important to follow up on an earlier story.  When asked by CMM if he could provide even one scientific reference for his grandiose claims to the media [...]

A U.S. News and World Report commentator rightly raises questions about a much bally-hooed “blood test” that supposedly helps screen women who “might” eventually get post-partum depression.
Ya gotta love how psychiatry, unsatisfied with its failed struggles to develop tests that can identify mental illnesses, is increasingly resorting to developing tests that identify mental illnesses that [...]

Sorry, dearest readers, that we’ve been delinquent here at CMM lately getting posts up… We’re trying to get back on the job after binge-working on the aforementioned feature article about the rights of seniors in BC care homes. But we couldn’t let you miss today’s New York Times coverage of the latest on the lawsuit [...]

With the release of Tom Cruise’s latest movie, Cruise has been prompted to apologize for the upbraiding of Matt Lauer he did in 2005 (watch the video here) while discussing Brooke Shields’ advocating of psychiatric drugs. Cruise was widely attacked and ridiculed along with his religion, Scientology, for questioning the scientific underpinnings of psychiatry. Yet [...]

U.S. National Public Radio has finally fired its psychiatrist talkshow host, Dr.  Frederick Goodwin of “The Infinite Mind”. The New York Times reports he potted $1.3 million in kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies — much more than NPR ever paid him to host the show no doubt — during his 7-year tenure. “The fact that he [...]

“Powerful antipsychotic medicines are being used far too cavalierly in children, and federal drug regulators must do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks, a panel of federal drug experts said Tuesday,” begins an article in the New York Times today. CMM would like to hope this marks the turning of the tide of [...]

In a very interesting test case, the German government is claiming it is ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, even as it is sneakily trying to rewrite one key clause, according to a German psychiatric rights organization. The Convention clearly states that “the existence of a disability shall in [...]

An excellent overview in the New York Times discusses Senator Charles Grassley’s ongoing investigations into the huge amounts of money many high level, influential, widely respected psychiatrists and other medical doctors receive from drug companies. It’s a long overdue expose that’s making it clear that universities have been unable or unwilling to police conflicts of [...]

According to the Washington Post, the U.S. Congress has finally approved legislation that would force private insurers to treat mental illnesses more like physical illnesses when people make claims. CMM has a twisted fascination with where this story is going to go next. Law proponent Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy states that, “science has moved forward, [...]

CMM doesn’t get to say this often, so we will take advantage of the opportunity today: At first glance, it looks like the World Health Organization did a good job with its final report “Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through action on the social determinants of Health“. While predictably finding close links [...]

In a saga which began almost two years ago, the New York Times reports a U.S. judge has finally ordered the public release of a slew of Eli Lilly’s internal documents about its big-selling “antipsychotic” sedating drug Zyprexa. The confidential documents became infamous when maverick Alaska civil rights lawyer Jim Gottstein of the Law Project [...]