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Social science can be so amusing. There is a bit of a contretemps over several recent articles that used datasets supposedly measuring the personality traits of liberals and conservatives which has resulted in several abashed corrections. The researchers used the data in an effort to show that personality traits are not the cause of political attitudes, but instead both are correlated with some other factor, most likely genetic. Interesting enough. This finding is not what is being corrected. ..... The original article, "Correlation not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies," in the American Journal of Political Science...

The Malleus Maleficarum is a 15th century text which instructed Inquisitors in the proper methods of identifying, trying and executing witches. Many years ago, renowned psychiatrist Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) used the example of the Malleus to write: "In the days of the Malleus, if the physician could find no evidence of natural illness, he was expected to find evidence of witchcraft.” “Today,” continued Szasz, “…if he cannot diagnose organic illness, he is expected to diagnose mental illness." Szasz was joined by other psychiatrists and educators in believing that the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V” (DSM 5) published...

Canada once again backed Israel at the UN this week when it voted against the World Health Organization’s (WHO) resolution singling out only Israel for “mental, physical and environmental health” rights abuse. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government joined the Israel, the United States, Australia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea as the only countries to vote against the resolution, which was co-sponsored by the Arab Group of States and the Palestinian delegation. …

KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — An unusual coalition of largely older and conservative former military men and younger, left-leaning law students are waging a joint campaign for one of the most unlikely causes: clemency for troops convicted of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. They want to push President Obama to reduce sentences and grant pardons for seven convicted war criminals, ranging from a private who followed an order to shoot unarmed detainees, to the more well-known case of Robert Bales, an Army staff sergeant sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of 16 Afghan civilians in 2012. The...

On Mother's Day, President Obama wants to talk to you about the "diaper gap." In a post on Medium for the holiday, Mr. Obama explained that many low-income families struggle to afford diapers for their young children, a trend that can lead to health and well-being issues for not only the children but for the mothers. "I can't imagine what it would have been like to be a parent that has to choose between diapers and other basic expenses," he wrote. "Access to clean diapers isn't just important for a child's health and safety. Research has shown that mothers who...

(CNSNews.com) -- Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and its current Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, said that transgenderism is a “mental disorder” that merits treatment, that sex change is “biologically impossible,” and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder. Dr. McHugh, the author of six books and at least 125 peer-reviewed medical articles, made his remarks in a recent commentary in the Wall Street Journal, where he explained that transgender surgery is not the solution for people who suffer a “disorder of ‘assumption’” – the notion...

Middle-aged white people now account for a third of all suicides in the U.S., a new government report shows. Suicide is the nation's 10th leading cause of death, and the overall rate rose 24 percent in 15 years, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicides have long been most common among white people — particularly older white males. But most striking in the new report is the growth in whites ages 45 to 64. They were a third of suicide deaths in 2014, up from about a quarter in 1999. "The findings in this...

This is the Medscape Psychiatry Minute. I'm Dr Peter Yellowlees. Human-caused climate change, with global warming, is occurring. There is no longer any doubt that heat waves are more intense and longer, and floods and storms more frequent, as the world's temperature and sea levels rise. Much has been written about the potential health impact of extreme weather events around the world, such as infectious diseases, but what about the impact of climate change on the mental health of individuals and populations? A team of investigators from Wellington, New Zealand, have reviewed this topic and concluded that extreme weather events,...

You eat, but you aren’t able to taste your food. You try to write your paper, or work on your p-set, but all you can do is think to yourself, “What is the point?” You try to get out of bed in the morning, but you just can’t escape its almost magnetic hold over you. So you sleep. And you sleep. And you sleep. Sleep becomes your drug of choice, and you abuse it constantly. Your old hobbies and passions no longer have the same appeal. None of them match the sense of security you feel when you’re wrapped up...

"Duane Stone is a veteran Seattle mental health specialist. He's seeing a surprising increase in patients experiencing psychotic episodes as well. Many have never had any mental health problems before. "I get lots of first break kind where this person doesn't have an experience with mental illness, they don't have a diagnosis, they're 30 or 40-years-old. And the only thing they've been doing has been smoking marijuana for the last year or two," Stone said. It's not just your stereotypical stoner. They're family people working at places such as Microsoft and Amazon."

[SNIP]The diminution of the Big Idea isn’t easy to accept,even for those willing to concede that there are major problems in their field.An ego depletion optimist might acknowledge that psychology studies tend to be too small to demonstrate a real effect,or that scientists like to futz around with their statistics until the answers come out right.(None of this implies deliberate fraud;just that sloppy standards prevail.)Still,the optimist would say,it seems unlikely that such mistakes would propagate so thoroughly throughout a single literature,and that so many noisy,spurious results could line up quite so perfectly.If all these successes came about by random chance,then...

Recognizing the need for addressing the mental health issues plaguing many American citizens, the Senate health committee has announced the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016. While mental health can be described as "our emotional, psychological, and social well-being," mental illness "can affect your thinking, mood, and behavior."  Mental health problems can wreak havoc, not only with a person's life, but also with the lives of his or her near and dear ones. Recognizing this, a bipartisan Senate committee has announced that it is working out ways to address the mental health crisis in the United States. Senate health committee members announced...

Gazan mental health experts are claiming that the Israeli blockade on Gaza is causing more cases of mental health disorders in the populace due to the unemployment rate and the continued degradation of the local economy. The head of the department for the development of health in the Gaza Health Ministry, Hashim al-Mudlal, told the Palestine news paper that statistics are showing a rise in the number of people who are requesting mental health services in the various clinics around Gaza. Among the symptoms that are being described to health workers are hypertension, lack of urinary control, and mental disturbances....

Shredding the right to keep and bear arms has long been a goal of President Obama, the self-professed constitutional law professor who has long regarded the Constitution as an impediment to advancing his progressive agenda and acquiring as much federal power as possible. The rules he has announced are touted as “sensible gun restriction” are in fact a shameless gun grab that violate the Constitution and patient-doctor confidentiality.

Obama gun control executive order compromises doctor-patient confidentiality for "mental health" issues In 2nd Amendment by Poor Richard January 5, 2016 Comment Once again, President Obama is circumventing Congress and the Constitution by issuing decrees and implementing them as if they are law. This time, he's going after a fundamental civil right protected by the Constitution: our right to keep and bear arms. Much of the media focus on Obama's executive orders thus far has been on the background checks provisions that would require private sellers of even a single firearm to register with the Federal Government as a "firearms...

Advocates for gun safety are among those telling a congressman that closing loopholes in federal background checks and providing more mental health help would reduce gun violence. U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, chairman of House Democrats' Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, held a hearing Monday, less than two weeks after 14 people were fatally shot in San Bernardino. ...

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., thinks he has a solution for much of the surge in mass shootings. Rather than reacting with new gun control measures, Murphy proposes to overhaul the nation’s mental health system to get at what he believes is the root of the violence.Recent mass murders have given that reform effort traction. And, in an interview, Murphy told The Daily Signal he hopes to refurbish federal laws to better help those who suffer from mental illness before they can harm others.“This bill would have some of the most substantive reforms of the last 50 years,” Murphy said.Although his...

Yesterday the president of the University of Missouri resigned because student pressure and a hunger striker and some faculty in the football team all asked for the president's resignation. The University of Missouri has a long-standing history of racism. Over five years ago one of the students from UM held an open mic in Columbia, Missouri that our organization hosted. Her poem was about racism. Similarly, in our community, the University of Colorado has a long history of discrimination against people with lived experience of recovery from mental health labels. One Colorado advocate has made attempts for over 20 years...

Tensions are flaring in the House over a sweeping mental health reform bill that is slated to move forward next week. The legislation from Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), billed as the Republican response to the Newtown elementary school shooting in 2012, is finally set to get committee consideration on Wednesday at a markup in the Energy and Commerce Committee. But Democrats on the committee are objecting to several provisions in the bill, and say what was once cast as a bipartisan negotiation has been anything but. While the committee could advance the bill along party lines, a bipartisan vote would...

Telegraph.co.uk Google wants to monitor your mental health. You should welcome it into your mind Yes, you should tell the computer what you're thinking By James Kirkup 6:24PM GMT 28 Oct 2015 The use of technology to track and treat mental illness is deeply worrying but sadly necessary Next week, Dr Tom Insel leaves his post as head of the US National Institute of Mental Health, a job that made him America’s top mental health doctor. Dr Insel is a neuroscientist and a psychiatrist and a leading authority on both the medicine and public policies needed to deal with problems...