Biological and genetic explanations of mental illness can weaken people’s sense of control and optimism, and create a bias against effective psychological interventions.
Trichotillomania is a psychological disorder that leads people to compulsively and uncontrollably pull out their own hair.
Cavale Doom/Flickr
People with trichotillomania often pull to the point of causing complete hair loss even though that’s never intended or desired. And this eventually leaves them feeling depressed and isolated.
Our re-analysis.
found significant increases in harms with both the antidpressants used in Study 329, compared to the placebo.
Steve Smith/Flickr
Melancholia has a strong genetic contribution, so it’s largely biologically underpinned rather than caused by social factors (stressors) or psychological factors, such as personality style.
Some welcome the possibility of drugs altering our brain for the better, others are concerned about altering our brains at all.
Andrew Adermark/Flickr
Scientists seek out drugs to cure what ails us but we now know that some common medications affect our moral capacity. Since it’s happening already, the question is, should we be worried?
Women planning a family who abruptly stop using antidepressants may be putting themselves in harm’s way.
Lis Ferla/Flickr
Research published today has found an association between commonly used antidepressants and birth defects. But pregnant women face greater harms from stopping their medication abruptly.
Already widely prescribed as antidepressants, SSRIs such as fluoxetine (the non-brand name for Prozac) have gained increasing acceptance over the past 20 years in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome…
For people with severe depression, incorrect application can worsen their condition or cause memory loss.
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Around 350 million people worldwide have depression. Antidepressant medications are often prescribed to treat the condition, alongside talking therapies and lifestyle changes such as regular exercise…
Antidepressants might actually be underprescribed.
Charles Williams/Flickr
There is a persistent media hype surrounding the notion that the prescription of antidepressants is “at record levels”, and “on the rise”. Yet numerous studies have shown that most people with depression…
People who attribute mental illness to brain disease or genes tend to blame affected people less, but see them as more hopeless and dangerous.
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Depression, schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions are increasingly linked to abnormalities in the brain and in our genes. Many professionals believe these developments hold the key to better treatments…
The idea that tiny amounts of antidepressants present in our rivers and estuaries may be affecting aquatic life is generally met with surprise, sometimes scepticism, or even a degree of humour. The public…
Three million Australians are currently living with depression or anxiety, and antidepressants are now the third most commonly prescribed class of medication in Australia, after antibiotics and cholesterol-lowering…
Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and as Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland