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Searching for the “Psychiatric Yeti”: Schizophrenia Is Not Genetic

Mad in America

In the article, Torrey reviews the history of the Human Genome Project, their hopes for identifying the genetic basis for schizophrenia, and how those hopes have been dashed by the complete failure to find anything of the sort. Yet laypeople, and many mental health professionals, still believe that schizophrenia is a genetic disorder.

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New Guidelines on How to Accurately Convey ADHD Information

Mad in America

Unbalanced, for instance, in the sense that much emphasis is placed on brain and genetic studies that to this day have cost billions of dollars, while showing only very small associations—not providing any basis for biological screening. Genetic studies are also the cause of many misunderstandings.

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What Is Beyond a Diagnosis?

Mad in America

My mental health went down fast this time. All those symptoms came back and worse until I was unable to get out of my bedroom, stuck in a world of mental terror. This simple understanding has helped thousands of people recover from all kinds of mental distress. We all have innate wellbeing.

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How Psychiatrists Responded to the Launch of Our New ECT Survey

Mad in America

Another paper confirmed that, like the public but unlike most psychiatrists, the majority of people who are prescribed antipsychotics have psycho-social rather than bio-genetic causal explanations for their difficulties 11. Perhaps they have personally had a bad experience with mental health services but not with this particular treatment?

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Letting Go of Lithium

Mad in America

My sister took antidepressants and my family has a lot of mental health issues, so based on that, I was thrown into the same category. I decided to agree with the medical model, that it was a genetic disease that could be treated with a medication, like diabetes. Being a brain doctor, he focused on the headaches. I was angry.

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Iatrogenic Practices in Psychiatry: Kindling

Mad in America

Premise In our information we always emphasize that psychotropic drugs do not have a specific action on mental problems or psychopathology, but only on their symptoms. Essentially, the development of this hypersensitivity can cause abnormal reactions when the same drug or a different drug is reintroduced.

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How Epigenetics Could Revolutionize ADHD Care

ADDitude

A 101 on Epigenetics Reading Genes Genes play an important role in shaping a wide range of traits and characteristics, from hair and eye color to susceptibility to mental health conditions. Yet, genetic influences are less fixed than one might think. Epigenetic alterations have been linked to numerous poor health outcomes.