Support Site Used for Drug Marketing

Natasha Singer at the New York Times writes an interesting article on patient social networking sites like PatientsLikeMe, and the way they’re used to collect individual health data fro direct-to-consumer drug marketing. PatientsLikeMe is a community for people with neurological diseases such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, where they can share their experiences with various [...]

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Should Mental Health Professionals Google Their Clients?

Recently, some discussion has sprung up in the Netherlands around whether psychiatrists or psychologists should google their patients. The Dutch Association of Psychiatry (NVVP) says that information that has been put on the Internet, is public, so anyone should be able to view it, including psychiatrists. On the other hand, the Netherlands Institute for Psychologists [...]

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Autistic Man Tasered for Unknown Reason

The state of Georgia is getting a bad name with me for its treatment of autistic people. Last Friday, an autistic man was tasered, taken to the ground, and charged with disorderly conduct for a reason that remains unclear. According to the police, Clifford Grevemberg was drunk when sitting on the curb waiting for his [...]

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At Least Twenty Psychiatric Patients in Long-Term Seclusion

Today, Dutch news program Nova will feature the long-term seclusion of psychiatric inmates. At least twenty people have been continuously secluded for over three months within the last year. That may be an underestimate, because the statistic comes from the Centers for Consultation and Expertise (CCE), who have only recently involved themselves with mental health [...]

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Fashion Designer: Let’s Blame Women for Anorexia

In an effort to combat the idea that the modeling industry causes anorexia, fashion designer Alber Elbaz has decided to turn the tables of the blame game: women are to blame for anorexia. “We are being accused that some models are anorexic,”’said Alber, “But we as fashion designers cannot be blamed, because you know, when [...]

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Of Bodies and Burdens: Abortion vs. Child Euthanasia

Sometimes, it would’ve been easier if I were still radically pro-life, so that I could tell anyone supporting abortion or euthanasia that people have no right to take the life of anotheer person, no matter how dependent that person is on someone else. Yet I recognize a person’s right to bodily autonomy, too, and for [...]

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Should Sensory Processing Disorder Be in DSM-V?

On the list of disorders the American Psychiatric Association considers adding to DSM-V but hasn’t yet made a formal proposal on, is sensory porcessing disorder. SPD, also known as sensory integration dysfunction, is a syndrome populated by Anna Jean Ayres but not formally recognized in either the current DSM or ICD. It is characterized by [...]

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Blog Recommendation: Mutual Madness

I just came across an interesting, new blog for people with mental illness as well as mental health professionals. It’s called Mutual Madness. The aim of this blog is to answer common questions people may have about mental health, from a patient’s point of view. People can submit questions and have them answered by a [...]

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Calling for Individualized Care for the Most Severely Disabled

Harold L. Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunswick raises an important question: What do we do with severely disabled people when the institutions close? Harold advocates the reforming of the institutional system, so that those with the most severe disabilities can get quality residential care. He claims this opinion is based on a realistic [...]

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Parent Murders Autistic Child, Yet Again

Yet another autistic was murdered by his own mother. I can’t wait for the sympathetic reactions, to the mother of course, from all over the autism community. That was sarcasm. My sympathies go out to Glen Freaney’s other family, friends, and everyone else who loved Glen enough to want to keep him alive, and I [...]

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