Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Professor Sir Robin Murray. Professor Murray is an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in the Psychosis Service located at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in South London. He is also a Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry. His research covers epidemiology, molecular genetics, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, neuropsychology and neuropharmacology. Professor Murray's main research interest is finding the causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as developing better treatments for these disorders.He is perhaps best known for helping to establish the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia, and for his work on the environmental risk factors relating to schizophrenia, such as obstetric events and cannabis use. In 2011, Professor Murray was awarded a knighthood for services to medicine and he is the second most widely cited psychiatrist in the world outside the USA. In this interview we discuss: •How Professor Murray came to psychiatry and what sparked his interest in research into psychosis. •Professor Murray's work to counter the concept of schizophrenia as a debilitating brain disease and how we came to appreciate the many factors that may contribute to psychotic illness. •The importance of recognising the influence of social factors in the causes of psychotic illness. •The differences between the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM V) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 11). •How psychiatric diagnoses compare and contrast to diagnoses in other branches of medicine. •The question of whether schizophrenia is a real entity or purely an artificial construct. •How antipsychotic drugs exert their effects and the mechanisms by which they may lead, in some cases, to dopamine supersensitivity. •How we should be cautious about the long-term prescribing of antipsychotic drugs. •The effect that limited healthcare resources have on psychiatric diagnoses and treatments. •What the future may hold for research into and treatment options for psychosis. Relevant links: Professor Sir Robin Murray The Psychosis Service at the Bethlem Royal Hospital 30 Years on: How the Neurodevelopmental Hypothesis of Schizophrenia Morphed into the Developmental Risk Factor Model of Psychosis Webinar: Is Schizophrenia Dead Yet? Thou shall not criticise our drugs To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Celia Brown. Celia is a psychiatric survivor and a prominent leader in the movement for human rights in mental health. She is the current president of MindFreedom International, a nonprofit organization uniting 100 sponsor and affiliate grassroots groups with thousands of individual members to win human rights and alternatives for people labelled mentally ill. Celia also serves on the board of the National Empowerment Center and has co-chaired the planning committee for the National Alternatives Conference for the past few years. She was last year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Alternatives Conference. In this interview, we talk about the history of the human rights movement to combat forced treatment and the important role Celia has played in it. In the episode we discuss: •The goals and values of the movement for human rights in mental health, specifically in regards to the issue of forced treatment •Celia's role in the human rights movement and MindFreedom International •How the movement for human rights in mental health first started and its early achievements •The important role played by Judi Chamberlin in the formation of the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement •How efforts to combat shock treatment and provide informed consent about psychiatric drugs have been a core part of the movement in recent years •The development of the peer specialist position and the peer support movement •How the human rights movement has developed alternative language to the terms and labels used by the mental health system •Some of the current tensions and divisions within the movement •Current ongoing advocacy efforts to combat forced treatment, including Tina Minkowitz's advocacy work with the UN's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Disability Integration Act •Why the movement has faced challenges in changing policy and public opinion on the rights of people labelled mentally ill •How the movement for human rights in mental health has overlapped and intersected with other human rights movements, including the civil rights, feminist, and disability rights movements •The role Kate Millet played in bridging the psychiatric survivors movement with the feminist movement •How people can get involved in the movement for human rights in mental health by learning about the history of the movement, attending conferences, and seeking mentorship To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Chris Hansen. Chris started working in New Zealand as an activist after a psychiatric hospitalization 20 years ago. She has provided advice and media comment locally, regionally and nationally, including work with the New Zealand Mental Health Commission and Ministry of Health. She was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as working as a board member for the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. For the past 12 years, she has worked with Shery Mead developing Intentional Peer Support and is currently in the role of director. In this interview, we talk about Chris's personal experiences of the mental health system and how Intentional Peer Support approaches contrast with mainstream psychiatry. In the episode we discuss: How Chris was working in the mental health system, before herself experiencing a psychiatric hospitalization. How she experienced personal loss during the time that she was hospitalized. How Chris found that her experiences led to a realisation that she didn't want to work on the medical side of the mental health system and instead focussed her efforts on peer support. That Chris's experiences led to her becoming an activist, working locally, regionally and nationally in advisory and contract positions, including the NZ Mental Health Commission and Ministry of Health. That peer support gave Chris the hope, the inspiration and the desire to recover from her traumatic experiences of forced hospitalization and treatment with psychiatric drugs. How involvement with advocacy for the abolishment of forced treatment led Chris to work with the United Nations for the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as working as a board member for the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. How Intentional Peer Support works to makes connections with and support those who struggle with their mental health. How IPS supports and trains a wide range of organisations such as the mental health services, the police and people in the disability sector amongst others. How peer support distinguishes itself from mainstream psychiatric or psychological approaches. That learning to reconnect with people is vitally important in recovery. Relevant links: Intentional Peer Support Intentional Peer Support, a personal perspective by Shery Mead Intentional Peer Support: Creating Relationships, Creating Change Intentional Peer Support, upcoming trainings To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Dr. George Atwood. Dr. Atwood has devoted a substantial part of his life to the study and treatment of what he refers to as 'so-called psychosis'. He has authored or coauthored several books, including The Abyss of madness published in 2011 and more than one hundred articles. In the episode we discuss: The story of how Dr. Atwood came to be interested in "so-called psychosis," including what piqued his interest as a high school student, and his work under mentors Austin DesLauriers and Silvan Tomkins. An overview of his more recent work on intersubjective theory with collaborator and friend, Robert Stolorow. After studying what he refers to as "madness" for over 50 years, Dr. Atwood offers his perspective that madness is not a disease or illness existing within a person, but a subjective experience of self-dissolution or catastrophe. How diagnostic classification systems can result in the false reification of mental diseases in a way that obscures individual realities. The phenomenological approach, or the study of individual human subjective experiences, as offering a hopeful future in a shifting away from "illness" or "disorder" frameworks. How psychotherapy, as a healing process, includes the relational context between clinician and patient, meriting a dedication to personal histories and contexts rather than overt symptoms. The history of the term "schizophrenia," and how terms such as these are embedded in a Cartesian medical model. A few of Dr. Atwood's clinical cases and particularly his perspectives on "so-called psychosis" and "so-called bipolar disorder." Dr. George Atwood's Personal Website with Works and Lectures To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

Download to listen later... This week on MIA Radio, we share the time between two interviewees; clinical psychologist Dr. Noel Hunter and entrepreneur and author Brett Francis. Dr. Noel Hunter is a clinical psychologist in New York and an advocate for the rights of people diagnosed with mental disorders. She believes in a trauma-informed, humanistic, person-centred approach to understanding problems in living. She has trained in community mental health, state hospital, residential, and college counselling settings. Dr. Hunter is on the board of directors for the Hearing Voices Network – USA, the International Society for Ethical Psychiatry & Psychology, and the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy. She is an Associate Editor for the peer-reviewed journal Ethical Human Psychology & Psychiatry and has been a guest editor for Asylum Magazine. Brett Francis is a professional speaker, mental health advocate, author and entrepreneur. Brett was herself diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and ADHD at 6 years of age, leading to being medicated for over eleven years and subsequent difficulties with anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is now passionate about supporting and encouraging open and honest discussions about mental health and disabilities and giving confidence to those struggling. In the episode we discuss: Dr Noel Hunter How Dr. Hunter came to be involved with the mental healthcare system. That Noel found that if she did reach out and discuss her experiences, she felt punished or accused of 'seeking attention'. That these experiences made Noel want to fight back and become a therapist and advocate who took a different approach. That Noel feels that building trust within the therapeutic relationship is a fundamental part of a therapists job. That it is healthy to be sceptical of the mainstream system and for people to be afraid of getting help because of the potential of being re-traumatised by treatment. That the medical model ultimately leads to avoidance and harm. Whether there can ever be equality in the therapeutic relationship. Brett Francis How Brett came to be diagnosed and medicated at a very early age. Her experiences taking the antipsychotic drug Haloperidol, and that she felt it disrupted her schooling. How Brett decided not to be limited by her diagnoses but instead focussed on tackling the stigma and misinformation prevalent in mental healthcare. That we should support and encourage people to talk about their struggles and we should do that through education. That creating communities and social connections can be enormously helpful in responding to emotional or psychological distress. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week on MIA Radio we interview Dr Joseph Firth. Dr Firth is a postdoctoral research fellow at Western Sydney University. His research focuses on the role of exercise and nutrition in first episode psychosis in young people. In this interview we discuss: That Dr Firth completed his PhD in Manchester, UK, which focussed on the role of exercise in the treatment of psychosis in young people. That he now works on a programme of adjunctive and novel treatments for psychosis, particularly the role of exercise and nutrition and including technology and mobile health. How results show that exercise can reduce symptoms in young people such as the cognitive deficit, lack of motivation and social withdrawal and that these are symptoms that the medications don't really help with. That, in the very early stages of psychotic illness, there are currently few interventions other than therapy, so exercise and nutrition could have a role in reducing the need for antipsychotic drugs and even potentially affect the onset of psychotic symptoms. That qualitative research has shown that young people report that their symptoms are reduced or become less troubling when they exercise. How exercise and nutrition have key roles in reducing the health inequalities that are seen in young people treated with antipsychotic drugs. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week on MIA Radio we interview Dr Jay Joseph. Dr Joseph is a clinical psychologist and author who brings a critical perspective to claims in the media and the academic literature that disordered genes underlie psychiatric disorders. His most recent books are The Trouble with Twin Studies: A Reassessment of Twin Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences and the 2017 e-book Schizophrenia and Genetics: The End of an Illusion. In this interview, we discuss the evidence that psychiatry puts forward in support of the claim that mental disorders have an important genetic basis and the reasons why psychiatry is still searching after many decades of failed attempts. In the episode we discuss: How Dr Joseph, as a clinical psychologist, came to be interested in the validity of the diagnosis of schizophrenia. How he then became interested in the assertions by psychiatry that diagnoses such as schizophrenia had a genetic basis. That he discovered that the evidence for genetic factors underlying major psychiatric disorders is very weak and based mainly on twin and adoption studies. That, despite decades of work, there have been few if any discoveries of disordered genes that cause the major psychiatric disorders. How twin and adoption studies are used to try and demonstrate the relationship between genetics and mental disorders. That people are being told that their mental illness is genetically based which is not supported by evidence and it is rather like the chemical imbalance myth in this regard. That a disorder or condition 'running in the family' means that it is 'genetic' is also a common misconception. That psychiatry seems to be focused on finding the 'cause' of mental disorders within the body, rather than acknowledging that social and environmental factors are the main causes of trauma, distress, and psychological dysfunction. Relevant links: Dr Jay Joseph Schizophrenia and Genetics: The End of an Illusion Bias and Deception in Behavioral Research Schizophrenia Genetic Research – Running on Empty To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week we interview Dr David Healy. Dr Healy is an internationally respected psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and author. A professor of Psychiatry in Wales, David studied medicine in Dublin, and at Cambridge University. He is a former Secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and 20 books, including The Antidepressant Era and The Creation of Psychopharmacology and his latest book, Pharmageddon, published in 2012. David is a founder and CEO of Data Based Medicine Limited, which operates through its website RxISK.org, and is dedicated to making medicines safer through online direct patient reporting of drug side effects. In this interview, we discuss Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) and Dr Healy's novel and innovative approach to finding a cure. A recent email to Dr Healy starkly highlights the problem: I took X for 16 years without any side effects. Stopped 7 months ago and all hell broke loose. Some of the side effects I got in the first week after quitting are: no libido, cold testicles/penis, pain around penis and anus, tinnitus, erectile dysfunction, tingling, numbness... Life is not very good these days. I am married with beautiful children. They have lost their father. If I can do anything to help, don't hesitate to get in touch. I would like to give you my biggest thanks for what you are doing and wish you all the best with the fundraising. In the episode we discuss: How Dr Healy came to set up Data Based medicine and RxISK.org. Why RxISK are focussing on Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). That genital numbness can occur very quickly upon taking an ssri antidepressant and can also be triggered by drugs such as Roaccutane (isotretinoin) and Propecia (finasteride). What led to setting up the RxISK Prize. How people can get involved with the campaign. That it's often people not involved with healthcare who get motivated to take action. How empowering it is to enable people harmed by pills to be part of the solution. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week we interview Dr Gordon Warme. Dr Warme is a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry. He trained with Karl Menninger at the Menninger Clinic in the US and at Heidelberg University in Germany, and has been a faculty member at the Menninger Clinic, the University of Kansas, and has been an academic at the University of Toronto for 40 years. His most recent book, published in 2016 is Brain Evangelists: How Psychiatry Has Convinced Us to Believe in Its Far-Fetched Science and Dubious Treatments in which he blows the whistle on modern psychiatry, arguing that, in the long history of medicine, biological and chemical "abnormalities" in psychiatric patients have never been identified, and labels such as schizophrenia and depression are misleading metaphors that dehumanize patients. In the episode we discuss: How Dr Warme came to specialise in psychiatry. His experience of being trained by doctors who had a strong psychoanalytic approach. That Sigmund Freud wanted psychiatry to be scientific, but Dr Warme feels that this led Freud astray. The relationship between culture and psychiatric 'disorders'. Watching, describing and talking as important therapeutic skills to develop. Dr Warme's view of how drugs are used in psychiatry and that he hasn't prescribed for many years. The Rosenhan Experiment. Where psychiatry is heading as a profession. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week we interview David Mielke. David is a psychology graduate and teacher in a California high school who has become increasingly concerned about the number of children that he teaches that have a psychiatric diagnosis and how many are on psychiatric drugs. In this interview, we discuss David's experiences as an educator and how teachers can empower students to have more confidence in themselves. In the episode we discuss: How David studied psychology and then came to be a teacher at Culver City High School in California. How an experience witnessing electroshock therapy made an indelible mark on his approach to educating. How David knew from interacting with his students that most often their struggles were because of difficult circumstances such as issues at home rather than brain diseases in need of diagnosis. How David has witnessed many of his students have internalised their diagnostic labels. The relationship between a psychiatric diagnosis and learned helplessness. The tensions that may arise between school policies and guidance, teachers and parents when a psychiatric diagnosis is involved. The power inherent in psychotherapy to connect with and support people in difficulty. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017