Traditional psychiatry uses the approaches of medicine to try to understand mental health problems and guide treatment. This means relying on diagnosis – identifying what are believed to be mental illnesses…
Medication misuse is out of control in the US and more psychiatric labelling in DSM-5 will not help.
Whale05/Flikr
“We are all mad here” explains the Cat to Alice when she wonders about the strangeness of Wonderland. Well, life is starting to follow art. If people make the mistake of following DSM-5, the new diagnostic…
The UK has a strict policy of gender segregation on psychiatric wards, and so should Australia.
Image from shutterstock.com
Women admitted to psychiatry wards experience high levels of violence and sexual assaults, according to a report released this week by the Victorian Mental Illness Alliance Council. Across the nine different…
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is due to hit psychiatrists’ and psychologists’ shelves next month. Produced by the American Psychiatric…
Children who go through puberty early have poorer mental health than their peers. But it’s not a simple case of cause and effect.
Image from shutterstock.com
Fiona Mensah, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and George Patton, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Puberty has long been recognised as a transition point in which many emotional and behavioural problems emerge. These include depression and anxiety, substance use and abuse, self-harm and eating disorders…
Barriers can reduce the number of suicides at a particular location but broader means restriction measures are more complex.
AAP/Dan Peled
Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk’s recent announcement that barriers are to be erected on the Story Bridge in an effort to reduce suicides is very welcome. Studies consistently show that barriers have…
Bullies and their victims are at a higher risk of young adult psychiatric disorders, a new US study has found, with the worst effects seen in those who are both victims and perpetrators. In a study published…
Gender and sexual minorities are known to be at high risk of suicide.
Guillaume Paumier
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and intersex (LGBTI) people were recognised as being specific high-risk groups for suicide in a 2010 senate committee report. While every suicide may not be preventable…
People have probably always known about the psychological effects of experiencing life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, or violent assault. Literature through the ages – some…
Depression is more than the experience of sadness or stress.
Sander van der Wel
Many people know what it’s like to feel sad or down from time to time. We can experience negative emotions due to many things – a bad day at work, a relationship break-up, a sad film, or just getting out…
Governments, industry and communities must work together to address suicide risk factors for FIFO/DIDO workers.
AAP/Bagus Indahono
Barely a week passes without media coverage of some aspect of the real or perceived impacts of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in drive-out (DIDO) work, especially in the mining sector. We hear about the…
The risk of PTSD is determined by the frequency and severity of the potentially traumatic events.
AAP
Serving on operational deployments in conflict zones carries not only the obvious physical threats, it also poses significant mental health risks. While depression and anxiety disorders are common among…
Bushfire affected property at Sommers Bay in Tasmania, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. Residents of the worst-hit town Dunalley in the Tasmanian bushfires returned on Friday to see the full extent of the devastation.
AAP/David Beniuk
Radical circumstances (bushfires and natural disasters) flush out the mental illness in society. Whenever there’s a disaster, there’s a rush on hospital admissions for psychiatric problems. But on the…
Some of life’s problems are just not solvable.
Sean Dreilinger
We all do it from time to time – replay scenarios over and over in our minds. Problem is, these repetitive and, at times, uncontrollable thoughts inevitably leave us feeling worse and make us more prone…
Mental health experts say uncertainty is a major factor that contributes to the mental deterioration of asylum seekers in detention.
AAP
The “prison-like” immigration detention facilities on Christmas Island are not appropriate for asylum seekers, and there has been a rise in the demand for mental health services at the facility, according…
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary