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Monthly Archives: December 2010

Electroconvulsive Therapy: Will The FDA Whitewash It?

For decades the FDA has allowed electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to be used without requiring any proof of safety or efficacy. The machines and the treatment have been “grandfathered” into use rather than tested. A few years ago the FDA proposed to test the treatment but heavy pressure from the American Psychiatric Association caused the agency to reverse itself. ECT remains untested and widely used. Imagine that — the American Psychiatric Association doesn’t want an obviously dangerous treatment to be tested at all. It just wants psychiatrists left alone to inflict it upon hapless patients.

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How to Be Helpful to Almost Anyone, Anytime

Want to be helpful to almost anyone under almost any circumstances? Want to be a better friend, husband or wife, doctor or teacher, therapist or police officer?Maybe you just want to make this holiday season as pleasant as possible for everyone around you. Almost every kind of help begins with building a positive relationship. And for many kinds of help, a good relationship is the single most helpful thing you can offer. But what makes for a positive or good relationship?

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The New Child Abuse: The Psychiatric Diagnosing and Drugging of Our Children

Every society has found its own methods to abuse its most vulnerable members: children; women; the elderly; ethnic, racial and religious minorities; the poor; the mentally distressed or distressing; the physically disabled; those with unconventional lifestyles. All of these have been widely abused and all remain victims of abuse to varying degrees in societies throughout the world.

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