Free Hearing Voices Training Webinar

via National Empowerment Center, Inc.:

Free Hearing Voices Training Webinar A webinar on "Hearing Voices Training," sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will take place Friday, October 10, 2014 at 2:00 pmEastern Time. October 10 is World Mental Health Day. Hearing Voices Network (HVN) USA is part of an international network which includes over 20 countries who share the fundamental belief that there are many ways to understand the experience of hearing voices and other unusual or extreme experiences.  Goals of the Hearing Voices Network USA include: ·        Raising awareness about voice hearing, visions and other unusual or extreme experiences ·        Supporting anyone who has had these experiences by providing opportunities to talk about them freely and without judgment ·        Supporting anyone who has had these experiences to explore, understand, learn and grow from them in their own way ·        Supporting individuals providing support, family, friends and the general community to broaden their understanding and ability to support individuals who have had these experiences Presenters:  Advance registration not required.  1. Go to – http://nasmhpd.adobeconnect.com/hearingvoices/  (Please either right click on the link or copy and paste the link into a new tab.) When the Adobe Connect Log-in screen appears, select "Enter as a Guest," enter the name and state of the participant in the "Name" field (Ex. Jane Doe-AK) and click on "Enter Room." 2. Once prompted to join the Audio portion of the meeting, please select: "Dialing-in to the Audio Conference Via Phone." Then dial 1-888-727-2247 and enter the conference ID number 5433540#.  Dialing in allows for interaction and dialogue.  Please ensure that your computer speakers are turned down so that there is no audio feedback. Note: If you are only able to join the audio portion, then you will not be able to see the webinar presentation.  We highly recommend that you test your connection to Adobe Connect in advance of the webinar to ensure access. To test your connection, please go to: http://nasmhpd.adobeconnect.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm. You may be prompted to install ActiveX control, Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Connect add-ins. If you encounter any difficulty testing your connection or logging into the webinar, please contact Technical Support by calling 1-800-459-5680. If you are having an issue logging into the web, you can also join by phone first, press *0 and get a private operator help to get you onto the web.  If you have an issue any time during the call, you can press *0 for immediate help. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Kelle via email at kelle.masten@nasmhpd.org or at 703-682-5187.

This notice is from the Technical Assistance Center of the National Empowerment Center
Tel: 1-800-POWER2U, 1-978-685-1494    Email: info4@power2u.org     Web: www.power2u.org

Funded in part by: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Center for Mental Health Services
www.samhsa.gov

The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

The over-diagnosis of early onset schizophrenia and other irregularities in psychiatry

Judith L. Rapoport, M.D.
		Judith L. Rapoport M.D. is Chief of the Child Psychiatry Branch NIMH. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School. She did her clinical and research training at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (Boston), Children's Hospital (DC), and the Karolinska Hospital (Stockholm). Her research has focused on diagnosis in child psychiatry, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Over the past decade, her group has been studying the clinical phenomenology, neurobiology and treatment of Childhood Onset Schizophrenia. She is an author or coauthor of over 300 scientific papers, a member of the Institute of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

A brief clip of a recent webinar:

Out of 361 kids initially screened as potential participants in a phenomenology, neurobiology and pharmacologic response study, 37% of them, a total of 132 kids were determined to have been incorrectly diagnosed with schizophrenia, and were excluded. 229 were presumed to have been accurately diagnosed with schizophrenia, and 228 of these were observed at an inpatient setting over a period of several weeks. Upon discharge, only 126 of the 228 were believed to have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, e.g. 34.9% of the original 361 kids who had been diagnosed and were screened for potential participation in this study by Rapoport and her colleagues had been (presumably) accurately diagnosed with schizophrenia....

Diagnostic disagreement is not simply a problem caused by a lack of inter-rater diagnostic agreement, it is more a problem caused by the lack of empirical data to support and validate the diagnostic criteria. The rate of diagnostic disagreement in this study effectively demonstrates how dangerous and unreliable the DSM is.



The current psychiatric treatment guidelines adopted by the APA and the AACAP are developed using a quasi-democratic process to achieve consensus. The first line treatment always recommended for a diagnosis of schizophrenia in professional guidelines, practice parameters, and treatment algorithms is neuroleptic drugs. 

Expert opinions are not a valid substitute for empirical evidence; nonetheless, expert opinions are relied on (presumably) because the available evidence does not support the treatment recommendations promulgated through a political process in which psychiatrist's expert opinions are used to pseudo-validate the recommendations and used to justify the prolific prescription of teratogenic drugs, as a "necessary medical treatment" regardless of the therapeutic value to psychiatric patients who are labeled and targeted for psychiatric treatment... 

Psychiatry is obviously NOT an ethical medical specialty! 

watch on youtube      the slides for Judith Rapoport's presentation

Here is what the NIMH website says about this project:

"Since 1990, the NIMH has been recruiting patients with onset of schizophrenia before age 13. Major goals are to study brain development during childhood and adolescence in early onset schizophrenia patients. Preliminary genetic studies show association with a number of schizophrenia risk genes such as GAD and NRG1, supporting continuity with the adult disorder. In addition, abnormal brain developmental trajectories in patients and their full healthy siblings are seen in relation to risk alleles for these genes. Treatment studies have shown the unique benefit of clozapine for treatment resistant patients. A new study of transient cortical electrical stimulation has begun for control of selected symptoms. (emphasis mine)

"Children and adolescents meeting DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia are being recruited nationally for a study of the phenomenology, neurobiology and pharmacologic response of childhood onset schizophrenia. Over 300 medical records have been reviewed from which 320 patients and their families, appearing to meet DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia with onset of psychosis prior to age 12, were screened in person. Of these 225 were hospitalized for medication free observation.  A total of 112 received the diagnosis of schizophrenia at NIMH screening. A large number of children are receiving the diagnosis of schizophrenia improperly resulting in inappropriate treatment, even at academic centers. " here

Remember, according to Judith Rapoport's webinar and the slides she used, of the 361 kids screened for potential participation in the study, only 126 (34.9%) were believed to have schizophrenia at discharge.

The lack of empirical validity means psychiatric diagnosis is unreliable; the fact that mental health professionals have police powers to detain people make psychiatric diagnosis and treatment a risky proposition. The risk of disability and premature fatality are inherent, unavoidable risks for people of all ages who take psychotropic drugs; children and adolescents are known to be have an even greater risk for experiencing adverse effects, including drug-induced fatality. These pertinent facts make Jeffrey Lieberman's claims utterly irresponsible; being without a factual basis, his claims are unethical.

via Hearing Voices Network:

Basic information about voices and visions

via Intervoice:

Children Hearing Voices: What you need to know and what you can do

Free booklets for parents and supporters

What you can do if your child tells you they are hearing voices

1. Try not to over react, although you will be understandably worried, work hard not to communicate your anxiety to your child.
2. Accept the reality of the voice experience for your child: Ask them about their voices, how long they have been hearing them, who or what they are, do they have names, what they say etc.
3. Let your child know that lots of children hear voices and mostly they go away after a while.
4. Even if the voices do not disappear your child can learn to live in harmony with his/her voices
5. It is important to breakdown your child’s sense of isolation and differentness from other children. Your child is special, unusual perhaps, but normal.
6. Find out if your child has any difficulties or problems that they are finding very hard to cope with and work on trying to fix these problems. Think back to when the voices first started, what was happening to your child when they first heard voices? When did the voices arise for the first time? Was there anything unusual or stressful that might have occurred?
7. If you think you need outside help, find a therapist who is prepared to accept your child’s experience and work with your child in a systematic way to understanding and cope with their voices better.
8. Be ready to listen to your child if they want to talk about their voices and use drawing, painting, acting and other creative ways to help them describe what is happening to them.
9. Get on with your lives and try not to let the voice experience become the centre of your child’s life or your own.
10. Most children who live well with their voices have supportive families living around them who accept the experience as part of who their child is. You can do this too!

Hearing Voices in Accra and Chennai: How Culture Makes A Difference to Psychiatric Experience

via Constance Cummings

via Neuroanthropology blog at PLOS Blogs 

Tanya Luhrmann, hearing voices in Accra and Chenai by Greg Downey here

via The Wilson Quarterly Beyond the Brain by Tanya Marie Luhrmann 

Update 1-16-2013 via Ruminations on Madness

Return of the Social: Rewriting the recent history of schizophrenia 

"I’ve long felt a certain ambivalence regarding Tanya Luhrmann’s work on psychosis (see, e.g., a much earlier post here).  Part of my frustration stems from Luhrmann’s disconnect, so far as I can tell, from the complexities of the user/survivor movement, and part from disappointment that  the tremendous potential latent in her topics of choice—potential, above all, to inject psychiatric discourse with the theoretical nuance I otherwise associate with contemporary medical anthropology—is so rarely realized.  Luhrmann’s latest commentary—an informal piece on the recent history of schizophrenia treatment, presumably targeting educated non-specialists—unfortunately only intensifies my frustration (and more than a touch of righteous anger) with her work.  Instead of careful attention to cracks and discontinuities, to politics and the machinations of neoliberalism,  Luhrmann sets out to tell what amounts to a surprisingly classic (and even more surprisingly uninformed) metanarrative of the ‘necessary progress’ of knowledge and freedom—knowledge advanced by scholars, and freedom, of course, for schizophrenia patients.  (Progress, admittedly, that is (always?) also a return to as Luhrmann puts it, “an older, wiser understanding of the mind and body.”) Here are a few of my complaints:

Bio-bio-bio…..gone?

"Luhrmann’s noticeably Hegelian rendering of the history of the modern psychiatric treatment of schizophrenia goes approximately like this: for much of the early 20^th century, American psychiatrists attributed the development of schizophrenia to poor mothering, and turned to primarily psychosocial therapies informed by psychoanalysis.  The 1980s, in contrast, marked the introduction of an “antithetical” discourse—biomedical psychiatry, peaking with the “decade of the brain” in the 90s—followed more recently by the synthetic ‘return of the social’.  In a particularly memorable line—one that would stun both my activist and mental health services researcher colleagues—Luhrmann announces, “It is now clear that the simple biomedical approach to serious psychiatric illnesses has failed… At least, the bold dream that these maladies would be understood as brain disorders with clearly identifiable genetic causes and clear, targeted pharmacological interventions…has faded into the mist.”  That the decade of the brain oversold itself and that biopsychiatry has—as for the last half century at a minimum—been strongly contested by activists, as well social and community psychologists and psychiatrists, is undeniable.  That biopsychiatry has “faded in to the mist”…? Let me attempt to unpack a few of the complexities Luhrmann ignores." read here

Hearing Voices: The movement that encourages you to talk to your voices

via The Project TV

Hearing Voices

The movement that encourages you to talk to your voices 
Monday, 4 June 2012

For many people with mental illness that hear voices, it can be an isolating and fearful experience that can literally derail someone’s life.

The voices can be male, female, old or young. There can be one or many, and often reflect the unexpressed emotional state of the hearer. Many assume that hearing voices is related to people who suffer from schizophrenia, but it can also occur to people suffering from other mental illnesses.

But a new movement is offering hope to sufferers, regardless of their diagnoses. The believe that the problem is not in the hearing of the voices, but the hearers inability to cope with the experience.

Tonight The Project takes a look at Hearing Voices, the society that offers a place for sufferers to connect with others and learn to speak to the voices they hear.

Intervoice website

Intervoice on facebook 

Intervoice on twitter

Hearing Voices  Movement Media Watch

Peter Hawes website Psych Patient No More 

picture credit