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This page features links to sites covering a variety of problems and disorders.
Trauma
Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Violence and Disasters A booklet that describes the impact of violence and disasters on children and adolescents, with suggestions for minimizing long-term emotional harm.
UK Trauma Group A selection of material which we hope gives relevant and helpful information for the general public and for health professionals about Post Traumatic Stress Reactions.
The European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies The European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, established in 1993, is the European network for professionals in the field of psychotraumatology.
Treatment of PTSD Expert Consensus Guidelines: Treatment of PTSD and Advice for Families.
Traumatised Children Trauma-focused best practices are interventions that have been shown to be effective for the prevention or treatment of problems associated with the experience of trauma in children and adolescents. Whether a practice is identified as a "best practice," an evidence-based practice (EBP), an empirically validated treatment (EVT), or empirically supported therapy (EST), it is understood that the practice has been clearly specified and subjected to scientific research processes. Since these practices are supported by scientific evidence, they can inform practitioners, consumers, and policy makers about the appropriateness of certain treatments.
Psychosocial issues for Children & Families in Disasters The aftermath of large scale disasters places strain on the entire fabric of a community and its residents. The health care provider may often be both the victim/survivor and the source of assistance. It is our hope that this booklet will provide a resource to help physicians, their patients, and their communities cope more effectively in very difficult times.
Voicelessness
Voicelessness and Emotional Survival If I asked you what children need in order to be psychologically healthy, you would probably answer: love and attention. Of course, you would be right: love and attention are essential for every child. But, there is a third psychological need critical to the emotional well-being of children: "voice." What is "voice"? It is the sense of agency that makes a child confident that he or she will be heard, and that he or she will positively impact his or her environment. With this sense of agency comes the implicit belief that one's core has value. Exceptional parents grant a child a voice equal to theirs the day that child is born. And they respect that voice as much as they respect their own. How does a parent provide this gift?
Social and Cultural Issues
Look Out for All Children Astute examination of the cultural background that gives rise to many of the emotional difficulties of children and young people.
The Role of Culture in Prevention Research Emotional health concerns remain a disproportionate challenge for some groups of children, particularly for children of colour, urban residents, and girls. Researchers must therefore look carefully at the role of culture in prevention. This article considers the generalisability of the construct "culturally relevant pedagogy" to the design of preventive interventions, using the development of the author's curriculum, the BrainPower program, as an example.
Social Causes of Psychological Distress Social and economic research often studies social conditions but leaves their emotional consequences unmentioned. Other research often assumes that emotions come out of people's heads without reference to social conditions. This volume takes a different approach by explicitly and objectively measuring feelings such as anxiety, frustration, anger, despair, depression, demoralisation, joy, fulfillment, and hope, and by relating these feelings to the social conditions and positions indexed by age, sex, education, income, employment, job conditions, marital status, and parenthood.
Ethics and Values
Ethical Issues of Evidence Based Medicine There is a growing belief, that in the production of evidence as well as the application in clinical practice and health policy, moral values play a hidden, but decisive role. For example, the definition of effectiveness of medical treatment or health care service is heavily dependent on individual or social views about the goals of the particular treatment or service. There is a serious concern too, that the rationalisation of the rationing process will be at the expense of widely shared social values like solidarity and equity.
Conversations About Ethics The American Group Psychotherapy Association code of ethics.
Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Perfection We indicate ways that the use of biotechnical means can actually undermine the end of better children. But there are also serious questions to be put to the goal itself, some about “childhood,” some about what is “better.”
A Dialogue on Ethical Issues San Diego Group Psychotherapy Association dialogue on ethical issues.
Informed Consent and the Medication Of Children In the modern practice of medicine, the doctrine of informed consent is fundamental. Issues of physician responsibility and malpractice are major forces shaping the delivery and cost of health care services. The application of informed consent in psychiatry raises a unique set of problems related to the existence of fundamental differences between the concepts of physical and mental illness. The practice of medicine has developed hand in hand with clarification of and allegiance to the scientific method. Simply put, there is a process whereby medical scientists posit the existence of a disease entity, then confirm the presence of a physical or chemical abnormality which is a marker for the disease. By this marker, physicians can know and demonstrate to patients the presence of a specific disease, and can make a specific disease/no disease differentiation between those who have the disease and those who do not. Treatments for a disease are relevant only when the disease is verified, and are judged accordingly on a risk/benefit analysis relevant to the health of the patient with or without the treatment. If the physician is unable to verify the existence of a disease by confirming the established marker for a disease, then he has no medical prescription to offer.
AGPA and NRCGP Guidelines for Ethics AGPA and NRCGP Guidelines for Ethics
Complex Dilemmas in Group Therapy Each clinical dilemma (21 in all) is presented to two different consultants, who sometimes come from differing theoretical viewpoints. The multiplicities that emerge from this format are fascinating, confirming the dictum that there is no 'right way' to conduct group psychotherapy. (However, as some of the cases amply illustrate, there can be a 'wrong way' to do it). If you are looking for a treatment manual that tells you exactly what to do in a particular situation, this book will disappoint. The authors demand a certain willingness to become engaged with the clinical material and wrestle with human complexity while thinking both systemically and psychodynamically.
Psychotherapy: deliverance or disablement? The ethical questions which confront any individual working in the 'helping professions' presumably vary according to that individual's particular situation. For example doctors, nurses, social workers and psychologists find themselves working in contexts which are in several important respects different from each other: in terms, for instance, of the often implicit conceptual and ethical assumptions and preoccupations of their discipline, and also of the access they may have to the use of formal institutionalised power.
TA and Ethics Introductory Notes on the Principles of Ethics
Breaches in Professional Ethics A psychotherapist can only be psychotherapist to a client--nothing else-- not a landlord, sexual partner, business associate, employee or employer. A self-serving psychotherapist abandons and fails clients by actively using them to provide sexual gratification, money-making opportunities, social contacts, expensive gifts or personal or professional services.
Ethics Codes & Practice Guidelines This page presents links to therapy, counseling, forensic, and related ethics (and practice) codes developed by professional organizations (e.g., of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, marriage and family counselors). Codes are listed only if they appear online.
Ethics and Issues in Counseling - Bibliography A bibliography of ethics and counselling resources.
Legal, Ethical, and Professional Issues in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Because existing institutions and standards have been established around the view that psychoanalysis is a form of health-care, anyone attempting such a re-definition faces fundamental practical questions: What, if any, relationship do analytic practitioners who explicitly reject the medical model have to existing standards in law, ethics, education, and professional practice? And, to the extent that these standards make no sense outside of a medical context, how are we going to go about redefining what we do --legally, ethically and professionally? This web space is dedicated to the publication of a variety of writings that raise and attempt to answer these questions in ways that we hope individual practitioners will find useful in their own thinking. It is very much a work in progress -- and in that spirit we welcome your comments, queries, suggestions, and contributions.
Bioethics Web BioethicsWeb offers free access to a searchable catalogue of Internet sites and resources covering biomedical ethics.
Biomedical Ethics Resources Resources relating to biomedical ethics.
Ethical Issues of Evidence Based Medicine We have tried to uncover and analyse the hidden values that are guiding the process of rationalisation of medical care and health policy on the basis of scientific evidence.
National Institute for Clinical Excellence and its value judgements NICE has to make both scientific and social value judgements when appraising health technologies and developing clinical guidelines for the NHS. Here, its chair and previous vice chair explain the rationale behind the decisions.
Response from CMF to NICE on their draft guidelines on Social Value Judgements NICE claims to base its conclusions on the 'best available evidence' but the consultation document itself is based on a set of controversial presuppositions for which no evidence base is given, namely: Principalism (2.1): ie. Beauchamp and Childress' four principles. Utilitarianism (2.2.4): ie. 'The greatest good for the greatest number'. QALYs (4.1): ie. Quality-adjusted life year cost-utility analysis. We would submit that these presuppositions are ideologically based rather than evidence based. We can understand their attractiveness but believe them to have fundamental flaws. These flaws are important, because if the document's foundation is unstable, then its conclusions will be also.
Psychoanalysis and The Ethics of Integration This paper, examines the implications of the splitting of the human mind for ethics, both in psychoanalytic practice and generally. It argues that they raise doubts about the validity of the notion of autonomy as usually understood (Lindley 1986). Autonomy implies choices, choosing between alternatives, including alternative treatments, or the choice of having treatment or not. Such choices are at the root of standard medical ethics as systematically described by Gillon (1986), for instance. Such a standard ethical code is somewhat unthinkingly adopted. But if a person's mind can be split Into parts with separate intentions, and in addition some parts can be represented by the mind of someone else, then whose autonomy should be respected?
Values and Psychotherapy The therapist’s values cannot be kept out of the therapeutic relationship. This chapter examines the role of values in the clinical encounter.
UK Clinical Ethics Network The UK Clinical Ethics Network provides information and support to both developing and existing clinical ethics committees within the health service.
Boundaries in Professional Relationships Professional boundaries are relevant to the delivery of professional services in that the degree to which they are necessary or produce some predictable outcome, the professional is obligated to be concerned about them. As regards the boundaries of confidentiality, political and societal issues are very important.
Boundaries and Boundary Violations Gabbard and Lester are talking about boundary violations in therapy from a dynamic and treatment oriented perspective. Thus, the focus is on internal representations, transference and countertransference rather than specifics of ethical codes or laws. They look at both nonsexual and sexual boundary violations.
Boundary Violations Theoretical statements, survey research, and case examples are used to elucidate concerns about maintaining metaphorical boundaries in psychotherapy and to demonstrate that psychotherapy is diverse with respect to the behaviours at issue. It is concluded that even scrupulous humanistic, behavioural, and eclectic practitioners might appear to practice negligently by virtue of engaging in behaviours which some consider to be boundary violations and that innovative practice might be stifled by risk management concerns.
Setting Clear and Ethical Boundaries The purpose of the course is to assist you in increasing your self awareness regarding setting ethical boundaries with clients.
Bullying
Bully Online Bully OnLine is the world's largest resource on workplace, school, and family bullying and related issues.
Scapegoating, Bullying, Harrassment and Persecution Webring This webring seeks to bring together the best websites from across the world with an interest in school and workplace bullying, harassment, abuse, persecution, torture, genocide, prejudice, war, and any other example of scapegoating processes. These sites may seek to inform, witness, understand, or to theorise about these phenomena and their social, psychological, psychodynamic, ethical or historical foundations.
Family Relationship Problems
Children Caring for Parents with Severe and Enduring Mental Illness Findings of a two year study by the Young Carers Research Group (in partnership with Rethink, formerly National Schizophrenia Fellowship) which looks at the experiences and needs of children who care for parents with mental illness, their caring and filial relationships and the nature of professional interventions in these families.
Children of Parents with a Mental Illness Resource centre for information relating to the care and management of families where a parent has a mental illness. The information on this site has been designed to meet the needs of workers in specific fields: early childhood, education, general practice, etc.
Children of Mentally Ill Consumers COMIC is comprised of a group of adults who share a common interest for children of parents with a mental illness. The group shares a common perception of the past failure by the mental health services to acknowledge and support them as children with special needs and assistance. The site contains papers and other resources.
Critical Issues for Parents with Mental Illness and their Families Nearly half of the women and men in the United States report a lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder, and 30% report the prevalence of at least one disorder in the previous 12 months (Kessler et al., 1997). Two-thirds of these women, and over half of these men are parents (Nicholson, Larkin, Simon, & Banks, 2001). The impact of parental mental illness on family life and children's well being cannot be overstated. The impact of parenting experiences on the well being of adults with mental illness is largely unexplored.
Parental Mental Illness In the discussion that follows, we suggest that a balance of population-oriented prevention and support services, together with more intensive and co-ordinated services for higher levels of need, represents the most efficient way to meet the needs of parents with mental illness, and the children who depend upon them.
Supporting Families This manual, “Supporting Families with Parental Mental Illness” contains what is needed for anyone with some experience in adult education to hold a community event that will inform audiences as to the issues involved in supporting families with parental mental illness.
Patients As Parents This document provides a fully referenced and practical summary of key issues involving the interactions and influences between parental psychiatric disorder and child mental health and wellbeing. It promotes an ecological approach in which mental illness is firmly embedded within a family and social context. The links between poverty, mental ill health, discrimination and social exclusion are compelling and any attempt to improve the life chances for patients who are parents and their children must be based on a good understanding of the needs of children and their mentally ill parents.
Anger/Aggression/Violence
Resources for the Study of Violence A collection of resources to aid in the understanding of the nature and sources of violence, and to reduce the incidence of violence in the modern world. There are various perspectives: sociological, anthropological, psychoanalytic, psychological, psychiatric, neurological.
Youth Violence Prevention One in 12 high schoolers is threatened or injured with a weapon each year. If you're between the ages of 12 and 24, you face the highest risk of being the victim of violence. Resources.
Destructive Behaviour in the Treatment Setting Reports in the psychiatric literature describe the reactions of clinicians who have been victims of violence or assault by their patients, suggest techniques for predicting and limiting the risk of violence, and address the issue of prosecution as one of the possible responses. They indicate that acts of violence against the person (for example, assault, death threats, sexual assault) or against property (for example, arson, theft, mischief) are not uncommon in psychiatric settings and require special knowledge, skills, and interventions for their management.
Family Violence The seven principles and accompanying standards that form the core of this document are the first step towards better practice and a more co-ordinated response by health workers to family violence.
Adoption and Fostering
Adoption and Fostering Resources The British Association for Adoption & Fostering is the leading UK charity working for children separated from their birth families.
Attachment Disorders
Attachment: Theory and Research Reports and commentary on attachment theory and research from Everett Waters, Judy Crowell, and colleagues at SUNY Stony Brook and the New York Attachment Consortium. A library of researchers' publication lists and on-line articles. Attachment measures for infant- mother, childhood, parenting, and marriage research. Course materials. Announcements and summaries of special events. Links to attachment related sites. Special Bowlby and Ainsworth sections. And a gallery of attachment artifacts and observations in the Bowlby - Ainsworth tradition.
Attachment Disorder Site Attachment Disorders range in severity. The attachment continuum runs from securely attached through degrees of attachment issues all the way to those who suffer from severe attachment disorder. Adoptees are not the only individuals that can suffer from attachment issues. Adults who did not get their emotional and physical needs met in the first few years as well as families who have biological children who, for whatever reason, did not have a strong connection with their primary caregiver, show the characteristics of attachment difficulties. Here you will find a wide variety of information to help you understand attachment issues.
Attachment Disorder Links Open Directory Project Links.
Attachment Disorder Resource Library This web site has the latest information about the nature of attachment disorder and the specifics of Corrective Attachment Therapy.
Attachment-based intervention with caregiver–pre-school child dyads The Circle of Security project: Attachment-based intervention with caregiver–pre-school child dyads. The Circle of Security intervention protocol is a 20-week, group-based, parent education and psychotherapy intervention designed to shift patterns of attachment–caregiving interactions in high-risk caregiver–child dyads to a more appropriate developmental pathway.
Measures of Attachment Measures for research on maternal sensitivity, secure base use, secure base support, and attachment representations. Essays and comments on issues and difficulties in attachment assessment.
Personality Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder Page Online directory.
Management of BPD This guideline was developed with the objective of summarising the best available evidence regarding the management of patients with borderline disorder in general psychiatric settings.
Practice Guideline BPD American Psychiatric Association guideline on the treatment of patients who show the psychological and behavioural traits said to characterise borderline disorders.
Avoidant Personality Disorder APD is characterised by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation. Children who meet criteria for APD are often described as being extremely shy, inhibited in new situations, and fearful of disapproval and social rejection. The degree of the symptoms and impairment is well beyond the trait of shyness that is present in as many as 40% of the population. Similar to other personality disorders, the condition becomes a major component of a person's overall character and a central theme in an individual's pattern of relating to others.
Personality Disorder - Adolescent Services A personality disorder is identified by a pervasive pattern of experience and behaviour that is abnormal with respect to any two of the following: thinking, mood, personal relations; and the control of impulses.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder MSN Group - Information and Links
Sociopathy MSN Group - Information and Links.
Patient/Family Resources List of relevant links.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder Clinical Resources Useful literature.
Antisocial Personality Disorder Description, diagnosis, treatment, research, booklets.
Intervening to Prevent Antisocial Personality Disorder This report provides a comprehensive review of the literature concerning interventions aimed at adolescents at risk for developing a clinical diagnosis of severe antisocial personality disorder in adulthood (ASPD). The review considers the definition and measurement of ASPD, risk factors for its development, the timing and nature of interventions and the evidence in support of various forms of intervention.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder American Psychotherapy Association article: Psychotherapeutic Assessment and Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Helen's World of BPD Resources This site is primarily geared for friends/family/loved ones of those who show the characteristics said to characterise Borderline Personality Disorder.
Self Harm
Guidelines for the Management of Self Harm These guidelines represent a consensus overview on the reasonable management of DSH in young people in Australasian Emergency Departments.
Guidelines for Schools Prevention, Recognition and Management of Young People at Risk of Suicide: development of guidelines for schools: risk assessment and questions, management.
A Guide for Schools Young People at Risk of Suicide.
Efficacy of Suicide Prevention This systematic review which assesses the
evidence on the efficacy/effectiveness of current suicide prevention programs for
children and youth.
Young People & Self Harm This site aims to educate & raise awareness about self-harm – for everyone! Young people, parents/carers, and those of you who work in health, education, social care, and voluntary sector organisations; make Policy Recommendations – in an informed, appropriate and timely manner based on comprehensive and digested Inquiry findings; to develop specific good practice guidelines and resource packs for individuals and organisations who work with young people.
Young People and Self Harm This site is a key information resource for young people who self-harm, their friends and families, and professionals working with them.
Eating Disorders
Eating Disorders Anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating and other related disorders - all may be conditions which have their root causes in emotional inner conflict. But this may be a reflection of particular conflicts within society. This is a page of useful resources.
Lucy Serpell's Eating Disorders Resources Eating disorders news, research, reports, conferences and opinions.
Eating Disorder Referral & Information Provides information and treatment resources for all forms of eating disorders. Their stated goal is to provide assistance, in the form of information and resources, to those suffering with eating disorders to get them started on the road to recovery and healthy living.
NICE Guidelines Core interventions in the treatment and management of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and related eating disorders. NICE and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health have published a guideline for the NHS in England and Wales on the management of eating disorders .
Practice Guideline Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Eating Disorders.
Lost for Words: The Psychoanalysis of Anorexia and Bulimia This is the first comprehensive overview of the psychoanalytic and psychodynamic literature on eating disorders Anorexics and bulimic are lost for words. Most are women. They feel they have no way to communicate effectively. They have not found the words to express and name the turmoil of their experience to themselves or others. This leaves them in a world where neither food not words can provide nourishment and sustenance. This book explores the nature of anorexia and bulimia, paying particular attention to the issues of mortality and the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship.
Psychosis
Psychoanalytic Work with Psychotic patients Literature on Psychoanalytic Work with "Psychotic" Persons.
Smoke & Mirrors One of the more intriguing aspects of the "schizophrenia" literature is the discrepancy between the strength of the belief that "schizophrenia is a brain disease" and the availability of direct supporting evidence; even those who hold the belief admit that there is no direct evidence for it (e.g. Chua and McKenna, 1995; McGrath and Emerson, 1999; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). This raises the question of why the belief seems so reasonable and credible.
Schizophrenia stuff A listing of newspaper articles and academic pieces concerning the idea of 'schizophrenia' including material that emphasises the social, cognitive and any other aspects which have been addressed from a social-psychological point of view.
Arieti: Interpretation of Schizophrenia is a book written by psychiatrist Silvano Arieti that won the 1975 scientific National Book Award in the United States. Interpretation of Schizophrenia sets forth demonstrative evidence of a psychological aetiology for schizophrenia. In the award winning 1974 edition (ISBN 0465034292) Arieti expanded the book vastly.
Substance Misuse
Psychodynamics of Drug Dependence The explanatory power of the new psychology of the self is nowhere as evident as with regard to these four types of psychological disturbance: (1) the narcissistic personality disorders, (2) the perversions, (3) the delinquencies, and (4) the addictions. Why can these seemingly disparate conditions be examined so fruitfully with the aid of the same conceptual framework?
Alcohol and Drug Information Extensive information for a variety of different audiences.
Determinants of Youth Drug Use Summarises the available literature on the structural determinants of youth drug use. Includes literature from the fields of health (public health, child and adolescent development, mental health), economics, crime prevention, social policy, and town planning.
Cannabis Youth Treatment Family Therapy, Community Support, Motivational Enhancement Therapy,
Barriers to Service Provision The report details and describes the barriers to service provision for young people suffering from comorbidity and makes recommendations.
Bibliography: Dual Diagnosis and the Personality Disorders Extensive bibliography.
Group Psychotherapy of Adolescent Substance Abusers Dr. Brook cited studies indicating that group treatment of adolescent substance abusers may be the optimal means of treatment, and one might hypothesise that this treatment may also be efficacious in the treatment of adolescent substance abusers who have concurrent mental illness.
Bibliography: Group Therapy Extensive bibliography.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Chemical Dependence Indexed Bibliography of Articles Published in Professional Chemical Dependency Journals.
Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much: A Clinician’s Guide Alcohol abuse and related problems continue to be issues of great concern to the government, employers, health care professionals, and of course, to family members of those struggling with these issues. This particular document was written for primary care and mental health clinicians, and addresses the subject of how to help patients with alcohol problems. Created by professionals at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), is divided into several sections designed to help such practitioners with the process of screening for alcohol problems and, if necessary, conducting an intervention. Along with these materials, users will also find screening support materials in Spanish, and a number of materials on the brief intervention model. Finally, the site is rounded out by a FAQ document which answers such questions as “What can I do to help patients who struggle to remain abstinent or who relapse”?
Forensic
Expert Papers on Forensic Mental Health. Child & Adolescent Antisocial Personality Disorder, etc.
Infancy
Association of Radical Midwives ARM has been pro-active on many issues which threaten midwifery and good maternity care, campaigning and lobbying in support of an enhanced service within the NHS for childbearing women as well as a strong professional identity for midwives. Find here a collection of articles.
Toddler Observation Training System Download the software on this page.
Postnatal Depression This guideline provides recommendations based on current evidence for best practice in the management of postnatal depression and puerperal psychosis. The guideline includes screening, diagnosis, prevention and management involving both primary and secondary care, leading to an integrated and effective multidisciplinary approach. This document is likely to assist in the development of local evidence-based integrated care pathways. The guideline is likely to be of interest to midwives, health visitors, general practitioners, pharmacists, psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, obstetricians, clinical psychologists, social workers, public health physicians, users of services, and all other professions caring for women and their families.
Reproductive Mental Health Guidelines Maternal and Infant Health Guidelines.
Improving Maternal and Infant Mental Health: Focus on Maternal Depression This policy paper, written by Zero to Three and UCLA, examines the impact of maternal depression on the social and emotional health of young children, and recommends specific steps that family support programs, early childhood programs, and public health officials can take to address the unmet mental health needs of mothers, ultimately promoting the social and emotional health, school readiness, and future functioning of very young children.
Teenagers
Teenage and Young Adult Parents Resources Issues and Agencies.
Attachment and Attachment Disorders The importance of an attachment relationship between mother and child cannot be over-emphasised. Attachment is all about building relationships. Humans need attachments with others for their psychological and emotional development as well as for their survival. Infants need to be physically close to the mother and be able to receive and give affection to form an enduring emotional bond.
Bridging the Gaps: Health Services for Adolescents This report describes the health needs that young people should expect to be met by health service providers and proposes a strategy to meet them. It is hoped that it will provide a source of advice that will be useful to those planning and commissioning health services for adolescents. It recommends appropriate standards for health services for adolescents and identifies the training needs of professionals. The report states general principles whenever possible in the expectation that these can be applied by individual patient and professional groups and disciplines.
Emotions
The Emotion Home Page This home page serves as a repository of information about emotion research. The goal of this site is to function as a web-space for the exploration of emotion research. It is intended as a tool for visitors interested in the scientific study of emotion and is limited to experimental and clinical psychology, neuroscience and computational perspectives.
Depression
The Antidepressant Debate There has been an extensive debate recently in the North American medical literature and general press concerning the efficacy of antidepressant drugs. Little of this has reached the European press. Andrews' editorial (Andrews, 2001) is a welcome contribution but focuses only on the reasons for and repercussions of the large placebo response in depression. Other reviews critical of antidepressant research have pointed out the numerous methodological problems involved, the inconsistency of the literature and the lack of evidence that the escalation in prescribing of antidepressants has had any impact on the burden of depressive illness. From this perspective the question of the efficacy of antidepressants remains unresolved.
Depression in Childhood and Adolescence Here you'll find lots of information on depression, where to go for help and support and what can be done.
Use of Antidepressants in the Treatment of Child and Adolescent Depression Looks at the effectiveness of antidepressants in the treatment of child and adolescent unipolar, nonpsychotic, major depression. Clinical trials on the use of antidepressants in children and adolescents; Role of pediatric health care in treating children with depression; Implications for practice.
Children and Medication for Depression Resources Articles, information, research.
Childhood Depression A preliminary position paper in response to NICE scope for clinical guideline on depression in children.
Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation Early intervention and treatment offers the best chance for children with bipolar disorder to achieve stability, gain the best possible level of wellness, and grow up to enjoy their gifts and build upon their strengths.
Moodgym Training Programme Delivering cognitive behaviour therapy for preventing depression.
Social Causes of Depression Depression is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders. Depression can be caused by several factors, including interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal relationships are the relationship between individuals and the reactions and emotions of each individual expressed directly and discreetly to each other. Common interpersonal relationships include (a) within the family, such as between the parents and between parents and children; (b) the social environment where differences in ethnicity and social class come into play; and (c) interactions between genders across age groups for both females and males.
Anxiety
Anxiety Links Open Directory Project Links.
Anxiety Booklet A detailed booklet that describes the symptoms, causes, and treatments of the major anxiety disorders, with information on getting help and coping.
Anxiety Coach This site is a self-help guide for people who have significant trouble with anxiety and phobias.
Early Intervention for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.
Grief and Bereavement
Grief and Bereavement Resources on grief and bereavement.
Cruse Bereavement Care Cruse Bereavement Care exists to promote the well-being of bereaved people and to enable anyone bereaved by death to understand their grief and cope with their loss. The organisation provides counselling and support. It offers information, advice, education and training services.
Chronic Conditions
Psychological Adjustment The Psychological Adjustment of Children with Chronic Conditions.
Conduct Disorder
Conduct Disorder Practice Parameters These practice parameters summarize the current scientific research evidence about conduct disorder in children and youth in order to provide information about effective practices for assessment, treatment, and prevention. The target audiences for these parameters include families, policymakers,
and frontline workers, such as social workers, psychologists, police, teachers, physicians, and others who work with children and youth with conduct disorder.
Early Interventions This document is intended as a reference guide to assist mental health professionals to detect and treat some forms of conduct problems in children who are less than twelve years of age. The guidelines may also provide useful information for parents, community workers, teachers, lawyers and others interested in these problems in young people and in some of the ways that it might be possible to help them.
adhd
Medicating Kids Defining and diagnosing adhd. How parents, educators and doctors are trying to make sense of a mysterious and controversial mental diagnosis.
Legal Issues Surrounding the Use of Ritalin The side-effects of stimulant drugs on a growing child's brain are not completely known. In response to their desire to rely on alternative forms of treatment, some parents state that school administrators have pressured them to continue the administration of drugs such as Ritalin. These parents claim these educational procedures have presented the threat of isolation and stigmatisation of their children, and ultimately, exclusion from educational services altogether. Forcing the use of drugs, such as Ritalin, solely to control disruptive students is a violation of the constitutionally protected liberty interests in one's privacy and bodily integrity. Furthermore, forcing a hyperactive child to take Ritalin violates his or her right to an education under current federal law by preconditioning that education.
Attention Deficit Disorder and Ritalin As a child neurologist for 35 years, I have authored original descriptions of real diseases characterised by objective abnormalities. Witnessing the burgeoning numbers of school children said to have A.D.D. and made to take brain-altering drugs, I have found, I can validate none of it.
Ritalin, Adderall, Resources Today there are more children taking Ritalin and amphetamine from doctors than ever received them from the illegal pushers. Furthermore, the ready availability of prescribed stimulants had led to their increasing illegal use by children and youth. What has happened to our society's values?
Rethinking adhd Sticky label. Child psychotherapist Ruth Schmidt Neven explores what lies behind the increasingly popular diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Book Review: Rethinking adhd “Their approach homogenises a variety of thoughts we all have on this contentious issue, in many ways akin to the controversies in the autism spectrum, or perhaps any condition in childhood which presents somewhere between average behaviour and grossly unusual behaviour. As the coming epidemic of mental illness threatens progress in the modern world, all of us in the West have come to question if the demands of modern capitalist life are not incompatible with wellness”.
Psychrights See the Articles & News section.
Alarm as prescriptions of Ritalin to children reach a record high
Children and Medication for ADHD Resources Useful set of links.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Topical news resources.
Running from Ritalin The soaring use of Ritalin, the physician Lawrence Diller concludes in his book, "Running on Ritalin," reveals something about the kind of society we are at the turn of the millennium.... It throws a spotlight on some of our most sensitive issues: what kind of parents we are, what kind of schools we have, what kind of health care is available to us. It brings into question our cultural standards for behavior, performance, and punishment; it reaches into the workplace, the courts and the halls of Congress. It highlights the most basic psychological conundrum of nature versus nurture, and it raises fundamental philosophical questions about the nature of free will and responsibility.
Debate about ADHD We asked Dr Sami Timimi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and author of Pathological Child Psychiatry and the Medicalisation of Childhood, and Professor Eric Taylor, a child psychiatrist from the Institute of Psychiatry and researcher into the aetiology, outcome and treatment of ADHD, to discuss the proposition that ADHD is best understood as a cultural construct.
Reflections of a UK clinician Developing non-toxic approaches to helping children who could be diagnosed with ADHD and their families: Reflections of a UK clinician.
ADHD advice Support and advice groups for parents of children with so-called behavioural disorders are being secretly funded by pharmaceutical firms.
Relational Troubles and Semiofficial Suspicion: Educators and the Medicalisation of "Unruly" Children Using an interview-based analysis of the accounts of interactions between educators, parents, and clinicians, this study explores educators' roles in interpreting childhood troubles as the medical phenomenon of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
ADD/ADHD Attention Deficit Disorder, according to the American Psychiatry Association is a recent disease that supposedly afflicts almost 5 million Americans, mostly young boys. ADD is generally characterised by hyperactivity, with tendencies toward fidgeting, loud outbursts, learning disabilities, and generally unruly behaviour.
A Critique of the International Consensus Statement on ADHD Why did a group of eminent psychiatrists and psychologists produce a consensus statement that seeks to forestall debate on the merits of the widespread diagnosis and drug treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Barkley et al., 2002)? If the evidence is already that good then no statement is needed. However, the reality is that claims about ADHD being a genuine medical disorder and psychotropics being genuine correctives have been shaken by criticism.
The Myth of ADHD Huntington House Publishers recently published a book, whose title may come as a surprise to many. It is: The Myth of ADHD and Other Learning Disabilities; Parenting Without Ritalin. The book was authored by Susan du Plessis and myself. The idea of Learning Disabilities, and therefore also of ADHD, has become such an established “scientific fact,” that many people may raise a sceptical eyebrow when they see or hear this title. One should never lose sight of the fact, however, that science is practised by human beings - and human beings are prone to err.
The Medication of Children As we navigate our way into the 21st century, there is an ominous trend that, strangely, doesn't seem to concern people as much as it should: Millions of children are now taking psychotropic drugs. And they're not doing it illegally, but by prescription.
ADHD Despite claims of irrefutable science, there are absolutely no objective criteria by which Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can be confirmed to exist. This is not science.
Problems in Identification and Assessment of ADHD Mass media in the United States seemed to centre faddish attention on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) following the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) 1994 publication of revised ADHD criteria in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM-IV). However, recent research findings have not received wide media attention. This paper examines the DSM-IV criteria and review recent research and recommendations regarding the identification and assessment of ADHD which may be useful to educators.
Epidemic of a Phantom Disease Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a completely unproven and highly questionable diagnosis, yet it is the basis for putting tens of thousands of children on dangerous stimulant drugs. ADD and its popular sub-type Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were invented and not discovered, and efforts to popularise these diagnoses are based on politics and economics and have little to do with medicine.
What to do about the ADHD epidemic In the last two decades the United States has experienced a great increase in the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its treatment with stimulants. Much of the public is confused, and now apprehensions are mounting with the extension of the diagnosis and drug use into preschool years. Some of us pediatric moderates are trying to mediate between the conservative defenders of the present imperfect construct and the radical critics who regard the diagnosis as a fraud.
Ritalin "On the Ropes" The popular drug Ritalin has been coming under increasing fire lately, from many different perspectives. We will take a look at some of the recent activity surrounding this controversial medication that is being given to increasing numbers of our children.
Debunking the Science Behind ADHD as a "Brain Disorder" The following letter is a description of the flaws in the scientific evidence that is used to support the belief that ADHD is a neurochemical disorder that is present from birth and that has nothing to do with inadequate nurturance during childhood, difficult family environments or oppressive and inhumane educational and community environments. It also describes the harm that is done by these beliefs and the treatment approaches based on them.
Medicating Kids The number of American children under 19 years of age who are prescribed psychotropic drugs is staggering - the use of these drugs eclipses all other categories for this age group. Between 2000 and 2003, the use of these drugs among teenagers increased threefold, and the number of children treated for "severe behavioral conditions" related to conduct disorder and autism jumped more than 60%. The FDA estimates 11 million antidepressant prescriptions were written in 2003 for under 19 year olds--a 27% increase in 3 years. Drugs used primarily to treat attention deficit/ hyperactivity (ADHD), which remains a controversial "condition," increased the most. In 5 to 9 year old children the use of drugs increased 85%, and in preschoolers usage was up 49%. Physicians prescribe mind-altering drugs even as they know that for this age group the developing brain is undergoing extraordinary changes. They acknowledge: "we have very little information about the long-term impact of treatment with these drugs early in development."
"If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning." Carl Rogers (1902-87)
Autism
Asperger Syndrome: Information and Support Information about Aspergers.
Frances Tustin Memorial Trust Frances Tustin was a renowned child psychotherapist pioneering on the frontiers of the psychoanalytic understanding and treatment of autistic states in children and adults since the early 1950's. She was born in the North of England in 1913 and, after obtaining her High School Certificate (equivalent to the Baccalaureate degree) decided to become a teacher. To this end, she trained at Whiteland's Church of England College. After her graduation, she worked as a teacher there for several years.
Unruly behaviour by children is falsely attributed to ADHD and autism Professor Priscilla Alderson claims in the Times newspaper that behavioural 'syndromes' are normal childhood restlessness of a generation stuck at home.
No Autistics Allowed Explorations in discrimination against autistics.
Frances Tustin Bibliography Without a doubt Tustin's work offers us some of the most original and important extensions of theory to date.
Causes of Autism You''ll find a lot of articles and press releases here about causes of autism in children.
Autism, Asperger's syndrome and semantic-pragmatic disorder The diagnostic criteria for autism have been refined and made more objective since Kanner first described the syndrome, so there is now reasonable consistency in how this diagnosis is applied. However, many children do not meet these criteria, yet show some of the features of autism. Where language development is impaired, such children tend to be classed as cases of developmental dysphasia (or specific language impairment) whereas those who learn to talk at the normal age may be diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome. It is argued that rather than thinking in terms of rigid diagnostic categories, we should recognise that the core syndrome of autism shades into other milder forms of disorder in which language or non-verbal behaviour may be disproportionately impaired.
Autism Rights Movement The autism rights movement (which has also been called autistic self-advocacy movement and autistic liberation movement was started by adult autistic individuals in order to advocate and demand tolerance for what they refer to as neurodiversity.
Terry Birchmore
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