Why Are Patients and Families Not Told The Truth About Electroconvulsive Therapy?

By John Read, Sarah Price Hancock, Lisa Morrison, Lucy Johnstone, Chris Harrop, and Sue Cunliffe Electroconvulsive Therapy Electroconvulsive Therapy [ECT] is still used on at least a million people annually. It involves six to 12 administrations of electricity to the brain, under general anaesthesia, over several weeks, to produce grand mal seizures. It is used […]

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The Moral Elephant in the Room – Patient Morality in Psychiatry

By Doug McConnell, Matthew Broome, and Julian Savulescu. In our paper, “Making psychiatry moral again”, we aim to develop and justify a practical ethical guide for psychiatric involvement in patient moral growth. Ultimately we land on the view that psychiatrists should help patients express their own moral values by default but move to address the […]

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It’s not catastrophizing if it’s a catastrophe: lessons from the pandemic for psychotherapy.

By Sahanika Ratnayake The pandemic seems to have shaken the orthodox understanding of mental health. Instead of seeing mental illnesses —  such as depression and anxiety — or psychological distress as being based primarily in the individual and their various patterns of thoughts, behaviours and emotions (the approach favoured by the DSM), the pandemic exposed […]

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