British Psychological Society to launch attack on rival profession, casting doubt on biomedical model of mental illness

Jamie Doward
the guardian | The Observer
Saturday 11 May 2013


[font color=darkgray]British psychologists are to say that current psychiatric
diagnoses such as bipolar disorder are useless. Photograph:
Justin Paget/Fuse/Getty[/font]

There is no scientific evidence that psychiatric diagnoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are valid or useful, according to the leading body representing Britain's clinical psychologists. In a groundbreaking move that has already prompted a fierce backlash from psychiatrists, the British Psychological Society's division of clinical psychology (DCP) will on Monday issue a statement declaring that, given the lack of evidence, it is time for a "paradigm shift" in how the issues of mental health are understood.

The statement effectively casts doubt on psychiatry's predominantly biomedical model of mental distress – the idea that people are suffering from illnesses that are treatable by doctors using drugs. The DCP said its decision to speak out "reflects fundamental concerns about the development, personal impact and core assumptions of the (diagnosis) systems", used by psychiatry.

Dr Lucy Johnstone, a consultant clinical psychologist who helped draw up the DCP's statement, said it was unhelpful to see mental health issues as illnesses with biological causes. "On the contrary, there is now overwhelming evidence that people break down as a result of a complex mix of social and psychological circumstances – bereavement and loss, poverty and discrimination, trauma and abuse," Johnstone said.

The provocative statement by the DCP has been timed to come out shortly before the release of DSM-5, the fifth edition of the American Psychiatry Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

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TheYoungTurks·Published on May 12, 2013

"Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game.

We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything."*

The Libor bank scandal has nothing on the newest interest rate swap manipulation scheme where bankers are going completely unchecked. This is a $379 trillion market-- why are bankers allowed to manipulate it without restraint? Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

AlJazeeraEnglish·Published on May 13, 2013

The United Nations says that eating insects might provide one of the answers to global hunger.

There are 19-hundred edible insect species on the planet and 40 tons of insects to every human. Insects are rich in protein, vitamins and minerals and do not damage the environment.

But the UN admits that getting over people's squeamishness will be a big challenge.

Al Jazeera's Jessica Baldwin, reports from London.

ReaderSupportedNews
By Center for Food Safety
10 May 13


[font color=darkgray]To fatten up chickens, arsenic is routinely added to
chicken feed.[/font]

Attorneys at Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a lawsuit on behalf of CFS, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and seven other U.S. food safety, agriculture, public health and environmental groups to compel the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to respond to the groups' three year-old petition which calls for immediate withdrawal of FDA's approval of arsenic-containing compounds as feed additives for food animals. Filed the same day Consumer Reports released an alarming study on antibiotic resistance in turkey, the lawsuit highlights yet another gaping hole in FDA oversight of animal feed additives.

Arsenic is commonly added to poultry feed for the FDA-approved purposes of inducing faster weight gain on less feed, and creating the perceived appearance of a healthy color in meat from chickens, turkeys and hogs. Yet new studies increasingly link these practices to serious human health problems. The lawsuit filed last week seeks to force the FDA to fulfill its mandate to better protect the public from arsenic. The 2009 petition presented abundant science to FDA that organic arsenic compounds—like those added to animal feed—are directly toxic to animals and humans, but also that they convert to cancer-causing, inorganic arsenic inside of chickens, in manure-treated soil and in humans. Additional testing since submission of the 2009 petition demonstrates even greater cause for public concern and therefore greater urgency meriting FDA's prompt attention.

"FDA could easily and immediately fix the problem," said Paige Tomaselli, senior staff attorney with CFS, "but instead puts its head in the sand. We can only conclude the FDA is catering to the companies that continue to sell products containing arsenic that ends up in our food supply."

"FDA leadership is asleep at the switch, if not turning a blind eye to public health," said David Wallinga, MD, a physician with the IATP. "Seven years ago, IATP blew the whistle on FDA's indifference to arsenic being needlessly fed to chickens and turkeys. More than a decade ago, we sounded the alarm on how FDA let the routine feeding of drugs to chickens and turkeys help ensure that Americans would eat meat often contaminated with bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics. We are filing suit because nothing much has changed."



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RussiaToday·Published on May 11, 2013

Israel has given the green light for the construction of a further 300 homes in a West Bank settlement.The number of eviction incidents has risen sharply since a new Israeli government, with even stronger opposition to a 2-state solution, took office in March. And the Israeli defense force are ready to use almost anything to back their governments orders, including special anti-riot measure called 'Skunk'.

AlJazeeraEnglish·Published on May 9, 2013

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Mexicans to Disney: 'Our culture is not for sale
http://ow.ly/kSpzs

'I'm Muslim and I'm against homophobia
http://ow.ly/kSpKp

Debating Stephen Hawking with memes
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201305092336-0022746

AlJazeeraEnglish·Published on May 10, 2013

A survivor has been found in the rubble of a garment factory, 17 days after its collapse left more than 1,000 people dead.
The woman, who identified herself to rescuers as Reshma, had cried out for help as recovery teams sifted through the remnants of the Rana Plaza in the outskirts of Bangladesh capital, Dhaka.

Al Jazeera's Mereana Hond reports.

Brian Willian - Published on May 7, 2013

WSBT: Search for radioactive leak at Palisades nuclear plant ... WSBT visited a park not far from the plant to hear from people on the beaches. ... Palisades sits about a mile down the beach ... "That's not good, so I mean I get mad about ribbons and balloons, so radiation is obviously not thrilling either," Larmee added. ... Groups opposing nuclear power plants, however, say regulators and the plant's operator are downplaying the seriousness of the incident. "This plant is an accident waiting to happen, and it really needs to be permanently shut down before the worst happens there," said Kevin Kamps of "Beyond Nuclear." ...

WHTC: Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said that 79 gallons of the tainted water had escaped, but by the time it got to the shore, it was highly diluted and posed no threat.

Businessweek: Saturday's radiation leak "most likely ... is not a public health concern," (Alan Jackson, a radiation health physicist at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit) said. "What's more a concern is why do these things keep happening?" "I would fixate on, 'OK, you have this problem. Why aren't you fixing it?'" he said.