Hearing Voices Network Aotearoa NZ 
As the search for new genes and drugs for Schizophrenia stalls, psychotherapies are getting new attention.
This research was publishd in www.sciencemag.org on March 2014.
The article attached is written by Michael Balter. Download PDF to read.
 Talking Back to Madness | [ ] | 1341 kB |
Research by Brigitte Sistig, Ingo Lambrecht and Susan Hatters Friedman, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Yoga is regarded in the West mainly as a physical activity. However increasing evidence, supports Yoga's efficacy as an adjunct treatment for complex mental health issues. This study explored the suitability of an integrated mindful yoga programme in a mental health rehabilitation center.
Ten psychiatric inpatients partcipated in twice weekly 30 minute sessions over seven weeks.
The paper is attached as a PDF, that must be downloaded to read.
| Journey back into body and soul- research paper | [ ] | 114 kB |
To follow is the abstract for some interesting research by Malcolm Peet. The whole research paper is downloadable from this site here:
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/184/5/404
Background: Dietary variations are known to predict the prevalence of physical illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease but the possible influence of diet on mental health has been neglected.
Aims: To explore dietary predictors of the outcome of schizophrenia and the prevalence of depression.
Method: Ecological analysis of national dietary patterns in relation to international variations in outcome of schizophrenia and prevalence of depression.
Results: A higher national dietary intake of refined sugar and dairy products predicted a worse 2-year outcome of schizophrenia. A high national prevalence of depression was predicted by a low dietary intake of fish and seafood.
Conclusions: The dietary predictors of outcome of schizophrenia and prevalence of depression are similar to those that predict illnesses such as coronary heart disease and diabetes, which are more common in people with mental health problems and in which nutritional approaches are widely recommended. Dietary intervention studies are indicated in schizophrenia and depression.
Woody R. McGinnis, MD, Tapan Audhya, PhD, William J. Walsh, PhD; James A. Jackson, PhD; John McLaren-Howard, DSc, FACN; Allen Lewis, MD; Peter H. Lauda, MD; Douglas M. Bibus, PhD; Frances Jurnak, PhD; Roman Lietha, MD; Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD
Here is an excerpt from the paper:
“Mauve Factor,” or “Mauve” (mov) for brevity, first was detected in the urine of psychiatric patients by the Hoffer group in 1958 and named for its appearance on paper chromatograms.
Irvine extracted the compound from urine, correctly assigned the structure to the pyrrole family, and conferred the common name. Early technology permitted only qualitative assay.
Hoffer observed that recovery from acute schizophrenia associated with disappearance of Mauve from the urine, regression with reappearance. Large doses of vitamin B3 suppressed Mauve in schizophrenics. Pfeiffer reported superior clinical results with combined vitamin B6 and zinc, which suppressed Mauve and improved symptoms in many neurobehavioral disorders.
The Pfeiffer group introduced a colorimetric quantitative assay for Mauve, which utilizes kryptopyrrole (KP) as standard. Structural similarity affords the use of KP as standard for HPL assay, but the 2 molecules are distinct. Mauve was identified mistakenly as KP by Irvine in a high-profile scientific journal in 1969 and again by Sohler in 1970. A flurry of research on the experimental effects of KP eventuated. Improved technology demonstrated that KP is not found in human urine, and Mauve was identified indisputably by synthesis as HPL.
To read the entire article, please download the attached PDF.
| Mauve Factor | [ ] | 2094 kB |
The following is an excerpt of an article of research by John Read and Andrew Gumley.
Dominance of the Medical Model
For several decades our efforts to understand the causes of human distress, despair, and confusion have been impeded by the dominance of a simplistic, reductionist paradigm interested primarily or exclusively in genes and neurotransmitters (Bentall, 2003; Read, Mosher, & Bentall, 2004). This ‘medical model’ has been enthusiastically supported by the pharmaceutical industry, which has much to gain from promulgating an ideology that minimizes psycho-social causes (Mosher, Gosden, & Beder, 2004; Read, 2008). Although the dominance of this model pervades all categories of psychiatric diagnoses, nowhere has it been stronger or more damaging than in the field of psychosis.
Since the invention of the supposed illness ‘schizophrenia’ a century ago (Bentall, 2003; Read, 2004), millions of people worldwide have been condemned to the pessimistic, self-fulfilling, and stigmatizing belief that they are suffering from some kind of irreversible brain disease. This disease, which has wrongly been presented as largely genetically determined, supposedly has little or nothing to do with one’s life history or circumstances.
It is important to realize that the public, all over the world, have never accepted the illness model of mental health problems in general, or of ‘schizophrenia’ in particular. In virtually every country where surveys have been conducted, the public believes that madness is primarily a reaction to bad things happening to people rather than bio-genetically based illnesses (Angermeyer & Dietrich, 2006; Read, 2007). Everywhere ‘schizophrenia’ is seen by the public (including patients and family members) to be caused by poverty, isolation, family problems, child abuse and neglect more than by faulty genes or brains. This is despite millions of dollars, often donated by drug companies, being spent ‘educating’ the public that ‘mental illness is an illness like any other’. Studies repeatedly show, however, that the illness paradigm makes attitudes worse (Read, Haslam, Sayce, & Davies, 2006).
To read the article in it's entirety, please download the attached PDF.
| Can Attachment theory- John Read Research | [ ] | 165 kB |