Blog Archives

Beyond the dsm 5 to new paradigms

4/27/2024

Val's Take

Attempted suicide is not a crime in most Western Countries, but it can serve as the basis for a Mental Health Certification.
Homicidality is a much more complicated issue -- and I suspect we will find bio-markers for that as well.
Dangerousness can also serve as a basis for a Mental Health Certification --- but what is mental health and what's not is very subjective in 2024.
If "Anti-Social Personality Disorder" is really a form of ADHD according to some academics and researchers--- that matters.
We're at a little bit different place than just saying logically the DSM 5 doesn't hold up --- some stronger, biologically based paradigms seem to be emerging.

Decriminalization of attempted suicide law: Journey of Fifteen Decades (2015)

Internationally, Germany, in 1751, was the first country to decriminalize attempted suicide.

After the French revolution, all countries of Europe and North America subsequently decriminalized suicide.

n 1983, the Roman Catholic Church reversed the canon law that prohibited proper funeral rites and burial in church cemeteries for those who had committed suicide.

All of these developments have been instrumental in shifting attitudes about suicide in modern society.

Some countries like Scotland never considered suicide a crime and had no law for the same.

India recently announced the decriminalization of suicide, but its neighboring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Singapore among others still continue to consider suicide a crime.

How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin and the Free Will vs. Determinism Debate

What is it going to take to get Mental Health Clinicians (and other clinicians) on top of the research?

the current general estimate to get new understandings from the researcher to clinician is 17 years.
that wasn't good enough for Covid
we don't have a SYSTEM of TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH in this country that can bring clinicians up to speed in 6 months to a year.
further, so many mental health professionals are busy chopping in the wrong forest with an unabated Mental Health Crisis--- they don't have time to incorporate significant new understandings.
It is easy enough to say that Researchers are far ahead of the Clinicians --- BUT THE RESEARCHERS ARE BEING PAID TO DO IT.
- and that is a huge issue in this society.
- Further, information overload is such a big issue and such a problematic issue in medical research that we can't expect Clinicians to solve this on their own.

Mitochondria Dysfunction --- is a hot topic for several complicated health issues, including the Neuro-Developmental/Psychiatric Continuum. See video below.

See also Val's Tables.

Douglas C. Wallace, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine (CMEM) Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

A Mitochondrial Etiology of Common Complex Diseases

Disability Law Colorado and an Important settlement

4/20/2024

Val's Take: Building out the high end of the Continuum of Care in Medicaid Mental Health has been a fraught process.

D.J. Jaffe of the Mental Illness Policy Organization documented that in his book "Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill." I think advocates see a lot more common ground than they did 10 years ago.

Right now the scientific understandings are evolving quickly and they don't quite look like the DSM 5. In another 10 years, Mental Health could be a much more standard medical discipline in which patients, families, Medicaid, private insurance, and the community at large would pay for medical care that included metabolomic biomarkers.

Settlement expected to significantly improve intensive behavioral health services for Colorado youth receiving Medicaid

Pollution, damage to mitochondria and mental Ill Health

4/18/2024

The lung microbiome regulates brain autoimmunity (2022)

"Our data demonstrate the existence of a lung-brain axis in which the pulmonary microbiome regulates the immune reactivity of the central nervous tissue and thereby influences its susceptibility to autoimmune disease development.

P erspective: Cell danger response Biology-

The new science that connects environmental health with mitochondria and the rising tide of chronic illness (2020)

PBS NewHour
Why air quality is getting worse in many places and how it puts human health at risk

2:24: Ultra Fine Particles able to penetrate cell mitochondria.

Harvard
How Air Pollution Affects Our Brains

Beefing up biomarkers and Continuums of care to address public concerns

4/6/2024

George Brauchler

‘Incompetence’ as a cover for criminals to walk free

Val's Take

Well, Brauchler has a very provocative title to his opinion piece.
I don't agree with it AND I'm glad he wrote it.
Mental Health generally and Forensic Psychiatry specifically need to move to BIOMARKERS where possible --- and more and more are available.
Additionally, "incompetence" should not be a cover for someone walking free ---
- We have to have a robust CONTINUUM of CARE, especially at the higher end.
  - If the State isn't providing that and the State is not ---
  - That needs to be addressed directly and FUNDED.

Metabolomic Biomarker Signatures for Bipolar and Unipolar Depression (2023)

Counties are the ones who are bearing the burden of people with mental illness in jails.

On the other hand it is States like Colorado who never caught up after DE-INSTITUTIONALIZATION in the 1960s and 1970s that need to FULLY FUND the Continuum of Care.

Now in 2024 and many more people, we don't have the bed space, housing or intensive services that we need --- although we have some bed space, housing and intensive services.

saying goodbye to the non-biological mental illness

Coming to terms with not only biologically based mental illness, but human behavior

Neuro-Diversity in Justice

4/6/2024

Val's Take

My observation has been that there is a lot of Neuro-Diversity in Criminal Justice on all sides.
Certainly in Brittain, this is being openly talked about and there have been some government reports issued with respect to criminal defendants.
Getting this out on the table so we can learn from one another is important.

ADHD Chatter Podcast
The Shocking Link Between ADHD And Crime. 2 Policemen Open Up! - Carl Mumford & Daley Jones

The Bizarre Intersection between Law & Giftedness --- Adulting with Exceptionalities In the Criminal Justice System

Transitional/ Translational Justice Monday

Beyond the dsm 5 to new paradigms

Disability Law Colorado and an Important settlement

Pollution, damage to mitochondria and mental Ill Health

Beefing up biomarkers and Continuums of care to address public concerns

‘Incompetence’ as a cover for criminals to walk free

Neuro-Diversity in Justice

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