02-05-2008 Media Madness

Apologies for not having too much up today, but I am tied up with some outside work. In the meantime, feast your eyes on the following:

The Washington Post discovers online support groups a decade or more after they first gained popularity. John Grohol at Psych Central does an excellent take down on the article. As a reporter, I find it kind of weird that the reporter in question didn't interview Grohol, who has been running online groups and forums since the early-1990s. Were I writing the article, he would've been my first call.

Grohol also wrote yesterday about his post-Super Bowl despair, being a longtime New England fan. Being a longtime Giants fan, I smiled at every word of it. Better luck next year!

The Trouble With Spikol has this on the alarming increase in suicides and suicide attempts by military personnel. Yet another argument for getting out of Iraq.

The Last Psychiatrist, always interesting and contrarian, has an interesting take on the recent FDA warning on suicidality and anti-convulsants. He says he doesn't even buy the data on anti-depressants and suicidality. Whatever, dude.

Dr. X has a fascinating reminder that the whole press hullaballoo around Britney Spears being dragged off to a psych unit has weird overtones of what went down with Frances Farmer in the 1940s. Presumably, Spears will be spared the frontal lobotomy at Western State Hospital.

Meanwhile, the news from New Jersey is that several workers at a psych hospital are to be disciplined over the suicide of a patient at the hospital. Looks like some folks screwed up big time. Looks like the state is taking it seriously. Good.

Soulful Sepulcher has an item on battles with depression. BTW, I know several of you have been pressing me to write about depression and such lately. I've taken a couple of stabs at penning something, but it just hasn't come out of the typewriter quite the way I want yet. But it will soon enough.