In May, 2018 I gave a free public lecture in Melbourne, Australia entitled, Keys to Unlocking Depression: Why Skills Work Better Than Pills. The talk was sponsored by the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and you can watch it on YouTube. It has been viewed by more than two million people! The emphasis of my talk… Read More
The following blog post was originally written for the January 2021 issue of the Science of Psychotherapy magazine. As 2020 comes to a close, the phrase that seems to best represent it is Whisky Tango Foxtrot (or, more commonly, WTF?). It seems to capture well the weird combination of incredulity, despair, frustration, fear, and resignation,… Read More
In the hot-off-the-presses September, 2017, issue of The Atlantic Monthly, psychologist Jean Twenge has an article entitled, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation” describing the rapidly deteriorating mental health of today’s adolescents. She draws on extensive research data to make the connection between the use of technology and the rising rates of anxiety and depression. This… Read More
A new study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry just a few days ago contains some alarming data about the rising rate of depression in adolescents in the United States. The study employed data compiled from in-person interviews with more than 100,000 children who participated in the National Survey of Drug Use and Health from… Read More
Late last week (March 30th), the World Health Organization (WHO) released a powerful statement from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, declaring depression “the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide.” WHO estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide are now suffering a diagnosable depression. This reflects an increase of more than 18% between… Read More
In my last blog, I talked about some of my afterthoughts about being interviewed on the Dr. Oz radio show about my book Depression is Contagious. The other guest, Dr. Peter Freed, spoke to the medical/biological aspect of depression in contrast to my social perspective. Both perspectives have value, of course, as there is indeed… Read More
In Dr. Yapko’s Blog #2, he provides a simple introduction to the issue of antidepressant medications. He tells us that the use of these medications are second only to cholesterol lowering drugs in the U.S. and are most commonly prescribed by general practitioners, not psychiatrists. Controversy surrounds the use and benefits of these medications and… Read More