Psychiatric medications

The Olympics ... ways athletes strive to enhance their performances ... by using drugs - as well as other techniques - like blood-doping ... also news about gambling -- it seems Facebook users are more inclined to gamble and make compulsive choices than "normies," and the related obsessions with FarmVille ...

In our hurry-up modern world, we are prescribing more psych meds to young children, as an alternative to slower, more traditional approachs to kids who seem a little different ... also a look at parent attitudes about their kids compared with their friends ... and a brief discussion of "smart-drugs."

NIDA's Monitoring the Future study shows increases in use of marijuana, heroin and pharmaceuticals by adolescents; a study in Europe shows that programs like DARE are not effective; government regulators grapple to keep up with street chemists creating new designer drugs, and a discussion of psychiatry's increasing dependence on drug therapy to the exclusion of talk therapy.

A look at mental health on college campuses - still stressful, recently increasingly violence. Some of the factors: psychiatric medication, self-medication using alcohol and street drugs; and the availability of treatment and its increased acceptance.

Our reward/reinforcement control center can be changed and passed to our progeny by just one or two episodes of drug use, heightening their chances of having addiction issues, according to new research. Also more on the increasing number of deaths and ER visits resulting from misuse of prescription drugs.

After some 40 years as Schedule 1 drugs, psychedelics are receiving new attention as potentially powerful aids in counseling and psychoptherapy. Dr Inaba shares his insights.