10 Blogs on Depression

Someone recently asked me if there were seriously really any blogs worth reading. Pause. Pause longer. It depends. Funny thing to say on a blog, but maybe not. Thing is, the vast majority of blogs are inherently frivolous. They tend to be self-promotional projects. Or driven by a very specific interest. But if you happen to have a specific interest — a blog might be worth dipping into. That’s how I’ve found most blogs. I dip into them. I often don’t return. But occasionally someone writes well, and grabs you. You come back for more. You are compelled. You find yourself reading about topics  you didn’t even think you were interested in. Now that’s a successful blog. So, while there are an awful lot of frivolous blogs, I have to answer “yes” to the general question of whether there are any blogs worth reading. Or maybe this is really about the question of whether frivolous things have any value.

But I digress. I think blogs on the topic of depression can be very valuable. Depression is inherently isolating. Anything that can contribute to reducing that sense isolation is valuable.

So thought I’d take at and update my resources on depression. So I headed over to PsychCentral, which is a pretty good starting point when you’re looking for something psychology-related on the internet, to see what they’ve been up to. Here’s a link to their Depression page.

They haven’t updated their best depression blogs category since 2010 — so I thought I’d check out the links and see what’s going on there. This is what I came up with:

1. Una Bella Vita. So far so good. Activity seems to have dropped off a bit in the last few months, but there’s lots of good material in the archives. Last updated 4/22/12. The author was also running a blog called Depression Diaries, which is worth a look for some introductory material.
2. Dr. Deb: Psychological Perspectives. Also continues to be active. Dr. Deb knows her stuff, and frequently posts interesting items. She is the author of the book, Living With Depression, which seems to receive quite favorable reviews. You could also click on the “Labels” sidebar to the right (scroll down a little). That will link to 42 articles related to depression, as of this writing.
3. Storied Mind. I was immediately drawn to this post, Leaving Lamictal and Antidepressants for Now, not because I think it’s absolutely the way to go — there is no one-size-fits-all treatment — but because you don’t see it taken up that often. An open, honest blog about one man’s ongoing experience with depression. Definitely worth a look.
4. My Postpartum Voice. Still going strong. Thoughtful and incisive writing. Of course, the “postpartum” partly refers to post-partum depression — not to be confused with the stress and moodiness that can result during the weeks and months following birth — which can be quite crippling. See her post on the controversial TIME magazine cover, TIME Magazine Fails to Support Mothers.
5. Postpartum Progress. It appears this blog has grown a lot since the last time I looked, with a full roster of regular contributors. Check out this post on the Difference Between Post Partum Depression and Normal New Mom Stress.
6. Draw That Beast. Art project on depression. Continues to be active. Interesting.
7. Mayo Clinic Depression Blog. Updated about every other month recently, but good expert thoughts on interesting specific topics dating back several years. You might check out this post, Depression Is Painful, But Don’t Give Up Hope.
8. Depression Marathon. Still running! (Sorry for the pun.) This blog lives up to its name. The author has put in a lot of blogging miles since 2008 and touches upon a very important — and often under examined in mental health circles — the importance of physical fitness. I hope to read this blog more closely in the near future. Anyone that was ever depressed knows the experience of falling into repetitive, cycling thoughts. See her post: Thinking, Thinking, Thinking. 
9. About.com blog on depression. Appears to present short snippets from the research literature on depression. You might find some news here — though it’s couched in the language of research, which means the “news” should be taken with a grain of salt. Language of research? When you hear words and phrases such as these you should always wonder what they really mean — some examples: “Linked”, “may cause”, “may help”, “may be safe”, “less likely”.
10. Pick The Brain: Motivation and Self-Improvement. Light. Might be most appropriate if you’re feeling a little blue, rather than really depressed. Because quite frankly, you might be annoyed by some of the advice here if you are really depressed. Here’s a sample: 10 All Natural Ways to Stop Feeling Depressed.

DSM V Controversy — Silencing Critics?

So what’s the big deal?

Well, that’s the really a subject of a slightly longer post. Since there really is no single controversy, but a whole complex of them. I just wanted to draw your attention to a post on the almost-defunct Carlat Psychiatry Blog. Apparently the American Psychiatric Association threatened to sue a blogger, Suzy Chapman [no relation], for her blog about the revisions of DSM-V. It’s a short post, so I include it in full here:

I just read Bernard Carroll’s interesting post on the Health Care Renewal Blog about the latest DSM-5 brouhaha. It appears that the American Psychiatric Association has sent a “cease and desist” letter to a website critical of the DSM-5. The site was called “dsm5watch,” but the APA argues that using DSM-5 in the blog title is an infringement of their trademark. The owner of the blog, Suzy Chapman, having no funds to tussle with APA lawyers, simply changed the name of her site to dxrevisionwatch, which, she says, has resulted in much less traffic.

Is the APA simply protecting its ownership of a lucrative franchise, or is it engaging in something more insidious, what Dr. Carroll calls the “SLAPP maneuver,” an acronym for “strategic lawsuit against public participation”? I’m guessing that APA would have had little problem with the site if it were cheerleading the DSM-5 process. It all seems rather heavy-handed to me. After all, the New York Times appears to have no problem with the anti-Times site called TimesWatch. In a democratic society, healthy dissent and debate is part of the package. It may be annoying, but that doesn’t excuse the bullying tactics that the APA has chosen.

Allen Frances on the Coming DSM-V Revision

While reviewing my out-of-date Big Pharma links I happened upon some news regarding the update of DSM-V. In case DSM-V is just a bunch of letters to you, it stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (of Mental Disorders), and if that doesn’t clarify much either, it’s the list of approved psychiatric diagnoses published by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM has a long and complicated history, but the upshot is it’s slated for an update around May 2013. It’s last revision was in 1994.

So, here, I’ve posted a video of Allen Frances, MD, speaking about what he sees as problematic about the proposed version. Dr. Frances is not just any curmudgeon with an ax to grind, he chaired the committee that did the revision of DSM-IV. In fact, he published a rather pointed Op-Ed in the New York Times not too long ago, entitled “Diagnosing the DSM.” Here’s a little taste from that piece:

Indeed, the D.S.M. is the victim of its own success and is accorded the authority of a bible in areas well beyond its competence. It has become the arbiter of who is ill and who is not — and often the primary determinant of treatment decisions, insurance eligibility, disability payments and who gets special school services. D.S.M. drives the direction of research and the approval of new drugs. It is widely used (and misused) in the courts.

You may well conclude that Dr. Frances does have an ax to grind. I don’t know him, so I can’t say. But watching his speech he appears quite sane and measured, and the video serves as an excellent introduction to the salient issues surrounding the revamp of what some call the “psychiatric bible.”

Update on Big Pharma Blogs

It appears most of my Big Pharma links, except one, are retired or semi-retired blogs at this point. They were good sites a few years ago, and continue to be good sources for information, but I’ll be retiring the links shortly. It’s been a while since I followed what’s going on in that world. For the record, they were:

• Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry: A Closer Look Last updated 2/23/2011 as “Alive But Inactive,” continues to house the interesting posts of a “research blogger.”
• Furious Seasons. A great blog by someone who was really informed on the pharmaceutical world, and who happened to suffer from bipolar disorder. Last updated 7/22/2010.
• The Carlat Psychiatry Blog. The tagline is “Keeping Psychiatry Honest Since 2007,” Dr. Carlat only recently stopped blogging due to a conflict of interest. He’s going to Washington to head the Pew Prescription Project. His last post was 3/19/12, where he noted: “The Carlat Psychiatry Blog lives on in the form of Thought Broadcast, a blog written by psychiatrist Steve Balt, who is the new editor-in-chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report.”

Sitting outside the group, very much alive, is The Unbranded Doctor. The site continues with its mission to foster integrity in physician education, among other things. Bloggers are active on the site, including this recent gem: “Block Grants for Medicare: The Pink Slime of Health Policies”

I discovered these moribund links while researching a post on DSM-V, the upcoming revision of psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, which I’ll post soon.