People and policymakers may eventually wake up to the fact that we are not a bunch of sick individuals, each of us having a bunch of psychiatric diagnoses, cumulatively constituting a sick society. This is a myth generated by an overly ambitious psychiatry and a remarkably greedy pharmaceutical industry. (Wired)

Today, The Lancet has published a new series of three papers that examine the genetics, diagnosis, and treatment of bipolar disorder. The authors outlined future challenges and debated imminent changes to the criteria for diagnosis of the illness, along with additional commentary assessing proposals for mental disorders specifically associated with stress in the International Classification of Diseases-11. (Medical Daily)

Randles, along with UBC professor Steve Heine, set out to test a new approach to issues that lie at the heart of anxiety, whether it takes the form of social nervousness or existential dread. What if, they wondered, instead of drugging patients out of feeling anxious, we could target and disarm the neural alarm system that raises those feelings in the first place? What if, in other words, we could trick a habitually anxious brain into seeing unpredictable circumstances as relatively harmless? (Scientific American)

The expert, Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said in an interview Monday that his goal was to reshape the direction of psychiatric research to focus on biology, genetics and neuroscience so that scientists can define disorders by their causes, rather than their symptoms. (New York Times)

The parents of a severely disabled boy have lost a $10 million case against an IVF specialist who failed to properly warn them of the likelihood their son would inherit a blood-clotting condition, but are considering appealing against the decision. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Devon Carrow spends his days like many other second grade students: He goes to school, says hello to friends in the hallway and practices his multiplication tables. But to do this safely, Devon cannot be in the classroom. (ABC News)

Managed-care companies in New York have come under fire for signing up vigorous older adults referred to them by social day care centers, customers whose health needs are relatively small. (New York Times)

Some boys may be labeled incorrectly with the condition, but undertreatment may be the bigger problem (Scientific American)

Smiling is something 30-year-old Sarah Still constantly has to remind herself to do, especially when she is going into a job interview. Still has Asperger’s, a high-functioning form of autism. For the past 10 years, she has experienced the highs and lows of being on the autism spectrum while trying to work in professional settings. (CNN)

Children at an increased risk of autism may have abnormal structures in the placenta that can be detected at birth, a new study finds. (Scientific American)

We’re in the midst of a bionic revolution, yet most of us don’t know it. (CNN)

Raul Rodriguez of Camarillo, Calif., has been paralyzed since a 1997 car accident when he tried to pass a truck on a canyon road. His car spun out of control, slammed into a large tree and landed upside down in a creek. (ABC News)

Research suggests that mental illnesses lie along a spectrum — but the field’s latest diagnostic manual still splits them apart. (Nature)

In theory, legal assisted suicide sounds compassionate and safe, promising autonomy. How could one person’s decision about their own body possibly harm someone else? In reality, assisted suicide doesn’t live up to its billing. (CBC News)

The Boston Marathon bombings caused injuries resulting in many traumatic limb amputations. Recent advances have made recovery less onerous for today’s amputees. (Los Angeles Times)

In a couple of years, we will learn something new that changes everything all over again. But what we know right now could change a child’s life. (CNN)

Using genetic analysis, the new study suggests that certain medications may help “normalize” the activity of a number of genes involved in communication between brain cells. It is published in the current issue of Bipolar Disorders. (eScience News)

Stephen Hawking toured a stem cell laboratory Tuesday where scientists are studying ways to slow the progression of Lou Gehrig’s disease, a neurological disorder that has left the British cosmologist almost completely paralyzed. (ABC News)

The long list of roles Margaret Thatcher played during her 87 years — potent politician, free-market evangelist, labor antagonist, dominant global leader — includes the one she never publicly discussed: person with dementia. (New York Times)

Twenty-five years after Prozac was introduced, the name has entered the cultural lexicon and helped define how people think of mental illness. (BBC)

The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) has just released an important new Policy Statement on “Noninvasive Prenatal Screening for Fetal Aneuploidy.” (Medical Xpress)