Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health11 Nov 2017

Jay Joseph - Why Schizophrenia Genetic Research is Running on Empty

This week on MIA Radio we interview Dr Jay Joseph. Dr Joseph is a clinical psychologist and author who brings a critical perspective to claims in the media and the academic literature that disordered genes underlie psychiatric disorders.

His most recent books are The Trouble with Twin Studies: A Reassessment of Twin Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences and the 2017 e-book Schizophrenia and Genetics: The End of an Illusion.

In this interview, we discuss the evidence that psychiatry puts forward in support of the claim that mental disorders have an important genetic basis and the reasons why psychiatry is still searching after many decades of failed attempts.

In the episode we discuss:

How Dr Joseph, as a clinical psychologist, came to be interested in the validity of the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
How he then became interested in the assertions by psychiatry that diagnoses such as schizophrenia had a genetic basis.
That he discovered that the evidence for genetic factors underlying major psychiatric disorders is very weak and based mainly on twin and adoption studies.
That, despite decades of work, there have been few if any discoveries of disordered genes that cause the major psychiatric disorders.
How twin and adoption studies are used to try and demonstrate the relationship between genetics and mental disorders.
That people are being told that their mental illness is genetically based which is not supported by evidence and it is rather like the chemical imbalance myth in this regard.
That a disorder or condition 'running in the family' means that it is 'genetic' is also a common misconception.
That psychiatry seems to be focused on finding the 'cause' of mental disorders within the body, rather than acknowledging that social and environmental factors are the main causes of trauma, distress, and psychological dysfunction.

Relevant links:

Dr Jay Joseph

Schizophrenia and Genetics: The End of an Illusion

Bias and Deception in Behavioral Research

Schizophrenia Genetic Research – Running on Empty

To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(308)

When Stopping Prescription Drugs Isn't Simple: Alicia Martin and the TaperMate Story

Alicia Martin is an Australian community pharmacist, a member of the Not Broken Project and founder of TaperMate. Through her work in pharmacy, Alicia saw patients struggling with unusual and severe s...

16 Sep 34min

First-Person Knowledge and the Meanings of Madness: An Interview with Gail Hornstein

Gail Hornstein is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Mount Holyoke College. Across a long and influential career, her work has moved between psychology, psychoanalysis, history, qualitative research, ...

2 Sep 1h 8min

Mad Studies Is More Than Lived Experience: An Interview with Merrick Daniel Pilling

Merrick Daniel Pilling is an Associate Professor and Interim Co-Director of the School of Disability Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is the author of Queer and Trans Madness: Struggles ...

19 Aug 49min

The West Doesn't Have All the Answers: An Interview with Dinesh Bhugra

Dinesh Bhugra is a leading voice in social and cultural psychiatry. He is Emeritus Professor of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at King's College London and has served as president of the Royal ...

12 Aug 36min

Go/No Go - How Mental Health Research Took a Wrong Turn: An Interview with Marianne Apostolides

Marianne Apostolides is the award-winning author of eight books, four of which have been translated and published internationally. She is a two-time recipient of the Chalmers Arts Fellowship and winne...

29 Jul 48min

Unlearn Your Pain: Harnessing the Power of Neuroplasticity – A Conversation With Howard Schubiner

Welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Brooke Siem, and I am the author of the award-winning memoir on antidepressant withdrawal, May Cause Side Effects. Today, I'm excited to have Dr. Howa...

15 Jul 41min

The Empire of Madness: Why Psychiatry Must Rethink Human Suffering - An Interview with Khameer Kidia

Khameer Kidia is a physician and an anthropologist, works at Harvard Medical School and the University of Zimbabwe, and spends his life between Washington DC and Harare. Kidia has many accolades to hi...

8 Jul 48min

A Mother's Journey Through Psychiatric Drug Harm and Healing

Chelsea McVeigh began her journey with psychiatric medications at 16, never imagining where it would lead. At 31, during a new pregnancy, she suffered a severe adverse reaction that turned her world u...

1 Jul 24min