As psychiatric disorders become attributable to specific, testable causes, will psychiatry become obsolete?

The lack of objective medical tests in psychiatry is a common criticism of the field. According to some, being a doctor means using physical exams, lab work or imaging to evaluate patients. Indeed, oncologists can find a tumor on a CT scan. Cardiologists can diagnose a heart attack with blood tests or an electrocardiogram.  Read the rest of this article at Scientific American…

Hardy and Amelia Leighton’s deaths served as a wake-up call that fentanyl was threatening even recreational drug users, but the truth is more complicated, reports Andrea Woo

It was intended to be a quiet night in, a chance to get ahead on their packing. Hardy and Amelia Leighton had left their toddler son, Magnus, with parents; packing boxes filled their apartment. Robin Malcolm, Amelia’s mother, grew concerned when she couldn’t get a hold of them.  Read the rest of this article at The Globe and Mail…

“People think they’re doing a recreational drug. They’re not what we would consider criminals, they’re high-functioning regular people in many cases, and they’re dying.”

OTTAWA — The Trudeau government would be more sensitive to the fentanyl overdose crisis if the people were dying on Parliament Hill’s doorstep instead of in distant B.C., provincial Health Minister Terry Lake charged Wednesday.  Read the rest of this article at The Windsor Star…

It’s laundry day for someone living in one of Chilliwack’s 15 homeless encampments. Wet clothes steam in the weak November sunlight, which filters through a stand of cottonwood trees growing on the banks of a drainage ditch that campers use for washing.  Read the rest of this article at The Vancouver Sun…