Surprising Science — April 28, 2010

Med Nation

Robert Whitaker’s “Anatomy of an Epidemic” investigates the long-term outcomes of patients treated with psychiatric drugs. Could meds be doing more harm than good?

bigthinkeditor

Robert Whitaker’s new book “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” is the first book to investigate the long-term outcomes of patients treated with psychiatric drugs. He finds that, overall, the drugs may be doing more harm than good. “Over time, patients with schizophrenia do better off medication than on it. Children who take stimulants for ADHD, he writes, are more likely to suffer from mania and bipolar disorder than those who go unmedicated.”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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Technology & Innovation

The Right to Work

Benjamin Kunkel thinks that, absent a political movement for full employment, the U.S. will continue to have fewer jobs—and those with jobs will be increasingly exploited.