"honesty, insofar as I have a public voice, about the ways in which the profession I practice is being asked to absorb and individually manage forms of suffering that are, in part, collective in origin and that deserve collective responses"

Very exciting and interesting piece!!

And here’s an accompanying substack post providing an overview of the discussion: www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/the-philos...

A new paper from the HiTOP Revisions Workgroup (and yours truly) on the conceptual and philosophical underpinnings of the framework. Recommended reading for anyone interested in questions of classification and psychopathology! Here’s the journal article: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

This is especially relevant in child psychiatry, where the best way to center the patient’s wellbeing may be even murkier given their constrained autonomy. I agree with @awaisaftab.bsky.social ‘s recommendation- careful formulation, and most importantly, honesty. (2/2)

A fantastic piece that names one of the core sources of professional distress for the psychiatrist: the person-environment mismatch and the desire to help in situations where fundamental solutions are impossible but mental health interventions may still have utility (1/2)

A new paper from the HiTOP Revisions Workgroup (and yours truly) on the conceptual and philosophical underpinnings of the framework. Recommended reading for anyone interested in questions of classification and psychopathology! Here’s the journal article: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Footnotes from the Margins I love footnotes, so I'm sharing my favs @awaisaftab.bsky.social points out "human processes" are often removed in science communication, sharing Bruno Latour's experience from a @nytimes.com story to illustrate his point. www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/rejection-...

The honest conversation about antidepressants I wish my psychiatrist had with me Thanks to @awaisaftab.bsky.social for answering my questions about long-term use, dependence, and withdrawal Gift link: www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Examining APA’s Proposed Redesign of the DSM Can the future DSM overcome the epistemic arrogance of its predecessors? www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/examining-...

“The clinical and scientific reality is that we now exist in a landscape of nosological pluralism[.]” - Awais Aftab

Examining APA’s Proposed Redesign of the DSM Can the future DSM overcome the epistemic arrogance of its predecessors? www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/examining-...

DSM overhaul?

In the March cover story for Psychiatric Times, I provide an overview of the proposed changes to the future DSM, accompanied by some personal commentary and suggestions of my own. www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/the-fut...

I just read this and, as I've already taken migraine meds+an edible, I missed the subheading to indicate where Awais stepped in with his own thoughts, so I sent it to a friend and was all, "I'm really loving the direction the DSM committee might be going in, it's almost psychodynamic again! 🤦🏻😂

This looks like some pretty major changes. Exciting to see a more flexible and scientifically valid approach to diagnosis.

“The clinical and scientific reality is that we now exist in a landscape of nosological pluralism[.]”

In the March cover story for Psychiatric Times, I provide an overview of the proposed changes to the future DSM, accompanied by some personal commentary and suggestions of my own. www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/the-fut...

A post in which I highlight the need for a clinical language that does justice to trait-demand mismatches and sees them as firmly and unapologetically deserving of clinical care. www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/what-do-we...

What Do We Owe the Overburdened? Doing justice to trait-demand mismatches www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/what-do-we...

A careful, quietly devastating review of research on involuntary outpatient treatment. Coercion is being oversold as a way of addressing serious mental illness, and its harms (forcing patients to accept useless or harmful meds & therapies, disempowerment, social disruption, etc) are being downplayed

Assisted Outpatient Treatment: A Summary of the Evidence Guest Post by Nev Jones (@viscidula.bsky.social) No study has demonstrated that involuntary outpatient treatment adds value beyond the enhanced services and system accountability that accompany it. www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/assisted-o...

I wrote a long blog post called Psychotherapy, neuroscience and honesty. jeppssonphilosopherauthor.blogspot.com/2026/02/psyc... It's about therapists who feel like they have to prop up any psych talk with SOME neuroscience theory or other. #philsky #psysky

"Many fall for AI-generated junk online" — youth demand social media ban for people above 40. Excellent headline by a German satire magazine.

Clinical Staging, Early Intervention, and Youth Mental Health: An Interview with Patrick McGorry How do we intelligently connect multifactorial, pluripotential syndromes to treatment decisions? www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/clinical-s...

Clinical Staging, Early Intervention, and Youth Mental Health: An Interview with Patrick McGorry How do we intelligently connect multifactorial, pluripotential syndromes to treatment decisions? www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/clinical-s...

Do stimulants cause tolerance? ▪ Yes: For mood and rewarding qualities ▪ No: For treating #ADHD From a limited database of 17 trials in new analysis: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41627718 #psychiatry #pmhnp #ADHDAwareness

Given all the discussion around metabolic psychiatry and Chris Palmer, thanks to RFK Jr’s bombastic claims on keto diet, this seems like a good moment to reshare my 2023 review of Palmer’s book “Brain Energy.” www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/do-all-roa...

I posted this to reddit, it received a lot of attention before being removed by mods (?) I guess the uncomfortable realities presented were too much for them.

Reading @awaisaftab.bsky.social's new blog post instead of listening to a psychoanalytic podcast. Check it out here:

What Do We Owe the Insufferable? When mental illness exhausts our emotional capacities www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/what-do-we...

Dan Stein's obituary in the Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Reposting for the Monday crowd 👇🏽

Your brain on stimulants vs your brain on ADHD There is more to what ADHD is than what stimulants do, and there is more to the clinical use of stimulants than the boundaries of ADHD www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/adhd-beyon...

Your brain on stimulants vs your brain on ADHD There is more to what ADHD is than what stimulants do, and there is more to the clinical use of stimulants than the boundaries of ADHD www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/adhd-beyon...

Worth the read, and jargon explained. Nice!

I feel like sharing this post again… Antirealism Will Not Save the DSM From Empirical Inadequacy What does the DSM say about the unobservable structure of psychopathology? www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/antirealis...

"Can a Psychiatric Crisis Save Your Life?" Texto interessante e bem equilibrado do @awaisaftab.bsky.social www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/can-a-psyc...

Reconsidering Lithium as the Gold Standard for Bipolar Disorder: A Personal History “Lithium is one of our tools but has no special status.” A guest post by Robert Haim Belmaker www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/reconsider...

The latest in nominative determinism 😃

Can a Psychiatric Crisis Save Your Life? Madness as breakdown and breakthrough www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/can-a-psyc...

Madness gifted me the most precious things, things from the forbidden realm beyond the veil where we aren't meant to go & can't stay for long while maintaining function in this world. Most mad people will say that though it's suffering it has imparted us with things we're grateful for.

A great weekend read. As with previous interviews with the likes of Wouter Kusters, it's useful to ask whether MH episodes, in a counter-intuitive way, can serve a purpose for some people.

Only partially read so far but PSYCHED to see my absolute fave talking about the unspoken positives of “bad mental health” bc I’ve wanted to put this into words/explore this for years

Can a Psychiatric Crisis Save Your Life? Madness as breakdown and breakthrough www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/can-a-psyc...

Claudenfreude: the feeling you get when someone gets busted for using AI when they shouldn’t h/t @ssweatt.bsky.social for coining it

Just learned I've won the APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychology in the area of psychopathology, and am feeling pretty delighted!! So grateful to @aidangcw.bsky.social for nominating me, and very proud of the work it's based on.

My periodic round-up of interesting stuff I’ve read (And some personal media favorites from 2025) www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/notable-li...

I když Freud položil základy psychoanalýzy a dodnes je v psychoanalytických kruzích velmi důležitou figurou, současná psychoanalýza není pouze o něm. Akademická psychologie to bohužel nebere moc v potaz. @awaisaftab.bsky.social toto téma rozebírá v přiloženém textu.

It just occurred to me that this juxtaposition is almost an illustration of what Dan Oppenheimer had identified as the dynamic between the Scientist and the Survivor is his profile of me, except in this case both the Scientist and the Survivor were able to grow beyond the limitations of their roles.