Mysteries of Mental Illness explores the story of mental illness in science and society. The four-part series traces the evolution of this complex topic from its earliest days to present times. It explores dramatic attempts across generations to unravel the mysteries of mental illness and gives voice to contemporary Americans across a spectrum of experiences.
Outline
Cutting-edge treatments for mental illness; profiles of patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery, infusions of ketamine and modern electro-convulsive therapy.
Mysteries of Mental Illness Series
You can find a full index and overview of Mysteries of Mental Illness here.
Mysteries of Mental Illness explores the story of mental illness in science and society. The four-part series traces the evolution of this complex topic from its earliest days to present times. It explores dramatic attempts across generations to unravel the mysteries of mental illness and gives voice to contemporary Americans across a spectrum of experiences.
Outline
The rise and fall of mental asylums in the US; the largest de-facto mental health facility in the US, its detainees and the realities of care both inside and outside.
Mysteries of Mental Illness Series
You can find a full index and overview of Mysteries of Mental Illness here.
Mysteries of Mental Illness explores the story of mental illness in science and society. The four-part series traces the evolution of this complex topic from its earliest days to present times. It explores dramatic attempts across generations to unravel the mysteries of mental illness and gives voice to contemporary Americans across a spectrum of experiences.
Outline
The fight to develop mental illness standards rooted in empirical science rather than dogma; how science and societal factors mix with the ever-shifting definitions and diagnoses of mental health and illness.
Mysteries of Mental Illness Series
You can find a full index and overview of Mysteries of Mental Illness here.
Mysteries of Mental Illness explores the story of mental illness in science and society. The four-part series traces the evolution of this complex topic from its earliest days to present times. It explores dramatic attempts across generations to unravel the mysteries of mental illness and gives voice to contemporary Americans across a spectrum of experiences.
Outline
Ancient conceptions of mental illness and the establishment of psychiatry; modern-day stories of mental illness, including an aspiring astrophysicist with schizophrenia a d a boxer with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Mysteries of Mental Illness Series
You can find a full index and overview of Mysteries of Mental Illness here.
Mysteries of Mental Illness explores the story of mental illness in science and society. The four-part series traces the evolution of this complex topic from its earliest days to present times. It explores dramatic attempts across generations to unravel the mysteries of mental illness and gives voice to contemporary Americans across a spectrum of experiences.
Outline
The attempts across generations to unravel the mysteries of mental illness, including its causes and treatments.
Throughout history to today, we have continued to grapple with deceptively simple questions about mental health: what is mental illness? From where does it come? And how can it be treated?
Around one in four people suffer from mental illness; an American is more likely to need services from psychiatry than from any other medical specialty. Yet a diagnosis of a mental disorder still carries a stigma that a heart condition or other physical ailment does not, largely because mental illness has been so poorly understood for so long.
Many Americans’ diagnoses have grown more acute during the coronavirus pandemic, and people who had been previously undiagnosed – including many who remain so – are now suffering for the first time from depression and other illnesses that have been exacerbated by the present-day crises. One of the most critical barriers to treatment is the stigma of mental illness.
Can magic mushrooms cure depression? This documentary follows the first medical trial to explore the use of psilocybin as a treatment for clinical depression.
Outline
In 2012 a team of medical researchers asked themselves, “what would happen if we gave psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to people suffering from severe depression”? It took them three years to get the necessary permissions to find out.
With exclusive access to a ground-breaking trial, this film asks if psychedelic drugs combined with psychological support can help tackle one of the biggest medical challenges we face – depression.
Outline
The Psychedelic Drug Trial has exclusive access to a ground-breaking new trial at Imperial College London. The trial sees, for the first time ever under controlled conditions, a psychedelic drug tested head-to-head against a standard antidepressant as a treatment for depression.
The film follows a pioneering team of scientists and psychotherapists, led by Professor David Nutt, Dr Robin Carhart-Harris and Dr Rosalind Watts, as they compare the effects of psilocybin (the active ingredient of magic mushrooms) with an antidepressant (an SSRI called escitalopram) on a small group of participants with clinical depression. This is scientific research at its most cutting edge. With over seven million people being prescribed antidepressants each year in England alone, this drug trial is an important milestone in understanding a completely different treatment for depression.
Filmed over 16 months, this film explores both the immediate and long-term impacts of the trial on the lives of participants. It investigates whether psychedelic drugs combined with psychological support could help tackle one of the biggest medical challenges faced today and what it takes to conduct research in uncharted scientific territory.
How do psychedelic drugs measure up against the industry-standard antidepressants that have been popular since the 1990s? The empirical results of the trial are explored alongside the participants’ powerful lived experience.
About the Trial
All psychedelic drug use shown in this programme was part of a carefully controlled clinical trial under the supervision of specially trained psychotherapists.
The trial was run by Professor Nutt, Dr Carhart-Harris and Dr Watts and their team at Imperial College from 2019 to 2020. Fifty-nine participants took part, the trial is now finished.
The psychedelic drugs used in the trial are illegal in the UK and not available for medical treatment. You should always consult your doctor before you stop, change or start any new treatment.
Production & Filming Details
Director(s):
Sam Eastall.
Producer(s):
Caroline Lai … line producer.
Alice Martineau … producer.
Anna Murphy … executive producer.
Sabine Pusch … edit producer.
Caroline Willis … line producer.
Writer(s):
Music:
Cinematography:
Richard Jephcote … director of photography.
Editor(s):
Zoe Davis … editor.
Alex Spence … assistant editor.
Production:
Grain Media.
Distributor(s):
BBC Two (2021) (UK) (TV).
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2021) (UK) (all media).
The Responder is a British police procedural series set in Liverpool, written by former Merseyside Police officer Tony Schumacher and starring Martin Freeman, Adelayo Adedayo, Ian Hart, and MyAnna Buring.
A crisis-stricken, morally compromised first-responder tackles a series of night shifts on the beat in Liverpool, while trying to keep his head above water personally and professionally.
Outline
Chris is forced to work for a major drug dealer to return the drugs stolen by Casey. When Rachel needs his help urgently, Chris must decide where his loyalties truly lie.
The Responder Series
You can find a full index and overview of The Responder here.
The Responder is a British police procedural series set in Liverpool, written by former Merseyside Police officer Tony Schumacher and starring Martin Freeman, Adelayo Adedayo, Ian Hart, and MyAnna Buring.
A crisis-stricken, morally compromised first-responder tackles a series of night shifts on the beat in Liverpool, while trying to keep his head above water personally and professionally.
Outline
Chris hits rock bottom. Rachel begins to suspect Mullen may not be all he appears, and Casey teams up with Marco to find a buyer.
The Responder Series
You can find a full index and overview of The Responder here.
Mental Health Matters 
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