Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have hidden evidence of an illness from his employers, including having been excused by a doctor from work the day he crashed a passenger plane into a mountain.

The psychiatric practice of classifying normal behaviour, giving it scientific-sounding labels and re-categorising it as a condition has been covered in the press. This included a statement from the Prof Simon Wessely, the new president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Siobhan Barry is a caring psychiatrist and has said that the long-term use of some psychiatric drugs can reduce life expectancy by up to 20 years (Irish Examiner, April 26), mirroring the position publicly adopted by the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists.

A "misleadingly exaggerated" advert featuring Rachel Weisz has been banned in the UK.

THE Central Mental Hospital is facing a raft of legal challenges because offenders are not being rehabilitated adequately due to chronic staff shortages, the head of the country’s most high- profile unit has warned.

FINALLY the lie, that those who opt to terminate their pregnancies are more susceptible to mental illness, has been nailed.

THE idea that drugs and alcohol can fuel creativity is a myth, it was claimed yesterday.

INTRODUCING warning symbols on airbrushed body images to protect young people from developing eating disorders would be “a very welcome” development, a leading adolescent psychiatrist has said.

SOCIAL workers have taken a stand against therapies which claim to “cure” homosexuality on the grounds that they add to the mental distress of gay and lesbian people.

A Dublin man who killed a stranger with garden shears because he thought he was the devil has pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity at the Central Criminal Court.

THERE will be a massive public outcry if the Government cuts allowances for carers, an Oireachtas committee has been warned.

THERE are some words you just can’t really imagine yourself writing. A few of them are “Iris Robinson has a point”.

Watching footage of terrorist attacks and their aftermath on television can alter the structure of the brain, experts said today.

PHARMACEUTICAL firms that withhold negative results in drug research could prevent the public from knowing if a drug is truly safe, medical experts have warned.

IRISH people use highly-addictive anti-depression drugs more than anyone else in Europe, according to evidence presented to the EU in Brussels yesterday.

A father accused of the murder of his 20-month-old son was suffering from an abnormality of the mind at the time he took his son by the feet and swung his head against a kitchen wall, a consultant psychiatrist has told the Central Criminal Court.

PSYCHIATRIC patients in many areas of the country are receiving below par services because of large variations in regional funding, the Irish College of Psychiatrists (ICP) has said.