In the News
“How One Flawed Study Spawned a Decade of Lies”
May 20, 2012
Forbes magazine dives into the controversy swirling around former DSM task force chairman Robert Spitzer, and his recanted study of “reparative therapy,” with an analysis that concludes “What’s remarkable is that this classic example of bad science was approved for presentation at a conference of the leading psychiatric association, and was subsequently published in a peer-reviewed journal of the profession.”
Accused Trayvon Martin Killer was Previously Prescribed Adderall
May 20, 2012
George Zimmerman, accused of killing unarmed Trayvon Martin while communicating with police dispatchers who tried to restrain him, was prescribed Adderall (a stimulant) and Temazepam (a benzodiazepine) prior to the incident. Adderall’s label warns users to watch for “new or worsening mental or mood problems (eg, aggression, agitation, anxiety, delusions, depression, hallucination, hostility.)” The prescribing doctor had noted that it was “imperative” that Zimmerman be evaluated by a psychologist.
“Zoloft Defense” to Start Monday
May 19, 2012
The defense phase of the trial of Anthony Nicholas Orban begins on Monday, with Mr. Orban’s lawyer presenting evidence that Orban was so overwhelmed by the antidepressant Zoloft that he was not mentally cognizant while the attack was happening. Zoloft carries warnings to users to call a health care provider if they begin “acting aggressively or violent” or “acting on dangerous impulses.” In 2004, a California man was acquitted of attempted murder after using the Zoloft defense.
Mental Illness is the Leading Cause of Military Hospitalizations
May 19, 2012
Since 2001 almost $2 billion have been spent on drugs to treat mental illness and PTSD in soldiers, but mental illness is still the leading cause of hospitalization for active-duty troops. The “stunning growth in numbers and rates of mental health hospitalizations … is undeniable evidence of an unprecedented and arguably unmanageable epidemic that is now threatening the viability of the force,” wrote an anonymous Army doctor. The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury has warned “evidence does NOT support the use of atypical antipsychotics as a monotherapy for PTSD.”
Dissociative Experiences Mediate Childhood Trauma/Auditory Hallucinations
May 19, 2012
Researchers in Spain assessed 71 patients diagnosed with psychoses for dissociative experiences, trauma, delusions and hallucinations. Childhood trauma was positively associated with dissociation (r = .40), hallucinations (r = .36) and delusions (r = .32). “The main conclusion is that the impact of childhood trauma on hallucinations may not simply be direct, but mediated by dissociative experiences, especially depersonalization.” Results appear in the Journal of Traumatic Stress.
Benzos in 30% of NYC’s Overdose Deaths; ER Visits Soar
May 19, 2012
The NYC Department of Health reports that 30% of the city’s 2009 overdose deaths were tied to benzodiazepines, and that benzo-related emergency room visits have increased 50% from 2004 to 2009. Benzos “could turn a relatively mild overdose into something that could be fatal,” said a NYC psychiatrist. One mental health network in Louisville, KY, has stopped prescribing the drug. “The problem is, in terms of longer term treatment, there are really much better treatments that have better outcomes” said a network psychiatrist.
Judge Allows Zoloft Defense in CA Rape Case
May 18, 2012
A former southern California police detective and Iraq war veteran charged with rape will be allowed to argue that an over-prescription of antidepressants for combat-related PTSD left him “mentally unconsciousness.” “But for the use of Zoloft, Mr. Orban would not have committed these acts” his lawyer asserted to the court. “…This was totally out of character.” If found not guilty according to this defense, Orban would face an indefinite sentence in a state mental hospital.
Recovery Stories
Reconstruction: A Recovery Narrative
April 2, 2012
Faith Rhyne, CPSS
When I read recovery stories, I am sometimes challenged by the prospect of thinking about my life in linear terms, “Here are the years that I was Sick, here are the steps I’ve taken to become Well.” Nothing is ever quite so simple in my mind. How does one adequately capture 23 years of distressed dysfunction, and all that such a span of time entails? It is difficult to tell a survivor story without telling what, precisely, you survived. The world is full of trauma, slow and sudden, sustained and quick-wounding.
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Memoir
February 21, 2012
Louise Gillett
I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was just nineteen. I am forty-three now, and I have recovered – and I use the term ‘recovery’ in its fullest sense. I have been free of medication and free of symptoms for twelve years. I have a husband, a home, and four young children – all things that I never thought would be possible at the age of twenty-five when I was informed of the diagnosis. Full Article →
The Manifesto of a Noncompliant Mental Patient
February 14, 2012
Aubrey Ellen Shomo
I see it everywhere: People with mental illness need medication. It sounds reasonable.
Today, there are even political organizations that seek to make it easy to force a person to take it.
Blogs
Risk Management vs. Dignity of Risk
Jonathan Dosick
May 20, 2012
What does “risk” really mean? Is it something to be afraid of and avoided at all costs, or something to be embraced?
Full Article
Shanghai’d in Recovery
Lisbeth Riis Cooper
May 17, 2012
I am honored to share the story of one family that has learned about the power of language, hope and letting go with love so that every family member can grab on to a life worth living.
Full Article
NH Sued for Mental Health Rights Violations
Ken Braiterman
May 17, 2012
People with mental illness who could live in the community with supports are being confined in the Glencliffe Nursing Home in northern New Hampshire against their will. The NH Mental Health Authority admits it. They admitted last year, in a …
Full Article
Human Rights and Managed Care: Part 2
Steven Moffic, M.D.
May 17, 2012
Let me state from the outset that I didn’t suggest presenting on this topic. In fact, I was rather taken aback when Dr. Pumariega, the upcoming President of the American Association for Social Psychiatry, asked me to do so. After …
Full Article
CIAD & Community-Based Housing for Adult Home Residents in New York City: The Struggle Goes On
Jack Carney, DSW
May 17, 2012
Sixteen million dollars are sitting in Albany, waiting to be converted into fifteen hundred apartments for adult home residents presumed to have serious mental illnesses. The task for CIAD – the Coalition of the Aged and Institutionalized Disabled – and …
Full Article
Coercion
Sandra Steingard, M.D.
May 17, 2012
I am a psychiatrist who believes that involuntary treatment is rarely effective in the long run but I am also a psychiatrist who sometimes forces people into hospitals against their will.
Full Article
Fast-Moving Bill in Congress Would Weaken FDA Oversight of New Drugs and Devices
Alison Bass
May 16, 2012
Congress is moving quickly to pass a bill that would authorize higher industry fees for the FDA in exchange for speeding up the approval of some drugs and medical devices and eliminating restrictions on financial conflicts of interest among the …
Full Article
Foreign Correspondents
Every Drink Spiked
David Healy, M.D.
May 18, 2012
This post is written anonymously (see Petra’s story). I outlined how my daughter Petra came to take Cymbalta on this blog a few months ago (see Petra’s story; also see Symbolta of Sorts). This post tells of events that led …
Full Article
A Symbolta of Sorts
David Healy, M.D.
May 15, 2012
In the early 1990s, Prozac was riding high but Lilly were planning its successor. The leading candidate was duloxetine – a dual inhibitor of both serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake as the older tricylic antidepressants (TCAs) had been. The company approached …
Full Article
Shocking the Homeland
David Healy, M.D.
May 11, 2012
The thriller Homeland reached its denouement in the UK at the weekend – in an Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) scene. Claire Danes, a Homeland security agent supposedly taking Clozapine to contain her paranoia has to distinguish reality from psychosis to save …
Full Article
On the Importance of Moral Imagination
Philip Thomas, M.D.
May 10, 2012
Some years ago I was appointed as a non-executive director to the board of a leading Mental Health Trust. It served a culturally diverse population in a large Northern city with a population of around half a million. I had …
Full Article
Anatomy of an Epidemic
Robert Whitaker’s
Blog
Speaking Schedule
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Videotaped Talks
Radio Interviews
Recent Reviews
“One of the most disturbing, consequential works of investigative journalism I’ve read in a long time. Perhaps ever.” –John Horgan, Scientific American
Answering the Critics
MGH Grand Rounds
Carlat Report
William Glazer
Books
Anatomy of An Epidemic
Mad in America
The Mapmaker’s Wife
On the Laps of Gods
Mad Media
Video
Allen Frances on “Diagnostic Inflation: Does Everyone Have a Mental Illness?,” and how the DSM-V will lead to millions of mislabeled mental disorders.
Robert Whitaker on Imagining a Different Future in Mental Health, Philadelphia May 6, 2012
Laura Delano believed that, as a person living with “mental illness”, she had little to no hope for a life of meaning and purpose.
Ted Chabasinski at Occupy the APA, May 5, 2012.
Mad in America: The History of Eugenics in the United States & How It Affects Psychiatric Care Today (Talk by Robert Whitaker May 2, 2012)
Discuss →
Radio
Dr. Peter Breggin interviews MIA blogger Dr. Michael Cornwall on his radio show, May 7, 2012. They explore how to help people labeled schizophrenic with empathy rather than drugs.
Discuss →
Books
Rethinking Depression, by Eric Maisel, Ph.D.
The Spiritual Gift of Madness, by Seth Farber, Ph.D.
Rethinking Madness, by Paris Williams, Ph.D.
Dosed: The Medication Generation Grows Up, by Kaitlin Bell Barnett
Harness Your Dark Side, by Al Galves
Pharmageddon, by David Healy
Drugging Our Children, Olfman/Robbins, Editors
Film
Daniel Mackler
Healing Homes
Open Dialogue
Take These Broken Wings
Op-Eds
A Vision for Transformation: Mental Health Freedom and Recovery Act
Duane Sherry
May 13, 2012
For most of my adult life, I have worked with people with severe disabilities. It’s been with humility that I’ve witnessed the courage of many people who’ve faced enormous obstacles and seen their spirits in action. These individuals serve as examples for each of us – to face our challenges head-on; to do our best to rise above them; to focus on our gifts and talents; and to use them to do extraordinary things.
It’s been through my work in the field of rehabilitation, that I’ve come to believe in the human spirit and the strength that comes from learning to tap into its source. When we do so, we open ourselves to new levels of hope and inspiration and endless possibilities to experience the fullness of life.
Reflections on the 2012 Radical Caucus Meeting
Bradley Lewis
May 8, 2012
This year’s American Psychiatric Association (APA) convention was a charged affair owing to a number of factors, including the intense DSM V controversy, the recent high profile critiques of the profession (such as those by Robert Whitaker and Marcia Angell), the presence of documentary filmmakers shooting an expose on the APA’s role in an iatrogenic death from antipsychotics, and the new energy, participation, and strategies that Occupy Wall Street protesters brought to meetings. Out of all this, one of the most fascinating moments in the conference was when “APA Radical Caucus” invited psychiatric activists from Mindfreedom and the Icarus Project to their annual caucus meeting.