In the News
Pennsylvania Court to Hear Appeal of Dismissed Risperdal Lawsuit
May 16, 2012
In 2002, Pennsylvania state investigator Allen Jones discovered improprieties that lead to a succession of multi-billion dollar awards and settlements against Johnson & Johnson for fraudulent marketing of Risperdal. Before the recent spate of awards, the case that had arisen from Jones’ findings in Pennsylvania was dismissed. “I assisted the State of Texas in the recovery of $158 million dollars expended as the result of J&J’s fraudulent marketing of Risperdal,” said Jones, “Not only was Pennsylvania not interested in pursuing these facts, I was fired when I went public with allegations of corruption which were being covered up. (The state’s) … case was so weak it was rightfully thrown out of court.” Judges in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court are set to hear an appeal of the 2008 dismissal.
Fewer Involuntary Admissions by Psychiatrists than Physicians
May 16, 2012
In October of 2006 Switzerland enacted a law requiring a certified psychiatrist – rather than a physician or resident – to compel an involuntary hospital admission. In a review of 2,227 hospitalizations for 1,584 patients before and after the law’s enforcement, researchers found that compulsory admissions dropped from 63.9% to 36.1%. Results appear in Psychiatric Quarterly.
Behavioral Therapy (Including Parents) More Effective for ADHD than Drugs
May 16, 2012
Stimulant medication does not improve the academic performance or test scores of the 9% of all children in the U.S. diagnosed with ADHD, according to research reviewed in Scientific American. Rather, study habits rather than medication differentiated high- and low-performing students with the diagnosis. Additionally, training parents of children with ADHD diagnoses in stress management and behavioral interventions to help their children produced significant improvement equal to medication, with fewer long-term complications.
Nonwhites Twice as Likely to Receive Injectable Antipsychotics
May 16, 2012
Research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry shows that of all 901 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia from July 2009 to June 2010 at a community mental health center, white patients were half as likely (OR = .52) than nonwhites to receive long-acting injectable antipsychotics, irrespective of age, gender or comorbid diagnoses including drug abuse. The authors speculate that prescribers may consider nonwhites to be less adherent to antipsychotic medications.
DSM-5 Adds “Behavior” to List of Addictions
May 16, 2012
The APA convention last week included a debate about the addition of “Behavioral Addiction – Not Otherwise Specificed” to the new edition of the DSM. The new category could be used to diagnose as illnesses addictions to shopping, sex, the internet, or video games – a potential addition of 20 million newly categorized “addicts.” “The biggest problem in all of psychiatry is untreated illness, and that has huge societal costs,” said Dr. James H. Scully, chief executive of the APA. Others are concerned the change would result in a misdirection of resources. “These sorts of diagnoses could be a real embarrassment,” said Thomas F. Babor, editor of the journal Addiction.
Pain Predicts Psychopathology
May 16, 2012
Researchers from Italy, Hungary, and the U.S. investigated the extent that the subjective experience of pain in 575 psychiatric outpatients (without comorbid physical diagnoses) is associated with psychopathology. They found that higher perception of pain severity was a predictor of higher psychopathology, while general level of activity appears to be a protective factor.
Lowering the Threshold for Bipolar: “More Harm Than Good”
May 15, 2012
Researchers publishing in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry argue that broadening the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder would result in a greater increase in “false positives” than in “true” diagnoses, while there are no controlled studies demonstrating the efficacy of mood stabilizers in treating “subthreshold” bipolar disorder. They also assert that an increase in “false positive” diagnoses would go undetected because the absence of future manic/hypomanic episodes would “incorrectly be considered evidence of the efficacy of treatment, and the unnecessary medications that might cause medically significant side effects would not be discontinued.”
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
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
E. Fuller Torrey’s Review of Anatomy of an Epidemic: What Does It Reveal About the Rationale for Forced Treatment?
Robert Whitaker
May 16, 2012
E. Fuller Torrey, through his Treatment Advocacy Center, is the country’s most prominent advocate for outpatient commitment laws, which typically force people with a diagnosis of a severe mental illness to take antipsychotic medications. He has posted a review of …
Full Article
Whose Recovery Is This?! Helping Families Heal
Lisbeth Riis Cooper
May 16, 2012
Last night I had the privilege of attending my first Family Den with other Mother Bears like myself—parents, spouses, siblings and adult children. All of us have family members who have experienced mental health challenges. All of us had a story to tell.
Full Article
The Big Chill: Psychiatric Medications Now Are on Trial For Murder
Michael Cornwall, Ph.D.
May 16, 2012
The Canadian judge in the first North American criminal trial to find Prozac the sole cause of a murder ruled- “There is clear medical evidence that the Prozac affected his (defendant’s) behavior and judgment, thereby reducing his moral culpability.” Will those …
Full Article
Is there Any Value In Psychiatric Diagnosis?
Tim Desmond, LMFT
May 16, 2012
The medical model of diagnosis has become a dominant idea in the field of mental health, but it hasn’t always been this way. As a therapist, I will explore whether mental health diagnosis is a useful way of thinking about …
Full Article
Is Psychiatry “Salvageable”?
Alice Keys, M.D.
May 15, 2012
A reader in the commentary here asked me if I think “psychiatry is salvageable.” This is a timely question that requires careful consideration. First, I’ll examine this question with regard to my personal life. Then, I’ll explore this question from …
Full Article
Human Rights and Managed Care: Part 1
Steven Moffic, M.D.
May 15, 2012
Preface: Before I went to the American Psychiatric Association, many on this webzine expressed interest in my presentation to come on “Human Rights and Managed Care”. Given that interest, and how it may relate to some of our blog discussions, …
Full Article
Foreign Correspondents
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
The Factories of Post Modernism
David Healy, M.D.
May 8, 2012
In the 1960s revolution was afoot. Antipsychiatry was born. The new revolutionaries targeted medicalization and claimed mental illnesses didn’t exist. Out of this cauldron, postmodernism was discovered. Postmodernism provided the basis for an ongoing guerilla war against capitalism and industrial …
Full Article
Anatomy of an Epidemic
Robert Whitaker’s
Blog
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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.