New Research Suggests Brain Abnormalities in âSchizophreniaâ May Result From Antipsychotics
Study finds that reduced cortical thickness and brain surface area associated with 'schizophrenia' may result from antipsychotic drug use.
The Breaking Point
How did I become someone who could barely function? I was a high-performing sales executive ranked in the top 2% of an international business communications company. But now, after using powerful psych meds for depression and anxiety for more than a decade, I couldnât do basic things like go to the grocery store, plan a meal, make dinner, or get together with friends.
Everything Matters: a Memoir From Before, During and After Psychiatric Drugs
Psych meds can not only put weight on regardless of how you otherwise care for yourself, they also tend to make people feel gravely lethargic and vaguely sick all the time. I could not exercise as I had before. Could not. It doesn't matter how much mental health professionals try to tell us that if we just exercised we'd be okay in the face of neurotoxic drugs that cause weight gain, because the fact is the drugs impede that capacity. This is not widely appreciated or understood and people on psych meds are again traumatized and made to feel guilty for something that is truly outside of their control as long as they are taking these medications.
Researchers: âAntidepressants Should Not be Used for Adults with Major Depressive Disorderâ
A new review, published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, concludes that antidepressants should not be used as the risks outweigh evidence for benefits.
Big Pharma Meets Big Diagnosis, Big Courts, and Big Psychiatric Hospitals
Gottsteinâs book is The Pentagon Papers of the traditional mental health system, because he exposes a mind-blowing number and variety of cold-blooded, calculating actions on the part of Eli Lilly in trying to hide what it knew to be the devastating effects of its hugely profitable Zyprexa.
New Study Casts Doubt on Efficacy of Ketamine for Depression
A new study, published this month in the Journal of Affective Disorders, investigated the effectiveness of weekly intravenous ketamine injections as a treatment for...
Zel Dolinsky: I Have a Right to âDeath With Dignityâ
Researcher Zel Dolinsky once taught at medical school and worked as a medical writer in the pharmaceutical industry. In his last emails, he told of how the adverse effects of psychiatric drugs led him to choose to end his life.
Long-term Usage of ADHD Drugs Linked to Growth Suppression
Findings suggest that treatment not only fails to reduce the severity of âADHDâ symptoms in adulthood but is associated with decreased height.
Killer Brain Candy: One Woman’s Odyssey Through Benzodiazepine Addiction and Withdrawal or How Chicken...
I have almost four months to go until I am done with the little pills. After that, Iâm told it will take two to nine months until my brain will regulate, until I will be able to eat normally, to stand without shivering, to hold my children without fear of falling. I will make it. But I am here to state the obvious: Benzodiazepines are dangerous. We need more research. We need to know that an invisible epidemic is in our midst and there is much that can be done.
Antipsychotic Medications Are Causing Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
Common second-generation antipsychotic medications are causing symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder to emerge in many people who previously only had schizophrenia symptoms, according to a...
How âMental Health Awarenessâ Exploits Schoolchildren
Imagine being a parent at a meeting with educators to discuss Johnny's academics or behavior. Suddenly, your childâs teacher is telling you that he needs to see a doctor for an assessment of a suspected âmental disorder,â which usually leads to a prescription for medication. Warned of âthe risks against failing to intervene,â you will likely acquiesce.
People Are Dying Prematurely Due to Polypharmacy
Our son, Mark, is an example of the deadly effects of polypharmacy. He died at the young age of 46 and his death was caused by toxicity/cardiac failure from two of the five medications he was taking, at higher than recommended doses, as prescribed by his psychiatrist.
Children with ‘ADHD’ Commonly Prescribed Antipsychotics
Despite little evidence for benefit, and substantial risk of harm, antipsychotics are commonly prescribed to children diagnosed with ADHD
Calm, Organized, Homicidal Behaviour â My Connection to School Shooters
There is little doubt in my mind that many school shooters were in an antidepressant-induced state of psychosis, which is a loss of contact with reality that makes it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is not real. That's what happened to me. I started taking 60mg of Paxil a day. Three days later, I planned my suicide. Then I planned a murder.
Withdrawal Symptoms Routinely Confound Findings of Psychiatric Drug Studies
Researchers examine how rapid discontinuation can mimic the relapse of mental health symptoms and confound psychiatric drug studies.
How Academic Psychiatry Minimized SSRI Withdrawal
If academic psychiatry is evidence-based, why did it take two decades to recognize SSRI withdrawal as widespread and chronic among patients?
Violence Caused by Antidepressants:Â An Update after Munich Â
The media is now reporting details about the 18-year-old who shot and killed nine and wounded many others before killing himself on July 22 in Munich. My clinical and forensic experience leads to a distinction among people who murder under the influence of psychiatric drugs. Those who kill only one or two people, or close family members, often have little or no history of mental disturbance and violent tendencies. The drug itself seems like the sole cause of the violent outburst. On the other hand, most of those who commit mass violence while taking psychiatric drugs often have a long history of mental disturbance and sometimes violence. For these people, the mental health system seems to have provoked increasing violence without recognizing the danger.
Psychiatry and a Near Mass Shooting at Cornell
Nearly all perpetrators of mass violence have had some contact with psychiatry or related mental health services. The idea of giving more power and money to psychiatry to prevent violence is a great political talking point but it is disastrous for public health and safety. Psychiatry seems averse to recognizing violent patients but eager to give them violence-inducing drugs.
Researchers Warn of âBrain Atrophyâ in Children Prescribed Antipsychotics
Researchers discuss the evidence that antipsychotic medications may cause brain atrophy in children, whose brains are still developing.
Hallucinations Reported as Side Effect of ADHD Medication
Hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms have been reported after methylphenidate (Ritalin) treatment for ADHD.
Antidepressants Increase Risk of Death, Study Finds
Antidepressants are commonly considered safe and effective treatments. However, research has questioned their efficacy, and now, their safety.
Two Years Tapering an Antidepressant â A Life-Changing Experience That I Didnât Want
My heart goes out to anyone experiencing withdrawal, but especially those who are so ill they canât work and are struggling to navigate a heartless and cynical âbenefitsâ system. Their only crime is to have experienced difficulty from a prescribed treatment, yet they are treated as medical pariahs.
In Memory of Julie Greene
With deep regret, Mad in America announces another loss in our contributor community. Julie C. Greene, writer and antipsychiatry advocate, lost her battle with kidney disease on November 29 at her home in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Julie had been an MIA blogger since 2014, including several pieces on the dangers of lithium.
Randomized Controlled Trials of Psychiatric Drugs Tell of Harm Done
The most important data in an RCT is not whether the drug provides a statistically significant benefit over placebo. The most important data is the ânumber needed to treatâ calculation (NNT). For the person considering taking an antidepressant or an antipsychotic, the NNT data provides the âmathâ needed to weigh the potential benefit of taking the drug against the potential harm of doing so.
Lithium: A Survivorâs Guide for Parents
When I was a young adult, I was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and placed on lithium. I am 61 years old now, living on the edge of end-stage kidney disease. If I could undo everything, by all means, I would not have taken this drug. It is not safe for anyone at any age.