Blogs

Beginning in the 1990s, a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies began to set up bioethics advisory boards, ostensibly to obtain guidance about controversial ethical issues. Over the years, the ties between industry and bioethics have gradually grown closer, with companies setting up endowed chairs and hiring bioethics consultants. Yet very little is known about how bioethics advisory boards work. What exactly is their purpose? Do they prevent ethical wrongdoing, or do they provide ethical cover?

For the past several years whenever a critical essay has come along examining the work of Irving Kirsch and his colleagues I have made an effort to examine the validity of the proposed arguments. Kirsch and his colleagues used the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the unpublished trials of antidepressants and then pooled the clinical trial data – both published and unpublished ─ and analyzed it as a single data set. It is common for pharmaceutical companies to only publish those studies that find their products effective, and to withhold the negative studies, making it difficult to reach accurate conclusions by examining only the published data. Kirsch and his colleagues have reported that in the company sponsored clinical trials, the SSRIs only marginally outperform placebo, with the difference being statistically different but not clinically significant.

Everyone knows how muckraking is supposed to work.  An investigative reporter uncovers hidden wrongdoing; the public is outraged; and the authorities move quickly on...

While there was much to criticize in the final report of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, the basic observation that the...

When I first entered a state of altered reality (called psychosis) at the age of 25, I was exhilarated. Then, when I could not...

We spend a lot of time writing about knowledge dissemination in mental health, and over time, have increasingly recognized the important role of science...

As the schizophrenia/psychosis recovery research continues to emerge, we discover increasing evidence that psychosis is not caused by a disease of the brain, but...

This morning Kayla Harrison won the first ever Olympic gold medal in the history of USA Judo. Kayla has overcome many, many obstacles on...

My work in peer service stems from the giving back to my community, yes, but it’s more than that. I do it because I can’t do anything else. I love this work. I love consumer 1:1 contact and prefer to be in the background otherwise because I don’t like attention.

The Collaborative Pathways project at Advocates, Inc. in Framingham, MA has received an FEMHC grant to develop and evaluate their highly innovative new program....

So who is James Holmes and why did he do what he did? Is he a lone wolf psycho or a lone psychopath who...

Three weeks ago What would Batman do Now covered the issue of suicide in the military – an issue that had Batman missing in action, and...

It may sound a bit cliché, but one of the best definitions of forgiveness I’ve ever heard was actually stated by Oprah Winfrey. Oprah’s definition of forgiveness is, “to accept the fact that the past can’t change.”

The Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, written by Will Hall and published by The Icarus Project and Freedom Center five years...

It’s time to speak about what is happening with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the United States. I have been...

I competed in the 1996 Olympics in Judo before I got sucked into the mental health system. I got sucked in due to a...

The National Empowerment Center is promoting a new initiative called "Community Dialogues for Recovery and Wellness." These dialogues are designed to bring together people...

Yana Jacobs and I both served at medication free madness sanctuaries. She at Soteria House and I at I-Ward. In this television interview, Yana...

The marketing departments of pharmaceutical companies focus in on the ring-bearers just as the Eye of Sauron focused in on Gollum and later Frodo. Once the Eye fixes on a ring-bearer, it hypnotizes him into submission. If any demur, it directs its Black Riders (Medical Academics) to enforce compliance with its Will.

The hospital rep brought Kristina into the hearing room, a windowless cubicle so crowded there was barely room for them to get to the...

On Wednesday, July 18, the Heritage Foundation sponsored a forum entitled “How to Bring Sanity to our Mental Health System.” It featured Dr. E....

I was recently talking with a young man about his anxiety, which he experiences as extreme.  When I asked him what the anxiety was...

Right now I am working on the Connect Power site build to make an underground railroad to help people out of the mental health...

Carl Elliott writes on the discrepancy between New Zealand's response to a research scandal - which lead to a national debate and dramatic reforms - and the silence following clinical trial scandals in the U.S.

Silent hours unfolded as I devoured the words, a symphonic consciousness crescendoing as door after door of new awareness opened inside of me.  It...