Blogs

Les Ruthven addresses the lack of evidence for antidepressants being better than placebo, as well as a note about ECT.

The patient is talking, if sometimes more or less metaphorically, about real experiences. Hallucinations and delusions are not meaningless.

I’m glad we’re chipping away at the cracks in psychiatry and psychology and de-privatizing our lives.

Les Ruthven addresses the scientific literature on antidepressant efficacy and FDA approval.

A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2023 as chosen by our readers.

Dr. Warme bucked convention, examining the cultural role that shamans, witch doctors, and placebo cures played in medicine.

I have watched as my father’s pursuit of happiness was swept away by the court system in his senior years.

Beginning the discussion on depression and antidepressant drugs. Are they as effective and safe as psychiatry claims?

I dreamed of a place where healers weren’t afraid of intense states like madness. They embraced it; maybe they’d been through it themselves.

Our growing community is eager to change the narrative of psychiatry. And that is how paradigm shifts occur: the collective voice for radical change grows ever louder.

Healing from our deepest wounds comes through being in connection with people who cherish us and take us seriously.

The mental health system is always trying to get more resources for itself, insinuate itself into every aspect of life, subsuming every aspect of the fulfillment of human rights.

About healthcare's focus on back end treatment rather than front end treatment: treating the symptoms rather than the causes of the health condition.

How to square the violent restraint and isolation of a vulnerable patient with the empowering, pacifist values of the hospital's founders?

Sam Ruck shares a second excerpt from his book "Healing Companions," which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her “alters.” 

I want people who have gone through psychedelic therapy to not feel alone if they felt silenced, controlled, or interpersonally hurt.

Ask anyone who’s ever taught kids, and they’ll tell you a story about one student who sticks in their memory.

Les Ruthven addresses off-label prescribing as well as physicians’ anti-science pushback against the use of well-conducted clinical trials.

Is the answer to numb ourselves and learn to deal with lives that we don't feel good about? Shouldn't the solution be to heal and live lives that don't make us stressed, unhappy, and sick?

Davies calls on the UK Parliament to support the Beyond Pills initiative, and follow the evidence to put social and psychological help first.

The scientific evidence is of social/psychological, not biological, causation: negative environmental conditions, not disease.

My doctor didn’t tell me about any side effects, and I didn’t ask. I assumed that if there were any risks with taking Paxil, he would tell me.

The case of Silas Dam obliged the Danish government to increase rights for psychiatric patients subjected to belt restraints.

On the difference between basing a medical system on clinical belief versus one based on scientific evidence.

Psychiatrist Yousaf Raza details the problems with psychiatric health care in Pakistan and shows how to find a way forward.