“Heal the Artists, Save the World”
Kelly Brogan, MD, writes: "Maybe your depression, chronic fatigue, ADHD, and chemical sensitivity are just ways that your body, mind, and soul, are saying no....
In Honor of Fear and Pain
Our use of antidepressants has turned single-episode struggles that recovered 85% of the time within one year, never to recur, into chronic and debilitating disorders that hold patients hostage in their own arrested development. But, If you are in the hole of pain, hereâs what I have to say to you. Itâs what I say to my patients, and what I tell myself in times of struggle.
âThe Unfulfilled Promise of the Antidepressant Medicationsâ
A new article in The Medical Journal of Australia laments that, while antidepressant use continues to climb, the research evidence shows that their effectiveness...
âMedicare Drug Program Fails to Monitor Prescribers, Putting Seniors and Disabled at Riskâ
ProPublica and The Washington Post have performed an investigation revealing that Medicare has failed to monitor the safety of the large quantities of drugs...
Mental Health in Black and White
When I looked through my mountains of medical records, I saw that the providers who listed my race as black applied diagnoses like major depressive disorder and PTSD. The providers who saw me as white preferred diagnoses of panic disorder and borderline personality disorder. Of course, my experiences are just anecdotal. But if racial bias due to subjective experiences of practitioners can play such a large role in mental health diagnostics, how is this even considered a scientific discipline?
Do We Really Need Mental Health Professionals?
Professionals across the Western world, from a range of disciplines, earn their livings by offering services to reduce the misery and suffering of the people who seek their help. Do these paid helpers represent a fundamental force for healing, facilitating the recovery journeys of people with mental health problems, or are they a substantial part of the problem by maintaining our modestly effective and often damaging system?
Childhood Trauma Predicts Lack of Response to Antidepressants
Research in Translational Psychiatry finds that childhood maltreatment and trauma predict a greater likelihood of developing chronic depression, and a reduced likelihood of responding to treatment...
Daughter of a Psychiatrist
Here I was, 15 years old and already in a long-term treatment facility. I was, on paper: crazy! This entire time, all the adults in my life had been speaking for me. I never felt like I was any of the things they said, but I went along with it. What else could I have done? Every time I rebelled, it only confirmed to my mother what she thought of me.
Interview: Researchers Deconstruct Ghostwritten Industry Trial for Antidepressant
Researchers, Jon Jureidini, Jay Amsterdam and Leemon McHenry, have taken a closer look at the data from a randomized control trial of citalopram (Celexa) that was ghostwritten and then used by the manufacturers to support claims of the drugâs efficacy and safety in the treatment of child and adolescent depression. To get the background on this story, we connected with Dr. Leemon McHenry, an investigator in this study and a lecturer in philosophy at California State University, Northridge.
Report from the Parliament: Can Psychiatry At Least Be Curious?
In the past six years, I have had the opportunity to speak at several conferences or meetings that I felt had particular potential to stir some political activity that would challenge current psychiatric practices, and one of those events was the meeting convened in the U.K.âs Parliament on May 11th, which had this title for the day: Rising Prescriptions, Rising Mental Health Disability: Is There a Link?
Antidepressants Do Not Prevent Suicides, May Increase Risk
When the CDC released data revealing an increasing suicide rate in the US, some experts, speaking to major media outlets, speculated that the increase...
âWhat Are Delusions â And How Best Can We Treat Them?â
For The Conversation, psychologist John Done, from the University of Hertfordshire, explains his approach to discussing delusions with his patients. Done recommends more qualitative...
Psych Patients Who Resist Stigma Do Better
A new study in press in the Journal of Schizophrenia Research finds that patients who actively resist the negative stigma associated with mental health...
Olanzapine Can Cause Serious Skin Reaction, FDA Warns
The US FDA has issued a new warning for the atypical antipsychotic Olanzapine, also known by the brand names Zyprexa and Symbyax. The agency...
Funny/Sad Video About Overmedication, âImmatureâ Kids
A YouTube video called âDrugs for Kidsâ takes a rather tongue-in-cheek approach to the overmedication and overdiagnosis of kids. Studies reveal a correlation between how young...
âPoliticians and Experts Meet at Parliament to Explore Record Antidepressant Prescribing and Disabilityâ
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence is meeting today, May 11th, to discuss evidence of the link between the rise in disability...
Making the Case Against Antidepressants in Parliament
On Wednesday, May 11, there will be an inquiry by a work group in the U.K.âs Parliament into whether increases in the prescribing of antidepressants are fueling a marked increase in disability due to anxiety and depression in the U.K. I wrote about a similar rise in disability in the United States in Anatomy of an Epidemic, and the All Party Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence, which is the Parliamentary group that organized the debate, asked me to present the case against antidepressants.
âThe New Eugenics: Why Genetic Theories of Mental Illness and Addiction Are a Damaging...
For The Influence, addiction expert Stanton Peele criticizes our current genetic and biological âbrain diseaseâ approaches to addiction and mental health.
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ADHD:Â The Hoax Unravels
At the risk of stating the obvious, ADHD is not an illness. Rather, it is an unreliable and disempowering label for a loose collection of arbitrarily chosen and vaguely defined behaviors. ADHD has been avidly promoted as an illness by pharma-psychiatry for the purpose of selling stimulant drugs. In which endeavor, they have been phenomenally successful, but, as in other areas of psychiatry, the hoax is unraveling.
New York Times Hosts Debate on Psychiatric Institutionalization
In the Room for Debate section of this weekend's New York Times, specialists in ethics, psychiatry, social work, addiction, and human rights hash out their...
The FDA Is Hiding Reports Linking Psych Drugs to Homicides
In my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined being drawn into a story of intrigue involving my own governmentâs efforts to hide, from the public, reports of psychiatric drugs associated with cases of murder, including homicides committed by youth on the drugs. But that is precisely the intrigue I now find myself enmeshed in.
âCDC Warns that Americans May be Overmedicating Youngest Children with ADHDâ
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data indicating that as many as 75% of young children who are diagnosed with...
ââYou Want a Description of Hell?â OxyContinâs 12-Hour Problemâ
A new LA Times investigation finds that Purdue Pharmaâs claims that OxyContin, a chemical cousin of heroin, could relieve pain for twelve hours led some...
Mindfulness Therapy Can Prevent Depression Relapse, Review Finds
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may be more effective at reducing the risk of depressive relapse compared to current standard treatments with antidepressant drugs. A...
âBullied Children Need Support Not Antidepressantsâ
Nick Harrop, a campaign manager at YoungMinds, supporting young peopleâs mental health and wellbeing, said antidepressants for children should never be the only course of action....
