Psychological Effects of Austerity Policies and Poverty Over-Medicalized, Report Finds
Recent report underscores troubling trends cutting across poverty, austerity reform, and mental health narratives in health care settings.
Users and Survivors Respond to World Psychiatric Association: “We Will Not be Silenced Any...
In an open letter to the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), users and survivors defend the UN CRPD and call for relinquishment of psychiatric power.
Psychiatrists Argue For More Attention to Iatrogenic Harms
Psychiatrists argue that current practice fails to account for the interaction of biological, psychosocial and iatrogenic factors.
Māori Approach to Mental Health Offers Empowering Alternative to Western Psychiatry
A new article explores Mahi a Atua, an affirming indigenous Māori healing practice which stands in contrast to the Western psychiatric methods typically promoted by the Movement for Global Mental Health.
Open Dialogue Approach Reduces Future Need for Mental Health Services
The Open Dialogue psychiatric treatment approach is associated with reduced utilization of mental and general health services for Danish youth.
Fighting for the Meaning of Madness: An Interview with Dr. John Read
Akansha Vaswani interviews Dr. John Read about the influences on his work and his research on madness, psychosis, and the mental health industry.
International Research Team Proposes a New Taxonomy of Mental Disorders
New data interpreted to suggest a hierarchical, dimensional system of mental disorders will aid future research efforts and improve mental health care.
The Effects of Antidepressant Exposure Across Generations: An Interview with Dr. Vance Trudeau
Dr. Vance Trudeau discusses his study's finding that antidepressants may have far-reaching, adverse effects that last up to three generations.
Adderall Use Associated with Increased Risk of Psychosis
Twice as many teenagers with ADHD experienced severe psychosis when taking Adderall, as compared to Ritalin, according to a new study.
Green Space in Childhood May Protect Against Adult Mental Health Issues
A new study suggests proximity to green space as a child is linked to lower rates of mental health issues in adulthood.
First-Person Accounts of Madness and Global Mental Health: An Interview with Dr. Gail Hornstein
Dr. Gail Hornstein, author of Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search for the Meanings of Madness, discusses the importance of personal narratives and service-user activism in the context of the global mental health movement.
Study Investigates Physicians’ Beliefs About Placebo and Nocebo Effects of Antidepressants
Surveyed doctors overestimate pharmacological effects of antidepressants and underestimate placebo effects.
Use of Antidepressants Linked to Diabetes
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (such as Prozac and Zoloft) are the most commonly prescribed medication for depression. SSRIs have long been associated with an...
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...
The Failed Quest for Biomarkers in Psychiatry
A recent commentary by Ganesan Venkatasubramanian and Matcheri Keshavan notes that efforts to identify biomarkers in people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders have been overwhelmingly...
How Do Antidepressants Really ‘Work’?
A recent review, published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, challenges the dominant assumptions about the neurochemical and therapeutic effects of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors...
Antidepressant Effects Thwarted by Stressful Environments
A new study, about to be published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, investigates the role a stressful environment plays in antidepressant effectiveness....
German Psychologists Declare “the Drugs Don’t Work”
Jürgen Margraf and Silvia Schneider, both well-known psychologists at the University of Bochum in Germany, claim that psychotropic drugs are no solution to mental...
STOP or GO? Tapering Pregnant Women off of Antidepressants
A team in the Netherlands is currently investigating the effects of tapering off of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy....
Ghostwriting has a New Name but Same Problems
A new paper, published in the British Medical Journal, explains how the pharmaceutical industry has publicly denounced ghostwriting while still finding ways to engage...
CDC Advises Nonopioid Treatments for Chronic Pain
Primary care clinicians and mental health providers face a particular set of challenges when treating individuals with chronic pain. These problems are compounded by...
The ADHD Drug Epidemic: Addiction, Abuse, and Death
A new analysis of FDA data, published on September 10th by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today, reveals the dangers of the common prescription of...
Psychiatric Drug Ads Lead to More Prescriptions and Worse Treatment
A new analysis published in the The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry investigates the public health effects of direct-to-consumer advertisements for psychiatric drugs. The researchers...
Garbage In–Garbage Out: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses can tell us a Flawed Story
Well known Stanford University researcher John Ioannidis published a new paper this week criticizing the use and production of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, often...
Review Calls for Critical look at Prescribing Antidepressant Drugs
The August issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics published a review conducted by André F. Carvalho and colleagues regarding the literature around the long-term use...
