Robert Whitaker Answers Reader Questions on Pharma Marketing and Psychiatric Drugs
In Part 2 of our reader Q&A podcast, MIA founder Robert Whitaker answers questions on pharmaceutical marketing and issues with psychiatric treatments including psychiatric drugs and electroconvulsive therapy.
Reimagining Crisis Support: A Conversation with Tina Minkowitz
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.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 1, Part 3)
About healthcare's focus on back end treatment rather than front end treatment: treating the symptoms rather than the causes of the health condition.
Antipsychotics Lead to Worse Outcomes in First-Episode Psychosis
Those who did not get antipsychotics in the first month were almost twice as likely to be in recovery after five years.
How the Medical Model Corrupted Mennonite Values
How to square the violent restraint and isolation of a vulnerable patient with the empowering, pacifist values of the hospital's founders?
“It Is What It Is” — Learning From the Past Without Getting Stuck in...
My first mental-ward stay would not be the last. At last count... I lost count. Fortunately for me, I've learned much from my experience and vicariously from my peers.
The Power Dynamics of Psychedelic Therapy
I want people who have gone through psychedelic therapy to not feel alone if they felt silenced, controlled, or interpersonally hurt.
Robert Whitaker Answers Reader Questions on Mad in America, the Biopsychosocial Model, and Psychiatric...
On the Mad in America podcast this week we have Robert Whitaker with us to answer questions sent in by readers and listeners.
Q&A: What Is Executive Function, and How Can Parents and Teachers Help Kids Focus?
Ask anyone who’s ever taught kids, and they’ll tell you a story about one student who sticks in their memory.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 1, Part 2)
Les Ruthven addresses off-label prescribing as well as physicians’ anti-science pushback against the use of well-conducted clinical trials.
Stop Using Antidepressants Except for “the Most Severe Depression,” Experts Say
Experts advocate limiting antidepressant use to only the most severe cases of depression, emphasizing the need for social and psychological interventions.
Beyond Pills: UK Parliament Must Support Social and Psychological Services Instead
Davies calls on the UK Parliament to support the Beyond Pills initiative, and follow the evidence to put social and psychological help first.
The Great Grey Beast
I am not the only child to have been devoured by the great grey beast that is the American psychiatric system. You're eaten away little by little, every single day, until what's left is barely a person.
Mental Disorder Has Roots in Trauma and Inequality, Not Biology
The scientific evidence is of social/psychological, not biological, causation: negative environmental conditions, not disease.
After MIA Calls for Retraction of STAR*D Article, Study Authors Double Down on the...
In their letter to the editor, Rush et al. have doubled-down on the fraud they committed in their 2006 summary report of STAR*D outcomes.
A Remarkable Feat: A Psychiatric Patient Changed the Law on Restraints
The case of Silas Dam obliged the Danish government to increase rights for psychiatric patients subjected to belt restraints.
ADHD Drugs Linked to Cardiovascular Disease
Service users taking drugs to treat ADHD may be at increased risk for hypertension and arterial disease
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 1, Part 1)
On the difference between basing a medical system on clinical belief versus one based on scientific evidence.
Decolonizing Psychiatry in Pakistan: A Reckoning with our Colonial Past and a Call for...
Psychiatrist Yousaf Raza details the problems with psychiatric health care in Pakistan and shows how to find a way forward.
Escaping The Shackles of Psychiatry: What I’ve Seen and Survived, as Both Doctor and...
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” said Edmund Burke. This is as true on...
The Drug Taper Paradox
When we look to pills to solve one problem, we forget the opponent processes the body will naturally employ to return to homeostasis.
The Lie That Antidepressants Protect Against Suicide Is Deadly
Antidepressants do not protect against suicide. According to placebo-controlled trials, they double the risk of suicide.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Preface)
Medical practitioners base their practice on clinical experience, rather than the sound published health research, which they distrust.
Letting Go of Lithium
The healing journey is less about being free from medication and psychiatry and more about connecting with myself now. I am grateful for the freedom to feel.
Pigs in the Hospital: The Collapse of Venezuela’s Mental Health System
The directors of the hospital, considering the empty spaces provided by its lack of services, decided to allow “milicianos” to move in, along with their pigs.
