The Media’s False Narrative About Depression Pills, Suicides, and Saving Lives
When the media tell of a serious harm of a psychiatric drug, they follow a standard script, including that they must also praise the drug.
Paying Attention to ADHD Prescriptions in Your Community
A national study showed that ADHD drug abuse among U.S. high and middle school students has been rising for the past 20 years.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 9: ADHD (Part Three)
ADHD is a disaster area, in terms of the diagnosis, clinical research, and the harms inflicted on hundreds of millions of healthy people.
Busting the Deinstitutionalization Myth: We Actually Have More Beds Than Ever Before
New data upends common beliefs about asylum closures, deinstitutionalization, and rates of psychiatric coercion.
“Gravely Disabled” — How I Narrowly Escaped a Conservatorship
"What’s going on? Is the idea for me to live in a locked facility forever?” A silent wail of despair wells up inside me. What’s happening to my life?
Healing From Psychiatric Drug Harm, Part 1: First Steps
I needed to teach my nervous system, via different types of neuromuscular reeducation, that it was safe to move again. Before I could walk, I had to crawl, literally.
Can Psychosocial Disability Transform Mental Health? A Conversation with Luis Arroyo and Justin Karter
Mad in Mexico's Luis Arroyo interviews MIA's Justin Karter about how psychosocial disability inclusion can transform Global Mental Health.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 9: ADHD (Part Two)
Peter Gøtzsche discusses the results of the MTA study on ADHD drugs and the misleading statements textbooks make about ADHD treatment.
Antidepressants Increase Suicide Attempts in Youth; No Preventative Effect
Researchers find that SSRIs increase suicide attempts up to age 24, and have no preventative effect at any age, even for those at high risk of suicide.
In the Courts, a Partial Win for Informed Consent and ECT Justice
Price Hancock views the Thelen verdict as a partial win. "The jury agreed that the manufacturer 'failed to warn.’ That's huge. It's a step in the right direction."
First Do No Harm: Restraining the Restrainer
I was face down on a cold hospital floor. My submissiveness came before the needle made contact. The shock and shame of such a violation silenced me.
Fighting Outpatient Commitment in Massachusetts
Massachusetts politicians are pushing for a law to increase involuntary treatment. This law will be far harder to get rid of once it’s on the books than it’s been to keep it from getting there.
How to Advocate Effectively for Loved Ones Harmed by Psychiatric Drugs
An advocate in the psychiatric realm is a key witness for the patient and his or her experience, and carries a weight that the doctor cannot easily ignore.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 9: ADHD (Part One)
Peter Gøtzsche discusses the broadening of ADHD diagnostic criteria and the misleading and biased stimulant drug trials.
No Benefit for Adding Antidepressants to CBT in Severe Depression
For those with severe depression, inpatient CBT was effective but the adding antidepressants did not improve treatment outcomes.
Big Tech CEOs Meet with Psychiatry’s Leaders to Decide the Future of Mental Health
The paradox of techno-optimism at a huge conference on the future of mental health led by embattled tech CEOs alongside the most prominent figures of psychiatry.
Spoilation: What Becomes of the Forcibly Drugged?
I have been forcibly drugged for over forty years now. The dose of neuroleptics I am forced to take will probably kill me.
Driving Our Children into Suicide with Escitalopram and Other Happy Pills
The Lexapro study is marketing dressed up as science. It represents a flagrant abuse of ethics, deceiving readers at the cost of children's lives.
Cured: A Memoir—Sarah Fay on Giving Everyone the Chance to Heal
Author Sarah Fay joins us to discuss why "cured" is such a seldom-used word in psychiatry.
New Data Reveal the Full Extent of STAR*D Failure
The initial study, which has been used to promote antidepressants, employed outcome switching to hide poor results.
Everyone’s Afraid of an Angry Woman: Honoring Sinéad O’Connor
In her tragic passing, I choose to honor her by raising up these words she said, by hearing and believing them.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Fourteen)
Peter Gøtzsche covers depression pills in pregnancy, as well as psychotherapy and psycho-education.
Causality in Mental Disturbance: A Review of the Neuroscience
Psychiatry's medicalization of social and psychological suffering is not justified by the currently known biology.
The Key to the Psych Unit
I was toeing a very precarious line working in a psychiatric hospital. I knew how tenuous my perceived sanity was.
The Clinical Uses of Stoic Acceptance
Nothing matters more than cultivating the most loving bond possible with those we love. How can stoicism help?
