Response to Criticism of Our Serotonin Paper
Criticisms of the paper were contradictory. Some psychiatrists said that no one ever really believed the serotonin theory. Yet the public does believe it, and are very surprised to learn that it is a myth.
Psychiatry’s Failure Crisis: Are You Moderately or Radically Enlightened?
The moderately enlightened acknowledge some of psychiatry’s failures but, in common with the unenlightened, desperately attempt to preserve the institution of psychiatry.
Suicide Hotlines and the Impact of Non-Consensual Interventions
Those struggling with suicidal thoughts may stay silent instead of reaching out to suicide hotlines because they fear non-consensual intervention and the harmful impact of police involvement.
A Diagnosis and Its Damages: Orna Ophir’s “Schizophrenia: An Unfinished History”
Ophir is a psychoanalyst in private practice and also a historian, which proved to be a fascinating combination as far as her latest book was concerned.
The Transformative Potential of Psychosis
For some, myself included, the “psychosis” became a catalyst for greater connection to self, others, and a sense of purpose.
The Parts Within Us: An Interview with Richard Schwartz, Creator of Internal Family Systems
IFS is a different paradigm, which says that rather than being a sign of pathology, it’s the nature of the mind to have “parts." We’re born that way because they're all valuable.
The One That Was Away
I had read about such places in The Bell Jar, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. For more than a year, this place was my home.
July is Both Disability Pride Month and Mad Pride Month: Happy Bastille Day!
The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) supports both Disability Pride Month and Mad Pride Month: Both are July!”
Andrew Scull—Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
Sociologist and author Andrew Scull discusses the history of psychiatry's "Desperate Remedies," from lobotomy and the asylum to the failures of today's drugs and the fads of ketamine and deep brain stimulation.
MIA Webinars: Past, Present and Future
We are pleased to announce that Charmaine Harris, who is a part of the POD team, will join the peer-supported Open Dialogue panel on Wednesday as a co-host.
Nothing At All: How Antidepressants Failed Me
If “nothing at all” sums up my best experience with antidepressants, it also represents the averaged efforts of the psychiatrists who prescribed them.
“Pollution’s Mental Toll”: A Talk with Journalist Kristina Marusic
The reporter explains how air and water pollution affect our brains, why children are so vulnerable, and what to do about it.
Inside A Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Rolled Ankles, RATs, and Invisible Abuse—The Final Obstacles Toward...
Sexual abuse is inevitable, an unspoken and largely invisible tragedy that affects most, if not all, inmates who enter into any detention center, especially a so-called “mental hospital.”
Pathologized Since Eve: Jessica Taylor on Women, Trauma, and “Sexy but Psycho”
Our guest today is Jessica Taylor, author of Sexy But Psycho: How the Patriarchy Uses Women’s Trauma Against Them, which was published in March...
The UK’s IAPT Service Is an Abject Failure
Despite the hype, the IAPT is hardly “world-beating.” In fact, it is a doubtful model for other countries to follow. Over half of IAPT clients don’t even attend two sessions.
Less Than a Quarter of Those with Depression Respond to Treatment in Real Life
In a real-world setting, less than a quarter of patients diagnosed with depression improved with medication, hospitalization, and therapy.
Point/Counterpoint: What Is the Importance of Nassir Ghaemi’s Conclusion that Psychiatric Drugs Do Not...
A dialogue between Jim Phelps and Robert Whitaker about Nassir Ghaemi's latest article, which concluded that psychiatric drugs, except for lithium, do not provide a long-term benefit.
Expanded Mental Health Services Won’t Stop Mass Shootings
“Easier access” to mental health treatment is likely to translate to getting more kids in front of more prescribers to produce more lifetime customers.
Peer Values Versus Violence: A View from Lived Experience
Some of us have survived violent, coercive forms of socially condoned mental health treatments. But many of us grow past the pain, into healing and compassion.
Psychiatric Drugs Do Not Improve Disease or Reduce Mortality
Nassir Ghaemi: “Most psychiatric medications are purely symptomatic, with no known or proven effect on the underlying disease. They are like 50 variations of aspirin, used for fever or headache, rather than drugs that treat the causes of fever or headache.”
Cargo Cult Psychiatry
Cargo Cult Psychiatry uses the courts to force people, who are otherwise assumed to have the right to refuse treatment, to submit to their pseudoscientific approach to "mental health."
Psychedelic Therapy Will Not Save Us
For women survivors of sexual or physical trauma, MDMA should be used judiciously. Or maybe it shouldn’t be used at all.
Jock McLaren – The Biopsychosocial Model is a Mirage, Time for a Biocognitive Model?
Dr. Niall McLaren joins us to talk of his experiences working in Australian psychiatry and explains why the models that purport to guide psychiatric diagnosis and treatment are not what they seem.
The Power of Activism
Getting support from other psychiatrized people, outside of the system, has the potential to be mutual. You are not being “treated” or talked down to. The contact is genuine and natural.
Antidepressant-Induced Serotonin Syndrome a Danger for the Elderly
Researchers found that 25% of elderly patients taking antidepressants had serotonin syndrome, which is potentially life-threatening.
