How Evidence-Based Medicine is Failing Due to Biased Trials and Selective Publication

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When evidence-based medicine (EBM) was announced in the early 90s, according to a paper in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, it was hailed...

Psychiatry: We Need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Mental Health

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My name is Leah Harris and I'm a survivor. I am a survivor of psychiatric abuse and trauma. My parents died largely as a result of terrible psychiatric practice. Psychiatric practice that took them when they were young adults and struggling with experiences they didn’t understand. Experiences that were labeled as schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder. My parents were turned from people into permanent patients. They suffered the indignities of forced treatment. Seclusion and restraint. Forced electroshock. Involuntary outpatient commitment. And a shocking amount of disabling heavy-duty psychiatric drugs. And they died young, from a combination of the toxic effects of overmedication, and broken spirits.

Congressman to Propose “Parental Protection Act” to Congress

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Inspired by the plight of Justina Pelletier's family, Representative Steve Stockman (R-TX) will introduce a bill to Congress that proposes to cut off funds...

“Psychiatric Drugs Are Doing Us More Harm Than Good” – Peter Gøtzsche

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Peter Gøtzsche comments in The Guardian, on the occasion of the launch of the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry, that "My studies of the research...

FDA to Review Chantix’ Psychiatric Side Effects

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The Food & Drug Administration announced today it will convene a public meeting in October to review the psychiatric and behavioral side effects of...

An Open Letter to the Colorado House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee RE: HB1386

I ask you to vote against HB1386. I write with a moral obligation to inform you of research findings which were recently defended through the PhD Program in Environmental Psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Throughout this research process, I repeatedly gave examples of people who participated who were silenced and retaliated against for expressing their expert perspectives about the public psychiatric service delivery system. Of grave concern is that this silencing extended to people who were reporting abuse of people who were involved with the public psychiatric service delivery system.

Opposition to Murphy Bill Gains Traction in the House

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The Murphy bill, which aims to defund or restructure federal initiatives on mental illness such as SAMHSA, as well as promote wider use of involuntary care...

21 Dead in Japan From New Johnson & Johnson Antipsychotic

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The death toll among Japanese citizens who have taken Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Janssen's schizophrenia drug Xeplion has climbed to 21, from 17 on...

“The Business Interests Behind America’s Costly Medical Care”

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Truthout explains that "Unlike most other wealthy countries, the U.S. lacks any central mechanism to constrain overall health-care spending. This has led us instead...

Too Corrupt, Insane & Ridiculous to Be Reformed? Even Establishment Psychiatrists Distance Themselves From...

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What does it tell us about the current state of psychiatry when some of the biggest names in the psychiatric establishment are now distancing themselves from psychiatry’s diagnostic system and its treatments? The institution of psychiatry has become corrupted by Big Pharma to such a degree that it has become, even to the mainstream media, so obviously ridiculous and so dangerously insane that politically astute psychiatrists are trying to separate themselves from their institution.

“J&J Allegedly Over-Promoted Risperdal and Paid the Price”

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The Ohio-based Legal Examiner reviews the history of Johnson & Johnson's allegedly inappropriate - perhaps criminal - marketing of Risperdal, including pushing the drug...

“Institutional Corruption of Pharmaceuticals and the Myth of Safe and Effective Drugs”

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The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics looks at institutional corruption in the pharmaceutical industry; "An extensive range of studies and lawsuits already documents...

Regulatory Capture

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Around the world, drug regulatory agencies spend billions of dollars engaged in activities which purport to ensure the safety, efficacy and quality of legal drugs. If the goal of regulation is to protect public health and safety, there can be no argument that it has failed. Safe drugs are not associated with annual rises in mortality and morbidity, effective drugs are not associated with increased prevalence of the conditions they are designed to treat and with greater chronicity of those conditions, quality drugs are not discovered to be contaminated with solvents months after their manufacture and release to the market. Effective regulation does not see companies repeatedly breaching standards and shrugging off sanctions.

Arkansas AG Petitions Supreme Court Decision Favoring J&J

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Saying that the Arkansas supreme court had departed from 170 years of precedent by deciding in favor of Johnson & Johnson on grounds not...

European Parliament Votes For Clinical Trial Transparency

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The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to ensure open reporting of European clinical trials, even when negative. The new laws, expected to take effect...

Murphy Bill: Violates Civil Rights, Increases Government Intrusion and Control, and Ignores Scientific Research

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HR 3717, authored by Congressman Tim Murphy, has been introduced in response to mounting concerns about the treatment of persons with mental health challenges. It is universally recognized that improvements are needed in the mental health system. Unfortunately, HR 3717 will have serious unintended consequences.

Hearing on H.R. 3717 (“Murphy Bill”) to Take Place Tomorrow

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The House Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing tomorrow (Thursday, April 3, 2014) on the “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act," also...

Alan Dershowitz Will Work With Justina Pelletier’s Family on “Broader Constitutional Issues”

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Harvard Law professor (emeritus) Alan Dershowitz will represent Justina Pelletier in her family's fight to regain custody from the state of Massachusetts and Boston...

Pharmaceutical Companies Lavishly Compensate Leaders of Academic Medical Centers

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Leaders of medical schools and hospitals receive much more compensation from pharmaceutical companies than the doctors who have previously been scrutinized for drug company...

Drug Regulator Destroys Licensing Data After 15 Years

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The Sunday Times of London reports on Peter Gotzsche's efforts to obtain pharmaceutical licensing data before the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)...

Half of Americans Believe in a Medical Conspiracy

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Research published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that about half of American adults believe in at least one medical conspiracy theory. "Science in...

Forest Labs’ Antidepressant Marketing Woes Continue

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Forest Labs has been hit with a new lawsuit in Massachusetts, over misleading marketing of its antidepressant drugs Celexa and Lexapro to adolescents, even...

1BoringOldMan on Misusing the Tools of Clinical Neuroscience

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1BoringOldMan picks up where he left off two years ago - critiquing Robert Gibbons' misuse of statistical analysis to claim that antidepressants were both...

Glaxo to Bring Doctors In-House as Educational Speakers

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GlaxoSmithKline, which previously announced it would suspend the practice of paying outside doctors to promote drugs, has announced that it will instead hire doctors...

ADHD Medication Use Rising Dramatically, Especially Adults

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A report released today by Express Scripts, the nation's largest prescription drug manager, offers "the most current and comprehensive analysis of ADHD medication use"...