Legislation & Regulation

The American Psychological Association has issued a letter expressing serious concerns about the nomination of Gina Haspel for the director of the CIA due...

Pfizer is petitioning the FDA to remove the black box warning for Chantix which focuses on neuropsychiatric side-effects like suicidality and depression. The regulators...

The New York Times reports that a growing number of infants and toddlers are being prescribed dangerous psychiatric drugs. “Almost 20,000 prescriptions for risperidone (commonly known as Risperdal), quetiapine (Seroquel) and other antipsychotic medications were written in 2014 for children 2 and younger, a 50 percent jump from 13,000 just one year before.”

From The Guardian: At age 17, Nicole Kluemper came to be one of the most controversial cases in modern psychology when she recovered memories of...

Sir Robin Murray, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience in London, states that he ignored social factors that contribute to ‘schizophrenia’ for too long. He also reports that he neglected the negative effects antipsychotic medication has on the brain.

From FDA in Brief: The FDA seeks input from consumers and medical professionals on making sure the drug risk information in statements included in direct-to-consumer...

The rate of incarceration for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals is roughly three times that of the general population and they experience significantly higher rates of victimization and mistreatment in prison.

From The New York Times: In recent years, politicians have shown increased awareness of the opioid epidemic and have made statements about the need for treatment,...

Data on OpenSecrets.gov show Murphy is being heavily funded by the same interests that stand to benefit financially from his Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act -- pharmaceutical companies and psychiatric hospitals.

From STAT: Despite accusing the pharmaceutical industry of "getting away with murder" by charging high drug prices, President Trump is now giving drug companies more power...

HealthNewsReview.org founder Gary Schwitzer talks to New York Magazine on the media coverage of medical research. “We in journalism have to look in the mirror...

Professionals are paid to share their wisdom with those who are, typically, less informed. But, when dealing with mental health professionals in the psychiatric arena, it is wise to retain a degree of skepticism about the words spoken by the doctors and nurses commissioned to help reduce human misery and suffering.

From Psychiatric Times: Patients are increasingly turning to the internet as a source of information and support for antidepressant and benzodiazepine withdrawal due to the psychiatric...

In part six of a seven-part “Drugging Our Kids” series by The Mercury News, Karen de Sa and Tracy Seipel unveil California’s top foster...

Researchers examine the transformation of work, life, and identity in India as a result of Western corporate and psychological culture.

Until recently the history of psychiatry was a neglected backwater whose murky depths were explored largely by psychiatrist. The impression conveyed by books such as Tuke’s Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles, Macalpine and Hunter's Three Hundred Years of Psychiatry: 1535 - 1860, Berrios and Freemen's 150 Years of British Psychiatry 1841 - 1991, or Fuller Torrey and Miller's The Invisible Plague, is one that sees psychiatry and modern systems of mental health care as the inevitable outcome of progress through scientific thought, a (white European male-led) narrative from darkness and ignorance to enlightenment and knowledge.

After a meta-analysis of RCTs of antidepressants was published in Lancet, psychiatry stated that it proved that "antidepressants" work. However, effectiveness studies of real-world patients reveal the opposite: the medications increase the likelihood that patients will become chronically depressed, and disabled by the disorder.

-A social worker explains why people should be more careful, if they believe it's a good idea to call the police to deal with someone who is disruptive.

From Boston University School of Public Health: A new journal article in the American Journal of Public Health evaluates the similarities between the use of medical...

“Do they make people less aggressive? Yes, sometimes they do. Will they sedate people? Absolutely. Will they make kids easier to manage? They will,” Robert Whitaker tells Liz Spikol for Philadelphia Magazine. “But I know of no study that shows that medicating these kids long-term will help them grow up and thrive. The developing brain is a very delicate thing. The narrative is that these side effects are mild, and that’s just not true, and that the benefits are well-established, and so often they’re not.”

Researchers question the overstated results of a large antidepressant meta-analysis and point to cultural pressures to turn to these drugs for a quick fix.

I am a survivor of forced psychiatry, and I bring this perspective with me as a human rights lawyer. People with disabilities have a right to be as we are and not to have our bodies and minds made over to suit other people. We alone have the right to decide whether a medical treatment will support who we are or detract from who we are, and that is why free and informed consent is the essential requirement.

Writing for Truth-Out, hurricane Katrina survivor G. Maris Jones writes: “To adapt to a changing climate, survivors of these catastrophes - especially those in marginalized, low-income communities - need long-term physical and mental health services.” She adds a concurrent call to “assume our responsibility to make positive change through action on climate change.”

In this piece for Vision Magazine, Danit Felber details the U.S. pharmaceutical industry's efforts to stomp out foreign competition. "What does this mean practically? A nonprofit...

A new study examines the benefits of collaborating with mental health consumers in research.