âWhy We Shouldnât Trade a Weakened FDA for More Medical Research Fundsâ
Ed Silverman at STAT reports that Congress has linked increased research funding to âfast-trackâ approval procedures. âBy linking the extra funds to speedier approvals,...
âAntidepressants Make it Harder to Empathize, Harder to Climax, and Harder to Cryâ
Psychiatrist Julie Holland explains how antidepressants can medicate away important feelings and experiences in a video for Big Think.
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A University Ethics Scandal Turns Into a Business Opportunity
From City Pages: In a 2014 University of Minnesota research scandal, a young man was coerced into an experimental drug study conducted by his psychiatrist that...
The Pharmaceutical Industry in Contemporary Capitalism
In this piece for the Monthly Review, Joel Lexchin details four strategies that the pharmaceutical industry is utilizing in order to maintain its high level...
âB.C. Care Homes Provide Antidepressants Without Diagnosesâ
New data reveals that the majority of care homes in British Columbia, Canada are giving out prescriptions for antidepressants and antipsychotics without a diagnosis....
Women are Flocking to Wellness due to Sexism in Healthcare
From Quartz: Seeking healthcare in the medical system can be a dehumanizing experience for women: doctors often dismiss women's pain as psychological rather than physiological, and...
Pharma Backing of Advocacy Groups: A Call for Transparency
From HealthNewsReview.org: In light of the opioid crisis, lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about financial conflicts of interest in patient advocacy groups. Ontario has enacted...
Deprescribing Starts With Shared Decision Making
From The Lown Institute: Many of the current guidelines and tools available for deprescribing medications use a "one-size-fits-all" approach, merely providing lists of harmful drugs...
Hospital Website Health Care Information May Not Be Reliable
An investigation found that many US hospital websites were more like advertising outlets than educational portals.
With Great Health Data Comes Great Potential for Bias
From Pacific Standard: Technology is increasingly collecting and sharing data on individuals' mental and physical health, which is then converted into useable knowledge, such as recommendations about...
Science is Broken
In this piece for Aeon, Siddhartha Roy and Marc A. Edwards explore how increasingly perverse incentives and the academic business model are affecting scientific practices and...
âPrivacy Not Included: Federal Law Lags Way Behind New Health-Care Technologyâ
âThe federal privacy law known as HIPAA doesnât cover home paternity tests, fitness trackers, or health apps. When a Florida woman complained after seeing...
Do Antidepressants Increase Risk of Adult Suicide?
From From Insults to Respect: It is commonly assumed that antidepressants increase the risk of suicide in children and young adults, but not in adults...
Your Pills Are Spying On You
From Pacific Standard: The new Abilify MyCite pill, which contains a digital sensor that tracks whether a patient has ingested the drug, has the potential...
Dateline NBC to Cover Child Psychiatric Overmedication Epidemic This Sunday
This Sunday, June 12 at 7pm (EDT) on NBCs Dateline will cover MIA author Steve Francesco's book, Overmedicated and Undertreated: How I Lost My...
âPoliticians and Experts Meet at Parliament to Explore Record Antidepressant Prescribing and Disabilityâ
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence is meeting today, May 11th, to discuss evidence of the link between the rise in disability...
Expert Urges Doctors to Stop Prescribing Seroquel for Insomnia
From National Post: Many physicians are prescribing a low dose of Seroquel, an atypical antipsychotic, to patients with insomnia. Experts warn that even a low...
“Evidence-Based Medicine”: Corporate Medicine’s Instrument
From Medium: The notion of "evidence-based medicine" is that a particular treatment is considered effective if research finds it safe and efficacious in the majority...
Some Social Scientists are Tired of Asking for Permission
From The New York Times: The Department of Health and Human Services's Office for Human Research Protections recently revised its rules for social science research. Studies...
âWe Need REAL Change in Mental Health Policy, Not the Illusion of Reformâ
David Shern, from Johns Hopkins University, writes that the latest mental health âMurphy billâ in Congress is âan expansion of the approaches that got us into our current difficulties.â âEarly intervention and prevention, assessable and patient-focused services with a rehabilitation orientation and increased funding for the community supports needed for successful recovery are the tickets to system improvement.â
Canadian Institute of Health Identifies Provinces Overprescribing Antipsychotics
âA new study is giving insight into how long-term care patients in the province are progressing â or, in some cases, worsening â over time. It found those living in central Newfoundland are more likely to be given antipsychotic drugs they don't need.â
There’s No Such Thing As “Sound Science”
In this piece for FiveThirtyEight, Christie Aschwanden explains how various industries have used the language of the "open science" reform movement, which advocates for more transparency in scientific...
Study Explores Pain Assessment for Medically Complex, Nonverbal Children
To what extent are healthcare providers equipped to assess nuance in the experiences of pain among nonverbal children?
