Lawsuit Over a Suicide Points to a Risk of Antidepressants
From The New York Times: The recent trial of Wendy Dolin, whose husband died of suicide after starting the antidepressant paroxetine, demonstrates our need for more...
The Most Promoted Drugs are Those with Little Therapeutic Value, Study Finds
Majority of top-selling and most promoted drugs in Canada are rated as having very limited safety and efficacy.
The Smartphone Psychiatrist
In this piece for The Atlantic, David Dobbs delves into the life of former NIMH director Thomas Insel, his critiques of research within the field of...
US Congressman, 64, Admits to an Affair with ‘Close Friend’
From Daily Mail: U.S. Representative Tim Murphy, who proposed the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which includes provisions to expand coercive treatment, has...
Silicon Valley Courts Brand-Name Teachers, Raising Ethics Issues
From The New York Times: Tech companies are increasingly recruiting school teachers to help improve and promote their education tools in exchange for perks, including...
New Nutrition Study Changes Nothing
From The Atlantic: The science of nutrition and healthy eating is not complicated and has remained relatively consistent for the past several years. However, the...
Proove Biosciences Sells Off Assets as CEO Departs
From STAT: Proove Biosciences, which sold dubious DNA tests to predict opioid addiction risk, has been placed into court-ordered receivership for restructuring and asset sale. Experts...
The “Shotgun Method” â A Story of Mental Health Crisis in Iceland
"Let's try the shotgun method," my psychiatrist said â meaning that you load the gun with a bunch of pellets and hope that one of them hits the target. I went through 16 different psychiatric medications in five years, and they were not the right choice for me.
Why Addiction Language is Harmful
In this video for Benzo Brains, Jocelyn Pedersen explains why addiction is harmful to benzodiazepine survivors and differentiates benzodiazepine associated disability (BAD) from benzodiazepine addiction.
Deprescribing: How to be on Less Medication for Healthier Aging
In this post for Better Health While Aging, Dr. Leslie Kernisan discusses the importance of making sure that older adults are taking the minimum amount...
Inappropriate Use of Antipsychotics on Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
One-third of adults with an intellectual or developmental disability are dispensed antipsychotics, despite having no existing psychiatric diagnosis.
The State of the Evidence Base for Current Medical Products
In this post for Yale Law School's CRITical Thinking, Tom Jefferson discusses some of the factors that currently serve to undermine rational and ethical medical...
Reporter was Locked in Mental Hospital for 10 Days
This piece from Newsner chronicles the life and work of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, a journalist who went undercover to expose the conditions at an infamous mental...
Abilify: The Drug That Could Gamble Your Life Away
On this episode of America's Lawyer, Mike Papantonio discusses the numerous lawsuits pending involving the anti-psychotic drug Abilify, which has caused plaintiffs to develop serious...
Biotech Exploits a Loophole in a Federal Transparency Law
From STAT: A small biotech company, AveXis, recently offered a $3,000 honorarium along with paid airfare and lodging to several experts to attend a so-called...
Forced Psychiatry – A Legal Perspective
In this two-part video series for AdvancingMentalHealth.org, attorney Gary Brown questions the constitutionality of psychiatric confinement and discusses forced treatment from a legal perspective.
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Lithium
In this piece for Healing Journey, Anne O'Beirne briefly summarizes the history of the medical usage of lithium and describes the impact that the drug has...
Criticism of Coercion and Forced Treatment in Psychiatry
A recent editorial, published in BMJ, argues there is an increase in coercive measures in psychiatry that are damaging to individuals diagnosed with mental illness.
FDA Seeks Input on Drug Risk Information in Broadcast Ads
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...
Trust Falls – Are We in a New Phase of Corporate Research?
From The Scholarly Kitchen: We may be in a new phase of corporation-funded research. According to the 2016 Science & Engineering Indicators from the National...
Differences Within Critical Psychiatry
In this blog post for Critical Psychiatry, Duncan Double highlights three main areas of disagreement among critical psychiatrists: whether psychiatry should be seen as a medical...
A Supreme Court Pharma Case Deals Consumers a Big Loss
From STAT: The U.S. Supreme Court case of Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co. vs. Superior Court of California, in which hundreds of plaintiffs claimed the drug Plavix...
Vanda Puts Antipsychotic Side Effect Front and Center in TV Ads
From FiercePharma: Vanda Pharmaceuticals, which makes the antipsychotic drug Fanapt, has recently rolled out a national TV campaign to raise awareness of akathisia. The company...
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...
Ethical Failings in Experimental Drug Safety Trials
Leading human subjects ethics researcher questions exploitation of uninsured minorities in experimental drug trials.