MIA Reports

MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar explores with Arthur Kleinman how healthcare systems often overlook personal stories, focusing on treating diseases rather than individuals. Discover why this renowned Harvard psychiatrist and medical anthropologist believes in restoring humanity to medicine.

On the Mad in America podcast we talk with Lisa Cosgrove and Brian Piper about their BMJ paper entitled "Undisclosed Financial Conflicts of Interest in the DSM-5 TR: Cross-Sectional Analysis"

Ayurdhi Dhar interviews psychiatrist Swapnil Gupta on psychiatric drug discontinuation, drug cocktail risks, patient choice, and the need for trust and transparency.

Psychiatry’s depression outcomes are poor because its bio-chemical-electrical treatments are based on a depression model that science has flushed down the toilet.

After decades of study, billions of dollars spent, and thousands of studies conducted, the failure to identify any genes for schizophrenia should definitively put to rest the notion that schizophrenia is a genetic disorder, according to E. Fuller Torrey.

A mom describes her son's descent into the harms of psychiatry—and his way out. "It was really difficult to watch Matt decline. He had given up hope that he could get well."

Philosopher Justin Garson discusses the potential benefit of looking at madness not as disease or defect, but as a designed feature.

Revealing concerns about BetterHelp’s ability to provide quality, secure treatment—and the unresolved tensions in the science of psychotherapy that services like BetterHelp exploit.

This is what social media does, she says. It draws people in. It hurts people. In the worst cases, it kills people.

Justin Karter interviews narrative and philosophical psychologist Mark Freeman about his vision for the future of psychology.

A TV writer claims that research shows that Tetris is “literally a trauma first aid kit.” Her tweets sound scientific, but the research behind it is unconvincing.

By embracing the widely popular technology-worship “religion,” psychiatry is permitted to ignore the reality that its repeated failures are evidence that its fundamental paradigm is misguided.

In a MIA survey of people who had been patients in mental hospitals, nearly 500 respondents told of an experience that was often traumatic, and frequently characterized by a violation of their legal rights, forced treatment with drugs, and physical or sexual abuse. Only 17% said they were “satisfied” with the “quality of the psychiatric treatment” they received.

In an interview with MIA, Dr. Horowitz discusses his recent article on why tapering off antidepressants can take months or even years.

In Part 2 of our reader Q&A podcast, MIA founder Robert Whitaker answers questions on pharmaceutical marketing and issues with psychiatric treatments including psychiatric drugs and electroconvulsive therapy.

For decades, psychiatry committed medical fraud when it told the public that antidepressants fixed a chemical imbalance in the brain.

All the new hype about miracle psychedelic treatments as the next wave of cures for mental disorders leaves out the risk of therapy abuse.

On the Mad in America podcast this week we have Robert Whitaker with us to answer questions sent in by readers and listeners.

That is the truth about withdrawal syndrome: It’s like a 50-50 chance that you’re going to have a problem. If you’re in the unlucky half, you’re gonna be really unlucky.

Brooke Siem discusses her experiences of being medicated with antidepressants as a teenager, her withdrawal from a cocktail of psychiatric drugs and her debut memoir, May Cause Side Effects.

MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Ray Moynihan about the marketing of disorders, broadening of diagnoses, and harmful treatments.

Psychiatry is now claiming that research has shown that antipsychotics reduce mortality among the seriously mentally ill. A critical review of the literature reveals that this claim is best described as the the field's latest "delusion" about the merits of these drugs.

Just as it risks transmitting harmful narratives about pain and distress, psychotherapy might also subvert these very harms in pursuit of genuine healing and transformation.

In this interview with MIA's Justin Karter, psychiatrist Bradley Lewis discusses the value of art, the humanities, and mad studies in shaping a richer understanding of psychological experiences.

The STAR*D Study has been cited as real-world evidence of the efficacy of antidepressants. In truth, it told of a failed paradigm of care.