Prescribing an Epidemic: A Veteran’s Story

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Had I known what I know now, I never would have taken any of these drugs, and I absolutely would not have taken a role in which my outreach efforts to get veterans into mental health treatment might place thousands of lives at risk.
A pay phone keypad on the left, looking old and decayed, and blurry red and blue lights as if seen through a rain-slick windshield on the right.

“You Can’t Coerce Someone into Wanting to Be Alive”: The Carceral Heart of the...

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“You can’t coerce someone into wanting to be alive. Force just doesn’t work. People must be invited to live while supporters (healthcare professionals, social workers, loved ones) make their lives and world more habitable.”

The Dying of the Light: Norway’s “Medication-Free” Services for Psychotic Patients Are Fading Away

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Despite their successful outcomes, Norwegian non-coercive and medication-free programs are being threatened with closure.

William Styron: His Struggles with Psychiatry and Its Pills

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Author William Styron is often remembered for speaking about depression as an illness. But a review of his life reveals that psychiatric drugs may have triggered and even worsened his depressive episodes.

Suicide Hotlines Bill Themselves as Confidential—Even as Some Trace Your Call

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Every year suicide hotline centers covertly trace tens of thousands of confidential calls, and police come to homes, schools, and workplaces to forcibly take callers to psychiatric hospitals.
Woman holding a smartphone and touching the screen, she is using mobile apps, vintage style collage

Therapy by App: A Clinical Psychologist Tries BetterHelp

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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.

An FDA Whistleblower’s Documents: Commerce, Corruption, and Death

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In 2008, a reviewer of psychiatric drugs at the FDA, Ron Kavanagh, complained to Congress that the FDA was approving a new antipsychotic that was ineffective and yet had adverse effects that increased the risk of death. Twelve years later, a review of the whistleblower documents reveal an FDA approval process that can lead to the marketing of drugs sure to harm public health.

Twenty Years After Kendra’s Law: The Case Against AOT

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The proponents of compulsory outpatient treatment claim that it leads to better outcomes for the recipients, and protects society from violent acts by the "seriously mentally ill." Those claims are belied by history, science, and a critical review of the relevant research.
Illustration depicting prescription bottles on a grass background. One is tipped over and a magnifying glass examines the spilled pills

A New Paradigm for Testing Psychiatric Drugs Is Needed

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This paper reviews the problems with the usual double-blind, placebo-controlled trials on which drug approvals are based, and advocates for a stricter form of testing psychiatric drugs with patient-relevant outcomes, real comparators, long-term outcomes, and assessment of harms.

The TikTokification of Mental Health on Campus

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Many people view their social media feeds as reflections of their identities—and when posts center on a specific diagnosis, it can feel like the platform is diagnosing them.

Faith Healing in India: An Ancient Way of Tending to Madness

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In contrast to the colonial legacy of medical psychiatry in India, indigenous and faith healing methods emphasize the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit, using rituals, storytelling, and communal support to create a holistic healing environment.

Muzzled by Psychiatry in a Time of Crisis

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The American Psychiatric Association and its former president, Jeffrey Lieberman, have used the Goldwater Rule to try to silence Yale psychiatrist Bandy Lee and colleagues who warned, in a collection of essays, about why President Trump is "dangerous." Why would a guild choose to do this?
Two photos. On the left, a woman cries while holding a phone to her ear. On the right, two police officers peer into the glass door of a home.

Roll-out of 988 Threatens Anonymity of Crisis Hotlines

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Even after their own advisory committee criticized call tracing, leaders of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have been lobbying government for cutting-edge mass surveillance and tracking technology. Privacy experts are raising concerns.

And Now They Are Coming for the Unhoused: The Long Push to Expand Involuntary...

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Mayor Adams' plan to "involuntarily remove" unhoused people has met with backlash from activists and the unhoused, who say it violates their rights and further entrenches systemic racism.

Psychiatry, Fraud, and the Case for a Class-Action Lawsuit

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

“Not Fragile”: Survivor-Led Mutual Aid Projects Flourish in a Time of Crisis

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During the current pandemic, the practice of mutual aid—defined broadly as the ways that people join together to meet one another’s needs for survival and relationship—has become mainstream. Yet, often missing from major media coverage of mutual aid is any acknowledgment of its roots in movements led by marginalized people, including Black and Brown people, disabled people, mad people, and psychiatric survivors.

“War Cry For Change”: Veterans Launch Campaign for Informed Consent and Safe Deprescribing at...

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Derek Blumke and Timothy Jensen: The Grunt Style Foundation leads a new phase in the movement to combat psychiatric drug harm.

The Nurtured Heart Approach Goes Mainstream: Research and Experience Support “Celebrating Greatness in Every...

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The Nurtured Heart Approach represents a massive shift in thinking—about schooling, about children and how to raise them, about how we regard those with intensity, and about the medical model pathologizing them.
"A Grasp at Knowledge" by HoJin Kwak

Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: HoJin Kwak

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This is the first of 4 spotlight interviews with some of the talented youth behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition. HoJin states: "The original idea for my drawing started with the brain. The complexity of its sudden twists and curves fascinates me."
Vector illustration depicting a hashtag symbol on the landscape, with people climbing upon it with cell phones out

Why Isn’t There a Popular Hashtag for Involuntary Commitment?

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As uses of psychiatric force expand, can social media be better used to focus critical attention?
A prescription bottle. The label reads "Healthy diet" and "Exercise."

Art, Music, Exercise, and More: What Are the Recommended Doses for Improving Mental Health?

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Researchers have calculated the dose-response benefits of ordinary hobbies, habits, and lifestyle practices that are available without any trip to a doctor or a drug store.

The Surprising Mental Health Benefits of Volunteering

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A program offers psychotherapy in exchange for voluntary service in the community. But the act of volunteering itself can have mental health benefits of its own.

Winding Back the Clock: What If the STAR*D Investigators Had Told the Truth?

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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.
Isabella photo

Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Isabella Castillo

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At times I tend to feel invisible. Sometimes I don’t feel like I fit in with everyone else; I feel like an outsider.

Lancet Psychiatry Needs to Retract the ADHD-Enigma Study

Lancet Psychiatry, a UK-based medical journal, recently published a study that concluded brain scans showed that individuals diagnosed with ADHD had smaller brains. That conclusion is belied by the study data. The journal needs to retract this study. UPDATE: Lancet Psychiatry (online) has published letters critical of the study, and the authors' response, and a correction.