MIA Reports

In-depth reporting on psychiatry and its impact on society.

Embodying Emotional Taboos: Musicians and Mental Health

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Mia Berrin is a songwriter, producer, and recording artist based out of Brooklyn, whose project, Pom Pom Squad, has garnered attention over the last...

NIMH’s It-girls: The Genain Quadruplets and the Whiteness of Psychiatry

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The poster-children of psychiatric genetics, who endured abuse throughout their lives, were also the product of a racist culture.
Chalkboard with white arrows and one red pointing in different direction

The APA’s Apology for Racism Omits Psychiatry’s Essential Bigotry

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Psychiatry has acknowledged its history of racism, but can they ever acknowledge that the entire edifice is built on fundamental bigotry?

For Native People, the Past is Present: David Edward Walker on Oppressive Mental Health...

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David Edward Walker is the author of Coyote’s Swing: A Memoir and Critique of Mental Hygiene in Native America, which was published in February...
Vector illustration of a crowd of many diverse faces

Should Everyone Be in Therapy?

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A new study finds that those with mild distress are three times as likely to feel worse after therapy than to receive some benefit.
Photo depicting a close-up of hands handcuffed behind someone's back, holding a cell phone

Psychiatric Detentions Rise 120% in First Year of 988

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As contacts to the new 988 suicide hotline number have risen, so have call tracing and police interventions.

Chris Bullard—The Sound Mind Live Festival

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Chris Bullard is the executive-director of the Sound Mind Live Festival which uses music as a connective force to bring people together to help address mental health stigma.

Chris van Tulleken—Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food and...

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We are joined by Dr. Chris van Tulleken who talks about the science, economics, history, and production of ultra-processed food. We discuss some of the effects of UPF on our brains and bodies and how the food industry positions UPF to dominate our diets.

David Carmichael—The Antidepressant Safety Tour

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Drug safety advocate David Carmichael joins us to discuss his upcoming antidepressant safety tour and the importance of fully informed consent when prescribing SSRI antidepressants.
A collage depicting cut-up photographs of David Carmichael and his son Ian, Lindsay Clancy and her children, and a bottle of pills spilling out

SSRIs, Lindsay Clancy, and Me

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Sharing the similarities between Lindsay Clancy's homicidal episode and my own will hopefully help prevent rare SSRI-induced suicides and homicides, including mass shootings.

Campaign Against ECT Gains Traction in UK

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"Across the pond," campaigners’ efforts against electroshock are gaining public notice. Can their approach work in the US?
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA - September 8, 2018 The Indian Summer Festival, Child wearing traditional native american clothing, dancing at the pow wow competition.

A Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court Could Surge the Psychiatric Labelling and Drugging...

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If the Brackeen v. Halland case is successful, Native children are more likely to be placed with non-Native foster parents, and face a surge in psychiatric labeling and drugging.

Answering Awais Aftab: When it Comes to Misleading the Public, Who is the Culprit?

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The research literature from the WHO, NIMH, and others does not support a narrative of therapeutic progress, of psychiatric treatments that have “continued” to improve over time.

Tanya Frank—Zig-Zag Boy: My Family’s Struggles With Broken Mental Healthcare

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Author Tanya Frank discusses her book 'Zig-Zag Boy A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood', which chronicles the experiences of her son Zach who experienced psychosis as a 19-year-old.
A monolithic building rises above a New York City street in the daytime

A New York City Psychiatric Hospital Patient Said Staffers Illegally Restrained and Drugged Her;...

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“No one is watching these hospitals,” Miranda warned. “No one is listening. Our rights are being violated left and right. They can do whatever they want.”

Racial Justice and Lived Experience in Mental Health Advocacy: An Interview with Pata Suyemoto

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MIA's Julia Lejeune interviews scholar, activist, and educator Pata Suyemoto about lived experience activism and racial justice in the mental health field.
Photo depicting a female scientist in lab coat looking at a computer screen depicting a colorful psychedelic scene with a figure and a bright eye in the sky

From Peer Support to Psychedelics: Psychiatry’s Co-Optation & De-Radicalization

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To strip psychedelic use down to its chemicals is to de-radicalize its communal and anti-authoritarian roots. Given psychiatry’s history of treatment outcome failure and its ethically compromising financial relationships with Big Pharma, is it really a good idea to make psychiatry the societal authority in charge of psychedelic use?

Uncovering Radical Psychiatry and Institutional Psychotherapy in Postwar France: An Interview with Camille Robcis

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MIA's Micah Ingle interviews historian Camile Robcis about radical and liberatory forms of psychiatry and psychotherapy in postwar France.
Hands of mother and baby closeup

Mad/Cripistemologies of Pandemic Parenting: Insights for Our “Post-COVID-19” Present

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Respondents described the grief and rage associated with being socially isolated while healing from childbirth and caring for a newborn, in some cases, entirely on their own.

Martin Harrow: The Galileo of Modern Psychiatry (1933 – 2023)

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Harrow's research over the years told of how long-term antipsychotic use is associated with worse outcomes, even after controlling for psychosis severity.

Screening for Perinatal Depression: An Effective Intervention, or One That Does More Harm Than Good?

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Why does the U.S. describe perinatal screening as providing a proven benefit, while the task forces in the U.K. and Canada see no evidence of such benefit?

“Making a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear”: Erick Turner on How Publication...

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Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Erick Turner about publication bias in antidepressant trials, compromised psychotherapeutic research, and a culture of journal worship.
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.

Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Madeline Aliah

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Meet another talented teen behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition. She writes: "This poem was written in my first year at a queer-positive school and is processing the new forms of guilt and shame I experienced and was exposed to."
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.