Understanding the Psychology of Bad Science
-Nautilus explores the ideas of a psychologist who has been examining the minds behind the expanding proliferation of flawed science.
12% of Us Suffer from the Disorder of Healthy Eating?
-A researcher tells Psychiatry Advisor that 5-12% of the population has "orthorexia nervosa," the "disorder" of "obsessively" researching about and eating healthy foods.
National Initiative Launched to Get People Out of Prisons and Into Treatment
The American Psychiatric Foundation has announced the launch of a pharmaceutical company-funded national initiative to move people from jails into psychiatric care.
Psychology’s ‘Reproducibility Project’ Efforts Reporting In
-Nature News reports on the first wave of findings in the "crowd-sourced" effort to reproduce 100 of the most important studies in psychology.
Australians to Get More Info on Doctor-Pharma Relationships
Drug companies must start publicly releasing information about different types of payments to Australia's physicians.
Australian Medical Journal Editor Fired, Others Resign Over Independence Concerns
The editor of the Australian Medical Association's journal was fired after he voiced concerns about changes that he felt endangered the journal's independence.
FDA: Abilify Promotions Are Misleading Physicians and the Public
The US FDA has requested that Otsuka "immediately cease" distributing some of its educational materials for its top-selling antipsychotic Abilify.
The Test Result that Gets You Locked Up Indefinitely
-People who've been arrested for sexual offences can end up indefinitely incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, depending on their answers to a ten-question form.
How American Psychological Association Helped Torture Program — Details, Interviews
The New York Times examined a new report showing evidence of correspondence, discussions and collaborations between senior officials involved in the American Psychological Association...
Neurobabble Proves to be Highly Persuasive
-Adding irrelevant information about neuroscience made psychological theories seem much more convincing to psychology students.
Can Bloggers Save Science?
-Mind the Brain's James Coyne talks about why so many news stories about health and psychology studies are so bad.
Psychiatrists Took Undisclosed Payments While Promoting Antipsychotic to Government
Two psychiatrists took money from a pharmaceutical company, and then did not disclose it when they lobbied state legislators about the company's drug.
Like A Useless Drug Calling Psychotherapy Ineffective
-Does prominent Canadian child psychiatrist Stanley Kutcher have different standards for evidence depending on whether he's evaluating psychotherapy or psychotropics?
“What Can Patients Do In The Face Of Physician Conflict Of Interest?”
-Surgeon James Rickert discusses financial conflicts of interest which affect physician decisions, and how patients can protect themselves.
Lieberman Calls Whitaker “A Menace to Society”
On Canada's popular national CBC radio program The Sunday Edition, psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman today described Robert Whitaker as "a menace to society."
“Is Science Really Better than Journalism at Self-correction?”
-A co-founder of Retraction Watch suggests editors of scientific and medical journals could learn some things from Rolling Stone about correcting errors.
“The New York Times and the ADHD Epidemic”
-MIA Bloggers Jonathan Leo and Jeffrey Lacasse review the New York Times' history of reporting on ADHD and the ensuing epidemic of ADHD.
University of Minnesota Leadership “Can’t Regain Trust”
The University of Minnesota's psychiatry department continues its scandal-plagued run at making national news...
Psychiatrists Still Promoting Low-Serotonin Theory of Depression
-A psychiatrist asserts that psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies never promoted the idea that serotonin deficiencies could cause depression, and suggests that no one at Mad in America has evidence that they did.
“Is Science Broken?” — Report from the Debate
-A recent debate involving Neuroskeptic and other panelists with backgrounds in neuroscience and psychology asked if science's growing problems can be fixed.
Are FDA Scientists Being Muzzled?
-A recent report from the Union of Concerned Scientists graded the level of employee freedom of speech at 17 US federal agencies.
A Lot of “Spin” in Studies of Using Antidepressants for Treating Anxiety
There are a lot of publication and reporting biases in studies of the efficacy of second-generation antidepressants for the treatment of anxiety.
“Will 20th Century Patient Safeguards Be Reversed in the 21st Century?”
-The US government has been "chipping away" at the FDA's powers in order to speed up drug approvals.
Researcher: 60,000 Americans Now Taking Antipsychotics Will Die Prematurely
-A fired government health economist says that his research was showing that 60,000 Americans now taking antipsychotic medications will die prematurely.
Publication Bias and Meta-Analyses: Tainting the Gold Standard with Lead
For decades the gold standard for medical evidence was the review article - an essay looking at most or (hopefully) all of the research on a particular question and trying to divine a general trend in the data toward some conclusion ("therapy X seems to be good for condition Y," for example). More recently, the format of review articles has shifted - at least where the questions addressed have leant themselves to the new style. The idea has been to look at the original data for all of the studies available, and in effect reanalyze them as though the research participants were all taking part in one gigantic study. By increasing the number of data points and averaging across the vagaries of different studies, a clearer finding might emerge. The meta-analysis has gone on to be revered as a strategy for advancing healthcare. It has vulnerabilities.
