“Are America’s High Rates of Mental Illness Actually Based on Sham Science?”
-MIA News Editor Rob Wipond examines the questionable sources of statistics like "1 in 5 Americans are mentally ill" and "90% of people who commit suicide have a mental illness."
Six Years of Re-education and Restrictions Sufficient to Change Inappropriate Prescribing Habits
A six-year program run by the NHS Foundation Trust aimed at reducing high rates of inappropriate polypharmacy and overprescribing by physicians and psychiatrists to mental health patients in UK inner cities was successful.
Corrupted Drug Trials Frequently Found, But Facts Hidden from Journals, Public
The US Food and Drug Administration frequently uncovers evidence of improper conduct in drug trials, but they are almost never mentioned in the medical journals that subsequently publish the findings.
Former Minnesota Governor Criticizes UMinn Psychiatry Department
Former Minnesota state governor Arne Carlson has agreed with MIA Blogger Carl Elliott and has asked the legislature to delay appointing the new Board of Regents for the University of Minnesota until a proper investigation of its psychiatry department occurs.
“Why Are There Deadly Drugs?”
-Health policy analyst Joel Lexchin discusses how and why deadly drugs get onto the market and often take years to be identified and withdrawn.
Prescriber of Huge Amounts of Antipsychotic Drug Was Taking Kickbacks
ProPublica has provided an update on their investigation of Dr. Michael Reinstein. "A former Chicago psychiatrist who was the nation's top prescriber of the...
TV Doctors Not Disclosing Conflicts of Interest
Columbia Journalism Review examines the new database of drug company payments to physicians, and finds some high-profile physicians who appear on TV have not...
FDA System for Recording Adverse Drug Effects Perilously Deficient
The system that the US FDA is using to gather and report on information about dangerous side effects from medications is extremely unreliable and...
Hospital Website Health Care Information May Not Be Reliable
An investigation found that many US hospital websites were more like advertising outlets than educational portals.
“Former President of Minnesota Psychiatric Society Disciplined Yet Again”
-"It's hard to imagine that any psychiatrist judged responsible for the deaths and injuries of forty-six patients -- including five suicides - would still be allowed to practice medicine."
When Do Pharmaceutical Companies Tend to Misspell Their Own Names?
-ProPublica found a situation where drug companies have a remarkable tendency to frequently misspell their own names and the names of their drugs.
“Biomarker Porn” and the “Hotness” of Telomeres
-James Coyne argues that many of the studies finding associations between trauma and telomere lengths are misleading.
Over One Thousand Boys Grew Breasts “Probably” Caused By Common Psychiatric Medication
According to an ex-chief of the FDA, Johnson & Johnson knew long before it started warning people that Risperdal could cause boys to grow breasts.
Creating False Memories Even Easier than Previously Thought
-It took researchers only three hours to get ordinary students convinced that they'd had traumatic experiences or committed crimes in their childhood which had never actually occurred.
American Psychological Association Engaged in “Well-orchestrated Misdirection”
-A Forbes article argues that the American Psychological Association's public response to the report on the CIA torture program "has been a well-orchestrated misdirection."
Neuroscientists Too Often Exceed Chance Levels Only By Chance
-The findings of many neuroscientific studies are really just random background noise.
âPotential biomarker that could predictâ? â caveats about psychiatric brain imaging
-HealthNewsReview.org takes on Dr. Richard Friedman's description of a âpotential biomarker in the brain that would help psychiatrists direct depressed patients towards treatment to which they would more likely respond.â
Prominent Psychiatrists Discuss “the Crisis of Confidence in Medical Research”
-A large excerpt from a post by David Healy is sandwiched between commentary by psychiatrist Allen Frances.
European Medicines Agency Calls for Suspending Generic Forms of Four Common Psychiatric Drugs
The European Medicines Agency has called for the suspension of sales of many commonly used generic drugs, including at least four widely used psychiatric medications.
Is Everyone Too Afraid to Conduct Real Research into the Causes of Gun Violence?
-A Washington Post story suggests that Centers for Disease Control researchers are worried about what they'll find if they investigate the causes of gun violence.
“We Need Publicly Funded Research Centers”
-Are publicly funded research centers the answer to curbing corruption and bias in medical and psychiatric studies?
Antipsychotic Trial Designs Still Not Reaching Scientific Standards
Too many studies of atypical antipsychotic medications are still not meeting even the minimum scientific standards of the internationally agreed-upon CONSORT guidelines for drug trials.
Chronic Publication Bias Found in Clinical Studies
Systematic reviews of the medical literature may not be as reliable or helpful as often believed.
An Insider’s Perspective on the “Debacle” of the APA’s Support for Torture
"I spent almost 20 years inside the inner sanctum of the American Psychological Association," writes Bryant Welch in The Huffington Post. "A psychologist and attorney, I was the first Executive Director of Professional Practice for the APA and in 1986 built much of the advocacy structure still in place to advocate for clinical psychologists." Welch offers his perspectives on how and why the APA started to support the US torture program after his departure.
Retraction Watch and HealthNewsReview.org Get Large Grants to Expand
Early in December, HealthNewsReview.org announced receipt of a $1.3 million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to re-start and significantly expand its operations. And in late December Retraction Watch announced that it had received $400,000 from the MacArthur Foundation. Both websites specialize in monitoring and reporting on poor practices in science, medicine and psychiatry.
