“Driven to Suicide by an ‘Inhuman and Unnatural’ Pressure to Sell”
Today’s New York Times features a story of a drug salesman, Ashish Awasthi, who committed suicide when he felt he couldn’t keep up with...
How Much Do Average People Know About the Risks of Screening?
-Despite an "epidemic" of "expanding disease definitions that medicalize more people," most Australians have no idea that overdiagnosis is a problem.
Mad Science, Psychiatric Coercion and the Therapeutic State: An Interview with Dr. David Cohen
MIA's Peter Simons interviews David Cohen, PhD, on his path to researching mental health, coercive practices, and discontinuation from psychiatric drugs.
Does Active Placebo Response Explain Antidepressant Results?
A new study investigated whether participants guessing if they have an antidepressant or placebo affects response rates.
“Another Study Finds Link Between Pharma Money and Brand-name Prescribing”
New findings from Harvard Medical School reveal that Pharma industry payments to physicians in Massachusetts are associated with higher rates of prescribing brand-name drugs that treat...
Scientific Journal Corruption to the Nth Power
A respected Canadian cardiology journal was purchased by offshore investors and "is now printing scientific junk for hire, but still trading on its original...
Psychiatrists Overestimate Antidepressants, Underestimate Placebo
Recent meta-analyses of antidepressant clinical trials have revealed that up to 82% of the effects associated with the drugs may be attributed to placebo and non-medication factors. A new study examined the attitudes of psychiatrists toward these non-pharmacologic factors and found a large discrepancy between their beliefs and the empirical evidence.
BPS Releases Review of Alternatives to Antipsychotics
BPS releases report encouraging behavioral interventions for people with dementia, rather than antipsychotics
Researcher Urges Caution When Applying Genetics to Psychiatry
In a review editorial for the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, neurobiology researcher Steven Dubovsky from the University at Buffalo argues against the adoption of...
“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."
Experts Call on Presidential Candidates to Improve Study Transparency
In an open letter to all US presidential candidates published Thursday in the BMJ, a group of global health care experts assert that current research regulations allow drug companies to publish incomplete and misleading results. They ask the candidates to declare whether they support improved transparency measures that would make data on drug studies publically available and open to scrutiny.
“Diagnostic Dissent”: Experiences of Individuals Who Disagreed With Their Diagnosis
Researchers investigate the first-person experiences of people who disagreed with their psychiatric diagnosis of psychosis.
Antidepressants’ Superiority to Placebo in Major Depression Challenged By Reanalysis
The October edition of the Journal of World Psychiatry, the 3rd ranked journal of Psychiatry, will publish a reanalysis of antidepressant efficacy versus placebo in major depression. When the researchers, Arif Khan and Walter Brown, analyzed the data from the FDA archives for antidepressants approved between 1985 and 1997, “it was evident that the conventional wisdom of 70% response with antidepressants was at best an overestimate.” In fact, “the magnitude of symptom reduction was about 40% with antidepressants,” compared to “about 30% with placebo.”
Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?
From The Atlantic: As opioid abuse rises, some attorneys general and advocates are filing lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for misleading doctors and the public about...
Researchers Question “Gold Standard” Status of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Researchers argue for plurality and diversity among psychotherapy approaches and question the perceived superiority of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Review Finds Little Evidence that Electroconvulsive Therapy is Effective for Depression
Researchers examined the dearth of support for Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for depressive symptoms in light of studies detailing the associated risks.
Growing Evidence for the Link Between ADHD Diagnosis and Age at School Admission
Researchers detect a striking relationship between the month of school enrollment relative to peers and patterns of ADHD diagnoses in a large sample of elementary school students throughout the US.
We Need to pay Better Attention to Medication Side Effects
From KevinMD.com: Doctors often fail to recognize that their patients' symptoms are side effects of medication.
"Cognitive dissonance, a universal human phenomenon, is based on the assumption...
“New Depression Meds Not Effective Generally, But Drug Companies Insist Otherwise: Study”
The International Business Times covers a new study showing “trials for new antidepressant medications may not be applicable to the population at large.” “The finding, published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, shows recent trials are less generalizable than the prior studies, as researchers excluded most depressed patients from drug company-sponsored treatment studies.”
Dear Scott Gottlieb: Add New Warnings to Paxil Labels
From STAT: Scott Gottlieb, Trump's pick to lead the FDA, should consider pursuing a stronger warning label for the antidepressant Paxil. Paxil's label currently does...
