How Do Antidepressants Really ‘Work’?
A recent review, published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, challenges the dominant assumptions about the neurochemical and therapeutic effects of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors...
Antidepressant Effects Thwarted by Stressful Environments
A new study, about to be published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, investigates the role a stressful environment plays in antidepressant effectiveness....
German Psychologists Declare “the Drugs Don’t Work”
Jürgen Margraf and Silvia Schneider, both well-known psychologists at the University of Bochum in Germany, claim that psychotropic drugs are no solution to mental...
STOP or GO? Tapering Pregnant Women off of Antidepressants
A team in the Netherlands is currently investigating the effects of tapering off of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy....
Ghostwriting has a New Name but Same Problems
A new paper, published in the British Medical Journal, explains how the pharmaceutical industry has publicly denounced ghostwriting while still finding ways to engage...
The ADHD Drug Epidemic: Addiction, Abuse, and Death
A new analysis of FDA data, published on September 10th by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today, reveals the dangers of the common prescription of...
Psychiatric Drug Ads Lead to More Prescriptions and Worse Treatment
A new analysis published in the The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry investigates the public health effects of direct-to-consumer advertisements for psychiatric drugs. The researchers...
“FDA Panel Votes to Remove Serious Warning from Pfizer’s Smoking Cessation Pill”
This week an FDA advisory panel decided to remove warnings of serious psychiatric side effects from the Chantix product label. “In making its recommendation,...
“FDA questions Pfizer Study of Chantix Psychiatric Effects”
Pfizer is petitioning the FDA to remove the black box warning for Chantix which focuses on neuropsychiatric side-effects like suicidality and depression. The regulators...
Garbage In–Garbage Out: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses can tell us a Flawed Story
Well known Stanford University researcher John Ioannidis published a new paper this week criticizing the use and production of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, often...
“How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat”
The New York Times’ Anahad O’Connor investigates how the sugar industry paid scientists as far back as the 1960s to downplay the link between...
Review Finds Link Between Recession and Mental Health Issues
A literature review published in BMC Public Health by researchers from Portugal and the Czech Republic summarizes results from 101 studies investigating the effect...
Meta-Analysis Finds Exercise Improves Cognition in Individuals with Schizophrenia
A new review, published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, examines the effects of exercise on cognition in individuals diagnosed with 'schizophrenia.' The results of the meta-analysis...
Confessions of a Trespasser
In a recently published commentary in Psychiatric Times, Ronald Pies and Joseph Pierre made this assertion: Only clinicians, with an expertise in assessing the research literature, should be weighing in on the topic of the efficacy of psychiatric drugs. They wrote their commentary shortly after I had published on madinamerica “The Case Against Antipsychotics,” and it was clear they had me in their crosshairs.
Petition Calls on Pharma Companies to Offer Tapering Kits for Depression and Anxiety Drugs
A change.org petition out of the United Kingdom is addressing the extreme difficulty faced by people who attempt to taper off of antidepressants and...
Review Examines Complementary Approaches for Pain Conditions
A review published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings used U.S.-based clinical trial evidence to examine the efficacy of complementary health approaches for chronic pain management....
Ioannidis Questions Strength of Psychology and Neuroscience Literature
Last week, well-known Stanford scientist John Ioannidis and his colleague Denes Szucs released a new analysis online. They examined research published in eighteen prominent...
New Study Raises Doubts About fMRI Neuroimaging Research
More than forty thousand papers have been published using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to explore the brain. A new analysis of the common...
Clinton Releases Mental Health Plan
Today, Hillary Clinton’s campaign released their plan for addressing mental health care in the United States. The plan calls for a full integration of...
“Many Clinical Trials’ Findings Never Get Published. Here’s Why That’s Bad”
STAT’s watchdogs, Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus, explain why unpublished studies for drug makers and researchers “put young patients at risk, particularly if those...
Financial Difficulties Facing College Students Lead to Mental Health Issues
A new study published open-access this month in Community Mental Health Journal finds that the increased financial difficulties facing college students lead to greater...
Lancet Study on CBT and Behavioral Activation Challenged
In July, The Lancet published a study finding that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) from trained psychotherapists was not superior to short-term behavior activation (BA) intervention...
Epilepsy Drugs Can Induce Psychosis in Some Patients, Study Finds
In this month’s issue of the journal Brain a new study investigates whether the drugs prescribed to control seizures can increase the risk of...
Study Finds ADHD Drugs Alter Developing Brain
A new study, published in the JAMA Psychiatry, investigates the effect of stimulant ‘ADHD’ drugs on the brains of children and young adults. The...
Sociologist Explores the DSM-5’s Failed Attempt at Validity
In a new article for the journal Social Science & Medicine, sociologist Owen Whooley investigates how the DSM-5 creators failed in their attempt to...
