Revisiting the TMAP Scandal: J&J Paid Allen Frances to Develop Schizophrenia Guideline
In a commentary published in the University of Ottawa nursing journal Aporia, Paula Caplan writes about how Allen Frances and two other academic psychiatrists...
“The Psychology, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis Nexus”
-Psychologist Joachim Hagopian argues that both psychiatry and psychology as fields have come to be too much about making profits.
“Sales of ADHD Meds Are Skyrocketing. Here’s Why.”
-Mother Jones looks at drug company promotional efforts, expanded diagnostic criteria, and the appeal of amphetamines to high-performance cultures globally.
Johnson & Johnson: 170 Years of Scandal and Fraud
-Highlights of Johnson & Johnson's many "decades of fraud and injury claims" in its pharmaceutical-related activities.
Antidepressant Drugs & Suicide Rates
In 2010, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica published a study by Göran Isacsson et al. The paper was titled Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression. It's a complicated article, with some tenuous logic, but, in any event, it's all moot, because the article was retracted by the authors and by Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica about sixteen months after publication. The retraction had been requested by the authors because of "⊠unintentional errors in the analysis of the data âŠ"
Reports of the Death of Psychiatric Drug Research Have Been Exaggerated
-Forbes reports on the "boom" in psychiatric drug research that is going on, after a short period where onlookers were claiming that pharmaceutical companies were leaving the business.
Government Accountability Office Criticizes Federal Mental Health System
-The US Government Accountability Office says it is "in the dark" about the effectiveness of federal mental health programs.
“Saving Psychiatry From Itself”
University of Liverpool's John Read suggests the "unscientific" nature of psychiatry is a major part of what is driving medical students away from the profession.
Former APA President: “What Does the New York Times Have Against Psychiatry?”
-Jeffrey A. Lieberman discusses the "indignity" that psychiatry suffered as a result of a recent article by Tanya Luhrmann.
“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.
