Nature Neuroscience Dedicates Special Issue to Big Data Efforts
The November issue of Nature Neuroscience is focused on discussions of "big data" initiatives for mapping the brain, finding genetic clues to psychology questions,...
Repercussions of Europe’s New Regulations for Release of Clinical Trial Data
In two posts on PLOS Blogs, Tom Jefferson of the Cochrane Acute Respiratory Infections Group in Italy reviews the European Medicines Agency’s new regulations...
Most Psychologists Still Believe In Recovered Memories
Pacific Standard features a recent story of a man whose daughter accused him of abuse, but by the end of the court proceedings had...
Completely New Naming System for Psychotropic Drugs Proposed
A group of influential organizations are beginning an effort to change the entire way that psychiatric medications are named, according to a press release...
“Mother’s Little Anti-Psychotic Is Worth $6.9 Billion A Year”
In the Daily Beast, Jay Michaelson struggles to make sense of the fact that the antipsychotic Abilify is America's top-selling drug, even while its...
High-profile Psychiatrist Criticized for Remote, Politicized Diagnosing
The Associated Press reports on Fox television and Tufts University psychiatrist Keith Ablow, who routinely diagnoses President Barack Obama without ever having met him,...
One-quarter of Physicians Say Medical Research is “Sick”
In a survey of 315 medical scientists in the Netherlands, 15% "admitted to recently fabricating or falsifying research data," while more than 25% "admitted...
Does Social Psychology Have a “Liberal Bias”?
In The New Yorker, Maria Konnikova explores the ideas of Jonathan Haidt, who argues that the field of social psychology has a broad bias...
University and Petitioners Debate Ethics of Animal Psychiatric Experiment
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is engaged in a public debate with a medical doctor who posted a petition on Change.org that has gathered nearly...
The Federal Report on Financial Relationships Between Pharma Industry and Prescribing Physicians
The new Social Security Act, an Obamacare-inspired, Open Payments report came out September 30th. As part of the new healthcare reform policy, this federal report requires pharmaceutical and medical device companies to annually share documentation of direct payments they provided to entities such as medical practices and teaching hospitals. But before anyone gets excited and thinks there is finally a reliable and valid monitoring method to document that such payments are minimal as well as on the up and up, please note that 40% of the payment records (considered for inclusion in the 2013 Open Payments report) were not included in the $3.5 billion due to “unresolved questions” being cited.
“Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime” Wins Book Award From British Medical Association
Peter Gøtzsche's Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime has won first prize in the "Basis of Medicine" category of the British Medical Association's annual book...
Psychologist Reviews The Work and Influence of Thomas Szasz
Austin Community College adjunct professor and psychologist John Breeding has published a personal, reflective essay in SAGE Open about the work and influence of...
Previous Experiences with Treatments Influence Effectiveness of New Treatments
Previous experiences of treatments working or not working significantly influence the effectiveness of new treatments on clinical trial participants and patients, even in relation...
Authorities Ignoring Deaths, Forced Electroshock in Irish Mental Health System
An internal government investigation found that authorities did not investigate 50% of deaths that occurred inside mental health services in Ireland, reports the Irish...
Australian Physicians Launch “No Drug Ads” Campaign
A group of physicians and academics in Australia has launched a campaign to ban all pharmaceutical company sales representatives from visiting any medical doctors...
Daydream Disorder Stirs Controversy
"The name of a 'new attention disorder' sounds like an Onion-style parody: sluggish cognitive tempo," writes Slate. "It also sounds like a classic case...
People Reporting More Depressive Symptoms than 30 Years Ago
Americans today, especially teens, are reporting having far more psychological problems that resemble "depressive symptoms" than they did in the 1980s, according to an...
Europe Issues Policy on Access to Clinical Trial Data, Criticisms Continue
The European Medicines Agency has announced in a press release its final policies on the open publication of data from clinical trials. Ed Silverman...
“Boiling Frustration” Among Protesting Psychiatrists
AlterNet has published a feature story about prominent critical psychiatrist and MIA Foreign Correspondent David Healy, who "says his output and reputation have had...
We Believe Drugs with Simpler Names are Less Hazardous
People tend to strongly believe that pharmaceutical drugs with simpler and easier-to-pronounce names have fewer dangerous side effects, according to a study in the...
Sunday History Channel: Retro Report on Prozac
The New York Times has released Retro Report's ten-minute documentary video and essay looking at the birth and rise to fame of the SSRI...
Pharma Gave US Doctors $3.5 Billion in 5 Months
"Opening the book on long-hidden industry relationships, the federal government revealed nearly $3.5 billion worth of payments and other ties that U.S. doctors and...
The Problem with Publications Rarely Publishing Dull Results
Medical, psychiatric, psychology and other scientific studies that simply replicate research, find null results, or get results showing no effects from treatments are far...
Sixty Percent of Canadian Clinical Trials Broke Rules
Canadian physicians and psychiatrists regularly do not report serious negative side effects during their clinical trials of drugs, according to an investigation by the...
Are Psychiatric Experiments on Primates Ethical — Or Even Truly Useful?
Pediatric psychiatrist Sujartha Ramakrishna describes a planned University of Wisconsin psychiatric experiment "to discover new therapies by dissecting and analyzing the brains of baby...
