Non-English Language Journals: Unrecognized Contributors
A review in BMC Psychiatry concludes that "Non-English language general psychiatry journals contribute substantially to the body of research. However, recognition, and in particular...
Excessive Mood & Behavior Arousal in Juveniles Treated with Antidepressants
In a study of 6,767 reports of antidepressant trials in juveniles treated for depressive and anxiety disorders, the risk of psychopathological behavioral or mood...
Inadequate Blinding Associated With Positive Treatment Findings, Industrial Sponsorship, and Schizophrenia Diagnosis
Despite the integral importance of blinding and blinding assessment to randomized controlled trials (RCTs), they are rarely reported on or documented in trial reports...
Compulsory Supervision Does Not Reduce Hospital Re-Admissions
A study of 442 individuals discharged from a U.K. hospital, published today in The Lancet, finds that the rate of readmission after 12 months...
Hospital Stays for Juvenile Bipolar Jumped 434% from 1997 to 2010
A report from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project finds that hospital stays for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children aged 5-9 increased...
Resilience: its Psychology and Neurobiology
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica reviews the literature on psychological and biological findings on resilience, finding that secure attachment, the experience of positive emotions and having...
“They Need to be Held Accountable”
Psychiatrists at the University of Minnesota forced a young man into a profitable study of antipsychotic drugs over the objections of his mother, who desperately warned that his condition was deteriorating and that he was in danger of killing himself. On May 8, 2004, Mary Weiss' only son, Dan Markingson, committed suicide. A petition to the governor of Minnesota now asks for an investigation.
CASPER
In August 2010, my friend and fellow ‘suicide mum’ Deb Williams and I established CASPER – Community Action on Suicide Prevention Education & Research. CASPER’s goals are to provide peer support to families bereaved by suicide, to educate politicians and opinion leaders on suicide and its prevention and to support families and communities to reclaim suicide prevention from medical professionals and governments.
Keynote Speech at Alternatives 2012 Conference: Remembering Our History, Thinking About our Future
This is a transcript of my keynote speech at Alternatives 2012, which a Madness Radio listener recently transcribed.
Rethinking Psychiatry in Asheville, North Carolina
"Asheville psychiatrist Daniel Johnson didn't set out to transform his profession," says an article in North Carolina's Mountain Xpress, "But he’s now part of...
Tension Over Clinical Trial Data Disclosure Escalates
Pharmalot reviews the escalating tension over clinical trial data disclosure. The PhRMA trade group has come out in opposition to AllTrials, a petition drive...
The SSRIs and Ten Years of Misleading Advertising: Who is Responsible?
In the BMJ this week there is a debate about the antidepressants. On the “Yes, The antidepressants are overprescribed” side is Des Spence. This is hardly a new debate and Des Spence makes a good case for the overuse of the antidepressants, but what caught our eye was the response by Adrian Preda, and his discussion about the findings of Irving Kirsch.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure Far Less Likely in Psychiatric Journals
A review of 285 review articles from 10 top psychiatric and 2 general medicine journals finds that reviews in psychiatric journals were far less...
Pharma Says Its Antidepressant Fails to Beat Placebo
Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced this week that its new antidepressant Tasimelteon failed to beat placebo in trials, and that it has hence ended its...
Antidepressants Linked to Heart Arrhythmias
Researchers from the Mass General and Brigham & Women's Hospitals and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine find, using data from electronic health records...
Pfizer Sued Over Zoloft’s Failure to Beat Placebo
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Jose, California seeks federal approval for two class-action lawsuits representing all U.S. users of the antidepressant Zoloft, accusing...
Published Clinical Trials are Misleading, PLoS Says
Research from the Center for Clinical Trials at Johns Hopkins finds troubling differences between publicly available information on medications and the information that pharmaceutical...
Effects of Stress Can Cross Generations
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have found, for the first time, that genes affected by stress during life can be passed to the...
And That’s the News from the Department of Psychiatry
In the business of clinical trials, the most valuable commodities are the research subjects. Filling clinical trials is hard, and filling them quickly is even harder. That’s why in 2000 a clinical investigator told the HHS Office of the Inspector General that research sponsors were looking for three things from research sites: “No. 1—rapid enrollment. No. 2 — rapid enrollment. No. 3 — rapid enrollment.”
“Baby Cry Too Much?”
This is the second in my new series, “Haiku for social change”, the first having appeared on my own blog page. Since this piece is about pharmacology and psychopharmacology, I think MIA is a good home for it.
Pfizer Settles Chantix Lawsuit: Keeps CEO Off the Stand
One week before its court date, Pfizer settled with plaintiff Billy G. Bedsole Jr., who claims that Chantix triggered his suicidal thoughts and other...
“Substantial” Relapse After ECT, With or Without Medication
The Journal of ECT, looking at the question of whether antidepressant medications at the start of ECT reduced post-ECT relapse in a sample of...
How to Get Away with Academic Misconduct at the University of Minnesota
In early 2009, antipsychotic fraud was making headlines. Eli Lilly had announced in January that it would plead guilty to charges that it had...
Increasing Use of Antipsychotics for Disruptive Behavior in Children
Canadian researchers systematically reviewed all randomized controlled trials of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) and placebo in the treatment of disruptive behavior disorders in children, finding...
From Psychiatry and Psychotherapy’s Grand Delusion Toward Constructions of a Post-Therapeutic State
by Eugene Epstein, Manfred Wiesner, and Lothar Duda
Over the past 50 years, the psychiatric and psychotherapeutic discourses of the western first world have infiltrated...
