Science of Psychiatric Drugs

Despite guidance that the drugs should only be used short-term, about a third of patients indicated long-term benzo use.

About half of the large antidepressant trials are biased enough to be considered “seeding trials,” according to the researchers.

Recent research reveals how antipsychotic medications can significantly impact users' identity and self-image, challenging existing clinical approaches.

Research undermines the prolonged use of antipsychotics in schizophrenia treatment, suggesting improved social functioning and quality of life with discontinuation.

A comprehensive review indicates that children exposed to antipsychotics in the womb face an increased risk of ADHD and developmental delays.

In adolescent depression treatment, those who received a placebo but thought they received Prozac improved more than those who received the drug and knew it.

A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry connects antipsychotics with damage to the brain in multiple areas.

In an interview with MIA, Dr. Horowitz discusses his recent article on why tapering off antidepressants can take months or even years.

Researchers can’t predict the 15% who benefit from antidepressants, and the other 85% are unnecessarily exposed to the harms of the drugs.

The research literature reveals that antidepressant use in pregnancy poses considerable risks to the fetus and the long-term health of the child. These risks include preterm birth, birth defects, abnormal brain development, and behavioral abnormalities in early childhood.

New research finds the negative drug effects most commonly associated with initiating antidepressant discontinuation are anxiety, suicidal thoughts, vomiting, and rashes.

Psychiatry is now claiming that research has shown that antipsychotics reduce mortality among the seriously mentally ill. A critical review of the literature reveals that this claim is best described as the the field's latest "delusion" about the merits of these drugs.

That is the truth about withdrawal syndrome: It’s like a 50-50 chance that you’re going to have a problem. If you’re in the unlucky half, you’re gonna be really unlucky.

New research finds insomnia, anxiety, and depression are common symptoms of antipsychotic withdrawal, highlighting difficulties of discontinuation.

New research by Jim van Os and Peter Groot finds that using hyperbolic tapering to discontinue antidepressants reduces withdrawal effects.

While the study can’t confirm causality, it does contradict the notion that antidepressants reduce suicide at the population level.

During the past twenty years, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and American psychiatry have adopted a "medicalized" approach to preventing suicide, claiming that antidepressants are protective against suicide. Yet, the suicide rate in the United States has increased 30% since 2000, a time of rising usage of antidepressants. A review of studies of the effects of mental health treatment and antidepressants on suicide reveals why this medicalized approach has not only failed, but pushed suicide rates higher.

Experts advocate limiting antidepressant use to only the most severe cases of depression, emphasizing the need for social and psychological interventions.

Outcomes were worse for all, with young people on combination therapy twice as likely to experience rehospitalization or death by suicide than those on antidepressants alone.

Those who did not get antipsychotics in the first month were almost twice as likely to be in recovery after five years.

Research sheds light on the impact of antidepressants on sexual dysfunction, emphasizing the need for patient-physician communication.

Psychiatry has long turned a blind eye to the full scope of harm associated with TD. New TD drugs "work" by further impairing brain function.

At the Hurdalsjøen Recovery Center in Norway, patients with a long history of psychiatric hospitalizations are tapering from their medications and, in a therapeutic environment that emphasizes a good diet, exercise, and asking patients "what do they want in life," are leaving their old lives as chronic patients behind.

Service users taking drugs to treat ADHD may be at increased risk for hypertension and arterial disease

New research finds that the non-physical aspects of withdrawal from SSRIs are often overlooked.