Health Risks to Babies When Antidepressants Used During Pregnancy
Babies born to mothers taking antidepressants during pregnancy were more than six times as likely to have neonatal withdrawal syndromeāincluding breathing problems, irritability/agitation, tremors, feeding problems, and seizuresāthan those born to mothers taking other types of drugs.
Antidepressants No Better Than Placebo for About 85% of People
Researchers canāt predict the 15% who benefit from antidepressants, and the other 85% are unnecessarily exposed to the harms of the drugs.
Less Than a Quarter of Those with Depression Respond to Treatment in Real Life
In a real-world setting, less than a quarter of patients diagnosed with depression improved with medication, hospitalization, and therapy.
Psychiatric Drugs Do Not Improve Disease or Reduce Mortality
Nassir Ghaemi: āMost psychiatric medications are purely symptomatic, with no known or proven effect on the underlying disease. They are like 50 variations of aspirin, used for fever or headache, rather than drugs that treat the causes of fever or headache.ā
Antidepressant-Induced Serotonin Syndrome a Danger for the Elderly
Researchers found that 25% of elderly patients taking antidepressants had serotonin syndrome, which is potentially life-threatening.
Industry Corruption in Systematic Review for Injectable Antipsychotics
Researchers highlight how systematic reviews are compromised by pharmaceutical industry ties by exposing a study of injectable antipsychotics.
Stimulants Donāt Improve Academic Performance in Kids with ADHD
āEfforts to improve learning in children with ADHD should focus on obtaining effective academic instruction rather than stimulant medication.ā
Risk of Depression Spikes When Kids Take Ritalin
Risk of depression increased when children were taking methylphenidate for ADHD, but once they stopped taking the drug, depression risk dropped to normal levels.
Research Explores the Experience of Benzodiazepine Withdrawal
A new study reveals many benzodiazepine users are misinformed about the risks of withdrawal and experience devastating consequences.
How to Distinguish Antidepressant Withdrawal from Relapse
Mark Horowitz and David Taylor provide advice on how to tell the difference between antidepressant withdrawal and depression relapse.
Did Psychiatry Ever Endorse the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression?
With the chemical imbalance theory falling out of fashion, researchers examine the claim that psychiatry never truly endorsed it.
Antidepressants Do Not Improve Quality of Life
A new study found that taking antidepressants did not improve quality of life.
Patient Reports Reveal SSRI Antidepressants Often Lead to Emotional Blunting
According to patient reports, SSRI antidepressants most frequently lead to the subjective experience of emotional blunting.
Many Service Users Interested in Decreasing Antipsychotic Use with Professional Help
New research examines service user attitudes on discontinuing and reducing antipsychotic drugs.
Antipsychotics Often Prescribed Without Informed Consent
New research reveals that patients are often not given fully informed consent before being prescribed antipsychotics.
Antipsychotics Worsen Cognitive Functioning in First-Episode Psychosis
Withholding antipsychotics may be beneficial for memory, the researchers write.
Official Guidelines on Antidepressant Discontinuation Fail Practitioners and Patients
A review of clinical practice guidelines for antidepressant discontinuation from across the English-speaking world reveals major pitfalls.
Medicating Preschoolers for ADHD: How āEvidence-Basedā Psychiatry Has Led to a Tragic End
The prescribing of stimulants to preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD is on the rise, which is said to be an "evidence-based" practice. A review of that "evidence base" reveals that claims that ADHD is characterized by genetic and brain abnormalities are belied by the data, and that the NIMH trial of methylphenidate in this age group told of long-term harm.
Shifting Away from ECT and Antidepressants for Depression
Researchers argue that we need a paradigm shift away from the biomedical model of mental illness to one informed by political action and common sense.
Negative Antidepressant Trials Still Unlikely to Be Published
Antidepressant trials with negative results are still more likely than not to either be misleadingly spun as positive or unpublished.
SSRI Antidepressants Do Not Improve Depression After a Stroke
A study in JAMA Neurology finds that antidepressants do not reduce depression symptoms more than placebo in patients recovering from a stroke.
New Review: Antidepressants Come with Minimal Benefits, Several Risks
A review of research on antidepressant efficacy finds that an unfavorable risk-to-benefit ratio.
Common Statistical Method Conflates Withdrawal with Relapse
Researchers argue that common study methods for psychiatric drugs may inadvertently minimize withdrawal effects and inflate drug efficacy.
Overuse of Psychiatric Drugs is Worsening Public Mental Health, Doctor Argues
A new research article asserts that the overuse of psychiatric drugs may create neurobiological changes that hamper long-term mental health recovery.
What Helps Long-Term Users of Benzodiazepines and Z-Drugs Discontinue?
Current long-term users of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs identify barriers and facilitators for discontinuation.