RESEARCH NEWS
Summaries of research findings that tell of a scientific need to “rethink psychiatry.”
An archive of research reports on psychiatric drugs can also be found here.
Research News
Fear, Mistrust, and Harm in Police-Involved Mental Health Crises
This week, Mad in America explores three new studies around mental health crisis calls involving police. The first study finds that patients and service...
Patients Warn That Mental Health Surveillance Could Undermine Care
A 2024 study found that the use of surveillance-based technology in inpatient and acute mental health settings is rising despite little evidence that these...
Overmedication, Ambivalence, and Self-Blame: New Research on Psychiatric Drugs and Personality Disorders
Overmedication, Ambivalence, and Self-Blame: New Research on Psychiatric Drugs and Personality Disorders
Soteria Model Linked to Lower Psychiatric Readmission Rates, Study Finds
The Soteria care model is an alternative to restrictive inpatient psychiatric care for people experiencing psychosis in which patients and service users stay in...
Dance and Exercise Show Promise as Alternative Approaches to Depression
This week, Mad in America examines three studies around alternative treatments for depression. The first finds that salsa dancing in linked to improvements of...
Pharmaceutical Industry Corruption Is Structural, Systemic, and Profitable, New Review Finds
A new empirical review published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics reports that pharmaceutical industry corruption is a structural, industry-wide problem. Author...
“Sticky Labels” and Overlooking Physical Illness—Researchers Highlight Risks of Psychiatric Diagnosis
This week, Mad in America explores four articles around problems with psychiatric diagnoses. The first study finds that childhood diagnoses of autism and ADHD...
Coercive Practices in Psychiatry Are Being Systematically Underreported, Study Suggests
Experts say it is difficult to know how often restrictive or coercive practices are used in psychiatric care because different people define these practices...
Antidepressants: Limited Evidence, Inadequate Information, and Little Support to Stop
This week, Mad in America explores three articles around antidepressant use and discontinuation. The first article questions the evidence base supporting long-term antidepressant use,...
“It’s Devastated Me That I’m Not Being Listened To:” Patients Prescribed Antipsychotics Say Their...
In contrast to the paternalistic approach of days past, Western medicine has almost universally adopted an aspirational philosophy of person-centered care, including shared decision-making....
Psychiatric Detention Isn’t Just About Clinical Need, Four Studies Suggest
This week, Mad in America examines four studies related to patient and psychiatrist characteristics and psychiatric detention. The first finds that social marginalization is...
When Financial Stress Becomes a Mental Health Problem
This week, Mad in America explores four new studies around financial stress and mental health. The first links financial stress to poor mental health...
Independent Evaluation Finds No Benefit to Coercion Under New York’s Kendra’s Law
Kendra’s Law is a New York State statute that allows courts to force people with “severe mental illness” into involuntary Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT)....
Childhood Adversity May Shape Mental Health Across Generations, but Positive Experiences Can Help
This week, Mad in America explores three studies out of China around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The first finds parents’ ACEs are linked to...
Benzodiazepine Use Tied to Increased Risk of Death, Especially at Higher Doses
Benzodiazepine use is common, with research estimating as many as 12.6% of US adults report past-year use. A 2019 study found significant increases in...
Peer Support Is Gaining Recognition, but Systemic Barriers Remain
This week, Mad in America explores three new articles around peer support work. The first essay argues that peer support is crucial to mental...
When Doctors Disagree: New Study Raises Questions About the Reliability of Psychiatric Diagnosis
Despite decades of refinement to diagnostic manuals, questions persist about the consistency and scientific basis of psychiatric diagnosis. A new article published in Frontiers...
Studies Highlight Rapid Expansion of ADHD Drug Prescribing
This week Mad in America explores three new studies related to increasing psychiatric stimulant use. The first finds that psychiatric drug use among US...
Psychosis and the Burden of Inequality
This week, Mad in America examines three articles around discrimination and psychosis. The first explores human rights violations, coercion, structural discrimination, and social exclusion...
“Assault” and “Torture”: Patients Recall the Institutional Violence of Forced Drugging
A new article published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology finds that patients often experience forced drugging in psychiatric contexts as dehumanizing and violent....
When Therapy Makes Things Worse
This week, Mad in America examines three articles related to negative effects of psychotherapy. The first reviews the literature around negative effects in therapy,...
“Every Time I Took a Pill, I Felt I Was No Longer Myself”: Young...
A new study published online by the Journal of Humanistic Psychology examines young adults’ experience of taking and discontinuing antipsychotic drugs after completing a...
Antidepressants Linked to Suicide Risk, Irregular Heartbeat, and Sudden Death
This week Mad in America examines three studies related to adverse effects of antidepressants. The first study finds that antidepressant use is linked to...
Shifting Acute Mental Health Care to the Home Limits the Cycle of Rehospitalization, Study...
Intensive home treatment (IHT) is an approach to acute psychiatric care that avoids the stressful psychiatric ward admission procedures and allows the patient or...
The Power of Lived Experience: Challenging Psychiatry’s Artificial Trials and Clumsy Diagnoses
This week, Mad in America examines three articles published online by the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. These three articles are part of a forthcoming...
Diagnostic Overshadowing Harms Patients With Psychiatric Diagnoses, Review Finds
Diagnostic overshadowing (DO) describes when doctors attribute symptoms or concerns to an existing condition. This is especially common for people with psychiatric diagnoses, where...
Minorities Face Higher Rates of Restraint, Chemical Sedation, and Psychiatric Detention
This week Mad in America examines three studies around racial bias in hospital and mental health settings. The first study finds that people with...
Psychiatric Inpatient Safety Risks Driven by Systemic and Environmental Factors, Review Finds
A new study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry examines patient safety incidents (PSIs) in psychiatric inpatient settings. The most common PSIs included medication-related incidents,...
Researchers Caution Against Emerging Risks as AI Use in Mental Health Grows
This week, Mad in America examines three articles related to AI chatbots and mental health. The first argues that AI chatbot use for mental...
New Research Challenges the Logic of Coercion in Psychiatry
This week, Mad in America examines three articles around the use of coercion in psychiatry. The first argues that justifications for the use of...
Maternal Antidepressant Use Linked to Abnormal Fetal Brain Development
Antidepressant drug use by expectant mothers is a controversial issue within psychiatry. While medical societies such as the APA emphasize the risks of unmedicated...
What’s in a Label? New Studies Explore How People Talk About Disability and Mental...
This week, Mad in America examines four studies related to the use of language around disabilities and mental health diagnoses. The first finds that...
Study Finds the Majority of Increases in Symptoms During Antidepressant Tapering are Related to...
Past research has framed symptom increases during tapering and discontinuation of psychotropic drugs as a relapse of an underlying “illness.” A new preprint article...
Open Dialogue Studies Highlight Collaboration, Clinician Support, and Stable Costs
This week Mad in America examines three studies related to the Open Dialogue approach in mental healthcare. Open Dialogue is a mental health approach...
Pharma Cash Creates Conflicts of Interest in FDA Testimony and Clinical Practice Guidelines
Research has documented numerous conflicts of interest (COI) in which pharmaceutical industry money is paid to researchers, APA board members, psychiatrists, and FDA regulators....
New Research Highlights the Vital Roles of Peer Support Workers
This week Mad in America examines three studies related to peer support work in mental healthcare. The first finds positive results for a program...
“A System Built on Medication:” How Psychiatric Institutions Undermine Drug-Free Care
In 2015, the Norwegian Health Minister issued a directive ordering regional health authorities to create a plan for providing mental healthcare without drugs. A...
Childhood Maltreatment Linked to Mental Health Symptoms and Difficulty Understanding Emotions
This week, Mad in America examines three studies related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health. The first finds that LGBTQ+ populations are...
Beyond Western Psychiatry: Rethinking Global Mental Health
The global mental health movement has faced criticism for its promotion of standardized interventions that lack cultural relevance and its tendency to replace local...
When Hardship Becomes “Mental Illness”
This week, Mad in America examines three studies related to economic disadvantage and mental health issues. The first finds that socioeconomic disadvantage is linked...
The Digital Mental Health Paradox
This week, Mad in America examines three studies around technology and mental health. The first finds that preoccupation with smartphones is linked to reduced...
“It Was Like They Crushed a Beautiful Flower”: Families Speak Out on the Harms...
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial practice, with recent research finding harm, as well as a lack of efficacy and informed consent. A new...
Psychiatric Coercion Results in Overmedication and Lower Perceived Quality of Care
This week, Mad in America examines three studies around coercion in psychiatric treatment. The first study finds that involuntarily treated patients are commonly given...
After Disasters, Do Mental Health Interventions Actually Help?
After a natural disaster, it is common for groups like the Red Cross to send mental health professionals to help affected people recover from...
New Research Links Psychotropic Drugs to Heart and Pancreatic Risks While Keto Diet Shows...
This week Mad in America examines three studies related to the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs and one that investigates the effect of keto...
Research Reveals Pharma Profits Outweigh Anti-Kickback Penalties
The pharmaceutical industry has a well documented history of corruption and placing profit above public health. A new research letter published in JAMA Open...
Questioning the Prescription: Antidepressants and the Medicalization of Childhood
This week Mad in America explores four recently published articles related to antidepressant use in children and adolescents. The first reports that although clinical...
All Major Pharma Companies Implicated in Bribery Schemes, New Report Says
Pfizer, J&J, Eli Lilly, BMS, AstraZeneca, GSK, and more all engaged in systematic bribery schemes, according to decades of OECD reports. That's the finding...
Coercive Measures in Psychiatry are Increasing, Traumatic, and Linked to Systemic Failings
This week, Mad in America explores three studies related to the use of coercive psychiatric measures. The first finds that rates of coercive measures...
Psychobabble of the Month: Depressed? Try Exercise-in-a-Pill!
Exercise consistently shows positive results for depression... so how about a prescription for "exercise mimetic" pills instead?