Tag: American Psychiatric Association
Addressing the Social Determinants of Mental Healthâor Perhaps Not
An article by the APA president merely pays lip service to the psychosocial causes of mental health problems.
In a PBS documentary, ECT Is Bad for âCuringâ Homosexuality, but...
A new documentary about gay activists' defeat of the APA ends with a disclaimer that ECT is "effective" for severe depression. Bruce Levine spoke with the filmmakers.
Dissecting the DSM Debate: Researchers Analyze Critiques Across Audiences
A new study systematically explores critical reactions to the DSM-5 and identifies unifying themes.
Leading Psychiatrists Follow Top-Dog Bankersâ Guide to Career Advancement
A career update for members of the âPsychiatry Hall of Shame,â including the group excoriated in the 2008 Congressional investigations, and another psychiatrist who conducted studies aimed at inducing psychosisâexperiments that appeared to run counter to the Nuremberg Code of research ethics.
ISEPP Calling for Organizations to Join in Petition
Using an invalid diagnostic tool flies in the face of professional ethical guidelines. The International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry has drafted an open letter to the APA and other professional organizations, publicizing concerns with the DSM's lack of validity and asking for ethical guidance. ISEPP is soliciting other groups to join us in this effort.
The Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 (SB 2680) Would Be...
There is indeed a crisis in the mental health business. The crisis derives from psychiatry's spurious and self-serving premise that all significant problems of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving are brain illnesses that are correctable by psychiatric drugs.
A Diluted Murphy Bill Clears the House and Goes to the...
Organized psychiatry, committed irrevocably and wholeheartedly to drug pushing and to their corrupt and corrupting relationship with pharma, simply will not countenance the fact that their primary product is fundamentally flawed and destructive. So they hire a PR company; they fund and lobby politicians; they parrot slogans; and they encourage one another to ever-increasing heights of self-congratulation. But they will not commission a definitive study to clarify and assess the scale of this problem once and for all. And the reason for this inaction is because they know that it would be bad for business. It would "cause a lot of people to stop taking their medications."
Suicide Rates Rise While Antidepressant Use Climbs
Multiple media sources are reporting on new data from the CDC revealing a substantial increase in the suicide rate in the United States between 1999...
Psychiatry: We Need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Mental Health
My name is Leah Harris and I'm a survivor. I am a survivor of psychiatric abuse and trauma. My parents died largely as a result of terrible psychiatric practice. Psychiatric practice that took them when they were young adults and struggling with experiences they didnât understand. Experiences that were labeled as schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder. My parents were turned from people into permanent patients. They suffered the indignities of forced treatment. Seclusion and restraint. Forced electroshock. Involuntary outpatient commitment. And a shocking amount of disabling heavy-duty psychiatric drugs. And they died young, from a combination of the toxic effects of overmedication, and broken spirits.
Next Steps: More Lessons Learned From the DSM-5 Boycott
You never know what youâre going to accomplish when you start something. Who could have predicted that Tom Insel and NIMH would throw the APA and the DSM under the bus? My guess is that two factors played a big part in NIMHâs decision. First, the unceasing barrage of criticism directed at the DSM â its lack of construct validity; its declining inter-rater reliability â had damaged its credibility beyond repair. On top of that, thirty years of DSM-based research had produced no biomarkers.
Fighting for Our Most Basic of Human Rights– The Right to...
Standing up for what I believe in with a determined voice is a new experience for me, and I sometimes find myself riddled with self-doubt and insecurity. But the beauty in this is that I know with firm resolve that my feelings, my thoughts, and my unique experience of reality will never again be violated by psychiatry, and that my purpose here is to help others gain the same freedom.
The American Psychiatric Association’s Response to 60 Minutes: Where is the...
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has posted a response to the 60 minutes segment on Irving Kirsch and the placebo effect in antidepressant research. But is their response based on scientific data?