What’s Missing from NAMI and Pro-Psychiatry: Lived Experience
Since many psych patients become forced consumers, their advocates have a duty to be educated and concerned with adverse reactions.
How Peer Reviewers and Editors Protected a Failed Paradigm for Psychiatric Drug Testing
My recent article was so threatening to the whole edifice of psychiatry that the peer reviewers and editors did what they could to kill it.
How the Interpersonal Model Explains, and Heals, Mental Pain | James Barnes
From Aeon: In order to understand and heal mental distress, we must see our minds as existing in relationships, not inside our heads.
“Making a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear”: Erick Turner on How Publication...
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Erick Turner about publication bias in antidepressant trials, compromised psychotherapeutic research, and a culture of journal worship.
BJGP Publishes Advice for GPs on Withdrawing From SSRI Antidepressants
From IIPDW: This is an important moment as the journal is widely read by GPs, who are the main prescribers of SSRI antidepressants in the UK.
Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Isabella Castillo
At times I tend to feel invisible. Sometimes I don’t feel like I fit in with everyone else; I feel like an outsider.
Why Are Ketamine Ads Following Me Around the Internet?
From The New York Times: A pandemic-related loosening of telehealth laws in 2020 allowed for the prescribing of controlled substances remotely, and this led to an increase in the availability and marketing of ketamine and other drugs.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 5: Psychiatric Diagnoses Are Not Reliable (Part Two)
The screening test for depression recommended by the WHO is so poor that for every 100 screened, 36 will get a false diagnosis of depression.
New Guidance on Antidepressant Withdrawal for Doctors in the UK
New guidance for primary care doctors in the UK on antidepressant discontinuation acknowledges severe and long-lasting withdrawal symptoms.
New York Can’t—or Won’t—Provide Data on New Forced Treatment Plan
When we requested specific numbers and data, the presenter suggested that there were so many different players, agencies, and moving parts it was hard to “make sense” of all the information.
How Mindstrong’s Rush to Roll Out a ‘Smoke Alarm’ for Mental Illness Led to...
From STAT: The start-up, cofounded by Tom Insel, claimed to have developed a "biomarker" that could analyze users' typing speeds, typos, and tapping and scrolling patterns for early signs of cognition and mood changes.
Beyond Psychiatry: A Trauma-Centric View of Mental Health
Internal family systems therapy is a non-pathologizing method of working toward healing from trauma, a journey of returning to wholeness by reconnecting with ourselves.
Head of FDA’s Neuroscience Unit to Depart
From Fierce Biotech: The embattled regulator, Billy Dunn, has been accused of having had a too-cozy relationship with the pharma company Biogen prior to the approval of their Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm.
About Not Listening to People
Psychiatry exists in a perpetual state of distrust and disbelief of everything their patients say, including when patients report harmful effects of their drugs.
The 9-Question Survey Doctors Use to ‘Diagnose’ Depression Was Created by an Antidepressant Manufacturer
From Insider: The PHQ-9 — the quick tool that made many primary care doctors more comfortable prescribing antidepressants — was designed by a "marketing man" working for Pfizer.
Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Madeline Aliah
Meet another talented teen behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition. She writes: "This poem was written in my first year at a queer-positive school and is processing the new forms of guilt and shame I experienced and was exposed to."
‘More Like Spin-the-Bottle Than Science’: My Mission to Find Proper Treatment for My Son’s...
From The Guardian: After years journeying through the traditional healthcare system, could radical alternatives save my son from an endless cycle of hospital stays and drugs?
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 5: Psychiatric Diagnoses Are Not Reliable (Part One)
Psychiatric diagnoses have poor validity and do not tell us much about the nature, course, and treatment of the "diseases."
Understanding the Neurobiology of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction
Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) may be a common adverse effect of antidepressants. Researchers are now attempting to understand the neurobiology behind it.
Waking From Sleep: Natural Spirituality | Steve Taylor, PhD
From Spirituality and Psychology: "Higher states of consciousness" or "spiritual experiences" represent a way of seeing and relating to the world which was once normal to human beings, but which we have lost.
The Importance of Recovering Our Feeling Nature | Pete Walker, MFT
From The Tao of Fully Feeling: Individuals who choose or are coerced into only identifying with "positive" feelings often wind up in an emotionally lifeless middle ground – bland, deadened, and dissociated in an unemotional "no-man's-land."
A New Paradigm for Testing Psychiatric Drugs Is Needed
This paper reviews the problems with the usual double-blind, placebo-controlled trials on which drug approvals are based, and advocates for a stricter form of testing psychiatric drugs with patient-relevant outcomes, real comparators, long-term outcomes, and assessment of harms.
Defining What It Means to Care | Leah Harris
From The Progressive Magazine: We want to think of mental health facilities as safe, compassionate places to get help in a crisis. But unless you’ve been a patient in one of these places, it can be difficult to grasp just how carceral and punitive they often are.
One Flew Over the Scientific Consensus’ Nest—The Story of Dr. Ophir and ADHD
The backlash against Dr. Yaakov Ophir, licensed clinical psychologist and promising scholar, began when he reported his findings about the scientific validity of ADHD.
Medication Overload: More Older Adults Than Ever Are Taking Multiple Drugs
From Next Avenue: More than 40% of older Americans take five or more prescription drugs, a phenomenon known as polypharmacy, entailing a 200% increase over the past 20 years.
