Blaming Mental Health Won’t Solve Gun Violence, Says APsaA
According to a new statement released by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), the causes of firearm violence are complex and multifactorial, and gun violence...
Neoliberalism May Have a Devastating Effect on Mental Health
FromĀ The Independent: Policies that privilege neoliberal values are having a devastating effect on people with complex mental health needs. In the UK,Ā people with severe...
Pharmaceutical Industry Gifts Linked to Costlier Prescribing Practices
New study finds that pharmaceutical industry gifts to medical providers in Washington D.C. are associated with higher cost, higher volume prescribing behavior.
Christmas Songs Played on a Loop Can be Bad for Mental Health
FromĀ Providr: Many retail stores have already begun rolling out Christmas decorations and playing Christmas music. A clinical psychologist recently warned that playing Christmas music...
Vampire Medicines
In this piece, Dr. David Healy describes the various factors contributing to the lack of awareness surrounding the harmful and potentially dangerous effects of...
More Lavish the Gifts to Doctors Means Costlier Drugs Prescribed
FromĀ The New York Times:Ā A new study found that when drug companies give gifts to doctors, the doctors prescribe higher quantities ofĀ ā and more expensiveĀ ā...
Drug Company Sales Reps Should be Banned From Hospitals
FromĀ STAT: Despite evidence that drug company sales reps skew prescribing habits, relatively few hospitals have taken the step of barring them. This is a...
SSRI Ineffective at Treating Depression in Individuals with Chronic Kidney Disease
Dr. Madhukar Trivedi and colleagues find that the SSRI sertraline does not reduce depressive symptoms any more than placebo in people with Chronic Kidney Disease.
The Drug Being Pushed on Nursing Home Residents
FromĀ Next Avenue: The drug Nuedexta has only been approved for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, the maker of...
Health Care? More Like Health Scare!
From theĀ Lown Institute: For pharmaceutical companies who use scare tactics to sell drugs, every day is like Halloween. This list of egregious advertisements shows...
Depressed Patients on Antidepressants Do Worse in the Long Run
FromĀ Medical Xpress: A new analysis of the long-term effects of antidepressants found that symptoms of depression were more sharply elevated nine years following treatment...
Rigorous Study Finds Antidepressants Worsen Long-Term Outcomes
A new study conducted by Jeffrey Vittengl at Truman University has found that taking antidepressant medications resulted in more severe depression symptoms after nine years.
Vikas Saini: Protecting Patients From Excessive Medicine
In this piece for theĀ BMJ, Jeanne Lenzer profiles Vikas Saini, a cardiologist who is working to fight against excessive medical treatment. His work with...
Investigation Reveals Alarming ECT Practices in England
Audit of ECT usage, demographics, and adherence to guidelines and legislation raises concern over its continued use.
Scales Assessing Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Lack Cross-Cultural Validity
Researchers find few existing "psychopathology scales" are appropriate for global utilization.
State Spends $90 Million on Unnecessary Mental Health Care
From theĀ Star Tribune: Minnesota taxpayers have shelled out more than $92 million to house patients at a state psychiatric hospital who no longer require...
UN to USA: Forced Treatment is Prohibited
The experience with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention's visit to the US is a watershed for our work against forced psychiatry. Step by step, global and national advocacy support each other as part of a worldwide movement to abolish forced psychiatry using theĀ UN human rights framework.
Patient Advocacy Groups Aren’t Always What They Seem
FromĀ HealthNewsReview.org: Recent studies have shown that well over half of patient advocacy groups accept money from drug, biotech, or medical device companies, and nearly...
Why We Ended Long-Term Solitary Confinement in Colorado
FromĀ The New York Times: According to international standards for the treatment of prisoners, keeping someone in solitary confinement for longer than 15 days is...
Why We’ve Been Thinking About Madness All Wrong
In this interview forĀ Pacific Standard, David Dobbs, who profiled Nev Jones this month, discusses the ways that the mental health community is beginning to...
“Prisons Without Bars” ā Forced Institutionalization of People with Disabilities
In the wake of deinstitutionalization, we no longer have the vast asylum system we once did. Instead, something more insidious has taken root ā for-profit institutions that call themselves neurorehabilitation centers, group homes, and other official-sounding names.
Psychiatrists Have Issued a Statement on Aversion Therapy
FromĀ BuzzFeed: The Royal College of Psychiatrists has issued a historic statement acknowledging the harm done toĀ lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who were subjected to...
I’m Reinventing Mental Health Care by Putting Patients in Charge
In this piece forĀ The Guardian, Joy Hibbins describes how her experiences of powerlessness as a mental health service user led her to start Suicide...
Antidepressant Use May Increase Risk of Diabetes
New study confirms previous evidence that antidepressant use is linked to developing type 2 diabetes.
The Social Life of Opioids
FromĀ Scientific American: Increasing prescription rates of opioid painkillers are often blamed for America's current opioid crisis. However, a growing body of research suggests that...
