Transcultural Limitations of Medical Model Treatment in Ghana
An anthropological study of mental health service use in Ghana, published online June 21 in Transcultural Psychiatry, finds that counter to expectations almost all those...
Response to Placebo is On the Rise
Study subjects' responses to placebo have increased from an average two-point decline in symptom ratings in studies done from 1991 to 1998, to an...
Norway Prosecutors Ask for Psychiatric Care, Not Prison
Saying "in our opinion, it is worse that a psychotic person is sentenced to preventative detention than a nonpsychotic person is sentenced to compulsory...
“Mental Illness” and the Spiral of Shame
A researcher from the University of California in Santa Barbara writes today in the Journal of Social Psychiatry that "one reason that theories of...
“Zoloft Defense” Defendant Testifies on His Own Behalf
Anthony Orban, the defendant in a California trial for kidnap and rape, who is claiming that a Zoloft-driven psychosis rendered him unaware of his...
Updates on Johnson & Johnson
Arkansas judge Tim Fox, who ruled earlier this year that Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its parent company Johnson & Johnson had concealed risks associated with...
British Psychological Society Critiques the DSM-5
The British Psychological Society has "serious concerns about many aspects of the framework. In our response we have argued that the categorical framework of...
Hyperactivity Meds Jump 46%
Following an FDA study that found a 46% rise in ADHD prescriptions from 2002-2010, a review in Death and Taxes looks at better marketing...
“Zoloft Defense” Trial Enters “Sanity Phase”
The trial of Anthony Orban enters the "sanity phase," during which jurors will decide whether Orban was in control of his actions at the...
“Psychiatry Takes a Beating” in Norway
"Anders Behring Breivik is not standing trial alone in Oslo. Psychiatry is being judged as well," says Time magazine, as the trial nears its...
Senate to Hear Testimony on Deinstitutionalization on Olmstead Act’s 13th Anniversary
Alabama Mental Health Commissioner Zelia Baugh is scheduled to testify before a U.S. Senate committee Thursday about community treatment of the mentally ill and...
Need-Adapted Treatment Funded in NY
"Parachute NYC: an alternative approach to mental health treatment and crisis services" has been awarded $17,608,085 to fund "a need-adapted treatment model (NATM) intervention for...
Military Suicides Outnumber Combat Deaths
In a reversal of an historic rate of suicides below that of the general population, suicides in the military have surged. Newsweek explores the...
Call For Psych Beds Surges
Debate abounds about the factors driving a nationwide "shortage" of psychiatric hospital beds.
Article →
Long-Acting Risperidone (Consta) Increases Costs, Lowers Outcomes
Writing in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, researchers from the Health Economics Resource Center studied the effects of long-acting injectable risperidone (Consta) on 369 patients...
The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: An Historical Perspective
A chapter from the soon-to-be-released "Targets and Emerging Therapies for Schizophrenia" explores the history of the dopamine hypothesis, finding that "although blocking of D2DR ameliorates psychosis,...
Insanity on Trial
The trial of Anders Breivik, who confessed to killing 77 people last summer in Norway, has become a test of the concept of insanity...
Are Billion Dollar Settlements the New Normal?
The Philadelphia Inquirer writes on the reported $2.2 billion Johnson & Johnson Risperdal settlement, the $2.3 billion Pfizer Geodon penalty, the $3 billion GlaxoSmithKline Avandia...
“Coming of Age on Zoloft”
Subtitled "How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are," Katherine Sharpe's book "Coming of Age on Zoloft" was released...
Department of Defense Apologizes for Antipsychotic-Related Deaths
The Army Times reports on the Department of Defense's crackdown on off-label antipsychotics in the context of research showing a strong link between antipsychotics,...
NIMH Awards $4 Million to Study Premature Death in Schizophrenia
Researchers at the Stein Institute for Research on Aging at UC San Diego were awarded a $4 Million National Institute of Mental Health grant...
Calif. Jury Rejects “Zoloft Defense”
The jury in Anthony Orban's California trial for rape - which Orban argued was the result of a 'psychotic break' caused by his recent...
MindFreedom’s “I Got Better” Campaign Defies Hopelessness
MindFreedom International announced the launch today of its "I Got Better" campaign with an invitation to participate in the "Survey on Hope in Mental...
Closing Arguments Start Today in California “Zoloft Defense” Case
The trial of former California police officer Anthony Orban for rape goes to closing arguments today. Orban is pleading "not guilty by reason of...
J&J to Pay $2.2 Billion to Settle Government’s Risperdal Probe
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $2.2 billion to settle probes by the U.S. government of its marketing of Risperdal and other medications,...
