Mad in America

From Undark: In “The Occasional Human Sacrifice,” Carl Elliott notes that those who expose medical wrongdoings are hardly hailed as heroes.

From The BMJ: A document trove released by opioid giant Mallinckrodt shows an extensive marketing playbook designed to influence medical science and opinion, or "ghost manage" medicine.

From Beyond Meds: Alternatives to Psychiatry: In Western medicine, dyskinesia is associated with infection when it’s not associated with a psych drug history, psychosis and neuroleptic drugs.

From The New York Times: An independent group of experts expressed concerns that the data from clinical trials did not outweigh risks for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

From Science: The study has been cited nearly 2500 times, and would be the most cited paper ever to be retracted, according to Retraction Watch data.

From Health Justice: The Illuminating Journeys project supported people with lived experience of involuntary mental health treatment in British Columbia to inform mental health public policy by sharing their lived experience expertise in creative ways.

From The Guardian: An undead, colourless half-life lies ahead if we cannot find the courage to give ourselves the cacophonous gift of grief.

From The New York Times: At the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, a patient described a restraint that haunts him, more than eight years later.

From L.A. Review of Books: Listening to Prozac’s 30th anniversary edition is a tribute of sorts to the power of celebrity and to the persistence of the myth that depression is a brain disorder that can be abolished by ingesting one of Big Pharma’s magic bullets.

From BBC: A former patient has conducted a study, backed by the National Survivor User Network, into patients' experiences after a "humiliating" stay in a psychiatric ward.

From Bloomberg: Companies are increasingly using fast-track approval processes to get unproven treatments to patients.

From Beam Consultancy: There was a time that I thought the diagnosis was useful and people just needed to understand it better; now I’m convinced that it does more harm than good.

From Maryanne Demasi Reports: It has been six years since the FDA was petitioned to update antidepressant labels to warn of the risk of PSSD, but so far the agency has failed to act.

IPAK science webinars hosts a science webinar with Robert Whitaker on the "STAR*D Scandal: Fraud...

Mad in America founder Robert Whitaker talks to psychiatrist Hannah Spier on her podcast "Psychobabble."

From Gothamist: The lawyers from Mental Hygiene Legal Services and Disability Rights Advocates argue existing laws are sufficient to make the practice of denying New York patients outdoor time illegal.

From BioEdge: "Academic medicine does not easily tolerate ethical dissent," says bioethicist Carl Elliot. "I doubt the medical profession can be trusted to reform itself."

From WXYZ: "I no longer trust medical professionals to have my well-being at heart," says Sarah Guarino, after she was held against her will by Michigan psychiatrist Nagy Kheir.

From The Guardian: Better mental health is about repairing internal connections, not cutting them.

A webinar presentation byKim Witczak, who serves as the consumer representation on the FDA's psychopharmacologic...

From Star Tribune: Speaking with fellow whistleblowers, bioethicist Carl Elliott writes about how calling attention to wrongdoing can often mean stepping into trouble you can't imagine.

From The New Yorker: So you’re on the spectrum, or you’ve got borderline personality disorder, or you’re a sociopath: once you’re sure that’s who you are, you’ve got a personal stake in a very creaky diagnostic system.

From Page Six: “Yeah, I had no idea who you were," Goldberg's mother, Emma Harris, had told her. "I just knew I never wanted to go back to that hospital. So I had to do everything I could. If they said the sky was green... I’d say, 'Yes, the sky is green.' ‘Cause I never wanted it again.”

From The Independent: The findings come after separate figures were revealed showing 15,000 people died while under the care of community mental health services in just one year.

From Mindfreedom International: David is currently a psychiatric prisoner at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where there is a hearing scheduled for this Monday, May 6th, to get a court order to electroshock him against his will.