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Off Psychiatric Drugs After Fourteen Years

Off Psychiatric Drugs After Fourteen Years

Both typical and sad that people have to go through this.

Book Reviews

  • “PRESCRIPTION THUGS” New Documentary Review
  • The Truth About Drug Companies by Marcia Angell

    A well researched introduction to Big Pharma - how it works.

  • A Review of The Bitterest Pills by Joanna Moncrieff, MD
  • The Withering Of Big Pharma?
  • America’s Depression Diagnoses Epidemic and How to Fix It
    A new book reveals why a third of Americans convinced themselves they’re depressed—and what we can do to get sensible diagnoses. Historian Edward Shorter speaks to Jesse Singal about depression hysteria. 
    In his new book How Everyone Became Depressed: The Rise and Fall of the Nervous Breakdown, the University of Toronto historian of psychiatry Edward Shorter takes aim at the what he sees as the massive overdiagnosis of depression in America.
  • ‘The Book of Woe’ – Psychiatry’s Last Stand
    An account of the making of the new DSM questions whether psychiatry is — or should be — a science

     

Easy Reading

  • Nutritional Psychiatry: Your Brain on Food
  • Just Me: A Series of Reflections on Trauma, Motherhood, and Psychiatry

    A moving story about what 'passed' for mental health treatment.

  • Big Pharma Plays Hide The Ball

    The game now with Big Pharma is to hide the truth as more and more people want to see the actual research methods they usaed to help sell their drugs.

  • Rethinking Psychiatry

    After reading Anatomy of an Epidemic, a psychiatrist explores anew.

    Posted Oct. 17, 2014 www.madinamerica.com

  • I Stalked my Psychiatrist

    MSN.COM OCT 2014   A patient's story of her interaction with her psychiatrist - a story all too common.

  • Are psychiatric medications making us sicker?
  • A Psychiatrist Thinks Some People Are Better off without Psychiatric Drugs

    Posted Dec. 9, 2013 Washington Post

  • Robin Williams, R.I.P. by Ben Stein

    American Spectator August 12, 2014 Actor Ben Stein reflects on Willliams, antidepressants and his own struggles.

  • Want a love life? Restrict use of antidepressants.

    thehealthsite.com  Aug. 10, 2014

  • Don’t Smoke Pot- Take Vicodin Instead? Big pharma suits up for battle
  • Is Your doctor A Drug Pusher?

    Common sense rears its ugly head as Big Pharma puffs up.

  • A New Fast Acting Antidepressant (not ketamine)
  • When did life become a medical problem?
  • Medicating Our Troops Into Oblivion”: Prescription Drugs Said To Be Endangering U.S. Soldiers

    Posted 4/19/2014 International Business Times by Jamie Reno

  • 70 Million Americans on Mind Altering Drugs

    One man’s easy read, common sense summary of America’s drug problem. Comprehensive and thought provoking.

     

  • The New Psychiatry: Forget Everything You Think You Know About Mental Health

    Healthy alternatives to dubious drug therapies discussed.

     

  • Why Big Pharma Is Bad For Your Health

    Case histories, research methodology seriously flawed.

     

  • Drugs and Doctors: Little Clinic Says No To Big Pharma
    Slow news week but interesting tidbit-  Doctors at a small clinic take a principled approach to drug pushers. Also some good information overall about how drugs,expensive, even harmful ones, are marketed, by health reporter Markian Hawryluk.

     

  • What Doctors Don’t Know About the Drugs They Prescribe
    Perhaps the most engaging lecturer in medicine, Dr. Ben Goldacre opens up about pharmaceutical malfeasance and how it creates  Doctor’s who do not have the knowledge to make informed decisions. I drove 40 miles to hear and pay for a similar lecture. Here it is available for all and well worth it as he gets right to the relevant points and supports them profoundly. The TEDMED website is also quite interesting. (Editor)

     

  • More Than 1 in 10 Take Antidepressants

    11% over the age of 12 take antidepressants.  The rate of depression has doubled in the last 15 years – antidepressant use up 400% since the late 1980′s. Is there a connection between SSRI use and chronic depression? This article from an associate professor of psychiatry does not address that. Instead they make the case that social ills and lifestyle problems have occurred at the same time as the availability and heavy marketing of SSRI’s. (Editor)

     

  • Who Should Take Antidepressants?
    James Hamblin, MD finds much to question re: psychiatry and the diagnosis of depression. For example, a recent study at Johns Hopkins found that more than 60 percent of adults who were diagnosed by their doctor as having depression actually did not meet the official diagnostic criteria for the disorder upon re-evaluation by Hopkins psychiatrists. Some of them may have been prescribed antidepressant medications when their real problem was something else entirely.”

     

  • America’s Overpaid Doctors

    Often overlooked is how are we expected to pay for all of this.  Lawyers could also be added to this list to make it fair.

Pharma Criminal Activities

  • Pharma’s Big Fines
  • Why Big Pharma Won’t Stop Breaking the Law

Psychiatry and the APA

  • Assessing and Enhancing the Effectiveness of Antidepressants – Posted Psychiatric Times 6.13.14
  • America’s Epidemic of Psychiatric Over-Diagnosis

    “The next time you’re in a crowded room, look around. A scary percentage of the people in the room with you are suffering from a mental disorder.   Or at least that’s what we’ve been led to believe, …………….”

  • Overselling Psychiatry

    “Allen Frances, former head of the Duke University School of Medicine’s psychiatry department and a man The New York Times once called “perhaps the most powerful psychiatrist in America,” was chair of the APA task force for DSM-IV (issued in 1994). Frances has become the loudest and most influential public voice questioning the DSM’s latest revamp.”

  • Is the New ‘Bible of Psychiatry’ a Weapon For The Courts?
    “While the DSM’s text is introduced with a caveat that it’s only to be used for clinical, educational, and research purposes, the book has another key application: It’s often used as a way to make decisions within governing bodies, in court, and in the criminal justice system.”

     

  • A Mental Health Declaration of Independence
    A psychologist Bruce Levine discusses the insidious state of affairs between government, medicine, and big pharma – the “psychiatric-pharmaceutical industrial complex” and states the practices involved need to be abolished by law. 
  • Seismic Shift in Psychiatry Will Happen Slowly
    NIMH seriously  skeptical of DSM-5. Seeking other alternatives. Driven by huge disappointments in psychiatric research over the last two decades.

     

  • Psychiatry’s New Guide Falls Short Experts Say
     Psychiatry’s guide out of touch with science.

     

  • Bi-Polar Writer Comments on Debate Over Crisis in Psychiatry
    Conflicting personal feelings discussed by prominent SA writer about psychiatry and its current issues.

Children and Teenagers

  • Drugging Our Kids

    Posted MercuryNews.com  August 28, 2014  A must see for every parent concerned about over drugging.

  • Parents can get refunds for some anti-depressant drugs given to kids
  • Moms on antidepressants have babies with malformed brains
  • Anti-Depressants and Self Harm foir Those Under 24 – A new Study

    More room for pause?  Nah- What's an extra suicide here or there?

  • When Children Are Asked, Anti-Depressants are no more effective than placebo- study finds
  • Antidepressant Use in Pregnancy Linked to Autism Risk in Boys
  • Anti-Depressants Linked to Premature Births
  • Study Links Acetaminophen to ADHD in Children

    A study of 60,000 European women indicates increase in ADHD children born of women who took acetaminophen.

     

  • Anti-Psychotic Drugs Overused for Dementia, Kids

    Finally troubling ethical questions are surfacing through the quagmire of power and profits and being voiced by actual psychiatrists.

     

  • Antidepressants Cause Birth Defects
  • It’s Easier to Simply Believe

    This is the issue most ignored perhaps because the implications are the most profound.  SSRI’s may be the missing link explaining all these weird violent episodes that society never experienced to this degree in the past. An intelligent discussion which begs answers and more serious consideration.   (Editor)

     

  • Teen Smartphone Addiction Correlates With Psychopathology
    “Recess traditionally has been a time for kids to run and play between classes, but only five or six students were playing soccer during this lunch break. The rest were gathered in clusters by the bleachers next to the soccer field, looking at smartphones.”   And the answer is – more drugs??

     

Crimes, Suicides and Psyche Drugs

  • Antidepressants: a deadly treatment? By Patrick D. Hahn
  • Pharma Exec on Trial fo Murder of Son

    True crime story.

  • Why A Grand Jury Should investigate Robin William’s Suicide

    Blobalresearch.ca  August 25, 2014  Dr. Gary G.  Kohls

  • Were These Knife Attacks Caused by SSRI Antidepressants?

    No studies however linking all these strange attacks to the equally strange mind altering SSRI’s- but a very strong need for a closer look.

     

  • Mass shootings are occurring alongside increased psychiatric drugging
  • The Withering Of Big Pharma?
  • Is Big Pharma Addicted to Fraud?
    Can they treat this behavioral disorder (addiction to fraud) with a drug?  The insignificant  fines paid are just the cost of doing business. (Editor)
  • Antidepressants and School Shootings: Doctors Write Prescriptions for Murder

    Excerpt:  ‘Harvard psychologist Dr. Joseph Glenmullen discussing SSRIs said: “We don’t know what these drugs are doing to real life human beings. When you look at all the documents, you see a pattern of misleading doctors who then unwittingly mislead patients. This is a betrayal of the public trust in physicians behind the scenes by the drug industry and it must stop.”’

    Visit this site also for links to  “Holistic, non-toxic approaches to mood enhancement “

  • Overdose Deaths Continue To Climb

    “Drug overdose deaths in the United States increased for the 11th consecutive year in 2010, rising 3.6 percent from 2009, federal officials reported Tuesday. There were 38,329 drug overdose deaths in 2010. Prescription drugs were involved in more than half of all overdoses, with 22,134 deaths from them, up 6 percent from 2009…”

  • Are common US prescription medications linked to violence?

    “With over 90% of school shooters on antidepressants, we need to have a serious discussion about the role that prescription drugs might have played in the recent Connecticut massacre and other mass killings”, says Dr. Healy, CEO of RxISK.org.

Research: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

  • The Hidden Harm of Antidepressants

    An in-depth analysis of clinical trials reveals widespread underreporting of negative side effects, including suicide attempts and aggressive behavior

  • Many Antidepressants Studies Found Tainted by Pharma Company Influence

    Scientific American, October 15, 2015 Roni Jacobson

  • Benzodiazepine Use and Risk of Dementia: Prospective Population Based Study
  • What Are the Long-Term Effects of Taking Antidepressants?
  • Beware the Drug Companies, How they Deceive Us: “Criticizing Big Pharma”
  • Combining Anti-Depressants with Pain Pills – Dangerous

    Posted Mens Journal.com  Oct. 28. 2014   Based on a Netherland's study of 115,ooo

  • Multi Therapy Study Shows Promise Treating Effects of Alzheimers

    Therapy relies not on a single big pharma drug. Download PDF for full analysis. Sponsored by NIH and Alzheimer's groups.

    Posted Consumer Affairs.com  Oct. 2, 2014

  • If Big Pharma Isn’t Nervous – It Should Be

    Cannabinoids - safer, cheaper, and more effective?  Current research.

    Marketwatch.com 7/30/2014

  • Moms on antidepressants have babies with malformed brains
  • When children are asked, antidepressants are no more effective than placebo.

    Psychiatrits give themselves 'A's. Patients - not so much.

  • Party Drugs: Ketamine-Like Drug “Lanicemine” may be used to treat depression
  • Antidepressants Linked to Postpartum Hemorrhage

    “A large study of pregnant women diagnosed with a mood or anxiety disorder and conducted by investigators at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston showed about a1.5-fold increased risk for postpartum hemorrhage associated with all classes of antidepressants and not just selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs).”

    “Our study suggests that all classes of antidepressants are associated with an increased risk of abnormal bleeding,” the investigators write.”

     

  • Biochemical Mapping Helps Explain Who Will Respond to Antidepressants

    Chemical changes are measured as people become less depressed yet the article shows no proof that antidepressants caused the changes.  Where is the double blind study?

  • Big Pharma Mobilizing Patients in Battle Over Drug Trials Data

    Some drug companies gearing up to fight against transparency.

     

  • More Challenges to Drug ‘Research’

    “EARLIER this month, Dr. Doshi opened what he hopes will be a new chapter in his quest for greater understanding of clinical trials. He and several other researchers published what amounted to an ultimatum to drug companies: publish your data, or we’ll do it for you. ”

     

  • Antidepressants in Bipolar Disorder: No Benefit, Possible Harm
    “The reason clinicians persist in prescribing antidepressants in this patient population when the evidence suggests they confer no benefit is unclear. However, Dr. Warner speculated that it may be due to the fact that there are so few effective treatment options for this severely ill population.”
    “After controlling for anxiety, they found that patients who were discharged while receiving venlafaxine were 3 times more likely to be readmitted compared with those who did not receive an antidepressant at discharge or those who received other antidepressants “
  • Some Antidepressants May Raise Gastro Risk
    Editor- Remeron and Prozac doubled the rate of infection of the potentially deadly Clostridiuum difficile infection.  WebMD characterizes this as ‘may raise gastro risk’.

     

  • Gender Separation in Psychiatry
    Female patients show better results when grouped with other females- they feel safer.

     

  • Anti-Depressant Medication Linked With Increased Infection Risk
    Researchers from the University of Michigan revealed that individuals who suffer from depression and those taking antidepressants such as mirtazapine and fluoxetine had a much higher chance of contracting Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) – a life threatening infection that can cause severe diarrhea and inflammation of the colon.
  • Psychiatric Medications’ Effect on Brain Structure Varies

    It is increasingly recognized that chronic psychotropic drug treatment may lead to structural remodeling of the brain. Indeed, clinical studies in humans present an intriguing picture: antipsychotics, used for the treatment of schizophrenia and psychosis, may contribute to cortical gray matter loss in patients, whereas lithium, used for the treatment of bipolar disorder and mania, may preserve gray matter in patients.

  • AllTrials.org: Half of all clinical trials have never been published. This is a scandal. Sign the petition here!

Elderly inc Alzheimers/ Dementia

  • Multi Therapy Study Shows Promise Treating Effects of Alzheimers

    Therapy relies not on a single big pharma drug. Download PDF for full analysis. Sponsored by NIH and Alzheimer's groups.

    Posted Consumer Affairs.com  Oct. 2, 2014

  • Certain ‘Anti-Psychotics’ Tied to Kidney Damage in the Elderly

    Posted US News and World Reports, August 20, 2014

  • Certain Anti-Psychotic Meds Tied to Kidney Problems in the Elderly

    Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel in the spotlight.

    health.usnews.com  August 19, 2014

  • Is your mom on drugs? Ours was and here’s what we did about it.

    Posted  RXisk.org  July 2014  A moving story.

  • Namenda- Common Alzheimer’s Drug Found Ineffective
  • Anti-Psychotic Drugs Overused for Dementia, Kids

    Finally troubling ethical questions are surfacing through the quagmire of power and profits and being voiced by actual psychiatrists.

     

  • Antipsychotics Linked to Sudden Cardiac Death Risk
     “Both the second-generation as well as the first-generation antipsychotic agents proved independently associated with greater than threefold increased risks of sudden cardiac death, according to results from a large, population-based study.”  Olanzapine (Zyprexa), risperdal implicated. Abilify- not a large enough control group  studied.  All classes seem to imply the same risks of SCD- sudden cardiac death.

     

  • Study: Vitamin B Could Curb Dementia
    More disappointing news for pharma investors and industry insiders.  Doctors discover Vitamin B at pennies per dose seems to dramatically curb symptoms associated with dementia. Two year study.

     

People of Influence

  • Dr. Ben Goldacre
  • Dr. David Healy
  • Dr. Joanna Moncrieff
  • Dr. Marcia Angell
  • Dr. Peter Breggin
  • Kelly Brogan, MD
  • Martha Rosenburg
  • Robert Whitaker

Self Help and Preparing for Withdrawal

  • Fish Oil for Depression

    altmedicine.about.com  Naturopathic Treatment

  • 10 Natural Depression Remedies

    HowSTuffWorks.com  Treatments that first cause no harm.

  • 6 Ways to Prepare for Withdrawal

    PsycheCentral  2009 but Basic Sound Approach for Starters

  • Stopping Anti-Depressants: A Guide

    Posted rxisk.org May 20, 2014     Finally some easilly accessible information to assist those for whom the medical establishment finds not enough financial incentive to help!  This is also a great developing site. It does not cover all meds but is  a great consise introduction to what is possible with the meds they do cover.  Congratulations ot Dr. David healy.

     

  • 6 Ways Remaining Silent Creates Pain and Despair
  • Waking Up From Sadness: Many Find Trouble Getting Off of Antidepressants
  • Illness Risk Following Rapid Versus Gradual Discontinuation of Antidepressants
    The recurrence risk for depression or panic was much shorter after rapid than after gradual discontinuation of antidepressants. These findings have implications for both clinical management and the design and interpretation of clinical trials.

     

  • Psychiatry By Numbers

Major Articles – Editor’s Choice

  • Benzodiazepine Use and Risk of Dementia: Prospective Population Based Study
  • The “Institutional Corruption” of Psychiatry: A Conversation With Authors of ”Psychiatry Under the Influence”

    A new book addresses the corruptive influences within psychiatry. An interview with Robert Whitaker and Lisa Cosgrove
    truth-out.org August 10, 2015

  • Psychiatry’s Identity Crisis

    The brain is notoriously hard to study and won’t give up its secrets easily. In contrast, psychotherapy research can yield relatively quick and powerful results. Given the critically important value — and popularity — of therapy, psychotherapy research deserves a much larger share of research dollars than it currently receives.
    Posted New York Times.com July 19, 2015 Richard A. Friedman, Prof of Clinical Psychiatry

  • 100 Recommended Books on the State of Mental Health

    By the Future of Mental Health Movement - A valuable list of 100 books to have and reference on mental health treatment and the pharmaceutical industry

  • Big Pharma is America’s New Mafia

    Posted The Daily Beast, Feb. 20, 2015 by Daniela Drake

  • Depression: It’s Not Your Serotonin

    Succinct but very effective article  by Kelly Brogan, MD from a very useful website.

  • Drugging Our Kids

    Posted MercuryNews.com  August 28, 2014  A must see for every parent concerned about over drugging.

  • Psychiatrists Split on Whether to Ditch DSM

    EDITOR'S CHOICE  Common  sense criticism featuring Dr. Gary Greenberg

    ABC.NET.AU Augu 19, 2014

  • Transparency Coming to Big Pharma? The Sunshine Act
  • Bad Diagnosis For New Psychiatry ‘Bible’
    Three experts including one from the APA, and the NIMH  discuss DSM (and psychiatric) shortcomings.
  • The Problem With Psychiatry, the DSM, and the Way We Study Mental Illness
    “Psychiatry is under attack for not being scientific enough, but the real problem is its blindness to culture. When it comes to mental illness, we wear the disorders that come off the rack.”   How cultural prejudice influences the DSM.
  • NIMH: Neurology Trumps Psychiatry
    The director of the NIMH claims the DSM-5 “lacks validity”.

     

  • NIMH Won’t Follow Psychiatry Bubble
    The NIMH has been developing its new framework, called the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), since 2009. The system replaces DSM diagnoses with broad research categories based on basic cognitive, behavioural and neural mechanisms.

     

  • Psychiatry By Numbers

    “Anyway, I filled the prescription, came home and researched it a bunch, sat on it for a couple weeks and finally tried it because I was so sick of not being able to sleep. Turns out it’s more physiologically addictive than Adderall or coke or even speed. The pharmaceutical company that manufactures it does not authorize it for use longer than three weeks. No doctor, nurse, or pharmacist ever mentioned that to me.”

  • Depression and the Limits of Psychiatry

    “What we call psychiatric practice,” he says, “is a certain moral tactic . . . covered over by the myths of positivism.” Indeed, what psychiatry presents as the “liberation of the mad” (from mental illness) is in fact a “gigantic moral imprisonment.”

Pharma Chicanery

  • Antidepressant drugs are ‘immensely harmful’ and responsible for thousands of deaths, claims leading scientist
  • Ben Goldacre Interview – Big pharma and Transparency

    Posted Euractiv.com Oct. 22, 2014

  • ‘Black Box’ warning reduced Litigation

    'Black Box'  warnings make successful litigation highly unliklely. Best to take them seriously.

    Indystar.com August 24, 2014

  • Psychiatry’s Manufacture of Consent

    Posted Counterpunch May 14, 2014  The chemical imbalance theory is fraud, pure and simple.

  • Big Pharma: Storehouse of Trouble
  • Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime…..How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare by Peter Gotzsche – Book Review
  • Holding Psychiatry to a much Higher Ethical Standard
  • The Selling of ADHD – 20 Year Marketing Effort by Big Pharma

    Gabor Mate and Alan Schwartz discuss the hype and the reality surrounding  prescriptions of Adderal for ADHD.  Well rounded discussion of all sides.

     

  • Ingestion Sensors Track Psychiatric Medication Adherence

    The future of psychiatry and voodoo medicine if given a chance? Embedded sensors are the latest money making scheme being conceived.

  • Medical Marijuana: Big Pharma’s Campaign to Eliminate State Sanctioned Cannabis Competitors?
  • Big Pharma Wants Fish Oil After All…
  • How Big Pharma Wants to Profit From Your Health Concerns
    6 ways pharma fuels the drug machine for additional profits by Martha Rosenberg
  • Big Pharma Mocked Patients Who Received Jawbone Death Drug

    Article by Martha Rosenberg. Merck mocks patients with serious and documented health concerns.

Websites

  • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
    Interesting facts about suicide but does not explore the connection between SSRI's and suicide ideation.
  • Anti Depressant Danger Website
    AntiDepAware Anti-depressant Awareness Site
  • Ben Goldacre
    A truly educated, brilliant, and conscientous healthy skeptic- very influential.
  • Big Pharma's Big Fines - Pro Publica
    Documented Fines show the 'cost' of doing business for Big Pharma.
  • Citizens Commission on Human Rights
    A Scientology sponsored organization tackling the psychiatric establishment.
  • Cochrane Reviews
    Contributions to worldwide medical integrity
  • Mad in America
    Science, Psychiatry and Community.
  • Mind Freedom
    Activism for Human Rights in Mental Health.
  • Point Of No Return
    Clinical/Nutrional Approach to Drug Withdrawal
  • Psychiatric Drug Facts
    ...with Dr. Peter Breggin
  • Robert Whitaker (official website)
    Author of "Anatomy of an Epidemic"
  • RxISK.org
    Making medicines safer for all of us
  • Special Coverage: DRUGS
    ...on alternet.org
  • SSRI's and Violence
    Focuses on potential links between drug use and violence including a database of actual events.
  • Surviving Antidepressants
    Users of antidepressants sharing information including about withdrawal
  • Violence and Psychoactive Drugs
    Drug Awareness.Org

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