Scientists accused of downplaying dangers of antidepressants Row breaks out over risk of patients experiencing severe withdrawals

Researchers at Imperial College and King’s College London have been accused of endangering patient safety after publishing a study suggesting that most people do not experience severe withdrawal after coming off the drugs". #backfire
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

Trends in pharmacological prescriptions and polypharmacy for personality disorders: a 10-year cross-sectional analysis of naturalistic data - BMC Psychiatry Introduction The purpose of this study was to examine trends in prescribing practices for individuals diagnosed with personality disorders (PD) over a 10-year period in a major metropolitan area in Sw...

Good study on prescription practice trends for pts w personality disorders. Polypharmacy is still an issue, benzos and antidepressants declining.
IMO, prescription is often influenced by countertransference resulting from helplessness (not just in PD)
bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Reducing antidepressant use in older adults - Medical Republic Older Australians are less likely to be depressed, yet are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants – why?

1 in 4 older adults in Australia are on antidepressants despite being less depressed than younger age groups and more susceptible to antidepressant associated harms e.g. falls, fractures and death www.medicalrepublic.com.au/reducing-ant...

‘Diagnosing a child with autism or ADHD? There’s a lot of money to be made’ By medicalising normal behaviour we’re damaging the young’s wellbeing, Dr Sami Timimi tells Anna Maxted

He isn't disputing that their suffering is real 'It's our
response that's the issue. We routinely
pathologise, label and medicate kids' emotions and behaviours'. New book by Sami Timimi out tomorrow www.thetimes.com/article/f5b1...

Attended the Union of Concerned Scientist's webinar about protecting scientists engaged in advocacy and I think the most important message was: The more people who do it, the safer we all are.

See the list of resources they shared below. Carry your weight and let others carry you!

To demedicalise distress is not to delegitimise distress. One can honor, respect and care for profound suffering without labeling it as illness, pathology or disorder.

There are many ways Trump could trigger a global collapse. Here’s how to survive if that happens | George Monbiot It could be wildfires, a pandemic or a financial crisis. The super-rich will flee to their bunkers – the rest of us will have to fend for ourselves, writes columnist George Monbiot

In this week's column, I explore what I see as a very real prospect of systemic collapse, caused by Trump's actions, and suggest we start preparing.
I try to explain how complex systems fail, and suggest some of the failure paths we could be on.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

UNSHRUNK | Kirkus Reviews Finding herself—off of meds.

I am looking forward to @lauradelano.bsky.social 's new book to be published soon. Early review describes it as: 'A courageous, insightful, beautifully written book challenging major tenets of Big Pharma and mainstream psychiatry' www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

Affective Injustice: How Psychiatry Pathologizes and Marginalizes Emotions Psychiatry’s tendency to label non-normative emotions as disorders contributes to affective injustice, distorting emotional self-understanding and deepening inequality.

"Psychiatry’s tendency to label non-normative emotions as disorders contributes to affective injustice, distorting emotional self-understanding and deepening inequality."
www.madinamerica.com/2024/09/affe...

Antidepressants: what you need to know Who should take them? What are the side-effects? When — and how — should you stop?

@thetimes.com article by Rachel Kelly on limitations of antidepressants: 'I needed therapy and lifestyle changes to address how I handled stress, what I thought was a worthwhile life, and how to manage and handle my tendency to low mood.' www.thetimes.com/article/f638...

International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal (IIPDW) The International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal (IIPDW) was created to respond to a glaring need in mental health: to develop ways for helping people withdraw from psychiatric drugs.

For your diary.
@iipdw.bsky.social presents MAUDSLEY DEPRESCRIBING GUIDELINES. Authors summarise & questions.
April 25, 4-6pmUK. Details soon on www.iipdw.org
@dranneguy.bsky.social @mad-in-america.bsky.social @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social @markhoro.bsky.social @joannamoncrieff.bsky.social

School phone bans DON'T work, scientists say For parents worried about their teens' smartphone use, banning phones in schools may seem like an obvious solution. But a study suggests that school phone bans don't produce any positive effects.

This study from Birmingham Uni has been widely covered in the legacy media today. However, the headlines are completely unfounded on the basis of the study. In fact, the study wasnt a controlled trial but a cross sectional comparsion study. 1/5 www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...

Nearly a 1/4 of our population was prescribed a psych-drug last year. Yet the majority weren't suffering from biologically discernible 'mental illnesses' but from understandable human reactions to serious socio/psycho problems - issues the drugs are powerless to treat.

New Book by Courageous Psychiatrist about Her Profession’s Most Damaging Falsehood While it is debatable as to exactly which of the many war-mongering lies told by politicians has resulted in the most disastrous outcome, when it comes to falsehoods declared by the psychiatry establi...

'In Chemically Imbalanced, Moncrieff thoroughly answers the question of whether it has been a good or bad thing to convince people to believe that their depression was a biological-chemical event' Review by Bruce Levine www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/30/n...

We need person-centred mental health care, not more psychiatrists | Letter Letter: Dr Jennifer Poole says a less medicalised approach using therapists other than consultant psychiatrists would be more effective in the long term

Worth sharing here I think

We need person-centred mental health care, not more psychiatrists | Letter www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Seig heil Tesla Yes, you did see what you think you saw. Here's an idea, let's call a Nazi salute a Nazi salute.

NEW: Why not calling a Nazi salute a Nazi salute puts us in a whole new place of danger. We have to call spades spades or what else is there?
open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

Exciting to see some reviews of my book by readers on Amazon e.g. 'Wonderful account of how we have all been misled about the apparent value of antidepressants.'
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/180399679... (other vendors are available)

Mental health of working-age population appears to be getting worse A report by the Health Foundation looks at a range of data sources, including self-reported surveys, screening tools and clinical diagnoses and finds more than 10% of working-age people are reporting ...

With 8m people taking antidepressants it’s beyond time for improved informed consent about their benefits / harms and a safer path to come off them when ready.
@tonyavery.bsky.social @simonforstroud.bsky.social @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social @iipdw.bsky.social

news.sky.com/story/mental...

From Dr Chris van Tulleken's forward on how my new book 'elegantly describes the history of industry co-opting science and scientists against the interests of patients and public health to sell drugs that don’t work, for conditions that we don’t understand'

Truth & Lies YouTube video by Jonathan Pie

Truth & Lies.

Mix Musk's interventions with Starmer's unpopularity, is it possible to separate the truth from the lies?

(Strong language and adult themes.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R19...

‘These drugs are not harmless’: The Aussies tackling antidepressant deprescribing Trials in Queensland and Victoria are trying to help GPs with SSRI deprescribing.

"‘These drugs are not harmless’: The Aussies tackling antidepressant deprescribing… Professor Katharine Wallis…" www.ausdoc.com.au/news/these-d... #biorisks

So, fellow uk therapists - have we really done everything we can within current arrangements to better protect clients? The thoughts of a therapist in private practice on statutory regulation:
counsellingtutor.com/theory-of-mi...

’Striking the right balance with antidepressant prescribing’ - Patient Safety Commissioner Antidepressant prescribing is at record levels in England, with around one in five adults receiving these medicines for a range of mental health conditions and chronic pain. Prescriptions have...

Withdrawal from antidepressants can be life changingly awful for so many people, let’s hope we see real services available to prevent it and support people soon.
@tonyavery.bsky.social
@simonforstroud.bsky.social
@markhoro.bsky.social
www.patientsafetycommissioner.org.uk/striking-the...

Antidepressant Facts and Misconceptions Here’s how the drugs can affect weight, mood, libido and other functions.

Pleased to see withdrawal mentioned as a possibility in this article (even if the benefits seem overstated)
@profjohnread.bsky.social @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/w...

Really clear call for a national helpline and better services to support safer withdrawal from antidepressants by @simonforstroud.bsky.social and Danny Kruger on @radio4rne.bsky.social Today programme this morning. @tonyavery.bsky.social 👏🏻

Looking forward to reading this 👏🏻

Yes, no idea of type

The former chair of the DSM-4 task force regrets pushing the medical narrative of mental disorder and admits this “great mistake” was perpetrated to promote psych drugs, get research money and raise psychiatry’s status in medicine. A scandal. Don’t shoot the messenger 🤷‍♂️

@keirwales.bsky.social

Home Mad in America’s mission is to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care in the United States (and abroad). We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society, an...

Hello #Bluesky. 👋

We started Mad in America in 2012 with the aim of critically reviewing the science behind psychiatry and its diagnoses.

We provide personal stories, reviews of scientific literature, podcasts, online events and original MIA reporting.

Visit us here: www.madinamerica.com