New NICE Guidelines for ECT Are Dangerously Inadequate, Say 50 Patients and Professionals
While there has been little (if any) sign of interest in reviewing ECT practices and guidelines in Canada, a group in the UK has...
New Canadian Benzodiazepine Documentary – AIRS FEBRUARY 15th!
Radio-Canada's Enquête presents "Cauchemar Sur Ordonnance" (Season 17: Episode 17)
The episode's title translates to 'prescription nightmare' in French, and it will focus on the...
Bell Let’s Talk: Are These “New Conversations” Helpful?
January 26th is Bell Let’s Talk Day. From the Bell Let’s Talk website:
"In September 2010, Bell Let’s Talk began a new conversation about Canada’s...
Medical Assistance in Dying for ‘Mental disorders’: Fatally flawed without expertise of service users/survivors
Now that people suffering exclusively from mental distress will be eligible for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) from April, 2023, the debate has shifted...
Thomas Insel Makes A Case for Abolishing Psychiatry
Thomas Insel’s book Healing: Our Path From Mental Illness to Mental Health is getting a fair amount of media attention, which could be expected...
Will We Wake for Pity’s Sake
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. While antidepressants, and other psychotropic, mind altering medications, are designed to decrease...
Part 1: Neurodiversity—What Exactly Does It Mean?
Mad in America and Mad in the UK are jointly publishing a four-part series on neurodiversity over the next four weeks. The series was...
ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY (ECT) STUDY
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR INTERNATIONAL ONLINE SURVEY
If you are at least 18 years old and have had ECT, other than the last 4 weeks,...
Fernando de Freitas: A “Dear Friend” Who Was a Warrior for Radical Change
Written by Robert Whitaker and posted to Mad in America on February 3, 2023
Over the past decade, the call for radical change in psychiatry...
The Ethics of Psychiatry
A government cannot legitimately own its citizens' bodies. Yet, under British Columbia’s (BC) Mental Health Act the BC government, not to mention governments around...
STAR*D UPDATES: Petition for Retraction of STAR*D Summary Article Submitted to AJP Editor Ned...
On September 9, 2023 (updated September 20, 2023) Mad in America published Robert Whitaker's MIA Report on the STAR*D fraudulent data scandal. Since then...
Video Presentation – ‘The Science and Art of Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs’
Inner Compass Initiative is pleased to share a video recording of a recent live event.
‘The Science and Art of Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs’.
This video...
IN THE GLOBE AND MAIL – Forced psychiatry is expanding – at society’s peril
On June 19, 2023, The Globe and Mail published, his opinion piece, 'Forced psychiatry is expanding - at society's peril'.
From Rob's piece in the...
Are Patients Being Paid to Provide Industry Endorsements?
Dr. Joel Lexchin is Professor Emeritus in the School of Health Policy and Management, Faculty of Health, York University. Dr. Lexchin's 2025 article, 'Information...
“Global Psychiatry’s Crisis of Values”
American psychiatrist Awais Aftab, leads the series 'Conversations in Critical Psychiatry' for Psychiatric Times. His June 3rd installment, an interview with Dainius Pūras, MD,...
Electroconvulsive Therapy Survey | John Read | Madness Radio
First Aired by Madness Radio on July 11, 2024
Survey of people who have had electroshock (electroconvulsive Therapy/ECT) – for patients, family, and friends.
John Read,...
Electroconvulsive Therapy …. What does Canada have to say?
Electroconvulsive Therapy, also known as ECT, shock therapy, and electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment that uses electricity to induce a seizure in the person...
PETITION TO RETRACT FRAUDULENT STAR*D REPORT
Mad in America has set up a petition on change.org that calls for retraction of the STAR*D article published in the American...
The STAR*D Scandal: Scientific Misconduct on a Grand Scale
The American Journal of Psychiatry Needs to Retract Study That Reported Fraudulent Results
By Robert Whitaker, published...
How are we doing?
We’re 21 months and counting into this global pandemic. And just when we think we’re getting close to the end, this wicked virus dumps...
Remembering Don Weitz, 1930-2021
My hero, mentor, and very dear friend Don Weitz died comfortably, in his home, on the afternoon of September 1, attended by his loving...
Review of the Conference on Withdrawal and Side Effects: IIPDW
The online conference Withdrawal From Psychiatric Drugs was held on Friday May 6th and 7th. An extremely important topic for us at Mad in...
A Disorder for Everyone – Online Festival 2023
A Disorder for Everyone! - The Online Festival 2023
Friday September 22nd, 9am-8pm GMT
https://youtu.be/2Mlw_GTN17o?si=pDrPmpcwORIU_8Xc
This is a donation only event to ensure that it is as...
On “knowing,” activism and writing: Remembering Graeme Bacque
We owe a debt of gratitude to activists who over the years have written, recorded, created art and cultural work that exemplifies how, when,...
MAID and Mental Illness: An interview with Dr. Jeffrey Kirby
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) became legal in Canada in June 2016.
In October 2020, Bill C-7: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical...
Rethinking Psychiatry …. Robert Whitaker Speaks in Montreal
Robert Whitaker, founder and president of Mad in America, gave a public lecture at Concordia University on November 10th. 'Rethinking Psychiatry: How the Failure to...
When Tapering Antidepressants, is Going Slow Always the Best Strategy?
I start this blog with an apology. There may be people reading who, like myself, look back with frustration and despair that they cannot...
Evidence of change?
Working outside the dominant biomedical narrative can feel perilous and sometimes even risky. Taking a critical perspective of psychiatry (mental health care more broadly),...
Research Reveals Mental Health Professionals’ Participation in Rape Culture
Standard clinical practices often enforce anti-blackness, rape culture, and sanism, normalizing sexual violence and misogyny.
New work from social work professor Merrick Pilling investigates...
No evidence of a chemical imbalance in depression
The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence.
Joanna Moncrieff and 5 colleagues undertook a systematic umbrella review of evidence aimed...