Antipsychotics Often Prescribed Without Informed Consent
This article was written by Samantha Lilly and originally published by Mad in America, March 23, 2022
New research reveals that patients are often not...
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...
887 Deaths from Psychoactive Meds Reported to Health Canada in 2021
I guess I started seriously considering the potential of antipsychotics to kill after I lost my friend Cameron. Cameron Fray was a husband, father...
“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,...
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),...
World Mental Health Day – Sunday, October 10, 2021
Today - Sunday, October 10th - is World Mental Health Day.
According to the World Health Organization, "The overall objective of World Mental Health Day...
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...
What is “Psychosis”?
There are different hypotheses about what psychosis is. One hypothesis that has been repeatedly disproven is that of the medical model belief that psychosis...
The Best (and Worst) That Mood-Tech Can Be
When Ontario was first placed under lockdown in March 2020, I, like many other psych-service users found myself relying on Skype and phone sessions...
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...
Appeal to Board of Health to Ban ECT in Ontario
In January of 1984 seven members of the Ontario Coalition to Stop Electroshock, three psychiatrists, and a psychiatric social worker gave personal testimony. I...
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...
The ERNI Declaration: Making Sense of Distress Without “Disease”
The ERNI (Emotions aRe Not Illnesses) declaration is based on the idea that distress does not equate to disease, dysfunction, dysregulation, or chemical imbalance....
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,...
Is psychiatry such a fragile house of cards?
On October 9, 2021 an opinion piece was published in the Globe and Mail entitled ‘Woke’ psychiatrists have lost sight of the biological causes...
Personality disorders? Please, tell us what you really think.
This week on Twitter, there was an uproar in response to a UK Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPUK) advertisement for a course on ‘personality...
Responses to the ‘No Chemical Imbalance Study’: A Long-awaited Watershed Moment?
Initial reactions to the 20 July publication of the Moncrieff et al. study have included widespread media coverage in some places, and the metaphorical...
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...
In Memoriam: Paula Joan Caplan
Paula Caplan, a prolific writer, playwright, and social activist, who for decades was one of the most prominent critics of psychiatry and its diagnoses,...
Honoring Jane Whittington: 1950-2021
It’s with great sadness that I am writing of the sudden and unexpected passing of my former husband and best friend Jane. Many of...
RIP: Ed White – Advocate, Researcher and Supporter
To read the original of this post click here to go to the Mad in the UK site
By James Moore -17/10/2021
It is with great...
Loss, Grief, and Betrayal: Psychiatric Survivors Reflect on the Impact of New Serotonin Study
Loss, grief, and a sense of betrayal are felt deeply by many who have been affected by the myth of the chemical imbalance—a myth...
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...
Shamanic Approaches to Dis-Ease: Working with the Whole Person
The shamanic practitioner approaches illness, or “dis-ease” from a spiritual perspective. The focus is not on treating a condition, but on working with the...
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...
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...
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...
Mental Health Advocacy and Activism: Perspectives from Living Experience-Based Practices
From Mad in America Continuing Education
Thursday, September 23rd, 2021. 1pm Eastern, 12pm Central, 11am Mountain, 10 am Pacific
Participants will be introduced to highlights of...
There’s a Fundamental Flaw in Mental Health Care in Canada
Mad in Canada launched on June 1st. We’re just over a month old. Reflection on the mission we share with Mad in America and...
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...