Dr Margaret McCartney has today published an article in the BMJ entitled ‘Overprescribing antidepressants: where’s the evidence?’ which casts doubt on the validity of figures used by CEP to highlight the growth of prescribing of antidepressants. “CEP said that antidepressant use had increased by 92% in England since 20035; however, it cited the Health and […]
In a major editorial, The Times newspaper has issued a strongly-worded critique of the medicalisation of normality: ‘The current fashion to label and try to treat aspects of human behaviour is not only unsustainably expensive, it may also prove injurious to the health of society as a whole… Individuals should not be subject to… a […]
In an interview with The Times, the incoming president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Sir Simon Wessely, has launched a defence of psychiatry, claiming that the rise in antidepressant and stimulant prescriptions for children has been caused by pushy middle-class parents, teachers and pressure groups. “Medicalisation is not often done by doctors,” he claims. […]
The CMAJ published a short piece covering the launch of CEP at the House of Lords on 30 April 2014. See: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2014/06/16/cmaj.109-4814.full.pdf+html?sid=e12b03a7-8560-4f73-8ce6-fbc09ed755aa
Michael Enright of Canadian CBC Radio interviews Robert Whitaker, author of ‘Anatomy of an Epidemic’, on The Sunday Edition: http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/features/2014/06/08/robert-whitaker-on-psychiatric-drugs/
The DSM – A GREAT WORK, OR FICTION? A study of why psychiatry has become bad for our mental health Why is psychiatry such big business? Why are so many psychiatric drugs prescribed, and why, without solid scientific justification, has the number of mental disorders risen from 106 in 1952, to 374 today? In this […]
Yesterday The Lancet published a comment piece authored by five senior UK psychiatrists and psychopharmacologists, including Professor David Nutt and Professor Guy Goodwin. The article is entitled: ‘Attacks on antidepressants: signs of deep-seated stigma?’ and can be viewed online here: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(14)70232-9/fulltext?_eventId=login The article is free to view; however registration on the site is required.
Dr. James Davies, author & academic, University of Roehampton
Prof. Sami Timimi, child psychiatrist & visiting professor, University of Lincoln
Professor Peter Gøtzsche, Dr Joanna Moncrieff and Dr James Davies today responded to a letter sent to The Times last week by Professor David Nutt, Professor Sir Simon Wessely and other senior psychiatrists entitled ‘In defence of antidepressants’. The response is copied below and can be seen in The Times here; the original letter from Nutt […]
