Tag: placebo

Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Economic Manuscripts: Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

stablishment psychiatry has recently switched the biological cause of mental illness from a “chemical imbalance” to a “brain circuitry defect.” There is no more important institution in establishment psychiatry than the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and in 2022, psychiatrist Thomas Insel, NIMH director from 2002-2015, stated in his book Healing, “The idea of mental illness as a ‘chemical imbalance’ has now given way to mental illnesses as ‘connectional’ or brain circuit disorders.”

Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?

Placebo effect for all psychiatric diagnoses “of considerable magnitude”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

In a new study, researchers found huge improvements in psychiatric symptoms on placebo alone, particularly for depression and anxiety. They included the 10 least biased, most recent randomised controlled trials for nine common diagnoses in their attempt to quantify the improvements that could be expected without treatment.

Placebo effect for all psychiatric diagnoses “of considerable magnitude” (archived)

Scientific Misconduct and Fraud: The Final Nail in Psychiatry’s Antidepressant Coffin

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

“. . . if the major media picks up on this story, they will have the chance to report on what arguably is the worst—and most harmful—scandal in American medical history”

Robert Whitaker, publisher of madinamerica.com, January 3, 2024

Historically, there have always been some patients who report that any treatment for depression—including bloodletting—has worked for them, but science demands that for a treatment to be deemed truly effective, it must work better than a placebo or the passage of time without any treatment. This is especially important for antidepressant drugs—including Prozac, Zoloft, and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), as well as Effexor, Cymbalta, and other serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)—because all of these drugs have uncontroversial troubling side effects.

Scientific Misconduct and Fraud: The Final Nail in Psychiatry’s Antidepressant Coffin

Related:

Once Radical Critiques of Psychiatry are Now Mainstream, So What Remains Taboo?

Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next