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You are here: Home / Archives for major tranquilizers

Allen Frances on the Benefits of “Antipsychotics”

March 11, 2016 By Phil Hickey | 35 Comments

On February 1, Allen Frances, MD, published an interesting article on the Huffington Post blog.  The article is called Do Antipsychotics Help or Harm Psychotic Symptoms?, and is a response to Robert Whitaker’s post of January 27:  “Me, Allen Frances, and Climbing Out of a Pigeonhole.  This post, in turn, was a response to Dr…. Continue Reading

The Use of Neuroleptic Drugs as Chemical Restraints 

July 24, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 3 Comments

On July 17, I wrote a post on the use of neuroleptic drugs as chemical restraints in nursing homes.  The article generated some comments, one of which touched on some very fundamental issues which, in my view, warrant further discussion.  The comment was from drsusanmolchan and read as follows: “All drugs can be dangerous toxic… Continue Reading

Neuroleptics and Tardive Dyskinesia in Children

February 26, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 10 Comments

There’s an interesting February 11, 2014, article on Peter Breggin’s website:  $1.5 Million Award in Child Tardive Dyskinesia Malpractice.  Thanks to Mad in America for the link. Here’s the opening paragraph: “On February 11, 2014 a Chicago jury awarded $1.5 million to an autistic child who developed a severe case of tardive dyskinesia and tardive… Continue Reading

Psychiatric Dogmatism

January 2, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 5 Comments

In November, Joanna Moncrieff, MD, a British psychiatrist who works as a Senior Lecturer in psychiatry at University College London and a practicing consultant psychiatrist, started her own blog.  What’s remarkable about this blog is that it is highly critical of psychiatry.  Dr. Moncrieff marshals important facts and arguments in this area, and it is… Continue Reading

Neuroleptics for Children: Harvard’s Shame

December 4, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 31 Comments

In December 2012, Mark Olfson, MD, et al, published an article in the Archives of General Psychiatry.  The title is National Trends in the Office-Based Treatment of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Antipsychotics.  The authors collected data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys for the period 1993-2009, and looked for trends in antipsychotic prescribing… Continue Reading

Causes of High Mortality in People Labeled ‘Mentally Ill’

November 12, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 5 Comments

ANOTHER VIDEO FROM DR. LIEBERMAN On October 28, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, made another video.  This one is titled An Important Look at Mortality in Mental Illness: A Decade of Data on Psychotropic Drugs, and was made for Medscape.  You can see the transcript at the same site.  Medscape is a web… Continue Reading

Submitting Claims for Off-label Prescriptions to Medicaid May Constitute Fraud

September 12, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 4 Comments

In my view, one of the most destructive developments in psychiatry in recent years is the prescribing of neuroleptic drugs to children.  Much of this prescribing is off-label, meaning that the prescribed use is not approved by the FDA.  Off-label drug prescribing is legal, however.  Once the FDA has approved a drug for one purpose,… Continue Reading

Antipsychotics: A Euphemism for Neurotoxins

July 10, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 26 Comments

I guess everybody knows by now that Robert Whitaker spoke at the NAMI conference in San Antonio last Saturday (June 29).   You can view an outline of his speech, The Case for Selective Use of Antipsychotics here.  He spoke about the fact that for people who have been assigned a “diagnosis” of “schizophrenia,” long-term outcomes… Continue Reading

The Power of Words to Shape Attitudes

April 21, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 1 Comment

I recently wrote a post called:  Do Major Tranquilizers Make Things Worse?  The post was based on a study by Drs. Harrow and Jobe in which they speculated that the high relapse rate of “schizophrenics” who stop taking their drugs may have more to do with drug withdrawal than the supposed drug efficacy. Monica, at… Continue Reading

Do Major Tranquilizers Make Things Worse?

April 19, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 3 Comments

BACKGROUND On March 19 of this year an article by Martin Harrow and Thomas Jobe was published in the Schizophrenia Bulletin:  Does Long-Term Treatment of Schizophrenia with Antipsychotic Medications Facilitate Recovery?  You can see it here.  The term “antipsychotics” embraces drugs such as Haldol, Risperdal, Thorazine, etc…  I prefer the term major tranquilizers, because it… Continue Reading

Tardive Dyskinesia

March 7, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 6 Comments

In the late 80’s, I worked for a while in an addictions unit that was located on the grounds of a State Hospital in West Virginia.  Clients would arrive on 72-hour holding committals from the counties, and if the psychiatrist felt that the client needed to stay longer than that (which was almost always the… Continue Reading

 

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The phrase "mental health" as used in the name of this website is simply a term of convenience. It specifically does not imply that the human problems embraced by this term are illnesses, or that their absence constitutes health. Indeed, the fundamental tenet of this site is that there are no mental illnesses, and that conceptualizing human problems in this way is spurious, destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing.

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