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You are here: Home / Archives for neuroleptics

Deep Sleep “Therapy” in Australia in the 1960’s and 70’s. Could Something Like This Happen Today?

August 27, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

Here’s an interesting story from Australia, recently back in the spotlight. From 1962 to 1979, psychiatrist Harry Bailey, MD, serving as chief psychiatrist at Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, practiced “deep sleep therapy”, which involved keeping people in barbiturate-induced comas for days or even weeks.  Twenty-four of the individuals who received this “treatment”… Continue Reading

Allen Frances: Still Spinning the Story

April 24, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

On March 4, 2020, the very eminent Allen Frances, MD, published an article in Aeon, which according to its About page is “a digital magazine, publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web. We ask the big questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on science,… Continue Reading

Robert Whitaker Refutes Jeffrey Lieberman; But Is Psychiatry Reformable?

June 22, 2017 By Phil Hickey | 12 Comments

INTRODUCTION On May 5, 2017, Donald Goff, MD and seven other psychiatrists, including the very eminent Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, published an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry.  The title is: The Long-Term Effects of Antipsychotic Medication on Clinical Course in Schizophrenia. Here’s the abstract: “Concerns have been raised that treatment with antipsychotic medication might… Continue Reading

Neuroleptic Drugs, Akathisia, and Suicide and Violence

November 8, 2016 By Phil Hickey | 4 Comments

Thirty-three years ago, in August 1983, an article titled Suicide Associated with Akathisia and Depot Fluphenazine Treatment appeared in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.  The authors were Katherine Shear, MD, Allen Frances, MD, and Peter Weiden, MD. Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments/observations: “Akathisia is a common and distressing side effect of neuroleptic… Continue Reading

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

Allen Frances ‘Replies’

June 24, 2015 By Phil Hickey | 20 Comments

BACKGROUND On June 19, 2015, I published a post titled Allen Frances’ Ties to Johnson & Johnson.  In that post, I set out some very serious allegations against Dr. Frances.  I drew these allegations from a document titled Special Witness Report dated October 15, 2010.  The report was written by David Rothman, PhD, Professor of… Continue Reading

Allen Frances’ Ties to Johnson & Johnson

June 19, 2015 By Phil Hickey | 13 Comments

INTRODUCTION I recently came across an article titled Diagnosisgate: Conflict of Interest at the Top of the Psychiatric Apparatus, by Paula Caplan, PhD.  The article was published in Aporia, the University of Ottawa nursing journal, in January 2015.  Aporia is “a peer-reviewed, bilingual, and open access journal dedicated to scholarly debates in nursing and the… Continue Reading

Neuroleptic Drugs And Mortality

June 1, 2015 By Phil Hickey | 3 Comments

In November of last year, the Schizophrenia Bulletin published online a research study:  Antipsychotic Treatment and Mortality in Schizophrenia, by Minna Torniainen et al.  The research was conducted in Sweden. The authors offer the following background for the study: “It is generally believed that long-term use of antipsychotics increases mortality and, especially, the risk of… Continue Reading

The Drugging of Children in Foster Care

March 16, 2015 By Phil Hickey | 32 Comments

It’s no secret that here in America, foster children are being prescribed psychiatric drugs, especially neuroleptics, as a means of controlling their behavior.  A great deal has been said and written on the matter.  Politicians have declared the practice deplorable.  Children’s advocacy groups have expressed concern, and, of course, those of us in the antipsychiatry… Continue Reading

Thomas Insel: “Are Children Overmedicated?”

February 10, 2015 By Phil Hickey | 60 Comments

Thomas Insel, MD, is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.  In June of last year, he published, on the Director’s Blog, an article titled Are Children Overmedicated?  The gist of the article is that children are not being overmedicated, but rather that there is an increase in “severe psychiatric problems” in this… Continue Reading

Second Generation Neuroleptics and Acute Kidney Injury in Older Adults

September 18, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 4 Comments

On August 19, 2014, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a paper titled Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs and the Risk for Acute Kidney Injury [AKI] and Other Adverse Outcomes in Older Adults.  The authors were Joseph Hwang et al, and the study was conducted at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario, Canada.  The primary… 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

The Use of Neuroleptic Drugs As Chemical Restraints in Nursing Homes

July 17, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 29 Comments

There’s an interesting article in the July-August 2014 issue of the AARP Bulletin.  It’s called Drug Abuse: Antipsychotics in Nursing Homes, and was written by Jan Goodwin.  AARP is the American Association of Retired Persons.   Jan Goodwin is an investigative journalist whose career, according to Wikipedia, “…has been committed to focusing attention on social justice… Continue Reading

Psychiatry Misusing the Political Process

March 30, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 13 Comments

On March 27, the US House of Representatives approved by a voice vote with no debate a Medicare bill, HR 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014.  The purpose of the bill is to avoid cutting Medicare payments to physicians, and there was, and is, general agreement on both side of the aisle that… Continue Reading

Involuntary Mental Health Commitments

March 20, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 267 Comments

The recent publicity surrounding the Justina Pelletier case has focused attention, not only on the spurious and arbitrary nature of psychiatric diagnoses, but also on the legitimacy and appropriateness of mental health commitments.  It is being widely asserted that these archaic statutes are fundamentally incompatible with current civil rights standards, and the question “should mental… 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

Psychiatry’s Over Reliance On Pharma

January 3, 2014 By Phil Hickey | 10 Comments

I recently read The NIMH-CATIE Schizophrenia Study: What Did We Learn? by Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, and T. Scott Stroup, MD, MPH.  The article was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry 168:8, August 2011.   Here are two quotes: “When the CATIE study was designed in 1999-2000, the prevailing opinion of researchers and clinicians alike was… 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

CAFÉ Study: Real Science or Marketing Exercise?

December 18, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 2 Comments

BACKGROUND On December 8,  I received the following question from a reader:  (The subject matter is the controversial CAFÉ – Comparisons of Atypicals in First Episode of Psychosis – study.  This was the study in which Dan Markingson committed suicide.) “It appears that there was no head-to-head with a control group taking a placebo pill…. 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

Pharma Corruption of Healthcare

October 9, 2013 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading another great book:  Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare, by Peter C. Gotzsche [Radcliffe Publishing, 2013]. The book is an exposé of pharma’s fraudulent research and marketing.  The author is a Danish physician who has been involved in clinical trials of drugs, and in drug regulatory matters.  He… Continue Reading

Second Generation Neuroleptics, Tardive Dyskinesia, and the Law

October 7, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 8 Comments

There’s an interesting article on Harvard Law Petrie-Flom Center’s blog titled Daubert as a Problem for Psychiatrists.  It was written by Alex Stein and is dated September 19.  [Thanks to Dustin Salzedo for drawing my attention to this in a comment on an earlier post.] The article deals with the legal rules governing the admission… 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

Do Psycho-Pharma Drugs Have Any Legitimate Function?

August 20, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 7 Comments

BACKGROUND In the last ten years or so, the anti-psychiatry movement has been gaining adherents, and has been growing more focused and more outspoken. But we are not a unified group.  I, for instance, take what I think would be considered a fairly extreme position.  I believe that there are no mental illnesses; that the… Continue Reading

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