Mad In America

In this interview, John discusses the extensive bias that pervades scientific research, the problematic practices and pressures that enable flawed science, and the significant issues with antidepressant research. At the same time, he reminds us why good science is a gift to humanity and something we must protect for our well-being and dignity.

Welcome to MIA Radio. Today, we are pleased to have as our guest Jaakko Seikkula. Jaakko is a psychologist who helped develop the Open Dialogue practice at Keropudas Hospital in Tornio, Finland, in the 1990s, and he is the person who has conducted the research that told of remarkable longer-term outcomes with this form of care.

Jørgen Kjønø, whose stage name is Dex Carrington, is a Norwegian-American stand-up comedian based in Oslo, Norway. He is also an actor, host of the Truth Train podcast, and former travel show host who gained international recognition as the host of Dexpedition, which aired on MTV in over 30 countries. He joins us on the Mad In America podcast to talk about his experience with Lyrica and Zyprexa, including a five-and-a-half-year taper after 10 years on the drugs.

Nelson Lee is a therapist and mental skills coach. In 2024, he attempted to get off antidepressants that he'd been on for 15 years. This led to significant long-term medication withdrawal that Nelson is still navigating at the time of this interview.

Bob Whitaker is joined by Joanna Moncrieff to discuss her latest book 'Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth'. This book in many ways is a follow-up to her 2022 paper which looked at the serotonin story and concluded that there was no good evidence that a serotonergic deficiency was a primary cause of depression. It caused quite a furor within the media and in psychiatry.

Bob Whitaker is joined by Italian psychiatrist, Giovanni Fava. From 1992 to 2022, Dr. Fava edited the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. The pair discuss the importance of that journal and what may be lost now that the publisher, Karger, may be taking it in a new direction.

Brooke Siem speaks with David Taylor and Mark Horowitz about their publication of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, which is of particular note since the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines is a leading text in medicine worldwide.

Jessica Schleider is a clinical psychologist and researcher. She's a leader in single-session interventions for youth mental health - an evidence-based approach that aims to provide help that's accessible, doable, and affordable for populations around the world and is already available via open-access programs.

Milutin Kosti? is a practicing Serbian psychiatrist trained in the tradition of biological psychiatry. He sheds light on the effects of biological narratives on patient perspectives, the complexities of drug dependency, and the profound impact of psychiatric diagnoses on individual identity.

Swapnil Gupta is an Associate Professor and Medical Director of Ambulatory Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital. She is known for her work on deprescribing from and discontinuation of psychiatric drugs. Swapnil discusses deprescribing from psychiatric drugs, the difficult decisions faced by patients, the importance of psychosocial support during withdrawal, and how deprescribing is central to recovery-oriented practices such as shared decision and patient choice.

Brooke Siem is a writer, speaker, and advocate for the safe de-prescribing of psychiatric drugs. Brooke talks about her experiences of withdrawal from a cocktail of psychiatric drugs, as described in her debut memoir May Cause Side Effects, one of the first books on antidepressant withdrawal to make it to the mass market.

Ray Moynihan is an accomplished health journalist and author who has won several awards for his work. He is also an academic at Bond University and a documentary filmmaker. He discusses the labeling of everyday life struggles as disorders and how patient advocacy groups, doctors, medical journalists, and respected academics are often manipulated by a powerful, corporatized healthcare system.

Discussion on supporting a child, teen or young adult in crisis. The host is Mad in America's Family Editor, Amy Biancolli, and with her are guest speakers Ciara Fanlo, a recovered troubled teen, Morna Murray, a parent who supports her son through crisis, and Sami Timimi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

David Carmichael has personal knowledge of the effects of psychiatric drugs, having experienced a family tragedy in 2004. David now uses his knowledge and experience to help people make informed choices about prescription drug use.

Adam has been practicing medicine for over 25 years, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. He cares for pregnant women on a daily basis as an attending maternal-fetal medicine physician and writes and lectures on antidepressant use during pregnancy. Adam discusses what we do and don't know about the effects of antidepressants on babies and mothers and also the importance of counselling in order to aid families in making important decisions about pharmaceutical drug use.

David discusses the recently held World Tapering Day, a possible relationship between antidepressant treatment and sensory neuropathy and the difficulties that can be encountered when trying to deprescribe.

Anders Sørenson is a Danish clinical psychologist with a special interest in psychiatric drug withdrawal. He has undertaken research which assesses the state of guidance on psychiatric drug withdrawal.

Beverley discusses her latest book, 'Antidepressed: A Breakthrough Examination of Epidemic Antidepressant Harm and Dependence', which features compelling accounts from people whose lives have been irrevocably harmed by prescribed antidepressants. Beverley's work provides proof that there is no such thing as a magic pill and that pretending otherwise risks the lives and well-being of those who need help the most.

Allan Horwitz and Sarah Fay speak about the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and its impact on our society and our personal lives.

Michael is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. Michael discusses his recently released book entitled 'Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription, Over-medicalisation, Flawed Research, and Conflicts of Interest.' The book addresses the overprescribing of antidepressants and it critically examines the current scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety of the drugs.

Dr. Giovanni Fava. Dr. Fava is a psychiatrist and professor of clinical psychology at the University of Bologna in Italy. He recently released his latest book entitled 'Discontinuing Antidepressant Medications', a guide for clinicians who want to help patients withdraw from antidepressants. We discuss his new book, approaches to antidepressant cessation and explore some of the concepts including novel psychotherapeutic approaches to withdrawal.

This week we talk with Professor Jim van Os and Doctor Peter Groot about their latest study which looks at the effectiveness of tapering strips to help people get off antidepressant drugs.

Anne Guy discusses withdrawal from psychiatric medications, problems with psychiatry's over-reliance on the biomedical model, the difference between 'addiction' and 'dependence,' and counseling beyond diagnosis.

Peter Sterling, now retired from the University of Pennsylvania, is a well-known neuroscientist. His recent book, 'What is Health: Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design, examines what our species require for a healthy life, andwhether we can achieve this with drugs.

A recent paper entitled 'The role of Facebook groups in the management and raising of awareness of antidepressant withdrawal: is social media filling the void left by health services?' considers the support provided by online support groups when people seek help for psychiatric drug withdrawal. It was published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology in January 2021 and the authors are Sherry Julo, Ed White and John Read.

Prescription-drug-induced akathisia discussion with Jill Nickens. Jill is the president and founder of the Akathisia Alliance for Education and Research, a nonprofit organization formed by people who have personal experience of akathisia.

Adele Framer, also known by her online handle Altostrata, is the founder of SurvivingAntidepressants.org, a peer-support website that features several thousand case histories of psychiatric drug withdrawal. The site is a hub of information on the topic, highlighting methods of safe drug tapering and recovery and underscoring the humanity of those in the grips of withdrawal.

Dr. Stuart Shipko has a particular interest in the side effects and withdrawal effects of antidepressants and benzodiazepines and the need for informed consent when prescribing. We discuss: SSRI withdrawal, Tardive Akathisia, informed consent and psychiatric drug tapering.

Wendy Dolin founder of the MISSD foundation. MISSD stands for Medication-Induced Suicide Prevention and Education Foundation in Memory of Stewart Dolin.

Dr. Peter Breggin and Dr. Michael Cornwall discuss their new initiative, Stop the Psychiatric Abuse of Children (SPAC!).

December 4th 2019, marks the release of guidance to support psychological therapists and their clients in decisions related to psychiatric drugs. The guidance is a collaboration between psychologists, peer support specialists and psychiatrists and aims to provide important context and evidence-based support to psychological therapists. In this interview, we chat with psychotherapist and project lead Dr. Anne Guy, Peer Support Specialist Paul Sams and Professor of Psychology John Read.

Carina Håkansson and Professor John Read discuss psychiatric drug withdrawal and, in particular, the work of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal.

Last year, Lucy Johnstone and her colleagues launched the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), a set of ideas that represented a sharp departure from the biomedical conceptions of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). This framework shifts the notion of 'what is wrong with you' in the DSM to 'what has happened to you,' and by doing so turns away from a medical process bent on diagnosing broken brains and toward a narrative response that tells of contexts, power dynamics, and systems. In this interview, Lucy reflects on the reaction to the PTMF, and the possibility that it will help stir up a revolution in the field. How is the framework to be used? Does it stand a chance of becoming adopted? She also tells of how her own life experiences and the influences on her work.

Dr. Mark Horowitz recently co-authored, with Dr. David Taylor, a review of antidepressant withdrawal that was published in Lancet Psychiatry. Their article suggests that tapering off antidepressants over months or even years is more successful at preventing withdrawal symptoms than a quick discontinuation of two to four weeks.

Akansha Vaswani and Dr Peter Groot discuss Tapering Strips, a novel and practical solution for those who wish to taper gradually from a range of prescription drugs.

Update on a complaint made to the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists by a group of thirty academics, psychiatrists and people with lived experience. We hear from both Professor Sami Timimi and Professor John Read who discuss recent events including the latest response from the Chief Executive Officer of the College.

In this interview, we got time to talk about Laura's personal experiences of the mental health system and what led her to co-found the Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project.

Professor John Read bring us up to date on the response to the complaint which was lodged with UK Royal College of Psychiatrists on behalf of a group of thirty academics, psychiatrists and people with lived experience.

Professor John Read explains recent developments in the UK involving the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Joanna Moncrieff talks about the recent meta-analysis of the efficacy and tolerability of 21 antidepressant drugs.

Dr. Healy discusses Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) and his novel and innovative approach to finding a cure.

Dr Kirsch discusses his research into the placebo effect and the efficacy of drugs used for depression.

Bobby is a very well known author, blogger and researcher who has been writing about psychiatric drugs and the many issues involved for over 11 years. Bobby discusses his experience of the mental health system, his research and campaigning over the years and his relationship with the UK and US pharmaceutical regulatory bodies.

Dr. Breggin is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former Consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He has been called 'The Conscience of Psychiatry' for his many decades of successful efforts to reform the mental health field.

Jim Gottstein, president and founder of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, talks to us about his own experiences with the psychiatric system, patient rights in mental healthcare and the recent trial between Wendy Dolin and the UK Pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline.