No comment. The cartoons speak for themselves. In November, we shall know if the Americans will vote for a president who is a habitual liar and fraudster and who can pardon himself for his crimes if he gets elected. If he becomes president again, I see no hope for America. See the cartoons

I am convinced that Medicating Normal is the best documentary ever made about how psychiatric drugs destroy people. Everyone with an interest in psychiatry must see this brilliant and very moving film. More than once, actually. The film can be seen for free.

For over three years, the filmmakers documented the journey of five individuals whose lives were profoundly impacted by the medication they were taking and they interviewed many knowledgeable experts about the central issues.

The homepage for the film is very informative, with resources related to psychiatric drugs and how to withdraw safely from them.

Our review of safe withdrawal of depression drugs  shows that length of taper is highly predictive for the chance of success (P = 0.00001). All the randomised studies we reviewed were of poor quality. They confounded withdrawal symptoms with relapse; did not use hyperbolic tapering; withdrew the depression drug too fast; and stopped it entirely when receptor occupancy was still high. We are therefore convinced that the true proportion of patients on depression drugs who can stop safely without severe withdrawal symptoms is considerably higher than the 50% we found.

Our review had a very difficult birth, which I have described on the Mad in America website in the article “Cochrane reviews of psychiatric drugs are untrustworthy,” and our troubles included Cochrane editorial misconduct. …

Our review of safe withdrawal of depression drugsRead More »

En artikel i Jyllands-Posten fra den 14. april var meget frustrerende at læse, men typisk for den helt ukritiske måde, journalister skriver om psykiatri på. Den handlede om, at markant flere midaldrende og ældre får en ADHD-diagnose i dag end tidligere. Det forventer man, at læserne skal synes, er godt. Læs min artikel her.

Peter C Gøtzsche was invited to participate in The Daily Show on 16 September 2014 where he played the role of Deep Throat revealing secrets about organised crime in the drug industry in a garage in New York. The comedian was brilliant. See the satire.

The late Bernard Lown (Harvard cardiologist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient) said that capitalist medicine results in two things: undertreatment for people without money or insurance, and overtreatment of those with money.

This is the situation in US healthcare, and I wrote about it in my 2013 book, “Deadly medicines and organised crime: How big pharma has corrupted health care.” I documented that US healthcare is one of the worst in the world. Here is what I wrote:

Keeping people healthy is not a priority in America’s profit-driven system, which thrives when people are ill.¹ The propaganda has made nearly half of all Americans believe that the United States has the best healthcare in the world, albeit with a clear political divide (68% of the Republicans and 32% of Democrats).²

The beliefs that what is good for big pharma is also good for the people and that market forces will solve all problems are contradicted by the facts. The Unites States has the most ineffective healthcare system in the developed world.^3,4

Read full article

Chapter 14 in my 2015 book, “Deadly psychiatry and organised denial,” contains the documentation that led to my conclusion that psychiatric drugs are the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer. What is particularly noteworthy is that I am not speaking about the third leading cause of death among psychiatric patients, but in our whole population.

Furthermore, I explain how I arrived at the conclusion that our current usage of psychotropic drugs could be reduced by 98%. That was in 2015. Today, I would set the percentage at 99%, as we should not use neuroleptics (antipsychotics) at all. This means that we only need to use 1% of the psychiatric drugs we use today, and if we did that, far fewer people would die and far more people would be able to live normal lives.

These issues are so fundamental and so important that I have decided to upload Chapter 14 on my website. Everyone should be able to read about them for free.

Denise Winn has interviewed me for Human Givens Journal. It is one of the best interviews I have contributed to. Read it here.

By Peter C Gøtzsche
Institute for Scientific Freedom
Copenhagen

6 November 2023

The day after I was expelled from the Cochrane Governing Board and from the Cochrane Collaboration on 13 September 2018, four board members resigned in protest. Two days later, they gave their reasons in an email, “Why we resigned,” which they sent to Cochrane colleagues asking them to help distribute the letter to others. They also uploaded their letter on the Austrian Cochrane Centre’s website but were immediately asked by Cochrane’s leadership to remove it, which they did. One of Cochrane’s key principles is transparency. I therefore bring the letter below, which Cochrane misrepresented in a defamatory way. Read full article.

By Peter C Gøtzsche
Institute for Scientific Freedom
Copenhagen

5 Dec 2023

Summary 

Official guidelines and statements from the authorities and psychiatrists have denied for decades that depression drugs can cause dependence, and this denial is still seen today. They also underestimate substantially the severity and duration of the withdrawal symptoms. They provide dangerous advice about tapering procedures that are far too quick and does not respect the hyperbolic binding curves of the drugs to brain receptors, or they provide no tapering advice at all apart from useless statements about gradually reducing the dose, which is seen in package inserts. The massive use of depression drugs is not evidence-based but marketing-driven. These drugs do not have clinically relevant effects on depression; they double the risk of suicide; and have many other important harms. In clinical trials, the patients prefer a placebo for an active drug.The main focus in the coming years should be on avoiding prescribing depression drugs and on helping those who are on them to come off them as safely as possible. Read the article