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Searching for the “Psychiatric Yeti”: Schizophrenia Is Not Genetic

Mad in America

In the article, Torrey reviews the history of the Human Genome Project, their hopes for identifying the genetic basis for schizophrenia, and how those hopes have been dashed by the complete failure to find anything of the sort. Yet laypeople, and many mental health professionals, still believe that schizophrenia is a genetic disorder.

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My Chronic Illness Was Misdiagnosed as ‘Mental Illness’

Mad in America

I had no history whatsoever of mental health issues or mental illness. And now, all of a sudden, I was “very mentally ill” and committed to a psych hospital against my will. Unfortunately, the remaining 25 percent are genetically unable to make antibodies to these toxins. And none of it was true—not even close.

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Mental Disorder Has Roots in Trauma and Inequality, Not Biology

Mad in America

Moreover, in stark contrast to the discoveries by medical researchers of biological causation for many physical illnesses, psychiatric researchers have failed to find physiological or genetic causation for the most diagnosed mental disorders—the anxiety disorders and depression—negating the rationale for the prescription of these drugs.

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New Guidelines on How to Accurately Convey ADHD Information

Mad in America

Unbalanced, for instance, in the sense that much emphasis is placed on brain and genetic studies that to this day have cost billions of dollars, while showing only very small associations—not providing any basis for biological screening. Genetic studies are also the cause of many misunderstandings.

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The New WHO and UN Guidance: Psychiatry Must Entirely Change

Mad in America

A fter years of work involving hundreds of people in dozens of countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have released their joint production, Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation: Guidance and Practice ( WHO/OHCHR , 2023, referred to as the Guidance.

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Who Do We Leave Behind When We Ignore the Body? Why Critical Neuroscientists and Mad Activists Must Work Together

Mad in America

The prevailing logic goes: if we can validate biometric tests that are clinically predictive of mental health concerns like in other medical fields, we can more precisely, effectively, and without (solely) subjective clinical observation, treat the malady. Should we give up the search for biomarkers altogether?

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Undisclosed Financial Conflicts of Interest in the DSM-5: An Interview with Lisa Cosgrove and Brian Piper

Mad in America

Mad in America has previously examined the problems with conflicts of interest in research but this time we extend that to look at the potential effect of COIs on diagnostic tools such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Cosgrove: Definitely. We don’t see that in the mental health field.