What can we learn from the asylum? Historical study of the Essex County Asylum reflects the perennial functions of the mental health system

Summary My historical study of the Essex asylum, just outside London, which was recently published in Psychological Medicine, finds that those who were admitted showed significant disturbances of behaviour or evidence of organic disease. Almost two thirds of those who had psychological, as opposed to organic, disorders were discharged recovered or improved (mostly recovered). The…

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What does ‘relapse’ mean? Definitions used in long-term antipsychotic treatment trials are inconsistent and unclear.

We are told that long-term antipsychotic treatment reduces the risk of someone having a ‘relapse’ of schizophrenia or psychosis. What ‘relapse’ actually refers to in the studies that are supposed to establish this has not been examined though. Our recent study of relapse definitions, published in Schizophrenia Research, shows that there is no consistent or…

Philosophy / Politics

The uniqueness of life: a review of Peter Hacker’s “Human Nature: the Categorial Framework” and its implications for the mind-body problem and our understanding of mental disorder

Peter Hacker is an eminent philosopher and one of the world’s leading authorities on Wittgenstein. He has published a four volume analytical commentary on the Philosophical Investigations and a brilliant little book on Wittgenstein’s philosophy of mind, now sadly out of print (1). He is also well known for his debunking of neuroscientific reductionism in…

How profit and professional interests have misled us about antidepressants

Our umbrella review that revealed no links between serotonin and depression has caused shock waves among the general public, but been dismissed as old news by psychiatric opinion leaders. This disjunction begs the questions of why the public have been fed this narrative for so long, and what antidepressants are actually doing if they are…

‘First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you …’*

Summary: I respond to some of the points in the recent Rolling Stone article and correct the many inaccuracies and distortions. Ignoring is no longer working, so champions of big Pharma and mainstream psychiatry have gone into attack mode. The strategy is to undermine the messenger (me) in order to neutralise the message. In this…

How to take the news that depression has not been shown to be caused by a chemical imbalance

Summary TL;DR For decades people have been told that depression is caused by a serotonin deficiency. This was the rationale behind the introduction of the SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) antidepressants in the 1990s, which were thought to work by boosting low levels of serotonin. Our research shows no evidence of low serotonin in depression,…

Systematic umbrella review finds no evidence that serotonin abnormalities are associated with depression (but don’t stop your drugs suddenly)

Our new review of serotonin research collated research from six different areas. We looked at research on serotonin levels in body fluids, levels of the main metabolite (breakdown product) of serotonin in the cerebro-spinal fluid (brain fluid), serotonin receptors, the serotonin transporter protein (the protein that removes serotonin from the synapse where it is active-…

The functions of the mental health system under capitalism

In this blog I look at the functions of the mental health system as they relate to the economic and social structure of society using Marx’s economic framework. I conclude that the mental health system is essentially a system of care and control, that is legitimated by the concept of mental illness and that plays…

The Political Economy of the Mental Health System- a response to a commentary

Original article: Vincenzo’s commentary: Part 1 Part 2 For those who have not read my original article, it traces the social functions of the mental health system and its relationship to Capitalism. It suggests the principal functions of this system consist of the public provision of care for those who cannot care for themselves, and…

Psychedelics – the new psychiatric craze!

Psychedelics are an increasingly fashionable medical treatment, but are they anything other than a powerful form of snake oil, or a recreational experience? Do they have any objective health benefits? Can we be confident they are safe? These questions need answering urgently as the number of people being enticed or persuaded to have these drugs is increasing. Here I draw attention to some of the issues raised by the current popularity of these drugs.

How little we really know about psychiatric drugs

In this blog I reflect on what has and has not changed in the field of psychiatric drug treatment in the years between the first and newly published second edition of the Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs.

What can Game of Thrones teach us about moral philosophy?

I was as disappointed as everyone else by the final series of Game of Thrones, but when someone suggested that the programme as a whole was an example of modern moral nihilism, I found myself jumping to its defence. Of course, this person had not actually seen Game of Thrones, because anyone who has…

Persistent withdrawal and lasting damage from prescribed drugs

The recent furore caused by publication of evidence about the serious nature of antidepressant withdrawal made me reflect on the lasting damage that can sometime be done by prescription drugs, and how it has often taken concerted efforts by users of these drugs to bring these effects to public attention. Historically, the medical community…

Joanna Moncrieff

Books, papers and blogs by Joanna Moncrieff