Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Starmer?s Palestinian Pledge Exposes the West?s Moral Collapse Thu Jul 31, 2025 15:05 | Laura Perrins The fact that either Britain or France would recognise a Palestinian state while Hamas still holds hostages sums up the moral rot at the heart of Europe, says Laura Perrins.
The post Starmer?s Palestinian Pledge Exposes the West?s Moral Collapse appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Muhammad? Tops Baby Name Charts Again Thu Jul 31, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred Muhammad is once again the most popular baby name for boys in England and Wales, in a year marked by a growing trend towards global, cross-cultural naming.
The post ?Muhammad? Tops Baby Name Charts Again appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
White House Warns Starmer: Stop Threatening US Tech Companies? Free Speech Thu Jul 31, 2025 11:00 | Toby Young It looks increasingly likely that the sweeping censorship powers granted to Ofcom by the Online Safety Act will be raised in US-UK trade talks, as the Trump administration becomes increasingly concerned.
The post White House Warns Starmer: Stop Threatening US Tech Companies? Free Speech appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Mainstream Naysayers Gather As Hopes Rise for Fourth Year of Record Coral on the Great Barrier Reef Thu Jul 31, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison Despite three record years of coral growth, the mainstream media keeps pushing doom and gloom on the Great Barrier Reef ? a story that doesn't quite add up, says the Daily Sceptic's Environment Editor.
The post Mainstream Naysayers Gather As Hopes Rise for Fourth Year of Record Coral on the Great Barrier Reef appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Unless Migrant Crime Is Happening to Them Personally, Many Brits Simply Refuse to Believe It Even Ex... Thu Jul 31, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker Britain's migrant crimewave is only invisible to those living in leafy delusion ? just ask Steven Tucker, who rips into the blind elites mistaking burning mattresses for cultural enrichment.
The post Unless Migrant Crime Is Happening to Them Personally, Many Brits Simply Refuse to Believe It Even Exists ? Especially Our Blinkered Rulers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Westmeath - Event Notice Thursday January 01 1970 Anatomy of an Epidemic: public lecture by Robert Whitaker
westmeath |
rights, freedoms and repression |
event notice
Thursday February 17, 2011 13:23 by Basil Miller - The Wellbeing Foundation wellbeing at wellbeingfoundation dot com 2 Eden Park | Glasthule | Dun Laoghaire | Co Dublin 01 4433494

Acclaimed medical journalist on the failure of drugs 'therapy'
FRIDAY 25 FEB: Public lecture ‘Assessing the Long-term Effects of Psychiatric Medications’
Venue: Room J1007, Department of Nursing, Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone.
11.00 am - 2.00 pm. Organised by The Irish Network of Critical Voices in Mental Health.
Inquiries to l.sapouna@ucc.ie or h.gijbels@ucc.ie In his latest book acclaimed US author Robert Whitaker investigates the astonishing rise of mental illness in the developed world.
Why has the number of adults and children disabled by mental illness skyrocketed over the past 50 years?
Why does this epidemic parallel so closely the growth and dominance of psychiatric drugs as treatment?
You can hear Robert answer these questions in person during his speaking tour.
Whitaker documents a history of science and medicine that raises a heretical question: Could the drug-based paradigm of care be fueling this modern-day plague?
Whatever the short-term effects of psychiatric drugs, where many trials suggest they can be effective, Whitaker analyses the full history of their use and asks:
What about their long-term effects?
He carefully documents an answer to that question for four major psychiatric disorders and for child and adolescent disorders. The answer is frightening. The drugs worsen long-term outcomes — and recovery from debilitating mental states has become rare.
Whitaker concludes we need to start an open conversation about how to stem the epidemic of disabling mental illness in society and move to a paradigm of care that helps people get well and stay well over the long term.
Biography
Robert Whitaker is the author of four books, two of which tell of the history of psychiatry. His first — Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill — was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002, while the American Library Association named it one of the best history books of that year. His newest book — Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America — investigates the explosion in the number of disabled mentally ill exactly at the time that the so-called ‘magic bullet’ drugs were acclaimed as a cuer which would eliminate mental ‘illness’.
Before writing books, Whitaker was science and medical reporter at the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York for a number of years. His journalism won several national awards, including a George Polk award for medical writing, and a National Association of Science Writers’ award for best magazine article. A series he co-wrote for The Boston Globe was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.
**************
The lecture tour has been organised under the auspices of The Irish Network for Critical Voices in Mental Health, in association with a number of voluntary and statutory organisations. This collaboration reflects the enthusiasm for and commitment to expanding the debate on new ways to embrace mental health within the Irish community.
The Irish Network for Critical Voices in Mental Health is a new national movement, made up of a coalition of various individuals and interest groups from the mad community, nursing, psychology, social sciences, carers, psychiatry, academia, and voluntary and statutory agencies, to provide a forum to discuss and debate critical issues in the area of mental health, psychiatry and madness, to attempt to bring this debate onto a new and wider national platform, and to campaign for a mental health system which is not based on the traditional bio-medical model, but one which recognises and responds to human distress in more creative, diverse and non-coercive ways.
For further information, contact Harry Gijbels on h.gijbels@ucc.ie Lydia Sapouna on l.sapouna@ucc.ie Doug Ross on dlross@eircom.net or Basil Miller on basil@wellbeingfoundation.com
Irish Network of Critical Voices in Mental Health
criticalvoices@working4recovery.com
To join and subscribe to the list send a blank e-mail to: criticalvoices-subscribe@working4recovery.com
Join us on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/eJIIAz
*********************
BULLET POINTS FROM WHITAKER’S RESEARCH:
• In 2007, Martin Harrow, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, reported on the 15-year outcomes of a large group of schizophrenia patients he has been following since the 1980s. Forty percent of the patients “off medication” had completely recovered, which was eight times greater than the recovery rate for those on antipsychotic drugs.
• In a 1995 study of patients with major depression, investigators from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reported that over the course of six years, those who were “treated” for the disorder were three times more likely than the unmedicated group to suffer a “cessation” of their principal social role, and seven times more likely to become “incapacitated.”
• Forty years ago, bipolar illness was a rare condition and long-term outcomes for patients so diagnosed were fairly good. Today, there are nearly six million adults in the United States with this diagnosis and their long-term outcomes are poor.
• In the 1990s, the NIMH mounted its first long-term study of a childhood mental disorder (ADHD). At the end of 14 months, the children treated with a stimulant were doing slightly better than those who weren’t medicated. However, at the end of three years, “medication use was a significant marker not of beneficial outcome, but of deterioration.”
Robert Whitaker speaking tour dates
0.21 Mb
|