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Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

The Mad in America podcast, hosted by James Moore, examines mental health with a critical eye by speaking with psychologists, psychiatrists and people with lived experience.

When you hear such conversations, you realise that much of what is believed to be settled in mental health is actually up for debate. Is mental health a matter of faulty biology or is there more to it? Are the treatments used in psychiatry helpful or harmful in the long term? Are psychiatric diagnoses reliable? With the help of our guests, we examine these questions and so much more. 

This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care and mental health. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change. 

On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system. Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking mental health around the world.

For more information visit madinamerica.com

 

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  2. Michael Hengartner – Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription

Michael Hengartner – Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription

Feb 2, 2022

This week, we hear from Dr. Michael Hengartner. Michael is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. His areas of expertise include psychiatric epidemiology, public mental health, evidence-based medicine and conflicts of interest in psychological and biomedical research.

He was an expert evaluator for the European Research Council and the World Health Organization and currently is a member of the Swiss School of Public Health, the German Society for Social Psychiatry, and the European Public Health Association.

In this interview, we discuss Michael's 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.