Official CCHR International— Non-profit Mental Health Industry Watchdog that has helped enact 190 laws protecting patients from abuse.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined April 2009
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Historically the FDA only warns of psychiatric drug risks when enough public pressure forces them to do their job. This is what it took to finally get the FDA to issue suicidal ideation warnings on SSRIs 👇 Now it's the same playbook with Post SSRI sexual dysfunction-ignore it
The 2004 FDA "Black Box" Warnings on SSRI Antidepressants—A Brief, Vital History of Stonewalling
*In a 1991 FDA hearing before the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee, dozens of victims spoke out about becoming suicidal only after being prescribed an SSRI antidepressant. The committee, many of whose members had heavy conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies, listened to hours of public testimony, including from academics citing SSRI antidepressant-induced suicidality, and then voted unanimously not to warn the public about this risk.
*It wasn’t until 2003, after the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), led by researchers, including Dr. David Healy, confirmed the suicidal risks associated with antidepressants in children and adolescents, that the FDA was forced to review their own data.
*With the UK data making international headlines, the FDA was pressured to review its stance on the risks of SSRIs. The agency appointed Dr. Andrew Mosholder, an FDA epidemiologist, to analyze the data on suicidality linked to SSRIs.
*Mosholder, reviewed the SSRI Antidepressant clinical trial data submitted by pharmaceutical companies to the FDA for approval, reviewing years worth of data. His analysis not only identified an increased risk of suicidal ideation and behavior among children and adolescents taking SSRIs but also raised concerns about the drug's lack of efficacy.
*Mosholder’s findings indicated that most of the industry-sponsored clinical trials showed little to no benefit of SSRIs over placebo in treating pediatric depression. His review suggested that the risk-benefit ratio was unfavorable, given both the increased risk of suicidal behavior and the marginal or nonexistent clinical benefit.
*The FDA refused to allow Mosholder to release these findings. The only reason the data was ever made public (that the FDA was suppressing Mosholder from releasing his findings) is because this was leaked to the press:
* The Wall Street Journal broke the story in 2004 that Dr. Mosholder had confirmed SSRIs increased the risk of suicidality in children and adolescents. Their investigation revealed that the FDA had suppressed Mosholder’s findings, preventing him from publicly presenting the research.
*Following the revelations of FDA supression of data the WSJ and other press were exposing, the Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called for hearings as to why the FDA would prohibit their own researcher from releasing his findings.
*During the hearing, in addition to being questioned about not releasing their own data to the public, the Chairman of the committee revealed that a whistleblower within the FDA provided internal FDA memos telling staffers not to comply with Congressional requests.
*In response, the Chairman threatened to send Capitol Police to the FDA’s offices to retrieve the documents if the agency did not comply with the committee's request.
*The FDA was accused of “stonewalling, slow rolling, and plain incompetence” during the hearing.
* A few months after being lambasted by Congress, the FDA finally held their second hearing on SSRI antidepressants causing suicidal ideation. Now with the eyes of the public and Congress upon them, and Mosholder's reveiews out in the open, the FDA finally issued black box warnings on antidepressants causing suicidal ideation.
*This was 13 years after the FDA was first presented with the facts from academics and public testimony (in 1991) providing ample evidence of the exact same claim.
“There are about 100 million youth in the US under 25... Of those, maybe 10% are on antidepressants. That’s 10 million youth whose sex lives could be up for grabs. Of those 10 million, maybe 20% have serious impediments in their sex lives. That’s 2 million young people possibly facing these issues.”
Shockingly, the US FDA has yet to require a specific warning about persistent post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD), revealing how much the US system has been captured by the drug companies it allegedly regulates.
~@AKECassels
Why Weren’t We Warned?
brownstone.org/articles/why-…
Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction is destroying lives - Find out more @PSSDNetwork
Imagine a warm shower, your own bed, or a hug from your mother no longer bringing any comfort.
That’s how Lauren Friedman describes life with PSSD (post-SSRI sexual dysfunction). It goes well beyond the sexual side. What she lost is the ability to feel pleasure at all: from music, from touch, from warmth.
The part that stays with me is how few people are told about this before they start the medication. Back in 2019 the European Medicines Agency had SSRI labels updated to say sexual dysfunction can continue after people stop taking the drug. Most patients still have never heard the term.
Informed consent should cover the rare outcomes too, especially the ones that can last longer than the prescription. And nobody should quit their medication suddenly because of a clip. That’s a conversation to have with a doctor.
Largest For-Profit Psych Chain Settles Claims of Child Sexual Abuse at Virginia Hospital—UHS, the largest for-profit psychiatric chain long accused of prioritizing profits over safety (including a 2020 $122M DOJ settlement over unnecessary admissions, excessive stays, and improper restraints, plus repeated reports of patient abuse), reached a tentative settlement in lawsuits alleging its former Cumberland Hospital medical director, Dr. Daniel Davidow, sexually abused young patients by inappropriately touching their breasts and genitals during exams presented as routine medical checks.
The defendants deny liability. And yet, UHS has a major history of abuse: CCHR International has investigated UHS since ~2008 and filed 36,000 complaints against it to legislators, law enforcement, the FBI, Attorneys General, U.S. Attorneys, state licensing boards, and other state agencies, documenting a long history of patient abuse and related issues including assaults, restraints, and death, as well as rampant child abuse. See this link: cchrint.org/2020/10/30/child…
Psychiatry’s Response: Attack and PR— “They won’t acknowledge their errors. They won’t back down. And they won’t stop, or even curtail, their destructive practices. They will not even seriously debate the issues. Instead, they’ve gone on the offensive. This offensive is two-pronged. Firstly, they attack those of us who speak out against them, and secondly, they are actively developing links to the media in the hopes that this will encourage reporters to portray them in a more favorable light.”
– Philip Hickey, Ph.D., psychologist from his 2014 article, Psychiatry’s Response: Attack and PR
CCHR Int retweeted
The psychedelic bandwagon continues, despite recognition that the trials are flawed by blinding problems and lack of data on long-term safety. The idea of a new miracle cure is just too tempting. nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
FDA Again Lags Behind UK on Antidepressant Warnings for Suicide Risk and Persistent Sexual Dysfunction —The UK’s drug regulatory agency has expanded suicide risk information to all ages and formally recognizes antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction.
The United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced new antidepressant safety measures for all patients. The changes follow a review prompted by concerns from patients and families and require clearer suicide risk information for patients of all ages—currently limited to children and young adults. For the first time, the measures also recognize that sexual dysfunction, known as Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), can occur from certain antidepressants and can continue even after the drugs are stopped. Notably, the MHRA has again acted before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA must issue the same warnings.
In December 2003, the MHRA was the first to issue warnings that SSRI antidepressants increased suicide and self-harm risk in young people, brought to their attention by Dr. David Healy, professor of psychiatry at Bangor University in the UK. The FDA had relevant data for decades.
In October 2004, almost a year after the MHRA’s warning, the FDA added a black-box warning for suicidal ideation in those 18 and younger, later extended to age 24. This left the implication that the risk ends on a person’s 25th birthday.[6]
Dr. Healy, also an expert psychopharmacologist, warned in 2009 that “antidepressants pose a risk of suicide in all age groups,” citing elevated relative risks for completed suicide in ages 18–64 based on FDA trial data. More>> cchrint.org/2026/10/23/fda-a…
👇👇👇
Tucker Carlson asked the question you're "not allowed" to ask: why do so many school shooters turn out to be on psych drugs?
His guest's answer: no conspiracy theory needed. It's printed on the drug labels. Stimulants, antipsychotics like Abilify and antidepressants all list aggression as a side effect.
"If you're putting like 15% of the population on these drugs, rare side effects are going to happen." 🧵
Yet another tragedy as a result of the psychiatric industry. At least 17 psychiatric drugs prescribed to the patient, that didn’t work—he reports that an antidepressant increased his anxiety and obsessive thoughts—he is given electroshock, TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation), and ketamine across multiple psychiatric facilities, then discharged while expressing suicidal thoughts. Result: death by suicide.
This is not an isolated failure. Abuses like this are rampant throughout the mental health industry, which has consistently demonstrated it cannot reform itself and must be held to account. coloradosun.com/2026/10/20/i…
Agreed 🙌🙌 — and long overdue
Surreal to see the NIH Director @NIHDirector_Jay talking about PSSD—an injury long dismissed, with victims told by doctors their antidepressant induced harm wasn’t real.
For years it was relegated to Reddit forums and hidden corners of the internet: an abandoned community of devastated lives desperately seeking answers, with no one listening.
These are real people unjustly left to suffer, stripped of fundamental parts of their humanity. We cannot leave them behind. We urgently need research into the underlying mechanisms and a path toward recovery. #pssd @PSSDNetwork @elliotbewick @lololizzle
WHO Report Warns Psychiatric Hospitals Violate Patient Autonomy and Rights, With Nearly Half of Residents Held Involuntarily
The new WHO guidelines warn that institutional psychiatric treatment can separate people from their communities, limit their autonomy, and expose them to risks of human rights violations. Nearly half of people living in large psychiatric hospitals and social care institutions are held against their will for months, years, or even decades. More than 1.2 million Americans are involuntarily committed each year.
A Harvard School of Public Health study says psychiatric hospitals continue to use forced electroshock, chemical restraints, and prolonged mechanical restraint—practices that violate the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT), which the U.S. has ratified.
Despite growing recognition of these harms, the United States is moving in the opposite direction. The American Bar Association has noted that a human rights-centered approach requires shifting away from primarily medicalized responses toward person-centered support, yet “legislative reforms have often become procedural formalities that legitimize restrictive interventions under the guise of legal protection.”
These findings underscore the scale of coercive practices still embedded in institutional mental health systems.
cchrint.org/2026/10/16/cchr-…
UK Warns All Antidepressant Patients of Suicide Risk and Persistent Sexual Dysfunction—FDA Still Lags; The UK’s MHRA, the country’s drug regulatory agency,
is now requiring clearer alerts for all patients on the risk of post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Once again the MHRA has acted while the FDA lags.
Back in 2003, it was the MHRA that first warned that SSRIs increased suicide and self-harm risk in young people, despite the FDA having this data for decades.
The FDA only followed with its own warnings a year after the MHRA, and even today the black box warning on suicidal ideation extend only to age 24—implying the risk magically disappears on one’s 25th birthday.
The UK’s new alerts on suicidal thoughts and behaviors apply to patients of all ages. The FDA has yet to warn on post SSRI sexual dysfunction.
gov.uk/drug-safety-update/an…
ADHD drugs are in the same class of highly addictive drugs (DEA schedule 2) as Fentanyl and Oxycontin - and they are handed out to children like candy
ADHD drugs such as Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall, Vyvanse, Focalin, Dexedrine, and more carry the FDA’s most severe warning, the black box, for having a “high potential for abuse,” including “addiction.” According to the FDA May 2023 Drug Safety Communication, “𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗮 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗲, 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵.”
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies drugs into Schedules I–V primarily according their potential for abuse and drug dependence. ADHD drugs are classified as Schedule 2 – prescription drugs which have the highest potential for abuse, and include OxyContin, Fentanyl, Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine, Concerta, Vyvanse, Focalin and more.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗘𝗔 𝗳𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗴𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 “𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲” 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗿𝗲 “𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀.”
Given that data, consider that the CDC estimates 3.7 – 4 million children are currently prescribed ADHD drugs for an ADHD "diagnosis" which is not adjudicated by any medical test, brain scan or confirmatory medical test, but simply a checklist of behaviors. This is why the NIH admits that there is no valid test for ADHD.
CCHR Int retweeted
Will the @NIH be funding research into an iatrogenic disease caused by commonly prescribed antidepressants? In the past several decades, almost no public money has gone towards researching irreversible Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD).
nitter.gq/PSSDNetwork/status/210…
"People who have actually been damaged by antidepressants that have something like PSSD. At the moment, there's no lights at the end of the tunnel for them. There's not really any funding going on into testing."
@elliotbewick asks Jay Bhattacharya (@NIHDirector_Jay) about PSSD.
"Even in my darkest moments, something deep inside me knew not to take the pill. I remember telling her, “I think Zoloft is what killed my husband. But more importantly, my husband just died. Aren’t I supposed to hurt?”
I still think back to when my doctor offered me antidepressants after my husband’s sudden death.
Even in my darkest moments, something deep inside me knew not to take the pill. I remember telling her, “I think Zoloft is what killed my husband. But more importantly, my husband just died. Aren’t I supposed to hurt?”
Now, as I near the end of writing my book and find myself revisiting some of those darkest moments, I’m profoundly grateful I trusted that instinct and allowed myself to feel the full weight of my grief rather than trying to numb it.
I cried because I loved. And eventually, I laughed again, even while I was grieving.
Our emotions are part of what makes us human. The pain, the joy, the sorrow, the love. I believe they are among God’s greatest gifts. And I wouldn’t want to lose or numb any of them.
"For more than three decades, America has normalized the widespread drugging of children and adults under the banner of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet, ADHD remains a subjective psychiatric label with no objective medical test..." townhall.com/columnists/sher…
With zero accountability for the damage they inflict...
Psychiatry holds the legal power to detain you and drug you against your will. It holds that power on the basis of diagnoses with no objective test and no confirmed mechanism of disease. That authority did not come from medicine. Psychiatry has institutional authority, pharmaceutical funding, and legal protection. What it does not have is rigorous science.
Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)—patients are never warned this "side effect" can be permanent 👇
"I was just immediately very, very horrified that this was allowed to happen to me without my consent, because PSSD is not even in the drug labels. There's no warning beforehand."
Lauren Friedman (@lololizzle) explains that there still aren't any warnings about PSSD in the USA.