Tag: mental health

‘Massive legal siege’ against social media companies looms

Thousands of plaintiffs’ complaints, millions of pages of internal documents and transcripts of countless hours of depositions are about to land in U.S. courtrooms, threatening the future of the biggest social media companies.

The blizzard of paperwork is a byproduct of two consolidated lawsuits accusing Snap Inc.’s Snapchat; Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram; ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok; and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube of knowingly designing their platforms to addict users — allegedly resulting in youth depression, anxiety, insomnia, eating disorders, self-harm and even suicide.

The litigation, brewing for more than three years, has had to overcome numerous hurdles, including the liability shield that has protected social media platforms from facing user-harm lawsuits. The social media companies have filed multiple motions to dismiss the cases on the grounds that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act prevents them from being held accountable for content posted on their sites.

Those motions have been largely unsuccessful, and courtrooms across the country are poised to open their doors for the first time to the alleged victims of social media. The vast majority of cases have been folded into two multijurisdictional proceedings, one in state and the other in federal court, to streamline the pretrial discovery process.

The first bellwether trial is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles Superior Court in late January. It involves a 19-year-old woman from Chico, California, who says she’s been addicted to social media for more than a decade and that her nonstop use of the platforms has caused anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia. Two other trials will follow soon after, with thousands more waiting in the wings. If successful, these cases could result in multibillion-dollar settlements — akin to tobacco and opioid litigation — and change the way minors interact with social media.

“This is going to be one of the most impactful litigations of our lifetime,” said Joseph VanZandt, an attorney at Beasley Allen Law Firm in Montgomery, Alabama, and co-lead plaintiffs’ attorney for the coordinated state cases. “This is about large corporations targeting vulnerable populations — children — for profit. That’s what we saw with the tobacco companies; they were also targeting adolescents and trying to get them addicted while they were young.”

Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle, makes a similar comparison to tobacco litigation in the Bloomberg documentary Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media. “In the case of Facebook, you have internal documents saying ‘tweens are herd animals,’ ‘kids have an addict’s narrative’ and ‘our products make girls feel worse about themselves.’ You have the same kind of corporate misconduct,” Bergman says in the film, which will be available to view on Bloomberg’s platforms on October 30.

Bergman’s firm was the first to file user-harm cases against social media companies, in 2022, after Frances Haugen, a former Meta product manager-turned-whistleblower, released a trove of internal documents showing the company knew social media was negatively impacting youth mental health. The first case, which is part of the consolidated federal litigation, alleged that an 11-year-old Connecticut girl killed herself after suffering from extreme social media addiction and sexual exploitation by online predators.

What set that case apart was how it got around Section 230’s immunity blanket. Bergman argued that his case wasn’t about third-party content, which the federal law protects. Instead, he said it hinged on the way social media companies were intentionally designing their products to prioritize engagement and profit over safety.

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A key psychiatric group censored our doctors for seeking to discuss the harm of child sex changes

You’d think child psychiatrists would want to help troubled children, and you’d be right. But the medical association that represents these doctors is suppressing open discussion of the best care for gender-distressed adolescents.

Respectful discourse among doctors regarding treatment of vulnerable children should trump emotions, personal opinions and politics. 

Yet our foiled attempt to invite physician input on gender interventions suggests that ideology is winning the day.

At first, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry approved a request by our organization, Do No Harm, to run a booth at its annual conference next week. But AACAP last month turned around and revoked that approval.

We simply wanted to give doctors a chance to discuss the dangers of transgender treatments for children, just as we did in May at the American Psychiatric Association conference.

These discussions are important because medical organizations like AACAP continue to trumpet support for gender interventions that mounting evidence shows are potentially harmful.

Meanwhile, the same organizations ignore the increasing number of patients who regret their transitions.

They offer no guidance on how to best treat those seeking to detransition, wean them off hormones or receive hormone replacement for surgically removed sex organs.

In fact, our health-care system treats patients who buck the gender-ideology narrative as nonexistent: The system has no diagnosis codes to allow for tracking and research of this poorly understood population.

They are a lost cohort with medical and psychological needs that have been shunned by the medical establishment.

And now we’ve been shunned too.

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Social Contagion: Suicide Rates Among Gen Z Have Spiked Over Past Decade

Suicide rates among Gen Z adults have unnaturally increased in the U.S. over the past ten years according to new figures.

Axios Notes that there has been a 16.4 percent increase in suicides among the demographic between 2014-2024.

The locations where the rise is most prominent, the report notes are in the South and the Midwest, with black and Hispanic men, accounting for a huge 85 percent of the increase.

A Stateline analysis of data also shows that Georgia experienced the largest increase in suicide rates over the past decade, among 18 to 27-year-olds, with the state’s suicide rate in the age group increasing by a massive 64.9 percent.

North Carolina and Texas both saw a 41 percent increase in suicide rates, while Alabama had a 39 percent spike, and Ohio a 37 percent increase. 

Alaska recorded the highest suicide rate among Gen Z, standing at 49 percent per 100,000 people, an increase of more than a third since 2014.

Suicide became the second-highest cause of death among young Hispanics over these years, surpassing homicide. And for young Asians, suicide became the number one cause of death.

Stateline notes that while men are far more likely to take their own lives, the rate for suicide among women has shot up “from about one-fifth of the rate for men to one-fourth in 2024.”

The report quotes American University professor Dave Marcotte, who notes that suicide rates among all age groups had been steadily falling for decades before beginning to rise in again in 2000.

Interestingly, while suicide rates for middle-aged people soon began to fall again, the rates among young people have just continued to increase.

Marcotte explained, “There’s likely no one magic answer to this. Future job prospects for this generation are not what they were for older generations. Today’s generation is not guaranteed a position in society that’s better than their parents. That’s one hypothesis.”

Psychology professor at San Diego State University Jean Twenge suggests that the huge uptake of social media is a likely factor, with those born after 1995 having become adults when smartphones became ubiquitous.

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Psilocybin therapy linked to reduced suicidal thoughts in people with psychiatric disorders

A new study published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology provides evidence that psilocybin therapy may reduce suicidal ideation in adults with psychiatric conditions. The findings come from a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials and suggest that the psychedelic compound, when paired with psychological support, may have a modest but measurable impact on decreasing thoughts of suicide. Although suicide attempts and deaths were not observed in these trials, the results point to the possibility that psilocybin could play a role in mental health treatment strategies aimed at reducing suicide risk.

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain mushrooms, sometimes called “magic mushrooms.” It affects the brain by stimulating serotonin receptors, particularly one known to play a role in mood regulation and emotional processing. When administered in controlled clinical settings alongside therapy, psilocybin has been shown to help relieve symptoms of depression, anxiety, and some forms of addiction.

Interest in psilocybin as a therapeutic agent has grown rapidly in recent years, especially for people who do not respond to standard treatments like antidepressants or talk therapy. Some smaller studies have suggested that psilocybin therapy might also reduce suicidal ideation, a symptom common in many psychiatric conditions.

Given suicide’s widespread toll on public health, researchers wanted to evaluate whether these early signs held up across multiple trials. To do this, they examined all available randomized controlled trials that reported on suicide-related outcomes in people undergoing psilocybin therapy.

“I was inspired to investigate the usage of psilocybin therapy to help treat my patients who suffer from treatment resistant depression. As I was reading the latest clinical trials at the time, there were some reports of increasing suicidal ideation. Increasing suicidal ideation would be a risk in this vulnerable population. When I was reviewing the literature, there was not much synthesized evidence which inspired me to pursue this study,” explained study author Stanley Wong, a general psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto.

To assess the potential impact of psilocybin therapy on suicidal ideation and behaviors, the research team carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis. A systematic review collects and evaluates all relevant studies on a specific topic using a structured and transparent process. A meta-analysis goes a step further by statistically combining results from multiple studies to estimate an overall effect. This method is often used in medicine to determine how well a treatment works by comparing evidence across different settings, sample sizes, and trial designs.

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Jesse Kelly with Dr. Witt-Doerring on Surge in Mental Health Issues – “These Medications can Make Some People so Psychotic That Even People who Never had a Hint of Violence, They can Actually go and do Terrible Things”

Jesse Kelly of “The First” talked with Dr. Witt-Doerring on the hidden problems contributing to mental health issues, which are leading to violence.

The video opens with a clip of RFK Jr. discussing how “We are the most over-medicated nation in the world.”

“We’ve always had guns. Now we have psychos walking into schools and churches, murdering people before they blow their heads off and it’s unbelievably terrible. And we need to get to the root of the problem. What is it?” Kelly asked.

“When we look at, the, you know, what is causing mass shootings, I think there is, you know surly there is an element of mass contagion going on, but what Bobby says about these psychiatric drugs being involved is completely true,” Dr. Witt-Doerring said.

Dr. Witt-Doerring explained that medications like SSRIs in some cases can push people over the edge. In rare cases it can cause aggression and contribute to being suicidal.

“It’s hiding in plain sight. I mean, if you look at the drug labels, like you mentioned, for SSRIs, it already says that they can cause aggression and hostility. It already says that they can make people who are not suicidal, suicidal,” Dr. Witt-Doerring said.

“These drugs in rare instances, I want to say that. These are not the common effects. These are the paradoxical effects from these medications. That in rare instances, they can make some people more aggressive,” Dr. Witt-Doerring continued.

“The media never talks about this. There’s actually been several cases out there which have gone to the courts, where judges and jurors have found that these drugs have been involved in suicides and also mass homicide,” Dr. Witt-Doerring said.

“What is it that has as you said nine people can take it and maybe they are a little lethargic and the last one turns into a demon who murders Catholic school kids. How in the world can the results be so different?” Kelly asked.

Dr. Witt-Doerring explained that if someone for example, has thoughts toward murder, the medication can contribute to them acting on their thoughts.

“These drugs can have a spectrum effect, right? Let’s say for instance you already have someone who is harboring some kind of homicidal thoughts. You put them on a medication that is disinhibiting. A medication that is blunting their emotions, and this is what a lot of these medications do, especially things like SSRIs. They may be more likely to act on preexisting thoughts,” Dr. Witt-Doerring said.

“These medications can make some people so psychotic that even people who never had a hint of violence, they can actually go and do terrible things,” Dr. Witt-Doerring warned.

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OpenAI to Implement Age Verification System for ChatGPT as AI Mental Health Crisis Deepens

OpenAI has announced plans to develop an automated age-prediction system to determine whether ChatGPT users are over or under 18, following a lawsuit related to a teen’s suicide. The teen’s parents claim that Sam Altman’s AI chatbot served as the boy’s “suicide coach.”

Ars Technica reports that in the wake of a lawsuit involving a 16-year-old boy who tragically died by suicide after engaging in extensive conversations with ChatGPT, OpenAI has announced its intention to implement an age verification system for its popular AI chatbot. The company aims to automatically direct younger users to a restricted version of the service, prioritizing safety over privacy and freedom for teens.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the potential privacy compromise for adults in a blog post but believes it is a necessary trade-off to ensure the well-being of younger users. The company plans to route users under 18 to a modified ChatGPT experience that blocks graphic sexual content and includes other age-appropriate restrictions. When uncertain about a user’s age, the system will default to the restricted experience, requiring adults to verify their age to access full functionality.

Developing an effective age-prediction system is a complex technical challenge for OpenAI. The company has not specified the technology it intends to use or provided a timeline for deployment. Recent academic research has shown both possibilities and limitations for age detection based on text analysis. While some studies have achieved high accuracy rates under controlled conditions, performance drops significantly when attempting to classify specific age groups or when users actively try to deceive the system.

In addition to the age-prediction system, OpenAI plans to launch parental controls by the end of September. These features will allow parents to link their accounts with their teenagers’ accounts, disable specific functions, set usage blackout hours, and receive notifications when the system detects acute distress in their teen’s interactions. However, the company notes that in rare emergency situations where parents cannot be reached, they may involve law enforcement as a next step.

The push for enhanced safety measures follows OpenAI’s acknowledgment that ChatGPT’s safety protocols can break down during lengthy conversations, potentially failing to intervene or notify anyone when vulnerable users engage in harmful interactions. The tragic case of Adam Raine, the 16-year-old who died by suicide, highlighted the system’s shortcomings when it mentioned suicide 1,275 times in conversations with the teen without taking appropriate action.

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Massachusetts Lawmakers Approve Bill To Create Psychedelic Therapy Pilot Program

Massachusetts lawmakers have approved a bill to establish a pilot program for the regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics.

The pilot program proposal from Sen. Cindy Friedman (D) advanced through the legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on Thursday. It’s now been referred to the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing for further consideration.

The measure is one of two pieces of legislation on the issue that are set to be taken up at a hearing before a different committee in November.

The bill, S.1400, is light on specifics, leaving many details of the pilot program up to regulators with the Department of Public Health (DPH). But in general, it calls for a “pilot program to allow for the monitored mental health care of clinically appropriate patients using psychedelic materials.”

It would involve the “on-site administration by a multi-disciplinary care team in a supervised licensed mental health clinic setting.”

DPH could only issue licenses for up to three health facilities to administer and study the psychedelics in the state. They would be tasked with “establishing the best and safest clinical practices for psychedelic mental health treatment programs in the commonwealth and for the purposes of collecting patient outcomes data regarding the benefits of psychedelic pharmacotherapy.”

“Eligible pilot program organizations must exclusively focus operations and treatment on mental health and cannot be subsidiaries, affiliates or members of cannabis industry organizations, psychedelic molecule development companies or pharmaceutical companies,” the bill text states.

The department would be required to develop rules for the program, including setting standards for people to apply to participate, patient assessments and ongoing monitoring, clinical staffing and the administration of psychedelic medicines.

“All pilot program participant organizations must track patient care outcomes data related to the identification, diagnosis and psychedelic treatment of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder,” it says. “These data sets must be shared with the department to assist in the refinement of best clinical protocols and final regulatory frameworks for the safe use of psychedelic material in Massachusetts.”

The bill, as well as a separate measure to provide a more limited pilot program for psilocybin therapy alone, will also be the focus of a hearing on November 10 before the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery.

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‘Medically Reckless’: AAP Pushes Mental Health Screenings for Kids as Young as 6 Months Old

Children as young as 6 months old should begin regular screenings for mental or developmental issues at every well-child visit, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said in a clinical report released Aug. 25.

Critics of the report fear the recommendations will lead to misdiagnosing and further overmedicating children.

“It is alarming that pressure is being put on pediatricians by the AAP to actively look for signs of depression in a 2-year-old,” Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at MIT, told The Defender.

Pushing mental health screening for children leads to the expectation of psychiatric problems being woven into standards of care, said Robert Whitaker, author of “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.”

“And the screening instruments the pediatricians will employ will have been constructed to identify a certain percentage of children as being in need of treatment,” he said.

The AAP report, published online in the journal Pediatrics, recommends that mental health screening begin at 6 months old and continue as part of well-child visits at ages 1, 2 and 3. After age 3, screening would continue annually.

The report said as many as 1 in 5 children in the U.S., including kids as young as 2, have mental or behavioral issues such as depression, anxiety, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) or suicidal thoughts.

However, studies show mental health issues are commonly misdiagnosed. Depression has been falsely diagnosed 66% of the time, and generalized anxiety disorder has been incorrectly assessed 71% of the time.

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‘Ecological grief’: Ottawa rolls out new buzzword for latest cash grab

Blacklock’s Reporter has uncovered a new federal buzzword: “ecological grief.” According to a Department of Indigenous Services audit, climate change is apparently causing so much heartache in First Nations communities that Ottawa needs more cash for counselling.

Yes, grief counselling. For the weather.

The report claims climate change is disrupting hunting, fishing, and trapping, which it calls “critical pathways to mental health.” It even blames forest fires for creating “perpetual experiences of stress and ecological grief.”

Cabinet has already budgeted nearly $1.6 billion since 2021 for a “Mental Wellness Program.” But auditors found the money wasn’t enough, the demand keeps growing, and record-keeping was so sloppy they couldn’t even figure out where the cash went. Their own warning? Lack of accountability, lack of transparency, and a higher risk of total waste.

And still, the department’s answer is predictable: expect more funding.

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These Are The Biggest Threats To Teens’ Mental Health

Concerns over teen mental health are growing, but how teens and parents view the root causes can differ significantly. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, compares their perspectives on what’s driving mental health issues among adolescents.

Although both groups identify social media as the biggest concern, teens are more likely than parents to cite bullying and academic pressure. The chart highlights where their views align—and where they diverge.

Social Media Tops Both Lists

Social media is the #1 concern for both groups, though the degree of concern differs.

While 44% of parents name social media as the top threat, just 22% of teens do the same. In fact, a majority of teens see social media as a positive space for friendships and creativity: 74% of teens say these platforms make them feel more connected to their friends, and 63% say they give them a place to show off their creative side.

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