EVIDENCE·FILE
LAST UPDATED 30.07.2026
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EVIDENCE FILE

THEY PLEADED GUILTY.THEY PAID $7 BILLION.

Four companies. Four psychiatric drugs.
Target: elderly people with dementia, and children.

These are not allegations. They are guilty pleas filed in United States federal courts, death warnings issued by the FDA, and clinical trials shown to have reported the opposite of what their own data said. This page sets them out with a citation to the primary source for each — and separates clearly what is proven from what is still under genuine scientific dispute.

$3.0bn
GLAXOSMITHKLINE · 2012
PAROXETINE TO ADOLESCENTS
$2.2bn
JOHNSON & JOHNSON · 2013
RISPERIDONE IN DEMENTIA
$1.4bn
ELI LILLY · 2009
OLANZAPINE IN DEMENTIA
$520m
ASTRAZENECA · 2010
QUETIAPINE, 6 USES

How to read this page

The problem with the material circulating on social media is not that all of it is false. It is that it mixes court-documented fraud with claims that do not hold up — and in doing so discredits both. Every finding here carries its standard of proof:

COURT RECORD

A guilty plea or court settlement. The company admitted it.

REGULATOR

A formal decision by the FDA, EMA, MHRA, NICE or a government review.

PEER-REVIEWED

Published research that is widely accepted in the literature.

DISPUTED

Live scientific disagreement. Both sides are presented.

UNVERIFIED

A circulating claim for which no primary source was found. Listed with the gap stated.

CONTENTS

Six sections, each documented on its own

Every section stands alone, with its own sources. Start with whichever concerns you.

PART A Courts $7bn in fines and settlements Four companies pleaded guilty in US courts to illegally promoting psychiatric drugs. The target was always the same: elderly people in institutions, and children. Read this section → PART B Regulators 1,800 extra deaths a year, one country The most serious findings do not come from critics of psychiatry, but from the FDA, the MHRA and government-commissioned reviews. Read this section → PART C The research +32% inflation of the apparent benefit Doctors read the published literature. When that literature has been filtered, their decisions are contaminated without their knowing it. Read this section → PART D Children 81.7% of antipsychotics outside approved use In 2013 a company paid $2.2 billion for promoting an antipsychotic to children. What changed since — the answer came in 2025. Read this section → PART E Greece +67% antidepressants, 2015–2024 The Greek data exist and come from the national prescription database. One of the findings overturns the usual narrative. Read this section → PART F Open questions 15% or 55%? the withdrawal dispute Here the science has not settled. Anyone presenting the following as resolved — in either direction — is misinforming you. Read this section → PART G Long term 35% remission in STAR*D, not the 67% reported STAR*D cost the NIMH $35 million and reported 67% remission. Reanalysing the patient-level data under the original protocol gave 35.0%. Read this section → SEDATIVES & SLEEPING PILLS Sedatives 2–4 weeks: the approved duration of use Xanax, Lexotanil, Stilnox, Lyrica: drug by drug, what the regulators have already acknowledged about dependence at the standard dose. Read this section → UNVERIFIED Unverified 4 claims with no primary source A page that only publishes what suits it does not deserve trust. Here is what I could not prove. Read this section → LINKS Links 10 independent bodies, each labelled I am not asking you to believe me. Here are bodies working on the same subject, independent of this page — some of whom disagree with each other. Read this section →

What this page does not say

The following circulate alongside everything above and are not supported by the evidence. Mixing them in with the documented material is exactly why the real scandal fails to get a hearing:

The scandal is not that psychiatric drugs exist. It is that they were sold on manipulated data, to populations that did not need them, for far longer than was ever approved — and that the people taking them today in good faith pay the price in the distrust they meet.

PRACTICAL

What to do with all this

  1. Change nothing today. No decision to stop a medication is made from a web page. Always with communication, monitoring and proper guidance from your treating doctor.
  2. Write down your list. Every drug, dose, since when, who started it — including anything you take without a prescription. Always with communication, monitoring and proper guidance from your treating doctor.
  3. Ask how long. If you have been on a sedative or hypnotic for more than four weeks, that is the question to ask. Always with communication, monitoring and proper guidance from your treating doctor.
  4. Ask for a stopping plan, not for stopping. A gradual reduction under supervision, at a pace set by your symptoms rather than the calendar. Always with communication, monitoring and proper guidance from your treating doctor.
  5. Ask about a non-drug option. For chronic insomnia, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-I) is recommended as first-line treatment, ahead of hypnotics. Always with communication, monitoring and proper guidance from your treating doctor.
  6. If it concerns an elderly parent, ask separately. That is where the largest documented risk sits — and where the question is almost never asked. Always with communication, monitoring and proper guidance from your treating doctor.

The sister fileFor the practices themselves — Leros and the CPT reports, restraint, involuntary detention, the DSM, ghostwriting — there is a separate file built to the same sourcing rules.

psychpractices.org →

Written by Petros Chatzianastasiou
I am not a doctor. Every claim cites its primary source. Any step you take with your own treatment, always in consultation with your treating doctor and under their monitoring and guidance.

About this site →

All sources

The full list of 52 sources. Each section repeats only the ones it cites.

  1. [1]International Trends in Antidepressant Consumption: a 10-year Comparative Analysis (2010–2020). Psychiatric Quarterly 2025;96:241–255. doi:10.1007/s11126-025-10122-0
  2. [2]US DOJ — GlaxoSmithKline to Plead Guilty and Pay $3 Billion, 02.07.2012. justice.gov
  3. [3]US DOJ — Johnson & Johnson to Pay More Than $2.2 Billion, 04.11.2013. justice.gov
  4. [4]US DOJ settlements: Eli Lilly (Zyprexa) 2009; AstraZeneca (Seroquel) 2010. Compiled: ProPublica, "Big Pharma's Big Fines"
  5. [5]FDA boxed warning, increased mortality in elderly patients with dementia: atypical antipsychotics 2005, extended 2008. Review: JAMA Network Open 2020
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  22. [22]Busby-Whitehead J et al. A Pharmacist Consultant Service for Deprescribing Opioids and Benzodiazepines in Older Adults: A Cluster Randomized Trial. JAMA Netw Open 26.02.2026. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.60581
  23. [23]Deprescribing Benzodiazepine Receptor Agonists in Older Adults — systematic review. J Am Geriatr Soc 2025. doi:10.1111/jgs.19512
  24. [24]OECD, Health at a Glance 2025 — Pharmaceutical consumption (November 2025). oecd.org
  25. [25]Xu C, Kim TT, Kirsch I, Plöderl M, Amsterdam JD, Pigott HE. Restoring STAR*D: A RIAT Reanalysis of Drug-Switch Therapy After Failed SSRI Treatment. medRxiv preprint 2025 — not peer-reviewed.
  26. [26]Xu C, Kim TT, Plöderl M, Kennedy KP, Kirsch I, Amsterdam JD, Pigott HE. Restoring STAR*D: A RIAT Reanalysis of Medication Augmentation Therapy After Failed SSRI Treatment. medRxiv preprint, 30 October 2025. doi:10.1101/2025.10.27.25338365 — not peer-reviewed.
  27. [27]Rush AJ et al. The STAR*D Data Remain Strong: Reply to Pigott et al. Am J Psychiatry 2023. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.20230869 — the original investigators' reply.
  28. [28]Hengartner MP. How effective are antidepressants for depression over the long term? A critical review of relapse prevention trials and the issue of withdrawal confounding. Ther Adv Psychopharmacol 2020;10:2045125320921694. doi:10.1177/2045125320921694
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  30. [30]Récalt AM, Cohen D. Withdrawal Confounding in Randomized Controlled Trials of Antipsychotic, Antidepressant, and Stimulant Drugs, 2000–2017. Psychother Psychosom 2019;88(2):105–113.
  31. [31]Leucht S, Tardy M, Komossa K, Heres S, Kissling W, Salanti G, Davis JM. Antipsychotic drugs versus placebo for relapse prevention in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet 2012;379(9831):2063–71. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60239-6
  32. [32]Wunderink L, Nieboer RM, Wiersma D, Sytema S, Nienhuis FJ. Recovery in remitted first-episode psychosis at 7 years of follow-up of an early dose reduction/discontinuation or maintenance treatment strategy. JAMA Psychiatry 2013;70(9):913–20.
  33. [33]Harrow M, Jobe TH, Faull RN. Does treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic medications eliminate or reduce psychosis? A 20-year multi-follow-up study. Psychol Med 2014;44(14):3007–16. — observational, non-randomised.
  34. [34]Harrow M, Jobe TH, Tong L. Twenty-year effects of antipsychotics in schizophrenia and affective psychotic disorders. Psychol Med 2022;52(13):2681–2691. doi:10.1017/S0033291720004778
  35. [35]Leucht S, Davis JM. Do antipsychotic drugs lose their efficacy for relapse prevention over time? Br J Psychiatry 2017;211(3):127–129. — rebuttal.
  36. [36]Takeuchi H, Kantor N, Sanches M, Fervaha G, Agid O, Remington G. One-year symptom trajectories in patients with stable schizophrenia maintained on antipsychotics versus placebo: meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry 2017;211:137–143. — rebuttal.
  37. [37]State Archives and Records Authority of New South Wales, agency AGY-6764 and series NRS-20949 — Royal Commission into Deep Sleep Therapy (Chelmsford), Letters Patent 14 September 1988, report December 1990.
  38. [38]Garton S. “Bailey, Harry Richard (1922–1985)”. Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17, National Centre of Biography, ANU.
  39. [39]Walton M. Deep sleep therapy and Chelmsford Private Hospital: have we learnt anything? Australas Psychiatry 2013;21(3):206–212.
  40. [40]Mental Health Act 2007 (New South Wales), section 83 — prohibited treatments.
  41. [41]Usluogullari et al. Drug-related suicidal events in children and teenagers: FAERS analysis 1997–2024. Legal Medicine (Tokyo) 2026;81:102800.
  42. [42]Kimura G et al. Antipsychotics-associated serious adverse events in children: an analysis of the FAERS database. Int J Med Sci 2015;12(2):135–140.
  43. [43]Wu L, Zhao D, Lan Y, Jin L, Yang L. Comparison of serious adverse effects of methylphenidate, atomoxetine and amphetamine in the treatment of ADHD: an adverse event analysis based on the FAERS database.
  44. [44]U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FAERS Public Dashboard — statements of limitations: “The existence of adverse event reports for a drug in FAERS does not mean that the drug caused the adverse event.”
  45. [45]Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) — cchr.org. Cited here as the complainant body in the Chelmsford case, not as a source of findings. No documentation on this page derives from the CCHR.
  46. [46]OECD, Health Statistics — Pharmaceutical consumption, dataflow HEALTH_PHMC@DF_PHMC_CONSUM (SDMX API). Query for N05B (anxiolytics), N05C (hypnotics) and N06A (antidepressants), countries GRC/ITA/PRT/ESP/DEU/FRA/GBR, 2015–2024. direct query — retrieved and verified by me. Coverage for Greece: EOPYY, ~95% of the population, excluding hospital/OTC.
  47. [47]Ma T et al. Global trends in the consumption of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs in 67 countries and regions from 2008 to 2018: a sales data analysis. Sleep 2023;46(10):zsad124. academic.oup.com — Greece 40.11 → 44.94 DDD, +0.65/year (p=0.018).
  48. [48]Average of 18 European countries (30.5 → 75.3 DDD, 2000–2020): analysis of OECD data, Yanatma S., Euronews, 12 November 2022 — journalistic analysis.
  49. [49]Mavridoglou G, Polyzos N. Demographic and Geographic Characteristics Associated with the Type of Prescription and Drug Expenditure: Real World Evidence for Greece During 2015–2021. Healthcare (Basel) 2024;12(22):2312. doi:10.3390/healthcare12222312
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  51. [51]UK Committee on Safety of Medicines. Benzodiazepines, dependence and withdrawal symptoms. Current Problems 1988;21:1–2 — the 2–4-week maximum-duration recommendation, since embedded in NICE, MHRA and European product information.
  52. [52]The continuation of the exchange in Molecular Psychiatry: Bartova L et al. 2023;28(8):3153–3154 (doi:10.1038/s41380-023-02093-0); Fountoulakis KN, Tsapakis EM 2024;29(1):198–199; Arnone D et al. 2024;29(1):200–202; Smith AL, Carvalho AF, Solmi M. Methodological concerns in umbrella review of serotonin and depression. 2024;29(1):203–204 (doi:10.1038/s41380-024-02460-5) — with a reply from Moncrieff et al. Related: Jauhar S, Cowen PJ, Browning M. Fifty years on: Serotonin and depression. J Psychopharmacol 2023;37(3):237–241 (doi:10.1177/02698811231161813).