IPA Fall Conference
October 3, 2025 | Zoom
2025 IPA Fall Conference
Psychiatric Drugs and Long-term Outcomes for Major Psychiatric Disorders: What Does the Evidence Show?
6 CEs | October 3, 2025, 8:30am – 4pm CT
8:30am – 10am – “Caveat Emptor. Industry Influence on Diagnostic and Clinical Practice Guidelines”, Dr. Cosgrove
10am – 10:15am – Break
10:15am – 11:45am – “The Epistemic Consequences of Commercialized Science”, Dr. Cosgrove
11:45am – 12:45pm – Lunch
12:45pm – 2:15pm – “The Case Against Antipsychotics: A Review of 70 Years Of Research”, Dr. Whitaker
2:15pm – 2:30pm – Break
2:30pm – 4pm – “Depression in the Prozac Era: An Episodic Disorder Turns Chronic”, Dr. Whitaker
***This training is being recorded so it can be made available for future purchase to IPA members and nonmembers not in attendance today. Please keep this in mind when considering questions and comments.
Overview
Psychiatric drugs are approved by the FDA on the basis of industry-funded trials that show a drug reduces the “symptoms” of the disease better than placebo. Yet, the chemical imbalance story of mental disorders encourages long-term maintenance use of the drugs. This workshop will review the different kinds of evidence relevant to assessment of the long-term effectiveness of antipsychotics, antidepressants, stimulants, and drugs for bipolar disorder.
A recent viewpoint published in JAMA by psychiatrist Dost Ongur, who is the editor of JAMA Psychiatry, told of the importance of investigating long-term outcomes, writing that “life expectancy and long-term functional outcomes have worsened in recent decades for those with severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, severe mood disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, despite greater availability of treatments.”
After reviewing the long-term outcomes, the workshop will discuss alternatives that involve using drugs in a more minimal fashion, with a focus on how examining social determinants of health can help foster new approaches to psychiatric care.
About the Presenters
Lisa Cosgrove, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist, Professor, and Faculty Fellow at the Applied Ethics Center at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her research addresses the ethical and medical-legal issues that arise in organized psychiatry because of academic-industry relationships and she has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these and related topics. Lisa was a Research Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University (Lab on Institutional Corruption), co-chair of the task force on Depression Outcome Measures, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and was the PI for an RO3 NIH grant (through the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality), “A cross-sectional study of clinical practice guidelines for depression: Is guideline quality associated with independence from industry? Lisa also served as a consultant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, child psychiatrist Dainius Puras. She teaches courses on psychiatric diagnosis and psychopharmacology.
Robert Whitaker is the author of five books, three of which tell of the history of psychiatry. In 2010, his Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness won the U.S. Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism. Prior to writing books, he worked as a science reporter at the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York for a number of years. He is the founder of madinamerica.com, a website that features research news and blogs by an international group of writers interested in “rethinking psychiatry.”
- Understand how psychiatric drugs induce compensatory changes in the brain that are the opposite of the intended mechanism of action
- Understand drug-induced dopamine supersensitivity and how it is seen as negatively impacting long-term schizophrenia outcomes
- Understand the different kinds of evidence that come together, like pieces of a puzzle, to provide an “evidence-based” review of the long-term effects of major classes of psychiatric drugs
- Discuss how a reconceptualization of the nature of psychiatric disorders, one that is informed by the social determinants of health, leads to a focus on alternative therapies that are responsive to societal influences on mental health.
Registration Cost
Cost
Non-Member: $231
Refund and Cancellation Policy
We understand, sometimes things come up!
IPA will offer a full refund to registrants who cancel their registration 7 days prior to an event/course. If a registrant would like to cancel their registration within 7 days of the event, no refund will be offered.
Contact: Suzanne Hull, ipa@iowapsychology.org