In America, the mortality rate in 2018 was 8.68 people per 1,000 people(1). There are around 325 million people in America.
1.6% of the population is taking a neuroleptic drug(2).
Neuroleptics drugs increase all-cause mortality by around 250%(3)(4)(5). These studies make adjustments based on physical health. These studies also included withdrawal time periods as “non-drug periods”. Therefore they undercount death rates because obesity and withdrawal deaths are not fully counted. These drugs kill 110,000 Americans a year.
13.2% of people are taking an “antidepressant”(6).
The most commonly used “antidepressants” SRI’s increased all-cause mortality by 49%, while other drugs increased it by less while some increased it by more(7). This meta-analysis found the most widely used drugs were deadlier. It also found that if you adjust based on starting depression symptoms the drugs were even deadlier. These drugs kill 185,000 Americans a year.
7% of the population is taking a stimulant drug because of psychiatry (6).
Stimulant drugs increase all-cause mortality by 75%(7). These drugs kill 150,000 Americans a year.
12.6% of people take a Benzo-type psych drug(8).
Benzo-like drugs increase all-cause mortality by similar if not higher rates than “antidepressants”(9)(10). These drugs kill 180,000 Americans a year.
A rough estimate of the number of people psychiatric drugs kill a year in America alone is 625,000. This is higher than how many people died from Covid in 2020 and would be a contender for the #1 cause of death.
(1) https://www.statista.com/statistics/195948/total-death-rate-in-the-us-since-1990/
(2) https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-020-02895-4(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3888674/pdf/CPN2013-247486.pdf
(4) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9926037/
(5) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16449697/
(6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6261411/
(7) https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/10/antidepressants-increase-risk-death-study-finds/
(9) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0004867415616695
(10) https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j2941
One psych myth is that people who do not take drugs have better outcomes because they have less "illness".
A study found that people labeled with depression who had severe starting psychological distress were almost 10% less likely to take psych drugs compared to those with lower amounts of symptoms(1).
The healthy user bias suggests that those taking the drugs are likely to have more traits and factors associated with better outcomes. People who choose to partake in one "healthy" activity are more likely to partake in others. Studies find people who do not comply with drugs/medications recommended by medical professionals are generally in poorer health and have poorer demographics. Non-compliance itself is associated with worse outcomes regardless of drug use(2).
Harrow's long-term study found people with a mild psychotic label who took the drugs had 50% worse outcomes compared to people with a severe label who did not take the drugs (3).
Another less known psych myth is that the drugs are more "effective" after a month plus of use. For drugs marketed as antipsychotics the studies used to claim benefits says the opposite. The entire drug "benefit" occurs at the start and by the end of the short term and mid-term, the drugs have no further benefits over placebo (3 Graph on page 6).
For drugs marketed as antidepressants. The World Health Organization found that after 3 months those on drugs have the same outcomes but after that their outcomes begin deteriorating and getting worse. (4 slide 3).
Another myth is that psych studies are "randomized double-blind placebo" studies. When in fact they are withdrawal studies. Two separate analyses of psych studies find that over 80% of the studies have a rapid or abrupt withdrawal design. The "placebo" group is actually a group put in withdrawal from the drugs(4)(5). Withdrawal symptoms from "antidepressants" on average lasts around 1 year(7).
These studies are also the opposite of double-blind. Irving Kirch noted that studies testing the blinding found over 80% of people knew who was taking the drugs. This is a particularly large bias favoring the drugs because the outcome is subjective measurements done by the psychiatrists who have a conflict of interests to make the drugs look good (4).
(1) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2546155
(2) https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/healthy-user-bias
(3) http://psychrights.org/research/digest/nlps/The-Case-Against-AntipsychoticsWhitaker2016.pdf
(4) https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/05/making-the-case-against-antidepressants-in-parliament/
(5) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30923288/
(6) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30893683/
(7) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29758951/