PRACTICES·FILE
LAST UPDATED 01.08.2026
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1933—2018EVIDENCE FILE

825 patients.Eight psychiatrists.

Leros, March 1993. One shower for every 36 people.
No campaigner reported this. Inspectors from the Council of Europe counted it.

Twelve years earlier, a Greek presidential decree had created 225 posts of Patient Guard at the same institution — and five posts of director-psychiatrist. This page is not anti-psychiatry. It is a file on specific practices that were documented, and on the people who stopped them — most of whom were psychiatrists. Forty-three claims were checked against their primary sources; eight did not hold, and are published in Part X with the reason for each failure.

1949
NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE
FOR LEUCOTOMY
1953
BOURNE WRITES
TO THE LANCET
1967
THE BMJ PUBLISHES
AVERSION THERAPY
1993
THE CPT INSPECTS
LEROS
2018
SENI'S LAW
UNITED KINGDOM

How to read this page

The problem with the material circulating about psychiatry is not that all of it is false. It is that it mixes documented findings from official inspections with claims that do not hold, and so discredits both. Every finding here carries its level of proof — the same system as psychdrugs.org:

COURT

A judgment, an inquest conclusion or an Act. Decided by a competent body.

REGULATORY

An official inspection report, government agency finding or international body.

PEER-REVIEWED

Published research broadly accepted in the literature.

OPEN DISPUTE

Live disagreement, scientific or legal. Both sides are given.

UNVERIFIED

A claim that circulates, but for which no primary source was found. Cited with the gap declared.

CONTENTS

Ten sections, each documented on its own

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

PART A Institutions 825 patients at Leros, March 1993 Leros circulates as a 1989 image. There is also an official document with a number and paragraphs — and it says more precise things than the image. Read this section → PART B Restraint 25 minutes prone; the recommendation was 3 There is no reliable count of restraint deaths. There are two fully documented cases — and the story of what happened to the recommendations. Read this section → PART C Involuntary detention 2 rulings against Greece at Strasbourg Two claims that sound serious and do not hold as stated: that the UN banned involuntary detention, and that Greece leads Europe in compulsory admissions. Read this section → PART D DSM 69% of the DSM-5 task force disclosed ties The manual that defines who has a disorder did not fall from the sky; committees wrote it. Who sat on them, and what they declared. Read this section → PART E Ghostwriting 22 named authors; someone else wrote the draft A deliberately small section: three of the eight strands researched did not survive verification. What remains sits in court-filed documents. Read this section → PART F Abandoned treatments 1949 Nobel for lobotomy — never revoked None of these was fringe: published in the leading journals, prized, taught. And nearly every time, the first to say so publicly came from inside. Read this section → PART G The state 1983 withdrew from the WPA before expulsion The clearest documented case of diagnosis used politically — and the topic where the most inflated numbers circulate. Read this section → PART H The insiders DSM-IV its chair became DSM-5's leading critic Not a balancing gesture but the conclusion of the rest: nearly every practice here stopped because someone inside the field published against it. Read this section → PART I Today 224 patients in every controlled ECT trial The largest study of memory was done in 2007, by an advocate of the method, and found deficits at six months. Its own defender concedes we do not know what remains once it stops. Read this section → UNVERIFIED Unverified 8 claims that did not survive checking Forty-three claims were checked against their primary sources. Eight did not hold, and are published with the reason each failed. Read this section →

What this page does not say

Because this material is often used to support conclusions that do not follow from it:

The difference between an evidence file and an indictment is that the file also publishes what does not hold. Eight of this page's forty-three claims did not survive checking, and are published as such.

What you can do with this

  1. Check it. Every claim carries a DOI, a PMID, a case number or an official report number. We are not asking you to believe us.
  2. If this concerns you or someone close to you in hospital, the rights and time limits in the relevant statute are specific. Greece's two Strasbourg rulings were precisely about failure to observe limits the law already sets.
  3. Do not repeat numbers without a source, whatever they show. The eight that were rejected circulate widely and sound serious.
  4. No treatment decision is made from a website. Not from this one either. Talk to your treating doctor.
  5. If you find an error, write to me. Corrections are recorded, not silently deleted.

The sister fileFor the drugs themselves — guilty pleas, FDA and MHRA warnings, and national prescription data — there is a separate file built to the same sourcing rules.

psychdrugs.org →

Written by Petros Chatzianastasiou
I am not a doctor, a lawyer or a researcher. Every claim here cites a public document you can check; where a person or body is named, it is the document that names them, and nothing is attributed beyond what that document states. This page gives no medical or legal advice and recommends no course of action regarding treatment or hospitalisation, yours or anyone else's. Errors are corrected as soon as they are evidenced.

About this site →

All sources

The full list of 66 sources. Each section repeats only the ones it cites.

  1. [1]European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), "Report to the Government of Greece on the visit to Greece carried out from 14 to 26 March 1993", CPT/Inf (94) 20 — §§195–196, 202, 207, 226–233, 254, 278–280
  2. [2]Council Regulation (EEC) No 815/84 of 26 March 1984 on exceptional financial support in favour of Greece in the social field, OJ L 88, 31.3.1984, pp. 1–3 (CELEX 31984R0815)
  3. [3]European Parliament, "Resolution on the treatment of the mental defectives on the Greek island of Leros", B3-0560/93, 22.04.1993, OJ C 150, 31.5.1993, pp. 269–270
  4. [4]Greek Ministry of Health, "PSYCHARGOS C (2011–2020) — Revision plan for the PSYCHARGOS Programme", November 2011
  5. [5]State Therapeutic Hospital – General Hospital – Health Centre of Leros, official site; 2nd Health Region of Piraeus and the Aegean
  6. [6]2024 inpatient census, journal Psychiatriki — four of its six authors are connected to the institution
  7. [7]Independent Inquiry into the death of David Bennett, HSG(94)27, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority, chaired by Sir John Blofeld, December 2003
  8. [8]NICE guideline NG10, "Violence and aggression: short-term management", 2015
  9. [9]Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths, South London Coroner's Court, death of Olaseni Lewis, Senior Coroner Selena Lynch, 28.06.2017, ref 2017-0205
  10. [10]Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018, 2018 c. 27 (United Kingdom)
  11. [11]US General Accounting Office, "Mental Health: Improper Restraint or Seclusion Use Places People at Risk", GAO/HEHS-99-176, September 1999
  12. [12]42 CFR § 482.13(g) — requirement to report restraint-related deaths
  13. [13]UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No. 1 (2014), CRPD/C/GC/1, §§40, 42
  14. [14]CRPD Committee, "Guidelines on article 14 of the Convention", 14th session, 2015
  15. [15]UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 35 (2014)
  16. [16]ECtHR, Rooman v Belgium, Grand Chamber
  17. [17]ECtHR, Venios v Greece, no. 33055/08, First Section, 05.07.2011
  18. [18]ECtHR, Karamanof v Greece, no. 46372/09, First Section, 26.07.2011
  19. [19]Stylianidis S, Peppou LE, Drakonakis N et al. "Mental health care in Athens: Are compulsory admissions in Greece a one-way road?" Int J Law Psychiatry 2017;52:28-34, DOI 10.1016/j.ijlp.2017.04.001, PMID 28431745
  20. [20]Sheridan Rains L, Zenina T, Casanova Dias M et al. "Variations in patterns of involuntary hospitalisation and in legal frameworks", Lancet Psychiatry 2019;6(5):403-417
  21. [21]Cosgrove L, Krimsky S, Vijayaraghavan M, Schneider L. "Financial ties between DSM-IV panel members and the pharmaceutical industry", Psychother Psychosom 2006;75(3):154-160, DOI 10.1159/000091772, PMID 16636630
  22. [22]Cosgrove L, Krimsky S. "A comparison of DSM-IV and DSM-5 panel members' financial associations with industry", PLoS Med 2012;9(3):e1001190, DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001190
  23. [23]Davis LC, Diianni AT, Drumheller SR et al. "Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5-TR", BMJ 2024;384:e076902, DOI 10.1136/bmj-2023-076902
  24. [24]Regier DA, Narrow WE, Clarke DE et al. "DSM-5 field trials in the United States and Canada, Part II", Am J Psychiatry 2013;170(1):59-70 — the table of kappa values was not obtained
  25. [25]Kraemer HC, Kupfer DJ, Clarke DE, Narrow WE, Regier DA. «DSM-5: How Reliable Is Reliable Enough?» Am J Psychiatry 2012;169(1):13-15, DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11010050 — published a year before the results
  26. [26]American Psychiatric Association, "Highlights of Changes from DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5", "Bereavement Exclusion" section
  27. [27]Frances AJ, Widiger T. "Psychiatric diagnosis: lessons from the DSM-IV past and cautions for the DSM-5 future", Annu Rev Clin Psychol 2012;8:109-130, PMID 22035240
  28. [28]Frances AJ, Nardo JM. "ICD-11 should not repeat the mistakes made by DSM-5", Br J Psychiatry 2013;203(1):1-2
  29. [29]World Health Assembly, Resolution WHA72.15, "Eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases", 28.05.2019
  30. [30]Greek ministerial decision establishing "ICD-10-GrM (Greek Modification)", 2018
  31. [31]UCSF Industry Documents Library, POGO Investigation on Ghostwriting Collection, case "Paxil, C.P.Ct.PA" — litigation exhibits (STI proposal 03.04.1998; manuscript draft with title page)
  32. [32]Keller MB et al. "Efficacy of paroxetine in the treatment of adolescent major depression", J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2001;40(7):762-772
  33. [33]"Expression of Concern: Efficacy of Paroxetine in the Treatment of Adolescent Major Depression", J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2026;65(6):852, DOI 10.1016/j.jaac.2025.09.032 — the text of the notice was not obtained
  34. [34]Healy D, Cattell D. "Interface between authorship, industry and science in the domain of therapeutics", Br J Psychiatry 2003;183:22-27, DOI 10.1192/bjp.183.1.22 — D. Healy has acted as a paid expert witness for plaintiffs
  35. [35]Nobel Prize Outreach, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949; Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 10
  36. [36]Caruso JP, Sheehan JP, Neurosurgical Focus 2017 — "more than 3,000" lobotomies
  37. [37]El-Hai J. The Lobotomist, 2005 — secondary, a trade biography; source of the figure 3,439, never independently audited
  38. [38]Sakel M, Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1934 (announced to the Vienna Medical Society, 1933)
  39. [39]Bourne H. "The insulin myth", Lancet 1953;265(6793):964-968
  40. [40]Ackner B, Harris A, Oldham AJ — randomised comparison, 1957
  41. [41]MacCulloch MJ, Feldman MP. "Aversion therapy in management of 43 homosexuals", Br Med J 1967;2(5552):594-597, DOI 10.1136/bmj.2.5552.594, PMID 6025594
  42. [42]Sexual Offences Act 1967 (England and Wales)
  43. [43]Spitzer RL, letter to the editor, Arch Sex Behav 2012;41(4):757 — a retraction request the editor declined; the 2003 paper carries no retraction notice
  44. [44]UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, A/HRC/44/53, 2020
  45. [45]Bonnie RJ. "Political Abuse of Psychiatry in the Soviet Union and in China", J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2002;30(1):136-144
  46. [46]Bloch S. "Athens and beyond: Soviet psychiatric abuse and the World Psychiatric Association", Psychiatric Bulletin 1990;14(3):129-133, DOI 10.1192/pb.14.3.129
  47. [47]Helsinki Watch (Human Rights Watch), "The Legacy of Psychiatric Abuse in the USSR", May 1990
  48. [48]Mental Health Act 1983 (England and Wales), ss. 58A and 62
  49. [49]Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
  50. [50]Kaliora SC, Braga RJ, Petrides G et al. "The practice of electroconvulsive therapy in Greece", J ECT 2013;29(3):219-224, DOI 10.1097/YCT.0b013e31827e0d49, PMID 23296395
  51. [51]HHS Office of Inspector General, "Medicare Atypical Antipsychotic Drug Claims for Elderly Nursing Home Residents", OEI-07-08-00150, May 2011
  52. [52]Banerjee S. "The use of antipsychotic medication for people with dementia: Time for action", report to the UK Department of Health, 2009 — retrieved from a mirror; re-sourcing from the UK National Archives is outstanding
  53. [53]US Government Accountability Office, "Residential Treatment Programs: Concerns Regarding Abuse and Death in Certain Programs for Troubled Youth", GAO-08-146T, 10.10.2007
  54. [54]Rosenhan DL. "On being sane in insane places", Science 1973;179(4070):250-258
  55. [55]Cahalan S. The Great Pretender, 2019 — secondary, a trade non-fiction work
  56. [56]Scull A, History of Psychiatry — analysis of Cahalan's findings in the peer-reviewed literature
  57. [57]Spitzer RL, methodological critique of the Rosenhan experiment, 1975
  58. [58]van Voren R. "Political abuse of psychiatry — an historical overview", Schizophr Bull 2010;36(1):33-35, DOI 10.1093/schbul/sbp119
  59. [59]Giannakopoulos G, Anagnostopoulos DC, BJPsych Bull 2016 — the figure "4,000" is not independent of source [60]
  60. [60]Goutidis C., Georgiou A., "State Therapeutic Hospital of Leros", historical presentation, Leros, August 2009, republished by a Dodecanese social co-operative — cites Royal Decree 119/1965 (Gazette A 30), Presidential Decree 620/1981 (Gazette A 157), Gazette B 182/1987 and the admissions register; both authors worked at the institution itself, and the gazette issues were not opened at the National Printing House
  61. [61]"Psychiatrists Approve Change on Homosexuals", The New York Times, 9 April 1974 — contemporaneous journalism about the APA announcement; the ballot record was not obtained
  62. [62]"8 Psychiatrists Are Seeking New Vote on Homosexuality as Mental Illness", The New York Times, 26 May 1974 — gives the total of 17,910 eligible voters
  63. [63]Greek Law 2071/1992 "Modernisation and Organisation of the Health System", Government Gazette 123/A/15.07.1992, Articles 95–99 — text cross-checked across three independent Greek legal databases; no instrument specific to electroconvulsive therapy was found
  64. [64]Sackeim HA, Prudic J, Fuller R, Keilp J, Lavori PW, Olfson M. "The Cognitive Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Community Settings", Neuropsychopharmacology 2007;32:244-254, DOI 10.1038/sj.npp.1301180 — the largest prospective study of cognitive effects; led by a leading advocate of the method
  65. [65]Read J, Kirsch I, McGrath L. "Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression: A Review of the Quality of ECT versus Sham ECT Trials and Meta-Analyses", Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 2019;21(2):64-103
  66. [66]Anderson IM. "Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) versus sham ECT for depression: do study limitations invalidate the evidence (and mean we should stop using ECT)?", BJPsych Advances 2021;27(5):285-291 — the defence of the method; concedes there is next to no evidence of efficacy after the end of acute treatment