> What is your motivation for defending the status quo? My goal for posting was to point out that existing mental health treatments don't work, and that there are promising developments that point to a better model. I didn't share all my references.

My goal is to provide an opinion that balances yours, because there are likely many people in your situation, and I don't think they should give up on existing treatments quite so quickly. I know how it feels to see someone you know and love afflicted by mental illness, and I also know how, if treatment as usual doesn't work, it feels like there must be something out there that can help them if you can only find it. But I'm also a neuroscientist (albeit in a subfield without any connection to the study of mental illness) and I know that scientists really do the best they can, and are generally willing to pursue any route if they think it might lead to a better understanding of their subject of study, or, in the case of mental illness, a treatment that can work better than what's out there today.

> Antipsychotics have been shown again and again to be ineffective over the long term:

I am not qualified to assess this evidence, since I don't have an extensive knowledge of this field nor the time to acquire that knowledge, but here is a Cochrane review incorporating 65 RCTs that shows antipsychotics are effective for maintenance:

http://www.cochrane.org/CD008016/SCHIZ_maintenance-treatment...

It is true that the reduction in the risk of relapse appears to decrease with the duration of the study, which is definitely a disquieting finding and deserves further study, but there was still a reduction in risk in the longest study included (3 years).