More from our inbox:Congress, Stand UpWaste, Fraud and Abuse?ImageFrom her house outside Hartford, Conn., Ms. Delano offers coaching to paying clients, but through her nonprofit, she hopes to provide support to large swath of people interested in reducing or quitting psychiatric medications.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

To the Editor:67bet

Re “The Ex-Patients Club” (Science Times, March 18):

In a climate where anti-psychiatry sentiment is increasingly pervasive, I’m deeply alarmed by someone with no clinical experience, Laura Delano, being in the forefront for people getting off their psychiatric medications.

Ms. Delano’s declaration that she was ready to “stop being a psychiatric patient” is no different from people suffering from high blood pressure declaring they’re no longer hypertensive and do not require treatment. Advocating that people with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (which is typically chronic and lifelong) stop their medication is dangerous.

Ms. Delano is embarking on a slippery slope in her claims. She is absolutely right that misdiagnosis and polypharmacy have plagued the field of psychiatry, but when practiced responsibly and evidence-based, it’s a lifesaving discipline.

I always preach lifestyle changes (exercise, diet) and practice psychotherapy before turning to medications for my patients, but medications are often needed to address symptoms so individuals can lead functional, fulfilling lives.

It is certainly appropriate to safely taper off medications in collaboration with a clinician, but it’s important to consider the differences in each individual and the overall risks versus benefits of medication.

Mr. Williams, found guilty of murder 21 years ago,betef.com has been fighting his conviction for decades, and this year he won the support of the prosecutor’s office that brought the original case. But the state attorney general maintained that Mr. Williams, now 55, was guilty, and the legal battle between the state and the county has been playing out for months in Missouri’s courts.

Combined with the effort by Congress to force TikTok to cut its ties with its Chinese owners, the initiative is a major addition to the administration’s efforts to seal off what it views as major cybervulnerabilities for the United States. But the effort has, in effect, begun to drop a digital iron curtain between the world’s two largest economies, which only two decades ago were declaring that the internet would bind them together.

Brandon JacobiPleasantville, N.Y.The writer is a psychiatrist.

To the Editor:

I was also “a professional psychiatric patient” (as Laura Delano called herself) for three decades, from my 20s through my 50s, having been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, major depressive disorder — recurrent and severe with psychotic features — and borderline personality disorder. Over these 30 years, my medication cocktails consisted of S.S.R.I.s, S.N.R.I.s, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines.

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