The Perils of Industrial Mental Health: Documents were forged, and falsified,

From the Philidelphia Inquirer

The social workers who were supposed to watch over 14-year-old Danieal Kelly didn't do much of anything while she slowly died of starvation and neglect.

But they got very busy after she died, according to a grand-jury report.

The call came Aug. 4, 2006. She'd been found dead, looking like a victim of a concentration camp, with rotting bedsores and weighing 42 pounds.

That afternoon, workers for MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc. scrambled to forge documents to make it look as though they had been visiting the girl and her family, as they were being paid to do by the city's Department of Human Services.

In the months before the girl's horrific death, the workers for MultiEthnic were not the only ones who failed to do their jobs - or to try to cover their tracks afterward - according to the grand-jury report.

"The fate of a sweet and promising child depended on the willingness of a number of particular adults to do the bare minimum of what they were supposed to do," the report says.

". . . Had just one of them performed their duty or done their job, Danieal would be alive today."

The DHS caseworker assigned to the family, Dana Poindexter, ignored warnings that the girl was at grave risk, the report alleges, and later lied to the grand jury to make it appear he had been doing his job.

Months after her death, a homicide detective found the case file - at the bottom of a box filled with food wrappers and dusty unopened letters, some of which were four years old.

Poindexter testified he didn't know that Kelly was entitled to go to school, or that it was against the law for a parent not to provide necessary care. "He must have been asleep during his training," one expert told the grand jury.

Pressed to provide a summary of the case a year before her death, Poindexter wrote an account that the grand jury called "pathetic," "self-serving," and "almost certainly false."

Poindexter, who had been suspended three times for poor performance, testified that he prepared many documents and put them in the Kelly case file.

"The grand jury has no doubt that he never prepared these documents," the report said. He is charged with perjury, along with endangering the welfare of children.

Reached by phone, Poindexter, 51, declined to comment. He was suspended again by DHS yesterday.

Another DHS worker, who did not bother to enter the girl's room during her last visit, backdated her report, the grand-jury report said.

And a supervisor admitted she falsified case records to make it seem that DHS had investigated old neglect reports involving the Kelly family and found them "unsubstantiated." Called to testify, she told grand jurors that was common practice at DHS; she said it was a bureaucratic procedure that helped hasten services to families.

That supervisor, Martha Poller, is still with DHS and recently was given a new job: project manager for a team that will examine child-fatality cases. During a news conference yesterday, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said she was incredulous that Poller had been entrusted with that new duty.

Poller did not return phone calls yesterday seeking comment.She was not charged.

The 258-page report brims with outrage and fierce criticism of the people involved in Kelly's case - not just of the nine people who were charged, but also the people who ran DHS, the investigators who responded to the death, and even a Public Health Department official who tried to squelch her employees from talking about the case.

The findings in the report echoed, in part, the findings of a DHS review panel that found deep problems at DHS and suggested sweeping reforms.

"What I can tell you is: The internal accountability was weak, and the demand for external accountability from providers was equally weak," said Carol Spigner, the head of the panel.

"When that happens, there are a lot of risks in the system."

The grand-jury report found that the management failures began years ago, before Danieal Kelly even arrived in Philadelphia.

DHS workers complained that MultiEthnic was not visiting families as required and was falsifying records to cover it up.

An investigator for DHS found that the fraud charges were likely true. But the agency wasn't fired. Cheryl Ransom-Garner, who later became DHS director, summoned Mickal Kamuvaka and the other directors of the agency and "read them the riot act," the report said.

Later, a DHS evaluation lauded MultiEthnic for its "energetic" performance, calling it "remarkable." When called before the grand jury, Ransom-Garner said she didn't remember hearing any complaints about the agency - a response the grand jury called "incredible."

Ransom-Garner did not return calls seeking comment. Kamuvaka could not be reached for comment.

These missed chances to check up on MultiEthnic would be repeated again and again, the report found.

The agency's caseworker assigned to the Kelly family, Julius Murray, allegedly visited the home only a few times, and the investigation found no evidence he ever met the child.

In previous cases, Murray and other caseworkers allegedly would have families sign batches of blank forms, attesting to visits that never happened. Murray is charged with doing the same thing in the Kelly case.

The fraud was no aberration - "it was MultiEthnic's modus operandi," the report said.

After the girl's death, the grand jury found, the cover-up kicked into high gear.

A secretary, Vanessa Jackson, was told to come in on her day off on orders from Kamuvaka, "Dr. K." The problem: DHS was coming over for the Kelly family file at 4 p.m., and "Dr. K didn't have much of a file."

She was put to work fabricating notes for home visits that never happened, while another employee sat forging quarterly reports.

"I don't want them to test the notes for the ink to see if they had been written earlier," Jackson quoted Kamuvaka as saying.

They kept a courier from DHS waiting for 20 minutes while they assembled the file.

Like Poindexter, the next DHS worker to get the case, Laura Sommerer, didn't find anything wrong with MultiEthnic's performance. She visited the home June 29 and allegedly saw nothing amiss. She later said she didn't try to speak to the girl.

After the girl died, Sommerer's boss asked her for her report on the June visit; she gave it a day or two later.

But after investigators analyzed her computer, Sommerer admitted she didn't write the report until after the girl died. The grand jury called that "an obvious attempt to cover up her negligence."

During the investigation, the top official in the Health Department also tried to squelch information about the case, the grand jury said.

The doctor who performed the autopsy, Edwin Lieberman, said he was told to keep quiet about the case by Carmen Paris, then the department's acting commissioner.

Edward McCann, who heads the homicide unit for the District Attorney's Office, said that Paris told him it was a miscommunication.

Donald Schwarz, deputy mayor for health, said Paris was suspended pending a hearing today.

In October 2006, after The Inquirer published reports on deaths of other children under DHS supervision, Ransom-Garner at first prepared a counteroffensive - an opinion piece attacking the paper's findings.

She admitted that she didn't bother telling Mayor John F. Street much about the Kelly case "because it wasn't in the press."

But then someone showed Street the photographs of Danieal Kelly. The next morning, on Oct. 20, she was called into the office of Managing Director Pedro Ramos.

"This is the case that is going to take the mayor down," Ransom-Garner quoted him as saying.

There would be no opinion column. Instead, Street fired Ransom-Garner and her top deputy.

Senator Chuck Grassley Questions Stanford Psychiatrist Alan Schatzberg’s Industry Ties

From the most excellent WSJ Health Blog. There is this small matter of a very large amount of money going to a person investigating the possible use of a drug. Corcept is studying the drug mifepristone to treat psychotic depression; Schatzberg is listed as the principal investigator on an NIH-funded study of mifepristone. Can you guess what the research results were?

Chuck Grassley is at it again. The senator from Iowa is looking into a Stanford psychiatry professor’s multimillion-dollar stake in a drug company called Corcept Therapeutics.

Alan Schatzberg, who heads Stanford’s psych department, followed the university’s rules and reported having a stake of more than $100,000 in the company. According to Grassley, Schatzberg’s total stake in the company may be worth some $6 million.

“Obviously, $6 million is a dramatically higher number than $100,000 and I am concerned that Stanford may not have been able to adequately monitor the degree of Dr. Schatzberg’s conflicts of interest with its current disclosure policies and submit to you that these policies should be re-examined,” Grassley wrote in a letter to Stanford’s president.

[...]

Grassley, a Republican, has been looking into docs’ financial ties for a while, and he’s been pushing a bill that would require disclosure of industry payments to doctors.

Who loves psychiatry?

An Editorial, as seen in the March 2008 Bridge by Rod Bercaw, from the Enough Room weblog (We do recommend that he reorganize the color scheme, and correct some of the text formatting)

Organized crime families love psychiatry because it only takes an allegation of psychiatric illness to discredit a person. If no one is listening to the victim of criminal abuse the criminals can do whatever they want. Who is going to believe or listen to the victim?

Kate Millett has written*

*(Kate Millet, “Legal Rights and the Mental Health System,” Queen's Law Journal, Vol. 17, (1992), No. 1, pp. 215-223)

“Psychiatry [. . .] functions as an arm of social force, ultimately an arm of the state, with state powers, police powers, real locks and bars, drugs and torments.

“[It embodies] an idea, the idea that the individual carries an invisible disease, or taint, which no pathology can prove, but which experts can intuit and cure by force. This idea prevails by common consent, by publicity and propaganda, by the borrowing from the prestige of science itself and applying the force of the state and its overwhelming armory of physical power. [. . .] The system would not work without force. [. . .]

“Here the ideology is a perversion of reason and science, the medical model of mental illness. [. . .] The medical model [. . .] is not based upon any reality, nor is it medical, though it uses the prestige of physical medicine and the reality of physical disease to mystify us and to command a general social consent, lay or legal.

“[. . .] our communal faith in the existence of mental illness is completely religious and unscientific. We believe without any proof whatsoever. Without any evidence of what science means by illness. [. . .] In medicine, there is no disease or illness without pathology, and pathology is something one can see and prove. Physical medicine and science itself rest on proof.”

In February 2008 David Tarloff went to the New York office of a psychiatrist to rob the man who had put him into the mental hospital in 1991. He wanted money to get his mother out of a nursing home and to take her to Hawaii. He brought along women's clothing for her and some adult diapers. He also brought nine-inch knives and a meat cleaver to persuade the psychiatrist to part with his money. While waiting for the shrink the psychologist partner of the psychiatrist confronted Tarloff, who proceeded to kill the psychologist.

No politician wants to ban nine-inch knives or meat cleavers. What ordinary cook needs nine-inch knives and meat cleavers? What about pillows, which are used to kill?

Police say Tarloff stopped taking his psychiatric medications. The student shooter at Northern Illinois University, who killed five students then himself, also stopped taking his medication. Few journalists recognize this pattern as the cause of violence. Medications.

When will the States and the U.S. Congress question the drug companies persuading humans to take medications that make them violent when they stop taking them? When will politicians recognize that psychiatrists can’t function without police forcing people to accept treatment of imaginary illnesses?

8 Reasons to RUN from Anti-Depressants

While we DO NOT advocate for any alternatives in treatment for Depression, since we are, after all, not medical professionals, this video and related text is mostly valuable stuff - Reason 8 is a plug for the author's own system of how to breaking out of depression, which is available through the original link, so we will not list it here, (he plugs it in the video) As seen as on YouTube:

About This Video

1. They Don´t Work!

• Anti-depressants have no impact...

Almost 50 clinical trials were reviewed by psychologists from the UK's University of Hull, who found new-generation antidepressants worked no better than a placebo for most depressed patients.

See a few BBC Videos on this research and some other cool stuff:
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/searc...

The Original Research Document
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/arch...

• The UK Newspaper The Guardian reported on Feb.27, 2008 that the government yesterday released details of its £170m plan to train 3,600 more psychological therapists in the wake of a study showing that antidepressant drugs such as Prozac are no more effective than a placebo.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/200...

2. Big Pharma Lies!

• They routinely suppress the results of research which have negative results for their products.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the effectiveness of a dozen popular anti-depressants has been exaggerated by selective publication of favorable results, according to a review of unpublished data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration.

Among the many drugs that were found to have increased their effects as a result of selective publication and/or data manipulation:

Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor

Wall Street Journal link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12005...

3. You are a Victim of Marketing!

• The New York Times reports that the diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder has increased 4000% in 10 years!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/hea...

• USA Today report shows that as ad spending goes up, the more you ASK for specific medications:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/...

• Big Pharma routinely pays many Psychiatrists:
Pharma paid $57 M to Medical Staff in Minesota alone (1997-2005)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/...

4. Harmful Side Effects: Suicide, Murder, School Shootings

• Among people under 25, the risk of suicide doubles for those on anti-depressants:
The New York Times article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...

• Unless you have been living under a rock....They are connected with most school shootings and many other murders.

Great ABC Report on School Shootings, Suicide, Murder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XHNJy...

Here´s a link to SSRI Stories - a never-ending list of new items connecting anti-depressants to murder, suicide, etc...
http://ssristories.com

5. Shrinks Still Have NO Test!

For More Info:
http://ssri-research.com/serotonin_th...

6. Quitting is a Bitch!

• This video shows just how bad the situation is:
http://www.sobersocial.com/view_video...

• See also, Bipolar Blast and Furious Seasons among countless other blogs on this subject:
http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com
http://www.furiousseasons.com

7. Long Term Therapy Works!

• The New York Times reports that psychotherapy for as long as nine months is significantly more effective than short-term treatment for alleviating depression associated with bipolar disease, new research suggests.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/hea...

---

Reason 8 is a plug for the author's own system of how to breaking out of depression, which is available through the original link

"Chemical Imbalance"--Scientifically Debunked but Commercially Profitable

An important article from the Alliance for Human Research Protection

"The Media and the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression" by Jonathan Leo & Jeffrey R. Lacasse is a follow up to their seminal article in PLoS Medicine (2005), in which they debunked the "chemical imbalance" theory of depression.

The "chemical imbalance" theory in psychiatry rests on the observation that mood could be artificially manipulated with drugs-those which raised monoamine levels improved mood, while those which lowered amine levels led to depression, but it remained to be seen if naturally occurring fluctuations in neurotransmitter levels were responsible for, or caused, the ebb and flow of mood levels. As the authors point out, in spite of the enormous amount of money and time that has been spent in the quest to confirm the chemical imbalance theory, direct proof has never materialized. Moreover, during the past several decades, a significant amount of evidence has accumulated which calls the theory's validity into question.

Of particular note, in the two years since publication of their PLoS article, not a single scientific article challenged their conclusion. Indeed, the chairman of FDA Psychopharmacology Advisory Committee acknowledged that the "chemical imbalance" theory was but a "useful metaphor"--as opposed to a valid hypothesis.

Another credible, evidence-based assessment of the "chemical imbalance" theory is to be found on the website of The Mental Health Service at McGill University: "The term 'chemical imbalance' is thrown around a lot these days. True conditions caused by chemical imbalances are relatively rare. All thoughts, feelings and motions in the brain are mediated by the release of chemicals in brain pathways. Every person's brain is unique, leading each of us to have different traits and abilities. Just because your brain works in a particular way does not mean that you have a chemical imbalance. A certain amount of sadness, anxiety or other emotional upset is normal, and though we may be able to block these feelings by chemicals, this would tend to dehumanize us. Even when we use medication to help an individual with overwhelming emotions, most of the time this is not to repair a 'chemical imbalance' but simply to help contain symptoms." [Link]

However, invalid thought it may be, as Drs. Leo and Lacasse point out the "chemical imbalance" theory has had extraordinary commercial value for both the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry: "With the advent of the chemical imbalance theory, the companies were no longer just providing soothing tonics, they were now providing medications to treat diseases, as exemplified by an early SSRI advertisement stating: "When serotonin is in short supply, you may suffer from depression."

The wording here is all-important. The advertisement takes a correlation between serotonin shortage and psychological stress-and even this is highly questionable and unverifiable in any individual case-and makes a leap of faith to the conclusion that depression is caused by a serotonin imbalance, not that psychological stress impacts the serotonin system. And the marketing did not stop with depression; eventually we were told that whatever our problems might be, whether anxiety, excessive shyness, depression, or the inability to pay attention, the underlying cause was a faulty transmitter level which could be rectified with a pill. A 2005 survey from the Harvard School of Public Health reported that nearly half of all Americans will at some point develop a mental illness, presumably from a chemical imbalance, with 29% developing an anxiety disorder and 20% a mood disorder."

The "chemical imbalance" theory has provided promoters of psychoactive "feel good" prescription drugs with the means for distancing their products from illicit street drugs whose chemical action is almost indistinguishable. Whereas drugs used to "take the edge off" stress are typically considered street drugs and are consumed by "users" or "addicts," substances used to rectify a "chemical imbalance" can be called medications--and these are legitimately consumed by patients.

A fly in the ointment occurred when Ricky Williams, the star running back for the Miami Dolphins who had been "diagnosed" with Social Anxiety Disorder, and for several years was paid by GlaxoSmithKline to promote Paxil for anxiety disorder, was described in 2002, by People magazine, as suffering from a "depression-like chemical imbalance that affects roughly three million Americans." Williams tested positive for marijuana on several occasions. But while his marijuana use was frowned upon, his use of Paxil was considered acceptable. One was a medication supposed to treat a chemical imbalance, while the other was a drug signaling a lack of willpower.

However, Williams' contract with Glaxo came to a sudden halt in 2004, when he stated that marijuana was ten times better than Paxil. What got him into hot water, Drs. Leo and Lacasse, note, was not so much praising the competition, but rather putting his sponsor's "medication" in the same category as an illicit drug. Williams threatened the assumption underlying the conventional unsupportable divide between legal and illegal drug use. His juxtaposition threatened the most powerful industries--including professional sports, the pharmaceutical industry, psychiatry, and the mass media.

Another fly in the ointment raising questions about the validity of the dividing line between prescribed and illicit psychoactive substances, is a recent controlled clinical trial conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

The researchers ostensibly tested the "Mystical" effects of psilocybin, the active ingredient in mushrooms which is an illegal drug that causes hallucinations. However, two months after the trial they found that "79% of those prescribed psilocybin reported moderately or greatly increased levels of life satisfaction compared with those given a placebo. A majority said their mood, attitudes and behaviors had changed for the better." [Link] No SSRI clinical trial had that high a rate of long-lasting improvements in mood, attitude and behavior.

The authors sent inquiries to reporters who mentioned the "chemical imbalance" theory as if it had been proven, asking for citations of such proof. The responses--or lack of responses--and the biased, pro-industry reporting about mental health treatments, are no less troubling than the biased reporting in the New York Times about the events leading up to the Iraq War.

"In hindsight, as the Times editors now acknowledge (5/326/04), Judith Miller's war coverage was overly one-sided. Her fundamental flaw could be described as a lack of professional skepticism toward the Bush administration, as she willingly parroted what those pushing for war were saying, while giving little credence to the stance of the other side. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Michael Massing commented that the Times and Miller's reporting were examples of media "submissiveness."

This depiction could just as well apply to the media's reporting of mental health issues. As just one example, in some cases, the media still go to the people responsible for the original problems. For instance, several of the researchers involved with the studies of SSRIs in children are still cited in the press even though the following information has come out about their published studies: they downplayed the suicide risk; they exaggerated the benefits; and the papers published under their names were actually written by ghostwriters paid by the pharmaceutical industry.

The Times editors have acknowledged both the problems with Miller's reporting and their own lack of editorial oversight of her. It remains to be seen if members of the media will ever look inward and reflect on their role in the promotion of the chemical imbalance theory. (For those familiar with the New York Times' coverage of mental health issues over the past 10 years, it is refreshing that after a series of health reporters who essentially abdicated their role as investigative journalists, there is a newer group of Times reporters with more skeptical inclination..."

Both articles by Jonathan Leo and Jeffrey Lacasse are freely accessible. [Link] and [Link]

Psychiatrist Among Those Arrested in Israeli Insurance Fraud Scheme

A Report in YNet News, there is certain to be more on this, as least in Israel

Israel Police National Economic Crimes Unit investigators Tuesday morning arrested 15 people —about half of whom are doctors — suspected of being involved in an insurance-fraud scheme.

Police have accused the 15 of inventing car accidents to defraud the National Insurance Institute of Israel (NII) and insurance companies of estimated millions of shekels.

In an operation dubbed "White Robe", conducted with the assistance of the NII and Avner insurance, a large scam was discovered whereby suspects used counterfit car accidents to receive money from the NII and insurance companies for damages and surgeries. Among those arrested are an assistant district psychiatrist, an orthopedic surgeon, and a radiologist.

Evidence collected by the police points to a "well-oiled" machine operated by several suspects, two of whom assisted the "claimants" by guiding them through the process of faking accidents, acquiring falsified doctors' forms, accompanying them until receiving money from the NII and insurance companies, and finally splitting this sum.

And now from our sponsors: Diseases for Sale

We found a post that probably needs to be quoted in full:

If you're a physician, you know Medscape. A division of that internet health care behemoth, WebMD, Medscape pounds our inboxes daily with offers of free CME. Much of the CME is industry-sponsored, which is not exactly a news item for most of us. But what you may not be aware of is that Medscape sells its disease-specific "resource centers" to the highest bidder. For example, the ADHD Resource Center is purchased by Shire, the Bipolar Disorder Resource Center is owned by GlaxoSmithKline, and the Pharmacological Management of Pain Resource Center is now the property of Cephalon.

How much do companies pay in order to take control of what doctors learn? Good luck extracting this information from Medscape, but rumor has it that about $500,000 gets you a sort of "base package" which includes four articles. The sponsoring company gets to specify the topics and the authors, of course. There is a menu of extras, so if you really want to saturate the medical mind with your marketing message, you can presumably part with well over a million. And this doesn't include income from the advertising banners that appear to populate each and every web page on the site.

Yes, doctors know Medscape. And Medscape knows money.

Big Pharma--Tricks of the Trade

From the E Pluribus Media Community

A better new book on the subject is Shyness by Christopher Lane. Both authors document the way in which the American Psychiatric Institute has worked with the big pharmas to redefine mood disorders as mental illness, in order to create a market for anti-anxiety and anti-depression remedies. Here is an excerpt from Levin's article.

Not too long ago, a child who was irritable, moody, and distractible and who at times sounded grandiose or acted without regard for consequences was considered a "handful." In the U.S. by the 1980s, that child was labeled with a "behavioral disorder" and today that child is being diagnosed as "bipolar" and "psychotic" -- and prescribed expensive antipsychotic drugs. Bloomberg News, also on September 4, 2007, reported, "The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs."

Both authors are strong on the subject of how the steriotypical upbeat personality type has been defined as a norm for mental health.

Worried about the world? Lost that you may loose your  job and won't be able to put food on the table or get medical care for your kids? Pop a pill. By this account being an "introvert" is a no-no. Big reader, or worse yet someone who likes to research things and write about them, you know an introspective type or maybe just plain shy. These days you may be diagnosed as suffering from a Mood Disorder.

Remember how chemical imbalance in the brain was ostensibly discovered to be at the root of mental illness and drugs like prozac were prescribed to take care of this. Well know it seems that new research indicates its just not so. Levin reprises the new research results in his article and comes to a startling conclusion.

The serotonin-deficiency theory of depression was so successfully marketed that it was news to many Americans when Newsweek's February 26, 2007 cover story, "Men and Depression," mentioned that scientists now reject the theory that depression is caused by low levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, told Newsweek that "a depressed brain is not necessarily underproducing something."

He asks the question, why we are seeing the release of these results now and offers an interesting hypothesis that the reason is because the patents on the present generation of anti-psychotic drugs are beginning to lapse. This is clearing the way for a new generation of wonder drugs.

To the delight of Big Pharma, NIMH uses taxpayer monies to fund researchers who are financially connected to pharmaceutical companies. One important example is the "Sequential Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D)," a $35 million U.S. taxpayer-funded study that proclaimed the effectiveness of antidepressant treatment. The results of STAR*D were widely reported by the corporate media.

Unfortunately, the NIMH press release about STAR*D excluded the fact that STAR*D researchers received consulting and speaker fees from the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the antidepressants studied in STAR*D -- and this fact went unreported by the corporate media.

Also not in the press release and unreported is the fact that STAR*D researchers failed to include a placebo control and failed to incorporate relapse rates in the overall results. So in reality, STAR*D antidepressant results were no better than the customary placebo results or the results of no treatment at all -- this also unreported by the corporate media.

Dramatic Hike Forecast For ADHD Drugs Spending in UK - Marketing Campaign Projected to be Huge Success

We anticipate that a huge marketing campaign will produce the results anticipate. As seen in this report

The National Health Service in the UK is likely to face a 10-fold increase in the cost of drugs prescribed to children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the decade to 2012.

The research modelled various scenarios to determine possible costs to the National Health Service in England and the statutory health insurance providers in Germany.

Michael Schlander of the University of Heidelberg in Germany created a model based on demographic and epidemiological data, past spending trends, and an assessment of which drugs may soon be available for prescriptions. He calculated a range of the possible costs by varying the assumptions made for factors such as the likelihood of diagnosis and treatment, the level of treatment and the costs of drugs.

The cost of ADHD prescriptions to the NHS in England was £7 million in 2002 and the study predicted that this will rise to somewhere between £49 and £101 million per year by 2012. Prof Schlander stated: "The scenarios developed here strongly suggest that the trend of rising drug expenditures for ADHD may not abate in the near future."

At the same time Schlander emphasized that caution should be exercised when interpreting this data: "The mere focus of the present analysis is budgetary impact," and thus the data "illuminate just one half of the health economic equation; they do not provide information on 'value for money'."

The main characteristics of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. In the USA the percentage of children being treated for ADHD has been estimated at between 2.9 and 4.8%. The ADHD drugs bill in the USA is expected to top $4 billion by 2010 (for adults as well as children). In the UK it is thought that ADHD used to be under-diagnosed. The number of prescriptions is now rising sharply. One new drug that may become available in 2008 in the UK is Vyvanse(r), which is thought to have a lower potential for abuse and overdose than existing ADHD drugs.

Article: Impact of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on Prescription Drug Spending for Children and Adolescents: Increasing Relevance of Health Economic Evidence, Michael Schlander, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health (in press)

Psychiatrist as marketing drone, advocates more 'Off Label' use of prescriptions

Wasn't there a new law passed to address the long term aspects of drug safety. Didn't we recent read about the perils of drug companies encouraging off label uses of drugs for a variety of uses? With a fine of over half a TRILLION (with a T) dollars? Yet here we have a psychiatrist claiming that not only does this not really happen, but that we need more of it. Sounds like a marketing drone to me.

Overly restrictive intellectual property laws devalue the "repurposing" of existing medications for new uses, slowing their availability as life-saving treatments, a Portland researcher contends.

S. Paul Berger, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, writes in a letter appearing in the current issue of the journal Nature that "economics and patent laws" keep pharmaceutical companies from finding new uses for old drugs.

Instead, drug companies "reinvent the wheel" by spending millions of dollars to develop new drugs for diseases that existing drugs have already been shown to be effective against in off-label uses, Berger believes. As a result, new drugs take years to reach consumers who need them as they undergo lengthy testing in clinical trials required by the Food and Drug Administration, and the development costs are passed on to consumers.

[...]

The endocrine effects of the psychiatric drug Zyprexa are extremely dangerous, says Swedish Professor in Psychiatry

As reported here with a tip of the hat to Furious Seasons

Speaking out about the harmful effects of the psychiatric drug Zyprexa, the Swedish Professor in Psychiatry, Rolf Adolfsson, said: “There is nothing worse than seeing a young person 17-18 years with a weight gain of 40-50 kg, and no one does anything! What is Swedish psychiatry doing?”

The psychiatrist spoke out in Swedish national television, in a program covering the illegal marketing of Zyprexa and the harmful effects of the new so called atypical neuroleptics. Zyprexa is the 6th most sold drug in Sweden, all categories.

Despite the fact that nine States in the US are suing the manufacturer of Zyprexa, Eli Lilly, and despite the fact that almost 30.000 persons have been awarded 1.2 billion dollars due to the injuries caused by Zyprexa, there has been a complete silence about this affair in Sweden.

Until now.

The Professor, who according to the program has been investigating harmful effects of drugs for the last 7 years, further said:

“I’ve seen so many complications, and I have met so many patients – that I completely choke. Are we so damned gullible, and it must be – there is only one thing – marketing.”

When the reporter takes up the endocrine effects of the new neuroleptics, Professor Adolfsson says that they are extremely dangerous. He says:

“You die prematurely, 10-15 years.”

” And upon the surprised follow-up question from the reporter if he means that the pharmaceutical industry, with these new drugs, drives persons with schizophrenia to an early death, Dr. Adolfsson simply responds:

“Absolutely!” He says: “Everybody knows that weight gain is completely catastrophic for all forms of illness ahead, even cancer.”

And:

“It is the central thing for the development of two things: One is vascular diseases and the other is diabetes.

It is further revealed that the Professor has had a long relationship with Eli Lilly (10-15 years). He says:

“And I have discussed very much with them that you have to be trustworthy – this I maybe said 5-6 years ago – they must come out and say: This is a very dangerous thing with our drug, because people are gaining weight. And you must do these and these tests, and if we have this increase in weight so quickly, then you must switch to another drug.”

But obviously Eli Lilly and Swedish psychiatry did not listen. At that time the Swedish Medical Journal was filled with ads for Zyprexa, with pictures of calm persons, and the key words for Zyprexa were: Strenghth, Carefulness, Simplicity.

And still, in 2007, the marketing material for Zyprexa in Sweden contains these same words.

In addition to that the patient leaflet, in its English version, contains false statements that the condition of the patient is comparable to diabetes and the usual suggestion, that Zyprexa gives a chemical balance in the brain. The known, serious harmful effects are still made to nothing, with the following wording: “People usually experience few or no side effects. Drowsiness or dizziness may occasionally occur, and some people may experience increased appetite, which can lead to weight increase.”

In the program Dr. Adolfsson raises the question: “Why doesn’t Swedish psychiatry react?”

Feds, state warn Delaware Psychiatric Center about shredding evidence

From Delaware's The News Journal

Revelations that documents were being shredded at the Delaware Psychiatric Center at the same time federal and state agencies were investigating the hospital have prompted stern warnings from the United States Attorney's Office and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden.

In a letter Friday to DPC, U.S. Attorney Colm Connolly's office warned Vince Meconi, secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services, that Connolly did not take the possible destruction of evidence lightly.

"We are concerned about this reported document destruction, and write to remind you and your employees of your duty to preserve any materials that may be relevant to reasonably foreseeable litigation, as well as your duty to not destroy or impair any documents so as to interfere with their availability in an official proceeding," wrote First Assistant U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss. "Accordingly, we ask that you cease any document destruction efforts that relate to DPC."

After revelations about patient abuse and retaliation against nurses who report the abuse were first chronicled last month in The News Journal, Connolly notified Justice Department regulators in Washington about possible civil rights violations at DPC. At least six state and federal agencies are examining conditions at the trouble-plagued state hospital, including a task force recently established by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.

The News Journal broke a story about the shredding program last week. Meconi and other state officials said DPC was not involved, even though DPC's administration building was on the list of buildings visited by the contract shredding firm. According to the firm, the shredding operation ended Friday.

Connolly and Biden declined to comment for this story.

DPC director Susan Watson Robinson said only that she received Connolly's letter Monday, which "reminded us of our obligation not to shred any documents."

In a written response to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which Robinson provided along with the Justice Department warning, Meconi said that "no DPC documents have been destroyed or discarded, nor will they be destroyed or discarded during the course of any state of federal investigation or inquiry."

"All records pertaining to DPC remain intact and accessible to any law enforcement or monitoring agency," Meconi wrote. "In addition to your directive, we have previously been directed not to destroy or discard DPC documents by the state Department of Justice."

The "document shredding program" has prompted calls for Meconi's resignation from Rep. Gregory F. Lavelle, R-Sharpley, who described the shredding as "the straw that broke the camel's back."

It also prompted action from State Treasurer Jack Markell.

Markell sent a letter to the co-chairs of Minner's task force, Rita Landgraff and Peter Ross, requesting they "make every attempt to address a series of pressing questions being raised by Delawareans."

"Over the past several weeks, I have heard again and again while traveling the state a deep level of concern over the many and continuing unanswered questions about ongoing care at the Delaware Psychiatric Center," Markell said. "With this letter, I am hoping to bring a more focused voice to many of those concerns that I share with so many other Delawareans, and to request of Governor Minner's task force that they try to make every attempt to provide these answers to the concerned families and friends raising them."

In his letter to the task force, Markell asks a lengthy series of questions, covering a broad scope of problems identified in the ongoing News Journal special report.

"There's a lot of unanswered questions," he told The News Journal. "I think the task force's work could benefit the state and the public if they tried to answer some unanswered questions. The commission they've been given is important, but I think there's a lot of unanswered questions that could restore public trust. The letter speaks for itself, in terms of my motivations."

Markell wants the co-chairs of Minner's task force to determine whether security cameras -- promised early on during The News Journal's investigation -- have been ordered, and whether DPC would be better off with a psychiatrist in charge.

He also wants to know why a request made by The News Journal under the state's Freedom of Information Act for copies of every patient-abuse report filed since 2001 was rejected. He hopes that the task force reviews the forms.

Another series of Markell's questions pertains to documented patient abuse. On July 2, patient Preston Hudson's jaw was broken in three places inside DPC's admissions unit.

On July 15, The News Journal quoted Jay Lynch, spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Services, saying that Hudson's claims of being beaten by employees of the hospital "are not credible" and that Hudson tripped on the edge of a mat.

On Aug. 6, an attendant was indicted for second-degree assault and patient abuse in the case. Anthony R. Liggians Jr., 32, of Wilmington, was fired by DPC shortly before the charges were filed. His criminal case is pending.

"The original statement by DPC that the patient 'tripped' is, frankly, suspect, in light of this indictment," Markell wrote. "The Department's spokesman said hospital investigators initially relied on internal reviews and medical records to conclude Hudson's claims were not credible. What exactly did those medical records say? Did the doctor who performed the surgery indicate that the patient likely tripped? Is there to be any accountability beyond the indictment of the attendant?"

Of the shredding, Markell asked: "What is the shredding policy for DPC if one exists at all? What exactly was shredded and why was this particular time chosen for the shredding?"

On Monday, Robinson said Markell will get his answers during an upcoming public hearing by the legislative committee investigating DPC.

"All of these questions are the ones that we're looking forward to answering at the Sept. 11 hearing," Robinson said. "We're happy that in his letter, he acknowledges there are a lot of employees that are dedicated to providing high-quality patient care."

Markell is expected to face Lt. Gov. John C. Carney in a Democratic primary next year to replace Minner. On Monday, Carney said he called Meconi about the shredding.

Last week, Gov. Minner has expressed her "utmost confidence in Secretary Meconi and his leadership team."

Asked Monday if he shared the governor's confidence in Meconi, Carney repeated his concerns about the shredding.

"I am very concerned overall about this issue of public trust," Carney said. "I think the administration out there needs to change their attitude a little toward the whole process, and be more responsive to the questions being asked."

Online pharmacy charged with racketeering, fraud

Eighteen people who helped sell more than $126 million worth of prescription drugs over the Internet to people without doctor exams have been charged with federal racketeering.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says a 313-count indictment marks the first time organized-crime statutes designed to combat drug cartels and mafia rings have been used to charge anyone with selling prescription drugs over the Internet.

The indictment says Costa Rica-based AffPower took more than one million orders for legal pharmaceuticals including diet pills, birth control pills, Prozac and Viagra between August 2004 and June 2006. A network of affiliated Web sites are alleged to have received a cut of fees in return for each order forwarded to AffPower.

The indictment names doctors and pharmacies along with AffPower executives and recruiters.

The indictment further states that doctors, who were paid $3 for each order reviewed, approved hundreds or even thousands of orders a day.

The indictment, unsealed in federal court in San Diego today, names three doctors licensed in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Massachusetts and pharmacists in Colorado and Florida.

Doctor Buys 33.4% of Lions Gate Shares 1 Week before the Release of Michael Moore’s SICKO

SICKO is important because it exposes corruption in the health and insurance industries. We are particularly interested in his expose of the psychiatric drug industry.

Thus we found this story interesting and enlightening.

Mark H. Rachesky, M.D. purchased 33.4% (over 40 Million) shares of Lions Gate stock one week prior to the scheduled opening of Michael Moore's controversial film "Sicko". (SEC filing can be found here.) The film is being distributed by Lions Gate Films. Interestingly, a pre-screening of the film was held on the same day in New Hampshire for over 600 people including doctors, health care lobbyists, nurses, political figures and pharmaceutical companies all from the health care industry.

Dr. Rachesky is the founder and President of MHR Fund Management LLC and affiliates who are investment managers of various private funds. Dr. Rachesky is currently on the Board of Directors of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. which focuses on the acquisition, development and commercialization of medically important, novel pharmaceutical products for the treatment of life-threatening diseases, including diabetes and cancer. He is also an investment broker for NovaDel Pharma Inc. (AMEX: NVD) which is a specialty pharmaceutical company which targets candidates suffering from nausea, insomnia, migraine headaches and disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). In addition DR. Rachesky is the beneficial owner of Medical Nutrition USA, Inc. owning approximately 29% of the company with 3,786,799 shares. He is also the Director of Neose Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTEC) which is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of next-generation therapeutic proteins that are competitive with best in class protein drugs currently on the market. In 2003, the market for therapeutic proteins grew by almost 19% to $37 billion, and is predicted to achieve sales of over $90 billion by 2010. Recently the Doctor also has invested in Emisphere Technologies, Inc. another bio pharmaceutical company charting new frontiers in drug delivery. Emisphere has strategic alliances with world-leading pharmaceutical companies

Originally, Lion’s Gate had planned a wide release of SICKO in over 1,600 theaters nationwide June 29, 2007 but one week prior to the release the number was reduced to a mere 400. This decision was made the same week Dr. Rachesky purchased Lions Gate stock. Could this be pure coincidence? I think not.

Did Dr. Rachesky purchase the stock for controlling interests in Lions Gate? Controlling Interest is when the parent company owns a majority of the common stock that allows the shareholder major influence on the company. Normally for one to obtain controlling interests in a company one would purchase at least 51% of all shares however, in some cases a single entity can essentially maintain control with only 33.4% of the outstanding shares. Ironically, this is the exact percentage of shares purchased by Dr. Rachesky.

In the film SICKO Michael Moore turns his attentions toward the topic of health care in the United States in this documentary that weighs the plight of the uninsured against the record profits of the pharmaceutical industry. Moore interviews a number of people who have been left broke by medical bills even though they were fully insured, and explains how the corporate drive for profits has left numerous people in financial and medical disarray. After hearing that detainees in Guantanamo have access to free health care, Moore assembles a group of World Trade Center rescue workers to travel to Cuba in order to get the medical help they need for ailments they incurred in 2001. Moore's film debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

If Dr. Rachesky purchased Lions Gate shares for controlling power is it safe to ask why? There are many debates and arguments as the the accuracy of Moore’s film. What interests me is if there were no truth and validity to the documentary why would someone go to so much trouble to make sure it is not a success and limit the amount theaters where the film can be seen? Sounds to me like this film has left the health care industry shaking in their boots and they don't want us to know the truth.

A Reasoned Response

Normally we try to maintain a reasoned response to the accumulated madness and crimes we see committed by the mental health industry. Some people are not quite so restrained.

Here is one over the top response, complete with colored text, colorful language, plentiful obscenities, and capitalized phrases.

of course the name of the Blog, "Rock the Truth", and the name of the article "Culture of Death" sort of give a clue

And yet, if you read through the emotion, what the author is saying is not totally outrageous.

They starts with a interesting premise:

What is WRONG with OUR SOCIETY that PREGNANT WOMEN would be DEPRESSED?

WTF is WRONG with a SOCIETY where the GREATEST GIFT of GOD'S CREATION -- the GIVING of LIFE -- would make a woman DEPRESSED?!

In other words there is a fundamental reaction to the prospect of bringing a child into a frightening, terrifying world, where the child might not survive. Even if the mother glibly blows it off and says that everything is alright, and she doesn't understand why she feels this way.

Recent Studies suggest that this phenomena might be more widespread than first thought, although the implications are horrifying for many.

We can't quote much else because of the language, but we encourage people to check it out just for the over the top nature of the writing

Another ex-mental health worker named in tax-fraud scheme

Via the Denver Post

A former health care technician at the state mental hospital is among those indicted in a federal tax-fraud scheme that includes patients at the hospital.

Jenice Melonas, 26, of Colorado Springs, who resigned from her job at the institute in February, is charged in a racketeering enterprise that netted about $25,000 a month.

If convicted, she could face up to 24 years in prison.

Melonas is the second former staffer at the Colorado Mental Health Institute implicated in the March 16 indictment by a Pueblo grand jury.

The indictment alleges that the tax-fraud scheme used the Social Security numbers of patients at the institute to file false federal tax forms.

Those allegedly involved in the fraud falsely claimed some patients at the institute were dependents of other patients and then made claims for payment of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Richard Gerald Madrid, who retired in December from his job as recreational therapist, is identified in court documents as a member of the criminal enterprise, but he was not indicted.

"I can't tell you anything," Madrid said Wednesday.

Melonas, who was released from the Pueblo County Jail on a $50,000 bond on March 19, could not be reached.

The grand jury also indicted Raul Caraveo, a patient at the institute, who is accused of demanding that half of the tax proceeds go to him, according to the indictment. He is being held at the Pueblo County Jail on $50,000 bail.

The third person indicted was Kenneth Fritz, 45, who in the summer of 2004 escaped from the institute after he was permitted to attend a family reunion in Cleveland. After his escape, his status was changed to "unconditional release" at the urging of his treatment supervisors.

The indictment names six other patients at the institute as participating in the racketeering, but they were not indicted.