Expert Kept From Speaking at Antidepressant Hearing

According to a New York Times report, Top Food and Drug Administration officials have admitted that they barred the agency's top expert from testifying at a public hearing about his conclusion that antidepressants cause children to become suicidal because they viewed his findings as alarmist and premature.

Dr. Andrew D. Mosholder, an agency epidemiologist, was the man charged with analyzing 22 studies involving 4,250 children and seven drugs. In a carefully argued, 33-page memorandum, he concluded that children given antidepressants were almost twice as likely as those given placebos to become suicidal.

The controversy had its start when GlaxoSmithKline sought a six-month extension to its patents on Paxil. To help guide pediatricians' prescribing habits, federal law grants such extensions when companies test their medicines in children.

The company's studies in depressed children failed to show any positive effect. It was a disappointing finding, but patent extensions are granted even when studies fail. Reviewing the data, Dr. Mosholder noticed in October 2002 that they showed a disturbing number of problems listed under the category, "emotional liability." Suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behavior were among the things lumped into this category. Dr. Mosholder asked GlaxoSmithKline to provide more detail about these cases, according to one of the documents.

In May 2003, the company submitted a new report. It showed that children given Paxil were more likely to become suicidal than those given placebos. In June, the agency announced that doctors should avoid using Paxil in depressed children.

Three days later, according to documents and interviews, the agency asked for similar data from the makers of Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone and Remeron.

Current Research on AntiDepressants promotes bad medicine

As reported in the British Medical JournaL

How safe and effective are antidepressants in children and adolescents? The authors of this review have found disturbing shortcomings in the methods and reporting of trials of newer antidepressants in this patient group.

To put it bluntly,

Conclusions on the efficacy of newer antidepressants in childhood depression have exaggerated their benefits
Additional benefit from drugs is of doubtful clinical significance
Adverse effects have been downplayed
Antidepressant drugs cannot confidently be recommended as a treatment option for childhood depression

As noted toward the end of the paper,

Randomised controlled trials usually underestimate the serious adverse effects of drugs. The fact that serious adverse effects with newer antidepressants are common enough to be detected in randomised controlled trials raises serious concerns about their potential for harm.

The magnitude of benefit is unlikely to be sufficient to justify risking those harms, so confidently recommending these drugs as a treatment option, let alone as first line treatment, would be inappropriate.

In other words, it's bad medicine.

Australian 13 year old candidate for Sex Change procedures

An Australian court has given the go-ahead for a 13-year-old girl who wants to be a boy to begin a "sex change" process, prompting strong criticism and calls for government intervention. The girl, known only as "Alex," will be allowed to begin taking hormones - initially estrogen and progestogen to suppress menstruation and the feminization of her young body and, at the age of around 16, testosterone to begin the masculinization process.

The court heard that her father, with whom she was very close and who treated her as if she was a boy, died when she was five. The court was unable to contact her estranged mother, whose whereabouts are unknown. With onset of puberty, Alex began to develop suicidal tendencies, which the judge said was "due to his body not matching his male gender identity."

I remember a guy who was on Oprah many years ago. He convinced his mother to mortgage her house, incurring massive debt, so that he could have a sex change operation to become a woman. When it was all said and down. He then discovered that he really wanted to be a man in the first place, that the sex change was not what he thought it was.

In both cases the mind boggles both at the courts, and at the competency of the therapists.

Rehabilitating a School Psychologist?

An Akron Public Schools psychologist charged with soliciting prostitution has completed a court diversion program that will keep him from carrying a criminal record. Meanwhile, school board members are trying to determine whether they should discipline Patrick McGown, who has no apperent blemishes on his 27-year career with the district.

McGown, 51, was arrested about 10 a.m. Dec. 9 for receiving oral sex from a prostitute during a weekday work shift. The incident occurred in a University of Akron parking deck on East Buchtel Avenue.

McGown's court case is concluding at the same time city and court officials are getting tougher on those who commit prostitution-related crimes. Within the last week, the eligibility requirements for the court diversion program have been changed to exclude solicitation and prostitution offenders, said Chief City Prosecutor Doug Powley.

``This case had nothing to do with our decision,'' Powley said. ``There has been some discussion over a period of time whether to allow this type of offense to be included in diversion. There have been many complaints throughout neighborhoods of Akron about problems prostitution causes.'

Woman whose son was abused at center says ordeal isn't over

Her son's abusers are in prison and a settlement with the state of Missouri has just been finalized, but there's no end to the ordeal that Donna Uhlmansiek and her family have faced for four years.

Uhlmansiek's son, now 14, is among eight boys who were believed to have been the victims of a wide range of abuse at a state-run mental health center in Marshall, Mo. According to reports, boys at the Marshall Habilitation Center were slammed against floors, hit with books, forced into cold showers and made to attack each other.

Four former workers are behind bars for what went on at the center in August 2000. Last month, Uhlmansiek's son was awarded $950,000 in a settlement with the state. The mother said no amount of money will help her son recover from the trauma he went through. For the past 14 months, the boy has required round-the-clock care at a psychiatric hospital.

Even with the money, Uhlmansiek said her family must depend on a state mental health system she does not fully trust. The boy's treatment can cost more than $25,000 a month. The family can't seek private care without depleting the trust fund in as little as two years. Instead, the boy remains in state care under the Medicaid program.

"Unfortunately the settlement does not give us the financial independence we would need to not have to involve the state in his life," she said. At least four families have sued the state over the treatment at the Marshall center. Three were represented by the Jefferson City law firm of Roger Brown and Associates. Chris Slusher, a lawyer at the firm, said the two other families in the suit settled for $600,000 each last year. Uhlmansiek said she would have liked the case to have gone to trial, but following through after the other families had settled seemed daunting.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

As reported in the Telegraph

Scientists in America have devised a new syndrome that 'explains' bad behaviour in under-10s - Oppositional Defiant Disorder Children who behave badly are no longer described as naughty but suffering from Oppositional Defiant Disorder - or ODD syndrome.

The condition, which was established by scientists in America, is said mainly to affect children under 10 and result in a number of disruptive symptoms including defiance, provocative conduct and disobedience. Literature on the subject says that sufferers "argue persistently with adults", "actively refuse to comply with adults' requests or rules" and "often deliberately annoy people". Other ODD children are said to "consistently blame others for their own misbehaviour". ODD is one of about 300 classified mental disorders - most identified in the US - that doctors and psychologists use to explain bad behaviour. Some of these "conduct disorders" are considered to be treatable with drugs such as Ritalin. [...]

Michele Elliott, the director of the child welfare charity Kidscape, said: "Other parents are getting fed up with sending their well-behaved children to school only for them to have their lessons disrupted by children who are not properly disciplined. "I do not believe that we should be excusing bad behaviour with medical terms. What we need is a situation where children face consequences for their actions and good parenting skills."

The Office for National Statistics study, published earlier this year, found that children from the poorest backgrounds were three times more likely to have conduct disorders than those whose parents were in professional occupations, and that children of lone parents were twice as likely to suffer from poor mental health as those living with couples.

Another disease, another potential market.

Sex allegations freeze psychologist's license

A judge has suspended the license of an Albany psychologist following a patient's accusations he fondled her genitals, kissed her and sucked her toes to create a stronger patient-therapist bond, according to written allegations from the California Board of Psychology.

California Administrative Law Judge Ruth Astle suspended the license of Jeffrey Arthur LeRoux, who practiced in Berkeley, for gross negligence and sexual misconduct with a patient.

LeRoux also is accused of improper distribution of prescription drugs, including Prozac, and failure to maintain records of therapy sessions with the patient, who reported the alleged misconduct early last year. She reportedly went to LeRoux, 53, on a referral from Alameda County Mental Health Access for treatment of post traumatic stress disorder and childhood sexual abuse.

This story is starting to get some play in California

Parents not told of child psychiatrist caught with child pornography

Berkshire (England) mental healthcare director Philippa Slinger has denied there was a cover-up when parents were not told a psychiatrist who treated 176 youngsters had been trapped in a police child porn probe. Married father-of-two Julian Morrell was suspended for a year by the General Medical Council on Tuesday after it heard he paid to watch internet pornography involving children on his home computer. He was trapped in the nationwide police dragnet codenamed Operation Ore which also brought the arrest of The Who guitarist Pete Townsend.

But the GMC ruled that while viewing the images was tantamount to child abuse he should not be permanently struck off because he does not pose a threat. Dr Morrell, of Banbury Road, Oxford, used the US-based site in 1999 while working in Oxford-shire and did not become a consultant with the Reading-based Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust until 2001. A month after discovering the allegations in January last year the trust sacked him - but families were not told until last week.

This story has been reported widely in Britain

Do You want to talk Chimp?

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is calling for volunteers to take part in a major new study into human and chimpanzee behaviours. Animal behaviour experts at ZSL are asking volunteers to 'talk chimp' in everyday life and see how primate patter can resolve workplace conflicts, express emotions and strengthen human bonds. The results of this major study will be published later in the year to see just how 'talking chimp' can help in everyday life.

They believe that "Talking like Chimps" is a viable solution to a number of human problems.

Instead of bitching about your terrifying boss behind their back, try showing them your fear by baring your teeth and using submissive body language such as lowering your head and crouching. [...] Organisational psychologist Professor Cary Cooper told BBC News Online that anyone willing to try it could learn a lot from our chimp cousins. "We should not be aggressive towards those in authority, as animals can be, but we should express our feelings."

The Mind Boggles

British Child psychiatrist accessed Child Porn

A consultant child psychiatrist could be struck off Britain's medical register [removing his ability to practice] after admitting he accessed child pornography on his home computer.

Morrell, 41, of Banbury Road in Oxford, was a senior registrar at Park Hospital for Children in Headington at the time, between January 1999 and January 2000. He was also a clinical lecturer in child and adolescent psychiatry at the same hospital.

Morrell was arrested in January last year as part of Operation Ore, the British arm of an international inquiry into child pornography on the internet.

As seen online here

Pharmaceutical companies tried HIV drug on orphans: scandal in which babies and children were allegedly used as 'laboratory animals'

As seen here

Also as reported here, in the Observer

Orphans and babies as young as three months old have been used as guinea pigs in potentially dangerous medical experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, an Observer investigation has revealed. British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is embroiled in the scandal. The firm sponsored experiments on the children from Incarnation Children's Centre, a New York care home that specialises in treating HIV sufferers and is run by Catholic charities.

The children had either been infected with HIV or born to HIV-positive mothers. Their parents were dead, untraceable or deemed unfit to look after them. According to documents obtained by The Observer, Glaxo has sponsored at least four medical trials since 1995 using Hispanic and black children at Incarnation. The documents give details of all clinical trials in the US and reveal the experiments sponsored by Glaxo were designed to test the 'safety and tolerance' of Aids medications, some of which have potentially dangerous side effects. Glaxo manufactures a number of drugs designed to treat HIV, including AZT. Normally trials on children would require parental consent but, as the infants are in care, New York's authorities hold that role.

The city health department has launched an investigation into claims that more than 100 children at Incarnation were used in 36 experiments - at least four co-sponsored by Glaxo. Some of these trials were designed to test the 'toxicity' of Aids medications. One involved giving children as young as four a high-dosage cocktail of seven drugs at one time. Another looked at the reaction in six-month-old babies to a double dose of measles vaccine. Most experiments were funded by federal agencies like the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Until now Glaxo's role had not emerged.

In 1997 an experiment co-sponsored by Glaxo used children from Incarnation to 'obtain tolerance, safety and pharmacokinetic' data for Herpes drugs. In a more recent experiment, the children were used to test AZT. A third experiment sponsored by Glaxo and US drug firm Pfizer investigated the 'long-term safety' of anti-bacterial drugs on three-month-old babies. The medical establishment has defended the trials arguing they enabled these children to obtain state-of-the-art therapy they would otherwise not have received for potentially fatal illnesses.

However, health campaigners argue there is a difference between providing the latest drugs and experimentation. They claim many of the experiments were 'phase 1 trials' - among the most risky - and that HIV tests for babies were not a reliable indicator of actual infection and therefore toxic drugs could have been given to healthy infants. HIV drugs are similar to those used in chemotherapy and can have serious side-effects.

Much more at the links.

Of course, GlaxoSmithKline is the manufacturer of Paxil, among other psychiatric drugs. Somehow it is not surprising that their possible misdeeds would not be restricted to one particular product line.

The TV - ADD Connection

The more television children watch between the ages of 1 and 3, the greater their risk of having attention problems at age 7, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. They found that each hour of television that preschoolers watched per day increased the risk of attention problems such as attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, by almost 10 percent later on. The study, published in the April issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, adds inattention to the list of harmful effects of excessive television viewing that also includes obesity and violent behavior.

See this Rueters Report

See this report by Julie Davidow

Which begs the question: Is the solution less TV, or more drugs?

I would not call it inattention, but totally distracted.

To be fair, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children younger than 2 not watch any television. However, according to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 26 percent of children younger than 2 have televisions in their rooms and 36 percent of families leave the television on almost all of the time, even when no one is watching.

The best kids I ever saw didn't have TV until after they entered school

Child Antidepressant Use Skyrockets

Antidepressant drug use is up, especially among kids age 5 and younger.

The new numbers come from the databases of Express Scripts Inc., the third largest U.S. pharmacy benefit manager. The sample includes nearly 2 million kids aged 18 and younger covered by medical insurance from 1998 to 2002.

Teen girls are more likely to get antidepressants than any other group, but the fastest increase is among kids 5 years old and younger. For these children antidepressant use is up 100% to 0.16% of girls and up 62% to 0.23% of boys, says Tom Delate [pronounced DELL-at], PhD, Express Scripts' director of research.

"In teenagers, antidepressant use is really exploding," Delate tells WebMD. "Antidepressant use among the very young is increasing even more rapidly. Their rate of use is much lower than among older children -- but we're seeing a doubling of population using it."

Among the findings, reported in the April issue of Psychiatric Services:

* Overall child antidepressant use increased by 9.2% each year from 1998 to 2002.
* Antidepressant prescriptions are increasing faster for girls than for boys.
* Serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors -- SSRIs such as Celexa, Luvox, Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft -- are more commonly prescribed for child patients than other antidepressants.
* Paxil use increased 113% in girls and 91% in boys from 1998 to 2002.
* Data show doctors prescribe antidepressants more for depression than for anxiety disorders.

The Death Penalty And Psychiatric Madness

Commentary Seen at Infoshop News

The January 6 execution of Charles Singleton, who was convicted of homicide and sentenced to death in 1979 in Arkansas, represents a great ethical quandary for psychiatry and its involvement in the criminal justice system, argues Alan A. Stone in a March Psychiatric Times commentary. The perception that Singleton's psychiatrist might have been facilitating an execution by prescribing Singleton psychiatric drugs is a grave ethical issue for Stone and the psychiatric profession. It's worth noting here what Stone doesn't consider to represent an ethical quandary for psychiatry.

Nowhere does Stone feel the need to concede that the power of the state, the State of Arkansas in this case, to coerce a jail inmate to take drugs and, hence, rationalize executing him, is a power that the psychiatric profession, in alliance with the mental health movement, has tirelessly lobbied for. It's coercive psychiatric treatment laws in and of themselves that are unethical. It is the alliance between psychiatry and state that is unethical in and of itself. We wouldn't even be having stupid debates about whether or not a drug can make a defendant understand the charges and proceedings against him if psychiatry wasn't so intertwined with the legal system today.

These issues invariably revolve around the insanity defense, another issue which inspires no debates about ethics among the psychoquacks.

The fact that an obviously guilty criminal defendant, like John Hinckley, can be exonerated for his criminal acts, in part because he says he was trying to impress actress Jodi Foster, does not raise an ethical quandary for psychiatry. When somebody like Hinckley, who committed his crime before many a television camera, copps the insanity plea, he'll find a line of psychoquacks from Seattle to San Francisco willing to testify on his behalf. In mental health law guilty people like Hinckley can be excused when they put up a successful insanity defense.

The fact that people like Hinckley are generally locked up and involuntarily treated is a footnote to this. The fact is they are excused for their actions. Meanwhile, innocent people not charged with crimes can be locked up by way of involuntary civil commitment.

This is the morally bankrupt world of mental health law and it sparks no debates about ethics among psychiatrists.

Ex-psychiatrist admits selling prescriptions in Medicaid fraud

A former New York psychiatrist who maintained a medical practice at his High Falls home has plead guilty to charges he illegally sold thousands of prescriptions for depressants and narcotic drugs that were billed to Medicaid.

David Roemer, 44, of 1416 state Route 213, pleaded guilty Tuesday in state Supreme Court in the Bronx before Justice Phylis Bamberger to a charge of felony conspiracy. Roemer's plea was part of a negotiated plea deal. As part of the deal Roemer is expected to be sentenced May 7 to 3 to 10 years in prison.

Roemer and 33 other individuals were indicted in November 2003 on charges including criminal sale and possession of controlled substances, grand larceny and conspiracy, according to a press release from the state Attorney General's Office. The release said that by his plea Roemer admitted he was a key member of a conspiracy to defraud the Medicaid program and traffic in diverted medications worth millions of dollars on the street.

Roemer admitted that between May 2002 and November 2002 he unlawfully sold thousands of prescriptions for depressants and narcotic drugs to Medicaid recipients who were transported from New York City to his Ulster County practice by other members of the conspiracy, the release said. The prescriptions included ones for the addictive narcotic painkiller Percocet, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, and OxyContin, a synthetic form of morphine.

California Psychologist suspended amid misconduct allegations

An Albany, California psychologist may soon lose his license over accusations of sexual misconduct by a female patient.

Jeffrey Arthur LeRoux, 53, awaits a revocation hearing on claims that he "sexualized" his psychotherapy sessions with a woman who sought help in late 2002 for childhood sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. The alleged conduct included sucking her toes, and graduated to rubbing her genitals under the guise of "energy work," and to oral sex.

According to the allegations, LeRoux once disrobed himself and asked her to fondle him, saying it "was part of therapy, and they should imagine she was 3 years old and he was 5 years old."

His accuser, identified only by her initials, claims she tried to end contact with LeRoux, who was married, but he began coming to her home twice weekly to engage her in sexual activity. She complained last May to the state Board of Psychology. Last week, Administrative Law Judge Ruth Astle suspended his license pending the hearing.

LeRoux, a state-licensed psychologist since 1995 and a lecturer with San Francisco State's College of Extended Learning, could not be reached. His Oakland attorney, Robert Beles, said his client admits a sexual relationship, but denies a professional one.

Woodlands Texas psychiatrist among 7 indicted in wheelchair scam

A psychiatrist from The Woodlands plead guilty Thursday to receiving kickbacks for recommending unneeded motorized wheelchairs in a conspiracy to defraud Medicare and Medicaid of $16 million.

Dr. Lewis Gottlieb, 45, was one of seven people indicted in September on charges of bilking the government out of $5,000 on each unneeded or undelivered wheelchair. U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered Gottlieb to forfeit $1.6 million held in his bank account.

Gottlieb is to be sentenced June 24 for conspiracy to commit health fraud, executing a health care fraud scheme and receiving kickback payments between October 2001 and May 2003. He could get five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, 10 years on the health fraud charge and five years on the kickback charge.

Prozac Nation, UK. Doctors Overdosing The People

Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain are being prescribed powerful anti-depressants that they may not need because doctors are using the pills as a "quick fix" solution to mild anxiety problems, according to a report published today.

Desperate shortages of NHS counsellors and therapists mean that over-worked GPs often feel they have no option but to hand out anti-depressants to people who may only need an outlet for discussing their problems. Eighty per cent of GPs admit that they are over-prescribing drugs such as Prozac and Seroxat when patients may simply need someone to talk to.

The research reveals the extent to which Britain has become a "Prozac Nation", with more than six million people now taking pills to prop up their mood. Campaigners said the level of drug-prescribing had reached alarming levels, while some patients said they had been handed pills "as if they were sweets".

The survey of 250 GPs by Norwich Union Healthcare found that eight out of 10 admitted that they were over-prescribing anti-depressants, and three-quarters said they were handing out more of the drugs than they did five years ago.

Bizarre sex case gets 5 years in prison

As reported in the Stamford Advocate

A Bridgeport man who plead guilty to charges related to his impersonation of a doctor and conducting gynecological exams was sentenced Friday to 10 years, suspended after five years, according to the Connecticut Post's detailed reports. Barry Lichenthal also was ordered to make $6,000 in restitution to the state and register as a sex offender. Lichenthal, 59, has plead guilty to fourth-degree sexual assault, practicing medicine without a license, first-degree larceny, reckless endangerment and practicing pharmacy without a license. He was arrested in April 2003.

State officials suspended the medical license of Lichenthal's wife, Dr. Liane Leedom, a Trumbull psychiatrist. She was accused of misleading patients into believing that her husband was a licensed physician and allowing him to examine female patients. Leedom, 42, was arrested in January on charges of allowing Lichenthal to illegally run the clinic while she was gone. Her case is pending in Hartford Superior Court.

Leedom was medical director of Noah's Ark Foundation, a methadone treatment center. She also ran a mood disorder clinic.

(See also this report from WFSB)

Eli Lily under investigation for psych drug marketing practices

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the marketing practices of Eli Lilly and Co., the drugmaker said on Thursday, the most recent in a slew of probes into sales practices by big pharmaceutical companies. Lily said the investigation likely targets promotional practices for its best-selling product, the $4.3 billion-a-year schizophrenia treatment Zyprexa, as well as antidepressant Prozac.

Federal and state investigators in Pennsylvania have been particularly active in pursuing drugmakers and other health-care companies that might be engaging in improper practices to boost their profit.

Other drugmakers in recent years have had to pay sizable fines to settle allegations that they had bilked the federal Medicare and state Medicaid insurance programs for the poor and elderly by overcharging for their products.

Ohio's Mental Health System broken

The Enquirer on cincinatti.com has been investigating the Mental Health System in Ohio. They found that Ohio's system for treating children with mental illness is entrenched in bureaucracy and plagued by abuse.

See the full report here Among other things, they found:

• To get public help, thousands of parents who can't afford treatment give custody of their kids to the government.
• Some children sent to treatment centers are abused, molested, overdrugged or left to live in wretched conditions.
• No one's in charge. Two state agencies and hundreds of county agencies confound even the people running them.

Gov. Bob Taft acknowledges that Ohio's mental health system doesn't work for thousands of families.

Of course, some suggest funding more of the same old thing that got them into trouble in them first place

Animals may be the future's therapists

60 psychiatric patients will work on Norwegian farms in order to determine the theraputic effect on patients who spend time working with farm animals.

The Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture informed that the project is directed by Agricultural University of Norway (NLH) and University of Oslo and the goal is to establish the effect of animal contact has on people with psychiatric illnesses. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, taking care of farm animals and working on a farm is a part of the treatment for the 60 patients who are participating in this new project.

Sounds better than being cooped up in a ward someplace. Dealing with a part of the real world, in a peaceful environment. who would have thought?

Read the full report here

FDA issues suicide caution for antidepressants

As reported on CNN

Patients on some popular antidepressants should be closely monitored for warning signs of suicide, the government warned Monday in asking the makers of 10 drugs to add the caution to their labels. Although the Food and Drug Administration's investigation into the possible suicide connection initially focused on children given the drugs, its warning is aimed at both adult and pediatric use of the pills to alleviate depression.

See the FDA public advisory here

See the FDA Information Page here (lots of info)

Banned 'sex' psychologists still at large

Disgraced Australian psychologists whose registrations have been cancelled for having sex with patients are still treating troubled clients. The failed practitioners are using legal loopholes to practise as counsellors, despite being struck off the Psychologists Registration Board.

A Herald Sun investigation has found a Fitzroy psychologist who had sex with a woman he was treating for marriage difficulties is now a relationship counsellor.

Paul Francis Mott was struck off four years ago for having an affair with a 30-year-old flight attendant who he was seeing for marriage problems. Mr Mott, who was also treating the woman's husband, accepted payment from the couple throughout the two-year affair. Mr Mott, 57, now advertises his marriage and family counselling business in the Yellow Pages and says he treats at least 10 regular patients every week.

Counselling is an unregulated industry and medical qualifications are not required to practise.

Playing Doctor on TV - Dr. Phil as PsychoEntertainment

As seen in this Salon article

When Neal David Sutz walked through the Paramount studio gate, he was looking forward to seeing a psychologist he respected, talk show host Phil McGraw. Sutz didn't know he was about to get caught in the awkward intersection of entertainment and counseling where "Dr. Phil" holds ground.

A mental health activist who himself had undergone treatment, Sutz hoped to attend a taping and connect with McGraw afterward to enlist his help in a public information campaign. Instead, the Mesa, Ariz., paralegal student was stopped short by paperwork. He and other would-be audience members were asked to sign a waiver attesting they didn't suffer from mental illness and weren't under psychiatric care.

The waiver also said that McGraw's statements shouldn't be considered therapy or a substitute for any form of therapy. Talking to a show representative, Sutz was told he could attend but couldn't talk to Dr. Phil or participate in the show -- for Sutz's own protection.

He left instead. The incident, which occurred last fall, has weighed on him; so much for "Doctor" Phil, he said in an interview.

The disclaimer signals "that his advice is not real medical, psychological advice at all," said Sutz. "It is pure entertainment and he should stop insinuating that it is anything but that, especially not real counseling."

Woman seeks penalty for therapist who molested her.

A Horror Story in which a woman cannot get her justice against the psych who molested her

GREENSBORO NC -- On the surface, it appeared to be a case against all odds: a woman who suffered from mental illness and said she had 80 personalities suing a respected therapist and college professor and challenging the state board assigned to watch over him.

Even the lawyer who took Angela Spell's case originally had trouble believing her claim: From 1996 to 1999, Greensboro psychotherapist and licensed nurse Daniel Longenecker had sexually exploited her. And the N.C. Board of Nursing had taken no disciplinary action in response to her complaint.

But Spell's story never changed -- that Longenecker had sex with her, that he made her eat feces, that he confessed their relationship to a friend of Spell's, that the nursing board never interviewed her for its investigation. The deeper attorney Phyllis Lile-King looked, the more convinced she became that Spell was telling the truth. Spell won her lawsuit when a jury found Longenecker liable for violating a state law called the Psychotherapist-Patient Sexual Exploitation Act

Now Spell is taking on another fight: trying to convince the nursing board about her allegation that it has a sexual predator in its midst. Seven months after Spell won a $176,000 civil court judgment against Longenecker, neither the N.C. Board of Nursing nor UNCG, where he teaches nursing, has done anything to limit his professional contact with the public. A nursing-board official says there was no credible evidence of Spell's claim in 2000, when she filed her first complaint. Since that time, Spell won her court victory, and, along with her current therapist, filed a new complaint urging a new investigation. But Donna Mooney, the board's director of discipline, said that the board's position hasn't changed.

She said the board takes all complaints seriously. But she wouldn't discuss details of its investigation or whether investigators contacted Spell, who said she was never interviewed about the complaint.

UNCG hasn't launched an investigation either. A lawyer for UNCG said the school won't discipline Longenecker -- who didn't return numerous phone calls -- unless the nursing board takes action. So, Longenecker continues to teach. One of his classes this semester concerns treating patients with psychosocial problems. He continues to supervise students working as interns. And he continues to have UNCG's permission to treat psychotherapy patients in his office on campus -- permission the university could withdraw at any time. UNCG attorney Skip Capone called Longenecker an exemplary faculty member who has received good evaluations from students and no complaints of wrongdoing. Because Spell isn't a student and because the exploitation that was the subject of the lawsuit didn't take place on campus, there's little the university can do, he said.

Spell, who lives in Trinity, wonders whether anyone will punish Longenecker. She fears he will harm others if someone doesn't discipline him. "He has issues he needs to deal with before he treats patients who have psychiatric diseases," said Spell, 45, who agreed to let the News & Record publish her name.

Longenecker's attorney said last week that he will try to appeal the jury's verdict, even though the deadline for filing an appeal passed in September. Randy James of Winston-Salem said he will ask the N.C. Court of Appeals for a provisional appeal because Longenecker's previous lawyer let the deadline pass. James said Longenecker strongly denies Spell's claims. "She has a history of (medical) issues herself," James said. "There's nothing else in his background to suggest these allegations are true."

The jury ruled unanimously that Spell was entitled to $60,000 for sexual exploitation, $16,000 for personal injury and $100,000 in punitive damages. The jury agreed, however, that she didn't suffer severe emotional distress. Spell has seen none of the money. Longenecker's malpractice insurer, the Chicago Insurance Company, says it isn't responsible for the verdict because his policy doesn't cover sexual abuse.

If the insurance company doesn't pay, Lile-King said she will try to collect the money from Longenecker.

Spell and Lile-King say no one representing the board has contacted them. Neither woman is satisfied that the board has taken the complaint seriously or that the board has properly investigated the original complaint, filed in 2000. The board closed the case without taking action. Spell insists she never was interviewed by investigators.

Despite Spell's frustrations that no one has punished Longenecker, she said she's the healthiest and happiest she has been in years. She's working as a pharmacy clerk in a drug store, and though she has maintained her nursing license, she's taking a refresher course to catch up on medical developments in the 12 years since she practiced.

County mental health department further in the red

After cutting 45 jobs and setting up a special fund to deal with a $1.7 million deficit last year, the Mendocino County Mental Health Department is reporting that it will likely be almost $1 million further in the red this year. Mental Health Director Beth Martinez will ask the county supervisors to allow her to make more cuts in the department right away.

Infighting in the Field of Psychiatry

They have been called assassins and parasites. They receive hate mail from the proponents of a variety of popular psychotherapies. The president-elect of the American Psychological Association has accused them of being overly devoted to the scientific method. But the ire of their colleagues has not prevented a small, loosely organized band of academic psychologists from rooting out and publicly debunking mental health practices that they view as faddish, unproved or in some cases potentially harmful.

In 1988, a group of researchers, concerned that the American Psychological Association, the dominant professional organization, was not placing enough emphasis on science, split off and formed the American Psychological Society. The society now counts close to 15,000 members.

"These guys are sort of the Ralph Naders of psychology," said Dr. David Barlow, director of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University.

Dr. Richard McNally, a professor of psychology at Harvard who has conducted research on repressed memories, E.M.D.R. and other problems, said he had received threatening letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls from angry practitioners.

Read the full article from the New York Times.

Psychiatric Survivor to Receive Prestigious Disability Leadership Award

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is pleased to announce that international human rights lawyer and disability rights advocate Alison Ashley Hillman will receive a prestigious 2003 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award for emerging leaders with disabilities. The award presentation, which includes a $10,000 cash award, will take place at AAPD's Third-Annual Leadership Gala on March 16, 2004, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans and Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta will deliver keynote remarks, and a host of Congressional leadership will also be part of the program.

After receiving her bachelor's degree with distinction from Cornell University, Alison Ashley Hillman was handcuffed and taken to the psychiatric ward of her local hospital. She was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder and rotated in and out of a locked ward for five months. Allison faced bankruptcy and was on food stamps, Medicare and SSI -- she also was forced to abandon her dream of becoming an international human rights lawyer. For two more years, she struggled and experienced first-hand the vast barriers that people with psychiatric disabilities face, including obstacles in finding employment, accessing healthcare and suffering debilitating stigma and discrimination.

Allison struggled, but survived. She also received her law degree cum laude from American University's Washington College of Law in 2002, and fulfilled her dream of becoming an international human rights lawyer. After graduation, she was awarded a New Voices Fellowship to work with Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI). New Voices is a national leadership development program that helps nonprofit organizations recruit creative and diverse "new voices" in the field.

Through this fellowship, Alison now manages MDRI's Americas Advocacy Initiative, where she works for the international recognition and enforcement of the rights of people with mental disabilities. In this capacity, she confronts and addresses the very barriers she experienced.

Allison hopes that the groundbreaking cases she is currently working on will establish legal precedent in the Inter-American system that recognizes and enforces the rights of people with mental disabilities, and also help illustrate that community alternatives are needed for people with mental disabilities and effortless detention in psychiatric facilities is inappropriate.

Alison's goals are to empower consumer-driven support and advocacy organizations through workshops in advocacy, human rights of people with mental disabilities, documentation of human rights violations, and the establishment of a small grants program for consumer-run advocacy organizations. Ultimately, she hopes to end the institutionalization of people with mental disabilities and aims to establish their right to appropriate treatment in the community.

Oregon doctor's license suspended for signing marijuana cards

A doctor who signed nearly half of all the medical marijuana cards in Oregon was suspended from practicing medicine on Thursday.

Dr. Phillip Leveque, 81, said Thursday he has signed more than 4,000 cards for people with crippling disorders who want to smoke pot to alleviate their pain. He had two offices in Portland and traveled frequently along Interstate 5 to mass meetings in hotel conference rooms with patients seeking the card.

By the time of his suspension Thursday, Leveque had authorized roughly 40 percent of all the cards issued in Oregon since the state became one of nine in the country legalizing pot for medicine in 1998. Leveque was under scrutiny since 2002, when the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners suspended his license for 90 days and fined him $5,000 for signing cards without first seeing patients face-to-face. Sometimes, he reviewed descriptions of patients ailments sent by fax.

Several Oregon physicians hired by the board as consultants raised concerns about Leveque's practices, according to board executive director Kathleen Haley. They found he approved cards for patients with psychiatric disorders and prior histories of drug addition for whom marijuana was not appropriate, and recommended smoking pot for conditions that could in no way benefit from the drug, Haley said.

Psychiatrist's Husband molested Wife's patients

The husband of a Trumbull, Conn. psychiatrist has admitted impersonating a doctor to molest his wife's patients, and now faces five years in prison. Barry Lichenthal, 59, plead guilty earlier this week to fourth-degree sexual assault, practicing medicine without a license, and reckless endangerment. Police say Lichenthal worked under the name of Doctor Michael Taylor at his wife's Bridgeport drug clinic, the Noah's Ark Foundation. He will be sentenced March 26.

Anti-depressants 'cause bleeding'

Elderly people and those with a history of bleeding disorders have been warned of the risk of taking certain types of anti-depressants. Experts say a group of anti-depressants called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors or SSRIs may predispose some people to internal bleeding.

Writing in the Drug and Therapeutic Bulletin, they said the drugs should not be given to 'at risk' groups. Britain's Department of Health has said clearer warnings were being considered.

See the full report in this BBC News item

Johns Hopkins University settles Lawsuit for overbilling pychiatric research

The Johns Hopkins University and one of its teaching hospitals have agreed to pay more than $2.6 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that they overbilled the National Institutes of Health for addiction research and other projects.

The settlement, announced yesterday by the U.S. attorney's office, came six years after an employee told federal authorities that researchers at Hopkins Bayview Medical Center had inflated the amount of time required to carry out studies on therapies for drug dependence.

"The United States must maintain the integrity of the grant application and funding process for research," U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio said in a prepared statement. The university and Bayview agreed to pay $2.1 million in addition to $587,000 already refunded, but they did not admit any wrongdoing.

Drug Makers Face an angry Public

Pharmaceutical companies would be sufficiently challenged just dealing with the many internal pressures facing them today. Plagued by patent expirations on key drugs and late-stage disappointments for products in the development pipeline, major drugmakers are struggling to deliver the kind of earnings growth that was typical in the 1990s.

But at the same time, they are being buffeted by a number of external pressures on the public, political, and regulatory fronts. Taken together, these strains are increasing costs, holding down pricing, and creating additional barriers to profitability. Under growing pressure from patient groups and public officials, U.S. pharmaceutical producers must invent new ways to address these antagonistic outside forces.

Many of these problems stem from the public's deteriorating opinion of big drug companies.

Meaning that folks aren't trusting them like they used to. I wonder why?

New Jersey Superior Court OKs Psychiatrist's License Revocation

A panel of state Superior Court judges ruled that the license of accused sexual predator and Princeton-area psychiatrist Dr. Don Henry Wijaya should be revoked. Wijaya had been accused of having sex with a female patient identified only as F.B. from shortly after he began treating the divorced mother of two in 1981 until 1984, and again from July 1993 to August 1994. Wijaya disputed that, but an administrative law judge who heard the case "determined that the charges were supported by credible evidence and recommended revocation" of his license.

The ruling by a three-judge panel in the Superior Court appellate division affirms the decision of the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners, the body that regulates doctors. The board revoked to Wijaya's license in March 2002, but the appellate division issued a stay allowing Wijaya to continue practicing while his appeal proceeded.

The doctor's lawyer said he will appeal.

Psychiatric patient tells of ordeal in treatment

When Elizabeth Gale sought psychiatric treatment in 1986, she suffered from depression, the most common of psychiatric illnesses.

But Dr. Bennett Braun and his colleagues convinced her that her family indoctrinated her as a child so she would make babies for sacrifice in a satanic cult, Gale charged in a malpractice suit she settled Wednesday for $7.5 million. The therapists, she alleged, told her she needed their help to recover memories hidden beneath layers of rare multiple personalities that she had developed as a psychic guard against her childhood trauma.

Gale's attorney Todd Smith said that under the settlement, entered Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court, Rush North Shore Medical Center, where Braun was director of the dissociative disorders program, will pay $3.6 million. Psychologist Roberta Sachs will pay $3.1 million, and a corporation affiliated with Braun will pay $500,000. Dr. Corydon Hammond will pay $175,000, and Rush University Medical Center must pay $150,000. No wrongdoing was admitted by the hospitals, the doctors or the psychologist.

In 1997, west suburban resident Patricia Burgus received a $10.5 million settlement in a suit filed against the hospital, then known as Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's, and two therapists, including Braun. Burgus and her sons were hospitalized at Rush in the late 1980s. Braun later sued his insurance company for allegedly settling the case without his consent.

Burgus, under Braun's care, said she came to believe she had more than 300 personalities and had cannibalized children as part of a satanic cult.

Full Details here

Unauthorized state bank account for mental health officials draws ethics scrutiny

Two pharmaceutical companies paid nearly $14,000 into an unauthorized state bank account that was used by state mental health officials for travel, meals and other expenses at a time when the drugmakers were courting state business, records show.

Janssen Pharmaceutica and Pfizer Inc., also paid at least $10,000 to two state officials who helped win approval for a mental-health treatment plan that uses drugs manufactured by the companies, according to interviews and a review of documents from the state Office of Inspector General. Those payments - some of which went to charity and the general state fund - were for speaking engagements and attendance at company meetings.

State and federal officials are examining the connection between the payments and the state's program.

Detailed article. Any appearance of corruption is merely a coincidence. yeh, right.

The Torture of Auckland's Behavioural Management Regime

From the ongoing trial for psychiatric abuse in New Zealand

Prison bosses invented a new "super maximum" security class in a hidden system that avoided normal rules for prisoners, a New Zealand High Court judge has been told.

Nine past and present prisoners say they were subject to psychological torture while being held on the "behavioural management regime" (BMR) at Auckland's Paremoremo prison, or while in solitary confinement.

Lawyer Tony Ellis began closing his case for the prisoners in Wellington yesterday.

During more than a month of evidence, prisoners said they were held in solitary for up to two years without regular review of their classification, or medical assessment, without access to natural light, or the chance to associate with other prisoners.

BMR amounted to a higher than maximum security classification, a kind of "super-maximum", Mr Ellis said.

"It is essentially a security classification that was not approved and was invented by the department."

Psychiatric evidence showed one prisoner developed post traumatic stress disorder within weeks of being put on the programme.

Mr Ellis said alleging torture was one of the most serious allegations it was possible to make, and he was trying to be responsible and not overstate the position.

The system was an experiment in behaviour modification when it began in April 1998, he said. It breached the prisoners' rights not to be subject to scientific or medical experimentation without consent.

More than 50,000 Australian children are being hand-fed antidepressant drugs that have been banned overseas.

More than 50,000 Australian children are being hand-fed antidepressant drugs that have been banned overseas. A British medical authority, The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, told doctors in December not to prescribe the drugs to patients under 18 because they can increase the risk of suicide.

The warning covers five of the six drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

The US Food and Drug Administration has warned doctors to proceed with extreme caution in prescribing any SSRI other than Prozac to children. However, the Australian federal health department has done nothing to warn patients and doctors of the dangers, or moved to ban the five varieties of SSRI.

More than 90 per cent of American Women use prescription medication

New research shows that women could be running unnecessary risks by not fully disclosing to their doctors which medications they use, even when repeatedly prompted.

The study, published Tuesday in the United States, shows that women they examined are heavily medicated, relying on a potpourri of prescription and over-the-counter medications, topped up with herbal supplements.

The researchers said that they were surprised at the rates of medication use they found. Among the 567 women studied, more than 90 per cent used prescription medication and more than half used herbal supplements. A whopping 96.5 per cent used over-the-counter medications, almost two-thirds of them using four or more regularly.

Is the condition of being Female becoming a medical condition?

Antidepressants hazardous to health care coverage

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle

With nearly 19 million Americans under a diagnosis of depression, antidepressant use is skyrocketing in the United States. The newer antidepressants are the second most commonly prescribed class of drugs in the country, according IMS Health, a firm that tracks the pharmaceutical industry.

However, people with individual insurance are vulnerable to rejection or higher rates due to any number of pre-existing conditions because, unlike group plans, they must answer detailed questions about their medical history to qualify.

Those with pre-existing conditions such as serious heart problems or a history of cancer may not be surprised to be rejected, but millions of Americans taking antidepressants for a variety of reasons -- from anxiety to a bout of minor depression following a divorce or even to smoking cessation -- may be shocked to have that prescription come back to haunt them.

The Insurance Companies remain skeptial of the wisdom of such wide spread prescriptions of such expensive medications, as well they should, and this is back firing of people who have been prescribed the drugs

Hospitals say chief psychiatrist 'out of touch'

Victorian hospital administrators in Australia have publicly accused the state's chief psychiatrist, Amgad Tanaghow, of failing to grasp the extent of the crisis in the mental health system.

The accusations, dating back to October last year, came to light yesterday amid warnings that large numbers of mentally ill patients are committing suicide after receiving inadequate care in the state's hospitals.

Psychoanalysis Is Dead ... So How Does That Make You Feel?

As seen in an article published in the LA Times

We now know that Freud compulsively fudged the historical record. This tendency is evident in Freud's backsliding statements on his advocacy of cocaine, his opportunism concerning the case of Anna O., his flip-flops on the seduction theory, and in almost every instance where he mentions a patient.

Just ask the "Wolf Man," Sergius Pankejeff, whom Freud supposedly cured but who was, in truth, consigned to psychoanalysis for an additional 60 years. Not surprising, Pankejeff considered Freud's effect on his life a "catastrophe."

We also know that Freud never seriously dealt with the problem of "suggestion," which totally compromised his clinical findings and, by extension, his theories. Already, by the 1890s, few believed in Freud's convenient claim that suggestion — the undue influence of the psychoanalyst over the patient — was possible only in the biologically predisposed and was thus of no consequence to his findings. Amazingly, these critical insights were buried under Freud's rhetoric of denial and by his growing fame. Now we've come full circle.

Austin Psychiatrist On Trial For Sexual Assault

An Austin psychiatrist is on trial for sexually assaulting seven of his male patients. Doctor Gregory Vagshenian is charged with seven counts of sexual assault.

Assistant District Attorney Joe Maida argues Vagshenian, a psychiatrist, was performing physical exams, which turned out to be sexual acts on a number of men at a South Austin Veterans Affair Outpatient Clinic said. A former patient says the doctor sexually exploited him on this table. But he did tell somebody: an Austin police detective and an Austin attorney. Defense argues what he told the police only proves that this is all about money.

It's a crime many of Vagshenian's patients says happened to them, but they felt powerless against the doctor, and many prosecutors say had the power to send them to the psychiatric ward.

A video report is currently available

Legislator claims Mental Illness cased his ethical lapses

A 23-year-old New Hampshire state representative facing possible expulsion from the Legislature says he will sue to stop ethics proceedings against him. Bedford Rep. John Kerns failed to show up at a hearing Monday on three ethics charges against him: passing a bad check with “State of New Hampshire” written on it; using his title to get a parking spot reserved for school officials; and threatening them when told to stop parking there. He also faces four criminal charges of passing bad checks.

Kerns claims he has a medical condition that caused his behavior.

Kerns said private e-mails he sent to the chairman of the committee, state Rep. Shawn Jasper, R-Hudson, were improperly disclosed. The ethics committee’s own rules say its proceedings must be suspended if certain violations of confidentiality have occurred, he said.

Jasper recommended that Kerns be expelled from the Legislature. If he is, it would be the first expulsion of a state lawmaker since 1913. The committee meets again next week to resume its debate.

“He claims to have a mental illness. Before that it was a physical illness,” Jasper said. “He won’t tell anyone what it is. He led people to believe at one point he was diabetic.”

Woman participating in Lilly trial hangs self

A toxicology test will determine whether narcotics played a role in the suicide of a 19-year-old woman who was participating in clinical trials for a new drug that Eli Lilly and Co. hopes to launch this year. Traci Johnson, Bensalem, Pa., hanged herself Saturday night in the Lilly Laboratory for Clinical Research by tying a scarf to a bathroom shower rod, according to the Indianapolis Police Department.

While the toxicology test is standard procedure in the investigation of suicides by the Marion County coroner, it could have huge implications for Lilly if it is determined that the trial drug -- or removal from it -- played a role in the woman's suicide. Lilly said Monday it does not believe the drug, duloxetine, was related to the death of Johnson, who was a former student at Indiana Bible College. Toxicology test results are expected in about a month.

Duloxetine is key to future business prospects of Lilly. It is the main ingredient in Cymbalta, an anti-depressant drug, and in a stress urinary incontinence treatment, both of which are moving toward final approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, incidents such as the suicide of a clinical trial participant often draw questions from the FDA and can delay the federal approval needed to bring a drug to market.

In earlier statements, Lilly has said it expects the FDA to approve duloxetine to treat both depression and incontinence in 2004. Analysts have predicted sales of each could near $200 million this year. They bill Cymbalta as a potential blockbuster that could top $2 billion in sales by 2008.

Lilly spokesman Rob Smith would not say which use of the drug was the subject of Johnson's trials. However, the trial cycled the participants between doses of duloxetine and a placebo. At the time of her death, Smith said, Johnson was taking placebo.

Lilly Claims that "there's nothing to suggest that this is anything but an isolated incident."

right. Much more to the story at the link

Antidepressant Makers Withhold Data on failed drug trails

As seen in this story in the Washington Post

Makers of popular antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor have refused to disclose the details of most clinical trials involving depressed children, denying doctors and parents crucial evidence as they weigh fresh fears that such medicines may cause some children to become suicidal.

The companies say the studies are trade secrets. Researchers familiar with the unpublished data said the majority of secret trials show that children taking the medicines did not get any better than children taking dummy pills.

Although the drug industry's practice of suppressing data unfavorable to its products is legal, doctors and advocates say such secrecy distorts the scientific record.

"Conflicts of interest and the company control of the data have thrown out the scientific method," said Vera Hassner Sharav, a critic of the drugs and a patients' rights advocate. "If hundreds of trials don't work out, they don't publish them, they don't talk about them."

Psychiatrist arrested for Fraud

Chief State’s Attorney Christopher L. Morano announced the arrest of Trumbull doctor and psychiatrist Liasne Leedom, age 42, of 140 Old Dyke Road, of Trumbull in Conneticut, who is charged with putting patients at risk and defrauding the Medicaid program.

Leedom was arrested on warrant charging her with one count each of Larceny in the First Degree, Conspiracy to Commit Larceny in the First Degree, Conspiracy to Commit Practicing Pharmacy Without a License, Conspiracy to Commit Use of the Title "Doctor", Vendor Fraud in the Second Degree and Conspiracy to Commit Vendor Fraud in the Second Degree, and four counts of Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree.

She faces a maximum possible sentence of 69 years incarceration if convicted of all charges.

A Suicide Side Effect? What parents aren't being told about their kids' antidepressants

As reported in the San Fransisco Chronicle

At the emergency room, the staff administered charcoal to absorb the drugs, then transferred Angela to a psychiatric hospital. The next day, the hospital psychiatrist called Reich. "He told me it was a drug-induced suicide attempt," she said, related to the increased dosage of Paxil.

Neither Angela, Sara nor her husband, Jim, an internal medicine doctor, knew Paxil might carry a risk of triggering suicidal thoughts or actions. Aside from a generic statement that depressed people are more likely to attempt suicide, there is no mention of such a risk in Paxil's prescribing information.

A long sad tale. check out the link for the full horror story

The Disapperance of a teenpsych patient in Florida

When state social service workers asked a judge to hold their son Franklin against his will at Sunland Center, a North Florida institution for disabled people, Eddie and Charlotte Weekley handed him over voluntarily. ''They said it's a secure facility,'' Eddie Weekley said. ``They said my son would be safe there.'' Instead, they lost him. That was more than a year ago.

Franklin's medical records for 2001 show he was on two psychiatric drugs, Paxil and Topamax. The purpose of the drugs, records show: ``For behavior control.'' ''He stuttered,'' Eddie Weekley said. ``He couldn't talk.''

The Weekleys, and some caregivers, say they nevertheless understood what Franklin wanted. ''Franklin always wanted to go home,'' said Donna Fassett, executive director of The ARC Gateway in the Florida Panhandle, which offered services to Franklin before he was sent to Sunland.

On the evening of Dec. 5, 2002, a noticeably anxious Franklin called home, but was unable to reach his father, Charlotte Weekley said. When the father called back an hour or two later, workers at the institution refused to allow him to speak to Franklin. The next morning, Sunland administrators reported that Franklin was missing. They say he simply wandered out of the campus, which is surrounded by woods and does not have a fence. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office dispatched deputies on horseback, all-terrain vehicles and a helicopter in search of the teen.

Fassett said one Pensacola television station reported Franklin's story, but local newspapers showed little interest.

See this report to find out more about the story of this missing child.

3,000 Scots children on 'zombie' drug

Prescriptions of the psychiatric drug Ritalin to children have increased by almost 70% in the past four years in Scotland, heightening fears that a generation of ‘zombie’ youngsters is being created. Despite these fears, Scottish GPs are prescribing Ritalin and its generic equivalents to ever-increasing numbers of children. The latest Scottish Executive figures suggest there are 30,000 annual prescriptions of Ritalin-type drugs annually, up 68% on 1999.

As reported in the story at the link, MSP Adam Ingram, who asked health minister Malcolm Chisholm for the latest figures, said: "What is the reason for this huge increase? Is it an outbreak of ADHD, which I would doubt? Or is it just that people are saying let’s go down this road of managing children’s behaviour in this way?"

Glaxo Chief: Our Drugs Do Not Work on Most Patients

A senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them.

It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public. His comments come days after it emerged that the NHS drugs bill has soared by nearly 50 per cent in three years, rising by £2.3bn a year to an annual cost to the taxpayer of £7.2bn. GSK announced last week that it had 20 or more new drugs under development that could each earn the company up to $1bn (£600m) a year.

Drugs for Alzheimer's disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients, Dr Roses said. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said.

"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses said. "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."

This goes against a marketing culture within the industry that has relied on selling as many drugs as possible to the widest number of patients - a culture that has made GSK one of the most profitable pharmaceuticals companies, but which has also meant that most of its drugs are at best useless, and even possibly dangerous, for many patients.

Baughman Dispels The Myth of ADHD

Insight Magazine has an excellent interview with Dr. Fred A. Baughman Jr, on the subject of ADHD

Retired California neurologist Fred A. Baughman Jr. fired off a letter in January 2000 to U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher in response to Satcher's Report on Mental Illness. "Having gone to medical school," Baughman wrote, "and studied pathology — disease, then diagnosis — you and I and all physicians know that the presence of any bona fide disease, like diabetes, cancer or epilepsy, is confirmed by an objective finding — a physical or chemical abnormality. No demonstrable physical or chemical abnormality: no disease!

"You also know, I am sure," Baughman continued, "that there is no physical or chemical abnormality to be found in life, or at autopsy, in 'depression, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses.' Why then are you telling the American people that 'mental illnesses' are 'physical' and that they are due to 'chemical disorders?'"

Good article as a resource

Canadian psychologist stripped of licence faces misconduct charges in Ohio

A disgraced Canadian psychologist who lost his licence to practise in the 1980s after having sex with anorexic patients is now facing charges of sexual misconduct in the United States.

David Garner, 56, considered one of the world's leading experts on eating disorders, has been accused by the Ohio Board of Psychology of 15 ethics violations. They include multiple counts of negligence, impairment and engaging in sexual misconduct since September 2001 with a woman Garner supervises at the River Centre Clinic in Sylvania, Ohio. He's also accused of buying a $108,000 US condominium for the woman, who says their relationship was consensual.

Ontario regulators stripped Garner of his licence in 1989 for having sexual relations with a patient while he operated an eating disorder clinic in Toronto. At the time, Garner was already serving a two-year suspension after having sex with an 18-year-old anorexic patient. The suspension was one of the most severe penalties handed out by the Ontario Board of Examiners of Psychology, forcing him to resign from the Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto.

Garner is now a director at the River Centre Clinic, which specializes in treating eating disorders, but he's stepped down in light of the newest accusations.

Ritalin use in preteen children may lead to depression later in life

Ritalin use in preteen children may lead to depression later in life, studies of rats suggest.

It's an open question whether what passes for depression in lab rats has anything to do with depression in humans. But early use of Ritalin and other stimulant drugs seems to permanently alter animals' brains. That raises concerns that the same thing might be happening in children who take these drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The findings come from a research team led by William A. Carlezon Jr., PhD, director of the behavioral genetics laboratory at McLean Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. The study appears in the Dec. 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

See the NIH Press Release here

Drug firms pay doctors to sign 'independent' clinical studies

A British psychiatrist was doing research on possible dangers of antidepressant drugs when a representative of a drug manufacturer came to him with an offer of help. You're a busy guy, the company rep said. Here's some background on our product.

He e-mailed Dr. David Healy a finished 12-page review paper with graphs and footnotes, ready to present at an upcoming conference. And for convenience, Healy's name appeared as the sole author, even though the psychiatrist had never seen a single word of it before.

The drug company wanted its advertising to look like an independent study -- a "massive" scientific fakery that top medical journals condemn because it prevents doctors from getting the straight facts on medicines they prescribe.

Healy looked a gift horse in the mouth. Fearing the drug company was too easy on its own multimillion-dollar product, he did his own writing. But the ghostwritten paper appeared verbatim at the conference and in a psychiatric journal anyway -- under another doctor's name.

The drug industry is quietly paying "independent" doctors to sign their names to work they never did -- and keep their mouths shut.

"That of course is unbelievably corrupt and horrible," said Dr. Drummond Rennie, deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Psych in Fued vs Injured Neighbor

Jean Pierre Villar, a man in a fued with his neighbor, psychologist Holli Bodner, has run into financial problems when Bodner tried to have Villar commited for a forced mental exam under Florida Law.

On Nov. 14, Villar filed a complaint with the Sheriff's Office, alleging that his neighbor, psychologist Holli Bodner, lied on the form she filed to have him committed under the state's Baker Act. Deputies took him to Manatee Glens and then to Blake Medical Center, but he was released before being evaluated. Since then, he's hired a lawyer to prepare a suit against the Sheriff's Office and Bodner.

Jean Pierre Villar moved to Florida more than a year ago to get surgery and rehabilitation for a long-ignored work-related back injury. The incident with sheriff's deputies took place within weeks after the surgery.

After he was committed through the Baker Act, Villar's workers' compensation payments were cut off. The insurance company said his new injuries do not appear to be related to his construction work-related injury, but appear to be caused by the commitment, Bruce Zeidman, Villar's workers' compensation lawyer, said last month.

Villar says the deputies bent him over to restrain him, further damaging his back. The nerve damage spread from one leg to two and is attacking his left arm, causing uncontrollable shaking and "horrible pain," he said.

One wonder's watch the psych said to the cops to have a man in such obvious pain treated so roughly.

New Zealand's black market for children's Ritalin

New Zealand parents of children prescribed methylphenidate for ADHD are selling it to supplement their state benefits. There is anecdotal evidence that children had been selling it at school. "There's quite a brisk illegal market for Ritalin. Methamphetamine and Ritalin are the biggest trend in drug use, and would be second behind cannabis."

New Zealand's use of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs such as Ritalin is spiralling. Figures from government drug-buying agency Pharmac show 17 per cent more methylphenidate – commonly known at Ritalin and Rubifen – was dispensed in the 12 months ended July than in the previous year. Thirty-three times more methylphenidate is now dispensed to treat children with ADHD than there was a decade ago when estimates suggested only 242 patients were receiving the drug. Many patients are now likely to be prescribed both short- and long-acting strengths and hold two prescriptions. Now Pharmac estimates 5550 patients are taking ADHD drugs – up 15 per cent on last year.

Health experts spoken to by The Press are unconcerned at the increased prescribing of methylphenidate but do worry about its illicit use through the black market. Parents selling drugs prescribed for their behaviourally troubled children are fuelling the black market trade in Ritalin.

National Addiction Centre director and psychiatrist Associate Professor Doug Sellman said the more methylphenidate was used for ADHD, the more families would trade it. "The temptation to sell Johnny's medication is stronger in poorer families, and ADHD tends to be found more in lower socio-economic families."

Psychopaths twice as likely to re-offend after treatment

According to this article in the Telegraph, psychopaths such as serial killers are twice as likely to reoffend after treatment in British prison rehabilitation programs as psychopaths who do not take part in such programs.

Dr Robert Hare, a Canadian professor of psychology who has studied psychopaths for 35 years, believes that participating in such courses actually increases the chances that a psychopath will reoffend when he gets out.

Within two years of their release, psychopaths who go on such courses reoffend at almost twice the rate as those who do not. More than 80 per cent of the psychopaths who complete therapeutic courses reoffend soon after release. However, fewer than half of those who do not undergo such courses go on to reoffend.

Yet the offenders who had been on the therapy courses had convinced prison and psychiatric staff that they had "genuinely addressed their own offending behaviour", and were "responding positively to therapy". Indeed, those offenders who were most successful at convincing their therapists that they had gained insight into their own behaviour and changed for the better actually went on to reoffend at the highest rates.

{...}

"The psychiatric profession and its associates are very reluctant to admit they are wrong or that they have made a mistake, let alone to accept that they have been conned by a psychopath," says Dr Hare. "Therapists tend to insist that their diagnosis was right at the time and on the evidence they had - even when that is manifestly disproved by subsequent events."

So it looks like they just get really good at learning the psycho-babble jargon, and thus are more expert at manipulating the therapists.

This speaks volumes about the effectiveness of the therapists and the "science" they practice.

New Expensive Drugs no better than Old Inexpensive Drugs

As seen in the New Hampshire Telegraph

An older, inexpensive drug is as effective/ineffective at treating the symptoms of schizophrenia as a newer, more popular drug that costs about 100 times more, according to a new report. The study, published in Wednesday’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, also found no difference in quality of life between those given the newer drug, olanzapine, and those given the older drug, haloperidol, plus another drug to control side effects. Haloperidol treatment was $3,000 to $9,000 cheaper per patient in annual costs, depending on how expenses were measured.

So we see that the major advantage to the newer drugs is their benefit to the corporate profit margin.

Health Workers kept silent due to fear for their lives

Five workers who made false accounting entries during a huge fraud at HealthSouth Corp. kept silent out of fear after realizing the company was buying guns, grenades and spy equipment, according to testimony Wednesday at the first sentencing in the case.

While not specifically a psychiatric fraud case, it does reveal the criminal nature of some in the health care industry. Read the full story here.

Utah State Psych Hospitals Unsafe?

The Deseret News has this report on the safety issues at state psychiatric hospital facilities in Utah. One on the major elements is that the facilities are not really trying to help people, but are acting more like prisons in disguise instead. The story offers extensive details on the horror story. This is about dangers to both the patients and the staff. Do they even know what they are doing?

More clinical and counseling psychology practices are going out of business than ever before

According to this new article on About.com, more clinical and counseling psychology practices are going out of business than ever before. This, combined with increasing numbers of graduates in the filed, leads the website to offer cautionary advice to people looking to psychology as a career path. While the author is not ready to recommend people avoid studying psychology as a career path, he recommending that people look at other areas to help keep their career options open.

Psychiatric Malpractice in Hawaii

This special report in the The Honolulu Star-Bulletin just came to our attention

Robert Kratzke initially believed that psychiatrist Martin H. Stein was "trying to do the best" for him, his wife and family. But less than five years after Stein began treating them with dozens of psychiatric drugs, Robert's wife, Anita, was dead, Robert had gone from a top engineer to "a vegetable on the couch with a chemical lobotomy" and Chris, his youngest son, had been on 23 prescribed drugs in five years.

Mr. Kratzke and his sons are recovering, and have filed a malpractice lawsuit against Stein over Anita's death.

Asia's mental heath centers

Asia's mental heath centers look more like prisons than hospitals. Everyone should check out the Time Asia photoessay which exposes this travesty.

Read the story here

It is truly a hell hole.

Psych Drugs of 4 patients switched without OK

A follow up to the earlier story:

A doctor at a state mental health facility changed patients' medications last year so that they would be eligible for a study of a new psychiatric drug, violating basic guidelines for research on human subjects and causing dangerous side effects in a 43-year-old man with schizophrenia, a state investigation has found.

The Disabled Persons Protection Commission uncovered numerous ethical violations at the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center by Boston Medical Center physicians contracted to treat patients there.

According to a DPPC report, patients' medications were switched without informed consent and without a clear medical need, the changes were made more than two months before the human-studies review boards approved the research protocol, and the patients involved were clearly not eligible under the criteria for the study, which specified that subjects be outpatients.

One of the four patients whose medication was switched, a man who had been stable for 10 years on the drug Clozaril, became so ill and acutely psychotic that he spent months in and out of hospital wards. He was diagnosed with neuroleptic malignant syndrome, a rare, sometimes lethal side effect of medication changes, according to the commission's report.

The names of doctors involved were deleted from the commission report, but Department of Mental Health officials and Hughes acknowledged their identities. According to the Globe story the Doctors involved are Dr. Douglas Hughes and Dr. Valentina Jalynytchev.

The rapid decline of a patient under psych care

This story in today's Boston Globe cite the rapid decline of a patient under psych care

Medical records from the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center tell the story of a profoundly disabled patient who was ushered into a clinical trial during a single conversation: On Oct. 31, 2002, Dr. Valentina Jalynytchev sat down with the 43-year-old patient and, as she noted in a progress report, "discussed . . . clinical trial of [Risperdal]," and agreed that he would participate, according to a state report. [...]

In her notes of Oct. 31, Jalynytchev concludes that the patient was enthusiastic about starting Risperdal, which does not require regular blood tests, as Clozaril does: "He will start Risperidone . . . any time soon [it is his treatment plan], but for the study his guardian . . . needs to sign a consent form."

In fact, his treatment plan included other antipsychotic medications but not Risperdal. No call was made to his guardian. But he was started on Risperdal five days later, on Nov. 4, 2002. [...]

Which was just the start of a long, sad, horror story.

The switch in medications was the beginning of a long slide. [...] When the patient returned to the Fuller [after a trip to the emergency room] in March, he was so sensitive to antipsychotic medication that he could take only tiny doses. Doctors prescribed electroconvulsive therapy.

A Look at the Mental Health Agenda

Berit Kjos has an interesting collection of of well documented articles investigating the agenda of the mental health crowd. She entitles it the Does Your 'Mental Health' Meet Global Standards? Series.

Article One: Legalizing Mind Control
Article Two: Legalizing Mind Control 2

Therw are links to other articles as well. While you may not agree with her particular biases, the quotes are well documented, and raise the interesting question of whose global standards are they, anyhow? As she notes:

Good medical doctors naturally encourage prevention. They would want their patients to maintain health and strength. But when socialist "change agents" step into the picture with their psycho-social brainwashing strategies -- calling their agenda "prevention" in order to gain your approval -- they bring oppression instead of peace.

It gets into questions like: What agenda are they pushing. and whose should it be? She introduces one of her articles with a quote from Betrand Russle, from a book published back in 1953:

"...the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology.... The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen. As yet there is only one country which has succeeded in creating this politician's paradise."[2] -- Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953); page 30.)

So whose agenda is it?

Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California connection

As seen in the SF Chronicle

the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn't originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little-known, role in the American eugenics movement's campaign for ethnic cleansing. [...]

Eugenics would have been so much bizarre parlor talk had it not been for extensive financing by corporate philanthropies, specifically the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune. They were all in league with some of America's most respected scientists from such prestigious universities as Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Princeton. These academicians espoused race theory and race science, and then faked and twisted data to serve eugenics' racist aims.


a worthy read

Nearly one in four French people on Psych Drugs

Nearly one in four French people are on tranquillisers, antidepressants, antipsychotics or other mood-altering prescription drugs, according to an alarming report published this past week. It revealed that an average of 40% of men and women aged over 70 in France were routinely prescribed at least one of this class of dependence-creating drug, as well as some 4% of all children under nine. The French are plainly not sicker than anyone else: according to recent survey, while 9% of them were prescribed antidepressants in 2000, only 4.7% could be clinically diagnosed as suffering from depression.

So what gives?

Psych reverses murder testimony

A psychiatrist who helped prosecutors sentence a Charlotte, NC man to death for killing his aunt has retracted her testimony. Las Vegas psychiatrist Cynthia White said her testimony was erroneous and that the state withheld information from her. White testified against convicted murderer John Daniels. Her latest statements were from an affidavit released by Daniels' lawyer on Thursday.

Psych Center Worker faces 27 charges of Sexual Assualt

A former worker at a Las Vegas psychiatric center has plead innocent to fondling a teenage girl under his care. Police say 29-year-old Barry Bergmann faces 27 charges of sexual assault after a girl transferred from the Spring Mountain Treatment Center to another facility and told counselors there that Bergmann fondled her and had her remove her clothes. Authorities say the girl is under 16 years old. A Spring Mountain official says Bergmann no longer works there.

Eli Lily and Walgreen's sued over promo packages of Prozac

A marketing scheme that involved sending unsolicited fluoxetine (Prozac) in the mail has led to a lawsuit in the US state of Florida against a local hospital, the drug’s manufacturer (Eli Lilly), and Walgreen, a major US pharmacy chain. We missed this in the states. This report is via the British medical Journal

Forcing Psychiatric Treatment on Individuals Not Successful

Forcing individuals to undergo psychiatric treatment in and of itself will not lead to use of fewer health services or reduce the risk of readmission, reported researchers at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, held October 30th to November 2nd in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The study, which included all community-based and inpatient psychiatric services in Western Australia, examined whether community treatment orders (CTOs) had any effect on the use of mental health services. Study participants were matched on discharge date, socio-demographic factors, clinical features and psychiatric history.

End result? The researchers found that CTO cases (forcebly treated) had significantly higher readmission rates (73%) compared to the other two groups (57% and 65%),

So if the commitment is forced, the readmission rate is much higher.....

Psych charged in another sex attack

A psych jailed for a depraved sex attack has been charged with indecent assault weeks after being freed pending his appeal. Psychiatrist Darren Holdsworth was arrested after being released from prison where hewas serving three years for attacking a teenage girl.

Holdsworth, 37, is alleged to have carried out thelatest assault in a Glasgow pub. Hewas let out of jail in August after launching anappeal against the sentence he received last November. Hewas jailed for three years andtold hewould beplacedundersupervision for two years after his release.

Marketing reps targeting doctors to prescribe drugs for off-label

This story in the Tallahassee Democrat details the efforts of marketing reps to expand the markets of drugs like Prozac by handing out samples to regular physicians who are not familar with the side effects. By offering specialty drugs to nonspecialists, sending salesmen to doctors' offices and medical conventions, and touting their drugs' benefits on the slimmest of evidence, pharmaceutical companies have sent off-label retail sales soaring. Documented is one case where a heart specialist gave a man Prozac, with the man committing suicide less than 2 weeks later, to the horror of the heart specialist.

Australian Psychologist accused of inmate sex

Australian Psychologist Susan Maureen Robinson, of Sherwood, has been referred to the Health Practitioners' Tribunal by the Psychologists Board of Queensland to answer allegations of unsatisfactory professional conduct. As a former prison psychologist, she could have her licence cancelled or suspended after being accused of having an improper sexual relationship with a former inmate. The Australian Psychological Society code of ethics states a minimum of two years must pass between the end of a professional client-practitioner relationship before the start of an intimate relationship, and the psychologist must prove the relationship does not exploit the former client.

Probe as 62 patients fall on Psych ward's 'slippy' floor

Health and safety experts have been called in at Wishaw General Hospital [in England] after 62 falls were recorded in one ward in just 10 months. The safety probe centres on Ward 3, which houses around 23 elderly psychiatric patients. Official hospital figures show 47 patients suffered falls on the ward during a five-month period in 2002.

A spokesman for Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: "Discussions have been taking place with the Health and Safety Executive but there has been no instruction to remove the flooring in Ward 3, which is the same throughout Wishaw General."

One hospital worker said: "Most of the staff think there's a problem with the flooring. The patients there are extremely frail and I have lost count of the number of serious falls that have been recorded. It will cost the taxpayer a fortune if the flooring is found to be dangerous." An investigation has now been launched to find out whether the condition of the floor is putting patients and staff at risk.

Developmental problems in frogs and fish exposed to minute quantities of common antidepressants

University of Georgia researchers have discovered developmental problems in frogs and fish exposed to minute quantities of common antidepressants that can pass from humans through sewage treatment systems into rivers and streams. The scientists have been studying the toxicity of a widely used group of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which are commonly prescribed for depression, anxiety, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders and social phobia. Some of the drugs, including Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and Celexa, have been found in low concentrations in surface water, particularly wastewater.