Father Threatened with Child Abuse Charge for Taking Son Off Ritalin

When Chad Taylor noticed his son was apparently experiencing serious side effects from Ritalin prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he decided to take the boy off the medication. Now, he says he may be accused of child abuse.

In February, 12-year-old Daniel began displaying some symptoms that his father suspected were related to the use of Ritalin. "He was losing weight, wasn't sleeping, wasn't eating," Taylor told ABC News affiliate KOAT-TV in New Mexico. "[He] just wasn't Daniel."

So Taylor took Daniel off Ritalin, against his doctor's wishes. And though Taylor noticed Daniel was sleeping better and his appetite had returned, his teachers complained about the return of his disruptive behavior. Daniel seemed unable to sit still and was inattentive. His teachers ultimately learned that he was no longer taking Ritalin. School officials reported Daniel's parents to New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families.Then a detective and social worker made a home visit.

"The detective told me if I did not medicate my son, I would be arrested for child abuse and neglect," Taylor said. A spokesman for New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families told KOAT-TV that they could not comment on the case because of state confidentiality laws. John Francis, a detective for the Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety, said that Taylor was not threatened but told KOAT-TV that parents could be charged in situations like his.

Pills and kids may not mix

At least five teenagers in Canada have died, four of suicide, while being treated with the most widely prescribed antidepressants in Canada and at least 100 other children as young as 18 months old have experienced serious suspected adverse reactions to the pills, CanWest News Service has learned. The most recent reported suicide involves a 14-year-old boy who killed himself after 25 days on Paxil, one of the antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

The antidepressants are at the centre of a growing storm over whether SSRIs, blockbuster drugs that have become among the most popular medicines in history, cause some children to become suicidal or trigger other severe emotional or behavioural changes within weeks of the commencement of treatment or a change in dose.

Health Canada was notified of the boy's suicide on July 22, 2003, nearly two weeks after the government and GlaxoSmithKline, the makers of Paxil, warned doctors not to prescribe the drug to children and teens because of a possible increased risk of suicidal thinking, suicide attempts or self-harm. Health Canada learned in October 1996 of a 17-year-old boy who committed suicide while he was being treated with Zoloft. A suicide involving a male 18-year-old who had been taking Prozac was reported to the government in 1992.

In all three suicides, the antidepressants might have contributed to the deaths, according to adverse-drug-reaction reports contained in an edited, online Health Canada database. It's estimated only one to 10 per cent of all adverse drug reactions are reported to Health Canada.

Working Against Mind Control in Advertising

As seen here and as published on the PR Newswire

A public interest advocacy organization urged the Federal Trade Commission today to review and analyze the interactive marketing and branding technologies and techniques used by advertisers to target the country's children, "tweens," and teens.

In a letter to FTC Chairman Muris and the other four commissioners, the nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) wrote that the "immersive, relational, and ubiquitous nature of such marketing raises serious questions about the ability of existing safeguards and rules to protect our nation's children and young people." The letter urged the commission to use its subpoena power to obtain any needed documents, including proprietary research studies. CDD also called on the ad industry to adopt a moratorium on all interactive techniques that -- in the absence of independent research suggesting otherwise -- could potentially harm or negatively affect children and youth.

CDD Executive Director Jeffrey Chester said that the nation's parents, educators, and health professionals should be concerned about the impact that such digital technologies have on the psychosocial development of children. "We know that the advertising industry is wielding powerful new tools that track and target the 'behavior' of the online and interactive audience (such as those for video games)," Chester explained. "How this marketing affects such critical developmental issues as cognition/brain development, identity formation, and the emotional system must be well understand prior to its use on the child-to-teen audience," he added.

Chester noted that "the architecture of our nation's electronic media system is in a critical transition," with the widespread deployment of new data collection, profiling, and "personalization" marketing techniques. "The advertising industry is engaged in multiple research efforts designed to perfect their ability to pinpoint consumers online and to ensure that they can be both tracked and measured. The government -- through the FTC and other appropriate bodies -- must step in to determine what other research is necessary to safeguard the welfare of our nation's young population," declared Chester. "That's why we are asking the FTC to engage in the kind of study that will lead to meaningful recommendations to the public -- including policymakers -- on how to ensure that interactive marketing does not detract from the healthy development of children."

CDD called for a moratorium on such advertising until its effects on children and youth could be further assessed. The group also urged Chairman Muris to have the FTC issue a similar call for an interactive marketing moratorium.

"Interactive marketing to children exploits their cognitive weaknesses, and is a deceptive and shameful misuse of child development principals," declared Michael Brody, MD, chair of the Television and Media Committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Brody (available for comment at 301-585-1703) personally supported CDD's letter to the FTC, including the call for a moratorium on such advertising until its effects on children could be further assessed.

Chester will be speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, June 9, on the need for the FCC to strengthen its policies on advertising and children in the digital television era. The event is sponsored by Children Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association.

CDD is a national public interest group devoted to ensuring that the digital media fulfill its democratic potential. Its staff led the effort to protect children's privacy online through the passage of the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

A copy of the FTC letter is available at http://www.democraticmedia.org/resources/filings/FTCletter.html.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

As reported in The Oregonian

A Portland lawyer says suffering by African Americans at the hands of slave owners is to blame in the death of a 2-year-old Beaverton boy. Randall Vogt is offering the untested theory, called post traumatic slave syndrome, in his defense of Isaac Cortez Bynum, who is charged with murder by abuse in the June 30 death of his son, Ryshawn Lamar Bynum. Vogt says he will argue -- "in a general way" -- that masters beat slaves, so Bynum was justified in beating his son.

The slave theory is the work of Joy DeGruy-Leary, an assistant professor in the Portland State University Graduate School of Social Work. It is not listed by psychiatrists or the courts as an accepted disorder, and some experts said they had never heard of it.

DeGruy-Leary testified this month in Washington County Circuit Court that African Americans today are affected by past centuries of U.S. slavery because the original slaves were never treated for the trauma of losing their homes; seeing relatives whipped, raped and killed; and being subjugated by whites.

Because African Americans as a class never got a chance to heal and today still face racism, oppression and societal inequality, they suffer from multigenerational trauma, says DeGruy-Leary, who is African American. Self-destructive, violent or aggressive behavior often results, she says.

Noting the theory has not been proven or ever offered in court, Washington County Circuit Judge Nancy W. Campbell recently threw out DeGruy-Leary's pretrial testimony. But the judge said she would reconsider the defense for Bynum's September trial if his lawyer can show the slave theory is an accepted mental disorder with a valid scientific basis and specifically applies to this case.

[...]

Experts disagree on whether post traumatic slave syndrome can be proven, much less accepted in legal arenas. It took 50 years for society and the courts to accept post traumatic stress syndrome, a diagnosis for someone who has experienced or witnessed an extraordinary event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury. It is only diagnosed when functioning is severely impaired.

The judge also said the defense would have to show Bynum, who grew up in Mississippi, has slave syndrome. At the time of her testimony, DeGruy-Leary had not interviewed him. Besides a doctorate in social work research, DeGruy-Leary has a master's degree in clinical psychology. She said she can offer counseling but is not licensed to diagnose anyone.

Somehow this is a bit off the mark.

Glaxo accused of Drug Fraud

GlaxoSmithKline PLC committed fraud by withholding negative information and misrepresenting data on prescribing its anti-depressant Paxil to children, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The lawsuit highlights two pharmaceutical and medical controversies: whether anti-depressants increase suicidal tendencies in children, and whether drug companies skew information on their products either by not publicizing all the studies conducted on medicines or editing information on published trials.

The most detailed reports can be seen in the NYT, which has details on two drug trials, known within SmithKline Beecham as Study 329 and Study 377. Study 329 suggested that the company's popular drug Paxil might help depressed adolescents. Study 377, completed later, indicated that Paxil provided no more benefit than a sugar pill in treating depressed young people. This later study was recommended to be "buried"

As noted in Bloomberg<, the cost to insure GlaxoSmithKline Plc debt has doubled after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed the lawsuit against the company.

Forbes also notes that GlaxoSmithKline Plc has agreed to compensate Japan's Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd for withdrawing an antibiotic from the market five years ago.

Psychiatric Drug Mix disapproved for treatment of Migraine headaches

Pozen Inc. (POZN) on Tuesday said U.S. regulators rejected its experimental migraine drug because it was not more effective than an existing treatment, sending the company's stock down 40 percent. Pozen said the Food and Drug Administration issued a non-approval letter on its experimental drug MT100, a combination of naproxen and another treatment, because it did not prove substantially more effective than naproxen alone at sustaining pain relief.

The FDA was also concerned with the risk that patients could suffer from tardive dyskinesia, a neurological syndrome caused by the long-term use of certain medicines used for psychiatric disorders. The drug that Pozen combined with naproxen in MT100, called metoclopramide, has been associated with uncontrollable motions characteristic of tardive dyskinesia patients.

Tardive dyskinesia is characterized by repetitive, involuntary, purposeless movements, such as grimacing, tongue protrusion, lip smacking, puckering and pursing, rapid eye blinking and rapid movements of the arms, legs, and trunk. The FDA did not observe any raised risk of tardive dyskinesia in clinical trials of MT100, but was apparently still concerned by it.

``Given the number of patients exposed to MT 100 for at least one year in your database (about 300), the absence of any detected cases is consistent with a true rate of TD of about 1 percent, an unacceptably high risk in the absence of any demonstrated advantage of the product,'' the FDA said in its letter to the company.

Judge Allows Families To Sue Kaiser Over Xerox Shootings

It's been five years since Byran Uyesugi murdered seven Xerox coworkers, but the victims' families are still seeking damages in court. On Wednesday, a judge ruled that the widows can sue Kaiser Medical because a psychiatrist there admitted he forgot about Uyesugi. The victims' families have used the courts to find out if Uyesugi's doctors could have prevented the murders. The families' lawyers now say the answer may be yes.

"This was someone that was referred to him for evaluation and the doctor clearly did nothing," family attorney Michael Green said. The doctor is Marvin Mathews, a Kaiser psychiatrist who gave Uyesugi the green light to return to work at Xerox. Kaiser argued that Uyesugi was not their responsibility.

Psych faces another child molestation charge

As seen in this report

An Arlington, Texas child psychiatrist accused of indecency with two juvenile patients faces a new charge of inappropriate touching after a third child came forward to police this month. The new complaint surfaced after a mother read a news article about psychiatrist Donald Hughes having his medical license temporarily suspended during a police investigation of allegations made by two male juvenile patients, Arlington Sgt. Craig Leondike said Friday. The woman contacted police after talking to her preteen son about his experience as Hughes' patient last year at Millwood Hospital, Leondike said. "She brought him to the front desk of the police station because he had made an outcry to her about what had happened to him," Leondike said.

Hughes, 52, was first arrested April 22 on two charges of indecency with a child after two patients at Millwood Hospital alleged that he fondled them on separate occasions in April 2003. He was released on bail the same day he was arrested. "It appears he committed this last offense after being interviewed by police about the first two reports," Leondike said.

After the third child came forward, police issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Hughes on a charge of inde-cency/fondling, Leondike said. On Friday, Hughes turned himself in to the Tarrant County Jail and was released on $40,000 bail, his attorney, Bruce Ashworth, said. Ashworth has said the charges against his client are without merit. He declined to comment on the new allegation.

This month, the state medical board temporarily suspended Hughes' license after deeming that allowing him to continue practicing medicine would pose a public threat.

Psych Sexually Tortured Teen, But Was Released to Attack a Total Stranger.

As seen in this report

The second victim of a deviant psychiatrist yesterday relived the terrifying moment he sexually assaulted her in a busy pub. Mum-of-one Jenny Pope said: 'That monster should be jailed for life.'
Jenny was attacked by sick psycho Dr Darren Holdsworth after he was given bail to appeal a three-year jail sentence for sexually torturing teenager Rachel Lynn. Rachel, now 21, was stunned when she found out Holdsworth was on the street and warned: 'He is a danger to women.'

Holdsworth was found guilty at his trial in Glasgow two weeks ago and will be sentenced on June 24. Sheriff Ronnie Watson told him: 'Your version of events does not match that of anyone else.' Holdsworth, 37, attacked Jenny while appealing against a sentence in November for sexually assaulting Rachel when she was 19. He was branded 'a potential risk to women' and was added to the Sex Offenders' Register. At the time, he was a psychiatrist at Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow, dealing with vulnerable men and women.

Full details at the link

Eli Lilly, Zyprexa, & the Bush Family - The diseasing of our malaise

This article is sure to hit a few nerves, since it connects the dots between the Bush Family and Eli Lily the well known manufacturer of Psych Drugs. (Alternate Link here)

A sample of those who have been on the Eli Lilly payroll includes:

* Former President George Herbert Walker Bush (one-time member of the Eli Lilly board of directors)
* Former CEO of Enron, Ken Lay (one-time member of the Eli Lilly board of directors)
* George W. Bush’s former director of Management and Budget, Mitch Daniels (a former Eli Lilly vice president)
* George W. Bush’s Homeland Security Advisory Council member, Sidney Taurel (current CEO of Eli Lilly)

And there is this Tidbit:

Alexander Cockburn, in both the Nation and the New Statesman, was one of the first to connect the dots between the Bush family and Eli Lilly. After George Herbert Walker Bush left his CIA director post in 1977 and before becoming vice president under Ronald Reagan in 1980, he was on Eli Lilly’s board of directors. As vice president, Bush failed to disclose his Lilly stock and lobbied hard on behalf of Big Pharma—especially Eli Lilly. For example, Bush sought special tax breaks from the IRS for Lilly and other pharmaceutical corporations that were manufacturing in Puerto Rico.

Cockburn also reported on Mitch Daniels, then a vice president at Eli Lilly, who in 1991 co-chaired a fundraiser that collected $600,000 for the Bush-Quayle campaign. This is the same Mitch Daniels who in 2001 became George W. Bush’s Director of Management and Budget. In June 2003, soon after Daniels departed from that job, he ran for governor of Indiana (home to Eli Lilly headquarters).

In a piece in the Washington Post called “Delusional on the Deficit,” Senator Ernest Hollings wrote, “When Daniels left two weeks ago to run for governor of Indiana, he told the Post that the government is ‘fiscally in fine shape.’ Good grief! During his 29-month tenure, he turned a so-called $5.6 trillion, 10-year budget surplus into a $4 trillion deficit—a mere $10 trillion downswing in just two years. If this is good fiscal policy, thank heavens Daniels is gone.”

There is much more to this very detailed article.

Psychiatry Needs to Quit its Drug Habit

Dr. Michael Browne is a psychologist who has spent 25 years in private practice in Minneapolis and an adjunct University of Minnesota faculty member who supervises psychiatric residents learning to conduct therapy.

About five years ago, he was asked to give a talk about mental health issues to residents training to be family practice doctors. In preparation, he started reading research on antidepressants. "I was just completely astounded by what I found," he explains. "The claims for the effectiveness of antidepressants were greatly exaggerated. I looked closely at the evidence, and it's not there."

Trained as an experimental psychologist at Indiana University, Browne went on to write and lecture critically about the mental health industry's growing dependence on antidepressants. His most recent paper, "The Medicalization of Emotional Distress and the Future of Psychotherapy," argues that the mental health profession needs to kick its drug habit, and lays out half a dozen reasons why that will be tough.


I wrote a couple of papers about the subject, and I just kept pulling in more information. And I found that the evidence was exaggerated not just for antidepressants, but for virtually every single psychiatric medication. I talked to colleagues, and their reaction was, "Well, it can't be that bad. They wouldn't be giving out all of these drugs if they didn't work."

As it turns out, and I say this based on looking very carefully at the research: These drugs have little or no effectiveness. They simply don't help that much. You can always point to individual patients who will say that any treatment is wonderful, it's cured them. That's why people go around wearing copper bracelets. There are people who say, "I had terrible arthritis and this copper bracelet cured my arthritis."

And it's not really so surprising that these medications don't work. If a person is very seriously unhappy, and it goes on for months and months, what does that mean? That means there's something very seriously wrong in that person's life. It's not for trivial reasons. And common sense tells us it's not likely to be easy to change that.

Read a full and detailed interview with him here

Clergy Identify and Memorialize The Psychiatric Dead

As reported in the Advocate

It will take another 11 years to finish this quest to bring a measure of dignity to those buried in Connecticut Valley Hospital's cemetery, to put a face on 1,670 faceless dead from decades past, 100 names at a time. As they have each May since 1999, the Rev. John C. Hall and nine other Middletown clergy members recently gathered for a memorial service at the old cemetery off a gravel road on the grounds of CVH, the state's first and only remaining public psychiatric hospital.

On this day, the names of the dead in graves 500-599 - the markers bear only a number that corresponds with a death registry - were read one by one, each followed by a blessing. The clergy, a few in flowing robes starkly white against the aging stones, moved from marker to marker, their progress matched by a couple of dozen onlookers.

Bob Byrnie stooped and placed a white rose at each marker. His grandfather, a carriage painter named James Byrnie who suffered from lead-poisoning dementia, is buried here. His grandfather died in 1906. It was not until 1997, after an exhaustive records search by Bob Byrnie and his sister, Anne Grace of Cromwell, that James Byrnie's fate was learned. "To put a face on those buried here - it's just a wonderful concept. I look forward to coming each year," Byrnie said. [...]

Until the mid-1950s, the dead at many of the state hospitals across the country were buried under small, numbered markers. The stigma of mental illness was that great. In later years, it was thought that state confidentiality laws prevented the hospital from identifying the dead. The names would surface another way: In the late 1990s, Wesleyan graduate student Ben Holder found a list of the dead at Russell Library. Then in December 1999, the state attorney general concluded that because the deaths preceded the state's 1969 confidentiality law, it would not be a breach of privacy to name the patients now.

Harton Regional Medical Center Replaces Psych beds with Critical Care Units

Plans for Harton Regional Medical Center (in the Tullahoma area of Tennessee) to expand its critical care unit have been announced by Bob Bigley, the hospital's chief executive officer. The addition of eleven beds will replace the psychiatric unit at Harton, now located on the third floor of the medical center. The psychiatric unit will close June 15 to begin the renovations needed to accommodate the new critical care patient beds.

"Our ability to offer advanced services in the areas of cardiac and neurosurgery care has prompted us to identify a solution for the addition of more critical care beds," stated Bigley. "The critical care unit is always full and we have to address this need. With the closing of one unit, we will be able to expand another."

Harton is a 137-bed comprehensive health care facility serving a four county rural area. Harton's regional services set them apart from traditional community hospitals by offering complete obstetric, medical, cardiology, neurological, surgical, state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment services lead by more staff with advanced certification and training.

Accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Harton has served the Tullahoma area and surrounding counties since 1967.

Debriefing by Psychs Does Not Prevent Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The Psychs have no workable methodology to help people after a traumatic events.

A Report in the Psychiatric Times claims:

Despite repeated attempts to document that psychological debriefing can prevent posttraumatic psychopathology, there is no convincing evidence that it does so. Even if the procedure is not harmful, its continued implementation may delay the development of truly effective crisis interventions, while wasting time, money and resources on a method that is, at best, inert

As seen in the report:

Individuals exposed to horrifying, life-threatening events are at heightened risk for posttraumatic stress disorder. Given the substantial personal and societal costs of chronic PTSD, mental health care professionals have developed early intervention methods designed to mitigate acute emotional distress and prevent the emergence of posttraumatic psychopathology. The method most widely used throughout the world is psychological debriefing.

Psychological debriefing is a brief crisis intervention usually administered within days of a traumatic event. A debriefing session, especially if done with a group of individuals (e.g., firefighters), usually lasts about three to four hours. By helping the trauma-exposed individual "talk about his feelings and reactions to the critical incident", the debriefing facilitator aims "to reduce the incidence, duration, and severity of, or impairment from, traumatic stress" (Everly and Mitchell, 1999). [...]

According to Mitchell and Everly (2001), research on their debriefing methods "proves their clinical effectiveness far beyond reasonable doubt." Other scholars, however, have drawn drastically different conclusions. After conducting a meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) on debriefing, Rose et al. (2001) concluded,

There is no current evidence that ... psychological debriefing is a useful treatment for the prevention of post traumatic stress disorder after traumatic incidents. Compulsory debriefing of victims of trauma should cease.

Another meta-analysis revealed that individuals exposed to Mitchell's version of debriefing failed to experience symptomatic relief, whereas individuals who were not exposed to CISD did show improvement (van Emmerik et al., 2002). Although most studies have failed to uncover any beneficial effect of debriefing, two have shown that it can impede natural recovery from trauma.

Conclusions

Despite repeated attempts to document that psychological debriefing can prevent posttraumatic psychopathology, there is no convincing evidence that it does so. Even if the procedure is not harmful, its continued implementation may delay the development of truly effective crisis interventions, while wasting time, money and resources on a method that is, at best, inert.

It is of note that according to people who were there at the rescue scene at Ground Zero at the World Trade centers, the rescue personnel wanted to get back to work rescuing their fellows as soon as possible, and to spend 4 hours in debriefing was a crime against the people still under the rubble.

Other groups, such as volunteer ministers attracted far more attention and seemed to be far more effective. To the horror of the psychs in their blue surgical smocks with the word "psych" scrawled on duct tape for a label, who seem to have been avoided.

Patient-Abuse Charges Under Investigation

As reported in the NY Times (Free reg required)

State health officials and the local police are investigating accusations that patients undergoing psychiatric or substance-abuse treatment at St. Vincent's Westchester Hospital in Harrison, NY have been sexually abused or beaten by other patients, officials said on Friday.

The police have investigated 27 reports of sexual or physical assault at the hospital since 1997, with about a dozen of those investigations currently under way, according to Capt. Anthony Marraccini of the Harrison police.

David E. Worby, a lawyer at Worby Groner Edelman who is pursuing five lawsuits filed since September alleging sexual abuse and beatings at the hospital, said: "There is a pattern of neglect in that hospital that allowed patients to abuse one another. Getting raped when you are seeking treatment at a hospital is just about the worst thing."

"We have criminal convictions on some of these cases and investigations on the others, so for the hospital to deny what is happening is preposterous," Mr. Worby said.

Told To Act Like A Girl

As seen here,

The death certificate listed suicide as the official cause of death. But the real cause of his demise was a controversial gender experiment lead by one of the most influential sex researchers of the 20th century. Bruce Reimer was born in 1965 to a blue-collar family in Winnipeg, Canada. Eight months later, he was victimized by a botched circumcision, and baby Bruce ended up without his sex organ.

The distraught family eventually contacted John Money, a charismatic psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Dr. Money was a leading advocate of the idea that sex-role identification is determined by one’s environment, not one’s genetic make-up.

Money recommended sex re-assignment surgery, a dubious procedure that had never been performed on a boy born with normal genitalia. Bruce would be given a vagina, his name would be changed to Brenda, and he would be raised as a girl. It would be as easy as that. So one month before his second birthday, little Bruce was wheeled into the operating room as a boy, and came out as a girl.

Enrolled in school, she was more competitive than her female classmates. When girls got into fights, they used their open hands. But Brenda used her fists. Then Brenda’s girlfriends discovered that she urinated standing up.

Dr. Money was apprised of all this, and more.

But when Money released his book, Man and Woman, Boy and Girl in 1972, he portrayed Brenda’s sex-change operation as a resounding success. The book reviewer at the liberal New York Times wrote approvingly: “if you tell a boy he is a girl, and raise him as one, he will want to do feminine things.”

Except it was never true

When Brenda reached puberty and her voice deepened, the folly of the charade could no longer be denied. About to undergo her annual breast exam one day, Brenda refused to disrobe. When asked by the doctor, “Do you want to be a girl or not?,” she defiantly answered “No!” Brenda’s parents knew the time had come to tell her the truth. Brenda immediately reverted to her male identity. Choosing the name David, he underwent penile reconstructive surgery. In 1990, David put the past behind him when he and Jane Anne Fontane tied the knot.

Two years ago, David’s life began to unravel when his brother unexpectedly died. Then he separated from his wife. After 38 years of indignity and torment, David Reimer took his own life on May 4

See also this article entitled "Death by Theory"

Schizophrenics Much Better off Outside the USA and Europe

As seen in this story on USA Today from a couple of years ago:

The movie A Beautiful Mind, nominated for eight Academy Awards, has brought welcome attention to the fact that people can and do recover from schizophrenia, a severely disabling disorder that affects about one in 100 Americans. Unfortunately, the film fabricates a critical detail of John Nash's recovery and in so doing, obscures a question that should concern us all: Do the medications we use to treat schizophrenia promote long-term recovery -- or hinder it?

In the movie, Nash -- just before he receives a Nobel Prize -- speaks of taking ''newer medications.'' The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has praised the film's director, Ron Howard, for showing the ''vital role of medication'' in Nash's recovery.

But as Sylvia Nasar notes in her biography of Nash, on which the movie is loosely based, this brilliant mathematician stopped taking anti-psychotic drugs in 1970 and slowly recovered over two decades. Nasar concluded that Nash's refusal to take drugs ''may have been fortunate'' because their deleterious effects ''would have made his gentle re-entry into the world of mathematics a near impossibility.''

In other words, the movie lied about the effectiveness of the psych drugs in this particular case, because they were not used at all.

His is just one of many such cases. Most Americans are unaware that the World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly found that long-term schizophrenia outcomes are much worse in the USA and other ''developed'' countries than in poor ones such as India and Nigeria, where relatively few patients are on anti-psychotic medications. In ''undeveloped'' countries, nearly two-thirds of schizophrenia patients are doing fairly well five years after initial diagnosis; about 40% have basically recovered. But in the USA and other developed countries, most patients become chronically ill. The outcome differences are so marked that WHO concluded that living in a developed country is a ''strong predictor'' that a patient never will fully recover.

There is more.

In 1987, psychologist Courtenay Harding reported that a third of chronic schizophrenia patients released from Vermont State Hospital in the late 1950s completely recovered. Everyone in this ''best-outcomes'' group shared one common factor: All had weaned themselves from anti-psychotic medications. The notion that schizophrenics must spend a lifetime on these drugs, she concluded, is a ''myth.''

In 1994, Harvard Medical School researchers found that outcomes for U.S. schizophrenia patients had worsened during the past 20 years and were now no better than they were 100 years earlier, when therapy involved plunking patients into bathtubs for hours. And in 1998, University of Pennsylvania investigators reported that standard anti-psychotic medications cause a specific area of the brain to become abnormally enlarged and that this drug-induced enlargement is associated with a worsening of symptoms.

The Best therapy? Simple providing a peaceful and safe enviroment.

Psychiatric Whistle-blower fired for talking to the press

As reported in the British Medical Journal

A whistleblower who uncovered evidence that major drug companies sought to influence government officials has been removed from his job and placed on administrative leave. Allen Jones, an investigator at the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General (OIG), was escorted out of his workplace on 28 April and told "not to appear on OIG property" after OIG officials accused him of talking to the press. Reports of Mr Jones's findings were widely reported in the New York Times, BMJ (7 February, p 306), and elsewhere.

His findings showed that the pharmaceutical company Janssen had paid honorariums to key state officials who held influence over the drugs prescribed in state-run prisons and mental hospitals.

Mr Jones filed a suit on 7 May against his supervisors charging that the OIG's policy of barring employees from talking to the media was "unconstitutional." Mr Jones claims, in the complaint filed in the Middle District Court of Pennsylvania, that he is being harassed by his superiors and Pennsylvania governmental institutions in order to "coverup, discourage, and limit any investigations or oversight into the corrupt practices of large drug companies and corrupt public officials who have acted with them."

See also this report

Passing the Buck to Make a Buck

As reported in the NY Times (Free reg may be require). Note: Forensic Evaluators are used to help determine which parent should be given child custody, among other things, in the state of New York.

A Manhattan stockbroker, Ms. Cockrell said she was not a disgruntled litigant; the evaluator in her case recommended that she retain custody of her daughter, although not on the terms she wanted. Her grievance involves the way she says she was treated by the evaluator, Dr. Stephen P. Herman, a psychiatrist often appointed in custody cases. In a 25-page complaint filed with the State Health Department and the inspector general of New York's court system, she says he was hostile, raised his voice at her, ordered $4,000 worth of psychological tests he did not use, refused to accept information she had tried to give him, and disparaged the other therapists her family was using.

Ms. Cockrell said she could not protest to the American Psychiatric Association because it said Dr. Herman was not a member. She filed her complaint with the State Health Department's office of professional medical conduct, which quickly rejected it, saying that custody disputes must be handled by the courts.

Ms. Cockrell said she then met with Justice Jacqueline W. Silbermann, the state's chief matrimonial judge, who was sympathetic but told her she should go back to the medical board. Ms. Cockrell has just refiled that complaint, signed by three other women who say they had similar experiences.

She and other parents say they have also complained to Sherrill R. Spatz, the inspector general of the court system. David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the courts, said that no one there would comment on specific cases, but that such complaints would be under the inspector general's purview.

Ms. Cockrell was among the parents who collected hundreds of signatures on a petition asking the Association of the Bar of the City of New York to investigate the custody evaluation process. That proposal was rejected.

Now in her third year of trying to fight the forensic-evaluation process in New York, Ms. Cockrell says she has met many other parents with similar problems. "I just think the whole system should be changed," she said. "It's hurting families."

A Matter of Passing the Buck to Make a Buck

Whistleblowing Psychiatrist Wins Huge Cash Award

State officials may think twice about how they respond to psychiatric staff who raise concerns about patient safety now that one such administrator is facing a nearly $1 million judgment against her. A federal jury in Delaware has awarded a psychiatrist nearly $1 million in damages after agreeing with his contention that state mental health officials punished him for exercising his First Amendment rights.

David Springer, M.D., was head of the medical staff and director of residency training at Delaware Psychiatric Center, the state’s only public psychiatric hospital. In May 2000, the director of the state’s Division of Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health, Renata J. Henry, told Springer, who had been employed as an independent contractor since 1991, that she was not going to renew his contract for the next year and that he would have to bid for a job as though he were a new employee. Springer sued Henry in her capacity as director of the mental health division, contending that he was terminated because he spoke out about his patient-safety concerns.

The jury agreed with Springer and awarded him $285,464 for lost earnings, $588,431 for lost future earnings, and $100,000 for injury to his reputation, according to his lawyers, Thomas and Stephen Neuberger. The jury also awarded $25,000 in punitive damages against Henry after deciding that she acted "recklessly, intentionally, or maliciously" toward the psychiatrist. In Delaware, when punitive damages are awarded, the defendant becomes liable for the entire amount of the award, so Henry, not the state, may have to pay the total of $998,895.

As published in
Psychiatric News May 21, 2004
Volume 39 Number 10
© 2004 American Psychiatric Association
p. 16

Parents Sue over Suicidal Psychiatric Side Effects of Acne Medicine.

Sometimes even acne medicine can have unforseen psychiatric side effects. As reported in the Register Guard of Washington state

The parents of a Springfield area teenager who killed himself after taking a powerful acne drug have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against PeaceHealth and the boy's dermatologist. The drug, a synthetic derivative of Vitamin A, is powerfully effective at clearing up severe cases of acne. But it also has been linked to depression and suicide.

The suit, filed by the parents of Dustin Luke Greufe, seeks $1 million in noneconomic damages "for loss of love, society and companionship" and $1 million in economic damages, plus $5,000 for his funeral expenses. The suit alleges PeaceHealth and Dr. Patricia O'Hare, a PeaceHealth Medical Group dermatologist, were negligent for inappropriately prescribing the drug Accutane to Dustin Greufe; failing to warn the Greufes of the drug's risks; and failing to monitor Dustin Greufe for adverse psychiatric side effects, including depression and suicidal thoughts.

Greufe was a 16-year-old junior at Thurston High School when he hanged himself May 14, 2001, in the barn at his parent's home in Mohawk, northeast of Springfield. A month earlier, he'd completed a six-month course of Accutane prescribed by O'Hare.

PeaceHealth is the Bellevue, Wash.-based nonprofit corporate parent of Sacred Heart Medical Center and PeaceHealth Medical Group, a Eugene-based medical practice with about 110 physicians. Spokesman Brian Terrett said he couldn't comment because PeaceHealth hadn't been notified of the suit.

Caging the Kids like Wild Animals

As reported on News.com Australia

Human rights activists and parents say the Education Department has not taken sufficient action to protect children in response to the case of a student who was locked in a cage at a Perth school. Since the independent inquiry into the treatment of 12-year-old intellectually disabled student Neil Moore, the department has ordered all schools to immediately assess all "low stimulus isolation facilities". The schools have been told they must consult a district manager before using isolation facilities, the child's carers must be informed, records kept and the facilities reviewed "periodically".

But parents and child protection advocates say the action is inadequate.

..........

Moira Raynor, a former West Australian human rights and equal opportunity commissioner who was director of the Office of the Children's Rights Commissioner in London, said she could not understand how child psychologist Jay Birnbrauer and the department had concluded that Kenwick School had not breached its duty of care in using the cage to control Neil's behaviour. "I was absolutely astonished ... given that detention is supposed to be an absolute last resort," she said.

Neil, who has an autism-related disorder and is prone to extreme behaviour, was repeatedly locked in the purpose-built enclosure for up to 90 minutes at a time between October 2002 and September last year. The enclosure, referred to by school staff as the "quiet garden", comprised an area of unshaded grass surrounded on three sides by a 3.5m-high wire fence, with a wooden bench but no water or toilet facilities.

Third Arrest in a Year for Criminal Psych

A Burlington psychiatrist has been arrested a third time within the past year. As a result of his two previous arrests on child porn and computer theft charges, Allan Beitel was forbidden from using the Internet. The first arrest was in April, 2003 and the second this past January.

Peel region police now say Beitel had been intercepting a neighbour's internet connection to disguise his internet activity. Police say a search of Beitel's Burlington home revealed a lap top computer capable of intercepting wireless internet services.

Beitel faces five new charges, including theft of telecommunications and unauthorized use of a computer. He will appear in a Brampton court for a bail hearing Thursday

As reported in Canada's National Post

Psychologist to fight loss of license

Napa psychologist Frank Lucchetti has lost his license because an administrative judge found he illegally dispensed or prescribed prescription drugs to two patients. In a decision effective Friday, the California Board of Psychology adopted an administrative law judge's order to revoke Lucchetti's license, and he can no longer practice psychology in California. The judge also ruled Lucchetti has to pay $48,500 to the board and the California Attorney General's office to cover costs of prosecuting and investigating the case.

The judge ruled that Lucchetti had committed several violations of the state's Business and Professions code, including: unprofessional conduct; gross negligence; commission of a dishonest, corrupt or fraudulent act; and functioning outside one's field of competence.

According to a press release from the board, testimony showed that Lucchetti gave samples of prescription medications -- an antidepressant and a sedative -- to one patient in 2000, and altered a doctor's prescription for another patient in 2002 by changing the prescription to a greater quantity of another antidepressant prescription drug. The patients made the allegations to their physicians, who reported Lucchetti to the board.

Psychiatrist denies misconduct, sexual humilation, bigotry

As reported in the Guardian

A nurse claims she was forced to quit her job after a psychiatrist humiliated her by making sexist comments in front of patients and colleagues, the General Medical Council was told yesterday.

Deborah Pollard, 38, was allegedly berated over a three-year period by Dr Sharaf Salem, who is accused of undermining her authority as a team leader at a clinic in Grimsby. He denies serious professional misconduct. Dr Salem, 47, from Lincoln, is said to have said: "You are only a woman, you're a nobody" and made inappropriate comments about her body. On another occasion, he reportedly said: "I run this organisation. You are only a nurse."

She told the GMC hearing in Manchester yesterday: "He took away all my confidence and made my position seem pointless. Every day became a matter of 'How do I get through another day without a run-in with him?'" The incidents allegedly occurred from 1996-99 when Dr Salem worked at the former Scunthorpe community healthcare NHS trust. The hearing continues.

New York City Schools Dumping Unruly Students In E-R for Psych drugs

As reported on 1010 Wins and on TV Station News 12 This writeup combines data from both reports.

....................

New York City Hospitals say they're being flooded with public school students who have committed only minor infractions - but are being labeled as needing psychiatric attention. That means they are brought to a local emergency room. Hospital officials say schools are overreacting to even the slightest mishaps. At one hospital, North Central Bronx, officials say they've received 42 students a month since the beginning of the school year. Officials at North Central Bronx and New York-Presbyterian hospitals tell the Daily News that at least a third of the students who visit E-Rs do not need treatment.

The city Education Department counters that school principals were often forced to make decisions about how to handle unruly students in "extreme" circumstances. In most cases, the department says, parents were involved in treatment decisions. Education Department policy dictates that students labeled a "clear threat" to school safety must receive immediate psychiatric attention.

Cadean Coward, 12, is currently receiving psychiatric care at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. And Cadean's mother is not responsible for her son being there. School officials at C.S. 92 sent him to the hospital. Jean Coward says she never gave consent for her son to be checked in and medicated. She claims she was told by officials that her son was violent. She does not believe her son has emotional troubles and says there needs to be more supervision at the school.

According to Dr. Andrew Bell, director of the Child and Adolescent Crisis Intervention Center, what happened to Coward's son is a growing trend. He estimates that around 30 students are admitted to emergency rooms each month.

But in a statement released by the Department of Education, a spokesperson only cites two cases of public school students being sent to the hospital. The spokesperson says, "In extreme cases the procedure is to attempt to calm the student, call school safety, the child's parent and EMS. No decisions are made without parental consent." Still, Coward maintains that was not the case with her son.

Spending Soars for Kids' Behavior Drugs

The Associated Press has a report on the rise in use of psych drugs to handle behavior problems.

As more children pop pills for attention deficit and other behavior disorders, new figures show spending on those drugs has for the first time edged out the cost of antibiotics and asthma medications for kids. A 49 percent rise in the use of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs by children under 5 in the last three years contributed to a 23 percent increase in usage for all children, according to an annual analysis of drug use trends by Medco Health Solutions Inc.

"Behavioral medicines have eclipsed the other categories this year," said Dr. Robert Epstein, Medco's chief medical officer. "It certainly reflects the concern of parents that their children do as well as they can." Antibiotics still top the list of the most commonly used children's drugs, but parents are paying more for behavioral drugs, such as stimulants or antidepressants, according to the analysis of drug use among 300,000 children under 19.

Medco, the nation's largest prescription benefit manager, was to release the data culled from its customers' usage on Monday.

The most startling change was a 369 percent increase in spending on attention deficit drugs for children under five. That's in part because of the popularity of newer, long-acting medicines under patent, compared with twice-a-day Ritalin (news - web sites) and generic versions available for years.

Psychiatrist Sentenced For Selling Prescriptions

HIGH FALLS, N.Y. -- A former psychiatrist was sentenced to more than three years in prison for selling prescriptions for OxyContin, Percocet and Xanax to Medicaid recipients for sale on the black market. David Roemer, 44, of High Falls, was one of 34 people indicted in November 2003 on charges of grand larceny, conspiracy and drug sales and possession.

Court documents state that four Bronx residents recruited Medicaid recipients from the streets and drug treatment centers in New York City. Prosecutors said the recruits went to Roemer's mid-Hudson Valley office by the van-load, from May 2002 to November 2002, and gave him money for prescriptions.

Roemer pleaded guilty to a conspiracy that involved sending the Medicaid recipients to pharmacies in the Bronx and Manhattan. Prosecutors said the recruits earned $100 a piece to purchase the drugs with their Medicaid cards and turn them over for illegal sale. Roemer, who practiced both in High Falls and in Manhattan, surrendered his medical license during the state investigation. He was sentenced in state Supreme Court in the Bronx and could spend up to 10 years in state prison. He was also ordered to pay more that $340,000 in restitution to the Medicare program.

High Falls is about 80 miles north of New York City.

Pfizer Pleads Guilty to Pushing Psychiatric Use of Drugs.

Pfizer Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to charges that its Warner-Lambert flouted federal law by promoting non-approved uses for one of its drugs. Under the agreement to be announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Food and Drug Cosmetic Act and pay an undisclosed amount to settle the case. Company officials had previously said they were setting aside at least $400 million for the settlement. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported Thursday that Pfizer will pay about $430 million in fines in one of the largest Medicaid-fraud settlements.

The case began in 1996, when microbiologist David Franklin filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Parke-Davis, and its parent company, Warner-Lambert, alleging the company ignored federal law in the 1990s with an illegal marketing plan used to drive up sales of the anti-seizure drug Neurontin. Pfizer bought Warner-Lambert four years ago. The lawsuit alleged that Parke-Davis adopted a plan to step up publicity about Neurontin's effectiveness for uses that were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including relieving pain, headaches, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses. While doctors can prescribe drugs for any use, the promotion of drugs for these so-called ''off-label uses'' is prohibited by the Food and Drug Cosmetic Act.

The 1998 Resignation of Dr. Mosher from the American Psychiatric Association

In 1998, Dr. Loren Mosher famously resigned from the American Psychiatric Association, in dismay and disgust, claiming that many of his colleagues are too quick to hand out drugs in what he terms an "unholy alliance" between psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies. A substantial number of cases of misdiagnosis, malpractice and fraud support his view that patient care is very much in jeopardy.

You can read his full letter of resignation here.

Worth reading

Prisoner of Paxil

A personal account of paroxetine addiction, recovery and survival.

My life has crept so long on a broken wing Thro' cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear, That I come to be grateful at last for a little thing. -Lord Alfred Tennyson

Except for the journal itself, this entire site is a “work in progress” and I will continue to rewrite, edit, modify and, in general, improve it as time goes by. Ideally, I would like to do a lot more cutting and pasting (moving blocks of text around) to consolidate ideas, but I have other things to do in life besides this. I’ll get to it. In the meantime ... I don’t think anything will be lost on you due to a lack of editorial continuity.

And lastly: I have changed the subtitle of this site from “A personal account of paroxetine addiction, recovery and survival” to “A personal account of paroxetine addiction, survival and recovery.” This is a small but critical reordering of terms, since I survived withdrawal, and am now only beginning to recover.

The needle and the damage done

As seen in this report

The biggest case in the General Medical Council's 145-year history sees seven doctors from the Stapleford Centre, a leading addiction clinic in England, accused of irresponsible practice. It has been billed as a showdown not only between two opposing schools of opinion about how heroin addicts should be handled, but also between the NHS and private practice. Never before have so many doctors been jointly charged with serious professional misconduct.

The charges against the Stapleford doctors, which took more than an hour to read out, enumerated on 33 sheets of A4 paper, allege a wide range of malpractices. They include prescribing irresponsibly in regard to the nature, amounts and combinations of drugs; failure to provide adequate initial assessment of patients' condition and needs; failure to provide adequate dose assessment; failure to monitor patients properly, or to establish that they were able to pay for treatment 'through legitimate means'; and prescribing at intervals that would create 'the potential for diversion' - that is, selling drugs on the black market. Colin Brewer personally faces 14 separate charges, including what is perhaps the most serious, relating to the death of a Stapleford patient after a 'DIY home detox' arranged by the clinic.

Death By Seizure Disorder

As seen on the husband's weblog

I woke up on the 16th and looked over on the the other bed, my wife was thrashing about, she said that she felt very bad, that she had been up most of the previous evening with hot and cold sweats, she said that she had soaked through her nightgown with sweat and thought she must have a fever, she said that she felt very nauseous and had thrown up several times, she told me that she was having real bad abdominal pain and that her whole body ached.

She told me that she was not going to be able to get up and get the kids ready and asked if I would take them to school. I told her that I would be happy too and to just lay back and relax that I would be back in about an hour.

I got back about an hour later and went up to check on my wife, I found her lying on her back outside the bathroom, her lifeless eyes stared up at mine, there was no pulse, her body was cold, and parts of her hands and face were blue. Her body was taken to the State Medical Examiner's office, about three weeks later I was notified that my wife had died from the results of a seizure disorder.

The pathologist later told me that her brain structure was intact, that there was no sign of any hemorrhage or aneurysm, her heart was clear and disease free, body organs were all fine, her lungs and air passages were clear and she had not suffocated.

I am in the process of having an attorney subpoena my wife's medical records, in the course of my search for reasons of my wife's death, the one thing that keeps jumping out at me is the ability of effexor to produce seizures in people that have a tendency to suffer seizures to begin with, 600 mgs. of effexor and 90 mgs of remeron is an outrageous amount to be prescribed to anyone, throw in the epileptic condition and it seems criminal.

Anti-depressants are health hazards

A renowned British psychiatrist says he's not hostile toward companies that produce anti-depressant drugs. He just wants the public to know the industry hasn't been telling them the whole story about how dangerous some of the pills actually are. "This is not hostile to industry," said Dr. David Healy. "The raw data ... says these drugs are not regulated, not well-tolerated and not effective."

Healy spoke to professionals at Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital about some of his findings regarding anti-psychotic medications like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil.

Healy is a visiting professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a reader in psychological medicine at the University of Wales College of Medicine.

He's authored 120 peer-reviewed articles and more than a dozen books, including The Antidepressant Era, The Creation of Psychopharmacology and Let Them Eat Prozac -- a critical look at the "unhealthy relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and depression."

Healy highlighted results of clinical trials involving medications used to treat depression and schizophrenia that revealed patients on medication were six times more likely to commit suicide or suicidal acts than patients given a placebo.

He also showed data suggesting patients treated 100 years ago were not killing themselves at the same rate as those today.

Healy said the problem is that damaging data is not always shared with psychiatrists hired to complete scientific studies on the drugs -- so they come to falsely positive conclusions based on incomplete information.

Healy also criticized the increasingly popular use of colourful magazine advertisements to sell pharmaceuticals.

Former Psychiatrist enters plea in murder case

Former Psychiatrist Jean Eric Gassy, the man charged with killing Margaret Tobin, South Australia's director of mental health services, has plead not guilty to her murder. Prosecutor Peter Brebner QC told yesterday's court hearing the prosecution was seeking to call 150 witnesses at the trial. The hearing before Justice Ann Vanstone moved into discussion of pre-trial argument once the arraignment was completed. The legal argument is expected to take some time. When completed, a jury will be empanelled for the trial, which has been set down for three months.

Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics Vs Forced Medication of children

As seen in this press Release

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of American school children diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder), and treated with medications like Ritalin or Adderall. In some cases, parents are reporting that school administrators are telling them that their child may not attend school unless the child is placed on psychostimulant drugs.

“Government benefits should not be conditioned on the use or nonuse of a psychotropic medicine,” says Richard Glen Boire, legal counsel for the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE), a nonprofit policy center devoted to protecting freedom of thought.


The CCLE today launches “Making Choices for Children,” a national campaign designed to call attention to this issue, and to educate parents on their legal right to make medication decisions for their children, free of coercion by school authorities.

While pro-Ritalin and anti-Ritalin groups have garnered most of the attention in this debate, the CCLE hopes to bring a new perspective to the problem – one that focuses on parental choice, rather than on the drugs themselves.

“Parents need to know that they are the ones vested with the legal power to make medication decisions in the best interest of their children,” says CCLE legal counsel Boire. “Some parents may decide to place their children on Ritalin, and others may decide not to. Our campaign aims to support a parent’s free and informed decision either way.”

To that end the CCLE plans to publish a free Parent’s Rights Kit, which will contain plain-language information on informed consent rights and additional resources for parents facing coercive school medication practices in their communities.

The CCLE is also working to educate policymakers on the problem, and supports legislation such as the Child Medication Safety Act (HR 1170), a bill currently before Congress that would block federal education funds from going to schools that condition a child’s attendance on the use of a medication like Ritalin.

To learn more, obtain helpful resources, or to get involved in returning medication decisions to parents, visit the campaign’s website.

Anti Psychiatry Protests on May First

A Press Release, as seen on the US Newswire

WHAT: Protestors Charge APA Psychiatrists with Creating Deadly Child Drugging Epidemic

-- With antidepressants Under Federal Investigation for Causing Child Suicides, Hundreds to protest the American Psychiatric Association Convention in New York City

WHEN: Saturday, May 1

WHERE: Jacob Javitz Center NYC

CONTACT: Marla Filidei at 213-798-3706

On Saturday May 1, hundreds of parents, children and human rights activists will don black T-shirts with the message, PSYCHIATRY IS KILLING YOUR CHILDREN to protest the opening of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) annual congress being held at the Jacob Javitz Center in New York City. Leading the protest will be New York mother Patty Weathers, who said parents are fed up with psychiatrists telling them that their child's behavior is a "disorder" requiring dangerous psychiatric drugs. Mrs. Weathers' own story made the front page of the New York Post in 2003, after school officials reported her to Child Protective Services, which charged her with medical neglect after removing her son from an antidepressant that she claims turned him into a "Jekyll and Hyde."

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only recently issued warnings about antidepressant drugs' potential to increase risks of suicide, after numerous parents testified before the FDA panel on Feb 2nd that the drugs had caused their children to kill themselves. The FDA is now under federal investigation since accusations came to light that it had suppressed evidence by one of its own medical experts, who found a "statistically significant" risk of serious suicidal events among children taking the drugs.

Sales of the drugs are more than $13 billion a year, which critics say is the key factor in psychiatry and the FDA suppressing information about the dangerous side effects of the drugs. More telling is that psychiatrists mislead parents about "mental disorders" being a "brain-based disease," or "chemical imbalance" without any scientific evidence to prove this.

Subsequently:

-- Between 1995 and 1999, the use of antidepressants for 7 to 12 year olds increased 151 percent and 580 percent for children under six, with children as young as 5 committing suicide.

-- Six million children and adolescents are prescribed cocaine- like stimulants and 2 million are taking Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants.

WHERE AND WHEN:

The rally meets at Gutenberg Playground on West 49th St. between 9th and 10th, at 10 a.m. Demonstrators will march down 11th Avenue to the Jacob Javits Plaza, where the protest will continue in front of the APA convention. There will also be a DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT, "PSYCHIATRY KILLS" in the Jacob Javits Plaza. APA members will be invited to tour the 120-foot long pictorial display, which documents a 300-year history of psychiatric abuse and failure, from electroshock and psychosurgery to the use of mind-altering psychotropic drugs.

California Investigation Finds Multiple Doctors Who Are Sex Offenders

As reported on NBC11 in the Bay Area

A two-month NBC11 investigation has uncovered a dirty secret in the medical world. Dozens of doctors in California are registered sex offenders. Some of them have lost their licenses -- others are treating patients. A battle has raged in Sacramento to stop that, but a lawsuit filed by doctors took the teeth out of a new protective law. NBC11's Angie Crouch spent the past two months digging through paperwork, confronting doctors and asking what the state is doing to protect you the patient. According to Crouch, dozens of physicians have been convicted of heinous sex crimes including child molestation, rape, sodomy and child pornography.

NBC11's computer search of the state's registered sex offenders found more than 30 doctors -- some had their medical licenses revoked. Six are currently practicing medicine in California.

In Marin County, NBC11 found Richard Jaqua. He is a physician and surgeon, convicted in 1988 of molesting a 5-year-old girl. His medical license was revoked after he served 10 months in jail, five years probation, and went to therapy, including more than four years in a sexual offender treatment program. But a check of the medical board's Web site shows Jaqua's license is now renewed and current. He is practicing medicine and on indefinite probation.

Another one of those doctors is Dr. Thomas Tartaro, a Southern California neurologist. Melanie Lira says she was one of Tartaro's victims. "With me bent over the table and him rubbing his body against mine," she said. The state medical board's independent enforcement monitor says Tartaro's license was revoked in 1995 after he was convicted of sexual battery on a restrained victim.

"This doctor sexually molested 24 female patients on multiple occasions over a three- or four-year period," Julianne Fellmeth, an independent enforcement monitor, told NBC11. Tartaro was sentenced to 90 days in jail, five years probation and had a 4-year prison term suspended on the condition he obey the guidelines of probation. But in 2001, some were surprised when the state medical board reinstated Tartaro's license allowing him to practice medicine again with restrictions that include not allowing him to treat women. Lira said it was not (enough. "Whatever) I had done was in (vain!" she said.)

Tartaro refuses to discuss his case with the media.

Not specific to psychs, but still very much in the public interest.

Drug blamed for suicide

As reported in the Intelligencer, a Philadelphia suburb newspaper, with a tip of the hat to the PseudoScience in Psych Blog

Julie Woodward had big plans. She wanted to "work really hard to get good grades." College in the city would be next. Marriage would wait until she was 26. And kids? Julie wanted at least two, "close in age like she and her sister were," her mom said.

Kathy Woodward doesn't have to read the hand-written list her daughter titled "Plan for life." She knows it by heart. The words, the ambition, the thirst for life, fit with the image of the girl the Woodwards knew. Not a death ended by suicide.

"Julie was so open to experiences, wanting to live," said Woodward, sitting in the sunroom of her North Wales home, where photos of Julie embracing her three younger siblings dominate the room. "This was a kid who had plans and hope, not a kid who would do something like this."

The 17-year-old North Penn High School student hung herself in the detached garage of her home on July 22, 2003. Kathy and her husband, Tom, believe her death was linked to side effects from Zoloft, an antidepressant Julie started that week - a drug they were told was safe and needed for Julie's treatment.

Why did she need to be on this drug?

The International Coalition For Drug Awareness

Here is part of the Mission Statement of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness

What is wrong with our focus on the "drug war" when 200,000 die each year from prescription drugs, yet approximately only 20,000 die as a result of illegal drug use?

Billions of dollars go into illegal drug issues in this country every year even though far more are dying from legal drugs. Everyone is asking, "Where is the FDA?" Busy approving another new drug? And how many more will die from that one?

A two-year Los Angeles Times investigation published in December, 2000 found that the seven drugs approved since 1993 have been withdrawn after reports of deaths and severe side. In the article written by Times Staff Writer David Willam, it states, "The FDA approved each of those drugs while disregarding danger signs or blunt warnings from its own specialists. Then, after receiving reports of significant harm to patients, the agency was slow to seek withdrawals."

Morton Mintz, a former Washington Post reporter, and a Nieman Fellow who won the Raymond Clapper award for reporting the thalidomide tragedy published a book in 1965 entitled, THE THERAPEUTIC NIGHTMARE. His warnings heeded then, and the warnings coming from many other men of great integrity since then, could have spared us the agony we have experienced from the drug tragedies since that time and those we are engulfed in today. He begins with, "Here we shall see that there have been instances when our excessive trust in certain Corporate Consciences has been rewarded with inadequately and even fraudulently tested drugs, with useless drugs and inferior versions of good drugs, with protraction of illness, and with waste of our money. In order that sales may begin and continue, regardless of whether we are healed and spared pain, evidence of serious and even lethal effects has been withheld from the responsible government agency and concealed from the medical profession and the public." (p.xiv)

We wish to honor him here (and those who have followed in his footsteps) in their unending efforts to warn us of these serious problems associated with the drugs we have come to learn to blindly trust. This site is to assist us in making sure that trust is no longer a "blind" trust. We must take the responsibility to educate ourselves about what we are putting into our bodies and brains.

Some of the most popular drugs on the market today are those that increase serotonin levels like the diet pills that were just pulled from the market. Originally Fen-Phen & Redux were thought to be so safe that 18 million people took the drugs. Now we know that they were so dangerous that those who took even one pill have been advised to have their hearts checked. If these drugs could be among the most popular on the market and touted as "the thing" for weight management for a two-year period, leaving a backlash of victims that attorney's offices cannot even begin to handle, what other mistakes will we wake up to tomorrow? What are you taking right now that could be just as dangerous or as damaging as these diet pills? What do you know about the medication you are currently taking? What do you know about the dangers of taking the drugs you are taking in combination with one another? Even more frightening to ask is "What does your doctor know or not know about the answers to these questions?"

Drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Effexor, Serzone, Anafranil, etc. are some of the biggest money makers ever for the pharmaceutical companies. Yet are you aware that the use of Prozac among children from ages 6-12 went from 41,000 in 1995 to 203,000 in 1996. The number of new prescriptions written increased almost 400% in just one year?!! This is a very powerful mind-altering drug that has not been approved for use in children and yet our children are popping it like candy! Just Prozac's affect upon cortisol levels alone should frighten parents to death. One 30mg dose has been shown to clearly double the level of cortisol! (PROZAC PANACEA OR PANDORA?, p. 168) Increased cortisol impairs the development and regeneration of the liver, kidneys and muscles. It also retards linear growth. How many parents are given that information? How many doctors are aware of it themselves?

The study being used to gain FDA approval of this medication demonstrates that the rate of mania (a terrible form of insanity including symptoms of sexual compulsions, criminal behavior, alcohol cravings, rages leading to domestic violence, delusions of grandeur - often mistaken for increased self confidence, wild spending and varied types of criminal behavior) among children taking Prozac was three times higher than it is for adults. Three out of 100 had to drop out of the study due to this devastating complication which developed within a short eight week trial! The most logical question to ask is "Why do this to our children when there are many safer natural options that work as well without serious side effects?"

Doctor to appeal against sex assault conviction

Disgraced psychiatrist Michael Haslam, jailed for raping one of his patients and indecently assaulting two others, has been given leave to appeal against his conviction. The 69 year old, from Easingwold, was given seven years for attacking his patients, at the Clifton Hospital near York. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register. The judge at the Court of Appeal said his case should be heard as soon as possible in light of Haslam's age.

Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility

This web site is dedicated to the life and work of Thomas S. Szasz, M.D. In it you will find information from friends and colleagues sharing similar points of view to those of Thomas Szasz on diverse topics ranging from psychiatry and law, to drugs and addiction, to psychotherapy and public policy . . . and more. We share a common philosophy here: Liberty and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. No policy-- public or private--can increase or decrease one without increasing or decreasing the other. Human behavior has reasons, not causes.

The purpose of this site is to advance the debate about Thomas S. Szasz's basic ideas and their practical implications. He suggests the following summary statement as a manifesto...

Thomas Szasz's Summary Statement and Manifesto

1. "Myth of mental illness." Mental illness is a metaphor (metaphorical disease). The word "disease" denotes a demonstrable biological process that affects the bodies of living organisms (plants, animals, and humans). The term "mental illness" refers to the undesirable thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of persons. Classifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying the whale as a fish. As the whale is not a fish, mental illness is not a disease. Individuals with brain diseases (bad brains) or kidney diseases (bad kidneys) are literally sick. Individuals with mental diseases (bad behaviors), like societies with economic diseases (bad fiscal policies), are metaphorically sick. The classification of (mis)behavior as illness provides an ideological justification for state-sponsored social control as medical treatment.

2. Separation of Psychiatry and the State. If we recognize that "mental illness" is a metaphor for disapproved thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, we are compelled to recognize as well that the primary function of Psychiatry is to control thought, mood, and behavior. Hence, like Church and State, Psychiatry and the State ought to be separated by a "wall." At the same time, the State ought not to interfere with mental health practices between consenting adults. The role of psychiatrists and mental health experts with regard to law, the school system, and other organizations ought to be similar to the role of clergymen in those situations.

3. Presumption of competence. Because being accused of mental illness is similar to being accused of crime, we ought to presume that psychiatric "defendants" are mentally competent, just as we presume that criminal defendants are legally innocent. Individuals charged with criminal, civil, or interpersonal offenses ought never to be treated as incompetent solely on the basis of the opinion of mental health experts. Incompetence ought to be a judicial determination and the "accused" ought to have access to legal representation and a right to trial by jury.

4. Abolition of involuntary mental hospitalization. Involuntary mental hospitalization is imprisonment under the guise of treatment; it is a covert form of social control that subverts the rule of law. No one ought to be deprived of liberty except for a criminal offense, after a trial by jury guided by legal rules of evidence. No one ought to be detained against his will in a building called "hospital," or in any other medical institution, or on the basis of expert opinion. Medicine ought to be clearly distinguished and separated from penology, treatment from punishment, the hospital from the prison. No person ought to be detained involuntarily for a purpose other than punishment or in an institution other than one formally defined as a part of the state's criminal justice system.

5. Abolition of the insanity defense. Insanity is a legal concept involving the courtroom determination that a person is not capable of forming conscious intent and, therefore, cannot be held responsible for an otherwise criminal act. The opinions of experts about the "mental state" of defendants ought to be inadmissible in court, exactly as the opinions of experts about the "religious state" of defendants are inadmissible. No one ought to be excused of lawbreaking or any other offense on the basis of so-called expert opinion rendered by psychiatric or mental health experts. Excusing a person of responsibility for an otherwise criminal act on the basis of inability to form conscious intent is an act of legal mercy masquerading as an act of medical science. Being merciful or merciless toward lawbreakers is a moral and legal matter, unrelated to the actual or alleged expertise of medical and mental health professionals.

6. In 1798, Americans were confronted with the task of abolishing slavery, peacefully and without violating the rights of others. They refused to face that daunting task and we are still paying the price of their refusal. In 1998, we Americans are faced with the task of abolishing psychiatric slavery, peacefully and without violating the rights of others. We accept that task and are committed to working for its successful resolution. As Americans before us have eventually replaced involuntary servitude (chattel slavery) with contractual relations between employers and employees, we seek to replace involuntary psychiatry (psychiatric slavery) with contractual relations between care givers and clients.

Thomas Szasz March 1998

New York to close Four Wind Psych Hospital - cited as 'incapable of fixing a litany of problems'

State regulators will close Four Winds hospital in Syracuse, NY because they say the psychiatric facility is incapable of fixing a litany of problems, including filthy conditions, lack of supervision and use of dangerous patient restraint practices.

In a letter sent to Four Winds on Monday, the state Office of Mental Health said it will revoke the hospital's operating certificate unless it agrees to voluntarily surrender the certificate.

The state's action stems from an inspection it conducted last month that turned up serious, widespread deficiencies at the 107-bed private hospital at 650 S. Salina St. The state ordered Four Winds to shut off admissions March 26 following that inspection. Those problems were similar to deficiencies inspectors discovered at the facility two years ago.

In the letter, James B. McQuide of the state Office of Mental Health wrote, ". . . it is clear that the corrective action implemented two years ago at Four Winds/Syracuse was neither sustained nor effective."

McQuide said his agency is not confident a plan of correction submitted by Four Winds would lead to permanent improvements. He also said the agency doesn't believe the hospital can ensure basic patient rights.

As reported in The Post Standard

Mental health workers visited patient without realizing she was dead.

If credentialed "mental health" professionals can't tell a live patient from a dead one, how can they presume to conclude and believe a head of another contains an ailing brain just by looking at it?

Mental health workers visited patient without realizing she was dead.

(Linked updated to use the Archive.org copy of the wwebpage)

quote:

A mental health charity is reviewing its home visit procedures after two members of staff visited a patient and left without realising she was dead. Mind launched the inquiry after an inquest heard how the two visitors left paranoid schizophrenic Patricia Harris in the kitchen of her Coventry bedsit after she made no response to their greetings. The death of the 43-year-old only came to light the following day when two other Mind staff visited and saw she had passed away.

Kay St Clair, director of Mind's Coventry branch, described the events surrounding Miss Harris' death as "unprecedented" in the charity's experience. "We have extended our deepest sympathies to Mr and Mrs Harris,"she said. "Coventry Mind is immediately conducting a full internal review of procedures and practices in addition to taking external help and advice from independent outside experts."

The inquest in Coventry has heard Helen Redmond, the assistant head of housing services for the city's branch of Mind, and James Howard, one of the charity's community psychiatric nurses, visited Miss Harris at her bedsit in Binley Road on August 13 after learning that she had not been seen for five days. Entering the flat, they saw Miss Harris dressed in outdoor clothing and positioned between the two kitchen walls. Unable to see her face or any movement, and hearing no response to their efforts to engage her in conversation, the pair left when the telephone rang, to allow her to answer it.

With a tip of the hat to the Stop Shrinks website

Website: Stop Shrinks

As seen at the website Stop Shrinks

What is NORMAL? Everything unexceptional. What is ABNORMAL? Everything exceptional.

An excellent collection of anti Psychiatry resources

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race

The Holocaust Memorial Museum's new exhibit, "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race," takes a chilling look at the Nazi use of eugenics and its applications. The term "eugenics" comes from the Greek word meaning "well-born." In the 20th century, it came to mean something far more sinister: a scientific movement to create a more perfect race. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports.

These were the men behind Hitler

11 deaths linked to psychiatrist

Eleven drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties have been linked to a Milwaukee psychiatrist who once held key posts at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a local veterans hospital, according to federal drug investigators.

Richard I.H. Wang, 79, is under investigation for prescribing dangerous levels of addictive painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Valium, according to documents filed Friday in federal court in Milwaukee. Federal officials also suspect Wang of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, according to the documents. Wang, who has practiced medicine in Wisconsin for 40 years, has a history of complaints dating back to 1993.

The west side pharmacy that filled many of the prescriptions in question ordered more than 1,000% more of certain drugs from its supplier than others its size, the records show. The pharmacist there says he has contacted state licensing officials 10 times since 1998 about whether he should continue to fill Wang's prescriptions and was told it was fine.

In addition to the prescriptions, authorities are suspicious about hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bills Wang submitted to Medicare and Medicaid. Wang generally spent very small amounts of time with each patient, yet submitted bills to the two federal programs indicating complex visits that lasted 40 minutes or more, according to court documents. Analysis of his bills shows that Wang claimed to have worked with Medicare and Medicaid patients for between 12 and 17 hours on at least six days in 2002 and 2003.In addition to the prescriptions, authorities are suspicious about hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bills Wang submitted to Medicare and Medicaid. Wang generally spent very small amounts of time with each patient, yet submitted bills to the two federal programs indicating complex visits that lasted 40 minutes or more, according to court documents. Analysis of his bills shows that Wang claimed to have worked with Medicare and Medicaid patients for between 12 and 17 hours on at least six days in 2002 and 2003.

Why you can't trust medical journals anymore.

With financial ties to nearly two dozen drug and biotech companies, Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff may hold some sort of record among academic clinicians for the most conflicts of interest. A psychiatrist, a prominent researcher, and chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral science at Emory University in Atlanta, Nemeroff receives funding for his academic research from Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Wyeth-Ayerst--indeed from virtually every pharmaceutical house that manufactures a drug to treat mental illness. He also serves as a consultant to drug and biotech companies, owns their stocks, and is a member of several speakers' bureaus, delivering talks--for a fee--to other physicians on behalf of the companies' products.

But it was just three of Nemeroff's many financial entanglements that caught the eye of Dr. Bernard J. Carroll last spring while reading a paper by the Emory doctor in the prominent scientific journal, Nature Neuroscience. In that article, Nemeroff and a co-author reviewed roughly two dozen experimental treatments for psychiatric disorders, opining that some of the new treatments were disappointing, while others showed great promise in relieving symptoms. What struck Carroll, a psychiatrist in Carmel, Calif., was that three of the experimental treatments praised in the article were ones that Nemeroff stood to profit from--including a transdermal patch for the drug lithium, for which Nemeroff holds the patent.

As seen in the Washington Monthly

With a tip of the hat to the PsuedoScience in Psych Blog for their earlier story.

Study Debunks Use of Anti-depressants

As Reported on MSNBC

Four popular antidepressants being used to treat thousands of depressed American children are unsafe, ineffective or both, according to the first careful scientific review to include all available studies, including negative data that have long been withheld from public scrutiny by the pharmaceutical industry.

It is especially dangerous to prescribe Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor and Celexa for children who are suicidal, said British researchers who conducted the analysis published yesterday in the journal the Lancet, because the data show a clear increase in the risk of suicidal behavior among children taking the drugs -- and no benefit.

The study calls into question the repeated assurances of the American psychiatric establishment, which has regularly encouraged use of the medications in depressed children. It also contrasts sharply with the position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has had access to the same data but has never identified such serious problems.

The analysis involved no new data, but it is the first scientific "meta-analysis" of all available trials to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. As such, it puts the scientific debate over the medications on a new footing and deepens the chasm between the predominantly positive American view of the drugs and a growing stream of negative reviews by Australian, Canadian and British psychiatrists. The Lancet analysis backs up the warning by British regulators last year not to prescribe the medications to depressed children.

In a sharply worded editorial, the Lancet's editors said the trust of patients had been abused by doctors and the pharmaceutical industry, and that safety had been compromised in the search for profits. The state of the research, the editorial concluded, is riddled with "confusion, manipulation and institutional failure."

"If I wanted to introduce a new drug for children who are suicidal and said this has very little proof of efficacy and it has an increased risk of suicide, people would say I was mad," said Tim Kendall, director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health in London, and one of the authors of the new study.

Yet, Kendall said, that is precisely the situation with the four drugs. Kendall's analysis, which was funded by the British government, contrasted the largely positive results of studies published by drug manufacturers with negative data that the companies call proprietary and have not published. British regulators recently made the unpublished data available for study.

Visit The Lancet Website here

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Hate to say we told you so, but ....

Psychiatric Oppression continues in Russia

In case people thought differently, political use of psychiatry continues to the present day

Criminal prosecution case No. 8706 against The Radical Politics newspaper (“Radikalnaya Politika”) and its editor Boris Stomakhin keeps gaining momentum. Mr. Stomakhin was subpoenaed for interrogation in the prosecutor’s office of North-Eastern Administrative District of the city of Moscow for April 26 at 1:00 PM to report to special investigator Kolobova S.N. (office phone 7(095) 688-9608), who is in charge of this filthy and outright repressive political case.

Ms. Kolobova told Mr. Stomakhin that psychiatric medical examination has already been scheduled for him for May 24, 2004, which she promised during the first interrogation on April 13.

It is not the first time when Putin’s government is trying to use psychiatric methods, notorious since the Soviet times, against the editor of The Radical Politics. Back then the KGB used to resort to its favorite trick to declare the dissidents, the opponents of the Soviet system, or just plainly thinking people, as mentally sick and lock them up in psychiatric wards, where they were injected huge doses of neuroleptics, which made them lose their mind and which was ruining their health, and where the dissidents were subjected to all sorts of physical tortures. FSB investigator I. Asochakov offered Mr. Stomakhin to undergo psychiatric medical examination last year, when Mr. Stomakhin was a witness in the previous case against The Radical Politics. There is also some confidential information that the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service, formerly known as the KGB) has been asking Mr. Stomakhin’s acquaintances and wondering about his mental health since the end of 2001.

Revolutionary Contact Union is hereby making a decided and strong protest against the revival of such practices in present-day Russia, even against the slightest attempts to return to punitive psychiatric methods. In expectation of the KGB-controlled psychiatric medical examination with the conclusions known in advance, we are publishing the document issued to Mr. Stomakhin on the results of his checkup by psychiatrists from Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia.

Dr Selwyn Leeks faces a second investigation for sexual misconduct

Melbourne, Australia child psychiatrist, Dr Selwyn Leeks, faces a second investigation by the Victorian Medical Practitioners Board, as well as possible criminal charges in New Zealand. Dr Leeks is already being investigated by the board following claims that he allowed children to be punished with electric shock treatment and pain-inducing injections while in charge of a psychiatric hospital unit in NZ in the 1970s.

Now a former female patient has accused the Cheltenham-based doctor of sexual misconduct when he treated her for anxiety in Melbourne in 1979-80. Outlining the allegations for the first time, the former patient told The Sunday Age that over several visits Dr Leeks had asked her to sit on his knee, fondled her and requested sexual acts. The woman, who did not wish to be identified, said she had given the Victorian Medical Practitioners Board a statement and was interviewed by an official from the board last month.