Pot doc may lose license

The story of the "pot doctor" has been hitting many of the major news outlets, especially in California.

According to the San Francisco Examiner:

In a state where doctors are allowed to suggest marijuana for medical purposes, a medical panel is trying to suspend or revoke the license of a physician who has written 7,500 marijuana recommendations for his patients. Dr. Tod H. Mikuriya, 69, is accused of writing those recommendations without conducting sufficient medical exams and of improperly maintaining medical record. [...]

Well 7.500 prescriptions would sound suspicious to me. Almost like a "wink with a nod" setup. Of course, many communities in Northern cailfornia are said to be heavily invested in the regions marijuana crops, so this would be indicative of the larger drug scene.

Paxil Brings Suicidal Thoughts

As reported in Psychology Today. America's most-prescribed antidepressant may kick off suicidal thoughts and self-harm in young people, says the drug manufacturer. A recent study by GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company that produces Paxil, has led British officials to recommend that doctors refrain from prescribing it to children under 18. In the Glaxo study, Paxil (Seroxat in the U.K.) more than doubled emotional side effects including mood swings, crying episodes, suicidal thoughts and self-harm in children, compared to those taking a placebo. It was the first study to document such side effects of the drug, one of the commonly prescribed antidepressants called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). The reaction of the American psychiatric community has been conspicuously muted.

Psychiatrist allows his license to be revoked, canceled

A local New Orleans psychiatrist who served two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to narcotics charges has let his medical license be revoked and canceled. Dr. Richard Cicinelli, 56, has not practiced since he voluntarily surrendered his license in 1998. After his release in 2000, Cicinelli asked the licensing board to reinstate him, "but it appears not to be possible at this time," said Anthony Marinaro, his attorney.

According to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners' report on his case, Cicinelli was abusing narcotics and alcohol from 1995 through 1997. In addition, the board said, he was having sexual relationships with patients and "exploiting the therapist/patient relationship for his personal and financial needs."

Ritalin increases chance of Cocaine Addiction

People who use cocaine regularly may have a harder time breaking the habit if they used Ritalin or the club drug Ecstasy in their youth, a University of Miami study suggests. The number of U.S. children and adolescents who were prescribed Ritalin and other stimulants surged dramatically in the 1990s. The study, conducted on laboratory mice, found that rodents given Ritalin and Ecstasy, then later cocaine, showed higher sensitivity to cocaine than those that hadn't been exposed to the first two stimulants. See an abstract of the actual study here.

In the 1990s, the number of U.S. prescriptions for Ritalin and similar drugs rose fivefold to nearly 20 million by 2000, according to IMS Health, a national prescription auditing firm. About 80 percent of the prescriptions are written for children diagnosed with ADHD.

Psychiatric facility caught allowing Murder Suspects unusual freedoms

As reported in the Cinncinatti Enquirer - A man who fled a psychiatric facility during a holiday fireworks display is one of 20 patients accused of serious crimes who have freedoms ranging from walking its grounds with an escort to leaving the hospital unescorted. Seven of the 20, including James E. Johnson Jr., are accused of murder. Fourteen are allowed to leave the hospital. Four patients accused of serious crimes, including two charged with murder, are able to leave with permission as long as they return by a designated time.

Something about the idea of protecting the public comes to mind.

This is not an isolated situation. See this detailed report from the Denver Post on how "Nearly 50 men and women held at the state psychiatric hospital for murder and other violent acts have escaped since 1990" (complete with photos, and diagrams)

Death From Ritalin - The Truth Behind ADHD

RitalinDeath.com is an educational resource for parents who are being pressured into drugging their child for ADHD by a school Psychologist, social worker, teacher, or principle. As they say on their website:

Parents want what's best for their child, in many cases at the start of the new school year parents are being told that their child has ADHD and that medication would be a great benefit.

Between 1997 and 2000, there were 186 deaths caused from Methylphenidate the main stimulant used for ADHD.

In 1998 at the National Institutes of Health Consensus on ADHD, the following statement was issued: "We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there is no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction".

We wish to expose the health risks, dangers, and deaths that are a direct result of administering psycho-tropic drugs to children. These psycho-tropic drugs given to children labeled with ADHD include Ritalin, Methylphenidate, Concerta, Dexedrine, Dextrostat, and Metadate, just to name a few.

It is time for parents to come together and fight this horrific war against the drugging of our children, America's future.

This crusade requires a united front. If you want to join, contribute, and/or become an active member of this justified crusade please contact us.

Foster Kids in Psych Wards

There are children who wait in the psychiatric hospital wards wandering the hallways for release. They think someone is going to appear who will open the door to the outside world. They hope that some person with authority will turn the key to set them free. They are in the psych units of state hospitals because there are no foster homes to put them in. So the children are put in hospitals on a short-term basis, with the result being that many are forgotten to remain there for a long, long time.

Who are the advocates for these children?

Psychiatrist's license may be revoked

Lawyers argued Friday over whether the state should be allowed to continue its attempt to revoke the medical license of a Berkeley, California psychiatrist, Dr. Tod Mikuriya, who has recommended marijuana to thousands of patients. Administrative Law Judge Jonathan Lew said he'll issue a written proposed ruling within about three weeks, which will then be submitted for the Medical Board of California's consideration.

This is a case where state law allows doctors to prescribe marijuana, but it remains illegal under federal statutes.

However, the state wants his license revoked because of his alleged failure in 16 medical marijuana cases "to examine the patient, to obtain a history, to perform an appropriate workup of the patient's symptoms and findings, or to follow up with or monitor the patients," according to a brief the Attorney General's office filed July 3.

Thus it becomes a simple matter of being a drug dealer. Local controversy abounds. See also this report

Longest Hospital Detainee wants just a little bit more freedom

A lawyer urged the Arnhem Appeals Court in Amsterdam to consider alternative detention options for a 60-year-old criminal, the Netherland's longest-serving secure hospital detainee, so that the man could spend his remaining years with a greater degree of freedom.

[The Netherlands has a system of compulsory forensic psychiatric treatment, TBS, or terbeschikkingstelling van de staat ("to be put at the disposal of the state") Typically, the status of detainees is reviewed/renewed every two years. Under Dutch laws, someone detained under a TBS order, which is for violent or sexual criminals, can effectively be detained for life in a psychiatric hospital.]

Theo H was sentenced in 1960 at the age of 17 to eight months jail and TBS detention in a psychiatric institution. But H committed another offence seven years later and was sentenced to another 12 months jail and TBS treatment, and in 1985 he received another four months.

Lawyer Willem Anker said the 43 years of psychiatric treatment that H had undergone had proven ineffective, and that his client had earned the right for a greater deal of liberty than he receives at the Van Mesdagkliniek in Groningen.

Anker said his client had not committed an offence for 18 years and should come into consideration for an alternative form of "supervised living", Dutch associated press ANP reported. He said H had effectively received a life sentence without actually killing or raping someone.

This is a tough one. It is the worst of both worlds.

What you really want is months, not years of really effective treatment, not 43 years of ineffective treatment, wasting a life.

Female inmates over-medicated, Canadian study suggests

Female inmates are over-medicated, a Correctional Service of Canada report says Female prisoners are as much as 10 times more likely than other women to be on prescription drugs, partly because they do not have to pay for them and medication appears to be over-prescribed. The fact that offenders have few other treatment options and that medicine is sometimes handed out in advance, just in case it is needed, also contribute to the "striking" level of pill use, the study concluded.

The pharmaceuticals distributed behind bars range from birth control pills to muscle relaxants, anti-depressants and opiate-based painkillers.

The study looked at the legal drug consumption of all 384 female inmates on one day in 2001. It found that just under 90% had medications, with an average of 4.4 drugs each. By contrast, only 45% of women on the outside use even one drug at a given time, according to a 1999 federal government study used for comparison purposes.

Also, more than 60% of offenders were on three or more medications, 10 times the rate among the same age group in the general population. More than 40% were taking psychotropics, such as anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, anti-anxiety drugs and anti-epileptic medication used for mood stabilization.

Of course the report say that this "might be a problem". I'll be adding a direct link to the actual report over the next day or so.

Psychology lecturer admits rape

A former psychology lecturer has admitted raping a teenager while on bail for three other rape charges. Shaun Farrell, 39, of Watersmeet, Abbey Road, Watchet, Somerset (in Britain), appeared before Taunton Crown Court on Friday to plead guilty to one count of rape. The attack, on a 19-year-old woman, took place at Blue Anchor, Somerset, on 3 June. Mr Farrell, a former lecturer at Christ Church College in Canterbury, last month pled guilty to three counts of raping another woman, a former student at the college, at Reading Crown Court.

A Bill Prohibiting Schools from Requiring Drugs for Kids

Sen. John Ensign has introduced a bill in the US Senate that would prohibit schools from forcing children to take medications such as Ritalin as a condition for attendance. Similar to legislation that passed overwhelmingly in the House in May, the bill would require states getting federal money to ensure that schools do not force parents to medicate their kids. Ensign, R-Nev., offered the legislation after meeting with parents who complained about the practice, said Jack Finn, an Ensign spokesman. A spokesperson for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has issued a stement opposing the bill

Lake Alice Psychiatrist in Australian Abuse Inquiry

Dr Selwyn Leeks at Lake Alice Hospital, near Wanganui, faces an inquiry into his conduct in Australia. Leeks is already the subject of a number of criminal complaints in New Zealand by former patients, who allege punishment with electric shock treatment or drug injectionsm and is now the subject of allegations of abuse. Lake Alice is notorious as the site of other psychiatrict patient abuses in recent years

Ah, the picture is much clearer with this story in the Australian Paper, the Age:

A Melbourne psychiatrist who oversaw the punishment of children with electric-shock therapy at a New Zealand hospital 30 years ago could be struck off after the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria yesterday decided to investigate his conduct. Cheltenham psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks, 74, is alleged to have allowed children to be punished with electric-shock treatment from 1972 to 1977 when he headed the now-closed child and adolescent unit at the Lake Alice psychiatric hospital on NZ's North Island. In 2001 the New Zealand Government formally apologised and paid millions of dollars in compensation to 95 former patients of the hospital. Most of the patients were children in the 1970s who were admitted to the hospital because of behavioural difficulties. An inquiry in 1997 found they were subjected to various forms of punishment including electroconvulsive therapy, locked away with adult patients, or given painful injections of the sedative paraldehyde. The Age has confirmed that Victorian police are also investigating claims made by several patients treated by Dr Leeks after he moved to Australia.

The long arm of the law at last

Fears Grow Over Academic Efforts to Normalize Pedophilia

Caught this column on the fears some people have on the apparent effort to normalise pedophilia (originally published here)

Cultural experts who agree with claims that the Supreme Court may have opened the door to legalizing pedophilia in its Lawrence v. Texas decision on private homosexual behavior point to the growing movement within academia to de-stigmatize pedophilia.

of course there are protests that this won't happen.

Importantly, it is also noted that

During its annual convention in May, the American Psychiatric Association hosted a symposium discussing the removal of pedophilia along with other categories of mental illness (collectively known as paraphilia) from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

After much criticism following CNSNews.com coverage of the symposium, the APA issued a statement reiterating its position on pedophilia.

But in his 1999 article "Harming the Little Ones: The Effects of Pedophilia on Children," Timothy Dailey, senior analyst for cultural studies with the Family Research Council, chronicled the APA's treatment of pedophilia in the DSM and compares it to the APA evolution of homosexuality.

In DSM revisions, Dailey explained that APA "adds a subjective qualification similar to that which appeared with regard to homosexuality: The individual must be 'markedly distressed' by his own pedophilic activity to be considered needful of therapy," Dailey wrote, adding that in the latest revision, pedophilia "is to be considered a paraphilia when the behavior causes 'clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.'"

Mary Eberstadt, research fellow at the Hoover Institute, told CNSNews.com: "The evidence is plain: there is indeed an ongoing attempt from within the psychiatric and psychological communities to de-stigmatize pedophilia by de-classifying it as a paraphilia in the first place."

You can read that full report here

So if I feel comfortable with my criminal activity, what am I?

More Exposure for Drug Company Junkets

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued the draft decision requiring drug companies to publish on the internet hospitality arrangements for doctors attending conferences staged to inform them of new pharmaceutical developments. Critics say these sessions give companies the opportunity to "schmooze" doctors and encourage them to prescribe them to patients. Drug companies will be required to publish details of lavish perks offered in "educational" sessions for doctors, under new rules issued by the consumer watchdog. In its determination, the ACCC cited United States research which linked a sudden threefold increase in prescriptions for a particular drug to a company-sponsored education session. Certain company spokemen were insulted by the regualtions, saying that it treated them as if they were guilty of something. Really?

Pharmaceutical corporations accused of Genocide before ICC in The Hague

This is not directly to psychiatry, but ties into the related businesses. As seen in this report:

June 14, 2003 - The Hague

Pharmaceutical corporations and individual executives have been accused of genocide and crimes of war before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The charges, which also involve accusations of war crimes against US President George W. Bush, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and other top political figures, are contained in a detailed complaint filed with the ICC by Dr. Mathias Rath.

Pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Amgen and Astra Zeneca are accused of deliberately preventing life-saving natural alternatives to drug based treatments from being applied in prevention and cure. A worldwide disinformation campaign undertaken by these companies is said to have caused the death of millions of people. Their role in getting both Bush and Blair into power and in determining the policies of their respective administrations with respect to the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is cited as evidence for a case made for violation of Human Rights.

Financial interests behind misdirected health policies world wide and behind the drive for war are also named in the complaint, filed by Rath and others during a two-day Conference in The Hague on 14 and 15 June.

....

This ties in well with this report from a couple months back, as well as this report from earlier this year on diseases invented for profit. Note that these are all big players in the medical drug market.

Psych Charged with Possession of Child Pornography

According to the Mississauga News (Canada), Burlington psychiatrist Dr. Allan Beitel, 57, has been charged with accessing and possessing child pornography, fraud, possession of stolen property and possession of property obtained by crime. This came about with the recovery of a stolen laptop computer that was in the possesion of the psychiatrist, and which was found to have a collection of child porn on it. There is a picture of the psychiatrist at the story link.

New story link here, at the website of Canadians Against Sexual Exploitation

Ze Zmerican Zsychiatric Azzoziation

I came across this item here, and have the permission of the author to repost it. It is not my writing, but I find it amusing

Ze Zmerican Zsychiatric Azzoziation

Captain Drugs, Mr. Feelgood, touchy feely, Crapco, it slices, it dices... One size fits all, the ultimate snake oil, no prior test required, no medical history need be perused. submerge your problems in a chemical sea of tranquility. Is everybody happy? You betcha, money is made. No problem too big, no problem too small. The UNIVERSAL CURE! And you thought snake oil salesmen had it rough, and who brings you this wonderful panacea?

Ze Zmerican Zsychiatric Azzoziation.

Governments and companies will love this.

Any complaints, graft, corruption, nepotism... no problem... and you thought the old Soviet Union had the plan for political dissidents...

We now use their latest methods!

Hey kids, having a hard time dealing with the real world of medical school? Had a screwed up childhood? Want an easy out, no problem, you have a future making the really big bucks deciding, I mean deriding people's futures. Help your government today! If you can just say yes to putting away people wronged by:

Incompetent Bureaucrats...
Graft...
Corruption...
Nepotism...
Sexual Harassment...

You fill in the blank...

We even have a "bird-dog" program for public employees in major cities, referred to as an "Employee Assistance Program" to help these people "right out". A never ending supply of the disgruntled for you to "help". Who cares if they are right?

The hell with fixing the system, let's make money. Besides, there are dozens more behind that person, who could be in your office right now making you money; and if they don't like it, they are nuts anyway.

After all, they are guilty. As one bureaucrat was overheard saying, after this monster had threatened a man, his wife and his 4 year old with death, "... because we accuse you, you are guilty...". If you get one that isn't crazy, no problem, we got the drugs to get them there.

Guaranteed repeat business, you get the business, they get the business, the drug companies (pay off those research and payola dollars for moneymaking non-natural patentable toxic remedies) get the business, the FDA gets the business, and with the drugs everyone is happy.

See that patient over there? Just look at that stupor! and he used to cause trouble.

No more trouble there, and think of the money he generates for your cash-flow. Yep, just think of him, not as a patient, but rather, just one more annuity for your bank account, and you really didn't want to have to solve or look at his problems in real depth, of course not.

Who wants to listen to that?

That takes time and that is expensive, that would loose money! Next!

A couple of pills and voila, chemical lobotomy, and the employer is happy too. "God" bless you, you kept down costs, just think of the smile on the accountant's faces.

Who cares if you really didn't help him or if you prolonged natural life crises from months to years?

Can you say cash flow? You contributed to the economy! Don't bother your little head with the path of broken lives you leave behind you, you defended the corrupt from the weak, and you can even say you helped.

You do believe it, don't you? Of course you do, you want to, don't you, or should I say you have to, to keep going ... It's ok, don't look to close, that's good!

Yep, a truly burgeoning field with a future.

(Not offered in areas where morality still applies. Coming to a hospital or clinic near you.)

(This advertisement not paid for by Ze Zmerican Zychiatric Azzoziation.)

P.S. I have a fixzation on zzzzz'z, znore...

Mean while, in Western Australia

A psychiatrist faces suspension for failing to treat properly a teenager shortly before the youth bashed his mother's boyfriend to death five years ago. According to this report in the West Australian online, the Medical Board of WA ruled yesterday that Dr Zdenek Srna's inaction following a one-hour appointment with the 17-year-old nine days before the killing amounted to gross carelessness. But it said there was no evidence to back claims he was incompetent. The youth's family has launched civil proceedings against Dr Srna.

In Anderson, Indiana

A local Indiana psychiatrist is facing more charges accusing him of trying to defraud his patients. Five more charges -- theft, attempted theft and three counts of intimidation -- were filed last week against Dr. Trivandrum (T.S.) Ramaswamy, a former psychiatrist at St. John's Anderson Center. The Muncie FBI office is investigating Ramaswamy for Medicaid fraud. The Anderson Police Department is also looking for people to come forward.