Prominent Polish Child Psychologist Admits Sexually Abusing Minors

Authorities in Poland say a prominent child psychologist has admitted sexually abusing minors. Andrzej Samson is well known for writing extensively about raising children, and has also served as a court expert in pedophilia cases. He was taken into custody last month amid police suspicions about his link to pornographic photographs discovered in a garbage dump near his Warsaw home. A prosecutor has told reporters that Samson has admitted to charges in the case. Poland has cracked down on pedophilia in recent years. Word of Samson's case follows the convictions of two Roman Catholic priests of child sex abuse.

Suit accuses drug makers of aiding in deaths of children

A psychiatrist's federal whistleblower lawsuit alleges children have been harmed and even killed by the misuse of drugs he blames on aggressive marketing practices by some of the nation's largest drug manufacturers. Dr. Stefan P. Kruszewski claims that in July 2003 he was fired from a consulting job reviewing spending by the Pennsylvania state Department of Public Welfare because he reported "public corruption, including fraud and other violations of civil and criminal law constituting pervasive abuses."

The Harrisburg physician accuses the drug companies of distorting statistics, violating regulations and exaggerating the effect of their psychotropic products — practices he says have victimized juvenile wards of the state, mental patients and prisoners. "They have used their influence to promote the use of their products on innocent people devoid of evidence that the use of their drugs would have any beneficial or positive effect ... and have not employed proper scientific or clinical study to support their recommendations," according to the suit.

Among the allegedly "corrupt practices" by drug companies described in the suit are overmedication of patients, fraudulent billing, abuses of Pennsylvania's involuntary commitment law and "mistreatment of children resulting in deaths in Pennsylvania, Texas and Oklahoma." The defendants are Public Welfare Secretary Estelle B. Richman and two of her subordinates; the King of Prussia-based company Kruszewski was working for, Columbus Medical Services LLC, and two Columbus executives; and drug makers Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly & Co. The drugs at issue include Paxil, Neurontin, Gortan, Seroquel, Topmax, Risperdal, Trileptal and Zyprexa.

The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg. The defendants or their spokesmen all either did not return phone messages or declined comment Tuesday.

Don Bailey, Kruszewski's lawyer, said patient confidentiality rules prevented giving specific examples of patients who have died as a result of the alleged practices, and none were cited in the lawsuit. The drug companies' liability, he said, stems from creating "a political environment where it is expected of supervisors of these state programs that they squelch or dismiss or discourage expressions about the abuses of these drugs. Large money, big money, big corporations, huge businesses are so overwhelming our political system that medical judgments and political judgments are being affected by who's paying money. And the weak and the powerless are who's being victimized by this thing," Bailey said.

US National Institutes of Health investigated for Conflicts of Interest with Drug Companies

As Reported in the British Medical Journal

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been criticised by members of Congress for letting employees accept lucrative consultancy assignments from drug and biotechnology companies. On 22 June the director of the NIH, Dr Elias Zerhouni, told the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, "In retrospect, there was not a sufficient safeguard against the perception of conflict of interest." He said the NIH would tighten rules about employees' consultancy work.

The NIH's troubles began on 7 December 2003. In a front page article the Los Angeles Times described how a small number of the institutes' 17 000 employees had received millions of dollars of income from outside sources since 1995 ( 2003 December 7;sect A: 1). That in itself was not illegal, although the public and even many senators and representatives were probably unaware of the practice.

Restrictions on outside work by NIH employees were loosened in 1995 by Dr Harold Varmus, the Nobel prize winner who headed the organisation at the time, in an effort to recruit leading scientists who could earn much more at universities. In his testimony on 22 June Dr Zerhouni outlined what he described as "a major reform" since then.

"We are severely restricting the ability of NIH employees to consult with industry," he said. He suggested prohibiting holding stock in biotechnology or drug companies, consulting by senior staff and staff who award research grants, and receiving stock as payment or holding stock in drug or biotechnology companies, limiting outside work to 400 hours a year, and limiting payment to 25% of salary—as well as random audits to detect unreported outside work. He also called for more public financial disclosures by employees.

However, the Washington Post (2004 June 23;sect A: 19) reported that one researcher at the National Cancer Institute continued to receive consultancy fees, although he testified that he had suspended the agreement. It also reported that the blue ribbon committee had turned up about 100 consultancy arrangements that NIH officials didn't know about. A neurologist at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr Trey Sunderland, had received more than $500000 (£273250; {euro}410340) over the past five years in fees, honorariums, and expense repayments from Pfizer, but the amounts had not been reported. Dr Elias Zerhouni admitted that safeguards were inadequate

The Wall Street Journal (2004 June 22;sect A: 4) reported that the investigation into conflicts of interest is being expanded to 15 other federal agencies.

Child Abuse in Chandigarh

As reported in the Chandigarh Newsline of IndiaExpress.com, no one is calling the psychs for help with child abuse, despite several recent cases in the local news.

Even the recent spate of child sexual abuse cases reported in the media (as many as eight cases in June itself and four cases in the last four days only), have failed to shake up the enforcement agencies.

The evidence, to say the least, is damning. The Women and Child Support Unit, having especially been set up to provide counselling to abuse victims, has not registered a single case of child sexual abuse.

Approach the various child counselling departments at PGI or Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32 and you get almost the same response. Counsellors at the child helpline at PGI also say they receive no such calls, the PGI Psychiatry Department gives a rough estimate of handling some 20 cases annually and the Psychiatry Department at GMCH again has no specific data tabulated on the incidence of child abuse in the city.

‘‘There is no doubt about it. Child sexual abuse is rampant in our society and across the globe. And it is quite common in Chandigarh. In a 1996 survey done with schoolchildren in Delhi, 60 per cent were found to have been sexually abused,’’ says Dr B S Chavan, head, Department of Psychiatry, GMCH-32.

Ask him why no data is available and he responds, ‘‘Most cases that we get are referred to us from other departments and later turn out to be sexual abuse cases. So, we don’t tabulate these figures. But yes, it is our collective responsibility to maintain a record, form self-help family groups where parents discuss the issue in seminars, forums. Conferences and continued medical education programmes for doctors on the issue should also be held.’’

Something does not add up here. Whose side are they on?

Misfits swept under carpet

As reported in Kathemerini, the Greek English Language newspaper, it seems that psychs in greece don't like getting their hands dirty handling people they are supposed to be actually helping anyhow.

A crackdown on Athens “undesirables” ahead of the Olympics has reached such a high level that staff in one of the capital’s two psychiatric hospitals have twice walked out in protest, hospital sources said yesterday. An unusually high number of drug addicts, alcoholics and mentally ill people have been turned over to medical staff in recent weeks at the behest of the authorities, the sources said.

“Following arrests by the police, the prosecutor issues sectioning orders that force us to lock up drug addicts, alcoholics or mentally ill people,” said Michalis Yiannakos, head of the trade union representing 550 staff at the Dromokaitio Psychiatric Hospital. He said admissions had risen 50 percent in recent days compared to previous months, an increase that led to staff at the hospital stopping work twice this week in protest.

The union has threatened further action if judicial and police authorities continue to oblige the hospital to take in people who they said did not belong in mental hospitals.

Like drug addicts, alcoholics and the mentally ill, who, ironically enough, are probably better off not being in the psych facility in the first place

New Vitae Psychiatric Treatment Center to close

as reported in The Morning Callo newspaper of New Jersey

The 5-year-old legal battle between Upper Saucon Township and the New Vitae psychiatric treatment center at Mount Trexler Manor will end within the next two to four weeks, the township solicitor told residents Tuesday. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected arguments from owner Adam Devlin's attorneys to allow the New Vitae psychiatric treatment to continue serving approximately 90 patients, effectively ending the dispute.

''New Vitae and the outpatient treatment will have to cease and desist,'' solicitor Jeffrey Dimmich said at Tuesday's supervisors meeting. The township began hearings in 1999 to force Devlin and Mount Trexler to halt treatment programs at the former nursing home, arguing they violated a zoning permit that only allowed a residential facility. Lehigh County Judge Lawrence J. Brenner upheld the township's subsequent order to stop the programs and Brenner was later upheld by a Commonwealth Court. Mount Trexler and Devlin asked the state's top court to stay that ruling and approve an appeal of the order. Both requests were denied in a brief ruling issued June 17. ''That ends it as far as the zoning matter is concerned,'' Dimmich said.

However, the patients probably will be allowed to stay at Mount Trexler. Attorneys for Devlin and the patients offered a settlement in April that could include tighter security to eliminate complaints from nearby home owners who say patients regularly intruded onto their properties and houses. Patients entered private homes and allegedly trespassed on the property of the nearby St. Michael's Elementary School, alarming students, according to testimony in the 1999 zoning hearings.

George Bloeser, who lives at the corner of Limeport Pike and St. Joseph's Road, just down the street from the facility, said neighbors are happy with the high court's ruling. He also said most have no problem with the psychiatric patients remaining on the premises — with conditions.

''If they would ever get serious about taking care of people … those kinds of issues, and having a real guard at the gate instead of a patient, they can live there,'' Bloeser said after the board meeting. ''We're happy we've finally gotten there. We feel Judge Brenner really did a good job. So did our attorneys and the township attorneys and staff. ''I would have been shocked if the town had been overturned,'' Bloeser said. Dimmich said state Department of Public Works regulations give Mount Trexler 30 days to discontinue its programs, and the township probably will not fight that.

Psychiatry is not getting more popular, it seems

The True Costs of Drugs

As seen in the Sonoma Valley Voice

Material Costs of Medical Compounds
Investigative Research Reveals the True Costs of Drugs
By Sharon Davis / Department of Commerce

Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active Ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries.

In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America. The chart below speaks for itself.

Celebrex 100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%

Claritin 10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71
Percent markup: 30,306%

Keflex 250 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88
Percent markup: 8,372%

Norvasc 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14
Percent markup: 134,493%

Paxil 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60
Percent markup: 2,898%

Prevacid 30 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01
Percent markup: 34,136%

Prilosec 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97
Cost of general active ingredients $0.52
Percent markup: 69,417%

Prozac 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11
Percent markup: 224,973%

Tenormin 50 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13
Percent markup: 80,362%

Vasotec 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20
Percent markup: 51,185%

Xanax 1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024
Percent markup: 569,958%

Zestril 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89
Cost of general active ingredients $3.20
Percent markup: 2,809%

Zithromax 600 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19
Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78
Percent markup: 7,892%

Zocor 40 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63
Percent markup: 4,059%

Zoloft 50 mg
Consumer price: $206.87
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75
Percent markup: 11,821%

Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone I knew should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on. It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreens on every corner.

Psycho Shrink Guilty

As reported in the NY Post
(See also this report in NewsDay)

A Long Island psychiatrist charged with conspiring to buy a gun and silencer to kill six people and feed them to sharks has surrendered his medical license and will avoid more jail time by seeing a shrink himself. In a Mineola courtroom yesterday, Dr. Richard Karpf, 52, of Great Neck, signed away his license to practice medicine as part of his plea bargain to avoid 25 years behind bars. He plead guilty to one lesser count of gun possession, and the other charges — including conspiracy — were dropped. Nassau County Judge Donald Belfi asked Karpf what he did for a living and Karpf replied he was a physician. "Former," his lawyer Stephen Scaring corrected him.

"Former licensed physician in the state of New York," said Karpf. He admitted he "possessed a loaded .22 automatic pistol" on Jan. 8, 2003, after purchasing it, along with a box of bullets and a silencer, from an undercover cop. Karpf had asked a male patient to help him get a gun to kill several people. He was caught on tape saying he wanted to shoot them at point-blank range, put their bodies on his boat and feed the chopped-up corpses to sharks.

The patient put his shrink in touch with the undercover officer. Court papers filed by the defense said police had confiscated a list from Karpf titled "Motives for Murder," as well as "White Shark Research Papers." Belfi said he'll sentence Karpf on Sept. 14 to the three months he had served in jail before posting his $1 million bail. The judge warned the former doctor that if he got into trouble or stopped receiving psychiatric care, he would be slapped with a seven-year jail sentence. Karpf declined to comment. The defendant was examined by psychiatrists for the defense and prosecution.

"Mr. Karpf has some significant [psychiatric] issues — both psychiatrists came to that conclusion," prosecutor Robert Biancavilla said after the court proceeding. Biancavilla said it could not be proven that Karpf had targeted specific people, and the former shrink may have even made the "victims" up.

A former female patient, who believed she was targeted because she threatened to reveal an alleged affair between them, filed a civil malpractice lawsuit against Karpf, which is still pending. The woman's lawyer yesterday said she was outraged Karpf got off lightly. "At least he won't be practicing medicine," said lawyer Ruth Bernstein.

Bernstein said her client "has been extremely fearful from the time he got out of jail." Police had told her she was targeted by Karpf, said Bernstein.

Man Judged Insane Is Called for Jury Duty

A legally insane Houston man who gouged his girlfriend's eyes with a steak knife has received a jury summons and might be able to serve, but lawyers say it's doubtful he'll be picked for a panel. Nathan Dale Campbell was first summoned to report for Harris County jury service Monday, but the date was then rescheduled to Aug. 30, said a staffer in the district clerk's office.

Campbell, 30, was acquitted in 1997 after a jury found he was legally insane when he attacked girlfriend Kristen West the previous year, blinding her in one eye and permanently damaging her sight in the other. Campbell received treatment as an inpatient at the Kerrville State Hospital. The attack followed West's refusal of Campbell's marriage proposal. He said he thought her eyes were demons.

State District Judge Debbie Mantooth Stricklin in June 2003 ordered Campbell released from the state hospital in Kerrville after doctors said he was ready to live in the community under supervision. Campbell was treated as an outpatient in San Antonio for a time after his release, but court personnel have not revealed his whereabouts since then, citing federal privacy law.

What is wrong with this picture?

The Truth About the Drug Companies

As seen in the NY Review of Books, Volume 51, Number 12 · July 15, 2004

In the past two years, we have started to see, for the first time, the beginnings of public resistance to rapacious pricing and other dubious practices of the pharmaceutical industry. It is mainly because of this resistance that drug companies are now blanketing us with public relations messages. And the magic words, repeated over and over like an incantation, are research, innovation, and American. Research. Innovation. American. It makes a great story.

But while the rhetoric is stirring, it has very little to do with reality. First, research and development (R&D) is a relatively small part of the budgets of the big drug companies—dwarfed by their vast expenditures on marketing and administration, and smaller even than profits. In fact, year after year, for over two decades, this industry has been far and away the most profitable in the United States. (In 2003, for the first time, the industry lost its first-place position, coming in third, behind "mining, crude oil production," and "commercial banks.") The prices drug companies charge have little relationship to the costs of making the drugs and could be cut dramatically without coming anywhere close to threatening R&D.

Second, the pharmaceutical industry is not especially innovative. As hard as it is to believe, only a handful of truly important drugs have been brought to market in recent years, and they were mostly based on taxpayer-funded research at academic institutions, small biotechnology companies, or the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The great majority of "new" drugs are not new at all but merely variations of older drugs already on the market. These are called "me-too" drugs. The idea is to grab a share of an established, lucrative market by producing something very similar to a top-selling drug. For instance, we now have six statins (Mevacor, Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Lescol, and the newest, Crestor) on the market to lower cholesterol, all variants of the first. As Dr. Sharon Levine, associate executive director of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, put it,

If I'm a manufacturer and I can change one molecule and get another twenty years of patent rights, and convince physicians to prescribe and consumers to demand the next form of Prilosec, or weekly Prozac instead of daily Prozac, just as my patent expires, then why would I be spending money on a lot less certain endeavor, which is looking for brand-new drugs?[4]

Third, the industry is hardly a model of American free enterprise. To be sure, it is free to decide which drugs to develop (me-too drugs instead of innovative ones, for instance), and it is free to price them as high as the traffic will bear, but it is utterly dependent on government-granted monopolies—in the form of patents and Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved exclusive marketing rights. If it is not particularly innovative in discovering new drugs, it is highly innovative— and aggressive—in dreaming up ways to extend its monopoly rights.

Psych suspended for interfering with other doctor's patients

A follow up to the strange case of Dr Patrick Cosgrove, as published in the British Medical Journal. It seems he was trying to interfere with other doctors, pushing his own agendas ....

A consultant child psychiatrist who sent letters to GPs questioning other psychiatrists’ competence, and forwarded copies to their patients, has been suspended for 12 months by the General Medical Council for serious professional misconduct.

Dr Patrick Cosgrove was one of the pioneers of the use of methylphenidate (Ritalin) to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights and Overload Network, the Scottish based advocacy group for patients with the condition, have both complained to the GMC about Dr Cosgrove, saying he was too ready to prescribe off label drugs.

But Professor Norman Mackay, chairman of the Professional Conduct Committee, said: "Throughout the course of this inquiry there has been no criticism of Dr Cosgrove’s prescribing practice ... Instead this case has been centred around Dr Cosgrove’s monitoring of those patients whom he diagnosed as suffering from ADHD and the letters he subsequently sent to other practitioners."

In four letters Dr Cosgrove criticised five other psychiatrists who had seen his patients, some of whom disagreed with his opinions on the subject of the condition. Copies were sent to the psychiatrists themselves, to the patients’ general practitioners, and to adult patients or the patients’ parents. In one letter he suggested that two psychiatrists at the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust were arguably guilty of medical negligence in knowing less about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults than the patient himself did.

In another letter, written last summer, he wrote that a psychiatrist who had treated the patient might not believe in the existence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and might therefore have trouble being revalidated by the GMC’s Fitness to Practice Committee.

Finding Dr Cosgrove guilty of serious professional misconduct, Professor Mackay said he had contravened the GMC’s code of practice, which states that: "You must not undermine patients’ trust in the care or treatment they receive, or in the judgement of those treating them, by making malicious or unfounded criticisms of colleagues."

Professor Mackay added: "The nature of this correspondence goes far beyond what amounts to robust criticism ... Further similar incidents occurred after 2002 despite Dr Cosgrove being notified of these matters by the GMC." Dr Cosgrove "considered he had the best interests of his patients at the forefront of his mind," but had "not demonstrated any remorse or insight into his behaviour."

The case, which began in January but was adjourned, ended in a 12 month suspension for Dr Cosgrove, who has been retired since closing his private practice, the Bath Priority Clinic, in February. In a statement he denied the closure was linked to the GMC case, but said that registering with the National Care Standards Commission "would not be meeting the needs" of his patients.

Psychiatry: the social and criminal implications

Given the all-encompassing expertise on mental health apparently possessed by psychiatry, it would follow that psychiatrists and psychologists should be among the sanest, wisest and most stable of all the population, especially in light of the fact that they are responsible for our 'mental health' and constantly advise the public on what is best for us. It would follow that they would be paragons of mental stability, have great marriages, and set an enduring example to society which would prove that the tenets of psychiatry can stand the tests of pressure and time.

The truth is very different. A very extensive documentation of their statistics as an occupation.

Tidbits include:

1. In America, psychiatrists commit suicide twice as often as doctors in general. This figure is five times the rate of the general population
   
2. When the physician membership of Alcoholics Anonymous in the United States was studied, it was found that 17% were psychiatrists, even though psychiatrists in America make up only 8% of the medical profession.
   
3. Psychiatrists have much higher rates for all types of [psychotropic drug] use at any time than do other groups of physicians."
   
4. Psychiatrists also lead other branches of medicine in marriage difficulties - including sexual problems.
   
5. A 1988 American study discovered that a higher incidence of sexual abuse existed among prominent doctors in psychiatry - tenured professors and chairmen of ethics committees - than among the rank and file.

Woman Accuses Psychiatrist Of Improper Relationship

As reported on the Iowa Channel Website

West Des Moines police are investigating a psychiatrist after a female patient claimed the two had an intimate relationship. According to court documents obtained by KCCI in Iowa, Dr. Gaylord Nordine hired a longtime patient to work in his office.

The woman reported that their relationship became intimate in late 2002. In May, after the relationship apparently soured, the woman turned evidence over to police, including clothing, love letters, vacation pictures and a taped phone call. She said the items prove her intimacy with Nordine.

Court documents show police searched the doctor's office at 2700 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines. Investigators seized the patient's medical records and took a DNA sample from the doctor. Court documents show Dr. Nordine had prescribed drugs, including an antidepressant for the female patient as recently as April. No charges have been filed, but police said the investigation is continuing. Nordine would not comment to KCCI.

Family psychiatrist Dr. David Drake is a former Iowa Psychiatric Society ethics committee chairman. Drake said even if a psychiatrist's relationship with a patient or former patient is consensual, it's at least unethical and can be illegal.

Number of US Citizens at Suicide Risk due to SSRI Psych Drugs

This letter is to advise you that there is a new and accurate method for calculating the number of patients that have taken SSRIs in the US since introduction of these drugs. Neither the FDA, nor Pharma have been able to make this calculation. This method enables the extent of the harm, induced suicide and dependency caused by SSRIs in the US since 1988 to be quantified in both human and financial terms. [...]

It has been known by Pharma since1985 and now sadly by many thousands of victims, that every person, healthy or depressed, adult or child, who starts an SSRI, faces a finite risk of drug induced suicide and other harm in the first weeks of use. (Teicher and Cole, 1993)

Since 1988, 68 million Americans have used Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft. Using a most conservative excess suicide rate, at least 21 thousand avoidable suicides may have been induced, without any warnings to the victims or their families. [...]

There is a simple analogy with another industry that demands two questions. Assuming the lowest rate (32/100K) would the FAA support an airworthiness certificate for a certain aircraft type, that for 10 years consistently crashed and killed 300 to 1000 passengers per year and injured many others? How would the FAA react if the aircraft manufacturer consistently blamed the crashes on the passengers but not the aircraft?

As seen in this report

74% of children and adolescents suffered an adverse [bad] event during their treatment with SSRI Psych Drugs

As found on the net from another overlooked report

A report in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Dr. Timothy Wilens, Dr. Joseph Biederman, et al, child psychiatrists at Harvard's teaching hospital, Massachusetts General, found that 22% of children and adolescents who had been prescribed any one of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants suffered drug-induced psychiatric adverse effects within three months. Furthermore, the authors, who have long advocated prescribing psychotropic drugs for children, reported: "Overall, 74% of children and adolescents experienced [i.e., suffered] an adverse event to an SSRI over the course of their treatment."

The SSRI drugs prescribed for these children were: Prozac, Paxil (Seroxat), Zoloft, Luvox and Celexa. Proof that the adverse effects were drug-induced is borne out by the fact that after the drugs were withdrawn and the children were re-exposed to an SSRI, 44% suffered another psychiatric adverse effect.

This report validates what critics--who are not receiving financial support from drug companies--have been pointing out for some time: Antidepression drugs are not the solution for troubled children. The documented evidence consistently shows that the drugs are causing children mental distress that can only aggravate their problems.

Of particular concern: According to the authors, the most frequent adverse effects induced by SSRI drugs are sleep disturbance (35%) and agitation. That combination is a prescription for violent outbursts--such as, self injury, suicide attempts, and / or violent outbursts toward others.

It is scandalous that the National Institute of Mental Health has remained absolutely silent about mounting evidence that these drugs pose hazards for children's health and lives. NIMH officials disregard the evidence of suicidal acts by children in clinical trials. The same evidence led the medical authorities in Great Britain to ban the use of an SSRI in children under 18. See documents at: www.ahrp.org

Despite evidence of harm, NIMH continues to promote the use of SSRIs and sponsors clinical trials that expose little children and adolescents to the hazards of these drugs.

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization. It has a mission to bring fairness and reason into the administration of legal aspects of the mental health system, particularly unwarranted court ordered psychiatric drugging. The public mental health system is creating a huge class of chronic mental patients through forcing them to take ineffective, yet extremely harmful drugs. The purpose of the Law Project for Psychiatric rights is to promote and implement a legal campaign in support of psychiatric rights and against unwarranted court ordered psychiatric medication akin to what Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP mounted in the 40's and 50's on behalf of African American civil rights. Help us prevent unwarranted forced drugging with a secure on-line tax-deductible donation.

Excellent site, good references.

Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness

As reported in the British medical Journal

A sweeping mental health initiative will be unveiled by President George W Bush in July. The plan promises to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions," according to a March 2004 progress report entitled the New Freedom Initiative. While some praise the plan's goals, others say it protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public. Bush established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in April 2002 to conduct a "comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system." The commission issued its recommendations in July 2003. Bush instructed more than 25 federal agencies to develop an implementation plan based on those recommendations. The commission commended the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a "model" medication treatment plan that "illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes." [...]

But the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, sparked off controversy when Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, revealed that key officials with influence over the medication plan in his state received money and perks from drug companies with a stake in the medication algorithm (15 May, p1153). He was sacked this week for speaking to the BMJ and the New York Times. The Texas project started in 1995 as an alliance of individuals from the pharmaceutical industry, the University of Texas, and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas. The project was funded by a Robert Wood Johnson grant—and by several drug companies. Mr Jones told the BMJ that the same "political/pharmaceutical alliance" that generated the Texas project was behind the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission, which, according to his whistleblower report, were "poised to consolidate the TMAP effort into a comprehensive national policy to treat mental illness with expensive, patented medications of questionable benefit and deadly side effects, and to force private insurers to pick up more of the tab"

It is gratifying to observe the many negative reactions of readers of the BMJ to this crazy plan.

The above Whitehouse link goes to the 2004 Progress Report report on The President's New Freedom Initiative for People with Disabilities, which includes some information on the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, starting on page 32. You can also see their final report here. It is this report that gives some details regarding proposed screening programs.

The actual range of the proposed programs are unclear, although obviously broad due to the promise of federal money. These reports do not provide actual details on pending proposals. Hopefully the BMJ report is not jumping the gun.

Happiness as a Psychiatric Disorder

As reported in the NY Times Magazine, we come up with this little tidbit.

... the British psychologist Richard P. Bentall has observed, ''There is consistent evidence that happy people overestimate their control over environmental events (often to the point of perceiving completely random events as subject to their will), give unrealistically positive evaluations of their own achievements, believe that others share their unrealistic opinions about themselves and show a general lack of evenhandedness when comparing themselves to others.'' Indeed, Bentall has proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder.

Of course, the article also notes that happy people can also be bigoted and spiteful, and so somehow Happiness could be the cause of this.

Researchers found that angry people are more likely to make negative evaluations when judging members of other social groups. That, perhaps, will not come as a great surprise. But the same seems to be true of happy people, the researchers noted. The happier your mood, the more liable you are to make bigoted judgments -- like deciding that someone is guilty of a crime simply because he's a member of a minority group. Why? Nobody's sure.

Fortunately the journalist has a skeptical attitude.

Licensed Child Psychologist Convicted on Child Porn Charges

A former youth counselor has been convicted on child pornography charges. Donald Leonard Keys, 59, of St. Paul, was convicted of two felony counts for 26 pictures he took in 2001 of a 16-year-old boy in sexually explicit poses. The jury deliberated for about six hours following a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge David Doty, and returned its verdict Thursday.

According to statements made in court, Keys was working as a crisis counselor for a teen suicide hot line. Federal prosecutors said he met his 16-year-old victim in an Internet chat room where he was pretending to be a young, attractive homosexual male. The boy informed the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of the photographs last year. He told investigators he believed he was manipulated into posing and was worried that Keys may have sent the images over the Internet.

Keys was once a licensed social worker in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He obtained the license after hiding a 1971 conviction for attempted sodomy that would have disqualified him, officials said. He forfeited the social worker license in 1996 after his role in a scheme to defraud an elderly man of his money became public. Federal authorities say Keys still is licensed as a child psychologist in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

A sentencing date has not been scheduled. Keys faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and up to 30 years for producing child pornography and a mandatory two years and up to 10 years for possession of child pornography.

Mother wants to know how son died at NZ Psych Hospital

As seen in this report

Clement Matthews' mother wants the police to get to the truth about his death in Kingseat mental hospital 36 years ago. Rebecca Matthews, 63, said yesterday that she first learned of the police re-opening their investigation into the 1968 death of 11-year-old Clement in last week's Weekend Herald.

While investigating some of the flood of complaints over treatment of ex-patients of former mental hospitals, the newspaper found that the police were looking again at Clement's case after another former Kingseat patient, Stephen Lindsay, said he saw a male nurse kick him in the back. Ms Matthews, who has 17 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and works in a car-polish factory, wants to speak to the police.

Ex-patients who were put into mental hospitals in the 1960s and 1970s have continued to come forward this week alleging mistreatment. They follow nearly 200 people, mostly aged 8 to 16 at the time of hospital treatment, who have lodged complaints with Wellington lawyers whose request for an inquiry is being considered by the Government. Their allegations include beatings and sexual assault by staff and patients, inappropriate use of electric-shock therapy and drugs such as paraldehyde as punishment, and excessive use of other drugs and solitary confinement. The claims initially centred on Porirua Hospital but now encompass most of the former asylums, including Oakley, Kingseat, Tokanui and Lake Alice hospitals.

See also this report: Abuse inquiries flow in

There has been a steady stream of inquiries from former employees and patients over abuse allegations at psychiatric hospitals. Almost 200 official complaints have been made by people who allege they were physically and sexually abused in state mental health hospitals in the 1960s and 1970s. Wellington lawyer Roger Chapman says recent publicity about the litigation has encouraged more people to come forward. He says it seems like an indication that abuse happened quite a bit in New Zealand's psychiatric hospitals in the past. However Mr Chapman says it is likely the majority of patients in psychiatric care were treated well by the psychiatric standards of the day. Lawyers are poring over the claims and inquiries. The abuse allegations include electric shock therapy, solitary confinement and the misuse of medication to keep people quiet. Mr Chapman says the allegations vary from hospital to hospital.

Sound like the standards of the day are horrific.

See also this report: Abuse complaints mount against psychiatric hospital