Psychiatrist leads walk out over doomed mental health unit

As seen here, some psychs are upset to be no longer on the government dole. I recall stories about death rates in hospitals going down when doctors were on strike. Maybe we'll see more of the same here, with mental health statistics improving when the psychs are our of business ;-)

Furious NHS staff staged a mass walk-out at a dramatic board meeting in which health chiefs voted unanimously to close Stroud's mental health unit Weavers Croft.

Psychiatrist Dr Toby Moate exploded with a coarsely-worded outburst as Paul Winterbottom, medical director of Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Trust, talked of doctors' support for the plans.

As executives gawped in amazement, Dr Moate and around 30 colleagues walked out of the meeting at Gloucester's Guildhall arts centre on Thursday.
continued...

Speaking after the meeting, Dr Moate said medical staff were 'disgusted by the spin that is being generated' around the proposals.

"Obviously I can't call him a liar but he's really pushing the truth," he said.

"The consultants have said they will try to work as best they can with these proposals.

"But none of us know anyone else who agrees with the speed and extent of these changes.

"We feel things we say are being twisted and misinterpreted."

Thursday's decision followed a frank meeting on Wednesday night between directors and members of public sector worker's union UNSION.

Despite thousands of objections, the unit is now expected to close before Christmas.

Around 100 members of staff could be made redundant.

Board members agreed to the cuts despite what chief executive Jeff James described as 'a medium risk' of local health watchdogs appealing to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who has the power to overturn the decision.

A spokesman for the trust said Dr Moate had misinterpreted Dr Winterbottom's remarks.

"It's often the case when people are passionate about expressing their own views that they are less good at hearing what has been said rather than what they thought was said," she said.

"This may be understandable but it doesn't justify disruptive foulmouthed public protest or repeated misrepresentation of what was said."

She added that the trust has not interfered with staff expressing their views and believes in the importance of their contribution.

Health campaigners were disappointed by the outcome but are looking to the future.

"I'm obviously very disappointed that the trust didn't listen to the fairly powerful arguments that were made," said Jo Smith, chairman of the Stroud and District branch of the Alzheimer's Society.

"I just hope it's sent up to the Secretary of State and I hope she'll overturn it."

Meanwhile, David Miller, chair of the League of Friends of Stroud Hospitals, remained hopeful about the possibility of a Social Enterprise Model, which would see the unit run by the community.

Trust executives have promised to discuss the idea with representatives from other NHS organisations before their next board meeting on Wednesday, September 20.

State Suprem Court Rules that Virginia must follow rules to commit sex offenders

While sexual predators receive little public sympathy, the important principle here is that they just can't lock you up and take away liberties based on an arbitrary caprice. They have to follow rules. As seen in this report.

The state must play by the book in seeking to involuntarily commit sexually violent offenders following completion of their prison terms, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The high court decided that the state had wrongly committed Ellis Lorenzo Miles, a convicted rapist from Richmond, to a special facility in Dinwiddie County, because it incorrectly scored his test to identify potentially violent sex predators.

Miles, 37, contested the civil-commitment decision of a Richmond Circuit Court judge who had been convinced that the inmate would commit other offenses after release.

Miles was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 1995 for convictions of rape in Richmond and malicious wounding in Chesterfield County. He has been confined at the special Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation since mid-August 2005.

The problem with the civil commitment?

Miles had scored three points out of a possible six on a risk-assessment test. The law specifies that an inmate must register at least four points to initiate other civil-commitment evaluations. But the Department of Corrections mistakenly determined that he had reached the required number of points based on, among other things, his age and the type of offenses.

A clinical psychologist later concluded that Miles was "sexually aggressive," and his "personality disorder appears to predispose him to commit sexually violent offenses," the Supreme Court noted.

Despite undisputed evidence of his lower score, the state argued that the score is just a procedural mechanism, rather than a requirement to proceed with the later evaluations and civil-commitment proceeding.

The seven-member high court unanimously disagreed with the state's contention and reversed the commitment order of Circuit Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr.

"At oral argument in this case," Justice Barbara Milano Keenan wrote, "the commonwealth also conceded that it would not have initiated proceedings against Miles if he had not received a score of four" on the test called the Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offender Recidivism (RRASOR).

"By these concessions, the commonwealth effectively refutes its own argument that the [test score provision] is purely a procedural screening guideline and lacks any substantive effect because but for Miles' erroneous RRASOR score, the commonwealth would not have taken further action against Miles," the justice explained.

The law is the law, the court suggested, and not subject to the state's spin on it.

"We observe that the commonwealth's position is also without merit," Keenan said, "because it effectively asks us to hold that the commonwealth's own errors should redound to Miles' detriment."

J. Tucker Martin, the chief spokesman for the attorney general's office, said no decision has been made yet about releasing Miles.

"We are reviewing the opinion and considering all the options," he said.

Texas Medical Board Suspends Psychiatrist's License

According to this report from KEYE TV

A Texas Medical Board panel temporarily suspended the license of Austin psychiatrist Sergio Silva Friday.

According to a press release issued Tuesday, the board found that Silva’s continued practice would constitute a continuing threat to the public welfare.

The Medical Board said Silva prescribed Prozac and Strattera "in a non-therapeutic manner" to a 7-year-old. They say Silva then failed to diagnose and treat medication-induced toxicity, resulting in the patient being hospitalized with suicidal and homicidal tendencies.

The boy grabbed at knives and tried to choke himself, according to reports.

The board also said Silva also prescribed controlled substances to another patient for no good medical reason. After the patient overdosed, Silva attempted to manage the patient’s condition without securing emergency care. The board said that after the patient was hospitalized, Silva’s behavior resulted in his losing his privileges at that hospital.

Silva also lost hospital privileges at Seton, where they claim he was abusive to other doctors.

"We do a temporary suspension when we feel the situation warrants that. (When) we feel there's a danger to the public of a danger to patients," said Jill Wiggins with the Texas Medical Board.

The length of a temporary suspension order is indefinite but it remains in effect until the board takes further action.

To practice again, Silva would have to work out a settlement agreement with the board which could allow him to treat patients under certain restrictions.

The board says suspensions like these are rare, and only happens when they believe patients or the public is in danger. You can fill in yourt own choice of cynical remark.

Psychiatrist's license suspended over prescription allegations

According to this report

A Bellevue psychiatrist's license has been suspended after state licensing authorities said he prescribed medications to a patient knowing the patient planned to give them to his girlfriend.

Earlier this year, the patient overdosed on the drugs, but recovered.

According to the commission's statement, Dr. Milton M. Ashley intentionally misled the investigation by saying he didn't know the drugs would be used by the patient's girlfriend.

The action is the second time Ashley, 83, has come to the attention of the state's Medical Quality Assurance Commission, according to the statement of charges. In 1995, he entered into an agreement to keep better records, not prescribe drugs with high abuse risk, not prescribe medications for family members and confine his practice to psychotherapy.

He was released from the requirements of the agreement in 1999. But further complaints led to a new investigation, said Lisa Noonan, disciplinary manager for the commission.

Those investigations found that he did not take adequate care in prescribing medications presenting a potential for abuse, failed to perform physicals and histories, develop treatment plans or verify medical information.

The action by the commission means Ashley must immediately stop practicing as a physician pending the outcome of a hearing.

Ashley has 20 days to respond to the charges.

Electric shock therapy outrage

According to this report

Mental health care patients in Worcestershire are given nearly 700 electric shock treatments a year, new figures have revealed.

According to the statistics, the controversial electroconvulsive therapy has been administered 3,400 times in Worcestershire since 2001 - more than any of the 27 health trusts nationwide that have provided figures apart from Leicestershire.

The therapy involves electrodes being attached to the head and an electric current being passed briefly though the electrodes to the brain, causing a seizure.

Surveys by the medical profession have highlighted serious long-term side-effects of the treatment - including brain damage, memory loss and intellectual impairment, while human rights campaigners have branded it "cruel and barbaric" and say it should only be given as a last resort.

But mental health care bosses say the figure equates to just 125 patients treated per year from a Worcestershire population of half a million.

The figures were obtained from the Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust by the Citizens Commission On Human Rights (CCHR) under the Freedom Of Information Act. Commission spokesman Chris Wrapson described them as "extraordinary".

He said: "Psychiatrists cloak shock treatment in medical legitimacy, the effects of which are horrific, and the full ramifications are not explained to the patients or families, The brutality of ECT shows psychiatry has not advanced beyond the cruelty and barbarism of its earliest treatment."

A survey by the Royal College of Psychiatrists proved patients treated with electric shock therapy can suffer memory loss as a result.

Of the 1,344 psychiatrists surveyed, 21 per cent referred to long-term side from page one effects and risks of brain damage, memory loss and intellectual impairment.

GPs reported that 34 per cent of patients seen in the months after receiving electroconvulsive therapy were poor or worse.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust glossed over the reports, saying: "The figure quoted by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of 3,400 relates to approximately 680 administrations per year."

As if 680 treatments of horror was no big deal.

Christians and the Psychiatric Culture

As seen here: Another angle on the Anti-Psychiatry Movement. Many ministers seem to ignore the many contradictions between the doctrines of faith and the doctrines of psychiatry. These doctrines might not be as compatible as some folks would like.

Last night I finished reading a book I mentioned here a few weeks ago, Will Medicine Stop the Pain?: Finding God’s Healing for Depression, Anxiety, and Other Troubling Emotions by Elyse Fitzpatrick and another biblical counselor, Laura Hendrickson, a physician who formerly practiced psychiatry. The book targets women since, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, twice as many women as men will experience depression in their lifetime. Hendrickson not only prescribed antidepressants to her patients but for a period took them herself to treat diagnosed depression and bipolar disorder. She candidly relates her experiences with childhood rejection, subsequent emotional instability, and drug-induced confusion including suicidal and homicidal thoughts. Other first person accounts from Christian women who have struggled with depression appear throughout the book.

The authors explain how modern psychiatry frequently operates on the premise that human beings are reducible to our biochemical components. Intense emotional pain is therefore concluded to be the result of physical disease. They contrast this materialistic perspective with a biblical view of the person as consisting of the uniting of the outer man (the physical body including the brain) and the inner man which is referred to biblically by terms like the heart, mind, spirit, and/or soul. Fitzpatrick and Hendrickson acknowledge that the body can affect and influence the heart and vice versa. They also concede that there are real, empirically verifiable diseases of the brain (as well as brain injuries) that can have negative effects on one’s perception, cognition, and moods. However, they point out that there are no tests for so-called imbalances in brain chemistry for which antidepressants are said to be correctives. They also claim that emotional pain is intended to inform us what is going on in our hearts so that we might avail ourselves of the resources that are ours in Christ to experience heart transformation.

Fitzpatrick and Hendrickson take great pains to caution readers currently on antidepressants against deciding to go off them without medical supervision.

One of the medical professionals frequently cited is Joseph Glenmullen, a psychiatrist who teaches at Harvard Medical School and is also in private practice. I had seen him on ABC's Prime Time Live two years ago and had thought at the time of picking up one of his books but never got around to it. (Dr. Glenmullen's responses to Prime Time viewers' questions about antidepressant side effects and withdrawal are available here.) Glenmullen authored Prozac Backlash and more recently, The Antidepressant Solution which I’m in the midst of reading.

While he prescribes antidepressants on a limited basis, Glenmullen has been a very outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical companies' campaign to market them to physicians and the general public. He believes that the majority of Americans currently taking them are doing so unnecessarily. He is also very concerned that many physicians, who are often reliant upon the drug companies for their information about the drugs and their effects, are ignorant about antidepressant dependence, withdrawal, and how to safely taper patients off them. It’s frightening to learn how misleading pharmaceutical companies have been in their pushing of various medications, many times suppressing evidence of ineffectiveness and/or harmful side effects. According to Glenmullen, ample evidence exists indicating that in some people, antidepressants can create the very symptoms they were prescribed to treat. And in some cases, such a dependence is built that serious symptoms can result from forgetting to take the pills at their proper time. When this happens, patients often think that they are having a relapse when, in actuality, the drug is responsible for their problems.

I can't recommend the above books highly enough to those taking antidepressants (whether male or female) and those who care about someone who is. Readers may also be interested in acquiring a Mars Hill Audio Journal interview with David Healy, a British psychiatrist and author of The Antidpressant Era and more recently Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression on antidepressants and the concept of disease.

When one takes into consideration that the disorders the psychiatric community labels people with, are not scientifically validated, there is much cause for both alarm and caution. I’m especially concerned because I know numerous Christians who have bought the well-publicized line that taking antidepressants is analogous to taking insulin or other medication designed to treat biologically detectable illnesses.

In a chapter on biological psychiatry in his book Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture

David Powlison makes what I believe is an accurate observation:

The church typically lags a bit behind the culture's way of thinking. But the ethos and practice of biopsychiatry are deeply affecting the church already. If it's broken, or even just not working optimally, it can be fixed from the outside by a drug: better living through chemistry. In your ministry and in your church you are probably already facing the ethos and the practices. Many people in both pew and pulpit are on mind-, mood-, and behavior-altering drugs. We all increasingly face the ideas and knowledge claims, too. The cover story in Time magazine informs the everyday queries and choices of Christian people. Eventually such ideas make it into the educational system as the received wisdom of the culture with which to disciple the next
generation (p. 243)

The more believers uncritically accept the therapeutic ethos that so permeates our culture, the less relevant and precious the gospel will seem.

2 psychiatrists and other staff suspended in patient's death scandal

As reported in the Star Ledger of New Jersey. An easy bet seems to be that this is just the tip of the iceberg

Seven state employees, including two psychiatrists, were suspended yesterday for "neglect of duty" and other mistakes that allowed a patient at a state hospital to be killed by her roommate, a Human Services spokeswoman said.

Acting Human Services Commissioner James Smith also dismissed two temporary nurses who were working at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Camden County on July 14, the day 54-year-old Margaret Cetrangolo was strangled in her bedroom.

State Police arrested patient Salwa Srour, 36, who was the victim's roommate for less than a day. She has been held at the Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton since her arrest.

The disciplinary charges expose a breakdown in communications and a failure to follow hospital policy days before the homicide and an attempt to cover up mistakes after the fact.

"It was human error every step of the way," Human Services spokeswoman Ellen Lovejoy said. "It's unacceptable."

The problems began 11 days before the killing, when one of the hospital's chiefs of psychiatry "prescribed more than the maximum recommended amount" of medication for Cetrangolo. The psychiatrist, who was suspended for 11 days, also failed to keep the patient's files current for two months, Lovely said.

On the day she died, the hospital moved Cetrangolo to a different unit and paired her up with Srour.

One nurse failed to ensure Cetrangolo's medications came with her when she moved, so the patient went from being over-medicated to taking no medication in a single day, Lovejoy said. Another nurse looking after Srour failed to tell her supervisor the patient "had been acting out" and needed medication to control her behavior.

Both nurses were suspended for 30 days.

Two nursing supervisors also made critical errors by failing to note in Cetrangolo's file she was prone to aggressive behavior and needed to be monitored carefully. Both have been suspended for 30 days, Lovejoy said.

At 7:15 p.m. on July 14, Srour slapped one employee across the face and another on the arm. When one of the temporary nurses called the hospital's other psychiatry chief for advice, "the psychiatrist hung up before the nurse could fully complete his report to her and get an assessment and recommendation for treatment," Lovejoy said. The state ordered the psychiatrist suspended for 90 days, she added.

The state also meted out a 45-day suspension to a Human Services assistant who gave conflicting statements and falsified records about when she knew the victim needed closer supervision.

According to a police report, after the attack that evening Srour told a hospital worker, "I killed Margaret.... I strangled her and then put a pillow over her face and sat on her." The staff found Cetrangolo's body in her bedroom, which had a large window to allow staff to monitor patients inside, police said.

The state withheld the identities of the disciplined state employees, citing confidentiality requirements.

Ancora is a 730-bed adult inpatient facility in Winslow Township and one of five psychiatric hospitals operated by the state.

Psychiatrist charged in child porn raid

As reported in the Journal Sentinel

A psychiatrist who specialized in children and adolescents has been charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography.

Eric B. Schwietering, who saw roughly 60 patients a week as an outpatient psychiatrist at Cornerstone Counseling Services in Brookfield, was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Tuesday with seven counts of possession of child pornography and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, court records show.

Police seized more than a hundred pornographic video cassettes and DVDs, his computer, and pipes and metal screens commonly used to smoke crack from a home in the 400 block of N. 3rd St. last week, records show.

Schwietering, 40, had worked at Cornerstone for more than two years, according to John Wirkus, president of Cornerstone's board of directors.

All of his patients are being referred to other doctors, Wirkus said.

See also this Yahoo Report

A 40-year-old child psychiatrist is facing child pornography charges. Police said a house guest using a computer at Eric Schwietering's condominium came across some obscene pictures of young children. That person called police.

Police said they are not suggesting any of Schwietering's patients were in the photos on the computer. His clinic, Cornerstone Counseling Services, was unaware of his arrest until 12 News called it Monday. State regulators said his license is in good standing.

Ryan Mudgett, who called police, said he hopes this arrest keeps Schwietering away from children. "Who's to say he isn't interviewing or counseling small children and stuff in his office behind a closed door, by themselves?" Mudgett said.

Brussels on trial over staff treatment

As reported in the Financial Times A case that seems like the political use and abuse of psychiatry

A civil servant branded as mentally unstable by the European Commission was subjected to harassment and blackmail a court heard on Wednesday, in a trial that questions the way the European Union executive rids itself of troublesome staff.

José Sequeira was marched from his office two years ago after the Commission’s medical service said he was mentally unfit to work. His lawyers claim he was singled out for raising allegations of corruption in the Jacques Santer-led Commission during the late 1990s.

Neither he nor his doctors have seen the diagnosis and three eminent psychiatrists have given him a clean bill of health.

“How can one contest a decision without access to the medical file?” asked Paul Mahoney, presiding judge at the European civil service tribunal in Luxembourg, where the hearing was held.

His fellow judges on a three-person panel also questioned whether a decision on June 18 2004 to put Mr Sequeira on sick leave within 72 hours was taken by the correct person. It was “not a decision but a communication”, the Commission said in its defence. It was rubberstamped by higher authorities on June 28. “One could perhaps call it ‘inexistent’ then”, mused Stéfano Gervasoni, echoing Mr Sequeira’s application to have it annulled.

Mr Sequeira also wants his job as an administrator in the development directorate back and up to €2m ($2.6m, £1.4m) in damages and costs from his two-year fight to clear his name.

Commission staff have jobs for life but an average of 200 are placed on long-term sick leave every year, half with mental health problems. That is almost 1 per cent of its 22,000 workforce and most never return to work. A 2003 study found that the cost across all European institutions of the invalidity policy is €74m a year.

The Commission is revamping its occupational health policy.

Mr Sequeira, who joined the Commission in 1988, first encountered problems in February 2001 when Horst Reichenbach, head of the administration department, accused him of circulating a “defamatory dossier” about colleagues. He placed a junior official, Mercedes de Sola, in charge of disciplinary proceedings. She asked him to attend a medical appointment.

“Where is the dossier?” asked Olivier Martins, Mr Sequeira’s barrister. “It was just an excuse.”

Mr Sequeira, a Portuguese national, refused to co-operate with the inquiry and was given an ultimatum in May 2004 by the Commission medical service. Dr Serve Dolmans told him that unless he visited a psychiatrist chosen by the Commission he would be sent on sick leave.

After a 45 minute consultation he was apparently judged unfit to work. Serge Bornstein, an eminent French psychiatrist, by contrast found no evidence of mental illness.

Céline Falmagne, for the Commission, said it was an “exceptional case” but due procedure had been followed. “It was a medical case handled by medical professionals,” she told the court.

The judges will deliver a verdict in the next few months.

State liable for sexual harassment by inmates

As reported here. This seems like an example of managers using psychiatry to handle the complaints of employees, even when the complaints are legitimate.

The state of California must bear the responsibility for sexual harassment caused by the inmates it houses, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says.

The San Francisco=based court says the California Department of Corrections allowed a hostile work environment to go on in the Pelican Bay State Prison.

A former guard there, Deanna Freitag, sued after her supervisors sent her to a psychiatrist when she complained that inmates were sexually harassing her.

Ms. Freitag alleged that the CDCR and Pelican Bay were delinquent in addressing the sexually hostile environment created by prison inmates — particularly in confronting the pervasive practice at Pelican Bay of inmate exhibitionist behavior directed at female officers.

When she complained, she was retaliated against and ultimately terminated due to her repeated complaints regarding the problem, according to court records.

A jury agreed and awarded her $500,000 in economic damages, $100,000 in compensatory damages and $100 in punitive damages. The court also awarded over $1 million in attorney’s fees.

“There was overwhelming evidence presented to the jury that the CDCR maintained a hostile work environment at Pelican Bay by failing to take prompt and reasonable corrective action with respect to Freitag’s multiple complaints,” the appeals court says.

“There was also overwhelming evidence that agents of the CDCR retaliated against Freitag as a result of those complaints,” it says.

The Court's decsion is available here (PDF)

LICENSE TO HARM : The Unchecked Problem of Sexual misconduct by Health Professionals.

About this series

In this first accounting of sexual misconduct in Washington health care, Seattle Times staff reporters obtained and analyzed thousands of disciplinary cases against licensed professionals. The reporters interviewed more than 250 people, including experts, offenders, health care professionals, state regulators and law enforcement officials.

The reporters filed nearly 100 state public record requests and obtained more than 10,000 pages of health department investigative reports, memos and e-mails. That information was used to create a computer database of sexual misconduct cases from 1995 to 2005.

Dozens of cases were opened for the first time through legal challenges filed by the newspaper. In ruling for The Times, the Washington Attorney General's Office said that state health officials had been improperly withholding public information for more than a decade.

Reporters also obtained databases of allegations and administrative files from the state health department. To track practitioners who had undisclosed felony sex convictions, the reporters cross-matched practitioners' names in health department records with names in a database of Washington criminal convictions previously obtained from the Washington State Patrol.

Reporters relied on police, criminal and civil court records from nearly all of the state's 39 counties.

Naturally, there is an appropriate share of Psychs in the mix. Based on a rate of occurance per 1,000 licenses, Psychologists had the highest rate of abuse.

Psychiatrist sues Google when she is caught in 'Click Fraud'

As reported here , based on reports from Eweek

A Washington, D.C-based corporate psychologist and jog bra seller filed suit against Google last week for $250,000 claiming the company wrongfully removed AdSense from her website.

Well, her attorney put it a bit more harshly. According to eWeek, Dr. Theresa Bradley's suit accuses Google of fraud, misrepresentation, and "willful, wanton, fraudulent and malicious" conduct.

What did Google do to chap her craw so bad? After spending 100 hours placing and reviewing AdSense ads, she asked Google to block ads from the competition, which is permitted in the user agreement.

Google blocked all of them, discovering that she had violated the to terms of service by clicking on her own ads. And that, dear ones, is click fraud.

Bradley says clicking them was necessary to assess whether or not the ads were for competing services, apparently ignorant of or apathetic toward the AdSense Preview Tool.

The online forums have been,to understate it, unsympathetic and unforgiving of Bradley, calling the lawsuit "frivolous." Some have even discussed whether or not she should lose her doctorate.

See the online reactions at Web Master World, Geek Village, and at the Digital Point Forums,

Fake Head Shrinker Sued for Leaving Mind Unshrunken, and Endangering a Life.

As reported on NBC25 of Hagerstown, Maryland.

Less than two weeks ago a well-known ghost hunter in West Virginia was arrested and charged for allegedly posing as a licensed doctor and psychiatrist. Now a former patient of hers is taking legal action.

Lisa Schweiger is suing Susan Crites for 350 thousand dollars. She said Crites, the founder of the West Virginia Society of Ghost Hunters, fooled her into thinking she was a doctor.

Schweiger said that “Originally Susan Crites introduced herself to me as a psychiatrist. We became friends. We talked often. I had a 16-year-old daughter who was at the time being 16. She offered counseling for my daughter as well as myself.”

But when Schweiger became physically sick, she said Crites began giving her medication -- Illegally.

The two would often meet at a home at the Woods Resort in Hedgesville for therapy. Schweiger said Crites charged her $25 dollars per session.

“Everything was going fine and I didn't become suspicious until my illness progressed to a point that my friends stepped in and said, 'I think something's not right'” Schweiger commented.

According to Schweiger's legal complaint, Crites gave her pain medicine to cure what turned out to be a cancerous tumor.

Lisa goes on saying that “It was three days before my surgery to remove the football-size tumor in my left ovary that I emailed her again basically asking her why. Why would she do this to me? I thought she was a doctor.”

Crites' attorney, Heidi Myers, told NBC25 Schweiger is merely using the legal system to ruin her client's reputation.

Myers said she is defending Crites against both the criminal and civil charges brought before her. Crites is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Thursday and Schweiger said she will be present in the courtroom.

Comments Schweiger, “I'm only seeking justice in this. I'm not the only victim in this.”

Crites could face one to 15 years in prison if convicted of supplying prescription medication without a medical license.

Schweiger refused to comment as to why she didn't do a background check on Crites before accepting her services. Susan Crites has denied all of the allegations.

If Crites is convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

Prescription drugs are connected to school shootings and other violence, yet more drugs are touted as the solution

As seen on the News Target website

The United States is gaining a reputation around the world for raising children who go on school shooting rampages. Earlier this year, we had another one with 16-year-old Jeff Weiss, who went into his school on an Indian reservation and blew away 10 friends. And guess what? He was taking the antidepressant Prozac.

Once again we see the link between antidepressants and violent behavior. I was raising the alarm about this in 1999 following the Columbine schools shootings. At that time we knew that those students were on antidepressant drugs, but the rest of the world didn't take any notice of it. The rest of the world said, "These drugs are completely safe. They keep these kids happy and in a normal state so they don't feel depressed." What they actually do, though, is detach these kids from reality to the point they can go on shooting rampages and not even have a clue that they're affecting the lives of real people. It basically transforms the world into a video game that these kids play out.

It makes it very easy for them to cross that threshold and begin to display violent behavior. We've seen this in the studies and finally, after years and years of pounding this issue, some of it has started to come out in the popular press. We're seeing a lot of warnings now about antidepressant drugs and their ability to cause violent behavior. We're seeing some of these drugs pulled off the market. And slowly we're beginning to see the general public recognizing the link between antidepressant drugs in our youth and violent behavior, including school shootings.

Back in 1999, they blamed guns. So if the students had picked up knives and stabbed people to death, it would have been a knife problem? Give me a break; it's not a knife problem, or a gun problem… it's a medication problem. These schools are supposed to be drug-free zones, and yet half the kids are doped up on antidepressants and Ritalin. How is that drug-free?

If you're going to alter the brain chemistry of these children, you had better be prepared for the results. The result we're seeing now is mass killings. Elsewhere around the world, where children aren't doped up on all these drugs, we don't see this kind of behavior. This is what happens when you change children's brain chemistry; you get these results.

Now, you can talk about other factors that may be involved. We can talk about violent video games, for example, and how some of these first-person shooter games are potentially training simulators for violent and aggressive behavior. However, I think you can only push that argument so far. If a child can distinguish between a video game and reality, then he's not going to be running around shooting people in the real world just because he played a video game.

That doesn't mean these video games are healthy. I would certainly prefer that children played something a little less violent, but I don't think you can blame the video games for this behavior. You've got to go to the brain chemistry. It's when you alter the brain chemistry that bad things start to happen.

Boosting brain health with nutrition

Now, are there healthy ways to alter brain chemistry? Of course there are. Fundamentally, this is actually a nutritional problem. If a child is depressed, or if he or she is suffering from so-called ADHD -- which is a completely fictional disease, by the way -- you can resolve the vast majority of these issues by making changes in their diet.

As much as 80 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD can be completely free of the "disease" in a matter of weeks just by taking certain metabolic disrupters out of their diet -- most notably, refined sugars and refined grains, such as white flour and artificial food colors. Imagine how healthy children's nervous systems could be if we fed them good nutrition. What if they had some supergreens or just some basic vitamins, minerals and whole food concentrates? What could we do for the health of their brains?

They would have stable moods, they would have non-aggressive behavior, and they would be more creative and more willing to learn. We could raise a whole generation of healthy, intelligent children if we started with nutrition, because the brain and nervous system are physical organs. People forget that. The brain is a physical organ, and just like any physical organ in your body, if you don't give it the right nutrients, then it won't function properly.

Trying to raise a normal child without nutrition is akin to running a car without oil

It's sort of like trying to run your car without any oil in it. I know that's a crude metaphor, but some people get the point that way. You have to have good nutrition for the brain; that means B vitamins and lots of minerals -- magnesium, zinc, calcium and the trace minerals as well. You have to have the phytonutrients, the pigmentation in these foods -- the blues in the berries and the reds in the tomatoes and peppers, the orange in carrots and so on.

The colors of foods are actually potent phytochemicals, and these colors have highly protective effects on the nervous system. They also boost immune system function in the body and can help reduce arthritis and inflammation. They have a lot of beneficial effects in the body, yet children today are growing up on mostly processed foods and junk foods.

You probably remember what you ate as a teenager. It's an atrocious diet. I know mine was a terrible diet. I can't believe I made it to the age of 25 based on what I was eating then. But some kids aren't making it, and they're not making it because they lack the basic nutrition they need to have healthy functioning nervous systems.

So what does this organized medicine and psychiatry do to combat this problem? It doses teenagers up on prescription drugs as if drugs are the answer to every problem. Then they have another answer when these kids go out and shoot each other. The answer, then, is prison time. "We'll lock these kids away because they're dangerous to society."

Instead of spending a few dollars on nutrition to raise a healthy, balanced human being with a functioning nervous system, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, over the life of this person to keep them incarcerated. We build more prisons. We put them on more drugs, and we do nothing to create a productive member of society.

It only takes a few dollars worth of nutrition each month to support a healthy child. Of course, there's more to it than just nutrition; there are things like good parenting, a great living environment, a challenging learning environment and so on. But in terms of the nutritional aspect, it only takes a few dollars. Nutrition doesn't have to be expensive.

Investing in the health of our children is a bargain

To cover the nutrition basics only costs a few dollars a month, and that investment would pay off so much in our society. It would be returned many times over very quickly because every kid that we can save from the prison system and give a new opportunity, in terms of being able to learn and take on a skill and have real job opportunities out there, produces a windfall of returns for society. That child is going to grow up and be a productive member of society. He or she is going to pay taxes, possible raise a family and be part of a community. Instead, we put them in prison, dose them up on drugs and blame them for their actions when I believe they've actually been instigated by the prescription drugs and toxic chemicals in their foods.

The don't need to be punished as mush as they simply need to be nourished. I know this stands at odds with the current "incarcerate everybody" mentality that dominates the culture here in the United States, the land of prisons -- but it's the truth. Why are we the country with the greatest prison population in the world? It might be the same reason we are the nation with the worst health problems in the world. They are connected, you know. People who are unhealthy are unhappy, moody and can display aggressive, violent behavior. Change their diets and you can turn many criminals into normal people. Not all of them, of course, but a large number.

Modern society is addicted to drugs

Someday historians will look back on this era and wonder with great bewilderment how we could poison our children with such toxic chemicals, how we could poison an entire generation with prescription drugs and how we could keep all our senior citizens in a zombie state, dosed up on mind-altering drugs. They will wonder, "How could we do this as a society? Were we insane? Were we completely out of our minds? What was wrong with this society?"

At that time, society will have moved way beyond chemical-based medicine. We will be focused on disease prevention, and we'll have electro-medicine. We'll be using non-local medicine, for example, to help people stay healthy. We'll have outstanding nutrition available at a very reasonable cost in formats people can enjoy taking. Someday, nutrition will be recognized as the number one way to prevent disease and keep people healthy.

Belief in chemicals as a cure-all is just one more sign that we are living in the dark ages of medicine

Today, however, we're living in the Dark Ages of medicine. We're still living in the chemical-based medical society where everybody says that chemicals are the solutions to health problems.

"Does your head hurt? You need a chemical. Blood pressure too high? We have a chemical for that, too. Do you feel nervous speaking in front of groups? We have a chemical for that one. Having trouble with your relationships? Chemical. Got a little bit of joint pain? Yup, there's a chemical for that." Then they'll tell you, just in case, "We have chemicals for stuff that you haven't even experienced yet. We have chemicals that you can take to make sure that you never have pain or heart disease. You should take all these chemicals right now, just in case, and keep taking them for as long as you live."

How's that for a con? The con of pharmaceutical-based medicine is the biggest con ever perpetrated on the American people. That con has effects in our schools, and unfortunately, some of those side effects are fatal.

The silent holocaust of pharmaceutical deaths

Let's look at this in perspective: We're talking about 10 children being killed in this particular incident, and there are a lot of headlines about these 10 children being killed. Certainly, it is a tragedy. None of those children deserved to die, and it didn't have to happen if only we were able to actually take care of our children and feed them right in the first place. But let's compare those 10 deaths to how many Americans have been killed by prescription drugs this year alone. Even the Journal of the American Medical Association says in a peer-reviewed study that prescription drugs cause 100,000 deaths a year in this country.

Ten children die in this school shooting, and it gets a lot of attention. Why? It's violent; people pay attention to violence. Meanwhile, we have 100,000 Americans (and that's a conservative number) dying every year just from prescription drugs side effects, and it gets no attention. Why? It's not violent. These 100,000 people die separately, and they die quietly. They die in homes or in hospitals. There's no fiery crash, there's no late-night footage for the news, there's no big explosion and there's nothing to report to the tabloid papers. It's just 100,000 people dying silently.

Also, more than 16,500 deaths a year are caused by over-the-counter pain medications. Non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) kill more than 16,500 people a year by gastrointestinal bleeding. Then the COX-2 inhibitors, which were supposed to be safer than the NSAIDs, came along, and according to studies by chief drug researcher Dr. David Graham at the FDA, they've caused more than 144,000 heart attacks, more than 40 percent of which have been fatal.

So what are we talking about here? We're talking about drugs killing more Americans than the entire Vietnam War. We're talking about it happening every year -- twice a year, in fact. You want to talk about a war; this is war on the people, and it's being waged by the pharmaceutical industry. They're willing to trade your life for their profits, in my view. They can get away with it because, again, there's no big event. People are dying separately and quietly, and many of the people who are dying were in their old age anyway, right? They figure no one will blame the drug.

We have a disturbingly drug-addicted society here, folks. We've got to get back to health and basic nutrition by raising children with healthy, functioning nervous systems. If we don't do that, no amount of chemistry is going to save us. In fact, these chemicals are already responsible for untold pain, suffering and death in our society.

The solution is not more chemicals. The solution is to change the paradigm and get back to nutrition, healthy foods and disease prevention while getting the poisonous ingredients out of our food supply. If we don't do that, we're going to continue to be a society of violent criminals and degenerates -- a society of people who don't have good cognitive function and who are chemically dependant on a system of medicine that is actually killing them at a rate that makes the Vietnam War look like a Boy Scout skirmish in the woods.

That's the truth about modern medicine today. It's a crime against our own children, and if we are to have any real hope of surviving as a nation for another generation, this practice must be stopped.

Psychiatrist loses licence over sex affair payment

As reported in The Age

A psychiatrist who paid a former patient $100,000 not to report their seven-year sexual affair has lost his medical licence.

Dr John Honey was found guilty of serious unprofessional conduct yesterday, after the Medical Practitioners Board ruled he had paid the woman, partly to keep their relationship quiet.

The Footscray doctor was banned from practising for at least two years after his conduct was deemed a "breach of trust, misuse of power, and exploitation of a former patient's vulnerability".

He was also found to have inappropriately prescribed her antidepressants, and breached confidentiality by discussing former patients with her.

Dr Joanna Flynn, chairwoman of the three-person panel, said the woman, a school teacher, had formed a dependency and was young and vulnerable.

At an earlier hearing the woman told the board she had an affair with the psychiatrist from 1997 to 2004. She had signed an agreement stating she would be paid $100,000 and would not lodge a complaint against him.

Dr Flynn said Dr Honey's motives in paying the money were due in part to him knowing the relationship was wrong and to help the woman with gambling debts, but also to ensure she would not report him.

And while his conduct was "not reprehensible, shameful or coercive", and he acknowledged he had made a gross error of judgement, his actions still fell "short of accepted standards", Dr Flynn said.

Dr Honey will be disqualified from applying for re-registration for two years.

Five years for cash con therapist

As reported on the BBC

A counsellor who brainwashed her client into giving her more than £200,000 has been jailed for five years.

Mary McCullagh, 59, who was living in Fordingbridge, Hants, told Nicole Anderson she would return the cash once she inherited a fictitious £9m estate.

Miss Anderson, an alcoholic, was also told by McCullagh to keep drinking or she risked dying from a fit.

McCullagh was found guilty of 12 counts of obtaining money by deception and one of obtaining property by deception.

McCullagh, who had previous convictions for fraud, ran a practice in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Judge John Beashel jailed her for a total of five years, telling her she would be released after two and a half years on licence.

He said: "I am satisfied you carefully targeted your victims. The offences relating to Miss Anderson are particularly unattractive as you took advantage of your position as her counsellor.

"These were cruel deceptions. You told Miss Anderson you were seriously ill and you were to receive a substantial inheritance.

"These offences were committed against a vulnerable woman who regarded you as a close and trusted friend.

"For four years you and your family have enjoyed the life of Riley at your victims' expense.

"Even when Miss Anderson ran out of money you persuaded her to get a loan to provide you with more funds."

Second victim

During the trial, Miss Anderson told the jury the therapist had encouraged her to drink as much as she wanted, saying she could have a fatal fit if she stopped.

She told the court: "It was fantastic news. Any alcoholic wants to be told that they can drink."

The court also heard how McCullagh brainwashed Miss Anderson into believing her family were trying to section her and she should break contact with them.

The jury at Bournemouth Crown Court also heard that when Miss Anderson had begun running out of money, McCullagh moved on to a second victim, David Oliver.

The court heard how she embarked on an affair with him and tricked him into giving her £9,000, which she said she needed to fund psychological treatment for her son in America.

McCullagh, who now lives in Wexford, Ireland, chose not to give evidence during the trial.

Judge Beashel heard that McCullagh had several previous convictions for fraud and was jailed for a month in 1981.

Police searching files of hundreds treated by prominent child psychiatrist charged with molestation

A follow up to an earlier report, as seen here

The molestation investigation surrounding prominent child psychiatrist William Ayres has intensified, as the San Mateo Police Department combs through the files of 700 people who may have sought treatment from Ayres in San Mateo County.

A former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ayres, 74, for decades treated county residents referred to him through local school districts and the county's juvenile justice system. He also ran a private practice.

Investigators are tight-lipped about the nature of their investigation, but several past patients and family members have come forward to file police reports charging that Ayres molested them while they sought counseling from him.

However, most of those cases are too old for prosecution under the statute of limitations.

More recent cases could be found in materials taken from Ayres' home and office during a search of his property in March. At that time, police seized and turned over material to a court-appointed "special master" who compiled a list of more than 700 possible patients, all meeting the statute of limitations, according to San Mateo Police Capt. Mike Callagy.

Investigators will begin calling hundreds of people treated by Ayres in what Callagy called a "tremendous undertaking."

"Our first duty is really to go through these names and contact the individuals and see what they have to say," Callagy said. "We're fact-finders. We're here to seek the truth, whatever that may be."

The investigation has been slow because of the number of agencies involved, Callagy said. The San Mateo District Attorney's Office and the county Department of Child and Family Services also have been working with the Police Department.

Last summer, Ayres settled a lawsuit with a man who claimed the psychiatrist molested him in 1977, when he was 13, according to court documents. Details of that lawsuit have not been released.

Ayres is currently involved in a lawsuit with his former medical group, Peninsula Psychiatric Associates, claiming it is responsible for losing important documents that would have allowed him to bill his settlement with his former patient to his insurance carrier.

Hugh W. Ridlehuber, a former psy-chiatrist with Peninsula Psychiatric Associates, said he never suspected any wrongdoing on Ayres' part.

"I was shocked when I heard about (the allegations)," Ridlehuber said. "As far as I knew, Ayres had a good reputation in the community."

San Mateo resident Barbara Ross said Ayres was recommended to her and her husband in 1972 after their son, Douglas, refused to attend his junior high school classes. Douglas, 12 at the time, told his parents that Ayres molested him during one of their sessions, but Ross said she and her husband didn't believe him.

Douglas died in a 1995 car wreck, years before the lawsuit against Ayres came to light.

Psych Faked Prescriptions, but Bosses Let Him Keep His Job.

As Reported in the Sunday Mail

A top Scots psychiatrist has been found guilty of writing bogus prescriptions.

Dr John Stewart will be allowed to keep his job, which involves preparing reports on accused people appearing before court. But watchdogs the General Medical Council have ruled the consultant must work under supervision.

They refused to reveal the exact nature of the allegations against him but Dr Stewart claimed he had been trying to treat himself for depression and working too hard.

The GMC would only say that he was accused of acting in an "inappropriate, unprofessional and dishonest" manner in relation to certain prescriptions he wrote.

The allegations were aired at a private hearing at the GMC's Regent's Place headquarters in London earlier this month. Last night, Dr Stewart - who is based at Ayr's Ailsa Hospital - said: "I told them about over- working. At the time I was treating myself for depression. I had better not say anything further."

Ayrshire MSP Margaret Jamieson slammed the decision to keep the allegations secret while Dr Stewart continues his work at the hospital.

She added: "The news that Dr Stewart was under investigation for the serious allegation of malpractice came as a bolt from the blue."

Dr Stewart - who lives with his wife and family in a detached house on Ayr seafront - was still working at Ailsa Hospital prior to the three-day GMC hearing.

He was back at work after the case was concluded but will now work with a supervisor chosen by the health board. He will have to inform the GMC if he accepts any new job in medicine. [...]

A GMCstatement before the verdict said: "The panel will inquire into allegations Dr John Stewart, a consultant in general psychiatry, acted in a way which was inappropriate, unprofessional and dishonest in relation to a number of prescriptions he wrote."

After the hearing, a spokesman added: "The hearing was in private and no further information will be put out on it."

NHS Ayrshire and Arran said: "We are not able to comment on individual cases."

'I told them about overworking.. at the time I was treating myself for depression. I had better not say anything further'

Sanity remains an issue

According to this report, Emphasis added

The opinion of a psychiatrist who testified that convicted murderer Richard Robert Russo was sane when he killed his wife has little merit because he never interviewed the defendant, an attorney for the defense argued Thursday.

During cross-examination in the sanity phase of Russo's trial, attorney Mark Overland questioned forensic psychiatrist Dr. Kaushal Sharma's ability to evaluate Russo.

"This is a man described as functioning as a stockbroker with a seven-figure income who goes to work every day," Sharma countered. "That doesn't sound like a person who is out of it."

Former stockbroker Russo was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife, Carmen, 42, last summer. He then barricaded himself and the couple's two sleeping children, then 6 and 11, in their home in the early morning hours of Aug. 30, 2005. The couple lived in Arcadia's exclusive Santa Anita Oaks neighborhood.

Russo, then a senior vice president at Smith Barney in Pasadena, kept police at bay for more than seven hours, authorities said. Russo has been held without bail since the incident. He now faces about 50 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Sharma said he went to the jail to interview Russo in the spring, and the man refused to speak to Sharma without his attorney present.

"I consider that a damn good attempt to interview him," Sharma said during the rather hostile exchange with Overland.

Overland read from a document called the "Ethical Guidelines for the Practice of Forensic Psychiatry," which said that opinions expressed by those who have not personally examined a patient are "limited."

Overland also asked neuropsychologist Dr. Roger Light back to the stand to refute Sharma's opinion that an interview is least important when determining a person's sanity. Light had testified in court Wednesday.

Light called an interview "the essential component" required in order to determine a person's mood, presentation, style and responses.

"I don't understand how you can do any evaluation without the person in front of you," Light said.

However, Sharma said that in the time that passes between when a defendant commits a crime and when he or she is interviewed by a mental health professional, that person could have learned from other inmates "how to fool a psychiatrist."

He added that the defendant may have also spoken to an attorney about what to say when being interviewed by a doctor.

"They may have a higher likelihood to say things that are self-serving, that are outright lies or rehearsed," he explained.

Sharma said that while he believed there was sufficient evidence to prove Russo was depressed at the time of the murder, he thought Russo was acting out of anger, not from the effects of a mental illness, when he killed his wife.

Closing arguments continue today.

Psychiatrist in BALCO steroids scandal could lose license

According to news wire reports

The former medical director of the clinic at the center of a massive sports-doping scandal could lose his license for allegedly giving a prescription stimulant to a champion sprinter without examining her.

The state medical board is seeking to revoke or suspend the medical license of Fairfield psychiatrist Dr. Brian Halevie-Goldman, who was medical director for the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative that gave steroids to top athletes.

Halevie-Goldman allegedly provided the drug modafinil to the unnamed athlete at the request of BALCO founder Victor Conte, who served four months in federal prison for dealing steroids.

The board identified the athlete by the initials K.W., but details in the report indicate it was elite sprinter Kelli White, a BALCO client who tested positive for modafinil after winning gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter races at the World Championships in Paris in 2003.

When White tested positive for the stimulant at a track meet, Halevie-Goldman concocted a medical history and diagnosis in an effort to excuse the doping offense, the medical board charged.

White was stripped of her gold medals from the 2003 World meet and suspended for two years.

She provided information to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on her former coach Remi Korchemny and Conte.

BALCO created performance-enhancing drugs designed to avoid detection by the USADA and professional sporting leagues, including Major League Baseball and the National Football League.

The names of several prominent athletes have surfaced in the federal probe, including other track stars and baseball players, such as Giants slugger Barry Bonds.

The BALCO probe brought guilty pleas in U.S. District Court from Conte, Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson, BALCO vice president James Valente, Korchemny and Patrick Arnold, the chemist who designed a previously undetectable steroid.