Month: July 2009

National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy – Fall Conference

Posted on by cchrstl

NARPA’s 27th Annual
Rights Conference
Advocacy for Rights in a New Era

September 9-12, 2009, Phoenix Arizona

2009 Conference Featured Speakers

Ira Burnim
Nationally Known Advocate & Legal Director
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

Lisa St. George
Survivor & Director of Award-Winning California Peer Program

Stefan Kruszewski, MD
Prominent Critic of Inaccurate Research & Off-Label Promotion by Pharmaceutical Industry

Kim Hopper
Medical Anthropologist & Co-Director
Center to Study Recovery in Social Contexts

Special Presentations by

Linda Andre
Author of Doctors of Deception:
What They Don’t Want You To Know About Shock Treatment

Susan Stefan
Significant Developments in Mental Health Law – 2009

Conference Tracks will emphasize:

Guardianship & Forced Treatment
Recovery & Alternatives to Medical Model Treatment
Advocacy & Legal Strategies for Challenging Times

All conference activities will be held at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort.
More information to come… check NARPA’s website at www.narpa.org for frequent updates!

Stimulant Use Linked to Sudden Death in Pediatric Patients

Posted on by cchrstl

Medscape Psychiatry & Mental Health, 2009-07-02 Robert L. Findling, MD, 07/02/2009, from the article: Gould MS, Walsh BT, Munfakh JL, et al. “Sudden death and use of stimulant medications in youths” Am J Psychiatry Jun 15, 2009.

Quotes from the original study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry:

“A significant association of stimulant use [primarily methylphenidate (Ritalin)] with sudden unexplained death emerged from the primary analysis…This case-control study provides support for an association between the use of stimulants and sudden unexplained death among children and adolescents.”

[Editorial Comment: We think that giving a child Ritalin is like playing Russian Roulette with the gun pointed at your child’s head.]

Recognize that the real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior as a “disease.” Psychiatry’s stigmatizing labels, programs and treatments are harmful junk science; their diagnoses of “mental disorders” are a hoax – unscientific, fraudulent and harmful. All psychiatric treatments, not just psychiatric drugs, are dangerous.

Watch the video documentary Making A Killing – The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging.

Federal Health Bill Calls for Billions in Orwellian Psych Programs and Treatments

Posted on by cchrstl

Call to Action

FEDERAL HEALTH BILL CALLS FOR BILLIONS IN ORWELLIAN PSYCH PROGRAMS AND TREATMENTS

Information: There is currently an effort in Congress to pass a massive “Health Care Reform” bill. In fact, Congressional leadership is doing everything in its power to pass this $1 trillion plus bill before the August recess. Action is called for, NOW. Here’s why.

There are two versions of the bill — one in the House (H.R. 3200) and one in the Senate (there is no number for the Senate bill at this point, but it is titled the Affordable Health Choices Act).

Both bills forward massive increases in government funding of mental health programs that turn America into a full blown therapeutic state.

The Senate bill (the Affordable Health Choices Act) includes:

  • Funding for community based “Health Teams,” which will establish a system of early identification and referral for children at risk for developmental or behavioral problems.
  • Allocation of up to $5 billion every year for School Based Health Clinics to provide such services as: mental health assessments (screening), crisis intervention, treatment, counseling and referral to emergency psychiatric care.
  • A five-year program for the Center for Disease Control to provide public health “interventions,” screenings and clinical referrals for individuals between 55 and 64 years of age.
  • The creation of a new “paraprofessional child and adolescent mental health worker.” The legislation states that this is “…an individual who is not a mental or behavioral health service professional, but who works at the first stage of contact with children and families who are seeking mental or behavioral health services.”

The House bill (H.R. 3200) includes:

  • This bill also calls for the establishment of School Based Health Clinics that will provide mental health assessments (screening), crisis intervention, treatment, counseling and referral to emergency psychiatric care.
  • Specific funding for mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists.
  • The bill creates a home visitation program for families with young children or which are expecting children or who have certain “risk factors.” The program, which is stated as voluntary, provides assessments regarding matters of “age appropriate behaviors,” for children, prevention of family violence and referral to outside services.
  • The bill mandates a sweeping mental health parity, which could well encompass all 374 diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and opens the door to coverage for everything from phase of life problem to sibling rivalry disorder. The costs would be horrendous.
  • The bill provides for unlimited mental health benefits. As there is no objective or medical test for psychiatric disorders, this is a virtual blank check to the mental health industry.

Psychiatric patients are traditionally “cured” when their insurance benefits run out. In this bill, those benefits never run out. And without anything other than a psychiatrist’s opinion about whether or not the person’s “illness” is “cured,” this legislation becomes nothing more than taxpayer funded billions to psychiatrists, who will continue their jihad of mass drugging of Americans.

Your voice needs to be heard TODAY in Washington on these outrageous bills. Call, fax, or email your Representative and Senator TODAY and tell them that you are opposed to the above points (pick 3-4) in the Health Care Reform bills. To find your Representative and get their contact information, go to http://www.house.gov/ and to find your Senator and get their contact information, go to http://www.senate.gov/.

Then please call or email the CCHR STL office (314-727-8307, cchrstl@cchrstl.org) to let us know you have made your contacts and report any feedback.

China orders halt to treating Internet addicts with electric shock therapy

Posted on by cchrstl

According to a July 14 Associated Press article, China’s Health Ministry has ordered Linyi Mental Health Hospital in eastern Shandong province to stop using electric shock therapy to cure youths of Internet addiction, saying there was no scientific evidence it worked.

[Editorial Comment: Neither is there any scientific evidence for “Internet addiction.” Give us a break!]

Surveys of legislators and health insurance industry personnel in the United States reveal an appalling level of misinformation about electroshock. Deceived by psychiatry’s propaganda machine, the majority are content to leave it up to the “experts.” While openly admitting that they have no idea how Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) works, psychiatrists have no trouble in arrogantly assuming the mantle of “expert.”

But who are the real victims and what is the real cost? With the hundreds of thousands of people being subjected to electroshock around the world each year, this is a story of ruined lives. Today, the psychiatric industry in the United States alone takes an estimated $5 billion from ECT per year. In spite of its sophisticated trappings of science, the brutality of ECT verifies that psychiatry has not advanced beyond the cruelty and barbarism of its earliest treatments.

Physically intrusive practices such as ECT violate the doctor’s pledge to uphold the Hippocratic Oath and “Do no harm.” ECT should be labeled for what it is – torture – and it should be banned worldwide.

Get the facts by reading the CCHR publication The Brutal Reality: Harmful Psychiatric ‘Treatments’ – Report and recommendations on the destructive practices of electroshock and psychosurgery. Once armed with the facts, we are confident you will form part of the rapidly growing voice of protest that will be the final demise of this cruel and inhuman practice. Write your state and federal legislators and tell them to ban electric shock.

Devastating Effects of Psychiatric Drugs on New Moms

Posted on by cchrstl

Amy Philo Interview Exposes Devastating Effects of Psychiatric Drugs on New Moms

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Friday, July 03, 2009

(NaturalNews) Today we’ve published an exclusive interview with Amy Philo, winner of the 2008 Human Rights Award from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (www.CCHR.org). After experiencing a horrifying episode of hallucinations following the taking of prescribed psychiatric drugs, Amy Philo was essentially kidnapped by psychiatric doctors and forced to undergo a doubling of the dosage, and at one point the side effects of the mind-altering drugs were so strong, she thought she was going to kill her newborn child.

Amy is now an outspoken opponent of psychiatric drugs, and she tells her story in an exclusive video interview just published on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9trX…

As a strong opponent of the MOTHERS Act (a dastardly law that would attempt to put expectant mothers on antidepressant drugs), Amy is working to educate moms about the significant dangers of psychiatric drugs. Several of her articles are available at www.UniteForLife.org.

The psychiatric industry is attempting to place every human being on at least one prescription drug by diagnosing each person with one or more “disorders.” From the day you’re born to the day you die, there’s something wrong with the chemicals in your brain, say the psychiatrists; and only drugs can “balance” your brain and make you “normal” again.

But psychiatrists aren’t the only ones who can invent fictitious diseases: You can do it yourself, right on the web, with the help of the Disease Mongering Engine I invented a couple of years back:

http://www.naturalnews.com/disease-…

Just click the link above to try out the engine yourself and invent all the fictitious diseases and disorders you want! (Maybe you’ll be offered a job in a Big Pharma marketing department…)

And don’t forget to watch Amy Philo’s video interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9trX…

Spread the word about this interview to all expectant mothers. Antidepressant drugs do NOT belong in the body of a fetus or a newborn. Babies need nutrition, not drugs. This should be obvious from the start.

Anti-Smoking Drugs Can Cause You to Commit Suicide

Posted on by cchrstl

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning July 1 that two stop-smoking drugs can have serious side effects, namely suicide.

Chantix, made by Pfizer, and Zyban, made by GlaxoSmithKline, will now carry the FDA’s most serious black box caution, warning about the potential for suicidal thoughts and suicide while taking these drugs.

Zyban is another name for Wellbutrin, a psychiatric drug prescribed for “depression.”

Recognize that the real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior like smoking as a “disease.” Psychiatry’s stigmatizing labels, programs and treatments are harmful junk science; their diagnoses of “mental disorders” are a hoax – unscientific, fraudulent and harmful. All psychiatric treatments, not just psychiatric drugs, are dangerous.

Watch the video Making A Killing – The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging!

America Fooled

Posted on by cchrstl

This book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is focused primarily on antidepressants, their effectiveness, their side effects and how America has come to believe that chemical imbalances are responsible for depression and other mental problems.

Part 2 deals with the various approaches used throughout our history to treat more serious mental problems including the use of antipsychotics, the side effects of antipsychotics and the real reasons people sometimes lose their minds. This is an important part of the book as the story of antidepressants cannot be fully understood without knowing the story of antipsychotics.

Part 3 discusses the Continuum Model of mental health and how good mental health can be achieved.

Dr. Timothy Scott, a native of southern California who has resided in Texas for most of the last 35 years, is not a physician but a PhD who holds MS and MMFT degrees. He was a full-time psychology professor for over 20 years during which time his specialty was medical research as it relates to psychology.

He successfully treated countless cases of depression before Prozac, the first SSRI-antidepressant, came to market in 1987. To suppose that depression could not be overcome without a drug ran counter to his own experience. As he examined the studies that gave rise to the chemical imbalance theory, he kept finding remarkably poor research designs had been used.

In time Dr. Scott learned that most chemical imbalance studies were designed, conducted and written by pharmaceutical company employees and then signed by a physician who would simply read the study and agree to let his or her name appear as the author for a large payment (a very common practice known as ghostwriting). He also regularly came upon facts that ran counter to the theory. For example, levels of melatonin, testosterone, estrogen and serotonin all begin declining by age 30 (or earlier). If the theory were correct, all old people should be depressed and no young people should be depressed. “When the facts do not fit the theory, we must adjust or reject the theory—not the facts.”

Dr. Scott is devoted to educating physicians concerning valid vs. invalid research designs (“no skill is more important and yet most college graduates and most MDs lack that skill”), harmful side effects of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs and more effective ways to treat depression, schizophrenia and other mental problems.

Depression diagnoses decline after FDA warning

Posted on by cchrstl

“A persistent decline in the rate of Americans, especially children, newly diagnosed with depression followed the first federal warning on risks connected with antidepressant drugs, a study suggests.

“In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration first warned about the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in young people taking the drugs. That action may have helped reverse a five-year trend of rising rates of diagnosis for depression, the researchers found.

“The findings, published Monday [June 1, 2009] in the Archives of General Psychiatry, are based on an analysis of eight years of data from nearly 100 managed care plans and more than 55 million patients.

“It was already known that antidepressant use among young people had fallen since the drugs began carrying a so-called “black box” warning about risks. But the data showing an extended decline in the level of depression diagnoses are new.”

(Original article from Associated Press, by Carla K. Johnson, Jun 1, 2009.)

[Editorial Comment: The data suggests that psychiatric diagnoses only increased because of the amount of money that could be made by labeling children with a psychiatric disorder and prescribing them psychiatric drugs.]

Marginalized by the field of medicine because of its lack of scientific credentials, psychiatry today works hard to create an apparent scientific image for its diagnostic system, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and the use of prescription psychiatric drugs.

As a result of such marketing efforts, general practitioners now prescribe up to 80% of antidepressants. Doctors, however, are finding out about the sham of psychiatry and its fraudulent diagnostic system; and the subsequent decline in psychiatric diagnoses is no surprise. It is vital that medical practitioners universally reject the DSM diagnostic system as a pseudo-medicine and as a danger to their patients.

Patients with actual physical conditions are routinely misdiagnosed with psychiatric disorders, then drugged or institutionalized. Numerous studies show that undiagnosed and untreated physical problems can cause behavioral and emotional problems, not to mention the many problems caused by adverse reactions (side effects) to psychiatric drugs. Proper medical screening by non-psychiatric diagnostic specialists could eliminate more than 40% of psychiatric admissions.

For more information about the pseudoscience of psychiatry and its false diagnoses, download and read this CCHR booklet.