As International Human Rights Day Approaches, CCHR Urges Adoption of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights

International human rights standards call for human rights-based approaches in the field of mental health.  Citizens Commission on Human Rights is working to make those rights a reality through the promotion of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) National Affairs Office announces it will be carrying out a promotional campaign, launching on International Human Rights Day, to raise awareness of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights.  This Declaration, like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that inspired it, lays out fundamental human rights, but as specific to the field of mental health. International Human Rights Day marks the signing of the UDHR on December 10, 1948.

All human rights organizations set forth codes by which they align their purposes and activities. The Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights articulates the guiding principles and goals for the field of mental health to which CCHR adheres.

The mental health rights in the Declaration include the right to be treated with dignity, the right to fully informed consent to mental health treatment based on the full disclosure of risks, as well as the right to refuse consent, and the right to know what alternative treatments are available.  The Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights sets forth these and other fundamental mental health human rights to which CCHR believes everyone is entitled.

International human rights standards call for changes in mental health approaches to ensure human rights are respected.  In 2017, Dr. Dainius P?ras, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, called for “a sea change” in mental health care around the world to replace “outdated practices that violate human rights.” 

More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidance in 2021 for promoting a rights-based approach to mental health.  WHO observed that “an entrenched overreliance on the biomedical model in which the predominant focus of care is on diagnosis, medication and symptom reduction…hinder[s] progress towards the full realization of a human rights-based approach.”  It called for mental health systems and services to align with international human rights standards, including the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which aims to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons with disabilities.

CCHR is making the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights more widely known.  Because adequate protections for human rights in the field of mental health are vital, CCHR urges that these rights be recognized by the widespread adoption of this Declaration.

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CCHR Calls on FDA to Require Updated Antidepressant Warnings After Research Finds Withdrawal Symptoms Are Common

Withdrawal symptoms are experienced by nearly half of the people trying to quit antidepressants, even if tapered over several weeks, research finds.  CCHR says prescribing information and medication guides do not adequately convey this widespread risk and calls on FDA to require updates.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

Close to half of the people who quit antidepressants experience withdrawal symptoms regardless of whether they stop suddenly or taper their dosage over several weeks, a new study finds.  In light of recent research, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require antidepressant manufacturers to carry more adequate warnings in their prescribing information and medication guides on the risk of withdrawal symptoms when patients stop using the drugs.

The new research, published in Molecular Psychiatry, investigated the incidence of so-called antidepressant withdrawal syndrome by reviewing drug trials of antidepressants that included data on withdrawal symptoms.  What researchers found is that nearly half of study participants experienced withdrawal symptoms when stopping antidepressants after having used the drugs for 8 to 12 weeks in the trials.

“The pooled incidence of AWS [antidepressant withdrawal syndrome] from all available studies was 42.9% [and] from 11 RCTs [randomized controlled trials] was 44.4%,” the researchers concluded.  They found no significant difference in the incidence between the types of antidepressants used.  

They also found that the longer antidepressants were used, the greater the incidence of withdrawal symptoms, with the incidence rising to over 51% for those who quit after taking antidepressants for longer than 24 weeks. 

These findings are consistent with prior research.  One study found that more than half (56%) of people who attempt to come off antidepressants experience withdrawal effects, with nearly half (46%) of them describing the symptoms as severe.  Another found that among people whose withdrawal effects were persistent, ranging in duration from 5 to 166 months, 81% experienced mental health disturbances like anxiety, depression, emerging suicidality and agitation.  Physical symptoms, primarily headache, fatigue, dizziness, brain zaps, visual changes, muscle aches, tremor, diarrhea, and nausea, were experienced by 75%.

CCHR has previously called for updated warnings in prescribing information and medication guides to more adequately warn prescribers and consumers of the increased risks of atrial fibrillation, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and long-lasting and permanent sexual dysfunction from the use of antidepressants. 

CCHR has also called on the FDA to issue an updated Drug Safety Communication on the risks to newborns from their mothers’ continued use of antidepressants during pregnancy.  Those risks include premature birth, lower birth weight, neonatal hospitalization and withdrawal symptoms.

“The FDA, which is responsible for ensuring pharmaceutical drugs are safe, must take immediate action due to the growing body of research indicating that adverse effects when using or attempting to stop using antidepressants are more widely experienced and potentially more severe than current prescribing information and medication guides indicate,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “FDA action is long overdue on this urgent public health issue.”

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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CCHR Calls on FDA to Update Antidepressant Information for Increased Risks of Stroke and Heart Disease

New research finds antidepressants increase the risk of stroke, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and other cardiovascular events. Citizens Commission on Human Rights calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to update medication guides to reflect these risks.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

The increased risk of stroke and other cardiovascular diseases faced by depressed individuals is due to their use of antidepressants, not to the depression itself, a new study indicates.  Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update antidepressants prescribing information and medication guides to fully disclose these risks now established by research.

Prior research had looked for, but had not found an underlying biological mechanism to account for the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases in depressed people.  Until now, the contribution of antidepressants to the risks of stroke and heart diseases had not been adequately evaluated. 

Researchers in the new study used methodology that allowed them to separately assess the effect of major depression and antidepressants on seven cardiovascular conditions: arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (AFib), coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke, and cardiovascular diseases as a group. 

They found that the use of antidepressants increased the risk of atrial fibrillation and stroke by 44% each; arrhythmias by 28%; coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and heart failure by 16% each; and overall cardiovascular disease by 35%.  They concluded that the association of depression with these cardiovascular diseases is primarily accounted for by depressed patients’ use of antidepressants, not from depression itself.

“The use of antidepressants is linked to heightened risks of each CVD [cardiovascular disease],” the researchers reported, publishing their results in the British medical journal, BMJ Mental Health.

Heart diseases and stroke are major health concerns in the U.S.  “Cardiovascular disease and stroke are common and costly, and their prevalence is rising,” warned a recent article in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.  

The FDA-approved prescribing information and medication guides for antidepressants, such as Zoloft, Prozac, Cymbalta and Pristiq, do not currently mention the potential risks of stroke and cardiovascular diseases associated with the use of the drugs.  Some 45 million Americans are currently taking antidepressants prescribed by their psychiatrists or other prescribers.

“It is incumbent on the FDA to require antidepressant manufacturers to update the information provided to patients to warn of the potential risks of stroke, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and other life-threatening cardiovascular events from the use of these drugs,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “Consumers have the right to know the full extent of the potential dangers of antidepressants.”

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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CCHR Calls on FDA to Revise Guidance on Use of Antidepressants by Pregnant Women

Recent research adds to medical literature indicating potential risks to newborns from pregnant women using antidepressants. Citizens Commission on Human Rights calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to review the research and issue updated guidance. 

by CCHR National Affairs Office 

Many pregnant women choose to stop using antidepressants during their pregnancy for reasons that include avoiding the risk of potential harms to their baby from the drugs.  The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct an urgent review of recent research concerning those harms and issue updated guidance to health care professionals and the public in an FDA Drug Safety Communication.

Expectant mothers who continue taking antidepressants incur the risks of a number of potential harms to their newborns, according to recent research.  A 2022 comprehensive analysis of data from over 45,000 babies found that pregnant women who used antidepressants had greater risks of premature birth, lower birth weight, and neonatal hospitalization for their newborns than pregnant women who quit the drugs. 

The study also found that the risk of their newborns experiencing withdrawal symptoms was more than doubled in women who continued their antidepressants.  Those symptoms include excessive crying, irritability, jitteriness, feeding problems, respiratory distress, and hypoglycemia.

Pregnant women’s use of antidepressants can negatively affect brain development in their children and increase the risk of certain birth defects and miscarriage.  Fetal exposure to antidepressants, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy, is associated with an increased risk of fetal death, including stillbirth.

“In light of a growing body of recent research indicating greater risks of serious negative outcomes to babies from women taking SSRI and SNRI antidepressants during pregnancy, the FDA should conduct an urgent review of these studies’ results and issue an update to health care professionals and the public reflecting these risks,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office. 

“Prescribers have an obligation to fully disclose to their pregnant patients the risks to their babies of taking antidepressants during pregnancy, as well as discuss evidence-based, non-drug alternatives,” she added.

In a new study, researchers found that pregnant women who had stopped using antidepressants and who did not have severe mental health conditions faced no greater risk of psychiatric hospitalizations, mental health outpatient visits, self-harm, suicide, death from any cause, or taking sick leave compared to women who continued to use the drugs during pregnancy.

The prescribing of antidepressants was called into question by a 2022 study which found that the theory of a chemical imbalance in the brain – a lack of the brain chemical serotonin – causing depression had no scientific basis.  If a lack of serotonin is not the cause of depression, then antidepressants prescribed to increase the availability of serotonin in the brain are fixing a problem that does not exist.  

WARNING: Anyone who wants to stop taking an antidepressant is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of the risk of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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Researchers Report Concern over Antidepressants Causing Long-Lasting Sexual Dysfunction; CCHR Calls on FDA to Act

Decades after sexual dysfunction caused by antidepressants was first reported to persist after patients stopped taking the drugs, how many people experience continuing sexual problems is still not known.  Citizens Commission on Human Rights calls on the FDA to address the issue without further delay. 

by CCHR National Affairs Office

Researchers active in investigating the adverse effects of psychiatric drugs have expressed concern over the lack of scientific data on the prevalence of antidepressant-caused sexual problems that persist after patients stop taking the drugs.  The condition has caused marriages to break up, and people are known to have committed suicide as a result of it.  Because the antidepressants most at issue are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the condition is called post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD).

Research indicates that while taking antidepressants, 25%-80% of patients encounter sexual difficulties they had not experienced before taking the drugs.  Patients report that the sexual dysfunction strained their relationships, deepened their depression, lowered their self-esteem, and brought on feelings of failure.

In a recent article in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist David Healy, M.D., and Dee Mangin, M.D., both professors at McMaster University in Canada, report that “while sexual dysfunction is a well-known side effect of taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), in an undetermined number of patients, sexual function does not return to pre-drug baseline after stopping SSRIs.”

PSSD can comprise a range of sexual symptoms experienced while taking antidepressants that continue after the drugs are no longer used, including a lack of sexual drive, lack of sexual sensation, and problems with sexual performance that were not experienced before starting on the drugs.  In addition to SSRIs, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and some older tricyclic antidepressants are also known to cause PSSD.

According to Healy and Mangin, the problem of PSSD has been known for decades, with the condition first reported to the drug regulatory agency in the UK in 1991 and first reported in the medical literature in 2006.  However, there are still no known treatments for the condition.

PSSD can have a devastating impact on patients’ lives.  The researchers write that “PSSD can lead to marriage break-up and job loss.”  Professor Healy reveals that he is “aware of at least 20 cases of people who have committed suicide as a result of the condition.”

“This has never been properly investigated and described, and there is an urgent need to understand the incidence, prevalence and natural history of PSSD, with a focus on informing prevention as well as investigating treatments,” the researchers wrote.

In 2018, Healy and Mangin were among 22 signers of a citizen petition delivered to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), calling on the agency to strengthen the warning on antidepressants’ labeling to adequately convey the serious risk of persistent, even permanent sexual side effects after the use of antidepressants has stopped.  The petition also called for the FDA to require SSRI and SNRI manufacturers to send a “Dear Health Care Provider Letter” to inform psychiatrists, family doctors and other prescribers about the risk, placing an obligation on them to fully inform their patients of the risks.

After similar petitions were filed in 2018 with drug regulatory agencies in Europe and Canada, warnings were updated by the European Medicines Agency in 2019 and by Health Canada in 2021 to reflect the risk.  However, the FDA has yet to take final action.

Recently, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by one of the petition signers, claiming the FDA has failed to take final action on the petition and seeking a court order requiring the FDA to act.

The lawsuit states that antidepressant labeling warns of sexual problems that may be experienced while taking antidepressants, but “current labeling in the United States does not adequately convey the risk of broad, severe, and potentially permanent post-treatment changes to sexual function.” 

“The devastating sexual side effects from antidepressants, harming the sex lives of an untold number of the 45 million Americans taking these psychiatric drugs – side effects that can persist and even become permanent – should have been addressed years ago by the FDA,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the National Affairs Office of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights.  “The FDA needs to act now, without further delay.”

A key rationale for prescribing antidepressants in the first place – to fix a chemical imbalance in the brain – was found to be without scientific merit.  A 2022 comprehensive review of research into whether a lack of the brain chemical serotonin causes depression concluded there was no convincing evidence to support the theory.  This calls into question the prescribing of SSRI and SNRI antidepressants that make more serotonin available in the brain, if no known chemical deficiency exists.

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

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Clozapine (Really?) for Schizophrenia

Clozapine is an FDA-approved atypical antipsychotic drug for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Clozapine is not the first-line drug of choice due to its range of adverse effects, making compliance an issue for many patients. (Meaning patients will stop taking it because of the bad side effects.) So it is really a drug of last resort.

Psychiatrists rely on dangerous drugs like clozapine but cannot make up their minds if these drugs are safe when they clearly are not. Psychiatrists experiment on our most vulnerable people using a “drug of last resort” when they have likely misdiagnosed a real physical cause of the person’s distress which has a real medical treatment.

Clozapine was first synthesized in 1956. Initial FDA approval was in 1989. Shortly after its introduction, clozapine was linked to a serious life-threatening side effect, and it was withdrawn from the market temporarily in the same year. It was re-approved with strict monitoring requirements later in 1989. While clozapine is not considered addictive, abruptly stopping clozapine can lead to withdrawal symptoms; which may be why psychiatrists often use the euphemism “discontinuation symptoms” instead of “withdrawal symptoms” in order to avoid saying a drug may be addictive.

The clozapine controversy is not over; the FDA is hosting an in-person advisory committee meeting on November 19, 2024, to discuss reevaluation of the Clozapine Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, which is the protocol for mitigating clozapine’s serious adverse side effects.

Clozapine is primarily metabolized in the liver involving the cytochrome P450 enzyme system in order to be eliminated from the body. Abnormal CYP450 metabolism, either ultrarapid and/or diminished, can lead to the drug or its metabolites reaching a toxic level in hours or days, correlating with the onset of intense dysphoria [unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life] and akathisia [an inability to remain still]. A person genetically deficient in these enzymes, or who has an ultrarapid drug metabolism, or who is taking other (legal or illegal) drugs that diminish CYP450 enzyme activity, is at risk of a toxic accumulation of the drug leading to more severe side effects.

Clozapine is a dopamine and serotonin receptor antagonist, which means it blocks certain receptors in the brain for dopamine and serotonin. By interfering with these neurotransmitters in the brain the psychiatric theory supposes this is beneficial; however, the body must maintain strict balances of these chemicals because a surplus or deficiency of either can have disastrous side effects. So forcing the body into a different balance is like playing Russian Roulette with one’s brain.

This theory is called “The dopaminergic hypothesis of schizophrenia.” Unfortunately, it is not based on any true understanding of what schizophrenia actually is.

The condition was first called “dementia praecox” by German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin in the late 1800’s, and labeled “schizophrenia” by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908.

Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America, says the patients that Kraepelin diagnosed with dementia praecox were actually suffering from a virus, encephalitis lethargica (brain inflammation causing lethargy) which was unknown to doctors at the time.

Psychiatry never revisited Kraepelin’s material to see that schizophrenia was simply an undiagnosed and untreated physical problem. “Schizophrenia was a concept too vital to the profession’s claim of medical legitimacy. The physical symptoms of the disease were quietly dropped. What remained, as the foremost distinguishing features, were the mental symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre thoughts,” says Whitaker. Psychiatrists remain committed to calling “schizophrenia” a mental disease despite, after a century of research, the complete absence of objective proof that it exists as a physical brain abnormality.

Today, psychiatry clings tenaciously to antipsychotics as the treatment for “schizophrenia,” despite their proven risks and studies which show that when patients stop taking these drugs, they improve.

The late Professor Thomas Szasz stated that “schizophrenia is defined so vaguely that, in actuality, it is a term often applied to almost any kind of behavior of which the speaker disapproves.”

These are normal people with medical, disciplinary, educational, or spiritual problems that can and must be resolved without recourse to drugs. Deceiving and drugging is not the practice of medicine. It is criminal.

Any medical doctor who takes the time to conduct a thorough physical examination of a person exhibiting signs of what a psychiatrist calls Schizophrenia can find undiagnosed, untreated physical conditions. Any person labeled with so-called Schizophrenia needs to receive a thorough physical examination by a competent medical -not psychiatric- doctor to first determine what underlying physical condition is causing the manifestation.

No one denies that people can have difficult problems in their lives, that at times they can be mentally unstable, subject to unreasonable depression, anxiety or panic. Mental health care is therefore both valid and necessary. However, the emphasis must be on workable mental healing methods that improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society by restoring people to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual well–being. Psychiatric drugs and psychiatric treatments are not workable.

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New Study Warns of High Dose “ADHD” Drugs Inducing Psychosis

CCHR has documented psychosis and violent behavior linked to any dose of the drugs and wants them prohibited as a treatment for the 3.1 million American children put at risk by taking them.

By CCHR International

Taking a high dose of drugs to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is linked to more than five times greater risk of developing psychosis or mania, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The research is among the first to find a relationship between escalating doses of the drugs—amphetamines, in particular—and a greater likelihood of psychotic symptoms. Lead researcher, Dr. Lauren Moran stresses the need for a warning label to raise awareness of this serious risk.

CCHR supports the call for a stronger warning label, but given its own documented findings that stimulants are also linked to acts of senseless violence, including school shootings, says the drugs should be removed from the market. Acts of violence are detailed in its comprehensive report, Psychotropic Drugs Create Violence and Suicide.

The ADHD drugs referenced in the study include AdderallVyvanse and generic amphetamines, such as dextroamphetamine. Adderall prescriptions in the U.S. soared 27% from 2019 to 2022, according to IQVia, a clinical analytics company. IQVia also reports that 3.15 million 0-17-year-olds took ADHD stimulants, including methylphenidate (Ritalin) in 2020.

Moran apparently found no increased risk of psychosis or mania in prescriptions for methylphenidate (Ritalin). However, there are already international drug regulatory warnings about the drug causing mania or psychosis. A 2023 study published in Cureus advised every medical practitioner prescribing psychostimulants to inform the patient and caregiver about psychosis as a threatening side effect.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Medication Guides (Med Guides) for several brand-name ADHD drugs list side effects such as new or worse aggressive behavior or hostility for all patients. For children and teens, there is the warning: new psychotic symptoms (such as hearing voices, believing things that are not true, are suspicious) or new manic symptoms.

The link between amphetamines and psychosis isn’t new. Amphetamines increase levels of dopamine in the brain and is implicated in psychosis. Moran said that, according to an analysis of national insurance claim data, about 6% of patients taking amphetamines are prescribed the highest dosages and about 22% are prescribed the medium dosages. Patients taking the highest dosages—more than 40 milligrams of Adderall, 100 mg of Vyvanse or 30 mg of dextroamphetamine—were 5.3 times more likely to develop psychosis than patients taking no stimulants. The medium dosage—20 mg to 40 mg of Adderall, 50 mg to 100 mg of Vyvanse or 15 mg to 30 mg of dextroamphetamine—was linked to a 3.5 times higher risk.

However, patients also had a nearly 63% increased risk of psychosis or mania if they took any prescription amphetamine but those on heavy doses of amphetamines were at even greater peril of a psychotic episode, with an 81% increased risk, results show. Vyvanse is also linked to suicidality.

The psychosis could explain why some mass shootings and acts of violence have occurred. According to a Public Library of Science ONE study, researchers took the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System data and identified 31 prescription drugs that were disproportionately associated with violence, of which 25 were psychotropic drugs. The drugs included 11 antidepressants, six sedatives/hypnotics and three drugs for treatment of ADHD, including amphetamines, which were 9.6 times more likely to be linked to violent side effects.

David Kirschner, Ph.D., a New York psychologist stated: “As a forensic psychologist, I have tested/evaluated 30 teenage and young adult murderers, and almost all of them had been in some kind of ‘treatment,’ usually short term and psychoactive drug-oriented, before they killed.” He stressed “Most of the young murderers I have personally examined had…been in ‘treatment’ and were using prescribed stimulant/amphetamine type drugs before and during the killing events. These medications did not prevent but instead contributed to the violence by disinhibiting normal, frontal cortex control mechanisms.”

[See References Here]

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Exhibit Exposes Psychiatric Human Rights Abuses at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference

Citizens Commission on Human Rights’ exhibit exposes the history to the present day of harmful and racist practices in the mental health system that constitute human rights violations, and calls for laws to ban harmful practices, in line with international human rights standards.

by CCHR National Affairs Office 

Human rights abuses in mental healthcare were the focus of a global traveling exhibit by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), an international mental health industry watchdog.  The exhibit was displayed recently at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, in conjunction with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference. 

The exhibit brings to light the history to the present day of human rights abuses from psychiatric practices.  Today, those practices include forcibly admitting people – even children – to psychiatric facilities, forcing them to take harmful drugs against their will, and subjecting them to seclusion and restraints, which have caused injury and death.  Mental health patients can even be subjected to involuntary electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, or electroshock). 

Coercive mental health practices violate international human rights standards, with the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calling for an end to all involuntary mental health treatment.  CCHR advocates for state and federal laws to eliminate coercive practices and ban electroshock.

At the exhibit opening ceremony, Dr. E. Gail Anderson Holness, Pastor at Adams Inspirational AME Church in Washington, DC, and former Faith Based Outreach Coordinator at the DC Department of Behavioral Health emphasized, “We believe mental health is a human rights issue,” also adding, “We support recovery because recovery is possible.”

Adrienne L. Schaffer Esq. (Col. Ret. USA), Founder and Executive Director of the Military Children’s Six Foundation and former US Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps Officer, talked about her organization advocating for the well-being of military children and youth, as well as educating and empowering them to self-advocate, stand up for others, and ultimately take on rights-based leadership roles.  These rights could include human rights in the field of mental health.

“As these young individuals mature into roles of leadership or influence, whether within their home countries or abroad, they can act as change agents and ambassadors for human and child rights,” she said.

Joseph Cecala, a Chicago civil rights attorney, fights in court for his clients’ right to make their own medical decisions.  “The most important issue that confronts society today is the human rights of people that are in the mental health system,“ he said.  “It is a failed philosophy that needs to change.”

The damage caused by coerced mental health treatment was the reason behind the 2023 call by the World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for nations to end all forced mental health treatment, the organizations saying that coercive practices “violate the right to be protected from torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.” 

Facts presented in the CCHR exhibit detail the sordid history of human rights violations in psychiatric practices, including brain-damaging psychosurgery and electroshock, and reveal the prime role of psychiatrists in instigating and perpetuating the systemic racism still ingrained in today’s mental health system.  In 2021, both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association admitted to long histories of racial abuse and to the systemic racism still present in their practices.

Many convention visitors viewing the exhibit reached out to CCHR for help in protecting mental health human rights in their states.  Many had their own distressful stories of family members or friends who were harmed in the mental health system.

“Damaging and potentially fatal procedures that are passed off as mental health treatment must stop,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “CCHR is dedicated to ending abusive psychiatric treatments and practices and restoring human rights to mental healthcare.”

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Investigation Exposes Psychiatric Facilities that Wrongly Held Patients Against Their Will

Involuntary commitments to psychiatric facilities have increased over the last decade.  Evidence indicates many are unlawful detainments, but facilities bill patients and their insurance providers.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

A disturbing new exposé, published in the New York Times, sheds light on psychiatric facilities that admit and hold people against their will without any valid reason under the law, billing patients and their insurance providers for unnecessary, unwanted confinements that can traumatize detained individuals. 

The Times investigation focuses on Acadia Healthcare, one of the largest chains of for-profit behavioral health facilities in the U.S. Medical records and interviews with patients and past and present employees appeared to show that many patients did not meet the criteria currently set by law that allows people who are an imminent danger to themselves or others to be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. “Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary,” the Times reported.

Insurance billing was maximized by using various excuses to claim patients needed to stay longer, often holding them until their insurance ran out, according to current and former Acadia employees interviewed by the Times. Acadia reportedly charges as much as $2,200 a day for some patients. With the bulk of Acadia’s revenue coming from government insurance plans, including Medicaid and Medicare, taxpayers are footing the bill for most of these unlawful detainments. This year, Acadia reportedly has tentatively agreed to settle U.S. Department of Justice allegations that include billing for unnecessary patient stays. 

One of the Acadia psychiatric facilities mentioned in the New York Times article, North Tampa Behavioral Health Hospital, was the subject of a 2019 investigation by the Tampa Bay Times, which found that the facility illegally cut patients off from their families, held them longer than legally allowed, and ran up their bills while the confined patients were unable to fight back.

Acadia is not the only behavioral health company accused of billing government insurance plans for unlawful involuntary patient stays.  In 2020, another of the largest U.S. for-profit chains of psychiatric facilities, Universal Health Services, agreed to pay $122 million to settle Justice Department allegations that included billing for medically unnecessary inpatient admissions and failing to discharge patients when they no longer required inpatient care.

It is estimated that over half (57%) of admissions to psychiatric facilities in the U.S. were involuntary – 16% came via the criminal justice system and 41% were civil commitments, a figure that rose by 27% over the last decade. 

The increased risk for suicide in the period following discharge from psychiatric hospitalization is well recognized, but people admitted to a psychiatric facility against their will are even more likely to attempt suicide after discharge.

In a 2017 report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health called for the elimination of nonconsensual mental health treatment, stating: “Coercion in psychiatry perpetuates power imbalances in care relationships, causes mistrust, exacerbates stigma and discrimination and has made many turn away, fearful of seeking help within mainstream mental health services.”

In 2019, the Council of Europe (COE) adopted a resolution that called on its member nations “to immediately start to transition to the abolition of coercive methods in mental health settings.” 

More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidance in 2021, advising countries to end coercive mental health practices, which it said are used “despite the lack of evidence that they offer any benefits, and the significant evidence that they lead to physical and psychological harm and even death.”  The WHO guidance extends its call for prohibiting coercion even to those in mental health crisis.

Explaining its stand, WHO states: “People subjected to coercive practices report feelings of dehumanization, disempowerment and being disrespected.  Many experience it as a form of trauma or re-traumatization leading to a worsening of their condition and increased experiences of distress.”

“CCHR is committed to ending the human rights abuse of coercive practices in the mental health system, including the incarceration of patients for profit,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the organization’s National Affairs Office.

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Jealousy and Psychiatry

Like most English words, “jealousy” has multiple definitions.
– zealous vigilance in guarding or keeping
– anger or bitterness resulting from loss or threat of loss
– anger or bitterness resulting from unfulfilled desire
– resentment or envy of another’s success or advantage
– uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry or unfaithfulness

[Derivation: Middle English jelous, from Old French gelos, from Vulgar Latin z?l?sus, from Late Latin z?lus “zeal”]

Research has identified many root causes of extreme jealousy, a primary one being “fear of loss.” Another manifestation would be “destructive or invalidative criticism.” Not to mention just plain prejudice.

In any case, we think that jealousy is an unpleasant, negative and non-survival human characteristic that an individual should recognize for its harmful nature and work to rise above it.

Jealousy and Psychiatry

Jealousy has been examined extensively in the field of psychiatry as a complex emotional state. There is so much discussion about jealousy in psychiatric research and writings that we can be sure that there is a general lack of true understanding about it, not least because psychiatric viewpoints on jealousy do not generally include “fear of loss,” which we know to be a basic characteristic of the state.

Psychiatrists may think of jealousy as a positive evolutionary attribute, for example protecting against infidelity.

Psychiatrists may think that early childhood experiences are a generative factor. While childhood bad experiences may certainly play a part, this does not lead to a predictable and consistent resolution.

Psychiatrists may point to the neurobiology of the brain as a significant contributing factor. Unfortunately, such brain-based theories have never been proven, and lead to harmful psychotropic drugs.

Cognitive psychiatry theorizes that various beliefs and thought patterns are to blame, but again these are theories and have not been validated in real life. The psychiatric pre-occupation with “low self-esteem” has so thoroughly corrupted our educational system that it cannot be given any credence.

Psychiatrists may also consider that cultural norms and societal values, particularly those involving tolerance and intolerance, may be root causes. We have previously addressed the subject of tolerance and intolerance in psychiatry; one would do well to review this here.

Psychiatrists may point to poor communication skills as an enabler of jealousy; well, we can certainly agree with that. In fact, poor communication skills are an enabler of pretty much any bad situation, no thanks to any psychiatric treatments. Common coercive psychiatric interventions such as psychotropic drugs, electro-convulsive therapy, and involuntary commitment, if anything, are aimed at suppressing communication rather than enhancing it.

So what is an appropriate way to address one’s feelings of jealousy? First, examine the situation in terms of fear of loss. And then communicate about it.

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