The Truth About ECT

Posted on January 4, 2019 by cchrstl

TruthAboutECT.org is a blog site created to bring about public awareness of the dangers of electroconvulsive therapy (also known as electroshock or ECT).

Most people don’t believe that electroshock is still being used in modern society. This is most likely because the mere idea of electroshock is so abhorrent that most people simply can’t believe it’s still being used.

Factually, ECT is one of the most brutal “treatments” ever inflicted upon individuals under the guise of mental health care. Yet approximately one million people worldwide, including an estimated 100,000 Americans, are given electroshock each year, including the elderly, pregnant women and children.

The Washington University in St. Louis psychiatrists at Barnes-Jewish Hospital give 2,000 shock treatments per year, including to pregnant women.

The articles on this website are written by those who have either experienced the damaging effects of ECT or those who are medical professionals who have seen the damage caused by it.

ECT is a Violation of Human Rights

On December 3, 2018, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of The Organization of American States published a Precautionary Measure calling for the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Massachusetts to immediately cease electroshocking children as a disciplinary measure, emphasizing that electroshock is a gross violation of human rights.

A November, 2018 Supreme Court decision in Victoria, Australia ruled that the forcible use of electroshock treatment violates patients’ human rights, saying “People with mental illness are highly vulnerable to interference with the exercise of their human rights, especially their right to self-determination, to be free of non-consensual medical treatment and to personal inviolability.” While the decision reinforces that electroshock given without consent is a human rights violation, the entire practice of ECT is a human rights violation and should be banned.

If you would like to report a psychiatric abuse, please fill out the abuse reporting form by clicking here.

If you would like to write about your own horrifying electroshock experience, click here.

For more information about the devastating effects of ECT, click here.

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Seriously, Is That Funny?

Posted on December 29, 2018 by cchrstl

The earliest known psychotherapy consisted of getting a patient to laugh.

Laughter includes both surprise and rejection. We’re sure you can think of an example; here’s a start — think of a cartoon or a joke that made you laugh. Now observe the surprising part of it, and observe the idea or concept being rejected.

Let’s take an actual example of a joke:

A man goes to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist says “You’re crazy.”
The man says, “I want a second opinion!”
The psychiatrist says, “Okay, you’re ugly, too!”

The surprise seems to be the unexpectedness of the second opinion; it wasn’t predicted.

Apparently one also seems to reject the idea that a psychiatrist would actually say something like that when he was being asked for help.

An individual who is too serious has lost his ability to predict, and cannot be surprised into rejection. When one rehabilitates the ability to laugh, just by laughing for no reason, it benefits the person immensely.

We recently have seen many examples of people being too serious and unable to laugh. There are Facebook pages devoted to various jokes and cartoons. One such page requires participants to actively ask for admission, so you know they are viewing and posting on that page on purpose. Then, they make comments on the various jokes and cartoons about how it isn’t funny, or how it is offensive, or how much they dislike it. They have essentially lost their laughter, and are going through life serious as a stone.

A person who is unable to laugh will be strictly literal, unable to tolerate confusion, and unable to appreciate remarks made in fun.

Some psychologists and psychiatrists have learned to respect the value of laughter; as the joke goes, how many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but it has to want to change.

Other psychologists and psychiatrists may mistake genuine laughter for ridicule, which is decidedly not the same thing. And some may consider it only as a stress coping strategy rather than the simpler explanation described above. There was a period in psych-influenced education which considered that if you’re laughing, you’re not learning. We actually knew a high school principal once who thought that children could not learn unless they were quiet and sitting down.

The study of laughter is called gelotology, from the Greek word gelos meaning laughter. There is even a branch of yoga called Laughter Yoga, which incorporates breathing, yoga, and stretching techniques, along with laughter. There are at least fifteen English words and phrases describing various kinds of laughs.

When neuropsychiatrists study laughter, of course they mean they are studying the brain; they get hung up in the physiology, brain waves, serotonin, hormones, and other mechanical aspects. They get all scientific on you, talking about “activation of the ventromedial prefontal cortex.” They seem to lose sight of the simplicity of the effect, so that they can patent it and manipulate it with some drug. You can’t charge someone’s insurance for a prescription for laughter.

They’ve even got it in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as “cataplexy,” which is a sudden, generally brief muscle weakness, like weak knees, due to strong emotion or laughter. We suppose this is where the acronym ROFL comes from (Rolling On Floor Laughing.)

Well, what’s the bottom line? We think that psychiatry is a joke, but we’re not really laughing about it. Perhaps we should. Check out a few of our psych jokes here.

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Shocking New Psychiatric Abuse – Deep Brain Stimulation

Posted on December 21, 2018 by cchrstl

Would you let a psychiatrist poke wires directly into your brain and turn on the current?

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a process where electrical shocks are delivered directly into the brain by wires inserted into holes bored into the skull.

The psychiatrists conducting research on DBS say that this “reflects a move away from the long-held view that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.”

In other words, some psychiatrists are now admitting that the chemical imbalance theory is bogus, and they are desperately trying to find other treatments, because too many people are now wise to the chemical imbalance fraud.

Unfortunately, DBS is just another harmful fraud, because “it’s unclear whether the stimulation can produce long-lasting changes,” and “Despite the widespread use of DBS in clinical and research applications, the mechanisms by which focal brain stimulation modulates network activity to produce complex behavioral changes remain largely unknown.”

In response to this alarming and abusive “therapy” the Citizens Commission of Human Rights calls for victims to report abuse suffered during this or any other psychiatric treatment.

No one denies that people can have difficult problems in their lives, that at times they can be mentally unstable. Unfortunately, not only do psychiatrists not understand the etiology (cause) of any mental disorder, they cannot cure them. In effect, psychiatrists are still saying that mental problems are incurable and that the afflicted are condemned to lifelong suffering.

Psychiatric treatments such as DBS, however, are unworkable and dangerous, and while they may temporarily mask some symptoms they do not treat, correct or cure any physical disease or condition; and by calling this a “treatment” they preclude finding out the real underlying causes of the condition and treating that with real, workable medical therapies.

New high-tech “treatments” for the brain will continue to be used to create the appearance of scientific progress, but in the end, psychiatry will be no closer to identifying any causes or effecting any cures; instead, their betrayal and brutality in the name of mental health continues. Psychiatry has proven only one thing — without the protection of basic human rights, there can only be diminished mental health.

Persons in desperate circumstances must be provided proper and effective medical care. The correct action on a seriously mentally disturbed person is a full, searching clinical examination by a competent medical, not psychiatric, doctor to discover and treat the true cause of the problem.

Click here for more information about the brutal reality of abusive psychiatric practices such as electroshock, deep brain stimulation, and psychosurgery.

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Psychiatry and the Holidays

Posted on December 21, 2018 by cchrstl

CCHR STL wishes all its supporters a healthy, happy, prosperous life and extraordinary mental health; holidays and new years notwithstanding.

Around holidays, the psychiatric industry typically promotes lots of media about holiday stress. We’ve written about stress previously; particularly about holiday stress.

There are even scholarly research articles about it: “Urban legend suggests that psychopathology tends to increase around the holidays.” You don’t have to agree with this.

Well, mostly all we’ve got to say about it is —

Happy Merry
Holly Berry
Merry Holly
Jolly Berry
Berry Merry
Holly Jolly

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ADHD is a Fraud

Posted on December 15, 2018 by cchrstl

Why are we still giving any credence to the fraudulent diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? Because we’ve been bombarded since 1902 by public relations and marketing campaigns designed to provide psychiatrists, psychologists, and pharmaceutical companies with new patients and to sell drugs.

In 1987, ADHD was literally voted into existence by a show of hands of American Psychiatric Association members and included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Within a year, 500,000 children in America alone were diagnosed with this, and to expand the client base it has also been associated with Asperger syndrome and Autism spectrum disorder.

The DSM-5 actually has six separate ADHD-related diagnoses:

  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Combined presentation
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Predominantly hyperactive/impulsive presentation
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Predominantly inattentive presentation
  • Other specified attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
  • Unspecified attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

plus other related diagnoses using various wordings:

  • Other specified disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorder
  • Unspecified disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorder
  • Child or adolescent antisocial behavior
  • Academic or educational problem
  • Adjustment disorder
  • Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
  • Global developmental delay
  • Intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder)
  • Unspecified intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder)
  • Other circumstances related to child neglect
  • Other specified neurodevelopmental disorder
  • Social (pragmatic) communication disorder
  • Unspecified communication disorder
  • Unspecified neurocognitive disorder
  • Unspecified neurodevelopmental disorder
  • Unspecified problem related to unspecified psychosocial circumstances

plus a host of additional disorders characterized by “behavioral disturbance.”

ADHD actually represents the spontaneous behaviors of normal children. When these behaviors become age-inappropriate, excessive or disruptive, the potential causes are limitless, including: boredom, poor teaching, inconsistent discipline at home, reading difficulty, tiredness, street drugs, nutritional deficiency, toxic overload, and many kinds of underlying physical illness.

“ADHD remains a controversial condition as it is based on a subjective set of diagnostic criteria. There is no biological assessment for the condition and diagnosis comes from the use of subjective checklists of different types of behaviour.” [from the British Psychological Society]

“The use of ADHD drugs like Ritalin to control ‘non-compliant’ pupils is ‘politically totalitarian, physiologically inhumane’ and reminiscent of Stalin’s Russia, leading educational psychologists have said.” [from TES, originally Times Educational Supplement, an online network of teachers]

“If the only symptom of a child’s ADHD is their non-compliant and irritating behaviour, then control and compliance at home and in school achieved using drugs might also appear politically totalitarian, physiologically inhumane, a serious safeguarding issue, and in contravention of basic human rights and freedoms enshrined in international law at this time.” [also from TES]

The British Psychological Society says that giving stimulant medication to children under 5 years old is antithetical to safeguarding them.

Children who are suffering from bullying, abuse or stress may also display these behaviors in excess. By making an ADHD diagnosis, we ignore and stop looking for what is really going on with the child. These children need the adults in their lives to give them additional attention and to find and treat the actual causes.

There is no valid ADHD test for children. There is no valid ADHD test for adults. ADHD in adults is just as bogus as ADHD in children.

The ADHD diagnosis does not identify a genuine biological or psychological disorder. The diagnosis is simply a list of behaviors that may appear disruptive or inappropriate, or that a psychiatrist or psychologist has decided they do not like.

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.

Any parent whose child has been falsely diagnosed as mentally disordered which results in treatment that harms the child should file a complaint with the police and professional licensing bodies and have this investigated. They should seek legal advice about filing a civil suit against any offending psychiatrist and his or her hospital, associations and teaching institutions seeking compensation.

Download and read the free CCHR booklet “Child Drugging — Psychiatry Destroying Lives — Report and recommendations on fraudulent psychiatric diagnosis and the enforced drugging of youth” for more information.

ADHD Diagnosis
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Can Vaccination Cause Psychiatric Disorders?

Posted on December 10, 2018 by cchrstl
A January 2017 research paper published in Frontiers in Psychiatry asked the question “Can vaccination cause psychiatric disorders in Children?” The answer was basically, “We don’t know,” but the discussion is enlightening. [doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00003]

The authors statistically analyzed insurance claims data between 2002 and 2007 for thousands of children ages 6 to 15 for any relationships between various vaccinations (influenza, tetanus & diphtheria, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis, varicella) and various subsequent psychiatric diagnoses (obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia nervosa, tic disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder).

The overall conclusion of this analysis implies that the onset of some psychiatric disorders may be related to some children having recently received a vaccination.

The authors are careful to indicate that this does not prove that vaccination causes psychiatric disorders, and they list quite a few uncontrolled conditions which might invalidate the results; and they are also careful to emphasize the belief that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks. Basically, they want more funds to do more research, which is, as we’ve noted in prior newsletters, a common result of these kinds of studies.

Of much more interest to us, however, is the potential link between the body’s immune system and the prevalence of neuropsychiatric difficulties. This result goes to the argument that psychiatric conditions are really mostly undiagnosed and untreated medical conditions, rather than some mysterious “mental illness”.

As the authors state, “There is a considerable body of scientific evidence indicating that the immune system plays a key role in normal brain development and in the pathology of several neuropsychiatric disorders.”

CCHR has been saying this since 1969, based on this considerable body of actual scientific evidence. The insistence of the psychiatric mental health industry on so-called brain-based “mental illness” treated with addictive, mind-altering drugs is unethical and criminal, to say the least.

For more information, we suggest downloading and reading “The Role of Infections in Mental Illness” and “Medical Causes of Psychiatric Illness“, both available by clicking here.

Click here for more information about how the metabolism of certain excipients in vaccines can cause adverse mental reactions.

The upshot is that psychiatric drugs and other “treatments” are destructive and fraudulent. The real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior as “diseases.” 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. Find Out! Fight Back!
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Psychiatry: An Industry of Death

Posted on November 29, 2018 by cchrstl

Unrestrained, the psychiatric industry continues to harm in the name of help.

Only public disclosure of their criminal practices and determined action by individuals has effected change.

What has psychiatry done to earn the label “An Industry of Death“?

It is an answer best explained from the perspective of psychiatry’s 200-year history and the grave impact psychiatry has had on society today. Since the early days, when psychiatrists chained, flogged, starved or tortured their patients into total submission, little has changed. Then, as now, the goal was the subjugation of the individual, not to cure madness. The brutal treatments psychiatry evolved and still use to this day — electroshock therapy, psychosurgery and debilitating drugs — stand testament to that fact.

After psychiatry moved beyond its asylum walls and into society, came the truly disastrous results. In today’s psychiatry, motivated by its mission to “follow the money,” to quote a contemporary president of the American Psychiatric Association, you are witnessing a profit-driven, corrupt industry that leaves death and destruction in its wake.

Strong words, but based on cold, hard facts. Facts you need to know.

Consider the following

  • Psychiatry monopolizes international mental health and demands hundreds of billions of dollars from governments each year for its services.
  • Insurance in the United States alone pays out $72 billion in mental health costs annually.
  • International psychiatric drug sales total in the range of $76 billion per year.

What are governments and societies getting in return?

  • By their own admission, psychiatrists do not know how to cure a single mental problem.
  • They do not know how their treatments affect patients.
  • According to one study, psychiatric treatment scored a 99% failure rate in patient recovery.
  • In the last 40 years, nearly twice as many Americans have died in government psychiatric hospitals as American soldiers killed in battle in all wars the United States has fought since 1776.
  • More than 20 million children worldwide are on prescribed psychiatric drugs known to cause violence, psychosis, hallucinations, suicide, homicide, strokes, diabetes, heart attacks and death for alleged disorders that have never been scientifically proven to exist.
  • Antidepressant “wonder drugs” are so widely prescribed that more than 154 million people worldwide have taken Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants. These drugs are under fire by drug regulatory agencies, not only for their potential to create violence and suicidal impulses, but because drug trials have found they perform no better than placebos (sugar pills).
  • The number of American seniors aged 65 who receive ECT (electroconvulsive therapy, or electroshock) is more than three and a half times that of those aged 64. Why? Government health insurance for senior citizens becomes available at 65.
  • The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported grievous damage from electroshock — patients sustaining severe burns, pregnant women suffering miscarriages and even death.
  • Yet while almost half of the elderly who receive ECT die within two years, psychiatrists continue to electroshock many helpless victims throughout the world, killing many. More than two-thirds of ECT victims are women.
  • Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University in St. Louis psychiatrists give 2,000 electroshocks per year to hapless victims.

Find Out! Fight Back!

If psychiatry is destructive and fraudulent to this extent, how has it become so entrenched in society?

To find out, and for more information about psychiatric fraud and abuse, watch the CCHR documentary Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.

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Rexulti Fails to Get Results

Posted on November 26, 2018 by cchrstl

REXULTI (generic brexpiprazole) is a prescription psychiatric drug from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company and Lundbeck pharmaceutical company. Although it failed Phase II clinical trials for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2015 as an atypical antipsychotic and prescribed for the fake “disease” schizophrenia.

Then in 2018 the FDA approved it to treat symptoms of depression when antidepressants alone do not relieve symptoms.

The cost for Rexulti oral tablet 0.25 mg is around $1,166 for a supply of 30 tablets. It has similarities to Abilify, and apparently it was developed to replace Abilify when that drug’s patent expired in 2014.

Brexpiprazole affects the levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in the brain. It is thought to reduce dopamine output when dopamine concentrations are high and increase dopamine output when dopamine concentrations are low. It also activates serotonin receptors to increase serotonin levels in a manner thought to reduce hallucinogenic effects, which is a problem with all drugs that mess with serotonin in the brain.

The metabolism of the drug — that is, the mechanism which eventually eliminates it from the body — is mediated by Cytochrome P450 enzymes; people who are known poor metabolizers, i.e. those with a genetic lack of these enzymes, should be instructed to take half the usual dose, although this is rarely done, since the patient must first be tested for this genetic condition. It is estimated that 10% of Caucasians and 7% of African Americans are Cytochrome P450 deficient. The consequences for someone with this deficiency who takes this drug are an increased risk for the accumulation of the non-metabolized drug in the body and the resultant increase in adverse side effects such as depression, violence and suicide.

Drugs like Rexulti can raise the risk of death in the elderly, and it is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis. This drug may also increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teenagers, or young adults within the first few months of treatment. It is not approved for the treatment of people younger than 18 years of age.

Rexulti may cause other serious side effects, including: compulsive, uncontrollable behaviors such as gambling, shopping, binge eating and sex (the same as with Abilify); stroke in elderly people; Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome; high fever; stiff muscles; confusion; sweating; changes in pulse, heart rate, or blood pressure; high blood sugar (hyperglycemia); weight gain; seizures; difficulty swallowing; uncontrolled body movements known as tardive dyskinesia. Tardive dyskinesia may not go away, even after one stops taking the drug, and tardive dyskinesia may also start some time after one stops taking the drug.

The real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior as “diseases.” 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. Find Out! Fight Back!

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High Anxiety

Posted on November 19, 2018 by cchrstl

We recently watched the classic Mel Brooks movie “High Anxiety.” Besides the fact that it is absolutely hilarious, and relentlessly parodies psychiatry and psychiatrists, it also leads into a discussion of anxiety as popularized by psychiatry and psychology.

The American Psychological Association says, “Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure. People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat.”

The American Psychiatric Association says, “Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress … Anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness or anxiousness, and involve excessive fear or anxiety.” But they go further and list many different types of anxiety disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) lists no fewer than 54 disorders using the word “anxiety,” plus a number of other disorders with different names but which may still be considered as a type of anxiety disorder.

Psychiatrist Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, played by Mel Brooks in the movie, suffers from “high anxiety,” manifested as vertigo ostensibly from a fear of heights, which in the DSM would be a “Specific phobia.”

The English word “anxiety” itself means, among other definitions, “apprehensive uneasiness, worry, or nervousness typically over an impending or anticipated ill, or something with an uncertain outcome.” [Latin anxietas, from anxius, from angere “to choke”]

Psychiatrists and psychologists attempt to give it a “medical” definition, which is necessary in order to prescribe drugs for it. One medical dictionary says this, “Anxiety disorder: A chronic condition characterized by an excessive and persistent sense of apprehension, with physical symptoms such as sweating, palpitations, and feelings of stress. Treatments include the comfort offered by understanding the condition, avoiding or desensitizing exacerbating situations, and medications.” Google says this, “a nervous disorder characterized by a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behavior or panic attacks.”

The relationship of anxiety to stress should be self-evident. You might like to review what we have written previously about stress.

Anxiety, like stress, is not a mental illness, and cannot be fixed with a drug. It can only be fixed by finding and eliminating the causes of the condition. For example, many doctors and nutritionists are finding that anxiety attack symptoms can be the result of food allergies. There are many other potential causes. We recommend a full, searching clinical examination by a competent non-psychiatric doctor, to find out if there are any undiagnosed and untreated actual medical conditions.

There is an international nonprofit organization called “Anxiety and Depression Association of America”, whose purpose is the prevention, treatment, and cure of anxiety and other “co-occurring  disorders.” Naturally they claim, falsely, that anxiety disorders have a biological basis, giving them a reason to prescribe drugs. The National Institute of Mental Health says, “Anxiety disorders are generally treated with psychotherapy, medication, or both.”

If you were thinking of an anti-anxiety drug, be warned that these can cause hallucinations, delusional thinking, confusion, aggression, violence, hostility, agitation, irritability, depression and suicidal thinking. They are also some of the most difficult drugs to withdraw from.

Anxiety is an emotion, and is really a conflict, or the restimulation of a conflict, or something containing indecision or uncertainty. It is exemplified by a conflict between something supporting survival and something opposing survival. It is rooted in an inability to assign the correct cause to something, which itself is rooted in an inability to observe. As we said, the cure is not a drug, but in finding out the correct cause.

Be Well.

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More About Dopamine

Posted on November 11, 2018 by cchrstl

Since we discussed Serotonin in a previous newsletter, we should also discuss Dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays several important roles in the brain and body. A neurotransmitter is a chemical released by neurons (nerve cells) to send signals to other nerve cells. Its chemical formula is C8H11NO2. It belongs to a family of chemicals with high psychoactive properties.

Dopamine was first synthesized in 1910, first identified in the human brain in 1957, and its function as a neurotransmitter was first recognized in 1958. The name comes from a contraction of chemicals in its synthesis.

The anticipation of rewards increases the level of dopamine in the brain, and many addictive drugs increase dopamine release or block its reuptake into neurons following release.

Dopamine has other effects around the body:

  • helps widen blood vessels
  • helps increase urine output
  • helps regulate insulin production
  • helps to protect the gastrointestinal tract
  • helps control motor function
  • helps regulate aggression

Because it seems to be involved in the anticipation of rewards, it is seen as a chemical of pleasure or happiness. Most antipsychotic drugs are dopamine antagonists which reduce dopamine activity. Decreased levels of dopamine have also been associated with painful symptoms. Like serotonin, dopamine levels must be strictly regulated since both an excess and a deficiency can be problematic.

Side effects of dopamine include lowered kidney function and irregular heartbeats, addiction, and an overdose can be fatal. Cocaine, methamphetamine, Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, MDMA (ecstasy) and other psychostimulants generally increase dopamine levels in the brain by a variety of mechanisms.

Dopamine and serotonin are both neurotransmitters; an imbalance of either one can have disastrous effects on health, mental health, digestion, sleep cycle, and so on. The serotonergic system has strong anatomical and functional interactions with the dopaminergic system. While they both affect a lot of the same parts of the body, they do so in distinct ways which are still not fully understood. In the brain in general, dopamine is an excitatory neurotransmitter and serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. The imbalance of these two chemicals can cause a number of disorders; thus, drugs which mess with either of these play Russian roulette with your brain.

Because both serotonin and dopamine are involved in regulating aggression in different ways, one can see that imbalances can lead to suicidal thoughts and behaviors, which is a common side effect of drugs which mess with these neurotransmitters.

Researchers still only conjecture about any relationship between mental symptoms and dopamine, and they are coming to understand that the results do not support the hype.

Psychiatrists have known since the beginning of psychopharmacology that their drugs do not cure any disease. Further, there is no credible evidence that mental health is genetic or linked to dopamine transport; these are just public relations theories to support the marketing and sale of drugs. The manufacturers of every such drug state in the fine print that they don’t really understand how it works. Psychiatric drugs are fraudulently marketed as safe and effective for the sole purpose of earning billions for the psycho-pharmaceutical industry.

These drugs mask the real cause of problems in life and debilitate the individual, so denying him or her the opportunity for real recovery and hope for the future. This is the real reason why psychiatry is a violation of human rights. Psychiatric treatment is not just a failure — it is routinely destructive to the individual and one’s mental health.

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