Knacking

Posted on July 4, 2012 by cchrstl

Recently I read this marvelous wordsmithing in the book Kraken by China Miéville:

“You have to persuade the universe that things make sense a certain way. That’s what knacking is.”

So, having a knack for something means, in this sense, making the universe work the way you imagine it should. Of course, the normal meaning of knack is a clever skill or special talent.

That may or may not have anything to do with CCHR or psychiatry, I just could not ignore the opportunity to pass it along.

On the other hand, we might observe that pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is knacking when they try to make their criminal activities go away by saying, “The complaint to which you refer concerns events in 1999, 13 years ago. It does not reflect what would be allowed in GSK today.”

The complaint, of course, is the US government’s allegations of criminal and civil charges against GSK resulting in the settlement announced this week, with GSK fined $3 billion for promoting off-label prescription of the antidepressant drug Wellbutrin, among other charges. (Read more about this here and here.)

Wellbutrin, generic term bupropion, is a newer antidepressant of the type Norepinephrine-Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitors. As a short-acting antidepressant and amphetamine-like drug similar to Ritalin and Dexedrine, it is also marketed in slow-release form as Zyban for people trying to quit smoking. While Wellbutrin is not FDA-approved to treat ADHD, doctors still prescribe it for this.

The FDA approved Wellbutrin as an antidepressant in 1985 but because of the significant incidence of seizures at the originally recommended dose (400-600 mg), the drug was withdrawn in 1986. It was reintroduced in 1989 with a maximum dose of 450 mg per day.

It can cause seizures and at rates of four times that of other antidepressants. Fatal heart attacks in those with a history of heart-rhythm disturbances have occurred. Other side effects include agitation, insomnia, increased restlessness, anxiety, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic episodes, confusion, weight loss and paranoia. Teens have abused the drug by crushing and snorting it, causing seizures.

One might say that the continued production and prescription of Wellbutrin itself is criminal, although that was not one of the government’s allegations.

Click here for more information about the side effects, often called adverse reactions, of psychiatric drugs.

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Knacking

The Florida Baker Act

Posted on June 24, 2012 by cchrstl

The Florida Mental Health Act, commonly known as the “Baker Act,” is a Florida statute allowing for involuntary “examination” (otherwise known as involuntary commitment) of an individual. It can be initiated by a court, law enforcement officer, physician, clinical psychologist, psychiatric nurse, mental health counselor, marriage and family therapist, or clinical social worker.

“Examinations” may last up to 72 hours (not counting weekends and holidays.)

The act was named for a Florida state representative, Maxine Baker, who served as chair of a House Committee on mental health and was the sponsor of the bill.

The nickname of the legislation has led to the term “Baker Act” as a verb, such as “he was Baker Acted” when an individual is forcibly committed. Use of “Baker Acting” as a verb has become prevalent as a slang term for involuntary commitment in other regions of the United States besides Florida.

The number of Miami-Dade students taken for involuntary psychiatric examination by school police has almost exactly doubled in the last five years. Read more about this here. At least 646 times this year, or more than 3 times per school day, Miami-Dade school police have handcuffed a student and taken him or her to a mental health facility under the Baker Act rules.

There were no “school police” when I was in school. What has changed?

Could it be related to the proliferation of addictive, violence-causing psychiatric drugs among school children? That might be too obvious to CCHR Supporters; but it is still a mystery to much of the society at large. Help us spread the word!

Click here for more information about involuntary psychiatric commitment.

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged , | Comments Off on The Florida Baker Act

Prenatal Antipsychotic Exposure

Posted on June 17, 2012 by cchrstl

“Prenatal Antipsychotic Exposure” refers to the harm done to a child in the womb when a pregnant mother takes antipsychotic drugs. Apparently this is a relatively common occurrence. There has been a 170% increase over the last decade in antipsychotic use during pregnancy.

Information about this comes from a research article published April 2, 2012 in the Archives of General Psychiatry (“Prenatal Antipsychotic Exposure and Neuromotor Performance During Infancy;” Johnson, LaPrairie, Brennan, Stowe & Newport, doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.160.)

The study was conducted on 6-month old infants whose mothers had taken, or had not taken, antipsychotics during pregnancy. The results showed that infants whose mothers had taken antipsychotics during pregnancy had significantly lower scores on a standard test of neuromotor performance; meaning that the nerve development of these children had likely been significantly compromised by these psychiatric drugs. Are you surprised?

If this information incites your ire, consider doing something about it. Write your legislators, your government officials, your school boards, and your religious leaders; show the CCHR DVD documentaries to your family, friends and associates; donate to CCHR St. Louis so we can continue making this information available. If you need a DVD to show around, let us know.

For more information about the side effects of psychiatric drugs, go to http://www.cchrstl.org/sideeffects.shtml.

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill

Posted on June 14, 2012 by cchrstl

A June 9th article in The New York Times describes the rising number of high school students who are abusing ADHD drugs.

“At high schools across the United States, pressure over grades and competition for college admissions are encouraging students to abuse prescription stimulants, according to interviews with students, parents and doctors. Pills that have been a staple in some college and graduate school circles are going from rare to routine in many academically competitive high schools, where teenagers say they get them from friends, buy them from student dealers or fake symptoms to their parents and doctors to get prescriptions.”

“Observed Gary Boggs, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, ‘We’re seeing it all across the United States.'”

“The D.E.A. lists prescription stimulants like Adderall and Vyvanse (amphetamines) and Ritalin and Focalin (methylphenidates) as Class 2 controlled substances — the same as cocaine and morphine — because they rank among the most addictive substances that have a medical use. (By comparison, the long-abused anti-anxiety drug Valium is in the lower Class 4.) So they carry high legal risks, too, as few teenagers appreciate that merely giving a friend an Adderall or Vyvanse pill is the same as selling it and can be prosecuted as a felony.”

“But abuse of prescription stimulants can lead to depression and mood swings (from sleep deprivation), heart irregularities and acute exhaustion or psychosis during withdrawal, doctors say. Little is known about the long-term effects of abuse of stimulants among the young. Drug counselors say that for some teenagers, the pills eventually become an entry to the abuse of painkillers and sleep aids.”

Read the full New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/education/seeking-academic-edge-teenagers-abuse-stimulants.html

For more information about the side effects of psychiatric drugs, go to http://www.cchrstl.org/sideeffects.shtml.

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill

Protect Yourself Against Misdiagnosis and Abuse

Posted on May 30, 2012 by cchrstl

Anyone diagnosed with a psychiatric (mental) disorder and/or their parent or guardian has the right to informed consent before any treatment is undertaken. Unlike diagnoses for medical conditions, psychiatrists do not have blood tests or any other biological tests to ascertain the presence or absence of a mental illness. It is important to know that according to one state government medical manual, “Mental health professionals working within a mental health system have a professional and a legal obligation to recognize the presence of physical disease in their patients” and to rule out any physical condition causing “a patient’s mental disorder.”

Psychiatrists rarely conduct thorough physical examinations to rule out medical conditions, thereby misdiagnosing the patient. This can result in inappropriate and dangerous treatment, added to the fact that the real underlying medical condition is left untreated. Treatment for alleged mental illness is also extremely expensive to you or to your insurance company.

Further, if a psychiatrist asserts that your mental condition is caused by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain or is a neurobiological disorder, you have the right to ask for the lab test or other test to prove the accuracy of that diagnosis.

Fill out this Psychiatric Diagnosis Abuse Report Form for your protection and provide it to your legal representative and insurance carrier to take further action.

You might also wish to prepare a Psychiatric Living Will. A Living Will lets you specify decisions about your health care treatment in advance. Should you be in a position where you are to be subject to unwanted psychiatric hospitalization and/or mental or medical treatment, this Letter of Protection from Psychiatric Incarceration and/or Treatment directs that such incarceration, hospitalization, treatment or procedures not be imposed, committed or used on you.

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Protect Yourself Against Misdiagnosis and Abuse

Missouri Legislative News

Posted on May 28, 2012 by cchrstl

The 2012 Missouri state legislative session ended May 18. This means that all bills listed below as killed are now truly dead (for this year.) Bills that are listed as passed have been passed by both houses of the legislature but still need to be signed by the Governor. He has until mid-July to sign or veto all bills presented. For more information about each bill, including its full text, go to http://www.house.mo.gov/billcentral.aspx and search on the bill number (e.g. “SB 446”).

PRO-PSYCH BILLS KILLED for the 2012 session

SB 446
Specifies that drug courts may be funded by the county law enforcement restitution fund.

SB 500
Modifies state legal expense coverage of certain health professionals and modifies hospital patient safety policies. This act provides coverage under the state legal expense fund for any licensed doctor, therapist, dentist, podiatrist, optometrist, pharmacist, psychologist, or nurse who is hired on a contract basis to serve as a consultant for the MO HealthNet division or family support division of the Department of Social Services, or to serve as a consultant to the Department of Mental Health.

SB 518
Creates a mental health assessment pilot program for criminal offenders.

HB 1322
Authorizes the Director of the Department of Corrections to establish, as a three-year pilot program, a mental health assessment process.

HB 1456
Authorizes the Department of Corrections to establish a mental health assessment pilot program for certain criminal offenders.

SB 634
Requires insurer to provide coverage for eating disorders.

HB 1509
Requires all health insurance carriers and health benefit plans to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders.

SB 710
Establishes a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Includes treatment for impaired professionals.

HB 1122
Establishes the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Act to monitor the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances.

HB 1193
Establishes the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Act to monitor the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances.

HB 1372
Changes the laws regarding the dispensing of controlled substances and establishes the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Act.

SB 768
This act authorizes circuit courts or a combination of circuits to create veterans treatment courts. These courts will dispose of cases involving substance abuse or mental illness of current or former military personnel. Treatment referrals by the court shall be through the Department of Defense health care, Veterans Administration, or community-based treatment programs. The court shall dismiss, reduce, or modify the charges against the participant upon successful completion of a treatment program. Community based treatment programs must use programs certified by the Missouri Department of Mental Health unless no certified program is located in the same county as the court. Community based programs shall receive state or federal funds for referrals from veterans treatment courts.

HB 1110
Allows a circuit court to establish a veterans treatment court to dispose of criminal cases which stem from substance abuse or mental illness of military veterans or current military personnel.

HB 1032
Adds a licensed professional counselor to the list of those authorized to conduct a full investigation into whether an individual is suitable as an adoptive parent.

HB 1082
Specifies that licensed professional counseling includes the diagnosis of mental, emotional, and behavior disorders and requires these counselors to complete certain educational coursework.

HB 1583
Authorizes the juvenile court to order psychiatric evaluations of a juvenile and to order admittance to a mental health facility upon the recommendation of specified evaluations.

 

ANTI-PSYCH BILLS PASSED for the 2012 session

HB 1318
Prohibits a state employee working in a maximum or medium security mental health facility from being required to work more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period, although the final version had the guts taken out of it by allowing it in a “work-force shortage.”

HB 1608
Repeals provisions and sections of law regarding unfunded and obsolete programs and establishes expiration dates for specified provisions. Includes some psych programs among those being axed:

The Student Suicide Prevention Grant Program (Section 161.235);

The requirement that licensed physicians providing obstetrical or gynecological care to a pregnant woman counsel all patients as to the perinatal effects of cigarettes, alcohol, and controlled substances and that the Department of Health and Senior Services establish a toll-free information line to provide information on resources for substance abuse treatment, establish protocols based on a risk assessment profile to be used by health care providers to identify high risk pregnancies, and conduct periodic tests on a sample of women or infants at the time of delivery. (Sections 191.727, 191.733, 191.735, 191.741, and 191.745)

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality

Posted on May 20, 2012 by cchrstl

[http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3135 by Des Spence, general practitioner, Glasgow, in the 2 May 2012 British Medical Journal
BMJ 2012;344:e3135]

“Mental health should be a priority for all societies and its stigma always challenged. However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that a staggering 25% of people in the United States have a “mental illness.” This is so large a figure that there can be only one conclusion: psychiatry is medicalising normality. The definition of a “mental illness” is one of opinion. These opinions are drawn from a small group of psychiatric oligarchs [a member of a small governing faction] who author the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Their opinions are polluted, however: 75% of the authors of the new, fifth edition of the DSM report conflicts of interest.

“The DSM mental health model is a reductionist biological one: behaviours are explained away as “chemical imbalance” and of course open to drug treatment. Thus, tens of millions of normal but inattentive, disruptive, unruly, moody, or shy children are labelled for life as mentally ill. Boys are disproportionately coerced into chemical control. Figures from North Carolina show that 15.6% of children are labelled as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In New Jersey one in 30 boys is considered to have autistic spectrum disorder, and bipolar illness in children rose 40-fold in a decade in the US. Such numbers are hailed as “better” diagnosis, not the obvious calamity of overdiagnosis and childhoods lost. How will these labels affect future employment, relationships, and esteem?

“So, will the DSM-5 seek to reverse overdiagnosis? No. New proposals will see bereavement reclassified as clinical “depression” should it last a mere two weeks. The definition of ADHD is being loosened further and will consume ever more. A new condition, “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder,” is defined. Three “temper outbursts” a week and being negative, “irritable, and angry” are enough for children to be labelled forever. In adults the new “attenuated psychosis syndrome” attempts to label people at high risk of developing psychosis, this despite recent research indicating that only 8% of those at high risk develop a psychotic illness.

“These changes defy common sense and will serve only to undermine psychiatry’s professional standing. It is yet more industrial mass production psychiatry to serve the drug industry, for which mental ill health is the profit nirvana of lifelong multiple medications.

“To be critical of psychiatry is often conflated with dismissing suffering. It is not. Psychiatrists have a duty to the sick but also to the well, and we are in a mental health disaster zone. DSM-5 (and psychiatry) is riddled with conflicts of interest; its definitions are soft, non-specific, and seem counterintuitive. I know that many psychiatrists believe this too, so it is time to take a stand against the mayhem of modern psychiatry.”

~o0O0o~

Wow, we couldn’t have said it any clearer. What should we do about it?

Take Action Now!

And be sure to check out http://www.havidol.com/ for a fine time!

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged | Comments Off on The psychiatric oligarchs who medicalise normality

The annual NARPA rights conference

Posted on May 17, 2012 by cchrstl

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RIGHTS PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY

NARPA AT 30:

Celebrating Our Past, Creating Our Future

September 5-8, 2012

Conference begins Wednesday evening & ends noon Saturday

The Millennium Hotel
Cincinnati, Ohio

For 30 years, NARPA has provided an educational conference with inspiring keynoters and outstanding workshops. Learn from each other and come together as a community committed to social justice for people with psychiatric labels & developmental disabilities.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) is providing financial support to individuals who are current or former recipients of mental health services, in order to enable these individuals to develop or improve advocacy skills from information available at the conference. The deadline for application is May 29th. Go to http://narpa.org/ to download the application form.

NARPA‘s mission is to promote policies and pursue strategies that result in individuals with psychiatric diagnoses making their own choices regarding treatment. They educate and mentor those individuals to enable them to exercise their legal and human rights with a goal of abolition of all forced treatment.

NARPA is an independent organization, solely supported by its members. It is a unique mix of people who have experienced psychiatric intervention, advocates, civil rights activists, mental health workers, and lawyers — with many people whose roles overlap. NARPA exists to to protect people’s right to choice and to be free from coercion, and to promote alternatives so that the right to choice can be meaningful.

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged | Comments Off on The annual NARPA rights conference

Interesting Books

Posted on May 13, 2012 by cchrstl

Anatomy of an Epidemic, by Robert Whitaker.

“There is a story that psychiatry doesn’t dare tell, which shows that our societal delusion about the benefits of psychiatric drugs isn’t entirely an innocent one. In order to sell our society on the soundness of this form of care, psychiatry has had to grossly exaggerate the value of its new drugs, silence critics, and keep the story of poor long-term outcomes hidden. That is a willful, conscious process, and the very fact that psychiatry has had to employ such storytelling methods reveals a great deal about the merits of this paradigm of care, much more than a single study ever could.” (page 312)

Born With a Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks, and Hacks Pimp the Public Health, by Martha Rosenberg

“Why have Big Pharma, the government, and the medical establishment turned a blind eye to patients who fall victim to suicide as a result of antidepressants and other psychoactive drugs? … Having gained the trust of more than twenty doctors, researchers, and experts who were willing to come forward and finally tell all, reporter and editorial cartoonist Martha Rosenberg presents us with her shocking findings.”

Psychiatry – The Ultimate Betrayal, by Bruce Wiseman

“In the name of help, it has brutalized hundreds of thousands of individuals, hacking at their brains, searing them with electricity or numbing them with drugs. It has left in its wake shattered lives, ruined bodies and even the dead. The destruction has been almost incomprehensible. … Psychiatry – The Ultimate Betrayal examines psychiatry from its historical beginnings to the present and traces its rise to influence in our society. … The influence of psychiatric thought upon our lives has been catastrophic. In this searching examination, you will learn exactly how this has happened, how so much of what we casually think of today as ‘the way it is’ had its beginnings in the faulty theories of men who had less than our best interests at heart.”

Psychiatrists РThe Men Behind Hitler, by R̦der, Kubillus, & Burwell

“The result of years of research, this highly explosive and well-documented book will reveal the hidden forces behind the Nazi movement during the Third Reich – which not only inspired the atrocities of the Holocaust, but actually helped carry them out. Incredibly, the Men Behind Hitler are very much with us today, still hidden but intimately involved in almost every aspect of our day-to-day life in education, medicine, law, government and even religion. … This book names the names and presents the facts.”

The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct, by Thomas S. Szasz (50th anniversary edition, 2010)

“Fifty years ago, the question ‘What is mental illness?’ was of interest to the general public as well as to philosophers, sociologists, and medical professionals. This is no longer the case. The question has been answered — ‘dismissed’ would be more accurate — by the holders of political power: representing the State, they decree that ‘mental illness is a disease like any other.’ Political power and professional self-interest unite in turning a false belief into a ‘lying fact.’

“The claim that ‘mental illnesses are diagnosable disorders of the brain’ is not based on scientific research; it is a lie, an error, or a naive revival of the somatic premise of the long-discredited humoral theory of disease.

“For more than fifty years I have maintained that mental illnesses are counterfeit diseases (‘nondiseases’), that coerced psychiatric relations are like coerced labor relations (‘slavery’) or coerced sexual relations (rape), and I spent the better part of my professional life criticizing the concept of mental illness, objecting to the practices of involuntary-institutional psychiatry, and advocating the abolition of ‘psychiatric slavery’ and ‘psychiatric rape.’

“Anyone who seeks to help others — whether by means of religion or by means of medicine — must eschew the use of force.

“Formerly, when Church and State were allied, people accepted theological justifications for state-sanctioned coercion. Today, when Medicine and the State are allied, people accept therapeutic justifications for state-sanctioned coercion. This is how, some two hundred years ago, psychiatry became an arm of the coercive apparatus of the state. And this is why today all of medicine threatens to become transformed from personal therapy into political tyranny.”

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged | Comments Off on Interesting Books

Mental Health Courts

Posted on May 10, 2012 by cchrstl

Mental Health Courts are facilities established to deal with arrests for misdemeanors or non-violent felonies. Rather than allowing the guilty parties to take responsibility for their crimes, they are diverted to a psychiatric treatment center on the premise that they suffer from “mental illness” which will respond positively to antipsychotic drugs. The assertion that criminal behavior is caused by a psychiatric problem and that treatment will stop the behavior has no evidence to support this false premise. It is simply another form of coercive psychiatric treatment.

In a review of 20 mental health courts, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law found that these courts “may function as a coercive agent – in many ways similar to the controversial intervention, outpatient commitment – compelling an individual to participate in treatment under threat of court sanctions. However, the services available to the individual may be only those offered by a system that has already failed to help. Too many public mental health systems offer little more than medication.”

There are clear indications that governments’ endorsement of mental health courts and “community policing” (as it is referred to in some European countries) will see more patients forced into a life of mentally and physically dangerous drug consumption and dependence, with no hope of a cure.

Mental health courts, starting in the 1980’s and 1990’s, attempt to link offenders who would ordinarily be prison-bound to long-term community-based treatment, connecting with the Community Mental Health Centers system that was established in 1955. Mental health courts proliferated in the early 2000’s due to funding from the federal Mental Health Courts Program administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Community Mental Health Centers became legalized drug dealerships that not only supplied drugs to former mental hospital patients, but also supplied psychiatric prescriptions to individuals not suffering from any serious mental problems. Community Mental Health programs have been an expensive and colossal failure, creating homelessness, drug addiction, crime and unemployment all over the world.

For more information download and read the free CCHR booklet “The Real Crisis in Mental Health Today“.

Posted in Big Muddy River Newsletter, Press Releases | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Mental Health Courts