Citizens Commission on Human Rights of St. Louis

Fuels Demands for Prohibiting Funds to Child Psychiatric Services and Deadly Drugs

SAINT LOUIS: A New York appeals court decision last week found that psychiatrists were wrong for force-feeding potentially lethal psychiatric drugs to a 14-year-old girl against her parents’ objections. The case has fueled calls for insurance coverage and governments to cease funding child psychiatric services. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) that for nearly 40 years has investigated psychotropic drug risks in the pediatric population is calling for a hard-line approach to this abuse of children. Millions of children are prescribed drugs that more than 50 international drug regulatory agency warnings in recent years say can cause suicide, life-threatening diabetes, heart attacks and death. CCHR’s co-founder, eminent professor of psychiatry emeritus, Thomas Szasz says, “Labeling a child as mentally ill is stigmatization, not diagnosis. Giving a child a psychiatric drug is poisoning, not treatment.” The renowned author added, “The child psychiatrist is one of the most dangerous enemies” of children and “must be abolished.” (Click here to watch a speech by Dr. Szasz.)
 

The group says the case brought against Payne Whitney Hospital in New York and two psychiatrists exemplifies psychiatry’s arrogant belief that it can override parents’ right to make decisions in the best interest of their children. A court hearing, which the parents were not a party to and in which a psychiatrist was the only witness, allowed him to administer psychiatric drugs to the girl, identified as Christine W., despite the parents’ repeated objections. The Supreme Court’s Appellate Division determined this was “constitutionally defective and fatally flawed.” Ms. Jan Eastgate, CCHR’s international president, said, “Psychiatry thinks it can override the legal rights of parents and convince courts that it has the right to force kids onto drugs that can cause serious harm and even death. Putting children in the hands of psychiatrists is a life or death gamble and, given the growing number of fatalities, a roll of the dice not to be taken lightly. Government and private insurance should not be funding this assault on children’s lives.”
 

There is at least a 30% profit margin for a psychiatric bed occupied by a child, compared to 20% for an adult and rakes in well over $1 billion a year in inpatient revenues. More than $184 million in federal grants is also given for pediatric “mental health” services while $29 million is spent annually to fund treatment of “behavioral and learning disorders” through Special Education. CCHR says the cost to children’s lives is chilling:

§    More than 8 million American children are prescribed psychiatric drugs documented to cause suicide, psychosis, hallucinations, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and death.

§   Each year an estimated 1,155 children and adolescents die or commit suicide due to psychiatric drugs.

§    An estimated 1,200 under 18-year-olds attempt suicide, while about 280 become homicidal when taking these drugs.

§    In 2005 in the state of Florida alone, $680,000,000 of Medicaid funds was expended on “behavioral health drugs” for foster care children. This included more than 19,000 children prescribed antipsychotic drugs, of which 4,556 were 5 years of age or younger. In all, 59,697 Medicaid children were put on psychotropic drugs in 2005, a 528% increase over 9,500 in 2000.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog group established by the Church of Scientology, has helped secure legislative protections against children being forced onto psychiatric drugs. But, Ms. Eastgate says, “There needs to be a tougher approach by governments and insurance companies in clamping down on funding for pediatric psychiatric services, given the propensity for psychiatrists to rely upon potentially lethal drugs.”

People in desperate circumstances must be provided proper and effective medical care. Medical, not psychiatric, attention, good nutrition, a healthy, safe environment and activity that promotes confidence will do far more than the brutality of psychiatry’s “treatments.”

The following quotes from the cookbook, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, show the severe mental (and physical) consequences of dietary and nutritional imbalances. Look no further for a “chemical imbalance” than your kitchen cupboard. One highly recommends this book for its sane approach to diet and nutrition. Why is this information not more widely known? Perhaps because vitamins are a lot less expensive than psychiatric drugs and require no doctor’s prescription. Follow the money to find the fraud.

“All the water-soluble B vitamins work as a team to promote healthy nerves, skin, eyes, hair, liver, muscle tone and cardiovascular function; they protect us from mental disorders, depression and anxiety.” p.38

“Low cholesterol levels have been linked to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and suicidal tendencies.” p.12

“Cholesterol is also needed to produce a variety of steroids that protect against cancer, heart disease and mental illness.” p.17

“A diet high in unfermented whole grains, particularly high-gluten grains like wheat, puts an enormous strain on the whole digestive mechanism. When this mechanism breaks down with age or overuse, the results take the form of allergies, celiac disease, mental illness, chronic indigestion and candida albicans overgrowth.” p.453

“Food allergies afflict a large portion of our population and can cause such diverse complaints as sneezing, itching, arthritis, nervous disorders, concentration problems, insomnia, headaches and chronic fatigue. More recently, diseases like cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia have been linked to food allergies.” p.56

“Gluten intolerance is associated with a family history of alcoholism, arthritis, Down’s syndrome and mental disorders such as schizophrenia and dementia.” p. 56

“Those who possessed enough will power to remain fat-free for any length of time [on the Pritikin diet] developed a variety of health problems including low energy, difficulty in concentration, depression, weight gain and mineral deficiencies.” p.4

“Lowfat diets are associated with increased rates of depression, psychological problems, fatigue, violence and suicide.” p.222

“When the endocrine system thus becomes disturbed [by a diet high in refined carbohydrates like sugar], numerous other pathological conditions soon manifest — degenerative disease, allergies, obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, learning disabilities and behavioral problems.” p.22

“Sugar consumption is associated with hyperactivity, behavior problems, lack of concentration and violent tendencies.” p.24

“Sugar consumption rapidly depletes vitamin B1.” p.38

“…sugar and white flour, being mildly to severely addictive, are harder to renounce.” p.25 [read the book to find out how to remedy this condition!]

“The most widely used artificial sweetener — aspartame or Nutra-sweet — is a neurotoxic substance that has been associated with numerous health problems including dizziness, visual impairment, severe muscle aches, numbing of extremities, pancreatitis, high blood pressure, retinal hemorrhaging, seizures and depression.” p.51

“According to some researchers, at least 40 percent of all Americans suffer from a deficiency of the thyroid gland with its accompanying symptoms of fatigue, weight gain, frequent colds and flu, inability to concentrate, depression and a host of more serious complications like heart disease and cancer.” p.117

“Deficiencies [of vitamin B12] can manifest as the living hell of depression, multiple sclerosis, dementia and psychiatric disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive behavior and manic-depression.” p.227

“The evidence points to MSG sensitivity of epidemic proportions among the general population. But for most people the symptoms are vague: depression, headache, mild nausea, pressure around the eyes, tingling of the face, behavioral disturbances in children and mood swings, accentuating those already present in adolescents and also in adults.” p.383

“Inquiry into the dietary history of patients diagnosed as schizophrenic reveals the diet of their choice is rich in sweets, candy, cakes, coffee, caffeinated beverages and foods prepared with sugar. These foods, which stimulate the adrenals, should be eliminated or severely restricted.” p.283

Nourishing Traditions

The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

Sally Fallon, with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

Revised Second Edition, New Trends Publishing, 2001

ISBN 0-9670897-3-5

But in U.S., Legislation May Result In More New Mothers Prescribed these Dangerous Drugs

SAINT LOUIS: Due to innovative patient safety legislation in Sweden passed in 2005, expanding the information available in the country’s Medical Drugs Registry, researchers were able to uncover that a staggering 52% of all women who committed suicide in Sweden in 2006 were taking antidepressants (Psychiatric Services, “Ethnic Differences in Antidepressant Treatment Preceding Suicide in Sweden,” Jan 2008). Although concerns about suicidal / violent side effects plague the antidepressant market worldwide, instead of increasing the scrutiny of these deadly risks, as was done by the Swedish legislators, the U.S. Congress is being coerced by vested into enacting legislation to get more women on these dangerous drugs.

Already, the consumption of antidepressants is 4,000% greater in the U.S. than in Sweden, raking in a profit of $13.5 billion in 2006. The latest attempt by the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries to increase their customer base for these drugs is a bill called the “Mother’s Act”. This bill calls for increased screening of new mothers for “postpartum depression”—a diagnosis that stigmatizes effects of pregnancy and childbirth as “mental illness” and needing “treatment” with powerful, mind-altering drugs. The mental health watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), says that with the international controversy surrounding the suicide and violence inducing effects of antidepressant drugs, Congress must withdraw support from the Mother’s Act and instead enact similar regulations to Sweden that would make prescription data available for an analysis of how many women and children committing suicide were taking these drugs.

Another report published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine sheds light on exactly how these vested interests have been able to mislead the public for so long about the safety and efficacy of antidepressants. The researchers revealed that negative studies on antidepressants are either not being published, or are skewed in a way that makes them appear positive.

CCHR says the issue of buried side effects is particularly important given the current push by vested interests to prescribe these drugs to new mothers for “postpartum depression”, which cannot be confirmed through any physical tests, and may be a manifestation of hormonal changes, lack of sleep, nutritional deficiencies and a myriad of other situations accompanying pregnancy and birth which do not require the prescription of dangerous, psychotropic drugs.

For more information on the dangers of psychiatric drugs, read CCHR’s publication, The Report on the Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs. To learn more about financial ties between psychiatrists and drug manufacturers, read Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers.

US Falling Behind Britain in Addressing this Harmful Practice

SAINT LOUIS: With more than 25% of US seniors in the Medicare program being prescribed antipsychotic drugs documented to increase the risk of death, diabetes and weight gain, the mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is demanding an end to the government funding of this harmful practice. CCHR says that Medicare, as well as Medicaid—which spent $5.4 billion on antipsychotics in 2005—should adopt firm policies preventing financial reimbursement for the administration of these drugs to the elderly and follow the UK’s lead in launching an investigation into the widespread use of these drugs on the elderly.

In December 2007, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia (APGP) in the UK launched an inquiry into the use of antipsychotics in nursing homes due to serious concerns about the drugs’ risks and complaints that the UK’s National Health Service is wasting £80 million ($157 million) on prescribing these drugs to the elderly. The Alzheimer’s Society, run in partnership with the APGP, is calling for an end to what it calls “prescribing unnecessary sedative drug treatments.” UK Member of Parliament Jeremy Wright stated, “It is right to investigate a practice that may be putting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities at risk.” The next month, the UK medical journal The Lancet, published a study reinforcing these concerns, which found that the drugs were less effective at lessening aggression than placebos.

In the US, the drugs have increasingly come under fire:

• In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked six antipsychotic manufacturers to add a caution to the labeling warning of the potential risk of diabetes and blood sugar abnormalities.
• In 2005, the FDA warned that the drugs increase the death rate in elderly.

 Beginning in Oct. 2004, states began to file lawsuits against antipsychotic makers to recoup money spent on these drugs, alleging that they were fraudulently marketed and caused damaging side effects. Arkansas became the most recent state to file such a lawsuit in November 2007.

• As of the most recent settlements in June 2007, drug manufacturer Eli Lilly has paid out more than $1.2 billion in settlements to more than 30,000 individuals who suffered serious side effects from the antipsychotic Zyprexa.

Despite these risks, through heavy marketing, antipsychotic sales raked in $11.5 billion in US sales in 2006, up from $6.6 billion in 2002.

The “chemical abuse” of elderly with powerful, dangerous drugs has not escaped notice—generating much controversy recently, including national exposés in Wall Street Journal (“Nursing Homes Struggle to Kick Drug Habit,” Dec. 20) and BBC News (“Please Look After Dad,” Dec. 3). The Wall Street Journal reports, “The widespread use of antipsychotics among the elderly has begun to draw criticism from regulators, researchers, lawmakers and some in the nursing-home industry. Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, this month asked several drug manufacturers for records on how they may have marketed these drugs for use in geriatric patients. He also has asked the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate use of the drugs in nursing homes.”

Due to the life-threatening side effects of antipsychotics, CCHR says that the government must not continue to fund this dangerous chemical restraint of the elderly. According to CCHR, the public should also be warned that the drugs are prescribed based on subjective diagnoses, which are literally voted into existence by psychiatrists, many of whom have financial ties to drug companies. So-called “mental disorders” cannot be validated by any physical tests, such as blood tests, brain scans or X-rays, yet the diagnoses are used to create consumers for a multi-billion dollar psycho-pharmaceutical industry.

For more information on the dangers of psychiatric drugs, read CCHR’s publication, The Report on the Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs. To learn more about financial ties between psychiatrists and drug manufacturers, read Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR St. Louis at 314-727-8307 or CCHRSTL@CCHRSTL.org.

SAINT LOUIS: After decades of warning the public that vested interests were burying psychiatric drug risks, vehemently denied by the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industries, the mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says new research published Jan 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine vindicates their demands for full public disclosure.

CCHR has filed Freedom of Information requests to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for adverse reactions reports of antidepressants, helped to orchestrate FDA hearings into the suicidal side effects of antidepressants and filed complaints to government officials and agencies about the conflicts of interest of FDA advisory committee members ignoring the drugs’ side effects. In addition, CCHR has issued numerous publications about the cover-up of psychiatric drug side effects and has filed complaints worldwide with licensing boards and other agencies on behalf of people harmed by psychiatric drugs including stimulants, antidepressants and antipsychotics.

Now, a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled, “Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy,” has revealed that negative studies on antidepressants are either not being published, or are skewed in a way that makes them appear positive. (See stories running on Fox National News, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal)  CCHR says the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel is not only misleading the public about the drugs, but also about the disorders for which they are prescribed.

Just this month, U.S. News and World Report confirmed that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) failed to fully disclose the substantial pharmaceutical ties of its task force members, charged with updating and expanding psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, comprised of subjective checklists of symptoms which are then used to categorize new “mental disorders” and bill insurance companies. Even high-ranking psychiatrists such as Steven Sharfstein, former president of the APA, have pointed out the financial corruption in their field. In 2006, Sharfstein admitted, “We have allowed ourselves to be corrupted in this marketplace with lucrative consulting to industry, speaker panels, boards of directors and visits from industry representatives bearing gifts.”

For more information on the financial ties between psychiatrists and drug manufacturers, read CCHR’s publication, Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers.

 With 53 Dead and 94 Wounded from Recent Drug Induced Murders, Watchdog Demands Investigation

SAINT LOUIS: The mental health watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says the federal government must launch a formal investigation into the psychiatric drug/violence connection following autopsy reports confirming two recent shooters were under the influence of psychiatric drugs documented to cause violence, psychosis and suicide.

19-year-old Nebraska mall shooter Robert Hawkins and 24-year-old Colorado church shooter Matthew Murray were both taking “anti-anxiety” drugs when they went on killing rampages in December within four days of each other. These massacres follow ten recent psychiatric drug induced school shootings, including Eric Harris at Columbine, Colorado and Jeff Weise at Red Lake, Minnesota, bringing the total to 53 dead and 94 wounded in these shootings.

Clinical psychopharmacologist and psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin wrote in his book, Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry (1997) that “benzodiazepines [a class of drugs that includes Valium and Xanax] can produce a wide variety of abnormal mental responses and hazardous behavioral abnormalities, including rebound anxiety and insomnia, psychosis, paranoia, violence, antisocial acts, depression, and suicide.”

A staggering $265,000 in state funds was spent on Robert Hawkins’ behavior and addiction “treatment.” This expensive state “care” included four years in and out of treatment centers, psych evaluations, regular therapy and extensive prescriptions for powerful drugs including Zoloft, Adderall and Effexor, warned to cause “homicidal ideation.” This case clearly refutes the mental health industry’s standard negation of psychiatric drug induced violence—the claim the patient did not get enough treatment, used to clamor for increased funding.

CCHR, concerned that most parents and consumers are unaware of the risk of homicide and suicide connected with these drugs, has launched a striking series of three Public Service Announcements (PSAs) warning of these side effects. The PSAs can be viewed at www.cchr.org/psas/. CCHR hopes that these PSAs serve to inform the public about the dangers of these drugs and encourage support for a federal investigation into the link between these drugs and senseless violence.

With public distrust of psychiatry mounting—and government agency warnings about psychiatric drugs at an all-time high—a new exhibit in St. Louis shows that it could get much worse.

St. Louis – Denouncing the fact that internationally more than 100,000 patients die each year in psychiatric institutions and an estimated 15,000 American children have died as a consequence of taking psychiatric drugs, the St. Louis Chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) launched a “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” exhibition today in University City (7900 Olive Blvd., Westover Shopping Center). Mary “One” Johnson helped open the exhibit which features 15 display panels that incorporate audio-visual presentations depicting human rights abuses by psychiatry and carry statements from health professionals, academics, legal and human rights experts, and victims of psychiatric brutalities. The exhibit also addresses a federal plan that would screen the state’s children for “mental illness” that could lead to a threefold increase in the number of children being subjected to the devastating effects of psychotropic drugs.

The 185-foot, state-of-the-art exhibit exposes psychiatry as an industry driven entirely by profit. It traces the origins of psychiatry, the role psychiatrists have played in the oppression of blacks and minorities, the roots of their eugenics programs and the pivotal part they played in the Holocaust. It also reveals how psychiatric drugs are behind gun-toting teens today going on shooting sprees, and how millions of federal dollars allocated to screen all 52 million American schoolchildren could increase both child deaths and acts of school violence. People touring the exhibit today signed a petition opposing funding and implementation of mental health screening in schools.

“The touring exhibit shows psychiatry’s deadly ‘treatments’ in graphic detail,” warns CCHR St. Louis chapter spokesperson, Moritz Farbstein, who listed out psychosurgery, shock treatment, deadly restraint and the prevalent inhumane conditions of psychiatric facilities, and the forced drugging of children as young as six months old. “Most importantly, though, this exhibit provides practical guidance for lawmakers, educators, doctors, human rights advocates and private citizens so they can take action in their own spheres to bring psychiatry to account for their abuses.”

The touring “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” exhibit theme is patterned after a recently opened museum by the same name at the Los Angeles headquarters of Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a psychiatric watchdog group with 300 chapters worldwide. Co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, CCHR investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights.

Mr. Farbstein said, “Our exhibit shows very clearly how, in the name of ‘help,’ psychiatry, in fact, destroys lives.”

A sampling of current statistics and facts shown in the exhibit bears this out:

·        20 million children worldwide are taking psychiatric drugs, including 10 million in the United States, which can cause suicide, hostility, violence, mania, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes and death. 

·        Antipsychotic drug prescriptions for children increased fivefold between 1993 and 2002 in the United States, during which time 45 children died from the drugs.

·        In recent years, stimulant drugs have caused 19 child deaths, although as only 1% to 10% of drug adverse reactions are reported, the death toll from children taking antipsychotic drugs, stimulants and antidepressants could be as high as 15,000.

·        10% of American teens (2.3 million) are abusing psychiatric stimulants.

·        More than 100,000 patients die each year in psychiatric institutions around the world.

·        Psychiatrists are using electroshock, drugs and other barbaric means to torture political dissidents.

·        Internationally, psychiatrists kill up to 10,000 people each year with their use of electroshock—460 volts of electricity sent searing through the brain.  Three-quarters of all electroshock victims are women.

·        Psychiatrists and psychologists have raped 250,000 women.  Studies show that 10 to 25 percent of psychiatrists sexually assault their patients; of every 20 of these victims one is likely to be a minor.

Public interested in touring the exhibit (daily through January 19) can contact CCHR by phone at (314) 727-8307, by e-mail at CCHRSTL@CCHRSTL.org or visit www.CCHRSTL.org.

Watchdog Releases More Damning Evidence Against APA With Undercover Footage from Psychiatrists’ Offices

 

SAINT LOUIS: Documents obtained by U.S. News and World Report confirm that the American Psychiatric Association failed to fully disclose the substantial pharmaceutical ties of its task force members, charged with updating and expanding psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), comprised of subjective checklists of symptoms which are then used to categorize new “mental disorders” and bill insurance companies.

 

The psychiatric watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), says the scandals relating to the DSM, long considered the cash cow of disease mongering, go much deeper than conflicts of interest or failure to disclose pharmaceutical ties, and the group has released a new video (http://cchr.org/dsm/) featuring undercover footage of psychiatrists using the DSM to randomly dole out powerful and dangerous drugs to unsuspecting patients.

 

The video, including interviews with experts explaining how the DSM lacks any scientific basis, also contains footage of psychiatrists attending the annual American Psychiatric Association convention admitting that psychiatry has no physical tests to diagnose psychiatric disorders, no chemical imbalance tests, and no idea how to cure anyone.

 

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR St. Louis at 314-727-8307 or CCHRSTL@cchrstl.org.

With mounting drug regulatory agency warnings, a new exhibit exposes thousands of child deaths from psychiatric drugs in U.S.

 WHO:  Join the psychiatric watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) to open a chillingly informative exhibit, “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.”  Free to the public, it warns about the more than 100,000 deaths in psychiatric institutions around the world each year and over 15,000 deaths of children taking psychiatric drugs in the United States.
 
WHAT:  The 185-foot, state-of-the-art exhibit, which is being shown internationally in more than 30 countries, features 15 display panels that incorporate audio-visual presentations depicting human rights abuses by psychiatry and carries statements from health professionals, academics, legal and human rights experts, and victims of psychiatric brutalities. It traces the origins of psychiatry, the role psychiatrists have played in the oppression of blacks and minorities, the roots of their eugenics programs and the pivotal part they played in the Holocaust. It also reveals how psychiatric drugs are behind the spate of school shooting sprees and how millions of federal dollars allocated to screen American schoolchildren for “mental disorders” could increase both child deaths and acts of school violence. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that psychiatric drugs prescribed to children could cause aggression, hostility, psychosis, mania, homicide, suicide and death.
 
WHEN:  Saturday, January 5 through Saturday, January 19, 2008, 10 AM to 8 PM
WHERE:  7900 Olive Blvd., University City, Missouri 63130
CONTACT:  CCHR St. Louis (314) 727-8307
 
ORGANIZATION:  CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, and has successfully achieved hundreds of legislative protections against psychiatric abuse.
 
VISIT ALSO: 
The CCHR exhibit at the Smart Living Expo, America’s Center downtown St. Louis, Saturday, January 5 (10 AM – 6 PM) and Sunday, January 6 (11 AM – 5 PM). Admission is free.
The CCHR exhibit in the Missouri State Capitol Rotunda, Jefferson City, MO, Monday, January 21 and Tuesday, January 22, 2008, 8 AM – 5 PM. Admission is free.

SAINT LOUIS: In the midst of a national debate over direct-to-consumer advertising, consumers are urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to exercise the new authority granted to them with the recent passage of the FDA reform bill. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act, signed into law by President Bush in September, gives the FDA the power to levy up to $500,000 in fines against pharmaceutical companies for false and misleading ads.

 

The mental health watchdog group, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), says that nowhere is this need for regulation more essential than in the deceptive ads for drugs designed to alter mood and behavior. According to CCHR, the “chemical imbalance” theory fed to the public through advertisements in order to rationalize the widespread use of psychiatric drugs—documented to cause suicide, homicidal ideation, heart attack, stroke and sudden death—is a marketing tool and is not based on scientific evidence.

 

In his book Blaming the Brain (1998), neuroscientist Elliot Valenstein wrote, “Although it is often stated with great confidence that depressed people have a serotonin or norepinephrine [brain chemicals] deficiency, the evidence actually contradicts these claims.”

 

An article in the November issue of the journal Society entitled, “The Media and the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression,” reaches a similar conclusion. Authors Jonathan Leo and Jeffrey Lacasse write, “The advertisement takes a correlation between serotonin shortage and psychological stress—and even this is highly questionable and unverifiable in any individual case—and makes a leap of faith to the conclusion that depression is caused by a serotonin imbalance…And the marketing did not stop with depression; eventually we were told that whatever our problems might be, whether anxiety, excessive shyness, depression, or the inability to pay attention, the underlying cause was a faulty transmitter level which could be rectified with a pill.”

 

Despite the controversy over advertising directly to consumers—a practice permitted only in the United States and New Zealand—spending on these advertisements reached $4.5 billion in 2006. This year, following the passage of stronger drug safety legislation, a crackdown has already begun on the fraudulent marketing of antidepressants. In December, the FDA released a letter to drug manufacturer Wyeth criticizing their ads for the antidepressant Effexor, saying that the ads minimize the risks and overstate the effectiveness of the drug.

 

CCHR applauds this move but urges that the FDA do more to regulate the misleading messages. A 2003 Consumers Union analysis of several years of drug ads found “a broad and disconcerting range of misleading messages” including “ads that minimized the product risk” and “exaggerated its efficacy”. Leo and Lacasse conclude in a 2005 essay in the Public Library of Science Medicine, entitled “Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature,” that “The incongruence [disagreement] between the scientific literature and the claims made in FDA-regulated SSRI [Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor – newer antidepressant] advertisements is remarkable, and possibly unparalleled.”

 

CCHR is joining consumers in calling for a ban on fraudulent claims by drug manufacturers—the most egregious being the fraudulent and unproven claim that depression is due to a “chemical imbalance” and that antidepressants work to correct this imbalance. Psychiatrists themselves admit there are no tests, such as brain scans, x-rays, urine samples or any chemical imbalance tests, which can verify the existence of psychiatric disorders. Click here for more information about the chemical imbalance hoax.

 

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR St. Louis at 314-727-8307 or www.CCHRSTL.org.