The Consumer Reports magazine of February 2015 has this to say about harmful psych drugs (page 8):
“Did You know that forms you sign when you or a relative enter a medical facility could signal your consent to take whatever drug is prescribed—even antipsychotics that could harm your health or be used to control behavior?
“It’s a nightmare that Marian Hollingsworth experienced firsthand. Her father, admitted to a California hospital for back pain, had a sudden mental decline that only worsened when he was transferred to a nursing home. Physical complications followed; he died less than two months later.
“Only after closely studying her father’s records did Hollingsworth learn that upon admission he had been prescribed the antipsychotics Risperdal and Haldol—along with opioids and tranquilizers—and that many of his symptoms seemed to be complications of those drugs.
“One signature, obtained days after admission, was all that the hospital—and later, the nursing home—needed to dispense the drugs and to add others. Outraged, Hollingsworth filed several complaints with her state health department and contacted the media. The result: A new state policy requiring nursing homes to verify informed consent for antipsychotic drugs used for patients who are being transferred from a hospital.
“Now Hollingsworth has joined Consumer Reports’ nationwide Safe Patient Project. Learn how to protect yourself and those you care for at SafePatientProject.org.”
Click here for more information about the side effects of psychiatric drugs.
SS SCS SB 532 (Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 532) – Modifies provisions relating to educational and medical consent provided by relative caregivers. Signed by Governor Nixon 7/9/2014; goes into effect 28 August 2014.
This act allows relative caregivers, acting under an affidavit, to consent to medical treatment and educational services for a minor child with whom such caregiver lives if consent of the legal parent or guardian cannot be obtained through reasonable efforts. A parent may also delegate such consent authority to the relative caregiver in writing. “Relative caregiver” is defined as a competent adult who is related by blood, marriage or adoption, who is not the legal parent or guardian and who represents in the affidavit that the child lives with the adult and that the adult is responsible for the care of the child.
This is an important protection as it prevents consent for medical treatment, including psychiatric treatment, from defaulting to the state if the parent is not available.
CCS#2 HCS SCS SB 716 (Conference Committee Substitute No. 2 for House Committee Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 716) – Modifies provisions relating to public health. Signed by Governor Nixon 7/10/2014; goes into effect 28 August 2014.
VULNERABLE PERSON ABUSE INVESTIGATIONS (Sections 630.017 and Section 2)
This act provides that upon receipt of a report of possible vulnerable person abuse, the Department of Mental Health shall initiate an investigation within 24 hours and shall complete all investigations within 60 days, unless good cause for the failure to complete the investigation is documented.
For investigations alleging neglect of a patient, resident, or client, the guardian shall be notified of the investigation and given an opportunity to provide information to the investigators; the results of the investigation shall be provided to the guardian within five working days of its completion. The department of mental health shall obtain two independent reviews of all patient, resident, or client deaths that it investigates.
This act also requires the department of mental health to develop guidelines for the screening and assessment of persons receiving services from the Department that address the interaction between physical and mental health to ensure that all potential causes of changes in behavior or mental status caused by or associated with a medical condition are assessed. The provisions of this act relating to screening and assessments shall only apply to state owned or operated facilities and not to long-term care facilities or hospitals.
This is an important change in the law as it recognizes that mental symptoms can be caused by physical issues and requires the Missouri Department of Mental Health to assess persons for medical conditions and not just for mental symptoms. If you know someone who might have input into such guidelines, now is the time to have them contact the DMH. California developed such guidelines in 1991, called the Medical Evaluation Field Manual, which will be the subject of a future newsletter.
Legislation signed by the Governor of Texas and effective starting 9/1/2013 provides expanded safeguards for foster children in Texas regarding their health care.
Here are some of the important points safeguarding foster children from dangerous psychotropic drugs. We have paraphrased the legalese to make it easier to read. The actual bill text can be found here.
Duties required by a guardian ad litem appointed for a child include reviewing the medical care provided to the child, and in a developmentally appropriate manner, elicit the child’s opinion on the medical care provided. For a child at least 16 years of age, advise the child of the child’s right to request the court to authorize the child to consent to the child’s own medical care.
For a child receiving psychotropic medication, determine whether the child has been provided appropriate psychosocial therapies, behavior strategies, and other non-pharmacological intervention, and has been seen by the prescribing physician, physician assistant, or advanced practice nurse at least once every 90 days.
For a youth taking prescription medication, the department shall ensure that the youth’s transition plan includes provisions to assist the youth in managing the use of the medication and in managing the child’s long-term physical and mental health needs after leaving foster care, including provisions that inform the youth about the use of the medication, the resources that are available to assist the youth in managing the use of the medication, and informed consent and the provision of medical care.
A person may not be authorized to consent to medical care provided to a foster child unless the person has completed a department-approved training program related to informed consent. The training required must include training related to informed consent for the administration of psychotropic medication and the appropriate use of psychosocial therapies, behavior strategies, and other non-pharmacological interventions that should be considered before or concurrently with the administration of psychotropic medications.
Consent to the administration of a psychotropic medication is valid only if the consent is given voluntarily and without undue influence, and the person authorized by law to consent for the foster child receives verbally or in writing information that describes the specific condition to be treated, the beneficial effects on that condition expected from the medication, the probable health and mental health consequences of not consenting to the medication, the probable clinically significant side effects and risks associated with the medication, and the generally accepted alternative medications and non-pharmacological interventions to the medication, if any, and the reasons for the proposed course of treatment.
The department shall notify the child’s parents of the initial prescription of a psychotropic medication to a foster child and of any change in dosage of the psychotropic medication at the first scheduled meeting between the parents and the child’s caseworker after the date the psychotropic medication is prescribed or the dosage is changed.
The person authorized to consent to medical treatment for a foster child prescribed a psychotropic medication shall ensure that the child has been seen by the prescribing physician, physician assistant, or advanced practice nurse at least once every 90 days to allow the physician, physician assistant, or advanced practice nurse to appropriately monitor the side effects of the medication, and determine whether the medication is helping the child achieve the treatment goals, and continued use of the medication is appropriate.
The real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior or study problems 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.
Contact your own state legislators and suggest that they review this Texas legislation and additional information about Informed Consent so that they may compare it to existing state laws on the matter and provide needed protections for children under state care. In Missouri, visit here to find your legislators.
“Bad reactions to psychiatric drugs result in nearly 90,000 emergency room visits each year by U.S. adults, with anti-anxiety medicines and sedatives among the most common culprits.
“A drug used in some popular sleeping pills was among the most commonly involved sedatives, especially in adults aged 65 and older.
“Most of the visits were for troublesome side effects or accidental overdoses and almost 1 in 5 resulted in hospitalization.
“The results come from an analysis of 2009-2011 medical records from 63 hospitals that participate in a nationally representative government surveillance project. The study was published [July 9, 2014] in JAMA Psychiatry.
“Overall, the sedative zolpidem tartrate, contained in Ambien and some other sleeping pills, was involved in almost 12 percent of all ER visits and in 1 out of 5 visits for older adults.”
An unexpected finding of the study was that rates of antipsychotic, sedative, anti-anxiety, and antidepressant adverse drug event emergency room visits were highest among adults aged 19 to 44 years.
We expect that most people do not realize that Ambien is a psychiatric drug, since it is usually prescribed as a sedative for insomnia. In fact, drugs of this nature are variously called “anti-anxiety drugs” or “minor tranquilizers” or “sedative hypnotics.”
Today, at least 20 million people worldwide are prescribed these “minor tranquilizers.”
Daily use of therapeutic doses is associated with physical dependence. Addiction can occur after 14 days of regular use. Of the 72 different reported adverse reactions, some are anxiety, hostility, aggression, depression, sleep-walking, sleep-driving, and suicide. The typical consequences of withdrawal are anxiety, depression, sweating, cramps, nausea, psychotic reactions and seizures. Elderly people taking these drugs for anxiety or insomnia are at increased risk for motor vehicle crashes. There is also a “rebound effect” where the individual experiences even worse symptoms than they started with as a result of chemical dependency; medical experts point out that this is the drug effect, not a “mental illness.”
Courts have determined that informed consent for people who receive prescriptions for psychotropic (mood-altering) drugs must include the doctor providing information about possible side effects and benefits, ways to treat side effects, and risks of other conditions, as well as information about alternative treatments. Yet very often, psychiatrists ignore these requirements.
All patients should first see a non-psychiatric medical doctor, especially one who is familiar with nutritional needs, who should obtain and review a thorough medical history and conduct a complete physical exam, ruling out all the possible problems that might cause the person’s symptoms.
There are far too many effective options to list them all here. Psychiatrists, on the other hand, insist there are no such options and fight to keep it that way. Patients and physicians must urge their local, state and federal government representatives to endorse and fund non-drug health care options instead of dangerous psychiatric drugs.
“Thousands of Missouri parents are entitled to refunds for antidepressants prescribed to children because the drugs were unapproved for use in that age group, a federal judge has ruled.
“Forest Laboratories and its subsidiary Forest Pharmaceuticals, which is based in Earth City, agreed to pay up to $10.4 million in refunds for misleading parents into giving the drugs Celexa and Lexapro to children and teenagers, according to a recent settlement of a class action lawsuit.
“A judge in the case ruled that under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, “parents have the right to be fully informed about the potential efficacy of a drug,” said Brent Wisner, a Los Angeles-based attorney for the plaintiffs.
“Anyone who bought Celexa for someone under 18 from 1998 to 2013 or Lexapro from 2002 to 2013 is eligible for partial to full refunds, or $50 if the total amount spent on the drugs cannot be proven.”
We might remind you that the devastating side effects of Celexa and Lexapro can be found here.
Psychiatric drugs are only the symptom. The real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior or study problems 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. Click here to find out more about this.
A recent article in Medscape listed the top 100 most-prescribed and top-selling drugs to date. Here are the listings for psychiatric drugs.
Rank
Drug (Brand Name)
Total Sales Through March 2014
1
Abilify
$6,885,243,368
8
Cymbalta
$4,095,537,942
18
Lyrica
$2,611,451,728
28
Vyvanse
$1,848,814,801
39
Seroquel XR
$1,251,615,894
60
Lunesta
$927,689,337
68
Invega Sustenna
$831,061,694
89
Pristiq
$660,397,547
91
Focalin XR
$647,720,027
94
Strattera
$640,562,124
95
Latuda
$639,903,393
Rank
Drug (Brand Name)
Total Prescriptions To March 2014
6
Cymbalta
14,487,742
8
Vyvanse
9,914,366
10
Lyrica
9,578,165
15
Abilify
8,747,749
45
Lunesta
3,156,599
48
Pristiq
3,119,322
50
Focalin XR
3,036,103
58
Seroquel XR
2,423,659
59
Strattera
2,396,488
61
Chantix
2,149,709
Richard Hughes and Robert Brewin, authors of The Tranquilizing of America, warned that although psychotropic drugs may appear “to ‘take the edge off’ anxiety, pain, and stress, they also take the edge off life itself … these pills not only numb the pain but numb the whole mind.” In fact close study reveals that none of them can cure, all have side effects, some horrific, and due to their addictive and psychotropic properties, many people believe that they cannot deal with life without them.
However, a person could drink alcohol or take cocaine and may think they “feel better.” It doesn’t make it right and, in the case of psychiatric drugs, it is potentially very dangerous because the drugs mask physical conditions, which left untreated, can be catastrophic.
Because of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatrists have deceived millions into thinking that the best answer to life’s many routine problems and challenges lies with the “latest and greatest” psychiatric drug.
CCHR believes that everyone has the right to full informed consent regarding psychiatric drugs and other psychiatric treatments, including:
The scientific/medical test confirming any alleged diagnoses of psychiatric disorder and the right to refute any psychiatric diagnoses of mental “illness” that cannot be medically confirmed.
Full disclosure of all documented risks of any proposed drug or “treatment.”
The right to be informed of all available medical treatments which do not include the administration of a psychiatric drug or treatment.
The right to refuse any treatment the patient considers harmful.
Violence and suicide can be deadly side effects of taking various psychotropic drugs. It could also be dangerous to immediately cease taking psychiatric drugs because of potential significant withdrawal side effects. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, non-psychiatric medical doctor.
The latest news about Santa Barbara spree killer Elliot Rodger is exposing his psychiatric treatment and psychiatric drug prescriptions. Elliot Rodger opened fire in Isla Vista, Calif. on the night of May 23 near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus. Seven are confirmed dead, including Elliot, and seven more are injured. CCHR says “let’s see the autopsy toxicology report to find out what drugs he was really taking.”
Our research leading to the recent newsletter on Marijuana turned up many references to “stress” — the relief of stress by smoking pot; the stress caused by not having access to pot; the tension caused by opposing points of view on the use of pot; myriad stress-relief programs; the stress caused by adverse reactions, side effects and withdrawal symptoms of pot-smoking.
We thought it would be appropriate, therefore, to write about the subject of stress. It is obviously a term of great interest to psychiatry as well. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the billing bible of the mental health care industry, names it explicitly as a billable diagnosis.
Acute Stress Disorder (308.3, DSM-IV)
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (309.81, DSM-IV)
Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders (an entire chapter in DSM-5); including various manifestations of PTSD, acute stress disorder, adjustment disorders, and reactive attachment disorder.
There are even “DSM-5 Self-Exam Questions” with which you can diagnose yourself for stress-related symptoms.
Then there is ICD-10, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision. This is a coding of diseases and signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or diseases, as classified by the World Health Organization. ICD-10 has its own classification of various stressors such as phobias, anxieties, adjustment disorders, and so on. The deadline for the United States to begin using Clinical Modification ICD-10-CM for diagnosis coding is currently October 1, 2014.
Let’s go over the basics, the dictionary definitions of the word “stress.” There are many; here are some:
a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in life or work
something that causes strong feelings of worry or anxiety
physical force or pressure
a constraining force or influence
the burden on one’s emotional or mental well-being created by demands or difficulties
[from Middle English stresse stress, distress, hardship, short for destresse which is from Anglo-French destresce, from Latin districtus, past participle of distringere to grip with force, to draw tight]
“Acute stress response” was first described by Walter Cannon in the 1920s as a theory that animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system. The response was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome that regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms (from Wikipedia.)
Here are some additional terms and phrases associated with the concept of stress that one might consider as either causes or symptoms:
suppression on one or more parts of one’s life
boredom
lack of a goal or purpose in life
exhaustion
overwhelm
physical or mental shock
exposure to someone antagonistic to oneself or one’s efforts
an accumulation in life of turmoil, distress, failure, pain, loss or injury
For comparison, here are some of the concepts encompassing opposites of stress (which we might generally just consider as an absence of stress):
survival
success
health
vitality
comfort
relaxation
We would like to make it very clear that STRESS IS NOT A MENTAL ILLNESS! It is the reaction to a stressor. It is not a deficiency of cannabis or Prozac, and cannot be fixed with a drug. It can only be fixed by finding and eliminating the causes of the stress. Notice we said “causes” plural; if you knew the one thing that was causing your stress, you would have already fixed it. Of course, there are many, many single things that, when found and fixed, could significantly reduce or eliminate those particular stressors.
Bodies also have their own forms of stress, for example chronic age-related diseases are linked to inflammation in the body; and oxidative stress occurs when the body is exposed to an excessive number of free radicals.
What’s keeping people from handling their stress?
Well, there are vested interests who want the general populace immobilized by stress. The psychopharmaceutical industry, for example.
Psychiatrists will not tell you that there are many safe and effective, non-psychiatric options for mental and emotional turmoil.
While life is full of problems, and those problems can sometimes be overwhelming, it is important to know that psychiatry, with its unscientific diagnoses and harmful treatments, are the wrong way to go. Their most common treatment, psychiatric drugs, only chemically mask problems and symptoms; they cannot and never will be able to solve life’s problems. Once the drug has worn off, the original problem remains, or may even deteriorate. Though psychiatrists classify their drugs as a solution to life’s problems, in the long run, they only make things worse.
According to top experts, the majority of people having mental problems are actually suffering from non-psychiatric disorders, which can cause emotional stress.
You can get a thorough physical examination from a competent medical—not a psychiatric—doctor to check for any underlying injury or illness that may be causing emotional distress.
It’s up to every individual to insist on it, and to insist on fully informed consent to any treatment.
New York Bill Requires Psychological Screening for Schoolchildren
We just signed the petition “State Rep. Margaret Markey: Stop Mandatory Psychological Screening of our Children” on Change.org. It’s important. Will you sign it too? Here’s the link:
This petition seeks to gain your help to stop the passing of Bill A8186-2013 that would require all children attending public schools in New York to go through psychological screening as part of their required health certificate. The specific wording from the Bill is:
“EACH SUCH CERTIFICATE SHALL ALSO STATE THAT A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION WAS PERFORMED AND THAT THE CHILD IS MENTALLY FIT TO PERMIT ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL.”
As of January 8th this bill has been referred to the Committee on Education for review. We need to let the New York Assemblywoman supporting this [Margaret Markey] know that we don’t agree with this Bill which is an invasion of the privacy of our children. We do not need our children to be given a screening potentially leading to a lifetime of fraudulent psychiatric labels and harmful psychotropic drugs.
In 2003 a report on “mental health care” presented to the federal government recommended that all 52 million American schoolchildren be screened for “mental illness,” claiming—without a shred of scientific evidence—that “early detection, assessment, and links with treatment” could “prevent mental health problems from worsening.” Already implemented in many states, screening and “intervention” is to be provided through primary health care facilities, schools, juvenile justice and child welfare—to anyone aged between 3 and 21. Millions of taxpayer dollars have already been allocated to this, which means that America’s already burgeoning numbers of children being prescribed potentially lethal psychiatric drugs could treble within a few years to 30 million.
Ten million American children are already prescribed drugs that can kill them or predispose them to later illicit drug abuse, violence or suicide.
Parents need to know that unlike medical diseases there is no x-ray, blood or other physical test to determine if a child has a “mental disorder;” that mental health screening is based on subjective questions not medical science; that parents must actively sign an informed consent form to allow any such screening; and that any informed consent form must contain the above information.
Government funding should never be used for mental health-screening programs and should be allocated, instead, to better educational facilities, teachers and tutoring to improve the literacy and educational standards of students.
No one denies that people can have difficult problems in their lives, that at times they can be mentally unstable. 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.
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 information is not intended to diagnose or treat any illness; it is provided for educational purposes only. Do not suddenly stop taking psychiatric drugs as this may provoke severe withdrawal symptoms. Consult a competent, non-psychiatric, health care provider who can perform clinical tests and discover root causes of distress.
[The following information on orthomolecular medicine is taken from www.orthomolecular.org.]
In 1969 Linus Pauling coined the word “orthomolecular” to denote the use of naturally occurring substances, particularly nutrients, in maintaining health and treating disease. Orthomolecular medicine describes the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances which are natural to the body.
[“ortho-” is a combining form from Greek orthós meaning straight, upright, right, correct]
Orthomolecular medicine is the achievement and preservation of good mental health by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body, such as the vitamins. There is evidence that an increased intake of some vitamins, including ascorbic acid, niacin pyridoxine, and cyanocobalamin, is useful in treating schizophrenia.
Nutrient related disorders are always treatable and deficiencies are usually curable. To ignore their existence is tantamount to malpractice. To deny the patient information and access to alternative treatment is to deny the patient informed consent for any other treatment.
Orthomolecular medicine may be helpful for mood and behaviour disorders, commonly misdiagosed by psychiatrists. This broad grouping includes symptoms such as anxiety, severe depression, bipolar disorder, postpartum depression, hormonal depression, seasonal affective disorder, OCD, ADHD, ODD, and addictive behavior.
It is not uncommon to see toxic levels of lead, mercury, aluminum, and copper on lab test results of mood and behaviour disorder patients. The thyroid and adrenal glands are compromised in the majority of mental health cases.
Hypoglycemia is the term that describes low sugar in the blood. The brain’s demand for glucose is so immense that about 20% of the total blood volume circulates to the brain. Neurons function poorly in sugar deficient states. The hypoglycemic state involves a sharp rise of simple sugars in the blood followed by a sharp decline which robs the neurons of their main energy source; the sharper the decline, the greater the effect on brain cells. Irritability, poor memory, “late afternoon blues”, poor concentration, tiredness, cold hands, muscle cramping, and “feeling better when fighting” are typical hypoglycemic symptoms.
Mood and behaviour disorder patients have the potential to exhibit mild to severe food intolerance symptoms. The digestive tract reacts to food allergens by eliciting an immune response.
For more information about alternatives to psychiatric treatments consult the following resources:
Medical battery is defined as the intentional violation of a patient’s rights to direct his or her medical treatment. No injury or negligence is generally necessary for a finding of medical battery. Battery can involve an unauthorized touching of another person. Medical battery occurs when a patient is treated without informed consent. Most commonly, battery charges are alleged where there is a dispute over whether the patient agreed to treatment or refused treatment. The agreement or refusal of treatment can be made directly with the patient, through an advance directive (such as a Living Will), or through a health care proxy.
Laws governing medical battery vary from state to state in the same way that laws governing medical malpractice vary. The doctor may not mean to cause harm, but if the treatment is without consent then it is said to be imposed against the patient’s will.
One can see how this aligns with the criminal definition of battery, such as in the Revised Statues of Missouri (RSMo) 455.010, “purposely or knowingly causing physical harm to another with or without a deadly weapon.”
A “Vulnerable Person” (RSMo 630.005) in Missouri is “any person in the custody, care, or control of the Department of Mental Health that is receiving services from an operated, funded, licensed, or certified program.” Abusing a vulnerable person in Missouri is a Class A Misdemeanor, meaning that it carries a potential jail sentence of one year or less. However, any perpetrator has only to claim that the actions were done in good faith, or were provided within accepted standards of care and treatment, in order to avoid prosecution (RSMo 565.214).
Court decisions in Missouri provide precedence that to recover damages for battery, a plaintiff must plead and prove that a physician intended offensive bodily contact, or that a physician performed a medical procedure without valid consent.
“Consent to medical treatment may be manifested in a number of ways: the patient may expressly consent by oral agreement or by signing a formal written permission; or the patient may give implied authority by conduct, such as by voluntary submission to the operation or by failure to object to it.” (sc90835-47570) Thus, it is essentially the individual’s responsibility to assert their own informed consent or informed refusal to treatment.
We thought it would be appropriate, therefore, to write about the subject of stress. It is obviously a term of great interest to psychiatry as well. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (