{"id":25,"date":"2007-09-11T17:27:52","date_gmt":"2007-09-12T00:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/?p=25"},"modified":"2024-07-14T05:44:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T10:44:36","slug":"scientific-legitimacy-of-psychiatrys-billing-bible-increasingly-under-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/11\/scientific-legitimacy-of-psychiatrys-billing-bible-increasingly-under-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientific Legitimacy of Psychiatry\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cBilling Bible\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d Increasingly Under Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta content=\"Microsoft Word 11 (filtered)\" name=\"Generator\" \/><\/p>\n<style>      <!--   \/* Font Definitions *\/   @font-face  \t{font-family:Verdana;  \tpanose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}  @font-face  \t{font-family:AntiquaSSK;  \tpanose-1:0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}   \/* Style Definitions *\/   p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal  \t{margin:0in;  \tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;  \tfont-size:12.0pt;  \tfont-family:Verdana;}  h1  \t{margin-top:12.0pt;  \tmargin-right:0in;  \tmargin-bottom:3.0pt;  \tmargin-left:0in;  \tpage-break-after:avoid;  \tfont-size:16.0pt;  \tfont-family:Arial;}  h2  \t{margin-top:12.0pt;  \tmargin-right:0in;  \tmargin-bottom:3.0pt;  \tmargin-left:0in;  \tpage-break-after:avoid;  \tfont-size:14.0pt;  \tfont-family:Arial;  \tfont-style:italic;}  a:link, span.MsoHyperlink  \t{color:blue;  \ttext-decoration:underline;}  a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed  \t{color:purple;  \ttext-decoration:underline;}  p.CCHRHeading, li.CCHRHeading, div.CCHRHeading  \t{margin-top:12.0pt;  \tmargin-right:0in;  \tmargin-bottom:3.0pt;  \tmargin-left:0in;  \ttext-align:center;  \tpage-break-after:avoid;  \tfont-size:18.0pt;  \tfont-family:AntiquaSSK;  \tfont-weight:bold;}  @page Section1  \t{size:8.5in 11.0in;  \tmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}  div.Section1  \t{page:Section1;}  --><\/style>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">A recent study published in the <a href=\"http:\/\/archpsyc.ama-assn.org\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/64\/4\/433\"><em>Archives of General Psychiatry<\/em> <\/a>exposes the lack of medical legitimacy behind psychiatric diagnoses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">Using the diagnostic criteria of the <em>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders<\/em> (DSM), psychiatry\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s billing bible, researchers Michael B. First (DSM editor), Jerome Wakefield, Allan Horwitz and Mark Schmitz found that people experiencing normal sadness, divorce, rejection and economic misfortune are erroneously being classified with a mental disorder. Horwitz stated, \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cPeople are starting to think that any sort of negative emotion is unnatural.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d He further remarked that psychiatry has come to think of itself as \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cthe arbiter [judge] of normality.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">A book by Wakefield on this topic, written with Rutgers sociologist Allan Horwitz and titled \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cThe Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder,\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d has just been published by Oxford Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">This study is only the latest in a series of events that have exposed the DSM\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s lack of credibility and undermined public confidence in the psychiatric profession. Psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, who oversaw two out of five revisions of the DSM and defined more than a hundred mental disorders, recently admitted to the BBC, \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cWhat happened, is that we made estimates of the prevalence of mental disorders totally descriptively, without considering that many of these conditions might be normal reactions which are not really disorders. That\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s the problem, because we were not looking at the context in which those conditions developed.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a psychiatric watchdog, says that the study only partially reveals the fraud of psychiatric diagnoses being used to justify the mass drugging of millions. There are no physical tests\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dsuch as blood or urine tests, brain scans or X-rays\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dwhich can be used to medically\/scientifically prove who is mentally ill and who isn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t. It is all a matter of opinion, which has enabled psychiatrists to redefine behaviors as illness or disease. Mathematical problems, jet lag and drinking too much coffee, for example, are listed in the DSM as \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cdisorders\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dand for each \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cdisorder\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d, the pharmaceutical industry invents a drug to treat it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">While people do experience real life difficulties, this does not mean they have an illness of the brain requiring the administration of potentially lethal, mind-altering drugs. CCHR says the stigma of an unproven psychiatric label often prevents people from seeking out safe, medically proven alternatives to handling problems of attention, mood or emotional duress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">The profitability of psychiatry \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cmedicalizing\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d behaviors and emotions can be traced to the vested interests of psychiatrists who profit from inventing and categorizing new mental disorders. A 2006 study in the journal <em>Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics<\/em> found a majority (56%) of the panel members responsible for revisions to the DSM had one or more financial ties to drug companies. The study also found that 100% of the panel members on \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cMood Disorders\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d and \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cSchizophrenia and other psychotic disorders\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. The lead author of this study, Lisa Cosgrove of the University of Massachusetts Boston stated, \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cNo blood tests exist for the disorders in the DSM. It relies on judgments from practitioners who rely on the manual.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">Commenting on this study, UCLA psychiatry professor, Dr. Irwin Savodnik, stated \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cThe very vocabulary of psychiatry is now defined at all levels by the pharmaceutical industry.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">The heavy scrutiny over psychiatrists\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 conflicts of interest and the subjectivity of psychiatric diagnoses comes at a time when international governmental bodies are issuing an increasing number of warnings\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009d24 in the last two years\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dabout the serious dangers of psychiatric drugs, including suicidal behavior, homicidal ideation, fatal birth defects, psychosis, heart attack, stroke and sudden death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">To learn more about the DSM, read CCHR&#8217;s publication, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cchr.org\/files\/13164\/DSM_paper.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #e50013; text-decoration: none\">Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers<\/span><\/a><\/em>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cchr.org\/index.cfm\/6519\"><span style=\"color: #e50013; text-decoration: none\">click here<\/span><\/a> to see what experts say about the issue. For more information on the dangers of psychiatric drugs, read <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cchr.org\/files\/14851\/White%20Paper%20-%20Report%20on%20the%20Escalating%20Number%20of%20Drug%20Warnings.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #e50013; text-decoration: none\">The Report on the Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs<\/span><\/a><\/em> by CCHR.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry exposes the lack of medical legitimacy behind psychiatric diagnoses. Using the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s billing bible, researchers Michael B. First &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/11\/scientific-legitimacy-of-psychiatrys-billing-bible-increasingly-under-fire\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-muddy-river-newsletter","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NMpC-p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}