Psychiatry: Manipulating Young Minds

Numb - a documentary

2011-12-23T16:16:00.003-05:00

http://www.numbdocumentary.com/numb/Home.html

ABC NEWS - DAY 2: -- Psychiatrists Put Kids at Risk With Mind-Altering Drugs

2011-12-05T17:31:00.000-05:00

ABC NEWS November 30, 2011 - Psych Drugs - Kids

2011-12-01T00:07:00.000-05:00

ABC News Investigation: Diane Sawyer and Sharyn Alfonsi to Report on the Overmedication of Children in the U.S. Foster Care System

Letter to the Editor: A Former Judge Rotenberg Center Worker Speaks Out

2011-09-13T13:44:00.001-04:00

http://canton.patch.com/articles/letter-to-the-editor-a-former-judge-rotenberg-center-worker-speaks-out

Warning: Some of the content in this letter may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.
By Greg Miller

Check out this video!

2011-08-20T09:11:00.000-04:00

Governor Patrick moves to curtail shock therapy on disabled

2011-07-07T00:05:00.000-04:00

By Kyle Cheney

State House News Service

Posted Jul 05, 2011 @ 09:39 PM

BOSTON —

Lawmakers may have scrapped a plan to heavily restrict the use of skin shock therapy in Massachusetts for severely disabled residents, but the Patrick administration is moving ahead with a proposal that would eliminate the practice for all future patients and require annual reviews for patients already receiving the controversial treatment.

In new regulations proposed by the Department of Developmental Services, treatments that cause physical pain – such as “spanking, slapping, hitting or contingent skin shock,” also known as aversive therapy – would no longer be a permissible treatment option for residents with developmental disabilities.

Only those with court-ordered treatment plans in effect by Sept. 1, 2011 that include aversive therapy would be able to continue receiving it.

The department’s proposal is nearly identical to one that passed the Senate unanimously in May but was dropped in budget negotiations with the House that ended last week.

The issue has lingered for years on Beacon Hill without resolution. Proponents of aversive therapy hail it as a lifesaving treatment and last resort for self-injurious children who would otherwise be subjected to mind-altering psychotropic drugs and daily physical restraints. Critics have ripped it as a form of torture being applied to innocent children, often unnecessarily.

The bill in recent years has gained traction in the Senate but died without action in the House, where one member, Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, has credited the practice with saving the life of his nephew.

The restrictions are aimed at the Judge Rotenberg Center, a Canton-based facility that is the only facility in the country that uses skin shocks as a form of treatment for the developmentally disabled, advocates say. Sen. Brian Joyce (D-Milton), whose district encompasses the center, hailed the administration’s move to limit aversive therapy and argued the center was fighting restrictions because of a financial motive.

“While I had hoped that the House would agree to the Senate’s steps taken to protect innocent, disabled children in Massachusetts, I am absolutely delighted that the Patrick-Murray administration has done so by regulation,” said Joyce (D-Milton), lead sponsor of efforts to restrict aversive therapy. “This is the first administration in over two decades that has listened to the advocates for the disabled and many human rights activists who have been appalled at what has happened to the most vulnerable members of our society at the Judge Rotenberg Center.”

“The JRC has fought any efforts to curb their abusive treatment of innocent children for decades. And they were extraordinarily litigious,” Joyce continued. “Why are we allowing this barbaric practice on innocent children in Massachusetts and nowhere else in the world? There is not another facility, certainly in this country and I believe in the world, that allows this barbaric practice. We would not allow this on terrorists held captive in Guantanamo.”

Senate President Therese Murray has described the use of aversive therapy as “barbaric” and “criminal.” But her support of the bill failed to get it out of committee in 2008 and the bill died without action in the House in 2010.

In May, Murray won the unanimous backing of the Senate, casting a rare vote of her own during a roll call on the matter, which was appended to the state budget as a policy rider. But the House declined to go along and the budget rider was dropped in negotiations, leading Joyce to pin his hopes on the administration.

The administration quietly filed its regulations on June 23, while budget negotiations continued.

Backers of aversive therapy say it has saved lives, noting that it is only used as a last resort on patients who are often violently self-destructive and would have no options other than mind-altering psychotropic drugs or daily physical restraints.

Rep. Sanchez (D-Jamaica Plain), co-chair of the Committee on Public Health, has been the House’s most ardent supporter of aversive therapy, vehemently rejecting attempts at banning or limiting the practice. He has often argued that his nephew Brandon, a patient at the Rotenberg center, would likely not be alive today if it weren’t for the use of aversive therapy.

“He’s alive, and he’s as happy as he can be,” Sanchez said in a phone interview. “There are kids and adults that would be dead if not for this treatment. We can’t simplify the complexity of things we don’t understand … They’re there because nobody else wants them.”

Sanchez noted that residents of the Rotenberg center have had their treatment plans approved by judges, a layer of oversight he says is already sufficient.

Sanchez called the DDS regulations “arbitrary” and aimed at pleasing “one or two legislators.”

“This issue is a bigger issue than just a few legislators,” he said. “These are complicated issues and that’s why we left it up to the court … Nobody can understand what the families go through that have their children here at the Rotenberg. They’re there because they went through an extensive process.”

The Department of Developmental Services regulations apply a “General Prohibition on the Use” of “Level III Aversive Interventions,” which include the skin shock therapy, as well as other forms of painful treatment, making only “individual-specific exceptions” for those residents with existing court-ordered treatment plans.

“The regulations are proposed for amendment to establish the highest practicable professional standards for the use of behavior modification for persons with intellectual disability,” DDS Commissioner Elin Howe wrote in a letter accompanying the proposed regulations.

The department has scheduled two public hearings on the proposals, a July 20 hearing at the Worcester Public Main Library and a July 22 hearing at the John McCormack Building in Boston. Written comments are due by Aug. 1.

Last session, the only lobbyist registered as active on the proposal was the Massachusetts Psychological Association, which paid $36,000 to the firm of Lynch and Fierro LLP in 2010.

The Rotenberg Center burst into public consciousness in 2007 when two residents were woken up in the middle of the night and shocked repeatedly - one 29 times and one 77 times - based on a prank call from someone pretending to be a supervisor. At the time, JRC officials said the employees involved were suspended and then fired after an investigation.

But the school’s leader at the time of the incident Matthew Israel, resigned suddenly in May and was indicted for obstruction of justice for what authorities say were efforts to impede their investigation of the incident, in part by destroying a videotape that may have shown the act in progress.

The indictment became public during the Senate’s budget debate and provided fodder for those seeking to restrict aversive therapy.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/archive/x1721569131/Governor-Patrick-moves-to-curtail-shock-therapy-on-disabled#ixzz1RLP0ksyr

Harvard doctors punished over pay

2011-07-03T19:12:00.002-04:00

July 02, 2011|By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Concluding a three-year investigation, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School sanctioned renowned child psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman and two colleagues after finding they violated conflict of interest rules.

In a letter to coworkers yesterday, Biederman and Drs. Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens said the hospital and medical school â€œhave determined that we violated certain requirements of the institutions policies.

They did not specify the nature of the violations. But in 2008, Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, accused the three doctors of accepting millions of dollars in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007, and of failing for years to report much of the income to university officials.

Officials at Harvard and Mass. General released the letter to the Globe, but would not answer questions about the probe. Biederman, Spencer, Wilens, and their lawyers did not return phone calls and e-mails. Grassley's office did not return calls seeking comment.

Physicians are required to disclose payments from pharmaceutical and medical device companies so that hospital and university officials can police potential conflicts of interest that may create bias in research or in the treatment of patients, or the appearance of bias.

Grassley's investigation sparked the Mass. General and Harvard inquiries.

The three psychiatrists apologized in their letter for the unfavorable attention that this matter has brought to these two institutions. They called their mistakes honest ones but said they now recognize that we should have devoted more time and attention to the detailed requirements of these policies and to their underlying objectives.

They said the institutions imposed remedial actions, requiring them to refrain from all paid industry-sponsored outside activities for one year, with an additional two-year monitoring period during which they must obtain approval before engaging in paid activities. They were also required to undergo unspecified additional training and suffer â€œa delay of consideration for promotion or advancement.

Physicians said it is difficult to know if the sanctions are appr

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/07/02/three_harvard_psychiatrists_are_sanctioned_over_consulting_fees/

Carney fires 29 in abuse incident

2011-05-31T12:21:00.001-04:00

Hospital says probe into sex assault on patient led to purge

May 28, 2011|By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Carney Hospital fired the staff of its adolescent psychiatry unit Thursday, after an investigation into an employee’s alleged sexual assault of a patient uncovered serious patient safety problems.

Hospital president Bill Walczak said he hired former attorney general Scott Harshbarger and his law firm a month ago to investigate the assault allegation and conditions on the 14-bed locked unit for extremely troubled teens.

When he read Harshbarger’s report Thursday, Walczak said he decided to replace the nurses and other staff on the unit.

The report described “serious concerns about patient safety and quality of care on the unit. It was not functioning properly. It was recommended by them to start over on the unit,’’ Walczak said in an interview. “We will have top- notch employees replace those who left. My goal is to make it the best unit in the state.’’

He would not provide details of the alleged assault or patient safety concerns, or comment on why the entire staff was dismissed, given that the allegation involved one employee and one patient.

Walczak said he was told about the accusations a month ago, soon after the incident allegedly occurred, and immediately reported it to state mental health officials and put the unit’s staff on administrative leave.

The hospital did not notify law enforcement because attorneys told its executives that it is up to the patient and his or her family to report the incident to police.

Massachusetts Nurses Association spokesman David Schildmeier said the Dorchester hospital fired 29 employees, including 13 nurses who are members of the union. He said he could not comment about what happened because the MNA had not yet received information from the hospital.

Marylou Sudders, a former state mental health commissioner, said replacing the entire staff is “an extreme measure’’ that may indicate “there was a culture of not reporting or not being assertive in protecting patients. It’s an extraordinary measure to fire everyone. It says to me they have a serious issue and are dealing with it seriously.’’

Walczak said the state Department of Mental Health, which licenses hospital psychiatric units, investigated the allegations this month. He said the hospital submitted a “plan of action’’ — including capping the number of patients on the unit at six for now — which the state accepted, allowing the unit to remain open. The hospital would not release the action plan, in part because he said the investigation is ongoing.

State officials would not provide any information to the Globe yesterday or release its reports on the matter.

Pediatrics Journal Gets it Wrong About “Facebook Depression”

2011-04-02T08:35:00.000-04:00

Pediatrics Journal Gets it Wrong About “Facebook Depression”

The Mission - Gwen Olsen - the Rx Reformer

2011-04-02T08:22:00.001-04:00

Dead Wrong:How Psychiatric Drugs Can Kill Your Child

2011-01-27T08:18:00.002-05:00

From the makers of the award-winning documentaries Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging and The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane? comes a searing new documentary, exposing how devastating—and deadly—psychiatric drugs can be for children and families.

VIEW FILM

Settlement no relief for slain child’s kin

2011-01-27T08:09:00.000-05:00

Settlement no relief for slain child’s kin

"Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, who is still working at Tufts Medical Center, agreed this week to pay $2.5 million in a settlement agreement reached with the attorneys for Rebecca’s estate. Kifuji denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, a Tufts spokeswoman said"

Former Glaxo Executive Is Charged in Drug Fraud - NYTimes.com

2010-11-11T12:07:00.002-05:00

Former Glaxo Executive Is Charged in Drug Fraud - NYTimes.com

"In a rare move, the Justice Department on Tuesday announced that it had charged a former vice president and top lawyer for the British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline with making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation into illegal marketing of the antidepressant Wellbutrin for weight loss." NYTimes.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Home Page

2010-11-07T10:33:00.002-05:00

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Home Page

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—the Psychiatrist's Billing Code Bible

The DSM IV (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, volume 4) is the latest and current version of the standard handbook of "mental illnesses" as determined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). What comes into question with this manual is the manner and method by which these supposed mental illnesses are determined and by whom. Using the DSM IV, a psychiatrist need only label the patient with a "mental disorder", prescribe him a drug and bill the patient's insurance or Medicaid. The psychiatrist with the DSM in hand can try various labels on the patient as if they were different sizes of apparel until he finds one that either fits the patient's symptoms or comes close enough to allow him to bill the patient's insurance. The question is: Do any of these "disorders" or "mental illnesses" actually exist? Does the DSM have any relationship to a patient's actual condition or is it a convenient and simplistic method of compartmentalizing symptoms without actually working to isolate the true cause of the patient's real problems. Read the Full Article

CCHR Videos

2010-11-07T09:28:00.001-05:00

CCHR Videos

Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR, Home Page. Watch the Videos.

2010-11-07T08:22:00.001-05:00

Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR, Home Page. Watch the Videos.

What is THE CITIZENS COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS?

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a nonprofit mental health watchdog, responsible for helping to enact more than 150 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive practices. CCHR has long fought to restore basic inalienable human rights to the field of mental health, including, but not limited to, full informed consent regarding the medical legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosis, the risks of psychiatric treatments, the right to all available medical alternatives, and the right to refuse any treatment considered harmful.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR: Watch Hard-Hitting Documentaries & Videos From CCHR.

2010-08-26T13:51:00.001-04:00

Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR: Watch Hard-Hitting Documentaries & Videos From CCHR.

Get the Facts About Psychiatry

Based on the facts and statistics concerning psychotropic drugging—particularly of children—these eye-opening videos from CCHR reveal the devastation and death caused daily by psychiatric pseudoscience.

YouTube - Whistleblower Allen Jones/Mental health screening of kids

2009-09-04T21:47:00.001-04:00

YouTube - Whistleblower Allen Jones/Mental health screening of kids

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FDA Reported Psychiatric Drug Side Effects Search Engine Decrypted and Made Public

2009-08-05T22:27:00.002-04:00

Citizens Commission on Human Rights International Announces FDA Reported Psychiatric Drug Side Effects Search Engine: Decrypted FDA reports reveal 4,260 suicides, 2,452 additional deaths, 195 homicides from 2004-2006 alone

Los Angeles, CA August 4, 2009 -- For the first time the side effects of psychiatric drugs that have been reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by doctors, pharmacists, other health care providers and consumers have been decrypted from the FDA's MedWatch reporting system and been made available to the public in an easy to search psychiatric drug side effects database and search engine. The database is provided as a free public service by the mental health watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR).

The report totals reveal that between 2004-2008 the FDA's MedWatch system received pregnancy-related psychiatric drug adverse reaction reports which included 2,442 babies born with heart disease, 3,372 other birth defects, as well as 1,072 miscarriages, abortions and other deaths.

The database also reveals that, between 2004-2008 there were reports submitted to MedWatch including 4,895 suicides, 3,908 cases of aggression, 309 homicides and 6,945 cases of diabetes from people taking psychiatric drugs. These numbers reflect only a small percentage of the actual side effects occurring in the consumer market, as the FDA has admitted that only 1-10% of side effects are ever reported to the FDA.

The database is searchable by individual reports (for the 2004-2006 period), type of drug, age of patient, the side effect reported (suicide, homicide, heart attack, stroke, mania, etc.), and whether the drug in question carries a black box warning (the agency's strongest warning--short of banning a drug).

It is searchable by drug name and age group and includes who reported the psychiatric drug reaction (doctor, pharmacist, consumer, etc.). It also includes the top 20 reported adverse reactions to all psychiatric drugs to the FDA and combined summaries of all psychiatric drug reactions for the years 2004-2006 and 2004-2008.

Since the reform of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) in 2007, ads for psychiatric and other drugs must include statements encouraging consumers to report adverse drug reactions to the FDA's MedWatch system--Adverse Events Reporting System (AERS). However, consumers or doctors attempting to access the AERS online were confounded by a system so complex that it was impossible to use. Although the FDA should have made the information collected readily accessible, it failed in that duty to the public. It took a computer programmer over 1,000 hours to decipher four years' worth of data to make this information available.

The programmer identified the main psychiatric drugs in the AERS, wading through quarterly reports of seven different reporting systems, including the drug name, demographics, adverse reactions, patient outcomes, reporting source, therapy start and end dates and the indication (diagnosis). The result: A database and search engine that unravels the 94,000 pages of codified psychiatric drug adverse reactions reported each year from 2004-2006 and 2004-2008 to the FDA's MedWatch system.

Reporting of adverse reactions to psychiatric drugs by doctors, pharmacists, other health care providers and consumers once those drugs are out in the consumer market, is fundamental to drug safety monitoring. Yet these reports have been frequently ignored or dismissed as "anecdotal" by the FDA even when serious side effects number in the thousands. The FDA approves the majority of psychiatric drugs only after Phase 2 (short term) clinical trials. However, once the drugs are out in the consumer market, the FDA is supposed to require longer clinical trials, or post-marketing studies of the drugs, however this rarely happens. Subsequently, dangerous and deadly drugs have been left without black box warnings, or on the market for far too long. The best "signal" event for the FDA to direct its resources in identifying or pulling dangerous drugs is what is happening out in the real world, with consumers and patients, not in a controlled short term clinical trial, funded by the pharmaceutical companies seeking approval for their drugs to go to market.

For years the information contained in the FDA's MedWatch reporting system has been inaccessible and therefore virtually useless for consumers and doctors. CCHR's stance has always been that consumers have the right to this information for then ̶ and only then ̶ can consumers have full "informed consent" regarding the risks of psychiatric drugs, and so it has provided this database as a free public service.

The psychiatric drug search engine features a promotional video as well as an instructional video for users on CCHR's newly launched website so they can get the information from the database they are looking for in the shortest amount of time.

About The Citizens Commission on Human Rights:

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a mental health watchdog co-founded in 1969 by Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology. It is a non-profit, non political, non-religious organization that has been responsible for more than 100 reforms that help protect patients rights against abuses in the field of mental health. For more information about CCHR go to http://www.cchrint.org

For More Information Please Contact:
Marla Filidei (800) 869-2247

NJ Informed Consent Bill Stymied By Senator // Pharmalot

2008-10-15T18:40:00.001-04:00

NJ Informed Consent Bill Stymied By Senator // Pharmalot

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August 25, 2008 Harvard Square

2008-08-23T16:37:00.004-04:00

Legislators want to get tough with drug manufacturers - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

2008-07-20T21:11:00.002-04:00

Legislators want to get tough with drug manufacturers - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

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Insights on the News

2008-06-29T14:51:00.000-04:00

FindArticles - Manipulating Young Minds
Insight on the News, March 22, 1999, by Robert Stacy McCain

FDA urged to push hotline for side effects

2008-06-01T11:17:00.001-04:00

By Susan Heavey ROCKVILLE, Maryland (Reuters) - A free hotline for patients to report serious medical side effects should be mentioned in television commercials and also needs to be more widely promoted on pill bottles and pharmacy packaging, U.S....

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Must Watch

2008-04-19T11:19:00.001-04:00

American Experience

2008-01-20T14:07:00.000-05:00

The Lobotomist

The lobotomy was hailed by the New York Times as a "surgery of the soul" and "history making," a groundbreaking medical procedure that promised hope to the most distressed families and mentally ill patients. Championed by a young and ambitious neurologist named Walter J. Freeman, what began as an operation of last resort was soon being performed at some 50 state asylums, often with devastating results. Only a decade after his rise to fame, Freeman was decried as a moral monster and the lobotomy as one of the most barbaric mistakes of modern medicine. Through interviews with medical historians, psychiatrists who worked with Freeman, and the families who sought his help, The Lobotomist tells the tale of medical intervention gone awry. Campbell Scott narrates.

WGBH 2/44

Mon, Jan 21, 9pm, WGBH 2
Tue, Jan 22, 1am, WGBH 44
Tue, Jan 22, 4am, WGBH 2
Tue, Jan 22, 2:30pm, WGBH 44

Truth about Drug Sales

2008-01-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

Fox News

2007-12-30T11:17:00.000-05:00

Foundation Launches Worldwide Assault On Drugs

2007-12-18T13:21:00.001-05:00

The Foundation for a Drug-Free World has launched a massive attack on drugs with a mailing of over 80,000 anti-drug information packages and billboards in major cities across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Hungary and Japan.

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Psychotropic Drugs and Children

2007-12-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

Scientology Against Drugs

2007-11-10T10:59:00.001-05:00

Blog about the psychiatric abuses around the world and what you can do about it.

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Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Touring Exhibits

2007-09-08T23:03:00.000-04:00

Grand Opening 6pm
Tuesday, September 18th

FREE at Roxbury Community College
1234 Columbus Ave., Boston
September 19-20 10am-6pm,
Sept. 21 10am-3pm

State of the Art exhibit 185 feet of panels, 8 video screens.
No other area of medicine has survived after 200 years of Controversy
Restraint deaths
Aversive (pain) therapy
Electric Shock
Lobotomies
Heavy Drugs
Involuntary Commitment as a Political Tool
Psychological Warfare
Psychiatric Genetics Theory as a Justification for Racism, Sterilization &Genocide
Insanity Defense
Targeting Children as “patients” through schools and social services agencies

If you think psychiatry has nothing to do with you, think again. Don’t miss this FREE Exhibit

“Psychiatry: An Industry of Death is a public service of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights New England www.cchreus.org
Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established in 1969 by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights

Profiting from Illness and Death

2007-07-29T20:58:00.000-04:00

From:

Lucas Catton

The trail of psychiatric drugs is littered with dollar signs.

The truth regarding the connection between pharmaceutical companies and doctors, especially psychiatrists, seems to be coming out with increasing frequency of late. Millions of otherwise unsuspecting people are slowly beginning to learn that the drugs they’ve been prescribed are the result of a multi-billion dollar advertising and marketing campaign, not necessarily because they will help them.

Giant drug makers spend billions of dollars each year promoting their products to consumers, yes, but also to doctors to give to you. It has gotten to the point that even the educational system has been heavily infiltrated by this greased line.

In a recent story printed in the Washington Post, Harvard Medical School Professor Jerry Avorn was quoted as saying, "Most of what doctors know about drugs comes from the industry, and that's not healthy. Academic organizations lend their names to courses that are nothing more than infomercials."

“It is very frustrating to hear from parents how their doctors told them it was okay to put their kids on these drugs,” comments Lucas A Catton, CCDC, director of the international Drug-Free Alliance. “When they fully understand the connection between the drug makers and the doctors they feel extremely betrayed – and they should!”

The money isn’t just in the form of course and event sponsorships, it also comes in checks written to doctors for conducting clinical studies and for speaking about the supposed benefits of certain drugs.

An article in the New York Times claims that psychiatrists earn more money from drug makers than doctors in any other specialty. The effect is that there is a correlation between the amount of money given to them and the amount of drugs prescribed, especially the highly potent anti-psychotics, which have been discovered to contribute to the onset of diabetes.

The state of Vermont released information recently that drug company payments to psychiatrists in the state more than doubled last year to an average of more than $45,000 each, which was up from about $20,000 in 2005. The Times article said that anti-psychotic drugs are among the largest expenses for the state's Medicaid program.

In a commentary posted online Dr. Loren R. Mosher wrote, “In my view American psychiatry has become drug dependent (that is, devoted to pill pushing) at all levels - private practitioners, public system psychiatrists, university faculty and organizationally. What should be the most humanistic medical specialty has become mechanistic, reductionistic, tunnel-visioned and dehumanizing. Modern psychiatry has forgotten the Hippocratic principle: Above all, do no harm.”

Just one glaring example of this blatant disregard for public health, the New York Times also reported on the story of a psychiatrist in Minnesota whose license was suspended as a result of a disciplinary action regarding gross misconduct and the death of one or more patients under his care.

This doctor was very involved in drug company clinical trials, where he would get paid money to recruit patients for new medications. He boasted that he helped study some of the most widely prescribed psychiatric drugs over the years, including Paxil, Prozac, Risperdal, Seroquel, Zoloft and Zyprexa.

Despite his disciplinary actions regarding his gross misconduct and neglect, this doctor has remained a paid spokesperson for several drug companies that make psychiatric drugs.

The Alliance for Human Research Protection sates that “a cadre of child psychiatrists at the nation's most prestigious medical centers, have made their career by working hand in glove with drug manufacturers on whose behalf they test the most toxic drugs in young children and lend their reputations to promote the use of these drugs--and drug combinations for young children--seemingly without regard for children's safety or welfare.”

The Times’ examination of Minnesota’s records of payments form drug companies to doctors found that between 1997 and 2005, more than 100 of these doctors had been disciplined or criticized by the state medical board, yet they received about $1.7 million during that time. Of the problems found, nearly 40% of these doctors were penalized for inappropriate prescribing practices and 20% for substance abuse.

“But what about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)?” one might ask. “Aren’t they supposed to regulate these drugs and their makers to ensure they are safe?” That is what they claim to do, but it is far from their actual business.

Mike Adams of Newstarget.com says, “Under the false pretense of improved food and drug safety the FDA is re-inventing itself as a kingpin drug company. This charade has so far hoodwinked virtually all members of Congress.”

So what can you do about it? Do your research, get second opinions from other forms of healthcare specialists and ask yourself if taking harmful drugs is the way you want to go or what you want to inflict upon your child. You can also contact the Drug-Free Alliance and we’ll help connect you with educational resources so that you can make an informed decision based on all the information there is available. Visit http://www.drug-freealliance.org today.

Psychdata - Dedicated to exposing the fraud of psychiatry: Scrutiny of Psychiatry Continues

2007-07-04T11:12:00.000-04:00

Psychdata - Dedicated to exposing the fraud of psychiatry: Scrutiny of Psychiatry Continues

"Part of the criticism of Biederman speaks to a deeper issue in psychiatry: the extensive financial ties between the drug industry and researchers. Biederman has received research funding from 15 drug companies and serves as a paid speaker or adviser to seven of them, including Eli Lilly & Co. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which make the multi billion-dollar antipsychotic drugs Zyprexa and Risperdal, respectively. Though not much money was earmarked for bipolar research, critics say the resources help him advance his aggressive drug treatment philosophy."

Boston Globe

Backlash on bipolar diagnoses in children

MGH psychiatrist's work stirs debate

By Scott Allen

June 17, 2007

Prozac Causes Depression: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Newsletter

2007-07-04T11:08:00.000-04:00

Prozac Causes Depression: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Newsletter

The Latest Psychiatric Fraud -- Political Attention Deficit Disorder (PADD)

2007-06-27T07:04:00.001-04:00

This just in -- the latest in delusional disorders, invented to get us to pay our tax dollars to cover "health care" for things that don't exist. This one is called Political Attention Deficit Disorder and no, I'm afraid it is not a joke (that is to say the joke is on all of us, but these "authorities" are deadly serious!).

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Psychiatry: No Science No Cures

2007-06-26T07:50:00.001-04:00

Psychiatrists openly admitting at the 2006 APA convention that they have no scientific tests to prove mental illness and have no cures for these unproven mental illnesses.

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Church of Scientology of Moscow Wins Landmark Decision In European Court of

2007-06-24T12:20:00.001-04:00

In a unanimous landmark decision rendered on 5 April 2007, the European Court of Human Rights (First Section) found in favor of the Scientology religion, upholding the religious freedom of Scientologists throughout the forty-six nations that comprise the Council of Europe, in a precedent-setting ruling that will help guarantee these rights for peopl

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U.S. Supreme Court Upholds States' Rights to Exclude Psychiatric Testimony

2007-05-30T11:44:00.001-04:00

The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that psychiatric and psychological testimony in insanity defense cases is no more scientific and accurate than the testimony of the average person. This means that prosecutors can throw out the Twinkies (defense) and that juries will no longer be confused by fraudulent psychiatric testimony.

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American Psychiatric Association (APA) Greeted by Hundreds of Protestors

2007-05-26T09:35:00.000-04:00

Demonstrators in San Diego Claim “Psych Drugs Turn Kids into Killers”

On Saturday, May 19, psychiatrists attending the 160th annual American Psychiatric Association (APA) convention received an unusual greeting when they arrived at the Convention Center in San Diego—a mobile billboard decrying the mass psychiatric drugging of millions of children, and hundreds of protestors.

Wearing black T-shirts stating, “Stop Psychiatric Drugging of Children” and “Psych Drugs Turn Kids into Killers,” the protestors rallied against the epidemic of child drugging in America and the APA members’ long and negligent history of failing to inform people that psychiatric drugs—especially antidepressants—cause violent, even homicidal urges.

In the last decade alone, eight school shooters taking psychiatric drugs killed 29 people and wounded 62. This includes 18-year-old Jason Hoffman from El Cajon, CA, just east of San Diego, who wounded five after he opened fire at his Granite Hills High School in March 2001, while taking antidepressants. The recent Virginia Tech school shooter, Cho Seung Hui, also reportedly had a prescription for “depression medication,” and protestors are calling for the release of Cho’s toxicology reports to determine if he is the 9th school shooter to have been under the influence of drugs documented to cause violent and suicidal behavior.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a psychiatric watchdog group that organized the protest, said that for 13 years, many psychiatrists and their pharmaceutical company cohorts hid the fact that antidepressants cause suicide and it took public pressure for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finally issue a black box warning in 2004 of suicide risk.

The group wants a black box warning extended to include the potential for these and other psychotropic drugs to cause violent behavior. In 2004, the FDA warned that Prozac or Paxil-like antidepressants cause agitation, hostility, impulsivity, and mania, but the information is so buried parents and consumers need the FDA's strongest black box warning to speedily alert them. Between 1987 and 2002, there was a 500% increase in those 18 years of age and younger taking antidepressants. Between 1990 and 2005, there was a more than 380% increase in the pediatric use of stimulants, which the FDA warned in 2006 could cause psychosis, mania and aggression.

CCHR says that not only do psychiatrists knowingly obscure and mislead the public about the documented violence-inducing effects of psychiatric drugs, but invent – not discover – the criteria for so-called mental disorders that have resulted in millions of children needlessly prescribed dangerous and deadly drugs. Psychiatrists attending APA conventions literally vote psychiatric disorders into existence by a show of hands. There are no blood tests, brain scans or chemical imbalance tests that can prove any child has a mental disorder – and psychiatrists mislead the public about the validity of psychiatric diagnoses in order to maintain a multi-billion dollar child drugging industry. CCHR says the psychiatric pharmaceutical alliance is evident to anyone walking into the convention – wall-to-wall pharmaceutical displays and sponsorship.

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.

Click here for photos of the march.

Contact: Marla Filidei at 800-869-2247 for more information.

Alliance for Human Research Protection

2007-05-18T11:36:00.001-04:00

"Obesity and diabetes are the fastest growing health hazard due to bad nutrition and a sedentary life style. However, diabetes is also caused by a class of widely prescribed drugs. Credible, replicated, peer reviewed scientific evidence shows that the atypical antipsychotic drugs--including Risperdal (risperidone) and Zyprexa (olanzapine) and Clozaril (clozapine)-- cause heart attacks ("sudden death"), severe metabolic disorders, hyperglycemia and diabetes. A new Harvard study shows that the risk of diabetes for patients prescribed Clozaril or Zyprexa is highly significant:"

Click here to read more ARHP

News Target

2007-04-20T13:56:00.000-04:00

Why let the drug companies have all the fun?

YOU can invent diseases, too!

Click the "Generate" button below to create

your very own disease, disorder or syndrome.

Counterthink

2007-03-29T12:11:00.000-04:00

Disease Mongers Inc. (comic)

Addiction doctor gets 6-month sentence

2007-03-27T13:47:00.000-04:00

By GREGORY D. KESICH,
Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

"Instead, the judge said he focused only on the crimes for which Shinderman was convicted at his trial.

"This was not an error in judgment. This was not a mistake," Hornby said. "It was intentional, it was a regular practice and it was criminal."

Full Story click here

Science Proves Antidepressants Addictive. Withdrawal Unbearable For Some.

2007-03-21T15:25:00.001-04:00

As psychiatry and the giant pharmaceutical companies fight to create a PR spin that antidepressants are harmless non-addictive drugs – the truth is beginning to come out showing the dangers of these drugs.

read more | digg story

Nurses 4 Human Rights

2007-02-24T15:43:00.000-05:00

If you are a Nurse or Nurse Practitioner check out this website

Nurses 4 Human Rights

Prescription drugs are not the answer

2007-02-20T12:29:00.000-05:00

Boston - Stoneham News

DR. DAN L. EDMUNDS, Ed.D.: 25 REASONS TO ABOLISH BIO-PSYCHIATRY

2007-02-03T20:47:00.000-05:00

DR. DAN L. EDMUNDS, Ed.D.: 25 REASONS TO ABOLISH BIO-PSYCHIATRY

Leading Researcher and Electroshock Advocate Reverses Position on Electroshock

2007-01-28T17:30:00.000-05:00

A new Columbia University study published in the January issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology found that shock treatment, also know as "electroconvulsive therapy" (ECT), causes permanent damage to memory, cognitive abilities and reaction time. In the study, leading ECT advocate Harold Sackeim reverses his decades-long denial of the debilitating damage caused by ECT. Sackeim, who co-authored the study, has been one of the most outspoken proponents of ECT and in the recent study failed to disclose his financial interests in ECT device manufacturer Mecta Corp. The study found, "Greater amnesia for autobiographical events was significantly correlated with the number of ECT treatments received 6-months earlier." The study's authors wrote that "this study provides the first evidence in a large, prospective sample that adverse cognitive effects can persist for an extended period, and that they characterize routine treatment with ECT in community settings." In the post-ECT assessment, the study found that "In each instance, older patients and those with lower estimated intellectual function had more severe deficits" and "The gender differences...reflected greater deficits in women than in men." Shockingly, it is elderly women, the most at risk, who are the most common recipients of ECT--almost 50% of those receiving electroshock are over 65 years old and women comprise two-thirds of ECT recipients. The U.S. psychiatric industry today reaps an estimated $5 billion a year from the administration of ECT. Of the estimated 300 Americans who die each year from electroshock, 250 are elderly.

Click CCHR for more information on the debilitating effects of psychiatric treatment.

Kevin Hall
Citizens Commission on Human Rights New England

Additional information End of Shock

Citizens Commission on Human Rights Protest Fox 25

2007-01-26T03:05:00.000-05:00

Fox 25 News report on the Citizens Commission on Human Rights protest in Sudbury, Ma on the 24th had an incorrect headline. It was a protest by members of Citizens Commission on Human Rights, who feel great sorrow and sympathy for the parents, friends and children
who must live through this local tragedy. Our hearts go out to them and to the other children and their families whose "treatments" can cause side effects that cause violence reactions. We want parents to read and understand the "Black Box" labels and demand less dangerous treatment
for their children.

"We understand the parents are going through the tragedy of losing their kids, but we want to educate the public," Abbi Baldarelli said as she held one end of the banner. "We're trying to prevent something tragic from happening again."

Metro West News

Click to see protest:

Scientologists Protest Medications Given to Special Needs Kids

A Protest Psych Drugs in Sudbury

2007-01-26T01:50:00.000-05:00

Jan 24, 2007
Peg Rusconi
Reporting
CBS 4 Boston

Free Documentary for Government Officials and Mental Health Attorneys Eposing Psychiatry's Abusive Procedures

2007-01-26T00:41:00.000-05:00

To visually show legislators, other government officials, parents and attorneys the full harm done through the abuse of the mental health profession, Citizens Commission on Human Rights New England is offering them a free copy of the documentary, "PSYCHIATRY: AN INDUSTRY OF DEATH."

Other interested people may order the $30 documentary for $19.99, shipping and handling included.

"Psychiatry and it's related human services' programs consist of a very large percentage of state and federal budgets, yet it's very rare that government officials fully understand the consequences of eight million US school children being prescribed psychotropic drugs, the dangerous use of restraints and involuntary commitment, electroshock, lobotomies, aversive therapy and more," said Kevin Hall, New England Director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. "Despite this and the fact that fraud and abuse are rampant in psychiatry, they sign away on funding these actions."

Click this link www.cchr.org for the first segment of this documentary. The rest of the documentary contains copyrighted information that cannot be placed online.

Order by check payable to:

Citizens Commission on Human Rights

1112 Boylston Street, PMB 213

Boston, MA 02215

www.cchreus.org

cchrwins@verizon.net

(617) 927-CCHR(2247)

Below is the documentary's executive summary:

"Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" Documentary EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

"Powerful and disturbing but ultimately inspirational" -- Martin Whitley, Member of Parliament

This documentary shows psychiatry in action as you have never seen before. Its footage and information bring you from the industry's hidden roots to their controversies of today.

Through rare historical and contemporary footage and eye-opening interviews with more than 160 doctors, attorneys, educators, survivors and experts on the mental health industry and its abuses, this riveting documentary takes you on a virtual tour of the fraudulent diagnoses, harmful and even deadly "treatments" that have been at the core of psychiatry over the past 250 years.

The DVD companion brochure contains over 150 photos and graphics that track the history of psychiatry from it's 18th century origins to today, where 100,000 patients die each year in psychiatric institutions and 20 million children internationally (8 million in the US alone) have been put on potentially lethal, mind-altering drugs, often in extremely dangerous and untested combinations.

The general public, government officials, educators, insurance companies and even medical practitioners have been targets of multi-billion dollar marketing campaigns to minimize the harm and lack of results from psychiatric procedures ranging from lobotomies, to electro- and insulin-shock, harm from restraint, psychotropic drugging and much more.

One cannot responsibly operate or oversee government, medical, educational or insurance activities without viewing and understanding the information provided through this documentary.

School Violence

2007-01-26T00:27:00.000-05:00

We are devastated by senseless acts of violence; we are even more shocked when children and teens commit these acts. We ask, “How could this happen?”

Governments and communities have come to realize that they have underestimated the dangers of psychoactive drugs and psychological programs in schools.

Eight out of 13 U.S. school shootings were committed by teens taking prescribed psychotropic drugs known to cause violent and suicidal behavior.

At least five teens responsible for school massacres had undergone school-sanctioned “anger management” or other psychological behavior modification programs such as “death education.”

For decades, schools around the world have used “death education,” a psychological experiment in which the children are made to discuss suicide, what they would like placed in their coffins, and write their own epitaphs in an effort to “get kids more comfortable with death.” Anger management aims at curbing aggressive or violent behavior but virtually no reliable data exists to prove it can eliminate the problem. In one class, a boy beat up a classmate so badly that six days later the boy was still in the hospital.

Critics cite 18-year-old Eric Harris (right) and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold as prime examples of the failure of “anger management,” “death education” and psychiatric drugs. As students at Columbine High School, Colorado, they were asked to imagine their own death. Harris subsequently had a dream where he and Klebold went on a shooting rampage in a shopping center. In addition to attending these classes, Harris was taking an antidepressant drug known to cause mania (violent behavior). He even wrote about his killing spree dream and handed it in to the psychology teacher. Not long after, Harris and Klebold acted out the dream by shooting and killing 12 students and a teacher, and wounding 23 others.
On May 21, 1998, in Oregon, USA, 14-year-old Kip Kinkel shot and killed his parents and then went on a wild shooting spree at his high school, which left two dead and 22 injured. He was taking a psychiatric stimulant and had undergone a psychological “anger management” program.

The information on these pages makes it obvious that if education authorities sanction the combination of a psychological value system—psychologists argue that it is “value-neutral”—with violence-inducing, psychiatric drugs, we have a powder keg waiting for a spark.

Psychiatry: Manipulating Young Minds

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ABC NEWS November 30, 2011 - Psych Drugs - Kids

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A Protest Psych Drugs in Sudbury

Free Documentary for Government Officials and Mental Health Attorneys Eposing Psychiatry's Abusive Procedures

School Violence

What is THE CITIZENS COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS?