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The Situation About the Book About the Authors Reader Responses Audio and Other Resources News and Links Ordering Information

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Psychology and Psychiatry in the News
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2007
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Psychologist: Chemical imbalance theory long-dead, but
still believed today:
This clinical
psychologist and author attributes perpetuation of the
chemical imbalance myth to profit seeking, and poses
other, more common-sense explanations for depression. He
states:
"It was news to many Americans when Newsweek's February
26, 2007 cover story, 'Men and Depression,' mentioned
that scientists now reject the theory that
depression is caused by low levels of neurotransmitters
such as serotonin. Thomas Insel, director of
the National Institute of Mental Health, told Newsweek
that 'a depressed brain is not necessarily
underproducing something.'" (Huffington Post, October 5,
2007) |
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Lilly adds label warnings to blockbuster antipsychotic
Zyprexa:
It took Eli Lilly, maker of the $4+ billion generating
antipsychotic Zyprexa, 12 years to warn patients that
the drug is known to cause high cholesterol,
high blood sugar, weight gain and diabetes.
Label changes will now reflect this. (New York Times,
October 5, 2007) |
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FDA
considers direct drug sales from pharmacists - no Rx
required:
The FDA is considering
allowing consumers to get drugs from their local
pharmacy without a drug prescription. (NewsTarget.com,
October 3, 2007) |
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What killed Rebecca Riley?
In this CBS 60 Minutes interview, Katie
Couric interviews Carolyn Riley, who overdosed-to-death
her 4-year-old with psychiatric drugs given to
treat her supposed bipolar disorder. (CBS News,
September 30, 2007) |
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Medwatch lists most lethal drugs as reported by
consumers; 300% increase in fatalities since 1998:
FDA's
own Medwatch web site, a tool consumers use to
report adverse events associated with prescription
drugs, lists three major antipsychotic drugs--Clozaril,
Risperal, and Zyprexa--in the top 15 drugs
causing the most deaths (as reported by consumers),
which are the very drugs FDA has approved for use in
children! Worse, this article documents a 300% increase
in drug-related fatalities reported since 1998. More
deaths were caused by each of the
three major antipsychotics (3,277 deaths from Clozaril;
1,093 deaths from Risperdal; 1,005 deaths from Zyprexa),
than by FDA-banned Vioxx (932 deaths). (AHRP, September
20, 2007) |
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Study: Psychiatrists least religious of all physicians:
"Something about psychiatry, perhaps its historical ties
to psychoanalysis and the anti-religious views of the
early analysts such as Sigmund Freud, seems to dissuade
religious medical students from choosing to specialize
in this field," said lead study author Farr Curlin, an
assistant professor of medicine at the University of
Chicago. (FOX News, September 5, 2007)
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Antipsychotic drug makers capitalize on children's
bipolar labels:
This
article provides recent data from Wolters-Kluwer on the
astronomical rise in children's antipsychotic drug
prescriptions over just the past four years. For
example, between 2003 and 2006: 2x
increase in number of prescriptions to all
populations, to 4.4 million; 5x
increase in number of prescriptions to children
age 4 and under, to 20,280; and 6x
increase in number of prescriptions to children
age 5 - 9, to 710,937. (Bloomberg, September 5,
2007) |
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Bipolar soars as diagnosis for children:
A recent article in the Archives of General
Psychiatry reveals a 40-fold increase
in the number of bipolar diagnoses in children, going
from 20,000 diagnoses in 1994, to 800,000
diagnoses in 2003, to still more today. (New York Times,
September 3, 2007) |
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FDA secretly approves J&J antipsychotic Risperdal for
bipolar children:
On August 22nd, the FDA approved
Johnson & Johnson's antipsychotic drug Risperdal
for treatment of bipolar and schizophrenia in children
ages 10-17 and 13-17 respectively, skipping over the
standard process of a public hearing and disclosure
of drug trial test results. (Boston Globe, August 23,
2007) |
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Children as young as 3 taking toxic antipsychotic drugs:
"Skyrocketing
numbers of kids are prescribed powerful antipsychotic
drugs. Is it safe? Nobody knows...
Last year, more than
18,000 state kids on Medicaid were given prescriptions
for antipsychotic drugs. Even children as young as 3
years old. Last year, 1,100 Medicaid children under 6
were prescribed antipsychotics, a practice so risky that
state regulators say it should be used only in extreme
cases...
There
is almost no research on the long-term effects of such
powerful medications on the developing brains of
children... The bottom line is that the use of
psychiatric medications far exceeds the evidence of
safety and effectiveness... What people need to do is
what's in the best interest of children instead of
what's in the best interest of people's pocketbooks."
(St. Petersburg Times, July 29, 2007)
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Prescription drugs: the cocaine and speed for today's
teens: What
started as Ritalin prescriptions at 5 years old ended in
multiple drug addictions and death for this Allen, TX
20-year-old man. This article describes the explosive
rise in prescription drug abuse among kids: "Teenagers
now abuse prescription medications more than any other
drug except marijuana, according to recent research.
Overall drug use is down nationwide, but prescription
drug abuse is booming." (Dallas Morning News, July 20,
2007) |
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Congress
makes FDA a quasi-drug company:
On July 11, 2007, the
House passed HR 2900--an FDA "Safety" bill that actually
puts more money, power and influence into the hands
of the drug-company-controlled agency, speeding
drug approval and reducing safety testing. The
bill furthers the cozy relationship between industry and
the FDA called to monitor it, and even gives the FDA
control over drug design, drug patents, drug licenses,
and the creation of new marketing organizations. (NewsTarget.com,
July 12, 2007) |
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China
executes top FDA official for taking drug company
bribes: "What's interesting about
China's execution of its top FDA official (Zheng Xiaoyu)
for accepting bribes from drug companies is not that
China executed a corrupt official, it's that such harsh
actions demonstrate, in contrast, the complete lack of
action against corrupt FDA officials in the United
States....bribery is routine in the United
States drug approval process. In fact, the
official FDA policy right now is that FDA decision panel
experts -- the people who decide which drugs to approve
or reject -- can currently accept up to $50,000 in
bribes from drug companies and still serve on such
decision panels." (NewsTarget.com, July 11, 2007)
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Parents of kids on Paxil - get your drug co. refund!
"In
an unusual move, the Public Citizen advocacy group has
posted a video on YouTube to alert parents to a $48
million settlement of a lawsuit concerning Glaxo's Paxil
antidepressant and side effects. Even without receipts,
parents can recover up to $100, but any money that isn't
claimed prior to the August 31, 2007, deadline will
revert back to Glaxo." (Pharmalot, July 10, 2007)
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Psychiatrists top list in drug maker gifts:
"...a
similar pattern was evident in a Minnesota database that
was the subject of a series of articles in The New York
Times this year. As in Vermont, psychiatrists earned on
aggregate the most in Minnesota, with payments ranging
from $51 to $689,000. The Times found that
psychiatrists who took the most money from makers of
antipsychotic drugs tended to prescribe the drugs to
children the most often." (New York Times, June 27,
2007) |
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Drug co gifts: $45k/year per psychiatrist in Vermont:
VT
state psychiatrists pocket $45k per year on average from
the drug companies. Perhaps this explains why a recent
study found 46% of VT inmates are on psych drugs.
(Bennington Banner, June 20, 2007)
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Psychiatrist Biederman leads charge for bipolar in
infants:
Psych
leader Dr. Joseph Biederman of Mass. General Hospital,
who gets kickbacks from no less than 15 drug
companies, has told doctors that infants and
toddlers need dangerous antipsychotics for their bipolar
disorder.
"From
his perch as one of the world's most influential child
psychiatrists, Biederman has spread far and wide his
conviction that the emotional roller coaster of bipolar
disorder can start "from the moment the child
opened his eyes" at birth. Psychiatrists used
to regard bipolar disorder as a disease that begins in
young adulthood, but now some diagnose it in children
scarcely out of diapers, treating them with powerful
antipsychotic medications based on Biederman's work."
(Boston Globe, June 17, 2007) |
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Stimulants + strenuous exercise = death:
We hear more and more about healthy
teenage and adult athletes dropping dead on the
field for no apparent reason. A possible
explanation: stimulants + strenuous exercise = a recipe
for disaster. The FDA has already warned the public of
the risk of stimulants--ADHD drugs included--causing
cardiac arrest, stroke and sudden death. The Univ. of OK
Sooners team physician agrees. (Ivanhoe Newswire, June
1, 2007) |
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NY toddlers now screened for mental disorders:
"...officials at the state Office of
Mental Health changed their minds about kids under 5.
The office lobbied successfully for a bill providing $62
million for mental-health screening of pre-school
youngsters throughout the state." (PoughkeepsieJournal.com,
May 29, 2007) |
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Rise in prescription drug use in adolescent girls for
diabetes, sleep & psych disorders:
MEDCO
Health Solutions, the nation's leading pharmacy benefit
manager, reports:
"Research shows an unparalleled rise in adolescent girls
using prescription drugs to treat diabetes, sleep
problems and psychological disorders -- Increases in
medication use among 10 to 19 year-old girls for several
chronic and behavioral conditions far outpaces boys of
the same age."
(MEDCO, May 16, 2007) |
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Schizophrenia better treated without drugs:
Did Virginia Tech shooter
Cho Seung
Hui
need antipsychotic drugs for his
schizophrenia? This follow-up study by doctors at the
Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, Dept. of Psychiatry
published in the May 2007 Journal of Nervous and
Mental Diseases compared recovery outcomes and
general functioning of groups of schizophrenics treated
with and without powerful antipsychotic drugs. 40% of
the non-drugged population showed improvement, versus
just 5% of the drugged population. (AHRP, May 2007)
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FDA orders suicide/homicide warnings for 18-24 yr-olds
on SSRI antidepressants:
As the killings and
suicides continue at dozens per day,
the drug-company-funded FDA has quietly asked SSRI drug
manufacturers to extend their black box suicide/homicide
warning label to apply to 18-24 year olds in addition to
children and teens, even though older populations also
show increased risk. This comes almost 6 months after
the FDA Advisory Board recommendation and 2 years after
the first FDA black box order for children and teens. (Countercurrents.org,
May 2007) |
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Web Page Lists 2,000+
Events with Antidepressant/Violence Links:
Did you know that at least 43 violent, suicidal, or
bizarre antidepressant-induced events have been
publicized since the Virginia Tech shooting just four
weeks ago? This is the most comprehensive list of
psychiatric drug-related violent acts we've ever seen. (SSRIstories.com,
May 2007) |
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A Pharmaceutical Insider
Speaks Out:
Gwen Olsen,
a veteran 15-year pharmaceutical sales rep, speaks out
on the Cho shootings in her article
THE HIDDEN TRUTH
BEHIND 21ST CENTURY "SENSELESS VIOLENCE"
(Psychology Debunked, May 2007) |
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Virginia Tech: Another
Shooting Involving Antidepressants:
Last month's Virginia Tech shooting shocked the nation
as the worst shooting in American history when Cho Seung
Hui killed 32 classmates before killing himself. Within
two seconds of hearing about the massacre, we knew
antidepressants were involved. The news stories have
sinced confirmed it. We might say, "But Cho was a
disturbed individual. He had a lot of problems not
related to drugs." Exactly. These are the worst kinds of
people to medicate with mind-altering, chemical-imbalancing
drugs! We believe Cho was walking a thin line and the
drugs pushed him over the edge and plummetted him to his
doom. This well-documented article citing historical
data and studies from ethical doctors convincingly links
antidepressant drugs with violent behavior. (NewsTarget.com,
April, 18, 2007) |
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Food additives cause
aggressive behavior in children:
The food children eat can have a direct impact on their
behavior and school performance. When this Australia school went
additive-free for two weeks, everyone was amazed with the results.
(Associated Content, April 8, 2007) |
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Many Diagnoses of Depression May Be Misguided, Study Says:
This New York University study from the Archives of
General Psychiatry says 25% of depression diagnoses are really just the
result of normal life experiences, like job loss, investment loss, divorce,
or unwanted re-location. The authors say the DSM needs to be revised to
include these depression triggers. This study should discourage knee-jerk
depression labeling and drug prescribing by doctors when life hits their
patients with inevitable suffering. (New York Times, April 3, 2007)
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Lilly shareholders sue
for non-disclosure of Zyprexa risks:
Shareholders of the drug giant Eli Lilly have filed a
class-action lawsuit against the company for not
disclosing the life-threatening risks of the
antipsychotic Zyprexa--risks the company knew about for
more than a decade but hid from doctors, the FDA, the public, and their
shareholders. (PR Newswire, April 2, 2007) |
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Antipsychotic drug
manufacturers in hot water as litigation skyrockets:
Many state and federal governments are suing
antipsychotic drug manufacturers, including Eli Lilly,
Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Janssen, AstraZeneca, and
Bristol-Myers Squibb, for not disclosing the risks of their drugs used in
state- and federal-run programs (schools, prisons, foster cares,
Medicare/Medicaid, etc.). This web page lists the many state and federal
lawsuits filed just in the last few months. (psychsearch.net, April 2007)
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UK Blair Justice Plan to
screen children for crime risk:
Tony Blair's new Justice Plan seeks to begin "early
intervention" for children to assess crime risk.
Children are screened based on their parents' drug and
crime history and through mental health and DNA tests,
and "treated" through the mental health system. This is
Teenscreen at a whole new level--biological determinism
run amuck. (UK Guardian, March 29, 2007) |
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23-year-old UK man pleads "ADHD" for threatening to attack a
family with a baseball bat, and judge sets him free. (Aylesbury
Today, March, 2007) |
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FDA forces ADHD drug
manufacturers to give patients literature describing side effects:
On
February 21, 2007, the FDA "directed the manufacturers of all drug products
approved for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) to develop Patient Medication Guides to alert patients to
possible cardiovascular risks and risks of adverse psychiatric symptoms
associated with the medicines, and to advise them of precautions that can be
taken." Last year, the FDA directed ADHD drug companies to
update their product labeling with these risks, which include
high blood pressure,
heart failure, stroke, sudden death,
hearing voices, becoming suspicious for no
reason, and becoming manic.
(FDA, February 21, 2007) |
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Antidepressants linked
to REM sleep disorder that causes dreamers to act out:
This article brings the reason for the rise in school shootings, suicides
and baby killings to
light: REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, or RBD, where a person acts out
nightmares in real life while still asleep. (Kansas City Star, February
2007) 86% of those with RBD are on
SSRI antidepressants. See
comments on RBD by Dr.
Ann Blake Tracy (www.drugawareness.org)
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UK's GlaxoSmithKline
hides Seroxat (Paxil) suicidal side effect from FDA, doctors and public: Court
cases have made previously confidential internal drug company correspondence
public information, exposing hidden truths about their drugs' safety and
effectiveness. The latest of these cases exposed the UK's
GlaxoSmithKline for hiding the sevenfold increase in risk of suicidal
and violent behavior in children taking Seroxat (Paxil) from the FDA,
doctors and the general public. Panorama states, "Secret
e-mails reveal that the UK's biggest drug company distorted trial results of
an anti-depressant, covering up a link with suicide in teenagers. Panorama
reveals that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) attempted to show that Seroxat worked for
depressed children despite failed clinical trials. And that GSK-employed
ghostwriters influenced 'independent' academics."
(BBC, January 29, 2007) |
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Mental Health Screening hits New York; 400,000 students now being screened:
TeenScreen, Big Pharma's key revenue generator for student populations
across America, has
hit Cortland County, New York, and is
now being used to screen the mental health of 400,000 sixth and ninth
graders in the state. (Syracuse Post-Standard, January 14, 2007)
EXCELLENT YouTube video, "TeenScreen: A National Fraud" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY
General
TeenScreen information -
http://www.psychologydebunked.com/email0507_Teenscreen%20summary.htm
Sign the petition against TeenScreen -
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html
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School shooter on antipsychotic drug fatally shoots student in the face: On
January 3rd, 18-year-old Douglas Chanthabouly pointed a handgun at Samnang
Kok, 17, and fired a shot into his face in a hallway at Henry Foss High
School in Tacoma, Washington, killing him instantly. Chanthabouly was being
treated (read drugged) for schizophrenia at the time. (Seattle PI,
January 6, 2007) |
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Zyprexa Maker Eli Lilly Settles with 28,500 victims for $1.2 Billion to date:
Since Zyprexa's introduction in 1996, Eli Lilly has paid out $1.2
Billion--yes, that's Billion--in settlement claims to a whopping 28,500 victims of the
drug's major and life-threatening side effects including high blood sugar,
weight gain and diabetes. But with annual sales of $4.2 Billion, $100
million a year in claim payouts doesn't worry Lilly. What does worry the
drug company is the incriminating, image-tarnishing evidence used in these trials that has
been made public despite lawyer protective orders and confidentiality
agreements signed by victims.
(New York Times, January 5, 2007) |
2006
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Nation's
Top ECT Researcher Admits ECTs Cause Permanent Amnesia and Cognitive
Deficits:
After 25 years of claiming ECTs (electroconvulsive therapy, a.k.a. electroshock
therapy) increase intelligence and improve memory, prominent Columbia
University researcher Harold Sackeim, known as the "Pope of ECT," has
reneged his
claims after reviewing the results of the first-ever long-term, controlled study of ECT patients.
Sackeim says patients suffered from permanent
amnesia--especially in women--and permanent brain damage and cognitive
function as a result of ECT. But 25 years and three million patients later, ECTs continue to be used by the industry to treat clinical depression,
bipolar, schizophrenia and other mood disorders, despite common sense that
says inducing a seizure by passing electrical current through the brain will
fry your brain, not heal it. (Medical News Today, December 22, 2006) |
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NY Times exposes Eli
Lilly internal documents admitting Zyprexa's dangers and off-label marketing:
The New York Times recently gave Americans
a Christmas present. The newspaper ran multiple
front page reports revealing the contents of hundreds of confidential Eli
Lilly documents and emails from top managers showing the company has
consistently downplayed the dangers of Zyprexa, an antipsychotic drug to
treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that grossed $4.2 Billion last year
(one quarter of Lilly's total revenues). These secret documents, obtained by lawyer
and patient advocate James Gottstein of PsychRights, also show Lilly
intentionally marketed the drug for "off-label" uses (disorders other than
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder)--an illegal practice--since its
introduction in 1996. The documents show that as early as 1999, company
researchers knew Zyprexa caused diabetes, hyperglycemia (high blood sugar),
and excessive weight gain, but doctors, patients, nor the FDA were made aware of these
findings. Many are calling for Congressional hearings.
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/412/29/ (AHRP, December 17, 2006)
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/414/29/ (AHRP, December 18, 2006)
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/416/28/ (AHRP, December 19, 2006)
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FDA Advisory
panel: antidepressant suicide warnings also needed for adults:
It took the FDA two years of foot-dragging
to extend their antidepressant "black box" suicide warnings from covering
children and adolescents to also covering adults, when last Wednesday an
FDA panel
announced their plans for an adult suicide warning for all
SSRI antidepressants after reviewing 372 studies on 100,000 patients and
11 antidepressants, including Lexapro, Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil, and hearing
from dozens of disturbed and angry victims whose family members killed
themselves while on the drugs. The data suggests the most at-risk adults are
18-25 year-olds on the drugs.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fda-panel-backs-expanded-antidepressant/story.aspx?guid=%7B0736F30D-4D0E-4EF8-8DB2-AACF0D5547C6%7D
(MarketWatch, December 13, 2006)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=governmentFilingsNews&storyID=2006-12-13T232621Z_01_N13457204_RTRIDST_0_ANTIDEPRESSANTS-SUICIDE-UPDATE-3.XML (Reuters,
December 13, 2006) |
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Infant Mental Health
Screening - federal programs being considered:
Does your baby suffer from depression, anxiety,
or ADHD? If you're not sure, don't worry--our governments and their mental
health brigades will take it upon themselves to tell you. In this article,
Vera Sharav of AHRP and pediatrician turned children's advocate Dr. Karen
Effrem responds to an infant mental health news article with the truth about
the psychopharmaceutical push for screening: it's all about the money. Right now laws are being drafted in Congress to implement at least seven
mental health screening programs--two that are specifically involved with
infant mental health screening. Illinois and Indiana already have
screening programs in place for pregnant moms and children ages 0 - 21. (AHRP,
December 1, 2006) |
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Federal
government launches mental illness "anti-stigma" marketing campaign:
If you
haven't already, brace yourself for a media onslaught designed to make you
believe mental illness is an epidemic, you may be mentally ill, and if you
are, don't feel ashamed to seek treatment--because after all, not enough
people seek treatment due to the stigma surrounding mental illness. This
federally-funded psychiatric propaganda called the NASC (National
Anti-Stigma Campaign), birthed by Bush's 2003 New Freedom Commission on
Mental Health report, has as its main goal to make mental illness so
acceptable and commonplace that the idea of nationwide universal mental
health screening becomes palatable to the public. And drug companies
know that screening = drug prescriptions = $$$. The campaign's initial focus
will be on 18-25 year-olds--ironically the same population for which
antidepressants are known to cause suicidal and violent behavior according
to a recent FDA meeting. (Online Journal, November 29, 2006) |
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VP of Swedish Psychiatric Association says antidepressants don't work:
This Swedish investigative
reporter states in her November 16th article: Speaking on antidepressants
the Vice President of The Swedish Psychiatric Association, Dr. Christina Spjut said Sunday that
"an immense number of persons get worse from
this". She said that many persons take these drugs for years "where
the antidepressant drugs make them continue to be depressed". The
article also correctly states that no test data exists showing that
antidepressants perform measurably better than placebo.
(24-7PressRelease.com, November 16, 2006) |
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Three family massacres perpetrated by dads on antidepressants:
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November
13, 2006 - Kenton, Newcastle, UK:
Neil Crampton,
33,
fatally stabs his wife, brother-in-law, 12-year-old daughter and 5-year-old
son in their home. Crampton was taking Prozac tablets for depression
before the attack.
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1880865
(Yorkshire Today, November 16, 2006) |
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January 20, 2006 -
Charlotte, North Carolina: Bank executive David Crespi stabbed his 5-year-old twin girls,
Tessara and Samantha, to death in their upscale home, and threatened to kill
himself. Crespi had switched to a new antidepressant, Prozac, just days
before the murders (the FDA has warned of homicidal side effects, esp. when
starting or changing medications). Oprah recently interviewed Crespi from
his jail cell, but instead of speaking the truth about the drug's effects on
Crespi, the show led viewers to believe he simply took the wrong type of
medication!
http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-100406-al-crespi_911.641c198.html
(WCNC.com, October 5, 2006) |
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July 12, 2004 - East Gresford, Upper Hunter, Australia: Michael
Richardson, 32, stabs and suffocates wife, then stabs and kills 3-year-old
son Luke and 20-month-old daughter Grace before fatally shooting himself.
The article states, "An
autopsy revealed that at the time of his death Mr. Richardson had a dose of
the antidepressant citalopram {Celexa} in his system higher than that
prescribed and that this may have caused him to become agitated and
irritable."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/warning-failed-to-save-family-from-violent-father/2006/10/31/1162278141519.html
(Sydney Morning Herald, November 1, 2006) |
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Indiana passes plan for mental screening of all children in the state from
birth to 22:
Following in Illinois'
footsteps, Indiana is the latest state to pass a plan to implement
universal mental health screening of all children in the state from birth to
age 22. The vote passed 11 to 1 on October 25th. Now the floodgates have
been opened for crying babies and misbehaving children to be diagnosed with
mental disorders and treated with dangerous, toxic psychiatric drugs. Learn
more about this screening plan and the public's outrage here:
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2006/10/indiana_mental_.html
(Illinois Review, October 26, 2006)
http://www.universalpreschool.com/upstate/2006/11/indiana-mental-health.asp
(Universalpreschool.com, November 11, 2006) |
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Mentally ill die 25
years younger, study says:
President Bush's 2002 New Freedom Commission on Mental
Health said our mental health system is "in shambles,"
and a new SAMHSA study proves it. The study concluded
that seriously mentally ill persons die 25 years younger
than the rest of the population. The primary reasons for
the 25 year disparity? Suicide, obesity, high blood
pressure, diabetes, stroke, chronic heart disease, and
heart attack--suspiciously the same side effects of SSRI
antidepressants, antipsychotics, and ADHD drugs. The
study states, "disparity in length of life appears to be
worse in 2006 than in 1986," the same period the
blockbuster SSRI antidepressants, antipsychotics and
ADHD drugs flooded the market. (National Council for
Community Behavioral Healthcare, September 2006) |
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Both U.S. and Canada require new ADHD drug labels warning of psychiatric
events and sudden death: As the FDA halts additional studies on
ADHD drug risks due to alleged budget cuts, they, along with Health Canada,
have taken what they know today and ordered additional drug labeling,
warning of the potential of adverse psychiatric events (aggression,
mania) and sudden death. While this is progress, we believe the drugs
should be banned outright due to their high risk-to-benefit ratio and faulty
chemical imbalance assumptions (CanWest News Service, September 22, 2006) |
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Three school
shootings leave 10 dead and dozens wounded - all have antidepressant links:
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September 13 - Dawson College, Montreal, Quebec, Canada:
Kimveer Gill, 25,
fatally shoots young woman and wounds 19 others before killing himself. In
an interview, his
mother said Gill had been treated for depression a few years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson_College_Shooting
(Wikipedia) |
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September 27 - Platte Canyon High School, Bailey, Colorado: Duane
Morrison, 53, takes six female students hostage and sexually assaults them
before releasing two and fatally shooting one, then killing himself.
Antidepressants were found in the Jeep he was driving that day.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5032220,00.html
(Rocky Mountain News, September 30, 2006) |
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October 2 - West Nickel Mines School, Bart Township, Pennsylvania:
32-year-old Charles Roberts lines up 10 Amish girls at the chalkboard of a
one-room schoolhouse and shoots them execution-style before turning the gun
on himself. Five girls die and five are in critical condition. All of his
actions describe someone having a psychotic reaction to an antidepressant
(see Dr. Tracy's blog posting at
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1714357/posts).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_school_shooting
(Wikipedia) |
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Three murders,
one thing in common: Effexor:
When the
nation learned that Andrea Yates drowned her five kids in the bathtub of her
Houston, Texas home back in 2001, many were asking why?
Later it was discovered
that weeks before the murders, her daily dose of Effexor was increased to
twice the recommended maximum dose. Effexor carries a black box warning for
suicidal ideation, and last year the FDA added a warning for potential
"homicidal ideation." SSRI antidepressants like Effexor are making otherwise
normal people cold-blooded killers:
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TeenScreen creator's study links
antidepressants with youth
suicide: Columbia University has
recently release a study showing a direct link between antidepressant use
and youth suicide, consistent with FDA findings in 2004. Dr. David
Schaffer, Columbia psychiatrist and creator of the TeenScreen suicide
prevention program, participated in the study. Dr. Schaffer's TeenScreen
program screens schoolchildren for suicide and refers
them to treatment (drugs), yet his own study shows these drug treatments
can cause schoolchildren to kill themselves! (Newsday, August 8,
2006) |
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FDA orders stronger
warnings on ADHD drug labels for "serious cardiovascular and psychiatric
events": In May of this year, the FDA ordered all ADHD
drug manufacturers to strengthen their warning labels "with regard to
serious cardiovascular events and psychiatric events." While not a
full-blown black box label warning, which only Adderral contains (warning of its high potential of abuse),
the FDA order legitimizes recent research findings that all ADHD
drugs can cause high blood
pressure, heart failure, stroke and sudden death in children and adults. (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, July 28, 2006) |
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New potential disorder for DSM-V: Relational disorder:
This article
gives a sneak peak at a new disorder that may appear
in the DSM-V due out in 2011: Relational disorder, defined as “a
dysfunctional relationship in which ‘neither person is mentally ill but the
relationship is.' She said she wonders what would happen when an afflicted
couple visits the doctor's office for help. ‘The psychiatrist takes out a
pill. ... Where does the psychiatrist put it?’ she asked.”
The article
also lists a few laughable mental disorders in DSM-IV,
such as mathematics disorder, reading disorder and the dreaded
disorder of written expression. (Baltimore Sun, July 17, 2006) |
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Intermittent Explosive Disorder: Newly Discovered or Overly Promoted?:
According to a study headed
by drug company-funded academic researchers and financed by the drug-company
funded National Institute of Mental Health, over seven percent of American
adults—that’s 16 million people—suffer from a little-known disorder
from the 1994 DSM-IV, Intermittent Explosive Disorder,
characterized by “episodes of impulsive aggressiveness ‘grossly out of
proportion to any precipitating psychosocial stressor,’ at any time in their
life. The person must have ‘all of a sudden lost control and broke or
smashed something worth more than a few dollars… hit or tried to hurt
someone… or threatened to hit or hurt someone.” What used to be an
obscure and uncommon disorder has suspiciously become a national epidemic
almost overnight. (Seed Magazine, June 8, 2006) |
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Use of antipsychotics
to control children rises fivefold despite lack of FDA approval:
A recent Columbia
University study found that antipsychotic drug prescriptions for
under-18s rose fivefold between the years of 1993-1995 and 2002 to 1.2
million prescriptions, primarily for treatment of bipolar disorder. This
in spite of the fact that antipsychotic drugs like Clozaril, Risperdal,
Seroquel, Zyprexa, Haldol, Navane, and Prolixin are by far the most toxic of
all psychiatric drugs—causing weight gain, diabetes, irreversible abnormal
movements, tremors, awkward gait, psychosis, coma, and death in some
cases—and have not been FDA-approved for use in children. The study found
that 40% of the children prescribed these drugs were on at least one other
psychiatric drug. Could psychiatrists be treating ADHD drug-induced
aggression and mania with antipsychotics? (Reuters, June 7, 2006) |
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ADHD Drugs Sending Thousands to Hospital ERs:
In February, the FDA’s
Advisory Committee recommended label warnings for all ADHD drugs (Ritalin,
Adderall, Concerta, Dexedrine, Cylert, etc.), warning of high blood
pressure, heart failure, stroke and sudden death in children and adults
taking these drugs. The next month, the FDA ignored its own advisory
committee’s advice, and the cries of unsuspecting victims continue to sound
from ERs across the country. According to a recent CDC study, 3,100 ADHD
drug users visit hospital ERs each year in the U.S. Causes range from
side effects like chest pain, stroke, high blood pressure and fast heart
rate, to overdose and accidental use—not surprising, considering most ADHD
drugs are a legal form of speed. (ABC News, May 24, 2006) |
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Tots Used as Human Guinea Pigs for Psychiatric Drug
Testing:
This ABC News article
describes an abominable practice occurring right now at Massachusetts
General Hospital: recruiting four to six year olds diagnosed with bipolar
disorder to test a powerful and dangerous antipsychotic drug that is
approved for use only in adults. Worse, the hospital’s recruitment tools
make no mention of any of the drug’s dangers. Labeling little children with
an imaginary disease based on observation of behavior, and drugging
them with toxic poison under the guise of scientific inquiry, is
not psychiatric help. It’s child abuse.
(ABC News, May 17, 2006) |
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“Pill popper nation: Drug
companies are the pushers, the FDA a cop paid to look the other way”:
This humorous L.A.
Times Op-Ed penned by Bill Maher speaks the truth about so-called diseases, drug
companies and the FDA.
(L.A. Times, April 27, 2006) |
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Study: Most DSM Authors Have Undisclosed Financial
Ties to the Drug Industry:
Results of a study by
Lisa Cosgrove, Univ. of Mass. psychologist and Sheldon Krimsky, Tuft
University professor, show over half of the authors of psychiatry’s bible of
mental disorders, the DSM, have undisclosed ties to the drug industry.
Fully 100 percent of the expert panelists for mood disorders (e.g.
depression) and psychotic disorders (e.g. schizophrenia) have financial ties
to drug companies. (Alliance for Human Research Protection, April
20, 2006) |
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New Jersey Mandates Mental Health Screening for
Postpartum Depression:
New Jersey governor Jon
Corzine has just passed a law—the first of its kind—requiring health care
providers to screen new mothers for postpartum depression and teach
women and their families about the disorder. “This new law will make
postpartum depression screening a requirement rather than an option, and
that's a significant and positive step for New Jersey's mothers, newborns
and families," Corzine said. The governor said the law will improve the
likelihood that women suffering from the disorder would get the appropriate
treatment (read antidepressants). But instead of helping mothers, newborns,
and their families, the governor is putting 1 out of 8 (11,000 – 16,000)
mothers and their newborns at risk by forcing treatment of a hormonal
condition with a mind-altering drug that has caused mothers to enter a state
of psychosis and kill their children. (North Jersey Media Group, April
14, 2006) |
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Drug companies "inventing diseases to boost their
profits":
This UK article
reports, “Pharmaceutical companies are systematically creating diseases in
order to sell more of their products, turning healthy people into patients
and placing many at risk of harm, a special edition of a leading medical
journal claims today. The practice of “disease-mongering” by the drug
industry is promoting non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for
the sake of profits, according to a set of essays published by the
open-access journal Public Library of Science Medicine.” (The
Times UK, April 11, 2006) |
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Teacher blames sex with
14-year-old student on her bipolar disorder:
Charges against
25-year-old teacher Debra Lafave of Tampa, Florida for having sex on
multiple occasions with a 14-year-old minor have been dropped. Instead of
prison time, Lafave will spend three years under house arrest and seven
years on probation. Why did she do it? Bipolar disorder. Says Lafave:
“I want the world to see that bipolar is real. Not one time has the media
brought up the subject of my bipolar. I challenge you to read a book or an
article on bipolar illness.” (MSNBC, March 22, 2006) |
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Autism linked to
mercury in children’s vaccines, research shows:
Autism—a mental
disorder affecting children ages 3 and under and described by impaired
language and social interaction and restrictive, repetitive behaviors—has
been linked to thimerosal, a preservative used in childhood vaccines that
contains the neurotoxin mercury. Researchers found that as the number of
vaccines containing the preservative has decreased, so has the number of
cases of neurodevelopmental disorders like Autism in children. But due to
financial and political reasons, the CDC is doing little to fix the problem.
(Yahoo! News, March 1, 2006) |
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GlaxoSmithKline lies to FDA about 4x higher suicide rate for adults using
the antidepressant Paxil:
Expert witness Dr. Peter
Breggin spent 3 days at GlaxoSmithKline headquarters reviewing sealed files,
and has just released his never-before-seen findings: the drug company
under-reported to the FDA the number of suicide attempts on their
antidepressant Paxil and over-reported the number of suicide attempts on
placebo; hid from the FDA the drug’s stimulating effects that can lead to
violence and suicide; and lied in promotional materials that the drug does
not induce symptoms of anxiety and agitation. The truth? Paxil is almost 4
times as likely to cause suicide attempts as placebo. (www.breggin.com,
February 27, 2006) |
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Antidepressants are Hazardous to Your Baby’s Health, Studies Show:
The FDA’s
Advisory Committee recommended label warnings for all antidepressants,
warning of lung disease in newborns of mothers taking antidepressants.
Their recommendations followed a study showing infant lung disease is 6
times more likely when the mother is taking an antidepressant during the
last half of her pregnancy: 1 in 100 babies will contract a lung disease
called “persistent pulmonary hypertension,” 10-20 percent of those will die,
and others will suffer from brain damage and hearing loss. (Boston Globe,
February 9, 2006) |
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FDA Recommends “Sudden
Death” Warning Label For All ADHD Drugs:
Just one month after
the FDA recommended further study on the link between ADHD drugs and sudden
deaths, heart attacks and strokes, the FDA’s Advisory Committee has
recommended label warnings for all ADHD drugs (Ritalin, Adderall,
Concerta, Strattera, Dexedrine, Cylert, etc.), warning of high blood
pressure, heart failure, stroke and sudden death in children and adults
taking these drugs. The risk is greater with adults since adults more
frequently exhibit heart problems.
(Associated Press, February 9, 2006) |
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Antidepressant use during pregnancy appears
associated with withdrawal symptoms in newborns: A related Israeli study
recently showed that one-third of babies born to
antidepressant-consuming women suffered withdrawal symptoms—including
tremors, seizures, muscle tensing, gastrointestinal problems, and sleep
disturbances—during the first 48 hours after delivery. (JAMA, February 6,
2006) |
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Neural Science Director: Brain scans tell us nothing more than a 19th
century neurologist would:
This New York Times article
explains why brain scans tell us nothing more about human behavior than what
we’ve already learned from neurologists of the 1800s about the functions of
different areas of the brain.
They just look better. (New York Times, February 5, 2006) |
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Man on
antidepressants shoots former girlfriend and her boyfriend:
Former Utah police officer Arthur Henderson chased a car carrying his former
wife and her boyfriend and fired gunshots through his windshield before
crashing into their parent’s home. Henderson continued shooting at the
boyfriend until police arrived and Henderson started firing at them. He was
wounded and finally arrested. Henderson admitted to taking antidepressants,
but said that “his doctor had recently refused to give him more of the
drug.” (Associated Press, January 31, 2006) |
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19-year-old a vegetable after unsuccessful suicide attempt on Prozac: Illinois teenager Sarah
Lowery suffered hallucinations and unsuccessfully hanged herself after
three months on Prozac, causing severe brain injury and disability.
According to the article, 19-year-old Lowery now “functions at the level of
a 6- to 9-month-old, relies on a feeding tube and is confined to a
wheelchair after the 2003 suicide attempt.” (Beacon News, January 30, 2006) |
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14-year-old boy on Zoloft shoots parents and sister: Sam Donaldson's ranch
manager's 14-year-old son was on the antidepressant Zoloft when he
shot and killed his parents and sister on July 5th, 2004. He
started taking Zoloft on April 20th. (Alamogordo Daily News,
January 27, 2006) |
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Bank
executive murders his 5-year-old twin girls while on an antidepressant:
Charlotte bank executive David Crespi stabbed his 5-year-old twin girls,
Tessara and Samantha, to death in their upscale home, and threatened to kill
himself. Crespi had switched to a new antidepressant just days
before the murders. The FDA violent behavior warning recommends careful
observation especially at the start of treatment and when dosages change,
which was the case here. (Charlotte Observer, January 22, 2006) |
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FDA responds to reports of ADHD drug users’ sudden deaths, heart attacks and
strokes:
“Sudden deaths, heart
attacks and strokes in people taking attention deficit disorder drugs
[Ritalin, Adderrall, Concerta, Strattera, etc.] have led U.S. regulators to
seek advice on how to study the medications' potential risk.”
(Bloomberg, January 3,
2006) |
2005
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Former Baseball Pitcher Jeff Reardon robs jewelry store while on psych drug
cocktail: Former Major League
Baseball relief pitcher Jeff Reardon, who made more than $11.5 million over
his successful career, was arrested for holding up a jewelry store in West
Palm Beach, Florida while on multiple antidepressants and mood stabilizers.
His lawyer told reporters, "The
medications caused him to be delirious and to hallucinate." Reardon
couldn't
believe it himself:
"I don't
think I've ever had a speeding ticket before, for crying out loud."
(ESPN, December 28, 2005) |
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FDA
warns of heart defects in newborns of mothers taking Paxil: In December 2005, the
FDA ordered a warning label on the antidepressant Paxil,
warning of the potential for heart defects in newborns of mothers taking
the drug during their first trimester of pregnancy. (December 8, 2005) |
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U.S. House: Schools cannot force ADHD drugs on students as a condition of
attending class: On November 16th, the U.S. House of
Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation (HR 1790) barring schools
from coercing students and their parents to take ADHD drugs and other
"controlled substances" as a condition of attending school. Similar
legislation passed through the House in December 2004, but it later died in
the Senate. (New Media Explorer, November 24, 2005) |
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Tacoma Mall
shooter on Ritalin:
As the FDA researches ADHD drugs like
Ritalin for long-term adverse side effects, real-life side effects are being
felt by six innocent by-standers at a Tacoma Mall, who were gunned down
November 20th by 20-year-old Dominick Sergio Maldonado wielding
an assault rifle. Investigators searched Maldonado’s room and found the
attention deficit drug methylphenidate (Ritalin) along with marijuana
paraphernalia and a box of knives. (KOMO, November 23, 2005) |
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Researchers say antidepressant ads are misleading, since
chemical imbalances remain unproven:
The non-profit Public Library of
Science (PLoS) has researched scores of SSRI antidepressant advertisements,
including the famous Zoloft bouncing ball, and has found these ads mislead
the public by claiming that a serotonin imbalance could be to blame for
their depression, despite growing researcher skepticism of this theory. The
authors correctly note that researchers don’t even know the normal amount of
serotonin in the brain to begin with, much less how to correct a theoretical
imbalance of serotonin. In the full
essay entitled "Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the
Advertisements and the Scientific Literature," the PLoS authors explain in
detail why the chemical imbalance theory has not been accepted by
researchers. They cite many studies that cast doubt on the theory, but could
not find a single study proving the theory. They conclude, "Far from
being a radical line of thought, doubts about the serotonin hypothesis are
well acknowledged by many researchers." (Public Library of Science,
November 7, 2005) |
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Can Brain Scans See Depression?
This New York Times
article explains in laymen’s terms why brain scans cannot see depression or
any other mental disorder like ADHD, bipolar, OCD, PTSD, etc. Brain
scanning research has been going on for 30 years, and still no lab test
using brain imaging exists to identify mental illness. (New York Times,
October 18, 2005) |
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Two shootings, one thing in
common: antidepressants: As the FDA
slowly reveals to the public the knowledge they have had for years about
SSRI antidepressants causing suicidal and violent behavior, the freak
incidents continue. One Mass. man on two antidepressants got out of his car
in traffic, pointed his gun through another driver’s window, and fired five
times, killing the driver with his baby still in his arms.
See the full story.
Another man, a Manhattan banker described by neighbors as "a perfect
gentleman" and "a caring father," shot and wounded his son in their upper
class home before turning the gun on himself. He was taking the
antidepressant Lexapro. See the full story. |
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FDA requires suicide warning label on ADHD drug Straterra:
The FDA is now requiring Eli Lilly to
add a black-box warning label—the FDA’s most serious label classification—to
their ADHD drug Straterra, warning of possible suicidal behavior in children
taking the drug. The FDA recommends children on the drug be monitored for
"agitation, irritability, suicidal thinking or behaviors, and unusual
changes in behavior, especially during the initial few months of therapy or
when the dose is changed." Straterra and Cylert have already been linked to
liver damage, and its ADHD cousin Adderall to heart problems. (Associated
Press, September 29, 2005) |
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Massive study finds no
evidence that ADHD drugs are safe or help school performance:
The Drug Effectiveness Review
Project at Oregon State University has just completed the most comprehensive
study to date (2,287 studies reviewed) on the safety and efficacy of ADHD
drugs, including Adderall, Concerta, Strattera, Ritalin, Focalin, Cylert,
Provigil, and others. Their findings? There is no evidence of these drugs’
long term safety; no evidence that they improve academic performance,
behavior, or social achievements; no evidence that ADHD drugs help adults;
and perhaps most disturbing, no clear understanding of how the drugs work in
the first place. (Tacoma News Tribune, September 13, 2005) |
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Group
finds antidepressant Seroxat poses sevenfold increase in suicide risk:
A Norwegian research group has
linked the SSRI antidepressant Seroxat (GlaxoSmithKline) to a sevenfold
increase in suicide risk, and published the results in the journal BMC
Medicine. The studies the group reviewed, which date back to as early as
pre-1990, were available to the FDA when they approved the drug. (Britain,
UK Times, August 22, 2005) |
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FDA declares risk of
suicidality in adults being treated with antidepressant medications: Last year, the FDA required a
"black-box" label for all SSRI antidepressants, warning of the possibility
of increased suicidal thoughts and behavior in children. Now, the FDA is
investigating these reported effects in adults taking SSRI antidepressants.
The FDA report (accessible here
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/advisory/SSRI200507.htm) states, "Adults
being treated with antidepressant medications, particularly those being
treated for depression, should be watched closely for worsening of
depression and for increased suicidal thinking or behavior. Close watching
may be especially important early in treatment, or when the dose is
changed, either increased or decreased" (emphasis ours). (FDA, June 30,
2005) |
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FDA probing ADHD drug side
effects, including suicidal thoughts: The FDA has found that the ADHD drugs Ritalin
and Concerta are associated with reports of suicidal thoughts,
hallucinations and violent behavior. This finding has prompted the FDA to
investigate all ADHD drugs containing methylphenidate, for possible drug
relabeling to include more serious warnings. Health Canada has already
pulled Adderall XP (an ADHD drug) from the market due to reports of sudden
deaths, heart-related deaths and strokes in children and adults. The FDA has
also recently published a study showing an increased risk of cancer for
adults who took Ritalin when they were children. (Associated Press, June 29,
2005) |
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JAMA report: Suicide
rate unchanged between 1992 and 2003, despite more antidepressant treatments:
Contrary to what the drug companies,
the psychiatry industry, and groups like TeenScreen would have us believe,
antidepressants do not help prevent suicides, according to a recent
Journal of the American Medical Association report. The report states,
"Despite a dramatic increase in treatment, no significant decrease occurred
in suicidal thoughts, plans, gestures, or attempts in the United States
during the 1990s." (Washington Post, June 7, 2005) |
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U.K. now outlaws use of
all SSRI antidepressants for under-18s:
In December 2003, the U.K. outlawed
prescriptions of all SSRI antidepressants except Prozac for children
under 18. The U.K. has now decided that Prozac should also be banned for
this age group. On April 25, the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) determined that Prozac, along with all other SSRI
antidepressants, can cause suicidal and aggressive behavior in children and
adolescents. (The Guardian, UK, April 26, 2005) |
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European Medicines Agency declares high risk of suicide and violent behavior
in under-18s taking antidepressants: The European Medicines Agency (EMA, equivalent
to the U.S. FDA) has ordered all antidepressants to carry a warning label
stating an increased risk of suicidal and violent behavior in under-18s
taking the drug. The FDA issued a similar order in late 2004. The EMA also
added warnings about an increase in hostility and "emotional lability" for
children prescribed Strattera, an antidepressant-like drug used to treat
ADHD. (Medical News Today UK, April 26, 2005) |
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Restraint of the new millennium: the chemical straightjacket:
Children and adolescents in youth
residential treatment centers are being forcibly drugged against their will,
according to this investigation by the Columbus Dispatch. The investigation
found that treatment center workers frequently use dangerous combinations
and dosages of potent, mind-altering psychiatric drugs to manage children.
Some pass out for hours or days from the drugs, while others hallucinate or
walk around like zombies. According to the article, "A 5-year-old boy… was
so doped up that he couldn’t stop batting the air, complaining about
imaginary bugs and smacking his lips." (The Columbus Dispatch, April 24,
2005) |
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Family of Minnesota shooter blames Prozac:
Jeff Weise was taking 60 mg of Prozac per day
in the weeks before his bloody rampage. His aunt told reporters, "I can't
help but think [the dosage] was too much, that it must have set him off."
Another family member wondered "whether the drugs could have been the final
straw." The article states an important
point about antidepressants: they can be most dangerous during the first
few months of treatment, as the brain compensates. That is why we
discourage people from ever taking psychiatric medications, even for a very
short time to stabilize or get through a difficult time. The article also
lists other recent shooting sprees--all committed by people on psychiatric
drugs. (Health Sentinel, March 27, 2005) |
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Teen shooter at
Minnesota school kills nine and himself while on Prozac: The number of antidepressant-induced murder
sprees continues to rise, with March 21st marking the country’s
worst school shooting since the Columbine tragedy that took 15 lives in
1999. Like the shooters at Columbine, 16-year-old Jeff Weise was on an
antidepressant when he shot and killed his grandparents, five students, a
teacher and a security guard at Red Lake High School in Minnesota before
turning the gun on himself: "The
[Washington Post] also cited a cultural coordinator at Red Lake Middle
School who said Weise had been hospitalized at least once for suicidal
tendencies and was taking the anti-depressant Prozac." Hardly a coincidence, this massacre and others
before it explains the FDA's 2004 order for "black-box" labels on all
antidepressants warning of an increase in suicidal behavior in adolescents
taking the drugs. (Associated Press, March 24, 2005) |
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Psychologist debunks the medical myth of ADHD:
Dr. Bob Jacobs, psychologist and attorney, says
ADD and ADHD "were invented and not discovered, and efforts to
popularise these diagnoses are based on politics and economics and have
little to do with medicine." He asks, "Since when did these childhood
behaviours, ranging from normal to non-compliant, become a disease?" He
reveals the medical truth behind the ADHD label and explains why it’s not
going away any time soon. (Nexus Magazine, February-March 2005) |
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50-year-old man on Prozac stabs wife to death: 50-year-old Michael
Austin stabbed his 42-year-old wife to death in their Stockton, California
home on December 30, 2005. He was on the antidepressant Prozac. (RecordNet,
February 17, 2005) |
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Psychiatrist: Company hid Prozac, suicide link:
Harvard psychiatrist Martin Teicher, a
prominent researcher and physician, published reports in 1990 linking Prozac
and suicidal/violent behavior in adults—findings that Prozac maker Eli Lilly
allegedly denied. Now, the FDA is relooking at Lilly documents—the same
documents used in a 1994 lawsuit surrounding the Louisville workplace
shooting where the gunman was on Prozac—to determine if their initial
approval of Prozac should still stand. Teicher states, "They [Lilly] culled
patients from their worldwide trials, they cherry-picked the studies,
leaving out the trials showing problems… American people were guinea pigs
for a few years. If we had known the truth, we would have used it more
wisely from the start." (USA Today, January 5, 2005) |
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Woman Said
Sign From Spider Told Her To Kill Kids: In a gruesome act reminiscent of the Andrea
Yates drownings of 2001, Rebekah Amaya has pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity in the drowning of her 4-year-old daughter and 5-month-old son in
the family bathtub on Oct. 16, 2003. Prosecutors dropped the case after two
psychiatrists told the court that Amaya was insane. (Internet Broadcasting
Systems, Inc., January 4, 2005) |
2004
 |
Dr.
Glenmullen answers viewer questions on the ABC News PrimeTime website:
ABC News PrimeTime uncovered GlaxoSmithKline documents admitting
their antidepressant Paxil was ineffective in treating depression and caused
serious side affects including suicide--despite company sales materials to
the contrary. Since the story ran, ABC News PrimeTime
has received many antidepressant-related questions from viewers. Dr. Joseph
Glenmullen, a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School,
answers them and includes specifics on Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Lexapro,
Klonopin and Prozac. Although Dr. Glenmullen describes himself as a
"moderate" in the antidepressant drug debate and is pro-therapy, his answers
help us better understand the frequently hidden risks of antidepressants and
the pseudoscience behind them. Dr. Glenmullen states, "There are no
medical tests to diagnose bipolar disorder, depression, or any other
psychiatric condition: no blood tests, X-rays, brain scans, or any other
objective tests. Medical tests should be used to rule out other conditions
that can look like depression such as thyroid conditions. But all
psychiatric diagnoses are subjective and based on the patient's personal
history rather than on objective medical tests." (ABC News, December 15,
2004) |
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Drug Maker
Sales Pitch Lands Far From the Truth:
ABC News PrimeTime uncovered internal
documents from GlaxoSmithKline that admit Paxil was ineffective in treating
depression and caused serious side affects including suicide, despite
company sales materials to the contrary. Other internal documents show the
drug maker suppressed negative test data (4 out of 5 trials) and relabeled
withdrawal symptoms by the more harmless term "discontinuation symptoms."
ABC News PrimeTime has found that GlaxoSmithKline has duped doctors and
consumers for years regarding the safety and efficacy of Paxil. The story
also includes specifics of the hidden test data. (ABC News, December 9,
2004) |
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Lawmaker Fails to Block Federal Funding for Mental-Health Screening:
Last September, House Representative
Ron Paul, R-Texas, failed to block federal funding of mandatory mental
health screening of school children. Last month, his proposal to require
parental consent before psychological evaluation also failed. With the
Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations now set for 2005, we can soon expect
schools nationwide to begin adopting forced evaluation, therapy and drugging
of our children. (WorldNetDaily, November 18, 2004) |
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Disorder of the Month: Post-Election Selection Trauma:
Just when we thought the psychology industry
had reached the bounds of absurdity a month ago with their newest proposed
psychological disorder "pre-election stress disorder"--the condition of
experiencing high stress in deciding which presidential candidate to
choose--the American Health Association has invented what they call
"post-election selection trauma" in response to a Kerry volunteer's suicide
in New York City and many traumatized Kerry supporters in Florida. One
Florida psychologist is performing intense "election therapy" for those
affected. (Boca Raton News, November 9, 2004) |
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FDA Issues
Direct Order for Suicide Warning Label on All Antidepressants:
The strong warning from the FDA back in
March for drug manufacturers and health professionals to put warning labels
on their antidepressant medications has turned into a direct order. On
October 15, the FDA announced it would require "black box" warning
labels—the FDA’s most serious type of warning—on all antidepressant
medications. The label warns of increased risk of suicidal thoughts and
behavior in children and adolescents being treated with antidepressant
medications. The FDA commissioner summarized, "Our conclusions are based
on the latest and best science." (FDA, October 15, 2004) |
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Lawmakers Respond to Suicide Trend in Teens Taking Antidepressants:
Responding to an increasing trend in
suicidal behavior in children and teens taking antidepressant drugs,
lawmakers in Washington are now pushing drug companies for full disclosure
of drug trial test results to the FDA and medical community. Of the 15
studies done on antidepressants for children, 12 showed negative outcomes
but only the three positive studies were released to the public. (CBS
MarketWatch, September 9, 2004) |
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Psychologists
Join the Gay Marriage Bandwagon:
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association
removed homosexuality from their DSM list of mental disorders in response to
political pressure from homosexual lobbies. So it is no surprise that the
American Psychological Association (APA) recently announced its support of
same-sex marriage (see
press release). What is surprising, though, is how some Christians still
look to psychotherapists and psychiatrists for help with marriage and family
issues. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, wrote an article for Baptist Press on the APA’s politically
motivated and anti-Christian decision, saying, "this resolution and its
ideological underpinnings demonstrate that the modern psychotherapeutic
worldview is directly at odds with the biblical worldview of Christianity."
(Baptist Press, August 3, 2004) |
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Man who abused and murdered 2-year old son pleads "post traumatic slave
syndrome": A Portland lawyer is
claiming that Isaac Bynum was justified in beating, whipping and killing his
son Ryshawn because he suffered from "post traumatic slave syndrome," a new
mental disorder affecting blacks in the United States caused by past
generations of slavery and abuse trauma that was never treated. Those who
suffer from this multigenerational trauma often exhibit "self-destructive,
violent or aggressive behavior," according to the inventor of the disorder,
Joy DeGruy-Leary, who is an Assistant Professor in the Portland State
University Graduate School of Social Work. (The Oregonian, May
31, 2004) |
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FDA Issues Suicide Caution for Antidepressants: The FDA is finally starting to admit there
could be a link between antidepressants and suicide. In late March, the FDA
strongly recommended that drug companies place detailed warnings about
possible suicidal side affects on their labels. The drugs in question
include Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Celexa, Remeron, Lexapro, Luvox,
Serzone and Wellbutrin. (CBS News, March 22,
2004) |
2003
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Still no proof that mental illness caused by biology or "chemical
imbalances" after decades of research:
This article by Keith Hoeller cites the 1999 Surgeon General's Mental
Health Report and the 1999 Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry as
stating that the causes of mental disorders are unknown and no lab
test exists to identify mental illness. He compares modern-day
biological psychiatry to the animal magnetism theory of the 1700s, and
proposes relegating psychiatry alongside "alchemy, astrology and phrenology
as a pseudoscience." (Seattle PI, August 29, 2003) |
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Growth of therapy tells us something about the breakdown of relationships
and the decline of religion and the nuclear family: In this
eye-opening article, a London psychiatrist cites numerous studies over the
past 50 years showing it doesn't matter which type of psychotherapy you
have, or even if you receive therapy at all: you will improve at the same
rate. The article also states that patients treated by untrained people did
just as well as patients treated by trained and experienced
psychotherapists. So you could get just as much benefit confiding in a
friend for free, than you would get in consulting a psychotherapist for $100
an hour! (Psychminded / Connected Telegraph, UK, March 24, 2003) |
2002
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Preliminary data
show high levels of sperm DNA
damage in men taking antidepressants: Preliminary data from a
Washington State University Spokane study show high levels of sperm DNA
damage in men taking antidepressants, “which decreased by approximately
one half once they were no longer on the medication.” Sperm DNA damage can
cause infertility, miscarriages, and even childhood diseases, according to
the article. (WSU Spokane/WSU News
Bureau, December 10, 2002) |
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'Repentance, Not
Recovery' Prescribed: article about Psychology Debunked. (Charisma News Service, September 25, 2002) |
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Creation House Press announces the 2002
release of Psychology Debunked (Creation House Press, June
1, 2002) |
Psychology and Psychiatry Website Links
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