A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders

The Newtown mass murders have generated widespread demand for improved “mental health” services, and even for mandatory mental health screenings for schoolchildren. The notion embedded in these demands is that the perpetrators are “mentally ill,” and that early identification will enable psychiatrists to treat (i.e. drug) them before they can do any damage. As I’ve said many times, the APA’s definition of a mental disorder is essentially: any human activity that entails significant problems. So, of course, provided we accept this definition, all the mass murderers are mentally ill. But all we’re saying here is that mass murder is problematic behavior. (Wow – such wisdom!) ...

Alice Keys, MD, has recently written a short article for Mad in America. You can see it here. Dr. Keys points out that to maintain a medical license, one must accumulate continuing education credits, and that these credits have to be approved by state licensing boards. It’s widely known that pharmaceutical companies have largely hijacked this process in recent decades, and that their “educational” presentations might be better described as infomercials. ...

Recently, courtesy of Hersteltalent on Twitter, I came across this newspaper article: Doctors Urge Mental Health Screenings with Physicals. It appeared in USA Today, and was written by Jessica Contrera of the Lafayette, Indiana Journal and Courier. Dateline March 12. The gist of the article, which is written for the general public, is that when you go in to your doctor for a check-up, you should ask for a mental evaluation as well. The article reminds us that “25% of American adults suffer from some form of mental illness each year.” ...

There’s another benzo withdrawal story on Mad in America: The 99th Mile: When Benzo Withdrawal Meets Parenthood by Melissa Bond. Melissa recounts that when her Down’s syndrome son was 18 months old and her baby daughter was three months, she consulted a physician because of problems with insomnia and consequent exhaustion. He prescribed 2 mg of Ativan daily, which he increased to 6 mg within six months. Melissa describes in detail the problems of withdrawal, and the extreme measures she had to take to cope with this. ...

In my earlier post on this topic, I mentioned that benzo withdrawal can be dangerous, but it’s been drawn to my attention, by Monica, that perhaps I didn’t adequately stress how dangerous it can be in some cases. If you click here, you can read Monica’s own account of her experience in a detox center in Florida. It’s a thought-provoking article. Because for many years benzos were dished out so liberally, there is still a mistaken perception that they are relatively safe and benign, which is not the case. ...

I’ve recently come across (courtesy of Tallaght Trialogue) an article in Current Psychiatry (Feb 2013) on this topic. The author is Henry A. Nasrallah, M.D., and you can see it here. Dr. Nasrallah, who is Editor-in-Chief of Current Psychiatry, states that there are 273 bio-markers for schizophrenia. But wait. Dr. Nasrallah goes on to say: "None of the individual 273 biomarkers alone can serve as a diagnostic tool for the schizophrenias because there will be high rates of false positives and false negatives." ...

Important updates on this subject can be found at the posts listed at the bottom of the post. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I've recently come across an article by Matt Samet called Social Vacuum. It's dated March 2013, and was published on Robert Whitaker's website Mad in America. Matt had been taking a benzodiazepine for some time, and while on a tapering withdrawal, he experienced some distressing symptoms, including some acute social discomfort. (For a full account of benzo withdrawal – click here.) ...

It’s widely known that the initial drafts of DSM-5 received a great deal of negative comment. It’s also known that some of the more controversial proposals have been scrapped, but that others have been retained and sent for printing. All of this was fairly predictable. The APA’s agenda is to widen the “diagnostic” net to include as many people as possible. But they’re not complete fools. They know that there’s a good deal of anti-psychiatry feeling out there, so in my view, they floated some very contentious proposals, fully accepting that these would be withdrawn under pressure, thereby creating the perception that they are reasonable folk just trying to do what’s right. Meanwhile, other proposals go under the wire unscathed, and the “diagnostic” net is widened. Mission accomplished. ...

On March 5, 2013, a bipartisan panel of leading mental health experts and parents of children with “mental disorders” held a conversation (that’s newspeak for meeting) in Washington D.C. on the topic: Violence and Severe Mental Illness. The invited panelists were: Thomas Insel, MD, Director of NIMH Harold Koplewicz, MD, President of Child Mind Institute E. Fuller Torrey, MD, Founder of Treatment Advocacy Center Michael Welner, MD, Founder and Chairman of The Forensic Panel Michael Fitzpatrick, MSW, Director of NAMI And three parents of "diagnosed" children ...

This is the title of a 2010 research report by Thomas J. Moore, Joseph Glenmullen, and Curt D. Furberg, published in PLOS One, an online peer-reviewed journal. The authors of the study searched the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System from 2004 to September 2009, and flagged reports indicating violence. They concluded: "Acts of violence towards others are a genuine and serious adverse drug event associated with a relatively small group of drugs." ...