Posts on Behaviorism and Mental Health

AND FINALLY

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 06:15:05 +0000

With considerable misgivings, I have decided that, due to advancing age and ongoing deterioration in my health, I am no longer able to write posts or respond to comments.

From my personal perspective, I deeply regret having to make this decision. I’ve been writing posts for the last 13 years, and during that time I’ve made no secret of my opposition to psychiatric principles and practice. Having to quit the field at this stage leaves me with a profound sense of incompleteness. There is still so much work to be done, to which my only contribution will be cheering from the sidelines.

RESPONDING TO DR. MOREHEAD'S SECOND ATTACK ON ANTI-PSYCHIATRY

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 05:50:37 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On March 21, 2022, Daniel Morehead, MD, psychiatrist, published an essay on Psychiatric Times titled: The DSM: Diagnostic Manual or Diabolical Manipulation? Subtitle: “Nobody likes the DSM”. This is Episode 2 of his defense of psychiatry.

Here’s the first paragraph:

"It is hard to overstate the torrents of criticism that have rained down upon the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This poor, beleaguered document has been repeatedly and energetically attacked from all sides on a routine basis. It is not only the usual critics of psychiatry who have excoriated its approach—patients and family members, journalists, members of the academy, sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) directors, and even DSM task force chairs themselves have come down heavily against it on both general and specific grounds.²"

DR. PIES STILL TRYING TO EXCULPATE PSYCHIATRY FOR THE CHEMICAL IMBALANCE THEORY OF DEPRESSION

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 05:20:57 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On March 17, 2022, the very eminent and illustrious psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, published a piece on return.life. The article is titled The Myth of the Chemical Imbalance. Subtitle: What psychiatrists really believe about mood disorders.

The gist of the article is that psychiatry, as a profession, never endorsed the chemical imbalance theory of depression. This has become an almost constant obsession of Dr. Pies which has attracted a good deal of compelling criticism from members of the anti-psychiatry movement, to which Dr. Pies addresses no meaningful or cogent response. Indeed, his responses have consisted of little more than a re-writing of the same old invalid material, laced generously with his customary and pretentious diversions into Greek history, the difference between a theory and a hypothesis, and other interesting but irrelevant material. I have personally discussed and refuted Dr. Pies’ various contentions on these matters, but like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps going on. Readers can find my various posts on these topics on Mad in America or on my own site. Search for Dr. Pies.

RESPONDING TO DANIEL MOREHEAD, MD, PSYCHIATRY'S LATEST CHAMPION

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 05:30:54 +0000

On February 15, 2022, Daniel Morehead, MD, a psychiatrist and director of training at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, published an article in Psychiatric Times. The title is Just Because We Do Not Know Everything Does Not Mean We Do Not Know Anything. The article is designated Episode 1 of a new series, and the subtitle is “Exploring how to approach the criticisms of psychiatry.”

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about this piece is the title: Just Because We Do Not Know Everything Does Not Mean We Do Not Know Anything. There is, I suggest, an implication here that psychiatry has been accused of not knowing anything. I’m fairly familiar with most of the criticisms that have been levelled against psychiatry, but I have never heard or read any criticism of psychiatry that entailed allegations of such profound ignorance. I think the vast majority of psychiatry’s critics would acknowledge that psychiatrists know how to tie their shoes, drive their cars, conduct themselves in social situations, etc… So why would Dr. Morehead choose to open his affirmation of psychiatry – his defense of his chosen profession – with this undermining caricature of his profession’s critics?

PROBLEMS AT A COLORADO MENTAL HEALTH CENTER

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 06:30:22 +0000

INTRODUCTION

The Colorado News Collaborative is a coalition of more than 160 news outlets across the state. One March 21, 2022, they ran a piece titled Investigation finds patterns of ’life-threatening’ prescription errors at Colorado mental health center. The sub-title is: State agencies sought to keep report secret despite ongoing concerns about Mind Springs.

Authors of the article are Christopher Osher of the Colorado Springs Gazette and Susan Greene, Colorado New Collaborative.

THE ENIGMA-MDD PROJECT: SEARCHING FOR THE NEUROPATHOLOGY OF "MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER"

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 07:00:59 +0000

INTRODUCTION

According to its About page,

"The ENIGMA consortium is an international effort by leaders worldwide. The Consortium brings together researchers in imaging genomics, neurology and psychiatry, to understand brain structure and function, based on MRI, DTI [Diffusion Tensor Imaging], fMRI, genetic data and many patient populations.

The best return on our research investments will come from combining our data to achieve the large samples necessary to detect the modest gene effect sizes that we now know are the rule rather [than] the exception for complex traits.

ILLNESSES OR LOOSE COLLECTIONS OF VAGUELY DESCRIBED PROBLEMS?

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 07:10:18 +0000

On February 10, 2022, Joe Pierre MD, Psychiatrist, VA West Los Angeles Healthcare Center, and Clinical Professor, UCLA, posted the following short entry on his Twitter stream:

"Cancer is a normal and understandable reaction to environmental trauma."

This innocent-looking assertion is a glib and fallacious counter to those of us in the anti-psychiatry movement who for years have been saying and writing similar things about psychiatry's so-called "mental illnesses". The tweet is followed by the hashtag #dropthedisorder, followed by a question mark. Drop the Disorder is a Facebook group based in the UK headed by Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson, Jacqui Dillon and Nollaig McSweeney.

Essentially what Dr. Pierre is asserting is this:

WHY IS PSYCHIATRY SO DEFENSIVE ABOUT CRITICISM OF PSYCHIATRY? Part 2

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 11:10:41 +0000

Continuing my response to a paper by Awais Aftab, MD, titled It’s Time for Us to Stop Being So Defensive About Criticisms of Psychiatry. I published Part 1 of this post on January 27, 2022. Because the post was becoming lengthy, I decided to split it into two parts. This is Part 2.

Part 1 ended with this quote from Dr. Aftab’s paper:

"Morehead references the 2012 paper by Phillips et al on conceptual and definitional issues in psychiatric diagnosis.²⁰ This article highlights some of the most prominent names in philosophy of psychiatry and reveals the philosophical difficulties that surround the notion of mental illness and the elusiveness of a satisfactory definition. This has been a topic of interest to me for many years, and my own philosophical work in this area reflects the conceptual inadequacies of our notion of mental illness.^21"

WHY IS PSYCHIATRY SO DEFENSIVE ABOUT CRITICISM OF PSYCHIATRY? Part 1

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 06:30:09 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On January 6, 2022, Awais Aftab, MD, a psychiatrist and clinical professor at Case Western, published a piece in Psychiatric Times. The title is It’s Time for Us to Stop Being So Defensive About Criticisms of Psychiatry.

Dr. Aftab’s paper is essentially a response to another paper, published also in Psychiatric Times. This latter paper is titled It’s Time For Us To Stop Waffling About Psychiatry, by Daniel Morehead, MD, director of training for the general psychiatry residency at Tufts. Dr. Morehead acknowledged the generous assistance he received from Ronald Pies, MD, in the writing of the article.

ADDRESSING THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF MENTAL HEALTH – OR PERHAPS NOT

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 07:02:11 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On June 22, 2021, Vivian Pender, MD, then the newly elected President of the APA, published an article on Psychiatric News titled Addressing Social Determinants of Mental Health. Psychiatric News is the APA’s own online journal.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

"According to the World Health Organization, 'A person’s mental health and many common mental disorders are shaped by various social, economic, and physical environments operating at different stages of life. Risk factors for many common mental disorders are heavily associated with social inequalities, whereby the greater the inequality, the higher the inequality in risk.' In other words, people don’t necessarily start with the same opportunities or resources (inequity), and social factors further divide us. This suggests that our psychiatric patients suffer from biopsychosocial determinants that could have been prevented in the first place."

LIBERATING PEOPLE FROM PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 07:00:16 +0000

INTRODUCTION

I have recently read an interesting paper titled: Liberating People From Psychiatric Diagnoses: Exploring Severe Mental, Behavioral, and Emotional Disturbances Through Biographic Documentaries. The author is Stephen Wong, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Florida International University. The piece was published in Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, Volume 23, Number 2, 2021. Here are some quotes from the paper, interspersed with my thoughts and comments.

Here’s the abstract:

"This article posits that the DSM-5 and its psychiatric diagnoses are a monumental artifact of social power rather than a useful system for naming, describing, classifying, or understanding mental disorders. Two biographic documentaries, 'Crumb' and 'Jupiter’s Wife', are examined as alternative information about people with severe mental, behavioral, and emotional disturbances, which ordinarily would be diagnosed as schizophrenia or a related psychotic disorder. In contrast to the disease processes implied by psychiatric diagnoses, these detailed documentaries revealed particular social (e.g., lack of positive role models, bullying), environmental (e.g., poverty, homelessness), and historical (e.g., child abuse, failure in school) factors that might have brought about the individual’s personal problems. Seeing people in the actual places where they live and hearing about their struggles first-hand can evoke sympathy and empathy in viewers, potentially freeing them from the technical abstractions and pathological attributions inherent in psychiatric diagnoses."

A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT PAPER

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:30:44 +0000

INTRODUCTION

I have recently read:

‘The Explanation You Have Been Looking For’: Neurobiology as Promise and Hermeneutic Closure

The piece was written by Joseph E. Davis, PhD, Research Professor of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia. It was published online by Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry on the 5^th of August, 2021.

ABSTRACT

Here’s the paper’s abstract, quoted in full:

"The biomedical aspiration of psychiatry has fundamentally reoriented clinical practice since the DSM-III in 1980 and reverberated in the public sphere. Over time, lay public understanding of the causes of mental suffering has increasingly endorsed biological conceptions. In this paper, I explore the sources from which a neurobiological model for mental suffering reaches ordinary people, and investigate its rhetorical appeal, personal appropriation, and consequences. Drawing on interviews and other data, I show that these sources—physicians, popular media, and advertising—share common ontological and moral assumptions. These assumptions, in turn, influence how people take up neurobiological explanation to account for their suffering, and how, paradoxically, they join it to their projects of self-determination. I conclude by considering how, from a phenomenological perspective, a neurobiological account fails to enhance self-knowledge or determination but leads to a hermeneutic dead end."

WHY DO PSYCHIATRISTS INSIST THAT THEIR "DISORDERS" ARE REAL ILLNESSES?

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 05:56:54 +0000

INTRODUCTION

Since about the mid 1960’s, the great majority of psychiatrists have abandoned any form of psychosocial perspective, and have insisted that the various items listed in successive revisions of the DSM are “real illnesses”. The usual justification for this is based on the assertion that the “symptoms” of these items are caused by neurological malfunctions (e.g., chemical imbalances, neural circuitry aberrations, etc.). Although there is no evidence to support these claims, psychiatrists continue to promote them. I have written about these promotions (e.g., here, here, here, and here). Many other anti-psychiatry writers have also criticized these simplistic, unproven theories.

What Is Tragedy? How Just 2 Days of Paxil Sent My Life Into Chaos

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 05:30:30 +0000

by Michael Coughlin

I survived the tragic and sudden death of my 12-year-old brother, the near-death of my second brother, and the horrific suicide of my uncle, all with barely any medication. I became an extremely happy and high-functioning adult through holistic and spiritual growth. I loved life itself.

Then a freak occurrence happened. I got a pinched nerve in my neck that caused anxiety, and my doctor prescribed Paxil, a dangerous antidepressant, without any screening, a formal diagnosis, or any fair warning of the risks or explanation of how long I would need to take the drug for. I was always against antidepressants because I studied them in college and I knew they were often overprescribed, and I let my guard down for just one day. After just two days of the drug, I couldn’t fall asleep naturally for weeks, something that never occurred in my entire life before. I developed hypomanic symptoms, sleeping only a few hours a night for three weeks, and my doctor was nowhere to be found to help. He remained in denial. The BU Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders discharged me when I was in need of help. The McLean Mental Hospital didn’t return my phone calls. I would later learn that I was suffering from Antidepressant-Associated Hypomania and no one could get me the care that I needed.

AntiDepAware Is No Longer Active

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 05:30:27 +0000

On March 14, 2021, I saw the following notice on the AntiDepAware website:

"I have decided reluctantly to end my involvement with this website. Although the site will remain online in the meantime, there will be no further updates, and the email address is no longer valid.

Many thanks to all those who have contacted me and given me encouragement.

Brian"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

How Psychiatry Turned General Difficulties in Adaptation into "Real Illnesses Just Like Diabetes"

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 05:30:45 +0000

Disease, illness, disorders, etc.

INTRODUCTION

One of the problems in the present debate about neurochemical imbalances is that almost every word in the English language has at least two meanings, and sometimes four or five. Some English speakers deplore this state of affairs and regard it as an endless source of confusion. Others consider it an indication of the richness of the language and its ability to express finely tuned nuances. Others use it as a tool of obfuscation.

Book Review: HALF LOVE, A novel by Tej Gilmon

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 05:00:54 +0000

FREE DOWNLOAD: SEE BELOW

I have recently read a remarkable novel with a strong anti-psychiatry theme. It is titled: Half Love. The author, Tej Gilmon, is a psychiatric nurse from California who enjoys video gaming and watching the Giants whenever he can.

"Imagine a society where it has become illegal to label people with the tag of a mental illness diagnosis as a result of a global medical scandal."

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EX-PATIENT MOVEMENT

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 09:49:01 +0000

by Philip A. Kumin

Author's Note: The following article was originally written in 1991. Since then, Judi Chamberlin has died of cancer, and both national patients' organizations have fallen into disarray due to constant infighting.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Perhaps concurrent with the gathering momentum of deinstitutionalization, the psychiatric inmates’ liberation movement began in the early-to-mid 1970’s with sporadic protests by former inmates against human rights violations in institutions. Each summer, the founding matriarchs and patriarchs of this Movement gathered together in what came to be known as the International Conferences for Human Rights and Against Psychiatric Oppression.

Torture at Lake Alice "Hospital", New Zealand

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 06:15:55 +0000

According to Wikipedia, Lake Alice Hospital was a rural psychiatric facility in Lake Alice, Manawatū,-Whanganui, New Zealand. It opened in August, 1950, and closed its doors finally in October 1999.

Also from Wikipedia:

"Former patients of the hospital's child and adolescent unit made allegations that abuse took place there during the 1970s, including the use of electroconvulsive therapy and paraldehyde injections as punishment.^[4] The New Zealand government issued a written apology in 2001, and has paid out a total of NZ$10.7 million in compensation to 183 former patients."

SELF-HELP & ADVOCACY

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 09:50:51 +0000

by Philip A. Kumin

Author's Note: The following article was originally written in 1987. Immediately before the start of the Alternatives '87 Conference, a Constitutional Convention was held for the National Mental Health Consumers' Association.

Persons whose names I used are in the public domain regarding their status as patients.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A DISCUSSION REGARDING THE EVOLUTION OF A SOCIAL MOVEMENT

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 12:37:04 +0000

by Philip A. Kumin

For anyone privy to the dynamics of the discussion surrounding the manifest destiny of the mental patients’ movement one thing is clear; those founding activists who survive are aggrieved at the loss of their native movement. In almost any venue in which these activists air their grievances, there is an aggregate atmosphere of nostalgia and bitterness. The perceived loss of vitality of this movement of the 1970’s is mourned. For sure, that decade was a landscape fertile for the launching of social movements, including one of deinstitutionalized and disgruntled mental patients. What then comes next?

Dr. Pies' Non-Apology

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 07:00:23 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On June 23, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Case Western, interviewed Ronald Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, and a professor at Tufts and SUNY.

During the interview, Dr. Aftab stated:

"I have followed the controversy surrounding 'chemical imbalance' with some interest over the years, including the multiple articles you have written on this issue. Generally, I agree with you that the chemical imbalance was never accepted as the 'truth' by academic psychiatry or by our professional organizations. It was likely an advertisement strategy by pharmaceutical companies that took on a life of its own. However, I am not sure I am ready to exonerate our profession. At best, it seems like we were silent spectators, watching as this misleading idea spread like wildfire in the society (including among our patients and patient advocacy groups), doing little to nothing to correct these public misperceptions. At worst, it seems like at least some of us were participants. Ken Kendler writes in a 2019 JAMA Psychiatry commentary, 'I would commonly see patients who would say some version of "my psychiatrist said I have a chemical imbalance in my brain."'¹⁰ I have had a very similar experience myself. Either way, surely as a profession, we could have done a better job of educating our patients and the public?"

Dr. Pies and The Chemical Imbalance Deception

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 06:00:31 +0000

INTRODUCTION

For the past several years, the eminent and scholarly Ronald Pies, MD, psychiatrist, of SUNY Upstate Medical and Tufts Universities, has labored the point that psychiatry has never endorsed the simplistic chemical imbalance theory of “mental illness”. As various anti-psychiatry bloggers, including myself, began to accumulate a great many instances of prominent psychiatrists doing just that, Dr. Pies began digging himself in on this particular topic. In Nuances, Narratives, and the “Chemical Imbalance” Debate (April 2014, Medscape), he wrote:

Is Anti-Psychiatry Harmful?

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 05:30:18 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On September 9, 2020, Jonathan Stea, PhD, Tyler Black, MD, and Joseph Pierre, MD, published a piece on MedPage Today. The article is titled Why Anti-Psychiatry Now Fails and Harms.

Dr. Stea is a clinical psychologist and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Black is the psychiatric medical director of British Columbia Children’s Hospital. He is also a clinical instructor in psychiatry at the University of British Columbia.

CENSORSHIP IS A NO-NO

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 12:48:31 +0000

by Philip A. Kumin

I’m a self-taught author, and a good one at that. I tried for years to get my well written vignettes published in almost every publication imaginable including the great, the wonderful Rolling Stone Magazine. I sought merely to partake of the joy of creative writing while simultaneously publicizing the existence and history of an unheard of, but thoroughly libertarian, movement of former mental patients. I soon came to see that since I was revealing myself to be one of those activist patients in each piece I’d written, I was being censored accordingly. For years afterwards, I couldn’t conceive of any rational, substantial reason why this was being done to me or any of the other patient authors, whom I had heard we’re also being censored.

Celebrating the Anti-Psychiatry Movement

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 05:30:24 +0000

Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, they remain.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[But] not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light, In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, But westward, look, the land is bright.

Dr. Pies: Still Going Wrong

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 05:30:38 +0000

"For e'en tho' vanquished, he could argue still;" From The Deserted Village (1770) by Oliver Goldsmith

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On June 23, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, psychiatrist, published an interview with Ronald Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Times. The interview was titled The Battle for the Soul of Psychiatry: Ronald W. Pies, MD. I critiqued Dr. Pies' responses here.

In the light of a more recent publication by Dr. Pies, I would like to recall some comments concerning the notorious chemical imbalance deception that the learned doctor made in the earlier interview.

A Psychiatrist Critiques Psychiatry, And Does A Great Job!

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 10:48:43 +0000

Overland describes itself as Australia’s only radical literary magazine. It was founded in 1954, and publishes a quarterly print journal (essays, stories, and poetry) and an online magazine (cultural commentary).

In the current issue, Winter 2020, there is an excellent article by Samuel Lieblich, a consultant psychiatrist working in the Greater Melbourne Area. The essay is titled Ignorance is Bliss.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

"By now there is enough criticism of the mental health business out there that it seems to me most engaged readers have been informed about the problems: psychiatry makes a false equivalence of the brain and the person, psychiatry pathologises some of the normal problems of human life, psychiatrists enforce highly constrained norms of thought and behaviour, and psychiatrists don’t value patients’ autonomy. There is still however a lot of confusion about the status of the things that psychiatrists treat. These are by no means illnesses, and the medications doctors use to treat them are by no reasonable measure effective. I am going to have to risk setting up a straw man here, but the majority of people don’t believe the claims I’ve just made, even though they have been exposed to the same claims many times. Marcia Angell when she retired as head of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote a pair of scathing reports in the New York Review of Books to the effect that psychiatry is a pseudoscience; and these same claims are repeated in bestselling books like The Emperor’s New Drugs, and magazine articles too numerous to mention. If one moves carefully through the scientific evidence one finds too that a ‘chemical imbalance’ has never been substantiated for any of the things that have been called a ‘mental illness’, and that the prescription of medications for psychiatric problems is always tendentious. The abundance of scientific support for these claims is only equalled by the total absence of their accommodation in the practice of psychiatry and the lay discourse about mental health. Although science does not really support the use of many psychopharmaceuticals in the ways they are represented to be supported, and although there is no acceptable measure by which most of the things treated by psychiatrists qualify as illnesses, the cultural position of the medical profession and their medicines is such that even a scientific refutation of a medical claim appears unscientific. This position of the doctor as super-scientific is perpetuated and co-opted by pharma for profit, and by the state for the purposes of social control. Capital aggrandises the psychiatrist, whose job is to condition the citizens to their labour, or to excise a tax in the form of pharmaceuticals payments. Either way capital wins and we all play along because we have been so immiserated by budget austerity, social precarity and casualised over-employment that the only comfort we can afford is to indulge in a fantasy.

Dr. Aftab Interviews Dr. Pies

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 05:30:11 +0000

On June 30, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, psychiatrist, published an interview with Ronald W. Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Times.

As an interview, the piece is somewhat unusual in that Dr. Aftab, as interviewer, does not confine his role to asking questions, but actually contributes substantially to the dialogue. So the piece is more like a conversation than an interview, and both parties express their positions fairly freely on the topics discussed.

Is Psychiatry Dangerous?

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 05:45:57 +0000

On August 26, Shayla Love, senior staff writer, published a piece on VICE, an online magazine. The article is titled The Movement Against Psychiatry: The contentious debate of whether to fix—or completely overthrow—the way we treat mental illness.

In her article, Ms. Love provides abundant quotes from people on both sides of the issue, including Awais Aftab, MD, an American psychiatrist, currently Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and Attending Psychiatrist at Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare. This agency is operated by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (Ohio MHAS).

Deep Sleep "Therapy" in Australia in the 1960's and 70's. Could Something Like This Happen Today?

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 05:30:15 +0000

Here’s an interesting story from Australia, recently back in the spotlight.

From 1962 to 1979, psychiatrist Harry Bailey, MD, serving as chief psychiatrist at Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, practiced “deep sleep therapy”, which involved keeping people in barbiturate-induced comas for days or even weeks. Twenty-four of the individuals who received this “treatment” died while still in the hospital. Many more died or showed permanent brain damage after discharge.

Drs. Pies and Ruffalo Still Rattling Their Wooden Swords

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 11:00:55 +0000

Ronald Pies, MD, and Mark Ruffalo, D Psa, were busy in June. They published two papers in defense of psychiatry: What Is Meant by a Psychiatric Diagnosis? (“Psychiatric diagnoses are not merely descriptive; they reflect genuine illness”); and Psychiatric Diagnosis 2.0: The Myth of the Symptom Checklist (“More on the meaning of psychiatric diagnosis”). Both were published by Psychology Today.

Here’s their opening to the first paper:

"It has become fashionable for some in the social sciences to assert that psychiatric diagnoses represent 'constructs' and not genuine disorders or diseases. During a recent Twitter exchange, one of us (Mark Ruffalo) was pointed to an article published here on Psychology Today in 2019 by the psychoanalytic psychologist Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D., titled, 'A Psychiatric Diagnosis Is Not a Disease.'"

Allen Frances: Still Spinning the Story

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 05:30:25 +0000

On March 4, 2020, the very eminent Allen Frances, MD, published an article in Aeon, which according to its About page is “a digital magazine, publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web. We ask the big questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on science, philosophy, society and the arts.”

The article is called The lure of ‘cool’ brain research is stifling psychotherapy. The central theme is that prior to 1990, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) “appreciated the need for a well-rounded approach [to mental health] and maintained a balanced research budget that covered an extraordinarily wide range of topics and techniques.” However, since 1990, the opening year of the Decade of the Brain, the NIMH has “increasingly narrowed its focus almost exclusively to brain biology – leaving out everything else that makes us human, both in sickness and in health.”

The Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: Where Is It Going?

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 05:45:50 +0000

The spurious chemical imbalance theory of depression is arguably the most destructive thing that psychiatry has ever done. Worldwide, millions of individuals are taking antidepressants, often with a cocktail of other drugs, because they have been told the blatant falsehood that they need the pills to combat a brain illness – a “real illness just like diabetes.”

Many of these individuals were told the additional lie that they needed to take the pills for life and are now addicted to the products.

My Struggle with Mental Illness and Addiction

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 05:30:02 +0000

After suffering from severe mental illness for over 30 years, which started in 1989 when I was 19 years old, I am now experiencing true happiness and peace. I never thought I would ever feel this way. The following is my story, which I am telling with the hope that it might help others who are dealing with mental illness and/or addiction.

Dr. Huda Has Written His Book

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 05:30:19 +0000

Samei Huda, MD, is a consultant psychiatrist with the British National Health Service. He has written a book called The Medical Model in Mental Health, An Explanation and Evaluation. It was published by Oxford University Press earlier this year.

BASIC THEME

In his preface, Dr. Huda tells us that he wrote the book to “explain the medical model and to evaluate its usefulness in mental health.” He also tells us that his inspiration was twofold:

I was a Victim and Came Back: My Empowerment Story

Mon, 21 Oct 2019 09:35:55 +0000

Everyone has their own story, some fortunate, some less so. Mine is a story of abuse, neglect and mental illness, and the long road back. I offer it for whatever hope and guidance it may provide for others currently suffering.

Me, A Victim

In 1956 when I was thirteen and starting in middle school, my mother had the first of her several operations for intestinal cancer. She told me that she had “tumors,” but that meant one thing to me— cancer. Around the same time, I, too, began having stomach pains along with constipation like hers. I always had problems getting along with other kids, being teased and harassed, and being nervous, and now I was in great distress.

The Chemical Imbalance Theory. Dr. Pies Returns, Again

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 05:30:10 +0000

On April 30, 2019, the very eminent and learned psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, published a piece in Psychiatric Times titled Debunking the Two Chemical Imbalance Myths, Again.

Here’s the opening paragraph:

"Like the legendary Count Dracula, who could be killed only by driving a stake through his heart, some myths seem almost immortal. For more than eight years now, I have tried to drive a stake through the heart of two myths regarding the so-called 'chemical imbalance theory'^1-3—but with only limited success, as a recent piece in The New Yorker brought home to me.^4"

In Defense of Anti-psychiatry

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 05:03:51 +0000

On August 19, 2018, an article titled The Reality of Mental Illness was published on Psychology Today. The authors were Ronald Pies, MD, and Mark Ruffalo, LCSW. Dr. Pies is a professor of psychiatry at Tufts and at SUNY. Professor Ruffalo has a private psychotherapy practice in Tampa, Florida. He is also an instructor of medical education (psychiatry) at the University of Central Florida, an adjunct professor of social work at University of South Florida, and a voluntary associate professor of psychiatry at Centerstone, “…a not-for-profit healthcare organization…[that]…provides mental health and substance abuse treatment, education and support to communities in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee and additionally offers individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities life skills development, employment and housing services.”

Allen Frances and the Increasing Use of Antidepressants

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 05:30:49 +0000

On May 16, 2018, the prestigious and venerable psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, gave an interview to Christiane Amanpour on CNN. You can see the video here. It’s titled How Antidepressant Withdrawal “Can Trap People”.

Here’s how the interview opened:

CA: "So you know, I just wanted to start by saying that who knew that antidepressants were addictive. It's not what you associate with things like antidepressants. You think of pain-killers, obviously, and drugs and alcohol, and cigarettes."

The "Essential Principles" of Psychiatric Practice: More Psychiatric Cheerleading

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 05:30:47 +0000

In the May 2018 issue of Current Psychiatry, there’s an editorial by Henry Nasrallah, MD. Dr. Nasrallah is a highly renowned psychiatrist, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal. He is also chair of the St. Louis University Department of Psychiatry.

Here’s the opening paragraph of the article.

"As the end of the academic year approaches, I always think of one last message to send to the freshly minted psychiatrists who will complete their 4 years of post-MD training. This year, I thought of emphasizing the principles of psychiatric practice, which the graduates will deliver for the next 4 to 5 decades of their professional lives. Those essential principles are coded in the DNA of psychiatric practice, just as the construction of all organs in the human body is coded within the DNA of the 22,000 genes that comprise our 23 chromosomes."

Recovery: Creating Your Personal Journey through Self-Honesty, Resilience and Hope

Fri, 18 May 2018 05:33:54 +0000

I am in recovery from “mental illness”. I’ve always felt that the typical professional services were unable to provide the relief I needed. When I re-entered the workforce I focused my energy on these limitations. I became a peer specialist-a person in recovery trained in supportive counseling and advocacy. I also began earning my master’s degree in psychiatric rehabilitation, a field dedicated to the idea of recovery, and which takes a more holistic approach. I’ve become a constructive critic of the mental health field and found that these ideas already existed on the fringes. They continue to gain momentum and I’m excited to advocate for them.

"The Power Threat Meaning Framework": A New Perspective on Mental Distress

Tue, 01 May 2018 05:30:00 +0000

In January, 2018, the clinical psychology division of the British Psychology Society published a very important paper. The document is titled The Power Threat Meaning Framework and is subtitled:

"Towards the identification of patterns in emotional distress, unusual experiences and troubled or troubling behaviour, as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis".

The term functional psychiatric diagnosis does not imply that the "diagnoses" in question are useful or helpful, but is rather a reflection of the historical division of psychiatric "diagnoses" into those that are organic (i.e., stemming directly from brain damage or disease) and those that are functional (i.e. all the rest). This distinction was formally embedded in DSM-I (1952), but has been largely abandoned in psychiatry's promotion of the hoax that all their "diagnoses" stem from brain malfunctions.

The authors of the report are:

"How Long a Time". A new song by Richard Lewis

Mon, 09 Apr 2018 05:30:33 +0000

Psychiatry is a hoax. The “mental illnesses” that it invents with increasing frequency are not illnesses in any ordinary sense of the term. Its “diagnoses” are destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing; and its “treatments” (drugs and electric shocks) always do more damage than good, especially in the long term.

In our struggle against this destructive travesty, it’s important to deliver our message in a variety of methods, including music. In July 2017, Richard Lewis published the music video “Benzo Blue” on Mad in America. The song “highlights the struggles of the millions of worldwide victims/survivors of prescribed benzodiazepine drugs such as Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Valium.”

Dr. Pies Defending Psychiatry's Position on Auditory Hallucinations

Fri, 23 Feb 2018 05:30:34 +0000

On September 4, 2017, the very eminent and prestigious psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, published an article on Psychiatric Times. The piece is titled: Hearing Voices and Psychiatry’s (Real) Medical Model. Dr. Pies is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Psychiatric Times and a professor of psychiatry at SUNY and Tufts. He has written extensively on psychiatric and other matters, and has acquired a reputation for scholarship and erudition. His credibility, however, took a considerable knock in 2014 when, in a Medscape article he asserted that the chemical imbalance theory of depression was just a kind of urban legend that was never seriously promoted by psychiatry. This assertion, which was widely disputed, added a whole new dimension to the concept of the ivory tower. But it also provided an important insight into Dr. Pies’ primary position: that psychiatry is inherently benign, scientifically founded, and helpful, and that all suggestions to the contrary are logically flawed, factually mistaken, or both. The present “Hearing Voices…” piece is in this same vein.

Speaking Out Against Electric Shocks

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 05:30:25 +0000

"…they're human beings, for God's sake! In the name of everything holy, how can they do that to them?" (p 108)

The Other Mrs. Smith, by Bonnie Burstow, 2017

In the March 2017 issue of the Journal of ECT, there was an editorial titled: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) in the News: “Balance” Leads to Bias.

The authors are Melissa Choy, BA; Kate Farber, BA; and Charles Kellner, MD. Dr. Kellner is Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry and Director of ECT Services at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, NY, and is clearly the senior author. I was unable to find much information concerning Ms. Choy or Ms. Farber.

Rebranding Psychiatry

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 05:30:40 +0000

Or, how to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

INTRODUCTION

In November 2017, the British Journal of Psychiatry published a guest editorial titled Shrink rethink: rebranding psychiatry. The authors are Scottish psychiatrists Jim Crabb, MD and Neil Masson, MD, and Lee Barber, an advertising and marketing strategist. Both Drs. Crabb and Masson practice general adult psychiatry and also lecture in psychiatry at the University of Glasgow. They are both members of the Scottish Teaching and Recruitment Group (STARG), which “looks at ways of improving recruitment into psychiatry.”

Mental Illness Vs. "Bad" Behavior

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 05:30:04 +0000

On February 14, 2017, the very eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, published a letter in the New York Times. The main points of Dr. Frances’s letter are:

that, contrary to some speculations and assertions, Donald Trump, President of the USA, does not meet the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder "because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder."
that "Bad behavior is rarely a sign of mental illness…"-

Seven months later (September 2017), Dr. Frances gave an interview to Mary Elizabeth Williams. The interview was published on ALTERNET, and it restated and reinforced the points made in the letter to the New York Times. Here's a quote from the interview:

"It's a great mistake to confuse bad behavior with mental illness."

Elimination of the Bereavement Exclusion: History and Implications

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 05:30:30 +0000

INTRODUCTION

The bereavement exclusion was formally eliminated in the spring of 2013, with the publication of DSM-5. The exclusion was a provision in earlier editions, that a “diagnosis of major depressive disorder” could not be assigned to a bereaved person, even though he or she met the criteria, unless certain additional considerations were met. The history of its elimination provides an interesting example of psychiatry’s relentless expansion of its net. The issues involved take us right to the heart of the psychiatric hoax.

Pharma Responds: Antidepressants Really Work. Really?

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 05:30:40 +0000

On July 25, 2017, Fredrik Hieronymus et al published a meta-analysis in Molecular Psychiatry. The study is titled Efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the absence of side effects: a mega-analysis of citalopram and paroxetine in adult depression. Elias Eriksson, PhD, Head of the Department of Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is the principal author, but as Fredrik Hieronymus is the first author listed, I will refer to the article as Hieronymus et al.

An Anti-Psychiatry Music Video!

Tue, 11 Jul 2017 05:30:03 +0000

Two days ago, on July 9, Richard Lewis published on Mad in America a post in which he draws attention to the prolific worldwide prescribing of benzodiazepines, and the problems that this creates. The article includes a music video of a song which Richard has written and performs. The song is called Benzo Blue, and it “highlights the struggles of the millions of worldwide victims/survivors of prescribed benzodiazepine drugs such as Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Valium.”

Robert Whitaker Refutes Jeffrey Lieberman; But Is Psychiatry Reformable?

Thu, 22 Jun 2017 05:30:27 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On May 5, 2017, Donald Goff, MD and seven other psychiatrists, including the very eminent Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, published an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The title is: The Long-Term Effects of Antipsychotic Medication on Clinical Course in Schizophrenia. Here’s the abstract:

"Concerns have been raised that treatment with antipsychotic medication might adversely affect long-term outcomes for people with schizophrenia. The evidence cited for these concerns includes the association of antipsychotic treatment with brain volume reduction and with dopamine receptor sensitization, which might make patients vulnerable to relapse and illness progression. An international group of experts was convened to examine findings from clinical and basic research relevant to these concerns. Little evidence was found to support a negative long-term effect of initial or maintenance antipsychotic treatment on outcomes, compared with withholding treatment. Randomized controlled trials strongly support the efficacy of antipsychotics for the acute treatment of psychosis and prevention of relapse; correlational evidence suggests that early intervention and reduced duration of untreated psychosis might improve longer-term outcomes. Strategies for treatment discontinuation or alternative nonpharmacologic treatment approaches may benefit a subgroup of patients but may be associated with incremental risk of relapse and require further study, including the development of biomarkers that will enable a precision medicine approach to individualized treatment."

Nassir Ghaemi and The Psychological Fallacy

Fri, 12 May 2017 05:30:51 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On August 8, 2013, the eminent psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi, MD, MPH, published an article on Medscape. The title of the piece is The Psychological Fallacy in Psychiatry. The article is almost four years old. Ordinarily I don’t discuss material this dated, but the content of this article is particularly important, and worthy of discussion, belated as it is.

NASSIR GHAEMI’S BIO

According to his bio, Dr. Ghaemi:

"…is an academic psychiatrist specializing in mood illnesses, depression and bipolar illness, and Editor of a monthly newsletter, The Psychiatry Letter (www.psychiatryletter.org).

Beyond Survival

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 05:30:10 +0000

Recently I came across a remarkable article From surviving to thriving: how does that happen. The authors are Mark Bertram and Sarah McDonald, and the piece was published in The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol 10, Iss 5, 2015. The work was conducted in the vocational service department of a large mental health center in London, UK.

The authors’ purpose was:

"...to explore what helped seven people in contact with secondary mental health services achieve their vocational goals, such as: employment, education, training and volunteering."

Where Do We Go From Here?

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 05:30:34 +0000

At the risk of stating the obvious, the anti-psychiatry movement is rapidly gaining momentum. We are attracting an increasing number of supporters, and our message is being picked up increasingly by the mainstream media.

We have won the intellectual and moral battles hands down. We have demonstrated again and again that psychiatry is intellectually and morally bankrupt. We have shown that

psychiatry is a hoax;
that its "illnesses" are not illnesses;
that its "diagnoses" are nothing more than vague, arbitrarily delineated, disempowering and stigmatizing labels with no explanatory value;
that its "treatments" do more harm than good;
that its coercive drugging and electric shocks constitute torture;
and that its research is fraudulent.

Psychiatry has no valid or rational response to any of these criticisms. Instead, they continue to trot out the same tired and unproven assertions, marginalize their critics, lobby government agencies to defend and fund their business, and promote their own interests using the kind of PR tactics that one commonly associates with the makers of soft drinks and hair shampoo.

Psychiatry is a marketing hoax. They sell their “illnesses” and they sell their “cures”. In general, the way to neutralize a hoax is to expose it to the proper authorities. But with psychiatry this is not effective for three reasons.

SSRIs: Minimal Effectiveness and High Risk

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 05:30:03 +0000

Last month (February 2017), the journal BMC Psychiatry published a study by James Christian Jakobsen et al. The study is titled Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors versus placebo in patients with major depressive disorder. A systematic review with meta-analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis.

The research was a meta-analysis – i.e. it combined the findings from several earlier studies. Here are the authors’ conclusions:

"SSRIs might have statistically significant effects on depressive symptoms, but all trials were at high risk of bias and the clinical significance seems questionable. SSRIs significantly increase the risk of both serious and non-serious adverse events. The potential small beneficial effects seem to be outweighed by harmful effects."

More on the Biological Evidence for "Mental Illness"

Mon, 30 Jan 2017 05:30:18 +0000

On January 10, 2017, I put up a post titled The Biological Evidence for “Mental Illness”. It was published simultaneously on Mad in America. The post was a response to an earlier comment from Carolina Partners in Mental Healthcare PLLC, which included the assertion “mental illnesses have a long history of biological evidence.” In my January 10 article, I challenged this assertion and pointed out that no such evidence existed. The article generated some comments, most of which were favorable. There was one comment, however, from Michael, who asserted:

Psychiatry Interrogated, (ed. Bonnie Burstow), Palgrave Macmillan: A Book Review

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 05:30:35 +0000

I have recently read Psychiatry Interrogated, subtitled “An Institutional Ethnography Anthology”. Ethnography is the branch of anthropology that deals with the systematic study of individual cultures. Institutional ethnography (IE), according to Wikipedia, is “a method of social research [that]… explores the social relations that structure people’s everyday lives, specifically by looking at the ways that people interact with one another in the context of social institutions (school, marriage, work, for example) and understanding how those interactions are institutionalized…For the institutional ethnographer, ordinary daily activity becomes the site for an investigation of social organization.”

Mental Health First Aid: Another Psychiatric Expansionist Tool

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 05:30:04 +0000

On December 25, 2016, the Baltimore Sun published an excellent article titled Drug companies prey on children, by Patrick D. Hahn, PhD. Dr. Hahn is an affiliate professor of biology at Loyola University, Maryland. Here are some quotes:

"I recently attended Youth Mental Health First Aid Training at a local public school. It was an eye-opening experience."

"Youth Mental Health First Aid Training, sponsored by the National Council for Behavioral Health, is intended to enable teachers, parents and others in contact with young people to identify potential 'mental illnesses' in order to facilitate early detection and treatment by our mental health care system. My fellow attendees were surprisingly open about their own experiences with that system. One mentioned that her son became manic after being diagnosed for ADHD. Another said that both she and her roommate became bipolar after being diagnosed for depression. Neither our facilitators nor anyone else present pointed out that mania and bipolar disorder are toxic effects of medications commonly prescribed for ADHD and depression."

Book Review: The Power of the Double Circle

Fri, 20 Jan 2017 05:30:02 +0000

I have recently read The Power of the Double Circle by Philip Springer, MD, and Shelby Havens, DNP. It’s a small book (91 pages), but it sets out an idea that might have some value in support/self-help and other kinds of groups.

Dr. Springer is a retired psychiatrist, and Dr. Havens is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, but their position as set out in the book is something close to anti-psychiatry.

Allen Frances and the "Overdiagnosing" of Children

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 05:30:14 +0000

On October 31, 2016, the very eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, architect of DSM-IV, published an article on his Psychology Today blog, Saving Normal. The article is titled DSM-5 Diagnoses In Kids Should Always Be Written In Pencil. (The piece also appeared on the Huffington Post Blog on the same date.) The subheading is “Mislabelling children and adolescents is frequent and can haunt them for life”

As in many of Dr. Frances’s recent articles, the bulk of the text is written by someone else, and Dr. Frances provides an introduction and a summary/conclusion. In this case, the core of the article is written. by Juan Vasen and Gisela Untoiglich of Forum Infancias, an Argentine organization of mental health workers dedicated to the “proper diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents”.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder and the President-Elect

Mon, 16 Jan 2017 05:30:45 +0000

CLARIFICATION

This post is a critique of psychiatry's spurious personality disorder diagnoses. It is neither a defense, nor a condemnation, of Mr. Trump. In my view, it is right and proper that we the people should comment freely on, and criticize, our political leaders, as we deem appropriate. But assigning spurious psychiatric labels is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, it adds nothing useful to the discussion. Secondly, it affords unwarranted validity and reliability to what are nothing more than loose collections of inherently vague thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, with no explanatory significance.

The Biological Evidence for "Mental Illness"

Tue, 10 Jan 2017 05:30:52 +0000

On January 2, 2017, I published a short post titled Carrie Fisher Dead at Age 60 on Behaviorism and Mental Health. The article was published simultaneously on Mad in America.

On January 4, a response from Carolina Partners was entered into the comments string on both sites.

Carolina Partners in Mental Healthcare, PLLC, is a large psychiatric group practice based in North Carolina. According to their website, they comprise 14 psychiatrists, 7 psychologists, 34 Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioners/Physicians Assistants, and 43 Therapists and Counselors. They have 27 North Carolina locations.

Carrie Fisher, Dead at Age 60

Mon, 02 Jan 2017 05:30:10 +0000

Actress Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016, at the early age of 60.

In a 2001 article on Healthy Place, she was described as “Perhaps one of manic-depression’s best-known champions…”

Here’s another quote from the same article:

"I'm fine, but I'm bipolar. I'm on seven medications, and I take medication three times a day. This constantly puts me in touch with the illness I have. I'm never quite allowed to be free of that for a day. It's like being a diabetic."

My Response to a Defender of Psychiatry

Tue, 06 Dec 2016 05:30:25 +0000

On October 13, an interesting article was published on the Huffington Post Blog. The author is Jessica Gold, MD, a psychiatry resident at Stanford University; the post is titled Inpatient Psychiatry: Not all Needles, Drugs And Locks.

The article is a personal experience/opinion piece, the gist of which is that people who criticize or condemn psychiatry simply don’t understand the complexities and needs of psychiatry’s “patients”, particularly the need for locked wards.

Murphy Bill Being Sneaked Into House Legislation

Tue, 29 Nov 2016 13:02:22 +0000

This morning I received an email from Oldhead, who has been active in opposing the Murphy Bill. Here are two quotes from the email:

"As succinctly as possible -- the main language from MURPHY (including AOT funding) has been consolidated with another bill, the 21ST CENTURY CURES bill, which is being introduced as a House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 34, Tsunami Warning, Education and Research Act of 2015.' In other words, Murphy is being slipped through on another bill’s coattails, if Murphy, Jaffee & Co. have their say."

Neuroleptic Drugs, Akathisia, and Suicide and Violence

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 05:30:29 +0000

Thirty-three years ago, in August 1983, an article titled Suicide Associated with Akathisia and Depot Fluphenazine Treatment appeared in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. The authors were Katherine Shear, MD, Allen Frances, MD, and Peter Weiden, MD.

Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments/observations:

"Akathisia is a common and distressing side effect of neuroleptic medication that can be difficult to recognize and treat. Several previous reports mention maladaptive behavioral consequences, such as poor compliance with prescribed medication and aggressive or self-destructive outbursts. We are reporting suicides in two young Hispanic men who had developed severe akathisia after treatment with depot fluphenazine. Depression with suicidal behavior has been observed following fluphenazine injection, but suicide associated with akathisia has not been previously noted."

A Bill to Explore the Relationship Between Veteran Suicides and Prescription Medication

Tue, 01 Nov 2016 05:30:08 +0000

On September 28, US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) introduced a bill in the Senate titled Veteran Overmedication Prevention Act (S. 3410). This is a companion bill to HR 4640, Veteran Suicide Prevention Act introduced in the House by Congressman David Jolly (R-FL) earlier this year. The objective of both bills is to combat suicide deaths by ensuring that accurate information is available on the relationship between suicides and prescription “medication”. At the present time, 20 US veterans a day are dying by suicide.

ADHD: A Destructive Psychiatric Hoax

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 05:30:10 +0000

INTRODUCTION

Earlier this year, Alan Schwarz, an investigative reporter for the New York Times, published his latest book: ADHD Nation.

The blurb on the jacket states:

"More than 1 in 7 American children get diagnosed with ADHD—three times what experts have said is appropriate—meaning that millions of kids are misdiagnosed and taking medications such as Adderall or Concerta for a psychiatric condition they probably do not have. The numbers rise every year. And still, many experts and drug companies deny any cause for concern. In fact, they say that adults and the rest of the world should embrace ADHD and that its medications will transform their lives.

Psychiatry

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 05:30:38 +0000

Hi All,

Phil, I agree with you on the dismal and almost criminal state of psychiatry, today.

I have mixed feelings about Benzos, however, because of the almost unbearable chronic anxiety attacks I was having.

Take a pill and anxiety gone. It helped keep me alive at the time. But now, 3 years later I take a small dose of Benzos daily and I am an addict.

The Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry

Tue, 18 Oct 2016 05:30:22 +0000

Bonnie Burstow, PhD, is a faculty member at the University of Toronto, and an antipsychiatry activist. She writes about topics that include institutional ruling, resistance, and social change.

On October 7, 2016, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto announced that they had established a scholarship for students doing theses in the area of antipsychiatry.

The scholarship committee has issued a statement providing details, and requesting donations. Please take a look, and pass the link on to others who might have an interest.

Borderline Personality Disorder

Tue, 18 Oct 2016 05:00:09 +0000

My neice living in a townhouse complex - has reached the following stage:- 1-complete isolation from anybody even her sisters. 2-will not acknowledge her illness and will not accept any medication whatsoever. 3-will not allow anybody into her home. 4-all the symptons of Schizoid Personality Disorder 5-threatening to all and considers everyone responsible for her divorce that she went through several years ago.

How I became a non-person and what happened afterwards.

Thu, 06 Oct 2016 05:30:59 +0000

In the late ’90s I experienced some kind of distress of consciousness. My wife took me to the emergency room of a local hospital and I was told I had “bipolar disorder,” an incurable “mental illness” which meant I would have to be on psychiatric drugs the rest of my life.

We now know that the idea of chemical imbalances in the brain is a myth (http://www.cepuk.org). This simple story took away my humanity. How? It was a tragedy of errors. Nobody knows how consciousness arises from or is connected to the brain. It is one of the most complicated and fascinating questions of our modern age. (Start with “Conversations on Consciousness” by Susan Blackmore (2005) and go from there.)

The Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 (SB 2680) Would Be a Huge Step Backwards

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 05:30:10 +0000

On July 6, HB 2646 (the Tim Murphy Bill) passed the US House and was sent to the Senate.

At the present time, a related bill is working its way through the Senate. This is SB 2680, The Mental Health Reform Act 2016. It is sponsored by Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), David Vitter (R-LA), and Al Franken (D-MN). The wording of the bill was finalized in March of this year, and it passed out of committee on March 16.

Your article on "No mental illnesses"

Mon, 12 Sep 2016 05:30:11 +0000

Thank you very much for your article in regards to the validity of Bi-polar Disorder. my mother claimed to have that and other mental disorders to qualify for SSDI. Of course she had physicians who were all to eager to verify her “self diagnosis”. They saw a cash cow and I suppose so did she on a lesser scale. She was physically, mentally and verbally abusive to my brothers and me. Every time she would abuse us it was always because she had a “mental illness”. We were just supposed to forgive her and move on. I hate her, I hated her then and I hate her now. She stole my childhood and my brothers childhood away from us. I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with her other than the fact she was an angry person who wanted constant sympathy from others and saw my brothers and me as weapons of mass destruction for our father. I wondered why she had children in the first place if she didn’t like children. However, I digress. The main reason I agree with your article is that she not only wanted mental illness for herself she had my brothers and me diagnosed with mental disorders. Her diagnosis for me was ADHD. Honestly, I never felt that there was anything wrong with me. So she took me from one doctor to another until she found one that would diagnose me with ADHD and prescribe me Ritalin. I hated it. I felt no emotions at all when I took it. No anger but also no joy, No sadness but also no happiness. I felt like a zombie on the inside. It also caused me to have serious sleep disturbances and horrific nightmares. It was supposed to be given to me twice a day during the school year only. However she had me on it three times a day all year long for 7 years and the only thing I got out of it was a physical addiction. I have four children of my own now and withdrawing from that addiction was more physically painful than giving birth to four 10 pound babies combined. I refuse to go to doctors unless very ill or injured and don’t take any prescriptions other than Synthroid for low thyroid hormones. I think another issue with all these “mental Illness” classifications is being used to abuse children through the use of physicians. It is deplorable!

Psychiatric Ethics

Tue, 06 Sep 2016 05:30:04 +0000

On June 9, 2016, the very eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, published an article on the Huffington Post Blog. The piece was titled Trump Is Breaking Bad, Not Clinically Mad.

The gist of the article was that, although the Republican presidential candidate has many flaws, he does not have a mental disorder.

Here are some quotes:

"Trump obviously does have an outsize, obnoxious personality, but most certainly does not have a Personality Disorder (and there is no evidence that he has now, or ever has had, any other mental disorder)."

PTSD and depression???

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 05:30:41 +0000

Hi, I have a story to tell, I don’t care if you like it I only need to tell it… First let me tell you a little bit about me, I am 13, my real name is not Kykie, I am a girl of course, and I am mentally messed up, or so I’ve been told. I guess the first bad thing that happened, happened when I was only four, a guy my family loved and trusted, a guy I loved and trusted started sexually assaulting me (I think that’s what they ended up charging him for), this continued up until I was about 11. Nobody noticed… Probably because nobody wanted it to be true. I wasn’t the only one that got touched by him so did my two cousins but he did the most with me, he even kissed me and told me he loved me… Honestly I thought I loved him too, I liked everything he did even when I knew it was wrong I still liked it, I actually wanted more. One night when he kissed me, I was he one that kissed him again and again. Even though my cousins told me multiple times he was bad news I didn’t listen. When the police came around because someone finally noticed I didn’t tell them everything he did… I didn’t want too, I still wanted more from him I thought he was still a good guy. I still remember what he did, setting me on his lap and touching me, even though I knew it was wrong I never refused I never even wanted him to stop… Two weeks after his arrest there was a death in the family we all knew it was coming, stage 4 brain cancer. Then nothing everything was quiet everyone treated me like a porcelain doll, fragile. Honestly, my past didn’t and doesn’t affect me but everyone else thinks it does, probably because to everyone that knows about this I act like an actual victim, like he scared me, and hurt me, like I thought everything was bad but really he never once frightened me. Then after everything settled my brother started acting out. He stared out with just smoking a little but of pot and drinking every once in a while but then everything turned around. My brother started getting aggressive getting into bad fights with my dad and attacking my mom, even hurting my siblings and me I was his first target. He stole my whole life savings from me, almost 900 dollars, that’s when I didn’t trust him anymore he did that and then I knew he doesn’t care about his family anymore, he was 15 and only cared about himself and his friends. Somewhere in that time I started cutting, and messing around with guy after guy. I didn’t actually sleep with anyone until I was about to turn 13 this year, but before I started sleeping around a bit I was doing other sexual stuff. I know it’s gross because I am so young but I felt like that was all I could do it was like it was wired into my brain, plus I have always felt older than I actually am. And to guys I was an easy target I cut, I was depressed, still am just not as bad. When I cut though I actually feel better and some people understand that and some don’t. My current boyfriend has been my longest relationship, we’ve been together for 2 months and I haven’t really done anything with him, especially since we are in different states, which is hard but we can make it. I think the reason I messed around with guys so much was I wanted to feel wanted even if it was bad, and I felt like that is what I need to do. So I told guys I was 15 or 16 and then it took off from there. My depression sky rocketed, I have attempted suicide 25 times and got caught once on an OD. I was sent to inpatient and stayed for 2 weeks, almost got sent to residential, but instead I stayed the maximum amount at inpatient and then they released me. I was put into therapy and I had to see a psychiatrist, who gave me depression meds, strong ones too. I decided to quit going and quit taking my medications cold turkey which had horrible side affects but I got over it. I’ve felt better recently I have been put into high-school AP classes after testing out for it,my brother is in drug and alcohol rehab (court ordered after not doing his probation), my boyfriend has helped A LOT (He also used to cut so kinda had an idea on how I felt), yet sometimes at least once or twice a day I still think just one cut won’t hurt, or if I was dead who would really care but in the end everyone dies might as well attempt to live miserable moments and make up for all of the stupid stuff I have done. So I guess that’s pretty much the parts of my life everyone actually finds somewhat interesting and I guess that’s what everyone sees me as… I mean they can only judge me for what they know which isn’t a lot so…

A Diluted Murphy Bill Clears the House and Goes to the Senate

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 05:30:51 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On Wednesday, July 6, the US House of Representatives passed a watered down version of HB 2646, the so-called Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. The bill, which is now a House Resolution, is usually referred to as the Tim Murphy bill, after its principle author, Representative Tim Murphy, PhD, who is also a clinical psychologist.

The bill passed the house with a noteworthy tally of 422-2, with nine abstentions.

Bad News on the Doorstep: Psychologists Prescribing Drugs

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 05:30:07 +0000

[Note: In this post, “APA” refers to the American Psychological Association]

There is an article in the current (July/August) issue of The National Psychologist titled “Iowa becomes 4^th state to approve RxP”. The author is James Bradshaw, Associate Editor. RxP is a commonly used abbreviation for prescription authority for psychologists.

Here are some quotes from the article, interspersed with my comments.

"Iowa Gov. Terry E. Brandstad has signed a law granting prescription authority to properly trained psychologists, making Iowa the fourth state where psychologists can prescribe drugs from a psychotropic formulary."

They Call This “Help”: One Man’s Tears and the Horrors of Canadian Institutional Psychiatry

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 04:30:57 +0000

I am an inmate of St. Joseph’s Psychiatric Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario. Although I am still trapped in the intricate web of the forensic “mental health” system, I consider myself a psychiatric survivor. After all, I’ve made it this far, but I realize that more time is needed before I’m finally able to extricate myself from the forces of psychiatric oppression. Before entering the system, I knew virtually nothing about the philosophy and practice of psychiatry. After about a year and a half of being subjected to an endless, humiliating barrage of psychological and physical abuse, I have come to loathe and despise this pernicious and evil form of pseudoscience.

On Ex Mental health betterment

Wed, 13 Jul 2016 05:30:40 +0000

Despite a long debated idea about the abolishment of psychiatry and the futuristic dream for the once known mentally ill and ex mental health population of America and elsewhere, has left me dazed and confused about a lot of things.

As Ex mental health patient culture to me wasn’t very helpful, I was expecting more of a professional environment, ready to help you start your career, open up flexible opportunities to make money by business networking, etc, and become a happy, successful individual and not a slave to the sadistic culture known as psychiatry.

Non-psychiatrists Working in the Mental Health System

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 04:33:26 +0000

I know from my own experience and from emails I receive from readers that a great many non-psychiatrists who work in the mental health system have seen through the psychiatric hoax. These individuals, who are growing in number, realize that the problems for which clients seek help are not illnesses in any meaningful sense of the term. They also realize that the psychiatrically-controlled mental health system, with its emphasis on drugs and electric shocks, is doing enormous harm to the people it purports to serve.

My Fixed Delusion

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 04:29:17 +0000

I’ve spent my adult life working in mental health services. I worked for 15 years in residential treatment with adolescents, and another 15 years in large outpatient programs with adults. I’ve been in clinical roles and leadership roles, primarily as a group therapist.

I am a strident cognitive behaviorist. I’ve been a passionate and sincere student of human behavior for as long as I can remember. I respect the scientific method, and try to maintain critical thinking.

"The Overdiagnosis of ADHD"

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 04:30:47 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On May 23, the very eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, published on the HuffPost blog an article titled Conclusive Proof ADHD is Overdiagnosed.

The general theme, that various “mental illnesses” are being “overdiagnosed” is gaining popularity in recent years among some psychiatrists, presumably in an effort to distance themselves from the trend of psychiatric-drugs-on-demand-for-every-conceivable-human-problem that has become an escalating and undeniable feature of American psychiatric practice. The assertion in Dr. Frances’s title – that the label “ADHD” is being applied to too many people – is obviously true. But the implicit assumptions – that there is a correct level of such labeling, and that the label has some valid ontological significance – are emphatically false. But Dr. Frances affords no recognition to this aspect of the matter.

Allen Frances: Still Blaming Everyone But Himself

Tue, 24 May 2016 05:30:10 +0000

On May 7, Allen Frances, MD, posted an article on the HuffPost site. The piece was titled Antidepressants Work, But Only For Really Depressed People.

Superficially, the article presents itself as a call to limit the prescribing of the so-called antidepressant drugs to severe cases; but the piece can, I suggest, be more accurately characterized as Dr. Frances’s latest attempt to distance himself, and psychiatry in general, from the pill-peddling frenzy that has characterized the profession for the past thirty or forty years

ADHD: The Hoax Unravels

Tue, 10 May 2016 05:30:15 +0000

At the risk of stating the obvious, ADHD is not an illness. Rather, it is an unreliable and disempowering label for a loose collection of arbitrarily chosen and vaguely defined behaviors. ADHD has been avidly promoted as an illness by pharma-psychiatry for the purpose of selling stimulant drugs. In which endeavor, they have been phenomenally successful, but, as in other areas of psychiatry, the hoax is unraveling.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative

Fri, 29 Apr 2016 05:30:37 +0000

INTRODUCTION

On March 27, 2014, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill published a press release titled Dr. Cynthia Bulik of UNC leads multinational anorexia genetics project.

Cynthia Bulik, PhD, according to Wikipedia, is the “Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Professor of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Founding Director of the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders. Dr. Bulik is also professor in the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and holds an adjunct appointment at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. She is ranked #2 in the Expertscape list of world experts in eating disorders.”

bipolar disorder

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 05:30:06 +0000

It saddens me that there appears to be 6 distinct camps on mental illness's validity. I am convinced that Camp 1, the APA and their DSM, allow or add so many disorders, and constantly rewrite diagnosis criteria to pump up business. Camp 2: The "worried well" that feed this machine by seeking help for normal human behaviors that disturb them and they request or demand to be "cured." Camp 3: Big Pharma, encouraging the above 2. (Advertising symptoms to advertise "cures.") Camp 4: The dissenters , often those who have been misdiagnosed and fed the "cure" only to find out later (or hopefully sooner) that they never needed drugs to alleviate their "symptoms" of their "abnormality. This camp also includes those affected by a loved one's misdiagnosis and altogether unnecessary "treatment" with drugs. Sometimes these include those who have opinions, but no experience. Camp 5: Those who have experienced the horrors of living with EXTREME and valid symptoms of some abnormality that cannot be verified with any medical tests. Most of these do not seek help, usually because they don't believe they are abnormal or hope against hope that these "problems with living" will pass and their own form of normal will return and stay. (Normal can and does indeed fall on a spectrum, which often falls far to either pole.)

Let’s not forget Camp 6. The dead due to suicide. They cannot defend or even explain their “stance” on it. The almost MISSING Camp is the balanced view. They (I) take ALL of the above into consideration. I know nothing of any of the many many disorders in the DSM. (DSM 5 is frighteningly LITTERED with old and new.) I do know quite a bit about Bipolar 1, Manic Depression, WHATEVER you wish to label it.. I have 30 years of experience in and out of each camp. Your take on the various symptoms as simply being a result of adults never outgrowing childish behaviors is probably 99% accurate. The other 1% are the only ones that are rarely mentioned, described, or outspoken about the growing controversy.

Klonopin and prozac withdrawal

Mon, 25 Apr 2016 05:30:01 +0000

It’s been almost 3 months since I have ingested any antidepressants or benzos. Almost died after drinking a large amount of vodka with the daily does of pills. Went to a rehab for a month and have been clean since. This is after over 27 years of benzos and prozac. I am 60 years old and am finally coming a awake. The Withdrawals, notably the restless leg and horrible cramping have been horrid at night, but I am totally committed to staying off the evil pills! Thanks for listening!

The Sandcastle Continues to Crumble

Fri, 22 Apr 2016 05:30:32 +0000

Psychiatry is a hoax. Its fundamental concepts are spurious to the point of inanity. Much of its research is blatantly fraudulent. And its treatments are destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing. Psychiatry has no coherent or logical response to the criticisms that it attracts, other than the repetition, mantra-style, of unsubstantiated assertions of safety and efficacy, coupled with unwarranted attacks on its critics.

Psychiatry would long since have gone the way of phrenology and mesmerism but for the financial support it receives from the pharmaceutical industry. This support comes in two forms. Firstly, pharma provides generous largesse to psychiatric researchers and “key opinion leaders”, to provide a continuous stream of psychiatry-favorable copy. Secondly, and more importantly, pharma uses the clout of its enormous advertizing budget to effectively dissuade the mainstream media from exposing the truth about psychiatry.

Cyber-Trolls, Site Disrupters, and Related Matters

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 05:30:53 +0000

To state the obvious, this is an anti-psychiatry site, and as such it attracts a fair measure of impassioned comment – some favorable, some unfavorable.

From time to time the site gets “bombed”, by which I mean that someone who opposes my ideas “sits” on the site and expresses profound disapproval of anything and everything that I write, and of any favorable material from other commenters.

In my early days as a blogger, I routinely tried to engage these individuals in dialogue, but, as I became busier, I was unable to maintain this level of response. Today I respond to comments as time and energy permit, but as a general rule I do not respond to comments that are fundamentally dishonest. The classic in this regard is: “You say that brains can’t malfunction, that’s just plain stupid.” I consider this a fundamentally dishonest line of discussion, because firstly, I have never made a statement even remotely like this, and secondly, the statement is obviously false and silly.

The Germanwings Crash: Flying Under the Influence

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 05:30:45 +0000

On March 24, 2015, a twenty-seven-year-old German pilot named Andreas Lubitz flew an Airbus A 320 into a French mountainside, killing himself and the 149 other people on board. Mr. Lubitz was co-piloting the flight, and he caused the aircraft to crash by locking the pilot out of the flight deck and setting the autopilot to descend to 100 feet.

During the descent, he was contacted by civilian and military traffic controllers, and by the crew of another aircraft, but he made no response. He also ignored repeated and increasingly urgent requests from the captain to be readmitted to the flight deck.

Allen Frances on Anti-Psychiatry

Thu, 24 Mar 2016 06:02:25 +0000

On February 22, Allen Frances, MD, published an article titled: Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry on the HuffPost Blog. The general theme of the article is that psychiatry may have some problems, but it is basically sound, wholesome, and necessary.

Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments:

"Psychiatry used to be a biopsychosocial profession that allowed time to get to know the person, not just treat the symptom. But drastic cuts in the funding of mental health services have dramatically reduced the quality of the service they can provide. Psychiatrists are now forced to follow very large panels of patients. Most of the limited time they are allowed with each is spent discussing symptoms, adjusting the meds, and determining side effects. Little time is left to forge a healing relationship, provide support, and teach skills through psychotherapy. And patients usually get to a psychiatrist- if at all- as a last resort, only after other things have failed- and with the expectation by the patient and referral source that the main purpose of the visit is just to prescribe medication."

Allen Frances on the Benefits of "Antipsychotics"

Fri, 11 Mar 2016 05:30:12 +0000

On February 1, Allen Frances, MD, published an interesting article on the Huffington Post blog. The article is called Do Antipsychotics Help or Harm Psychotic Symptoms?, and is a response to Robert Whitaker’s post of January 27: “Me, Allen Frances, and Climbing Out of a Pigeonhole. This post, in turn, was a response to Dr. Frances’s Psychiatric Medicines Are Not All Good or All Bad, which was published in the Huffington Post on January 15. Readers may remember that I published a critique of this latter article on February 9.

Psychiatry Bashing

Mon, 07 Mar 2016 05:30:24 +0000

Last month (February 2016), the British Journal of Psychiatry published an online bulletin titled BASH: badmouthing, attitudes and stigmatisation in healthcare as experienced by medical students, by Ali Ajaz et al. Here’s the abstract:

"Aims and method We used an online questionnaire to investigate medical students' perceptions of the apparent hierarchy between specialties, whether they have witnessed disparaging comments (‘badmouthing’ or ‘bashing’) against other specialists and whether this has had an effect on their career choice.

Exploiting The Placebo Effect: Deceiving People For Their Own Good?

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 05:30:12 +0000

Readers may remember that a few weeks ago I became involved in an online debate with the very eminent and scholarly psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD. That exchange was initiated by a post I wrote concerning a paper on the chemical imbalance theory that Jeffrey Lacasse, PhD, and Jonathan Leo, PhD, had published in the Behavior Therapist in October 2015. In that paper, Drs. Lacasse and Leo had drawn attention to certain aspects of Dr. Pies’ work, but they had also focused some attention on Daniel Carlat, MD, psychiatrist, and author of Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry - A Doctor’s Revelations about a Profession in Crisis.

Gender Wage Gap and Depression/Anxiety

Fri, 12 Feb 2016 05:30:20 +0000

In their January 2016 issue, the journal Social Science and Medicine published Unequal depression for equal work? How the wage gap explains gendered disparities in mood disorders, by Jonathan Platt, MPH, Seth Prins, PhD candidate, Lisa Bates, PhD, and Katherine Keyes, PhD, MPH. All the authors work at Columbia’s Department of Public Health.

Here’s the abstract:

"Mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are more prevalent among women than men. This disparity may be partially due to the effects of structural gender discrimination in the work force, which acts to perpetuate gender differences in opportunities and resources and may manifest as the gender wage gap. We sought to quantify and operationalize the wage gap in order to explain the gender disparity in depression and anxiety disorders, using data from a 2001-2002 US nationally representative survey of 22,581 working adults ages 30-65. Using established Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition methods to account for gender differences in individual-level productivity, our models reduced the wage gap in our sample by 13.5%, from 54% of men's pay to 67.5% of men's pay. We created a propensity-score matched sample of productivity indicators to test if the direction of the wage gap moderated the effects of gender on depression or anxiety. Where female income was less than the matched male counterpart, odds of both disorders were significantly higher among women versus men (major depressive disorder OR: 2.43, 95% CI: 1.95-3.04; generalized anxiety disorder OR: 4.11, 95% CI: 2.80-6.02). Where female income was greater than the matched male, the higher odds ratios for women for both disorders were significantly attenuated (Major Depressive Disorder OR: 1.20; 95% CI: 0.96-1.52) (Generalized Anxiety Disorder OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.04-2.29). The test for effect modification by sex and wage gap direction was statistically significant for both disorders. Structural forms of discrimination may explain mental health disparities at the population level. Beyond prohibiting overt gender discrimination, policies must be created to address embedded inequalities in procedures surrounding labor markets and compensation in the workplace."

Allen Frances Seeks The Middle Way

Tue, 09 Feb 2016 05:30:12 +0000

On January 15, 2016, Allen Frances, MD, Professor Emeritus at Duke University, published an article on the Huffington Post. The piece is titled: Psychiatric Medicines Are Not All Good or All Bad.

The article denounces both the “medication fanatics” who prescribe psychiatric drugs when they are not needed, and the “die-hard anti-medication crusaders who try to persuade everyone, including those who really need meds, that they are globally unhelpful and globally harmful.”

Write for Health

Mon, 01 Feb 2016 05:30:18 +0000

I am a college student who has experienced several various mentally challenging roadblocks. My mental and health issues stemmed from a previous eating disorder. I have experienced stages of anxiety, depression and eating disorder relapses. My own self harm also resulted in medical conditions that I will live with and need to be treated for for the rest of my life. On days when I am feeling low, I like to write. I never usually share my writings but today, I feel that submitting the following passage will give me a sense of relief. I encourage others experiencing road blocks in their path towards recovery to write. Write whether you want to keep it for yourself or share it like I am.

“Have you ever felt so ashamed and disappointed in yourself that you can not even face a mirror? Have you ever felt so engulfed in your own thoughts that you want to scream so loud that no one, except God, can hear you? Have you ever felt so alone that you contemplated contacting someone for hours, just hovering your finger over call or send.

Life Sentence: Life behind bars of the Mental Healthcare system

Mon, 25 Jan 2016 05:30:55 +0000

I received my 'life sentence' from a Montana psychiatrist at the tender age of 22. I was diagnosed with Bipolar because I had what he called a 'chemical imbalance' in my brain and would need to take medicine to treat it for the rest of my life. At the time I was struggling to deal with the aftermath of two very violent rapes. One at the age of 13, the other at 19. I trusted this psychiatrist, never questioned him, or his authority. He was educated. I was not. Due to severe side effects, adverse reactions, and constant withdrawal symptoms from ALL the psychiatric drugs approximately 75 over time) I became 'stuck' in the revolving door of psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms, ICU's, and jails for the next 35 years from psychiatric drug- induced: mania's, crippling depressions to the point of at least 15 suicide attempts - 2 resulting in coma, Klonopin induced anxiety developing into chronic panic attacks and finally full-blown agoraphobia when I've never experienced this before, excruciating migraines, self-hatred, social isolation, increased alcohol use to combat the akathesia, the loss of self, anger, rage, and violence. And then my Mental Healthcare workers told me it was 'just fine' to cold turkey from my Klonopin after 10+ years of use never mentioning one single withdrawal symptom I may experience. I was left to endure the mental torture of this withdrawal at my home, alone. I developed all the classic symptoms: light, sound sensitivity, hallucinations, sweating, anxiety/panic so extreme I didn't know the human mind could tolerate it or survive, heart palpitations, no sleep for 5 continuous days, psychosis so severe that I had no contact with Reality (at all) as I once knew it and seizures. I also became catatonic. I prayed for death every second of every minute of every hour of everyday for 6 weeks. I was denied access to my psychiatrist. Protocol was through our therapist who I tried twice only to be told "No, you have to wait until your next scheduled appointment". I told her I wasn't going to last that long, and I didn't. Due to the extreme psychosis I ended up in the psyche hospital and then the ER after being in this anxiety/pure panic/psychotic state of mind with no sleep for five continuous days my body began shaking uncontrollably and I didn't know how to get it to stop. I later filed a 'Recipients' Rights' case against them for 'neglect of care' which was DENIED because I signed a simple one-page Klonopin consent form the year before that didn't list any withdrawal symptoms. Because my Mental Healthcare wouldn't help me determine 'what the hell I just went through for 6 long horrific, torturous weeks' (my K-pin withdrawal - 50 symptoms) if it was Benzodiazepine withdrawal or Serotonin Syndrome I decided to get off my Effexor, Trazodone, & Lithium because I knew I would never, ever survive another 'what ever that was' again,and I believed it could be nowhere near as traumatic as my K-pin withdrawal. I was very wrong. Still no mention of withdrawal symptoms from workers I saw every week. Once again, the classic symptoms introduced themselves: brain zaps, severe flu like symptoms, every muscle in my being ached, chronic insomnia (2 hrs of sleep a night for 5 months. When I was able to sleep it was only terrifying nightmares.) the ungodly uncontrollable mental anguish of the 'crying spells' that pharmaceutical companies downplay for 5 long months, suicidality, mania, depression, compulsive-obsessive thinking, anger, rage, violence along with a host of other symptoms, but this is the most horrifying symptom I developed - homicidality. I sat at my kitchen table for months planning out this mass shooting that I knew I was going to die in. In fact, in my psychotic mind, it was not only OK, it was expected. I was a 57 year old grandmother of 9 grandchildren at the time. I should not have to know what it feels like to become a killer, let alone a mass killer. My brain became so impaired, disabled, and ragefully psychotic from these withdrawals that it's a miracle I didn't find a gun. I did put myself in a psychiatric hospital because of this where I begged them to treat me without using psychiatric drugs, only they didn't see it that way. I was 'Court Ordered' to take Risperdal, Cogentin, Neurontin & Ambien and in this drug induced mental state my house burns to the ground and I'm left homeless. It's been 2 1/2 years since my Klonopin withdrawal. 1 1/2 years since my Effexor, Trazodone & Lithium withdrawal so I'm off ALL psychiatric drugs although I do have extensive cognitive impairment, but I have my own feelings, thoughts and behaviors back. I literally started my life over at the age of 57. I am now 59. And isn't it amazing that since I stopped taking my medicine the revolving door into the psych hospitals, ER, the Intensive Care Units and jails has miraculously stopped - completely. Our psychiatrists have no idea how we suffer at their hands. They refuse to acknowledge us, listen to us, or even believe what we tell them because, after all, according to them, "What do we know? We're mentally ill."

Sandra

Are 'Psychiatric Disorders' Brain Diseases?

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 05:30:36 +0000

Steven Reidbord MD is a board-certified psychiatrist who practices in San Francisco. He writes a blog called Reidbord’s Reflections. On December 12, 2015, he posted an article titled Are psychiatric disorders brain diseases? It’s an interesting and thought-provoking piece, with many twists and turns.

Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments and reflections.

"Of the conditions deemed inherently psychiatric, some seem rooted in biological brain dysfunction. Schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder, and severe forms of obsessive compulsive disorder and melancholic depression are often cited. It’s important to note that their apparently biological nature derives from natural history and clinical presentation, not from diagnostic tests, and not because we know their root causes. Schizophrenia, for example, runs in families, usually appears at a characteristic age, severely affects a diverse array of mental functions, looks very similar across cultures, and brings with it reliable if non-specific neuroanatomical changes. Even though schizophrenia cannot be diagnosed under the microscope or on brain imaging, it is plausible that a biological mechanism eventually will be found. (The same type of reasoning applied to AIDS before the discovery of HIV, and to many other medical diseases.) A similar argument can be made for other putatively biological psychiatric disorders."

Dr. Pies on the Dearth of Civility

Fri, 08 Jan 2016 05:30:03 +0000

On December 3, 2015, Ronald Pies, MD, published Campus Protests, Narcissism, and the Dearth of Civility on Psychiatric Times.

The article is subtitled: What can we do, as a society, to reduce the levels of incivility and narcissism that appear to be on the rise?

Here are some quotes:

"…I believe we are witnessing the gradual but steady erosion of civility in American culture."

"As a psychiatrist, however, I am also interested in the psychological development of the child, and why some children seem to develop along a trajectory that leads to intense narcissism—the fertile soil, in my view, upon which incivility thrives. Indeed, there is good evidence that narcissism has been increasing among our young people in recent decades—a factor that cannot be overlooked as we view incivility on the college campus. Leaving aside various technical and psychoanalytic definitions of the term, we can think of narcissism, broadly, as the attitude that proclaims, 'I should be able to do whatever the hell I please, and if other people don’t like it, that’s just too bad!'"

Robert Spitzer's Legacy

Wed, 06 Jan 2016 05:30:16 +0000

Robert Spitzer, MD, the architect of DSM-III (1980), died of heart disease on Christmas Day, 2015, at age 83.

Most major media outlets published obituaries in which Dr. Spitzer was praised on the grounds that he had brought scientific rigor to psychiatry by naming and defining the various psychiatric illnesses.

Here are a few illustrative quotes:

"Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, who gave psychiatry its first set of rigorous standards to describe mental disorders, providing a framework for diagnosis, research and legal judgments — as well as a lingua franca for the endless social debate over where to draw the line between normal and abnormal behavior — died on Friday in Seattle." (New York Times, December 26)

Bipolar 2 research

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 09:21:57 +0000

I am a 58 year old male.

I was born into a dysfunctional family with issues of shame and guilt. I believe that this affected my psychological state. I had severe Asthma and I was unintentionally put in front of an open fire and out in a cold street in my pram where I was exposed to leaded petrol car fumes.This was very traumatic possible PTSD. we also had a long haired dog. All these things were my triggers for asthma for years to come. We were a poor family in those days and would eat a lot of bread.Flour etc. I had skin prick testing for my Asthma allergies and was sensitive to most things.

Psychiatry and Crime

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 05:30:06 +0000

In DSM-III-R, the APA defined a mental disorder as:

"…a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in a person and that is associated with present distress (a painful symptom) or disability (impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. In addition, this syndrome or pattern must not be merely an expectable response to a particular event, e.g., the death of a loved one. Whatever its original cause, it must currently be considered a manifestation of a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the person. Neither deviant behavior, e.g., political, religious, or sexual, nor conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are mental disorders unless the deviance or conflict is a symptom of a dysfunction in the person as described above." (p xxii)

Psychiatry: A Protected Cartel

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 11:55:49 +0000

On December 27, 2015, Richard Lewis, a regular contributor to Mad In America, posted on that site Deafening Silence: What Happens When the Whistle Blows and Nobody Hears? Here are the first two paragraphs:

"What happens when someone finally 'blows the whistle,' exposing potential harm and possible death caused by today’s mental health system? Is there any government agency or designated persons who are prepared to hear the whistle or even investigate and/or act on the nature of a serious complaint? Are all whistle blowers fired, or are some just ignored and easily dismissed as just an isolated voice in the wilderness? Just how broken is 'Broken'? Is it even worth the effort of going through official channels to file formal complaints within the current ‘System’? Here is my story and I will let you ponder some of the possible answers to these provocative questions.

Allen Frances Still Trying to Excuse Psychiatry's (and his own) Role in the ADHD 'Epidemic'

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 05:30:04 +0000

On November 9, 2015, Allen Frances, MD, posted an interesting article on the Huffington Post’s Blog. The article is titled Why Are So Many College and High School Kids Abusing Adderall.

The gist of the article is that the “excessive use of ADHD medication” is a more legitimate target for a war on drugs than the ongoing war with the drug cartels.

The Huffington Post article is unusual, in that most of it is written by Gretchen LeFever Watson, PhD. Dr. Frances wrote the introduction, ending with “I have invited Dr Gretchen LeFever Watson, a clinical psychologist and public health researcher, to describe this growing problem.” Dr. Watson wrote the main body of the piece; and Dr. Frances finished up with some brief concluding remarks.

Another Life Story

Mon, 07 Dec 2015 05:30:16 +0000

As third born of four children, I was pretty much invisible. My brother, 3 years older than me, would come home from school and we would play school and he would teach me everything he learned that day. I was five, he was eight. I idolized my big brother. I followed him everywhere.

When I was in the first grade, my brother died, my parents got a divorce, a new man moved into the family, and we all moved to another city. For a six year old, it was just too much for me. I became a total introvert. I seldom spoke at home….only when asked a direct question. My sisters…one four years older, one four years younger …. totally ignored me. Both my sisters were pretty and popular, but not very bright. (I was the exact opposite.) They both flunked a grade….older sister flunked 7th grade, younger sister flunked 3rd grade…..how does someone flunk 3rd grade? They went to 9 different schools, just like I did….but I had a hard time always being the new kid in class.

My Response to Dr. Pies' Response

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 05:30:30 +0000

On November 18, 2015, Dr. Pies sent his response to my November 17 article to MIA. MIA posted it, and forwarded a copy to me. It reads:

“I have read Dr. Philip Hickey’s 8400+ word treatise, and I have only the following to say with regard to the two key points at issue:

Notwithstanding my omission of quotation marks in my original Medscape article [1]—for which I take responsibility—the fact remains: I have never believed or argued that the so-called chemical imbalance theory (which was never really a theory) is merely a “little white lie.” It is that point of view—not merely typed words on the page—that has been falsely and carelessly attributed to me.
I have never received a dime from any pharmaceutical company or private agency with any verbal or written understanding that I would “promote” (elevate, popularize, hype, etc.) a particular drug. If any of the papers I wrote or co-authored over a decade ago had the effect of putting a drug in a favorable light, it was because the best scientific evidence available at that time supported the drug’s benefit. Nothing in Philip Hickey’s belaboring of half-truths, innuendos and guilt by association demonstrates otherwise.

Sincerely,

Dr. Pies Is Back

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 10:04:39 +0000

This morning, I received, by way of a forward from MIA, the following from Dr. Pies.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I have read Dr. Philip Hickey’s 8400+ word treatise, and I have only the following to say with regard to the two key points at issue:

1. Notwithstanding my omission of quotation marks in my original Medscape article [1]—for which I take responsibility—the fact remains: I have never believed or argued that the so-called chemical imbalance theory (which was never really a theory) is merely a “little white lie.” It is that point of view—not merely typed words on the page—that has been falsely and carelessly attributed to me.
2. I have never received a dime from any pharmaceutical company or private agency with any verbal or written understanding that I would “promote” (elevate, popularize, hype, etc.) a particular drug. If any of the papers I wrote or co-authored over a decade ago had the effect of putting a drug in a favorable light, it was because the best scientific evidence available at that time supported the drug’s benefit. Nothing in Philip Hickey’s belaboring of half-truths, innuendos and guilt by association demonstrates otherwise.

Sincerely,

My Response To Dr. Pies

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 05:30:08 +0000

In the October 2015 issue of the Behavior Therapist (pages 206-213), Jeffrey Lacasse, PhD, and Jonathan Leo, PhD, published an article titled Antidepressants and the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: A Reflection and Update on the Discourse,

I thought the article had particular merit, and I drew attention to it in a post dated November 2. The post, More on the Chemical Imbalance Theory, was also published on Mad in America.

In that post, I quoted a number of passages from the Behavior Therapist article, including:

Dr. Pies Responds

Fri, 06 Nov 2015 05:30:51 +0000

On November 5, Kermit Cole, Front Page Editor at Mad in America, forwarded to me the following email which he had received from Ronald Pies, MD.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

From: Ronald Pies MD <contact-page@madinamerica.com> Date: November 4, 2015 at 2:17:53 PM EST To: kcole@madinamerica.com Subject: Misstatements in Philip Hickey\'s blog Echo Misstatements by Lacasse & Leo

More on the Chemical Imbalance Theory

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 05:30:42 +0000

On October 23, 2015, Jeffrey Lacasse, PhD, and Jonathan Leo, PhD, published an interesting article on Florida State University’s DigiNole Commons. The title is Antidepressants and the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: A Reflection and Update on the Discourse. Dr. Lacasse is assistant professor in the College of Social Work at Florida State University; Dr. Leo is Chair of Anatomy and Professor of Neuroanatomy at Lincoln Memorial University. The article was originally published in the Behavior Therapist in the October 2015 issue, pages 206-213.

Allen Frances Names and Shames the Power Players, but Not Himself

Thu, 29 Oct 2015 05:30:40 +0000

On October 13, 2015, Allen Frances, MD, published a post on his Psychology Today blog Saving Normal. The post is titled What Drives Our Dumb and Disorganized Mental Health Policies, and the subtitle is “Naming and shaming the power players.” The article has also been published in Psychiatric Times and the Huffington Post. Dr. Frances is a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Duke University, and was chairman of the DSM-IV Task Force.

Need Advice for my Troubling Life

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 06:00:05 +0000

I have been struggling with bullying since middle school and I find it hard. I will start from the beginning. I started getting bullied in middle school because i looked different. I decided to create coping skills, like watching anime and playing video games. Indeed these skills helped me get through hard times when i was young. Middle school was bad. I experienced friendship lose, but it was out of my own stupidity. I was left alone and struggling in school.

Dr. Pies and Psychiatry's 'Solid Center'

Thu, 22 Oct 2015 05:30:14 +0000

Ronald Pies, MD, is one of American’s most eminent and prestigious psychiatrists. He is the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Psychiatric Times, and he is a Professor of Psychiatry at both Syracuse and Tufts.

I disagree with many of Dr. Pies’ contentions, and I have expressed these disagreements in detail in various posts (for instance, here, here, and here). But there is one area where I have to acknowledge Dr. Pies’ efforts: he never gives up in his defense of his beloved psychiatry, even in the face of the most damaging counter-evidence.

Mainstream Media Beginning to Criticize Pharma-Psychiatry

Mon, 19 Oct 2015 05:30:13 +0000

A few months ago, I became aware of various articles online that stated “Robert F Kennedy Jr. says 70% of news advertising revenue comes from Big Pharma”. In the articles there is a link to a May 18, 2015 video in which Jesse Ventura, former Governor of Minnesota, interviews Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on an episode of Off the Grid. Off the Grid is a talk show on Ora.tv, an online network.

The Link Between Psychiatric Drugs and Violence

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 05:30:42 +0000

One of psychiatry’s most obvious vulnerabilities is the fact that various so-called antidepressant drugs induce homicidal and suicidal feelings and actions in some people, especially late adolescents and young adults. This fact is not in dispute, but psychiatry routinely downplays the risk, and insists that the benefits of these drugs outweigh any risks of actual violence that might exist.

There are two research studies that indicate a link between SSRI’s and violence, but both studies have limitations that make it difficult to draw firm conclusions. The studies are:

Integration of Physical and Mental Health

Fri, 09 Oct 2015 05:30:20 +0000

Integration of physical and “mental health” care has been a popular topic in psychiatric circles in recent years. During his term as President of the APA, the very eminent psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, made frequent references to this matter in his posts on Psychiatric News (the APA’s online newspaper).

For instance, on December 6, 2013, Dr. Lieberman, with co-author Richard Summers, MD, wrote:

"The momentum for patient-centered care, the medical home, and integration of behavioral health with primary care creates a new role for psychiatrists." [Emphasis added]

Psychiatry and the Pressure to Prescribe

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 05:30:36 +0000

Hugh Middleton, MD, posted an interesting article on Mad in America, October 1, 2015. It’s called Hey; Don’t Just Shoot the Messenger! Dr. Middleton is a British psychiatrist who is a founding member of the Critical Psychiatry Network, and was a co-author of the cardinal paper, Psychiatry beyond the current paradigm. (2012).

Dr. Middleton had attended a conference in London on September 18. The conference had been organized by the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry in order to address the topic: “the iatrogenic harm caused by the over-prescription of psychiatric medications.”

My Story

Fri, 02 Oct 2015 05:30:16 +0000

I too have been digonisoed with bi- polar 11. and hve been taken lithium for the last twney four years, since 1991 nd I find that iam bter off and can fuction better without them

A Reader

The APA's New Image

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 05:30:52 +0000

On April 25, 2014, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, then President of the APA, announced that the association had engaged the services of Porter Novelli, a prestigious PR company based in Washington DC and currently operating in 60 different countries.

"Mindful of the continuing stigma associated with mental illness and psychiatric treatment, we retained an outside consultant agency (Porter Novelli) to review APA’s communications capabilities, needs, and opportunities. Based on its report, we are now moving forward with an initiative to enact a sophisticated and proactive communications plan that will be directed both internally to APA members and externally to the media, mental health stakeholder groups, and the general public."

Psychiatry: The Hoax Exposed

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 05:30:14 +0000

It’s no secret that at the present time, psychiatry is reeling under a barrage of scrutiny and criticism. Their long-standing contention that all significant problems of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving are brain illnesses “just like diabetes”, which need to be “treated” with drugs and high-voltage electric shocks to the brain, has been thoroughly discredited. And yet they go on peddling their spurious , self-serving ideology and the products of their pharma partners.

Depleted to Undefeated: PTSD and Me

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 05:30:25 +0000

The basis of my story is rooted in my own, unique experience with medical and psychiatric treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This writing is not intended to convince or influence the necessity or use of mental health professionals. Rather, it is my perspective of what did, is, or will contribute to my personal journey towards a permanently healthier mental state.

The Inherent Unreliability of the ADHD Label

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 05:30:22 +0000

I imagine that everybody on this side of the issue knows by now that the eminent psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Chief Psychiatrist at Columbia, and past President of the APA, called Robert Whitaker “a menace to society.”

This outburst of petulance – the latest in a string of similar deprecations – occurred on April 26, 2015 during an interview with Michael Enright on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) radio’s “The Sunday Edition.” The grounds for Dr. Lieberman’s vituperation were that Robert had dared to challenge some of psychiatry’s most sacred tenets!

Stigmatization of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 05:30:24 +0000

On February 27, 2015, European Psychiatry published a paper titled EPA guidance on how to improve the image of psychiatry and of the psychiatrist. The paper was authored by D. Bhugra et al. EPA is the European Psychiatric Association. Dr. Bhugra is a psychiatrist who works at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King’s College, London, and is also President of the World Psychiatric Association. There are thirteen co-authors, most of whom are also psychiatrists.

Book Review: Depression Delusion, by Terry Lynch, MD, MA

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 05:30:58 +0000

In this truly remarkable, and meticulously researched, volume, Dr. Lynch annihilates psychiatry’s cherished chemical imbalance theory of depression. Every facet of this theory, which the author correctly calls a delusion, is critically analyzed and found wanting. Example after example is provided of psychiatrists promoting this fiction, the factual and logical errors of which are clearly exposed in Dr. Lynch’s lucid, seamless, and highly readable prose.

The book runs to 343 pages, and is laden with factual details, case studies, alternative perspectives, and hard-hitting commentary. Dr. Lynch does not sit on the sidelines, nor does he seek any kind of collegial compromise with the chemical imbalance theory, which he unambiguously denounces as a groundless and destructive falsehood. Here are some quotes that I think will convey something of the content, style, and cogency of this vitally important work.

Delusions

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 05:01:14 +0000

BACKGROUND

DSM-5 defines delusions as “…fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in the light of conflicting evidence.” (p 87). The manual lists six kinds of delusions: persecutory; referential; grandiose; erotomanic; nihilistic; and somatic. The APA provides another definition of delusions on p 819. It’s substantially the same as the one above, but offers the additional varieties: bizarre; delusional jealousy; mixed type; mood-congruent; mood-incongruent; of being controlled; thought broadcasting; and thought insertion. Interestingly, nihilistic delusions are omitted from the second list. These, we are told on page 87, “…involve the conviction that a major catastrophe will occur.”

Psychiatric Diagnoses are Just Labels: Re-wordings of the Presenting Problem

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 05:30:13 +0000

Imagine that you’re not feeling well, and you visit Dr. Ducknoise. The doctor asks you questions, nods knowingly at your answers, asks more questions, perhaps jots down some notes. Finally, he nods gravely.

"What is it, doc?" you ask. "You've got UTW disorder," he replies grimly. "What's that?" "Under-the-weather disorder. It's a serious illness. It's why you have been feeling poorly." "What causes it?" you ask. "Imbalances in the blood." "How do you know I've got it?" "Because you have been feeling poorly." "Can you help?"

The Great Non-Debate with Samei Huda, MD

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 05:30:01 +0000

Yesterday I received the following tweet from Dr. Huda:

"funnily enough my time availability hasn't changed in 24 hours. I have however written one more page. Are u ever in UK?"

From which I must conclude, sadly, that the debate, to which I had been so looking forward, seems unlikely to materialize.

For the benefit of readers who might have come late to this interaction, here is a brief summary of what happened.

Update on the Great Non-Debate

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 05:30:25 +0000

Yesterday I received the following comment from Dr. Huda, who, believe it or not, still seems to be under the impression that I want to debate him on Twitter!

"Hi I don't read your blog so only found out about this from someone else Debates on social media are usually a non meeting of minds and a waste of time

In any case they don't demonstrate your understanding of psychiatry just debating skills

Dr. Huda Still Dodging the Issues

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 05:30:17 +0000

After Monday’s post, I received the following tweet from Dr. Huda:

"Dear @BigPhilHickey I find debates over Twitter r largely pointless I am (slowly) writing a book outlining my views"

To which I reply:

I never suggested a debate over Twitter. In fact, I stated very clearly that "… Twitter, while an excellent medium for certain kinds of communication, is not a suitable vehicle for serious debate."

This entire matter was started by Dr. Huda's assertion on Twitter that I hate psychiatry, and that I get its concepts wrong.

In response, I invited Dr. Huda "… to critique any of my writings – to set out which of psychiatry’s concepts I 'get wrong', and to point out the flaws in my analysis."

I also made the point that Dr. Huda's original tweet was a way of avoiding the issues. Today's follow-up tweet strikes me as more of the same.

So, at the risk of laboring the point, let me make myself perfectly clear. I am inviting – indeed encouraging – Dr. Huda to critique any of my writings. They can be found at Behaviorism and Mental Health. He may write his critique anywhere he chooses, and if he will let me know where it can be found, I promise to reply.

An Invitation to Debate

Mon, 10 Aug 2015 06:16:29 +0000

A few days ago, I received notification via Tweetdeck that my handle (@BigPhilHickey) had appeared in a Twitter conversation between one of my Twitter followers and Samei Huda, MD. My follower had mentioned me, and had pointed out that I critique “… the ideas, value systems, politics, practice etc of psychiatry…” To which Dr. Huda replied:

"he hates psychiatry and gets its concepts wrong. Anyway I am busy today so will have to ciao :-) "

Intermittent Explosive Disorder: The 'Illness' That Goes On Growing

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 05:30:55 +0000

According to the APA, intermittent explosive disorder is characterized by angry aggressive outbursts that occur in response to relatively minor provocation.

This particular label has an interesting history in successive editions of the DSM.

DSM I (1952)

Intermittent explosive disorder does not appear as such in the first edition of DSM, but the general concept is clearly discernible in “passive-aggressive personality, aggressive type”:

"A persistent reaction to frustration with irritability, temper tantrums, and destructive behavior is the dominant manifestation." (p 37)

ADHD: A Destructive and Disempowering Label; Not an Illness

Fri, 24 Jul 2015 05:30:29 +0000

In recent years, we’ve seen an increasing number of articles and papers from psychiatrists in which they seem to be accepting at least some of the antipsychiatry criticisms, and appear interested in reforms. It is tempting to see this development as an indication of progress, but as in many aspects of life, things aren’t always what they seem.

Last month (June 2015), The Lancet Psychiatry published a paper online in their Personal View series. The paper is titled Childhood: a suitable case for treatment?, and the authors are Ilina Singh and Simon Wessely. Dr. Singh is Professor of Science, Ethics & Society at King’s College London, and is cross-appointed to the Institute of Psychiatry. Dr. Wessely is professor of psychological medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Benzodiazepines: Miracle Drugs?

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 05:25:09 +0000

The first benzodiazepine – chlordiazepoxide – became available, from Hoffman-La Roche, in 1960, under the brand name Librium. It was soon followed by:

diazepam (Valium) 1963; nitrazepam (Mogadon) and oxazepam (Serax) in 1965; temazepam (Restoril) 1969; clorazepate (Tranxene) 1972; flurazepam (Dalmane) 1973; clonazepam (Klonopin) 1975; lorazepam (Ativan) in 1977; and alprazolam (Xanax) in 1981; etc.

Benzodiazepines are categorized as sedative/hypnotics, which means that they have a relaxing, generally pleasant, sleep-inducing effect, and were embraced promptly by psychiatry for the "treatment" of anxiety, tension, worry, sleeplessness, etc.

In this respect, the benzodiazepines largely replaced the earlier barbiturates, which had received a great deal of negative publicity because of their much publicized role in lethal overdoses, both accidental and intentional.

The way we were brought up and now

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 06:55:30 +0000

I have written before in this. I am hoping to make something all known for you who have worked hard for freedoms we may not always get. Also i have seen some anger from the members who rightfully get angry and want to get through to the people who are not getting what the drugs can do to many. it is not just about the meds with mental health. It is a big part, but see we need to have autonomy within mental health or it will be warring forever over the things that we were duped about in the beginning.

Allen Frances Saving Psychiatry From Itself?

Fri, 03 Jul 2015 05:30:50 +0000

On October 12, 2014, the eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, participated in a panel discussion at the Mad In America film festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. After the festival, he wrote an article – Finding a Middle Ground Between Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry – for the Huffington Post Blog, summarizing the positions he had discussed at the festival. The article was re-published on MIA on October 26, 2014.

The article is ostensibly an attempt to find common ground between psychiatry and its critics, but the piece contains numerous distortions and omissions which I think need to be identified and discussed.

Psychiatric Drugs and Mass Murder

Mon, 29 Jun 2015 05:30:34 +0000

On June 12, an interesting and important article was posted on pharmabuse.com. The article is titled Army Report: Fort Hood Mass Shooter Ivan Lopez On Psychotropic Cocktail Of Celexa, Wellbutrin, Ambien, Lunesta. Ivan Lopez-Lopez is the second Fort Hood shooter, who killed three people and then himself on April 2, 2014.

Here are some quotes:

"On January 23, 2015, the Army released its long anticipated report on the second fatal mass shootings at Fort Hood that occurred on April 2, 2014. In support of the report, the Army simultaneously released five appendices contained in nineteen other files pertaining to Specialist Ivan Lopez's deadly shooting rampage."

Allen Frances 'Replies'

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 05:30:39 +0000

BACKGROUND

On June 19, 2015, I published a post titled Allen Frances’ Ties to Johnson & Johnson. In that post, I set out some very serious allegations against Dr. Frances. I drew these allegations from a document titled Special Witness Report dated October 15, 2010. The report was written by David Rothman, PhD, Professor of Social Medicine at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Rothman’s report was produced in the context of a lawsuit filed by the State of Texas against Janssen Pharmaceutica, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Allen Frances' Ties to Johnson & Johnson

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 05:30:56 +0000

INTRODUCTION

I recently came across an article titled Diagnosisgate: Conflict of Interest at the Top of the Psychiatric Apparatus, by Paula Caplan, PhD. The article was published in Aporia, the University of Ottawa nursing journal, in January 2015. Aporia is “a peer-reviewed, bilingual, and open access journal dedicated to scholarly debates in nursing and the health sciences.”

Dr, Caplan is a clinical and research psychologist, and an Associate at Harvard’s DuBois Institute. She worked as a consultant to the DSM-IV task force in the 1980’s, but resigned from this position after two years. Here’s a quote from her February 2014 post on Mad in America The Great “Crazy” Cover-up: Harm Results from Rewriting the History of DSM:

Psychiatry On The Defensive, But Ceding No Ground

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 05:30:52 +0000

On May 27, The Lancet Psychiatry published an editorial titled This year’s model. The article is a response to the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology’s Guidelines on Language in Relation to Functional Psychiatric Diagnoses, which was published in March of this year.

The paper was produced:

"…to support clinical psychologists in the development of documents using language consistent with the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) position on functional psychiatric diagnoses."

Book Review: Parenting Your Child with ADHD: A No-Nonsense Guide for Nurturing Self-Reliance and Cooperation, by Craig Wiener, EdD

Fri, 05 Jun 2015 05:30:43 +0000

I have recently read this book, and I think it would be extremely helpful for parents, teachers, and counselors who work with children in this area.

Here are some quotes:

"…ADHD [is] something that your child does rather than something that she has."

"The first thing to realize is that while you and other adults see your child’s ADHD behavior as a problem to overcome, for your child, ADHD behavior holds solutions to the difficulties that he faces on a daily basis. When your child encounters adversity, ADHD behavior somehow mitigates the situation. When you identify what gives his ADHD behavior its staying power, you will have gained valuable insight into why such behavior repeats so frequently. You will also be taking a giant step forward in knowing how to eliminate it."

You Are Stronger Than What You Think

Thu, 04 Jun 2015 05:30:48 +0000

No, I’ve never used the services of psychologists, never took a “pill.” But I have felt under sudden Depression and Anxiety, like any of you. Self awareness is necessary. To know when you are not acting “normal.” If we keep hoping for something to happen in an unrealistic way, on denial, and at the end of the journey we cannot achieve that goal, DEPRESSION hits… How do I beat it? Redirecting my mind to most realistic goals. Recharging my mind with optimism, remembering the beautiful things we have achieved already. Admiring Nature, the smile of a kid: LOVING. Exercises help. Art too. The most important thing? Think you have come to this world with a purpose. Think you can help others. Feel like a champion who can accomplish everything. And stay away from medication: The cure is inside you, in your mind, in your soul… Be strong! YOU ARE STRONGER THAN WHAT YOU THINK!!!!

The ADHD Label and Mortality

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 05:30:13 +0000

On February 26, 2015, The Lancet published online an article by Soren Dalsgaard et al titled Mortality in children, adolescents, and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a nationwide cohort study.

The article describes a Danish study that was designed to assess “ADHD-related mortality in a large cohort of Danish individuals.”

The researchers describe their methods as follows:

"By use of the Danish national registers, we followed up 1·92 million individuals, including 32 061 with ADHD, from their first birthday through to 2013. We estimated mortality rate ratios (MRRs), adjusted for calendar year, age, sex, family history of psychiatric disorders, maternal and paternal age, and parental educational and employment status, by Poisson regression, to compare individuals with and without ADHD."

A Disease or a Decision? My Journey From Pain to Peace.

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 06:00:41 +0000

I’m impressed with your site Phil. You are highly intelligent and an excellent writer. Some others here also state their thoughts in a clear eloquent fashion. This place is like a breath of fresh air. It’s not often I see critical thinking and logic employed.

I’ve dealt with depression, anxiety, and addiction most of my life. I’m at peace today, after a long journey. Like millions, I was “diagnosed” with depression after a brief conversation with a “doctor” AKA “specialist”. As a kid, I had dysfunctional parents. Dad was detached and drank. Mom died when I was a baby, and as a teenager, I had a 2 year sexual relationship (my first) with my demanding narcissistic stepmother. My anger and shame was not addressed by the “specialist”, and I was given Prozac, which made me feel lifeless. For 20 years I used meth, cocaine, pills, and pot. I told people meth saved my life, because I believed I couldn’t tolerate my negative thoughts and feelings without it. I thanked God for meth.

Neuroleptic Drugs And Mortality

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 05:30:18 +0000

In November of last year, the Schizophrenia Bulletin published online a research study: Antipsychotic Treatment and Mortality in Schizophrenia, by Minna Torniainen et al. The research was conducted in Sweden.

The authors offer the following background for the study:

"It is generally believed that long-term use of antipsychotics increases mortality and, especially, the risk of cardiovascular death. However, there are no solid data to substantiate this view."

and the following conclusions:

"Among patients with schizophrenia, the cumulative antipsychotic exposure displays a U-shaped curve for overall mortality, revealing the highest risk of death among those patients with no antipsychotic use. These results indicate that both excess overall and cardiovascular mortality in schizophrenia is attributable to other factors than antipsychotic treatment when used in adequate dosages."

ECT: Safe and Effective for Agitation and Aggression in Cases of Dementia?

Tue, 19 May 2015 05:30:52 +0000

On March 25 of this year, Psychiatric Times published an article titled Dementia, Agitation, and Aggression: The Role of Electroconvulsive Therapy. The author is Manjola Ujkaj, MD PhD, and the article’s subtitle is “What role might electroconvulsive therapy play for short-term treatment of agitation and aggression in patients with dementia?”

According to their website Psychiatric Times is a medical trade publication that covers news, reports, and clinical content related to psychiatry “for psychiatrists and allied mental health professionals who treat mental disorders.” The circulation of the monthly print publication is approximately 40,000.

Book Review: Tales From The Madhouse, by Gary Sidley

Tue, 05 May 2015 05:30:24 +0000

Earlier this year the British publisher PCCS Books published Tales From The Madhouse: An insider critique of psychiatric services, by Gary Sidley. Gary worked for thirty-three years in the British NHS mental health service. He has held positions as a psychiatric nurse, a manager, and a clinical psychologist. He is currently a freelance writer and trainer. His present focus is the promotion of alternatives to biological psychiatry in the alleviation of human suffering.

Coercive Psychiatry in Switzerland

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 05:58:58 +0000

I have recently learned of Psychex, a non-profit Swiss organization that stands up for people who are force-“treated” against their will in psychiatric hospitals. Psychex was founded in 1987 by Edmund Schönenberger, Barrister at Law. In 2012, Edmund produced a document titled Fundamental Criticism of Coercive Psychiatry. It runs to 19 pages, and makes interesting reading.

Here are some quotes:

"Over the 40 years that I have worked as a lawyer, the majority of the clients I have defended have been people subjected to forced psychiatric treatment. I can therefore claim to know the fields of psychiatry, justice and their 'judgements' inside out. The conclusion I have come to is that the strongholds of psychiatry have absolutely nothing to do with 'care', the law or justice – instead, they are nothing other than instruments of domination."

The Spurious Chemical Imbalance Theory is Still Alive and Well

Mon, 27 Apr 2015 05:30:40 +0000

On April 5, 2015, Scott Alexander, MD, a trainee psychiatrist, posted an article titled Chemical Imbalance on his website Slate Star Codex. (The writer tells us that Scott Alexander is a blog handle and not his real name, but for convenience, I will refer to him as Dr. Alexander.)

Dr. Alexander begins by noting that there have been a number of articles recently that have criticized psychiatry for “botching the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory.”

Allen Frances and the Spurious Medicalization of Everyday Problems

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 05:30:38 +0000

On April 5, Allen Frances MD, published an article on the Huffington Post blog. The title is Can We Replace Misleading Terms Like ‘Mental Illness,’ ‘Patient,’ and ‘Schizophrenia’ It’s an interesting piece, and it raises some fundamental issues.

Here are some quotes from the article, interspersed with my comments.

"Those of us who worked on DSM IV learned first-hand and painfully the limitations of the written word and how it can be tortured and twisted in damaging daily usage, especially when there is a profit to be had."

Book Review: Psychiatry and the Business of Madness An Ethical and Epistemological Accounting, by Bonnie Burstow

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 05:30:40 +0000

This latest book by Bonnie Burstow, PhD, critiques psychiatry, and effectively annihilates any claims that the profession might have had to legitimacy.

Bonnie gives us a scholarly, but very readable, account of:

the history of psychiatry, ancient and modern;
the significance and shortcomings of the DSM;
the legal, ethical, and personal ramifications of involuntary "treatment";
the training of psychiatrists and the dynamics underlying their uncritical acceptance of their profession's spurious concepts and destructive treatments;
the ways in which non-psychiatrist mental health workers are co-opted into the system, and become, often despite good intentions, supporters and active participants in the psychiatric travesty;
the role and tactics of the psycho-pharma industry;
the stark, destructive, degrading realities of electric shock "treatment".

In the final chapter, Bonnie offers us a glimpse of what an alternative approach might look like.

Normally when I write a book review, I include some quotes from the work to enable readers to judge for themselves the quality and content of the material. With Psychiatry and the Business of Madness, however, this presented a problem, in that virtually every one of the 264 pages of text contains eminently quotable material. Here’s a short sample:

Depression: A Different Perspective

Tue, 14 Apr 2015 05:30:20 +0000

I have recently come across an interesting paper: How to Understand and then Escape from Depression. It’s written by Saul Youssef, a professor of physics at Boston University.

The central theme of the paper is that persistent or chronic depression is caused by “…an unconscious withdrawal of participation in a person’s own internal decision making processes.”

Here are some quotes:

"I have been depressed for most of my life, and, at various times, I have tried most of the recommended treatments for depression. I have tried Saint John’s Wort, exercise, Yoga, talk therapy, SSRIs, thyroid supplements and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In my case, I would say that thyroid supplements, exercise and Yoga helped the most and all of them helped at least a little bit. Unfortunately, none of these treatments helped dramatically. Then, however, in late 2013 and early 2014, I finally figured it out. I came to understand what was happening in my own head and why it was causing my own depression and I was able to figure out a way to escape. I don’t mean that I am now successfully managing my depression. I mean it’s gone. I am writing up what I think is going on and what I did to escape because I don’t think that my case is unusual. I think that exactly the same thing will work for many people."

Antidepressants: Drugs, Not Medication

Mon, 13 Apr 2015 05:30:32 +0000

On April 7, John Read, PhD, a psychologist at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, published a short article on Mad in America. The title is: Largest Survey of Antidepressants Finds High Rates of Adverse Emotional and Interpersonal Effects. The article presents the results of a survey conducted in New Zealand and published online in February, 2014 in Psychiatry Research. The survey involved 1,827 individuals who were taking antidepressants. Dr. Read is widely published.

Psychiatric Diagnoses: Labels, Not Explanations

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 05:30:26 +0000

On March 16, Ronald Pies, MD, published an article in the Psychiatric Times. The article is titled The War on Psychiatric Diagnosis, and the sub-title synopsis on the pdf version reads: “A recent report that argues against descriptive diagnosis in medicine is historically ill-informed and medically naive, in the opinion of this psychiatrist.”

Dr. Pies is a very prestigious and eminent psychiatrist. He is a professor of psychiatry at both Syracuse and Tufts. He was the first editor of Psychiatric Times, which, by its own account, provides “News, Special Reports, and clinical content related to psychiatry” for “…psychiatrists and allied mental health professionals who treat mental disorders…Circulation of the monthly print publication is approximately 40,000.”

Book Review: A Disease Called Childhood, by Marilyn Wedge

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 05:30:26 +0000

Avery, a member of Penguin Group USA, has recently published A Disease Called Childhood, by Marilyn Wedge. Marilyn has a PhD in psychology and works as a family therapist.

In 2014, fully 11% of American children had received a “diagnosis” of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is widely believed by these children, their parents, the press, the public, and government agencies, that this loose collection of vaguely defined behaviors constitutes an illness – specifically a chemical imbalance in the brain, which is corrected by stimulant drugs.

Cartoons

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 05:00:12 +0000

I have recently learned of a new website: www.auntiepsychiatry.com. The posts consist of cartoons drawn by Auntie Psychiatry, and the site is well worth a visit. Auntie hopes to publish a new cartoon each week.

I have long felt that we need to diversity in the methods we use to spread our message, and cartoons seem a nice choice. One drawing is worth a thousand words!

Book Review: Body Dysmorphic Disorder: The Illusion, by Zoe Wybrant

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 05:30:18 +0000

Body Dysmorphic Disorder is one of the so-called mental disorders listed in the DSM-5. The manual lists the following diagnostic criteria, (p 242):

A. Preoccupation with one or more perceived defects or flaws in physical appearance that are not observable or appear slight to others.

B. At some point during the course of the disorder, the individual has performed repetitive behaviors (e.g., mirror checking, excessive grooming, skin picking, reassurance seeking) or mental acts (e.g., comparing his or her appearance with that of others ) in response to the appearance concerns.

C. The preoccupation causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

D. The appearance preoccupation is not better explained by concerns with body fat or weight in an individual whose symptoms meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder: The Illusion, discusses this "disorder" from the perspective of someone who has struggled with these issues herself. Zoe challenges the usefulness of diagnosis and standard psychiatric treatment – and provides an abundance of clearly-stated contributory factors, together with suggestions for self-help.

The book reads nicely, and would be helpful for anyone who is troubled with these kinds of concerns, or for therapists/counselors who encounter these kinds of issues in their work. Here are some quotes:

Why Is There An Anti-psychiatry Movement?

Mon, 23 Mar 2015 05:30:16 +0000

On February 18, the eminent psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, former President of the APA, published a video and transcript on Medscape. The article was titled What Does the New York Times Have Against Psychiatry?, and was essentially a fatuous diatribe against Tanya Lurhmann, PhD, a Stanford anthropologist, who had written for the New York Times an op-ed article that was mildly critical of psychiatry. The essence of Dr. Lieberman's rebuttal was that an anthropologist had no business expressing any criticism of psychiatry, and he extended his denunciation to the editors of the NY Times.

The Drugging of Children in Foster Care

Mon, 16 Mar 2015 05:30:49 +0000

It's no secret that here in America, foster children are being prescribed psychiatric drugs, especially neuroleptics, as a means of controlling their behavior. A great deal has been said and written on the matter. Politicians have declared the practice deplorable. Children's advocacy groups have expressed concern, and, of course, those of us in the antipsychiatry movement have screamed till we're hoarse. But the problem persists.

For the past six months or so, the San Jose Mercury News, a California newspaper, has been running frequent articles on this topic, calling for oversight and corrective action.

Polarization or Compromise

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 05:30:46 +0000

On February 2, Robert Whitaker published an article on Mad in America. The title is Disability and Mood Disorders in the Age of Prozac. The article echoes and updates one of the themes of his 2010 book "Anatomy of an Epidemic": that the steady increase in the numbers of people receiving disability benefits for depression and mania is driven largely by the corresponding increase in the use of antidepressant drugs.

Antidepressant Drugs and Suicide Rates

Mon, 02 Mar 2015 05:30:46 +0000

In 2010, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica published a study by Göran Isacsson et al. The paper was titled Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression. Here's the conclusion:

"The finding that in-patient care for depression did not increase the probability of the detection of antidepressants in suicides is difficult to explain other than by the assumption that a substantial number of depressed individuals were saved from suicide by postdischarge treatment with antidepressant medication."

Dr. Lieberman Is Annoyed

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 05:30:17 +0000

On February 18, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, published a video lecture (with transcript) on Medscape.

The article is titled What Does the New York Times Have Against Psychiatry?, but in his opening paragraph, Dr. Lieberman points out that the piece could be titled “Psychiatry Suffers Another Indignity.”

The background to this is an article by Tanya Luhrmann, PhD, an anthropologist at Stanford University, which appeared a month earlier (Jan 17, 2015) in the New York Times. This article was titled Redefining Mental Illness, and developed some of the themes in the British Psychological Society’s earlier paper Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia.

Thomas Insel: "Are Children Overmedicated?"

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:30:09 +0000

Thomas Insel, MD, is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. In June of last year, he published, on the Director’s Blog, an article titled Are Children Overmedicated? The gist of the article is that children are not being overmedicated, but rather that there is an increase in “severe psychiatric problems” in this population.

Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments.

"The latest estimate from the National Center for Health Statistics reports that 7.5 percent of U.S. children between ages 6 and 17 were taking medication for 'emotional or behavioral difficulties' in 2011-2012. The CDC reports a five-fold increase in the number of children under 18 on psychostimulants from 1988-1994 to 2007–2010, with the most recent rate of 4.2 percent. The same report estimates that 1.3 percent of children are on antidepressants. The rate of antipsychotic prescriptions for children has increased six-fold over this same period, according to a study of office visits within the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. In children under age 5, psychotropic prescription rates peaked at 1.45 percent in 2002-2005 and declined to 1.00 percent from 2006-2009."

Recurring Depression

Mon, 09 Feb 2015 05:30:02 +0000

I am 46 years old and have taken antidepressants (Lexapro, Paxil, now Zoloft) for 10 years. But the reason I began taking them wasn’t due to my own need for relief from depression or anxiety. It was actually an effort to improve my relationship with my husband at the time. He suffered from depression and took medication, but said that I was overly critical, driven, intense, etc. and I think he was right. But I was also young and immature, and am an engineer by profession. I do have a critical thought process, no doubt. We were mismatched from the start and separated not long after I started the medication, but have a 11 year old son together. The divorce process, and going back to work full time as a single mom was difficult and stressful. But after taking the Lexapro for over 4 years, I actaully began feeling lethargic and depressed and decided to stop taking it cold turkey. Big mistake, I learned the hard way, and ended up on Paxil after a few months. Now I am having the same problem with the Paxil, and I really just want to get off the medication all together because I feel that it is causing the depression. I was never depressed to begin with, but now I am! After a couple of bad experiences with withdrawal symptoms from coming off the meds, I am really apprehensive about trying to taper off of them, but I want myself back, not this medicated, lethargic, irritable, unproductive person. I was far from perfect, as my ex-husband made painfully clear, but I always had hope for a better future and energy to work for it. I can’t help but feel that the meds have done more harm than good in my particular situation. I just wonder if others have had similar experiences? Thank you and best wishes in whatever you are searching for…

Cures For Brain Disorders

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 05:30:03 +0000

On January 18, Thomas Insel, MD, published an article on The World Economic Forum Blog. The article is titled 4 things leaders need to know about mental health. Dr. Insel is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. The World Economic Forum “is an International Institution committed to improving the state of the world through public-private cooperation.”

Dr. Insel’s paper makes a number of assertions, some of which are misleading. Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments.

The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia – Version III

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 05:30:09 +0000

On November 27, 2014, the Division of Clinical Psychology of the British Psychological Society published a paper titled Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia. The paper was edited by Anne Cooke of Canterbury Christ Church University. The central theme of the paper is that the condition known as psychosis is better understood as a response to adverse life events rather than as a symptom of neurological pathology.

The paper was wide ranging and insightful, and, predictably, drew support from most of us on this side of the issue and criticism from psychiatry. Section 12 of the paper is headed “Medication” and under the subheading “Key Points”, you’ll find this quote:

Psychiatry's Defense: We're No Worse Than General Medicine

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:30:47 +0000

On December 21, 2014, Vivek Datta, MD, published an article on Mad in America. It’s titled Psychiatry and the Problem of the Medical Model –Part 1. The same article appeared the day before on Dr. Datta’s own website.

Dr. Datta begins by stating unambiguously:

"Psychiatry is a branch of medicine. As such, psychiatrists apply the medical model to problems of emotion, thought, behavior, human relations, and living."

He describes this approach as a "narrow gaze" and expresses the belief that it has brought psychiatry "under severe criticism" both from within and without.

Here are some quotes from Dr. Datta’s article, interspersed with my comments:

Exploiting the Placebo Effect: Legitimate Practice or Chicanery?

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 05:30:50 +0000

On June 13, 2014, Psychiatric Times published an article by Steve Balt, MD. The article is titled Assessing and Enhancing the Effectiveness of Antidepressants, and is a good deal more candid as to the efficacy of antidepressants than one normally encounters from psychiatry. Dr. Balt is a private practice psychiatrist in California. He is the editor-in-chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report.

The article opens with the observation that despite the large number of antidepressants on the market, and decades of clinical experience, no particular product seems to have emerged as substantially better than the rest.

Psychiatrists Providing Psychotherapy?

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 05:30:48 +0000

On December 29, Nassir Ghaemi, MD, a psychiatrist and a professor at Tufts Medical Center, published on Medscape an article titled Psychiatry Prospects for 2015: Out With the Old, In With the New?

The article opens:

"With the new year reviving old desires, one may wonder what, if anything, new will be in store for the practice of psychiatry. Will there be anything practice-changing?"

Under the heading "Toward More Effective Psychotherapy", Dr. Ghaemi states:

"Besides medications, an important change for practice is happening that involves psychotherapies."

Antidepressant-induced Mania

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 05:30:26 +0000

It is generally recognized in antipsychiatry circles that antidepressant drugs induce manic or hypomanic episodes in some of the individuals who take them. Psychiatry’s usual response to this is to assert that the individual must have had an underlying latent bipolar disorder that has “emerged” in response to the improvement in mood.

The problem with such a notion is that it is fundamentally unverifiable. Psychiatry defines “bipolar disorder” by the presence of certain behaviors and feelings. If a person meets these criteria, he/she is said to have bipolar disorder. What immediately needs to be noted is that bipolar disorder, in common with psychiatry’s other “disorders” has no explanatory value. To illustrate this, consider the following hypothetical conversation.

Antipsychiatry Stigma

Wed, 07 Jan 2015 05:30:28 +0000

The current issue of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica is devoted to the topic of psychiatry’s poor image, and what steps might be taken to improve it.

Central to the discussion is a study Images of psychiatry and psychiatrists, by H. Stuart et al, - and seven commentaries on this study by various authors. The Stuart et al paper describes a survey of 1057 teaching medical faculty members from 15 sites in Europe and Asia. The overall response rate was 65%, and the results indicate clearly that general medical teaching staff have a poor opinion of psychiatry and psychiatrists. For instance, 90% of respondents endorsed the item “Most psychiatrists are not good role models for medical students.”

Benzodiazepine Withdrawal: A Dilemma

Wed, 07 Jan 2015 05:15:47 +0000

On March 17, 2013, I wrote a post titled Withdrawal from Benzodiazepines. In that post I wrote:

"Withdrawal from these drugs is potentially dangerous, incidentally, and medical supervision is a good idea, especially if the dependence is marked. Try to find a physician other than the one who got you hooked on them in the first place. In severe cases, hospitalization is required."

On December 27, 2014, a reader (Nancy Rubenstein) left a comment which stated that this is dangerous advice in that "…there are literally less than a handful of doctors nationwide who have proven they can handle this. There is no safe hospitalisation for people in psych drug withdrawal…" Nancy also pointed out that when people do go to hospital for emergency withdrawal problems, they are often met with disbelief, and that this disbelief can result in further problems, e.g. diagnosis of a "mental illness", further drugging, etc…

All of these points are well taken, and I appreciate Nancy’s feedback. I received similar feedback from Monica Cassani (Beyond Meds) in March of 2013.

ECT for Agitation and Aggression in Dementia

Fri, 02 Jan 2015 05:30:43 +0000

On May 16, 2014, the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry published an article by Deepa Archarya, PhD, et al. The article is titled Safety and utility of acute electroconvulsive therapy for agitation and aggression in dementia. Here are the authors’ conclusions:

"Electroconvulsive therapy may be a safe treatment option to reduce symptoms of agitation and aggression in patients with dementia whose behaviors are refractory to medication management."

In their Introduction section, the authors write:

"Despite the high prevalence of these agitated and aggressive behaviors, there are currently no treatment options approved by US Food and Drug Administration for this indication. Nonpharmacological interventions, including environmental and behavioral modification, are difficult to implement in nursing home settings because of low staff-to-resident ratios."

Preconceived Ideas

Mon, 29 Dec 2014 05:30:59 +0000

On November 27, 2014, the Division of Clinical Psychology of the British Psychological Society published a paper titled Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia. The paper was edited by Anne Cooke, of Canterbury Christ Church University. It challenges the psychiatric medical model that dominates mental health practice in Britain and throughout the world, and offers an alternative perspective on psychosis and on the condition known as schizophrenia.

On December 15, Psychology Today published a pro/con article on the BPS’s paper. Allen Frances, chair of the DSM-IV Task Force, critiqued the paper, while Anne Cooke presented the pro side. Anne’s opening paragraphs were:

Benzodiazepines and Aggression

Fri, 26 Dec 2014 05:30:49 +0000

On November 19, 2014, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry published Benzodiazepine use and aggressive behaviour: A systematic review, by Bonnie Albrecht et al, from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

Here are the authors’ conclusions:

"There appears to be a moderate association between some benzodiazepines and subsequent aggressive behaviour in humans. The circumstances under which aggressive responding may be more likely to follow benzodiazepine use remain unclear, although some evidence suggests dose and/or personality factors may influence this effect."

Straight Talk from Lucy Johnstone

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 05:30:59 +0000

PCCS Books Ltd has recently published A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis, by Lucy Johnstone, PhD. Lucy is a consultant psychologist working in Wales, and has been an outspoken critic of psychiatry’s medical model.

Here are some quotes:

"…my own conclusion, based on extensive reading and clinical work and many enlightening discussions with service users, is that psychiatric diagnosis is not a valid or evidence-based way of understanding the difficulties and distress that people experience."

Dr. Datta – Still Repackaging Psychiatry

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:30:43 +0000

On December 1, Mad in America published an article titled When Homosexuality Came Out (of the DSM). The author is Vivek Datta, MD, MPH, a British physician who is currently a second year psychiatry resident at the University of Washington, Seattle. The article was also published the same day on Dr. Datta’s blog site, Medicine and Society.

The article focuses on the removal of homosexuality from the DSM, which occurred in 1973. Dr. Datta discusses this issue and various related themes, and he draws some conclusions that, in my opinion, are unwarranted and misleading.

Understanding Psychosis – Another Milestone

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 05:45:01 +0000

Last month the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology published a very important document. It’s called Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia, and was edited by Anne Cooke, Principal Lecturer in the Department of Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University.

Here are some quotes:

"It is often assumed that there is a straightforward dividing line between ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’ (normality and abnormality) and that discrete, identified disease processes (for example ‘schizophrenia’) are responsible for experiences such as hearing voices. However, recent research suggests that this is not the case."

The Chemical Imbalance Theory: Still Being Promoted

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:30:44 +0000

On November 28, Psychiatric Times published an article titled Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment of Somatizing Neuropsychiatric Disorders. The authors are Daniel T. Williams, MD, and Alla Landa PhD, both from Columbia University Psychiatry Department.

The article’s lead-in states:

"Although the somatizing disorders cover a vast array of symptomatic domains across many medical specialties, this article addresses the broad topic conceptually."

The so-called somatizing disorders have an interesting history in psychiatry. DSM-III-R (1987) states:

"The essential features of this group of disorders are physical symptoms suggesting physical disorder (hence, Somatoform) for which there are no demonstrable organic findings or known physiologic mechanisms, and for which there is positive evidence, or a strong presumption, that the symptoms are linked to psychological factors or conflicts." (p 255)

Changing Trends of Childhood Disability, 2001-2011

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 05:30:22 +0000

On August 11, Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, published an article by Amy Houtrow, MD, et al. The article is titled Changing trends of childhood disability, 2001-2011

Here are the authors’ conclusions:

"Over the past decade, parent-reported childhood disability steadily increased. As childhood disability due to physical conditions declined, there was a large increase in disabilities due to neurodevelopmental or mental health problems. For the first time since the NHIS began tracking childhood disability in 1957, the rise in reported prevalence is disproportionately occurring among socially advantaged families. This unexpected finding highlights the need to better understand the social, medical, and environmental factors influencing parent reports of childhood disability."

Can Psychiatry Be Reformed from Within?

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 05:30:02 +0000

Vivak Datta, MD, is a second year psychiatry resident at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has a website called Medicine and Society, and on November 14, he published a lengthy article titled Science and Pseudoscience in Psychiatric Training: What Psychiatrists Don’t Learn and What Psychiatrists Should Learn. On November 20, the article was published on Mad in America.

Here are some quotes:

"…what is currently emphasized [in psychiatric training] is tantamount to pseudoscience."

Peter Kinderman in Scientific American. An Important Milestone!

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:30:57 +0000

On November 17, Scientific American published on its MIND blog website Why We Need to Abandon the Disease-Model of Mental Health Care, by Peter Kinderman, PhD.

Here are some quotes:

"The idea that our more distressing emotions such as grief and anger can best be understood as symptoms of physical illnesses is pervasive and seductive. But in my view it is also a myth, and a harmful one. Our present approach to helping vulnerable people in acute emotional distress is severely hampered by old-fashioned, inhumane and fundamentally unscientific ideas about the nature and origins of mental health problems. We need wholesale and radical change, not only in how we understand mental health problems, but also in how we design and commission mental health services."

Psychiatry: Still Trying To Rewrite History

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 05:30:38 +0000

On October 15, psychiatrist Allan Tasman, MD, published an article in Psychiatric Times. The title of the article is The Most Exciting Time in the History of Psychiatry.

Psychiatric Times describes itself: “Our Focus: News, special Reports, and clinical content related to psychiatry. Our Audience: Psychiatrists and allied mental health professionals who treat mental disorders.”

According to Wikipedia: “Psychiatric Times is a medical trade publication written for an audience involved in the profession of psychiatry.” It is published by UBM Medica and is distributed to about 50,000 psychiatrists monthly.

More Cheerleading from the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Fri, 07 Nov 2014 05:30:29 +0000

On October 23, Simon Wessely, MD, a British psychiatrist, published an article, The real crisis in psychiatry is that there isn’t enough of it, at the online site The Conversation. Dr. Wessely is the Professor of Psychological Medicine at King’s College, London, and is also the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The Conversation is an independent non-profit online media outlet that delivers “…news and views from the academic and research community…” directly to the public. Their aim is “…to promote better understanding of current affairs and complex issues.”

More on Benzos and Cognitive Damage

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 05:30:09 +0000

On September 9, 2014, the BMJ published an article by Sophie Billioti de Gage et al. The article was titled Benzodiazepine use and risk of Alzheimer’s disease: case-control study, and concluded:

“Benzodiazepine use is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The stronger association observed for long term exposures reinforces the suspicion of a possible direct association, even if benzodiazepine use might also be an early marker of a condition associated with an increased risk of dementia. Unwarranted long term use of these drugs should be considered as a public health concern.” [Emphasis added]

A Tragedy

Sat, 25 Oct 2014 05:30:14 +0000

I’ve recently received the following video link (3 minutes) from two readers who lost their only child, whom they believe could have been saved but for “a draconian mental health system.”

One Step At A Time

Please take a look.

25 years of depression

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 05:30:50 +0000

I am 44 years old now and it took me over 25 years to conclude that I have depression caused by a physiological issue. I think it started when I was 15, I cannot be absolutely sure as it crept up very slowly – just like failing eyesight.

Like many teenagers I would come home from school very frequently and fall asleep due to exhaustion. This daytime sleep probably fed into an issue with insomnia that I am still learning to control.

Benzodiazepine Use and Risk of Alzheimer's Disease

Fri, 17 Oct 2014 05:30:21 +0000

On September 9, 2014, the BMJ published an article by Sophie Billioti de Gage et al. The article is titled Benzodiazepine use and risk of Alzheimer’s disease: case-control study. The research was a study based on data from the Quebec health insurance program database.

Here are the authors’ conclusion:

"Benzodiazepine use is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The stronger association observed for long term exposures reinforces the suspicion of a possible direct association, even if benzodiazepine use might also be an early marker of a condition associated with an increased risk of dementia. Unwarranted long term use of these drugs should be considered as a public health concern."

A Macabre Celebration: 80 Years of Convulsive 'Therapy'

Thu, 09 Oct 2014 05:30:03 +0000

There’s an interesting article in the June 2014 issue of the Journal of ECT. It’s written by Max Fink, MD, and is titled Celebrating 80 Years of Inducing Brain Seizures as Psychiatric Treatment. Dr. Fink is a psychiatrist and neurologist, and professor emeritus of psychiatry and neurology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.

The article is short (approximately 400 words), and is essentially a tribute to Ladislas Meduna for his discovery “…that induced seizures alleviated severe psychiatric disorders…”, which Dr. Fink describes as “…a remarkable medical advance…”

Psychiatry Disrupted

Tue, 07 Oct 2014 05:30:46 +0000

On August 15, 2014, McGill-Queens University Press published Psychiatry Disrupted: Theorizing Resistance and Crafting the (R)evolution. The work is a collection of papers by various authors, edited by Bonnie Burstow, Brenda A. LeFrançois, and Shaindl Diamond. There is a Foreword by Paula Caplan, and a Preface by Kate Millett.

It is no secret that there is growing opposition to psychiatry. No longer marginalized and ignored, as in former decades, anti-psychiatry writers are proclaiming psychiatry’s spurious and destructive nature in a wide range of venues. Even the mainstream media is taking tentative steps in our direction.

potential lawsuit

Mon, 06 Oct 2014 09:46:04 +0000

To sue or not to sue. I welcome any thoughts . . . lay and/or psych opinions about the following matter. Most of the following was taken from a statement written by the patient’s daughter.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . my mother and I took my father to the emergency room at Hospital due to concerns regarding his diabetes. He had not taken his insulin for several days and was having uncharacteristic confusion along with large thirst for water . . . when the woman who checked us in learned that he was diabetic, he was checked in and taken immediately to one of the rooms. My mother and I accompanied him. . . . a nurse took his blood sugar and measured it to be 485, which she said “wasn’t bad.” While in the emergency room, he continued to behave strangely, but seemed to be in good spirits. He was in good spirits and conversed with several members of staff and told them that someday he would be on TV.

Pharma-funded Research

Fri, 26 Sep 2014 05:30:46 +0000

On August 20, 2014, Psychiatry Advisor published an article on its website. The article was written by Leslie Citrome, MD, a professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. The article is called Is Bias Against Pharma-Funded Research Fair? This is an interesting title, because bias, by its very definition, is unfair. So the very wording of the question begs the question – which strikes me as unfair. But let’s put that aside.

Psychiatric Stigma

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 05:30:52 +0000

I’ve recently read Stigma and mental health problems: why psychiatric professionals are the main culprits, by Gary Sidley, PhD. You can find it on his website. It’s a concise, accurate, and compelling account of how psychiatry stigmatizes its clients. This is a particularly important topic, in that psychiatrists routinely assert that it is we mental illness deniers and critics who create the stigma.

Gary distinguishes public stigma (negative evaluation by the public), and self stigma, which arises when mental health clients accept these negative evaluations and begin to undervalue themselves.

why

Tue, 23 Sep 2014 05:30:33 +0000

I have had a severe depression since I was in high school. I’ve never had a bad life. I have had heart break and not very many good friends. I lost my virginity to a guy after three dates at 21. and i don’t love him or anyone else right now. I dont’ want to talk to him. I don’t want to see him again. I don’t want to have sex again. I’ve been raped in another country, in that i was so freakin drunk that i was about to have sex on a bench, but ,managed to get up and wlak away and he let me. Now, I drink and i feel the need to cut myself. I feel so alone, so scared of this feeling inside me and so embarrassed. I thought i had overcome this in my depression \but my leg is cut up and my hands and i don’t know where else to turn. I don’t want help from ‘professionals’. I got drunk one time and threatened to kill myself. I got beaten by the police and taken to the hospital. The next day i feel fine, and i know i should stop drinking, but I’m 21 and I JUST WANT TO BE NORMAL. It hurts me to know this is inside me and i hate it. The blood fades but the scars never do, and they’re on show for everyone who looks. What then? How do i explain this to other people? My shame, my skin, my depression? I do love my life and i always think that i make this great big progressions in my depression, yet here i am, cutting myself. Is it my subconscious telling me no i’m not okay or is it my depression acting out against my own happiness. Every time that i try to go out with friends, soomething happens to make them cancel, or not be able too. And here i am, cutting myself because i dont’ think that no one loves me because i’m worthless, fat, ugly, not fun, depressing, needy, scary, boring. Whatever. I’m alone, and they don’t see it. If they did, they probably wouldn’t even want to be around me or associated. I hate myself, because no one else seems to like me. I miss having fun and being surrounded by people.

Mass Murderers and Psychiatric Drugs

Mon, 22 Sep 2014 05:30:29 +0000

There’s an interesting article in the current issue of the National Psychologist written by David Kirschner, PhD, a New York psychologist. The National Psychologist is a newspaper-type magazine that publishes articles of general interest to psychologists and others working in this field. Most issues contain a mix of opinion pieces, news, changes in government regulations, etc…

Dr. Kirschner’s article is titled Mass shooters received only limited treatment.

Here are some quotes:

Second Generation Neuroleptics and Acute Kidney Injury in Older Adults

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 05:30:40 +0000

On August 19, 2014, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a paper titled Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs and the Risk for Acute Kidney Injury [AKI] and Other Adverse Outcomes in Older Adults. The authors were Joseph Hwang et al, and the study was conducted at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario, Canada. The primary funding source was the Academic Medical Organization of Southwestern Ontario. The principal investigator was Amit X. Garg, MD, PhD, a kidney specialist at the London Health Science Center and the London Kidney Clinical Research Unit in Ontario, Canada.

Walk in mile in my shoes

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 08:30:42 +0000

My name is vishalatchi arunagiri, I am a 22 year old girl diagnosed with a learning disability and schizophrenia.

I am now recovering very well and have written many articles and published a book online. I am now forming my own meetup group.

During the illness i was sleeping and studying makeup which helped me and i started making progress in focusing.

A Prescription for Psychiatry, by Peter Kinderman, PhD

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 05:30:31 +0000

I recently read Peter Kinderman’s new book, A Prescription for Psychiatry, which was published on September 3 by Palgrave Macmillan. The overall message of the work is captured nicely in the subtitle: Why We Need a Whole New Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing. Dr. Kinderman is Professor of Clinical Psychology, Head of the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society at the University of Liverpool, and an honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Mersey Care NHS Trust in the UK.

Dr. Pies Still Spinning

Mon, 08 Sep 2014 05:28:56 +0000

On July 1, the very eminent psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, wrote an article for Psychiatric Times titled Positivism, Humanism and the Case for Psychiatric Diagnosis. The article also appeared in Medscape on August 20.

Dr. Pies begins by discussing websites “…that critically examine psychiatry.” These websites, he tells us,

"…vary from the viscerally enraged, to the politely skeptical, to the constructively critical, and everything in between. The worst antipsychiatry Web sites, in my view, are veritable bastions of bigotry, in which psychiatrists are subjected to invective and abuse that would never be tolerated if directed, say, at some ethnic or racial minority."

Depression/ ADHD

Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:00:28 +0000

I was searching Google for effects of propaganda on the human psych, and stumbled upon this site. After reading a few stories, I felt I had to share my own.

When I was in high school I was depressed. To the point where I was a walking text book definition. Failing grades, poor hygiene, isolation. All the signs were obvious.

I had to go to rehab for drinking too much cough syrup.

When I went to the doctor he diagnosed me with ADHD. I have never been a hyper person. always rather slow and calm.

Than he tells me that he is going to just experiment with multiple drugs to see what works, and than diagnose me with whatever that drug treats.

First drug was Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate)

Its a new “abuse-free” amphetamine. Due to a coating of protein, the chemical can only dissolve in your stomach acid. Injecting, Smoking, or Snorting would not activate it.

However the prescribed dose taken once a day was enough to make me a full effect of amphetamines, and I began losing alot of sleep. After having multiple panic attacks on this medication, I demanded the doctor take me off of it.

He than gave me Focalin (Dexmethylphenidate Hydrochloride)

Another new “abuse-free” drug. During my younger years I experimented with MDMA, and I would compare the feeling of Focalin with that of Extacy.

When I got into college my doctor pulled me off of it saying that college kids are more likely to sell it, and that he must change my prescription.

Next drug was Strattera (atomoxetine). I threw up every time I took it. It gave me intense piriods of happiness followed by extreme bursts of anger for no reason at all.

I stopped going to the doctor, I stopped taking medications. I no longer trust the medical system, the pharm companies, or even the government. I’d rather suffer the depression untreated than go through what I went through in high school.

On a side note, The experience made me drop out of school, and get my GED. That year, my school experienced a higher drop out rate than ever before.

The Dehumanizing Aspect of DSM

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 05:45:07 +0000

In January 2014, the journal Research on Social Work Practice published a special issue: A Critical Appraisal of the DSM-5: Social Work Perspectives. There were many excellent articles in this volume, some of which I have highlighted in earlier posts.

One of the very outstanding articles is The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a Major Form of Dehumanization in the Modern World, by Eileen Gambrill, PhD, a graduate school Professor at the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley.

More Bogus Conclusions From More Bogus Research

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 05:30:50 +0000

Robert Findling, MD, is a pediatrician and a psychiatrist. He is the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and Vice President of Psychiatric Services and Research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

On July 31, Dr. Findling published a brief video (and article) on Medscape: Adverse Events Caused by a Drug Warning?

Dr. Findling’s article is essentially a commentary on a study by Christine Lu et al, which was published by the BMJ on June 18. Here is the conclusion paragraph from the Lu et al report:

Labelled

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 05:30:06 +0000

I’d been seeing an NHS clinical psychologist for thirteen years. Let’s call her Marie and me Sarah (all names are changed in my story). We talked about what had happened to me and how it had affected me, we looked at what I found difficult. We considered strategies to manage my distress that sometimes manifested as profound anxiety and dissociation, and at others as depression. We used relaxation techniques, grounding techniques. She offered phone support between appointments if she had space, set up a good plan with the GP for their support and for me to use three days of low dose diazepam if I was become overwhelmed and exhausted, just enough to get me back on track. I had some art therapy. We thought about all aspects of my life and how I could best look after myself within my friendship/family groups.

But I began to struggle more as we wrestled the most traumatic episodes of my childhood. I started to feel increasingly suicidal for more of the time and the self-harm increased. I needed more help. I lived alone. We’d often thought that were there a safe place to go, a restful, peaceful, caring place, that would have been so good. Marie and the GP (rightly) suggested hospital would not be that and reviewed what could be done. With some persuading, the Crisis Team began to offer me some support from 2005. They were mixed. One CPN, Matt, was fantastic; most saw me as ‘hysterical’ or a bottomless pit. But they didn’t know me.

Then the Trust axed Marie’s post at a crucial point in my psychodynamic therapy. I was in turmoil. A new clin psych was found, Simon. It took me a time to trust a man, but eventually work became possible and we got back to exploring the part of my past that so often caused me to feel I was a nothing and a no-one with no right to life. I felt I was fighting this beast called suicide who was sucking me in such that only my toes were sticking out of its clamped jaw, jaws my arms could not prize open. I just had to hang on, to not be swallowed, for 2 days until the appointment with Simon, and then there would be help.

Antidepressants and Overall Wellbeing

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 05:30:15 +0000

There was an interesting article published on April 12, 2014 in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. It’s called The Efficacy of Antidepressants on Overall Well-Being and Self-Reported Depression Symptom Severity in Youth: A Meta-Analysis, by Gary Spielmans and Katherine Gerwig, both of the Psychology Department, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota.

The authors conducted a word-search in Medline, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register, and identified 8 studies that met their criteria. They combined the data from these studies and concluded:

People Who Find Psychiatric Drugs Helpful

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 05:30:42 +0000

On July 28, I published a post called Simon Says: Happiness Won’t Cure Mental Illness. The article was essentially a critique of a post written by British psychiatrist Simon Wessely, who is the current President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. In his post Dr. Wessely had stated:

"…you can come at this from the other direction i.e. that by treating their mental illness, patients will inevitably become happier as their suffering is alleviated. And I certainly can’t argue with that."

Evolution Or Revolution?

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 05:30:20 +0000

On July 22, Just Another Word Press.com site ran an article called Evolution not revolution: My thoughts on the DCP’s call for a paradigm shift. The website is owned and operated by MTAS Psychology, an agency providing psychological therapy and expert witness services in Manchester, UK. The article is unsigned.

The primary focus of the article is the paradigm shift paper issued on May 13, 2013 by the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology. That paper, as readers may remember, drew attention to “conceptual and empirical limitations” inherent in psychiatry’s so-called diagnostic system, and called for a paradigm shift – “towards a conceptual system not based on a ‘disease’ model.”

Simon Says: Happiness Won't Cure Mental Illness

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 05:30:44 +0000

Professor Simon Wessely, who was recently installed as President of Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, has just written his second post in that capacity. It’s called Happiness: The greatest gift that I possess?

The background to Dr. Wessely’s article is the recent launching of the UK’s Centre Forum’s Mental Health Commission’s report: The pursuit of happiness: a new ambition for our mental health. This is a very interesting report, the gist of which can perhaps be gained from these quotes:

The Use of Neuroleptic Drugs as Chemical Restraints

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 05:30:09 +0000

On July 17, I wrote a post on the use of neuroleptic drugs as chemical restraints in nursing homes. The article generated some comments, one of which touched on some very fundamental issues which, in my view, warrant further discussion. The comment was from drsusanmolchan and read as follows:

"All drugs can be dangerous toxic chemicals when not used appropriately. While many valid points are made in this article, it’s very one-sided and could be considered biased in that it’s written by a psychologist. I’ve seen many patients and families benefit from their use.

More Psychiatric 'Myth' Debunking

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 05:30:19 +0000

On July 15, I wrote a post called Psychiatry Debunks the ‘Myths.’ In that article I focused on the myth-debunking of Cognitive Psychiatry of Chapel Hill, but in researching the topic for that post, I came across a psychiatry resident named Shan (no last name) who blogs on a website called Exploratory Encephalotomy.

With regards to the name of the website, Dr. Shan explains on his About the blog page:

"…'exploratory encephalotomy' implies opening up somebody’s brain in order to search for something. To the best of my knowledge, it’s not a real medical procedure yet…"

The Use of Neuroleptic Drugs As Chemical Restraints in Nursing Homes

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 05:30:02 +0000

There’s an interesting article in the July-August 2014 issue of the AARP Bulletin. It’s called Drug Abuse: Antipsychotics in Nursing Homes, and was written by Jan Goodwin. AARP is the American Association of Retired Persons. Jan Goodwin is an investigative journalist whose career, according to Wikipedia, “…has been committed to focusing attention on social justice and human rights…”

The article is essentially a condemnation of the widespread and long-standing practice of using neuroleptic drugs to suppress “difficult” behavior in nursing home residents.

Psychiatry Debunks the 'Myths'

Tue, 15 Jul 2014 05:30:02 +0000

Psychiatry has always had its share of critics, but in the past two decades these criticisms have increased in frequency and intensity. Psychiatry's underlying concepts are being denounced as spurious to the point of inanity, and its practices are being accurately and forcefully exposed as destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing.

Psychiatry has no rational or logical response to these criticisms. Its leadership and its rank and file remain stubbornly blind to the arbitrariness and invalidity of its so-called diagnoses, the unquestioning adoption of which distorts their perceptions of people and their problems.

What If You Should Be Depressed?

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 05:30:44 +0000

i have been very depressed three or four times. always it was the same cause. i’ve never had the experience of being depressed for no reason. i’ve never gone to bed feeling fine and woke up feeling depressed.

i think i’ve acquired enough sophistication to say:

i can’t imagine anyone under the same circumstances not becoming very depressed, crying constantly, hating himself, thinking of killing himself.

i also think the circumstances are new to human experience. that is, in the past my guess is such circumstances were very uncommon.

what were they every single time:

a beautiful girl or woman who was unavailable. but not because i was ugly or boring or whatever.

because of my family background.

i live in the us. despite college entrance exams above the mean for admits to all of america’s best universities. despite the same for its graduate school entrance exams, i never had a chance of getting in. my parents divorced. my dad hit me, fornicated, was a loser.

and so am i. social reproduction is reason enough to top yourself.

the pills didn’t work. the psychiatrists and therapists were idiots.

my solution has been alcohol.

i’m in the following study believe it or not https://www.cog-genomics.org/.

but i have no prospects and never will.

anyway, blah, blah, blah…

it is a fundamental tenet of the american ideology, so to say, that the locus of pathology is the individual, never his society and never the two together.

Suicidal Behavior After FDA Warnings

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 05:45:19 +0000

On June 18, the British Medical Journal published an article by Christine Lu et al, titled Changes in antidepressant use by young people and suicidal behavior after FDA warnings and media coverage: quasi-experimental study.

Here’s the conclusion paragraph from the abstract:

"Safety warnings about antidepressants and widespread media coverage decreased antidepressant use, and there were simultaneous increases in suicide attempts among young people. It is essential to monitor and reduce possible unintended consequences of FDA warnings and media reporting."

The Propaganda Is Everywhere

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 05:00:23 +0000

I recently came across the May 2014 issue of The Costco Connection, which is published by Costco Wholesale. This is the first time I’ve seen a copy of this magazine, and I would describe it as a catalog/lifestyle periodical. There are lots of ads for Costco’s own products, and the articles are wide ranging, topical, and easy to read.

This particular issue was drawn to my attention because on page 57, there’s an article titled Blues Clues. The subtitle is: “Physical pain is one of the unexpected signs of depression.” The author is Jodi Helmer, a freelance journalist.

Lingering Doubts About Psychiatry's Scientific Status

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 05:00:51 +0000

Professor Sir Simon Wessely is a British psychiatrist who works at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London. He is also the new President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and in that capacity, he recently wrote his first blog, titled, appropriately enough, My First Blog (May 24, 2014). The article is essentially a perusal of, and commentary on, the program for the RCP’s Annual Congress, about which Sir Simon expresses considerable enthusiasm. He also engages in a little cheerleading.

Psychiatric Propaganda

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 05:00:19 +0000

Recently I received a very nice email from Laura Chapman. Here’s the text:

"Hi there,

My name is Laura and I am emailing because I recently produced a guide on postpartum depression and wanted to share it.

Here is the guide I have helped to make - http://www.psychguides.com/guides/living-with-postpartum-depression/http://www.psychguides.com/guides/living-with-postpartum-depression/

Earlier this year a friend of mine suffered from maternity blues shortly after giving birth to her first child. Coaxing her through it, as I've had two children of my own, made me think about postpartum depression. It got me thinking about what advice or information to give new mothers and their family.

New APA President: Same Old Cheerleading

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 05:00:31 +0000

As my readers know, I am a great fan of former APA President Jeffrey Lieberman, MD. His regular articles on Psychiatric News were always helpful to the anti-psychiatry cause, and he will be greatly missed.

But his successor, Paul Summergrad, MD, has recently posted his first presidential message, APA Poised to Take Advantage of Unique Time in History, and it is already clear that not much has changed. Cheerleading and unabashed self-congratulations are still the order of the day.

Dr. Lieberman's Final APA Address

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:49:27 +0000

On May 29, Psychiatric News ran an article titled Lieberman Sees Promising Future for Psychiatrists, Patients. The author is Mark Moran, a senior reporter for the American Psychiatric Association.

The post is an account of Dr. Lieberman’s outgoing presidential address to the APA conference in New York, and contains many quotes from this most eminent and memorable psychiatrist.

"Our future is now. We have been waiting, many of us our whole lives, for the chance to change the way the world thinks of psychiatry and the way we think of ourselves as psychiatrists. Let’s use the momentum we have to plunge ahead into the next year with our confidence brimming, our energy renewed, and our sights set high."

A Client's Perspective on "Mental Illness"

Sun, 22 Jun 2014 08:50:24 +0000

A very important and compelling article was posted on Mad in America on June 18. It’s by Andrew L. Yoder, and is called An Open Letter to Persons Self-Identifying as Mentally Ill. Here are some quotes:

"My physician was not so cautious. He was a very pleasant man that always seemed to take his time with me and did not talk down to me. Yet as I described some of the emotional distress I was experiencing, and the ways it was affecting my life, he told me with great certainty that mine was a totally common experience. He told me that I had a biological condition in my brain, one in which certain chemicals were 'imbalanced.' He told me that there should be no stigma about asking for assistance from him. Specifically he told me, 'Trying to not be depressed is like telling a diabetic to just make more insulin.' He prescribed an antidepressant medication, saying that this was no different than taking medication to regulate blood pressure or manage cholesterol. I was told of the likelihood that I would need to remain on some form of medication for an indefinite future."

Justina Pelletier Is Back Home

Sun, 22 Jun 2014 05:00:43 +0000

I guess everybody knows by now that Justina Pelletier is back with her parents after 16 months in the custody of Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.

According to a Boston Globe report dated June 9, top DCF officials recently submitted papers to the court asking that Justina be returned to the custody of her parents, and a June 19 Boston Globe article confirmed that Judge Joseph Johnstone had, on June 18, issued an order to that effect.

Psychiatry's Response: Attack and PR

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 05:58:30 +0000

In the last decade or so psychiatry has received a great deal of criticism. The fundamental point of contention is psychiatry’s insistence that an ever increasing range of problems of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving are in fact illnesses that need to be aggressively treated with drugs, intracranial electric shocks, and other somatic interventions. It is further contended, by those of us on this side of the debate, that this spurious medicalization of non-medical problems was not an innocent error, but rather was, and is, a self-serving and deliberate policy designed to expand psychiatric turf and to create an impression of psychiatry as a legitimate medical specialty.

Antidepressants: A Reader's Story

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 05:58:46 +0000

Good afternoon

I live in São Paulo, Brazil, I’m 35 years old, single, and always said I had depression. Was considered slow, sad, spoke little, called donkey and cold, and all this time I thought it was true and should see a psychiatrist.

I searched, the psychiatrist asked a few questions, and used antidepressants, Pristiq and others. At first I was very excited, since it was a more cheerful and talkative person, but two months later went and had the effect of increasing the dose and use lamictal,the remedy worked a little, changed my personality and was a person different, but felt did not want this all my life.

Blame the Clients?

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:58:19 +0000

On June 6, I wrote a post titled Psychiatry DID Promote the Chemical Imbalance Theory. The article was published on Mad in America, and generated a number of comments on that site, five of which were from TherapyFirst, who in his first comment identified himself as Joel Hassman, MD, a practicing psychiatrist.

Dr. Hassman did not argue with the general notion that psychiatric practice today consists almost exclusively of the prescription of drugs. Indeed, in one of his own blog posts on June 16, 2013, he wrote in an open letter to newly qualified psychiatrists:

Social Service and Psychiatry

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:00:37 +0000

I and my daughter are both victims of false sexual abuse allegations. During , the now, five year long ordeal I have witness abysmal and unethical behavior by the psychologists and psychiatrists involved in my case.

The behavior witnessed includes the withholding of retractions by the Social Services hand-picked psychologist The professionals act without regard to the child.

The psychologists/psychiatrists that are used by Child Protective Services are essentially a tool used by Social Services to win their case. The professionals do not care for the children or the parents. They want to ensure that they testify to exactly what Social Services expects of them.

Unfortunately, most attorneys do not know how to critically and effectively question a mental health professional.

I have no doubt that some professionals are sincere but in my specific case I have observed very troubling behavior.

I would be very skeptical of any diagnosis or testimony of any professional who testifies on behalf of social services. One must remember to distinguish between science and pseudoscience.

Diminished Responsibility on the Grounds of Mental Illness

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:58:03 +0000

On February 14, 2013, Oscar Pistorius, a South African Olympic runner, shot and killed his girlfriend in his home in Pretoria, South Africa. Mr. Pistorius’ defense is that the shooting was accidental – that he shot his girlfriend through the bathroom door in a state of panic because he believed she was an intruder. Prosecutors contend that the killing was intentional - and the trial is ongoing.

On May 12, 2014, the defense introduced testimony from Merryll Vorster, MD, a psychiatrist. According to an article in BBC News Africa, Dr. Vorster told the court that Mr. Pistorius has generalized anxiety disorder, and that because of this mental disorder his actions on the occasion in question would differ from those of a “…normal able-bodied person without generalized anxiety disorder.”

From Hell to Hope

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 05:58:52 +0000

Can.you tell I have a cat just by looking at me? Can you tell I have a mental illness just by looking at me?

I began to change in my early teens, be it hormones and my shifting brain chemistry, or the stress of my parents seperating. Something stressor from the outside flipped on the switch to a new life filled with major mood swings out of my control.

Low self extreme kept me from meeting or caring about being social. I only went to school because I had to. Luckily one day two high school girls came to my 8th grade health class and talked to us about everything from Stress to Smoking to Sex even Suicide. They asked us to write thrm a question about these topics and others. I wrote “I want to die"It was the first time I admitted to myself or anyone else that I had these thouhts constantly. When class was over the girls kindly asked if I would like to talk to the counselor.

That day was just the beginning of my journey towards understanding mental illness, and ultimately accepting mental Wellness. Over the next few years I spent time in psychiatric hospitals, tried medication that would hopefully be the missing puzzle piece of chemistry my brain needed. Most of the medications tried their best but caused the worst. I never once stopped taking the medication I was prescribed, for I never wanted to feel so completely out of control again. I realized I was accepting my chemical imbalance and each day I began to understand myself and my issues in a much lighter, hopeful way.

The support I recieved on my journey towards wholness helped me acknowledge I was a person not a problem. My mother was my life support at times. She learned all she could about mood disorders and educated our family so as not to judge me, but be very proud. I also met some peers within the mental health community that I still keep in touch with regularly. It was a blessing to know I was not alone in the issues I faced. And that I would be accepted by my peers, for they had experienced similar challenges.

I knew I had a message and a story to tell. I wanted to share my experience From Hell to Hope with students. That is where my journey began. So , with a father whose son has schizophrenia, and I, with my rapid cycling moods we have spoken to over 4,000 high school students since 2006.

My hope is to stop stigma, treating people badly because they seem different. I want to promote education of mental illness so people suffering and their loved ones will believe recovery is real.

Psychiatry DID Promote the Chemical Imbalance Theory

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 05:58:07 +0000

On April 15, Ronald Pies, MD, an eminent and widely published psychiatrist, wrote an article for Medscape.com. The piece is titled Nuances, Narratives, and the ‘Chemical Imbalance’ Debate in Psychiatry.

The main thrust of the article is that:

"…the 'chemical imbalance theory' was never a real theory, nor was it widely propounded by responsible practitioners in the field of psychiatry."

This is not the first time that Dr. Pies has made this claim, On July 11, 2011, he wrote an article for Psychiatric Times titled Psychiatry’s New Brain-Mind and the Legend of the “Chemical Imbalance.” In that article he wrote:

"In truth, the ‘chemical imbalance’ notion was always a kind of urban legend- – never a theory seriously propounded by well-informed psychiatrists."

Do We Underestimate the Benefits of Antidepressants?

Fri, 30 May 2014 05:58:10 +0000

On April 19, 2014, The Lancet published an article titled Do we underestimate the benefits of antidepressants? by German psychiatrists Mazda Adli and Ulrich Hegerl.

The Lancet, founded in 1823, is a weekly, general medical journal which since 1991 has been owned by Elsevier, a private, Amsterdam-based, publishing house with offices in the UK, USA, and other countries.

The gist of the article can be gathered from the opening paragraph:

Drugging Toddlers for Inattention, Impulsivity, and Hyperactivity

Thu, 22 May 2014 05:58:14 +0000

On May 16, the New York Times ran an article titled Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries, by Alan Schwarz. Here is the opening sentence:

"More than 10,000 American toddlers 2 or 3 years old are being medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outside established pediatric guidelines, according to data presented on Friday by an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

The CDC official is Susanna Visser, MS, DrPh, Acting Associate Director of Science for the Division of Human Development and Disability, and she was speaking at the annual Rosalyn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum. I have not been able to find the text of Ms. Visser's speech. (It will probably be published later.) Meanwhile, there is a good deal of information in Alan Schwarz's article. Here are some more quotes:

"The report, which found that toddlers covered by Medicaid are particularly prone to be put on medication such as Ritalin and Adderall, is among the first efforts to gauge the diagnosis of A.D.H.D. in children below age 4. Doctors at the Georgia Mental Health Forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta, where the data was presented, as well as several outside experts strongly criticized the use of medication in so many children that young."

Childhood Social Functioning Predicts Adult Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder. Or Does It?

Thu, 15 May 2014 05:58:05 +0000

In November 2013, the journal Schizophrenia Research published a paper by Tsuji, T. et al. titled Premorbid teacher-rated social functioning predicts adult schizophrenia-spectrum disorder: A high-risk prospective investigation. Here’s the abstract:

"Social functioning deficits are a core component of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and may emerge years prior to the onset of diagnosable illness. The current study prospectively examines the relation between teacher-rated childhood social dysfunction and later mental illness among participants who were at genetic high-risk for schizophrenia and controls (n=244). The teacher-rated social functioning scale significantly predicted psychiatric outcomes (schizophrenia-spectrum vs. other psychiatric disorder vs. no mental illness). Poor premorbid social functioning appears to constitute a marker of illness vulnerability and may also function as a chronic stressor potentially exacerbating risk for illness."

Social Services and Psychiatry

Fri, 09 May 2014 05:58:40 +0000

The controversy surrounding Justina Pelletier and her family has expanded its scope in recent months, and has now become a general public scrutiny of Massachusetts’s Department of Children and Families.

On April 29, State Governor Deval Patrick gave a press conference in which he announced the resignation of DCF Commissioner Olga Roche.

I think there’s a very real risk of confusing some issues here. The sad fact is that, despite the enormous strides we have made as a society, there are still a great many children who are abused and neglected. Every state in the US has a social services department, one of whose statutory responsibilities is to investigate reports of abuse and/or neglect. The case workers who conduct the investigations are required to follow set procedures. Often they find that the allegation is unfounded, and the investigation is terminated. When they do find probable cause, they are required by law to present their findings to a judge, who scrutinizes the evidence in accordance with the normal judicial procedures. The social services department, the parents, and the child are usually represented by attorneys.

It's no warmer on the inside

Thu, 08 May 2014 05:58:57 +0000

I’m a 29-year-old man with a story I’ve been wanting to share for a while now. It’s not a story of misery or desperation, for which I am every day grateful. More a story of dissatisfaction, occasional crisis, and a desire to understand this whole affair of mental health.

My upbringing was all a person could ask for, a loving and stable family and a fair degree of academic success. If anything was missing, it was simply the acknowledgement that sometimes people get depressed, anxious, or otherwise mad, and that madness in itself is a natural part of life, for some of us more than others.

The FDA: The Fox Guards the Hen House

Wed, 07 May 2014 05:58:15 +0000

In their Fall 2013 issue, the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics published a symposium of papers by members of the Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. The symposium was called Institutional Corruption and Pharmaceutical Policy.

The symposium focuses on pharmaceutical products generally, but all the material is relevant and important in the context of psychiatric drugs.

In this post I will highlight one of these papers: Institutional Corruption of Pharmaceuticals and the Myth of Safe and Effective Drugs, by Donald W. Light, Joel Lexchin, and Jonathan J. Darrow.

Dr. Lieberman's Swansong

Tue, 06 May 2014 05:58:44 +0000

As my readers know, I am a great fan of Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA. In his capacity as president, Dr. Lieberman writes a regular bulletin in Psychiatric News. These literary and intellectual gems have been a wonderful source of inspiration to me in my efforts to draw attention to psychiatry’s flaws, and I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that in many respects, Dr. Lieberman has been one of our greatest allies.

Driving Under the Influence of Stimulants

Sat, 03 May 2014 05:58:25 +0000

On April 22, I published a post on this general topic. In that article I pointed out that the notion of stimulant prescription drugs improving the driving of people who “have ADHD” was gaining traction.

Since than I have come across two articles on this subject from Australia. (Thanks to Nanu Grewal for the links.) Both articles appeared in the Sunshine Coast Daily, and you can see them here and here.

Apparently in 2009, four people, including five-year-old twin girls, died in a two-car accident. The driver of one of the cars had been prescribed dexamphetamine for the treatment of ADHD by a local psychiatrist, and was found to have had six times the prescribed dosage of dexamphetamine in his system at the time of the crash.

Another Critique of the Schizophrenia Diagnosis

Fri, 02 May 2014 05:58:45 +0000

In January 2014, the journal Research on Social Work Practice ran a special issue called A Critical Appraisal of the DSM-5: Social Work Perspectives. There are fifteen articles on this general theme, and together they present a wide range of arguments against the DSM system.

Social workers represent the numerically biggest group of mental health practitioners in the US, and it is particularly gratifying to see a major social work journal addressing this topic so forthrightly.

Depression vs. Normal Unhappiness

Thu, 01 May 2014 05:58:44 +0000

Alex Langford is a British trainee psychiatrist. He blogs at The Psychiatric SHO, and on April 21, he posted an article titled Antidepressants are not ‘happy pills.’ Thanks to Jean Davison for the link.

The article is an impassioned attack on psychiatry’s critics. Here are some quotes, with my responses:

"I am sick and tired of the way the press portrays depression as unhappiness and antidepressants as ‘happy pills’."

This is interesting, though my general impression is that the mainstream media lean a good deal more towards psychiatry than towards our side of the debate. In addition, the words "depression" and unhappiness are pretty much synonymous. So it's difficult to see why that, or the characterization of antidepressants as "happy pills," should be so upsetting to Dr. Langford. We all, of course, have our linguistic likes and dislikes. I personally don't care much for the growing trend to pronounce the indefinite article as "ay," or for psychiatry's insistence on calling neuroleptic drugs "anti-psychotics." But what can you do? I just Googled the phrase "antidepressants are happy pills" and got 204,000 hits! So the notion has some traction and is probably here to stay. One can't legislate for the way people use words. Or perhaps psychiatrists imagine that they can.

"For problems in other areas of health we’d only trust the experts to comment, but when it comes to mental health it seems like anyone can cast judgement."

Another Survivor's Tale

Tue, 29 Apr 2014 09:30:28 +0000

My Story

I tried to commit suicide for the first time when I was 15. I spent my 16th birthday locked up in Dammasch State Mental Hospital, I freaked out when I was told I was going to have to stay so my clothes were ripped off me, by male aids and I was thrown naked in a real padded room… hint they are NOT padded. The light was on all the time and nothing was provided for cover to keep warm. I remember seeing men looking at me and I remember pictures being taken thru the peek hole window. I was in that room, with meals shoved thru a slit in the door for 3 days. The toilet was a hole in the floor and no, there wasn’t any toilet paper. . While at the “hospital”, I remember being put in a strait jacket and tied into a chair and my “meds” forced down my throat. When I realized I could vomit them back up I was sedated and given drugs via an IV. I woke up to being raped. I made friends with one gal, she was 14. She had ( I know know as ) anorexia. I watched her try and try and try to eat. She died. Another person I made friends with hung himself and died. The psy dr said I was on the schedule for shock treatments since I refused to co-operate with the rules and the staff. That scared the shit outta me. I started doing all the things I was supposed to do and 3 months later I was released.. cured. Nothing was different for me, except I learned how to manipulate people to get what I wanted. I HATED that feeling so I never took “advantage” of that “skill”.. Remember I had just turned 16.

In my early 20’s I tried to commit suicide again and committed to another hosp in Vancouver WA with a DX of Manic Depression. I was on a cocktail of lithium, stelazine, tofranil chloral hydrate and a few others I can’t remember the names of .. for more than 7 years I saw a psychiatrist until my divorce and my insurance ran out. Dumped to fare the best I could into the mental health system for the poor I quit all my drugs cold turkey.
It was while under the Dr’s care I read a book he recommended called Self-Talk. I believed I was sick with metal illness(es?) until I read that book. For the first time I heard no one can make me feel anyway at all unless I choose to let them. That my responses to life were totally under my control and direction ALL of them. I was 32. I’ve attempted suicide or came very very close to it 6 times in my life. Finally I asked myself, self, I’m smart enough to have gotten the job done so whats REALLY going on? I figured out WHY I kept diving into the back hole. I really do walk a different, road now thanks to getting the message my subconscious kept sending me. Thats been my experience with the Mental Health system. I am continually agast and appalled at the amount of drugs being forced onto people, particularly children, We adults have been fed a line of BS for so long about depression that it’s destroying us as a nation and no one can see it.

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo - A New Diagnosis?

Tue, 29 Apr 2014 05:58:20 +0000

On April 11, 2014, journalist Alan Schwarz (brief bio here) published an article in the New York Times on this topic, titled Idea of New attention Disorder Spurs Research, and Debate. Alan has written extensively on the rising rates of the condition known as ADHD, and on the abuse of the drugs that are used to “treat” this condition. He has drawn a good deal of criticism from psychiatry’s believers.

Acquiring a Label of ODD

Wed, 23 Apr 2014 10:26:26 +0000

Oppositional Defiant Disorder has to be the cruellest label, stigmatization of all. Allegedly caused by “inconsistent Parenting” routinely misinterpreted to mean “different parenting styles” children who are bored in school, whose coping mechanisms, eg. zoning out, messing in class, who are unable and or unwilling to learn unchallenging material, who question, who are more advanced than their peer age group are routinely labelled as O.D.D.

'ADHD' and Dangerous Driving

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 05:58:38 +0000

In 2006, Laurence Jerome, a Canadian psychiatrist, and two colleagues wrote a paper titled What We Know About ADHD and Driving Risk: A Literature Review, Meta-Analysis and Critique. It was published in the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in August, 2006. The primary result of the meta-analysis was:

"Current data support the utility of stimulant medication in improving driving performance in younger ADHD drivers."

The study is lengthy and well-referenced, but in keeping with standard psychiatric practice, it conceptualizes and presents ADHD as a "…common psychiatric disorder…" with symptoms of "…inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity…" In other words, they present ADHD as something that a person has rather than as something that a person does. The problem with this approach is that it creates the impression that meaningful or significant correlations/effects have been found, where in fact all that has happened is an elucidation of the terms used.

For instance, the authors refer to a study by Fried et al. (2006) and state:

Justina Pelletier: The Debate Continues

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 05:58:48 +0000

On April 1, 2014, Slate published an online article titled Mitochondrial Disease or Medical Child Abuse? The author is Brian Palmer. Slate is a daily, general interest web magazine, founded in 1996, that provides “analysis and commentary about politics, news, business, technology and culture,” and is a subsidiary of the Washington Post. Brian Palmer is Slate’s “chief explainer."

As the title suggests, the article tries to explore the central question in Justina’s case: does she have mitochondrial disease or is she a victim of medical child abuse? The author does a good job of defining the various terms, unraveling the issues, and presenting both sides of the argument, though on balance he comes down in favor of Boston Children’s Hospital. Here are some quotes:

Investigation of Dan Markingson's Death

Fri, 11 Apr 2014 05:57:25 +0000

I have written on Dan Markingson’s death in an earlier post, and I encourage readers who are not familiar with the case to have a look.

It is generally accepted by those of us on this side of the debate that psychiatry does more harm than good, and is organizationally and individually responsible for a great many deaths worldwide every day.

These deaths, however, are seldom laid at psychiatry’s feet. Coroners return verdicts of suicide, homicide, heart attacks, choking, etc… Occasionally psychiatric practice is mentioned as a contributory factor, but not often.

Psychiatry Fights Back – With More PR

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 05:58:04 +0000

About six months ago, I wrote a post called Health Care Reform and Psychiatry. In that article, I gave a brief account of the APA’s Council on Communications, and I expressed the belief that the council seemed more concerned with PR (in the most tawdry sense of the term) than with any serious examination or reform of psychiatric practices.

Lately, I was browsing the APA blog Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives, and it seemed that a good deal of what I was reading seemed to have a fairly heavy PR component. So I opened the Council on Communications tab and found that their lead page is pretty much as it was six months ago.

Antidepressants Make Things Worse in the Long Term

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 05:58:34 +0000

In June 2011, Rif El-Mallakh, MD, et al. published an article, Tardive dysphoria: The role of long term antidepressant use in inducing chronic depression, in Medical Hypotheses. The article is a thorough and wide-ranging study review.

Here are some quotes from the abstract:

"Treatment-resistant and chronic depression appear to be increasing."

"Depressed patients who ultimately become treatment resistant frequently have had a positive initial response to antidepressants and invariably have received these agents for prolonged time periods at high doses." [Emphasis added]

Justina Pelletier: The Case Continues

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 05:58:16 +0000

On March 25, Joseph Johnston, Juvenile Court Justice in Boston, Massachusetts, issued a disposition order in the case: Care and protection of Justina Pelletier. The background to the case is well-known. Justina is 15 years old.

Judge Johnston did not return Justina to the care of her parents, but instead granted permanent custody to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF), with a right to review in June.

In paragraph 4, the disposition order states:

The Perfect Psychiatrist

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 05:58:50 +0000

On March 19, a new article was posted on Aeon Magazine. It’s titled A Mad World, and was written by Joseph Pierre, MD, who works in Log Angeles as a psychiatric practitioner and professor. Dr. Pierre has authored more than fifty papers, and has received several awards. He has lectured nationally and internationally, and would, I think, be considered an eminent psychiatrist. I am grateful to several readers for the link to the article.

Psychiatry Misusing the Political Process

Sun, 30 Mar 2014 10:33:18 +0000

On March 27, the US House of Representatives approved by a voice vote with no debate a Medicare bill, HR 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014. The purpose of the bill is to avoid cutting Medicare payments to physicians, and there was, and is, general agreement on both side of the aisle that the bill needed to pass.

However, tacked onto the bill was a rider which authorized $60 million to expand involuntary outpatient commitment (IOC) in states that already have provision for commitments of this sort.

Benzodiazepines: Disempowering and Dangerous

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:58:11 +0000

I recently read an article by Fredric Neuman, MD, Director of the Anxiety and Phobia Center at White Plains Hospital, NY. The article is titled The Use of the Minor Tranquilizers: Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Valium, and was published in June 2012 by Psychology Today. Thanks to Medicalskeptic for the link.

Dr. Neuman opens by telling us that benzodiazepines are “…very commonly prescribed for any sort of discomfort.”

Robert Whitaker: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 05:50:16 +0000

On March 5, Bruce Levine, PhD, published an interesting article on Mad in America titled Psychiatry Now Admits It’s Been Wrong in Big Ways – But Can It Change?

Bruce had interviewed Robert Whitaker, and most of the article is the transcript of this interview.

Bruce begins by noting that Robert, in his book Mad in America, had challenged some fundamental tenets of psychiatry, including the validity of its “diagnoses” and the efficacy (especially the long-term efficacy) of its treatments.

Involuntary Mental Health Commitments

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 05:58:24 +0000

The recent publicity surrounding the Justina Pelletier case has focused attention, not only on the spurious and arbitrary nature of psychiatric diagnoses, but also on the legitimacy and appropriateness of mental health commitments. It is being widely asserted that these archaic statutes are fundamentally incompatible with current civil rights standards, and the question “should mental health commitments be abolished?” is being raised in a variety of contexts.

CRITERIA

DSM-5 And Somatic Symptom Disorder

Mon, 17 Mar 2014 05:57:51 +0000

Under DSM-IV, a “diagnosis” of somatization disorder entailed a history of physical symptoms for which, despite thorough medical evaluation, no satisfactory physical etiology could be established. In DSM-5, this “diagnosis” was replaced by somatic symptom disorder. This is essentially similar to DSM-IV’s somatization disorder – with one critical difference. The newer “diagnosis” can be assigned even if there is an identifiable physical illness. The essential requirement for the new “diagnosis” – indeed the only requirement – is that the individual is excessively or disproportionately preoccupied with the symptoms. And who, one might ask, decides if a person’s preoccupation is excessive? A psychiatrist, of course, whose vast training in drugs and ECT equips him with the wisdom, empathy, and insight to make such judgments. As the eminent Dr. Biederman proclaimed in a public courtroom on February 26, 2009, a psychiatry professor is second only to God in status and ability!

Thomas Szasz Refuted: I Don't Think So!

Fri, 14 Mar 2014 05:58:26 +0000

On February 28, Awais Aftab, MD, a psychiatrist working in Qatar, published an interesting article on Psychiatric Times. The article, which is titled Mental Illness vs Brain Disorders: From Szasz to DSM-5, is an attempt to validate the concept of “mental illness” and, in particular, claims to refute the position of the late Thomas Szasz, MD, that mental illness is a spurious concept.

The validity or otherwise of the concept of mental illness is fundamental to psychiatry’s claim to legitimacy, and for this reason, Dr. Aftab’s article deserves close scrutiny.

Benzodiazepines: Dangerous Drugs

Wed, 12 Mar 2014 05:58:55 +0000

On February 25, Kristina Fiore published an article on MedPage today. It’s titled Killing Pain: Xanax Tops Charts.

The article is based on a study conducted by Jann M et al, and published in the February 2014 issue of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice. The study is titled Benzodiazepines: a major component in unintentional prescription drug overdoses with opioid analgesics. Here’s a quote:

"During 2003 to 2009, the 2 prescriptions drugs with the highest increase in death rates were oxycodone 264.6% and alprazolam 233.8%. Therefore, benzodiazepines have a significant impact on prescription drug unintentional overdoses second only to the opioid analgesics. The combination prescribing of benzodiazepines and opioid analgesics commonly takes place. The pharmacokinetic drug interactions between benzodiazepines and opioid analgesics are complex. The pharmacodynamic actions of these agents differ as their combined effects produce significant respiratory depression."

More Cheerleading from Dr. Lieberman

Mon, 10 Mar 2014 05:57:50 +0000

On February 28, our good friend, the eminent Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, published Politics of Psychiatry and Mental Health Care on Psychiatric News, the APA’s online bulletin.

His co-author on this occasion is Patrick Kennedy, former Congressman from Rhode Island and co-sponsor of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.

The piece is fluff and cheerleading, which have become Dr. Lieberman’s areas of specialty.

Justina Pelletier and Boston Children's Hospital

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 05:57:54 +0000

Justina Pelletier is the 15-year-old girl who is at the center of a dispute between her parents and the Psychiatry Department at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Justina, who lived with her parents in Connecticut, had been diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, a rare and debilitating illness, and had been receiving treatment for this from Mark Korson, MD, Chief of Metabolism Services at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.

In February of last year, Justina’s parents took her to Boston Children’s Hospital with flu-like symptoms. Dr. Korson had recommended an admission to Boston Children’s so that Justina could be seen by Alex Flores, MD, a gastrointestinal specialist who had recently transferred from Tufts to BCH.

A Blood Test for Schizophrenia with 83% Accuracy?

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 05:55:24 +0000

INTRODUCTION

An NBC online News article dated October 15, 2010, carried the noteworthy title New blood test may help detect schizophrenia. Thanks to Francesca for the link.

The article was written by Natasha Allen, a freelance medical journalist. The gist of the article is that there is a new blood test called VeriPsych which “researchers say” is 83% accurate in discriminating people who are “schizophrenic” from people who are not.

Neuroleptics and Tardive Dyskinesia in Children

Wed, 26 Feb 2014 05:58:47 +0000

There’s an interesting February 11, 2014, article on Peter Breggin’s website: $1.5 Million Award in Child Tardive Dyskinesia Malpractice. Thanks to Mad in America for the link.

Here’s the opening paragraph:

"On February 11, 2014 a Chicago jury awarded $1.5 million to an autistic child who developed a severe case of tardive dyskinesia and tardive akathisia while being treated by psychiatrists with Risperdal and then Zyprexa between 2002 and 2007. The drug-induced disorder was diagnosed when he was fifteen years old and by then had become disabling and irreversible."

Psychiatry Still Trying to Reinvent Itself

Mon, 24 Feb 2014 05:58:43 +0000

There’s a truly delightful little piece in February’s Current Psychiatry. It’s written by Henry Nasrallah, MD, and is titled Psychiatry’s future shock. Dr. Nasrallah is Editor-in-Chief of Current Psychiatry.

The gist of the article is that “transformative” changes are occurring in the psychiatric field, and psychiatrists had better get on board, or they will be left behind.

Here are some quotes:

"The 'neuroscientification' of psychiatry, ongoing for more than 3 decades, is now approaching a tipping point: The specialty is on the verge of an unprecedented denouement of the old tenets and assumptions."

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 05:58:01 +0000

TMS is a psychiatric treatment that uses a rapidly alternating magnetic field to induce electric currents in the brain. These currents stimulate neurons, causing them to “fire.” When used repetitively, TMS is said to alter the excitability of the brain area that has been stimulated. In the psychiatric field, TMS is being used increasingly as a treatment for depression, particularly with so-called treatment-resistant clients. I Googled the string “TMS + depression” and got 1.35 million hits. So the idea is attracting attention.

Real Illness vs. Psychiatric 'Illness' - A Case In Point

Wed, 19 Feb 2014 05:55:43 +0000

On Monday, February 17, cannotsay, a regular commenter on this website, left a link to a White House petition on a recent post.

The petition calls for an investigation into possible civil rights violations in the case of Justina Pelletier, 15, who is being held by court order in a residential unit in Framingham, Massachusetts. The issue is complicated and contentious. The psychiatrists apparently maintain that she has a psychiatric “illness” (somatoform pain disorder), whereas her parents and other physicians say that she suffers from mitochondrial disease. Wikipedia has an article on mitochondrial disease.

Drugging Our Children: A Book Review

Mon, 17 Feb 2014 05:58:16 +0000

The 2012 book Drugging Our Children: How Profiteers Are Pushing Antipsychotics on Our Youngest, and What We Can Do to Stop It, is edited by Sharna Olfman PhD, and Brent Dean Robbins, PhD. It is a collection of ten articles, plus an Introduction and an Afterword by Sharna Olfman. Here are the chapter titles, with a quote from each:

Introduction, by Sharna Olfman, PhD

Genetic Protection Against Schizophrenia?

Wed, 12 Feb 2014 05:58:03 +0000

On November 12, 2013, Molecular Psychiatry published online Evidence that duplications of 22q11.2 protect against schizophrenia, by Rees et al. The print version was published last month – January 2014.

Here’s the authors’ summary:

"A number of large, rare copy number variants (CNVs) are deleterious for neurodevelopmental disorders, but large, rare, protective CNVs have not been reported for such phenotypes. Here we show in a CNV analysis of 47 005 individuals, the largest CNV analysis of schizophrenia to date, that large duplications (1.5–3.0 Mb) at 22q11.2—the reciprocal of the well-known, risk-inducing deletion of this locus—are substantially less common in schizophrenia cases than in the general population (0.014% vs. 0.085%, OR=0.17, P=0.00086). 22q11.2 duplications represent the first putative protective mutation for schizophrenia."

Psychiatry Embraces Patient-Centered Care: Dr. Lieberman

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 05:45:35 +0000

On January 29, the APA’s online bulletin Psychiatric News, published Psychiatry Embraces Patient-Centered Care, by Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, and Lisa Dixon, MD. Dr. Lieberman is President of the APA, and chair of psychiatry at Columbia University. Dr. Dixon is a professor of psychiatry at Columbia.

Here’s the opening statement:

"Psychiatry has long been considered the medical specialty most attuned to listening to the patient."

This is a little difficult to reconcile with the fifteen minute med-check that has been pretty much the standard of care in most psychiatric offices for the past 25 years. It is also difficult to reconcile with reports from psychiatric survivors.

The authors are willing to concede, however, that “…the nature of the doctor-patient relationship was traditionally one-sided.” What they mean by this is:

Revitalizing Psychiatric Therapeutics?

Mon, 10 Feb 2014 05:57:15 +0000

In January of this year, Steven Hyman MD, former Director of NIMH and currently a leading psychiatric researcher at MIT and Harvard, published Revitalizing Psychiatric Therapeutics in Neuropsychopharmacology. The article is in the journal’s commentary section and is essentially an opinion piece. Here’s Dr. Hyman’s summary:

"Despite high prevalence and enormous unmet medical need, the pharmaceutical industry has recently de-emphasized neuropsychiatric disorders as 'too difficult' a challenge to warrant major investment. Here I describe major obstacles to drug discovery and development including a lack of new molecular targets, shortcomings of current animal models, and the lack of biomarkers for clinical trials. My major focus, however, is on new technologies and scientific approaches to neuropsychiatric disorders that give promise for revitalizing therapeutics and may thus answer industry's concerns."

Schizophrenia Research

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 05:57:35 +0000

Psychiatric News is the APA’s online bulletin. On Jan 15, it ran an article by Vabren Watts (an APA staff writer). The article is called APA Gives Schizophrenia Research Capitol Hill Spotlight.

It is reported in the article that on December 12, 2013, the APA, together with the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus and the American Brain Coalition, made a joint presentation to legislators and their staffs on

Life Is Bipolar

Sun, 02 Feb 2014 06:01:41 +0000

I am a 30 year man who finally realized a few months ago (after finding this website) that he is not mentally ill but just an adult who often acts like a child. I dabbled with some “official” drugs (meaning prescribed) in the last few years when I was first diagnosed with depression (was put on anti deps + anti anxiety pills) and then bipolar a year later (this time it was mood stabilizers and sleeping pills).

Clubfoot – A Story of Hope

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 05:58:48 +0000

On January 27, NPR ran a short piece on a new treatment for clubfoot. Here’s a quote from the transcript:

"Just a decade ago, up to 90 percent of babies…were treated with surgery that usually had to be repeated several times. That created a buildup of scar tissue that often left patients with a lifetime of chronic pain, stiffness, arthritis and medical bills. But with the help of a simple, noninvasive solution and an Internet campaign led by parents, the course of treatment and likely outcomes have changed completely."

The Problem of Blame

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 05:52:05 +0000

On January 27, I posted Maternal Attachment in Infancy and Adult Mental Health. In this article I reviewed a longitudinal study by Fan et al. The main finding of the study was:

“Infants who experience unsupportive maternal behavior at 8 months have an increased risk for developing psychological sequelae later in life.”

In my article, I pointed out that the correlation between the low maternal attachment ratings and subsequent "mental health" issues was not perfect, so clearly this was not the only factor involved in the adult children's subsequent problems. But I also made the point that what we do as parents affects how our children function in adulthood.

For me this is simply an obvious fact of life that tragically has been barred from discussion by the psychiatric mantra – that all significant problems of thinking, feeling, and/or behavior are genetic-linked brain illnesses, and that parents couldn’t have impacted the outcome one way or the other.

Maternal Attachment in Infancy and Adult Mental Health

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 05:58:09 +0000

There's an interesting article by Angela Fan et al, in Comprehensive Psychiatry, October 28, 2013. It's titled Association between maternal behavior in infancy and adult mental health: A 30-year prospective study. The data for this investigation were gathered as part of a wider longitudinal study.

PROCEDURE

ADHD: Are We Helping Or Harming?

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 06:20:42 +0000

In November 2013, the British Medical Journal published Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: are we helping or harming? by Rae Thomas, PhD, Psychologist, Australia; Geoffrey K. Mitchell, MB BS, FRACGP, PhD, Professor of General Practice, Australia; and Laura Batstra, PhD, Psychologist, Netherlands. The article is part of a series on the dangers of overdiagnosis.

Here are some quotes:

"Prevalence and prescribing rates for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have risen steeply over the past decade, partly in response to concerns about underdiagnosis and undertreatment."

DSM-5: Dimensionality: Conflicts of Interest

Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:01 +0000

In DSM-5 – Dimensional Diagnoses – More Conflicts of Interest? which I posted on December 23, 2013, I drew attention to the fact that David Kupfer, MD, in his position as head of the DSM-5 Task Force, was vigorously promoting a dimensional model of assessment while at the same time was positioning himself to benefit financially if such a system were to be adopted by psychiatry generally.

Dr. Lieberman Still Passing the Buck: Psychiatry Is Blameless

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 05:47:05 +0000

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, has expressed concern about the rise in the number of people being assigned a “diagnosis” of ADHD. He has put up a video on Medscape, Explaining the Rise in ADHD. There is a transcript with the video.

Dr. Lieberman is responding to a December 14, 2013, New York Times article The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder, by Alan Schwarz, and a December 18 editorial in the same paper titled An Epidemic of Attention Deficit Disorder.

New President of Royal College of Psychiatrists: Priorities

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 06:01:42 +0000

The Royal College of Psychiatry is the UK equivalent of the American Psychiatric Association. On January 14, they announced that Professor Simon Wessely has been elected as their next president, and that he will take office on June 26, 2014.

Dr. Wessely is an eminent psychiatrist who has been knighted by the Queen for his services to psychiatric medicine.

In their press release, the Royal College reported that Dr. Wessely’s priorities as President will be:

SSRIs and Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN)

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:45:27 +0000

There’s a new study in the January 2014 issue of the BMJ: Grigoriadis et al, Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn: systematic review and meta-analysis. Thanks to Nanu Grewal for the link.

PPHN is a relatively rare condition. The authors report that the estimated prevalence is about 1.9 per 1000 live births. The disease is essentially a failure of the newborn’s circulatory system to switch from oxygen supply via the placental blood, to oxygen supply via the baby’s own lungs. The condition is usually diagnosed at birth or shortly thereafter. Symptoms include: rapid and difficult breathing, fast heart rate, and blue skin color. PPHN is a serious condition. A 2010 article by Robin Steinhorn, MD, states:

National Hugging Day: Important Questions

Mon, 20 Jan 2014 10:31:52 +0000

January 21 (tomorrow) is National Hugging Day here in the US, and newspapers and other media outlets will be encouraging us to distribute hugs generously and indiscriminately. We will be “educated” on the benefits of hugs, not only to our emotional well-being, but to our health and welfare generally.

In my local paper, I came across a mindbodygreen.com article on this topic. Here are some quotes:

"Hugs strengthen the immune system. The gentle pressure on the sternum and the emotional charge this creates activates the Solar Plexus Chakra. This stimulates the thymus gland, which regulates and balances the body's production of white blood cell"

Training Of Psychiatrists: What The Future Holds

Mon, 20 Jan 2014 06:06:53 +0000

Joel Yager, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado at Denver School of Medicine. He started his career as a US Army psychiatrist in 1969, and has held a wide range of clinical and teaching positions in the intervening years. He has received numerous awards, including lifetime achievement awards from the National Eating Disorders Association (2008) and from the Association for Academic Psychiatry (2009). He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, many of which are concerned with the training of psychiatrists.

Evaluating DSM-5: A Debate at Harvard

Thu, 16 Jan 2014 06:10:12 +0000

There’s a debate on this topic scheduled for 12:00 p.m., March 11, 2014, at Wasserstein Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event is free, and open to the public.

The debate is sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center For Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. This is the same group that produced the recent symposium on Institutional Corruption and Pharmaceutical Policy.

The debate will be moderated by I. Glen Cohen, Professor Law at Harvard and Co-Director of the Petri-Flom Center.

Antidepressants and Suicide

Wed, 15 Jan 2014 05:52:00 +0000

There was an interesting article, Antidepressant regulations tightened following suicide, in the Copenhagen Post on January 7. Thanks to Mad in America for the link. It is reported that Danilo Terrida, aged 20, committed suicide in 2011

"…eleven days after he was prescribed antidepressants following an eight-minute-long conversation with a doctor."

The doctor has been deemed responsible for the suicide by the National Agency for Patients' Rights and Complaints. According to its website:

"The National Agency for Patients' Rights and Complaints functions as a single point of access for patients who wish to complain about the professional treatment in the Danish health service."

Recovery Model: A Reader's Story

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:35:43 +0000

Very interested to read some of your very clearly reasoned, explained and referenced posts. I am familiarising myself with the status of the Recovery Model of mental health for my new job and have repeatedly come across critiques of modern psychiatry and the DSM diagnosis. I am encouraged by this line of questioning because I have 7 years experience with the Grow peer support program for recovery and personal development. Like many recovery programs, it largely ignores diagnosis, seeks to recognise and draw out the strength and human potential in all of us and has helped many people to dispense with meds altogether and live a productive, peaceful and happy life. In contrast I have found it heartbreaking to see the dehumanising “flattening” of friends when they have been heavily medicated or zapped. Learning how to constructively experience, integrate and grow from the disappointments and challenges of life has been preventative for me and taken me off the slippery path of unhealthy thoughts and attitudes. Professional therapists need to see psych patients as humans first with intrinsic value and untold potential. They need to see the purpose of medication as the end of medication. Thank you.

Is Psychology Going the Way of Psychiatry?

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 05:45:46 +0000

On January 7, Maria Bradshaw, co-founder of CASPER, published an interesting article on Mad in America. It’s called Prescribing Rights for Psychologists, and it suggests that psychology as a profession may be falling into some of the same errors that enmire psychiatry.

Maria makes some very compelling points, and focuses particularly on the fact that psychologists have won prescribing rights in a number of jurisdictions, and are engaged in an ongoing effort to expand this aspect of their work.

Understanding Human Behavior

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 05:46:31 +0000

A couple of months ago I wrote an article concerning ECT which generated some controversy. One of the issues that came up was the relationship between biological explanations of human activity and more global explanations, which, for want of a better term, I’ll call person-centered explanations.

Any human activity can be viewed from different levels of abstraction. Suppose, for instance, that I am sitting in my living room reading a book. Then I put the book down, stand up, and go outside. If the question were to be asked: why did he put the book down and go outside? A wide range of perspectives and answers are possible. One could, for instance, focus on the fact that I am a biological organism, and one could develop a detailed and comprehensive flow sheet of every muscle movement, every heartbeat, every sensory input, neural impulse etc., that had occurred from the moment that I put the book down until I was standing outside. Such an account might be more or less detailed. There would, of course, be physical limitations on the amount of information of this sort that is attainable, but from a theoretical point of view, one could compile a detailed, complete, and accurate biological account of the actions in question. And such an account would be a valid response to the question: why did he put the book down and go outside.

Antidepressants and Liver Failure

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 05:46:45 +0000

Last month (December 2013) the American Journal of Psychiatry published Antidepressant-Induced Liver Injury: A Review for Clinicians, by Voican C.S. et al. The study was a literature search from 1965 onwards.

Here are the authors’ results:

All antidepressants can induce hepatotoxicity, especially in elderly patients and those taking more than one drug
Liver damage is generally unpredictable and unrelated to dose
Liver damage can occur within a few days of initiation
Antidepressant-induced liver failure can be life threatening
Antidepressants with higher risk for liver failure include: iproniazid, nefazodone, phenelzine, imipramine, amitriptyline, duloxetine, bupropion, trazodone, tianeptine, and agomelatine
Antidepressants with lower risk: citalopram, escitalopram, paroxetine, and fluvoxamine
Although an infrequent event, antidepressant-induced liver injury may be irreversible

Affluenza: A New Mental Illness?

Fri, 10 Jan 2014 05:50:55 +0000

A short editorial piece by James Bradshaw in the current issue (Jan/Feb) of the National Psychologist discusses the trial of a 16-year-old male who killed four people and severely injured two others while driving under the influence of Valium (diazepam) and alcohol. He had stolen the alcohol from a store earlier, and his blood alcohol level was three times the legal adult limit. He was driving 70 mph in a 40 mph zone at the time of the incident.

Psychiatry Is Not Based On Valid Science

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 05:58:12 +0000

BACKGROUND

On December 23, I wrote a post called DSM-5 - Dimensional Diagnoses - More Conflicts of Interest? In the article I sketched out the role of David Kupfer, MD, in promoting the concept of dimensional assessment in DSM-5, and I speculated that at least part of his motivation in this regard might have stemmed from the fact that he is a major shareholder in a company that is developing a computerized assessment instrument. I ended the piece with a general criticism of psychiatry:

Person-first Terminology Doesn't Validate Psychiatric Diagnoses

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 05:40:30 +0000

On January 3, on CommonHealth I saw the following headline: A Phrase To Renounce For 2014: ‘The Mentally Ill’, written by Carey Goldberg.

My first impression was that the author was debunking the concept of mental illness, but I was sadly mistaken. The theme of the article was the so-called person-first terminology that has been promoted by various bodies and agencies since about the mid-eighties.

The idea is that one shouldn’t say “a developmentally disabled child.” Instead, one should say “a child with a developmental disability.” Similarly, a person should not be referred to as an “alcoholic,” but rather as a “person with alcoholism.” And so on. The idea is to avoid giving the impression that the individual is to be defined by the presence of a disabling condition. The individual is first and foremost a person, and the problem or disability is semantically tacked on to indicate that it is a quality of the person rather than the defining feature.

The Sandcastle Continues to Crumble: ADHD Does Not Exist

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 05:48:55 +0000

BOOK PREVIEW

Richard C. Saul, MD ADHD Does Not Exist: The Truth About Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder Publication date: February 18, 2014

************************

Those of us on this side of the psychiatry debate have been saying for decades that the condition known as ADHD is not an illness, but is rather an arbitrarily delineated cluster of vaguely defined problems that children have acquired in various ways. We have also pointed out that psychiatry's labeling of this condition as an illness is simply another instance of their inexorable turf expansion, and that their widespread drugging of the individuals so labeled is destructive and disempowering.

And, also for decades, psychiatry has been marginalizing us as unscientific mental illness deniers, who seek to put the clock back and deprive people suffering from this “illness” of the vital “treatment” that they so desperately need.

Sandy Hook Massacre: The Unanswered Question

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 05:50:32 +0000

On December 27, 2013, Connecticut State Police issued a 7,000-page, heavily redacted, report on the massacre that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School just over a year earlier (December 14, 2012). For the record, I have not read the 7,000-page report, but I have read the Wikipedia article Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, last updated January 4, 2013, and several media reports on the matter, including reports from the New York Times, the Hartford Courant, and the Washington Post.

Psychiatry's Over Reliance On Pharma

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 05:50:13 +0000

I recently read The NIMH-CATIE Schizophrenia Study: What Did We Learn? by Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, and T. Scott Stroup, MD, MPH. The article was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry 168:8, August 2011.

Here are two quotes:

"When the CATIE study was designed in 1999-2000, the prevailing opinion of researchers and clinicians alike was that the newer (second-generation) antipsychotic drugs were vastly superior to the older (first-generation) antipsychotic drugs in efficacy and safety. This largely reflected the results of studies sponsored by the manufacturers of the new drugs…, marketing messages of pharmaceutical companies and the hopes of many who wanted better treatments."

Psychiatric Dogmatism

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 05:50:31 +0000

In November, Joanna Moncrieff, MD, a British psychiatrist who works as a Senior Lecturer in psychiatry at University College London and a practicing consultant psychiatrist, started her own blog. What’s remarkable about this blog is that it is highly critical of psychiatry. Dr. Moncrieff marshals important facts and arguments in this area, and it is probably safe to say that her popularity among her peers is in decline.

The facts that she adduces, however, are indisputable, and her qualities of honesty, courage, and integrity are evident in everything she writes.

A Compelling Critique of Psychiatric 'Diagnosis'

Mon, 30 Dec 2013 05:48:14 +0000

I have just read a very interesting and insightful article on this topic. It’s called After DSM-5: A Critical Mental Health Research Agenda for the 21st Century. It was written by Jeffrey Lacasse, PhD, and is a guest editorial published in Research on Social Work Practice.

Here are some quotes:

"At times, it has seemed that the APA has behaved very much like a corporation seeking profit and influence rather than a scientific organization charged with the crucially important task of defining mental disorders."

Dr. Lieberman on Value and Price: Psychiatry Continues to Side-step Criticism

Sun, 29 Dec 2013 05:46:10 +0000

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, is the President of the APA, and every two weeks or so he writes psychiatric propaganda articles on Psychiatric News (the APA’s online bulletin).

On December 26, his piece was titled APA Successful in Attaining Higher Work Values for Psychiatry. Here’s the first paragraph:

"In an ideal world, value and price would be closely aligned. This alignment doesn’t occur, however, when the value of a service or good isn’t understood. One only has to look at the huge disparity between the salaries of teachers compared with entertainers and sports figures to appreciate this incongruity; or between compensation in the financial-services industry and medicine. For too long, this has especially been the case for psychiatric services. Mental illness is a health care disparity, and mental health care has been stigmatized and undervalued, as have been the physicians who provide it. The result has been inappropriately low reimbursement rates for psychiatric treatment and a corresponding lack of access to mental health care for too many patients."

Dr. Lieberman Thanks Dr. Scully

Sat, 28 Dec 2013 05:55:47 +0000

As my regular readers know, I am a big fan of Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, eminent President of the American Psychiatric Association. I study his bulletins on Psychiatric News avidly, not only for the insights they provide in the areas of human frailty and self-deception, but also for their literary qualities of obfuscation and semantic distortion.

It is, therefore, with some alarm that I confess that I missed the good doctor’s epistle of December 13. This was pointed out to me by a reader, who was also kind enough to say that without my clarificatory commentary, he is simply unable to fathom Dr. Lieberman’s insights and erudition.

Murphy's Mental Health Bill: An Update

Fri, 27 Dec 2013 10:01:56 +0000

Yesterday, December 26, at 8:25 p.m., the following comment was posted on my December 16 post on the Murphy Mental Health Bill.

"Read the article in today's Wall Street Journal (12/26/13), 'A Mental-Health Overhaul', and you cannot help but be in favor of the Murphy Bill. It is a huge misrepresentation to say it is about 'coercive tactics'. Take the bill piece by piece and debate it. If you have experienced the mental healthcare system you would recognize that this legislation is badly needed and long over due."

DSM-5 - Dimensional Diagnoses - More Conflicts of Interest?

Mon, 23 Dec 2013 05:58:32 +0000

BACKGROUND

On November 20, JAMA Psychiatry (formerly Archives of General Psychiatry) published an interesting letter. It was headed: Failure to Report Financial Disclosure Information, and was signed by Robert D. Gibbons PhD, David J Weiss PhD, Paul A. Pilkonis PhD, Ellen Frank, PhD , and David J. Kupfer MD.

The letter is an apology for failing to disclose a financial interest in an article, Development of a Computerized Adaptive Test for Depression, that had appeared in Archives of General Psychiatry a year earlier (November 2012). The article described a computerized questionnaire for depression (the CAT-DI) and was generally positive with regards to the potential usefulness of the test in clinical settings. In the article, the authors had clearly stated that they had no conflicts of interest, but that:

CAFÉ Study: Real Science or Marketing Exercise?

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 05:58:21 +0000

BACKGROUND

On December 8, I received the following question from a reader: (The subject matter is the controversial CAFÉ – Comparisons of Atypicals in First Episode of Psychosis - study. This was the study in which Dan Markingson committed suicide.)

"It appears that there was no head-to-head with a control group taking a placebo pill. Nor was there a control group featuring 'old' types of 'antipsychotic'. If that was the case then it is very poor study. If you are just looking at 3 'new' subtypes of a 'new' class - then what on earth can you hope to show from the data."

Murphy's Mental Health Bill

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 17:42:32 +0000

It is no secret that pharma-psychiatry has come under considerable criticism in recent years. In general, they do not respond to these criticisms, but instead they continue to beat the same old drum: mental illness is becoming increasingly prevalent; we need more mental health screenings; we need more funding for “treatment”; and we need wider coercive powers to ensure that these sick people take their drugs. They are also using the school shootings to generate alarm about “untreated” mental illness, and are calling in support from various quarters, including politicians.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 05:51:57 +0000

There’s a new entry on the Tell Your Story section of my website.

The author, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells how during his teenage years, his social skills were poor, and he met the criteria for schizoid personality disorder, the essential features of which are social isolation and emotional detachment.

Here are two quotes:

"By the end of this project I had developed solid social skills, created an interesting circle of friends and no longer met the criteria for 'schizoid personality disorder'. This is without any psychiatry, medication, or even the knowledge that I was 'suffering' from something that many consider a 'disorder'."

My Story: Schizoid Personality

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 05:45:50 +0000

During my teenage years I met the World Health Organization’s criteria for “schizoid personality disorder”. At the time, I did not consider the possibility that there might be anything wrong with me. Instead, I believed that my isolation was a result of a lack of social understanding.

So at age eighteen, when I left my harmful family environment to go to college, I set out to remedy this lack of social skills. I broke off communication with every one of my high school associates and set out to meet lots of new people and involve myself in many social activities. Meanwhile, I learned everything I could about human behavior. I researched history, economics and art; biology, anthropology and evolution. I learned the principles of marketing and tried them out in real life. I visited websites and combed one-by-one through what amounts to perhaps a thousand individual psychological research summaries. Then I examined the mathematics of information theory and machine learning to put this all together.

New Money For Mental Health

Fri, 13 Dec 2013 05:56:20 +0000

On December 10, Vice President Joe Biden announced that $100 million of new Federal money is to be injected into the US mental health system “…to expand community-based services and treatment centers.” There’s a short article about this in the Washington Post. It’s written by Scott Wilson, the Post’s chief White House correspondent.

The article states that the “…inadequacy of mental health and addiction care…” is a topic that “…gained urgency after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a year ago, a crime carried out by a mentally disturbed gunman.” This is a reference to 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who killed 20 children and 6 adult staff, himself, and his mother in the incident.

Training the Psychiatrists of the Future (According to Dr. Lieberman): More Cheerleading

Wed, 11 Dec 2013 05:50:36 +0000

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA and Chair of Psychiatry at Columbia University, published a post on November 26 on Psychiatric News. The article is called Training the Psychiatrists of the Future, and is co-authored by Richard Summers, MD. Dr. Summers is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

Drs. Lieberman and Summers open by telling us that psychiatrists’ roles “…are changing and will continue to change.” That sounds great, but don’t expect too much. There will still, they tell us, be a need for:

Mental Illness: A Man-made Monster

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 05:45:41 +0000

I found the above image online yesterday, at the site The Things We Say.

Mental illness is also man-made. It is the invention of psychiatry - their spurious medicalization of all significant problems of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving. Its purpose is to legitimize the prescription of dangerous psychotropic drugs to as many people as possible. It benefits psychiatrists and drug companies, but damages, stigmatizes, and disempowers its victims.

U of Minnesota Faculty Senate Vote To Review Dan Markingson's Death

Fri, 06 Dec 2013 10:39:03 +0000

In 2004, 26-year-old Dan Markingson committed suicide. Since then, numerous concerns have been expressed about the events that led up to his death. In particular, it has been claimed that he was coerced into the CAFE study, and that he was too delusional to understand what was involved. It has also been reported widely that his mother, Mary Weiss, saw his condition deteriorate while he was taking the study drug - Seroquel (quetiapine) - and that she made numerous unsuccessful requests to the researchers to have him removed from the study.

CHOOSING A DIRECTION: PSYCHIATRY VS RECOVERY

Fri, 06 Dec 2013 05:55:07 +0000

The Disease-Centered Model Vs. The Drug-Centered Model

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 05:55:33 +0000

Joanna Moncrieff is an eminent British psychiatrist, a founding member of the Critical Psychiatry Network, and the author of several papers and books, including The Myth of the Chemical Cure and Bitterest Pills. I have discussed both of these books on this website, and I recommend them highly. Dr. Moncrieff speaks out clearly and fearlessly about the concepts and practices that drive modern psychiatry.

In both of the books mentioned above, Dr. Moncrieff advocates a shift from a disease-centered model of drug action to a drug-centered model.

Neuroleptics for Children: Harvard's Shame

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 05:58:42 +0000

In December 2012, Mark Olfson, MD, et al, published an article in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The title is National Trends in the Office-Based Treatment of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Antipsychotics. The authors collected data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys for the period 1993-2009, and looked for trends in antipsychotic prescribing for children, adolescents, and adults in outpatient visits. Here are the results:

Age	Increase in no. of antipsychotic prescriptions per 100 population (1993-2009)
0-13	0.24-1.83 (almost 8-fold)
14-20	0.78-3.76 (almost 5-fold)
21+	3.25-6.18 (almost 2-fold)

The authors provide a breakdown of the diagnoses assigned to the children and adolescents during the antipsychotic visits.

Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 06:01:49 +0000

On November 28, I put up a post on the adverse effects of benzodiazepines, including the potential for protracted and serious withdrawal problems.

Since then I’ve become aware of a helpful and interesting resource in this area. It’s called Benzo Info, and is on Monica Cassani’s blog, BeyondMeds.

Monica has first-hand experience of benzodiazepine withdrawal, and her comments and suggestions are always helpful, supportive, and insightful. She also provides a comprehensive list of links to other materials dealing with specific aspects of this problem, including forums and support groups.

Benzodiazepines – Adverse Effects

Thu, 28 Nov 2013 05:55:15 +0000

On November 25, Mad in America posted a link to an article in the Journal of Neurological Sciences. The article is by Harnod et al, and is titled An Association between Benzodiazepine Use and Occurrence of Benign Brain Tumors. The authors studied the records of 62,186 individuals in Taiwan who had been prescribed a benzodiazepine for at least 2 months between 2000 and 2009. They compared the incidence of brain tumors in these patients with the incidence in patients in a matched-pairs control group. The hazard ratio for benign brain tumors (benzo group vs non-benzo group) was 3.15 (95% confidence interval: 2.37-4.20). The hazard ratio for malignant brain tumors was 1.21 (95% confidence interval: 0.52-2.81). What this means essentially is that one can be 95% confident that the benign tumor association is real, but that the malignant tumor result might have arisen by chance.

Is Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Effective?

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 05:58:02 +0000

ECT, or shock treatment as it’s sometimes called, is a controversial topic. Adherents describe it as safe and effective; opponents condemn its use as damaging and ineffective. But it is still widely used in the US and in other countries.

The treatment consists essentially of passing sufficient electricity across the brain to cause a seizure. Clients are anesthetized during the process. It is used primarily in cases of severe depression. Typically, shock treatment is administered twice a week until the depression remits or until no further improvement is noted in two successive sessions. Most courses of treatment involve about eight sessions.

The Bitterest Pills, by Joanna Moncrieff: Another Book Worth Reading

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:55:24 +0000

Dr. Joanna Moncrieff is a UK psychiatrist and a founding member of the Critical Psychiatry Network. In 2009 she wrote The Myth of the Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment.

Her latest book, The Bitterest Pills, was published earlier this year, and is about neuroleptic drugs (the so-called anti-psychotics). You can get an idea of the tenor and scope of the work from the table of contents:

Curse or Cure: What Are Antipsychotics?
Chlorpromazine: The First Wonder Drug
Magic Bullets: The Development of Ideas on Drug Action
Building a House of Cards: The Dopamine Theory of Schizophrenia and Drug Action
The Phoenix Rises: From Tardive Dyskinesia to the Introduction of 'Atypicals'
Looking Where the Light Is: Randomised Controlled Trials of Antipsychotics
The Patient's Dilemma: Other Evidence on the Effects of Antipsychotics
Chemical Cosh: Antipsychotics and Chemical Restraint
Old and New Drug-induced Problems
The First Tentacles: The 'Early Intervention in Psychosis' Movement
The Antipsychotic Epidemic: Prescribing in the Twenty-first Century
All is not as it Seems

There are 39 pages of references at the back.

Here are some quotes:

Depression Is Not An Illness: A New Website

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 06:01:25 +0000

I’ve recently come across a new website that is challenging the illness approach to depression.

It’s depressionwars.com and is written by Char Leander, an industrial sociologist. Char became interested in this topic when she saw “…the epidemic of emotional disorders in the workplace.” She also recounts some personal experience with depression.

Here are some quotes from her November 11 post Fight Back Against Depression:

"You have to fight back against depression as disorder! The walls of depression may be high, but higher still are the invincible mental walls erected around the concepts of disorder, mental illness, and disease."

Causes of High Mortality in People Labeled 'Mentally Ill'

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:29:47 +0000

ANOTHER VIDEO FROM DR. LIEBERMAN

On October 28, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, made another video. This one is titled An Important Look at Mortality in Mental Illness: A Decade of Data on Psychotropic Drugs, and was made for Medscape. You can see the transcript at the same site. Medscape is a web resource for medical practitioners.

The video is Dr. Lieberman’s commentary on an article that appeared in JAMA Psychiatry online on August 28: Comparative Mortality Risk in Adult Patients With Schizophrenia, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Participating in Psychopharmacology Clinical Trials, by Arif Khan, MD, et al.

Care For Your Mind (CFYM): A New Advocacy Group

Sat, 09 Nov 2013 06:44:02 +0000

On September 27, Psychiatric Services, a journal of the APA, published an article called Blog Brings Doctors, Patients Together to Address MH Issues. It was written by Vabren Watts, a Psychiatric News Journalist.

The article is a booster piece for the recently-formed CFYM (Care For Your Mind):

"…an online forum for people with mood disorders—along with their families and psychiatrists—to discuss the mental health care system and changes that may affect them under health care reform."

The Dangers of SSRI's

Thu, 07 Nov 2013 06:00:34 +0000

SSRI’S AND SUICIDE

Bob Fiddaman has a post up today called MHRA Consultant Calls for Antidepressant Use in Young. The article highlights some of the dangers associated with SSRI’s, and also describes some of the attempts to suppress or discount the significance of this information.

Apparently in 2010, Swedish psychiatrist Göran Isacsson, MD, PhD, published a paper in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. The piece was titled Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression, and reported that of a group of 1,077 depressed people who had committed suicide, only 15.2% had measurable amounts of antidepressants in the blood stream at the time of the suicide.

Dr. Lieberman Pursues JFK's Vision

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 05:55:58 +0000

On November 1, Psychiatric News published 50 Years After: Will We Realize JFK’s Vision for Mental Health Care? Psychiatric News is an APA publication, and the piece was written by APA’s President, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD.

Dr. Lieberman begins by reminding us that in 1963, President Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act (CMHA) into law. Dr. Lieberman points out that the CMHA:

"…was intended to set the foundation for contemporary mental health policy, one premised on the establishment of community-based care as an alternative to institutionalization."

The Galvanizing of a POOR HISTORIAN

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 13:28:24 +0000

In hospital ED records from 2007, there is a mention made by a doctor who was dictating his activities, observations of and involvement with me during 5 hours, that I am a"poor historian." Ironically, I have to this day never met with or even seen this doctor, and vice versa. The conclusion was followed by a little post-script stating that he wouldn’t know me from Adam if he saw me, despite having written the entire account of me from the first person perspective. Really, I provided very little history, because I wasn’t really asked, (something I figured was attributable to the hospital records department having in its own filed the most substantial majority of records and historical accounting from me, having been in an adult intensive outpatient program for two years, following a month long inpatient procedure, and after the two years of intensive, was still an outpatient scheduling check-in and progress check-up on a more casual schedule over six months … right up to the day that all information pertaining to me became non-existent, and new diagnoses, and history of the new diagnoses were filled in. I was not, however, even examined under any terms that might pass for making an effort to actually determine a diagnostic impression, no evaluation nor anything close was performed, but my previously [assumed] diagnosis for which I had been seeing a private doctor regularly, being monitored on medications and therapy for Bi-Polar II (actually it was never diagnosed, I was being treated for “target symptoms,” which were actually the result of a tardive syndrome induced by olonzapine -cycling between moderate to mild akathisia and fatigue resulting from it) , but records would have shown enough target symptom treatment to inform that I was Bi-Polar II. Bi-Polar [any] was R/O in the newly made that day diagnoses: Psychosis NOS R/O BI-POLAR, and Schizophrenia with history of Schizophrenia (that was the info written in by the phantom Doctor who divined these from no disclosed resource (perhaps Spiritual PhytoEssencing that randomly penetrates his 5th and 6th Chakra in the form of Sound-Thought Ethereal Essence guiding his knowledge, or maybe he was told to write up something for em stat purposes only w/o any responsibility for or contact with the patient, as he noted at the end). It’s curious that in my medical history and records, it was first recognized that I am a “Poor Historian.” What makes me a poor historian in effect today (my records and history are so toxic and viral, far beyond errors, that to allow for them to be transmitted to any new health provider w/o undergoing a major audit and revision into something that seems like it can pass meaningful use muster, would probably direct a well-intentioned but lethal course of treatment, in addition to being a DANGER TO SHIPPING).

Dr. Lieberman and '60 Minutes'

Mon, 04 Nov 2013 06:00:29 +0000

On October 23, Psychiatric News (the APA’s media outlet) ran an article titled ‘60 Minutes’ Interviews APA President on Schizophrenia. The article was written by Mark Moran, a Psychiatric News reporter.

The piece opens with a quote from Jeffrey Lieberman, MD (President of the APA):

"'60 Minutes' showed a genuine interest beyond simply producing what was expected to be a popular segment and indicated a desire to do follow-up reporting on psychosis and violence."

Protecting the Children

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 07:15:59 +0000

I’ve recently read an article called Safeguarding a Generation of Children from Over-diagnosis and Prescription of Psychotropic Drugs. It’s written by Dave Traxson, who works as an Educational Psychologist in the UK, and is posted on the DxSummit website, an online platform for rethinking mental health, a forum in which the concepts underlying pharma-psychiatry are questioned and challenged.

Here are some quotes from the article:

"I view the trend towards mass medication of children with mind altering and potentially toxic drugs and ‘drug cocktails’ as a form of psycho-economic imperialism. By that I mean that young peoples’ developing minds are being colonized, using biochemicals, for huge commercial profit and in effect, increased social control. This has resulted from carefully constructed ‘business plans’ in boardrooms which some years ago saw the population of children in the western world as a great market expansion opportunity. The pharmaceutical companies have reaped the huge financial rewards of this rich and very bitter harvest ever since."

The Allen Frances – Lucy Johnstone Debate

Fri, 01 Nov 2013 05:35:10 +0000

On October 28, Allen Frances, MD, Chairperson of the DSM-IV task force, published an article on Psychology Today. It is titled Does It Make Sense To Scrap Psychiatric Diagnosis? and is essentially a response to the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology’s (DCP) call to abandon the medical model in situations where it is not appropriate, and to embrace a psychosocial approach. You can see a copy of the DCP’s May 13, 2013, statement here.

Cover-up of a Wrongful Death?

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 06:02:41 +0000

THE CAFÉ study was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in July 2007, and was funded by AstraZeneca. Its stated purpose was to compare AstraZeneca’s drug Seroquel (quetiapine) with other neuroleptic products. I have discussed the CAFÉ study here.

Two of CAFÉ’s participants committed suicide during the study period. Both had been randomly assigned to the quetiapine treatment. There are very strong indications that one of these individuals – Dan Markingson, who was enrolled in the study at the University of Minnesota site – was coerced into the study and, because of his psychotic state, was incapable of giving informed consent anyway. He was not doing well on the Seroquel, and his mother, Mary Weiss, made repeated attempts to have him withdrawn from the study and taken off the drug, but without success. In particular, Mary had expressed the belief that Dan was in danger of killing himself. AstraZeneca paid the University of Minnesota $15,648 for each study participant who completed the treatment course.

A Psychiatric Case Study. A Sad Story

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:07:47 +0000

One of the criticisms that I routinely make of psychiatry is that its primary agenda during initial evaluations is the assignment of a “diagnosis,” and that ongoing “treatment” consists of 15-minute “med checks,” during which drug regimens are changed and adjusted. The essence of my criticism is that this kind of approach inevitably oversimplifies human problems, and in practice does more harm than good.

My contentions in this regard have from time to time been challenged. It has been said that my portrayal of psychiatry is a kind of misleading caricature, and that in reality, psychiatrists do, in fact, concern themselves with human issues over and above “diagnosis” and drugs. This debate will, of course, continue, but I recently read an article on Psychiatric Times that has some bearing on the matter. [Thanks to Nick Stuart for the link.] The title is Conduct Disorder, ADHD – or Something Else Altogether? The author is Steven Dilsaver, MD, and the piece is dated October 11, 2013. The article is a case study of the psychiatric “treatment” of an eight-year-old boy (John).

The New Holy Grail: Dysfunctional Neural Circuits

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 06:06:58 +0000

There’s a new article on Psychiatric News titled Change, Challenge, and Opportunity: Psychiatry Through the Looking Glass of Research. It’s dated October 17, and was authored by Steven Hyman, MD, and Jeffrey Lieberman, MD. Thanks to Mental Health Law on Twitter for the link.

Dr. Lieberman is President of the APA. Dr. Hyman was Director of NIMH from 1996 to 2001, and is now the Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute. The Broad Institute is affiliated with Harvard University, and Dr. Hyman is a Harvard Distinguished Service Professor.

Ongoing Debate with Steven Novella, MD

Mon, 21 Oct 2013 09:30:14 +0000

A few days ago I came across some text on Dr. Novella’s website that appeared to be his response to my recent critique. I drafted a response to this and posted it at 5:40 this morning. Dr. Novella has commented on this and has informed me that the material in question was not written by him. Apparently it was written by one of his commenters, who is also named Steve.

APA Attempting To Export Its Errors

Sat, 19 Oct 2013 07:09:36 +0000

There’s an interesting article by Christopher Lane, PhD, in his blog site Side Effects, on Psychology Today. It’s called Crazy like Us: How the U.S. Exports Its Models of Illness, and is dated October 9. Christopher Lane is the author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness. I wrote a post in April of 2010 that referenced this book.

Here’s the opening paragraph from the Psychology Today article.

"The fears of many European psychiatrists may soon be realized. Earlier this week, Psychiatric News reported that the American Psychiatric Association has begun petitioning the various agencies overseeing changes to the ICD, or International Classification of Diseases, to request that they adopt its most-controversial changes in DSM-5."

Another Critique of Psychiatry's Medical Model

Wed, 16 Oct 2013 06:15:31 +0000

I have recently read De-Medicalizing Misery [palgrave macmillan, 2011]. It’s a comprehensive collection of articles, edited by Mark Rapley, Joanna Moncrieff, and Jacqui Dillon. The table of contents provides a sense of the book’s scope.

Table of Contents

Carving Nature at its Joints? DSM and the Medicalization of Everyday Life, Mark Rapley, Joanna Moncrieff, and Jacqui Dillon

Dualisms and the Myth of Mental Illness, Philip Thomas and Patrick Bracken

Making the World Go Away, and How Psychology and Psychiatry Benefit, Mary Boyle

Cultural Diversity and Racism: An Historical Perspective, Suman Fernando

The Social Context of Paranoia, David J. Harper

From Bad Character to BPD: The Medicalization of 'Personality Disorder', James Bourne

Medicalizing Masculinity, Sami Timimi

Can Traumatic Events Traumatize People? Trauma, Madness, and Psychosis, Lucy Johnstone

Children Who Witness Violence at Home, Arlene Vetere

Discourses of Acceptance and Resistance: Speaking Out about Psychiatry, Ewen Speed

The Personal is The Political, Jacqui Dillon

'I'm Just, You Know, Joe Bloggs': The Management of Parental Responsibility for First-episode Psychosis, Carlton Coulter and Mark Rapley

The Myth of the Antidepressant: An Historical Analysis, Joanna Moncrieff

Antidepressants and the Placebo Response, Irving Kirsch

Why Were Doctors So Slow to Recognize Antidepressant Discontinuation Problems? Duncan Double

Toxic Psychology, Craig Newnes

Psychotherapy: Illusion with No Future? David Smail

The Psychologization of Torture, Nimisha Patel

What Is to Be Done? Joanna Moncrieff, Jacqui Dillon, and Mark Rapley

Each author brings to the general topic his or her unique perspectives, and the result is persuasive and inspiring.

Here’s a quote from the final chapter:

The Stigma Attached to 'Mental Illness'

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 06:30:54 +0000

On Monday, October 7, 2013, The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper ran the following headline: 1,200 Killed By Mental Patients. Shock 10-year toll exposes care crisis. It took up almost all of the front page.

The headline precipitated a great deal of protest from politicians, advocacy groups, mental health professionals, and others. The general points in most of these protests were that the headline was sensationalistic, misleading, and would serve to increase the stigma associated with “mental illness.”

Health Care Reform and Psychiatry

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 05:58:08 +0000

I recently came across an APA article titled Change, Challenge, and Opportunity: Psychiatry in the Age of Health Care Reform. It was co-authored by Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, and Howard Goldman, MD, PhD, and dated October 3.

The article discusses the implications of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for psychiatry, and also reviews progress of the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act. The latter mandated that insurance coverage for “mental illnesses” be essentially on a par with coverage for general medical problems, but the act has not yet been implemented in its entirety. The authors also point out that there are provisions in the ACA that focus on reform of the actual health care services, as well as the reform of health care insurance.

Pharma Corruption of Healthcare

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 09:59:36 +0000

I’ve been reading another great book: Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare, by Peter C. Gotzsche [Radcliffe Publishing, 2013].

The book is an exposé of pharma’s fraudulent research and marketing. The author is a Danish physician who has been involved in clinical trials of drugs, and in drug regulatory matters. He is a professor at the University of Copenhagen. He has published more than 50 papers, including papers in the BMJ, Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

A Proposed Mental Health School Program

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 06:26:37 +0000

On September 30, the Wisconsin State Journal posted an article online. It’s called County Executive Joe Parisi proposes new mental health program for county school district, and was written by Andrea Anderson. [Thanks to S. Randolph Kretchmar on Twitter for the link.]

The gist of the article is that Joe Parisi, the County Executive of Dane County, Wisconsin, is proposing to allocate $90,000 each to two school districts “…to treat student mental health…”

Second Generation Neuroleptics, Tardive Dyskinesia, and the Law

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 05:56:23 +0000

There’s an interesting article on Harvard Law Petrie-Flom Center’s blog titled Daubert as a Problem for Psychiatrists. It was written by Alex Stein and is dated September 19. [Thanks to Dustin Salzedo for drawing my attention to this in a comment on an earlier post.]

The article deals with the legal rules governing the admission of expert testimony. Apparently there are two different sets of rules in this area, known respectively as Frye and Daubert.

Should Medical Insurance Cover Mental Health?

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 06:26:36 +0000

On September 27, the New York Times published an article called Lacking Rules, Insurers Balk at Paying for Intensive Psychiatric Care. The author is Reed Abelson. Thanks to S. Randolph Kretchmar on Twitter for the link.

The article describes the kinds of conflicts that can occur between people with “mental illnesses” wanting “treatment,” and insurance companies who sometimes are reluctant to pay for this “treatment.”

The article is fairly balanced. It presents a number of actual cases of people who were experiencing difficulty. But it also tries to do justice to the insurance company’s position:

Antidepressants Being Handed Out Like Candy

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:57:53 +0000

There’s an interesting exposé in the London Daily Mail, September 29, titled Critics claim antidepressants are being handed out like sweets… Thanks to Leonie and Antidepaware on Twitter for the link.

To find out how easily people could get prescriptions for antidepressants, the Mail sent

"…three women of differing ages — all of whom had no current mental health issues — to their doctors, reporting fictional symptoms of mild depression which had lasted for three to six weeks."

Does Antidepressant Use Increase the Risk for Type 2 Diabetes?

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 06:06:08 +0000

On September 25, PsychCentral ran an article on this topic. The article was a commentary on a 2013 meta-analysis conducted by Katharine Barnard, PhD, et al of the University of Southamptom, UK.

The meta-analysis examined three systemic reviews and 22 studies.

RESULTS

"There was evidence that antidepressant use is associated with type 2 diabetes. Causality is not established, but rather, the picture is confused, with some antidepressants linked to worsening glucose control, particularly with higher doses and longer duration, others linked with improved control, and yet more with mixed results. The more recent, larger studies, however, suggest a modest effect."

Psychiatry's Spin on the Navy Yard Murders

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 05:46:25 +0000

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, has written a guest post, In the Wake of the Navy Yard Shooting: A Way Forward, on EverydayHealth. Everyday Health Inc. is a media company which operates for-profit websites on health and related matters.

It’s been confirmed that the Navy Yard shooter had been taking trazadone, an antidepressant of the serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitor (SARI) class, and the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has indicated that it plans to investigate to what extent the drug might have been a causative factor.

Drugs Out: Brain Stimulators In: Psychiatry's Next Assault On Our Humanity?

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 05:32:25 +0000

On September 21, the Guardian/Observer (UK) ran an online article by Vaughan Bell titled Changing brains: why neuroscience is ending the Prozac era. Thanks to Paul Mace on Twitter for the link.

The gist of the article is that although the use of psycho-pharmaceutical products is at an all-time high and is still rising in most parts of the world, the psychiatric promise of drug-induced happiness may be at, or close to, its peak.

The Concept of Mental Illness: Spurious or Valid?

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 05:35:30 +0000

On January 17, 2013, Peter Kinderman, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, wrote an article titled Grief and Anxiety are not mental illnesses.

On February 4, 2013, Steven Novella, MD, wrote a critique of Dr. Kinderman’s article.

On February 20, I wrote a critique of Dr. Novella’s article.

And finally, on September 17, Dr. Novella wrote More On Mental Illness Denial and How Not to Argue, a critique of my critique.

Jon Rappoport's Blog

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 05:37:53 +0000

If you haven’t seen Jon Rappoport’s blog, please take a look. Here are two quotes from his September 22 post, Psychiatry targets college students for destruction:

"The concept called 'mental disorder' is a sales pitch backed up by extraordinary PR, money, academic gibberish, and government-granted official status."

"People need to wake up to the fact that the whole panoply of human suffering has been co-opted, taken over, redefined, re-translated into a lexicon of pseudoscience."

More SSRI Side Effects: Upper GI Bleeding

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 07:31:19 +0000

Earlier this month, the American Journal of Psychiatry published an article by Yen-Po Wang, M.D., et al, titled Short-Term Use of Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Risk of Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding. [Thanks to Mad in America for the link]

The research was conducted in Taiwan. The authors studied the records of 5,377 psychiatric inpatients with gastrointestinal bleeding between 1998 and 2009. Study subjects served as their own controls, i.e. the incidence of bleeding in the period following the antidepressant prescription was compared with the incidence of bleeding during a period when they were not taking antidepressants.

The Tide Has Turned

Sat, 28 Sep 2013 05:45:03 +0000

Those of us on this side of the psychiatric debate have long maintained that there is a link between the so-called antidepressant drugs and the mass murders that have become an increasingly common feature of American society in recent decades.

The call for a formal investigation of this link, however, has been consistently resisted, and instead there has been a well-orchestrated medical campaign clamoring for more mental health services and more active outreach and prevention services. As an example, see Jeffrey Lieberman’s guest post on Everyday Health, In the Wake of the Navy Yard Shooting: A Way Forward.

Psychiatry and Suicide Prevention: A 30-year Failed Experiment

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 06:38:01 +0000

There’s an interesting article on Mad in America dated September 17, 2013. It’s titled Psychiatry & Suicide Prevention: A 30-year Failed Experiment, and was written by Maria Bradshaw.

Maria Bradshaw is the founder of CASPER, an organization that rejects the medical model of suicide prevention in favor of a sociological model. Ms. Bradshaw founded CASPER after her son’s antidepressant-induced suicide.

Here’s the gist of Ms. Bradshaw article:

Roger Mulder, MD, is head of psychiatry at Otago University in New Zealand. For at least the last 15 years, he has supported the notion of psychiatric intervention as a suicide-prevention measure. For instance, here’s something he wrote in 2008 in an article published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica:

Antidepressant-induced Seizures in Children

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 05:38:16 +0000

There’s an article in the current issue of Clinical Toxicology, titled Drug-induced seizures in children and adolescents presenting for emergency care: Current and emerging trends, authored by Y. Finkelstein et al.

The authors conducted an observational study, on 37 sites, of all pediatric Emergency Room reports which included a chemical or drug-induced seizure and required a toxicology consultation between April 2010 and March 2012.

RESULTS

"Antidepressants were the most commonly identified agents ingested…"(42%).

Cracked: The Unhappy Truth About Psychiatry, by James Davies, PhD: Book Review

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 05:55:56 +0000

This is an excellent book, published by Pegasus Books earlier this year. The cover blurb says that it is “…scathing about every aspect of psychiatry.”

Dr. Davies, who is a practicing therapist in the UK, brings to the subject enormous energy and enthusiasm. He has interviewed Robert Spitzer, Allen Frances, Irving Kirsch, Joanna Moncrieff, Sami Tamimi, Peter Breggin, and many, many others.

Some of the points he makes will be familiar to those of us on this side of the debate, but there is an enormous amount of fresh material and insights. The book careens, almost literally, from one psychiatric outrage to the next, and the arguments are supported by appropriate citations.

SSRI's Impair Learning.

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 06:07:47 +0000

There’s an interesting article on Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. It’s called Learning from Negative Feedback in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder is Attenuated by SSRI Antidepressants.

The researchers evaluated learning ability in three groups:

medication-naïve individuals who met the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder
individuals who met the criteria for MDD and were receiving the SSRI paroxetine (Paxil)
"healthy" controls

All subjects were given a learning task that allowed the researchers to distinguish learning from positive feedback versus learning from negative feedback

The results were:

Overall Efficacy of Mental Health Treatment

Sat, 21 Sep 2013 08:55:10 +0000

There’s an interesting article by J. Sareen et al on Cambridge Journals Online, September 2013. It’s call Common mental disorder diagnosis and need for treatment are not the same: findings from a population-based survey. Five of the six authors are working at universities in Canada, the sixth at a university in California. [Thanks to Mad in America for the link to the abstract. The full article is, unfortunately, behind a paywall.]

Dr. Lieberman's Latest

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 07:24:05 +0000

On September 12, Jeffry Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, posted an article on Psychiatric News titled IPS to Feature Patrick Kennedy, Celebrate Community Psychiatry.

The article is a preview of an APA conference scheduled for October 10-13 in Philadelphia: “Transforming Psychiatric Practice, Reforming Health Care Delivery.”

Dr. Lieberman tells us that he is very excited about the conference, and that the theme is particularly relevant

"…given the changes we are experiencing in the profession and some of the exciting program events that I hope will support APA’s goal of being in the forefront of changes in the profession under health care reform."

Another Mass Shooting: Link to SSRIs?

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 09:45:52 +0000

A mass murder occurred yesterday, September 16, at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington D.C. There are reports of at least 12 dead, and several wounded. Early news stories describe the perpetrator as having “mental issues,” and it is reported that he “…had been treated since August by the Veterans Administration for his mental problems.” It is likely that this “treatment” involved the prescription of psychiatric drugs.

And still no government inquiry into the link between psycho-pharmaceutical products, especially SSRI’s, and acts of violence/suicide.

Submitting Claims for Off-label Prescriptions to Medicaid May Constitute Fraud

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 08:03:05 +0000

In my view, one of the most destructive developments in psychiatry in recent years is the prescribing of neuroleptic drugs to children. Much of this prescribing is off-label, meaning that the prescribed use is not approved by the FDA. Off-label drug prescribing is legal, however. Once the FDA has approved a drug for one purpose, a physician may prescribe it for another purpose.

But under Medicaid rules, the physician is not permitted to bill Medicaid for writing this prescription unless the use of the drug in the specific circumstances is endorsed by any of the three pharmaceutical compendia approved by Congress for this purpose. A physician who deliberately submits a bill to Medicaid and, thereby, effectively causes Medicaid to pay for, a prescription that is both off-label and unapproved by any of the compendia is open to a charge of Medicaid fraud. Medicaid, incidentally, is the US government’s health insurance system for poor people. Eligibility is based on income.

The Burden of Mental 'Illness'

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:51:36 +0000

Thanks to Graham Davey and Richard Pemberton on Twitter for the link to an interesting article in the August 29, 2013 issue of the Lancet. It’s titled Global burden of disease attributable to mental and substance use disorders: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, and was written by Harvey A. Whiteford, et al.

The Global Burden of Disease survey is a systematic, scientific attempt to quantify the comparative magnitude of disease, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and geography over time.

Time for a Paradigm Change: Crucial Points

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 08:23:21 +0000

There’s a new post on Peter Kinderman’s blog. It’s called Time for a paradigm change, and it’s dated September 2. The article is based on a speech that Dr. Kinderman gave to North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme, Annual Stakeholders’ Meeting on the same date.

Here are some quotes:

"But mental well-being is fundamentally a psychological and social phenomenon, with medical aspects. It is not, fundamentally, a medical phenomenon with additional psychological and social elements."

ECT: Hypotheses About Mechanisms of Action

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 08:35:50 +0000

There’s a new article on Frontiers in Psychiatry. It’s titled Electroconvulsive treatment: hypotheses about mechanisms of action. The authors are Roar Fosse, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Vestro Viken State Hospital Trust, Lier, Norway, and John Read, Institute of Psychology, Health, and Society, University of Liverpool, UK. Thanks to Mick Bramham on Twitter for the link.

The authors reviewed a large number of human studies in which the brains of people receiving shock treatment were observed using EEG, PET, SPECT, and fMRI.

Are Psychiatric 'Diagnoses' Defamatory Statements?

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 08:31:23 +0000

There’s an interesting article by Sonja Grover, PhD, CPsych, of Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada. It’s titled: Reification of psychiatric diagnoses as defamatory: Implications for ethical clinical practice. Thanks to Becky on Twitter for the link.

It’s an old article (2005), but definitely deserves another look. It was published in the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry.

Here’s the abstract:

"While the mental health professional generally has beneficent motives and an honest belief in the DSM diagnoses assigned to clients, such diagnoses may yet be defamatory when communicated to third parties. Mental health diagnoses invariably lower the individual's reputation in the eyes of the community. At the same time, DSM diagnoses are but one out of a myriad of possible interpretive frameworks. DSM descriptors for the client's distress thus cannot be said to capture the essence of the client's personhood. When a diagnosis is published as if it captured a definitive truth about an individual psychiatric client, it is, in that important regard, inaccurate. That is, such a communication meets the criterion for a reckless disregard for the truth or an honest belief but without reasonable basis insofar as it is considered to be anything more than a working hypothesis. Hence, in certain cases, DSM labeling may constitute defamation."

More Lame Excuses from Dr. Lieberman

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 08:00:10 +0000

It’s that time of the month, and Dr. Lieberman has written another post, Change, Challenge and Opportunity: Psychiatry in Age of Reform and Enlightenment, on the APA’s website, Psychiatric News.

He tells us that these are changing times, and that he, for one, is choosing to see these changes as positive. He leads with a quote from Bob Dylan:

"The line it is drawn, The curse it is cast The slow one now, Will later be fast As the present now, Will later be past"

ECT – Benefits Are Short-lived

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 05:23:25 +0000

Last Monday (August 26), Lauren Spiro published a post on Mad in America. The post is titled The Today Show and ECT: The Full Story & Informed Consent. Here’s the gist of Lauren’s article.

On August 20, the Today Show ran a segment on ECT (electric shock “treatment”). Lauren contends that the coverage was not balanced, but was pitched heavily in favor of shock “treatment.” Lauren provides a link to the segment, and also a transcript. I have watched the video, and read the transcript, and I agree that the coverage was very much pro-ECT, and that side effects were trivialized.

Poverty and Cognitive Performance

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 05:57:31 +0000

There’s an interesting article, Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function, by Anandi Mani et al in the current issue of Science.

Here’s the abstract:

"The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance before harvest, when poor, as compared with after harvest, when rich. This cannot be explained by differences in time available, nutrition, or work effort. Nor can it be explained with stress: Although farmers do show more stress before harvest, that does not account for diminished cognitive performance. Instead, it appears that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. We suggest that this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. These data provide a previously unexamined perspective and help explain a spectrum of behaviors among the poor. We discuss some implications for poverty policy."

SSRI's and Postpartum Hemorrhaging

Sat, 31 Aug 2013 06:46:06 +0000

There’s an interesting study in the British Medical Journal (August 2013). It’s called Use of antidepressants near delivery and risk of postpartum hemorrhage: cohort study of low income women in the United States, and it was written by Kristin Palmsten et al.

The study examined nationwide Medicaid data from 2000-2007, and followed 106,000 pregnant women aged 12-55 who had been given a “diagnosis” of a mood or anxiety disorder.

The women were categorized into four mutually exclusive groups on the basis of information obtained from Medicaid’s pharmacy dispensing data. The criterion for categorization was exposure to SRI’s or to Non-SRI’s and the groupings were:

The Ethics of Disclosing Financial Relationships

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:29:29 +0000

Recently, Carl Elliott posted a link to a statement written by Jonathan Moreno, PhD, a renowned bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Moreno’s statement was in reference to an Oregon court case. The Oregon Department of Justice had accused two cardiologists of concealing information from patients. Apparently the cardiologists had put heart implants into patients without informing the patients that they (the cardiologists) had financial ties to the manufacturer of the implants.

The Living-With-Parents Blues

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 05:22:02 +0000

Despite the general rise in economic indicators over the past year or two, there are still many young adults who, for economic reasons, have had to move back in with their parents. A proportion of these people become depressed.

Depression is the normal human reaction to loss, disappointment, or a general sense of unfulfillment. Viewed in this light, it is not surprising that young people who have to move back in with their parents might be depressed.

Madness Contested: An Outstanding Book

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 06:20:35 +0000

The book Madness Contested has recently been published by PCCS Books. It’s a collection of articles, edited by Steven Coles, Sarah Keenan, and Bob Diamond.

The book is a remarkable piece of work. It covers just about every contentious concept in the present “mental illness” debate, and brings to bear an abundance of new insights and up-to-date research findings.

There are 21 articles plus an introduction by the editors.

Here’s the name of each article with a brief quotation from each:

Parental Influences

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 06:05:01 +0000

If we’re happy to take some of the credit for our children’s successes, we should also accept a share of the responsibility when they don’t do so well.

In the late 70’s, I met an elderly gentleman in a social context. I’ll call him James. He was in his early 80’s.

We got to talking, and found that we had a good deal in common – primarily a love for the land, the forests, gardening, and just generally being active.

The Illness Theory Is Everywhere

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 06:22:59 +0000

A few days ago, there was an interesting item in the Dear Abby column of our local newspaper. Dear Abby is a general advice column written by Jeanne Phillips, and is widely read.

The letter in question was written by “Sibling Standing By,” who described his/her 63 year old sister as someone who “…takes no responsibility for her health.” The sibling goes on to say:

"She’s extremely overweight because she overeats and doesn’t exercise. She complains every day that she feels 'terrible.' (I call it self-pitying whining.)"

Shock Treatment In Israel

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 06:42:51 +0000

I’ve recently come across (courtesy of Tallaght Trialogue on Twitter) an article titled: The Court: Electroshock treatments should not be forced on psychiatric patients. The original was in Israel Hayom, an Israeli newspaper, and was written by Edna Adato. The English version above was on occupypsychiatry.net, and was translated by Janna Weiss.

The article is brief, and the content is straightforward. As a result of a recent Israeli court ruling, electric shock treatment will not be administered against a person’s will, even if the person has been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

Another School Shooting: Unanswered Questions

Sat, 24 Aug 2013 07:05:49 +0000

Earlier this week (August 21), a 20-year-old gunman entered a school in Atlanta, apparently intending to kill people, but was talked down by a school bookkeeper.

As everyone knows, we’ve had a great many incidents of this sort in the past fifteen years, most of which ended more tragically than this one.

The reporting of these incidents in the media often mentions the fact that the perpetrators of these murders had a history of “mental health problems.”

Never Mind The Facts; Just Sell More Pills

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 05:52:08 +0000

There’s an interesting article, recently published in Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, on Springer Link. It’s titled Shooting the Messenger: The Case of ADHD, and it was written by Gretchen LeFever Watson, PhD, et al.

Apparently some of the authors had noted in 1995 a marked increase in the “diagnosis” and “treatment” of the condition known as ADHD in southeastern Virginia. This is a large urban conglomeration of six different cities, including Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach.

Do Psycho-Pharma Drugs Have Any Legitimate Function?

Tue, 20 Aug 2013 06:16:00 +0000

BACKGROUND

In the last ten years or so, the anti-psychiatry movement has been gaining adherents, and has been growing more focused and more outspoken.

But we are not a unified group. I, for instance, take what I think would be considered a fairly extreme position. I believe that there are no mental illnesses; that the clusters of thoughts, feelings, and actions labeled as mental illnesses are better conceptualized as habits that have been acquired in accordance with the normal principles of behavior acquisition or as understandable responses to extreme life stressors. I further believe that conceptualizing these problems as illnesses has been disastrous for the individuals involved, and for society in general. In particular, I believe that psychiatry’s promotion of the idea that all problematic thinking, feeling, and behaving is caused by brain illnesses and can only be treated with drugs is causing extraordinary levels of physical damage to their clients. It is also severely stigmatizing and disempowering. As a culture, we are losing the notion that people can improve their lives through effort and application, and through mutual assistance and support.

Psychiatry and Neurology - A Merger in the Works?

Thu, 15 Aug 2013 06:29:56 +0000

BACKGROUND

Those of us on this side of the debate, who criticize psychiatry for medicalizing and drugging virtually every problem of human existence, sometimes ask the question: If all these problems are truly illnesses of the brain, then why are they not being treated by neurologists?

The standard psychiatric response to this question has been: neurology deals with nervous system illnesses that result in problems of movement, sensation, physical pain, etc.; psychiatry deals with nervous system problems that result in disordered thinking, feeling, and general behavior. Psychiatry has never produced the proof that these latter problems are caused by illnesses of the brain/nervous system, but that’s a separate issue.

Dead from Meds

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 14:12:31 +0000

My sister was diagnosed at that difficult time when she had to get a job after college. She was shy and fearful too, about life but not growing up in the cocoon of a large family, the youngest of 6 children. I was the oldest girl and required to work at the family business every summer starting at 9 years old. Sis, I will call her di not have to do anything. 6 years younger than me she was bought expensive clothes because my parents had more money. I was bought cheap things and when I hit 16 was told that I had to buy all my clothes from then on. I left and now am so glad I did.

Neuroleptics and Alzheimer's Disease

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 08:55:05 +0000

I’ve mentioned the CATIE study before. CATIE (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness) was a NIMH-funded double blinded, randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness and side effects of newer-generation neuroleptics versus an older neuroleptic.

CATIE-AD was a part of CATIE. The AD stands for Alzheimer’s disease. CATIE-AD was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in October 2006. The results of the study were as follows:

"There were no significant differences among treatments with regard to the time to the discontinuation of treatment for any reason"

ECT And Adolescents At The Mayo Clinic

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 07:01:27 +0000

BACKGROUND

At the APA annual convention in San Francisco in May of this year, Chad Puffer, DO, of the Mayo Clinic, presented a poster display titled ECT Use in Adolescents at the Mayo Clinic. The poster was reported by Caroline Cassels of Medscape.com, a month later (ECT in Kids: Safe, Effective, Robust and …Underutilized), and drew critical comment a week later (July 2) from Kelly Patricia O’Meara of CCHR International.

I didn’t spot any of this until last week, when it came up on the Twitter feed from DxRevision Watch and Peter Kinderman.

Dr. Lieberman is Back

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 05:45:51 +0000

Courtesy of Carl Elliott via Twitter, I’ve recently read Dr. Lieberman’s latest post on Psychiatric News. It’s called – believe it or not – Time to Re-Engage With Pharma? dated August 1, 2013. And it’s classic Dr. Lieberman sleight of hand.

His opening statement, for instance, reads:

"Drug companies aren’t held in high esteem by the public these days."

This may or may not be true. But note what he's done. The issue here is the long-standing and corrupt relationship between psychiatry and the manufacturers of drugs.

But from his first sentence, Dr. Lieberman has taken psychiatry out of the equation. He has also lumped the makers of legitimate medicines in with the makers of psychiatry’s drugs.

Are The Second Generation Neuroleptics Good For the Brain?

Mon, 05 Aug 2013 06:02:26 +0000

There’s an editorial by Henry Nasrallah, MD, in last month’s edition of Current Psychiatry. Dr. Nasrallah is the journal’s editor-in-chief. The title of the article is Haloperidol clearly is neurotoxic. Should it be banned? Haloperidol is marketed under the brand name Haldol, but its patent has long expired, and a generic version is available and inexpensive.

Here’s a quote from Dr. Nasrallah’s article:

"If clinicians who use these decades old drugs were to keep up with medical research and advances in knowledge, we would realize what a travesty it is to use a brain-unfriendly drug such as haloperidol when we have many safer alternatives. A massive volume of knowledge has emerged over the past 15 years about the neurotoxicity of older neuroleptics, especially haloperidol—knowledge that was completely unknown before. Second-generation antipsychotics have been shown to be much safer for the brain than their older-generation counterparts (although they are not more efficacious)."

Medical Model vs. Psychosocial/Behavioral Model

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 05:48:20 +0000

BACKGROUND

Obviously there are many points of contention between mainstream biological psychiatrists on the one hand, and those of us who condemn this system as spurious and destructive. Much of what I’ve written on this website over the past four years has been an elucidation of these differences.

Today I would like to focus on just one of these differences: disempowerment of clients in the psychiatric system, and empowerment within frameworks that are more psychosocial/behavioral in nature.

Another Critique Of The Good Dr. Lieberman

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 14:54:30 +0000

Duncan Double, MD, one of the founding members of the UK’s Critical Psychiatry Network, has written a compelling and insightful critique of Dr. Lieberman’s most recent article. Dr. Double’s article is titled Is APA prepared to engage with critical psychiatry? Definitely worth a read.

Pharma Mobilizing Consumer Groups Over Drug Trials Data

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 09:02:01 +0000

There was an interesting article Big pharma mobilising patients in battle over drugs trials data in last Sunday’s Guardian, a UK newspaper. It was written by Ian Sample, the Guardian’s science correspondent. Here are the two opening sentences:

"The pharmaceutical industry has 'mobilised' an army of patient groups to lobby against plans to force companies to publish secret documents on drugs trials."

"Drugs companies publish only a fraction of their results and keep much of the information to themselves, but regulators want to ban the practice. If companies published all of their clinical trials data, independent scientists could reanalyse their results and check companies' claims about the safety and efficacy of drugs."

Involuntary Shock Treatment To Be Banned in Ireland

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 05:36:35 +0000

Courtesy of Talla Trialogue on Twitter, I recently read an article in journal.ie on this topic.

Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People, has reportedly stated that “…the law will be changed so that unwilling patients will no longer be forced to receive ECT.”

At present, if an individual refuses ECT, his refusal can be overridden by the signatures of two psychiatrists.

However, not everyone is in favor of the ban on forced ECT. There’s an article by Marie Feely, Proposed ban on Involuntary ECT criticized published in irishmedicalnews in January 2012. The article reports on a survey of consultant psychiatrists published in December 2011. Ms. Feely writes:

Dr. Lieberman Is Back! More Of The Same

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 08:36:53 +0000

Last week, thanks to a tweet from Ginger Breggin, I came across an article by Jeffrey Lieberman entitled Psychiatry: Nothing to Be Defensive About. Dr. Lieberman is president of the APA, and has gone on record more than once as saying that all these dreadful criticisms of psychiatry are very unfair, and that psychiatrists are good guys who have the high moral ground.

Well, he’s back, and his current article is about on a par with previous efforts.

Agitation and Neuroleptics

Sat, 20 Jul 2013 06:12:22 +0000

Sandra Steingard, MD, is a practicing psychiatrist who from time to time posts articles on Robert Whitaker’s Mad in America website.

Dr. Steingard apparently prescribes psychotropic drugs in her practice, but she is by no means a pill-for-every-problem practitioner, and her articles are always interesting and thought-provoking.

Dr. Steingard posted A Paradox Revealed – Again on Mad in America on July 7, 2013. In this article she mentions the recent study by Lex Wunderink et al, which found that people being treated for first episode psychosis were doing a great deal better functionally after seven years if their neuroleptic drugs had been discontinued or reduced relatively early in the process, as compared to individuals who were retained on the drugs for two years.

The CAFE Study: Dr. Lieberman's High Moral Ground

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 06:10:55 +0000

BACKGROUND

The CAFE Study, conducted by Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, et al between 2002 and 2005, has been the subject of much comment. Carl Elliott, in particular, has written extensively on the matter, including his article The Deadly Corruption of Clinical Trials in Mother Jones.

In order to address the issues involved in the CAFE study, we must first take a brief look at the CATIE study. This was also conducted by Dr. Lieberman et al (not the same et al as CAFE, but with some overlap). CATIE was conducted between 2001 and 2004.

Psychiatry Is Intrinsically Flawed and Rotten

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 05:35:38 +0000

On Twitter yesterday, Robert Stamatakis commented:

"I have to ask, I don't understand. Do you work in the UK? Your descriptions of psychiatry are nothing I recognize. These descriptions of psychiatry are nothing like the practice I see on a daily basis."

I am certainly a very outspoken critic of psychiatry, and in that regard Robert's question/challenge is a fair one, to which I will try to respond.

My primary criticism of modern psychiatry – and indeed the criticism that underpins all the others – is that its fundamental concepts are spurious.

Personal Goals and Depression

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 06:06:14 +0000

I’ve recently read a noteworthy article on PLOS One. It’s by Joanne M. Dickson and Nicholas J. Moberly, and it’s called Reduced Specificity of Personal Goals and Explanations for Goal Attainment in Major Depression. It’s a very interesting and detailed paper.

The authors, who work at the University of Liverpool and the University of Exeter respectively, asked a group of depressed people and another group of people who were not depressed to list their goals.

Psychiatry: The Science That Isn't

Sat, 13 Jul 2013 13:37:59 +0000

There’s a very important article on Mad in America. It’s called Does NIMH Follow the Rules of Science? A Startling Study, by Niall McLaren, MD, dated July 9, 2013.

Dr. McLaren is an Australian psychiatrist who has relentlessly combed the literature for proof of the fundamental psychiatric claim – “…that a full understanding of the brain will give a full understanding of mental disorder, with no questions unanswered.”

He found nothing in the way of proof!

Mid-Life Crisis

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 14:14:03 +0000

Recently on Twitter, Disparity asked for my opinion on the term mid-life crisis, which “…is often treated as a mental health condition.”

The term mid-life crisis has no formal meaning in mental health, though as Disparity says, the concept does emerge from time to time.

The original meaning of the word crisis was a turning point in an illness. In the past forty of fifty years, the connotation has extended to embrace almost any kind of challenging situation or adverse event.

Antipsychotics: A Euphemism for Neurotoxins

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 05:08:04 +0000

I guess everybody knows by now that Robert Whitaker spoke at the NAMI conference in San Antonio last Saturday (June 29). You can view an outline of his speech, The Case for Selective Use of Antipsychotics here. He spoke about the fact that for people who have been assigned a “diagnosis” of “schizophrenia,” long-term outcomes are better among those who took relatively little of neuroleptic drugs, and worse among those who took relatively more.

Neuroleptic Drugs and Children: Wrong Focus

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 04:13:31 +0000

It is a central theme of this website that psychiatry has done, and continues to do, a great deal of damage to people it claims to help.

In my opinion, the damage done by neuroleptic drugs is among the most severe. The increasing use of these products ought to be a huge cause for concern.

This is particularly true in that these very toxic drugs are being administered with increasing frequency to children – even to children as young as two years old!

Reduction in Neuroleptic Drugs Leads to Better Outcomes: Surprise?

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 05:33:45 +0000

BACKGROUND

Mad in America ran an article (Reduction/Discontinuation of Antipsychotics Produces Higher Long-Term Recovery) on July 3, describing a piece of research on this topic which had been done in Holland.

The original article, by Lex Wunderink, MD PhD et al, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry (JAMA-P). You can see an abstract of the article here, but the full text is behind a pay wall.

PTSD: The Spurious Medicalization of Painful Memories

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 04:44:41 +0000

BACKGROUND

I’ve recently read Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche, by Ethan Watters (Free Press, 2010).

It’s a great book, the theme of which is that western countries, especially America, are exporting the medicalization of human problems to less developed regions of the world. The new “illnesses” are being avidly promoted as if they had the same kind of reality as pneumonia or cancer, and are being foisted on vulnerable populations, with little regard for their impact on the cultures, ideas, sensitivities, and health of the recipients.

FDA Goes Against Its Advisory Panel

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 04:38:32 +0000

The FDA recently approved paroxetine (which in higher doses is marketed as the antidepressant Paxil) as a nonhormonal treatment for hot flashes in menopausal women. The drug will be marketed as Brisdelle.

According to a New York Times article F.D.A. Approves a Drug for Hot Flashes, the approval was granted despite the fact that FDA’s own advisory committee voted 10 to 4 last March against approval.

The reported reason for the negative vote was that in clinical trials, Brisdelle proved only minimally effective.

Psychiatry Has the Moral High Ground (According to Jeffrey Lieberman)

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 05:33:17 +0000

BACKGROUND

As I suppose everyone knows by now, psychiatry has been on the receiving end of some very serious criticism in recent years. The criticism has come from many sources, including: survivors of psychiatric “treatment,” non-psychiatric mental health practitioners, journalists, the general public, and even from some psychiatrists themselves.

The content of the criticisms has been equally varied, and includes: that the concept of mental illness is fundamentally spurious and devoid of explanatory significance; that psychiatric “treatment” (i.e. drugging people) is ineffective, physically damaging and disempowering; that psychiatry has forged and continues to maintain corrupt and corrupting relationships with the pharmaceutical industry with regards to the peddling of drugs and the hijacking of research for commercial ends; etc…

Blaenau Gwent, Wales: One in Six on Antidepressants!

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 05:33:11 +0000

There’s a Mail Online article about high numbers of antidepressant prescriptions in Blaenau Gwent. The article is dated June 29, and was drawn to my attention by Nanu Grewal from Australia.

The article is about a town in Wales where reportedly one sixth of the population is taking antidepressants. That’s about 17%.

So presumably all these people have brain disease. Or perhaps it’s because the unemployment rate is double the national average. That in itself is depressing, but to make matters even worse, a “diagnosis” of depression can reportedly help a person qualify for additional government benefits – a strong temptation for people living below the poverty line.

The Grieving Mother

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 14:29:55 +0000

There’s a must-read article on Leonie’s Blog: The grieving mother is at it again!

Leonie lost a son to suicide four years ago. The suicide occurred 17 days after he started citalopram, an SSRI, marketed as Celexa.

Leonie heard a ‘science expert’ on the radio this week attributing depression to low serotonin levels in the brain.

Leonie asks:

"How can these idiots keep spouting the ‘chemical imbalance’ rubbish? It is drug company propaganda at its best and has no scientific basis, no factually based evidence whatsoever to conclude that depression is anything other than a reaction to life itself."

Neuroleptics and Brain Shrinkage

Sat, 29 Jun 2013 05:46:40 +0000

Joanna Moncrieff, MD, has an article up on Mad in America. It’s called Antipsychotics and Brain Shrinkage: An Update, and is dated June 19. Joanna Moncrieff is the author of The Myth of the Chemical Cure, a widely-read book which challenges the entire concept of mental illness. In the book Dr. Moncrieff also makes the point that the brain shrinkage associated with a “diagnosis” of “schizophrenia” is in fact caused by the neuroleptic drugs, and is not, as psychiatrists claim, a consequence of the so-called illness.

The Need for Social Change

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 14:23:33 +0000

There’s a recent post, The role of the psychologist in social change, on Peter Kinderman’s blog that is well worth reading. Peter begins with Martin Luther King’s 1967 statement:

“…there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we … must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will."

It is a fact that many, probably most, of the problems that bring people into the mental health system are rooted in poverty, victimization, discrimination and other negative life circumstances.

Peter reminds us that:

DSM-5: How to Salvage a Shipwreck

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 05:48:17 +0000

DSM-5 was published on May 18, 2013, amidst great criticism. The fundamental criticism was, and is, that the problems listed in the manual are not illnesses in any ordinary sense of the term. Other critics focused on the pathologizing of normality, the expansion of the diagnostic net by the lowering of thresholds, and the lack of reliability of the so-called diagnoses.

The response from the psychiatric community has been mixed. Some, probably most, psychiatrists are keeping their heads down, getting on with the business of selling pills, and hoping that the gravy train won't derail. Others are busy at damage control

Invalidity: The Nature of Psychiatry

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 01:08:43 +0000

There’s an interesting post from Duncan Double, MD titled Why does the APA need new editions of DSM?

Dr. Double is a psychiatrist and a member of the Critical Psychiatry Network. In his current article, Dr. Double expresses the hope that there won’t be a DSM-6, essentially on the grounds that none of the revisions up to this time has resulted in any increase in validity. So each revision, in effect, replaces an invalid old manual with an invalid new one.

Psychiatry Still Doesn't Get It

Fri, 21 Jun 2013 09:35:00 +0000

BACKGROUND

On 3-4 June, the Institute of Psychiatry in London hosted an international conference to mark the publication of DSM-5. On June 10, Sir Simon Wessely, a department head at the Institute, published a paper called DSM-5 at the IoP. The paper is a summary of the conference proceedings, and also, in many respects, a defense of DSM-5. The article touches on many issues that are central to the current anti-psychiatry debate, and for this reason, I thought it might be helpful to take a close look at the piece.

Neuroleptics in Nursing Homes

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:30:04 +0000

Earlier this year, The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists published a report on the use of neuroleptic drugs in nursing homes. According to this report, 25% of nursing home residents receive neuroleptic drugs.

In general, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) consider these prescriptions appropriate only if the recipient is psychotic. (Obviously we could discuss this at length, but let’s set that issue aside for now.)

What CMS considers entirely inappropriate, however, is prescribing these products to residents with dementia as a way of controlling “difficult” behaviors such as wandering, being abusive, or resisting care.

Physical Restraints

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:52:44 +0000

There’s an article titled Restraint – 10 ways it harms psychiatric patients on Sectioned’s blog today.

It describes Sectioned’s own experience in this area.

Sectioned lists ten ways he/she was harmed by this practice, and the article is well worth reading.

SSRI's and Birth Defects

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:25:32 +0000

Courtesy of Nanu Grewal in Australia, I’ve come across this interesting paper: Systematic meta-analysis of individual selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications and congenital malformations, by Nicholas Myles et al.

The authors note that there is some suggestion of a link between SSRI’s, as a group, and birth defects, but that the teratogenicity of individual members of this drug class have not been systematically compared by meta-analysis.

Meta-analysis is essentially a systematic review of previous studies and combining of the results of those that meet certain pre-determined criteria for research quality.

Akathisia

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:58:44 +0000

Melissa, a commenter on a recent post, asked if I would do a post on akathisia.

Akathisia literally means inability to sit. People with this problem typically pace for long periods, and if they do sit down, they continue to keep moving and shifting their position in the chair.

In severity it can range from a generalized sense of uneasiness or agitation, to severe discomfort and even pain. The discomfort tends to be located in the legs, but can also occur in the hip and pelvic area. In severe cases, the victims pace to the point of exhaustion, but even then sitting does not relieve the discomfort.

Psychiatric Drugs and Suicide

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:25:42 +0000

Courtesy of yobluemama2 on Twitter, I’ve come across an interesting article. It’s called Psychiatric Drugs and Suicide, by Janne Larsson, a reporter. It’s posted on PsychRights.org, a law project for psychiatric rights.

The article focuses on suicides committed in Sweden in 2006-2007, and the proportions of victims who had taken psychiatric drugs in the period prior to the suicide. The study also covers data from autopsy reports.

Information for the study was gathered under Sweden’s freedom of information act. Here’s a summary of the main findings.

Autism Prevalence Increase Questioned

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 05:55:21 +0000

BACKGROUND

A couple of days ago (June 12) I posted Autism Prevalence Increasing. The article drew attention to a post by Kelly Brogan, MD, called See No Evil, Hear No Evil which had appeared on Mad in America on June 9. Dr. Brogan’s article had cited an alarming increase in the incidence of autism over the past few decades, and mentioned some possible causative factors.

I checked the figures against the DSM and CDC prevalence estimates and found they were broadly in line. I mentioned the possibility that diagnostic expansion, particularly as embracing milder presentations, might be a confounding factor, but that given the reported increase (1 in 5000 to 100 in 5000) over 38 years, I expressed the view that this was a bit of a stretch.

An Alternative to DSM

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 05:58:26 +0000

Last month (May 31), National Public Radio (NPR) ran an interview on Science Friday with Thomas Insel, MD, Director of NIMH, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, and Gary Greenberg, PhD, practicing psychotherapist.

I didn’t hear the interview, but I have read the transcript. Doctors Insel and Lieberman were spinning the barrage of criticism directed at psychiatry in recent months, while at the same time clinging desperately to the notion that the problems that psychiatrists “treat” are real illnesses. It’s become a familiar theme, and there was nothing new.

Autism Prevalence Increasing

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 06:05:18 +0000

On two occasions in the past week or so, I have been involved in discussions on the increasing prevalence of autism. In the more recent of these, the individual with whom I was talking expressed the concern that the recent DSM enlargement of autism disorder to autism spectrum disorder might be an APA-pharma designed artifact to draw attention away from the steady increase in the incidence of autism in recent decades.

Nutrition and Psychosis

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:26:27 +0000

It is well known that nutrition is important, and that a great many people today – of all ages – are not receiving adequate nutrition. It’s a huge subject, and is covered on lots of websites.

A few days ago (June 7), there was an article on Mad in America called Can Psychosis be Treated with Nutrition? It was written by Bonnie Kaplan, PhD and Julia Rucklidge, PhD.

The article is about a boy, whom the authors call Andrew (not his real name). He had some early developmental problems, and by age 10 was displaying hallucinatory and delusional behavior. He spent six months in a mental hospital, and was prescribed a wide range of psychoactive drugs, including neuroleptics. His overall level of functioning on discharge was about the same as it was on admission.

SSRI's: The Down Side

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 06:08:12 +0000

David Healy, MD, is a controversial figure. On the one hand, he is a fierce and determined opponent of the escalating use of antidepressant drugs. On the other hand, he is one of the world’s leading proponents of electric shock “treatment.”

For the latter reason, I’m somewhat hesitant to quote his work, but he writes good anti-antidepressant articles, and his points are usually well-researched and compelling.

I’ve recently come across an article called Prozac and SSRIs: Twenty-fifth Anniversary, which Dr. Healy wrote in February of this year. Here are some quotes:

What Is Mental Illness?

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 08:50:46 +0000

BACKGROUND

I recently received the following question from Disparity, on Twitter.

"I'm interested in all your posts, but they're always telling us what mental illness 'isn't.' Do you have many on what it 'is'?

I referred him/her to the post There are No Mental Illnesses and received the following reply:

"I have read it a few times. I largely agree with it. But 'something' happens to people. Whatever the label."

Questions of this sort arise fairly frequently, and I thought it might be helpful to write a post.

WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE?

Going Against the Stream

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:11:41 +0000

AN INTERESTING STORY

Yesterday I came across the following on Twitter from Mental Health @Sectioned_.

"I just met someone who told me their remarkable story about falling down the rabbit hole into psychiatric sectioning and forced medication. I listened with fascination to their intricate story in all its twists and turns, looping backwards and forwards with incredible details. The longer we spoke the more was revealed, the crazier and more believable it sounded. I was listening, probing for clarification, trying to grasp what happened and why. First the overview, then the highlights, then more details, expanding out, backing round, drawing me in. There were many parallels in our stories, and many contrasts. It reminded me why I don't really talk in detail about what happened to me: because, if you've not experienced it, it sounds unbelievable. Unless you've experienced the scorching reality of forced drugging, seclusion, assault by nurses and patients, it sounds like a mad fantasy. It's too far outside most people's realities for them to contemplate it being true, and so quietly assume you're deluded. So it smooths life's path to make light, to skirt over the details, to change the topic. And sometimes, sometimes, when I meet someone who's been through something similar, I listen to their story and realize I'm not the only one."

Do We Really Want to Expand Mental Health Services?

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:02:06 +0000

PRESIDENT’S SPEECH

On June 3, President Obama delivered a speech on the expansion of mental health services. The occasion was the National Conference on Mental Health, which was held at the White House.

"The truth is," the President told us, "in any given year, one in five adults experience a mental illness — one in five."

In most human endeavors something is true only if it can be shown to be so. In psychiatry and politics, however, a statement becomes true if it's repeated often enough. For the past 60 years, the APA has been systematically expanding their diagnostic net until – surprise, surprise – it now envelops 20% of the population. With the lowering of thresholds in DSM-5, we can be sure that this number will continue to rise, and whoever is President then will be able to tell us that one in four of the population has a mental illness. Gosh!

Note also that the President uses the term “mental illness” as opposed to “mental disorder.” The APA use the latter term in their manual to make the concept somehow more acceptable. But these “disorders” always morph into illnesses in application.

The Kinderman-Pies Debate

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:30:33 +0000

BACKGROUND

On May 15, Peter Kinderman, PhD, of the University of Liverpool, posted an article on DxSummit.org. It was called So…What Happens Next?

The gist of the article was that psychiatric “diagnoses” are conceptually spurious, unhelpful, and even hindersome in practice, and discourage practitioners from pursuing genuine explanations for the problems clients bring to their attention.

It was an excellent piece, and I did a short post in which I recommended it strongly.

Can Abuse in Childhood Make You Crazy?

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:48:33 +0000

A NEW PARADIGM

I’ve recently read an interesting article by Jacqui Dillon, Lucy Johnstone and Eleanor Longden. It’s titled Trauma, Dissociation, Attachment &Neuroscience: A new paradigm for understanding severe mental distress. The article was published in the Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy (Vol 12, No 3, September 2012)

Here are some quotes:

"A new and profoundly important paradigm for understanding overwhelming emotional pain has emerged over the last few years, with the potential to change the way we conceptualise human suffering across the whole spectrum of mental health difficulties. It is a strongly evidence-based synthesis of findings from trauma studies, attachment theory and neuroscience, which offers new hope for recovery. It also presents a powerful challenge to biomedical model psychiatry in that it is based on scientific evidence that substantiates and attests to what many individuals with first-hand experience of mental health problems have always known –– that the bad things that happen to you can drive you mad."

George Albee, PhD (1921-2006)

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 07:08:07 +0000

The late George Albee, psychologist, never accepted the medical model of behavioral/emotional problems. He fought tirelessly for years to insulate psychology from the encroaching medicalization of its subject matter, and he died in 2006 believing that his efforts had failed.

He authored more than 200 articles. As early as the 50’s and 60’s, he argued that social factors such as racism, poverty, and child abuse were largely responsible for the conditions known as mental illness.

Opposition to Psychiatric Drugs is Fuelled by Puritanism!

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 08:46:14 +0000

I’ve recently come across an article by Ronald Pies MD on PsychCentral. It’s titled: Are the Puritans Behind the War on Antidepressants?

Here’s the opening paragraph:

"These are not good times for Prozac and its progeny. In the popular media, the use of antidepressants has been likened to swallowing 'expensive Tic-Tacs', while in professional journals, the effectiveness of these medications has been challenged, if not discounted. And even a casual Google search under the terms, “Antidepressants damage” turns up thousands of websites and articles claiming that these drugs cause brain damage, induce suicide, or lead to 'addiction.' Yikes!"

Psychiatry Is Not Based On Science

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 08:16:06 +0000

On May 27, David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, wrote a piece on psychiatry called Heroes of Uncertainty.

It’s an interesting and somewhat contradictory article. Here are some quotes:

"As the handbook’s [DSM-5] many critics have noted, psychiatrists use terms like 'mental disorder' and 'normal behavior,' but there is no agreement on what these concepts mean."

"What psychiatrists call a disease is usually just a label for a group of symptoms."

Pharma Payments to Psychiatrists

Fri, 31 May 2013 05:39:00 +0000

On March 12 of this year, the Los Angeles Daily News ran an article by Susan Abram titled: Doctors report big pharma payouts for drug endorsements. It discusses the financial ties between physicians and drug companies in California.

Here are some quotes:

"In fact, hundreds of physicians, psychiatrists, and medical school faculty members across California are on the payroll of major drug companies, earning tens of thousands of dollars for speaking to other medical professionals at events held by industry leaders that make drugs such as Advair, Cymbalta, Viagra and Zoloft."

The Wellbeing Foundation

Thu, 30 May 2013 05:48:56 +0000

Thanks to Tommy Morrela on Twitter, I’ve become aware of The Wellbeing Foundation. They are located in Ireland. Here are some quotes from their About Us page.

"To call human suffering a disease, something pathological, is deluded. The biological model of psychological distress has no basis in science; it takes away from the equation between 'healer', sufferer and society the need for understanding, compassion, healing, prevention and social and political change. The medicalisation of problems of living has to stop. We have a collective duty of care to bring about the destruction of psychiatry in its present form."

The Caretaker Personality Disorder: Another Fiction

Wed, 29 May 2013 05:38:14 +0000

There’s an article in the current (May/June) issue of The National Psychologist called Compulsive pleasing is deceptive and dangerous. It’s written by Les Barbanell, EdD. (The National Psychologist is a newspaper-type publication for psychologists. It’s published in Ohio, in the US. Some of their material is posted online, but this article is not.)

The article is about “the Caretaker Personality Disorder (CPD),” which apparently Dr. Barbanell invented in 2006 and has been promoting since.

A Victim of Psychiatry Speaks Out

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:53:34 +0000

I’ve recently come across an October 2012 article by Ted Chabasinski. It’s on Mad in America and it’s called: Our Task Is to Take Away the Power of Psychiatry.

Ted tells us that he was was subjected to electric shock “treatment” when he was six years old. You can see a brief bio here.

Here are some quotes from the October 2012 article:

"Those who benefit from the way things are now won’t give up their money and power without a huge fight."

An Attempt to Defend DSM-5

Tue, 28 May 2013 06:15:48 +0000

BACKGROUND

On 19 April, The Conversation ran an article titled Mental disorders: debunking some myths of the DSM-5, by Perminder Sachdev, MD. Dr. Sachdev is a psychiatrist, and was a member of the DSM-5’s Neurocognitive Disorders Work Group. He works at the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Australia. (Thanks to Dave Traxson on Twitter for the link.)

ANALYSIS

Let’s start with the title. “…debunking some myths of the DSM-5.” This sounds good. You might get the impression that he’s going to address the myth of mental illness – the myth that all human problems are illnesses and are best treated by drugs. But – alas – you would be mistaken. Dr. Sachdev lists four myths that he plans to debunk. He refers to these as the “…four key criticisms about DSM-5…” Let’s examine what he says about these one by one.

Childhood 'Mental Disorders' According to the CDC

Mon, 27 May 2013 05:23:19 +0000

BACKGROUND

On May 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report titled Mental Health Surveillance Among Children – United States, 2005-2011. The CDC is based in Atlanta, Georgia and is a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The CDC’s report runs to 40 pages, including tables and references. It received a fair amount of media coverage, and will likely inform legislation and other government action for several years.

DSM: The Big Lie

Sun, 26 May 2013 12:14:23 +0000

There’s a very interesting article by Kyle Arnold on DxSummit.org. It’s titled DSM: Letting Go of the Big Lie.

Here are two quotes:

"The lie is that we have succeeded in domesticating emotional suffering, that we have placed it in a grid with clear and familiar boundaries. The lie is that we know the line between mad and normal, and can tell you on which side of the fence you belong. The lie is that it is science, rather than ethics or social norms, that can tell us what kind of behavior is acceptable and what is not. The lie is that psychiatric treatment is objective medical treatment, as clear and direct as your medical doctor treating a broken wrist. The lie is that by accepting a psychiatric label, you embark on the road to being cured. The lie is the provision of false hope at the price of a stigmatized identity."

Role of Childhood Abuse in Development of "Schizophrenia"

Sun, 26 May 2013 05:24:07 +0000

BACKGROUND

There has been some discussion in recent weeks concerning the role of childhood abuse in the etiology of the condition known as schizophrenia.

It is particularly difficult to address this problem because the condition known as schizophrenia is not a unified phenomenon. Rather, it is an assortment of loosely clustered behaviors which has been falsely and illogically labeled by the APA as an illness, existing in an individual.

So the question “Is schizophrenia caused by childhood abuse?” is a meaningless question. In other words, it cannot be answered either as “true” or “false.” In fact, it can’t even be answered “maybe.”

Pharma Dollars Behind Mental Health Websites

Sat, 25 May 2013 05:26:27 +0000

There’s an interesting article on MINNPOST, Many mental-illness websites show drug-company bias, study finds, dated May 16. The article is by Susan Perry, and presents the results of a Web survey of mental health websites conducted by John Read and A. Cain from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The original study was published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. You can see the abstract here. The full article is behind a paywall. (Thanks to Leonie Fennell for the link.)

The Psychiatric Side-shuffle Continues

Fri, 24 May 2013 05:18:18 +0000

Joel Paris, MD, is an eminent psychiatrist, and is also a Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montréal. He has recently written a very timely book titled: The Intelligent Clinician’s Guide to the DSM-5, published by Oxford University Press.

I have placed an order for this book through our local inter-library loan system, and when it comes in, I’ll publish a review. But in the meantime, Dr. Paris has posted on Oxford University Press’s website a brief essay to promote the book. The essay has lots of interesting aspects, and I thought it might be helpful to examine it in some detail.

A Glimmer of Light

Thu, 23 May 2013 05:45:18 +0000

This is an anti-psychiatry website. I say this with no apology. I am opposed to psychiatry because:

Its concepts are pathetically spurious, and have no explanatory value.
Its practices are harmful, disempowering and stigmatizing.
It is routinely deceptive towards it clients and towards the general public.
It has avidly sustained a corrupt and corrupting relationship with pharma.

But every once in a while I come across a psychiatrist who is different. Recently I came across a post written by 1 Boring Old Man. The post - titled no further comment - is dated February 20 2012.

Here are two quotes:

The Empire Still Fighting Back: Dr. Lieberman

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:09:27 +0000

Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, is president-elect of the APA, and is scheduled to take over the reins from Dr. Dilip Jeste this month. Never in its history has the APA been subject to such scrutiny or criticism from such diverse sources, and one might reasonably have expected Dr. Lieberman to open on a conciliatory note, promising investigations, reforms, etc….

But no! He’s in the ring slugging furiously from the opening bell. Two days ago (May 20) he published an article in Scientific American titled DSM-5: Caught between Mental Illness Stigma and Anti-Psychiatry Prejudice.

Suicide and Antidepressants: Psychiatry's Watergate

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:09:18 +0000

Carl Elliot has an interesting post up about the possible link between the military’s increased use of psychotropic drugs and the concomitant increase in soldiers’ suicide rates. It’s titled Note to New York Times reporters: Read the New York Times.

Here’s a quote:

"Like many reporters before them, James Dao and Andrew Lehren, [NY Times reporters], report that suicides in the military have risen to record levels. What they don't mention is the fact that prescriptions of psychotropic drugs, many of them with black box warnings for suicide, have also risen to record levels."

Live Video Chat: DSM-5

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:51:39 +0000

Today I received the following email from Emily Underwood, a reporter with Science Magazine.

I am a reporter with Science magazine -- after reading your Twitter feed and blog I thought you might be interested in a live video chat I’m hosting this week on the controversy surrounding the DSM V. My guests are Allen Frances of Duke University, William Eaton of Johns Hopkins University, and Frank Farley of Temple University; given their different takes on the subject it promises to be a lively conversation!

Psychiatric-Pharma Business

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:21:41 +0000

GBI Research provides business intelligence reports based on “… the insights of key industry leaders to ensure you stay up-to-date with the latest emerging trends in your markets.” GBI stands for Global Business Intelligence.

I’ve recently come across one of their releases titled Europe Adopting US Strategies to Diagnose and Treat ADHD.

This is essentially a business analysis of the potential sales of ADHD drugs. Here are some quotes:

"European countries are increasingly adopting the US diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV), resulting in more and more diagnoses of ADHD. Clearer guidelines for diagnosis of ADHD in both adults and children and revisions to ADHD treatment methods will be released in the DSM-V in 2013, superceding [sic] the DSM-IV which was last revised in 2000. This may possibly result in a rise in ADHD diagnoses in the US, and potentially further afield."
“The US leads the pack in terms of ADHD treatment, holding the highest diagnosis rate for both adults and children. The ADHD market has shown a steady increase in the number of prescriptions in the pediatric population, although this has started to slow down and has potentially reached a plateau. The market will continue to grow, however, due to the increase in the number of adult patients being diagnosed and treated. A relatively open attitude to psychiatric treatment, as well as direct-to-consumer and physician marketing, is leading to increased rates of adult ADHD diagnosis in the US.”

Screening for Depression

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:55:18 +0000

Routine screening for depression sounds like a very good thing, and in fact it is recommended by NIMH, and by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (a division of the Department of Health and Human Services), and various other groups. Medicare will pay the total cost of one depression screening per year.

But it has long been suggested by those of us on this side of the debate that routine screenings, especially those “free” screenings that are paid for by pharmaceutical companies, have had a distinctive flavor of disease-mongering.

DSM-5 Still Under Fire

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:30:03 +0000

Mental Health Europe (MHE) is a non-governmental organization “… committed to the promotion of positive mental health and well-being, the prevention of mental health problems, the improvement of care, advocacy for social inclusion and the protection of the human rights of (ex)users of mental health services and their families and carers.” It is composed of associations, organizations, and individuals who are active in the mental health field, including users and ex-users of services, volunteers, and professionals. MHE subscribes to the following values: dignity and respect; equal opportunities; freedom of choice; non-discrimination, social inclusion, democracy and participation. You can read more about them here.

Neuroleptics for Children

Sat, 18 May 2013 08:10:16 +0000

Of all the evils perpetrated by American psychiatry in the past 60 years, the administration of neuroleptic drugs to children is arguably the worst. And it is a practice that is growing each year.

The essential purpose of these drugs is to make people more docile and more easily managed by destroying brain tissue. The side effects are devastating.

Recently Gabrielle Carson, MD, a psychiatrist at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, wrote a paper on The Dramatic Rise in Neuroleptic Use In Children: Why Do We Do It and What Does It Buy Us? You can see Dr. Carlson’s commentary here. (Thanks to yobluemama2 on Twitter for flagging the article.)

Different Perspectives

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:58:04 +0000

On June 1, 2012, I wrote a post titled There Are No Mental Illnesses.

Yesterday a comment came in on this post. Here’s a quote:

"When my brother was thirty years old, he started to see objects, which was far away, like hawk. His "mind" wanted to understand it, so he started to think he became a cybrog. Doctor said: you are ill". When I saw strange things, I said to myself: "Well, I see strange things" that's all. And I'm healthy..."

The Problem with DSM

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:45:03 +0000

There’s an interesting article in the NY Times Sunday review. You can see it here. It was written by Sally Satel MD, a psychiatrist, currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

The article is called: “Why the Fuss Over the DSM-5?” Dr. Satel’s central point is that psychiatrists only treat symptoms anyway and pay little attention to the DSM. She expresses the belief that the manual’s diagnoses are “…passports to insurance coverage, the keys to special education and behavioral services in school and the tickets to disability benefits.”

Thomas Insel's Paper – Still Under Attack

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:27:34 +0000

It’s widely known that Thomas Insel, MD, Director of NIMH, recently proclaimed that the DSM’s diagnostic categories are invalid, and that this agency would no longer use these categories as the basis for research. But he went on to reaffirm his agency’s commitment to a biological model of “mental illness” and to funding research into biological causes of these problems. He has since issued a joint statement with Jeffrey Lieberman, President Elect of APA, which makes it clear that they’re still the best of friends, but he didn’t really recant his earlier statement.

Dr. Insel Changes His Mind

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:33:47 +0000

Well, as I guess everybody knows by now, Dr. Insel has changed his mind. On April 29, he stated that the weakness of DSM “…is its lack of validity.” He went on to express the view that his agency, NIMH, (the US government’s mental health research arm) “…cannot succeed if we use DSM categories…” You can see his full statement here.

This statement was widely interpreted as a significant rift between NIMH and the APA. But apparently they’ve made up their differences and are pals again. On May 13, just two weeks after his divorce statement, Dr. Insel and Dr. Lieberman, APA president elect, have issued a joint statement in which they express the belief that the DSM “…represents the best information currently available for clinical diagnosis of mental disorders.” Patients, families and insurers, we are told, “…can be confident that effective treatments are available and that the DSM is the key resource for delivering the best available care.” It’s hard to believe that this is the same DSM that he earlier criticized as lacking validity!

Talk Therapy for Schizophrenia

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:51:28 +0000

There’s an interesting article on Vermont’s Seven Days. It’s called Burlington’s HowardCenter Tries a New Approach to Treating Mental Illness: More Talk, Fewer Meds. You can see it here. (Thanks to Steven Coles on Twitter for the link.)

Apparently Vermont’s Department of Mental Health is promoting a “new” kind of treatment for psychosis: talk therapy. The project leader is Dr. Sandra Steingard, who for most of her career accepted the orthodox view of schizophrenia and the need for neuroleptic drugs.

It's a Great Day for Humanity

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:01:08 +0000

Today, after two years of deliberation, the Division of Clinical Psychology (which is part of the British Psychological Society) issued a Position Statement on the Classification of Behavior and Experience in Relation to Functional Psychiatric Diagnosis. It is subtitled “Time for a Paradigm Shift.”

The DCP summarizes its paper as follows:

"The DCP is of the view that it is timely and appropriate to affirm publicly that the current classification system as outlined in DSM and ICD, in respect of the functional psychiatric diagnoses, has significant conceptual and empirical limitations. Consequently, there is a need for a paradigm shift in relation to the experiences that these diagnoses refer to, towards a conceptual system not based on a ‘disease’ model."

The Empire Strikes Back: APA Responds to NIMH

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:16:59 +0000

BACKGROUND

On May 3, 2013, David Kupfer MD (DSM-5 Task Force Chair) responded to Thomas Insel’s April 29^th unequivocal attack on the validity and usefulness of DSM. You can see Dr. Kupfer’s response here. Essentially Dr. Insel said that the categories set out in the DSM did not correspond to anything in the real world, and that NIMH would no longer be using these categories as the basis for their research program. This statement did not, however, represent any significant movement away from the biomedical model on the part of NIMH. In fact, if anything, it was a movement towards an even more deeply entrenched medical model. But it was a huge hit on DSM and on the APA, who tout the catalog as the basis to their claim to scientific credibility.

SSRI's During Pregnancy and APGAR Scores

Sun, 12 May 2013 18:34:35 +0000

There’s an interesting article on this topic by Hans Jensen et al, in the February 21, 2013 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. You can see an abstract here.

The authors conducted a register study on all pregnant women in Denmark from 1996 to 2006, linking data from the Medical Birth Register, the Psychiatric Central Register, and the National Prescription Database.

They found that the

"… use of SSRIs during pregnancy increases the risk of a low Apgar score independently of maternal depression."

"You must take these pills for life." Or is it for death?

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:12:08 +0000

There’s an important article (here) on Monica Cassani’s website BeyondMeds in which she tackles the myth that once a person has been assigned a “diagnosis” of schizophrenia, he/she must take neuroleptics for life.

Here’s a quote:

"Unfortunately, at this juncture in history many people who get labeled with psychiatric illness these days do not have the opportunity for recovery because they are encouraged to stay ill by a system that all too often impedes psychological growth by use of excessive psychotropic drugs. This over-use of medication also kills people. The average life-span of people taking these medications is 25 years shorter than people who do not take these drugs. The drugs cause a long laundry list of problems only some of which are diabetes, obesity, heart conditions and a shrinking brain."

Great Article by Brett Jason Deacon

Sat, 11 May 2013 08:03:58 +0000

In the current issue of Clinical Psychology Review (April 8, 2013), you will find a very interesting article by Brett Jason Deacon, PhD, who is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming. The article is called The Biomedical Model of Mental Disorder: A Critical Analysis of its Tenets, Consequences, and Effects on Psychotherapy Research. You can see it here.

The article is a critique of the biomedical model from a theoretical and a practical perspective. The author has managed to elucidate a comprehensive range of criticisms of the biomedical model, and has blended them together into a coherent and compelling account.

ECT – New and Improved?

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:15:40 +0000

I’ve just come across a strange article on Mad in America. It’s called Researchers look at therapeutic benefits of ketamine. You can see it here. It doesn’t identify an author, but it’s from the University of Manchester.

The opening paragraph says:

"The largest trial into the use of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) in the UK in more than 30 years will look into how the use of the Class C drug ketamine might reduce the side effects of ECT for those being treated for severe depression."

Psychiatry – Embracing a Social Paradigm?

Wed, 08 May 2013 07:36:54 +0000

There’s an interesting article in the May 2013 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. It’s called “The future of academic psychiatry may be social” by Stefan Priebe, Tom Burns, and Tom K. J. Craig. You can see it here.

The abstract states:

"The past 30 years have produced no discoveries leading to major changes in psychiatric practice. The rules regulating research and a dominant neurobiological paradigm may both have stifled creativity. Embracing a social paradigm could generate real progress and, simultaneously, make the profession more attractive."

Mental Distress Is Not An Illness

Tue, 07 May 2013 06:29:35 +0000

BACKGROUND

Sam Thompson (University of Liverpool) posted the following tweet on April 27:

Can anyone point me to a good, succinct summary of the case for equating mental distress with illness? (serious, non-sarcastic question)

On the face of it, this looks like a straightforward question, and one might think that a straightforward answer could be found. But this is not the case, because ultimately it boils down to a matter of definition. And psychiatry is a field where definitions are notoriously fuzzy.

MENTAL DISORDER

Transforming Diagnosis: The Thomas Insel Article

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:06:21 +0000

BACKGROUND

On April 29, Thomas Insel, Director of NIMH, published a paper called Transforming Diagnosis. You can see it here.

Dr. Insel is critical of DSM:

"While DSM has been described as a 'Bible' for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each."

"The weakness is its lack of validity."

This has created quite a stir, in that it appears to support the position of those of us who have been criticizing the DSM on these kinds of grounds for decades. It also suggests a fundamental rift between the NIMH and the APA, two groups who up till now had appeared to be joined at the hip.

The article has generated a great deal of comment. So far, there’s been nothing from the APA.

Social Effect of DSM

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:41:23 +0000

I keep two dictionaries on my desk. The first is a 1964 Webster’s; the second is a 2009 Webster’s. This morning I looked up the word “depression” in both books.

1964:

n. 1. a depressing or being depressed. 2. a depressed part or place; hollow or low place. 3. low spirits; dejection. 4. a decrease in force, activity, amount, etc. 5. a period marked by slackening of business activity, much unemployment, falling prices and wages, etc.

"Mental Illness" Under Fire

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:20:39 +0000

There’s a very interesting article by Paris Williams on Mad in America, The “Mental Illness” Paradigm: An “Illness” That is out of Control. You can see it here.

The author gives us a compelling critique of the “mental illness” model, and also presents us with an alternative paradigm.

The alternative is:

"… to see those conditions we generally refer to as 'mental illnesses' as instead the natural manifestations of an individual’s struggles with the fundamental dilemmas inherent in simply being alive."

Do We Need More Mental Health Services?

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:16:19 +0000

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, there were a great many calls for “more mental health services” or “better access to mental health services.”

Many of us on this side of the fence groaned, because we knew that any official or private response to this call would be on the lines of more of the same. The same spurious concepts; the same pseudo-illnesses; the same destructive drugging; the same destructive electric shock “treatment”; the same involuntary confinement; and the same stigmatization and loss of empowerment.

Bereavement: An "Opportunity" for Psychiatry

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:02:40 +0000

There’s a new post on Mick Bramham’s website called “A time to grieve, a time to console, and a time to profit?” You can see it here.

You might have thought that, given the adverse publicity that pharma has been receiving in recent years, they would be easing up on their expansionist agenda.

But you would be wrong. The APA has declared open season on bereavement, and although DSM-5 won’t be released for a few more weeks, Eli Lilly is already grooming their SNRI Cymbalta as a “treatment” for this pseudo illness.

More Antidepressant Risks

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:48:34 +0000

There’s an article in Science Daily (April 29, 2013) titled “Antidepressants Linked with Increased Risks After Surgery,” which I found courtesy of Monica on Twitter. You can see it here. The article is a report of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. You can see an abstract of the study here.

The study was conducted by Andrew Auerbach MD et al, and involved examining the records of 530,416 patients who had undergone major surgery between January 2006 and December 2008 at 375 US hospitals.

Psychiatry and the Other Professions

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:33:09 +0000

I don’t have precise figures, but I would guess that psychiatrists constitute less than 5% of the professional staff in the mental health system The other 95% are psychologists, counselors, social workers, case managers, behavior analysts, case aides, art therapists, occupational therapists, job coaches, etc., etc…

All of these other professions have specialized training, both theoretical and practical, and it is reasonable to suppose that they bring to their jobs a wide range of conceptual orientations, and an equally wide range of practical skills.

Suicide Risk with Antidepressants

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:32:59 +0000

There has been a great deal of discussion on this topic in recent years. Families of suicide victims tend to blame the pills; the pharma companies blame the depression for which the pills were prescribed.

Personally, I’ve read and heard a good many reports from people who have taken the pills and shortly afterwards experienced fairly strong suicidal urges pretty much out of the blue. The frequency and similarity of these accounts is – at the very least – cause for concern.

Another Good Website: by Mick Bramham

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:33:12 +0000

I recently came across Thinking About Mental Health: Myths, treatment risks & alternatives. You can find it here.

It’s written by Mick Bramham, from Dorset, England.

Here are some quotes:

From the post Depression: Serotonin Imbalance?

"The whole idea of antidepressants supposedly correcting chemical imbalances has more to do with drug company marketing than evidence-based science."

"Unfortunately, drug companies are known to exaggerate the benefits of their products and to play down the risks;"

Neuroleptics Increase the Risk of Osteoporosis

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:48:30 +0000

We’ve all known for a long time that neuroleptic drugs damage brain cells. But now it seems clear that they also increase the risk of osteoporosis and consequently bone fractures.

There’s an article about this in the International Journal of Endocrinology, dated March 2013. It’s titled Osteoporosis Associated with Antipsychotic Treatment in Schizophrenia, and was written by Haishan Wu et al, from the Central South University in Changsha, China. I came upon the article through Robert Whitaker’s site Mad in America.

Mood Disorders and Stem Cells

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:23:06 +0000

Thank you to Tallaght Trialogue for drawing my attention to Blue Horizon Stem Cells (you can see their website here) and a recent article they’ve written titled Mood Disorder (here).

The article contains a very brief discussion of the term mood disorder, including a mention of “major depressive disorder” and “bipolar disorder.” It then goes on to say:

"To find out more about how you may benefit from stem cell therapy, please complete our Contact Us form and one of our physicians will reach out to you for a private consultation."

Postpartum Depression Not an Illness

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:43:28 +0000

BACKGROUND

The primary purpose of the bio-psychiatric-pharma faction is to expand turf and sell more drugs. This is a multi-faceted endeavor, one component of which is disease mongering. This consists of using marketing techniques to persuade large numbers of people that they have an illness which needs to be treated with drugs.

With regards to postpartum depression, it is an obvious fact that some mothers do indeed experience a measure of depression in the period after giving birth. The term postpartum depression has in the past been generally understood to mean that the problem had something to do with hormones. Today brain chemicals are blamed.

Internet Addiction: A Bad Habit, Not An Illness

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:54:02 +0000

The DSM-5 drafting committee considered including Internet addiction in the upcoming revision, but eventually backed off, at least for now. Apparently they decided to put it in the category “requiring further study.” So it’ll be in DSM-6.

Meanwhile, people are being given the “diagnosis” anyway – and of course, the “treatment.”

AN ILLUSTRATIVE CASE

I’m grateful to Tallaght Trialogue for sending me a link to a recent article in the UK’s MailOnline. It was written by Rebecca Seales and Eleanor Harding. You can see it here.

Separation Anxiety Disorder: Now Also for Adults

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:51:16 +0000

BACKGROUND

The “diagnosis” of separation anxiety disorder has been around since DSM-III. In DSM-IV it is defined as “…excessive anxiety concerning separation from the home or from those to whom the person is attached.” (DSM-IV-TR p 121). The APA’s prevalence estimate is 4%.

This “diagnosis” is listed under the heading: “Other Disorders of Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence.” One of the criteria is that the problem must begin before age 18, and in practice the “diagnosis” was generally confined to children under the age of 10 or so.

The Power of Words to Shape Attitudes

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:40:14 +0000

I recently wrote a post called: Do Major Tranquilizers Make Things Worse? The post was based on a study by Drs. Harrow and Jobe in which they speculated that the high relapse rate of “schizophrenics” who stop taking their drugs may have more to do with drug withdrawal than the supposed drug efficacy.

Monica, at BeyondMeds, pointed out that these drugs should not be called tranquilizers because some of their effects (e.g. akathisia, tardive dyskinesia, etc.) are anything but tranquil. And this, of course, is a good point.

Psychiatry is a Lost Cause

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:09:35 +0000

It is easy to vilify psychiatrists. Their spurious conceptual framework, toxic “treatments’ and blatantly corrupt links to pharma make them easy targets. Their destructive activities, to which they resolutely cling, invite criticism which they steadfastly ignore. Any thoughts that perhaps they had seen the errors of their ways have been dashed by the soon-to-be published DSM-5, which promises to be business as usual, only more so.

HOW DID THEY GET THIS WAY?

Do Major Tranquilizers Make Things Worse?

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:04:43 +0000

BACKGROUND

On March 19 of this year an article by Martin Harrow and Thomas Jobe was published in the Schizophrenia Bulletin: Does Long-Term Treatment of Schizophrenia with Antipsychotic Medications Facilitate Recovery? You can see it here. The term “antipsychotics” embraces drugs such as Haldol, Risperdal, Thorazine, etc… I prefer the term major tranquilizers, because it is more accurate.

Drs. Harrow and Job have conducted a long-term (15-20 year) study of people diagnosed with the condition known as schizophrenia. They found that individuals who had been given “anti-psychotics” continuously for these long periods showed “…considerable psychopathology and few sustained periods of recovery.”

A Survivor's Story: The Dark Threads

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:47:27 +0000

I have just read The Dark Threads, by Jean Davison (Accent Press Ltd, 2009)

It’s autobiographical, and describes with great detail and insight how a young woman of 18 years, whose only problem was acute shyness coupled with a yearning for some meaning in life, made the mistake of visiting a psychiatrist.

Jean describes how she was bullied into accepting psychiatric “treatment." She was drugged into a zombie-like stupor and given electric shock “treatment.” She describes graphically the disempowering and humiliating aspects of “treatment,” and the endless patronizing condescension.

The Bereavement Exclusion and DSM-5

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:09:56 +0000

In DSM-IV, a “diagnosis” of major depressive disorder is based on the presence of a major depressive episode.

A major depressive episode, in turn, is defined by the presence of five or more items from the following list during a two-week period:

(1) depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by either subjective report (e.g., feels sad or empty) or observation made by others (e.g., appears tearful). Note: In children and adolescents, can be irritable mood.

GPs Prescribe More Psychotropic Drugs than Psychiatrists

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:59:33 +0000

Psychiatrists, when challenged about the massive increase in psychotropic drug prescriptions, sometimes point out that the bulk of this prescribing is done – not by them – but by primary care doctors (GPs).

Although the psychiatrists’ claim in this regards may be true, it is also somewhat misleading. The “illnesses” for which these drugs are being prescribed were invented by psychiatrists, and it is these inventions that legitimize the prescribing activity. And, of course, as the psychiatrists invent more illnesses, the prescription rates increase proportionately. Without the perceived legitimacy of the DSM, GPs simply couldn’t dish out antidepressants, anxiolytics, and stimulants on the scale seen today, if for no other reason than the fear of lawsuits.

Kidney Failure and Depression

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:52:20 +0000

I’ve come across a 2007 study review paper by Suzanne Watnick, MD. It’s called Depression in the End-stage Renal Disease Population on Dialysis, and you can see it here. (“End-stage” in this context simply means the complete or almost complete loss of kidney function with no expectation that it will return. It does not imply imminent death. People can live for years and even decades on dialysis after receiving a diagnosis of end-stage renal disease.)

Conversion Disorder

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:35:18 +0000

In DSM-IV, conversion disorder is described as distressful symptoms (or symptom) of voluntary motor or sensory function that “suggest” a neurological or other illness even though no actual pathology is present, and there is reason to believe that the problem is psychological in origin. It has sometimes been called hysterical blindness, hysterical paralysis, hysterical anesthesia, etc… This diagnosis is being retained in DSM-5

Prevalence estimates vary from 1 in 10,000 to 50 in 10,000.

Another Blood Test for Depression

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 07:21:32 +0000

Today, courtesy of Talla Trialogue on Twitter, I have read an article by Shari Roan called Blood Test for Depression Proves It’s Not All In Your Head. You can see it here.

The article appears to be an interview with Lonna Williams, the CEO of Ridge Diagnostics. This company is reportedly introducing a blood test for depression. The test is called MDDScore and is expected to cost $745.

The article tells us that: “You get a numerical score that suggests how likely it is that you have depression. Studies show that MDD Score is about as accurate at making a diagnosis as the most rigorous evaluations.”

Now – by Popular Demand – Ritalin for the Elderly!

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:22:18 +0000

In the old days, which I well remember, misbehavior in school was considered a disciplinary problem. This included not paying attention, fidgeting, not applying oneself to one’s work, talking, interrupting the teacher, etc., etc., etc…

Then the APA decided that these various activities were really symptoms of a mental illness, and thereby created the ever-burgeoning market for Ritalin and other drugs which, we are falsely told, correct the “chemical imbalance” in these children’s brains.

Psychiatric Spin

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:43:37 +0000

BACKGROUND

A couple of weeks ago (March 23), the New York Times did a feature on “Defining Mental Illness.” They invited Ronald Pies, MD (a psychiatry professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Tufts University) to submit a brief paper on this topic. Various people with opposing views were allowed to respond, and finally Dr. Pies presented a much longer summary and rebuttal. You can see the entire print version here.

Somatic Symptom Disorder in DSM-5: You're Crazy to Worry about Your Health

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:28:41 +0000

In DSM-IV, there is a category called Somatoform Disorders, the common feature of which is a preoccupation with “… physical symptoms that suggest a general medical condition …and are not fully explained by a general medical condition…”

Four of the “diagnoses” in this category will be retired in DSM-5 and will be replaced by a new “diagnosis”: somatic symptom disorder. The four superseded “diagnoses” are:

1. somatization disorder 2. hypochondriasis 3. pain disorder 4. undifferentiated somatoform disorder.

An Alternative to the Medical Model

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:41:56 +0000

Recently, courtesy of Lucy Johnstone on twitter, I came across a chapter from Steven Coles’ book Madness Contested. The book was published in the UK in February 2013, but won’t be available in the US until September of this year.

The chapter is called “A proven alternative to the medical model in mental health care?" and describes the Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service, which for twelve years has provided a genuine alternative to mainstream mental health services.

Pills, Pills, Pills

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:40:40 +0000

I’ve mentioned Alice Keys before on this blog. She’s a psychiatrist who laments the fact that psychiatry has become virtually synonymous with drug pushing, and has expressed her concerns from time to time on Robert Whitaker’s Mad in America website.

Alice has a new post up today, called Winners of the American Dream. You can see it here. She has decided to quit psychiatry. “Pills are the only thing left in psychiatry. So I stopped working.”

People Helping People

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:51:15 +0000

Things are changing in the mental health business. People of various persuasions are attacking the medicalization of human problems on the grounds of spuriousness and destructiveness. Others are drawing attention to the ineffectiveness of the drugs, the dangerous side-effects, and the corrupting links between psychiatrists and big pharma.

But perhaps the change that ultimately is going to have the greatest effect is the fact that more and more service users are shucking off the archaic legacy of silence and shame, and are telling their stories. They are telling us that the “treatment” in many cases hurt them rather than helped, but more importantly, that they are now finding their way not through psychiatry, but through something much more powerful and effective: people helping people!

Marketing Psychotropic Drugs

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:23:26 +0000

There’s a nice article at Involuntary Transformation on this topic.

The author, Nathan, poses a very interesting question: since drugs cause damage to children and there are many better alternatives, why do so many parents choose the drug option?

Nathan goes on to suggest that the reason lies in the effort that the pharmaceutical industry invests in marketing, and he calls for “…complete and total transparency in all Mental Health Services.”

Drugging Children Gives Them the Wrong Message

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 10:08:51 +0000

The routine drugging of children for the ordinary problems of childhood is destructive for two reasons: firstly because of the toxic effects of the pharmaceutical products, and secondly because it conveys to the child the message that drugs are an acceptable way to deal with life’s problems.

This latter kind of damage is graphically illustrated in a tragic NY Times article by Ted Gup. You can see it here. Ted is a fellow of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard.

In DSM-5, A-D-H-D Still Spells Misbehavior

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:24:14 +0000

It is a central theme of this website that there are no mental illnesses/disorders, and that the psychiatric medicalization of ordinary human problems is arbitrary, spurious, and destructive.

The widespread acceptance of ADHD as a mental illness/chemical imbalance has no scientific underpinning, but rather is based on marketing and promotion. The ADHD “diagnosis” is particularly destructive, in that it targets children, and serves as the justification for “treating” these children with dangerous drugs.

Defining Mental Illness

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:54:56 +0000

There’s a take-no-prisoners article by Paula Caplan on Psychology Today. You can see Paula’s article here. (Thanks to @yobluemama2 on Twitter for the link.)

Here are some quotes:

"…the now well-established facts that psychiatric diagnosis is unscientific, does not reduce human suffering, and causes many kinds of serious harm."

"…the chances even that two therapists simultaneously meeting with the same person will assign that person the same label are poor, which of course means that diagnosis is not helpful in choosing treatment or improving outcome."

Freudian Psychoanalysis is Better than Drugs

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:10:33 +0000

Today I received a short comment from Ruth Elliot on my post Psychiatric “Diagnoses” for Children. Ruth linked to an article by Claudia Gold, MD. Claudia is a Freudian psychoanalyst.

My ideological orientation is behavioral, and if you were to ask people in this business: what is the opposite of a behaviorist? you would probably get the answer: a Freudian psychoanalyst. And vice versa. They are two very different ways of conceptualizing human activity.

More Conflicts of Interest in Psychiatry

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:00:11 +0000

I’ve come across an article by Lisa Cosgrove et al entitled Conflicts of interest and the quality of recommendations in clinical guidelines. It was published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice in December of last year.

As everyone knows, the APA publishes the DSM, but they also publish “Clinical Practice Guidelines” for various “diagnoses,” including the condition known as major depression.

Dr. Cosgrove and her colleagues examined the guidelines for major depression to see if the authors had financial or intellectual conflicts of interest. An example of a financial conflict of interest would be recommending drug treatment when one is on the payroll of a drug company. An example of an intellectual conflict of interest would be relying on and citing a poor quality study in support of a position in which one had a stake.

The Consumers Strike Back

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:25:25 +0000

There’s a new post on SOAP – How to Escape from a Psychiatric Hospital. It’s light-hearted in tone, but relevant and significant in its implications. It discusses three ways to escape: make a run for it; play the game; and the tribunal.

In its undertones, the article levels a number of valid and accurate criticisms at the mental health system. These include:

- the system is patronizing - the use of tranquilizers is common - mental hospitals are overly restrictive - lengths of stay can be arbitrarily extended - the biological illness model predominates - the patient-psychiatrist status imbalance is marked - refusing to accept that one is sick is considered proof of illness - discharge is contingent on surrender and compliance - etc.

DSM-5 Inter-Rater Reliability is Low

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:04:44 +0000

BACKGROUND

There’s an article by Jack Carney, DSW, on this topic on Mad in America. Jack refers to the DSM-5 field trials published earlier this year in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Inter-rater reliability is measured by a statistic called a kappa score. A score of 1 means perfect inter-rater agreement; a score of 0 indicates zero agreement. In psychosocial research a kappa score of 0.7 or above is generally considered good.

Shock "Treatment" Is Not Safe and Provides Little If Any Benefit

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:52:18 +0000

DELICATE THINGS REQUIRE DELICATE HANDLING

When I was a teenager, one of my hobbies was making small transistor radios. It sounds complicated, but is well within the reach of an average 15-year-old. You get some magazine articles, learn how to read a circuit, and learn how to use a soldering iron.

A transistor is a small device – about half the size of a pencil eraser – with three wires coming out of it. In building a radio receiver, the transistors have to be soldered to other devices which are in turn soldered to other devices, etc… The soldering iron is plugged into a wall outlet, but no mains electricity reaches the tip of the iron. However, tiny eddy currents can circulate in the tip, and although they are only of the order of milliamps, they can burn a transistor in seconds. What you have to do is unplug the iron from the socket, make the joint with the tip’s retained heat, and then replug the iron to have it ready for the next joint. The point being that delicate things require delicate handling, and that electricity can be very destructive.

Why dont you tell the truth about being a Scientologist?

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:05:42 +0000

The following post is a part of our “Tell Your Story” category, where our readers submit their stories about their contact with the mental health system.

This was originally a submission in our forum by Jaymax, before we changed to the new submission format:

Jaymax

Why dont you tell the truth about being a Scientologist? on: February 15, 2013, 04:50

Dear Phil.Why don't you tell the truth about being a Scientologist from the Church of Scientology? And that's why you campaign against psychiatry with misinformation and lies?

Phil

Re: Why dont you tell the truth about being a Scientologist? on: February 15, 2013, 10:34

Jaymax,I am not a member of the Church of Scientology, or indeed of any church. As to why I criticize psychiatry, it is because it is based on spurious and invalid premises and does an enormous amount of harm.If you believe that I disseminate "misinformation and lies," then please come back and specify.Best wishes.

Jaymax

Re: Why dont you tell the truth about being a Scientologist? on: February 20, 2013, 01:46

Really? You sound EXACTLY like a Scientologist ranting about the evils of psychiatry.My main issue is actually that your knowledge of the field mental health is so outdated and lacking. Do you not believe in ongoing education and Professional Development?

Phil

Re: Why dont you tell the truth about being a Scientologist? on: February 21, 2013, 10:19

Jaymax,Thanks for coming in.Firstly, the only common ground between Scientologists and me is the fact that we criticize modern psychiatry. Our reasons are very different.Secondly, I don't rant.

Thirdly, perhaps my knowledge of the field is outdated and lacking. I certainly don’t claim to know everything. The critical question, however, is this – specifically what errors am I making? What am I missing? What am I getting wrong? Attacking me because I’m “outdated” serves no purpose. Snidely questioning my commitment to education gets us nowhere. Instead, provide me one piece of hard evidence that contradicts my position. One fact is better than a thousand ad hominem attacks.

Hello Phil

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:02:31 +0000

The following post is a part of our “Tell Your Story” category, where our readers submit their stories about their contact with the mental health system.

This was originally a submission in our forum by normac, before we changed to the new submission format:

normac

Hello Phil on: September 11, 2012, 16:31

I happened upon your blog a few days ago, and have a few questions about bipolar.Hope you are doing better, as I observed you were off due to surgery.

My story is long, as most people with a mental illness can attest.

Schizophrenia is a broken spirit

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:00:09 +0000

The following post is a part of our “Tell Your Story” category, where our readers submit their stories about their contact with the mental health system.

This was originally a submission in our forum by lonewolf, before we changed to the new submission format:

lonewolf

Schizophrenia is a broken spirit on: March 22, 2012, 12:24

My younger brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 8 years ago. Since then, my mother and father have been so immensely sad watching my brother not be able to hold down a job, talk to himself, laugh to himself, pace around the backyard of my parents home, and not have a an adult life with adult responsibilities.I never accepted that diagnosis for him. I refused to believe that he had a chemical imbalance without PROOF of a chemical imbalance. Human beings are capable of all kinds of behavior. Just because a behavior doesn’t fit in with this particular culture, at this particular point in time, doesn’t mean that the person is suffering from an illness. Furthermore, most people suffering from an illness WANT to get better. I never felt Joe wanted to get better. I could see it in his eyes that he discovered a loophole, a way out. A way to get disability checks, sympathy from my parents, etc. Everyone and the system was reinforcing his behavior.Since Joe is my brother, only 2.5 years younger than me, I feel I know him pretty well. I know that he’s sensitive and shy and would get embarrassed. I also know that some of his life skills aren’t the best (neither were mine when I was a young adult but I kept thrashing forward). Joe went to school after high school and graduated from DeVry with an electronics degree. At around the age of 23-24, he got a job at FedEx as an IT support person. After a few incidents at work where he didn’t have a solution to a problem right away, he got embarrassed and quit. Instead of telling the person with the computer issue, “hold on, let me go ask someone else”, or go and google an answer, or simply state that he is not sure but will spend a few hours or days figuring it out. He instead came home and started crying to my parents that he doesn’t feel “normal”. I knew that life was tough. People take for granted how tough life is. I knew what he was going through. He needed to be told that he has the skills to do good at that job. He needed to be encouraged to go back out there the next day. Instead my parents took that too mean that perhaps he had some weakness, or problem. Perhaps he was depressed? They weren't sure so from that moment on, he was set off on a journey of phsychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, rehab, detox, mental hospitals, prison, currently Joe roaming the streets asking people for money.It was great for Joe. For the most part he could sit at home, smoke cigarettes all day, which my parents would by for him. I was told to speak gently to Joe since he was "under a lot of stress". Joe knew he had my parents fooled and that they would now allow him to sit at home and do nothing. But his little plan has backfired on him. He has stopped evolving and has therefore lost his friends, is not capable of talking to women, has no money, etc. And is now much unhappier than he ever would have been if he simply plowed through life's challenges on his own.

It’s sad watching him deteriorate like this. But I firmly believe that what he is suffering from is a broken spirit, not a chemical imbalance. He needs to be in a place where he is not allowed to smoke, drink alcohol, or smoke grass. He needs discipline and routine. He needs an environment where he is rewarded for good behavior and punished for bad behavior. He needs to be exercising regularly, eating nutritious foods, going to sleep and waking up at regular hours, and someone needs to work with him to slowly build up life skills and confidence.

One guys story.

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:56:57 +0000

The following post is a part of our “Tell Your Story” category, where our readers submit their stories about their contact with the mental health system.

This was originally a submission in our forum by jonnyworthington, before we changed to the new submission format:

jonnyworth- ington

One guys story. on: August 8, 2011, 02:59

What can I say, I finally found some rational thinking out here. I guess I will start about 15 years ago, I was an angry teenager. I wanted less restrictions, more time with my girlfriend, so on and so on. Typical teenager stuff. Then I decided to ditch school, and home, and maybe get my parents attention. It most certainly did and it launched me into the modern world of psychiatry. It is indeed an odd world. I left home and school, so my parents were convinced something must be wrong with me. I didn't think there was, but they thought I had ADD, put me on some medicine. I also found it hard to connect the dots, but they put me on something, so my parents thought it was an answer. Fast forward about nine years, and once again, pressure from the 'rents, and I was being put on adderall, which I will say was a 'productive' drug. I could have built bridges in hours, lots of energy. I guess thats what speed will do with you. Stopped taking that after a few months because it just didn't seem normal. It was just making me more productive doing something I didn't want to be doing. Moving along the next few years, I took up drinking, heavily at times. Got into a hole and got a sort-of intervention staged on me. Went to rehab, shrinks, and they decided I had bipolar. I took med's and did the rehab. I found that lamictal, and depakote are great ways to put a tarp over creativity, insight, and general joy of living. Struggled with rehab a bit, and was on and off the bottle. I was looking for an answer, and a rational answer. I found the modern behavioral health system to be flawed in its dealings with substance abuse, mainly the fact that they all subscribe to something similar to AA's 12 steps. Powerless? Not in control of my life and circumstace? Seemed awfully unlikely to me, so I treated myself. I read, looked for answers and stumbled upon Rational Recovery. It made a lot of sense to me, as it treated an addiction as one. Something that can be beaten by out thinking the problem itself. It works, its just knowing yourself enough, and taking the time to get to know yourself. I have been clean for a couple of months, and its the easiest time I have had with it in years. Problem solved, and all I needed was to understand my own brain. So I searched some more online, and found this site, and I guess its nice to see some 'alternate' thinking. I just find it difficult that western society has quickly gotten on board with the 'science' of psychology.

Phil

Re: One guys story. on: August 12, 2011, 18:03

Jonny,Thanks for coming in and telling your story. My major criticism of substance abuse “treatment” ( at least in the US) is the over-reliance on AA. Some treatment units, in fact, do little more than induct the client into AA and teach the so-called twelve steps. The problem with this approach is that AA is a religion and doesn’t sit well with people who are not religiously inclined. The traditionalists, however, usually insist that there is only one way to get sober, i.e. through AA, and they imply that the individuals who don’t or won’t embrace AA have some defect or character flaw that inevitably prevents their attaining sobriety. But you probably know more about all this than I do.I’m glad you found Rational Recovery, and I hope that you continue to do well. Once again, thanks for coming in, and best wishes.

Force someone to change his Religion

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:44:54 +0000

The following post is a part of our “Tell Your Story” category, where our readers submit their stories about their contact with the mental health system.

This was originally a submission in our forum by AlmuntherAlmaktoum, before we changed to the new submission format:

Hi, I am sharing a series of forum posts written by a friend of mine. This is a man who suffered from Schizophrenia, has had a criminal history and had 7 relapses.I am posting this because recently, he was able to challenge his delusions and through a tolerant religious belief system was able to remain off the medication and function normally in society.Unfortunately due the flaws with modern psychological treatment that most readers of this website are familiar with, he has been forced to take drugs and consequently he has lost the belief that helped him challenge his delusion.I am also sharing an audio recording that he did of a recent meeting with his carers.http://involuntarytreatmentcase.com/?q=node/1#attachments

He has given me permission to share all this.

Psychiatric "Diagnoses" for Children

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:40:49 +0000

Today, courtesy of Monica, I came across an article by Marilyn Wedge, PhD. It’s called Six Problems with Psychiatric Diagnosis for Children. You can read it here.

Here are some quotes:

"Psychiatric diagnoses contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders are not classified by causes like genuine medical diseases."

"Perhaps worst of all, a child who has been labeled with a psychiatric diagnosis grows up believing that there is something wrong with her, that she is somehow “abnormal.”

Petition on Psychiatric "Diagnoses"

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:44:03 +0000

There’s an interesting new article by Paula Caplan here. It discusses the harmful effects of psychiatric “diagnoses,” including the fact that because of these labels, people have lost their “… jobs, custody of children, health insurance, and the right to make decisions about their medical and legal affairs.”

Paula also mentions a petition she created in December 2011 calling for “Congressional Hearings about Psychiatric Diagnosis.” The petition is still up. You can find it here

The International DSM-5 Response Committee

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:07:23 +0000

BACKGROUND

I recently wrote a post called DSM-5: Another Step in the Wrong Direction. In that article I argued that DSM-5 was simply another step in the APA’s ongoing agenda to medicalize all human problems and to legitimize the administration of drugs as the front line “solution” to these problems.

I also expressed concern that the widely publicized movement to develop an alternative diagnostic system might not look all that different from what we have today.

Mass Murders and Mental Health

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:24:08 +0000

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!)

Pharma's Subtle but Pernicious Marketing

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 12:07:02 +0000

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.

Another Marketing Ploy: Promoting Mental Health Evaluations

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:59:55 +0000

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.”

Benzo Withdrawal: Another Story

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:11:50 +0000

There’s another benzo withdrawal story on Mad in America: The 99^th 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.

More on Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:03:54 +0000

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.

Lab Tests for Psychiatric Disorders – More Promises

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:08:20 +0000

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."

Withdrawal from Benzodiazepines

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 10:56:26 +0000

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.)

DSM-5: Another Step in the Wrong Direction

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 08:20:10 +0000

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.

Mental Health After Newtown

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:13:43 +0000

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

"Prescription Drugs Associated with Reports of Violence Towards Others"

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:15:45 +0000

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."

Mental Health and Torture

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 22:21:55 +0000

Recently, courtesy of Monica on Twitter, I’ve come across a United Nations document. It’s a report on torture or cruel, degrading treatment in healthcare settings. You can see it here. It runs to 23 pages.

Here are some quotes:

"…the discriminatory character of forced psychiatric interventions, when committed against persons with psychosocial disabilities, satisfies both intent and purpose required under the article 1 of the Convention against Torture, notwithstanding claims of 'good intentions' by medical professionals…"(p. 7)

National Alliance for Mental Health

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:18:21 +0000

This is a new group: “…a grassroots organization dedicated to providing accurate information and resources to families and individuals seeking better mental health.” I discovered them thanks to Tallaght Trialogue and zebdot on Twitter.

They’re not affiliated with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (despite the similarity in title), and their philosophy is very different from NAMI’s.

You can read about them here, and their posts, by Dennis Dodson, are here.

Here are some quotes from Dennis’s first post:

Tardive Dyskinesia

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:29:07 +0000

In the late 80’s, I worked for a while in an addictions unit that was located on the grounds of a State Hospital in West Virginia. Clients would arrive on 72-hour holding committals from the counties, and if the psychiatrist felt that the client needed to stay longer than that (which was almost always the case), then either the client had to convert to voluntary status, which is what happened in most cases, or the hospital had to arrange for a hearing in front of a judge. For convenience, a local judge would come in and the hearing would be held in the hospital.

Bad Pharma, by Ben Goldacre

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:32:45 +0000

All the awful things you’ve heard and read about the pharmaceutical companies are documented on the pages of Bad Pharma with compelling clarity and abundant references.

Dr. Goldacre is a British physician. His primary issue is the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products in general medicine, but he has a lot to say about psychiatric drugs also.

Here are some quotes:

"Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques which are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments."(p. x)

Mental Health and the Schools

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 08:18:43 +0000

When I was about eleven or twelve, I had reasonably good social skills with my peers, but I was shy and awkward with adults. Our neighbor, Mrs. F., was a very pleasant lady who loved to spend time in her front yard with her flowers. Often, as I came up the walk to our door, I would pass her. She always gave me a nice greeting, to which I would respond by gazing at my toes and grunting.

Aurora Murders Suspect Considering an Insanity Plea

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:59:13 +0000

It will come as no great surprise that James Holmes, the suspect in the Aurora theater shootings, is considering an insanity plea.

But there’s an interesting twist. Before he enters a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, he (or rather his lawyers) wants the court to define the term “mental condition,” which occurs several times in the statute. His point is that he can’t admit to something until he knows what this admission might entail!

Schizophrenia – Two Short Stories

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:25:20 +0000

First story

In the early 70’s I worked in Grendon Prison in England. The facility was run on the lines of a therapeutic community – lots of meetings, groups, etc… One of the prisoners – let’s call him William – was serving time for burglary. He was about 24 years old, and during his intake interviews he told us that he was a member of a small quasi-religious sect who believed that doomsday was imminent and that they would be the chosen few. He talked about these matters openly and with a good measure of passion, and after a few weeks the other prisoners were describing him as “crazy” and a “nutcase.”

Mental Health and the Law

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:02:09 +0000

The central theme of this website is that there are no mental illnesses, and that the widespread medicalization of ordinary human problems is spurious and destructive. These concepts have been around for decades, but in the last four or five years have “taken off,” and are finding a good deal of acceptance among practitioners, academics, clients, and the general public. Change is in the air.

A matter that is sometimes overlooked, however, is that the concept of “mental illness” and its “treatment” by psychiatrists and other professionals is deeply embedded in the legal system of most states and countries.

Lancet Gene Study

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:57:04 +0000

Yesterday (February 28) the Lancet published a study called “Identification of risk loci with shared effects on five major psychiatric disorders: a genome-wide analysis." The study was conducted by the Cross-Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.

The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) was formed in 2007. Its purpose is “…to undertake meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for psychiatric disorders…” The authors state that they have no conflicts of interest.

On their home page, the PGC state:

More on Involuntary Commitment

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:15:08 +0000

In recent times a good deal of criticism has been directed towards the practice of involuntarily committing individuals to state and private mental hospitals. Most of this criticism focuses on the lack of effective due process; conflicts of interest in the case of private facilities; and failure to adequately explore alternatives.

In my view, all of these criticisms are valid, and warrant attention.

But there is another side to the story that is seldom aired outside the mental health centers. A great many clients like going to the mental hospital; they plan their trips in advance and “freak out” at the appointed time, knowing that the knee-jerk response of the mental health center will be a court-ordered admission.

Involuntary Commitment – A Case Study

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:17:58 +0000

Years ago I was director of a county mental health center in an Eastern state. Shortly after taking the position, I became concerned that clients were being involuntarily committed too readily and without exploration of other options. I issued an instruction that all such activity had to be approved by a middle manager before it could proceed. This measure aroused enormous resistance from the front-line staff.

There was one client – let’s call him Charlie – who was committed to the State Hospital every year, usually in July. Every July, he would become “agitated,” would scream profanities at his elderly mother, and break things around the house. He carried a “diagnosis” of schizophrenia.

Anti-psychotic Drugs in Nursing Homes

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:34:28 +0000

I’ve recently come across an article from the Manchester Guardian on this topic. The article is by Sarah Boseley, and is a review of a UK study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society written by Aideen Maguire, C. Hughes, Chris Cardwell, and Dermot O’Reilly.

The researchers examined the Northern Ireland prescribing database and discovered that when people were admitted to nursing homes, the rate at which they were prescribed anti-psychotic drugs increased from 1.1% to 20.3%!

Explanations: Spurious and Valid

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:53:02 +0000

One of the central themes on this website is that psychiatric diagnoses are spurious and have no explanatory value. This contention is central to my entire argument, and for this reason I thought it might be useful to discuss the matter in some detail. Let’s start by examining what is meant by an explanation.

Almost as soon as a child can talk, he begins to ask questions. He asks why does it rain; why does grass grow; why is the sun hot; why is iron hard; why does wood float on water; why do cats eat mice; and so on. What the child is doing is trying to find meaning and system in the world which he sees and feels and tastes and hears and smells. He is looking for explanations. So, for instance, if a child were to ask: “Why is iron hard?” a conscientious parent who had some scientific background might venture an explanation like this: “Because the molecules in the iron are bound together in a way which prevents them from moving around too much. By contrast, the molecules in soft substances, like water, are not bound as tightly, and so they move apart when you stick your finger in. The molecules in the iron won’t move apart easily – you would have to hit them with a hammer and chisel to get them apart.”

Play Therapy

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:17:58 +0000

I came across an interesting article Psychiatric Medication or Play Therapy? by Bob Fiddaman, a New Zealand writer.

The article compares the efficacy and dangers of play therapy vs. pharmaceutical products for children with various problems.

Here are some quotes:

"…play therapy outcome studies support the efficacy of this intervention with children suffering from various emotional and behavioral difficulties."

"Pharmaceutical companies spend billions on marketing psychiatric medication."

"Front groups that purport to fly the mental health flag are, in fact, nothing more than agents, pimps for the pharmaceutical industry."

Don't Call Yourself That: The Harmful Effects of Negative Self-labeling

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:25:29 +0000

When we were young, most of us devoted a good deal of time and energy to squabbling with other children. To the dismay of our parents, we because adept in the use of impolite language, and kept our stock of insulting words and phrases up-to-date. As adults we are more socially sophisticated. We no longer call one another rude names – at least not openly. Tragically, however, many people go through their entire adult lives calling themselves names, which although not as vulgar as the insults of childhood, are considerably more destructive.

Pharma and Mental Health: Hand-in-Glove

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:03:29 +0000

Another interesting article: Academic Integrity in Ireland and the UK: Is there any such thing? at Leonie fennells’ Blog.

It’s about financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists. Same old story; different location. It’s worth a look.

Thanks to Becky @yobluemama2 on Twitter for drawing my attention to this.

A Fable for Our Times

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:54:02 +0000

Several of my recent posts have been about fundamental issues. Here's something a little lighter.

On the coast of Maine near the Machias Estuary, the Atlantic Ocean pounds the cliffs and beaches. The scenery is wild and beautiful, and there are lots of seagulls.

One spring a seagull was born named Jimmy Brady. He was a fine little seagull, but his brothers picked on him something terrible, and he grew up feeling nervous and very unsure of himself. He thought he was ugly, and when it came time to jump off the cliff and fly, Jimmy just couldn’t do it. He didn’t believe that a seagull, as horrible and klutzy as he believed himself to be, could ever soar over the waves as a seagull should.

Muddled Thinking and Psychiatric "Diagnoses"

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:14:55 +0000

Until just a few years ago, the spurious nature of mental illness received little or no attention either in professional circles or in the general media. There were a few of us “cranks” who poked away at the issue, but peer condemnation was usually swift and outspoken. On one occasion I was called an “anti-science Nazi” for daring to suggest that the condition known as ADHD might have more to do with ineffective parental discipline than with brain chemistry. We were voices in the wilderness.

More Thoughts on Dr. Novella's Articles

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:55:34 +0000

This post is a continuation of my post Steven Novella M.D. and Mental Illness Denial.

In Mental Illness Denial Part I, Dr. Novella makes the point that various parts of the brain enable us to do certain things, and that if we are doing these things dysfunctionally, or not well, or perhaps not at all, then clearly there is something wrong with that part of the brain. The example he gives is the activity of paying attention – but I think this is provided as an example, and that Dr. Novella intended his comments to apply to the full range of problems embraced by the DSM.

Psychiatry – the Pseudoscience

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:42:14 +0000

As most readers of this website are aware, there is a great deal of resistance to the soon-to-be-released DSM-5. There is even a Boycott DSM-5 Committee established by Jack Carney, and many people are suggesting that practitioners use the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) instead.

In the general context of this debate, I have come across an article by Philip Thomas, M.D. – “Pinball Wizards and the Doomed Project of Psychiatric Diagnosis." Dr. Thomas points out that “…it’s hard to imagine that the criticisms raised about DSM-5 won’t also apply to the ICD.”

Steven Novella M.D. and Mental Illness Denial

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:58:28 +0000

Recently Nick Stuart, a regular commenter on this website, drew my attention to Dr. Steven Novella. Dr. Novella is a strong supporter of the standard psychiatric system, and routinely refers to those of us who challenge these concepts as “mental illness deniers."(Mental Illness Denial Part I)

Nick referred me to some of Dr. Novella’s articles, and I published a brief response. I have been giving these matters some thought, however, and I think the subject matter warrants more attention. This is because Dr. Novella does indeed marshal some compelling arguments in other areas, and also because he routinely condemns us “deniers” as illogical employers of “…semantic misdirection and evasion…”

Another Critic of the Illness Concept

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:53:23 +0000

I’ve recently come across another DSM critic – or as Dr. Novella terms us – a mental illness denier.

His name is Peter Kinderman, and he is head of the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society at the University of Liverpool. He has recently written an article called "Grief and anxiety are not mental illnesses."

Here are some quotes:

"For a few of us, our experiences of abuse or failure lead us to feel that life is not worth living. We need to recognise these human truths and we need to offer help. But we should not regard these human experiences as symptoms of a mental illness."

Beating the Blues

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:56:59 +0000

This post was updated on March 22, 2015 to incorporate suggestions from a reader.

Recently I was asked by an acquaintance for some suggestions for dealing with a bout of depression. As I was writing these out it occurred to me that the material might have some general interest, so I decided to publish it as a new post.

Over the years I have worked with a great many people who expressed concerns about dealing with depression. These are the suggestions I gave these individuals which I believe were the most helpful:

The Origins of "Mental Illness"

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:25:35 +0000

I routinely state that there are no mental illnesses, but I also make it clear that the behaviors, habits, and problems which are labeled as mental illnesses are very real and can be very disturbing to the individuals involved and to those around them.

My general position is that dysfunctional and counterproductive habits are acquired in exactly the same way as productive habits. For this reason, I emphasize the importance of childhood and adolescence as the time of life when many of our habits, stances, and orientations are being laid down.

"Mental Illness" and Genes

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:15:28 +0000

Jay Joseph, PhD has posted an interesting piece: “Five Decades of Gene Finding Failures in Psychiatry” on Mad in America (Robert Whitaker’s site). It is well worth a read. The general content of the article is clear from the title.

Here are some quotes:

"Two generations of molecular genetic researchers have attempted, yet failed, to discover the genes that they believe underlie the major psychiatric disorders."

"Despite the sequencing of the human genome and the publication of more than 1,700 schizophrenia molecular genetic studies, we have witnessed over 40 years of gene finding claims, and over 40 years of subsequently non-replicated findings."

Criticism of DSM-5

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:06:23 +0000

Christopher Lane, author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, has a new post, in which he attacks the APA for including somatic symptom disorder (SSD) in the upcoming DSM-5.

Dr. Lane quotes from Allen Francis (former DSM guru who has now seen the light) and Suzy Chapman, a UK health advocate. Both of these commentators attack the new “diagnosis” as invalid, unreliable, and potentially over-inclusive.

Here are some quotes:

If Depression Is Not An Illness, What Is It?

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:20:08 +0000

Elsewhere on this site, I have argued that depression is not an illness, but rather is an adaptive mechanism that encourages us to make changes in our habits or our circumstances.

I have written about what I call the seven natural anti-depressants: good nutrition; fresh air; sunshine (in moderation); physical activity; purposeful activity; good relationships; and adequate and regular sleep.

But the question has often been posed: Why does this adaptive mechanism apparently not work in some cases? Why is it that for some people the unpleasant feeling fails to act as a spur to make changes, and instead the person sinks further into despondency and inactivity?

Psychiatry and Big Pharma

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:18:44 +0000

I have written frequently on this website about the hand-in-glove relationship between psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical companies. It is my general position that the business-first orientation of the pharmaceutical companies, coupled with their willingness to pay large sums of money to co-operative psychiatrists, has been, and continues to be, a corrupting influence.

I have recently come across two articles by Carl Elliot, MD, PhD. “How to Get Away with Academic Misconduct at the University of Minnesota,” and “And That’s the News from the Department of Psychiatry."

The Empire Strikes Back: Psychiatry Responds

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:25:30 +0000

By now I guess everybody knows that psychiatry is under attack. The attack is four-pronged: the “diagnoses” are spurious; the drugs are damaging; the deception is blatant and deliberate; and the ties to Big Pharma are corrupting. I have discussed all of these topics in great detail throughout the website.

This week I’ve come across interesting responses from two different psychiatrists.

First, Adrian Preda, MD, from California. Dr. Preda apparently attributes at least some of the anti-psychiatry groundswell to the ignorance of the general public and the bias of the media, whom he contrasts to the well-informed experts who understand the nuances. The article is brief and vague, but by experts I think he means psychiatrists!

Mandatory Mental Health Screenings for Schoolchildren

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:55:10 +0000

A regular commenter to this website has drawn my attention to a bill that has been proposed in the Connecticut state legislature. The bill would require public school and homeschooled children to be assessed by mental health practitioners at grades 6, 8, 10, and 12.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Toni Harp and Representative Toni Walker, is in response to the recent Sandy Hook murders.

And so it starts. Given the built-in vagueness of the DSM, and the inclusiveness bias of the mental health business, the outcome of these screenings (should the bill become law) is predictable: more and more parents disempowered with regards to their parenting responsibilities; more drugged children, and, tragically, more mass murders.

Cold-blooded Killers

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:56:02 +0000

Last Saturday our local newspaper ran an article called “Mental Health Needs Reform.” It was written by a psychologist, and the main thrust of the piece was that if “serious mental health care reform” is not implemented, we will see more mass murders similar to those at Aurora and Newtown.

The article contained several unwarranted assumptions, and recommended that mental hospitals “rebuild facilities for treating those patients.”

My position, of course, is that there are no mental illnesses, and that cold-blooded killers are not sick in any meaningful sense of the term, but are, rather, individuals who have not internalized an age-appropriate respect for the lives and welfare of other human beings.

A Critical Look at Critical Psychiatry

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:35:00 +0000

Critical Psychiatry Network is a group of British psychiatrists who are developing and promoting concepts that question and criticize the assumptions that underlie present-day psychiatric practice, not only in Britain, but also in the US and other developed countries.

Critical Psychiatry challenges the notion that the various DSM “diagnoses” are biologically-based illnesses, and adduces a great deal of evidence to the contrary. They stress the cultural/social aspect of psychiatric diagnosing. For instance, they point out that a “diagnosis” of ADHD is a cultural construct which provides schools and parents with a socially acceptable method of dealing with difficult children (rather than an identification of an illness).

Childhood Bipolar Disorder

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:38:56 +0000

Prior to about 1994, childhood bipolar disorder was virtually unheard of. DSM-III-R (1987), in the section on manic episode, states, “…studies indicate that the mean age at onset is in the early 20s. However…a sizable number of new cases appear after age 50.”(p 216) Of course a mean age of onset in the early 20’s could include young children. The section on major depressive episode, however, contains the following: “The average age of onset is in the late 20s, but a major depressive episode may begin at any age, including infancy.” (p 220)

Dangerous People

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:44:43 +0000

In the wake of the Connecticut mass murders of last month, a great deal of attention, official and otherwise, is being focused on the “mentally ill.” Politicians of all persuasions are proclaiming that we need more funding for the so-called mental health services, and predictably, the various practitioners and centers are lining up with their hands outstretched.

The spurious logic, of course, is never identified, or if it is, it gets lost in the rhetoric. Mental illness is presented (and accepted) as the proximate cause of the violence. If one were to ask a mental health practitioner why an individual was so crazy and acted so brutally, the reply would be: Because he has a mental illness. But if one were to press the matter and ask: How do you know he has a mental illness? the only possible response is: Because he is so crazy and acted so brutally. The only evidence for the so-called illness is the very behavior it purports to explain.

Depression is Not a Brain Defect

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:15:33 +0000

I’ve come across an article by psychologist Bruce Levine, PhD, How the “Brain Defect” Theory of Depression Stigmatizes Depression Sufferers.

Dr. Levine convincingly debunks the brain defect theory, and also the notion that the illness theory destigmatizes depression.

Here are some quotes:

“Americans have been increasingly socialized to be terrified of the overwhelming pain that can fuel depression, and they have been taught to distrust their own and other’s ability to overcome it. This terror, like any terror, inhibits critical thinking. Without critical thinking, it is difficult to accurately assess the legitimacy of authorities. And Americans have become easy prey for mental health authorities’ proclamation that depression is a result of a brain defect.”

After Psychiatry? What Next?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:47:27 +0000

I ended a recent post arguing that psychiatrists should not have a leadership role in whatever kind of helping program eventually replaces the present mental health system, which is crumbling at the seams, conceptually and practically.

So the question arises – which profession is suited to a leadership role. Of course, this begs the question – do we need any kind of formal helping system at all. Perhaps what we should be doing as a society is strengthening the natural mutually-helpful bonds that already exist within our culture. I can see a lot of merit in that position, and it may be that this is what will eventually happen. But I don’t think it can happen right away.

Schizophrenia – Not an Illness

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:39:35 +0000

Late adolescence and early adulthood is arguably the most difficult period of life. Transitioning from childhood to adulthood entails many challenges. The young person (male or female) is expected to emancipate successfully from parents; launch a career; and find a partner – all in the space of a few short years.

Some individuals cope remarkably well. Others squeak through, and a small minority “crash and burn.” The latter group usually return home.

Psychiatry – The Sham Science

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 13:39:19 +0000

There is an interesting article in last month’s issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. The article, titled Psychiatry beyond the current paradigm, was authored by Pat Bracken, an Irish psychiatrist, and 28 other British and Irish psychiatrists.

The gist of the piece is that the current psychiatric paradigm, which the authors describe as “applied neuroscience,” is not supported by the evidence and needs to be abandoned.

Here are some quotes:

Another School Shooting and More Muddled Thinking

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:47:14 +0000

All murders, of course, are brutal, tragic acts, but the planned cold-blooded slaughter of 20 little children and six teachers is particularly heinous. The Newtown murders, coming as they do in the wake of a long string of similar incidents, raise serious questions about American society.

Besides the outpouring of grief and sympathy, the two most common themes in the media are gun control and the strengthening of the so-called mental health services. Of course the mental health industry is raising no objection to the latter.

Psychiatric “Diagnoses” vs Real Diagnoses

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:25:48 +0000

Robert Whitaker’s website, Mad in America, is abuzz lately with articles challenging the medical model that underlies DSM and psychiatric “treatment” in general.

Recently there was an article by Alice Keys, MD, called “Do Diagnoses Injure People?” Of course I believe emphatically that they do, and I read the article.

Much of the content is valuable, and I encourage readers to take a look.

There was one aspect of the piece, however, that I found troubling. Dr. Keys made the point that psychiatric diagnoses can be dangerous, but then mitigated this considerably by making the same assertion about medical diagnoses in general. Whilst there may be a measure of truth to this assertion, it is misleading, in that it creates the impression that psychiatric “diagnoses” are just as valid as real medical diagnoses, which is simply not the case.

Schizophrenia Label - Damaging and Dangerous

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:03:19 +0000

There’s an interesting article Inquiry into the Schizophrenia Label (ISL) on Robert Whitaker’s website Mad in America.

Apparently Philip Thomas, M.D. and other researchers have been asking mental health clients how they perceived the schizophrenia label. They received nearly 500 responses, and found that more than 80% of responders described the label as damaging and dangerous.

They question the validity and usefulness of the “diagnosis” and tentatively suggest that it may need to be discarded.

DSM-5: More of the Same - Turf Expansion

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:30:49 +0000

Until now, I’ve pretty much steered clear of DSM-5. My reason for this is that the upcoming revision represents, to my mind, a distraction from the central issue, i.e., that the whole notion of mental illness is spurious, destructive nonsense.

My position is that the purpose of DSM is to expand psychiatric turf and to legitimize the pushing of mood/behavior-altering pharmaceuticals. In the US (and I believe in most developed countries) you can’t prescribe a drug without a diagnosis. And the APA has never neglected its primary mission in this area.

Reviving the Myth of Mental Illness: Another Interesting Article

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 11:38:19 +0000

I’ve just read Reviving the Myth of Mental Illness by Steven Morgan. This article appeared in the Personal Stories section of Robert Whitaker’s website Mad in America, and is well worth reading.

Here are some quotes:

"Thus, it is important to note that mental illness in itself – the idea that a mind is ill, is actually a categorical error, like saying the sky is ill or the color green is healthy. "

Ghostwriting

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:09:35 +0000

A recent commenter, Dan, suggested I check out some of Jeffrey Lacasse’s articles on ghostwriting.

I’ve read two of Jeffrey’s articles: Ghostwriting and Academic Medicine and Knowledge of ghostwriting and financial conflicts-of-interest reduces the perceived credibility of biomedical research (both co-authored with Jonathan Leo), and found them excellent. Ghostwriting in this context, for readers not familiar with the term, works like this. A pharmaceutical company does a piece of research which establishes that their product is effective and safe. (There are various ways to ensure this result, and the pharmaceutical companies know them all.) Then they get one of their own technical writers to write the research up, but this writer’s name does not go on the report. Instead, the pharmaceutical company gets an eminent medical academic who has a financial link to the company to put his name on the piece, as if he were indeed the researcher and the author.

Mental Health and World Politics

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:45:46 +0000

Earlier this year the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, an agency of the UN, passed a resolution “to develop a comprehensive action plan covering services, policies, plans, strategies, programs and legislation to enable persons with mental disorders to live a full and productive life in the community.”

The resolution recommends several strategies to promote mental health, including the integration of “…mental health into broader health policies and strategies…” and the promotion of “…mental health by targeting early childhood years, aging, prevention of domestic violence and abuse, workplace stress and suicide prevention programs.”

Conflicts of Interest in Psychiatry

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:44:21 +0000

There was an interesting article recently in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, “Exposing conflict in psychiatry: Does transparency matter?” by Chimonas, et al.

The gist of the article is as follows. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa has devoted a great deal of time and effort to exposing conflicts of interest in psychiatry. He has focused particularly on undisclosed financial relationships between psychiatric researchers and pharmaceutical companies. His efforts resulted in the passage of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which requires manufacturers to disclose payments over $100 annually to physicians and teaching hospitals. The act requiring this will become active in 2014. The hope is that exposure will reduce the incidence of problems. It was this particular hypothesis that the researchers wanted to test.

Psychiatry Still Under Scrutiny

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 12:06:57 +0000

Duncan Double is a British psychiatrist who has a website called Critical Psychiatry.

On October 12 he published a post under the heading: “The majority of psychiatrists think adult ADHD is an example of the over-medicalisation of everyday life.”

Here are some quotes:

“When I trained, adult ADHD was never mentioned - it's a relatively new concept, gaining popularity in the 1990s. Many psychiatrists don't feel happy diagnosing a condition in adults that they were taught children generally grow out of.”

More Cracks in the Sandcastle: Anti-DSM Sentiment

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:29:23 +0000

Christopher Lane recently wrote an article called Anti-DSM Sentiment Rises in France.

Here are some quotes:

“Anger and concern about the growing influence of the DSM in France, as well as over a number of related, prominent pharmaceutical scandals here, has culminated in the creation of Stop DSM, a professional and political group that is strongly opposed to the manual’s diagnostic power and what it sees as its negative social consequences.”

Corruption of Research by Drug Companies

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:29:41 +0000

At present the pharmaceutical companies are responsible for testing the effectiveness and safety of their own products. In recent years there have been numerous reports of dishonest practices in this area, including suppression of unfavorable results and massaging of data to create the impression that a drug is more effective than is actually the case.

Recently, Christopher Lane publicized a particularly egregious example of this from England.

The drug at the center of this scandal is reboxetine. It is not available in the US, but is widely prescribed in the UK and in sixty other countries for depression, panic disorder, and ADHD.

A Personal Note

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:33:34 +0000

On August 22, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous deceased donor and his bereaved family, I received a kidney transplant. The surgery was successful, and the kidney is working very well.

I have to take immunosuppressants, of course, and I am having some difficulty adjusting to these. I am still very tired, and but generally my condition is improving.

I hope to be “back on the air” soon.

Best wishes

Kidney Transplant

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:18:29 +0000

Philip had a kidney transplant on Wednesday, after eleven years on dialysis. He is temporarily off the air, but hopes to be back in a week to ten days.

Best wishes.

Cinema Shooting – Psychiatric Defense

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 08:33:36 +0000

It was widely reported last week that James Holmes, the alleged cinema shooter, will be pursuing a “mental illness” defense. Details are scarce because the judge has issued a gag order, but it is likely, given the available information, that the lawyers will argue that because of his psychiatric history he is incompetent to stand trial. It is also likely that they will bring in some eminent psychiatrist(s) who will confirm his “diagnosis” and claim that at the time of the offense he didn’t know what he was doing, or something similar.

Gullibility Personality Disorder

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:48:23 +0000

A regular reader has sent me a link to an article in Mail Online called “British scientist caught smuggling drugs ‘for Miss Bikini World’ blames it on his ‘gullibility disorder.’”

Apparently Paul Frampton, an eminent British physicist currently working at the University of North Carolina, established a relationship on an online dating site with a person whom he says he believed was Miss Bikini World 2007. He flew to La Paz, Bolivia, to meet her. Of course she wasn’t there, but a nice gentleman gave him “her” suitcase and asked if he’d be kind enough to take it to Buenos Aires.

Mental Health Checks for Toddlers in Australia

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 11:14:49 +0000

The current issue of the National Psychologist (July/August 2012) has an interesting article about the impending introduction in Australia of mental health checks for three-year-olds. The examinations are part of a nationwide, government-funded program called Healthy Kids Check. (Doesn’t that sound good?) The program, which will be voluntary, is supported by the Australian Medical Association.

The idea, of course, is to scoop children into the mental health maw at an early age, ensuring them client-for-life status.

Article by Bruce Thyer PhD

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:16:29 +0000

I came across an interesting article the other day.

It Is Time to Rename the DSM, by Bruce A. Thyer, PhD, Florida State University, Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol 8, No. 1, Spring 2006

Dr. Thyer points out that although the DSM claims to be atheoretical, its contention that the various “mental illnesses” reside within the individual, as opposed, for instance, to being understandable reactions to adverse life events, is in itself a theoretical stance.

Dr. Thyer also points out that in the manual’s description of conduct disorder there is a little known (and in my experience even less used) caveat to the effect that this so-called diagnosis should not be assigned if the misbehavior is “…simply a reaction to the immediate social context.” This is laudable, of course, on the part of the APA, but Dr. Thyer goes on to pose the obvious question: Why is this exclusion not applied to all the conditions listed? He then answers his own question: Because “…if this practice was followed, the very concept of mental disorders threatens to evaporate, in favor of viewing these as environmentally driven phenomena.”

Another Important Book

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:44:37 +0000

De-Medicalizing Misery, edited by Mark Rapley, Joanna Moncrieff, and Jacqui Dillon

This book is a collection of papers by various authors, most of whom have experience working with clients and are also associated with prestigious British universities.

Here are some quotes:

“The architects of modern biological psychiatry have constructed a system that does little justice to the myriad problems it claims to address, while creating multiple iatrogenic problems for those to whom it is applied.” (p 1)

Histrionic Personality Disorder is not an Illness

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 10:39:00 +0000

A few days ago it was reported in the media that the defense lawyers representing Jerry Sandusky, the football coach accused of sexually molesting young boys, plan to present evidence that he has histrionic personality disorder, and to argue that this should be accepted as a mitigating factor.

The logic here is sound. Most jurisdictions accept the presence of a bona fide illness as a mitigating factor – sometimes to the point of total exculpation. Consider the case of a middle-aged man who has a heart attack while driving a car. He passes out and the car, out of control, kills someone. In cases like this the driver frequently isn’t even charged.

There are No Mental Illnesses

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:43:08 +0000

I have been writing this blog for the past three years. The primary concepts are scattered throughout the blog, and I thought it might be helpful to draw together the essential underlying concepts in one post. Some of this repeats material covered under the individual “diagnoses,” and for this I apologize to my regular readers, but the notion that there are no mental illnesses (which I repeat regularly) is unorthodox and warrants clarification.

More Cracks in the Sandcastle

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:36:29 +0000

Christopher Lane has a post up on Psychology Today (May 14 2012) called: DSM-5 Is Diagnosed, With a Stinging Rebuke to the APA.

About a year ago, the APA announced the new “diagnoses” that they proposed to include in the upcoming DSM-5. This kind of expansion is nothing new. The APA has been engaged in the medicalization of every conceivable human problem for the past 50 or 60 years.

But on this occasion, some of their more creative and potentially damaging creations generated a good deal of fairly vocal opposition. The upshot of this is a decision by the APA to drop two of the more contentious “diagnoses:” - “attenuated psychosis syndrome” and “mixed anxiety and depression.”

Number of US Newborns with Drug Withdrawal Triples

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:49:01 +0000

Yahoo News recently ran an Associated Press article with the above heading. Here are some quotes:

Disturbing new research says the number of U.S. babies born with signs of opiate drug withdrawal has tripled in a decade because of a surge in pregnant women's use of legal and illegal narcotics, including Vicodin, OxyContin and heroin, researchers say.

The number of newborns with withdrawal symptoms increased from a little more than 1 per 1,000 babies sent home from the hospital in 2000 to more than 3 per 1,000 in 2009, the study found. More than 13,000 U.S. infants were affected in 2009, the researchers estimated.

Too Much Sex?

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:38:14 +0000

Christopher Lane recently published an interesting article on Psychology Today.

The article covers a number of topics, including the APA’s proposal to include “hypersexual disorder” in the upcoming DSM-5. The implications of this proposed “diagnosis” are that if you think about sex too much or engage in sexual activity too much, then you have a mental illness.

Back in the 60’s, when I was at college, I would frequently find myself chatting with a group of fellow students on a wide range of topics, including sex. Often someone would cite the old statistic that the average young adult male thinks about sex 171 times a day (or whatever), to which the chorus of replies was always – “no way; it’s much more often than that.”

Parenting and Psychiatry

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:12:56 +0000

About a week ago an article appeared on the ‘net concerning an attempt by parents to ban ice cream vendors from a playground in Brooklyn, New York. The piece was reprinted in the New York Post. Apparently some of the parents are upset because the arrival of the vendors stimulates requests for ice cream from the children, which results in confrontation and bitterness.

Responsible parents everywhere will recognize the dilemma. Ice cream has little or no nutritional value, but children like it. So do we stand our ground or do we give in?

Cracks in the Sandcastle

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:46:54 +0000

The central theme of this blog is that the APA’s so-called diagnostic system is spurious and destructive. It is destructive of the individuals that get caught in its net and destructive socially in that it undermines those values of resourcefulness and efficacy which are essential ingredients of a successful society.

Psychiatrists have become tawdry drug pushers. To this end they have prostituted their medical affiliations and have avidly promoted the big lie: that ordinary human problems are in fact illnesses best “treated” by drugs.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Is Not An Illness

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:36:25 +0000

Recently I was listening to NPR on the car radio. The program was about so-called obsessive compulsive disorder, and a woman was describing her difficulty in this area. I didn’t record her actual words, but it went something like this:

I have all these checks and rituals that I have to do each day. And it’s beginning to put a strain on my marriage. Sometimes my husband wants to go somewhere but I can’t go until I finish my checks.

Eccentricity

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:15:01 +0000

Yesterday I received the following email from a reader.

“What’s your stance on eccentricity? How do you relate to the general view in the APA that deviation from cultural norms is pathological? And, have you ever read about David Weeks?

I consider myself an eccentric person with many quirks and some fetishes. While I have many friends who share the same interests or many of them, I still feel a little bad about psychiatrists labeling eccentricity with SPD or Schizoid personality disorder. I am 19, and my friends are from the 18-25 years of age, and we share a common love for anime and cartoons. Maybe not always the same but sometimes we share two or more common cartoons. Some of them also are collectors of stuffed animals and figurines like me, and some of them engage in masturbation with those objects as me.

Intrusive Thoughts

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:06:10 +0000

I recently received the following email from a reader:

“I was wondering what your thoughts were on intrusive thoughts and anxiety problems or what some people call pure ocd. I have had problems for as long as I can remember. There is so much information out there it gets confusing. I don't believe these are illnesses I believe alot is learned or habitual. I am alot better thanks to my own hard work, but intrusive thoughts are one of the harder things to shake. Thank you.”

"Normal" Bereavement

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:50:20 +0000

There was a nice article in the Lancet last month. The article posed the question: “When should grief be classified as a mental illness?”

The author criticized the APA’s draft version of DSM-5 for blurring the distinction and for making it more likely that people in bereavement will be “diagnosed” as depressed and, of course, “treated” with prescription drugs.

There has been a good deal of criticism against the APA on this issue, and it is likely that the final version of DSM-5 will reflect some retreat in this matter.

Major Tranquilizers and Seniors

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:16:16 +0000

In 1997 I worked part-time for a nursing home. This facility had an open-door policy and had a reputation in the state for being able to accommodate even the most difficult and unmanageable clients.

Some of this reputation was attributable to their generous administration of major tranquilizers, but in addition there was a high level of acceptance and compassion among the staff, and there is no doubt in my mind that this was a major factor in their success.

SSRI’s and Suicide Risk for Adolescents

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:50:23 +0000

This issue has been debated for years, but was finally considered to have been put to rest by NIMH’s 2004 Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). This study essentially “found” that fluoxetine (Prozac) was effective in treating depression and did not involve an increased risk of suicide.

Robert Whitaker’s most recent post points out that TADS actually found that adolescents treated with fluoxetine had a markedly higher risk for suicidal activity than those who received a placebo. Robert also outlines the various statistical and methodological ploys that were used to conceal this finding and to sanitize the final report.

More about Antidepressants and Placebos

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:39:26 +0000

The debate is over. Antidepressants are only very marginally more effective than placebos. And yet the “depression-is-an-illness” lobby continues to grasp for straws.

Fiona Godlee, editor of the British Medical Journal, recently cited “evidence” of the efficacy of antidepressants. For a critique of the Godlee article go to Duncan Double’s website “Critical Psychiatry.”

Surprise finding! - Antidepressants are only very marginally more effective than placebos.

What this means in effect is that people are “curing” their own depression (gasp), and perhaps don’t really need the mental health practitioners (double gasp).

Gender Identity Disorder Is Not An Illness

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:38:28 +0000

In 1973 the APA removed homosexuality from its list of “diagnoses,” and in its place they created a new “diagnosis” – gender identity disorder.

The essential feature of this so-called illness is a marked and persistent rejection of one’s biological gender and a repeated desire to be of the opposite gender.

I’ve touched on these issues in the posts on homosexuality. So I won’t repeat that material here. There is a recently reported development, however, that warrants some attention. A recent Associated Press article out of Chicago reports that sex-changing treatment for children is “on the rise.” This report was picked up by media outlets all over the country, and probably overseas.

Another Good Book by Stephen Ray Flora

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:21:55 +0000

A few weeks ago I recommended Taking America Off Drugs by Stephen Ray Flora. Well, he has also written The Power of Reinforcement (State University of New York Press, 2004), and this also is well worth reading.

Reinforcement is a crucial concept in psychology, and in this book Dr. Flora clarifies the matter and dispels the misinformation.

Buy it; read it; keep it close.

What's New? APA Threats, Xanax, Etc.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:29:28 +0000

Daniel Carlat’s blog carries an interesting item. It seems that a lady named Suzy Chapman started a site called dsm5watch, in which she expressed criticism of the DSM. Well, the APA didn’t like this and sent her a cease and desist letter, claiming that the string “DSM-5” is trademarked, and that she was infringing their rights. She complied, changing the name of her site to dxrevisionwatch.

What I find interesting here is that the APA claim to be interested in public comment. I guess as long as it doesn’t get too critical.

Grand Rounds at codeblog: tales of a nurse

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:36:47 +0000

Gina has taken time from her busy schedule as an Intensive Care Nurse to host Grand Rounds this week - the seventh time she has hosted GR. Stop by when you get a chance, and you’ll find some good reading material.

Another Good Book

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:09:49 +0000

Taking America Off Drugs by Stephen Ray Flora

A few weeks ago, in a comment, A Behaviorist Fan recommended the above book to me. It came out in 2007, and I don’t know how I missed it at the time. But I’ve read it now and it’s a superb piece of work.

Definitely a must buy and must keep close at hand. Stephen analyses the various “diagnoses” listed in DSM. He points out their behavioral nature, and describes how they can be ameliorated with relatively simple behavioral techniques.

Heroin Addiction is Not an Illness

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:40:54 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I heard a piece on NPR: “What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits.”

It’s an interesting story. It tells how in 1971, researchers found that about 20% of the American soldiers in Vietnam were addicted to heroin. This was shocking news to the Pentagon and to President Nixon, who promptly created a new government department – the Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention. This was the beginning of the so-called War on Drugs.

More on ADHD

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:46:35 +0000

Last week Reuters ran an article by Toni Clarke: “Insight: Shortage of ADHD Drug Adderall seen persisting.”

Here are the first five paragraphs:

“A shortage of Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, shows little sign of easing as manufacturers struggle to get enough active ingredient to make the drug and demand climbs.

Adderall, a stimulant, is a controlled substance, meaning it is addictive and has the potential to be abused. The Drug Enforcement Administration tightly regulates how much of the drug's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) can be distributed to manufacturers each year.

Forensic Psychiatry

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:09:01 +0000

Recently National Public Radio ran a program on California’s state psychiatric hospitals. There has reportedly been an enormous increase in patient violence in recent years, including the murder of a female employee in October 2010.

Staff are demanding that some remedial measures be undertaken. Committees are meeting; politicians are giving speeches. But the violence continues.

Reportedly the state is spending more than $500 per day per patient – that’s more than $180,000 per year! But the violence continues.

Multiple Personality Disorder, Continued

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:32:29 +0000

The concept of personality is very firmly established in mental health circles and in academic psychology. It is also widely used in common speech, and is frequently offered as having explanatory value, when in fact it has none.

Consider the following conversation:

“Why is Mary so quiet and reserved?”

“Oh, that’s just her personality.”

“Why is Michael so aggressive and argumentative?”

“That’s his personality.”

In statements like this the term “personality” is presented as if it explained the behavior in question, when in fact it is merely descriptive. The responder to the question, “Why is Mary so quiet and reserved?” might just as well have said: “Because she is so quiet and reserved.” The so-called explanation adds nothing in terms of understanding how Mary got to be quiet and reserved.

As I have discussed elsewhere – the acid test for an explanation is to ask:

More on Multiple Personality Disorder

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:45:05 +0000

I’m now in retirement, but during my professional career I usually (almost always) wore a suit and tie when I went to work. I enjoyed my work, and I was very comfortable in that role.

But I’m also a committed remodeler. Apart from the time when I was acutely ill, I’ve always had at least one remodeling project on the go – literally all my adult life.

So when I got home from work, I changed “uniforms.” Off with the suit and tie, on with the paint-splattered jeans, plaid shirt, scruffy sweater, and tool belt. And here again, I was very comfortable.

Multiple Personality Disorder – Another Bogus Illness

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:27:30 +0000

MPD became an official APA “diagnosis” with the publication of DSM-III in 1980. It has since been renamed as dissociative identity disorder. The criteria are:

A. The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self).

B. At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person's behavior.

More on Homosexuality

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:53:12 +0000

I came across this on Yahoo! News.

BOSTON (AP) — Gay rights groups say they're pleased the oldest Roman Catholic newspaper in the United States has retracted an opinion column suggesting the devil may be responsible for gay attraction.

The column in the Boston archdiocese's The Pilot newspaper was titled "Some fundamental questions on same-sex attraction." It was written by an adviser at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It said "scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil."

Grand Rounds at Health Business Blog

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:11:07 +0000

This week’s Grand Rounds is hosted by David Williams at Health Business Blog. As usual, there is plenty of good reading. Pranab’s post Trick or Treat: Do Doctors Encourage Poor Patient Behaviors, at the blog Scepticemia is well-written, interesting, and says as much about behavior as it does about medicine.

Behaviorism and Sin

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:02:37 +0000

I am writing this post in response to Jeanne’s last comment concerning the concept of sin. This takes us a little outside the normal orbit of this blog, and also outside my field. But since behaviorism is a way of looking at human activity, and sin is an alternative way of looking at the same phenomenon, it might be helpful to examine the concept a little and draw comparisons between the two perspectives.

Grand Rounds at Laika's MedLibLog

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:03:36 +0000

Jacqueline (aka Laika) has this week’s Grand Rounds up at Laika’s MedLibLog.

One might wonder if many posts could be found that fit the theme: Data, Information, and Communication. There are approximately fifty posts in this Rounds, so many that you will want to go back several times, so as not to miss anything interesting. Dr. Herb Mathewson has a post - Want to Go Dutch…or French…or German? - on learning about other countries’ healthcare systems. There are several posts about social media and medicine - too many to mention, but obviously a source of information for those interested in learning more about this subject - most appropriate for those of us who are of an older, pre-computer age. Some posts are very serious (My Review of Lifetime’s Movie: Five), while others, such as ZDoggMD’s Doctors Today, are of a lighter nature. Stop by and have a look.

Homosexuality

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:52:18 +0000

In a recent comment on my last post Jeanne raised some important questions concerning homosexuality. These are issues where considerations of political correctness and religious dogma have stifled genuine discussion and dialogue. I will try to address these questions openly and straightforwardly.

The sex or gender of a person expresses itself in five general ways.

1. Every cell of the body is recognizable under a microscope as male or female.

2. Anatomically: The male develops testicles; the female develops ovaries. These differences are discernible in the embryo within a few weeks of fertilization.

Grand Rounds at Healthcare Economist

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:37:05 +0000

It’s time for this week’s Grand Rounds, which can be found at Healthcare Economist. Jason has put together an interesting set of posts, everything from a book review to a post about the iPhone. Stop by for some enjoyable reading.

Homosexuality: The Mental Illness That Went Away

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:14:29 +0000

Post edited and updated January 2, 2013, to reflect clarifications as a result of interactions with the many people who have left comments. I thank them for their input.

********************

According to the American Psychiatric Association, until 1974 homosexuality was a mental illness. Freud had alluded to homosexuality numerous times in his writings, and had concluded that paranoia and homosexuality were inseparable. Other psychiatrists wrote copiously on the subject, and homosexuality was “treated” on a wide basis. There was little or no suggestion within the psychiatric community that homosexuality might be conceptualized as anything other than a mental illness that needed to be treated. And, of course, homosexuality was listed as a mental illness in DSM-II. (The DSM – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – is the APA's standard classification of their so-called mental disorders, and is used by many mental health workers in the USA and other countries.)

Then in 1970 gay activists protested against the APA convention in San Francisco. These scenes were repeated in 1971, and as people came out of the “closet” and felt empowered politically and socially, the APA directorate became increasingly uncomfortable with their stance. In 1973 the APA’s nomenclature task force recommended that homosexuality be declared normal. The trustees were not prepared to go that far, but they did vote to remove homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses by a vote of 13 to 0, with 2 abstentions. This decision was confirmed by a vote of the APA membership, and homosexuality was no longer listed in the seventh edition of DSM-II, which was issued in 1974.

Grand Rounds at Colorado Health Insurance Insider

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:22:03 +0000

Louise has this week’s Grand Rounds up at Colorado Health Insurance Insider. Good reading on topics that are informative and sometimes controversial. Stop by and have a look.

Legacy of Abuse

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:53:54 +0000

Psychiatry likes to present itself as a helping profession, but even a cursory look at its history suggests otherwise. Here are some of the “treatments” that this pseudo-science has promoted for its pseudo-illnesses.

STERILIZATION

It is estimated that 65,000 people were sterilized in America under various eugenic statutes. This practice, which was used between the 1920’s and 1970’s, was aimed at “undesirables” which included the so-called mentally ill.

HYDROTHERAPY

This involved suspending the client in a cold bath for hours and even days at a time. It was widely practiced in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Grand Rounds at Health 3.0 Blog

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:55:32 +0000

This week’s Grand Rounds is up at Health 3.0 Blog. Plenty of good posts, and if you like music with your reading, at the bottom of the page there are six versions of the song Goodnight Irene for your listening enjoyment - artists from Johnny Cash to Peter, Paul and Mary.

A Blood Test for Depression

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:28:12 +0000

Daniel Carlat in his blog post of August 15 mentions, and critiques, a so-called blood test for depression marketed (for $745) by Ridge Diagnostics.

The essence of Dr. Carlat’s criticism is that the test is not predictive of depression, but merely enables one to tell (with some degree of accuracy) whether or not a person is depressed. Dr. Carlat makes the point that you can tell this with more or less total accuracy simply by asking the person if he is depressed or by observing him for a few minutes of conversation.

Grand Rounds at Dr. Pullen

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:43:21 +0000

Dr. Ed Pullen has this week’s Grand Rounds up at DrPullen.com. As well as the usual range of subjects covered in the medical blogging world, he has gone further afield with a few interesting additions, including a recipe for raspberry pie. Take a look when you have a chance to relax and read.

Behavior Therapy

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:10:38 +0000

In a comment on my post on Natural Correction, Nanu Grewal raised a question concerning the addressing of behavioral problems. This is a huge topic, and I feel the reply warrants a post. There are others who could do a better job than me, but here’s my take on it.

Traditional behavior therapy starts with assessment. Take nail-biting as a fairly simple example. Observations are made for a week or so, and the frequency of the problem behavior is measured as accurately as possible. Next step is remediation. In this case, say, application of a foul-tasting preparation to the subject’s nails. Then more monitoring. Essentially what has occurred is that the problem behavior has been punished by the foul taste, and one expects to see the problem diminish in frequency to the point of extinction. Further monitoring would occur about a month later to ensure no return of the problem.

Grand Rounds at Medical Lessons

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:52:44 +0000

Dr. Elaine Schattner has Grand Rounds this week at Medical Lessons. Not only has she put together some very interesting reading, but a range of photos from around the world. In her call for submissions Dr. Schattner asked that bloggers submit a photo from their region, and she received some lovely images. Have a look.

Natural Correction

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:13:59 +0000

The central theme of this blog is that there are no mental illnesses and that the spurious medicalization of problems of living represents a tragic wrong turn in human history.

In a comment on my last post, Nanu Grewal raised the question of a natural correction. In other words, does there come a point where the nonsense is so outrageous that some corrective force emerges which would undermine and even supplant the present illogical system. In my view this is an excellent question.

An Interesting Post On Depression

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:59:36 +0000

There’s some interesting reading at Mercola.com posted April 6, 2011.

Dr. Mercola states that depression is not an illness! - and that this bogus illness was created by psychiatrists and drug companies in order to sell drugs!

No surprises there for regular readers of this site. Unfortunately Dr. Mercola doesn’t take the logic far enough. Although he rightly debunks depression as an illness, he clings to the notion that other “mental illnesses” are bona fide.

Grand Rounds at Better Health

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:55:15 +0000

Dr. Val Jones has this week’s Grand Rounds up at Better Health. You can find reading material here for the entire week, as Dr. Jones has included more than forty posts. Some are inspirational, like Dr. Ed Pullen’s Carpe Diem; others cover material that is hard to believe, as in Roy’s post Doctors to Go to Jail for Asking Patients about Guns in the Home. Whatever your fields of interest, there will something for you. Take a look.

Psychiatrists Are Drug-pushers

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:40:51 +0000

There’s an interesting article on the New York Times website: Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy (March 5, 2011).

The essence of the article is that psychiatrists no longer engage in talk therapy to any great extent, but instead prescribe behavior-altering drugs.

What’s interesting about this is that the author, Gardiner Harris, seems almost surprised at this “discovery.” In fact, the change from talk to pills occurred decades ago – during the 70’s I would say, and was more or less complete by 1980.

Grand Rounds at Diabetes Mine

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:15:22 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Diabetes Mine. You will find the usual wide range of topics, so stop by and have a read.

Diagnosis

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:15:15 +0000

I am writing this post as a response to a comment posted by medical blog in my previous post, More on So-called Bipolar Disorder.

In the summer of 2001 I became very ill. The symptoms were exhaustion and mild nosebleeds. I went to three different practitioners, but they all were dismissive of my concerns, assured me that I was in good health, and sent me on my way. On August 8^th of that year I was admitted to the hospital in Greeley, Colorado with complete kidney failure. The nephrologist at the hospital gave me the diagnosis that had eluded the earlier doctors: Wegener’s Granulomatosis - a rare autoimmune disease that attacks lungs, kidneys, and airways. I have been on dialysis every since.

More on So-called Bipolar Disorder

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:35:41 +0000

A few days ago, I received the following email:

Hi Phil,

I would like to hear from you how we can survive the bipolar disorder, as I understand bipolar is a very serious disease.

Regards,

[Name]

The question seems important enough to warrant a more public response, though I have omitted the writer’s name to safeguard confidentiality.

So here’s my reply.

Firstly, the condition known as “bipolar disorder” is emphatically NOT a disease. Rather, it is a loose cluster of behaviors which psychiatrists – in concert with the pharmaceutical companies – have called an illness with the purpose of selling drugs.

Grand Rounds at The Covert Rationing Blog

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:18:02 +0000

DrRich has Grand Rounds up at The Covert Rationing Blog. He has obviously put a lot of work into hosting this week’s rounds, with explanatory paragraphs concerning each entry. The reader is easily able to discern what is covered in each submitted post, so stop by to have a look, and read further.

More On Disability

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:15:54 +0000

In his book Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker drew attention to the increasing numbers on the Social Security disability rolls due to so-called mental illness. Robert raises the possibility that the drugs routinely used to “treat” depression may be contributing to the problem. In a recent post, he discusses this matter further.

I think the reasons for the increase in the disability rolls are as follows:

People who seek psychiatric help are being told routinely that they have brain abnormalities and that they need to take drugs for the rest of their lives –“just like diabetics.” This promotes a disability mindset which often translates into a disability application.

2. Applicants for disability based on the so-called mental illnesses are screened by either a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Both of these professional groups are immersed and heavily invested in the conceptualization of ordinary living problems as illnesses, and tend to accept uncritically the applicants’ claims that they “just can’t do anything.”

Grand Rounds at Gruntdoc

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:50:09 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Gruntdoc. As usual, Dr. Roberts presents a very user-friendly rounds, simple to follow, easy to use. Close to thirty posts, with a wide range of subjects. Stop by and have a look.

Business As Usual

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:44:53 +0000

Christopher Lane, author of Shyness has written an interesting post. The gist of the matter is as follows.

There’s a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines (benzos for short) that are promoted by Pharma and prescribed by psychiatrists to “treat” anxiety. (As if anxiety were an illness!) See my post on the So-called Anxiety Disorders.

Benzos include such household names as Valium, Librium, Ativan, Xanax, etc.. When introduced in the 1960’s, these drugs were widely touted as “safe” tranquilizers. Readers may remember Valium as “mother’s little helper,” so called because it was marketed to millions of harried housewives as they struggled to adapt to an increasingly complex and multi-faceted lifestyle.

Grand Rounds at Suture for a Living

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 09:25:06 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Suture for a Living. Plastic surgeon Dr. Ramona Bates has included posts that cover many different subjects, some light, some serious. Stop by and have a look.

Overeating Is Not An Illness

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:33:29 +0000

DSM lists two principal “illnesses” under the heading Eating Disorders: anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Anorexia Nervosa means chronic and pernicious fasting even though food is readily available. “Anorexia” is Greek for lack of appetite. “Nervosa” is Greek for nervous.

Bulimia means recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting or other methods of purging. “Bulimia” is Greek for “the hunger of an ox.”

Neither anorexia nor bulimia is an illness in any correct sense of the word. But my concern today is not with either of these issues, but rather with common, everyday overeating.

The Drugging of Children

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:42:07 +0000

Babies are born selfish. Not only has the newborn no consideration for others, he isn’t even aware of others. For the newborn, the universe is him/herself.

Babies are born bad-tempered. When their needs are not immediately met, they cry. If they are still not met, they scream, turn red, and thrash their arms and legs. This is raw, unmitigated anger.

Babies are born rude and ill-mannered. They vomit and urinate on other people’s clothes. They defecate in inappropriate places. They spit and drool. They grab people’s hair and poke their fingers in people’s eyes.

DSM and Disability

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 18:47:02 +0000

Every society in every generation makes errors. Some of the errors are minor. Some are major. One of the great errors of the 20^th century was this: we accepted the spurious notion that a wide range of life’s problems were in fact illnesses. This spurious notion was initiated with good intentions – to provide shelter and humanitarian care for a relatively small number of individuals whose plight was truly dreadful. But then the concept of mental illness took off, fuelled largely by the efforts of psychiatrists to legitimize their status as “real” doctors.

Grand Rounds at Highlight Health

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:25:06 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Highlight Health. The theme is The Impact of Healthcare Reform, and Walter Jessen has included posts that cover many different perspectives on this timely subject. Stop by and have a look.

The Psychiatrists, the Drug Reps, and the Green, Green, Dollars

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:26:41 +0000

We’ve known for years that drug companies give gifts to physicians. The gifts have taken many forms – pens, vacations, meals, free samples, etc… Physicians always insisted that these gifts didn’t influence their prescribing practice – that they always prescribed strictly in the best interests of their clients.

Two trends have been exposed in recent years which demonstrate just how depraved this hand-in-glove relationship has become.

Firstly, the “thought leader” ruse. Here’s how it works. A drug rep, usually an attractive young, perfectly groomed female, approaches a physician, usually male, and tells the physician that he has been identified as a thought leader in his area, and that they would like to recruit him to give presentations to groups of physicians and other healthcare workers. The physician, of course, will be paid generously for his time. He says “sure,” and the dance begins. The drug rep arranges the “training” sessions. The drug company provides the script and the refreshments. The mark – I mean the physician – delivers the script, in which the merits of the drug company’s product are lauded to the detriment of competitors. At the end of the session, the physician receives a check and goes away contented. Over the next few months more such sessions will be organized and the physician begins to think of his “speech” checks as regular income. He will also receive “coaching” from the drug rep if his presentation seems to lack the kind of conviction that the drug company feels warranted. (After all, they are paying the piper).

Mental Illness: The History of a Mistake

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:51:09 +0000

The human brain is a pattern-seeking machine. Because of his brain, man strives to understand the world around him and uses this understanding to improve his lot. The brain looks for patterns and explanations. Our ancestors, for instance, discovered that certain rocks, through processing in certain ways, could be shaped to make sharp tools which they used to great advantage. Later it was discovered that other rocks when heated in certain ways produced iron. And so on.

Learning Disorders Are Not Illnesses

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:43:22 +0000

The notion of learning disorders gained momentum during the 50’s and 60’s, when it began to be appreciated in professional circles that there were a small number of individuals who, although quite bright, seemed to experience inordinate difficulty learning to read. They juxtaposed letters or did not seem to readily “see” the patterns of letters in words, and the term “dyslexia” was used to describe this condition, which was relatively rare in school-aged children.

Another Interesting Book

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 10:11:09 +0000

Unhinged, by Daniel Carlat, MD

Dr. Carlat is a psychiatrist who has written something of an exposé of the abuses that reside within the psychiatric profession. Many of his chapters echo topics that have been addressed frequently on this blog. Dr. Carlat still clings to the notion that problem behaviors can be accurately conceptualized as illnesses, but he does criticize the proliferation of “diagnoses” and the application of these “diagnoses” to increasing numbers of individuals.

Drugs and Alcohol (Part 3)

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:48:43 +0000

This post was edited and updated on June 29 2014, to include additional thoughts.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Rational Policy on Drugs and Alcohol

In my last post I argued against government prohibitions against drugs and alcohol. My position is that substances such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, etc., should be legal in the same way that alcohol and tobacco are today. I believe, however, that the distribution and marketing of these substances should be brought under direct government control. All of the commonly abused addictive substances are dangerous, and they have taken - and continue to take - an enormous toll on society. This cost includes lives, health, lost opportunities, money and general suffering and anguish. But it’s difficult to put old heads on young shoulders, and it seems that each generation - indeed each individual - has to learn these lessons anew. I don’t believe we can ever eradicate substance abuse entirely.

Drugs and Alcohol (Part 2)

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:19:56 +0000

In my previous post on this subject, I discussed addiction to alcohol and other drugs. I made the point that addiction to these substances is not an illness, but rather an extremely strong habit.

Treatment Programs

The notion that alcoholism is a disease gained popularity in the 50’s and 60’s. At about the same time, employers were beginning the practice of offering medical insurance to their staff, and insurance companies routinely included 30 days of treatment per year for alcoholism and/or drug addiction. At the time, there were very few treatment units for these problems, and little use was made of the drug and alcohol provisions in the insurance policies.

Grand Rounds at Sharpbrains.com

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:40:59 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at sharpbrains. Twenty-two health and medicine posts. Plenty of reading for all on a wide range of subjects.

Drugs and Alcohol (Part 1)

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:39:22 +0000

The APA’s DSM lists two broad categories of diagnoses in this area: dependence and abuse. So we have alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse; amphetamines dependence and amphetamines abuse; cocaine dependence and cocaine abuse. And so on.

Dependence is defined by the presence of three or more of the following criteria:

tolerance, as defined by either of the following:
1. a need for markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect
2. markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of the substance
withdrawal, as manifested by either of the following:
1. the characteristic withdrawal syndrome for the substance …
2. the same (or a closely related) substance is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
the substance is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended
there is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use
a great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance… use the substance … or recovery from its effects
important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of substance use
the substance use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the substance …

Abuse is defined as one or more of the following:

recurrent substance use resulting in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home …
recurrent substance use in situations in which it is physically hazardous …
recurrent substance-related legal problems …
continued substance use despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effect of the substance …

Let’s consider alcohol dependence, which to all intents and purposes is what most people would refer to as alcoholism. A person who drinks, say, half a bottle of whisky every day, who never appears particularly drunk, who becomes extremely sick if he stops drinking, who has made numerous unsuccessful efforts to quit, who has incurred some liver damage, and whose social life has been severely curtailed because of drinking, would normally be called an alcoholic. Some people prefer the term addicted and would describe him as addicted to alcohol. DSM would say that he has a mental disorder called alcohol dependence. The problem with all three terminologies is that they encourage us to blur the distinction between a description and an explanation. This distinction is the central theme of this blog.

Grand Rounds at Musings of a Dinosaur

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:25:57 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Musings of a Dinosaur. Plenty of reading covering many topics.

Drugs, Placebos, and Life

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:53:17 +0000

I have recently read a very interesting book by Irving Kirsch, PhD. It’s called The Emperor’s New Drugs, and the central theme of the work is that antidepressants are only very slightly more effective than placebos (i.e. sugar pills), and that the difference is not clinically significant.

The logic is cogent and the research is rigorous. Read the book and decide for yourself.

Dr. Kirsch argues in favor of psychotherapy as a substitute for pills. And certainly talking is usually helpful. However, as long as depression is conceptualized as an illness, I don’t believe we will see real progress in this field.

Grand Rounds at Inside Surgery

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:35:40 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Inside Surgery. Sorted, well laid out, and plenty of reading on varied topics.

Sexual Disorders are Not Illnesses (Part 2)

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:35:29 +0000

In my last post I described frotteurism, which the APA lists as one of their mental disorders/illnesses. The central theme of this blog is that there are no mental illnesses – that mental illnesses are essentially psychiatrists’ ways of conceptualizing ordinary human problems for the purposes of consolidating turf and legitimizing the use of drugs to alter people’s behavior and mood.

This is not to say that the behaviors in question are not problems. They certainly are. Frotteurism is a case in point. A man who uses the crowd cover of trains and buses to press his genitals against non-consenting females clearly has a problem. The question is: how can we explain this behavior? Why does he do it?

Grand Rounds at other things amanzi

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:17:39 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at other things amanzi. This week’s host is a surgeon in the province of Mpumalanga, South Africa. In addition to good reading, the rounds offers some very nice photos from the 2010 World Cup.

Sexual Disorders Are Not Illnesses

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:59:39 +0000

The central theme of this blog is that almost all the so-called mental illnesses listed in the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual are nothing more than the ordinary everyday challenges of human existence. The psychiatric profession has “elevated” these problems to the status of disorders and illnesses to justify and legitimize their involvement in these areas, and in particular to justify the use of drugs to alter people’s moods and actions. Psychiatry – once a respectable helping profession – has degenerated into something little better than drug pushing. The real winners, of course, are the pharmaceutical companies, who use the psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to promote the widespread drugging of the population. The DSM’s so-called sexual disorders represent a particularly blatant example of psychiatric invention.

Update

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:29:04 +0000

Sorry I’ve been “off the air.” My wife, Nancy, fell and broke her thigh bone a couple of weeks ago. She is out of the hospital and recuperating well, but my days are filled with the minutiae of personal care and domestic management.

Stay tuned. I still have lots to say concerning the spurious nature of DSM’s so-called mental illnesses.

Grand Rounds at Getbetterhealth

Tue, 18 May 2010 10:36:54 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Getbetterhealth. Maria Gifford, newly-appointed content manager of Better Health, has done an excellent job of putting together this week’s rounds. She uses a straightforward style that makes it easy to check out the various posts.

Personality Disorders Are Not Illnesses

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:42:55 +0000

The central theme of this blog is that there are no mental illnesses. The concept of mental illness is a spurious invention of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals for the purpose of medicalizing normal human problems and selling drugs.

The central tenet of the mental health system is that unusual, bizarre, and disturbing behaviors are caused by mental disorders (or illnesses). But their definition of a mental disorder is: a serious behavioral problem. So problem behavior is caused by problem behavior. This is the facile logic behind the widespread peddling of drugs in which psychiatry and the mental health system engage.

The So-Called Mental Illnesses Are Not Illnesses

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:03:45 +0000

The central theme of this blog is that mental illness is a spurious and invalid concept, which is promoted and developed by the American Psychiatric Association to legitimize the use of mood-altering drugs.

It is certainly true that people display various problems in their daily lives and particularly in their interpersonal relationships. The American Psychiatric Association claims that all such problems are caused by mental illness and their list of these so-called illnesses is so long that virtually anybody can be embraced within their coils.

Grand Rounds at Parallel Universes

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:34:42 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Parallel Universes. Dr. Emer has very nicely taken an unthemed Rounds and sorted the posts into several interesting mini-themes. From dealing with death to high risk pools in the health insurance field, there is plenty of good reading.

Schizophrenia Is Not An Illness (Part 3)

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:41:42 +0000

Hallucinations

In Schizophrenia Part 1, we noted that the APA lists hallucinations as one of the primary “symptoms” of schizophrenia. The APA defines an hallucination as follows:

“A sensory perception that has the compelling sense of reality of a true perception but that occurs without external stimulation of the relevant sensory organ.” (DSM-IV-TR, p 823)

In other words: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling something that isn’t really there. Typically the individual who has been “diagnosed” with schizophrenia reports that he hears voices that accuse him of some wrong or exhort him to some action, and sometimes threaten him with punishment or retribution.

A number of points need to be made.

Grand Rounds at MD Whistleblower

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:04:11 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at MD Whistleblower. With so many posts on a wide range of subjects, there is plenty of reading for everyone.

Schizophrenia Is Not an Illness (Part 2)

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:23:32 +0000

Delusions, contd.

In my last post I pointed out that schizophrenia as defined by DSM is a confusing collection of human problems with no evidence of a common etiology or indeed any valid justification for including them under a common heading. I discussed delusions and made the point that cognitive distortions of this kind are a normal response to failure. When the experience of failure is profound and pervasive, the delusional speech tends to be commensurately extreme. Delusions are not symptomatic of an underlying illness, but rather are a normal human reaction to severe stress or profound failure, particularly in the late teens/early adulthood phase of life. This is the time of life in which our general coping skills are subjected to their first serious tests, and when people experience profound failure at this time, there is a risk that they will drift towards delusional speech. Onset of delusional speech is typically later for women than men, and probably corresponds with the process of giving birth and caring for small children. The potential for strong feelings of failure is high at this point of life also.

Grand Rounds at Musings of a Distractible Mind

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:36:55 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Musings of a Distractible Mind. There are various categories (eleven groupings in all), with plenty of reading on a wide range of subjects.

Schizophrenia Is Not An Illness (Part 1)

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:35:06 +0000

The APA defines schizophrenia by the presence of two or more of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a one-month period:

(1) delusions (2) hallucinations (3) disorganized speech (4) grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior (5) negative symptoms i.e. affective flattening, alogia or avolition

Signs of the disturbance must have been present for at least six months and there must be significant deficits in one or more areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations or self-care.

Mental Retardation: A Stigmatizing Label

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:54:03 +0000

The first diagnostic category in DSM-IV is mental retardation, which embraces those individuals at the lower end of the intelligence spectrum. Intelligence is defined by psychologists as the ability to solve problems, adapt creatively to changing circumstances, and generally manage one’s affairs successfully and functionally. No definition of intelligence can truly do justice to the complexity of the matter, but various standardized tests exist, and within certain philosophical and practical limitations, they all provide reasonably accurate estimates of an individual’s general intellectual ability, as well as identifying areas of particular strength and weakness.

Adjustment Disorder: Everyone can have a mental illness

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:50:23 +0000

According to the DSM, the essential feature of this mental disorder is “…the development of clinically significant emotional or behavioral symptoms in response to an identifiable psychosocial stressor or stressors.” The manual defines clinically significant as either:

“marked distress that is in excess of what would be expected given the nature of the stressor”

“significant impairment in social or occupational functioning.”

DSM provides a number of examples of the kinds of stressors that might precipitate a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder. These include:

Grand Rounds up at Medicblog999

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:38:07 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at medicblog999. There are both themed posts and open submissions. Plenty of reading for all on a wide range of subjects.

Bipolar Disorder Is Not An Illness

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:42:51 +0000

This post was edited and updated on June 24, 2013, to address comments received from readers. I thank them for their input.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DSM-IV’s criteria for a manic episode are given below:

A. A distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, lasting at least 1 week (or any duration if hospitalization is necessary).

Grand Rounds Up at Emergiblog

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:32:55 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at Emergiblog, with many interesting posts.

Depression Is Not An Illness: It is an Adaptive Mechanism

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:30:27 +0000

Post edited and updated March 9, 2013, to reflect additional thoughts as a result of interactions with the many people who left comments. I thank them for their input.

DEPRESSION – AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM

Contrary to the APA’s assertion, depression is not an illness. In fact, depression is an adaptive mechanism which has served humanity well for millions of years. When things are going well in our lives, we feel good. This good feeling is nature’s way of telling us to keep doing what we’re doing. When our lives are not going well, we feel down or depressed. This is nature’s way of telling us to make some changes.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:39:21 +0000

This post was edited and updated on July 7, 2013 in the light of comments from readers. I am grateful for their input.

One of the anxiety disorders listed in DSM-IV is posttraumatic stress disorder. The criteria for this condition are listed below:

A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

(1) the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (2) the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: in children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior

Anxiety Disorders

Thu, 07 May 2009 12:28:18 +0000

Fear is the normal human response to imminent danger. It is an adaptive response, in that it is helpful to survival, and it occurs in almost all animal species. When our cave-dwelling ancestors were attacked by mountain lions, they probably experienced acute fear. This fear gave them an extra burst of energy to flee the danger, or, if flight were impossible, to turn and fight.

Today in most parts of the world, there is little danger of attack from wild animals. As areas develop economically and culturally, these kinds of acute dangers are systematically eliminated or at least drastically reduced. Close encounters with tornadoes, hurricanes, rattlesnakes, car accidents, etc., can still arouse full-blown fear responses, but most people in developed countries can go months – even years – without experiencing these kinds of situations.

Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:12:57 +0000

CONDUCT DISORDER The essential feature of Conduct Disorder, according to the APA, is a “repetitive and persistent pattern” of rule breaking or activity which violates other people’s basic rights. The manual identifies four broad categories of behavior under this heading: aggression; destruction of property; theft or deceitfulness; and serious violation of rules.

DSM goes on to state that individuals with this disorder display little concern for the feelings or welfare of others, are frequently callous and indifferent to other people’s pain and loss, and show little in the way of feelings of guilt or remorse. Poor frustration tolerance, irritability, temper tantrums, and recklessness are cited as frequently associated features.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:45:54 +0000

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is defined as “a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperimpulsivity that is more frequent and severe than is typically observed in individuals at a comparable level of development.” There is a requirement that the problem existed before age seven and that some of the problems are present in at least two settings. There also must be clear evidence that the inappropriate activity interferes with the individual’s social, academic, or occupational functioning. With regards to the actual diagnostic procedure, the APA lists eighteen behavioral indicators, nine under the heading “inattention,” six under “hyperactivity,” and three under “impulsivity.” For the diagnosis to be considered positive, the child must exhibit at least six problems from either the inattention list or the hyperimpulsivity lists.

Grand Rounds at Codeblog

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:04:19 +0000

Grand Rounds is up at codeblog. Plenty of good reading, including an interesting take on fund raising by Duncan Cross at Don’t Walk.

How Can They Just Invent Illnesses?

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:09:48 +0000

The notion of a professional group such as the APA sitting in their councils and committees inventing illnesses for themselves to treat seems so preposterous that a measure of disbelief on the part of the reader is understandable. In its historical context, however, the development is not so surprising. The original 1952 DSM was very simple and unpretentious, and whilst part of the APA’s motivation in drafting the document was undoubtedly to draw some credibility and respectability to their profession, there is at the same time nothing to suggest any great drive at that time towards aggrandizement or service expansion. However, having agreed in 1952 that neurosis was a form of mental disorder, it was inevitable that subsequent revisions of the manual would attempt to define this feature further and look for subdivisions of the general category. This, of course, is exactly what has happened, and the current version of DSM lists literally dozens of disorders of this sort, although the general term neurosis is no longer used. (For an interesting discussion of this matter, see Karen Franklin’s post at In The News.)

Psychologists, Social Workers, and Counselors in the Mental Health Field

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:21:35 +0000

Although psychiatrists are the primary and most influential players in the mental health business, they are not the only professionals involved. Most agencies also employ psychologists, social workers, and counselors, and it is important to recognize how the developments of recent decades have impacted their roles also.

Psychologists are licensed professionals who have obtained a psychology degree at a doctorate level. They have no medical training. They work in a wide range of settings, including industry and education. Psychologists became involved in mental health work largely because they were instrumental in the development of psychological tests, and the numbers of psychologists employed by hospitals and out-patient agencies increased fairly steadily through the second half of the twentieth century. Despite this apparent acceptance, however, there has always been a measure of tension between the psychiatrists and the psychologists. Some of this derives from conflicting ideologies, but a good deal of it is driven by simple rivalry and competitiveness, and by considerations of “who’s in charge.” Psychiatrists have consistently attempted to relegate the psychologists to an assistant or underling role, whilst the psychologists have striven for independent status. These tensions continue to this day, and in fact have gained a measure of prominence as psychologists lobby vigorously for prescription rights against the vehement opposition of the psychiatrists.

Grand Rounds At APC Internist

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:45:53 +0000

Ryan DuBosar at the APC Internist has hosted a great grand rounds this week, with the best that the medical blogosphere has to offer. He followed a newspaper format, and there’s even a funnies section. Head over and check it out.

Psychiatrists and the Pharmaceutical Companies

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:47:05 +0000

Psychiatrists are medical doctors who after graduation from medical school specialize in the treatment of mental disorders. In 1950 there were about 7000 psychiatrists in the United States. Most of these worked either in the state mental hospitals or in private practice, and in both settings treatment was conceptualized primarily on the lines of talking to the patients, gaining an understanding of their problems, and encouraging them in positive directions.

In the hospitals, considerations of containment and control sometimes eclipsed those of treatment, but in their private practices psychiatrists practiced the newly emerging art of psychotherapy with vigor and enthusiasm. Different schools of thought emerged, and there existed a healthy measure of dialog and debate as to the merits and demerits of various techniques. Articles were published in learned journals, and in every respect psychiatry was poised for development as a “talking” profession.

Proliferation of Mental Disorders

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:59:42 +0000

In December 1999, David Satcher, MD, then Surgeon General of the United States, reported that almost one fifth of the American population will experience a mental disorder in any given year, and that fully half of the population will have such a disorder at some time in their lives. [Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General.] Most Americans have understandably become somewhat skeptical with regards to government press releases and statistics, and it is unlikely that the report received total acceptance by the general population. On the other hand, the report received no major challenge. Indeed, it was endorsed wholeheartedly by several leading healthcare organizations and lobbying groups. The American Academy of Family Physicians, for instance, described mental illness as “one of the most pressing concerns we are facing” and made it their annual clinical focus for the year 2000. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 22% of American adults have a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year, and that four of the ten leading causes of disability in the US are mental disorders.