Archive for April, 2011

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Psychiatrists Want To Label Grief a Mental Disorder

Monday, April 18th, 2011
The Montreal Gazette, April 18, 2011
By Sharon April 18, 2011

"This is a disaster," says Frances, a renowned U.S. psychiatrist who chaired the task force that wrote the current edition of the DSM

Human grief could soon be diagnosed as a mental disorder under a proposal critics fear could lead to mood-altering pills being pushed for “mourning.”

Psychiatrists charged with revising the official “bible” of mental illness are recommending changes that would make it easier for doctors to diagnose major depression in the newly bereaved.

Instead of having to wait months, the diagnosis could be made two weeks after the loss of a loved one.

The current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – an influential tome used the world over – excludes people who have recently suffered a loss from being diagnosed with a major depressive disorder unless his or her symptoms persist beyond two months. It’s known as the “grief exclusion,” the theory being that “normal” grief shouldn’t be labelled a mental disorder.

But in what critics have called a potentially disastrous suggestion tucked among the proposed changes to the manual, “grief exclusion” would be eliminated from the DSM.

Proponents argue that major depression is major depression, that it makes little difference whether it comes on after the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a marriage or any other major life stressor. Eliminating “grief exclusion” would help people get treatment sooner than they otherwise would.

But critics fear that those experiencing completely expectable symptoms of grief would be labelled mentally “sick.” Dr. Allen Frances says the proposal would pathologize a normal human emotion and could bring on even wider prescribing of moodaltering pills.

“This is a disaster,” says Frances, a renowned U.S. psychiatrist who chaired the task force that wrote the current edition of the DSM, which is now undergoing its fifth revision. “Say you lose someone you love and two weeks later you feel sad, can’t sleep well, and have reduced interest, appetite, and energy. These five symptoms are completely typical of normal grieving, but DSM-5 would instead label you with a mental disorder.”

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Mother Loses Custody of Teen For Refusing to Give Her Antipsychotics, Daughter Now Held in Psychiatric Ward

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Note from CCHR:  The author of this article ends with the fact that ‘the state’  may be more guilty than the  mother (Maryanne Godboldo) of causing harm to her 13-year-old daughter, Ariana.  We just want to point out that its not even a question.  The “state,” meaning the psychiatric infiltrated Child Protective Services, was forcing this mother to administer a drug that could have killed her daughter, then showed up at her house with a Swat team and a tank when she chose to save her daughter from a deadly drug, removed her daughter from her custody, threw the 13-year-old girl into a psychiatric ward, where her father reports she has now been sexually abused.  So the “state” has essentially drugged and molested a 13-year-old.  There is absolutely no question of who the real criminals are in this case and they should be prosecuted not only for the  severe damage they have inflicted upon this child,  but also to a mother who has fought tooth and nail to protect her child from harm;  Maryanne Godboldo.  Period.

Care2 -  April 18, 2011

by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux

A Detroit mother lost custody of her daughter after refusing to give her antipsychotic medications, which officials say the teen may not need in the first place.  Her mother, Maryanne Godboldo, was accused of medical neglect when her 13-year-old daughter, Ariana, began to have erratic symptoms following a series of vaccinations, and was given an antipsychotic drug by a center for at-risk youth.  Godboldo felt that the drug, however, made her daughter worse, and began looking for holistic treatments instead.  Child Protective Services then tried to remove Ariana from her home, resulting in a “stand-off” with a police SWAT team during which Godboldo reportedly fired a gun.

Ariana is currently at a local psychiatric hospital, where officials say there is no “emergency need” to give her antipsychotic drugs.  Even more disturbingly, Ariana has tested positive for an STD, which her father is saying is proof that she was sexually abused while she was at the hospital.

Godboldo is now facing criminal charges, including resisting arrest and firing a weapon in her home.  But she is still claiming that the state should not have intervened, particularly in the way that they did.  “They took her unlawfully,” said Godboldo.

Ariana remains in protective care, despite the fact that the judge says she would like to have her discharged to a family member.  Bureaucracy is preventing that from happening in a timely manner.  The whole case is pretty stunning, especially considering that, as Anna North writes on Jezebel, Godboldo doesn’t seem to have been “jeopardizing her child’s mental or physical health.”

So although this does raise questions about the use of traditional vs. nontraditional medicine and whether the state can intervene, these don’t seem to be relevant here.  Medical officials say that Ariana is not in dire need of the medication, and in a horrible irony, attempts to improve her well-being have torn her away from her family and resulted in her placement in a facility where she may have been sexually abused.  In this instance, the state may be more guilty than the mother of causing harm to Ariana.

http://www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/mother-loses-custody-of-teen-for-refusing-to-give-her-antipsychotics/

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The Maryanne Godboldo question: When do parents have the right to shoot back against state-sponsored kidnappers?

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Natural News
By Mike Adams
April 15, 2011

Maryanne Godboldo

The story of Maryanne Godboldo and how armed government agents broke down her door and attempted to kidnap her daughter because she wouldn’t feed her psychiatric drugs  brings to light an important question: When is it justified to shoot back?

I’ll explore both sides of this argument here and then share my own views.

On the “shoot back” side of the argument, this woman had every right to defend herself against armed assailants who were engaged in acts of violence (breaking down her door) and who conspired to kidnap her daughter. In the legal world, the term “conspiracy” simply means more than one person was involved in planning the event. This was, without question, a conspiracy to kidnap a human being.

Shooting back was the only reasonable solution remaining for Maryanne, who had already tried to verbally say no when Child Protective Services insisted they were going to take her daughter away. Notably, it was CPS that brought guns to the scene by calling the police. So the escalation of the event can only be blamed on CPS, not Godboldo.

On the “don’t shoot back” site of the argument, the only argument I’ve really heard so far is from people who say “you should never shoot back against government agents.” In other words, the fact that the kidnappers and assailants are on the city payroll somehow gives them the right to violate your rights and freedom, to assault your person and your home, and to commit the felony act of kidnapping your teenage daughter. This seems a bizarre bit of logic.

I suppose another argument against shooting back would be the philosophical argument that violence never solves anything. But it sure can be a deterrent to would-be thieves, rapists and kidnappers, which is exactly what Maryanne just proved. She was able to hold them off for 12 hours by allegedly firing a single round. Do you think they would have stayed away for 12 hours if she didn’t have a gun?

Now, to use Obama’s current doublespeak, the truth is that Maryanne didn’t even fire a gun at all. She was only engaged in “kinetic action” in the protection of her child. That term — “kinetic action” — is what Obama uses to explain how the war in Libya is not a war. It’s just “kinetic action” (i.e. pieces of lead moving at very high velocities).

I’m thinking of posting a sign on the front door of my own home that reads, “This house is protected by kinetic action.”

Why Hitler loved a disarmed population

But let’s get back to the issue of when it’s appropriate to shoot back. The “don’t shoot back” crowd seems to think that the government can do no wrong. If the government comes for you in the middle of the night to kidnap your children for no justifiable reason, you’re supposed to just surrender and do what you’re told. This is the entire argument of the “don’t shoot back” crowd.

Hitler would have loved this idea, of course. In fact, he pursued it quite diligently. One of the most important elements of his plan to exterminate the Jews was to disarm them first. That’s why Hitler passed gun control laws before he started rounding up Jews and sending them off to the gas chambers. It’s always easier to round people up if they don’t shoot back, you see. An armed population is much more difficult to subject to genocide because they have the pesky problem of causing kinetic action to take place.

This is the reasoning behind the non-profit group JPFO — Jews for the Preservations of Firearms Ownership (www.JPFO.org). Far from being a bunch of gun nuts, these folks are scholars of history who fully realize that if the Jews in the late 1930′s hadn’t given up their guns under Hitler’s gun control agenda, they would have been able to assemble a far more effective resistance against government tyranny.

The French Resistance, of course, kept their guns. And their explosives. This is what made the French Resistance so effective at interdicting German supply lines (blowing up railroad tracks, ammo dumps, German vehicles and so on). The French Resistance is a significant factor of why we won the war against tyranny in World War II. We have to remember to thank the French for holding on to their rifles and bullets. Otherwise, Hitler might have succeeded in his world conquest.

See, governments far too often become tyrannical, out-of-control police states that end up assaulting (and sometimes murdering) their own citizens. It happened in Germany. It happened in Russia. It happened in China and a dozen other countries around the world. And although America today certainly isn’t as bad as Nazi Germany in 1941, there are very clear signs that America is headed into precisely such a scenario, where innocent civilians are targeted by armed government thugs who commit felony crimes in the name of the government.

The situation with Maryanne Godboldo is precisely such a sign. When a woman is threatened, coerced, and has her front door broken down by armed thugs conspiring to kidnap her daughter — merely because she refused to give her daughter a dangerous psychiatric drug — that is a sure sign that the medical police state has descended upon us and is operating in a bold, aggressive manner.

Would I engage in kinetic action to protect my own children?

Personally on all this, let me explain the context of the statement I’m about to make here. First off, I have many friends who are cops. I volunteered countless hours and dollars to help cops in Arizona, and I have great respect for the importance of local law enforcements. Local cops are, for the most part, really dedicated, professional people, and they are underpaid and almost universally unappreciated.

That being said, if a group of them broke into my home to kidnap my child, I would regrettably and sadly engage them with kinetic action. As long as they stayed outside the front door, I would hold off and verbally warn them to go away, but the second they smash through the front door, they become justified targets of kinetic action. The fact that they collect their paychecks from the government makes absolutely no difference. It does not justify their criminal intent. If anything, the fact that they are committing such crimes (kidnapping is a felony) while wearing a badge makes their acts even more offensive than if a street thug did the same thing.

Are my actions justified? Under the laws of our land — as well as in the scriptures of every major world religion — they most certainly are! While we all hopefully seek to avoid violence in every way possible, when violence is brought to our doorstep and into our home, we have little choice but to respond in our own defense.

This is precisely the purpose of the Second Amendment, of course: Not to make guns available for hunting and sport shooting, but rather to give the People of America the power to protect themselves from exactly the kind of armed government tyranny we see being applied to Maryanne Godboldo. Again, I’m no gun nut, and I’m not a hunter. The idea of shooting a living creature or human being is extremely disturbing to me. But if driven to such circumstances by a tyrannical police state that seeks to force me to medicate my own children at gunpoint, I will do what is necessary to protect my family and my life.

Maryanne Godboldo is a hero for her actions. CPS workers and the local police officers who raided her home are the real criminals here, and I can only hope and pray that when justice is finally served, Maryanne will be vindicated. And the medical police state will be completely disarmed so that these Big Pharma henchmen can no longer threaten the lives and liberties of innocent Americans who only seek to protect their children from the devastating side effects of psychiatric medications.

Have no illusions: We the People are under siege by the Big Pharma-influenced medical police state. We are being threatened and assaulted by armed agents who are blatantly conspiring to carry out the wishes of the drug companies. We are being forced to medicate our children against our will and against our better judgment.

CPS workers and law enforcement officers need to learn that when they threaten us with guns and violence, we will shoot back if driven to such actions. And I know quite a few places across America where, if CPS workers try to kidnap innocent children, they will not only be shot but hung from low-hanging branches of nearby trees along with a large piece of plywood spray-painted with the warning message: “WE SHOOT KIDNAPPERS.”

Photo credit: Freep.com
http://www.freep.com/article/201104…

Take action now to help Maryanne Godboldo

(Thanks to Ethan Huff for these resources:)

Supporters of Maryanne have set up a website called “Justice for Maryanne Godboldo”. Its organizers have created a “Calling Campaign” to demand that urges the public to call every single US representative in Detroit, every single day, to demand an investigation into CPS and the Department of Human Services for their crimes in this case (http://justice4maryanne.bbnow.org/e…). Those contacts include:

Fred Duhal – (517) 373-0844, freddurhal@house.mi.gov
Shanelle Jackson – (517) 373-1705, shenellejackson@house.mi.gov
David Nathan – (517) 373-3815, davidnathan@house.mi.gov
Jimmy Womack – (517) 373-0589, jimmywomack@house.mi.gov
Lisa Howze – (517) 373-0106, lisahowze@house.mi.gov
Rick Snyder – (517) 373-3400, rick.snyder@michigan.gov

The key perpetrators who instigated this heinous crime against humanity include:

Michael Patterson, District Manager with the DHS children’s division administration of Wayne County – (313) 852-1700
Michigan Department of Human Services – (517) 373-2035

Also, be sure to check out the “Justice for Maryanne Godboldo” Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justi…

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SWAT Attacks Home School Mom for Refusing to Force Med Child

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 14, 2011

Detroit mother Maryanne Godboldo faces multiple felony charges and is being held on $500,000 bond after a 10-hour standoff with a heavily armed police SWAT team. Godboldo was protecting her 13-year-old daughter from unnecessary medication ordered by the state.

Godboldo’s daughter was born with a defective foot that required amputation of her leg below the knee, which led to Maryanne becoming a stay-at-home mother after her birth, according to Health Impact News Daily.

Despite her handicap, the child swam, sang, danced and played the piano. However, as the home schooled girl approached middle school age, she apparently wanted to start attending public school, and therefore had to “catch up” on immunizations the state insists are required under color of law.

SWAT police descend on mother’s apartment, reportedly using a tank.

According to her aunt, Penny Godboldo, the girl suffered an adverse reaction to the immunizations. “She began acting out of character, being irritated, having facial grimaces that have been associated with immunizations,” Penny told the Detroit News.

Maryanne Godboldo sought help from the Children’s Center, an organization claiming to help families with at-risk children. Godboldo told relatives the medications ordered by the doctor worsened symptoms, including behavioral problems.

When Godboldo refused to give her child the prescribed medication, Child Protective Services became involved. CPS obtained a warrant to remove the girl, but Maryanne reportedly refused to surrender the child to the state.

Police claimed Godboldo discharged a firearm in her apartment during the stand-off and that is when the SWAT team was called in.

Maryanne’s attorney, Allison Folmar, claims her client never shot at police in a report in the Voice of Detroit, which reports that the police sent the “Detroit Special Response Team (SRT) officers who descended on the home with a tank and assault weapons. Video footage shows individual officers staking out the house, taking cover behind trees with their weapons, as in a military operation,” reports Health Impact Daily News.

The Detroit News reports that Godboldo has an excellent reputation in her community, and during the 10 hour standoff many people from the community offered to help with the negotiations, including ministers and community activists.

Wayne Circuit Judge Deborah Thomas finally convinced Maryanne to surrender with a promise her daughter would be turned over to a relative. Family members, however, say the girl was grabbed by the state regardless of the promise.

Maryanne Godboldo was arraigned before 36th District Magistrate Sidney Barthwell Jr. on charges of firing a weapon in a dwelling, felonious assault, resisting and obstructing an officer, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Her bond was set at $500,000.

“I’m shocked by the amount of the bond. I never dreamed it would be set so high and she wouldn’t be free to care for her daughter,” said an outraged Deborah Thomas.

“Child Protective Services was trying to force her child to take a dangerous medication, Risperdal, against her will. We have been able to get a court order signed by [Wayne County Circuit Court] Judge Richard Skutt, staying the administration of this drug, which is not approved by the FDA in such cases. That’s why they put her in Hawthorne, so they could dope her up,” family attorney Allison Folmar told the media.

The Godboldo case is yet another example of CPS working in league with the police in order to kidnap children. Godboldo was obviously an excellent mother and not a threat to the police. The fact they sent a tank to her apartment is more evidence that the state will react in a violent knee-jerk fashion when its authority is challenged.

Read article here: http://www.prisonplanet.com/swat-attacks-home-school-mom-for-refusing-to-force-med-child.html

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First Miami defendant in nation’s biggest mental healthcare fraud case pleads guilty

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Note from CCHR:  Governments and private health insurance companies have provided the mental health industry with billions of dollars every year to treat “mental illness,” only to face industry demands for even more funds to improve the supposed, ever-worsening state of mental health. No other industry can afford to fail consistently and expect to get more funding.  A significant portion of these appropriations and insurance reimbursements has been lost due to financial fraud within the mental health industry, an international problem estimated to cost more than a hundred billion dollars every year.

  • The United States loses approximately $100 billion to health care fraud each year. Up to $20 billion of this is due to fraudulent practices in the mental health industry.
  • One of the largest health care fraud suits in US history was in mental health, yet it is the smallest sector within health care.
  • A study of US Medicaid and Medicare insurance fraud, especially in New York, over a twenty-year period, showed psychiatry to have the worst track record of all medical disciplines.
  • To find out more, download this free report from Massive Fraud: Psychiatry’s Corrupt Industry http://www.cchr.org/sites/default/files/CCHR_Pamphlet_Massive_Fraud_1.pdf

The Miami Herald

by Jay Weaver

The first Miami defendant in the nation’s largest mental healthcare fraud case pleaded guilty to paying millions of dollars in kickbacks in exchange for Medicare patients who didn’t need the costly therapy.

Her job as marketing director for a Miami-based mental healthcare chain was to bring in the patients and nobody did their job better than Margarita Acevedo.

Investigators say she paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to South Florida assisted-living facilities, halfway houses and recruiters to supply thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to American Therapeutic Corp.’s chain of seven clinics — patients who didn’t need the costly treatment.

On Thursday, Acevedo, 41, of Southwest Miami-Dade, pleaded guilty to conspiring to pay kickbacks in exchange for patients and conspiring to bilk between $100 million and $200 million from Medicare, in the largest mental healthcare fraud case in the country.

Her change of plea in a Miami federal court makes Acevedo the first defendant among 24 indicted since last fall to admit playing a role in American Therapeutic’s “massive fraud scheme” against the taxpayer-funded healthcare program for seniors and the disabled, according to court records.

She faces between 12 and 15 years in prison at her mid-July sentencing, according to sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors are expected to recommend a lesser sentence because she is providing the Justice Department with an insider’s view of the alleged racket.

Her attorney, Ira Loewy, declined to comment Friday on her cooperation with authorities.

Acevedo, who joined American Therapeutic in 2005, admitted in a “factual” statement that “in her role as a manager, she worked with the [company] leaders and organizers in recruiting ALF and halfway house owners and supervised co-conspirators in tracking and paying the kickbacks.”

For their part, the residential operators acted as recruiters who took bribes from American Therapeutic’s clinics – $30 for each patient’s daily visit – for supplying thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to keep the racket rolling, authorities say.

American Therapeutic, founded in 2000, allegedly ran its operation for years, tapping into a stream of mentally ill patients who were supposed to have received treatment in local hospitals before qualifying for outpatient group therapy sessions.

Despite conspicuously high claims, the Medicare program never raised an eyebrow. Things began to unravel years later when clinic employees started complaining that many patients were beyond help because they suffered from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. One employee was fired, leading to a whistle-blower probe of American Therapeutic that became the foundation of the criminal investigation.

Acevedo’s bosses were Lawrence Duran, 48, of North Miami, and Marianella Valera, 39, of Miami, owners of American Therapeutic. They were charged with directing the conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program, leading a network of company employees, psychiatrists and patient recruiters who also face criminal charges.

In March, the couple’s lawyers told U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King that they plan to plead guilty, but they have not done so yet. Their trial is set for August.

Duran and Valera were poised to change their initial not guilty pleas, but a major dispute over how much the couple allegedly bilked from Medicare held up everything. Their lawyers, Lawrence Metsch and Arthur Tifford, have argued that the figure should be $83 million, the actual amount the federal program paid their company since 2003.

Justice Department attorney Jennifer Saulino has argued that the figure should be about $200 million, the amount their company billed Medicare during that period.

The feds have frozen the couple’s personal and corporate bank accounts, Saulino said. They also possess about $7 million in assets, such as luxury cars, real estate and jewelry, that authorities seized with a temporary restraining order.

. Duran, who was born in New York, and Valera, a native of Peru, are being held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami because a judge found both to be a flight risk.

To read more about psychiatric health care fraud


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Autopsy of Florida School Board Shooter Shows Antidepressant in His System

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

The Walton Sun – April 14, 2011
By S. Bradly Calhoun

10 recent massacres were committed by those under the influence of psychiatric drugs resulting in 54 dead and 105 wounded

PANAMA CITY — The man who held the Bay District School Board hostage before killing himself last year had an antidepressant, acetaminophen and foot fungus medication in his system, his autopsy revealed. The report on Clay Duke was released Wednesday by the Bay County medical examiner’s office.

Duke, 56, killed himself Dec. 14 after firing several shots at school board members during a public meeting. Duke was brought down by three bullets from Mike Jones, the district’s chief of safety.

A toxicology report revealed that at the time of Duke’s death, he had atropine, a drug commonly used in emergency rooms to resuscitate dying patients; acetaminophen; Terbinafine, used to fight fungal infections in fingers and toes; and Citalopram, an antidepressant found in Celexa, in his system.

Forest Laboratories Inc., which makes Celexa, notes on its website the company urges patients to “call a health care provider right away if you or your family member has any of the following symptoms, especially if they are new, worse, or worry you: thoughts about suicide or dying, attempts to commit suicide, new or worse depression, new or worse anxiety, feeling very agitated or restless, panic attacks, trouble sleeping (insomnia), new or worse irritability, acting aggressive, being angry, or violent, acting on dangerous impulses, an extreme increase in activity and talking (mania), other unusual changes in behavior or mood.”

Attempts to contact officials with Forest Laboratories were unsuccessful Wednesday.

To read international studies and drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs click here and use the red search box with the following terms; violence;mania; homicidal; psychosis; http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/drug_warnings.php

To see what doctors, pharmacists, health care providers and others have reported on the antidepressant Celexa click here and simply chose Celexa from the drop down menu Drug Name/Drug Class http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/medwatch_psych_drug_adverse_reactions.php

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American Psychiatric Association Stunned Again with Ghostwriting Controversy

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Project Government Oversight- April 12, 2011
By Paul Thacker

Like an aging, punch drunk fighter struggling through the twelfth round, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) can’t seem to slip the punches coming its direction. Last week, a host of blogs went after them for refusing to print a letter written by three academics that was critical of a medical textbook the APA published with help from the ghostwriting company Scientific Therapeutics Information (STI).

The letter criticized the APA for failing to publish records that explain the provenance of the textbook, including drafts, contracts with STI and/or GlaxoSmithKline, and any communications regarding editing. The text’s purported authors are Dr. Charles Nemeroff of the University of Miami and Dr. Alan Schatzberg of Stanford University.

As The New York Times reported, the textbook was funded by GlaxoSmithKline. Author and blogger Dr. Danny Carlat reviewed the book and wrote that it read like “an advertisement for Paxil.”

Yesterday, a writer over at MIWatch landed a blistering combination on the APA. When she poked them for a response, the APA covered up and peeked back through their gloves. “The APA’s official response has been unconvincing,” she jabbed.

She then landed a solid uppercut.

Before the controversial textbook ended up in the story in The New York Times, she wrote, STI displayed a picture of the book’s cover in their results portfolio. They’ve now yanked the page from their website, but the MIWatch writer found an older version of the page on the Wayback Machine. When you click on the “publications” button and scroll down, you can see a picture of the textbook’s cover.

Wayback shot
The APA caught a few more whallops this morning from HealthCare Renewal and The Carlat Psychiatry Blog. Over at Pharmalot, Ed Silverman scored a brief interview with STI’s CEO John Romankiewicz.  When asked why the book had disappeared from STI’s website, Romankiewicz said,  “Thanks for the inquiry, but we don’t display that kind of stuff on our web site.”

He then hung up the phone.

The APA’s reluctance to engage with critics may be due to the association’s cozy ties to STI. In 2007, STI “medical writer” Sally Laden was deposed during litigation regarding Paxil. POGO has acquired a copy of the deposition. There are quite a few editing errors, so bear with us. Some interesting tidbits from pages 237-238:

Question: Okay So we talked about the workbooks And now I think we are down to the next topic

Sally Laden: Which is an APA symposia

Question: Okay Did STI help well you tell me What go ahead Keep taking me through this

Sally Laden: We worked on a number of APA the American Psychiatric Association has an annual meeting some time in the spring every year And for many years we helped them with programs symposia at the APA

Question: Okay And so what is the next topic here?

Sally Laden: It says who chose topics and speakers

Question: Okay And what was the answer to that?

Sally Laden: The general topics say depression  in the elderly would be chosen by GSK  Saying can you help us with the symposium  on that And we have already spoken to a  Chairperson Now will you work with the Chairperson to come up with the agenda and the speakers for this program

Question: Okay Do you recall setting up speakers to talk on the topic of adolescent depression?

Sally Laden: Sometimes we did I don t remember if we did one at APA or not

Question: I m sorry?

Sally Laden: I don t remember if there was an APA symposia on adolescent depression

Seems like the American Psychiatric Association and Scientific Therapeutics Information have been friendly for some time, no?

Paul Thacker is a POGO Investigator.

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/04/american-psychiatric-association-stunned-again-with-ghostwriting-controversy.html

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American Psychiatric Association’s Ghost Written (Allegedly Pharma Funded) Book Magically ‘Disappears’

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Pharmalot

by Ed Silverman – April 12, 2011

File this under The Case of The Missing Book. When last seen, Scientific Therapeutics Information was at the center of an ongoing controversy over an allegedly ghostwritten book – yes, an entire book – that was published in 1999 by the American Psychiatric Association. Funding came from a grant provided by SmithKline Beecham, which is now part of GlaxoSmithKline (back story).

The listed co-authors were Charles Nemeroff, who chairs the psychiatry department at the University of Miami medical school, and Alan Schatzberg, who until recently chaired the psychiatry department at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Both men were at the center of a long-running probe by the US Senate Finance Committee into undisclosed conflicts of interest among academic researchers. They were also regular speakers for Glaxo, which makes the Paxil antidepressant (see here and here).

STI, which was also targeted by the same committee over alleged ghostwriting activities surrounding Merck’s Vioxx painkiller (see here), provided drafts directly to Glaxo for comments and sign-off, as well as this 1997 status report and page proofs to the credited authors. Nemeroff and Schatzberg, however, have insisted they did all the work on the book. For its part, the APA has denied any ghostwriting, although the organization has stonewalled requests to disclose paperwork that might support its position (see this).

However, MI Watch, a non-profit devoted to tracking mental illness issues, discovered STI listed the book, entitled “Recognition and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: A Psychopharmacology Handbook for Primary Care,” in the portfolio section on its web site (see this). At least, until recently. A visit to the site now yields a message saying the page cannot be found. None of its published work, in fact, is currently visible. This is an odd turn of events for a firm that boasts “STI’s dedicated and experienced editorial staff can create a strategic publication plan to meet your goals and messaging.”

So we called John Romankiewicz, a PharmD who started the firm 26 years ago, to ask about the missing info. His explanation? “Thanks for the inquiry,” he responded abruptly, “but we don’t display that kind of stuff on our web site.” We replied by noting that the info had been there previously, but then we heard a loud…click. Perhaps, he realized that listing the book as a portfolio product does not easily square with the APA position that ghostwriting did not take place. And taking down the product portfolio might also make it more difficult to scrutinize other STI work. Given how fast he hung up, though, one might have thought we uttered the magic word: “Boo!”

http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/04/a-ghostwritten-book-mysteriously-disappears/

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Seroquel Marketing Undeterred by Deceptive-Marketing Settlement

Monday, April 11th, 2011

The Epoch Times – April 11, 2011

by Martha Rosenberg

AstraZeneca has already settled nearly 25,000 personal-injury lawsuits pertaining to its antipsychotic drug Seroquel

Google the word “depression” and the first search result you’ll get will be for the antipsychotic drug Seroquel XR.

Visit WebMD and you’ll find the home page hosts similar ads for Seroquel XR, above and adjacent to the lead news story.

Who would know that AstraZeneca inked the largest multi-state consumer-protection settlement on record relating to deceptive Seroquel marketing on March 14 for $68.5 million? And only a year after inking a similar settlement related to burying side effect and safety information for $520 million with the government!

Who would know AstraZeneca has already settled nearly 25,000 personal-injury lawsuits pertaining to Seroquel, with more to come, says ABC News?

First approved in 1997, Seroquel has enjoyed the camel-nose-under-the-tent phenomenon known as indications creep. First approved for schizophrenia, it was later approved for bipolar disorder and psychiatric conditions in children.

But it was Seroquel’s 2009 approval as a drug for depression that helped it reach its spectacular sales of $5.3 billion in 2010 thanks to the United States’ walloping depression “market” of 20 million depression sufferers.

Seroquel’s blood sugar, weight gain, and heart side effects are well-known. That’s why FDA regulators opposed its use as a first-choice, stand-alone treatment for the 10 percent of the U.S. population with depression when safer drugs exist.

“I saw no clear advantage demonstrated in efficacy,” said Dr. Wayne Goodman, who chaired the FDA panel considering the depression indication. “There were side effects, and I would expect unintended consequences associated with wide-scale use of the drug.”

The drug also can cause increased mortality in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis, suicide, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, cataracts, seizures, increase in blood pressure, and movement disorders in neonates when their mothers take it.

Seroquel’s fraud trail is also well-known, with more than six conflict-of-interest scandals swirling around Seroquel researchers and promoters. Psychiatrist Richard Borison was sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence in 1998 for a pay-to-play Seroquel research scheme, which helped establish Seroquel’s original perception as being safe.

But how many realize Seroquel’s cost to the individual taxpayer and health insurance consumers at a red-book price of almost $500 per month per person?

Auditors with the Michigan Corrections Department say the state could save $350,000 a month by switching just half of its Seroquel prescriptions to another pill. North Carolina spends $29.4 million per year on Seroquel prescriptions. Who knows how much more states and taxpayers are paying to control the metabolic side effects that emerge from taking Seroquel?

Reports are also starting to surface about the effects $6,000-a-year Seroquel prescriptions are having on rising insurance premiums for private insurance holders.

In fact, the public is really paying twice for irrepressible Seroquel marketing: first, for drug purchases by state and private plans, and, second, in suffering the drug’s side effects.

Martha Rosenberg is a freelance writer who lives in Chicago.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/health/seroquel-marketing-undeterred-by-deceptive-marketing-settlement-54506.html

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Children Exploited for Profit Using Fictitious Mental Disorders

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

"For over two decades drug and psychiatric industries have bombarded schools, parents, doctors, the media and government with propaganda that ADHD is a medical condition that must be managed with drugs."

NaturalNews.com— April 7, 2011

By Monica G. Young

We’re ashamed that exploitation of children for profit was once tolerated in America: such as children as young as five shackled to machines while working 16-hour days in factories, or black children auctioned and sold as slaves. Yet future generations will look back on our era too with shame: a time when labeling kids with fictitious mental disorders and hooking them on drugs was a multi-billion dollar business.

About 10 percent of U.S children – over five million – are said to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a mental illness treated with drugs. A recent study blows a wide hole in that myth.

A team of Dutch researchers took 100 unmedicated children diagnosed with ADHD and fed half of them a diet free of processed foods and allergens. The other half served as a control group. Within five weeks, 64 percent of those in the test group saw remarkable changes. “After the diet, they were just normal children with normal behavior,” lead researcher Dr. Lidy Pelsser tells NPR. “They were no longer more easily distracted, they were no more forgetful, there were no more temper-tantrums.”

Dr. Pelsser explains, “ADHD, it’s just a couple of symptoms — it’s not a disease. There is a paradigm shift needed. If a child is diagnosed ADHD, we should say, ‘OK, we have got those symptoms, now let’s start looking for a cause.’… With all children, we should start with diet research. But now we are giving them all drugs, and I think that’s a huge mistake.”

Most ADHD-diagnosed kids are prescribed powerful stimulants which can cause nausea, insomnia, liver damage, heart failure, hallucinations, convulsions, violent behavior, suicidal thoughts and sudden death. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration categorizes these as Schedule II drugs – the same class as cocaine and opium.

For over two decades drug and psychiatric industries have bombarded schools, parents, doctors, the media and government with propaganda that ADHD is a medical condition that must be managed with drugs. But let’s dissect this:

* Pharmaceutical and psychiatric literature, ads and advocates typically claim ADHD kids have brain dysfunctions or brain chemical imbalances and that it’s genetically based, while also stating the cause is unknown and no lab tests can detect it.

Huh? As no lab tests can detect it and its cause is unknown, how can they scientifically link it to brain malfunction, chemical imbalances or genetic influence? They can’t.

* They say a doctor’s diagnosis relies on the child’s response to questions, the family’s description of behavior problems and a school assessment.

Hello? Can you imagine a doctor diagnosing cancer without lab tests? Or diagnosing diabetes and prescribing insulin injections based on a family member’s report? Or putting a boy’s leg in a cast due to a teacher’s assessment? We would call such a doctor a fraud.

* They say symptoms include impulsivity, dashing around, difficulty focusing on one thing, avoiding activities that are boring, squirming and bouncing a lot, talking excessively and finding it difficult to play quietly. And these symptoms must have been present before the age of seven.

Wait a second. When are kids generally the most spontaneous, energetic, rambunctious and have the lowest attention span? Before the age of seven!

* They say that in a child with ADHD, the above symptoms are more pronounced than in other kids the same age. In other words, this isn’t medical science – it’s OPINION. Plus they omit or enormously downplay the factor of diet.

*And here’s the clincher. They say ADHD cannot be cured but its symptoms can be managed with medication.

So there you have it – it’s clearly a marketing scheme to target children and create lifelong customers for the psychiatric drug industry.

Dr. Fred Baughman, neurologist and author who has testified before Congress, says it like this, “They made a list of the most common symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children; those which bother teachers and parents most, and in a stroke that could not be more devoid of science or Hippocratic motive — termed them a ‘disease.’ Twenty five years of research, not deserving of the term ‘research,’ has failed to validate ADD/ADHD as a disease. Tragically – the ‘epidemic’ having grown from 500 thousand in 1985 to between five and seven million today – this remains the state of the ‘science’ of ADHD.”

One of the world’s most influential child psychiatrists and “expert” proponents of ADHD for years has been Harvard’s Dr. Joseph Biederman. He has published hundreds of papers on ADHD and ADHD drug treatment, and is one of the most-cited researchers on the subject. In 2009 a Congressional inquiry revealed that between 2000-2007, Biederman earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers. It appears Dr. Biederman has an acute case of Greed Disorder.

Just as our country has defeated and outlawed child exploitation in the past, psychiatric labeling and drugging of children must too be abolished.

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