The Corrupt Alliance of the Psychiatric-Pharmaceutical Industry
In March 2009, the American Psychiatric Association announced that it would phase out pharmaceutical funding of continuing medical education seminars and meals at its conventions. However, the decision came only after years of controversial exposure of its conflict of interest with the pharmaceutical industry and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee requesting in July 2008 that the APA provide accounts for all of its pharmaceutical funding. Despite its announcement, within two months, the APA accepted more than $1.7 million in pharmaceutical company funds for its annual conference, held in San Francisco.
Not surprising. In 2002, the APA’s Anand Pandya said that without pharmaceutical industry funds, membership dues could escalate 455% from $540 a year to $3,000. Pandya is president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), which in 2009 was also asked to provide records of its pharmaceutical company funding to federal investigators. About 56% of its $12 million-a-year income comes from drug makers (more below).
Within a month of the APA’s announcement, its conflicts came under criticism again with the release of a study that found that 18 of the 20 members overseeing the revision of clinical guidelines for treating just three “mental disorders” had financial ties to drug companies. The common diagnoses generate some $25 billion a year in pharmaceutical sales.
Psychiatrists Top the List of Drug Maker Gifts
In June 2007, The New York Times reported that psychiatrists in Vermont and Minnesota topped the list of doctors receiving pharmaceutical company gifts and that this financial relationship corresponds to the “growing use of atypicals [new antipsychotics] in children.” From 2000 to 2005, drug maker payments to Minnesota psychiatrists rose more than six-fold to $1.6 million. During those same years, prescriptions of antipsychotics for children under the state’s insurance program rose more than nine-fold.
Conflicts Under Congressional Investigation
With the U.S. prescribing antipsychotics to children and adolescents at a rate six times greater than the U.K., and with 30 million Americans having taken antidepressants for a “chemical imbalance” that psychiatrists admit is a pharmaceutical marketing campaign, not scientific fact, it is no wonder that the conflict of interest between psychiatry and Big Pharma is under congressional investigation. The following is a summary of some of those under Senate Finance Committee investigation:
Joseph Biederman: Chief of the Program in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Biederman has received research funds from 15 pharmaceutical companies. The New York Times exposed how Joseph Biederman earned $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers between 2000 and 2007 but did not report all of this income to Harvard University officials. His marketing of the theory that children have “bipolar” was attributed to the increase in antipsychotic drug sales for pediatric use in the United States—today 2.5 million children. Following exposure of his conflicts, he stepped down from a number of industry-funded clinical trials. In March 2009, in newly released court documents, Biederman was reported to have promised drug maker Johnson & Johnson in advance that his studies on the antipsychotic drug Risperidone would prove the drug to be effective when used on preschool age children.
Melissa DelBello: Research psychiatrist, University of Cincinnati was cited for her failure to disclose to the university much of what she had earned from pharmaceutical companies. In 2002, she was the lead author of a study that reported some patients benefited from the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, which is manufactured by AstraZeneca, which paid her $100,000 in 2003 and $80,000 in 2004. DelBello disclosed that she’d received $100,000 from the company between 2005 and 2007, but federal investigators discovered it was more than double that—$238,000.
Frederick Goodwin: Former National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director, Goodwin earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 for giving marketing lectures to physicians on behalf of drug makers—a fact he did not reveal to the audience, broadcaster or producers of “The Infinite Mind,” that he hosted on the National Public Radio during its 10-year run. Subsequently, NPR removed the program from its schedule. Lichtenstein Creative Media issued a statement that this income was a violation of the contract between the company and Goodwin.
Charles Nemeroff: Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. From 2000 through 2006, Nemeroff received just over $960,000 from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), but only disclosed no more than $35,000 to Emory. Between 2000 and 2007, Charles Nemeroff earned more than $2.8 million from various drug makers but failed to report at least $1.2 million. He signed a letter in 2004 promising Emory administrators that he would earn less than $10,000 a year from GSK but on the same day he was at a hotel earning $3,000 of what would become $170,000 in income from the company—17 times greater than the figure he agreed upon. He was the principal investigator for a five-year $3.9 billion grant financed by the NIMH for which GSK provided the drugs, during which he received more than the annual $10,000 threshold allowed from the company. In 2006, he stepped down as editor of Neuropsychopharmacology after publishing a favorable review of the vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) device, manufactured by Cyberonics, for which he was a paid consultant. In 2003, he coauthored a favorable review of three therapies in Nature Neuroscience failing to mention his significant financial interests in these, including owning the patent for one of the treatments—a lithium patch. Nemeroff has consulted for 21 drug and device companies simultaneously. In 1991 Nemeroff testified before the FDA on behalf of Eli Lilly in hearings into Prozac, saying that the drug did not cause suicidal acts of ideation—yet 13 years later, the FDA concluded the opposite and issued a black box warning about suicide risks. Nemeroff resigned his position at Emory in 2008.
Martin Keller: Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University, chairman of the psychiatry department at the Alpert Medical School, Keller’s study (329) on GSK’s Paxil use in children and adolescents and its authors have been fiercely criticized in medical journals for allegedly misrepresenting data, suppressing information linking the drug to suicidal tendencies and reaching a conclusion unsupported by the relevant data. There are also claims that a GSK-affiliated employee ghostwrote Study 329, while Keller et al. made huge sums of money from the antidepressant manufacturer. In 1999, it was disclosed that while serving as chief of the psychiatry department at Brown University, Keller earned more than $842,000 from Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst and Eli Lilly, makers of antidepressants he “lauded in a series of medical research reports.” After a three-year criminal investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, Brown University “agreed to return $300,170” of taxpayer money to the state of Massachusetts for psychiatric research Keller’s psychiatry department never performed. Additionally, Keller did not disclose the extent of his financial ties with companies to the medical journals that published his research—this included $93,199 in 1998. In the same year that Keller authored a review article in Biological Psychiatry, and concluded that the newer antidepressants were more effective, he received $77,400 in personal income and $1.2 million in research funding from the makers of two of these drugs. In April 2009, Keller announced he was stepping down as chair of psychiatry at Brown.
Augustus John Rush: Former Vice-Chairman of the Dept. of Clinical Sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and now working at Duke University’s medical school in Singapore. He was criticized for disclosing only $3,000 of the nearly $18,000 that Eli Lilly had paid him in 2001. Between 2000 and 2007, he neglected to report another $12,000 from various drug companies. His research studies list financial relationships with more than 20 pharmaceutical companies. In 2003-2005 he received an NIH grant to conduct a clinical training program that dealt with, among other things, medical ethics.
Alan Schatzberg was appointed APA President in May 2009, despite the exposure of his conflict of interest. As exposed in The New York Times and other media, Schatzberg owned $6 million equity in drug developer Corcept Therapeutics at the same time that he was principle investigator in an NIH-funded, Stanford-based study of Corcept’s drug mifepristone. Schatzberg had initiated the patent application on mifepristone to “treat psychotic depression” in 1997. He co-founded Corcept in 1998, and in 1999, extended the NIH grant for the study of psychotic depression to include mifepristone. In 2008, Schatzberg stepped down from his position as principal investigator in the study following months of Congressional scrutiny regarding his financial ties to the drug industry.
Thomas Spencer: Assistant Director of the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, he is under Senate investigation for reportedly failing to disclose at least $1 million in earnings from drug companies between 2000 and 2007.
Karen Wagner: Professor, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston reportedly failed to disclose more than $150,000 in payments from GSK. Between 2000 and 2008, Wagner had worked on NIH-funded studies on the use of Paxil to treat teenage depression and was a co-researcher on Study 329 (See Keller). In 2001, when study 329 was published, the company reportedly paid her $18,255. Between 1998 and 2001, she was one of several researchers participating in more than a dozen industry-funded pediatric trials of antidepressants and other drugs. In her Zoloft study, Wagner said she had received “research support” from several drug makers, including Pfizer, but did not disclose she had received “sizeable payments” from Pfizer for work related to the study. Between 2000 and 2005 GSK paid her $160,404, but only $600 was disclosed to the university. In 2002, Eli Lily also paid her over $11,000, which was not disclosed.
Timothy Wilens: Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston allegedly failed to report that between 2000 and 2007 he had earned at least $1.6 million from drug makers. Federal grants received by Dr. Joseph Biederman (above) and Wilens were administered by Massachusetts General Hospital, which in 2005 won $287 million in such grants. He is under Congressional investigation.
NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL: The Senate Finance Committee also requested the financial records of NAMI, a group long accused of being a covert marketing arm of the pharmaceutical industry. The mental health alliance, which is hugely influential in many state capitols, has refused for years to disclose specifics of its fund-raising, saying the details were private. But according to investigators in Mr. Grassley’s office and documents obtained by The New York Times, drug makers from 2006 to 2008 contributed nearly $23 million to the alliance, about three-quarters of its donations.”
While the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), claims to be an advocacy organization for people with “mental illness,” its actions indicate otherwise. The goup opposed the black box warnings on antidepressants causing suicide for under 18 year olds in 2004, and black box warnings on ADHD drugs causing heart attack, stroke and sudden death in children in 2006, when you look at their biggest source of funding: Pharma.
Read NY Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/health/22nami.html?_r=2
Other investigations…
William Weeks: A Dartmouth Medical School professor of psychiatry and community and family medicine, in May 2009, acting U.S. attorney Paul Van de Graff charged the psychiatrist with five federal misdemeanor counts regarding conflict of interests. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also filed an 11-count civil complaint, including 6 counts of conflict of interests, 4 counts of false claims and one count of “breach of fiduciary [financial] duty.” Weeks was allegedly involved in price-fixing contracts in 2003, both initiating the contracts on behalf of the VA and monitoring them.
Jeffrey Bostic, director of school psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, was named in a 34-page court complaint in U.S. District Court in Boston as being a “star spokesman” in helping Forest Laboratories illegally promote its drugs, Celexa and Lexapro for pediatric use despite not having FDA approval for such use. Court documents in March 2009 revealed that the drug company paid Bostic kickbacks, including lavish meals and cash payments disguised as grants and consulting fees, to induce doctors to prescribe the drugs. Forest also paid Bostic to meet other physicians in their offices in order to ease their concerns about prescribing the drugs. The Boston Globe revealed, “…the allegations against Forest are part of a legal and political backlash against potential conflicts of interest in medicine, particularly in psychiatry.”
MORE ON APA-PHARMA CONFLICTS
The APA is steeped in a conflict of interest with the pharmaceutical industry. After all, it has made at least $40 million just in sales of its diagnostic manual, the billing bible that psychiatrists use for insurance reimbursement for “treatment”—most often psychotropic drugs. Consider:
Nada Stotland: The 2008 APA President, Stotland serves on the Board of the National Mental Health Association (now called Mental Health America), a group that received over $3 million in pharmaceutical company funding in one year alone. In 2008, Pfizer donated at least $500,000 to Mental Health America while Eli Lilly donated $600,000. Stotland is on the speakers’ bureau for Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
David Kupfer: A member of the DSM-IV Task Force and Chair of the DSM-V Task Force. He has been a consultant to Eli Lilly & Co., Johnson and Johnson, Solvay/Wyeth, Servier and also sat on the advisory boards of Forest Labs and Pfizer. In 2008, Kupfer also disclosed that he had been a consultant for Forest Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Inc., Hoffman La Roche, Lundbeck and Novartis.
Dilip V. Jeste: APA Trustee and Member of the DSM-V Task Force is a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lilly, Janssen, Solvay/Wyeth and Otsuka; honoraria from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen and Otsuka; received “supplemental support to NIMH-funded grants” from Astra Zeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, and Janssen in the form of donated medication for the study, “Metabolic Effects of Newer Antipsychotics in Older Patients.” Jeste’s 2008 APA disclosure for the DSM-V Task Force stated he received honorarium from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly Janssen, Pfizer-Eisai, Solvay-Wyeth and Otsuka. He also received consulting fees from nine pharmaceutical companies.
Steven Sharfstein: Former APA president who sat on the Board of Directors of the American Psychiatric Foundation (APF), an organization formed by the APA that lists 17 major pharmaceutical companies as its corporate adviser. Since 1992, he has been President and CEO of Sheppard Pratt Health System and in 2002, he signed on 6 pharmaceutical companies to test their products at Sheppard Pratt. He signed contracts with Eli Lilly & Co., Merck and Janssen Research Foundation.
As covered elsewhere in this site, Alan Schatzberg was appointed APA President in May 2009, despite the exposure of his $6 million conflict of interest with drug developer Corcept Therapeutics at the same time that he was principle investigator in an NIH-funded, Stanford-based study of Corcept’s drug mifepristone. Schatzberg co-founded Corcept in 1998, and in 1999, extended the NIH grant for the study of psychotic depression to include mifepristone. Dr. Schatzberg co-wrote Textbook of Psychopharmacology with Dr. Charles Nemeroff who is also under Senate Finance Committee investigation for undisclosed conflicts of interest.
DSM: “DIAGNOSIS AS A SOURCE OF MONEY”
In an interview with a psychiatrist outside the American Psychiatric Association conference in May 2009, he commented: “The DSM stands for Diagnosis as a Source of Money”! How true. The financial conflicts between psychiatrists involved with psychiatry’s billing bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV and DSM-V) Task Forces are under scrutiny and the potential pharmaceutical company influence on what “disorders” are included in the DSM. This is especially so as they contribute to the current $25 billion in annual antipsychotic and antidepressant drug sales in the U.S. alone.
A study by Dr. Lisa Cosgrove, Ph.D., from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Harold Bursztjanin showed that despite the APA instituting a disclosure policy for DSM-V (due out in 2012), only 8 out of 27 members of the DSM Task Force had no industry relationship. “The fact that 70% of the task force members have reported direct industry ties—an increase of 14% over the percentage of DSM-IV task force members who had industry ties—shows that disclosure policies alone…are not enough and that more specific safeguards are needed,” stated Dr. Cosgrove. Further, “pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in the structure and content of DSM, and in how the symptomology is revised.”
A 2006 study by Dr. Cosgrove and Sheldon Krimsky, a Tufts University professor, determined how 56% of the170 psychiatrists who worked on the 1994 edition of the DSM (IV) had at least one monetary relationship with a drug maker. The study also found that every one of the “experts” on DSM-IV panels overseeing so-called “mood disorders” (which includes depression) and “schizophrenia/psychotic disorders” had undisclosed financial ties to drug companies. At the time, international sales of drugs to “treat” these conditions were more than $34 billion.
Dr. Irwin Savodnik, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, commented at the time: “The very vocabulary of psychiatry is now defined at all levels by the pharmaceutical industry.”
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A CHARITY that counts Premier Ted Baillieu among its patrons will be quizzed by Consumer Affairs amid concern about its registration as a fundraiser.
..The Mental Health Foundation Victoria charges up to $16,000 a table at its gala Crown casino fundraising event.
But its financial records from last year do not list a single cent going to charity.
Consumer Affairs Victoria yesterday confirmed the foundation had not been registered as a fundraiser for at least the past three years.
A CAV spokesman said officers would contact the foundation to explain its obligation to register as a fundraiser, unless it qualifies for an exemption.
The foundation, established by psychiatrist Prof Graham Burrows in 1981, is a charitable organisation drawing attention to mental health.
Other patrons of the foundation include Health Minister David Davis, Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge, and federal cabinet minister Simon Crean.
A State Government spokesman said the Premier would not comment.
Prof Burrows could not be contacted.
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How can a person, be in their own home. One person calls 911 saying “my moms not acting right, I think she needs to go to the hospital.” Instead of the paramedics comming the police come. I was not violating the law. I got to the hospital and I was trying to call an atty to help me, no one would heed the call. I was trying to call my doctor,(from a private payor source). The doctor wrote an order “no phone calls for 3 days” “If refuses p.o. (by mouth) meds may use manuel hold. This was 4 hours into my stay. So I,m the evidence in the case the police have presented to the facility that the Drs. are now going to manipulate to produce the desired income. I was taken into court 72 hrs later drugged out of my gourd. The Dr. stating” Here is clear and convincing evidence she can”t take care of herself.” According to my state statue you are supposed to be taken for a medical clearance first, it never happened. There was scheduled a final hearing in the matter,I was brought in may 6 the final hearing scheduled june 1,27 days later. Statutory standard is 14 days. I was released on the 22. the dr gave me pills to take and told me I had to go for injections. This was all under my impression that I was under a court order. I followed his order not because I felt I needed to but because I did not want to violate the law. I continued to try to contact the atty from the legal aid society. I wasn’t indigent. I owned my own home and I had a job as an LPN at a long term care facility. I now had to call the board of nursing in my community to see if thios would allow me not to work. They said no. The atty sent me a letter 2weeks after I was sent home. I still have the letter. that “There isn’t going to be a final hearing in the matter. The case was dismissed, that the dr that treated me wasn’t my Dr, that I did not have to follow his orders. that I could do what I wanted to do in reguard to my health care. I chose not to follow his orders. I lost my job due to missing those days at work even though I was under FMLA. I have been arrested by the police 2009, and 2011 and taken to the same facility. the facility sued me in court even though they knew that I wrote an answer to the court refuting the action. That went unheeded to. They posted private health information in a public court file to further slander my name. I have worked but I have been discriminated against, and I currently have a discrimination complaint filed. Its been 55 days and the employer has not responded as yet. I have been advocating for myself and have letters from the DHS, the legal aid saying where the law was violated against me and a letter from the facility withdrawing 9,000.00 of the debt they alleged I owed for services their own court says was “dismissed”. this all started in 2006 when I said “There is somthing wrong with my mortgage” this is not over. I am not mentally ill, I am not a danger to my self or others. And there is no one who can predict that about anyone. I read somewhere, Any fool can make a rule, if any fool will follow it. I would advise all, you have the right to a second opinion, demand it.
THE Medical Board is monitoring allegations made by patients against psychiatrist Professor Graham Burrows to determine if any action will be taken.
..A Seven News investigation raised a list of allegations against the doctor including over-medication of drugs, consultations of 30 seconds and a conflict of interest involving pharmaceutical companies.
Almost 100 people have come forward to complain about the Melbourne University Professor of Psychiatry in the past three days.
But Dr Burrows, who returned to Australia from a conference yesterday morning, said he was proud of his medical record, which spans 40 years and includes an Order of Australia
Dr Burrows said he disputes the reports in the media and he was seeking legal advice.
“Given the confidential nature of my work, I do not believe that it is ethically or legally appropriate for me to comment on specific patients or on their treatment.”
Dr Burrows was the defence witness in Arthur Freeman’s trial who claimed the father was mentally ill and did not know what he was doing when he threw his daughter, Darcy off the bridge.
Director of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council Isabell Collins called for the Government to launch an independent review of Dr Burrows’ practice.
“He is entitled to natural justice, but when you have so many complaints saying the same thing it needs to be investigated.”
A spokeswoman for the Medical Board said it has the power to act if it has concerns about the way a doctor is practising.
Wow! Most of us are probably shocked at the corruption and hypocrisy of these so-called “elite” that supposedly stand as representation of our field and I for one am disgusted that these people call themselves “helping professionals”! Especially within our field, it is our duty to uphold and stand by the ethical principles and guidelines that govern our profession; however, what is more important that those who trust, have faith, or seek out mental health services become believers in what we do. Unfortunately that is obviously unlikely if those who stand as the faces of our profession are corrupt and are only working for their own financial gain. I speak for myself and probably for most who believe in this work, that this is not what we are about and while we believe in ethical clinical testing and distribution of pharmaceuticals that will truly help or at the very least alleviate the issues that surround mental illness, we DO NOT support personal financial gain at the expense of our clients and for those who believe, have benefited, or are looking to seek out mental health services. It is a sad, ruthless reality that there are individuals who will mask their own personal agendas with false claims of benefiting any and/or all mental health professions. Remember that not all emotional and psychological problems have a cure that can be quickly written on some script pad and passed to some pharmacy. Take control of your life and seek out other methods of treatment such as psychotherapy and other counseling therapies! Unfortunately, you will find this type of corruption and deceit in most professions; however, my only advice is to have faith and always GET A SECOND OPINION!!!!!
Sincerely,
A Very Concerned Grad Counseling Student
United Nations Views Australia’s Soaring Psychiatric Drug Use in Children
A submission presented to those who attended the UN’s Children’s Rights Committee in Geneva June 5, condemned Australia’s increasing numbers of children being prescribed powerful antipsychotics, antidepressants and psychostimulants. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), who attended the hearing and submitted the report, criticised the plan to screen 3 year olds for mental illness as dangerous, potentially putting more children at risk of being drugged. The number of 2-16 year olds taking antipsychotics increased 69% between 2007/08 (5,727) and 2009/10 … Read more
DSM: Psychiatry’s Deadliest Scam From Bushranger to Shopper, We’re All “Ill”
If Australia’s famous bushranger Ned Kelly was alive today, psychiatrists would most likely label him with “oppositional defiant disorder.” In fact, psychology-inspired eugenicists claim Kelly was a “mental defective.” Under a planned fifth revision of psychiatry’s research and insurance “billing bible,” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Kelly’s diagnosis could change to “Post Traumatic Embitterment Disorder” which supposedly describes people who can’t let go of grudges. Yet to others, Kelly’s fight against oppressive British rule cast him as an … SEE AUSTRALIAN CCHR WEBSITE
Children able to consent to sterilisation and 12 year olds to consent to psychosurgery and electroshock without any parental consent in W.A.
The W.A. Mental Health Act is under review and the above are included in proposals of the draft bill. Please take action so that children are protected and parental rights are upheld. CHILDREN OF ANY AGE TO CONSENT TO STERILISATION: If a psychiatrist decides that a child (under 18 years) has sufficient maturity, he or she will be able to consent to sterilisation. Parental consent will not be needed. Only after the sterilisation procedure has been performed does it have to … THE NEW FACIST STATE OF NO CONSTITUTIONAL LAW!!! IS ARISING IN AUSTRALIA
Almost all of the most effective drugs for treatment of psychiatric illness were discovered in the 1950s and were fully available by the early 1990s. In the early 1980s, The Reagan administration took the leash off the pit bull aka Big Pharma allowing them to bombard the public with many falsehoods about their wonderful new antidepressants and antipsychotics.The Pharmaceutical industry although they claim they must charge unaffordable prices for the garbage they say will relieve depression or psychosis because of their “Research costs” is the biggest lie imaginable. They rarely discover an truly effective medication. Most of the most effective medications were developed by the Federal Government. However, in the early 90s, the Federally run National institute of Mental Health decided although they have a budget of $1.5 billion /year, that they would no longer attempt to develop new, more effective medications . Instead (because the right people received their fat envelopes) the corrupt , criminal syndicate known as the pharmaceutical industry would be the only developers of medication. The same industry with morals of the mafia . Allowing pharmaceutical companies to do their own studies is like an criminal bring their own judge and jury.
what needs to happen also is that Psychriatists who indulge in these illegal practices, and in the process damaging people mentally,or causing death, need to be convicted and charged, in which case patients could then seek monetary compensation through the legal system, that’s what will really make them hurt, hitting them in the hip pocket, thus making them accountable, for their currently unaccountable actions, we need to stop protecting these criminals!!
they should be accountable under the law just as any other doctor or private citizen would be, what is now needed is an open and transparent inquiry. a royal commission at the very least
I worked on the child/adolescent psychiatric unit, Bader 5, Childrens Hospital Boston from 10/05 until I was forced into resignation 6/10. Meeting the fate of a whistleblower for contacting DMH regarding violations of restraint guidelines, I actually was not aware of the deeper issues regarding psychotropic drugs until I read “Anatomy of an Epidemic” by Robert Whitaker, about 10 months after leaving Bader 5, Childrens Hospital Boston. Refecting on how the use of restraints for forced feeding of medically stable patients with anorexia nervosa was always accompanied by administration of psychotropic drugs against the patient’s will, I realized that the evil I had tried to confront as a staff nurse actually ran deeper than I could have ever imagined.
Only licensed mental health professionals who have attempted to engage psychiatrists and upper level management of renowned academic medical centers on matters of clinical judgment have witnessed, or experienced the ‘absolute authority’ exercised by psychiatry. That they have failed to establish themselves as practitioners of medicine, is of no concern to them. Behaving as ‘divine authority’ they destroy (professional reputations) those who do not submit to their ‘control’. Needless to say, it takes a bit of study and research to uncover the basis for such outrageous behavior. The history of the evolution of this appauling situation is the story of corruption across the spectrum of agencies developed to protect our citizens, our children. The financial gain for psychiatry and these agencies via their alliance with pharmaceutical companies is nothing short of obscene. The power of this wealthy allegiance is equally intimidating.
I would like to suggest trying to focus on the single most compelling reason to challenge this ‘evil’ with everything we’ve got. Children- our children have become the ‘target market’ for this unscrupulous band of pseudo doctors. I have witnessed Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Joseph Biederman’s claim to fame in action; adolescents suffering toxic side effects from an SSRI being railroaded on to his ‘Bipolar Child’ train. How could a known side effect from a drug like Prozac ever be classified as an ‘agent that unmasked serious mental illness’? We now know that it unmasked an opportunity to classify a teenager, or a child, as a lifelong consumer of atypical antipsychotics, mood stabliizers, and sedatives. How can we not become enraged?
Although it is barely mentioned, I believe the facts we now have are the basis for criminal indictments. I believe that this issue needs to make it’s way to the top of every political campaign and be the topic of discussion in every institution that ‘serves children’. At the same time, each of has something to contribute toward “Reclaiming our Children”, (Peter Breggin, 2000).
I am not lamenting having been blacklisted out of the field of psychiatric nursing in Boston. I finally had the time to study, research and to begin networking with genuinely ‘sane’ professionals who consider this matter to be one of the greatest crimes in our country’s history. I will dedicate the rest of my life to atoning for the 25 years I worked in the field of child/adolescent psychiatry.
this is a “Guantanamo bay” style law here in Australia.
a story of corruption, cover up, back handers “murder by law”,self invention,”circumvention of the rule of law”, “a denial of natural justice”.
what a disgrace!!Australia needs a “Royal Commission” into these “state sanctioned murders” cover ups by the system!! and Psychriatists in general being very questionable individuals, these Psychriatists invent these Diseases and under current so called federal law, which allowes them to make statements under the current mental health act as “appears to look unwell”, this evil has to stop!! this legislation is open slaughter on anyone they like, it’s just asking to be abused!!they have a lot to answer for!! and are very sick people who indulge in this activity!!.
this is the same sort of thing we have in australia!! it’s nothing more than a huge mind control experiment!! these drugs are pushed down your throat!! while they tell you oh you are ill, the mental heath law allowes for a doctor to state that you look mentally ill and that is it, you’re put in hospital, how can this sort of state sanctioned terror be allowed!!! there are also experimental units where people who are completely out of it, are used for testing of new drugs i studyed the UN human rights bill it’s totally against the basic human rights charter people have no say while under the mental health act, the doctors do as they like and get away with it!! you would expect this in russia, china, or south america, incredible!! stuff.
very dishonest people that have a lot to answer for.
This all happening in british columbia
CANADA
You sould see how far the criminal activeties are committed
under all the different Health Authorities.
The estamate is that over 2500 involuntary victims do die, of the hands of the Psychoatrists annually,
making this the greatest killing fields ever!!
All victims are simple striped of the Charter of Rights, their cloths and never will see the light of day again…… ever!!
This all happening un the public hospitals fully equipped for this crime!!
This can also be called “THE PERFECT MURDER”!!!
Thank You Thank You Thank You 4 the TRUTH <3
Thought you might be interested in my son’s story. I don’t know how much you know about celiac disease but it generally comes as no surprise to members of the on-line celiac community that gluten can affect the brain . I’ve attached some of the results of my research into the connection between gluten and neurological conditions. Actually, my son’s symptoms looked very much like schizophrenia but the official diagnosis was bipolar, based solely on the fact that there is (or seems to be) bipolar on both sides of our family. I also have celiac disease but I experience an intense brain fog when I eat gluten, not as severe as my son. I was sick for 25 years including intense depression and it was only while researching my son’s condition that I realized gluten was behind my problems, too. I never dreamed it could be what was making me sick- the connection between gluten and symptoms is almost never made unless, like me, a person stops consuming it for an extended period. Now, it’s easy to see exactly how it affects me – whenever I eat even a small amount my symptoms come back with a vengeance (especially the brain fog). It took over 10,000 years (from the advent of agriculture and the introduction to wheat) to recognize that gluten causes celiac disease- wheat is so prevalent in our diets.
So I’m trying to get the word out. The beauty of the gluten-free diet is anyone can try it- doesn’t require a doctor (in fact don’t tell your doctor unless you want to be ridiculed- after all, they know everything- there’s nothing else to be discovered). It’s not as hard as you’d think and completely healthy (wheat is very over-rated as a grain in terms of nutritional value). But it is so worth it- my life has completely turned around and I am much healthier and happier at 54 than I was when I first started getting sick at 25. And my son had learning disabilities as well as stomach problems from the time he was little (he’s 25 now) but he just graduated from college with honors and his gut is fine as long as he avoids gluten. But you have to be vigilant. This is not an allergy where just eating a little will only make you a little sick- it’s autoimmune- the smallest amounts trigger an exaggerated immune response. Here’s my son’s story:
Lee had episodes of severe psychosis which have turned out to be caused by gluten. He’s been hospitalized for extended periods (under court-ordered commitment) twice and unfortunately under the care of psychiatrists who have assumed he needed lots of meds. Unfortunately, the meds led to profound catatonia. I had seen him reacting severely to gluten but could not get through to the psychiatrists. They thought I was crazy and completely disregarded my accurate observations and became hostile toward me when I continued to insist that he did not have bipolar or schizophrenia, his brain was under attack (obvious to me but they only know what they’ve been taught and were the most closed-minded and arrogant providers I’ve ever encountered) . Took a consultation with a brilliant neurologist (a real doctor who gave him an anti-gliadin antibody test that showed he was highly reactive) to prove I was right and the gluten-free diet saved him from a life of subsisting under neuroleptics and probably institutionalization (he reacted very poorly to every drug they tried- always made him worse but they never stopped trying until he was catatonic- incontinent, unaware of his surroundings, unable to communicate and no instinct to eat or drink).
Turns out there have been tons of peer-reviewed studies on the neurological effects of gluten and this neurologist was aware of them. Go to Pubmed and do a search on gluten, gliadin (the subtraction of gluten that causes the problems) and neurological and you will find countless studies. When gluten causes damage in the gut it’s called celiac disease, in the skin it’s dermatitis herpetiformis. There is not a name for when it causes neurological or psychiatric damage yet, but some day.
Also, there are many promising treatments that will soon eliminate the need for a gluten-free diet. There is a drug in human clinical trials right now that will treat celiac disease and other reactions to gluten, and probably many other autoimmune diseases. Check out Alba therapeutics, Dr Alessio Fasano (good info on this at celiac.com). I’ve attached an article from Scientific American about celiac disease which explains how a leaky gut is behind celiac and probably most if not all autoimmune diseases- it accounts for gluten getting into the bloodstream in the first place. I paid for the article and you can read and share it but I don’t think it would be proper to post for general viewing.
What is happening (as Roy states), the connection between the judicial system and psychiatric evaluations should be a crime; legislation should be written and passed immediately, asap, to totally seperate the two before anymore innocent human beings are misdiagnosed (usually to hide/cover something up or to discredit them) and being forced to take thier insidious damaging psych meds. by a court of law/judge…..just imagine the horror one would endure if this should jhappen to them….told you are unable to make a decision to voluntarily take thier poison so they order up a judicial order from a judge and then being locked up in a mental institution and forced psych meds……Someone somewhere must intercede the corrupt system before it happens to someone you love. if assistance is needed i am a witness as it happened to my son and feel free to contact me @pamela333@frontiernet.net. I’ll do anything to help to keep this from happening to another human being.
Is this why there is no mention of iatrogenic injuries induced by psychiatric medications listed in the DSM? It appears as though a whole supplemental book is needed cross-referencing the iatrogenic injuries caused by the neurotoxicity of these medications that are comparable to the original symptoms. If the DSM was built for the profit of psycho pharmaceutical profits and to neatly sweep away the iatrogenic injuries induced by these same medications, how accurate could the subjective psychological/psychiatric evaluations be that are currently being forced upon everyone who has a presence with the judicial system? They seem to have an eloquent web of creating and capturing the iatrogenic injured either coming or going. How can we bring this subjective illegal search & seizure corruption to the level of the Supreme Court and get stopped?
[...] U.S. Senate Finance Committee requesting in July 2008 that the APA provide accounts for all of its pharmaceutical funding. Despite its announcement, within two months, the APA accepted more than $1.7 million in pharmaceutical company funds for its annual conference, held in San Francisco. Not surprising. In 2002, the APA’s Anand Pandya said that without pharmaceutical industry funds, membership dues could escalate 455% from $540 a year to $3,000. Pandya is president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), which in 2009 was also asked to provide records of its pharmaceutical company funding to federal investigators. About 56% of its $12 million-a-year income comes from drug makers (more below). Within a month of the APA’s announcement, its conflicts came under criticism again with the release of a study that found that 18 of the 20 members overseeing the revision of clinical guidelines for treating just three “mental disorders” had financial ties to drug companies. The common diagnoses generate some $25 billion a year in pharmaceutical sales. … Read ahead [...]
… and what do yo say, about the southamerican psyquiatric research?.. and where was the research done?..
although not all psychiatrists are charged as criminals; an education on altering and studying human emotional state is learned as a result of a desire for money, this violation and criminal activity is a signal toward the state psychatry, how they push dangerous drugs onto society and disregard for family relationship.
Each and every one of these bought and paid for quack psychiatrists should get a lifetime dosage of neuroleptic drug injections. Obviously they are all driven by greed and are just mercenaries who have no interest in any of their patient’s well being. I was dragged by Hammond Indiana mercenary pigs to a Northwest Indiana psikhushka dark ages mental ward without any opportunity to confront my accusers who were bought and paid for premeditated liars and perjurers whose interests and motives were obtaining the “head hunting” fees for a “ring” of mercenary neuroleptic drug pushing quack psychiatrists experimenting with risperidone on unwilling citizens, without consent at St Catherine’s hospital, East Chicago In. The “ring” includes top ranking Hammond Indiana police, including the police chief, a judge, and the sinister minded quacks, Dr. Eugene Kang, and Dr. E .Sandoval who accept malicious perjury from family members and then administer mega doses of neuroleptic drugs with depakote too. The “experiment” was rigged long in advance, as the “quacks” were gonna’ “cure” me of conditions which never existed by reducing me to a chronically ill retard with their brain damaging toxic poisens.
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What They Kept From Diabetes Sufferers Part Two …
Diabetes Study Questions Expensive Treatments – NIH finds Patients With Heart Disease Fare Equally Well Without Stents and Drugs Such as Avandia, Actos: “The study, sponsored by the National……
These guys are criminals. All of them, and need to be brought to justice, along with there pretend profession. It’s time for Washington to wake up.
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So, today is Saturday and I was searching around for johnson johnson on google and you came number 3 in the UK, Just thought you would like to know….
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