by Jacob Sullum

Several interesting articles about the upcoming revisions to psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, for the new DSM 5.

"Seems like such a win-win change to the DSM. The Drug Czar wins because with all these new people “needing treatment” it justifies his emphasis on treatment. The drug companies win because they get to drug people up on drugs for which they get paid. The treatment industry wins because they get a ton of new people “needing treatment” that aren’t difficult cases, and with health care covering much of it, they can just rake in the dough without really having to do anything. As far as I can tell, the only ones who lose are, well, the people."

The next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, scheduled to be published a year from now, is expected to include a looser definition of addiction that will qualify millions more drinkers, illegal drug users, and participants in other pleasurable activities for psychiatric diagnoses. The upshot will be a lot more spending by taxpayers and private insurers on rarely effective “treatment” for these putative diseases, along with expanded excuses for depriving people of their freedom and relieving them of their responsibility.

DSM 5 Could Mean 40% of College Students Are Alcoholics by Maia Szalavitz

If the change is finalized, anyone whose drinking or drug use creates any problems will essentially be an addict or alcoholic with a “mild” case of the disease and presumably, therefore, not someone who can learn control over his habits.

While researchers have been encouraging the widespread adoption of “brief interventions” and other techniques that don’t require abstinence or a label— with great success— this change could swing the field in the opposite direction.

And that poses a huge problem, particularly for adolescents and young adults with mild problems who may be pushed to adopt an addict identity and to see themselves as having no way to control their drinking or drug use if they ever “relapse.” Rather than empowering those who do have control to use it, these programs essentially tell kids that if they ever have just one drink or puff on a joint, they’re lost.

The New York Times article points out the self-interest that may be involved…

Addiction Diagnoses May Rise Under Guideline Changes by ian Urbina

“The ties between the D.S.M. panel members and the pharmaceutical industry are so extensive that there is the real risk of corrupting the public health mission of the manual,” said Dr. Lisa Cosgrove, a fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, who published a study in March that said two-thirds of the manual’s advisory task force members reported ties to the pharmaceutical industry or other financial conflicts of interest. [...]

Dr. O’Brien, who led the addiction working group, has been a consultant for several pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis, all of which make drugs marketed to combat addiction.

He has also worked extensively as a paid consultant for Alkermes, a pharmaceutical company, studying a drug, Vivitrol, that combats alcohol and heroin addiction by preventing craving. He was the driving force behind adding “craving” to the new manual’s list of recognized symptoms of addiction. [...]

Seems like such a win-win change to the DSM. The Drug Czar wins because with all these new people “needing treatment” it justifies his emphasis on treatment. The drug companies win because they get to drug people up on drugs for which they get paid. The treatment industry wins because they get a ton of new people “needing treatment” that aren’t difficult cases, and with health care covering much of it, they can just rake in the dough without really having to do anything.

As far as I can tell, the only ones who lose are, well, the people.

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The New American —May 14, 2012

by Alex Newman

Unlike in conventional medicine where objective diagnoses and treatments are made based on observable biological evidence, psychiatrists get together every so often to decide what should or should not be considered a “mental illness.”

And they do not always agree, as evidenced by the more than 13,000 professionals from around the world who recently signed an open letter demanding that the upcoming edition of the psychiatry industry’s “diagnostic manual” be put on hold and reconsidered.

As the elite of the nation’s psychiatric establishment work in the shadows to fully revise the highly controversial handbook labeling various behaviors and emotional states as “illnesses,” experts across the board are crying foul. A handful of new potential mental disorders and the revised definitions for others have caused a particularly fierce uproar among some psychiatrists and mental health professionals. At least 25,000 comments have already been submitted about the proposals.

The debate and its resolutions, of course, will have serious repercussions. Depending on the outcome of the ongoing conflict, millions of people may suddenly find out that they are afflicted with newly created “diseases,” while others — especially certain individuals diagnosed with forms of autism — may no longer qualify under the new definitions. Tens of millions more may soon be officially considered “addicts” under the revised definition for addiction, too.

The proposed changes would have broad implications affecting everything from treatment regimens to welfare programs, criminal law, and even education. But around the world, psychiatrists and mental health professionals are fighting back hard, urging the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to hold off on the revisions until more discussion and research can take place.

Known as the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM), the controversial handbook is widely used around the globe by the mental health industry, governments, insurance companies, and more. If all goes as planned, the fifth edition of the so-called “Bible” of psychiatry is set to be distributed in May of next year after the first major revision in over a decade.

However, if some of the more controversial proposed changes are not reconsidered — and the controversies addressed in an adequate manner — the manual’s influence is expected to wane significantly. And even as it stands today, not all experts are convinced about its usefulness or reliability in the field.

“[The DSM] is wrong in principle, based as it is on redefining a whole range of understandable reactions to life circumstances as ‘illnesses,’ which then become a target for toxic medications heavily promoted by the pharmaceutical industry,” clinical psychologist Lucy Johnstone with a Health Board in Wales told Reuters. “The DSM project cannot be justified, in principle or in practice. It must be abandoned so that we can find more humane and effective ways of responding to mental distress.”

Countless other experts agree, according to recent news reports, with many questioning whether a private group of individuals who stand to benefit by creating more diseases should really be writing the manual in the first place. Among the most vocal critics of the new proposals is Duke University psychiatry Prof. Allen Frances, who told the New York Times that the overly broad and vague definitions would create more “false epidemics” and increase the “medicalization of everyday behavior.”

“The DSM is distinct from all other diagnostic manuals because it has an enormous, perhaps too large, impact on society and millions of people’s lives,” explained Dr. Frances, who oversaw the writing of the current version of the diagnostic handbook and also worked on previous editions. “Unlike many other fields, psychiatric illnesses have no clear biological gold standard for diagnosing them.”

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/11370-critics-blast-big-psychiatry-for-invented-and-redefined-mental-illnesses

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DETROIT – (WXYZ) A local mom chose not to medicate her special needs daughter, so the state took the girl — and the mom landed in jail. Now she is suing.

Thursday afternoon, Maryanne Godboldo filed a civil rights lawsuit. In it, there are new allegations that her daughter’s prosthetic leg was taken while in state care, to stop the child from trying to get back to her mother.

“Just one betrayal after another.  It’s a lie – bring us your children and we will help you.  That’s not true.  That’s not true at all.  Bring me your children, and we’ll take them,” Maryanne Godboldo told 7 Action News Investigator Heather Catallo.

Godboldo says she just wanted help when she noticed serious changes in her daughter, Ariana, after a series of vaccinations in 2009.   So doctors prescribed the controversial anti-psychotic drug called Risperdal for Ariana.

“I tried the medication, and it made Ariana terribly ill,” said Godboldo.

Godboldo signed a form, which states in two different places that she could choose to have Ariana stop taking Risperdal at any time.

“Do you feel like that when you started questioning the system, that’s when it turned on you,” asked Catallo.

“Oh absolutely,” said Godboldo.

According to her lawsuit – Godboldo worked with her doctor to wean Ariana off the medication – and that’s when the very people she had gone to for help reported her to Child Protective Services, or CPS.

So CPS presented a petition – filled with mistakes – to court staff, who signed off it and issued a child removal order.  The law requires that a judge review these petitions – but that never happened.

CPS then used the flawed order to get Detroit Police to take Ariana.

Attorney David Robinson says when police first came to Godboldo’s door, they didn’t show her the order or a warrant.  According to the lawsuit, she refused to hand over her daughter, so police used a crowbar to break in the side door.  That’s when the officers said Godboldo fired a shot.

“They had no authority,” said Southfield attorney, David Robinson. “She did what any mother is supposed to do… and that is protect her child.  And that’s what she did – she did so legally, she did so responsibly.”

What happened next made international headlines — tanks and SWAT teams surrounded the home and a 10 hour standoff began.

“The helicopters, the sharp shooters, that did not bother me.  I was terrified they would get their hands on my child, and do exactly what they did,” said Godboldo.

Godboldo says she surrendered only after she was promised Ariana would be placed in her Aunt’s care.  But that didn’t happen.

“I thought my daughter was safe, and she was not!! That bothers me,” said Godboldo.

After the standoff – Ariana was checked out at Children’s Hospital.

“She was physically healthy, in fact, she was in a good frame of mind, and she was by all accounts perfectly fine,” said Southfield attorney Allison Folmar.

Folmar was at Children’s Hospital with Ariana and her aunt.   Hospital records show the aunt “was… escorted out of the [hospital] room by CPS.”  Folmar says that’s when the CPS worker took Ariana to the psychiatric hospital called Hawthorn Center.

“We were mystified as to where Ariana was.  Now if that’s not kidnapping, I don’t know what is,” said Folmar.

CPS case notes show Hawthorn tried several times to refuse Ariana as a patient – but CPS kept pushing, and eventually got her admitted.

Folmar says at Hawthorne Center – the CPS worker immediately authorized the 13 year old to go back on Risperdal and have the controversial HPV vaccine.

“Where was the order to hospitalize the child?  Where’s the order to medicate the child,” asked Folmar.

Ariana is an amputee who has a prosthetic leg. Godboldo’s attorneys say employees at Hawthorne Center removed it to stop her from trying to leave.

“You can’t compensate for that type of psychological harm to a child,” said Folmar.

After months of court hearings – the criminal charges against Godboldo were dropped — because the judge ruled that child removal order was “invalid.”  Godboldo eventually got her daughter back.  But she says not before the damage was done.

“I knew the system was broken, but I didn’t know it was this broken, where anyone, literally anyone could come and take your child,” said Godboldo.

Tonight on 7 Action News at 11, 7 Action News Investigator Heather Catallo will show you how Godboldo’s case exposed how the court wasn’t following the law, and you’ll see what happens when she tried to talk to the judge who allowed this to happen.

A spokesman for the state’s Department of Human Services, which oversees CPS, said they had not seen the lawsuit yet, so he could not comment on it.

Watch the Maryanne Godboldo story here:

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Note from CCHR:   As the mental health watchdog exposing the fraud of psychiatry’s diagnostic system long before the current controversy now plaguing psychiatry’s billing bible (the DSM),  the only viable solution worth noting is that offered by psychologist Lucy Johnstone, quoted at the end of this article who states,  “(The DSM) is wrong in principle, based as it is on redefining a whole range of understandable reactions to life circumstances as ‘illnesses,’ which then become a target for toxic medications heavily promoted by the pharmaceutical industry.  The DSM project cannot be justified, in principle or in practice. It must be abandoned so that we can find more humane and effective ways of responding to mental distress.”

Yep. We agree.

May 11, 2012

by Kate Kelland, Reuters

“The DSM project cannot be justified, in principle or in practice. It must be abandoned so that we can find more humane and effective ways of responding to mental distress.”

Many psychiatrists believe a new edition of a manual designed to help diagnose mental illness should be shelved for at least a year for further revisions, despite some modifications which eliminated two controversial diagnoses.

The new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5), a draft of which is open for public consultation this month, will be the first full revision since 1994 of the renowned handbook, which determines how to interpret symptoms in order to diagnose mental illnesses.

But more than 13,000 health professionals from around the world have already signed an open letter petition (at dsm5-reform.com) calling for DSM 5 to be halted and re-thought.

“Fundamentally, it remains a bad system,” said Peter Kinderman, a professor of clinical psychology at Britain’s Liverpool University.

“The very minor revisions … do not constitute the wholesale revision that is called for,” he said in an emailed comment.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA), which produces the manual and plans to publish DSM 5 next May, said Wednesday it had decided to drop two proposed diagnoses, for “attenuated psychosis syndrome” and “mixed anxiety depressive disorder.”

The former, intended to help identify people at risk of full-blown psychosis, and the latter, which suggested a blend of anxiety and depression, had been criticized as too ill-defined.

With these and other new diagnoses, such as “oppositional defiant disorder” and “apathy syndrome,” experts said the draft DSM 5 could define as mentally ill millions of healthy people – ranging from shy or defiant children to grieving relatives, to people with harmless fetishes.

Robin Murray, a professor of psychiatric research at the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London, said it was a great relief to see the changes in the draft, particularly to the attenuated psychosis diagnosis.

“It would have done a lot of harm by diverting doctors into thinking about imagined risk of psychosis (and) it would have led to unnecessary fears among patients that they were about to go mad,” he said in a statement.

But Allen Frances, emeritus professor at Duke University in the United States, said it was “only a first small step toward desperately needed DSM 5 reform.”

“Numerous dangerous suggestions remain,” Frances, who chaired a committee overseeing the DSM 4, said, adding that DSM 5 “is simply not usable” and should be delayed for an extra year “to allow for independent review, to clean up its obscure writing, and for retesting.”

Diagnosis is always controversial in psychiatry, since it defines how patients will be treated based on a cluster of symptoms, many of which occur in several different types of mental illness.

Peter Jones, a professor of psychiatry at Cambridge University, said DSM 5 should be “underpinned by science” built on an understanding of the biology and functions of the brain and mind – something he said neuroscience was not yet able to do comprehensively enough.

Read more:

Watch:

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Opponents claim the practice at the Judge Rotenberg Center is tantamount to torture.

Click here to sign the petition

Boston Magazine – May 10, 2012
By Casey Lyons

Image by Urban Woodswaller on Flickr.

The Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton is the only place in the country where kids with severe behavioral problems are shocked when they misbehave. You read that right.

After the release of a video depicting such a shock session, the Internet is rising in opposition to the practice, which the school claims to use as a clear disincentive to bad behavior — especially for kids who have difficulty with regular comprehension. It’s sort of like blasting your dog with a spray bottle when he tries to eat something off the table. Except replace dog with human, spray bottle with battery powered electric shock device, and eat something off the table with anything contra to what staff members instruct. (Read the details in Boston magazine’s 2008 story “The Shocking Truth.”)

Opponents of the practice — and now, even the UN — claim it’s torture, and more than 225,000 people have signed a petition condemning the practice on Change.org. They say even one place using the technique is too many, and it’s hard to disagree with that when taken at face value.

Despite the ridiculously cruel impression that such a practice leaves, it makes a fellow wonder: Why are we treating children with a mix of fear and pain? For it to work, the shock has to be painful, and it has to be painful and undesirable enough that the students would want to avoid it — hence fear. The place is also the child therapy version of a re-education camp, and I’ve heard stories that employees at other child-treatment centers use the place’s very existence as a way to control their charges. As in, “Keep it up and you’re going to the Judge.”

People seem to know that you come out different than you went in. That is, in fact, the idea of the therapy. And I’m sure that’s what Andre McCollins’ parents had in mind when they sent him there. It later came to light that McCollins had been strapped down and shocked literally for hours, and the procedure left him catatonic for days. That’s not the kind of change his mother was likely looking for. She signed the petition, too, and wrote:

As a parent, I was not prepared for the inhumane manner in which they treated people. I expected logic and some form of reason to be applied to the students in addressing behaviors that were considered inappropriate. Parents are not told “corrective measures” particularly a painful shock is appled without any warning or concern for what triggered the targeted behavior. What was dangerous about keeping his coat on. THIS INSANITY HAS TO STOP.

It’s unclear what will happen if the petition reaches its goal of 250,000 signatures, but one thing will be clear: Public opinion is very much turning against the Judge.

Click to sign the petition 

Read article here: http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2012/05/10/change-org-petition-shock-therapy-kids/

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Canton Patch – May 8, 2012

The Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass. Credit Maggie McClellan

More than 200,000 people have joined a campaign on Change.org calling for the Judge Rotenberg Center to stop its practice of giving electric shock treatments to students with special needs, for instance, Autism, as a form of therapy.

Greg Miller started the petition on Change.org after video of a student with Autism being shocked for hours was released.

Miller was a teacher’s assistant at the Judge Rothberg Center from 2003-2006, and during that time, he said he not only witnessed the shocking of students but also shocked many of them himself. Miller says the students would receive shocks for even the most minor of behavioral issues and that other students would watch in fear as their peers received the shocks.

“I want to help these students and put an end to this practice all together in Massachusetts,” said Greg Miller about his campaign on Change.org. “Not only should the JRC stop shocking students, Massachusetts legislators should ban the use of shocks altogether.”

Students at the center wear electrodes on their bodies that are attached to a small device carried around in a staff member’s backpack or fanny pack. When the student engages in forbidden behavior, a staff member administers a shock. Students may wear the electrodes as much as 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

The United Nation’s former Special Rapporteur on Torture investigated the shocks at the Judge Rotenberg Center and condemned them as torture. In 2002, 18-year-old Andre McCollins was strapped down and shocked for hours at the JRC. He begged for the shocks to stop and when they did, he was left in a catatonic state for days which resulted in permanent damage. That video footage wasn’t released until recently, and Andre’s mother has signed Greg Miller’s petition.

“Thousands of people are signing Greg’s petition on Change.org because they are concerned for the safety of young people at this center,” said Change.org senior campaigner Jonathan Perri. “Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to demand action on the issues that matter to them, and it’s clear Greg Miller won’t stop until he’s made a difference.”

Live signature totals from Greg Miller’s campaign:
http://www.change.org/petitions/judge-rotenberg-educational-center-please-stop-painful-electric-shocks-on-your-students

Read article here:  http://canton.patch.com/articles/campaign-to-stop-electric-shock-therapy-at-the-judge-rotenberg-center-gaining-momentum#c

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May 7, 2012

by Ethan A. Huff

The ever-expanding list of so-called psychiatric conditions included in the American Psychiatric Association‘s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) may soon include “relational disorders,” or mental illnesses supposedly attributed to two or more people involved in a relationship together.

According to the official definition, relational disorders are “persistent and painful patterns of feelings, behavior, and perceptions involving two or more partners in an important personal relationship.” A married couple, for instance, that continually fights would constitute a relational disorder, as would a troubled parent-child relationship.

If recognized and included in the manual, relational disorders will be the first psychiatric condition that involves more than one person. It will also be the first condition that exists only between two or more people, and not in a single individual.

“When couples go to counseling, trying to communicate, neither member is the ‘sick’ one,” said Michael Frist, associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, to USA Today in reference to relational disorders. “It is the relationship that needs to be worked on.”

While many psychiatrists see the potential acceptance and recognition of relational disorders as a breakthrough in psychiatric medicine, others see it as a ploy to sell more drugs and thus keep the flailing psychiatric profession in business.

“DSM certification of RD could prove to be a cash cow for all the professionals treating people from heartbroken marriages and feuding families,” writes Ian Dowbiggin for the Huffington Post. “800,000 U.S. couples a year visit offices for marital and family help. Do the math. Some people stand to make a lot of money.”

Modern psychiatry driven by pushing drugs for made-up conditions

A recent ABC News report highlights other glaring financial conflicts in the DSM as well. Set for official publication in 2013, the fifth edition of DSM contains “updated” treatment protocols for a host of psychiatric illnesses that are pharmacologically based, which means the modus operandi treatment guidelines entail a purely pharmaceutical drug approach (http://www.naturalnews.com).

The new DSM is also slated to dub everyday emotions like sadness and grieving as mental disorders in need of psychiatric drug treatments (http://www.naturalnews.com). This is hardly surprising, as a study conducted by researchers from Tufts University revealed that more than half of the DSM’s fourth edition authors had direct ties to drug companies (http://www.naturalnews.com/019404.html).

“It is important to understand clearly that modern psychiatry — and the identification of new psychiatric diseases — began not by identifying such diseases by means of the established methods of pathology, but by creating a new criterion of what constitutes disease,” writes Kelly Patricia O’Meara in her book http://www.naturalpedia.com.

“[W]hereas in modern medicine new diseases were discovered, in modern psychiatry they were invented.”

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PhillyMag.com—May 4, 2012

by Liz Spikol

This weekend, there’s going to be an Occupy day of protest and rallies in Philadelphia—but not by Occupy Philly. On Saturday, activists will come from all over the country for Occupy the APA, a peaceful day of action to protest the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which is being rolled out at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) at the Convention Center. Unlike other protests that sometimes divide the mental health advocacy community, this protest will include people from diverse constituencies—from psychiatrists and those who take medications to psychiatric “survivors” who believe psychiatry is dangerously abusive.

The DSM, as it’s familiarly known, is often called the bible of mental illness because it’s how, for all intents and purposes, a person’s constellation of symptoms is solidified into a firm diagnosis, a billable diagnosis code, and an acceptable FDA-approved category for certain pharmaceuticals. The DSM has always been controversial; it classified homosexuality as a mental disease until 1974. And many psychiatrists confess to frustration when they’re forced to pick a diagnosis for patients whose mix of complaints is too vague to identify.

The DSM has the power to change perception. It can give and take away. For instance, the new DSM refines the criteria for Premenstrual Dysmorphic Disorder (PMDD), a severe form of PMS. Proponents argue that insurance companies will pay for more treatment options now that the DSM has given PMDD its blessing. Opponents say PMDD shouldn’t be in there to begin with because it stigmatizes normal female physiology. These are the kinds of arguments that bedevil the manual all the time.

The stakes are particularly high with children, whose bodies and brains are still developing when they’re prescribed drugs made for adults. In the last few years, there was an explosion of childhood bipolar diagnosis. It’s now generally acknowledged that scores of those diagnoses were incorrect, and that many children were medicated unnecessarily. Part of the blame has gone to pharmaceutical companies, for obvious reasons. But prescriptions were written based on criteria in the DSM-IV, which is why the DSM-V refines the criteria for childhood bipolar disorder. While the new definition may be a step forward, the culture of the DSM and its inclination to classify behavior is at the root of the problem. Some children are just … children.  Read the rest of the article here

Watch the video— Psychiatry Labeling Kids with Bogus Mental Disorders:

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TriCities.com – May 2, 2012
By Michael Owens

The operator of a now-shuttered inpatient psychiatric counseling center for boys will pay a $6.85 million federal settlement over allegations of Medicaid fraud, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Keystone Marion Youth Center, owned by the King of Prussia, Penn.-based United Health Services, was at the center of a federal case alleging falsified medical records and that patients were held longer than necessary to bill for more money.

UHS closed the Marion facility earlier this year.

“This case sends a clear message that fraud and exploitation of our most vulnerable citizens will not be tolerated in the commonwealth,” Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said in a written announcement of the decision.

The settlement will be paid to Virginia and the United States based on a case brought under the False Claims Act, which states that an entity that submits false or fraudulent claims to the government is liable for three times the damages, plus a civil penalty for each false claim.

Investigators initially looked at claims of:

• Falsifying the medical records of at least 21 patients since October 2005.
• Aggravating patients to exacerbate their condition so Medicaid could be billed for longer stays and more intensive counseling.
• Initiating “drive-by” therapy session that consisted of brief hallway run-ins with patients, but later billed as lengthy meetings.
• Stretching patient admissions longer than necessary.

UHS, in an email to the Bristol Herald Courier, noted that the company has not admitted liability and the allegations of wrongdoing have not been proven.

“Due to the litigation costs and financial risks associated with a False Claim Act case as well as the previously announced closing of the facility for unrelated reasons, a decision was made to settle this matter at this time,” wrote former Marion Youth Center CEO Rick Bridges.

Wednesday’s settlement follows a 2007 whistleblower suit filed by three of the center’s former therapists. Along with claims of fraud, court records show that Megan L. Johnson, Leslie L. Webb and Kimberly Stafford-Payne also claimed sexual and racial discrimination in their suit.

Federal and state prosecutors joined their suit Nov. 4, 2009, and the three women were listed as co-plaintiffs alongside the United States and Virginia.

UHS has paid an additional amount to them to settle the discrimination complaints and attorneys fees, the Justice Department reported.

http://www2.tricities.com/news/2012/mar/29/operator-keystone-marion-youth-center-pay-685-mill-ar-1802215/

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Boston Globe – April 30, 2012
By Kay Lazar

Marjorie Bontempo was a changed woman after moving into Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley, a Littleton nursing home where the staff doesn’t believe in using antipsychotic drugs simply to calm residents.

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