Difference between Psychiatric Disorder and a Medical Disease

News Link Roundup

I get various yahoo alerts about psychiatric drugs, FDA situations and drugs with suicidal side effects. Because of these and stuff people send me, I end up with way to many links to way to many interesting or horrifying stories. So, here's a big ol' round up.

Psychiatrist accused of tax evasion

Curbs sought on certain psychiatric drugs - in Kentucky

Eli Lilly settles with 33 states on Zyprexa fiasco

Anti-psychotics boost risk of stroke in patients with dementia

The omega-3 fatty acids you are eating for your heart may work for depression too

Food and it's correlation with suicide

Love and paying attention to children works better than pills

A ton of articles about over prescribing Ritalin

CCHR Public Service Announcements

New radio show about the mental health industry

N. Washitngton Gunman

I've read two articles about a gunman in Washington who shot and killed or injured several random people this last week. There's a statement in there from his mom saying he has been "desperately mentally ill" for some time. Does anyone know if he was on psychiatric drugs at the time? I'm just curious if this gunman was mentally ill, suffering from side effects or...?

Shooting - Prozac Induced?

Decide for yourself, check out this article with the following in mind - Prozac is an SSRI with side effects of suicidal thoughts and violent behavior. SSRI withdrawl symptoms include the above two side effects as well.

Why do we have people on such destructive drugs? Aren't mental health experts supposed to be protecting society against those who would be dangerous to themselves and others - not causing depressed people to become dangerous to themselves or others via drugs?

What do you think?

Schoolboy Suffers from Suicidal Side Effect of Ritalin

This article reports the tragic death of 15 year old Anthony Cole, who hung himself after being on Ritalin for 6 years. From the report, it seems like it was a premeditated suicide - days before his suicide he had asked about how to write a will and about life insurance, an hour before he was found dead he had cuddled his parents and told them that he loved them.

My heart goes out to his parents, his brother and sisters, his friends and extended family. I don't understand why parents are still allowing their children to take these drugs, I can only guess that it's because the side effects are not being taken seriously. They are very real and very serious.

If you know someone on Ritalin, please make sure they know the side effects and have fully evaluated their decision to take it.

FDA Approves Abilify for Kids

*Warning – Excessive Sarcasm*

Great, just what we need - another psychiatric drug. This one's even approve for kids. The FDA recently approved Abilify for "Pediatric Bipolar Illness".
The facts are these: The symptoms for "Pediatric Bipolar Illness" sound like the growing pains most children go through. Here are the symptoms, and you can decide:

- An expansive or irritable mood (so if the kid is overly happy or overly irritable, they are mentally ill)

- Extreme sadness or lack of interest in play (if the other kids hate him or her - or vice versa)

- Rapidly changing moods lasting a few hours to a few days (ever seen a kid go from 0-60 in 1.3 seconds when they are hungry or tired? Could it be that it's a deficiency in food or sleep?)

- Explosive, lengthy, and often destructive rages (No tantrums allowed!)

- Separation anxiety (You can't love your parents and be worried that the people who have been around you constantly for the past five or so years are now leaving you with strangers)

- Defiance of authority (You must all be mindless drones)

- Hyperactivity, agitation, and distractibility (If you don't understand what your teacher is saying, so you get bored or distracted, you must have a mental illness)

- Sleeping little or, alternatively, sleeping too much (Who judges what "sleeping too much or too little" is in a child?)

- Bed wetting and night terrors (You know when you watched Terminator the other night? You now have a mental disorder. Enjoy.)

- Strong and frequent cravings, often for carbohydrates and sweets (Have a sweet tooth?! You MUST be crazy)

- Excessive involvement in multiple projects and activities (Can you multi-task? Can't have that. You might grow up to be capable of thinking for yourself)

- Impaired judgment, impulsively, racing thoughts, and pressure to keep talking
dare-devil behaviors (You react to peer pressure? You want to find out how high you can climb up that tree? Nutcase)

- Inappropriate or precocious sexual behavior (Your parents were too embarrassed to explain what your body is or does, so you are trying to figure it out? or You react to peer pressure? Off to the nuthouse with you! or better yet, let's give you a drug to make it all better)

- Delusions and hallucinations (hmmm... can't do much commenting on that one)

- Grandiose belief in own abilities that defy the laws of logic (ability to fly, for example) ( I guess R. Kelly is mentally ill then) - Note, the first comment in parentheses is not mine, it is actually on the list of symptoms. My comment is the R. Kelly one.

Okay, I know that this post is far more sarcastic than what I've posted before, but it makes me so mad I could spit that the FDA would approve a drug to "cure" kids of some specious disease. Look at the side-effects this drug has:

- Extrapyramidal Disorder (common extrapyramidal disorders are diseases like Parkinsons and they often cause strokes). Five percent of people who take Abilify got extrapyramidal disorder.
- Thoughts of hurting yourself
- Restlessness
- Headache or Anxiety
- Seizures
- Urinating less than usual or not at all
- Jaundice
- Insomnia
- Jerky muscle movements you cannot control
- Nausea
- Drowsiness, Dizziness or Weakness
- Choking or trouble swallowing
- Feeling faint

The list goes on. Look over these side-effects and look what the drug is supposed to cure. Do they look similar to you? Would you put your child on a drug like this?
Also, does anyone know if any studies done or any proofs presented with regard their being a connection between childhood "mental illness" (which, as I said above, sound a lot like growing pains to me) and adult "mental illness"?

Great Links About Psychiatry

Here are some great links that I'd love to post about, but others have already done so:

Psychwatch reports on A BBC Documentary created to show the history of psychiatry in history and how it's affected democracy.

ScientologyAgainstDrugs posts a great article on ADHD. Very thought provoking!

Psychwatch reports on a psychiatrist having an affair with a mentally ill patient

Indystar reports Eli Lilly settling 900 more claims against Zyprexa, with 1100 still to go.

Psychdata reports Another Drug Company is Being Sued (My goodness! Are all the drug companies so messed up? You'd think they'd learn not to make stupid and deceptive marketing campaigns, but I suppose they're just chasing that buck.)

A Hilarious fake drug campaign is going on in Toronto for a "drug" called "Obay". LOL!

When it Comes to Depression - Does Anyone Really Know What They Are Talking About?

I started reading up on the condition that psychiatrists call depression and it was frankly, depressing.

I started my hunt by looking at my trusty Encarta dictionary, which said:
Depression - psychiatric disorder: a psychiatric disorder showing symptoms such as persistent feelings of hopelessness, dejection, poor concentration, lack of energy, inability to sleep, and, sometimes, suicidal tendencies.

Okay, that sounds pretty severe, right?

So, I started delving more into it and looked up depression on the Internet. It seems that some of the symptoms of depression are:

Sleeping too much, sleeping too little or a change in sleeping patterns; feeling irritable, sad or tense; loss of energy; decreased interest in things; restlessness or feeling slowed down; feeling worthless, hopeless or guilty; weight loss or weight gain...
Wow..it really sounds as if they are covering every possible ground here. "Hey, you lose some weight, you might be depressed! Oh, wait, you gained weight? Well, you could be depressed!"
I mean, half of the symptoms above could be explained by lack of sleep alone (haven't you ever felt irritable, exhausted, restless and uninterested when you don't have enough sleep?).

It seemed that trying to find symptoms that made depression easy to figure out was impossible, so I searched more into depression and conversely, into happiness, and this is what I found:

a) There is no consistent definition of depression out there. It's more like, if you're not happy, your depressed, and only your doctor can delineate when that happens.

b) Even a few weeks of sadness can be considered depression! What's with that craziness? If your mom died, are you supposed to be "okay" with it in a couple of weeks? I don't know how long it would take me to bounce back - but it certainly wouldn't be weeks.

c) Reading up on depression and how to "get happy" is actually depressing. If a person is just moderately happy and wants to attain higher states of happiness, and they read up on it, it seems as if everyone on planet earth falls short of the standards of happiness now required.

d) For some reason or another you are supposed to "live with depression". That's more depressing than being diagnosed with depression. No one should have to "live with" anything in their life.

I think I can officially say that there seems to be no finite information on depression available. This makes me wonder, if doctors and psychiatrists don’t understand this condition, how could they possible come up with a plausible cure for it?

The Lobotomist

There's a new PBS American Experience called "The Lobotomist" out. It's about Walter Freeman who is considered the father of the lobotomy. For those of you who don't know what a lobotomy is, it's basically a barbaric practice with very serious side effects in which the "doctor" (I'm sorry, but I can't bring myself to call someone a doctor who does this) takes an ice-pick like instrument and a mallet, and after knocking the victim out - usually by using electroshock treatment - inserts the ice-pick through the bone of your eye and slashes the lobes of the front of your brain. It's really disgusting and it's actually making my stomach turn just writing about it. Anyway, the PBS special is very interesting, check it out if you have the stomach for it.

Which Drugs Have Black Box Warnings?

If you are researching psychiatric medication for any reason, it's important to know which drugs have black box warnings, or warnings of increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior. The FDA has published these. This link also has links to any revisions in product labeling as well as current news on these drugs. It's important to research the side effects and studies on any psychiatric drug as it has been found in a recent study that the studies drug companies and medical journals publish have been exaggerated to make antidepressants seem more effective then they really are. Many doctors depend on medical journals and drug companies to give them up-to-the-minute information. They don't always check out what the FDA has to say about the drug. So, take some time to do an in-depth research of the subject before making any life-changing decisions regarding these drugs.

Wilhelm Wundt

In 1879, German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt unveiled "experimental" psychology to his students at Leipzig University, declaring the study of the soul a "waste of energy" and Man was nothing more then an animal. By redefining Man's problems in biological terms, Wundt and his fellow psychologists were able to place the treatment of such problems, and the funding for it, firmly within their own ranks.
Wundt's new "science" in describing Man as an animal that could be manipulated as easily as a dog could be trained to salivate at the sound of a bell, found great favor with governments. His theories fueled the ambitions of Germany's "Iron Chancellor", Otto Von Bismarck, who sought control of the masses to feed his war machine.
Although the "man is an animal" theory is easily disproved - dogs do not drive cars, horses will never paint masterpieces and concertos have yet to be performed by an orchestra of monkeys - psychology and psychiatry adopted Wundt's theory as truth.
Man was declared "victim" of his environment and was said to have little conscious control of his own thoughts and actions. However, psychology and psychiatry have yet to scientifically isolate one biological cause of unwanted behavior, or offer a workable cure.

As a closing statement for today's blog, here is a quote from Wilhelm Wundt in 1911:
"The soul can no longer exist in the face of our present-day physiological knowledge."

Origins of the words Psychology and Psychiatry

The word psychology first appeared in the English language in the 17th century and derives from psyche (soul) and ology (study of). As a philosophical subject, it considered the mid and body as separate entities. French philosopher Rene Descartes reasoned "the mind and body were separate because if something is taken away from the body (i.e. a foot), nothing is considered to have been lost by the mind." His philosophy, known as dualism (dual condition), determined that the mind does not exist in space as ordinary physical substances do; it can think for itself and has purpose and freedom of will.
As long as man's problems were those of the soul, it was the domain of the clergy and religion to to address those problems.
Later, in 1808 the word "psychiatry" was coined by Johann Christian Reil. This word means "doctoring the soul", coming from psyche (soul) and iatros (doctor). This new word allowed psychiatrists to take matters of the soul away from religion and into their own, incapable hands.

"The Father of American Psychiatry"

Dr. Benjamin Rush - also known as the "Father of American Psychiatry" was alive from 1745-1813. Just before he passed away - in 1812 - he published the first American textbook on psychiatry.
In this book, masturbation and too much blood to the brain were considered causes of madness. Treatment involved cauterizing the spine and genitals or encasing the patient's private parts in plaster to prevent masturbation. (Oddly enough, in present time masturbation is considered and needful activity which prevents madness.)
Rush's recommended treatment included:

• Dropping "patients" into a well, on the basis that "if the patient nearly drowned and then brought back to life, he would take a fresh start, leaving his disease."
• Blistering the ankles to draw blood away from the "overheated head."
• Bleeding as much as "four-fifths of the blood in the body" to relieve the "excessive action" in the patient's brain.

None of his ideas about the brain being the cause of insanity has ever been medically proven, and psychiatrists still forward this fallacy today to market their mind-altering drugs.

To end this segment about American Psychiatry's "Father", here as a quote from him about his invention - the "Tranquilzer Chair" pictured about two posts below this one:

"It binds and confines every part of the body. By preventing the muscles from acting...the position of the head and feet favors the easy application of cold water to the former and warm water to the latter. Its effects have been truly delightful to me."

Johann Christian Reil, 1800-1808

Johann Christian Reil coined the term "psychiatry" in 1808. The word literally means "healing the soul" from Greek "psyche". Yet Reil had already concluded in 1803 - without evidence - that mental disturbances were of the brain, not the soul. He advocated punishment, intimidation, loud noises, flogging and opium as treatments, describing them as "non-injurious torture." For a man that suffered "delusions about the purity of the female sex," Reil recommended "a prostitute who will cure his delusions."

1700s-1800s

Here's a continuation of our history. I last left off on the 1700s. Here are the "advances" psychiatry made from 1700-1800:

Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, patients were chained naked to walls, beaten with rods and lashed into obedience. French asylum director Philippe Pinel abolished the use of chains in Paris' Salpetriere Institution in 1793. In their place he instituted straitjackets and threatened patients who misbehaved with "10 severe lashes".

I can't say that there were any huge advances or changes made in psychiatry during this time, it was pretty much the same torturous treatment as in the 1600s-1700s. None of the above is not nearly as awful as what the "Father of American Psychiatry" Benjamin Rush did to his patients. I'll share that with you next time, but just to leave you with an idea of his attitude, here's a quote from Dr. Benjamin Rush regarding one of his inventions - the "Tranquilizer Chair", which was used to keep the patient in a state of discomfort and pain for hours on end:
"It binds and confines every part of the body. By preventing the muscles from acting...the position of the head and feet favors the easy application of cold water or ice to the former and warm water to the latter. Its effects have been truly delightful to me."
Here's a pic of the chair:

Psychiatric drugging behind school shootings

29 people have been killed and 62 wounded by school shooters taking violence and suicide inducing psychiatric drugs. These notorious school-yard crimes include, among others, the 2005 Red Lake Indian Reservation shooting by Jeff Weise on Prozac, the 1999 Columbine shooting by Eric Harris on Luvox, and a 1998 shooting in Springfield, Oregon by Kip Kinkel on Prozac.

Including this morning's murder in a one-room schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, three shootings have occurred within the last week. One of these three shootings occurred at a school in Bailey, Colorado, less than an hour's drive from Columbine. Rocky Mountain News reports that outside Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, antidepressants were recovered from shooter Duane Morrison's jeep, after he took several girls hostage and killed one of the school girls before taking his own life.

The U.S. FDA warns that antidepressants can cause suicidal ideation, mania and psychosis. The manufacturers of one antidepressant, Effexor, now warn the drug can cause homicidal ideation. This month, a study came out in the Public Library of Science-Medicine journal, conducted by David Healy, director of Cardiff's University's North Wales department of psychological medicine, which found that the antidepressant Paxil raises the risk of violence. Though the study focuses specifically on Paxil, Healy reasoned that other antidepressant drugs like Prozac, Celexa and Zoloft, most likely pose the same risk of violence.

"We've got good evidence that the drugs can make people violent and you'd have to reason from that that there may be more episodes of violence," Healy said.

This morning another community was torn by the irrational murder of multiple school children. Violence and suicide inducing psychiatric drugs are taking a huge toll on our children and our community. School shootings are plaguing the nation. With three in the last week alone, investigators must look into the causes for this psychotic, suicidal behavior, and they should start at the most obvious place.

Was Charles Carl Roberts IV, who murdered Amish schoolgirls before shooting himself, on these behavior-altering drugs, like so many of the school shooters? Go to www.cchr.org to learn more about the connection between violence and antidepressants, or read the Report on Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs, published by the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights, a psychiatric watchdog group.

An article I ran across

The following article - titled "INHUMAN BEINGS - The Chemicalized Personality" is by Tom Solari, a writer and producer:
A mother murders her five children. High school students massacre their classmates. An Iraq vet stabs his wife 71 times. How can this happen?
A common thread in these occurrences is the fact that the killers have been taking psychiatric medications. But that is too simple. So we hear about “post-partum depression” and “combat stress.” In the case of the teens, it's “the breakdown of the family" or it’s the music, the movies, the video games.
The real answer is the dehumanizing effect of drugs.
A human being has more than one aspect. There is a definite electro-chemical component. The body physically functions via electro-chemical processes. Then there is that aspect which perceives and reasons and creates. This is not electro-chemical. When people communicate with each other, it is not chemical molecules that are exchanging ideas. This is the spiritual aspect; the conscious, aware individual.
There is also a mental component—a mind—which is an interactive link between the reasoning factor and the physical. A healthy mind (motivated by the spirit) is analytical. A less healthy mind is less analytical and more and more reactive. It operates on a stimulus/response basis, motivated by random factors. A troubled, unhealthy mind doesn't reason. It doesn't perceive well. It reacts to stimuli.
For a long time now, the mental health establishment has been telling us that we are chemical in nature. They would have us believe that they can solve our problems with mood-altering drugs—a little dash of this and a little dash of that. That approach may work at the purely physical level, as in taking antibiotics to handle infection, but it is not the physical component that gives us our rationality, our humanity. It is not the molecules in the brain that are thinking and perceiving, loving and caring, creating great music and poetry. No, the physical component is comprised of cells and electrical impulses, which are as reasoning and creative as an avocado or the electric current that powers your toaster.
When a person is troubled, he is already sliding in the direction of the reactive, unthinking, physical impulse side of his nature. To then give him chemical, mood-altering drugs, pushes him further in that direction. While the sedative effect may appear to calm him down, he is becoming, more and more chemicalized.
So is it any wonder that these killers seem less than human? They ARE less than human. Though they can appear bright and calculating at times, real judgment is gone. They are completely reactive; alienated. Their minds bubble and boil like the mass of chemicals they have become. The analytical capacity is gone. The spirit is gone. Their humanity is gone. They respond randomly and literally to stimuli (enter music, movies and video games). Then, in the extreme, they lash out with violence at the imagined demons and enemies in their own unreal world. They have been mentally short-circuited by the drugs that are supposed to be helping them. It is the ultimate betrayal.
And when their bizarre, chemically induced, nightmare world collides with the world of OUR reality—which consists of living people, loving families, children, teachers, learning, accomplishment—a slaughter ensues and we are left to wonder "WHY?" "WHAT HAPPENED?"
The answer: psychiatry happened. And why would anyone perpetrate such a crime as to drug children and adults, driving them insane, all in the name of help? It's too horribly simple. It’s a multi-billion dollar business. They do it for money.
The good news is that when society wakes up to these facts, we will cease to allow these evils to occur. It's time.

Tom Solari
Copyright(c)2006 Tom SolariAll Rights ReservedTom Solari is a writer and video producer, living and working in Los Angeles. He is concerned about a culture that promotes chemical dependency as a solution to problems, when logic and the evidence shows that this approach deepens the problem by numbing the brain, muddling the mind and undermining the human spirit

Electric Convulsive Therapy

Here's a video on Electric Convulsive Therapy aka "Shock Treatment" aka ECT.

What's being in a Mental Hospital like?

Involuntary Commitment

You may wonder, how easy is it to be involuntarily commited to a psychiatric hospital? It's so easy that in the United States, a person is involuntarily committed every 1 1/4 minutes. It is similar throughout the entire world.

Click here for more info.