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terça-feira, 25 de novembro de 2014

Are All Psychiatric Drugs Too Unsafe to Take? Answer: Yes

http://www.cchrint.org/2014/11/25/are-all-psychiatric-drugs-too-unsafe-to-take-answer-yes/



Are All Psychiatric Drugs Too Unsafe to Take? Answer: Yes


psychiatric-drug-side-effects-unsafe-to-take

“All classes of psychiatric drugs can cause brain damage and lasting mental dysfunction when used for months or years. Although research data is lacking for a few individual drugs in each class, until proven otherwise it is prudent and safest to assume that the risks of brain damage and permanent mental dysfunction apply to every single psychiatric drug.” — Peter Breggin, psychiatrist
Natural News – November 25, 2014
By Peter Breggin
Psychiatric drugs are more dangerous than you have ever imagined. If you haven’t been prescribed one yet, you are among the lucky few. If you or a loved one are taking psychiatric drugs, there is hope; but you need to understand the dangers and how to minimize the risk.

The following overview focuses on longer-term psychiatric drug hazards, although most of them can begin to develop within weeks. They are scientifically documented in my recent book Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and my medical text Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, Second Edition.

Newer or atypical antipsychotic drugs: Risperdal, Invega, Zyprexa,Abilify, Geodon, Seroquel, Latuda,Fanapt and Saphris

antipsychotics
Antipsychotic drugs, including both older and newer ones, cause shrinkage (atrophy) of the brain in many human brain scan studies and in animal autopsy studies. The newer atypicals especially cause a well-documented metabolic syndrome including elevated blood sugar, diabetes, increased cholesterol, obesity and hypertension. They also produce dangerous cardiac arrhythmias and unexplained sudden death, and they significantly reduce longevity. In addition, they cause all the problems of the older drugs, such as Thorazine and Haldol, including tardive dyskinesia, a largely permanent and sometimes disabling and painful movement disorder caused by brain damage and biochemical disruptions.

Risperdal in particular but others as well cause potentially permanent breast enlargement in young boys and girls. The overall risk of harmful long-term effects from antipsychotic drugs exceeds the capacity of this review. Withdrawal from antipsychotic drugs can cause overwhelming emotional and neurological suffering, as well as psychosis in both children and adults, making complete cessation at times very difficult or impossible.

Despite their enormous risks, the newer antipsychotic drugs are now frequently used off-label to treat anything from anxiety and depression to insomnia and behavior problems in children. Two older antipsychotic drugs, Reglan and Compazine, are used for gastrointestinal problems, and despite small or short-term dosing, they too can cause problems, including tardive dyskinesia.

Antipsychotic drugs masquerading as sleep aids: Seroquel, Abilify, Zyprexa and others

Nowadays, many patients are given medications for insomnia without being told that they are in fact receiving very dangerous antipsychotic drugs. This can happen with any antipsychotic but most frequently occurs with Seroquel, Abilify and Zyprexa. The patient is unwittingly exposed to all the hazards of antipsychotic drugs.

Antipsychotic drugs masquerading as antidepressant and bipolar drugs: Seroquel, Abilify, Zyprexa and others

The FDA has approved some antipsychotic drugs as augmentation for treating depression along with antidepressants. As a result, patients are often misinformed that they are getting an “antidepressant” when they are in fact getting one of the newer antipsychotic drugs, with all of their potentially disastrous adverse effects. Patients are similarly misled by being told that they are getting a “bipolar” drug when it is an antipsychotic drug.

Antidepressants: SSRIs such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexaproand Viibyrd, as well as Effexor, Pristiq, Wellbutrin, Cymbalta and Vivalan

antidepressants
The SSRIs are probably the most fully studied antidepressants, but the following observations apply to most or all antidepressants. These drugs produce long-term apathy and loss of quality of life. Many studies of SSRIs show severe brain abnormalities, such as shrinkage (atrophy) with brain cell death in humans and the growth of new abnormal brain cells in animal and laboratory studies. They frequently produce an apathy syndrome — a generalized loss of motivation or interest in many or all aspects of life. The SSRIs frequently cause irreversible dysfunction and loss of interest in sexuality, relationship and love. Withdrawal from all antidepressants can cause a wide variety of distressing and dangerous emotional reactions from depression to mania and from suicide to violence. After withdrawal from antidepressants, individuals often experience persistent and distressing mental and neurological impairments. Some people find antidepressant withdrawal to be so distressing that they cannot fully stop taking the drugs.

Benzodiazepine (benzos) anti-anxiety drugs and sleep aids: Xanax,Klonopin, Ativan, Valium, Librium, Tranxene and Serax; Dalmane, Doral,Halcion, ProSom and Restoril used as sleep aids

anti-anxiety-dugs
Benzos deteriorate memory and other mental capacities. Human studies demonstrate that they frequently lead to atrophy and dementia after longer-term exposure. After withdrawal, individuals exposed to these drugs also experience multiple persisting problems including memory and cognitive dysfunction, emotional instability, anxiety, insomnia, and muscular and neurological discomforts. Mostly because of severely worsened anxiety and insomnia, many cannot stop taking them and become permanently dependent. This frequently happens after only six weeks of exposure. Any benzo can be prescribed as a sleep aid, but Dalmane, Doral, Halcion, ProSom and Restoril are marketed for that purpose.

Non-benzo sleep aids: Ambien, Intermezzo, Lunesta and Sonata

These drugs pose similar problems to the benzos, including memory and other mental problems, dependence and painful withdrawal. They can cause many abnormal mental states and behaviors, including dangerous sleepwalking. Insufficient data is available concerning brain shrinkage and dementia, but these are likely outcomes considering their similarity to benzos. Recent studies show that these drugs increase death rate, taking away years of life, even when used intermittently for sleep.

Stimulants for ADHD: Adderall, Dexedrine and Vyvanse are amphetamines, and Ritalin, Focalin, and Concerta are methylphenidate

Ritalin pills and warning label.
All of these drugs pose similar if not identical long-term dangers to children and adults. In humans, many brain scan studies show that they cause brain tissue shrinkage (atrophy). Animal studies show persisting biochemical changes in the brain. These drugs can lead directly to addiction or increase the risk of abusing cocaine and other stimulants later on in adulthood. They disrupt growth hormone cycles and can cause permanent loss of height in children. Recent studies confirm that children who take these drugs often become lifelong users of multiple psychiatric drugs, resulting in shortened lifespan, increased psychiatric hospitalization and criminal incarceration, increased drug addiction, increased suicide and a general decline in quality of life. Withdrawal from stimulants can cause “crashing” with worsened behavior, depression and suicide. Strattera is a newer drug used to treat ADHD. Unlike the other stimulants, it is not an addictive amphetamine, but it too can be dangerously overstimulating. Strattera is more similar to antidepressants in its longer-term risks.

Mood stabilizers: Lithium, Lamictal, Equetro and Depakote

Lithium is the oldest and hence most thoroughly studied. It causes permanent memory and mental dysfunction, including depression, and an overall decline in neurological function and quality of life. It can result in severe neurological dilapidation with dementia, a disastrous adverse drug effect called “syndrome of irreversible lithium-effectuated neurotoxicity” or SILENT. Long-term lithium exposure also causes severe skin disorders, kidney failure and hypothyroidism. Withdrawal from lithium can cause manic-like episodes and psychosis. There is evidence that Depakote can cause abnormal cell growth in the brain. Lamictal has many hazards including life-threatening diseases involving the skin and other organs. Equetro cases life-threatening skin disorders and suppresses white cell production with the risk of death from infections. Withdrawal from Depakote, Lamictal and Equetro can cause seizures and emotional distress.

Summarizing the tragic truth

It is time to face the enormous tragedy of exposing children and adults to any psychiatric drug for months and years. My new video introduces and highlights these risks and my book Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal describes them in detail and documents them with scientific research.

All classes of psychiatric drugs can cause brain damage and lasting mental dysfunction when used for months or years. Although research data is lacking for a few individual drugs in each class, until proven otherwise it is prudent and safest to assume that the risks of brain damage and permanent mental dysfunction apply to every single psychiatric drug. Furthermore, all classes of psychiatric drugs cause serious and dangerous withdrawal reactions, and again it is prudent and safest to assume that any psychiatric drug can cause withdrawal problems.

Widespread misinformation

Difficulty in stopping psychiatric drugs can lead misinformed or unscrupulous health professionals to tell patients that they need to take their drugs for the rest of their lives when they really need to taper and withdraw from them in a careful manner. As described in Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, tapering outside of a hospital often requires psychological and social help, including therapy and emotional support and monitoring by friends or family.

Meanwhile, there is no substantial or convincing evidence that any psychiatric drug is useful longer-term. Psychiatric drug treatment for months or years lacks scientific basis. Therefore, the risk-benefit ratio is enormously lopsided toward the risk.

Science-based conclusions

Whenever possible, psychiatric drugs should be tapered and withdrawn either as an inpatient or as an outpatient with careful clinical supervision and a support network as described in Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. Keep in mind that it is not only dangerous to take psychiatric drugs — it can be dangerous to withdraw from them. The safest solution is to avoid starting psychiatric drugs! It is time for a return to psychological, social and educational approaches to emotional suffering and impairment.
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sábado, 22 de novembro de 2014

BeyondMeds (Noruega)

http://beyondmeds.com/

About

BEYOND MEDS — ALTERNATIVES TO PSYCHIATRY — A RESOURCE
BeyondMeds-header1This blog documents and shares many natural methods of self-care for finding and sustaining health in body, mind and spirit. This blog also deals with wider issues in the socio/political and spiritual realms as they pertain to mental health and human rights issues surrounding psychiatry.
My own experience as both (now – ex) patient and a mental health professional allows for some interesting and sometimes uncomfortable insights into the mental health system in the United States.
The blog and the content has evolved over time. The archives reflect that.
For an introduction to the scope of this site in general there is a drop-down menu at the top of the page. I continue to work on presenting the archives for easy access. There are well over 4,000 posts on the blog now, many of which remain topical. It’s an ongoing job so the navigation menu is always under construction. Visiting often to check for additions.
This is a new article I highly recommend be read as an introduction to this blog: Stop taking your meds, right now… (NOT!)
A personal note to my readers — why I’m not available for correspondence..
~ ~
The archives of this blog now span close to five years. They are a record of a time in my life when I was learning and transforming at a rate unlike any other time in my life. I say this as a way of disclaimer. In the earlier years of this blog I am processing shock and dismay. In the early years I am undisputedly angry. I have worked out much of that and see things in a much less judgmental manner now. This continues to evolve. I sometimes want to take down old posts because they no longer convey how I feel, but I realize that they may still be helpful to people who are going through something similar now. The journey got me to where I am today, it’s just odd to have some of it in writing here for all to see.
See also: Who is this site for – Readers share what Beyond Meds has meant to them.
This blog began as a documentation of my journey off psychiatric medications. That thread remains as well.
This blog also serves as a source of critical information about psychopharmaceuticals. This aspect is not kept up to date as much as it was at one time but the archives remain full of such information.
Beyond Meds is not only for people who have been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder as the original URL seemed to suggest to some. As I say in my “Undiagnosing Myself” post I do not believe that the diagnosis of bipolar is terribly significant and I chose the original URL and original title of the blog to attract people who may have experiences like mine and believe themselves to be bipolar. (the current URL and title no longer reflect this, still many often consider, incorrectly, that this is a “bipolar” blog)
This blog may be appropriate for anyone with any psychiatric diagnosis. All diagnosis can potentially respond to natural treatments and alternative perspectives. The biopsych model is at best controversial. There are many different ways to consider difficulties of the psyche.
So it’s also possible for anyone to consider life without medication. This blog is a contemplation about healing ourselves through means other than medication whether you’re on medications or not. And I might add whether you choose to stay on them or not.
Along with documentation of my experience this blog covers the journeys to drug freedom of many other people as well as information and resources about alternatives to standard psychiatric care. It also covers the news about drugs that allow for consideration of other options. Often drugs are most useful in crisis, but not for long-term care. Once one is aware of options one has a real choice. I didn’t have such information to make a choice when I entered the mental health system. It’s my hope that I can help people see that there are choices and alternatives.
This site is in no way intended to be someone’s sole source of information for withdrawing from psych meds or for taking care of oneself with alternative means. I speak only from my own experience and am not offering advice that should be taken without professional help. That being said there is lots of information here that one could take to said professional. It is an unfortunate reality that most doctors know next to nothing about alternative treatments for psychiatric distress. I’ve had to educate my psychiatrist along the way and am grateful for his trust and respect.
My professional history:
I got my BA in Religious Studies at UC Berkeley. After graduation a San Francisco state MSW graduate friend of mine helped me secure an interview for a graduate internship program for social workers at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. After losing a close friend to AIDS I had worked in an AIDS hospice as a volunteer for a couple of years.  Once interviewed by the Foundation it was determined I was qualified to do the internship. I completed the program with social work graduate interns from UC Berkeley’s and San Francisco State University’s MSW programs. After that internship the San Francisco AIDS Foundation hired me on as a social worker on their front lines. The bulk of the population I worked with at the Foundation had significant psychiatric diagnosis. Later I took positions in mental health agencies. Because of my background my positions were generally filled by master level candidates. I worked side by side other social workers, therapists of all kinds and psychiatrists for many years. The clients were generally designated “severely mentally ill.”
My “patient” history:
The aftermath of polypsychopharmacology: my story on Dr. David Healy’s site (new) –this is the most complete short synopsis of having been grossly over-drugged and my path to drug freedom.
The above two pieces can serve as a mini history of my personal journey in and away from the psychiatric system.
For posts on Beyond Meds that are largely informed by my personal experience see:  Monica/Gianna personal journey
***The information provided on this site is educational and not intended to replace any treatment prescribed by a licensed physician. That said, finding knowledgable physicians can be like finding a needle in a haystack
Everyone’s journey to wellness includes different combinations of healing and healthy lifestyle practices. No two of us are the same.
Access to the archives can be found at the top of the blog via the drop down menus. 
Visit the Beyond Meds BOOKSTORE for books that cover the range of topics covered on the blog.

Navigate the archives:

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sábado, 15 de novembro de 2014

Top 10 Forms of Psychiatric Institution Abuse

http://www.cchrint.org/2014/11/13/top-10-forms-of-psychiatric-institution-abuse/


Top 10 Forms of Psychiatric Institution Abuse


psychiatric-institution-abuse
Under the guise of mental health, “the person is denied basic human rights, punished and cheated cruelly and stripped of free will, which is fundamental to human existence itself.”
MindFreedom – November 12, 2014
The validation of my sanity may well be dependent on labeling the other insane. As society has evolved, so have the definitions of sanity and in turn, madness. While at one time, even political disobedience was a good enough reason for someone to be sent to an asylum, today, we revere the rebel and praise volition as a worthy attribute. The definition of madness is thus, dependent on what the ‘sane’ of the era seek to prove. Conveniently, you and I label the 18th century treatments of Phrenology, Rotational therapy, Trepanation and bloodletting as absurd, barbaric and cruel. But one must understand that at the time, these methodologies were in keeping with the definition of madness. These methods found their fallibility in due time and today we can render them ineffectual. Similarly, what is to say, our ‘civilized’ sane method of the asylum, our methodology of diagnosis and admittance, hospitals and the pills and morphine that seldom cures, just renders the patient invisible, will not be meted out the same ineffectuality by the generations to come? Let us now explore our sane cures and take a look into the sanity of the psychiatric institutions that abuse and punish the patients feigning cure:
1. Misdiagnosis
Misdiagnosis-300x195The United States Supreme Court recognizes that psychiatry, although a science is also an opinion. To misdiagnose a mental patient and mistakenly brand them as insane is a malpractice and a crime. But, over the years many a case of deafness has been misdiagnosed as mental retardation, behavioral changes because of allergies, toxicity and brain tumors have been misdiagnosed as Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia. The person is rendered completely helpless because the psychiatrist is put on a pedestal and a failure to take a second opinion has led to the destruction of many lives.
2. Labeled for life
labeled-300x165Even if we were to believe in the opinion of the expert psychiatrist and his tools such as the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the institution is uncaring enough to subject individuals to a label, they fully recognize can be incorrect. When someone faces adverse conditions and undergoes behavioral changes, the psychiatrist bound by only his ‘scientific’, ‘objective’ approach simply labels him / her without a thought to the ostracization and suffering that label entails. The mental illness label affects every part of the patient’s life, be it their personal relationships, their professional lives or their health. An hour long psychiatric interview can determine the entire life of another. No one should be allowed such power. One mistake on the part of the ‘expert’ can ruin someone’s life. When you are labeled mad or insane, your thoughts, your speech and every action are plagued by that label. You are rendered ineffectual to society and helpless within and without.
3. Disregard of Consent
consent-300x247Unfortunately, many people do not realize that the right of informed consent applies to psychiatric patients, just as they would to any other medical patient. They have legal rights to be properly notified, at the right time, about the dangers of the treatment they are about to receive. But since they are labeled as insane, the institutions take it upon themselves to meet out any kind of treatment, they want to. Even if the patient complains, even if the treatment is not working for the patient, since every spoken word of the patient is treated as babble, the institution has its way with them.
4. Over – drugging
overdose-300x225Seldom do psychiatric drugs aim to cure the patient; mostly they are aimed at making them invisible. Quieting them down, making them into functional individuals for the sake of society’s normalcy. Every depiction if a psychiatric institution has ghost like creatures dragging their feet down endless corridors. It’s true, mostly the patients are kept on a high dose of medications so that they can be controlled. Daily living difficulties, disorientation, side effects such as abnormal weight gain, impaired coordination, anxiety and the onset long term illnesses are a result of such over-drugging.
5. Violent Restraints
restraints2-300x168There have been an alarmingly large number of reports of cases where patients were harshly and violently restrained, often leading to serious injury, sometimes even death. Restraint procedures for psychiatric patients qualify as assault, and cchr-pull-quoteshould be listed as criminal, though unfortunately, the law does not state this. The CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) has reported upto 150 restraint deaths that occur without accountability every year in the US. These grisly fatalities have been known to be caused by barbaric practices such as harsh beatings, bloodletting, chest compression, traumatic asphyxia and other psychiatric brutality that is part of the routine make up of a psychiatric institution.
6. Punishments & Isolation
solitary-confinement-300x225In most psychiatric institutions, the patients are treated as mere children who need to be punished with childish measures such as standing with the hands in the air, solitary confinement etc. While we all understand a need for structure, basic respect cannot be compromised on. Because complains and resistance to such treatment is never fully acknowledged and it is easy to curb someone who is labeled mad, such practices continue
7. Abusive Therapies
shock-300x300In the name of therapy, the mentally ill have had to undergo torture, physical and emotional abuse since time immemorial. Today, in our civilized psychiatrist institutions, some practices such as the use of electric shock therapies and hydrotherapy (the use of ice cold towels or high pressure jets to calm the patient) still exist. The mentally ill have enough trouble orienting themselves to their everyday, psychiatric institutions only make it worse, all the while feigning cure. Even in the so called sophisticated clinical setting, often patients are verbally abused and treated in a condescending manner because by virtue of being the subject matter expert on ‘normalcy’ and ‘sanity’, the psychiatrist simply can.
8. Sane Cruelty
cruelty-300x313The custodians of mental health aren’t supposed to turn perfectly humane and many measures are taken in-keeping a requirement for structure and protecting the sanity of the staff but a nature of cruelty towards the mentally ill has been seen time and again. Because the patients are mostly incapacitated in the institutions, drugged out of their senses, some staff members tend to use this inability to their advantage. Cases of rape, sexual molestation, rage beatings are not uncommon. Where within the patient already suffers from the pain, anguish and turmoil of being subjected to psychiatric treatment, the staff takes out its own frustration or uses the helplessness of the patients to their own advantage. There is truly nothing worse.
9. Ineptitude
Ineptitude-300x181Since the mentally disabled are not a functional part of society, the quality of their care is barely a concern to institutions that house them. There are 450 million mentally ill people in the world (Source: WHO Mental Health Survey, 2010) and barely enough caretakers and institutions. People with no training are also employed just because they are willing. But this supremely compromises on the care that the patient gets. There is a general attitude of ineptitude amongst mental health workers. Of course, there are many qualified and adept psychiatrists and support staff, but the everyday care quality is not a concern for them.
10. Inducing fear & force
fear-300x225In 1818, Dr. Benjamin Rush, renowned father of American psychiatry, and the first President of the APA (American Psychiatric Association) had been known to advocate the following “Terror acts powerfully upon the body through the medium of the mind. It should be employed in the cure of madness. Fear accompanied with pain and the sense of shame has cured many a disease.” Fear is a powerful motivator in enforcing conformity, obedience and submission to authority. But it is not a cure. To induce fear in the mentally ill, and force them into actions and behaviour, is the cruelest of acts simply because of their inability to fight back. To induce such emotion, measures such as solitary confinement, public humiliation, violent restraints and threats are used. This is a clear violation of basic human rights.
A person who is undergoing trauma every living day internally should ideally be taken care of, comforted and supported, and helped through as much as possible. Family members and people close to the patients admit them to psychiatric institutions seeking such utopia. Instead, the person is denied basic human rights, punished and cheated cruelly and stripped of free will, which is fundamental to human existence itself.
http://www.mindfreedom.co.uk/world-news/top-10-forms-psychiatric-institution-abuse/
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