19137 CCHR Pamphlet - Doctors€¦ · “About this year’s campaign, ... Caution: No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice ... 19137 CCHR Pamphlet - Doctors

A Public Service Report from Citizens Commission on Human Rights

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:CCHR International

6616 Sunset Blvd.Los Angeles, CA, USA 90028

Telephone: (323) 467-4242(800) 869-2247 • Fax: (323) 467-3720

www.cchr.orge-mail: [email protected]

The Citizens Commission on HumanRights (CCHR) was established in 1969 bythe Church of Scientology to investigateand expose psychiatric violations of humanrights, and to clean up the field of mentalhealing. Its co-founder is Dr. ThomasSzasz, professor of psychiatry emeritus andan internationally renowned author. Today,CCHR has more than 130 chapters in over30 countries. Its board of advisors, calledCommissioners, includes doctors, lawyers,educators, artists, business professionals,and civil and human rights representatives.

CCHR has inspired and caused manyhundreds of reforms by testifying beforelegislative hearings and conducting publichearings into psychiatric abuse, as well asworking with media, law enforcement andpublic officials the world over.

CCIITTIIZZEENNSS CCOOMMMMIISSSSIIOONN OONN HHUUMMAANN RRIIGGHHTTSS

THE SUBVERSION OF MEDICINEPSYCHIATRIC HOAX

®

19137 CCHR Pamphlet - Doctors 10/28/04 4:58 PM Page 2

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Install a full complement of diagnostic equipmentin mental health facilities to locate underlying andundiagnosed physical conditions. Ensure the hir-ing of non-psychiatric medical doctors to performthis function.

2 Until they are scientifically validated, disqualifythe 374 mental disorders in the DSM/ICD frominsurance coverage.

3 Investigate the impact of psychiatric fraud andmalpractice suits on general medicine and non-psychiatric physician insurance premiums.

© 2004 CCHR. All Rights Reserved. CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, CCHR and the CCHR logoare trademarks and service marks owned by Citizens Commission on Human Rights. Printed in the U.S.A. Item#FLO 19137

1 David Samuels, “Saying Yes to Drugs,” The NewYorker, 23 Mar. 1998.2 Lan N. Nguyen, “The ADHD Debate—Parents,doctors and educators struggle to define—and treat—ADHD,” Daily News (New York), 9 Apr. 2001.3 Gina Shaw, “The Ritalin Controversy ExpertsDebate Use of Drug to Curb Hyperactivity inChildren,” The Washington Diplomat, Mar. 2002.4 Elliot S. Valenstein, Ph.D., Blaming the Brain (TheFree Press, New York, 1998), p. 4.5 Joseph Glenmullen, M.D., Prozac Backlash (Simon &Schuster, New York, 2000), p. 196.6 Lisa M. Krieger, “Some question value of brainscan….,” The Mercury News, 4 May 2004.7 Ibid.8 Ty C. Colbert, Ph.D., Rape of the Soul: How theChemical Imbalance Model of Modern Psychiatry Has FailedIts Patients (Kevco Publishing, California, 2001), p. 74.9 Dr. David Stein, Ph.D., Unraveling the ADD/ADHDFiasco (Andrews Publishing, Kansas City, 2001), p. 22.10 David Kaiser, M.D., “Against Biological

Psychiatry,” Dec. 1996, website. 11 APA Campaign Kit 1989: “Opening letter byHarvey Ruben, M.D.,” “About this year’s campaign,”“About legislators,” “About the public.”12 A WHO Educational Package—Mental Disordersin Primary Care, 1998, p. 3.13 Ty C. Colbert, Ph.D., Blaming the Genes (KevcoPublishing, California, 2001), p. 73.14 L. Jeff, “The International Pilot Study ofSchizophrenia: Five-Year Follow-Up Findings,”Psychological Medicine, Vol. 22, 1992, pp. 131–145;Assen Jablensky, “Schizophrenia: Manifestations,Incidence and Course in Different Cultures, a WHOTen-Country Study,” Psychological Medicine,Supplement, 1992, pp. 1–95.15 David B, Stein, Ph.D., Ritalin is Not the Answer: ADrug-Free, Practical Program for Children Diagnosed withADD or ADHD (Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers, SanFrancisco, 1999), p. 16.16 Thomas Dorman M.D., “Toxic Psychiatry,” web-site, 29 Jan. 2002.

PHOTO CREDITS: 10: Najlah Feanny/Corbis; 13: Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc./Corbis.

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Caution: No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent non-psychiatric medical doctor.

This publication was made possible by a grant from the United StatesInternational Association of Scientologists Members’ Trust.

IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONNTHE MANIPULATION

OF MEDICINE

I n 1998 Alan I. Leshner, psychiatrist and for-mer head of the National Institute of DrugAbuse stated: “My belief is that today, you

[the physician] should be put in jail if you refuseto prescribe S.S.R.I.s [antidepressants] fordepression.”1

Why should a physician be jailed for refusing to prescribe an antidepressant for“depression”?

I have spoken to hundreds of physiciansand thousands of patients, while helping toexpose numerous psychiatric violations ofhuman rights. However, until recently, thethought had never occurred to me that physi-cians’ rights might also be under assault.

Many primary care physicians haveacknowledged there are numerous physicalconditions that can cause emotional and behav-ioral problems, and the vital need to check for

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mental health system have a professional and a legalobligation to recognize the presence of physical dis-ease in their patients...physical diseases may cause apatient’s mental disorder [or] may worsen a mentaldisorder.”

In 1998, the Swedish Social Board cited several cases of disciplinary actions againstpsychiatrists, including one in which a patient, forfive years, had complained to psychiatric staff ofheadaches, dizziness and staggering when hewalked. A proper medical check-up revealed thathe had a brain tumor.

Dr. Thomas Dorman says, “…Clinicians shouldfirst of all remember that emotional stress associated

with a chronic illness or apainful condition can alterthe patient’s temperament.In my practice I have runacross countless people withchronic back pain who werelabeled neurotic. A typicalstatement from these poorpatients is ‘I thought I reallywas going crazy.’”16

Dr. L.M.J. Pelsser of theResearch Center for Hyperactivity and ADHD inMiddelburg, The Netherlands, found that 62% ofchildren diagnosed with “ADHD” showed signifi-cant improvements in behavior as a result of achange in diet over a period of three weeks.

There are far too many workable alternatives topsychiatric drugging to list them all here. Psychiatryon the other hand, would prefer to say there arenone. That leaves a medical practitioner with achoice between fact and fiction, between cure andcoercion, and between medicine and manipulation.

We have every respect for medicine practiced asmedicine, in a spirit of honest, ethical endeavor, andwith due consideration to primacy of the patient’sneeds and health. However, we have every argu-ment with the seduction and contamination of med-icine by medical pretenders whose abject failuresthreaten to pervert not only the honor and value ofmedicine, but to wreck the lives of millions ofpatients who simply came to medicine for help.

Dr. Thomas Dorman says “…Clinicians should

remember that emotionalstress associated with a

chronic illness or a painfulcondition can alter the

patient’s temperament.”

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them first. It follows then that relying on anantidepressant to suppress emotional symp-toms, without first looking for and correcting apossible underlying physical illness, could sim-ply be giving patients a chemical fix, while leav-ing them with an illness that could worsen.

What if a primary care physician or familypractitioner correctly diagnosed and cured sucha physical illness and the depression endedwithout psychoactive drugs? Could that physician then be accused of being unethical, oreven be charged and jailed for the “criminalmedical negligence” of not prescribing an anti-depressant?

Crazy, you say? Couldn’thappen? Well, perhaps. Butit seems the day has comewhen a good physician canbe accused of being unethicalfor practicing ethical medi-cine. Today, a physician, spe-cialist or otherwise, can becriticized, bullied and treatedlike a “fringe” dweller forpracticing traditional, work-able, diagnostic medicine.

This information is provided with physi-cians in mind, particularly those who wouldjust like to practice non-psychiatric medicine,who are driven by a high and caring purpose inthe best of Hippocratic tradition, and who wantto be left to get on with the job of caring for peo-ple’s health to the best of their ability.

For wherever psychiatry meddles, it isextremely destructive of certainty, pride, honor,industry, initiative, well-being and sanity. Theseare qualities that we must fight to preserve forall patients; and for all physicians.

Jan EastgatePresident, Citizens Commissionon Human Rights International

Today, a physician

can be criticized,

bullied and treated

like a “fringe” dweller

for practicing traditional,

workable, diagnostic

medicine.

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P hysicians are trained to heal. They reallywant to help,” states David B. Stein, Ph.D.,associate professor of psychology. “They

often claim that they don’t have an alternative—thatthe only way to help … children is with drugs.Besides, parents and teachers are constantly at theirthroats for them to write prescriptions. They wanttheir disruptive kids under control immediately.Some doctors dislike doing this; many wish for analternative.”15

With psychiatric diagnoses and treatmentsincreasingly impacting on people’s lives throughprimary care medicine, the alternatives need to beemphasized. The California Department of MentalHealth Medical Evaluation Field Manual states:“Mental health professionals working within a

CCHHAAPPTTEERR FFOOUURRWHICH WAY TO GO?

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CCHHAAPPTTEERR OONNEEGOOD BUSINESS,

BAD MEDICINE

A t age 7, Matthew Smith (above) was diagnosedthrough his school as having Attention DeficitHyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). His parents

were told that he needed to take a stimulant to helphim focus. Initially resistant, Matthew’s parents werealso told that non-compliance could bring criminalcharges for neglecting their son’s educational and emo-tional needs. The parents yielded to the pressure.

On March 21, 2000, while skateboarding, Matthewdied from a heart attack. The coroner determined thathis heart showed clear signs of small blood vessel dam-age caused by stimulant drugs and concluded that hehad died from the long-term use of the prescribed drug.

Despite psychiatric claims to the contrary, the prac-tice of prescribing cocaine-like drugs to the world’s chil-dren is far removed from conclusive science.

In 1998, a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)

At his school, Matthew Smithwas forced to take a psychi-atric stimulant. At age 14, hedied of a heart attack attributedto the prescribed drug.Widespread marketing hashelped create an increase inADHD diagnoses, for a “disor-der” that has never beenproven clinically to exist.

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asymptomatic and functioning well,” ascompared to only 18% of the patients in theprosperous countries.14 Neuroleptics wereclearly implicated in the significantly inferiorWestern result.

The late Dr. Loren Mosher was the chief ofthe U.S. National Institute of Mental Health’sCenter for Studies of Schizophrenia. In 1971, heopened Soteria House in California as a placewhere young persons diagnosed with “schizo-phrenia” lived medication-free.

Dr. Mosher reported: “The experimentworked better than expected. At two years post-admission, Soteria-treated subjects were workingat significantly higher occupational levels, weresignificantly more often living independently orwith peers, and had fewer readmissions.”

In the Institute of Osservanza (Observance)in Imola, Italy, Dr. Giorgio Antonucci treated dozens of violent and restrainedschizophrenic women. Dr. Antonucci releasedthem from their confinement, spending many hours each day talking with them. Allpsychiatric “treatments” were abandoned.Patients were stable and discharged from thehospital and many were taught how to work andcare for themselves for the first time in theirlives. Dr. Antonucci’s superior results also came

at a much lower cost. Such programs constitutepermanent testimony to theexistence of both genuineanswers and hope for theseriously troubled.

Dr. Giorgio Antonucci, second from right, and the patients hesalvaged with communication and compassion.

Giorgio Antonucci

Conference of the world’s leading ADHD proponentswas forced to conclude that there is no data confirmingADHD as a brain dysfunction. The conference admit-ted that, “Our knowledge about the cause or causes ofADHD remains largely speculative.”

Dominick Riccio, executive director of theInternational Center for the Study of Psychiatry andPsychology says, “They would need to show me adirect causal relationship between any brain chemicaland the symptoms of ADHD. … They have gonethrough the dopamine hypothesis. They have gonethrough the serotonin hypothesis. None of them has acausal relationship.”2

According to Dr. William Carey, a highly respect-ed pediatrician at the Children’sHospital of Philadelphia, “Thecurrent ADHD formulation,which makes the diagnosiswhen a certain number of trou-blesome behaviors are presentand other criteria met, overlooksthe fact that these behaviors areprobably usually normal.”3

Thomas Moore, author ofPrescriptions for Disaster warnsthat the current use of drugs likeRitalin is taking "appalling risks" with a generation ofkids. The drug is given for "short-term control ofbehavior—not to reduce any identifiable hazard to[children's] health. Such large-scale chemical control ofhuman behavior has not been previously undertakenin our society outside of nursing homes and mentalinstitutions."

Psychiatrists argue that the source of ADHD is achemical imbalance. However, Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D.says, “[T]here are no tests available for assessing thechemical status of a living person’s brain.”4 Dr. JosephGlenmullen of Harvard Medical School states, “Inevery instance where such an imbalance was thoughtto have been found, it was later proven false.”5

In 2004, psychiatrist M. Douglas Mar alsodebunked the theory that brain scans can help diag-nose mental disorders, stating: “There is no scientificbasis for these claims [of using brain scans for psychi-atric diagnosis].”6 Dr. Michael D. Devous of the Nuclear

“Such large-scale chemical control of human behavior has not been previously undertaken in our society outside of ...mental institutions.” — Thomas Moore

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reports the patients that Kraepelin diagnosedwith dementia praecox were suffering from aglobal medical disease, encephalitis lethargica[brain inflammation causing lethargy]: “Thesepatients walked oddly and suffered from facialtics, muscle spasms, and sudden bouts of sleepi-ness. Their pupils reacted sluggishly to light.They also drooled, had difficulty swallowing,were chronically constipated, and were unableto complete willed physical acts.”

Psychiatry never reviewed Kraepelin’smaterial to see that schizophrenia was simplyan undiagnosed and untreated physical prob-lem. “Schizophrenia was a concept too vital tothe profession's claim of medical legitima-cy….The physical symptoms of the disease werequietly dropped…What remained, as the fore-most distinguishing features, were the mentalsymptoms: hallucinations, delusions, andbizarre thoughts,” says Whitaker.

Psychiatry remains committed to callingschizophrenia a mental disease despite, after acentury of research, the complete absence ofobjective proof that it exists as an actual diseaseor physical abnormality.

Although omitted from psychiatry-spon-sored history books, numerous compassionateand workable medical programs for severelydisturbed individuals have not relied on heavydrugging.

In the film, “A Beautiful Mind,” Nobel Prizewinner John Nash is depicted as relying on psychiatry’s latest breakthrough drugs to prevent a relapse of his “schizophrenia.” This isHollywood fiction however, as Nash had not taken any psychiatric drugs for 24 years and had recovered naturally from his disturbed state.

In a study over eight years, the WorldHealth Organization found that patients in threeeconomically disadvantaged countries—“India,Nigeria, and Colombia—did dramatically betterthan patients in the United States and four otherdeveloped countries.” Indeed, after five years,“64% of the patients in the poor countries were

11

Medicine Center at the University of Texas SouthWestern Medical Center agreed, “An accurate diagno-sis based on a scan is simply not possible.”7 In 2001, TyC. Colbert, Ph.D., added his voice: “As with all mentaldisorders, there is no biological test or biological mark-er for ADHD.”8

DANGEROUS DRUG EFFECTSThere are numerous health risks and other incon-

sistencies associated with the prescription of mind-altering drugs for so-called ADHD or other “learningdisorders.” The Physician’s Desk Reference Guide saysincreased heart rate and blood pressure can result fromusing Ritalin to “treat” ADHD. In August 2001, theJournal of the American Medical Association reiteratedthat Ritalin acts like cocaine.

Long-term detrimental side effects may appearafter years of drug use and during drug withdrawal.“The adverse effect on growth hormone is so regularand predictable that it can be used as a measure ofwhether or not [the stimulant] is active in the child’sbody.” “Even a child’s sexual maturation is impaired.”9

According to neurologist and psychiatrist SydneyWalker III, author of The Hyperactivity Hoax, “Whilestudies indicate that the drug (Ritalin) is probably onlya weak carcinogen [cancer causing agent], increasingthe future cancer risk of millions of children—even alittle bit—is not something to be done lightly. Anotherrecent report warns that [Ritalin] ‘may have persistent,cumulative effects on the myocardium (thick musclelayer that forms most of the heart wall).’”

Millions of children and adolescents worldwideare also taking Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors(SSRI) antidepressants. In 2003, the British medicineregulatory body warned doctors not to prescribeSSRIs to under-18 year olds, citing suicide risks. InOctober 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationordered that a prominent “black box” warning aboutpotential suicide risk be placed on SSRI bottles.However, all psychotropic drugs place children at riskof their lives and should be prohibited.

By accepting psychiatry’s system of diagnosisand treatment, general medicine itself may face riskand controversy as the failures of that systembecome more obvious.

6


Internationale Neuro-psychopharmacologicum,the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health andthe World Psychiatric Association—to garner sup-port from physicians.12 The World HealthOrganization produced a “Mental Disorders inPrimary Care” kit that was distributed internation-ally, to make it “easier” for primary care physiciansto diagnose and medicate mental “disorders.”

Based on the DSM-IV and ICD-10, the kitwas aimed at increasing business for the mental

health system. What psy-chiatry lacked in sciencewas being compensatedfor with marketing.

The marketing includesan unholy alliance withthe pharmaceutical indus-try. Pat Bracken and PhilThomas, consultant psy-chiatrists and seniorresearch fellows with theUniversity of Bradford inthe United Kingdom,state, “Psychiatry is amajor growth area for thepharmaceutical industry.By influencing the way inwhich psychiatrists framemental health problems,the industry has devel-oped new (and lucrative)markets for its products.”

HARMING THE VULNERABLEWhile psychiatry seeps deeper into general

medicine through the spread of the DSM andpsychotropic drugs, most people still considerthat psychiatry’s main function is to treat patientswith severe, life-threatening mental disorders.13

Here, the psychiatrist deals with the “dis-ease” first tagged as dementia praecox byKraepelin in the late 1800s, then as “schizophre-nia” by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908.

Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America,

While Nobel Prize winner

John Nash is depicted in the

Hollywood film “A Beautiful Mind” as

recovering from “schizophrenia”

using the latest psychiatric drugs,

Nash refutes this fiction. In fact, he

had not taken psychiatric medica-

tions for 24 years and recovered

naturally from his disturbed state.

10

CCHHAAPPTTEERR TTWWOOPSYCHIATRY VERSUS MEDICINE

W hile the appearance of Virchow’sCellular Pathology as Based uponPhysiological and Pathological Histology

in 1858 firmly established medicine’s scientificcredentials, psychiatry was still fumblingaround with brutal treatments and the lack ofany systematic approach to mental health. Theabsence of an equivalent system of diagnosis formental problems contributed greatly to psychia-try’s poor reputation.

The development of the sixth edition ofInternational Classification of Diseases in 1948,which incorporated psychiatric disorders for thefirst time, and the publication of the Diagnosticand Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

In 1808, Johann Reil (inset)coined the word “psychiatry.” In the late 1800s Emil Kraepelin(above) developed an arbitraryclassification system of mental“diseases.” Yet psychiatry hasnot progressed much beyondthe torturous “tranquilizingchair” (inset right).

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(DSM) in 1952, were first attempts to create asemblance of systematic diagnosis. Politicallyvoted in was a system of classification that wascompletely foreign to anything medicine hadseen before. Most notably, the DSM was devot-ed to the categorization of symptoms only, notdisease. Also, none of the diagnoses were sup-ported by objective scientific evidence.

Psychiatrist David Kaiser states, “Symptomsby definition are the surface presentation of adeeper process. … However, there has been avast and largely unacknowledged effort on thepart of modern (i.e., biologic) psychiatry toequate symptoms with mental illness.” He sayshe would be a “poor psychiatrist” if the only toolhe had for treatment was a prescription pad formedications which may “lessen symptoms,” butwhich “do not treat mental illness.” He is left, hesaid, “still sitting across from a suffering patientwho wants to talk about his unhappiness.”10

In their 1997 book Making Us Crazy,Professors Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirksaid that the transformation of psychiatry’s diag-nostic manual is a “story of the struggles of the

American Psychiatric Association to gainrespectability within medicine and maintaindominance among the many mental health pro-fessionals.”

Dr. Julian Whitaker, author of the respectedHealth and Healing newsletter says psychiatrists“do not have any pathological or laboratorydiagnosis; they cannotshow any differentiationthat would back up thediagnosis of these psychi-atric ‘diseases.’ Whereas ifyou have a heart attack, youcan find the lesion; if youhave diabetes, your bloodsugar is very high; if youhave arthritis it will showon the X-ray. In psychiatry,it’s just crystal-balling, for-tune-telling; it’s totallyunscientific.”

DSM’s contrived sys-tem of diagnosis and the inevitable assignment ofa psychoactive drug pre-scription is the singular“expertise” that psychiatryhas to offer.

Dr. Glenmullen ob-served, “As they gainmomentum, use of the drugs spread beyond theconfines of psychiatry and they are prescribedby general practitioners for everyday maladies.”

Today, psychiatrists claim that general med-ical practitioners (GPs) prescribe 75% of SSRIs.Not that this wasn’t anticipated. In 1989, anAmerican Psychiatric Association “CampaignKit” told APA members, “An increase of psychi-atry’s profile among non-psychiatric physicianscan do nothing but good. And, for those who arebottom line oriented, the efforts you spend onbuilding this profile have the potential to yielddividends through increased referrals.”11

A decade later, psychiatrists made a concertedeffort—primarily through the Collegium

“Diagnosing someone as schizophrenic mayappear scientific on thesurface, especially whenbiopsychiatry keeps claiming that a geneticbrain disease is involved.But when you step backand observe from a distance what theseresearchers are reallydoing, you wonder howthey can justify their work. ... This is not science.”— Ty C. Colbert, Ph.D., Blaming Our Genes, 2001

BUILDING THE BUSINESSPsychiatry has penetrated the physician’s domain with the WorldHealth Organization’s “Guide toMental Health in Primary Care” kit,which facilitates and promotes amedico’s use of psychiatricbehavioral checklists for diagnosingmental disorders. Psychiatry’s lack ofscience has been compensated forby invasive, “hard sell” marketing.

The pre-packaged list of symptoms enables

diagnosis by checklist,with a pre-determined

treatment plan and referral ofpatients to psychiatrists.

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Documents

19137 CCHR Pamphlet - Doctors€¦ · “About this year’s campaign, ... Caution: No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice ... 19137 CCHR Pamphlet - Doctors