Psychiatric drugs are making us sicker

[nz11]

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America (Crown 2010), by the journalist Robert Whitaker, is one of the most disturbing, consequential works of investigative journalism I've read in a long time. Perhaps ever. Whitaker has persuaded me that American psychiatry, in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry, may be perpetrating the biggest case of iatrogenesis—harmful medical treatment--in history. Scientific America 2012

[JanCarol]

Oh wow, thanks NZ!  Whitaker is still having flow-on effect.

 

I know he wrote the sequel - about the corruption of psychiatry - and there's not really much more than he can say (and he's saying it every time he speaks), but I'd love to see fresh material coming out, because you know, geez, this one is 5 years old but sometimes people won't look at a thing if it's more than a day old.

 

I learn something new every day - Whiitaker has a blog in Psychology Today?    Huh!

 

[Shep]

On 8/16/2017 at 11:28 PM, nz11 said:

Whitaker has persuaded me that American psychiatry, in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry, may be perpetrating the biggest case of iatrogenesis—harmful medical treatment--in history. Scientific America 2012

 

Thanks for the link, NZ.  

 

I found a more recent article in Scientific America by the same journalist, which gives me hope because it means he's following Whitaker's work.

 

Psychiatrists Must Face Possibility That Medications Hurt More Than They Help

 

In that article, it links to this frightening statistic:

 

1 in 6 Americans Takes a Psychiatric Drug

 

A quote from that article:  "More than eight in 10 adults who were taking psychiatric drugs reported long-term use".

 

So 80% of the 16% of Americans who take psych drugs are on them long term. So 16% of Americans are on a psych drug and 12.8% are dependent. 

 

Somebody may need to double check my math on that because my head is beginning to spin. . . . 

 

 

[nz11]

JC thanks for commenting, yeah i bought that sequel it really was another disturbing read 'Psychiatry  under the infuence'. This book is a must read imo its as good as, if not better than 'anatomy'.

The Rothman report provided the public with an inside look at the financial conflicts of interest that were present as psychiatry produced its consensus guidelines. Experts with financial ties to pharmaceutical companies surveyed the opinions of other experts with ties to those same companies, and this led to the publication of a guideline in a journal supplement paid for by a pharmaceutical firm. The drug company that paid for all this with unrestricted grants could then use the guideline for marketing purposes, and it would pay the authors of the guidelines to serve on its speakers bureaus or as the experts at Continuing Medical Education programs it funded. There was a tight web of mutual interests present as psychiatry developed its expect consensus guidelines, and again and again, the experts recommended the new drugs as first-line treatment. pg 150

 

Shep -your maths looks pretty good to me thanks for posting that newer info .. "More than eight in 10 adults who were taking psychiatric drugs reported long-term use". This is beyond frightening.

 

'It is fair to say that few of the millions of americans who now take a psychiatric drug on a daily basis made an "informed choice" to do so.' Whitaker 2015 Psychiatry under the influence

[nz11]

Just went to read one of the links from Shep and i also found this  link (by the way go to this link and read that most disturbingly dangerous comment from Elizabeth Brown  i have no doubt that its because of people like her that many others are being pushed into the arms of their doctors....'a future and a hope' give me a break!) and omgoodness look at this:

 

The following information is the most accurate and documented data available on psychiatric drug usage. The information is from IMS Health, a company that provides information, services and technology for the healthcare industry. It is the largest vendor of U.S. physician prescribing data. The following data was taken from IMS Health Vector One National database Year 2013, Extracted April 2014. To find out the hundreds of drug regulatory agency warnings and documented side effects for any class of psychiatric drug listed on this page (i.e., ADHD Drugs, Antidepressants, Antipsychotics, etc) click the hyperlinks listed below:

Drug Class:            Age Group:          Number of People:

All Psychiatric       0-5 Years                1,080,168
Drugs

Breakdown:
0-1 Years                 274,804
2-3 Years                 370,778
4-5 Years                 500,948

6-12 Years               4,130,340
13-17 Years             3,617,593
18-24 Years             5,467,615
25-44 Years             21,029,136
45-64 Years             28,143,196
65 Year +                  17,404,930

Grand Total                                            78,694,222

---

ADHD Drugs          0-5 Years                 188,899

Breakdown:
0-1 Years                  1,422
2-3 Years                  10,413
4-5 Years                  181,023

6-12 Years                2,723,126
13-17 Years              1,775,896
18-24 Years              1,553,066
25-44 Years              2,840,859
45-64 Years              1,519,677
65 Year +                   254,499

Grand Total                                            10,291,860

---

Antidepressants  0-5 Years                  110,516

Breakdown:
0-1 Years                   26,406
2-3 Years                   46,102
4-5 Years                   45,822

6-12 Years                 686,950
13-17 Years               1,444,422
18-24 Years               2,860,537
25-44 Years               12,400,129
45-64 Years               16,185,388
65 Year +                    8,566,579

Grand Total                                             41,226,394

---

Antipsychotics       0-5 Years                  27,343

Breakdown:
0-1 Years                    654
2-3 Years                    3,760
4-5 Years                    24,363

6-12 Years                  359,882
13-17 Years                490,272
18-24 Years                599,816
25-44 Years                1,987,933
45-64 Years                2,406,526
65 Year +                     1,169,044

Grand Total                                              6,845,303

---

Anti-anxiety           0-5 Years                     727,304
Drugs

Breakdown:
0-1 Years                     227,132
2-3 Years                     282,759
4-5 Years                     247,754

6-12 Years                  790,149
13-17 Years                650,273
18-24 Years                1,660,953
25-44 Years                8,944,200
45-64 Years                14,439,465
65 Year +                     9,691,791

Grand Total                                               36,472,663

---

SOURCE: IMS, Vector One: National (VONA) and Total Patient Tracker (TPT) Database, Year 2013, Extracted April 2014.

[Shep]

23 hours ago, nz11 said:

Drug Class:            Age Group:          

All Psychiatric       0-5 Years                
Drugs

Breakdown:
0-1 Years                 274,804
2-3 Years                 370,778
4-5 Years                 500,948

 

Thanks for adding these statistics, NZ.

 

This is frightening - 1,146,530 children under the age of 6 are on psych drugs. How could this even be possible? A chemical imbalance? Really?!

 

This reminded me of the work of trauma researcher Dr. Bessel van der Kolk in his paper Developmental trauma disorder: Towards a rational diagnosis for children with complex trauma histories.

 

Quote

Childhood trauma, including abuse and neglect, is probably our nation’s single most important public health challenge, a challenge that has the potential to be largely resolved by appropriate prevention and intervention. Each year over 3,000,000 children are reported to the authorities for abuse and/or neglect in the United States of which about one million are substantiated1 . Many thousands more undergo traumatic medical and surgical procedures, and are victims of accidents and of community violence (see Spinazzola et al, this issue). However, most trauma begins at home: the vast majority of people (about 80 %) responsible for child maltreatment are children’s own parents.

 

By "appropriate prevention and intervention", von der Kolk does not mean drugs, as he explains:

 

Quote

At the center of the therapeutic work with terrified children is helping them realize that they are repeating their early experiences and helping them find new ways of coping by developing new connections between their experiences, emotions and physical reactions. Unfortunately, all too often, medications take the place of helping children acquire the skills necessary to deal with and master their uncomfortable physical sensations. In order to “process” their traumatic experiences these children first need to develop a safe space where they can “look at” their traumas without repeating them and making them real once again .

 

So why can't van der Kolk get his Developmental Trauma Disorder for children in the DSM and limit the amount of drugs they are put on?

 

He explains:

 

Psychiatry Must Stop Ignoring Trauma, with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk - video 4 minutes

 

And then tack on withdrawal syndrome caused by dependency, adverse reactions being diagnosed as bipolar, big pharma profiteering, and the APA expanding diagnostic criteria, so once these kids are on these drugs, many (if not most) will never come off them. 

 

On 8/18/2017 at 6:27 PM, nz11 said:

Anti-anxiety           0-5 Years                     727,304
Drugs

Breakdown:
0-1 Years                     227,132

 

I just went back through those statistics and this stood out - the majority of the 0 - 1 year olds are on benzos (anti-anxiety drugs).

 

And I remembered this article just put out by Shipko on the MiA site:

 

How to Avoid Severe SSRI Withdrawal Symptoms?

 

His advice (which is, in my opinion, VERY MISGUIDED) is to use a benzo to get off an SSRI.

 

Considering the increasing rate of babies being born on SSRIs, I wonder if perhaps these babies are being "helped" with their SSRI withdrawal syndrome with a benzo? 

 

It would be really nice to find out if these drugged infants were born on psych drugs, but I doubt the medical industrial complex is doing that kind of research. 

 

[nz11]

Considering the increasing rate of babies being born on SSRIs, I wonder if perhaps these babies are being "helped" with their SSRI withdrawal syndrome with a benzo? 

 

Excellent point Shep.