America’s mental illness epidemic: It turns out that the drugs are the problem

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Gary G. Kohls, MD
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Aug 26, 2010

Tens of millions of innocent, unsuspecting Americans, who are mired deeply in the mental “health” system, have actually been made crazy by the use of or the withdrawal from commonly-prescribed, brain-altering, brain-disabling, indeed brain-damaging psychiatric drugs that have been, for many decades, cavalierly handed out like candy -- often in untested and therefore unapproved combinations of drugs -- to trusting and unaware patients by equally unaware but well-intentioned physicians who have been under the mesmerizing influence of slick and obscenely profitable psychopharmaceutical drug companies, a.k.a. BigPharma.

That is the conclusion of two books by investigative journalist and health science writer Robert Whitaker. His first book, entitled Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill noted that there has been a 600 percent increase (since Thorazine was introduced in the US in the mid-1950s) in the total and permanent disabilities of millions of psychiatric drug-takers. This uniquely First World mental ill health epidemic has resulted in the life-long taxpayer-supported disabilities of rapidly increasing numbers of psychiatric patients who are now unable to be happy, productive, taxpaying members of society. Whitaker has done a powerful, albeit unwelcome job of presenting previously hidden, but very convincing evidence to support his thesis, that it is the drugs and not the diagnosis that is causing the epidemic of mental illness disability. Many open-minded physicians and many aware psychiatric patients are now motivated to be wary of any and all synthetic chemicals that can cross the blood/brain barrier because all of them are capable of altering the brain in ways totally unknown to medical science, especially when the patients are taking the drugs long-term. .

In Whitaker’s second book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America, he goes much further in advancing this sobering reality. He documents the history of the powerful forces behind the relatively new field of psychopharmacology and its major shaper and beneficiary, BigPharma. Psychiatric drugs, whose developers, marketers and salespersons are all in the employ of the giant drug companies, are far more dangerous than the drug and psychiatric industries are willing to admit: These drugs, it turns our, are fully capable of disabling -- often permanently -- body, brain and spirit.

More evidence to support Whitaker’s well-documented claims are laid out in two important new books written by psychiatrist and scholar Grace Jackson. Jackson did a beautiful job of researching and documenting, from the voluminous basic neuroscience research (which is uniformly ignored by the clinical sciences) the unintended and often disastrous consequences of the chronic ingestion of any of the five major classes of psychiatric drugs. Her second and most powerful book: Drug-Induced Dementia: A Perfect Crime, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, that any of the five classes of drugs that are commonly used in psychiatric patients (antidepressants, antipsychotics, psychostimulants, tranquilizers and anti-seizure/”mood-stabilizer” drugs) have shown microscopic, macroscopic, biochemical, clinical and/or radiological evidence of brain shrinkage and other signs of brain damage, which can result in clinically-diagnosable, permanent dementia, premature death and a variety of other related brain disorders that can mimic mental illnesses. Jackson’s first book, Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent was an equally sobering book warning about the many hidden dangers of psychiatric drugs. . . .

source: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6267.shtml

'

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Well, that sounds scary considering I take those kinds of drugs.

[zenprole]

28. Pill Crusher

Several years ago, a report compared mental illness rates among the industrialized countries and the US was the worst, with rates 20% higher than the next nation (Italy). Since then, who knows how much worse it is? One could hardly say it's gotten better. (I wish I'd saved the link)

While there is some relatively small population that genuinely needs psychotropic meds, the better solution to (inter)personal distress is improving quality and stability of life. Of course, in a collapsing nation this is a tall order and people are often left to their own coping devices in a very hostile social environment.

Many of these drugs are only short-term solutions to larger problems and are a wash: they're as much trouble as they're worth. My experienced opinion is: if you have other avenues than Big Pharma, Green Party Voter, safely give them a try. Make sure to include diet and exercise.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Yea, making everyone crazy, might not have been the best idea.

Might want to add that children are given Ritalin, and when Tom Cruise brought that up, the whole media turned on him with repeated making fun of him.

Heart Crazy on You.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZuW6BH_Vak


Anyone else have any other ideas?


Still not seeing the beer and travel compensation issue corrected.

[lunasun]

9. Ritalin side effects include

blood pressure and pulse changes, both up and down; tachycardia ; angina ; cardiac arrhythmia .
I work with a cardio clinic lots of cases not that rare the longer they stay on meds and this is kids
Bonus?
Ding$ Ding
Big Pharma gets a customer for life!!!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

11. Ding$ Ding is right.

It is not lost on our private health care industry that their best economic interests are served when they make and keep us sick -- and that's exactly what they do.

[truedelphi]

25. Along with doing elder care, I used to work with the developmentally disabled

And those drugs are horrid.

The young adults have disenesia where they cannot control their body movements.

They have high blood pressure, and they have other ailments long before they should have them.

And like you say, these side effects are a Win Win for the Big Pharma people.

[Warpy]

3. The problem isn't the drugs, themselves, in many cases

The problem is that they're overprescribed or improperly prescribed for something they won't treat, and people tend to go off them suddenly when they don't feel any better. Going off a lot of medications suddenly is a very bad idea. Going off SSRI drugs, especially, is one of the worst ideas out there. Add to that the current economy, forcing even the people who need those drugs to stop taking them suddenly because they simply can't afford the prescription, and you've got the recipe for a real crisis out there.

The drugs can work miracles when they're prescribed correctly to the right people and they're taken according to directions. However, that miracle can turn into a real nightmare when those drugs are stopped.

Whenever I read about somebody going postal these days, I always suspect there was a suddenly stopped SSRI in there somewhere, that's how bad it is to go off them quickly.

[HuckleB]

5. People also go off them suddenly when they are feeling better.

I don't buy your bit about "going postal," however. Plenty of bizarre behavior occurred before the advent of SSRIs.

[tomp]

20. the medications themselves can be quite dangerous, but....

...society/insurance companies are apparently not ready to pay for the long term psychotherapies/therapies that are required to produce sustainable long term improvement. generally speaking, people seek out psychiatric help when they are at the point of being unable to help themselves. medications, at best, should be used temporarily, and minimally, to bring the patient to the point where emotional and cognitive work can be done. this takes time and money.

the other important factor here is our crazy-making society. society itself is not sane and produces mental illness.

[Warpy]

21. Right on all counts. It's cheaper to shove a scrip for generic Prozac

at a depressed person than it is to schedule counseling sessions with even a MSW instead of an MD psychiatrist. Mental health care in this country is a sick joke, even for the well insured.

Without close supervision, people run into trouble with these drugs six ways from Sunday. Close supervision is especially needed to taper them off when they want to get off.

As for our society, I keep wondering why more people aren't falling off the deep end.

[HuckleB]

4. I know it's a red herring, but is this the same Gary Kohls who claims autism is caused by vaccines?

:shrug:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

7. It may be, however I've not seen commentary from Dr. Kohls on...

...the link between autism and vaccines.

[HuckleB]

15. Well, they're not hard to find.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

16. If there are reference links you'd like to post...

...concerning commentary made by Dr. Kohls on autism and vaccines or anything else, please feel free to do so.

[HuckleB]

17. Thanks for showing that you have no interest in the matter.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=Gary+Kohls+Vaccines&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=C8uoV7p94TJ2POIzmNJHV_MIEAAAAqgQFT9BqxvI&pbx=1&fp=728ef3750cf3a29c

How hard is it to look into the realities of such folks, anymore?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

19. The OP is not about autism and vaccines...

...but I have no objection to your bringing it up or posting about it. I'm puzzled by your claim that I have no interest in it.

What is it exactly you would like for me to do?

[Zoeisright]

14. I'd bet money it's the same guy.

He's one of those doctors who think that drugs are bad and 'natural' treatments are good. Never mind that 'natural' treatments are usually not tested, certainly not in scientifically rigorous, double-blind studies. He also thinks that coincidence is proof. He's not credible at all.

[lunasun]

6. These drugs, it turns our, are fully capable of disabling often permanently body, brain and spirit

....Well then, that gives Big Pharma at least three more drugs to sell ya!!

FDA only listens to $$$$$ in large amounts only please

[pa28]

8. Just take this with a huge grain of salt.

The links at the end of this article are mostly from organizations connected with the Church of Scientology. This is familiar material to me because my brother is in a branch of Scientology called the "Sea Org" (look it up . . . chilling stuff).

On this particular topic is he sounds something like a loop tape and he recently lifted my sister's anti-anxiety meds after finding them in the car. I'm open to more mainstream critiques but just be wary of this stuff.

[Jefferson23]

10. Seems to be a cautionary tale and nothing controversial on that level.

I went to look at the reviews on Amazon for the heck of it, there are over 80 of them.

Interesting piece, thanks for posting.

[Jefferson23]

12. Just a note to say that it appears some may be leery of the OP

due to Gary Kohls, but the focus should be on the author, Robert Whitaker...no slouch.

His bio: Biography
Robert Whitaker is the author of four books: Mad in America, The Mapmaker's Wife, On the Laps of Gods and Anatomy of an Epidemic. His newspaper and magazine articles on the mentally ill and the pharmaceutical industry have garnered several national awards, including a George Polk Award for medical writing and a National Association of Science Writers Award for best magazine article. A series he cowrote for the Boston Globe on the abuse of mental patients in research settings was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.


more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitaker_(author)

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

13. Good observation, thanks for pointing this out.

[HuckleB]

18. The guy appears to hang with the likes of Mercola.

So, he's not exactly without warts.

Another perspective:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kPfUwl9TP3oJ:cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/answers-about-child-psychiatry/+psychiatric+times+robert+whitaker&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[Jefferson23]

24. He said he hasn't read the book, at least he admits that. I

wonder if he'll ever read it. My point was that Whitaker's background is not without merit, and the focus of concern in this
thread seem to focus more on Kohls reputation....there are two separate individuals here, two separate bodies of work to examine.

Those distinctions should be considered before making a judgment one way or the other regarding Whitaker.

[Grinchie]

26. The leery ones are most likely Big Pharma Fanboys

Id didn't recognize the name Gary Kohls, but the endeavors to demonize him by a few poster made me look him up, and I realized that this is the man that created Selling Sickness, and a few other Game Changing CD's that blow the door wide open on the Bullshit being peddled by American Medicine and Big Pharma.

It's no wonder that the goon squad picked up and name dropped Gary Kohls is associatioan with the Autiosm Epidemic, that in my research and analysis, is due to reactions from inhumanely large doeses of "Deactivated" Viral proteins introduced into newborns.

If the vaccine makers are so confident, can they explain precisely the deifference between and "Activated" and "Deactivated" viral protein really is? The truth is that they can't. ALl they do is inject fragments of Viral Proteins in hopes of getting some reaction. Some live, some get debilitating complications that haunt them for the rest of their lives.

When I was a kid, we did not get Vaccinations at birth, and certainly not 6 viral proteins at the same time...

I was well along in growth, and even then, some of the vaccines kicked my ass for weeks.

AFter researching the insanity and lack of true research on vaccines, I will never take another vaccine again - Ever.

The Propagandists can try to demean Gary Kohls about this, but it's not going to work. He speaks the truth and the Big Medicine Men are not going to tolerate and threat to there profit margins.

Instead of eating healthy food, and living in a healthy environment, the Medical system offers you a placebo so that you can continue to live in unhealthy conditions and eat non nutritious food and feel "Safe".

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

29. I didn't pay much attention to...

...the controversy surrounding vaccines until all the H1N1 hype of last year. In doing some research I ran across this interview/commentary of retired neurosurgeon, Russel Blaylock and found it shocking but very believable:

1 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--nWrqIspnQ

2 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnaiubVJv8E&feature=related

3 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktcoJW6mj1U&feature=related

4 of 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5E2N4pliXs&feature=related

I would have to agree with you, Dr. Kohls is likely a high value smear target of Big Pharma. To the degree that people start listening to truth-tellers like Dr. Kohls, Big Pharma stands a lot to lose. They will spend plenty of money trying to destroy the credibility of people like him -- very unfair, but that's the world we live in.

[kedrys]

22. Just about every med that my s.o. was on in the States is not available here

When we first got here, we found out that all those anti-depressants and such are very hard to come by because doctors will not prescribe the few that one can actually get because they're too damn dangerous.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

23. A lot of things that go on here in the zoo...

...we call the States are rightly recognized elsewhere as bad medicine, if you'll pardon the pun.

[Stuart G]

27. Great Post...would rec it, but too late.........