tagged w/ psychiatric
-
Casey Anthony said she was raped at a party when she was 18 and that’s how she conceived Caylee this according to Casey’s former psychiatristCasey Anthony said she was raped at a party when she was 18 and that’s how she... more
-
-
-
These suicide notes were gathered at the coroners' offices by a suicidologist/psychiatrist who asked to be anonymous. He edited identifying details out of the compiled manuscript, and we changed the names. But the text of each letter plus the age and sex given are real. All these people did kill themselves. Were they ambivalent about it? About half the hundred or so letters we saw seemed to have some element of doubt. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/42960-how-not-to-commit-suicideThese suicide notes were gathered at the coroners' offices by a... more
-
-
worrg
-
added this
-
9 months ago
- |
-
-
Psychiatry is slowly becoming the most discredited profession in the world. The Citizens Commisson on Human Rights (CCHR) blows the lid off the nasty world of Psychiatry and the insane use of psychotropic drugs (anti-depressants) to treat normal human emotions. We encourage you to look at the dirty world of Psychiatry by visiting http:/www.cchr.org. If you hurry, you can get a free DVD and information pack by enroling online. Now read on/...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUoiY1lQq9Q&feature=relatedPsychiatry is slowly becoming the most discredited profession in the world. The... more
-
-
The New York Times made a video recently, documenting the tens of thousands of children placed on anti-psychotic medications every year by their pediatricians. Frustrated parents, faced with out of control babies, are placing them on the heaviest of medications as early as 18 months.
One child profiled was Kyle Warren.
Kyle was placed on many of these medications at a year-and-a-half. He was having temper tantrums by the time he was 6 months old and had self-harmed enough to require hospitalization. His doctor recommended medication and his desperate mother agreed. The amount of medication was overwhelming – Prozac, multiple pills to help with sleep, more pills for ADHD and Rispirdal – usually given to adult schizophrenics. By the time he was three, he weighed nearly 50 pounds and had been turned into drooling, blank stared preschooler with a documented medical diagnosis of bipolar disorder, Autism, ADHD, hyperactivity, insomnia and Oppositional Defiance Disorder.
Read More:
http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/preschoolers-psychiatric-medications-your-child-one?page=0,1The New York Times made a video recently, documenting the tens of thousands of... more
-
-
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is frequently referred to as psychiatry’s “billing bible.” This is because they can use any disorder added to the DSM to label you mentally ill and then bill you for it. Unlike medical conditions/diseases which are discovered and proven as medical conditions (through biopsy, test, physical abnormality) psychiatric disorders are literally voted into existence by a show of hands. Perhaps more disturbing is that the psychiatrists voting on the new disorders are frequently being paid by the pharmaceutical companies which manufacture the drugs for these disorders. Enough said.
http://www.cchrint.org/videos/disorders/dsm/The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is frequently referred... more
-
-
The case against a prominent former Calgary psychiatrist has grown, with 21 former male patients alleging they were sexually assaulted by him.
Authorities announced Friday they've laid 20 additional counts of sexual assault against Dr. Aubrey Levin, following a four-month investigation sparked by an initial complainant.
After police charged Levin with sexual assault March 23 in relation to the initial complaint by a former male patient, 20 other men came forward with similar allegations.
"They approached us after the initial case came forward," said police Insp. Steve Barlow.
All of the complainants are from the Calgary area -- and some are currently in jail, Barlow added.
It's alleged the sex assaults took place during court-ordered psychiatric assessments or counselling sessions inside Levin's office at the Peter Lougheed Hospital or examination rooms.
Levin's main role in the court system was providing psychiatric assessments of convicted offenders awaiting sentence.
The allegations against Levin prompted Alberta Justice to review, on behalf of the court, 38 known cases he handled for any indications of impropriety.
"We've completed a review of cases that are currently before the courts," Alberta Justice spokesman David Dear said.
The 17 patients whose cases were still in progress when Levin was charged were either reassessed or transferred to another doctor.
Alberta Justice is now reviewing 21 further cases handled by Levin that have since concluded, Dear said.
Levin is no longer practising, as his licence has been suspended by the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Levin, who was first licensed as a psychiatrist in South Africa in 1969, has been out on bail since shortly after his arrest.
One of his bail conditions also forbids him from practising medicine, and he is forbidden to make any contact with the complainants. Levin was also ordered to surrender his passport and can't leave Canada without permission.
The case is scheduled to return to court Sept. 21.
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Former+city+psychiatrist+faces+charges/3344502/story.html#ixzz0vkSuhMPAThe case against a prominent former Calgary psychiatrist has grown, with 21 former... more
-
-
A London psychiatrist had sex with a female patient and then told her it had to happen to "defuse" the tension between them, the General Medical Council has heard.
The woman said her mental health deteriorated after the alleged encounter with Dr Theodore Soutzos while a hospital in-patient. She attempted suicide a number of times and felt stressed by his warnings that she must not tell anyone, a fitness to practise panel was told.
Harley Street psychiatrist Dr Soutzos "pressurised" the woman - who was 37 at the time - into a relationship, showering her with compliments, taking her to art galleries and swimming, the hearing was told.
The psychiatrist is accused of having conducted "improper" relationships with three women he was treating between 1999 and 2006 at NHS and private clinics. He treated Patient A while a specialist registrar at Guy's Hospital in London from January to December 1999 after she was admitted to the Maurice Craig ward.
The woman told the hearing she went to Dr Soutzos's north London flat at his invitation on the evening of March 26. With candles burning, he started kissing her before taking off her clothes and having sex with her for such a long time she wondered if he had taken Viagra, she told the panel.
When the psychiatrist dropped the woman back at the hospital in the early hours of the morning, they discussed what had happened, the GMC heard. Patient A said: "We were sitting in the car. I said 'are we in a relationship?'... we had been swimming, we had been to art galleries and we had just had sex.
"He said 'how can we be because I'm your doctor and you're my patient?' I said 'what have we been doing for the last two and a half hours?"
His reply, she alleged, was: "We had to defuse the sexual tension that had been building up between us in order to enable us to work together."
The GMC alleges Dr Soutzos's conduct towards Patient A was "inappropriate" and that he abused his position of trust. He is also accused of "improper emotional and sexual" relationships with a female patient he met while working at Bowden House Clinic in Harrow between 2003 and 2006 and a third woman he treated at the Priory Hospital in Roehampton in 2006.
Dr Soutzos denies misconduct. The hearing, which is scheduled to last until next month, was adjourned to Wednesday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hipA6kXlp8DyKNgdvDcY8a71gHKgA London psychiatrist had sex with a female patient and then told her it had to happen... more
-
-
By FRANCIS MCCABE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A Las Vegas psychiatrist convicted on charges stemming from masturbation in a Strip casino elevator was sentenced to a year in jail Wednesday.
A jury found Dr. Steven C. Wein, 33, guilty of open or gross lewdness, a gross misdemeanor, after a one-day trial in June. The jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before returning the guilty verdict, according to court records.
Wein declined to speak at Wednesday's hearing.
Judge Linda Bell sentenced Wein to the maximum time allowed for a misdemeanor. He was given credit for a 100 days of time served.
Authorities said Wein was riding in a Monte Carlo hotel elevator with three female Arizona State University students about 6 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2009, when he exposed himself in the confined space. Wein then was punched in the head by a man who also was in the elevator, authorities said.
The jury was able to watch the event unfold, as it was recorded by hotel security.
After his jail term is finished in Las Vegas, Wein next will face charges in Arizona stemming from allegations he tried to intimidate witnesses in the case.
Wein is accused of driving to Tempe, Ariz., in April and setting fire to the home of the three women.
The alleged arson occurred five days before a preliminary hearing was to be held in Las Vegas for the November incident.
Wein was in his fourth year of a psychiatry residency at the Las Vegas School of Medicine at the time of the November incident.
Wein's attorney, Mace Yampolsky, said in court documents his client was suffering from depression over the death of his father at the time.
The Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine is expected to hold a revocation hearing for Wein's medical license in September. Board executive director Dianna Hegeduis said Wein's license is currently suspended and he is not allowed to practice medicine in the state.
If Wein's license is revoked, he would have to wait a decade before he could reapply for a medical licence in Nevada.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/psychiatrist-gets-one-year-in-jail-for-lewd-incident-at-strip-casino-100013084.html?ref=084By FRANCIS MCCABE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A Las Vegas psychiatrist convicted on... more
-
-
TRENTON — New Jersey psychiatric hospitals regularly medicate patients against their will, and state law prevents an outside review of medication practices, according to a federal lawsuit filed by a patient advocacy group.
Disability Rights New Jersey seeks a judicial review of all involuntary medication decisions, a practice currently required in 29 states, including Connecticut and New York.
"We're not talking about emergencies here," said W. Emmett Dwyer, the litigation director for Disability Rights New Jersey, a federally funded agency that protects the rights of the disabled. "We're talking about ongoing treatment of people. We are not talking about people who are wild or out of control and need to be sedated."
In New Jersey, prison inmates have more right to refuse medication than in state psychiatric facilities, Dwyer said.
Ellen Lovejoy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, said in an e-mail response to the lawsuit, "It would not be appropriate for the department to discuss specific pending or ongoing litigation.
"However, in general, it is the mission and obligation of the department to provide recovery-oriented treatment while ensuring the protection of patients' civil rights and the safety of all patients and staff."
The powerful drugs prescribed for patients in psychiatric hospitals are often needed to treat diseases like schizophrenia. But the side effects of such medications are often severe, and can include liver damage, seizures, diabetes and high blood pressure. Patients often become lethargic after taking such medicines, and some advocates have accused state hospital officials of drugging patients so that they can be more easily controlled.
There are about 1,800 patients in the state's five psychiatric hospitals, and about 1,000 more in private mental health facilities, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Patients in state facilities who have not been found to be legally incompetent are allowed to refuse any dose of medication prescribed by doctors.
But repeated refusals lead to consultation with the patient's treatment team. The treatment team includes a physician, psychiatrist, nurse, psychologist and social worker.
If the team shares the doctor's view that the patient must take the medication, the patient has the right to seek the opinion of a second psychiatrist. The hospital's medical director then makes the final determination about whether the patient must take the drugs.
The patient does have representation: Two full-time staffers serve as client service representatives, and a third full-time person is on site as a consumer representative paid by Collaborative Support Programs, a consumer agency. These staffers are expected to keep patients informed that they can seek the opinion of a second psychiatrist.
However, Dwyer of the advocacy group said that although patients are permitted to seek a second opinion about their medication, it very rarely happens. He said patients often agree to take medications they do not want because they believe they otherwise will not be released from the hospital.
By contrast, in Connecticut a patient who refuses medication is entitled to a review by a second psychiatrist, as well as a hearing before a probate court judge. The patient is entitled to representation during the hearing and also has the right to question witnesses.
Should the judge decide that the patient must receive the medication, he or she writes an order that expires after 120 days, specifying the type of drugs the patient must take, and the exact dosage. At the end of that time period, the state must prove to the judge that the medication is working and that the patient has shown improvement, or the order will not be renewed.TRENTON — New Jersey psychiatric hospitals regularly medicate patients against... more
-
-
Senator tells University of Miami he's `troubled' over hiring
A U.S. senator chastised UM about the head of its psychiatry department, who has been under fire over receiving undisclosed payments from drug companies while doing NIH research at a previous job.
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
Sen. Charles Grassley has written a strongly worded letter to University of Miami President Donna Shalala saying he is ``disturbed'' and ``troubled'' by actions surrounding UM's hiring of a psychiatrist-researcher under investigation by a federal agency.
The letter from the Iowa Republican, dated Monday, was sparked by a Sunday story in The Chronicle of Higher Education about the relationship between psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff, now head of UM's department of psychiatry, and Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, who led a yearlong project to toughen policies against conflict of interest.
On Wednesday, UM issued a brief statement: ``The University of Miami is responding to the inquiry from Senator Grassley and will continue demonstrating its unflinching commitment to scientific integrity. UM works tirelessly to advance the quality of its teaching, research, and clinical care programs while maintaining the highest ethical standards in all that we do.''
The National Institute of Health said Insel was unavailable for comment.
Grassley and his staff have been investigating Nemeroff, once head of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta, because he received millions of dollars from drug companies while doing what was supposed to be impartial research for the National Institutes of Health on drugs made by the companies paying him.
Grassley reported Nemeroff received $2.8 million from GlaxoSmithKline and other drug makers over seven years for promoting drugs like GSK's Paxil. Emory eventually asked him to step down as head of psychiatry and suspended his work on major NIH grants.
E-MAILS
The Chronicle story said Insel ``quietly helped'' Nemeroff get hired at UM.
In summer 2009, when UM was thinking of hiring Nemeroff, Medical School Dean Pascal Goldschmidt e-mailed Insel saying that Nemeroff had said Insel would be able to provide a ``confidential opinion'' on him, according to documents released by the Senate Finance Committee.
Insel responded that he could not provide a formal, written recommendation because of NIH rules, but ``I can discuss informally by phone. Happy to do this,'' he wrote in an e-mail.
Goldschmidt told The Herald last fall that he thought Nemeroff was a talented researcher but didn't want to hire him if he couldn't get NIH funding.
The Chronicle article quotes Goldschmidt as saying Insel assured him that the Emory ban on Nemeroff's NIH grant activity for two years didn't carry over to Miami, and that Nemeroff would be able to apply for NIH funding as soon as he took his new job.
Goldschmidt was quoted in the Chronicle as saying that the Emory ban on Nemeroff's grant activities was due to ``political pressure that the university was under.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/10/1672327/senator-tells-um-hes-troubled.htmlSenator tells University of Miami he's `troubled' over hiring
A U.S.... more
-
-
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans prefer drugs to talk therapy for depression, with nearly 80 percent taking a pill for the condition, Consumer Reports said on Tuesday.
The most popular class of drugs remain the so-called SSRIs such as Prozac, the group found. People found newer, pricier antidepressants less desirable because of side-effects.
Patients benefited just as much from therapy -- almost any kind of therapy, the consumer group found in its survey of 1,500 readers.
Those surveyed said they improved just as much after seven or more sessions of talk therapy as if they took drugs and it did not matter if the therapist was a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker.
Nearly 80 percent of people who had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety were prescribed antidepressants.
Patients were happiest with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, a class that includes Eli Lilly and Co's Prozac or its generic equivalent fluoxetine;, Pfizer Inc's Zoloft or sertraline, and Celexa or citalopram and Lexapro o escitalopram from Forest Laboratories Inc.
People complained of more side-effects from serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors or SNRIs, a newer, often more expensive class of antidepressants, the survey found.
These include venlafaxine, made by Pfizer-owned Wyeth under the Effexor brand name and Lilly's duloxetine, sold as Cymbalta.
The survey found a range of side-effects, but the most common one -- loss of sexual interest or ability -- was less common than in past surveys, the consumer group said.
http://kgmi.com/Survey--Americans-Prefer-Drugs-For-Depression/7367585WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans prefer drugs to talk therapy for depression, with... more
-
-
St. Petersburg Times
By Dominick Tao
CLEARWATER—An employee of a secure mental health facility for minors was arrested Saturday after being accused of choking a patient.
Jimothy Tyrone Jamison, who works at the state-contracted Gulf and Lake Academy at 14500 49th St. N, was charged with child abuse after police say he put his arm around the neck of a minor and then brought him to the ground. Police did not release the identity of the minor.
Jamison told police he was only engaging in “horseplay.” In a police interview, the minor said that wasn’t the case: The “victim said he couldn’t breathe and told (Jamison) to stop three times.”
Police say the incident took place May 12.
Calls to the facility, operated under contract by G4S Youth Services, a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based security firm G4S, were referred to the company’s Tampa office, which was closed for the weekend.
According to the academy’s website, “The program provides intensive mental health services, special needs mental health services, social and life skills” to troubled teens aged 12 to 18.
Jamison was in the Pinellas County Jail on $5,000 bail.
http://www.psychsearch.net/psych_news/?p=624St. Petersburg Times
By Dominick Tao
CLEARWATER—An employee of a secure mental... more
-
-
CCHRInt — September 15, 2009 — Dr. Mary Ann Block, Medical director of the Block Center, is an outspoken critic of children being diagnosed ADHD and put on drugs documented to cause tics, stunted growth, heart attack, stroke and sudden death. She describes how parents are being misinformed about the medical legitimacy of ADHD and the dangers of the drugs being prescribed to treat children. She encourages parents to have their child given a full medical examination to find underlying medical problems that are being misdiagnosed as a mental disorder. To read more click here http://www.cchrint.orgCCHRInt — September 15, 2009 — Dr. Mary Ann Block, Medical director of the... more
-
-
The psychiatric ward of Sassoon General Hospital was abuzz on Monday with talk of an alleged molestation and rape attempt on a patient occurring last week.
The man said to have taken advantage of the patient is Narendra Sale, a senior officer with the Maharashtra Institute of Mental Health (MIMH).
He allegedly molested and attempted to rape a 19-year-old woman admitted to the ward and kept under observation there.
Sale has been absconding since the incident.
An inquiry committee has been appointed to look into the matter. The patient is still in the hospital.
The matter came to light when the patient complained to the visiting doctor the day after the incident. By this week, the matter was being talked about in the corridors of Sassoon.
According to the patient, Sale misbehaved when she went for a check-up, leaving her embarrassed and shocked.
Her father later complained to the doctors at the psychiatry ward and lodged a complaint at the Bund Garden police station.
Though the hospital authorities avoided talking at length about the matter, a few details were available from sources at the Sassoon psychiatric department.
"The attempt to rape did not happen in the ward but at the day care centre of MIMH, which is close to the ward, within the Sassoon premises," a source said.
Alka Pawar, director of MIMH and head of the Department of Psychiatry ward, who is currently on leave, has appointed a committee to investigate the matter.
Sassoon Dean Arun Jamkar said, "We have appointed the Mahila Dakhata Samitee to probe the incident and, if guilty, the accused will be punished."
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/news/cities/psycho-in-mental-health-institute-26204.php?cpThe psychiatric ward of Sassoon General Hospital was abuzz on Monday with talk of an... more
-
-
By Evelyn Pringle
Of all the harmful actions of modern psychiatry, "the mass diagnosing and drugging of children is the most appalling with the most serious consequences for the future of individual lives and for society," warns the world-renowned expert, Dr Peter Breggin, often referred to as the "Conscience of Psychiatry."
Dr Nathaniel Lehrman, author of the book, "Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs," believes that giving infants and toddlers "powerful, brain-effecting psychiatric medication is close to criminal activity."
"Giving them these drugs," he says, "has no rationale, and ignores the basic fact that youngsters are very sensitive to their environments, both social and chemical, with the juvenile brain easily damaged by the latter."
During an interview on ABC Radio National in August 2007, Dr David Healy, the noted British pharmacology expert, and author of the book, "Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder," told reporter Jane Shields: "Just to give you a feel for how crazy things have actually got recently, it would appear that clinicians in the US are happy to look at the ultrasounds of children in the womb, and based on the fact that they appear to be more overactive at times, and then possibly less active later, they're prepared to actually consider the possibility that these children could be bipolar."
On April 9, 2009, Christopher Lane, author of the book, "Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness," published an interview on his Psychology Today blog with Dr Healy. In the interview, Healy explained the history behind the drastic rise in the sale of anticonvulsants and antipsychotics as "mood stabilizers," and the diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
"The key event in the mid-1990s that led to the change in perspective was the marketing of Depakote by Abbott as a mood stabilizer," Healy tells Lane, and further explains:
"Mood stabilization didn't exist before the mid-1990s. It can't be found in any of the earlier reference books and journals. Since then, however, we now have sections for mood stabilizers in all the books on psychotropic drugs, and over a hundred articles per year featuring mood stabilization in their titles.
"In the same way, Abbott and other companies such as Lilly marketing Zyprexa for bipolar disorder have re-engineered manic-depressive illness. While the term bipolar disorder was there since 1980, manic-depression was the term that was still more commonly used until the mid-1990s when it vanishes and is replaced by bipolar disorder. Nowadays, over 500 articles per year feature bipolar disorder in their titles."
"As of 2008, upwards of a million children in the United States--in many cases preschoolers--are on "mood-stabilizers" for bipolar disorder, even though the condition remains unrecognized in the rest of the world," Healy points out.
"But there is no evidence that the drugs stabilize moods," he says. "In fact, it is not even clear that it makes sense to talk about a mood center in the brain."
"A further piece of mythology aimed at keeping people on the drugs," he reports, "is that these are supposedly neuroprotective--but there's no evidence that this is the case and in fact these drugs can lead to brain damage."
Healy says the FDA's decision to add a black-box warning about suicide to SSRIs likely had little to do with the switch to prescribing antipsychotics as safer for children. What "was quite striking was how quickly companies were able to use the views of the few bipolar-ologists who argued that when children become suicidal on antidepressants it's not the fault of the drug," he points out.
"The problem, they said, stems from a mistaken diagnosis and if we could just get the diagnosis right and put the child on mood stabilizers then there wouldn't be a problem," he explains.
Continue Reading Pages 2 & 3
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Psychiatric-Drugging-of-In-by-Evelyn-Pringle-100419-626.htmlBy Evelyn Pringle
Of all the harmful actions of modern psychiatry, "the mass... more
-
-
-
The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art features a series of arresting images from medication ads that depict (I assume) depression, paranoia, anxiety and schizophrenia, but also bliss. Surrealism seems to be the preferred visual style for conveying mental states all around the world, although abstraction, psychedelia, conventional illustration, sculpture and noirish photography are also represented here. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/poster-gallery?cid=35The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art features a series of arresting images from... more
-
-
worrg
-
added this
-
1 year ago
- |
-
Soldiers deployed in combat zones are taking quantities of psychiatric drugs -- and military suicides are on the rise.
April 5, 2010 |
One in six service members is now taking at least one psychiatric drug, according to the Navy Times, with many soldiers taking “drug cocktail” combinations. Soldiers and military health care providers told the Military Times that psychiatric drugs are “being prescribed, consumed, shared and traded in combat zones.”
The Navy Times reporters Andrew Tilghman and Brendan McGarry also noted that there has been a large increase in military suicides. From 2001 to 2009, the Army’s official suicide rate increased from 9 per 100,000 soldiers to 23 per 100,000. During that same period, the Marine Corps suicide rate increased from 16.7 per 100,000 soldiers to 24 per 100,000.
A Military Times investigation of records obtained from the Defense Logistics Agency revealed that the DLA spent $1.1 billion on psychiatric and pain medications from 2001 to 2009, and that there was a 76 percent increase in psychiatric drugs. DLA records show:
• Antipsychotic drugs spiked most dramatically — orders jumping by more than 200 percent.
• Orders for anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills such as Valium and Ambien increased 170 percent.
• Orders for antiepileptic drugs (also known as anticonvulsants) such as Depakote, routinely used as psychiatric medications, increased 70 percent.
• Antidepressants showed a 40 percent increase.
Investigators found that antipsychotic and antiepileptic drugs, approved for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, are now commonly used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms such as nightmares, nervousness, and anger outbursts. The use of antipsychotic drugs for non-psychotic conditions such as PTSD is called “off-label” prescribing. The general public is also subject to off-label prescribing, which is considered legal.
In February 2010, Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, the Army’s highest-ranking psychiatrist, reported to Congress that 17 percent of the active-duty force and as much as 6 percent of deployed troops are on antidepressants.
Just how insane is it to prescribe psychiatric drugs to deployed troops? The Navy Times piece tells us about Spc. Mike Kern who enlisted in 2006 and spent a year deployed in 2008 with the 4th Infantry Division as an armor crewman, running patrols out of southwest Baghdad. Suffering from nervousness, sleep problems and depression, Kern was given the antidepressant Paxil. A few days later, while patrolling the streets in the gunner’s turret of a Humvee, Kern said he began having serious thoughts of suicide for the first time in his life. Kern said:
I had three weapons: a pistol, my rifle and a machine gun. I started to think, ‘I could just do this and then it’s over.’ That’s where my brain was: ‘I can just put this gun right here and pull the trigger and I’m done. All my problems will be gone.’
The Food and Drug Administration now requires that antidepressants must be labeled with a warning about increased risk of “suicidality” (which includes suicidal thoughts as well as attempts). This “black-box” warning is a result of research concluding that antidepressants double the risk of suicidality in depressed children, teenagers, and young adults as compared to equally depressed young people who are not taking antidepressants. Given meta-analyses (that I cite in Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic) which show that antidepressants are often no more effective than placebos, the potential risks of giving these drugs to soldiers in a war zone clearly outweigh any potential benefits.
Many of these psychiatric drugs prescribed to service members can also impair motor skills, reduce reaction times, and generally make one more sluggish -- or what soldiers call “stupid.” So in addition to antidepressants potentially resulting in increased suicidality, other psychiatric drugs can make deployed soldiers feel less capable of protecting themselves and their buddies. While being slow or “stupid” is not going to cost a general or politician his or her life, it can cost soldiers the vigilance necessary to keep themselves and their fellow soldiers alive.Soldiers deployed in combat zones are taking quantities of psychiatric drugs -- and... more
-
