The US has turned into a nation of pill poppers and this isn't more evident with the sprouting of drug stores at every corner. According to the US government anti-depressant use has increased approximately 400 percent among Americans in the past twenty years. The pharmaceutical industry
“The precise causes of mental disorders are not known.” -- David Satcher, former U.S. surgeon general. This quote is from his 1999 report, Mental Health.
“In every instance where such an [chemical] imbalance was thought to be found, it was later proved to be false.” -- Joseph Glenmullen, instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. This quote is from his 2000 report, Prozac Backlash.
“We do not yet have proof either of the cause or the physiology for any psychiatric diagnosis.” -- also Joseph Glenmullen, and taken from Prozac Backlash.
“We have hunted for big simple neurochemical explanations for psychiatric disorders and have not found them.” -- Kenneth Kendler, coeditor in chief of Psychological Medicine. Wrote in 2005.
What does this study tell us? Let’s check out the abstract. To quote: “Of the 170 DSM [-IV and -IV-TR] panel members 95 (56%) had one or more financial associations with companies in the pharmaceutical industry. One hundred percent of the members of the panels on ‘Mood Disorders’ and ‘Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders’ had financial ties to drug companies. The leading categories of financial interest held by panel members were research funding (42%), consultancies (22%) and speakers bureau (16%). Conclusions: Our inquiry into the relationships between DSM panel members and the pharmaceutical industry demonstrates that there are strong financial ties between the industry and those who are responsible for developing and modifying the diagnostic criteria for mental illness. The connections are especially strong in those diagnostic areas where drugs are the first line of treatment for mental disorders.”
From Alliance for Human Research Protection website LINK to Source
Scientific Proof: Antipsychjotics Shrink Brain
Saturday, 26 February 2011
*More antipsychotic treatment was associated with smaller gray matter volumes. Progressive decrement in white matter volume was most evident among patients who received more antipsychotic treatment.
A long-awaited, 14 year magnetic imaging (MRI) follow-up study by Dr. Nancy Andreasen, involving 211 patients, documents progressive shrinkage of brain tissue volume in patients prescribed antipsychotics when they first experienced an episode of psychosis.
The findings, published in The Archives of General Psychiatry (abstract below) show a direct causal relationship between dosage, duration of exposure to antipsychotics, and brain shrinkage:
"Longer follow-up correlated with smaller brain tissue volumes and larger cerebrospinal fluid volumes.
Greater intensity of antipsychotic treatment was associated with indicators of generalized and specific brain tissue reduction after controlling for effects of the other 3 predictors.
*More antipsychotic treatment was associated with smaller gray matter volumes. Progressive decrement in white matter volume was most evident among patients who received more antipsychotic treatment.
The finding corroborates animal studies:
"The plausibility of long-term antipsychotic treatment leading to global brain volume reductions is further supported by recent controlled studies in macaque monkeys."
"These findings are also consistent with previous MRI studies suggesting that antipsychotics produce changes in the human brain that are measurable by in vivo neuroimaging techniques."
The mechanism by which these drugs cause brain damage, as Dr. Andreasen explained in an interview in The New York Times (2008):
"these drugs... block basal ganglia activity. The prefrontal cortex doesn't get the input it needs and is being shut down by drugs. That reduces the psychotic symptoms. It also causes the prefrontal cortex to slowly atrophy."
"Another thing we've discovered is that the more drugs you've been given, the more brain tissue you lose."
In the same NYT interview, Dr. Andreasen acknowledged that she "sat on these findings for a couple of years"--deliberately holding back publication.
Don't medical researchers have a public responsibility to disclose a finding of a causal relationship between a particular class of drugs and brain damage?
Antipsychotics have been shown to induce (iatrogenic) diseases, including: diabetes, metabolic, cardiovascular, hormonal abnormalities, and brain damage.
Despite the debilitating, life-threatening risks posed by antipsychotics, US Psychiatrists embraced these drugs--prescribing them for ever more, unapproved, off-label uses--even for young children--despite the demonstrable ravages produced by antipsychotics.
Psychiatry's academic leadership under the influence of industry $$$ have been the facilitators who helped manufacturers turn toxic drugs that undermine health and shorten lives, into industry's blockbuster profit makers. These psychiatrists should be held accountable.