11.09.07
Psychiatrists admit they created the euthanasia program and ideology that fueled Hitlers holocaust
It is cold, hard documented fact that German psychiatrists devised the “scientific” justification for euthanasia before World War II, before even Hitler came to power. It is also a documented fact that they established the gas chambers and killing centers in the concentration camps and trained and apprenticed others on how to kill. This is documented from psychiatry’s own words and documents.
In 1920, Alfred Hoche, a professor of psychiatry, and Karl Binding, a jurist [an scholar in the science or philosophy of law], published Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life, equating killing as a “healing treatment.”[i] They advocated the outright killing of mental defectives, stating that, “For the idiots… the continuation of life for society as well as for the person himself has no value.”[ii]
The first psychiatric “killing test” (gassing experiment) was conducted at Brandenburg psychiatric institution in 1940, where 18 patients were murdered while psychiatrists and staff watched. Following the experiment’s “success,” the euthanasia program began in earnest.
Few are aware of psychiatry’s role because, as the German Society of Psychiatrists finally confessed in 1999, information has been paralyzed and suppressed. Indeed, in 1990, Johannes Meyer-Lindenburg, ex-president of the Germany Society of Psychiatrists, addressed the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association and, while acknowledging the “failure of psychiatrists” to “insist on basic ethics” to “prevent the Holocaust of so many of their patients,” asked his colleagues to reconsider German psychiatry in light of its wartime heroes and laudable achievements instead. Australian psychiatrist Ernest Hunter said that Meyer-Lindenburg, “constructs an image that denies the active role of the profession at every level.”[iii]
Yet, as A. Mitscherlich and F. Mielke, chronicled during the Nuremberg Medical Trials in 1947, “Their atrocities were so unrestrained and at the same time organized with such technical bureaucratic coldness, malice and bloodthirstiness, that no one can read about it without feeling the deepest shame.”[iv]
In 1995, after 20 years of in-depth research, CCHR helped write and publish the book Psychiatrists: The Men Behind Hitler, a book that prompted the President of the then German Society of Psychiatrists to write to the Minister of Interior asking for his help to silence CCHR. CCHR increased its efforts and in August 1999, the German Society of Psychiatrists publicly admitted psychiatrists had been “active in and primarily responsible for the different euthanasia organizations.”[v] In its publication called “In Memorium,” written for an exhibit on psychiatry’s role in the Holocaust, and shown at the annual congress of the World Psychiatric Association in Hamburg, the following admissions were made:
- During the National Socialist regime, “…psychiatrists killed their patients.”[vi] Michael von Cranach, director of Kaufbeuren Clinic
- “There were doctors who were active in and primarily responsible for the different euthanasia organizations. They guided and directed the different euthanasia campaigns. They were the so-called T4 experts, psychiatrists in responsible positions, mostly clinic directors who observed and controlled the selection of those to be killed. They advised those mainly responsible, and themselves suggested actions and carried them outlaid the scientific foundations of the euthanasia program and used the victims for research purposes. There were psychiatrists in institutions who were identified with these actions and who carried out with conviction the registrations in Berlin, the transferals and the killings.”[vii] German Society of Psychiatrists
Other psychiatrists have condemned psychiatry’s role also:
- Responsibility exists on all these levels. The images of doctors involved are variously inhuman, possessed or banal. However, the greatest responsibility lies before the brutal acts which capture and hold attention, at the level of ideas. The racist science of the Third Reich was not a consequence of political eventsit was the ideological agenda. While not a Nazi creation, it was central to the party’s platform, refined to provide a bio-medical vision of racial purity that galvanized support and gave direction to political events that focused hatred and violence. Dr. Ernest Hunter, M.D., psychiatric consultant, “Dimensions of Medical and Psychiatric Responsibility in the Third Reich,” Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 1993
- “The responsibility of doctors and the profession of medicine, in which psychiatry must be seen to figure prominently, may be examined on several levels:
- as providers and refiners of the ideological and intellectual foundations for race theory and medical killing;
- as influential supporters lending legitimacy to an immoral regime, both silence and complicity;
- as planners and administrators within the bureaucracy of state sanctioned killing;
- as designers and refiners of systems for expeditious killing;
- as executioners;
- as beneficiaries of the suffering and deaths of their victims (through payment for processing euthanasia evaluations of psychiatric patients, power within the state medical system, and advancement through ‘research’); and
- as survivors, who have frequently fared far better in the aftermath of the War and the Holocaust than other supporters of the murderous regime.”[viii] Dr. Ernest Hunter, M.D.
- “During the 1930s the German public were prepared for the killing of psychiatric patients by sophisticated propaganda, including emotional films in which degraded psychiatric patients were used to present an argument for their own ultimate annihilation.” Dr. Ernest Hunter
- “Ultimately, over a quarter-of-a-million sterilizations were performed. The major force in this program being Dr. Ernst Rudin, a Swiss psychiatrist who became professor in Munich and who had been a student of Emil Kraepelin (German psychiatrist).” Dr. Ernest Hunter
- “Medical observers from the United States and Germany at the Nuremberg Trials, concluded that the Holocaust might not have taken place without psychiatry.”[ix] Peter Breggin, M.D., psychiatrist, “Psychiatry’s role in the Holocaust,” International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, 1993
- “German psychiatrists proposed the killing of mental patients before Hitler came to power. Then in Nazi Germany, organized psychiatry implemented involuntary eugenical sterilization and euthanasia, ultimately killing up to 100,000 German mental patients. The six psychiatric euthanasia centers utilized medical professionals, fake death certificates, gas chambers disguised as showers, and the mass burning of corpses. Eventually, 250,000 to 300,000 patients were murdered throughout Europe according to the Allied estimate at the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial.”[x] Peter Breggin, M.D.
- “It should be realized that this program was merely the entering wedge for exterminations of far greater scope in the political program for genocide of conquered nations and the racially unwanted. The methods used and personnel trained in the killing centers for the chronically sick became the nucleus of the much larger centers in the East, where the plan was kill all Jews and Poles and to cut down the Russian population by 30,000,000.”[xi] Leo T. Alexander, psychiatrist, U.S. Army Representative at the Nuremberg Trials
- “The tragedy is that psychiatrists did not have to have an order. They acted on their own. They were not carrying out a death sentence pronounced by someone else. They were the legislators who laid down the rules for deciding who was to die; they were the administrators who worked out the procedures, provided the patients and places, and decided the methods of killing; they pronounced a sentence of death in every individual case; they were the executioners who carried it out without being coerced to do so surrendered their patients to be killed in other institutions; they supervised and watched the slow deaths.”[xii] Frederic Wertham, psychiatrist, quoted in A Sign for Cane
- “The euthanasia centers played a central role in developments leading to the larger holocaust. When the giant extermination centers were set up in the east, a psychiatrist from the euthanasia program wasone of the first commandants. Consultants from the euthanasia program helped set up these extermination camps and personnel from the program initially staffed them. Furthermore, the first systematic murders of concentration camp inmates took place in the euthanasia centers under the direction of teams of psychiatrists led by Werner Heyde.”[xiii] Peter Breggin, M.D.
- “something like 40 percent of German psychiatrists had joined the SS by 1933. They weren’t forced into the SS. They just joined it naturally because the beliefs were very, very similar. Hitler was promoting the idea that white people were top of the tree in some way, and so were the psychiatrists.” Craig Newnes, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, UK, quoted in CCHR’s documentary: “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death”
- “Academic medicine in Germany on the whole stood waist-deep in the Nazi sewer, and bears heavy responsibility for the disaster that followed. After 1933, degeneration [racial purity] became an official part of Nazi ideology.” Subsequently, “the notions of degeneration and heredibility became identical” and “synonymous with Nazi evil.”[xiv] Edward Shorter, A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylums to the Age of Prozac, 1997
- “The significance of racial hygiene did not become evident to all aware Germans until the political activity of Adolf Hitler and only through his work has our 30-year-long dream of translating racial hygiene into action finally become a reality.” Ernst Rdin, German psychiatrist, circa 1930s
Find out for yourself about what led to the Holocaust and how psychiatry’s genocidal ideology spawned other crimes against humanity. Watch CCHR’s documentary, “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.“
[i] Ernest Hunter, M.D., “The Snake on the Caduceus: Dimensions of Medical and Psychiatric Responsibility in the Third Reich,” Australian & NZ Journal of Psychiatry, 9 Apr., 1993, 27:149-156.[ii] Lenny Lapon, Mass Murderers in White Coats, (Springfield, MA, Psychiatric Genocide Research Institute, 1986), p. 78.
[iii] Ernest Hunter, M.D., Op. Cit., 27:149-156.
[iv] In Memorium, (German Society of Psychiatrists), Aug. 1999, p. 9.
[v] Ibid., p. 43.
[vi] Ibid., p. 9.
[vii] Ibid., p. 43.
[viii] Ernest Hunter, M.D., Op. Cit., p. 154.
[ix] Peter Breggin, M.D., “Psychiatry’s role in the Holocaust,” International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, Vol. 4 (1993), pp. 133-148.
[x] Ibid., pp. 133-148.
[xi] Ibid.
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] Ibid.
[xiv] Edward Shorter, A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylums to the Age of Prozac, (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1997), p. 99.
11.08.07
Psychiatry Undermines Religion
Harming Society
Certain influences and events have shaped the course of religious and moral decline the world over. The materialistic practices of psychiatry, psychology and other related mental health disciplines are at the root of the problem.
German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt unveiled “experimental” psychology to his students at Leipzig University in 1879. Wundt declared that the soul was a “waste of energy” and that man was simply another animal.
In 1940 psychiatry openly declared its plans when British psychiatrist John Rawling Rees, a co-founder of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), addressed a National Council of Mental Hygiene stating “[S]ince the last world war we have done much to infiltrate the various social organizations throughout the country…we have made a useful attack upon a number of professions. The two easiest of them naturally are the teaching profession and the Church….”
The word psychology derives from psyche (soul) and ology (study of); the subject originated as a religious and philosophical study. However, as Franz G. Alexander, M.D., and Sheldon T. Selesnick, M.D. noted in The History of Psychiatry, “As long as psychiatric problems were those of the ’soul,’” only the clergy and philosophers “could be professionally concerned with such problems.”
Psychiatry, re-defining man’s travails in “medical” or “biological” terms, wrenched spiritual healing away from religion.
By 1952, 83% of more than 100 U.S. seminaries and graduate theological schools surveyed had one or more courses on psychology.
In 1961, around 9,000 clergymen had studied psychology-based “clinical pastoral” counseling courses. Psychiatrists outnumbered the clergy in membership six to five in the U.S. Academy of Religion and Mental Health.
The American Association of Christian Counselors has grown from 700 mental health professionals as members in 1991 to 50,000 today.
Psychiatrists and psychologists still claim that man is an animal to be conditioned and controlled. Governments have been convinced of this idea and are paying billions in public funds to psychiatry, despite no evidence of its efficacy.
DESECRATING HOLY GROUND
The following contemptible efforts to label the founder of the Christian faith as a lunatic, and thereby to condemn all of Christianity as mere neurosis and illusion, are provided, not to be blasphemous, but to show psychiatry’s anti-religious agenda.
“In short, the nature of the hallucinations of Jesus, as they are described in the orthodox Gospels, permits us to conclude that the founder of the Christian religion was afflicted with religious paranoia.” – Charles Binet-Sanglé, La Folie de Jésus (The Madness of Jesus), 1910.
“Everything that we know about him conforms so perfectly to the clinical picture of paranoia that it is hardly conceivable that people can even question the accuracy of the diagnosis.”– American psychiatrist William Hirsch, Conclusions of a Psychiatrist, 1912 “One may disagree with Schweitzer….He takes for granted that the failure of Jesus to develop ideas of injury and persecution rules out the possibility of a paranoid psychosis.
This is not necessarily true; some paranoids manifest ideas of grandeur almost entirely….” – Psychiatrist Winfred Overholser, President of the American Psychiatric Association, stated in the foreword to Albert Schweitzer’s The Psychiatric Study of Jesus, 1948.
PEDOPHILE PSYCHIATRISTS
In a 1951 article in the New Yorker, Francis J. Braceland, psychiatrist-in-chief of the Institute of Living psychiatric facility in Connecticut, U.S.A., called on Catholic bishops to shed their “traditional antipathy to the teachings of psychiatry and to seek medical help for troubled priests.” With Braceland’s high standing among the bishops, the Institute of Living began receiving referrals.
As journalist Barry Werth wrote, “The Church’s use of psychiatry, or more precisely, the bishops’ policy of sending priests suspected of having molested minors to psychiatrists and psychologists rather than reporting them to the police, has become one of the most disturbing, and costly, elements….”
A study conducted by Kenneth Pope, former head of the ethics committee for the American Psychological Association, found that 1 out of 20 clients who had been sexually abused by their psychotherapist was a minor. The female victims’ ages ranged from 3 to 17, and it was from 7 to 16 for the males.
PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSTIC FRAUD
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the mental disorders section of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10)—the mental health industry’s diagnostic “system”—have long been under attack for their lack of scientific authority and veracity and their almost singular emphasis on psychotropic drug treatment.
The latest editions of DSM and ICD include religious travail as a new category of mental illness: “V.62.89” (the diagnostic code used for billing purposes) covers treatment for “religious or spiritual problems.”
Religion has turned to psychiatry and psychology at their own peril. Lisa Bazler, a former psychologist and now Christian author of Psychology Debunked, wrote: “[W]e cannot consider psychology…a scientific discipline…the therapist and psychiatrist [can] not objectively measure and analyze the causes and cures of anxiety with statistical repeatability as a doctor and patient could measure and analyze the causes and cures of a broken ankle.”
Clinical psychologist Ty Colbert, author of Rape of the Soul, says that in order to adopt psychiatry’s biological model, one has to “believe in a materialistic, non-spiritual world…the medical model claims there is no mental activity that is due to the spiritual dimension. All activity, even one’s religious beliefs or the belief in God, are nothing more than the workings of the brain.”
Lisa Bazler states further: “Consider the fact that psychology didn’t even exist until the 1800s. How did Christians possibly live for eighteen hundred years without psychology? They lived just fine. Do we know more about living the Christian life to the fullest than Paul, John or Peter? Obviously not, but Christian therapists think they do.…Christian therapists preach a false gospel that contradicts Scripture and follows the opinions of men who hated religion and subtracted God out of all of their theories of human behavior.”
Studies show that youths who are involved in religious activities are less likely to abuse drugs. Among youths who agreed that religious beliefs are a very important part of their life (78.2%), 9.2% had used an illicit drug compared to 20.5% of those youths who strongly disagreed with religion.
SUMMARY
As a result of psychiatrists’ subversive plan for religion, the concepts of good and bad behavior, right and wrong conduct and personal responsibility have taken such a beating that people today have few or no guidelines for checking, judging or directing their behavior. Words like ethics, morals, sin and evil have almost disappeared from everyday usage.
For more than a century, mankind has been the unwitting guinea pig of psychiatry’s deliberate, “social engineering” experiment that was conceived in hell. This experiment included an assault on the essential religious and moral strongholds of society. It could not proceed while man could clearly conceive of, express, and deal with evil. It lies insidiously behind our current social disintegration. And it is the epitome of evil, masked by the most social of outward appearances.
Religion provides the inspiration needed for a life of higher meaning and purpose. As we face psychiatry’s influence on society, it falls upon religious leaders to take decisive steps. Men of the cloth need to shake off the yoke of soulless materialism spawned by psychology and psychiatry and put religion back into the hands of the religious. They must take this responsibility, not only for the sake of religion’s survival, but also for the survival of mankind.
John Rawlings Rees, M.D., “Strategic Planning for Mental Health,” Mental Health, Vol. 1, No. 4, Oct. 1940, pp. 103-4.
2 Barry Werth, “FATHERS’ HELPER; How the Church Used Psychiatry to Care For—and Protect—Abusive Priests,” The New Yorker, 9 June 2003.
3 Ibid.
4 Kenneth Pope, “Sex Between Therapists and Clients,” Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender, (Academic Press, Oct. 2001).
5 Ty C. Colbert, Rape of the Soul, How the Chemical Imbalance Model of Modern Psychiatry has Failed its Patients, (Kevco Publishing, California, 2001), p. 236.
psychiatry Causes Senseless Violence
Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) International has a data base of hundreds of cases of violence that span the last 15 years. The following are but a few examples:
(1) On March 6, 1985, Atlanta postal worker Steven W. Brownlee, pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot and killed a supervisor and a clerk. Another clerk was wounded. Brownlee had received treatment and psychotropic drugs at the Grady Memorial Psychiatric Unit.34
(2) On November 20, 1986, 14-year-old Rod Mathews beat a classmate to death with a bat in the woods near his home in Canton, Massachusetts. He had been prescribed Ritalin since the third grade.35
(3) William Cruse was charged with killing six people in a shooting rampage on April 23, 1987, in Palm Bay, Florida. Cruse had been seeing a Kentucky psychiatrist and stated he had been taking psychiatric drugs for several years.36
(4) Bartley Dobben killed his two young children on November 26, 1987, by casting them in a 1,300 degree foundry ladle. He had been placed on a regimen of psychiatric drugs in 1985.37
(5) On May 20, 1988, Laurie Dann walked into a Winnetka, Illinois second grade classroom carrying three pistols and began shooting innocent little children, killing one and wounding five others before killing herself. Subsequent blood tests revealed that both Lithium and the antidepressant Anafranil were in her bloodstream at the time the murder was committed.38
(6) On September 26, 1988, 19-year-old James Wilson took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school in Greenwood, South Carolina, and started shooting schoolchildren, killing two 8-year-old girls and wounding seven other children and two teachers. Wilson had been in and out of the hands of psychiatrists for years and within eight months of the killings he had been on several psychiatric drugs which can generate violent behavior. Since the age of 14 he had been given psychiatric drugs, including Xanax, Valium, Thorazine and Haldol.39
(7) On January 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy opened fire on a school yard full of young children in Stockton, California. During his vicious and unprovoked assault, Purdy killed five schoolchildren and wounded thirty others before killing himself. During the two years prior to the murders of the Stockton children, Purdy had been on two strong psychiatric drugs of categories known to cause violence.40
(8) On April 28, 1992, Kenneth Seguin drugged his two children, aged 7 and 5, took them to a pond, slashed their wrists and dumped their bodies in the water. He then drove home and killed his wife with an ax while she slept. He was on Prozac at the time.41
(9) In November 1992, Lynwood Drake III, in San Luis Obisbo and Morro Bay, California, shot and killed six people with a hand gun before he killed himself. Metabolized Prozac and Valium were both found in his system.42
(10) In December 1993, Steven Leith of Chelsea, Michigan, walked back into a school meeting and fatally shot the school superintendent and wounded two others including a fellow teacher. He was on Prozac at the time of the shootings.43
(11) Sixteen-year-old Brian Pruitt, who fatally stabbed his grandparents in 1995, had a history of psychiatric treatment and had been prescribed psychiatric drugs.44
(12) On November 3, 1995, Sergeant Steven B. Christian, a twenty-five-year commended veteran of the Dallas police force drove to a police sub-station and seriously wounded an officer outside in his attempt to get inside and shoot others. Christian was shot and killed by two fellow Dallas police officers. The autopsy revealed high levels of an antidepressant in his blood.45
(13) In Connecticut on March 6, 1998, Mathew Beck, a lottery accountant, reported promptly to his job, hung up his coat and methodically gunned down four of his bosses, one of whom he chased through a parking lot before he turned the gun on himself. Beck had been seeing a psychiatrist and taking three types of medication.46
(14) On May 28, 1998, Brynn Hartman murdered her husband, comic Phil Hartman, then committed suicide. She had been prescribed and had been taking the antidepressant drug Zoloft, which the coroner found in her system along with alcohol and cocaine.47
(15) On February 19, 1996, 10-year-old Timmy Becton grabbed his 3-year-old niece as a shield and aimed a shotgun at a Sheriff’s deputy who had accompanied a truant officer to his Florida home. Becton had been taken to a psychiatrist in January and had been put on a psychiatric drug.48
(16) While on vacation, on May 25, 1997, in Las Vegas, 18-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl in the ladies rest room in a casino. He had been diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Dexedrine. He had begun taking the drug a week before the killing.49
(17) On September 27, 1997, 16-year-old Sam Manzie raped and strangled another boy to death. At the time of the killing the younger boy had been selling candy door to door for the local PTA. Manzie was under psychiatric care and was being medicated.50
(18) On May 21, 1998, 14-year-old Kip Kinkel shot and killed his parents and then went on a wild shooting spree at his Springfield, Oregon, high school that left two dead and twenty-two injured. He was reportedly taking Prozac and Ritalin and had been attending anger management classes.51
(19) On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris, one of two Colorado high school seniors who went on a deadly rampage, entered his school shooting students and faculty and setting off explosives. Twelve students and one teacher were killed, along with the two gunmen who ended the rampage by killing themselves, while twenty-three others were wounded. A toxicology report revealed Luvox, an antidepressant, in Harris’ system.52
(20) On May 4, 1999, Steven Allen Abrams rammed his car into a preschool playground in Costa Mesa, California, killing two and injuring five. He had been placed on probation in 1994 which required him to see a psychiatrist and take Lithium.53
CONCLUSION
Horror stories all. On the surface, the idea of tranquilizers or antidepressants creating hostility and violence may not make sense. After all, they are supposed to make people calm and quiet. But the reality is that they can and do create such adverse effects. The scientific evidence, only a part of which is presented above, is overwhelming.
Psychiatric drugs and treatments do create violence and the sooner we recognize this and do something about it, the sooner these kinds of killings will stop.
These are facts that psychiatrists and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) refuse to confront. Psychiatrists for obvious reasonsthey could and should be held liable for crimes committed by their toxically drugged patientsand NAMI because, according to the New York Post, it is awash in money from drug companies–$3.2 million per year from nine such companies–that manufacture these often mind-crippling drugs.54
The above is a small sample of hundreds of cases of murders, suicides, and senseless violence documented in the files of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. Psychiatric drugs create violence. Not everyone who takes a psychiatric drug commits acts of violence, but clearly some do. The research is unequivocal. How many more Littleton, Colorados, will there be before something is done?
CCHR urges that government officials and/or law enforcement bodies, armed with the information contained in this report:
1) Hold legislative hearings to fully investigate the correlation between psychiatric drugs and violence (and suicide);
2) Call for mandatory toxicology reports that specify a testing for psychiatric drugs in anyone who has committed a homicide or serious violent crime;
3) Ensure that where psychiatric mind-altering drugs are implicated in such a crime, the psychiatrist prescribing the drugs be held accountable.
1. Robert Whitaker, Lure of riches fuels testing, The Boston Globe, 17 Nov. 1998.2. Lawrence H. Diller, M.D., Running on Ritalin, the Book, Internet website, http://www.docdiller.com/html/running.htm (accessed 7 May 1999); DEA Report Methylphenidate (Ritalin), Internet website, http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/abuse/chap4/stimula/methylph.htmhttp://165.112.78.61/DrugsofAbuse.html (accessed 7 May 1999). (accessed 7 May 1999); NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Commonly Abused Drugs, Internet website, 3. Public Schools: Pushing Drugs? Gov’t Money May Have Sparked Surge in Ritalin Use, Investor’s Business Daily, 16 Oct. 1997.
4. Physician’s Desk Reference, PDR 52 Edition 1998, p. 1897.
5. Katy Muldoon, Shooting Spurs Debate on Prozac’s Use by Kids, The Oregonian, 1 Jun. 1998
6. Summary of FDA’s Adverse Drug Reaction Reports for Prozac, 1988-1992, obtained through Freedom of Information Act by CCHR.
7. Anti-Depressants (SSRI’s), The International Coalition for Drug Awareness, Internet website, http://www.drugawareness.org/ssri.html; Letters: The Mood Molecule, Time, 20 Oct. 1997.
8. Littleton Gunman Tests Positive for Manic-Inducing Drug, ABC’s Colorado Affiliate KNBC News 4 reports, 4 May 1999, Goddard’s Journal: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/journal.htm, May 1999.
9. Internet website, http://www.breggin.com/luvox.html (accessed 1 May 1999); Precautions, Physician’s Desk Reference, 1998, p. 2892.
10. Gregg Birnbaum, Science or Abuse? State Testing Prozac on 6-Year-Olds, New York Post, 31 Jan. 1999.
11. Robert A. King, M.D., et al., Emergence of Self-Destructive Phenomena in Children and Adolescents during Fluoxetine Treatment, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 30:2, Mar. 1991.
12. Lecomte D, Fornes P Suicide among youth and young adults, 15 through 24 years of age. A report of 392 cases from Paris, 1989-1996, Journal of Forensic Science, 1998 September: 43(5):964-8; Internet website, http://www.nebi.nlm.nih.gov (accessed 1 May 1999).
13. Frygt for misbrugs-epidemi, Politiken, 13 Jun. 1995, reported in CCHR Denmark’s White paper to the Council of Europe and the Danish Government and Parliamentary Committees, entitled Denmark’s Law on Deprivation of Liberty and Other Coercive Measures in PsychiatryCausing Violence, 16 Oct. 1996.
14. D.G. Workman, M.D. and D.G. Cunningham, Effects of Psychotropic Drugs on Aggression in a Prison Setting, Canadian Family Physician, Nov., 1975, pp. 63-66.
15. Daniel S. Chaffin, Phenothiazine-Induced Acute Psychotic Reaction: The ‘Psychotoxicity’ of a Drug, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 121, No. 1, Jul. 1964, pp. 26-32.
16. Richard I. Shader and Alberto DiMascio, Psychotropic Drug Side Effects, (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1970), p. 134.
17. Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, et al., Emergence of Hostility During Alprazolam [Xanax] Treatment, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 141, No. 6, Jun. 1984, pp. 792-93.
18. David L. Gardner and Rex W. Cowdry, Alprazolam-Induced Dyscontrol in Borderline Personality Disorder, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 142, No. 1, Jan. 1985.
19. Theodore Van Putten, The Many Faces of Akathisia, Comprehensive Psychiatry, Vol. 16, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 1975, pp. 43-47.
21. Prozac, Townsend Letter for Doctors, Feb./Mar. 1993, p.179.
22. Paul H. Soloff, et al., Paradoxical Effects of Amitriptyline on Borderline Patients, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 143, No. 12, Dec. 1986, pp. 1603-05.
23. Javad H. Kashani, M.D., et al., Hypomanic reaction to amitriptyline in a depressed child, Psychosomatics, Vol. 21, No. 10, Oct. 1980, pp. 867, 872.
24. Jerome L. Schulte, Homicide and Suicide Associated with Akathisia and Haloperidol [Haldol], American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1985, pp. 3-7.
25. Martin H. Teicher, et al., Emergence of Intense Suicidal Preoccupation During Fluoxetine Treatment, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 147, No. 2, Feb. 1990.
26. Prakash Masand, et al., Suicidal Ideation Related To Fluoxetine Treatment, The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 324, No. 6, 7 Feb. 1991.
27. David Grounds, et al., Antidepressants and Side Effects, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 29, No. 1 Apr. 1995, pp. 156-57.
28. John N. Herrera and others, High Potency Neuroleptics and Violence in Schizophrenics, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol. 176, No. 9, Sept. 1988, pp. 558-61.
29. Walter A. Keckich, Violence as a Manifestation of Akathisia, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 240, No. 20, Nov. 1978, p. 2185.
30. Kvart Mill danskere er pillenarkomaner, Ekstra Bladet, 13 Feb. 1995.
31. Acute Drug Withdrawal, PreMeC Medicines Information Bulletin, August 1996, Internet website, http://www.premec.org.nz/bulletins/53.htm (accessed 18 Mar. 1999).
32. Statement on file at CCHR International.
33. Chris Willman, Long Distance Winner, Entertainment Weekly, 1 May 1998.
34. Duane Riner, Postal Worker Who Killed 2 in ‘85 to Go Free, The Atlanta Journal, 8 Aug. 1989.
35. Katy Corneel, Parents find clue to why their son killed, The Patriot Ledger, 19 Sept. 1987; 15-year-old sentenced to life for killing classmate for kicks, Times Picayune, 11 Mar. 1988.
36. Lynne Bumpus-Hooper, Cruse says he was insane during Palm Bay killings, Orlando (Florida) Sentinel, 7 Jul. 1987.
37. Jack F. Love, How can state compel mentally ill to seek and maintain treatment?, Ann Arbor News, 16 Oct. 1989; Psychiatrist says foundry-murder suspect suffered from delusions, strange behavior, 1989 news article.
38. Did Prescription Drugs Help Trigger Winnetka Shootings?, The Doctor’s People Medical Newsletter for Consumers, Vol. 1, No. 1; Experimental drug was used by child’s killer, Los Angeles Times, 3 Jun. 1988; Suit against Laurie Dann’s parents to proceed, UPI Executive News Service, 8 Feb. 1990.
39. Gunman Kills Girl, Wounds 10 at School, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sept. 1988; School shooting probe continues, The Newton Kansan, 27 Sept. 1988; Psychiatric Drugs Create Killer, Freedom, Nov./Dec. 1988.
40. David Harpster and Kathleen Salamon, Schoolyard Massacre, 5 Kids Die In Shooting, Gunman Injures 30 Others, Then Kills Himself, The Sacramento Union, 18 Jan. 1989; Chronological Life History of Patrick Edward Purdy, prepared by Special Agents Allen Benitez and Phil Lee, Bureau of Investigation, California, Dept. of Justice, 1989, p. 17.
41. Bryan Sierra, Defense says computer exec ‘psychotic’ when he killed family, UP News Wire, 8 Jan. 1993.
42. CVT Central Valley Toxicology, Toxicology Report on drugs found in Lynwood Drake’s system dated 13 Nov. 1992; Dave Wilcox, Drake said to be suicidal, on drugs, The County Telegram-Tribune, 13 Nov. 1992.
43. Jeffri Chadiha, Suspect was found with gun loaded, Ann Arbor News, 19 Dec. 1993.
44. Ken Holloway, Pruitt found guilty of murder, Commercial News, Danvill, IL, 15 Jun. 1996
45. Todd Bensman and Jason Sickles, Police sergeant is killed after shooting officer, The Dallas Morning News, 5 Nov. 1995.
46. Jonathan Rabinovitz, Father of Lottery Killer Agonizes Over Son’s ‘Monstrous’ Act, The New York Times, 9 Mar. 1998.
47. In The Valley, TV Guide, No. 37; Andrew Blankstein and Solomon Moore, Hartman’s Wife Had Alcohol, Cocaine in Her System, Coroner Finds, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jun. 1998.
48. Lisa Holewa, Associated Press Wire, 8 Mar. 1996.
49. Nora Zamichow, The Fractured Life of Jeremy, Los Angeles Times Special Reports, http://www.latimes.com/, 19 Jul. 1998.
50. Manzie to plead insane in killing of Jackson Township 11-year-old, The Boston Globe, Associated Press, 27 Apr. 1998.
51. Maureen Sielaff, Prozac implicated in Oregon shooting, Vigo Examiner, Maureen@Vigo-Examiner.com; transcript of 20/20 national TV show reporting on the Kip Kinkel Oregon Shooting, 22 May 1998.
52. Patrick O’Driscoll, Colo. prosecutors retract that an arrest is imminent, USA Today, 30 Apr. 1999; Robert Lusetich, School killer was on drugs, The Australian, 30 Apr. 1999.
53. Peter Larsen and Tony Saavedra, Investigation: The man wanted to exact revenge for his spurned advances toward a married neighbor, officials say, The Orange County Register, 5 May 1999.
54. Gregg Birnbaum, Patients group getting $3M a year from firms, New York Post, 28 Feb. 1999.
Learn More www.cchr.org
Psychoactive Drugs Cause School Violence
We are devastated by senseless acts of violence; we are even more shocked when children and teens commit these acts. We ask, How could this happen?
Governments and communities have come to realize that they have underestimated the dangers of psychoactive drugs and psychological programs in schools.
- Eight out of 13 U.S. school shootings were committed by teens taking prescribed psychotropic drugs known to cause violent and suicidal behavior.
- At least five teens responsible for school massacres had undergone school-sanctioned anger management or other psychological behavior modification programs such as death education.
- For decades, schools around the world have used death education, a psychological experiment in which the children are made to discuss suicide, what they would like placed in their coffins, and write their own epitaphs in an effort to get kids more comfortable with death. Anger management aims at curbing aggressive or violent behavior but virtually no reliable data exists to prove it can eliminate the problem. In one class, a boy beat up a classmate so badly that six days later the boy was still in the hospital.
- Critics cite 18-year-old Eric Harris (right) and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold as prime examples of the failure of anger management, death education and psychiatric drugs. As students at Columbine High School, Colorado, they were asked to imagine their own death. Harris subsequently had a dream where he and Klebold went on a shooting rampage in a shopping center. In addition to attending these classes, Harris was taking an antidepressant drug known to cause mania (violent behavior). He even wrote about his killing spree dream and handed it in to the psychology teacher. Not long after, Harris and Klebold acted out the dream by shooting and killing 12 students and a teacher, and wounding 23 others.
On May 21, 1998, in Oregon, USA, 14-year-old Kip Kinkel shot and killed his parents and then went on a wild shooting spree at his high school, which left two dead and 22 injured. He was taking a psychiatric stimulant and had undergone a psychological anger management program.
The information on these pages makes it obvious that if education authorities sanction the combination of a psychological value systempsychologists argue that it is value-neutralwith violence-inducing, psychiatric drugs, we have a powder keg waiting for a spark.
Learn more www.cchr.org
11.07.07
Is Your Child Being Given psychological Questionnaires in School?
Psychological Questionnaires: Examples
Most parents have little knowledge of the types of programs or questionnaires that can be given to their child without their consent.
Under such programs, children and teenagers can be asked to fill out invasive and upsetting questionnaires, about such topics as death, sex, family relationships, self esteem or other non-academic matters that can be in and of themselves damaging to the child simply by being asked.
Following is a small sample of questionnaires and tests being used in American schools.
Its All My Fault
This test asks the child to think of as many ways as you can to make each of the following events all your fault.
Stress Checklist
A questionnaire that causes children to think about such things as if they are stressed because they are not accomplishing anything, not popular, dont fit in, dont like the way they look, or have a drinking or a drug problem.
Signs of Stress
Children are told that they are to look over a list of items that describe kids and then check which apply to them. The list includes I think about sex too much, I see things that other people dont think are there, and I steal from places other than home.
Learn more www.cchr.org
Side Effects of Anti-Anxiety Drugs (Minor Tranquilizers, benzodiazepines or sedative hypnotics)
”1997: A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that elderly people taking benzodiazepines for anxiety or insomnia are at increased risk for motor vehicle crashes. Brenda Hemmelgarn, M.N., Samy Suissa, Ph.D., and colleagues from McGill University and Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, studied 224,734 drivers, aged 67 to 84 years and determined a 45% increased rate of motor vehicle crashes involving injuries for elderly patients during the first seven days of taking a long-acting form of benzodiazepine.91″
The below information is taken from a report which overviews the side effects of common psychiatric drugs and includes information on drug regulatory agency warnings, studies and other reports that may not appear in the packaging information for the drugs themselves.
ANTI-ANXIETY DRUGS
(Called Minor Tranquilizers, benzodiazepines or sedative hypnotics)
BRAND NAMES:
Atarax
Ativan
Azene
BuSpar
Centrax
Dalmane
Equanil
Halcion
Klonopin
Lexomyl
Lexotam
Lexotanil
Librax
Libritabs
Librium
Miltown
Paxipam
Reapam
Restoril
Rivotril
Rohypnol
Serapax
Serax
Serestra
Solacen
Stesolid
Temesta
Tranxene
Tybatran
Valium
Verstran
Vistaril
Xanax
SIDE EFFECTS:
Acute hyperexcited states
Aggressive behavior
Agitation
Agranulocytosis
(condition affecting white blood cells causing susceptibility to infection)
Akathisia
Amnesia
Anxiety
Coma
Confusion
Depression
Disorientation
Drowsiness
Epileptic seizures and death have resulted from suddenly stopping
Excitability
Extreme restlessness
Fear
Hallucinations
Hostility
Hysteria
Insomnia
Irritability
Jaundice
Lethargy
Lightheadedness
Liver problems
Memory impairment
Muscle tremors
Nausea
Nervousness
Nightmares
Psychosis
Rage
Sedation
Severe depression
Sexual problems
Sleep disturbances
Slurred speech
Suicide attempt
Transient amnesia
Tremors86
GENERAL WARNINGS AND STUDIES ON ANTI-ANXIETY DRUGS:
Daily use of therapeutic doses of benzodiazepines is associated with physical dependence. Addiction can occur after 14 days of regular use.87 The withdrawal syndrome is similar to that of alcohol withdrawal. Withdrawal “is more prolonged and often more difficult than [withdrawal from] heroin,” stated Dr. Conway Hunter, Jr.88
The typical consequences of withdrawal are anxiety, depression, sweating, cramps, nausea and even psychotic reactions and seizures.89
1990-1996: Benzodiazepines caused 1,810 deaths in Britain, making them more lethal than heroin, cocaine and methadone, which combined accounted for 1,623 deaths.90
1997: A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that elderly people taking benzodiazepines for anxiety or insomnia are at increased risk for motor vehicle crashes. Brenda Hemmelgarn, M.N., Samy Suissa, Ph.D., and colleagues from McGill University and Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, studied 224,734 drivers, aged 67 to 84 years and determined a 45% increased rate of motor vehicle crashes involving injuries for elderly patients during the first seven days of taking a long-acting form of benzodiazepine.91
2001: A British study reported an “increase in hostility and aggression may be reported by patients taking benzodiazepines. The effects range from talkativeness and excitement to aggressive and antisocial acts.”92
February 2001: Cases of “baby-battering,” wife-beating and “grandmother-bashing” were attributed to benzodiazepines by a British professor, C. Heather Ashton.93
March 2005: The UK government House of Commons (Parliament) Health Committee released findings of its inquiry into benzodiazepines (minor tranquilizers) and reported, “The side-effects of benzodiazepine treatment are now known to include excessive sedation, decreased attention, amnesia and sometimes intractable dependence. Abrupt cessation can lead to severe withdrawal symptoms, including convulsions in some patients. Short-term treatment and a long tapering period is now recommended to limit these risks.”94
WARNINGS AND STUDIES ON SPECIFIC ANTI-ANXIETY DRUGS:
ROHYPNOL
Note: The United States has not approved Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) for medical use. Consequently, it is smuggled into the United States from Mexico and South America.
A 2000 Swedish study regarding 47 juvenile delinquents found that 40% were acute abusers of a minor tranquilizer, Rohypnol—known as the “fear reducer” and “date rape” drug—that enabled them to commit extremely violent crimes. Abusers showed no guilt about their violent offenses: “When I stabbed him, it felt like putting a knife into butter,” states the report. “I didn’t feel any emotion when I stabbed him five times,” a teenager reported.95
It is also known as a “club drug,” a general term for a number of illicit drugs, primarily synthetic, that are most commonly encountered at nightclubs and “raves.” The drugs have gained popularity primarily due to the false perception that they are not as harmful, nor as addictive, as mainstream drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The drug chemically induces amnesia and often causes decreased blood pressure, drowsiness, visual disturbances, dizziness, confusion, gastrointestinal disturbances, and urinary retention.96
XANAX:
December 1990: Dr. John Steinberg, medical director of the Chemical Dependency Program at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and president of the Maryland Society of Addiction Medicine, confirmed that patients taking one Xanax tablet each day for several weeks can become addicted. After a patient stops taking the Xanax, according to Steinberg, it takes the brain six to eighteen months to recover. Xanax patients should be warned, he said, that it can take a long time to get over painful withdrawal symptoms.97
Drug experts say Xanax is more addictive than most illegal drugs, including cocaine or heroin, and once someone is hooked, getting off it can be a tortuous and even deadly experience.98
According to a 1984 study of Xanax, “Extreme anger and hostile behavior emerged from eight of the first 80 patients we treated with alprazolam [Xanax]. The responses consisted of physical assaults by two patients, behavior potentially dangerous to others by two more, and verbal outbursts by the remaining four.” The study reported that a woman who had no history of violence before taking Xanax “erupted with screams on the fourth day of taking alprazolam treatment, and held a steak knife to her mother’s throat for a few minutes.”99
In a later study, more than half of the Xanax study group experienced “dyscontrol,” meaning violence or loss of control of aggressive behavior. The violence included “deep neck cuts…wrist cuts…tried to break own arm…threw chair at child…arm and head banging…jumped in front of a car.”100
19
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. It works shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded groups and individuals who share a common purpose to clean up the field of mental health. It shall continue to do so until psychiatry’s abusive and coercive practices cease and human rights and dignity are returned to all.
For further information consult the Physicians’ Desk Reference, which can be found at http://www.pdrhealth.com. It could be dangerous to immediately cease taking psychiatric drugs because of significant and dangerous withdrawal side effects. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, medical doctor. This report and CCHR does not offer medical advice or recommendations.
Side Effects of Antipsychotics (Major Tranquilizers or Neuroleptics)
The below information is taken from a report which overviews the side effects of common psychiatric drugs and includes information on drug regulatory agency warnings, studies and other reports that may not appear in the packaging information for the drugs themselves.
ANTIPSYCHOTICS
(Called Major Tranquilizers or Neuroleptics)
BRAND NAMES: (Older Antipsychotics)
Amidate
Arvynol
Dalmane
Demerol
Depakote
Doriden
Dormalin
Geodon
Haldol
Largon
Lidone
Loxitane
Mellaril
Moban
Navane
Nembutal
Neurontin
Nozinan
Orap
Permitil
Phenergan
Proketazine
Prolixin
Proscom
Quide
Repoise
Serlect
Seroquel
Sparine
Stelazine
Taractan
Tegretol
Thorazine
Tindal
Topamax
Trancopal
Triclos
Trilafon
Versed
Vesprin
BRAND NAMES: (Newer Antipsychotics)
Abilify
Ambien
Clozaril
Compazine
Lamictal
Reserpine
Risperdal
Serentil
Zyprexa
Side Effects:
Akathisia*
Abnormal gait (manner of walking)
Birth defects
Blindness
Blood disorders
Blood-sugar
abnormalities
Blurred vision
Cardiac arrest
Confusion
Death from liver failure
Depression
Diabetes
Drowsiness
Extreme inner-anxiety
Fatal blood clots
Headache
Heart arrhythmia
Heart failure
Heart palpitation
Heat stroke
Hemorrhage
Hostility
Hyperglycemia (abnormally high blood sugar)
Hypoglycemia (abnormally low blood sugar)
Impotence
Insomnia
Involuntary movements
Light-headedness
Manic reaction
Muscle rigidity
Nausea
Nervousness
Neuroleptic malignant
Syndrome*
Nightmares
Painful skin rashes
Pancreatitis (inflammation of pancreas, a gland near the stomach that helps digestion)
Poor concentration
Restlessness
Seizures
Sexual dysfunction
Sleepiness
Spasms
Suicidal thoughts
Swollen and leaking breasts
Tachycardia (heart irregularity)
Tardive dyskinesia*
Tremors
Violence
Vomiting
Weakness
Weight gain68
*Akathisia: A, meaning “without” and kathisia, meaning “sitting,” an inability to keep still. Patients pace about uncontrollably. The side effect has been linked to assaultive, violent behavior.69
*Neuroleptic malignant syndrome: A potentially fatal toxic reaction where patients break into fevers and become confused, agitated, and extremely rigid. An estimated 100,000 Americans have died from it after taking the older antipsychotics.70
*Tardive Dyskinesia: Tardive, meaning “late” and dyskinesia meaning, “abnormal movement of muscles.” Tardive Dyskinesia is a permanent impairment of the power of voluntary movement of the lips, tongue, jaw, fingers, toes, and other body parts.71
GENERAL WARNINGS AND STUDIES ON ANTIPSYCHOTICS:
The Journal of Toxicology reported that the newer antipsychotics “will soon account for the majority of poisonings from antipsychotic agents that get presented to health care facilities in the U.S.”72 It found “seizures are uncommonly associated with atypical antipsychotic agents following both therapeutic doses and overdoses.” And “the ingestion of a single tablet of clozapine (Clozaril), olanzapine (Zyprexa) and risperidone (Risperidal) may cause significant toxicity in a toddler. Ataxia (involuntary muscular movement), confusions, EPS (extrapyramidal symptoms—nerve damage), coma, and respiratory arrest have been reported following ingestion of 50-200mg of clozapine in toddlers.”73
September 2003: The FDA requested the makers of six newer antipsychotic drugs add a caution to their labeling language about the potential risk of diabetes and blood sugar abnormalities.74
June 2004: The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration published an Adverse Drug Reactions Bulletin reporting that the newer antipsychotics could increase the risk of diabetes.75
September 22, 2005: Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman of Columbia University and other researchers published a study in The New England Journal of Medicine that compared the older generation of antipsychotics with several newer ones. Far from proving effectiveness, of the 1,493 patients who had participated, 74% discontinued their antipsychotic drugs before the end of their treatment due to inefficacy, intolerable side effects or other reasons. After 18 months of taking Zyprexa, 64% of the patients taking this stopped, most commonly because it caused sleepiness, weight gain or neurological symptoms like stiffness and tremors.76
December 1, 2005: Researchers found that 18% of nearly 23,000 elderly patients taking the older antipsychotics died within the first six months of taking them.77
May 2, 2006: USA Today released the results of an analysis of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data that showed at least 45 children died between 2000 and 2004 from the side effects of antipsychotic drugs (Clozaril, Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Abilify and Geodon). Despite an adults-only FDA approval for these drugs, according to the USA Today, up to 2.5 million children have been prescribed them. As the FDA’s Adverse Drug Reactions reporting database only collects 1% to 10% of drug-induced side effects and deaths, the true child death rate could be between 450 and several thousand. The USA Today exposé ran on its front page and in a series of 5 other articles spanning 4 pages. Further, there were 1,328 reports of other side effects, some life threatening such as convulsions and low white blood cell count.78
WARNINGS ON SPECIFIC ANTIPSYCHOTICS:
ABILIFY:
Abilify and other antipsychotic drugs have caused a condition referred to as neuroleptic malignant syndrome. This is potentially fatal and patients who develop this syndrome may have high fevers, muscle rigidity, altered mental status, irregular pulse or blood pressure, rapid heart rate, excessive sweating, and heart arrhythmias (irregularities).79
Body temperature regulation—disruption of the body’s ability to reduce core body temperature—has been attributed to antipsychotic agents such as Abilify.80
In April 2003, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen conducted their own review of information published on Abilify. They based their evaluation primarily on publicly available FDA reviews of information submitted by the manufacturer of Abilify in gaining FDA approval for the drug. FDA approval was based on just five trials lasting four to six weeks. According to Public Citizen, “…nothing in these five trials can lead one to believe that aripiprazole (Abilify) is a meaningful advancement in the treatment of schizophrenia.”81
The information insert on Abilify lists hyperglycemia (abnormally high blood sugar—usually associated with diabetes), hypoglycemia (abnormally low blood sugar) and diabetes as possible side effects.82
ZYPREXA:
July 22, 2005: Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of the antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa, agreed to pay $1.07 billion to settle more than 8,000 claims against the drug alleging it can potentially cause life-threatening diabetes.83
September 22, 2005: Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman of Columbia University and other researchers published a study in The New England Journal of Medicine comparing an older generation of antipsychotics with several newer ones.84 After 18 months on Zyprexa, 64% of the patients taking this had stopped, most commonly because it was not well tolerated and caused sleepiness, weight gain or neurological symptoms like stiffness and tremors.85
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. It works shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded groups and individuals who share a common purpose to clean up the field of mental health. It shall continue to do so until psychiatry’s abusive and coercive practices cease and human rights and dignity are returned to all.
For further information consult the Physicians’ Desk Reference, which can be found at http://www.pdrhealth.com. It could be dangerous to immediately cease taking psychiatric drugs because of significant and dangerous withdrawal side effects. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, medical doctor. This report and CCHR does not offer medical advice or recommendations.
Side Effects of Antidepressants (SSRIs)
The below information is taken from a report which overviews the side effects of common psychiatric drugs and includes information on drug regulatory agency warnings, studies and other reports that may not appear in the packaging information for the drugs themselves.
NEWER ANTIDEPRESSANTS
(Called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs)
Brand Names:
Celexa
Cipram
Cipramil
Citopam
Cymbalta
Deprax
Deroxat
Dobupal
Endronax
Effexor
Eufor
Faverin
Fluctine
Fluocim
Gladem
Lexapro
Lustral
Luvox
Paxil
Prisdal
Prozac
Psiquial
Sarafem
Sercerin
Seropram
Seroxat
Strattera
Symbyax (Antidepressant/Antipsychotic mix)
Tolrest
Veritina
Vestra
Zoloft
Side Effects:
Agitation
Akathisia (severe restlessness)
Anxiety
Bizarre dreams
Confusion
Delusions
Emotional numbing
Hallucinations
Headache
Heart attacks
Hostility
Hypomania (abnormal excitement)
Impotence
Insomnia
Loss of appetite
Mania
Memory lapses
Nausea
Panic attacks
Paranoia
Psychotic episodes
Restlessness
Seizures
Sexual dysfunction
Suicidal thoughts or
behavior
Violent behavior
Weight loss
Withdrawal symptoms
include deeper
depression26
GENERAL WARNINGS AND STUDIES ON NEWER ANTIDEPRESSANTS (SSRIs):
1997: Candace B. Pert, Research Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., wrote that SSRIs “may also cause cardiovascular problems in some susceptible people after long-term use, which has become common practice despite the lack of safety studies.”27
March 22, 2004: The FDA warned that SSRIs could cause “anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania (abnormal excitement) and mania (psychosis characterized by exalted feelings, delusions of grandeur).”28
August 20, 2004: A Columbia University review of the pediatric clinical trials of Zoloft, Celexa, Effexor, Paxil, Prozac and another older antidepressant, found that young people who took them could experience suicidal thoughts or actions.29
2004: The British Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (similar to the FDA) issued guidelines that children should not be given most SSRIs because clinical trial data showed an increased rate of harmful outcomes, including hostility.30
October 15, 2004: The FDA ordered pharmaceutical companies to add a “black box” warning to all antidepressants because the drugs could cause suicidal thoughts and actions in children and teenagers. The agency also directed the manufacturers to print and distribute medication guides with every antidepressant prescription and to inform patients of the risks.31
October 21, 2004: The New Zealand Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee recommended that old and new antidepressants not be administered to patients less than 18 years of age because of the potential risk of suicide.32
December 2004: The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration said children and adolescents prescribed SSRI antidepressants should be carefully monitored for the emergence of suicidal ideation. In a study involving Prozac, it said, there was an increase in adverse psychiatric events (acts and thoughts of suicide, self-harm, aggression, violence).33
December 9, 2004: The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, representing 25 European countries, recommended that product information should be changed for antidepressants to warn of the risk of suicide-related behavior in children and adolescents and of withdrawal reactions on stopping treatment. This was reaffirmed in April 2005, warning that the drugs increased suicide-related behavior and hostility in young people.34
February 18, 2005: A study published in the British Medical Journal determined that adults taking SSRI antidepressants were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as patients given placebo (a drug with no real effect; it contains no active ingredients given to a patient in a clinical trial in order to assess the performance of a new drug).35
June 30, 2005: The FDA warned about a potential increased risk of suicidal behavior in adults taking antidepressants, broadening its earlier warning that related only to children and adolescents taking the drugs.36
July 16, 2005: The British Medical Journal published a study, “Efficacy of antidepressants in adults,” by Joanna Moncrieff, senior lecturer in psychiatry at University College London who found that antidepressants, in particular SSRIs, were no more effective than a placebo and do not reduce depression. In a media interview on the study, Dr. Moncrieff stated, “The bottom line is that we really don’t have any good evidence that these drugs work.”37
August 2005: The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration found a relationship between SSRIs and suicidality, akathisia (severe restlessness), agitation, nervousness and anxiety in adults. Similar symptoms could occur during withdrawal from the drugs, it determined.38
August 19, 2005: The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued its strongest warning against child SSRI antidepressant use, stating that the drugs caused suicide attempts and thoughts, aggression, hostility, oppositional behavior and anger.39
August 22, 2005: Norwegian researchers found that patients taking SSRI antidepressants were seven times more likely to experience suicide than those taking placebo.40
May 1, 2006: An American Journal of Psychiatry study revealed that elderly people prescribed SSRI antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft are almost five times more likely to commit suicide during the first month on the drugs than those given other classes of antidepressants.41
WARNINGS AGAINST NEWER ANTIDEPRESSANTS TAKEN DURING PREGNANCY:
February 5, 2005: An analysis of World Health Organization medical records found that infants whose mothers took SSRI antidepressants while pregnant could suffer withdrawal effects.42
September 7, 2005: The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration warned that SSRI antidepressant use during pregnancy could cause “withdrawal effects that can be severe or life-threatening.”43
September 27, 2005: The FDA warned that Paxil and other SSRI antidepressants taken during the first trimester of pregnancy could cause increased risk of major birth defects, including heart malformations in newborn infants.44
February 6, 2006: A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine determined that nearly one-third of newborn infants whose mothers took SSRI antidepressants during pregnancy experienced withdrawal symptoms that included high-pitched crying, tremors and disturbed sleep.45
March 10, 2006: Health Canada issued a warning that pregnant women taking SSRIs and other newer antidepressants placed newborns at risk of developing a rare lung and heart condition.46
CYMBALTA:
June 30, 2005: The FDA warned that the latest antidepressant Cymbalta could increase suicidal thinking or behavior in pediatric patients taking it.47
October 17, 2005: The FDA ordered Eli Lilly & Co. to add a warning to the packaging of its antidepressant Cymbalta, that it could cause liver damage.48
PAXIL:
December 8, 2005: The FDA warned that Paxil taken by pregnant women in their first trimester may cause birth defects, including heart malformations.49
May 12, 2006: GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of Paxil, sent a letter to doctors warning that its antidepressant increases the risk of suicide in adults. It was the first warning of its kind by a manufacturer.50
STRATTERA:
December 17, 2004: The FDA required that packaging for Strattera carry a new warning advising, “Severe liver damage may progress to liver failure resulting in death or the need for a liver transplant in a small percentage of patients.”51 The drug should be discontinued in patients who develop jaundice (condition that causes yellowness of the skin, eyes and body fluids) or liver injury. The FDA noted, “The labeling warns that severe liver damage may progress to liver failure resulting in death or the need for a liver transplant in a small percentage of patients.”52 Signs of the possible liver problems include jaundice, dark urine, unexplained flu-like symptoms, upper right-side abdominal tenderness and a form of itchy skin known as pruritus (caused by irritation of the sensory nerve endings).53 Other common side effects are headache, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, anorexia (eating “disorder”) and weight loss, nervousness, somnolence (drowsiness).54
September 29, 2005: The FDA directed Eli Lilly & Co. to revise Strattera labeling to include a boxed warning about the increased risk of suicidal thinking in children and adolescents taking it.55
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. It works shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded groups and individuals who share a common purpose to clean up the field of mental health. It shall continue to do so until psychiatry’s abusive and coercive practices cease and human rights and dignity are returned to all.
For further information consult the Physicians’ Desk Reference, which can be found at http://www.pdrhealth.com. It could be dangerous to immediately cease taking psychiatric drugs because of significant and dangerous withdrawal side effects. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, medical doctor. This report and CCHR does not offer medical advice or recommendations.
Side Effects of psychostimulants
The below information is taken from a report which overviews the side effects of common psychiatric drugs and includes information on drug regulatory agency warnings, studies and other reports that may not appear in the packaging information for the drugs themselves.
PSYCHOSTIMULANTS
BRAND NAMES:
Adderall
Benzedrine
Concerta
Cylert (now removed
from the market)
Daytrana (skin patch)
Deaner
Desoxyn
Dexedrine
Focalin
Metadate
Methylin
Provigil
Ritalin
Sparlon
SIDE EFFECTS:
Abdominal pain
Aggression
Angina (sudden acute
pain)
Anorexia
Blood pressure and
pulse changes
Blurred vision
Depression
Dizziness
Drowsiness
Dry mouth
Fever
Hallucinations
Headaches
Heart palpitations
Hypersensitivity
Increased irritability
Insomnia
Involuntary tics and
twitching called
Tourette’s Syndrome
Liver problems
Loss of appetite
Mental/mood changes
Moodiness
Nausea
Nervousness
Psychosis
Restlessness
Seizures
Stomach pain
Stunted growth
Suicidal thoughts
Tachycardia (heart
irregularity)
Toxic psychosis
Unusual weakness or
tiredness
Violent behavior
Vomiting
Weight loss
“Zombie” demeanor1
Suicide is a major complication of withdrawal from Ritalin and similar amphetamine-like drugs.2
Note: The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies methylphenidate, the generic name for Ritalin and Concerta, as a Schedule II narcotic in the same abuse category as morphine, opium and cocaine.3
Methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta) is amphetamine-like as it is very similar in chemical structure to amphetamine and its effects on the body. An amphetamine’s chemical structure resembles natural stimulants in the body, like adrenaline. However, as a drug, it alters the natural system in the body and can reduce appetite and fatigue and “speed” you up. A stimulant (psychostimulant) refers to any mind-altering chemical or substance that affects the central nervous system by speeding up the body’s functions, including the heart and breathing rates. Stimulants are most often prescribed to children for the so-called condition Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In children, stimulants appear to act like suppressants but psychiatrists and doctors have no idea why. A 1999 study published in Science Journal, determined: “The mechanism by which psychostimulants act as calming agents…is currently unknown.”4
Note: Strattera, a non-stimulant ADHD drug, is an antidepressant.
GENERAL WARNINGS AND STUDIES ON PSYCHOSTIMULANTS:
June 28, 2005: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified possible safety concerns with methylphenidate (Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta) drug products. Specifically noted were psychiatric adverse effects linked to stimulants prescribed to treat children “ADHD,” such as visual hallucinations, suicidal ideation, psychotic behavior, aggression and violent behavior. The FDA announced its intention to make labeling changes and to examine other stimulant drug products approved for the treatment of ADHD.5
September 13, 2005: The Oregon Health & Science University, Evidence-Based Practice Center published the findings of its review of 2,287 studies—virtually every study ever conducted on “ADHD” drugs—and found that no trials had shown the effectiveness of these drugs and that there was a lack of evidence that they could affect “academic performance, risky behaviors, social achievements, etc.” Further, “We found no evidence on long-term safety of drugs used to treat ADHD in young children” or “adolescents.”6
January 5, 2006: The FDA said it had received reports of sudden deaths, strokes, heart attacks and hypertension (high blood pressure) in both children and adults taking “ADHD” drugs and asked its Drug Safety and Risk Management advisory committee to examine the potential of cardiovascular (heart) risks of the drugs.7
February 4, 2006: A University of Texas study published in Pediatric Neurology reported cardiovascular problems in people taking stimulants.8
February 9, 2006: The FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee urged that the FDA’s strongest “black box” warning be issued for stimulants stating that they may cause heart attacks, strokes and sudden death.9
March 22-23, 2006: Two FDA advisory panels held hearings into the risk of stimulants and another new “ADHD” drug called Sparlon. Between January 2000 and June 30, 2005, the FDA had received almost 1,000 reports of kids experiencing psychosis or mania whiletaking the drugs. The first panel recommended stronger warnings against stimulants, emphasizing these on special handouts called “Med Guides” that doctors must give to patients with each prescription. The second committee recommended not to approve Sparlon, which the manufacturer, Cephalon, estimated would lose them $100 million in drug sales.10
March 28, 2006: The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration announced its review of reports of 400 adverse reactions to stimulants in children taking them, including strokes, heart attacks and hallucinations.11
Abuse of Stimulants
August 2001: A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that methylphenidate is chemically similar to cocaine.12 Children who took stimulants were more likely to start smoking or use cocaine and continue these habits into adulthood.13
May 2005: Partnership for a Drug-Free America released the findings of its survey, which determined that 10% (2.3 million) of teens had abused Ritalin and Adderall.14
February 25, 2006: A study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence revealed that seven million Americans were estimated to have abused stimulant drugs and a substantial amount of teenagers and young adults now appeared to show signs of addiction.15
WARNINGS AND STUDIES ON SPECIFIC PSYCHOSTIMULANTS:
ADDERALL:
Adderall has been linked to violent behavior when, in 2000, a North Dakota judge acquitted 26-year-old Ray Ehlis of murdering his 5-week-old daughter after two independent psychiatrists testified he was suffering a severe psychosis induced by Adderall.16
June 2004: The FDA ordered that the packaging for Adderall include a warning about sudden cardiovascular deaths, especially in children with underlying heart disease.17
February 9, 2005: Health Canada, the Canadian counterpart of the FDA, suspended marketing of Adderall XR (Extended Release, given once a day) due to reports of 20 sudden unexplained deaths (14 in children) and 12 strokes (2 in children) in patients taking Adderall or Adderall XR. However, in August 2005, Health Canada agreed to reinstate the marketing authorization with a number of revisions to the labeling. The labeling was revised to include warnings against the use of Adderall XR18 in patients with structuralheart abnormalities and advised about the dangers of misusing amphetamines.19
April 21, 2005: Partnership for a Drug-Free America, released its findings of a study that determined that 10% of teens (2.3 million) had abused the stimulants Adderall and Ritalin.20
CYLERT:
In 1999, the Ontario Medical Association Committee on Drugs and Pharmacotherapy reported that sales of Cylert were to be suspended in Canada, after a risk benefit assessment concluded that Cylert posed a threat of serious liver complications, including liver failure resulting in death or liver transplantation. The findings said that the risks far outweighed the benefits of continued use.21
Britain and Canada removed Cylert from the market after reports of death related to liver problems in people taking it.
October 24, 2005: The FDA finally withdrew Cylert from the market because of its “overall risk of liver toxicity” and liver failure.22
RITALIN:
The Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR) warns, “psychotic episodes can occur” with abuse. Suicide is the major complication of withdrawal from Ritalin and similar drugs.23
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says Ritalin could lead to addiction and that “psychotic episodes, violent behavior and bizarre mannerisms had been reported” with its use.24
2002: Researchers at the University of Buffalo conducted studies that showed Ritalin might cause long-term changes in the brain. Conducted on rats, the study revealed the changes to the brain are similar to those seen with cocaine.25
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. It works shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded groups and individuals who share a common purpose to clean up the field of mental health. It shall continue to do so until psychiatry’s abusive and coercive practices cease and human rights and dignity are returned to all.
For further information consult the Physicians’ Desk Reference, which can be found at http://www.pdrhealth.com. It could be dangerous to immediately cease taking psychiatric drugs because of significant and dangerous withdrawal side effects. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, medical doctor. This report and CCHR does not offer medical advice or recommendations.
