Thursday, January 15, 2015

A Plea to Therapists, Everywhere


(Especially to non-prescribing Marriage and Family Counselors)

▫  You may have had years of experience.
▫  You may believe your skills are sufficient for every (or almost every) case.
▫  You may or may not be a believer in psychotropic drug therapies.
▫  You may feel you keep up-to-date with advancements in your professional field.
▫  You may have thought (even said), more than once, “I am very good at what I do.”
▫  And you may, indeed, be very good,

but in this age of Big Pharma1 and polypharmacy,2 if one of your first inquiries of a new or returning patient is not: “Are you taking any medications?” then, in nigh 100% probability, you are prolonging the suffering, confusion, and peril, not just of your patient, but of those who love that patient. (The same applies to a second question: “Have you attempted or are you now attempting to end a medication regime?”)

So this is the PLEA: Please, no matter how skilled you are:
▪  if you are not asking a patient about medications (& even herbs, supplements, or hormonal therapies that have psychoactive potential);
▪  if you are not factoring in known and potential side-effects;
▪  if you are not knowledgeable about adverse reactions, drug-induced CBI (Chronic Brain Impairment); anosognosia; medication spellbinding, etc.;3
▪   if you think it is not your place to question a prescriber;4
▪   if you are not open to the observations of family and friends of the patient;5
▪   if you are not reading and informing yourself about the mounting, evidence-based damage reports surrounding psychotropic drug use (and other psychoactive substances), AND the pervasive suppression of critical data by drug companies and others;6
then please, please, become humble enough to look beyond your present paradigm. Be humble enough to listen to:


Ben Goldacre: What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe
TED talk (Time 13:30) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKmxL8VYy0M



Peter Breggin, MD: Simple Truths about Psychiatry (1)
Do You Have a Biochemical Imbalance? (Time: 7:42)
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARZ2Wv2BoFs



Peter Breggin, MD: Simple Truths about Psychiatry (2)
How Do Psychiatric Drugs Really Work? (Time 10:50)
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Xb29geVwE



Peter Breggin, MD: Simple Truths about Psychiatry
Psychiatric Drugs Are More Dangerous than You Ever Imagined
(Time: 9:18) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luKsQaj0hzs
(See also the balance of the Simple Truths series)

Please, be open to the truths of independent, evidence-based medicine and the credible, professional witnesses that are exposing the dark-side of Big Pharma.

Please explore:
•  Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families by Peter R. Breggin, MD,  (Springer Publishing Company, New York, © 2013)
•  Psychiatric Drug Facts at http://breggin.com/
•  Toxic Psychiatry at http://www.toxicpsychiatry.com/
•  Beyond Meds at http://beyondmeds.com/
•  Numerous other credible witnesses. They are everywhere.
Please, do not wait before you investigate medications, side-effects, and adverse withdrawal reactions. If you ignore the unscriptable, chemical distortions of the mind, how can you hope to guide the mind and soul toward a lasting healing?

Please, be part of the solution to this manufactured epidemic profiled in
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker
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1. “Twenty percent {1 in every 5] of adult Americans were taking psychiatric drugs in 2010—15% of men and 26% of women (Medco, 2011).” As quoted in Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families by Peter R. Breggin, MD, (Springer Publishing Company, New York, © 2013), p. 1.
2. “’Polypharmacy’ refers to the concurrent use of multiple medications in a single patient.” Quoted from a DovePress abstract titled, “Polypharmacy or medication washout: an old tool revisited” at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
3. See Breggin, Chapter 3: Chronic Brain Impairment: Four symptom complexes: 1. Cognitive dysfunction; 2. Apathy and indifference; 3. Emotional worsening; 4. Anosognosia (patient’s lack of awareness of their symptoms).
Anosognosia: is viewed as a deficit of self-awareness, a condition in which a person who suffers certain disability seems unaware of the existence of his or her disability. It was first named by the neurologist Joseph Babinski in 1914. Anosognosia results from physiological damage on brain structures, typically to the parietal lobe or a diffuse lesion on the fronto-temporal-parietal area in the right hemisphere. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anosognosia )
4. Review Breggin, p. 2-3, section titled: “Relationship between Prescribers and Therapists”; and Chapter 12: Developing Team Collaboration, p. 147-158.
Consider: What is your primary interest—to help your patient in healing or to protect the status of a prescriber?
5. “Always take seriously the concerns of family and friends; they can be the prescriber and the patient’s best ally during psychiatric medication treatment and withdrawal” (Breggin, p. 17). “The patient’s family and friends are often the first to notice adverse drug effects, including overmedication, and the prescriber and clinicians should pay close attention to their concerns and observations” (Ibid., p. 18).
6. Suppression of Data: review Ben Goldman at TED Talks; Breggin, p. 14-16, and numerous others studies and observations.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Washout ?

(Re-viewing psychotropic drugs)

Washout
4. (informal)
1. a total failure or disaster
2. an incompetent person
3. dose tapering of medication to more safely discontinue
its use or to (ostensibly) eliminate its effects
before commencing a different treatment regime
(source: industry idiom1)

But perhaps we should expand the meaning of “washout” as we consider:
▪  the effects of profit motive on integrity and compassion;
▪  the psychopathology2 of most profit-driven corporations;
▪  the psychopathology of many HyPEs;3
▪  the massive, addictive profits in PR and propaganda;4
▪  the practice of off-label drug marketing;5
▪  too many slap-on-the-wrist fines (relative to profits); “do NOT go to jail” standards;
▪  the myopia of permitting industry-funded efficacy studies and of FDA revolving doors;
▪  the pervasive “cancer” of publication bias and research misconduct;6
▪  the “accountable to shareholders” con;7
▪  the “rapid increase in the use of polypharmacy in psychiatry”;8
▪  the number of (ignored) witnesses coming forward,9 as in


» Gwen Olsen, former Rx Drug Rep.
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIm8fHxqUAM (Time: 7:18)
see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4bYng7X7Kk (Time: 5:51)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIASdSFV8fI (Time: 8:52)



» Documentary: Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tse5TtcNZ8U (Time: 1.34.42)



» Dr. John Abramson (UCTV) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8CIDuxCC0 (Time: 29:40);
author of Overdosed America

» Podcast: Robert Whitaker on Psychiatric Drugs at http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/features/2014/06/08/robert-whitaker-on-psychiatric-drugs/ (Time: 29.50); and author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

» Website: http://www.drugawareness.org/ 
Of course, some(?) percentage of patients may benefit (or believe they benefit) from chemical intervention, but the broad picture established by independent studies is that other non-prescription treatments achieve results (without the severe or dangerous side-effects) that psychotropic drugs do not and cannot achieve by the very nature of how they work and what they, in reality, do.

So, if we consider all the above (and more), perhaps we should add to the washout definitions:

Washout
5. (observed)
1. loss of life, hopes, and dreams of millions of mis-medicated
2. impunity for many drug companies for false and misleading
speech; for frauds and depraved indifference
3. mis-education (and/or apathy) of the prescribed and their
prescribers because of PR / propaganda, (& Rx perks)
4. loss of life, hopes, and dreams of many family, friends, and
victims10 of the mis-medicated

Interesting, is it not, how washout and whitewash seem twin strategies for this profit-driven Hydra?

So here are three questions:
•  How long this culture of denial?
•  How long, with the knowledge and unbiased studies that are out there, before the first question of every marriage & family therapist is: “What are the medications in this family?”11 (Please read the footnote.)
•  How long before we utterly refuse to participate any more in WASHOUT and WHITEWASH?
Here are a couple of beginning answers:
•  Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs: A Harm Reduction Approach to Medication Withdrawal | Will Hall at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4bdG601k4k (Time 39:15)

•  Website: http://beyondmeds.com/
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1. Derived from various online readings & videos, plus “Washout” article at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
2. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/05/a-plague-of-psychopaths.html ; The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan, et al. at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zQO7JytzQ (Time: 2.25.18)
3. (Highly Paid Employees); http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/10/public-enemy-1.html ; http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2014/12/without-conscience.html
4. University of California TV:
•  Overview of Pharma Industry Marketing Practices (1) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHC5AYAUVI (Time: 23:47)
•  Industry Sponsored Research and Marketing (Pt. 2) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoDdQ6foEtc (Time 27:46)
•  Industry Sponsored Education and Marketing (Pt. 3) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrcdKB6_I4w (Time: 27:40)
•  Direct-to-Consumer Pharma Marketing (Pt. 4) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrSoTvhIPzc (Time: 28:56)
•  Effects of Marketing on Prescribing: Does It Matter? (Pt.5) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AjwPZuivBY (Time: 28:49)
5. Off-Label Marketing & Free Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3wrbuwum0
6. Ben Goldacre: What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe ~ TED talk (Time 13:29) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKmxL8VYy0M
7. The Great Con: http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2012/03/great-con.html
8. “’Polypharmacy’ refers to the concurrent use of multiple medications in a single patient.” Quoted from a DovePress abstract titled, “Polypharmacy or medication washout: an old tool revisited” at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
9. Numerous additional witnesses can be found by searching “Big Pharma,” “SSRI,” “Prescription Suicide,” etc. Here are a few extras:
•  Risky Business: Reporting on Research in the Media (UCTV) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it5yyn_lIKg (Time 57:26)
•  The Truth About the Drug Companies - Dr. Marcia Angell at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDbQNBla6aU (Time 1:17:36)
•  Manipulation of Data: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18775/do-washout-periods-in-drug-studies-lead-to-underestimates-of-side-effects
10. See http://www.drugawareness.org/ for the expanding list of tragic victims of the mis-medicated.
11. Please understand: This is not to say that all family problems arise from medication, but with the known problems, the listed (and expanding) side-effects, and massive over-prescribing, why do we not comprehend that medicines play a key role in understanding behaviors and solutions?

 
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