In This Issue

• DSM Slammed for Links to Drug Companies
• No Blood Tests Exist for Invented Conditions
• Antipsychotic Drugs Kill Children
• "ADHD" Stimulants Under Fire…Again
• Drug Companies Skew Drug Studies
• CCHR's Latest White Papers
• Fight For Kids Foundation Fundraising Luncheon

DSM SLAMMED FOR LINKS TO DRUG COMPANIES

Recently, major international news outlets such as The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal ran articles exposing that the psychiatrists who decide which “mental disorders” are included in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)have ties to pharmaceutical companies that manufacture drugs to “treat” those disorders.

The DSM has grown from a mere 119 pages in 1968 to 886 in the latest edition and includes categories sufficiently broad as to label anyone as “mentally ill.”

Unlike medical diseases, there is no objective test to prove any chemical or biological cause for any disorder in the DSM. Yet billions of dollars of psychiatric drugs are prescribed to “treat” these conditions every year—conditions that comprise symptoms that psychiatrists literally vote to name a “disorder” for inclusion in the DSM.


The DSM-Drug Company Connection

It may seem hard to believe how so many psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs could be prescribed to treat conditions that don’t physically exist—until you see that the same people who define the “disorders” have financial relationships with drug companies.

A study published in April’s Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics revealed the incestuous financial relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the DSM. Lisa Cosgrove, a psychologist from the University of Massachusetts and Sheldon Krimsky, a Tufts University professor, conducted the study, entitled, “Financial Ties between DSM-IV Panel Members and the Pharmaceutical Industry.”

The study revealed that more than half of the 170 panel members responsible for overseeing the DSM had undisclosed financial ties to the drug industry.

“Mood disorders” (which includes “depression” and “bipolar”) and “schizophrenia/psychotic disorders” are treated by the largest categories of psychiatric drugs in the world: 2004 sales of $20.3 billion for antidepressants and $14.4 billion for antipsychotic drugs alone.

The study also disclosed that the pharmaceutical industry had injected $7.5 million into APA journal advertising in 2003, increasing this 22% within a year to $9.1 million.

Dr. Cosgrove said the public is “unaware of how egregious (flagrant) the financial ties are in the field of psychiatry” to the pharmaceutical industry.

FDA-Pharmaceutical-
Psychiatric Cabal

Nor are they aware of the drug company connections to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The renowned Washington “think tank” group, Public Citizen came out with a subsequent study that determined that FDA advisory committee members also have financial conflicts with drug companies.

This makes the results of Dr. Cosgrove’s study of even greater concern because, as she points out, the FDA “will not approve a drug to treat mental illness unless the condition is in theDSM. Drug companies can then market approved medications to physicians and consumers.”

NO BLOOD TESTS EXIST FOR INVENTED CONDITIONS

In media interviews, Dr. Cosgrove confirmed what CCHR and others have been stating for decades, saying:, “No blood tests exist for the disorders in the DSM. It relies on judgments from practitioners who rely on the manual.”

Criticisms were leveled at the DSM in another study published by the journal PLOS Medicine (Public Library of Science, a non-profit group) that accused the drug industry of "disease-mongering," inventing diseases such as "restless legs syndrome," "social anxiety disorder" and "Premenstrual Dysphoric (unhappy) Disorder."

CCHR is further exposing the destructiveness of the vested interests involved in the DSM and drug manufacturing and is demanding that no government legislation, court evidence or any other legal process rely upon the DSM.

ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUGS KILL CHILDREN

On May 2, USA Today released the results of an analysis of FDA data that showed at least 45 children died between 2000 and 2004 from the side effects of antipsychotic drugs. At least six of the 45 deaths were related to diabetes. Other causes ranged from heart and pulmonary (lung disease) problems, suicide, choking and liver failure.

CCHR's watchdog role has ensured that the dangerous and potentially lethal side effects of psychiatric drugs are reported in its publications and on its website. The USA Todayantipsychotic drug warning is the latest in a series of more than 40 international drug regulatory agency warnings against psychiatric drugs since 2004.

Despite an adults-only FDA approval for antipsychotics, the USA Today reported that up to 2.5 million children have been prescribed them. Further, there were 1,328 reports of other side effects, some life threatening, such as convulsions and low white blood cell count.

Tremors, weight gain and sedation were cited, along with neurological (brain) effects, such as tardive dyskinesia (tardive, meaning "late" anddyskinesia meaning, "abnormal movement of muscles"). This causes involuntary movement of the lips, tongue, jaw, fingers, toes, and other body parts.

Interviewed by USA Today was Mrs. Erin Evans who spoke about her eight-year-old son being prescribed an ADHD drug because he had trouble focusing in school. Then he was put on Prozac that worsened him. The diagnosis was changed and he was prescribed the antipsychotic, Risperdal. When he didn't improve, the psychiatrist simply increased the dose. Within a month the boy suffered tremors and his hands shook so much that he could barely write at school. Mrs. Evans started to wean her son off the drug only to discover it had caused permanent damage: tardive dyskinesia. Shortly after his becoming drug-free, a thorough physical examination determined the boy actually suffered from spasms in his chest that were restricting the flow of oxygen to his brain. He began oxygen therapy and quickly became more responsive to others and did better at school. However, he is still left with the stigmatizing effects of tardive dyskinesia. "I trusted the doctors. I trusted the FDA…and I feel betrayed by both," Mrs. Evans said.

"ADHD" STIMULANTS UNDER FIRE...AGAIN

On March 22 and 23, 2006, two FDA advisory panels held hearings into the risk of stimulants and another new non-stimulant drug called Sparlon prescribed for the treatment of "ADHD." During the hearing, evidence revealed that from January 2000 to June 30, 2005, the FDA had received almost 1,000 reports of kids experiencing psychosis or mania while taking the drugs.

The first advisory committee included pediatricians, a child psychiatrist and various other medical representatives.

Additionally, there were "voting members" of the FDA that included five psychiatrists, a pharmacologist and only one consumer representative. There were also several psychiatrists who are FDA executives that sat as non-voting members. Psychiatrists and drug company delegates were heavily represented among those testifying.

Not surprisingly, the advisory panels did not recommend that stimulants be given the FDA's strongest "black box" warning (See DSM story for links between FDA advisory members and drug companies). Since 2003, when the FDA began issuing stronger warnings against antidepressants, there has been a 25% drop in antidepressant prescriptions to youngsters. Clearly, there is concern among those profiting from drugs about what a "black box" warning on stimulants would do!

However, despite psychiatric influence to the contrary, and in response to medical testimony warning of the serious risk of cardiac arrest, stroke and death from stimulants, stronger warnings have been advised.

The first committee recommended:

1. To increase the warnings about the stimulants, emphasizing these on special handouts called "Med Guides" that doctors must give to patients with each prescription. Parents won't have to wade through complex packaging information to find the adverse side effects.

2. The Med Guides will educate people that they can and should report any side effect from the drug to the FDA, bypassing the line to doctors who may not report them.

The second committee recommended that Sparlon, which the FDA had given temporary approval for use in ADHD, not be given permanent approval because it can cause a potentially fatal skin disease, mania and aggression.

On March 27, it was also announced that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the Australian equivalent to the FDA, is reviewing reports of 400 adverse reactions to stimulants in children taking them. Children as young as five suffered strokes, heart attacks, hallucinations and convulsions.

CCHR in Australia had filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the TGA to obtain the adverse reactions reports relating to stimulants and released the documentation they obtained to the media. The Australian newspaper broke the story that was then picked up by the media internationally.

KIDS OVERDOSE ON STIMULANTS

In yet another damning indictment of the dangerous effects of stimulants, scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the drugs drive nearly 3,100 people per year to hospital emergency rooms. The researchers determined that accidental overdoses and side effects from stimulants likely send thousands of children and adults to emergency rooms; other patients had side effects, including potential cardiac problems such as chest pain, stroke, high blood pressure and fast heart rate.

The issue was discussed in a series of letters in the May edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors linked the use of stimulant drugs to 73 patients with side effects or allergic reactions.

Another 115 accidentally swallowed the pills, including a month-old baby, or took too much. Nearly one in five patients was admitted to the hospital, one in five needed stomach pumping or treatment with other medicines, and one in seven had cardiac symptoms.

DRUG COMPANIES SKEW DRUG STUDIES

Researchers at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City conducted a study on the influence of drug company funded-research of psychiatric drugs, determining that drugs are given much more favorable results in trials paid for by pharmaceutical companies compared to those done independently or by competitors. Reported inUSA Today on May 25, the study also found that drug companies paid for about 57% of published studies in 2002, compared with 25% in 1992.

CCHR’S LATEST
WHITE PAPERS

Psychiatry, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the FDA—A Destructive Alliance Endangering the Lives of Children

This white paper details the history of the invented disorder, ADHD, and highlights how the pharmaceutical industry today gets away with advertising that it and other “mental disorders” are brain-based diseases because the FDA regulations have a loophole. A form of advertising known as “help-seeking” ads allows companies to discuss a “disease” or “condition” and to advise the audience to “see your doctor” for possible treatments (or visit a website, which is usually the drug company’s.)

Because no drug product is mentioned, the FDA does not consider this a drug advertisement and, therefore, does not regulate it.

The white paper addresses the involvement of psychiatrists, psychologists and the pharmaceutical industry in the FDA’s decision to approve direct-to-consumer marketing of psychiatric and other drugs, which has led to an increase in stimulant prescriptions in recent years.

This is vital information for parents, policy makers and educators and provides facts and medical evidence on why mental disorders are not medical diseases. It also lists the side effects of key psychiatric drugs prescribed to treat ADHD and provides information on the alternatives.

Using the information from this white paper, on April 12, CCHR filed a complaint with FDA Commissioner, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, seeking regulations to be issued that prevent pharmaceutical companies from promoting so-called mental disorders such as ADHD as neurobiological diseases or the result of any chemical or other physical cause or abnormality.

CCHR also wants the FDA to ban the use of stimulants on children and teens (minimally give “black box” warnings), and abolish the regulations allowing direct-to-consumer marketing of psychiatric drugs.

The white paper has already been sent to more than 13,000 law enforcement officers, doctors, attorneys, health care insurance fraud investigators and more than 30 legislators. However, CCHR wants to get this into the hands of every legislator in the U.S. and every medical school library. You can help us get these distributed by purchasing and distributing copies yourself or by donating to CCHR which will enable us distribute the reports:

$5 for 1 copy
$35 for 10 copies
$175 for 50 copies
$350 for 100 copies

(Plus shipping and handling.)

Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers: A Financial Vested Interest Harming in the Name of Health Care

The 30-page white paper covers in detail the Psycho-therapy and Psycho-somatics study (see page 1) exposing the pharmaceutical industry links to the manu-facturers of theDSM. It includes other expert studies and comments about psychiatry’s inability to scientifically diagnose any “mental disorder” and that psychiatrists admit they do not know the cause of or cure for any of these disorders.

There is a 6-page chronology of the international drug regulatory warnings against antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants and stimulants since 2004. This includes official warnings from Australia, Italy, Europe, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States.

This public information report also needs to be distributed to every legislator and medical school library. You can help in the distribution of these with a donation to CCHR in the following amounts:

$6 for 1 copy
$42 for 10 copies
$210 for 50 copies
$420 for 100 copies

(Plus shipping and handling.)

FIGHT FOR KIDS FOUNDATION FUNDRAISING LUNCHEON

On May 23, CCHR International launched its Fight For Kids Foundation with a luncheon to raise funds for its campaign to alert parents, educators and legislators about the dangers of psychiatry’s fraudulent childhood “mental disorders” and the drugs prescribed for them. This launch has never been timelier. As stated earlier, USA Today revealed 45 child deaths from antipsychotic drugs. There were 186 child deaths from stimulants reported to the FDA between 1990 and 2000. This year the FDA also revealed 25 children had died while taking stimulants between 2000 and 2004. There is also at least 100 known child and adolescent suicides from antidepressants. Therefore, since 1990, the estimated number of child and adolescent deaths from psychiatric drugs in the U.S. alone was 356. As these figures only represent between 1% and 10% of reported drug adverse reactions, the figure could be 3,560 or as high as 35,000.

Marisol Nichols, star of the ABC series Justiceand a CCHR Commissioner and spokesperson on children’s rights, addressed the more than 70 people who attended the successful and informative one-hour luncheon at CCHR International. She spoke of the financial investment in the Fight For Kids Foundation being an “investment in our society’s future and I believe that it is one of the most important investments that any of us can make.”

Other supporters of this campaign include CCHR Commissioner, actress Kelly Preston, and her husband John Travolta who in March, attended a public awareness event hosted by the fashion company Ports 1961 at their New York showroom. Ports 1961 recognized Ms. Preston's contributions to the Fight For Kids campaign and helped raise funds on the night of this event.

Guest speakers included renowned columnist and radio host Ms. Arianna Huffington who was introduced by Douglas Kennedy of FOX National News. Mr. Kennedy produced the compelling series a few years back that exposed how teens responsible for school shootings were taking psychiatric drugs known to cause violence. Ms. Huffington has also written articles linking these drugs to violent acts.

Kelly Preston and John Travolta were both interviewed by the national CBS TV show, The Insider. The show aired promoting CCHR'sFightforkids.com website.

If we are to fight the war against drugs, we must start first with one that we can win. One that can be fought with factual information that broadly reaches millions, and empowers them to say "no" to the biggest drug problem faced by children today—a prescribed one.

As Ms. Nichols pointed out, it was through CCHR's tireless efforts that the 2004 federal Child Medication Safety Act was passed that prohibits schools from forcing children to take psychiatric drugs as a requisite for their education. At least eight states have also passed similar laws. "It was a momentous step for children's rights," Ms. Nichols said.

There are millions of parents out there—thousands just in your immediate community—that need CCHR's information. They need to know that a child can reach their full potential without drugging them.