Fwd: [SSRI-Research] Scientific Panel Replies to American Psychiatric Association Letter

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[sSRI-Research] Scientific Panel Replies to American Psychiatric

Association Letter

 

NEWS: Your Mind & Human Rights - 21 August 2003

http://www.MindFreedom.org - * feel free to forward *

 

Day 6 of Fast for Freedom in Mental Health

 

Scientific Panel Replies to American

Psychiatric Association Letter

 

PASADENA, CALIF.: At the end of the sixth day of a hunger

strike by six psychiatric survivors to oppose human rights

violations in the mental health system, the whole Fast for

Freedom in Mental Health team is incredibly excited about an

historic document they are now releasing -- SEE BOTTOM.

 

This is an historic clash between a team of scientists and

the American Psychiatric Association.

 

BACKGROUND -- FAST FOR FREEDOM SO FAR

 

The hunger strikers had requested that the American Psychiatric

Association provide even one piece of specific evidence

that " mental illness is biologically based. "

 

The American Psychiatric Association responded

last week with a two-page letter that simply listed

several textbooks and names of journals... without

any specific studies. The APA letter can be viewed here:

 

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/hungerstrike14.shtml

 

Watch for a news release soon with comments from

hunger strikers, who highly praised the scientific panel's work.

 

BELOW IS THE TEXT OF THE FAST FOR FREEDOM

SCIENTIFIC PANEL REPLY TO THE AMERICAN

PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATOIN:

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

MindFreedom

Support Coalition International

454 Willamette, Suite 216

PO Box 11284

Eugene, OR 97440 USA

 

Phone: (541) 345-9106 Fax: (541) 345-3737

E-mail: office

 

22 August 2003

 

MedicalDirector

 

James H. Scully, Jr., M.D., Medical Director

American Psychiatric Association

1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1825

Arlington, VA 22209-3901

 

 

Dear Dr. Scully:

 

 

David Oaks, Executive Director of MindFreedom,

has forwarded to us your reply dated 12 August

2003 to the hunger strikers involved in a " Fast

for Freedom in Mental Health. " We are a panel of

14 academics and clinicians who have agreed to

review any such reply for scientific validity.

 

The hunger strikers asked your organization, as

well as the Surgeon General of the United States,

and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, to

provide:

 

1. evidence that establishes the validity of

" schizophrenia, " " depression " or other " major

mental illnesses " as " biologically-based brain

diseases " ;

 

2. evidence for a physical diagnostic exam that

can reliably distinguish individuals with these

diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric

drugs) from individuals without these diagnoses;

 

3. evidence for a baseline standard of a

neurochemically-balanced " normal " individual,

against which a neurochemical " imbalance " can be

measured;

 

4. evidence that any psychotropic drug can

correct any " chemical imbalance " attributed to a

psychiatric diagnosis;

 

5. evidence that any psychotropic drug can

reliably decrease the likelihood of violence or

suicide.

 

In your reply, no specific studies of any kind

were cited with reference to any of the questions

above. You cited three general sources, including

the recent Surgeon General's report on mental

health and two textbooks of psychiatry.

 

In examining each of these sources, we found

numerous statements that invalidate suggestions

that behaviors referred to as " mental illnesses "

have specific biological bases:

 

_Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General_

(1999) is explicit about the absence of any

findings of specific pathophysiology:

 

p. 44: " The diagnosis of mental disorders is

often believed to be more difficult than

diagnosis of somatic, or general medical,

disorders, since there is no definitive lesion,

laboratory test, or abnormality in brain tissue

that can identify the illness. "

 

p. 48: " It is not always easy to establish a

threshold for a mental disorder, particularly in

light of how common symptoms of mental distress

are and the lack of objective, physical symptoms. "

 

p. 49: " The precise causes (etiology) of mental

disorders are not known. "

 

p. 51: " All too frequently a biological change in

the brain (a lesion) is purported to be the

'cause' of a mental disorder ... [but] The fact

is that any simple association -- or correlation --

cannot and does not, by itself, mean causation. "

 

p. 102: " Few lesions or physiologic abnormalities

define the mental disorders, and for the most part

their causes remain unknown. "

 

In the third edition of _Textbook of Clinical

Psychiatry_ (1999), we find similar statements:

 

p. 43: " Although reliable criteria have been

constructed for many psychiatric disorders,

validation of the diagnostic categories as

specific entities has not been established. "

 

p. 51: Most of these [genetic studies] examine

candidate genes in the serotonergic pathways, and

have not found convincing evidence of an

association. "

 

In Andreasen and Black's (2001) _Introductory

Textbook of Psychiatry_, we find, in the chapter

on schizophrenia:

 

p. 23. " In the areas of pathophysiology and

etiology, psychiatry has more uncharted territory

than the rest of medicine...Much of the current

investigative research in psychiatry is directed

toward the goal of identifying the

pathophysiology and etiology of major mental

illnesses, but this goal has been achieved for

only a few disorders (Alzheimer's disease,

multi-infarct dementia, Huntington's disease, and

substance-induced syndromes such as

amphetamine-related psychosis or

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome). "

 

p. 231: " In the absence of visible lesions and

known pathogens, investigators have turned to the

exploration of models that could explain the

diversity of symptoms through a single cognitive

mechanism. "

 

p. 450: " Many candidate regions [of the brain]

have been explored [for schizophrenia] but none

have been confirmed. "

 

As you are no doubt familiar with these textbooks

you cited, you will agree that such statements

invalidate claims for specific, reliable

biological causes or signs of " mental illnesses. "

In the judgment of the panel members, your reply

fails to produce or cite any specific evidence of

any specific pathophysiology underlying any

" mental disorder. "

 

You have also referred us to 60 volumes of

_Archives of General Psychiatry_ and 160 volumes

of _The American Journal of Psychiatry_. The 28

July 2003 cover letter from the hunger strikers

and panelists that they sent to you by certified

mail stated:

 

" We are aware that research studies can run to

thousands of pages. Therefore, please respond

only with those studies that you consider the

best available in support of your claims and

theories in a timely way. When responding with

evidence, please send citations for the original

publications or copies of the publications you

are citing. "

 

Like you, we are familiar with the material found

in these journals. It is understandable why you

did not provide any citations. There is not a

single study that provides valid and reliable

evidence for the " biological basis of mental

illness. "

 

The members of the panel wish to make some

further observations which we hope will assist

the American Psychiatric Association to present

an honest scientific stance with respect to the

hunger strikers' questions.

 

In the panel's view, the questions posed by the

hunger strikers are serious and fair. These

questions are legitimate questions that any

patient or family member or interested person

might ask of any psychiatrist, or a student might

ask of a professor. The panel was therefore quite

dismayed that you, as Medical Director of the

world's largest, wealthiest, and most resourceful

psychiatric association, could not provide a more

specific or substantial response than the

equivalent of, " See our textbook. "

 

If, as you state in your letter, " the answers to

[the above] questions are widely available in the

scientific literature, and have been for years, "

then it behooves your organization to make these

answers and their specific sources -- if they

differ from the quotes we present in this letter

-- available promptly.

 

The panel members could not help but notice the

contrast between the hunger strikers, who ask

clear questions about the science of psychiatry

and consciously take risks in the name of

protecting the well-being of users of psychiatry,

and the American Psychiatric Association, which

evades revealing what actual scientific evidence

justifies its authority. By not giving specific

answers to the questions posed by the hunger

strikers, you appear to be affirming the very

reason for the hunger strike.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Fred Baughman, MD

Mary Boyle, PhD

Peter Breggin, MD

David Cohen, PhD

Ty Colbert, PhD

Pat Deegan, PhD

Al Galves, PhD

Thomas Greening, PhD

David Jacobs, PhD

Jay Joseph, PhD

Jonathan Leo, PhD

Bruce Levine, PhD

Loren Mosher, MD

Stuart Shipko, MD

 

 

The hunger strikers endorse the scientific

panel's statement.

 

- end -

 

Feel free to forward.

http://www.MindFreedom.org