Fwd: [SSRI-Research] Dr. Fred Baughman: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE U.S. HOUSE & SENATE

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SSRI-Research

FastForFreedom

Sat, 30 Aug 2003 02:37:05 -0000

[sSRI-Research] Dr. Fred Baughman: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE U.S. HOUSE &

SENATE

 

-- from the author --

 

You will find that I am speaking the horrible truth. There is no

scientific debate, there is only pure, scientific-medical fraud. The

psychiatric drugging of millions of entirely normal, if troubled,

troublesome, mis-educated children, in the US, based on

medical-scientific deception and legislative/judicial coercion is a

disgrace unprecedented in US history.

 

--\

-----

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE U.S. HOUSE & SENATE

 

AUGUST 31, 2003

 

Regarding: Psychiatric " Brain Diseases " --Greatest-Ever US

Health Care Fraud

 

Fred A. Baughman, Jr., MD, Neurologist/Child Neurologist

1303 Hidden Mountain Drive

El Cajon, CA 92019

fredbaughmanmd

adhdfraud.com

 

Dear U.S. Senator/ Representative,

 

The psyche is not the soma; mental is not physical; psychiatry is

not medicine. And yet, since 1970, Congress has legislated the

" diagnosis " and " treatment " of psychiatric " diseases, " as if they

were, such that, today, 10 million entirely normal U.S.

schoolchildren are drugged, as if for real diseases.

 

I have been a child neurologist for 40 years making disease/no

disease determinations in every patient. Psychiatrists do no

such thing. I have discovered real diseases while psychiatry has

yet to prove that a single entry in the DSM is an actual disease.

 

Science or fraud? The burden of proof lies with those who

would prescribe, not with the patient or parent who is due the

proof as the essence of informed consent. Is there an

abnormality/ a disease, something to be made normal. If not,

medical treatment is not justified. Would you drug your own

child not knowing if they have an actual disease or not?

 

On September 29, 2000 I testified to Congress' hearing on

" Behavioral Drugs in Schools: " The millions of children labeled

ADD/ADHD were normal all along? " " For any physician to say

that any psychiatric condition is a disease, is fraudulent. " David

Fassler of the APA said not a word in rebuttal. Congress, should

have been happy to hear its' children were normal, but seemed

not to want to know.

 

In 1948, 'neuropsychiatry' was divided into `neurology,' to deal

with organic diseases of the brain, and `psychiatry,' to deal with

psychological conditions in normals [1].

 

Psychiatric drugs appeared in the fifties leading to the de facto

merger of psychiatry and pharmaceutical industry and their joint

market strategy: call all behavioral and emotional problems

" brain diseases " / " chemical imbalances " needing " chemical

balancers " —pills!

 

Opening the Congressional Hearing " Federal Involvement in the

Use of Behavior Modification Drugs on Grammar School

Children, " September 29, 1970, Chairman Cornelius Gallagher,

D-NJ, stated: " One of our witnesses here today has been

quoted as saying that the use of this type of therapy will " zoom "

from its current usage in approximately two hundred to three

hundred thousand American children today. " Here, the

psycho-pharm cartel launched its claim that ADHD was a brain

disease needing drug treatment.

 

Ronald Lipman, of the FDA claimed: " Hyperkinesis is a medical

syndrome. It should be properly diagnosed by a medical doctor. "

John Peters of the National Project of Minimum Brain

Dysfunction testified: " We have to go mainly by analogy between

children who have known brain damage and the behavior in

children who do not have known brain damage, but do have

identical behavior…we assume that there has to be some

dysfunction of the brain. "

 

On October 12, 1970, Congressman, Cornelius Gallagher wrote

HEW Secretary, Elliott Richardson: " I have received letters highly

critical of the focus of the medical side of minimal brain

dysfunction which is… one of at least thirty-eight names attached

to this condition…Such a high incidence in the population--as

high as thirty percent in ghetto areas…may not be pathological at

all… "

 

The DSM has grown from 112 psychiatric " diseases " in 1952, to

224 in 1980, and 374 in the 1994—not one an actual disease!

 

In 1993, Baughman [2] testified at hearings on NIH Research on

Antisocial, Aggressive and Violence-Related Behaviors (whereby

they make all such behaviors " diseases " ): " If, as I am

convinced, these entities are not diseases, it would be unethical

to initiate research to evaluate biological

interventions—unethical and fatally flawed scientifically. "

 

In 1996, Schiller (Dept. of Ed.), Jensen and Swanson (NIMH) [3],

wrote: " Once parents and teachers…recognize that children with

ADD are not lazy or `bad', but have a biological disorder, they can

stop blaming themselves… " It is Jensen who preaches the

termination of parental custody, to achieve psychiatric

compliance. It is Jensen who has declined to " treat " his own

son's ADHD

 

On July 15, 1996, Christopher Shays, R-CN [4] acknowledged

the moral dilemma, stating: " In ADHD, we are trying to draw the

line between personality and pathology, and we are placing

millions of children and adults on either side of the social,

medical and legal boundary that divides the healthy from the

sick. We should do so only with the greatest care, and with

particular reticence to make our children medical patients... " But

that is as far he went! The epidemic labeling and drugging

continued.

 

On October 8, 1996, Lawrence Diller [5], wrote victimized mother,

Sue Parry: " The reason you have been unable to obtain any

articles presenting clear … evidence of a physical or chemical

abnormality is there are none… the search for a biological

marker is doomed from the outset because of the contradictions

and ambiguities of the diagnostic construct of ADHD. " Here we

had it—the reason ADHD was not a disease; the reason it would

never be a disease!

 

 

In April 15, 1998, I wrote Attorney General Reno: " The biggest

health care fraud in US history is the representation of ADHD to

be a disease, and the drugging of millions of normal children. "

 

No answer.

 

 

At the November, 1998, NIH, Consensus Conference, William

Carey addressing " Is ADHD a Valid Disorder? " concluded: " What

is…described as ADHD in the United States appears to be a set

of normal behavioral variations... " Normal children acting

normally!

 

James Swanson and FX Castellanos (NIMH) spoke on the

" Biological Bases of ADHD " (when there were none). From a

meta-analysis of MRI brain scan research they reported:

" …Filipek and colleagues [6], reported that a group of children

with ADHD/HKD (hyperkinetic disorder) had brain volumes about

10 percent smaller than normal…Castellanos and colleagues

[7] reported that right anterior frontal, caudate, and globus

pallidus regions were about 10% smaller in an ADHD/HKD

group than in a control group. "

 

Baughman, a presenter, asked: " Dr. Swanson, why didn't you

mention that virtually all of the ADHD subjects in the

neuroimaging studies have been on chronic stimulant therapy

and that this is the likely cause of their brain atrophy? "

 

Swanson: " I understand that this is a critical issue and in fact I

am planning a study to investigate that. I haven't yet done it. "

 

In the 12 years since Nasrallah et al [8] had suggested the

drugs, not the never-validated " disease, " ADHD, was causing the

brain atrophy, the NIMH and all psychiatric research refused to

compare untreated ADHD subjects with normals (to see whether

or not there was a difference), all the while representing what

was probably drug-induced atrophy as the " proof " of ADHD, the

" disease. "

 

The NIMH and CHADD had come to the Consensus Conference

intent on representing the Swanson-Castellanos finding of brain

atrophy as proof of ADHD—the " disease. " With the fact publicly

exposed that all of the ADHD subjects had been " treated " the

final statement of the Consensus Conference Panel, November

18, 1998, was (and could only be): " …we do not have an

independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to

indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction. "

 

This was a public confession that there was no such disease

as ADHD, 18 years after it's invention, with the epidemic at 4.4

million.

 

On December 13, 1999, the Surgeon General, David Satcher [9],

became a psycho/pharm propagandist, announcing in the

first-ever Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health: " Mental

illness is no different than diabetes, asthma or other physical

ailments…Mental illnesses are physical illnesses…We know

the chemical disorders we are treating… "

 

Baughman [10] called for Satcher's resignation, stating: " …all

physicians, know that the presence of any bona fide disease is

confirmed by an objective finding--a physical or chemical

abnormality. You know there is no abnormality in life, or at

autopsy, in " depression, bipolar disorder and other mental

illnesses. Your role in this deception is clear, you should

resign. "

 

In January, 2000, Castellanos [11], acknowledged:

" Incontrovertible evidence is still lacking… I'm confident we'll

confirm the case for organic causes. "

 

On October 9, 2002, Castellanos' [12] published the first study of

ADHD to contain a substantial number of untreated subjects.

But, once again, they refused to perform a true, valid

comparison of ADHD-untreated subjects to true, matched,

normal, control subjects. Instead they compared the 49

ADHD-untreated subjects, mean age 8.3 years, to a control

group whose mean age was 10.9 years--2.6 years older and

bigger, with organs—brains included--2.6 years older and

bigger! Castellanos neither proved that ADHD was the cause of

the brain atrophy, or that the drugs—Ritalin and

amphetamines--were not. He just said he did.

 

 

With the main issue whether or not psychiatric

diseases/chemical imbalances, are brain diseases, the

American Academy of Neurology (of which I am a Fellow), and

the Child Neurology Society (of which I am a member) should be

provide testimony to Congress. They know as well as I that they

are not. And they know as well as I that this is the province and

duty of neurologists, not of psychiatrist. They should be

subpoenaed if necessary.

 

You will find that I am speaking the horrible truth. There is no

scientific debate, there is only pure, scientific-medical fraud. The

psychiatric drugging of millions of entirely normal, if troubled,

troublesome, mis-educated children, in the US, based on

medical-scientific deception and legislative/judicial coercion is a

disgrace unprecedented in US history.

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

1. The American Academy of Neurology: The First Fifty Years,

1948-1998. Maynard M. Cohen (ed.). The American Academy of

Neurology, St. Paul, MN.

2. Baughman FA. Testimony to the Panel on NIH Research on

Antisocial, Aggressive, and Violence-Related Behaviors and their

Consequences, September 23, 1993.

3. Schiller E, Jensen PS, Swanson J. In magazine of the Parent

Teachers Association, from the Office of Special Education, US

Department of Education,1996.

4. Testimony of Rep. Christopher Shays, R-CN at the Hearing of

the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, July 15,

1996.

5. Diller, L. personal correspondence to S. Parry, October 8,

1997.

6. Filipek PA, Semrud-Clikeman M, Steingard RJ, et

al.Volumetric MRI analysis comparing attention-deficit

hyperactivity disorder and normal controls.

Neurology.1997;48:589-601.

 

7. Castellanos FX, Giedd JN, Marsh WL, et al.

Quantitative brain magnetic resonance imaging in

attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Arch Gen Psychiatry.

1996;53:607-616.

 

8. Nasrallah, et. al., Psychiatric Research, 17, 241-246; 1986

9. Report on Mental Health of the Surgeon General, December

13, 1999.

10. Baughman FA Jr., letter to Surgeon General, David Satcher,

December 13, 1999.

11. Castellanos, FX. Interview in Making Sense of Ritalin,

Readers Digest, January, 2000.

12. Developmental Trajectories of Brain Volume Abnormalities

in Children and Adolescents With Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity

Disorder F. Xavier Castellanos, MD ; Patti P. Lee, MD; Wendy

Sharp, MSW; Neal O. Jeffries, PhD; Deanna K. Greenstein, PhD;

Liv S. Clasen, PhD; Jonathan D. Blumenthal, MA; Regina S.

James, MD; Christen L. Ebens, BA; James M. Walter, MA; Alex

Zijdenbos, PhD; Alan C. Evans, PhD; Jay N. Giedd, MD; Judith L.

Rapoport, MD JAMA. 2002;288:1740-1748