Alternative Mental Health News -- Issue 51

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Alternative Mental Health News -- Issue 51

Thu, 30 Sep 2004 20:07:07 -0400 (EDT)

 

The ALTERNATIVE MENTAL HEALTH NEWS

A monthly newsletter brought to you by AlternativeMentalHealth.com and

Safe Harbor, a nonprofit corporation.

 

In This Issue

· Editor's Comment

 

· ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

 

* Safe Harbor Seeks Donor To Cover Newsletter Costs

* Safe Harbor Seeks Someone To Run New York Chapter

* British Psychiatrists Set Up " Special Interest Group On

Nutrition And Mental Health "

 

· BOOK REVIEW: Teaching The Restless

By, Chris Mercogliano

 

· British Doctors Denounce Drug Firms' " Disease Mongering " Tactics

 

· APA Establishes Caucus On Alternative Mental Care

 

· Fatty Acid Found In Cold-Water Fish May Arrest Alzheimer's

 

· Drug Trials Found Deficient In Safety Emphasis

 

· Journals Insist Drug Manufacturers Register All Trials

 

· Rheumatic Fever and " OC Spectrum Disorder " Linked

 

 

The Editors

Dan Stradford, Editor

Alan Graham, Assistant Editor

Gloria McTaggart, Assistant Editor

SafeHarborProj

www.Alternative

 

Editor's Comment

 

A common theme of this month's issues is CHANGE. The mental health

field is CHANGING.

 

Can you imagine that we are seeing the day when major medical journal

editors are claiming they won't publish only favorable drug studies?

 

Or that the American Psychiatric Association has a group within it

dedicated to educating members about complementary and alternative

treatments?

 

Or that England's Royal College of General Practitioners would

publicly denounce pharmaceutical firms for pushing drug sales for

people who are not really in need of medication?

 

These things and MORE are happening and the movement is snowballing.

Safe Harbor would like to take some of the credit, but honestly, this

is the result of the work of millions of groups and people across the

planet who are insisting on greater health for themselves and their

loved ones.

 

The mental health field is traditionally the last to catch up with

scientific and social advance, unfortunately, but despite that

handicap, change is still happening rapidly within psychiatry.

 

These are historic times and the staff and volunteers of Safe Harbor

are happy to play whatever small role we have in them.

 

 

 

Three Announcements index

SAFE HARBOR SEEKS DONOR TO COVER NEWSLETTER COSTS

In our fifth year now with our popular newsletter that you are now

reading, Safe Harbor has been indebted to one of its board members for

providing the funding to allow us to distribute our newsletter at no

cost to the public.

 

Unfortunately, that funding will stop at the end of 2004. We are

currently in need of $50 per month (or $600 annually) to support the

continued distribution of the newsletter. Donors can provide all or

part of the support. It can be taken monthly from a credit card or

paid by check etc.

 

We hear regularly from readers grateful for the many helpful tips they

find in the Alternative Mental Health News. This is a great cause!

Please support it!

 

Donors can email Wendy at wendy or they

can call the Safe Harbor office at (323) 257-7338.

 

 

SAFE HARBOR SEEKS SOMEONE TO RUN NEW YORK CHAPTER

Safe Harbor NY, a growing group that has been in operation for a

year and a half, needs a new president.

 

This person will coordinate the alternative mental health workshop

series and support groups, continue partnerships with community

organizations and outpatient psychiatric clinics, and provide

telephone and email referral information for individuals contacting

Safe Harbor NY.

 

The president is responsible for either supporting or finding funding

to cover administrative costs, including phone, PO Box, and space

rental fees that are not covered by donations.

 

This is a volunteer position that will start on January 1, 2005. This

is an amazing group that is just getting started. Help lead it into

its next chapter.

 

If you are interested in volunteering for this position or to help out

the new leadership either with time or funding, please contact Dan at

SafeHarborProj.

 

 

BRITISH PSYCHIATRISTS SET UP " SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON NUTRITION AND

MENTAL HEALTH "

Professor of Primary Care, Dr André Tylee, from London's Institute

of Psychiatry, has set up a " special interest group on nutrition and

mental health, " open to doctors and psychiatrists.

 

At the first meeting, scheduled for November 12 in London, Professor

Malcolm Peet will discuss his work on omega fats. The group will then

explore possibilities for future research, priorities and funding

sources. The possibility of establishing a group within organizations

such as the Royal College of Psychiatry will also be considered.

 

Any UK-based doctors or psychiatrists who wish to attend are invited

to register at www.mentalhealthproject.com.

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Teaching The Restless

By, Chris Mercogliano index

 

The subtitle of Mercogliano's book tells it all: " One School's

Remarkable No-Ritalin Approach to Helping Children Learn and Succeed. "

 

The author challenges head-on the notion that some children need to be

medicated to go to school. Instead, he demonstrates that the adults

around such children can make a lot of progress using common-sense

approaches that are not focused on making the child fit in.

 

He walks us through a number of cases of children who have attended

his school (the " Free School " ). We see how simple but firm discipline

combined with treating each kid as an individual brings results for

these children so that drugs are not needed. Mercogliano clearly sees

that " Ritalin kids, " as he calls special children, are not so much in

need of drugs, but they are in need of sensible, caring adults who can

give guidance, set examples, and use creative reasoning to bring out

the best in them.

 

 

 

 

British Doctors Denounce Drug Firms' " Disease Mongering " Tactics index

The Royal College of General Practitioners has accused pharmaceutical

companies of

" disease-mongering " as a marketing tactic.

 

By overplaying the dangers of mild depression, slightly raised blood

pressure, and the like, drug firms encourage unnecessary prescribing

of costly drugs, bringing the National Health Service to the brink of

collapse, the doctors' group told a parliamentary inquiry.

 

Dr. Maureen Baker, the college's honorary secretary, wants the Commons

health inquiry to investigate the companies' practices.

 

" It would be fruitful to look into the increase in disease-mongering

by them, " she told The Sunday Telegraph. " It is very much in the

interest of the pharmaceutical industry to draw a line that includes

as large a population as possible within the 'ill' category. The

bigger this group is, the more drugs they can sell. If current trends

continue, publicly funded health-care systems will be at risk of

financial collapse with huge cost to society as a whole. "

 

The college lists hypertension, high cholesterol, osteoporosis,

anxiety and depression as examples of common conditions that, in mild

forms, are often inappropriately treated with drugs.

 

Richard Ley, a spokesman for the Association of the British

Pharmaceutical Industry, said: " It seems odd for this criticism to

come from the Royal College of all organizations, because a decision

on when and how to treat a patient is the doctor's. "

 

Such decisions, however, are based on treatment guidelines issued by

bodies of specialist doctors. All too often such panels are heavily

subsidized by pharmaceutical money, Dr. Baker pointed out.

 

It was recently divulged that three senior members of the government's

Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization have received

" industrial support " from Aventis Pasteur and Merck Sharp & Dome,

manufacturers of a new 5-in-1 baby vaccine that the committee recommended.

 

Some observers are also concerned about " hard-sell " tactics applied to

general practice. Last year, a survey of 1,000 GPs published in the

British Medical Journal found that those who saw drug company

representatives at least once a week were more likely to prescribe

drugs that were not needed.

 

 

APA Establishes Caucus On Alternative Mental Care index

 

An official satellite activity at the American Psychiatric

Association's annual meeting in May 2004 was an organizing meeting of

the Caucus On Complementary, Alternative And Integrative Approaches In

Mental Health Care.

 

Twenty-eight psychiatrists convened, bringing expertise in such

diverse specialties as massage therapy, yoga, prayer, dietary

supplements, orthomolecular approaches, and traditional Chinese

medicine. Most are Board-certified clinical psychiatrists, and some

are full-time researchers at Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, Duke, et al.

 

Following informal introductions, a draft charter was reviewed and

initial goals were discussed. The central objective of the Caucus is

to give physicians and mental health professionals access to accurate,

clinically relevant information on safe and effective non-conventional

treatments.

 

Three broad goals were discussed:

 

1. Educating mental health professionals about safe, evidence-based

uses of complementary and

alternative treatments in mental health care.

 

2. Surveying psychiatrists' beliefs and practices with respect to

alternative treatments.

 

3. Setting research priorities.

 

The first goal would be addressed with courses and symposia at future

APA regional and national meetings. Courses on Western herbal

medicines and natural supplements have been well received in recent years.

 

The importance of developing evidence-based clinical practice

guidelines for the use of CAM or integrative approaches was discussed.

 

The APA has established an email forum in which Caucus members can

exchange perspectives on their fields of interest. A new website,

www.apacam.org, is now available to clinical and research

psychiatrists to help them evaluate alternative treatments.

 

Michael Cohen, JD, MBA, Associate Professor of Medicine, Center for

Integrative Medicine, Harvard Medical School, has agreed to help the

Caucus draw up legal guidelines for psychiatrists using or

recommending alternative treatments.

 

Psychiatrists, whether APA members or not, are invited to visit

www.apacam.org, complete a brief survey, and register to participate

in the Caucus.

 

 

 

 

Fatty Acid Found In Cold-Water Fish May Arrest Alzheimer's index

 

A diet rich in the omega-3 fatty acid DHA, found in salmon, halibut,

and other cold-water fish, has been found to protect animal brains

from the damage associated with Alzheimer's disease, says a new study

published in the September 2 issue of Neuron.

 

The research was based on human studies of risk factors for

Alzheimer's disease, said study author Greg Cole, a professor of

medicine and neurology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine.

 

Many studies have linked Alzheimer's to low intake of DHA

(docosahexaenoic acid), Cole said. A constant supply of DHA is key to

normal human brain function.

Cole's team focused on altering the diet of lab mice once they were 17

months old, after feeding them a normal diet high in omega-3 fatty

acids during their infancy.

 

They studied mice bred with genetic mutations that cause the lesions

linked to advanced Alzheimer's, assigning them to one of three groups.

" Group one continued on the diet they had always gotten, " Cole said.

" Group two was put on a special diet with no DHA. Group three's diet

had more DHA than the diet they grew up on. "

 

Three other groups of mice without the genetic mutations, serving as

controls, were given the same three diets as the genetically altered

mice. After five months, the researchers compared the various groups'

brain structure.

 

The mice with the genetic mutations fed a DHA-deficient diet had high

amounts of Alzheimer's-like brain damage in the synapses -the chemical

connections between nerve cells. " The [DHA-deficient] diet and the

Alzheimer's gene interact to cause a deficit of DHA in the brains of

the animals, " Cole said.

 

The mice on the DHA-deficient diet with the genetic mutation had 90

percent more synaptic loss than those with the genetic mutation fed

the DHA-rich diet.

 

The animals with the genetic mutation whose diets had no DHA took

twice as long to perform on a test of spatial memory, said study

co-author Sally Frautschy, an associate professor of medicine at UCLA.

The test would be roughly equivalent to a human trying to remember

where he parked his car, she explained.

 

The study breaks new ground because " it shows the disease itself

depletes our brain of DHA through oxidation, and you can correct it by

putting it back [via a DHA-rich diet], " Frautschy said. " The study

shows that replenishing the DHA can arrest the development of

Alzheimer's, at least in animals. "

 

Added Cole: " We have evidence that DHA works as a risk factor for

Alzheimer's disease from associated studies. We know DHA is getting

oxidized in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. And it's practically

harmless to add it back to your diet " by eating more fish, taking fish

oil capsules, or eating omega-3 enriched eggs.

 

 

 

 

Drug Trials Found Deficient In Safety Emphasis index

The APA's American Journal of Psychiatry has published a study showing

the pharmaceutical industry's inattention to safety in the development

of psychotropic drugs.

 

The EU[European Union]-PSI Project devised the study to

 

* " address the lack of readily available evidence for the

efficient management of mental health care by grouping the evidence

and making it available to anyone interested... " and to

* " disseminate evidence derived from clinical trials of

interventions for a wide range of mental health-related problems and

conditions. "

 

The authors randomly selected 200 entries from the PsiTri registry of

mental-health-related controlled trials

(http://psitri.stakes.fi/index.html). They narrowed the field to 142

randomized controlled trials, including 103 drug trials, and analyzed

them for adequacy and relative emphasis on safety issues.

 

Among drug trials, only 21.4% had adequate reporting of clinical

adverse events, and only 16.5% had adequate reporting of

laboratory-determined toxicity. On average, drug trials devoted 1/10

of a page in their results sections to safety, and 58.3% devoted more

space to the names and affiliations of authors than to safety.

 

 

 

 

 

Journals Insist Drug Manufacturers Register All Trials index

 

A dozen editors of leading medical journals jointly announced in

September that they will refuse to publish drug research sponsored by

pharmaceutical companies unless the studies have been registered in a

public database from the outset.

 

" When a pharmaceutical company sponsors a clinical trial and the

results turn out not to be in the best financial interests of the

company, it has been our experience these results are never made

public, " said Gregory D. Curfman, executive editor of the New England

Journal of Medicine. " They are buried away. "

 

So far, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Annals of

Internal Medicine, the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine,

and several other international publications signed the initiative,

intended to give physicians and the public a window on unfavorable

studies they would otherwise never see.

 

Jeff Trewhitt of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers

Association of America said several companies are already registering

clinical trials on a voluntary basis, but individual companies " may

have reservations about divulging proprietary information in clinical

tests that are in very early phases. "

 

Virtually the same stock phrase was used to explain the actions of the

pharmaceutical companies concealing evidence that antidepressants

prescribed to children are no more effective than sugar pills, and

that they increase the risk of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation.

 

The federal Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997

established a database at www.ClinicalTrials.gov and required

companies to register trials, but there has been no enforcement.

 

Last year, British authorities warned doctors not to prescribe a

number of antidepressants to children, but Prozac was not on the list.

The FDA declined to take a similar step, commissioning a further study

instead. In September, the author of the new report, FDA scientist

Tarek Hammad, told investigators: " I can no longer say that Prozac is

okay for children. "

 

" It makes no scientific sense that you would find any significant

difference in the effects " of the various SSRI drugs, said Dr. Steven

Hyman, a Harvard psychiatrist and former director of the National

Institute of Mental Health. " All target and bind to the same molecule

in the brain " - the one the body uses to dampen the activity of a

mood-altering brain chemical called serotonin.

 

In any drug trial for depression, both the diagnosis and the evidence

of recovery are subjective. From 31% to 59% of a " depressed " sample

will feel better the next time you test them, as placebo results in

the suppressed trials have shown.

 

Christine Laine, senior deputy editor of the Annals of Internal

Medicine, said the registration requirement would apply to any trial

begun after July 1, 2005. For trials already in progress, she said,

companies would have to register them before seeking publication.

 

The editors hope that preserving the opportunity to publish a positive

study in a prominent journal, which can greatly boost the visibility

of a new drug, will be enough incentive for most companies to register

their studies. If not, they would forgo favorable publicity as well -

a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

 

 

 

 

Rheumatic Fever and " OC Spectrum Disorder " Linked index

 

Researchers have found that rheumatic fever may increase the risk of

" obsessive-compulsive disorder " (OCD), tic disorders, and " body

dysmorphic disorder " (BDD - exaggerated concern about physical

appearance), according to a study recently published in the Journal of

Clinical Psychiatry.

 

Ana Hounie (University of Sao Paolo, Brazil) and colleagues say that

their findings " reinforce the idea that OC spectrum disorders may

share common underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms and vulnerability

factors with RF, or that RF could trigger central nervous system late

manifestations such as OC spectrum disorders. "

 

Rheumatic fever (RF) can damage multiple organ systems, including the

central nervous system. This is characterized by the movement disorder

known as Sydenham's chorea.

 

Previous research has indicated higher frequencies of OCD and tic

disorders in patients with RF. Hounie et al assessed for OC spectrum

disorders in 59 outpatients with non-acute RF.

 

The age-corrected rate of OC spectrum disorders combined was eight

times higher in RF patients than in controls, 20.89% as compared to 2.56%.

 

" If these findings are confirmed, clinicians should be careful to

investigate and recognize psychiatric symptoms in RF patients,

allowing early diagnosis and treatment when necessary, " the authors

concluded.

 

 

MentalHealth.com

 

 

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About Safe Harbor

Safe Harbor was founded in 1998 in the wake of growing public

dissatisfaction with the unwanted effects of orthodox psychiatric

treatments such as medication and shock therapy. Seeking to satisfy

the desire for safer, more effective treatments, Safe Harbor is

dedicated to educating the public, the medical profession, and

government officials on research and treatments that, minimally, do no

harm and, optimally, cure the causes of severe mental symptoms. Our

primary thrust is education on the medical causes of severe mental

symptoms and the use of nutritional and other natural treatments.

 

 

About AlternativeMentalHealth.com

 

ALTERNATIVE

MENTALHEALTH.COM IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB SITE DEVOTED exclusively

to alternative mental health treatments. It includes a directory of

over 240 physicians, nutritionists, experts, organizations, and

facilities around the U.S. that offer or promote safe, alternative

treatments for severe mental symptoms. Many of the physicians listed

do in-depth examinations to find the physical causes behind mental

problems.

 

Also included on the site is an array of articles on topics ranging

from the medical causes of schizophrenia to the effects of toxic

metals on mental health.

 

Special AlternativeMentalHealth.com T-shirts and bumper stickers are

available at our online store.

 

A bookstore page lists top books that cover many areas of alternative

treatments with titles like Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and

Other Common Mental Disorders and No More Ritalin.

 

AlternativeMentalHealth.com has been created to educate the public,

practitioners, and government officials on the medical conditions that

create " mental illness " and the many safe resources available for

addressing and often curing severe mental symptoms.

 

 

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