Katrina Victims Need Homes, Money, Jobs and Support -- Not Psychiatric Drugs

[Guest guest]

SSRI-Research@

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 23:30:13 -0400

[sSRI-Research] Katrina Victims Need Homes, Money, Jobs and

Support -- Not Psychiatric Drugs

 

 

 

 

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)

Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

www.ahrp.org

 

FYI

 

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) in Alaska urges

those helping victims of Hurricane Katrina to provide what they really

need:

Homes, Money, Jobs and Support and not psychiatric drugs.

 

After 9/11 various and sundry mental health professionals descended to

ground zero and contacted survirors dispensing " grief counseling " and

antidepressants as though they were jelly beans.

Their services were not helpful---and all too often interfered with

the natural recovery process

 

The body of evidence showing the drugs' lack of efficacy and harmful

side effects is overwhelming. The first phase of a $44 million

government study comparing the new antipsychotics with the old was

just released in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study, known

as CATIE, confirmed that everything drug manufacturers and organized

psychiatry have been telling the public and Congress about the new,

expensive antipsychotic drugs is a lie.

 

The study found that the new antipsychotic drugs that are bankrupting

health care budgets are no more effective than the old drugs. In fact,

74% of patients dropped out before 18 months. And worse, these drugs'

adverse metabolic effects are even more profoundly harmful than the

old drugs.

More about the findings of this major study and their significance

tomorrow.

 

 

 

Contact: Vera Sharav

veracare

 

 

Katrina Victims Need Homes, Money, Jobs and Support -- Not Psychiatric

Drugs

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

September 19, 2005

 

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) urges those

helping victims of Hurricane Katrina to provide what they really need:

Homes, Money, Jobs and Support and not psychiatric drugs.

Psychiatric drugs, contrary to pharmaceutical company marketing, are

not as effective and far more dangerous than people have been led to

believe.

 

Jim Gottstein, President of PsychRights said, " We know that

psychiatric drugs have been a major contributor to the six-fold

increase in the disability rate for mental illness. Let's not worsen

the suffering by unnecessarily adding to the rolls of disabled people

diagnosed with chronic mental illness. "

 

The data shows that when neuroleptics, the drugs typically prescribed

to people with serious mental illness, are given this drops the

recovery rate from around 2/3rds to around 1/3rd, at best. Somewhere

near 10% of people given anti-depressants have psychotic reactions,

which is then often misdiagnosed as a biological mental illness and

people put on the neuroleptics that turn them into being diagnosed as

chronically mentally ill patients. The same sort of thing happens

with the class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, such as Valium,

Zanax and Restoril given to calm people down and help them sleep --

especially in longer term use. The same is true of the stimulants,

such as Ritalin, given to people diagnosed with Attention

Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). " All of these drugs can be

extremely hard to get off of, " Mr. Gottstein noted, " even if they

don't cause psychotic episodes. "

 

People should be informed of the true, limited nature of the possible

benefits of these drugs and informed of their very substantial risks.

" Let's not compound the Katrina tragedy by lining the pockets of the

pharmaceutical companies at the expense of people's long-term mental

health. These people need homes, money, jobs and support, not drugs, "

reiterated Mr. Gottstein. " There is nothing better for people's

mental health than a caring community where people's needs are taken

care of. "

 

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm

devoted to the defense of people facing the horrors of unwarranted

forced psychiatric drugging and other forced psychiatric

interventions. PsychRights is further dedicated to exposing the truth

about psychiatric interventions and the courts being misled into

ordering people subjected to these brain and body damaging drugs

against their will. Extensive information about this is available on

the PsychRights web site: http://psychrights.org/.

 

 

 

# #

 

James B. (Jim) Gottstein, Esq.

 

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

406 G Street, Suite 206

Anchorage, Alaska 99501

Phone: (907) 274-7686) Fax: (907) 274-9493

jim

http://psychrights.org/

 

Psych Rights ®

Law Project for

Psychiatric Rights

 

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm

devoted to the defense of people facing the horrors of unwarranted

forced psychiatric drugging. We are further dedicated to exposing the

truth about these drugs and the courts being misled into ordering

people to be drugged and subjected to other brain and body damaging

procedures against their will. Extensive information about this is

available on our web site, http://psychrights.org/. Please donate

generously. Our work is fueled with your IRS 501© tax deductible

donations. Thank you for your ongoing help and support.