Federal government launches marketing campaign for psychiatric industry

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Health

Federal government launches marketing campaign for psychiatric

industry

By Richard A. Warner

Online Journal Contributing Writer

 

 

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_1480.shtml

 

Nov 29, 2006, 01:17

 

 

 

 

Under the guise of combating the stigma of mental illness, the U.S.

government will soon begin a massive campaign of psychiatric

indoctrination, designed to increase the acceptance of psychiatric

chemical imbalance theories and labeling, and to pave the way for

national psychiatric screening, driving more Americans into seeking

psychiatric drug treatment.

 

Regional meetings in support of the National Anti-Stigma Campaign

(NASC), a nationwide television, radio and print public service

advertising program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration (SAMHSA), were held this past summer in Los

Angeles, Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C. According to a senior

technical assistance specialist at the SAMHSA Resource Center to

Address Discrimination and Stigma Associated with Mental Illness (ADS

Center), the ad campaign, which will target 18-25-year olds, will be

launched today. A campaign directed at older adults and ethnic and

racial minorities will follow.

 

On its surface, the campaign's message may seem perfectly

appropriate, even compassionate. Its stated objective is

to " encourage, educate and inspire 18-25-year olds to step up and

support friends they know are experiencing a mental health problem. "

One ad, for example, shows a man with his hand over his

eyes. " Sometimes I find myself turning away from or just ignoring

someone with a mental illness, avoiding eye contact, " he says. " I

know it is not their fault but sometimes I don't know how to

communicate with them. "

 

But there can be no doubt about the real purpose of the campaign's

emotional appeal: to create customers for the

psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry. This is clearly evident at

SAMHSA's website and in its literature. It is no accident that 18-25-

year olds were chosen as the first target. A SAMHSA " Fact Sheet "

states, " Among 18-25-year olds, the prevalence of serious mental

health conditions is high . . . yet this age group shows the lowest

rate of help-seeking behaviors [emphasis added]. " " Help-seeking

behavior " is, of course, a euphemism for being psychiatrically

diagnosed and drugged. The 18-25-year old demographic represents a

huge untapped market for psychiatric drugs and services. According to

SAMHSA's website, the anti-stigma media blitz " has been designed to

establish a `new norm,' in which individuals, without hesitation,

will seek out the mental health services they need and deserve. "

 

The drug industry seeds NASC

 

Further evidence of SAMHSA's marketing agenda is found in the origins

of the National Anti-Stigma Campaign. The program was first

recommended by a federal commission that had extensive ties to the

pharmaceutical industry. In its 2003 report, Achieving the Promise:

Transforming Mental Health Care in America, the President's New

Freedom Commission (NFC) on Mental Health called for the government

to " undertake a national campaign to reduce stigma. " The NFC

proposed " national education initiatives " to " shatter the

misconceptions about mental illnesses, thus helping more Americans

understand the facts and making them more willing to seek help for

mental health problems " and advocated " actions of reducing stigma,

increasing awareness, and encouraging treatment . . . (emphasis

added). "

 

Several members of the NFC had extensive ties to the pharmaceutical

industry, principally by way of an industry marketing scheme that was

developed in Texas in the 1990s. Known as the Texas Medication

Algorithm Project, or TMAP, it was designed to make the newest and

most expensive psychiatric drugs the first (and virtually only)

treatment option for mental health care. The project was nurtured at

the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, a

major research center that conducts drug trials for pharmaceutical

companies, with significant funding coming from the drug companies

themselves. Pharmaceutical company gifts to the Texas Department of

State Health Services totaled $1.3 million from 1997 to 2004, with at

least $834,000 earmarked for TMAP.

 

Backed by drug industry funding, TMAP was then exported to other

states via the National Association of State Mental Health Programs (NASMHPD).

 

The chair of the NFC, Michael Hogan, was the Mental Health Program in Ohio when the Ohio Medication Algorithm Project (OMAP),

was adopted there. A 2004 Janssen (makers of the atypical

antispsychotic, Risperdal) publication, " Mental Health Issues Today, "

lists Hogan as a member of their Advisory Board. In 2005, Eli Lilly

(makers of the atypical antipsychotic, Zyprexa and the

antidepressant, Prozac) gave Hogan its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hogan was president of the NASMHPD from 2003-2004 and president of

the NASMHPD Research Institute, which is heavily funded by the

pharmaceutical industry, from 1989-2000.

 

Another NFC member, Stephen Mayberg, was the California State Mental

Health Program Director when TMAP was adopted in that state. Mayberg

is also a past president of NASMHPD and the NASMHPD Research

Institute.

 

NFC member Charles Curie, who recently stepped down as the

administrator of SAMHSA, was the Deputy Secretary for Mental Health

and Substance Abuse Services in Pennsylvania when PENNMAP was

enacted. According Allen Jones, an investigator in the Pennsylvania

Office of Inspector General and a whistleblower, Curie is reported to

have set up a slush fund from which state employees could solicit

grants from the pharmaceutical industry.

 

NFC member psychiatrist Rodolfo Arredondo served on the board of the

Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation during

TMAP's development, while another NFC commissioner, Robert

Postlethwait, has had a long career with Eli Lilly and Company.

 

According to Jones, at least 14 of the 22 NFC members have drug

industry ties. Not surprisingly, the NFC selected TMAP as a model

program and stated that the " biggest challenge " was to ensure that

TMAP was " implemented in other states and localities. "

 

The psychiatric industry is well on its way to meeting that

challenge -- with disastrous results for our youth. A similar pattern

emerges in states which have adopted TMAP. In Texas, 19,404 teenagers

were prescribed an antipsychotic in July or August of 2004. Ninety-

eight percent received the newer atypical antipsychotics. In April of

2004, the Texas Comptroller, Carole Strayhorn, released a report,

Forgotten Children, that was highly critical of the psychiatric

drugging of foster children in Texas.

 

In 2005, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch ran a two-part story, " Drugged

Into Submission, " on the psychiatric drugging of children, including

700 babies and toddlers, under state care. Part one was

titled, " Forced Medication Straitjackets Kids. "

 

In 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported, " Children under state

protection in California group and foster homes are being drugged

with potent, dangerous psychiatric medications, at times just to keep

them obedient and docile for their overburdened caretakers. "

 

In Pennsylvania, Dr. Stephan Kruszewski, a Harvard trained

psychiatrist working for the Pennsylvania's Department of Public

Welfare, complained that children were being heavily drugged with

antipsychotics and anticonvulsants (mainly Neurontin). He was fired.

 

In Washington State, atypical antipsychotics ranked 1, 3, and 5 on

the Medical Assistance Administration's list of top 100 drugs by

money paid in 2004, with nearly $78 million spent on those three

drugs: Zyprexa ($36 million), Risperdal ($21 million), Seroquel

($20.8 million). Neurontin was #4, at $20.8 million. Antidepressants

Zoloft, Effexor and Paxil came in at #7, #11 and #12, with nearly $31

million spent on those three drugs. A 1997 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

series charged that an " unmonitored stream of mood drugs imperils

children entrusted to state. "

 

Additional confirmation of the drug industry's control of SAMHSA

comes in the form of an email sent to me by the previously mentioned

senior technical assistance specialist at SAMHSA. The email was a

response to my inquiry about the anti-stigma campaign. The assistance

specialist sent a copy of her response and my original inquiry, to

the NASC liaison at NAMI. NAMI, of course, is the National Alliance

for the Mentally Ill, a well-known front group for the pharmaceutical

industry. SAMHSA is obviously working hand in hand with NAMI -- even

forwarding private communication from the public to NAMI's offices.

In 1999, Mother Jones magazine reported that 18 drug firms gave NAMI

a total of $11.72 million between 1996 and 1999. NAMI continually

promotes psychiatric chemical imbalance theories, minimizes the

damaging effects of psychiatric drugs, and advocates for forced

psychiatric drugging programs.

 

On May 28, 2006, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that NAMI " did

not disclose that Lilly [Eli Lilly, makers of Zyprexa and Prozac]

marketing manager Gerald Radke briefly ran its entire operation.

Radke began in 1999 as a Lilly-paid `management consultant,' then

left Lilly and served as NAMI's paid `interim executive director'

until mid-2001. The group acknowledged this only after being shown

Radke's resume listing the job. "

 

According to the Inquirer, Lilly gave NAMI $3 million between 2003

and 2005 and " called its executive loans mutually beneficial. " NAMI's

former executive director for 16 years was Laurie Flynn. Flynn is now

the Director of Teenscreen, a psychiatric screening program developed

by Columbia University's Child Psychiatry Research Department and,

not surprisingly, recommended by the NFC. TeenScreen's goal is to

screen all teenagers in the U.S. for psychiatric disorders.

 

NASC and screening: Educating Americans to be good customers

 

Since psychiatric drugging must, in most cases, be preceded by the

assignment of a psychiatric label, psychiatric screening is an

essential step in the industry's plans to expand its market. That's

where the anti-stigma campaign and national psychiatric screening --

both recommended by the NFC -- come into play.

 

The NFC report recommended " early detection of mental health problems

in children and adults -- through routine and comprehensive testing

and screening . . . " and while NFC chair Hogan has denied that the

NFC intended universal screening, in a January 20, 2005 story in the

Christian Science Monitor, Hogan said that the commission decided

that recommending universal screening would be " a little premature

and probably controversial, even though we thought, in the long run,

it probably might be the right thing to do. "

 

In other words, the only barrier to screening everyone in America, as

the NFC sees it, is the controversy it would generate.

It's " premature. " Americans have to be prepared to accept mass

psychiatric interventions. SAMHSA's NFC-recommended NASC program is

their answer -- a three-year, " long run " program to prepare the

population for universal screening, followed, of course, by

psychiatric labeling and drugging.

 

The NASC campaign will advertise that mental illness has reached

epidemic levels in the population -- a theme that has been repeated

in psychiatric marketing campaigns dating back to the 1940s. The

psychiatric industry wants Americans to see mental illness

everywhere -- to associate any problem in life with a possible

psychiatric disorder that can be treated with a psychiatric drug.

 

A PowerPoint presentation available at the NASC website warns

that " 22% of Americans have a diagnosable mental health problem "

but " the majority . . . do not seek help. " SAMHSA has produced three

brochures that focus on the workplace (Mental Health: It's Part of

Our Lives at Work), the elderly (Mental Health: It's Part of Aging)

and college students (Mental Health: It's Part of College Life). All

state that one in five adults in the U.S. experience a mental illness

each year. All stress that not enough people are seeking treatment

due to stigma.

 

At the same time SAMHSA's Eliminating Barriers Initiative (EBI) is

currently being pushed into secondary schools via school

administrators' associations. EBI is being piloted in eight states,

(Mass., Ohio, Fla., NC, Calif., Texas, Wisc. Pa.). EBI training

presentations promoting psychiatric chemical imbalance theories,

stating, " Mental illnesses are brain disorders. "

 

In Massachusetts, the commissioner of Mental Health was brought to

one conference and read a student's suicide note to the assembled

school administrators. Suicide is a favorite theme, even though 1)

child suicides are extremely rare (4.6 per 100,000 in 2001, according

to the Center for Disease Control) and declining; 2) In 2004, the

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) found " no evidence that

screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality "

and " insufficient evidence that treatment of those at high risk

reduces suicide attempts or mortality; " and 3) psychiatric drug

treatment has been found to increase suicidal thinking and behavior

in children under 18.

 

The goal of such programs is clear. SAMHSA, acting as a tool of the

psychiatric and drug industries, wants Americans to view the world

through psychiatric lenses -- to find mental illness in their

children, their colleagues, their family and friends. The purpose of

the NASC campaign is not to educate Americans about psychiatric

theories and treatments but to instill acceptance of psychiatric

dogma and psychiatric labeling and thus prepare the way for

psychiatric screening and drugging. Always the appeal is heavily

weighted to the emotions. The elderly brochure, for example,

advises, " If you feel shame because you have a mental illness

remember: You are not alone. " SAMHSA will tell us that fear of the

mentally ill is part of the stigma, while, at the same time, they

will be sowing a subliminal fear that mental illness is lurking

around every corner.

 

The NASC campaign will spread the gospel of chemical imbalances and

suggest that the stigma of mental illness is the result of public

ignorance and fear. This is a key element of NASC. Americans must be

taught to locate the source of the stigma in their own personal

failure, not the rampant disease mongering and fear tactics of the

psychiatric industry.

 

The real source of the stigma

 

The real source of the stigma of mental illness lies in the

definition of stigma itself. The dictionary says a stigma is " A mark

or token of infamy, disgrace or reproach. A small mark; a scar or

birthmark. " The word derives from the ancient word for the mark or

tattoo that was carved or burned into the flesh of a slave or

prisoner to inform everyone of their shameful status.

 

The definition of stigma suggests at once the source of the stigma --

psychiatric " marking " -- and how it could be eliminated: Don't place

the mark. The most direct way to end the stigmatization of the

mentally ill would be to stop calling them mentally ill and labeling

them with specious disorders. After all, there's no proof they're

ill. There is no lab test that can verify the presence of any

psychiatric disorder. We could just get rid of the Attention

Deficits, the Major Depressives, the Social Anxieties, the Bipolars

and the 370 other labels psychiatrists have invented to alienate and

marginalize those who are suffering and convince those who are well

that they are ill. We could tell the psychiatric prisoners that their

diagnostic cells are a thin illusion, that their experience is part

of the infinite variety of human experience. We could tell them they

are not other than us, they are not sick, they don't have bad brains.

Life is tough, for a thousand different reasons, and most of us

struggle.

 

If we just put an end to psychiatry's fraudulent pathologizing of

life, the stigma of mental illness would disappear.

 

Needless to say, this is not the kind of campaign SAMHSA has planned.

There's too much money at stake. For several decades now

psychiatrists have been manufacturing stigmas at a ridiculous rate.

Psychiatry's book of stigmas, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

of Mental Disorders, has expanded from 112 stigmas in 1952 to its

current 374, under the guiding hand, the New York Times and others

recently (April 20) reported, of " experts " with financial ties to

drug companies.

 

According to the Times, a study in the journal Psychotherapy and

Psychosomatics found that " 56 percent of 170 experts who worked on

the 1994 edition of the manual, called the Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual, or D.S.M, had at least one monetary relationship with a drug

maker in the years from 1989 to 2004. " A report on the study in the

Chicago Tribune noted that, " 100 percent of the experts on DSM-IV

panels overseeing mood disorders and schizophrenia/psychotic

disorders were financially involved with the drug industry. These are

the largest categories of psychiatric drugs in the world, racking up

2004 sales of $20.3 billion and $14.4 billion, respectively.

Depression is the leading mood disorder. "

 

It's a particularly profitable symbiosis. Psychiatrists invent the

diseases; the pharmaceutical industry makes the snake oil to treat

them. And as we have seen, the purpose of the NASC campaign is to

help the experts and drug companies cash in on their cozy

relationship, to ensure that Americans accept psychiatric branding

and become good customers for the psychiatric/pharmaceutical complex.

 

The last thing the psychiatric industry wants is for people to have

the facts about psychiatry's invented illnesses and ineffective,

damaging drugs. SAMHSA's campaign will follow a different script, one

with more of a " slaves are people too " theme, one which ensures that

psychiatric branding is broadly accepted.

 

A brochure from the ADS center asks that we " remember " that people

with mental illnesses " do recover and lead productive lives, " they

have the " same needs as everyone else, " they " make valuable

contributions to society, " and discrimination " keeps them from

seeking help " and " violates their rights. "

 

In other words, we will be educated about how people become slaves

(mentally ill); that it's not their fault (it's genetic); that

slavery touches all of us, and that, while slaves are different, they

should be treated with dignity. Slaves can lead productive lives,

they have the same needs as everyone, they make valuable

contributions, and you shouldn't discriminate against them. We'll be

told that psychiatric prisoners are fortunate to have kind wardens

who treat them with respect and though the whip is occasionally

needed, it's all in their best interests. Just don't start thinking

that they are normal human beings -- they are slaves, i.e., mentally

disordered with damaged brains.

 

SAMHSA's campaign will justify and expand the stigmatization that

supports the current mental health system, while chiding us to be

nice to those who are thereby victimized. It won't tell us how

psychiatrists invent their diagnoses. It won't tell that psychiatry's

own diagnostic manual admits that psychiatry can't distinguish one

disorder from another or mental illness from mental health. It won't

tell us that psychiatric diagnostic reliability is low. We won't be

informed that, as Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen wrote in

Prozac Backlash, " We do not yet have proof either of the cause or the

physiology for any psychiatric diagnosis. . . . In recent decades, we

have had no shortage of alleged biochemical imbalances for

psychiatric conditions. Diligent though these attempts have been, not

one has been proven. "

 

The ineffectiveness of psychiatric drugs won't be mentioned -- nor

the stream of warnings that have issued from the FDA and

international agencies over the past several years concerning the

dangerous and often lethal side effects of antidepressants,

antipsychotics and stimulants.

 

We won't hear about last year's study of antipsychotics, published in

the New England Journal of Medicine, which found the newer

antipsychotics to be no more effective than the older drugs. In the

study 74 percent of patients quit the drugs and " [T]he majority of

patients in each group discontinued their assigned treatment owing to

inefficacy or intolerable side effects or for other reasons. " (Note:

They didn't quit because they " decompensated, " " lacked insight, " or

were " in denial. " The drugs were ineffective and intolerable.)

 

Instead, our government will tell us of the terrible consequence of

failing to seek treatment. We'll be told to get branded -- and

encourage our friends and family to do the same - as soon as

possible. We'll be assured that life on the pill plantation is a

wonderful thing.

 

The pitch will touching and benevolent, the unspoken message crystal

clear: psychiatric stigmatization is a good thing. Only the ignorant

and uncaring fail to embrace it. You'll be hearing a lot about the

stigma of mental illness in the coming months and with good reason. A

trillion dollar industry depends on it.

 

For the past 20 years, Richard A. Warner has been the president of

the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Seattle. He's written

several pieces for the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer

over the years, been a guest on dozens of local and national radio

shows, and testifies regularly at the Washington State capital in

Olympia on issues related to mental health. His recent paper on shock

treatment can be found at ect.org.

 

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