Vera- Chemical Imbalance--Scientifically Debunked but Commercially Profita

[Guest guest]

Yes, Captain, I agree with everything you posted. I've heard stories

of someone seeing a therapist for depression related issues, and the

therapist wanted the person to stop using marijuana and instead be

prescribed an SSRI to take daily and indefinitely.

 

The mandatory mental screening idea seems like one of those good ideas

in theory that the government will mostly screw up in practice thanks

to pharma, etc. Keep in mind that 1 out of every 6 children in this

country has some form of mental disorder, usually like ADHD. As

someone with the mild form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome that

was not diagnosed until well into adulthood, I can appreciate how

mandatory mental screening can be useful.

 

Many parents can not accept certain diagnosis in their children.

These days parents act more like their child's lawyer and say, " My

child would never do something like that, " or " That diagnosis couldn't

be for my child. " This is only a small percentage of parents, but

without some formal system of testing children and forcing parents to

confront the diagnosis many children will go undiagnosed. Just having

a teacher or school counselor suggest to the parents that the child

should be tested is not enough in many cases.

 

 

, " Capt. Chemtrails,

USN \(ret\) " <shaaag2000 wrote:

>

>

>

> Please keep in mind the potentially mandatory mental screening

programs planned by " our " government --- in fact, if you haven't

already done so , click below and sign the " teenscreen " petition. (if

you are reading this, Thank you very much for being intelligent and

brave enough to still see and act on what's happening around you--

folks like you, likely less than 1% of the population, have led to

them being forced to scrap-- or at least delay-- many planned

intrusions, constitutional revisions.) We have made excellent

progress thanks to you and other like minded folks-- seems like just

yesterday the signers of this petition totalled less than 3000

>

> President George Bush personally backs a drive to mentally screen

the entire US population, beginning with WHO's in school and including

preschool children, for undiagnosed mental illness. Like the " patriot

act " , this program bears an Orwellian ID--ridiculous---New Freedom

Initiative. Thousands of schools are already participating in

screening their pupils. Some states require parental consent, but, you

can imagine what the default solution is on lost, illegible, no

response to authorization forms---keeping in mind that government

bureaucrats and subsidized pharmaceuticals are involved.

>

>

>

> Could anything be more ironic-- Pharma//Bush and his crew of pond

scum predator nut cases planning to test YOU (and everyone, beginning

with school age and pre school kids, seniors who use " healthcare " ,

military, " drug war " prisoners) for mental " normalcy " and labeling

this project President's " Freedom " Commission on Mental Health --- and

this after he has basically cut off freedom of information re:

scientific research, results of which are now considered a government

owned " product " ? Dorothy/Toto and Alice in Wonderland visited saner,

more real places than the world in which your grandkids may live.

>

> Two Out of Three Foster Children in Texas on Psychotropic Medication

>

>

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en & q=New+Freedom+Initiative++mandatory & btnG=Sear\

ch

>

> http://tinyurl.com/2zeyyp //// Proceed to this site.

>

> The Parental Consent Act of 2007 can be found here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h2387_ih.xml

> Sponsor

> Rep Paul, Ron, Texas

>

> 22,541 petition signatures against TeenScreen:

http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Video:

> (now--23833 Total Signatures,Check out some of the signee's

comments-- most could have been made by you or me)

> Stop TeenScreen's Unscientific and Experimental " Mental Health ...

PetitionOnline http://www.PetitionOnline.com/

www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html

> http://www.teenscreen-locations.com/photos.htm (bravo! photos)

> other " good " links-- informative, anyway.

> Bush's Mental Illness Screening Squad On the Move

> http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0607/S00120.htm

> What Teenscreen Doesn't Want You to Know about Parental Consent

> Teenscreen: Adolescent suicide and mental health screening programs

> Is your child being " mentally screened " at school

>

> Psychiatric Drugs: TeenScreen Draws Criticism, Legal Challenge ...

> TeenScreen, a program to screen America's school children

for " mental illness " to be

> www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/06/17/

psychiatric_drugs_teenscreen_draws_criticism_legal_challenge.htm

> President's " Freedom " Commission on Mental Health = MANDATORY screen

>

>

> TEENSCREEN) Shock Treatment; they're doing it on kids in Florida.

YouTube - Electro-Convulsive Therapy Day 3

> it has been documented that ECT has been given to 15, 16, and 17

year old girls paid by Medicaid in Florida (your tax dollars) It is

literally as scientific as sticking one's head in a light socket. Do

it often enough and you will become disoriented, confused, lose your

memory or even die. Are lobotomies next?

>

> THE SECOND AMENDMENT AND MENTAL DISORDERS

>

> The drugs don't work, warn top psychiatrists

>

> After Sanctions, Doctors Get Drug Company Pay

> Veterans= Next Target for Mental Health Screening

>

> other Vera posts-- thank you Rose and AnDrea

> http://tinyurl.com/37nqao

>

> Keep the faith, and please remember RON PAUL in your thoughts!

>

> VERACARE <veracare wrote:

>

> ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION

> Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

> http://www.ahrp.org <http://www.ahrp.org/> and

> http://ahrp.blogspot.com

>

> FYI

>

> " The Media and the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression " by

> Jonathan Leo & Jeffrey R. Lacasse is a follow up to their seminal

article in

> PLoS Medicine (2005), in which they debunked the " chemical imbalance "

> theory of depression.

>

> The " chemical imbalance " theory in psychiatry rests on the

> observation that mood could be artificially manipulated with

drugs-those which raised monoamine levels improved mood, while those

which lowered amine levels led to depression, but it remained to be

seen if naturally occurring fluctuations in neurotransmitter levels

were responsible for, or

> caused, the ebb and flow of mood levels. As the authors point out,

in spite

> of the enormous amount of money and time that has been spent in the

> quest to confirm the chemical imbalance theory, direct proof has never

> materialized. Moreover, during the past several decades, a

significant amount

> of evidence has accumulated which calls the theory's validity into

question.

>

> Of particular note, in the two years since publication of their

> PLoS

> article, not a single scientific article challenged their

> conclusion.

> Indeed, the chairman of FDA Psychopharmacology Advisory Committee

> acknowledged that the " chemical imbalance " theory was but a

> " useful

> metaphor " --as opposed to a valid hypothesis.

>

> Another credible, evidence-based assessment of the " chemical

> imbalance "

> theory is to be found on the website of The Mental Health Service

> at McGill

> University:

> " The term 'chemical imbalance' is thrown around a lot these

> days. True

> conditions caused by chemical imbalances are relatively rare. All

> thoughts,

> feelings

> and motions in the brain are mediated by the release of chemicals

> in brain

> pathways. Every person's brain is unique, leading each of us to

> have

> different traits and abilities. Just because your brain works in

> a

> particular way does not mean that you have a chemical imbalance.

> A certain

> amount of sadness, anxiety or other emotional upset is normal,

> and though we

> may be able to block these feelings by chemicals, this would tend

> to

> dehumanize us. Even when we use medication to help an individual

> with

> overwhelming emotions, most of the time this is not to repair a

> 'chemical

> imbalance' but simply to help contain symptoms. "

> http://www.mcgill.ca/mentalhealth/medication/

>

> However, invalid thought it may be, as Drs. Leo and Lacasse point

> out the

> " chemical imbalance " theory has had extraordinary commercial

> value for both

> the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry:

> " With the advent of the chemical imbalance theory, the companies

> were no

> longer just providing soothing tonics, they were now providing

> medications

> to treat diseases, as exemplified by an early SSRI advertisement

> stating:

> " When serotonin is in short supply, you may suffer from

> depression. " The

> wording here is all-important. The advertisement takes a

> correlation between

> serotonin shortage and psychological stress-and even this is

> highly

> questionable and unverifiable in any individual case-and makes a

> leap of

> faith to the conclusion that depression is caused by a serotonin

> imbalance,

> not that psychological stress impacts the serotonin system.

> And the marketing did not stop with depression; eventually we

> were told that

> whatever our problems might be, whether anxiety, excessive

> shyness,

> depression, or the inability to pay attention, the underlying

> cause was a

> faulty transmitter level which could be rectified with a pill. A

> 2005 survey

> from the Harvard School of Public Health reported that nearly

> half of all

> Americans will at some point develop a mental illness, presumably

> from a

> chemical imbalance, with 29% developing an anxiety disorder and

> 20% a mood

> disorder. "

>

> The " chemical imbalance " theory has provided promoters of

> psychoactive " feel

> good " prescription drugs with the means for distancing their

> products from

> illicit street drugs whose chemical action is almost

> indistinguishable.

> Whereas drugs used to " take the edge off " stress are typically

> considered

> street drugs and are consumed by " users " or " addicts, " substances

> used to

> rectify a " chemical imbalance " can be called medications--and

> these are

> legitimately consumed by patients.

>

> A fly in the ointment occurred when Ricky Williams, the star

> running back

> for the Miami Dolphins who had been " diagnosed " with Social

> Anxiety

> Disorder, and for several years was paid by GlaxoSmithKline to

> promote Paxil

> for anxiety disorder, was described in 2002, by People magazine,

> as

> suffering from a " depression-like chemical imbalance that affects

> roughly

> three million Americans. " Williams tested positive for marijuana

> on several

> occasions. But while his marijuana use was frowned upon, his use

> of Paxil

> was considered acceptable. One was a medication supposed to treat

> a chemical

> imbalance, while the other was a drug signaling a lack of

> willpower.

>

> However, Williams' contract with Glaxo came to a sudden halt in

> 2004, when

> he stated that marijuana was ten times better than Paxil.

> What got him into hot water, Drs. Leo and Lacasse, note, was not

> so much

> praising the competition, but rather putting his sponsor's

> " medication " in

> the same category as an illicit drug. Williams threatened the

> assumption

> underlying the conventional unsupportable divide between legal

> and illegal

> drug use. His juxtaposition threatened the most powerful

> industries--including professional sports, the pharmaceutical

> industry,

> psychiatry, and the mass media.

>

> Another fly in the ointment raising questions about the validity

> of the

> dividing line between prescribed and illicit psychoactive

> substances, is a

> recent controlled clinical trial conducted by researchers at

> Johns Hopkins.

> The researchers ostensibly tested the " Mystical " effects of

> psilocybin, the

> active ingredient in mushrooms which is an illegal drug that

> causes

> hallucinations. However, two months after the trial they found

> that " 79% of

> those prescribed psilocybin reported moderately or greatly

> increased levels

> of life satisfaction compared with those given a placebo. A

> majority said

> their mood, attitudes and behaviors had changed for the better. "

> http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html

> No SSRI clinical trial had that high a rate of long-lasting

> improvements in

> mood, attitude and behavior.

>

> The authors sent inquiries to reporters who mentioned the

> " chemical

> imbalance " theory as if it had been proven, asking for citations

> of such

> proof. The responses--or lack of responses--and the biased,

> pro-industry

> reporting about mental health treatments, are no less troubling

> than the

> biased reporting in the New York Times about the events leading

> up to the

> Iraq War.

>

> " In hindsight, as the Times editors now acknowledge (5/326/04),

> Judith

> Miller's war coverage was overly one-sided. Her fundamental flaw

> could be

> described as a lack of professional skepticism toward the Bush

> administration, as she willingly parroted what those pushing for

> war were

> saying, while giving little credence to the stance of the other

> side.

> Writing in the New York Review of Books, Michael Massing

> commented that the

> Times and Miller's reporting were examples of media

> " submissiveness. "

>

> This depiction could just as well apply to the media's reporting

> of mental

> health issues. As just one example, in some cases, the media

> still go to the

> people responsible for the original problems. For instance,

> several of the

> researchers involved with the studies of SSRIs in children are

> still cited

> in the press even though the following information has come out

> about their

> published studies: they downplayed the suicide risk; they

> exaggerated the

> benefits; and the papers published under their names were

> actually written

> by ghostwriters paid by the pharmaceutical industry.

>

> The Times editors have acknowledged both the problems with

> Miller's

> reporting and their own lack of editorial oversight of her. It

> remains to be

> seen if members of the

> media will ever look inward and reflect on their role in the

> promotion of

> the chemical imbalance theory. (For those familiar with the New

> York Times'

> coverage of mental

> health issues over the past 10 years, it is refreshing that after

> a series

> of health reporters who essentially abdicated their role as

> investigative

> journalists, there is a newer group of Times reporters with more

> skeptical

> inclination... "

>

>

> Both articles by Jonathan Leo and Jeffrey Lacasse are freely

> accessible.

> http://www.springerlink.com/content/u37j12152n826q60/fulltext.pdf

> and

>

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document & doi=10.1371/

> journal.pmed.0020392

>

> Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

> veracare

> 212-595-8974