The Roving Psychologist

Great article. Big Pharma has no doubt corrupted the field of psychiatry in a big way. I am wondering what your thoughts are on "preferred drug" lists for government funded insurance coverage? I am a mental health and substance abuse counselor in Michigan, and in my state there is an established list of "preferred drugs" that my clients are limited to when written a prescription by our agency psychiatrist. Most of my clients are on Medicaid and those that are not may get coverage through our managed care provider network (Gateway). In many ways, I see preferred drug lists as a positive thing. It has already saved the state millions and on some level does promote more rigourous testing of drugs and seeks to do away with "snake oil" or newly patented drugs that are no better than thier already exisiting parent drug. On the other hand, it seems Big Pharma has readily inflitrated the government selection process and is shelling out big bucks to get certain medications on the preferred drug list with ot without merrit. I would have to check to be sure but based on the number of clients I see who are prescribed Neurontin, I am guessing Neurontin has weasled it's way onto the preferred list where other more effective drugs are not an option for those with government funded insurance.

The scientific literature, the facts... the "truth" is that psychiatric drugs - all classes - cause more harm than good.

In fact, their long-term use, for the vast majority causes MUCH more harm than good.

There are safe and effective ways to treat any/all of what we call "mental illness".... It's time we started using these non-drug approaches.

Conventional psychiatry (pharmacological variety) is dead.
Cause of death: professional suicide

Duane Sherry, M.S.
discoverandrecover.wordpress.com

Great article, but I must tell you that the NIMH ain't exactly squeaky clean either. Yes, in a much saner world the NIMH wouldn't be awash in corruption and we would be able to take up your psychiatric colleague's suggestion that the NIMH should parcel out grants to independent researchers. But that really ain't gonna happen with people like Tom Insel (director of the NIMH) in charge, and all of his pseudo-scientific cronies like Mahukar Trivedi vacuuming up the NIMH grant money for dead-in-the-water studies.

And that's not even the half of it. Read the two links below to learn about how corrupt the NIMH really is.

Dr. Gartner, please do not hesitate to repeat your message whenever you get the opportunity.

You are absolutely correct -- there is no valid research basis for psychiatric prescription. And, given its self-interest in continuing to prescribe, mainstream psychiatry has ignored patient injury that results from, effectively, uncontrolled field experiments by clinicians.

For example, it is striking that, although there are thousands upon thousands of postings all over the Internet and dozens of patient-run Web sites specifically about the difficulties of antidepressant withdrawal, clinicians know virtually nothing about how to safely taper people off the medications.

Mainstream psychiatry tells doctors that withdrawal symptoms are minor, transitory, and last at most a few weeks; doctors are instructed that any further symptoms are relapse or emergence of a new psychiatric disorder. They then prescribe ever-more bizarre drug cocktails to combat this new "illness" as the patient deteriorates under the weight of chemical assault.

This, as I said, despite the evidence of thousands upon thousands of Web postings.

Mainstream psychiatry has yet to catch up with the reality of psychiatric drug withdrawal syndromes and how they create an epidemic of mental illness (as suggested by Robert Whitaker). So much suffering could be prevented if it weren't for the assumptions of drug safety promulgated by the unholy symbiosis of psychiatry and pharma.

Thank you Dr. Gartner for this stirring call to arms.

Discussing psychiatric research here, I am reminded of a scene from one of my favorite Woody Allen movies, Annie Hall:

Allen's character stands in line with his girlfriend, Annie Hall. Behind them stands another guy pontificating to his date about the meaning of Marshall McLuhan's work. Then the real Marshall McLuhan steps out from behind a movie poster. McLuhan exhorts: I heard what you were saying. You know nothing of my work!

I wish some real physician scientists would step out in public and engage critics of psychiatry. The interchange, the conversation is in the public interest. For your readers in Washington D.C., a couple of giants in the field are putting themselves out there to the public.

Dr. Frederick Goodwin speaks on achieving and maintaining wellness on Tuesday, October 12, 7:30 pm, at the George Washington University Medical Center auditorium.

Dr. Robert Post offers Ask A Doc on Tuesday, November 8, 7:30 pm, also at George Washington University Medical Center auditorium.

Please see the website of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance for directions: www.dbsanca.org

Demonize ALL psychiatrists? The devilish ones are often the most astute observers of the human condition.

Thank you,
Moira

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization

2010 IRS Form 990 (from http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=donate_annualreport)

Line 8. Total contributions and grants $1,326,750

Schedule B. Part 1. Contributors (listed as "persons")

AstraZeneca $676,000
Eli Lilly $60,000
Pfizer $75,000
Merck $55,000

Total reported support from pharma $866,000 (65% of all contributions and grants)

AstraZeneca is the manufacturer of Seroquel, facing about 10,000 injury lawsuits connected with adverse effects of the drug.

Though I applaud Dr. Gardner for his exposure of the fraud and damage done by psychiatry in bed with BIG PHARMA, he doesn't go far enough. I am dismayed that he refers to the latest fraud fad stigma of bipolar disorder II, which was invented when psychiatry and BIG PHARMA needed fresh victims for its new lethal so called mood stabilizers like Depakote and the atypical antipsychotic poisons. He also repeats the lie that SSRI antidepressants make bipolars rapidly recycle when these horrible drugs cause mania and other lethal effects in normal people falsely labelled bipolar knowingly by the mental death profession. Dr. David Healy, psychiatrist, discusses this fraud and conflicts of interest behind the explosion of bogus bipolar diagnoses which became a literal joke in psychiatry. Even Dr. France Allen, editor of the bogus DSM IV, has admitted that by expanding the criteria for ADHD, autism, bipolar and other labels invented by psychiatry and BIG PHARMA, they did much harm by fueling an epidemic of bogus diagnoses that destroyed countless lives. So, Dr. Gardner should not just point the finger at psychiatry since he is prostituting himself by using bogus lables from the junk science DSM to stigmatize normal people having life problems/crises who have no idea the evil lurking behind the doors of the mental death profession. Dr. Gardner misinterprets Robert Whitaker's ANATOMY OF AN EPIDEMIC in that he exposes that those in third world countries who go through similar life crises tend to recover with community support and no drugs while those preyed upon by the mental death profession in supposed advanced countries are stigmatized with a death sentence fraud label like bipolar to force lethal poisons on them guaranteed to make them permanently disabled. So, Dr. Gardner you are a huge part of the problem too since you are colluding with this evil, corrupt, bogus fraud!!

This needed to be said. THANK you for your courage in speaking to this travesty.

Very very important point.

This is precisely why I don't trust psychiatry.

Did these guys all take the "hypocritic" oath??

God bless you, Dr Gartner!