PsychRights®
Law Project for
Psychiatric Rights
The story the American Psychiatric Association and
individual psychiatrists (Psychiatry) have been telling their patients and the
public is not true.
There are no proven chemical imbalances or other known brain defects that result
in what gets diagnosed as mental illnesses.
Most of the drugs given to treat people diagnosed with mental illness are no
better than placebo and many cause tremendous physical problems.
The second generation of so-called "anti-psychotics" (neuroleptics) are
effective for few and harmful to all.
Contrary to drug company hype, they are not more effective than first
generation neuroleptics and far more harmful.
Largely as a result, the disability rate of people diagnosed with serious mental
illness has increased 6-fold on a per capita basis since the introduction of the
supposed miracle drug Thorazine in 1954.
Largely due to the use of these drugs, the life expectancy of people diagnosed
with serious mental illness is 25 years less than the general population.
The stimulants used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the
so-called antidepressants have dramatically increased the incidence of people
diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and converted it from a good prognosis
diagnosis to one that is quite poor.
The ubiquitous use of psychiatric drugs is at least halving the percentage of
people who recover after being diagnosed with a serious mental illness; it
appears about 80% of the people presenting with an initial psychosis can recover
if they are not given and maintained on psychiatric drugs.
The American Psychiatric Association and individual psychiatrists are either
fooled or complicit to the extent they do not publicly acknowledge
and act on these facts.
Sources:
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets,
Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America,
by Robert Whitaker; and
Scientific Research by Topic
on PsychRights' website.
*The Lucy "Fooled or Complicit"
transformation of the Peanuts® "the Dr. is In" cartoon is
used without
permission under the Fair Use provisions of the copyright laws, 17 U.S.C.
Section 107.
last modified May 25, 2012