IMPORTANT FACTS

1. Mind-altering neuroleptic drugs are the destructive mainstay of community mental health programs.

2. The drugs hinder normal brain function and produce pathology much like the lobotomy which psychotropic drugs replaced.

3. The homeless individuals commonly seen grimacing and talking to themselves on the street are exhibiting the symptoms of psychiatric drug-induced damage.

4. Newer neuroleptics (antipsychotics) have sold at significantly higher prices, in one case at 30 times the price of the older versions. One new antipsychotic drug costs $3,000 to $9,000 more per patient, with no benefit as to symptoms, side effects or overall quality of life.

5. The drugs can cause serious side effects, notably diabetes, in some cases leading to death. Between 1994 and 2002, 288 patients taking the new antipsychotics developed diabetes; 75 became severely ill and 23 died.

6. The drugs can also cause suicidal or violent behavior.

CHAPTER TWO Dangerous Drug �Treatment�

The advent of Community Mental Health psychiatric programs would not have been possible without the development and use of neuroleptic drugs, also known as antipsychotics, for mentally disturbed individuals.

The first generation of neuroleptics, now commonly referred to as �typical antipsychotics� or �typicals,� appeared during the 1960s. They were heavily promoted as �miracle� drugs that made it �possible for most of the mentally ill to be successfully and quickly treated in their own communities and returned to a useful place in society.� [Emphasis added]

These claims were false. In an article in the American Journal of Bioethics in 2003, Vera Sharav stated, �The realty was that the therapies damaged the brain�s frontal lobes, which is the distinguishing feature of the human brain. The neuroleptic drugs used since the 1950s �worked� by hindering normal brain function: they dimmed psychosis, but produced pathology often worse than the condition for which they have been prescribed�much like physical lobotomy which psychotropic drugs replaced.�

The homeless individuals commonly seen grimacing and talking to themselves on the street are
exhibiting the effects of such psychiatric drug-induced damage. �Tardive dyskinesia� (tardive, late appearing and dyskinesia, abnormal muscle movement) and �tardive dystonia� (dystonia, abnormal muscle tension) are permanent conditions caused by tranquilizers in which the muscles of the face and body contort and spasm involuntarily.

�In short, the drug-induced reactions are of such a nature that an observer could be forgiven for assuming the person so affected was mentally ill and perhaps even dangerous. A person suffering from such a reaction, even to a minor degree, would experience great difficulty in being accepted by the man in the street as �normal,�� wrote Pam Gorring, author of Mental Disorder or Madness?

Neuroleptic patients became sluggish, apathetic, disinclined to walk, less alert and had an empty look�a vacuity of expression�on their faces. They spoke in slow monotones. Patients also complained of drowsiness, weakness, apathy, a lack of initiative and a loss of interest in surroundings.

Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America, reported, �The image we have today of schizophrenia is not that of madness�whatever that might be�in its natural state. All of the traits that we have come to associate with schizophrenia�the awkward gait, the jerking arm movements, the vacant facial expression, the sleepiness, the lack of initiative�are symptoms due, at least in large part� to the effects of neuroleptics. �Our perceptions of how those ill with �schizophrenia� think, behave, and look are all perceptions of people altered by medication, and not by any natural course of a �disease.��

As for improving the patients� quality of life, neuroleptics have produced a miserable record. A 1999 patient survey found 90% of neuroleptic patients felt depressed, 88% felt sedated, and 78% complained of poor concentration. More than 80% of people diagnosed with �schizophrenia� are chronically unemployed. In other words, despite decades of promised cures, none have ever materialized.

In the 1980s, with the patent protection expired and the drugs becoming available in much cheaper generic forms, the prices for the major brands dropped steeply, making them unprofitable. This all changed in the early 1990s, when newly patented neuroleptics known as �atypical antipsychotics� or �atypicals� were introduced with even more fanfare than their predecessors. The old neuroleptics were suddenly tagged as flawed drugs.

Expert psychiatric opinion was recruited to disseminate claims that, �There is clear scientific evidence that newer classes of medications can better treat the symptoms of schizophrenia and depression with far fewer side effects.� The opinions were tagged �Expert Consensus Guidelines� despite their complete absence of scientific analysis, study reviews or clinical trials.

With these guidelines in place, psychiatrists finally saw fit to publicly admit what they had always known: that the earlier drugs did not control delusions or hallucinations; that two-thirds of the drugged patients had �persistent psychotic symptoms a year after their first psychotic break� and that 30% of patients didn�t respond to the drugs at all�a �non- response� rate that up until the 1980s had hardly ever been mentioned.

The new antipsychotics have sold at significantly higher prices, in one case at 30 times the price of the older drugs. Another new neuroleptic costs $3,000 to $9,000 more per patient, with no benefits as to symptoms, side effects or overall quality of life. Between 1991 and 2003, antipsychotic drug sales in the United States increased by 1,500%, from less than $500 million to more than $8 billion. International sales reached more than $12 billion in 2002.

There is no argument that the public must be protected from violent and psychotic or crazy behavior. However, the idea that this is the major risk we face from severely mentally disturbed patients, because of their mental condition, is a lie manufactured by psychiatrists themselves. So is the idea that we should minimize this �risk� by drugging patients with neuroleptics, against their will if necessary. The truth is that neither the absence of such drugs, or the failure to take them, is the problem. The drugs themselves create violent impulses.

Although the public may think that �crazy� people are likely to behave in violent ways, Robert Whitaker found this was not true of �mental patients� prior to the introduction of neuroleptics. Before 1955, four studies found that patients discharged from mental hospitals committed crimes at either the same or a lower rate than the general population. However, �eight studies conducted from 1965 to 1979 determined that discharged patients were being arrested at rates that exceeded those of the general population. � Akathisia [extreme drug- induced restlessness] was also clearly a contributing factor.�

Antipsychotic drugs may temporarily dim psychosis but, over the long run, make patients more biologically prone to it.

A 1988 study in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease on the use of neuroleptics in schizophrenics found a marked increase in violent behavior with moderately high dosages of a neuroleptic.

A 1990 study determined that 50% of all fights in a psychiatric ward could be tied to akathisia. Another study concluded that moderate-to-high doses of one major tranquilizer made half of the patients markedly more aggressive. Patients described �violent urges to assault anyone near.�

According to a study of one minor tranquilizer, �Extreme anger and hostile behavior emerged in eight of the 80 patients treated� with the drug. One woman who had no history of violence before taking the tranquilizer �erupted with screams on the fourth day, and held a steak knife to her mother�s throat for several minutes.�

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