IMPORTANT FACTS

1. Psychiatric drugs can cause inner anxiety and restlessness, leading to violent behavior that is then used to brutally restrain patients.

2. Neuroleptic (nerve seizing) drugs may temporarily dim psychosis but over the long run make patients more biologically prone to it.

3. The antipsychotic drugs frequently cause nightmares, emotional dullness, sudden uncontrollable muscle cramps and spasms, writhing, squirming, twisting and grimacing movements especially of the legs, face, mouth and tongue, drawing the face into a hideous scowl.

4. The latest antidepressants have been linked to a series of fatal school shootings in the United States and other countries.


CHAPTER TWO Chemical Straitjackets

Samuel Rangle, 29, was admitted to Patton State Psychiatric Hospital in San Bernardino, California on June 1, 1999. Knowing from previous experience that he would suffer severe reactions, he refused to take the powerful psychotropic drug Haldol, which is often used to serve as a �chemical restraint.� He fled into a room, where several orderlies cornered him. Nine staff jumped on him after a blanket was thrown over his head. Eleven more stood by and watched as he was handcuffed and sat on. Within two hours, Samuel was dead.

Samuel�s mother later stated, �My son was taken down like a dog, sat on and crushed to the floor until he took his last breath. Samuel could be heard yelling, �I can�t breathe� over and over, but unfortunately his cry for help fell upon deaf ears.�

Samuel had good reason to fear Haldol, a neuroleptic (nerve-seizing) drug.

Neuroleptics frequently cause difficulty in thinking, poor concentration, nightmares, emotional dullness, depression, despair and sexual dysfunction. Physically, they can cause sudden, uncontrollable, painful muscle cramps and spasms that trigger writhing, squirming, twisting and grimacing movements, especially of the legs, face, mouth and tongue, drawing the face into a hideous scowl. A potentially fatal effect is �neuroleptic malignant syndrome,� which includes muscle rigidity, altered mental states, irregular pulse or blood pressure and cardiac problems.

Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America, a compelling book covering the history of these and other psychotropic drugs, described another problem: �Neuroleptics temporarily dimmed psychosis but over the long run made patients more biologically prone to it. A second paradoxical effect � was a side effect called akathisia� [a, without; kathisia, sitting; an inability to keep still]. This condition triggers extreme inner anxiety and restlessness. �Patients would endlessly pace, fidget in their chairs and wring their hands� actions that reflected an inner torment. This side effect was also linked to assaultive, violent behavior.�

Although the public may think that �crazy� people are likely to behave in violent ways, Whitaker found this was not true of �mental patients� prior to the introduction of neuroleptics. Before 1955, four studies found that patients discharged from psychiatric facilities 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 was also clearly a contributing factor.�

When investigators finally studied akathisia, �patients gave them an earful.� They experienced pain so great that they wanted to �jump out of their skins,� and �anxiety of annihilating proportions.� One woman banged her head against the wall and cried, �I just want to get rid of this whole body!�

Case studies detailed how patients suffering from drug-induced akathisia sought to escape from this misery by jumping from buildings and hanging or stabbing themselves. In one study, 79% of �mental patients� who had tried to kill themselves suffered from akathisia. Various investigators found that this side effect regularly made patients �more prone to violence,� and dubbed the effect, �behavioral toxicity.�

A 1990 study determined that 50% of all fights in a psychiatric ward could be tied to akathisia. Yet another concluded that moderate-to-high doses of one neuroleptic made half of the patients markedly more aggressive. Patients described �violent urges to assault anyone near� and wanting to kill �the motherf______s� tormenting them.

Older antidepressants (tricyclics) can cause lethargy, difficulty thinking, confusion, poor concentration, memory problems, nightmares, and panic feelings. Also delusions, manic reactions, delirium, seizures, liver damage, heart attacks and strokes.

Even the latest Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants can cause akathisia and have been linked to a series of school shootings in the U.S. and elsewhere. A 1998 British report revealed that at least 5% of SSRI patients suffered �commonly recognized� side effects that include agitation, anxiety and nervousness. Around 5% of the reported side effects include aggression, hallucinations and depersonalization.

According to the drug makers� own packaging information, these drugs can cause bizarre dreams, loss of appetite, impotence and confusion. Japanese researchers reported that substantial amounts of these antidepressant drugs can accumulate in the lungs and may be released in toxic levels when a second antidepressant is prescribed.

Withdrawal effects are just as dramatic. Dr. John Zajecka reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that the agitation and irritability experienced by patients withdrawing from one SSRI can cause �aggressiveness and suicidal impulsivity.� In Lancet, the British medical journal, Dr. Miki Bloch reported that patients have become suicidal and homicidal after stopping an antidepressant, with one man having thoughts of harming �his own children.�

The use of chemical restraints by psychiatrists today is not just as unworkable and potentially lethal as psychiatry�s archaic physical restraints, but such drug �therapy� actually works to worsen existing mental problems and create new ones for both the individual and for society.

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