CCHR Exhibit Alerts Parents to the Dangers of Psychiatric Drugging of Children
Sacramento, California (PRWEB) September 05, 2015 -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) of California held its formal grand opening for the traveling exhibit “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" on Wednesday, September 2nd in Old Sacramento. The exhibit is part of CCHR's continuing efforts to warn parents about the dangers of psychiatric drugging of children. The keynote speaker was Mr. James Sweeney. A former lobbyist for the State NAACP, Mr. Sweeney brings much knowledge to bear on the subject of mental health care, serving as a Governor’s appointee to COMIO, the Council on Mentally Ill Offenders. The free exhibit, located at 106 L Street in Old Sacramento, is open through September 12th. CCHR is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious mental health watchdog co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse.
"Our purpose with this exhibit is to provide parents with information they need to make an informed decision about medicating their children with psychiatric drugs. These drugs can have tragic, sometimes lethal side effects and parents need to know about them,” said Jim Van Hill, Executive Director for the Sacramento Chapter of CCHR.
There have been 22 international drug regulatory warnings issued on psychiatric drugs, citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation.[1] Despite these warnings, over 8 million children, ages 0 – 17, have been prescribed psychiatric drugs according to the IMS Health Vector One National database.[2]
“Parents want to do what is best for their child and assume that there is sound scientific basis for prescribing these drugs,” said Van Hill, “but these drugs are prescribed for mental disorders that are subjective and for which no scientific or medical proof exists.[3]”
Van Hill pointed out that even the director of the National Institute of Mental Health Dr. Thomas Insel showed no confidence in the legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosing, writing that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) “is at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each” and that “the weakness [of the DSM] is its lack of validity.”[4]
Van Hill gave ADHD as an example to illustrate his point. More and more children have been diagnosed with it. Yet Dr. Richard Saul, a behavioral neurologist who has been practicing for 50 years and author of ADHD Does Not Exist, says the increasing numbers of diagnoses is due to the expanded definitions of ADHD in the DSM. Dr. Saul wrote, “Under these subjective criteria, the entire U.S. population could potentially qualify.”[5]
Despite this lack of scientific diagnosis, children are being given ADHD drugs which can cause agitation, aggressive or hostile behavior, mania, seizures, weight gain, hallucinations, heart problems and even sudden death.[6]
The dangers of psychiatric drugs is not limited to ADHD drugs. For example, the side effects of antidepressants include depression, psychosis, mania, hallucinations, agitation, aggression, and suicidal thoughts to name a few.[7] Anti-psychotics can cause heart problems, death, weight gain, convulsions, suicidal thoughts and diabetes among others.[8]
"Claiming that psychiatric drugs are necessary for our children is a dangerous and cruel hoax," Van Hill added. "Plus there is another factor on top of the dangerous side effects. Research has shown that in a large percentage of cases, mental health symptoms are actually caused by physical illnesses or deficiencies which most likely won’t be addressed because of the incorrect diagnosis."[9]
Public are invited to tour the free exhibit which is open Sep 3rd through Sep 12th from 12:00 to 8:00 pm at 106 L Street in Old Sacramento. In addition to the in-depth section on the drugging of children, there are documentaries and displays revealing the results of 40 years of investigation into psychiatry and its treatments.
The exhibit's theme is patterned after a museum at the Los Angeles headquarters of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a psychiatric watchdog group with 170 chapters worldwide.
For more information, go to http://cchrca.org.
References:
[1] 22 international warnings compiled from the US FDA, fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch; US DEA, justice.gov/dea/?; Health Canada, hc-sc.gc.ca/index-eng.php; Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, mhlw.go.jp/english/; European Medicines Agency, ema.europa.eu/ema/; Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, tga.gov.au; UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, mhra.gov.uk/
[2] IMS, Vector One: National (VONA) and Total Patient Tracker (TPT) Database, Years 2008-2013, Extracted 2014.
[3] Allen Frances, "Psychiatric Fads and Overdiagnosis," Psychology Today, June 2, 2010, psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201006/psychiatric-fads-and-overdiagnosis; "Diagnosis and Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder," National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement, November 16-18, 1998, consensus.nih.gov/1998/1998AttentionDeficitHyperactivityDisorder110html.htm.
[4] Thomas Insel, “Director’s Blog: Transforming Diagnosis,” National Institute of Mental Health, nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transformingdiagnosis.shtml.
[5] Dr. Richard Saul, “Doctor: ADHD Does Not Exist,” Time Magazine, March 14, 2014, [6 “Dextroamphetamine and Amphetamine,” MedlinePlus, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a601234.html; “Methylphenidate Hydrochloride/Methylphenidate Hydrochloride ER Drug Summary,” Physician’s Desk Reference, pdr.net/drugsummarymethylphenidatehydrochloridemethylphenidatehydrochlorideer?druglabelid=767&id=761; “Methylphenidate,” MedlinePlus, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682188.html.
[7] Preda A, et al., “Antidepressant associated mania and psychosis resulting in psychiatric admissions,” J Clin Psychiatry, Jan 2001, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11235925; “Fluoxetine,” MedlinePlus, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a689006.html; “Prozac Drug Summary,” Physician’s Desk Reference, pdr.net/drugsummary/prozac?druglabelid=3205&id=2826.
[8] “Antipsychotic Drug Side Effects,” cchrint.org. CCHR International, compiled from Physicians Desk Reference, National Institutes of Health’s Medline Plus, and/or the drug label, [9 Sydney Walker, III M.D. The Hyperactivity Hoax. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Print. Page 12.
Media Department, Citizens Commission on Human Rights of California, http://www.cchrca.org, +1 (916) 342-3728, [email protected]
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