Prominent psychiatrist admits psychiatric diagnoses are not based on
science
March 22, 2007 by: CCHR

(CCHR.org) Growing public scrutiny over people being drugged for
normal behavior in addition increasing international warnings on the
deadly side effects of psychiatric drugs has forced one of the
leading architects of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM), psychiatry's billing bible, to admit that there is
no science to psychiatric diagnoses.

Columbia University psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, who oversaw two out
of five revisions of the DSM and defined more than a hundred mental
disorders, stated in a new BBC2 documentary: "What happened is that
we made estimates of the prevalence of mental disorders totally
descriptively, without considering that many of these conditions
might be normal reactions which are not really disorders. That's the
problem, because we were not looking at the context in which those
conditions developed."

Psychiatric labels, such as "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder" and "Oppositional Defiant Disorder," have resulted in
millions needlessly subjected to dangerous and life-threatening
psychiatric drugs. Thirty-three years after Spitzer began working as
Chairman of the DSM Taskforce, now backed into a corner by public
skepticism of the legitimacy of psychiatric disorders and dozens of
international warnings on the dangers of drugs used to treat them, he
finally concedes that something may be awry with the diagnostic
system he helped to invent. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights
(CCHR), a mental health watchdog, charges that the psychiatrists
behind the DSM have misled the public and placed many at risk by
convincing them that they are "mentally ill" and in need of harmful
psychiatric treatment such as drugs, involuntary commitment,
electroshock and restraint.

There is no scientific evidence that any of the millions of people
labeled with "mental disorders" have any physical abnormality that
justifies the diagnosis, and because of this, psychiatrists cannot
agree on who is sick and who is well. Yet, despite this inept
psychiatric diagnostic system, worldwide sales of psychotropic drugs
prescribed to treat "mental disorders," including stimulants,
antipsychotics and antidepressants, now exceed $80 billion annually.

"Modern psychiatry is a medical hoax," said Mike Adams, author of
Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing
About Them. "The financial success of the psychiatric industry is
almost entirely based on diagnosing people with fictitious disorders,
then prescribing overpriced, patented synthetic chemicals to treat
those disorders. There is no scientific merit whatsoever to most of
what goes on in psychiatry today. Children are being routinely
exploided by drug companies to generate profits, not health."

Although he admits the diagnostic system is unscientific, Spitzer has
falsely promoted the safety of the drugs, stating that psychiatric
drugs "don't have serious side effects." This claim is contradicted
by numerous FDA warnings, official studies, adverse event reports to
the FDA and lawsuits over psychiatric drug injuries. Following is a
sample of these:

• The FDA has warned that psychiatric drugs cause heart attack,
stroke, suicidal and homicidal behavior, diabetes, psychosis and
sudden death.

• In 2006 the FDA announced that they received 51 reports of sudden
death from ADHD drugs such as Adderall. (Keith Altman, an expert in
analyzing adverse event data, stated that only an estimated 1-10% of
adverse event reports on drugs are reported to the FDA.)

• According to a USA Today study of FDA data collected between 2000
and 2004, there were at least 45 child deaths with antipsychotics
listed as the "primary suspect." During this time period, there were
also 1,328 reports of bad side effects, some of them life-
threatening.

• Eli Lilly, manufacturer of the antipsychotic Zyprexa, has agreed to
pay approximately $1.2 billion to settle more than 25,000 individual
claims against them for diabetic side effects.

• Dr. David Healy, director of Cardiff University's North Wales
department of psychological medicine, published a study in September
last year in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal which
found that antidepressants increase the risk of violence in children
and adults.

For more information on the dangers of psychiatric drugs, read The
Report on the Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs
by CCHR at http://www.cchr.org/index.cfm/9027/14852

This article republished with augmentation of supporting quotes from
Mike Adams, courtesy of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights,
www.CCHR.org

See original article at http://www.cchr.org/index.cfm/9027/19694