Video: Houdini's escape from a strait jacket

Tony Curtis in a memorable moment from a classic film.
May we, too, soon be free.

Pharma exec implicated in meds murder-suicide

Gigi Jordan feeds son, 8, fatal dose of pills, leaves strange 2-page note in botched murder-suicide
Link

Remembering Andrea Yeats....

DSM-5 to be released Feb. 10, 2012

The DSM-V will be posted for review on Wednesday, February 10, 2010.
It will include proposed revisions and draft diagnostic criteria and will be located on the new DSM5.org Web site - http://www.DSM5.org

Omega 3 - EFA for Psychosis

There is a new study on Omega-3 fatty acids and psychosis:
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/ abstract/67/2/146

Long-Chain Fatty Acids for Indicated Prevention of
Psychotic Disorders
G. Paul Amminger, MD; Miriam R. Schäfer, MD; Konstantinos
Papageorgiou, MD; Claudia M. Klier, MD; Sue M. Cotton, PhD; Susan M.
Harrigan, MSc; Andrew Mackinnon, PhD; Patrick D. McGorry, MD, PhD;
Gregor E. Berger, MD
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(2):146- 154.

This study seems well designed.

After one year, 28% of those not taking extra Omega-3 had transitioned to psychotic
disorder while only 5% of those taking extra Omega-3 had become ill.

Omega-3 also has other health benefits; it seems to
prevent anti-inflammatory responses.

The BBC reports,
'For the test, half of the individuals took fish oil supplements (1.2 grams of omega-3 fatty acids) for 12 weeks, while the other half took only a dummy pill. Neither group knew which treatment they were receiving.
Dr Paul Amminger and his team followed the groups for a year to see how many, if any, went on to develop illness.
Two in the fish oil group developed a psychotic disorder compared to 11 in the placebo group.
Based on the results, the investigators estimate that one high-risk adult could be protected from developing psychosis for every four treated over a year.
They believe the omega-3 fatty acids found in the supplements may alter brain signalling in the brain with beneficial effects.
Alison Cobb, of the mental health charity Mind, said: "If young people can be treated successfully with fish oils, this is hugely preferable to treating them with antipsychotics, which come with a range of problems from weight gain to sexual dysfunction, whereas omega-3s are actually beneficial to their general state of health.
"These are promising results and more research is needed to show if omega-3s could be an alternative to antipsychotics in the long term."'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8490937.stm

Those who have taken neuroleptics to avoid hospital readmission may have paid a very high price
(brain damage) for something that could perhaps have been done without drugs - using Omega-3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_oil

"Poverty is making us sick" - University of Toronto study

Mental and behavioural disorders are conditions strongly associated with low income (and poverty) in Canada.

Mental and behavioural disorders

Mental and behavioural disorders include anxiety disorders, mood disorders, Alzheimer’s or
dementia and schizophrenia. As group they relate closely to income, falling from a high of 146
per thousand in the bottom quintile to 64 in the highest, with most quintiles significantly
different from the adjacent quintiles. There is a highly significant drop in incidence as we go
from the bottom to the second quintile and from the fourth to the top quintile as well, reflecting
greatest incidence among the poorest Canadians with the wealthiest quintile least affected
Anxiety and mood disorders, the two specific conditions for which incidence rates could be
reliably calculated,xvi showed clear relationships with income. In each case there is a significant
drop in incidence with movement from the bottom to the second quintile.
In the case of anxiety the rate in the bottom quintile (81 per thousand) is significantly higher than
the rate in the next quintile (44 per thousand population), and indeed, significantly higher than in
all other quintiles.
Mood disorders are found at a rate of 105 per thousand in the lowest income quintile, a rate over
60 per cent higher than the 64 per thousand rate found in the second quintile. Similarly, the rate
in the second quintile is significantly higher than the rate in the third and fourth quintiles, and the
rate of 39 per thousand in the highest quintile is significantly lower than the rates of 54-55 found
in the third and fourth quintiles.

PDF

UK: Action on an epidemic of pill addiction

Action on Britain's epidemic of pill addiction
Peer to use House of Lords speech to reveal relative's addiction to prescription drug

By Jeremy Laurance, Health editor
Saturday, 31 October 2009

As early as 30 years ago, the addictive properties of tranquillisers such as Valium were known, but critics maintain the Government is still not doing enough to help

The Department of Health has launched a review of the million-plus patients addicted to prescribed drugs in the UK in a tacit admission that attempts to control the problem over the last two decades have failed.

An estimated 1.5 million people are addicted to prescription and over-the-counter drugs including benzodiazepine tranquillisers, sleeping pills such as zoplicone - implicated in the death of Hollywood star Heath Ledger - and painkillers containing codeine.

The review, which began in July, was disclosed in a Westminster hall debate last June but has not been formally announced. It followed a report by the House of Commons all-party group on drugs misuse which called for better training for doctors in the risks of over-prescribing, greater awareness of the scale of addiction and more centres for treatment....

snip

Case study: 'My life has been shattered'

Matthew (not his real name), was prescribed Efexor, an antidepressant, and Clonazepam, a benzodiazepine, to help him sleep following the failure of a business venture in 2001.

He was living abroad but returned to Britain where the prescription was continued. “For seven years I was fine. I didn’t really think about the pills, I took them as vitamins. It was something I did at the end of the day.”

Earlier this year increasing fatigue prompted him to try and withdraw from them. His doctor advised a “cold turkey” approach involving a few days in hospital, after which he would be drug free.

“I went in as a happy confident person and in two days I was a train wreck. I felt I had woken up in a horror film, I couldn’t walk or think and I had lost my memory. It was indescribable torture.”

Nine months on, he is still trying to put his life back together. Married with two children, he has been unable to return to work.

“I am still terrified of going outside, I can’t think straight or concentrate and I have very bad depression. Every single stimulus seems scary and heightened. It is absolutely extraordinary a prescription drug can do this to you. My life has been shattered.”

“There is nowhere for me to go for support except to other sufferers on the internet and one or two people who have set up support groups round the country.”

“I have seen several doctors since and they cannot believe my doctor kept me on these drugs for seven years. I have lodged a formal complaint about him.”

The Independent

UPDATE - JAMA: Antidepressant meta-analysis reveals 22 years of deception; treatment worthless for most
"The full magnitude of severe harm produced by these drugs in otherwise healthy people for whom antidepressants were misprescribed has not yet been fully collated--the human casualties include thousands of drug-induced suicides, mania, drug-exacerbated depression, drug dependence, birth defects..."
Link

It is possible withdraw from medication without doing harm to yourself.
See
The Ashton Manual - Dr. Heather Ashton re Benzos/Tranquillizers

Halting SSRI's - Dr. David Healey - PDF re Antidepressants

Icarus Project Harm reduction guide to coming off psychiatric drugs

Fattened by Pills?

Paula Caplan's article on weight gain due to psychiatric medication is an eye opener. From the Boston Globe