How many more people need to die at the hands of psychiatric drugs?

Question

Is it time for this to stop? Any answers will be appreciated, asking not just for me, but for a friend.

My friends and I say this: Our hearts are filled with sadness for every soul lost. It is our hope the United States Of America defends the human mind, and stops psychiatric treatments which induce more suicides and homocides in the masses then they will ever reduce.

I think that we need to get these questions answered first, don't you?

1. Evidence That Establishes the validity of "schizophrenia" "depression" or other "major mental Illnesses" as biologically-based brain diseases.

2. Evidence For A Physical Diagnostic Exam such as a scan or test of the brain, blood, urine, genes, etc that can distinguish individuals with these diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric drugs), from individuals without these diagnoses.

3. Evidence For a Base-line Standard of a neurochemically balanced "normal" personality, against which an "imbalance" can be measured and corrected by pharmaceutical means.

4. Evidence That Any Psychotropic Drug can correct a "chemical imbalance" attributed to a psychiatric diagnoses, and is any thing more than a non-specific alterer of physiology.

5. Evidence That Any Psychotropic Drug can decrease violence or suicide.

6. Evidence That Psychotropic Drugs do not in fact increase violence or suicide?

What is interesting is to see the difference in the answers that I got by posting this in two different areas?

Could I then take this and use it as some sort of study and call it scientific empirical evidence? Is Santa Clause Real?

So many thoughts on this, but thoughts and feelings are not scientifically measureable or valid and reliable either, so how do we change this?

We either convince everyone to legalize all psychotropic drugs and let those who they help have them or we stop dosing them out so freely?

What is wrong with this is there is no evidence and it is not just those that "want" to take them that are having to take them or having them pushed on them without wanting them it's much worse then any street drug pusher at least you can stop them, can't anyone really understand that?

I think we need to stop the legal drug pushing, that is all that I am saying.

Testing and research has been done, however, they have not come to any reliable conclusions themselves if you know and understand how to read the research. Also studies have been hidden in some instances and they know that, they decide what gets published and what does not so if it leads to their viewpoint supported by the drug company advertisements that keep them afloat then it is published.

All psychotropic drugs cocain, marijuanna, LSD, whatever affect how the brain functions, isn't that true? Some of them are legal and some of them are not, that is the purpose of them. All of these drugs have some positive benefits and some negative consequences for the users of them, those that use the so called illegal ones will tell you the same thing how much they like them and they help them won't they? I have never met anyone even on the illegal kind of hooked on the so called legal kind that won't tell you that have you? Well maybe because some of them you can go to jail for right

None of these drugs have been proven to create the same results in any given person or different people over time.

Studies show that these scans do not show the same results all the time and can show just exactly the same results in the same person over time & in a person who is so called looked at as normal and one that is not, they are faulty to a T this way researchers will tell you this.

People purport that these drugs help them for a variety of reasons when they may in fact not even be taking them, if you are told that it is the only way you can get your other needs met the only proof that you have then one will say almost anything. These are also addictive substances and people will of course tell one that they are helping them so that they can get them prescribed to them legally & then they can also be sold on the street for this same reason.

As a matter of fact it does matter who it is that is going simply on their own thoughts and feelings, when it is called a "medical disease" and it is not because there is no actual scientific evidence for it being one. I would not hesitate to propose that without these drugs or treatments that if a person had the very same resources and support and friendship made available to them many of them would not ask for these drugs nor want them either unless they were hooked on them already.

Isn't it true that many studies that show the truth behind this are often kept hidden or not published? Isn't it true that the drug companies have ghost writers that publish these research articles and isn't it true that all that is nescessary to say it is peer reviewed is to have it published a few times? And isn't it true even if that was paid for publishing or not?

Why is it that some drug companies have been shown to know for ten years that their products cause diabetes and yet fuss when that is revealed to the public and they are sued for it? With a billion dollars in profits what does a few million in loss really mean to them?

Santa may have been a real person at one time, but he is no more real today then the Easter bunny.

Feelings are not measureable and consistent over peoples, yes they are noticeable in some instances. There is no scientific way that you can get inside anyones mind to understand or know exactly what each person is feeling or thinking you can only know what you are told. Wouldn't that be more correct?

There may be some signs and some test, but reasonably scientific minds can come to differing conclusions about what these mean. Since these test are being done by different examiners, to different people, in different situations, and all people have different experiences.

I think that any person in our society that is being given medical test and medical treatments deserve to ask valid questions about the scientific evidence and need for them, and doctors have the responsibility to have scientific evidence before they give out diagnoses.

The courts use he she said deciding evidence, if one gets a choice in this most of the time or not, and most of the time their is no more then one treating psychiatrist that decides if a person is supposedly harmful or dangerous to self or others, not the patient who is under duress at the time.

In most instances it is not a situation that the person that is being affected by it gets to have a decission about because they are rendered incompetent to have a choice.

This is political and financial in nature and done for a variety of reasons. In many situations it is the only treatment that can legally be pushed on any adult against their own will and better judgement based on advertisement and propaganda.

Even I can make mistakes at times, anyone can it is part of being a human being. I said can, "can show the same result in the same person over time" when I meant to say "can not". That is a great big difference literally and figuratively, and yet if I left just that it would be my thought and some might misconstrue it. When it can be used against you for the rest of your life that is a much different thing isn't it? That is why psychiatry and this drug thing must not be based on empiracle evidence because if anyone has enough money they can buy any evidence that they really want to buy. It must be based on valid and reliable scientifically based science and nothing else if we are to have it other wise these doctors are being unethical and biased. They know this is it really what our medical professionals want?

I also said that "drugs affect how the brain functions because they are chemicals" and they do and they also affect the entire whole body and the way it functions as well.

Here are the possible side affects as known: Drug induced stuttering, Weight gain, Dizziness, Sleeplessness, Restlessness, Anxiety, Diabetes, Racing heart, Heart disorders, Suicide and homocide risk in children and adults, Increased risk of pregnancy while changing from old to newer drugs and increased risk of birth defects, White Blood Cell Disorders, Convulsions and Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome, Life threatening inflammation of the Pancreas, Glaucoma, Harmful food and drug interactions, Synergistic and Anti synergistic affects, Unnatural and dangerous serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, Dyskyntonia, Sudden Deaths, Drug overdoses, Drug induced psychiatric symptoms, Prescribing wrongfully, Illegal sales on the street, Illegal creation of drugs, Illegal experimentation and addiction to drugs

What else?

How many more people need to die at the hands of psychiatric drugs?

""The drugs provide enough relief for me to keep me from hanging myself.""

This is a choice you are making, This is what "you" choose to do because you "want" to do this, not because you have to do this, your body or "brain" does not have a disease that would "make you do this"! You are choosing this!

You could choose different just like Cho could have choosen different! Sometimes we all make the wrong decissions in life, have poor insight, make mistakes.

You "believe" that you get better on the pills. So you clean house, cook dinner, sing, sew, pet your pets, cuddle. "If I die sooner from some side-effect, it will be a lot later than if I hung myself", not if you did not have that "choice" to hang yourself, even "without that pill" you would not die.

The HELL is the choices "you" are making. People can make different "choices" without these pills. When others start thinking the "wrong thoughts" or their behavior is not what they want it to be they change it.

Mental torture, agony, burning in fire, are the thoughts you are "choosing", because you have "decided" too or feel guilty ???

Do not tell me that I have not faced adversity and real emotional pain and social struggles in life, more then my share, drugs made it worse. They messed up a lot of good stuff, chances, marriages for me and my friends so we could "party", these same drugs you are talking about that make you "feel so good".

It is called addiction, and I was close until a doctor said no more, and I realized just what I was becoming and might have done for these drugs.

I got clean and sober, now I am not like that. The memories I have are painful at times, but I try to think differently now. Pills were an escape from having to deal with any "bad thoughts " or problems that I really had, or having to do anything to change what I did because some of what was done to me, you can call me a liar if you want to, my abusers did too they still would.

"Hardly anyone admits they have mental illness, so you don't hear this kind of story very often."

It is not an "illness" or a disease that requires medical treatments, people make poor decissions all the time. They can change the way they think, they can make amends for what they do or did if they think they need to. They can choose to do different things if they want to. If they don't want to these pills don't make it better, I have seen people taking these pills and they are not stable. However, now that there is this exclusion then they get treated differently and people give them opportunities and support that all people need because they believe that it is an illness, not simply because it is the right thing to do.

You can not go one place anymore without hearing about it, so do not say that people do not talk about it. If an illegal dealer pushed this "medication" like you are because you say it is an "illness" they would go to jail.

I have seen to much crime, to much death, and to much pain because of this type of so called medication, I have seen violent withdrawels in those who are addicted to it.

The peer pressure to fit in and accept this so called "disease" and these pills is overwhelming and wrong. It profits the drug companies, but it hurts the people of our country.

It is terrible that no one will stop it or control it and that it is now being called a best treatment that needs to be pushed on half of our country. It is advertised all over in everything.

Ritalin, white crosses, have almost the same chemical compounds as cocain, and much the same affect. So does that mean we all need to start using it and accepting those that sell cocain?

I think if we are going to legalize it that we need to legalize it all. Then some people won't be going to jails over it and that will solve one big problem.

But don't call it a "treatment" if it is a punishment, call it a punishment.

Answer 1

I just ran across this and had to answer it. Last year my brother was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and put on Risperadol & a couple of other psycotropic meds that I can't remember the name of right off hand. Things got MUCH worse!! He was living with me at the time and I mean this medication made him climb the walls. He eventually just up and decided to leave my home, ended up in a homeless shelter/battered persons shelter and attempted suicide there. He recieved some mild brain damage from that attempt. Just this past month, he attempted it again & furthered his brain damage. He's a 39 y/o man functioning at about a 5-8 y/o level. All thanks to their psycotropic drugs.
I also have another friend who is on many drugs. While on the drugs, she hears voices, and has attempted suicide many times. She's been in and out of mental hospitals since I have known her. When she cuts her own meds down in the dosage, she starts doing much better. Then the Dr's blood test her and see that she doesn't have enough of the meds in her system and threaten to have her locked up in a mental facility and have her kids taken away. So, she goes back to the origional dosage, thus going back into a psychotic state. I think that something needs to be done about the way Dr's prescribe these medications. They just guess at it and then if it doesn't work, push another drug ontop of it. Before you know it, they have you a walking (staggering) pharmacy. I have trouble with depression, not alot, but enough. I refuse to take the meds. I meditate and pray. I don't do their psycho-babble therapy either. Psychiatry is a billion dollar industry & they are going to push these drugs to get the kick backs from the drug companies.
I get down off my soapbox now.............

Answer 2

Getting anyone on the right combination of psychiatric drug combination as a trial and error crap shoot. It took many years and many hospitalizations to get my youngest daughter on the right combination. The key is having someone aware of the situation and who knows the patient and who can monitor the situation. There were times when I would take my daughter in to her psychiatrist and say "she is acting like a zombie so you need to change her drugs." Other drugs would make her beat me up or try to kill herself, but we got through it by my watching her and keeping a close eye on her behavior. She had appointments every day of the week for 6 years and I took her to all of them. It took 4 or 5 years to get the right combination to work where she could function normally and there were very few side effects. After all of this, as soon as she turned 18 she moved out and stopped taking her medications. She had 2 children within 10 months and I am raising them. She has BPD with episodes of schizophrenia and psychosis. She is unable not keep a job and so she cannot raise her children. So 2 years after she moved out, I and my husband have had to start over raising babies. We love the kids and have had them for 3 years now, but if she was on her drugs she would be able to take care of them herself.

Answer 3

The drugs provide enough relief for me to keep me from hanging myself. Everyone around me can tell that I get better on the pills. I actually clean house and cook dinner and sing and sew and pet my cats and cuddle with my husband. If I die sooner from some side-effect, it will be a lot later than if I hung myself right now, which I would do. You have little to no appreciation for the HELL severe mental illness is to have. It is mental torture, agony, burning in fire, etc. etc. Indescribably painful. If a pill makes a person feel better and get an escape from that kind of agony, it's a good thing.

Hardly anyone admits they have mental illness, so you don't hear this kind of story very often.

Answer 4

What is killing them.. their afflictions? ..or the medications for their afflictions?
Would the suicide rates be any lower for people with mental illness that were never on medication for the illness?
The possible risk is an untimely death.. the possible reward is a world that finally makes sense.
In my mind it is a risk worth taking.. but certainly with more caution than what the current standard is.
There is a lot more to this than the question suggests.. and the addition details say nothing either..
The debate is far more complicated than anybody can ever imagine unless they are in the position of the person that has the option to take them or not.
I have tried to make sense of the world with and without the medication .. either way I am still lost.

Answer 5

My heart is filled with saddness over the incident in VA also, but I do not believe that psychiatric medicine should stop being prescribed to people who truly need it. Like others have said on here: Some people need it to have a better quality of life and to function normally. If people would follow their doctors instructions and let their doctors know how their medicine is affecting them I believe we would have a lot less problems with these drugs. Doctors will work with their patients to find a medicine that is right for them and their disorder. I also believe that people need to be educated better when taking these kinds of drugs. It's not like popping an asprin when yourt head hurts.

Answer 6

There are many gates to death. Some go through this gate

What a wasteful write up for the simple question?

In one of the departmental review meeting, the health secretary got upset on the query raised by the planning department on the proposal to start a hospital in a village.

The query was "Are the people not managing without hospital hither to? Why its needed now?"

The Health secretary pulled up the planning officer and told him "Look, we want them to go to hell / heaven through our hospital only! Give me the sanction....

Answer 7

I worked for a state mental health system for 20 years, including five years working for a state hospital, I also have had treatment for depression and anxiety for about 24 years. I'll attempt to answer these questions.

1. Evidence That Establishes the validity of "schizophrenia" "depression" or other "major mental Illnesses" as biologically-based brain diseases.

People from the same family often have the same or similar disorders. I have seen it many times--twins with paranoid schizophrenia, two sisters and their mother all with bipolar disorder, etc. No one has ever isolated specific genes as far as I know. I have major depression, my brother has bipolar disorder, I have cousins with either depression or bipolar disorder, one uncle and one cousin have comitted suicide. I had a brother in law who also comitted suicide, but he was not a biological relative--he supposedly had schizophrenia.

2. Evidence For A Physical Diagnostic Exam such as a scan or test of the brain, blood, urine, genes, etc that can distinguish individuals with these diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric drugs), from individuals without these diagnoses.
So far, there is no such thing. Psychiatrists have to go with observation and what the patient reports.

3. Evidence For a Base-line Standard of a neurochemically balanced "normal" personality, against which an "imbalance" can be measured and corrected by pharmaceutical means.

All we have is a subjective report of patients who state the medication works for them, or doesn't work for them. I have been four different psychiatric medications in my life and I can tell I feel differently when I take them. I definitely felt worse when I didn't take them. I would rather not take medication, I tried to stop taking Paxil for about two months, but I started to have anxiety again and asked my doctor to put me back on Paxil. I wouldn't take it if I didn't have to--I could do without having to pay for the meds and the doctors visits, I'd rather not spend my time going or the doctor's office or pharmacy--but I do it because it works.

4. Evidence That Any Psychotropic Drug can correct a "chemical imbalance" attributed to a psychiatric diagnoses, and is any thing more than a non-specific alterer of physiology.
In 20 years, I have never heard a psychiatrist use the words "chemical imbalance." They just ask the patient if the meds are working on their symptoms or observe the patient's behavior.
5. Evidence That Any Psychotropic Drug can decrease violence or suicide.
I have seen violent people who calm down after getting medication in the state hospital. I feel calmer, less anxious, less depressed, and less likely to committ suicide when I take my medication.
6. Evidence That Psychotropic Drugs do not in fact increase violence or suicide?
The hospital I worked for had about 300 beds. Thousands of people were admitted and discharged in five years, some of them several times. Most people were discharged within a few days. A few people stayed for longer periods, sometimes even years. There were two apparent suicides on the hospital grounds in five years (one hung himself, one walked out in the road and got hit by a truck), and three other patients who died for other reasons (one died in surgery, one died due to severe medication side effects, one died of a stroke). We had one guy who killed his wife and shot himself after he went home--the doctor who discharged him was suspended but he got his job back later on. Out of thousands of people, it just doesn't seem like that many suicides or murders to me. We had a few people who had comitted murder and other violent acts before treatment. We had some people who had violent behavior before and after treatment. I have never heard of anyone who wasn't violent becoming violent after treatment.

Psychiatry is far from perfect, but I have seen huge improvement in my own life time. I was reluctant to go for treatment at first, because I thought I was going lie down on a couch and some guy was going to make me talk for hours about my childhood and my parents. It wasn't like that at all, I got put on a medication and it worked for me. I have had five psychiatrists in my life, some were better than others, but they all helped me.

Answer 8

if you are referring to the Va Tech shootings, it HAS NOT been confirmed that the shooter was taking anti-depressants. It was intially reported he was, then retracted because it wasn't confirmed. The last I heard was that police officials had checked and found he wasn't taking any antidepressants. But again, nothing has been confirmed.

Don't paint everything w/ such a broad brush. This incident had nothing to do w/ psychiatric drugs but everything to do w/ the person.

Answer 9

.....tried it....overdosed....failed at dying.....

medication is sometimes overrated.....it can make a person depressed even more than they are....but in some cases phychiatric drugs are nessisarry......to calm some people down.....

I've went through the whole medication stage and hated it!i didn't need it but my doctor reccomended it.....i'm off the pills and i've figured out how to cope with my own problems.....
i have found that people just need someone to talk to.....but remember....some medication is essential! and it does save peoples lives....

if you need more info. message me...

=]
Chelsea

Answer 10

I don't know, but I am curious to know how many have already died from psychotropic drugs. I have taken some and I'm not dead yet. I don't think!