364 DEATHS IN GEORGIA PSYCH HOSPITALS

364 DEATHS IN GEORGIA PSYCH HOSPITALS—TIP OF ICEBERG by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD, Neurologist Author: The ADHD Fraud—How Psychiatry Make “Patients” of Normal Children www.Trafford.com ; 1-888-232-4444

The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution has documented 364 deaths in Georgia’s state mental hospitals in the five years, January, 2002 through mid-December 2006. Two-thirds were said to have died of natural causes, 115 were deemed suspicious. The greatest number of these--36 –died from choking on food, vomit or foreign objects, or by aspirating those substances into their lungs. A like number died from questionable care; 12 committed suicide, and two died under physical restraint (a strikingly low number). Regarding the 36 who appear to have choked to death, were the Georgia psychiatrists not aware of the long-established causal role of antipsychotic drugs in causing bulbar palsy, choking and death? Seventy people studied who had choked to death were over 20 times more likely to have been treated previously for schizophrenia [1] Sarah Crider, 14, was one of the 115 patients from Georgia's state psychiatric hospitals who have died under suspicious circumstances during the past five years. Sarah was never sick said her grandmother, Joyce Dobson. She was a healthy, normal, child until 2003, when her first, wholly subjective, psychological/psychiatric/mental symptoms commenced—seeing spots on a wall.

In medicine it is essential to distinguish physical health from mental health for the simple reason that while medicine and surgery deal with actual diseases (a gross, microscopic or chemical abnormality = disease; no abnormality = normal = disease-free), in psychiatry/psychology/mental health, there are no physical abnormalities, only subjective emotional and behavioral problems.

If we go on believing the “big lie” ad campaign from the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel that psychiatric disorders/ and chemical imbalances are actual diseases, we will go on seeking treatment with their “chemical balancers”—drugs and dying from them. Quite simply, there is no such thing as a psychiatric disorder/disease/chemical imbalance. Any physical complications or adverse effects that develop in a psychiatric patient can only be due to the drugs they are on (or a previously undiagnosed true medical disease—not a rarity in psychiatric hospitals where additional drugs are prescribed for each new symptom but physical examinations and medical testing are rarely performed.

Having been normal until 2003, Sarah was labeled with “autism” and then “schizophrenia” (good enough for two or more prescription drugs) while having no apparent objective physical signs/abnormalities. Schizophrenia was referred to in the Journal-Constitution article as a brain disorder which means disease. There is no proof of a microscopic or chemical abnormality of the brain (during life or at autopsy) making it a brain disease or disorder. With never a first physical abnormality to make of it a disease, there can be no later, subsequent, physical consequences (abnormalities) due to that subjective psychiatric entity, especially not death (suicide is not a biological/physical consequence of any mental illness for he simple reason that no mental illness is a physical abnormality = disease).

In the medical course of this child, the only physical abnormalities were those induced by the drugs she was given and they were potent and multiple. Doses were not given in the article but it was said that “Doctors prescribed an assortment of medications: Ativan to reduce anxiety, Benadryl for sedation. Geodon, Risperdal and Seroquel to treat schizophrenia and psychosis. Thorazine to control hallucinations. Cogentin to counteract the Thorazine's side effects.” Geodon, Risperdal, Seroquel and Thorazine are all antipsychotic drugs with known, horrible side effects including death. The term autism is imprecise, sometimes applied to children with severe to profound retardation and, therefore, obvious brain damage, but had such been present, it would have been apparent from birth, or if due to acquired brain damage, as from head trauma, it would have been apparent prior to commencement of Sarah’s psychiatric course, in 2003.

The article also told of Larry Mansfield. Larry was a patient at the East Central Regional Hospital in Augusta who asked a technician to help him buy corn chips from a vending machine. Like many patients in the state hospitals, Mansfield, 53, had a history of choking, was restricted to a diet of ground food, and needed supervision while eating. The technician got Mansfield the chips anyway, then left to help subdue another patient. Alone with the chips, Mansfield choked to death. The many patients in psychiatric hospitals known to have trouble due to choking, likely have in common that they are on antipsychotic drugs such as the antipsychotic drugs Sarah was on-- Geodon, Risperdal Seroquel and Thorazine—all of which are known to cause bulbar paralysis, i.e., paralysis of the muscles of swallowing, and aspiration, with aspiration and choking being a not uncommon means of death, especially in in-patient psychiatric settings. No such death would occur from any mental illness/disease alone, with the mental illness not an illness/disease at all. And at that all of the physical side effects of the multiple drugs given are routinely said to be the worsening of the mental illnesses—none actual illnesses, sicknesses, diseases.

Eight years ago when I was in Minneapolis-St. Paul testifying on mental health matters to the Minnesota legislature, an investigative reporter from a local stations gave me an autopsy report to review.

Macaulay S. I must call him, was once a living, breathing, normal, little boy. Like Sarah Crider, he died, not from any psychiatric disease but from psychiatric drugs given for what are called with a single voice by the psychiatry-pharmaceutical cartel, “psychiatric disorders/diseases/chemical imbalances”—an abnormalities of the brain that can never be seen.

“Macaulay S: birth date: 9/29/92, death: 9/30/2000; age 8 yrs, 1 day.” His diagnoses in life were: anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, aggressive disorder, Aspergers’ disorder, headache, oppositional-defiant disorder, pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), pervasive developmental disorder--NOS (not otherwise specified), obsessive disorder, major panic attack, severely ‘impulsive’ and ‘hyperactive,’ and, finally, his one physical illness--sinusitis. While none of he psychiatric diagnoses represents an actual disorder/disease/chemical imbalance, each is psychiatric and medico-legal justification to prescribe one or more drugs. This, using the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) DSM, is psychiatry’s market plan.

As for McCauley’s medications, “treatments,” they were: Benadryl, 50 to 100 mg at bed time, Ritalin SR 40 mg. in the a.m., 20 mg at 3 p.m.; Cat après (coniine) 0.1 mg.; Cat après patch TSS-2, (0.2 mg/day/wk) Aleve (a non-steroid anti-inflammatory), Prozac (flextime), Ellaville (25 mg., 50 mg. and finally, 75 mg h.s.), Paxil (Paroxetine), Zoloft (Sertraline, another SSRI of the Prozac family), Buspar (Buspirone), and Trazodone (Desyrel) another heterocyclic antidepressant.

Macauley S, who was in his grandmother’s custody because his parents had drug problems, died September 30, 2000 at 9 years one day of age. He was found on the couch where he normally slept when he stayed at his grandmother’s, face first on the pillow. She rolled him over and saw foam coming out of his mouth. He was cool and quite stiff. She rolled him over on the floor and called the ambulance.

At autopsy Macaulay S. was described as an 8-year-old male who had not been feeling well. Remnants of all of his medications were found in the urine, blood, liver and gastric contents as follows (one can be sure they would have been found in each and every organ, the brain included, had such technology been applied. Psychiatric drugs which never target a known, proved, defined abnormality/disease, are, instead, whole-body, whole-brain toxins/poisons): Urine and blood: amitriptyline (Elavil) and amitriptyline metabolites present. Liver amitriptyline, 33 mg/kg; liver nortriptyline quantitation 34 mg/kg. Blood sertraline (Zoloft): .434 mg/l: desmethylsertraline, .666 mg/l. Serum clonidine (Catapres)13.9 ng/ml. Gastric amitriptyline (Elavil), 3.51 mg; gastric nortriptyline (a metabolite of amitriptyline (Elavil), 0.15 mg. Liver sertraline (Zoloft) <1000 ng/g. Liver desmethylsertraline, 398 ng/mg. Gastric sertaline (Zoloft), 15.5 mg/l (0.465 mg); gastric desmethylsertraline 2.0 mg/l; gastric clonidine (Catapres) quantitation, 190 ng/ml (.00057 mg). The pathologist doing the autopsy concluded: “The death could be classified as undetermined and attributed to prescribed amitrityline (Elavil) and sertraline (Zoloft) toxicity. ADD and Asperger’s syndrome could be listed as other significant conditions.”

With no proof that ADD, Asperger’s disorder or any single psychiatric entity invented by the DSM Committee of the American Psychiatric Association is an actual disease how could this pathologist say “ADD and Asperger’s syndrome could be listed as other significant conditions, related to the death of this once normal child…a death which, in fact was a murder, just as in the case of Sarah Crider and virtually all who die of their “chemical imbalances” of the brain.

While reporters ALAN JUDD and ANDY MILLER of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have identified an epidemic of psychiatric deaths in Georgia’s psychiatric institutions, this is just the iceberg that is the morbidity and mortality of psychiatric treatment that follows, hand-in-glove, the utterly contrived, invented fraudulent psychiatric “diagnosing” using the labeling, drugging, billing formula provided for themselves from within the pages of the DSM of the American Psychiatric Association, now grown to 374 disorder, with no a single psychiatric diagnosis therein an actual disease. The drugs, each a toxin, a poison represent the first and only abnormality (found in the blood, urine, liver, brain) in the patient, always medically normal upon the occasion of diagnosis (psychiatric) a fiction, a parody—playing us all for fools, never an informed consent, ruining lives, maiming and killing us.

In 1996, Mr. Gary Bell, with his daughter court-ordered to be on Ritalin, did a freedom of information request of the FDA-MedWatch program and got back that between 1990 and October of 2007, there were 2993 adverse effects of Ritalin voluntarily reported, 160 of them deaths. This is 2993 physical injuries, including 160 deaths, from methylphenidate/Ritalin treatment for ADD/ADHD a disease/chemical imbalance that doesn’t exist, that is not an abnormality/disease at all, that is, in fact a normal child just like Macauley S. and just like Sarah Crider, and just like Stephanie Hall, 11, of Canton OH and just like Matthew Smith, 13, of Detroit, their parents, like Sarah’s grandmother, left to grieve and not know for the rest of their lives. But get this: Adverse events reported to the FDA through the voluntary MedWatch scheme ascertain no more than one percent of the actual figure. This means deaths from methylphenidate/Ritalin are, more likely in the vicinity of 16,000 for 1990=1997 than 160.

This is a monstrous, fraudulent epidemic and these death figures are, indeed, just the tip of the iceberg. Let this, an investigation launched by courageous reporters in Atlanta, GA be the start of looking and really seeing the hideous epidemic that is visited upon all of us by psychiatry, their controlling partner, Big Pharma, and those in government without whom they could not be victimizing millions upon millions.

2. Baughman F. There Is No Such Thing as a Psychiatric Disorder/Disease/Chemical Imbalance. PLoS Medicine, vol 3, issue 7, July, 2006

Would it be considered irrelevant to note that none of the first 14 articles at the website were written by medical professionals?

If you developed symptoms that some might attribute to ‘mental illness’, would you tend to visit a doctor or a lawyer?

There are 4 articles written by drs a little further down the page, 3 of which are decry the overprescription of Ritalin, or the lack of ethics of some psychiatrists, or how the drug companies have corrupted psychiatry. Only 1 article really advances a positive agenda, Douglas C Smith’s article discusses his alternate, family centered, approach. All of which are valid points of contention, but speak little to the efficacy of psychiatric meds.

One can argue the point that involuntary commitments are bad, wrong, whatever, but that certainly does not touch on the notion of whether or not mental illness is ‘real’. Having involuntarily committed my mother twice in the last 10 years, it was either that or she would have turned up dead in an alley somewhere. Her rights were well respected both times.

The agenda of this site seems more legal than medical, and speaking from my own personal experience, I’m likely to pay more attentions to the docs than the lawyers.

You make an interesting point but ... why is the first thing that anyone on these threads mention is the “messenger” or author, with absolutely no nod to the content of the article ?

When you read the articles on that website, the lawyer cites numerous doctors and studies. So why do you discount the information before you read it, based solely on the author and not the content ?

In a legal case, a lawyer presents evidence and expert testimony. It seems to me that’s exactly what this guy is doing. Does the fact that the lawyer’s not a doctor invalidate his opening and closing arguments in a malpractice case ?

Re the point of the articles - the entire point is that mental “illnesses” are not illnesses in the physical sense, like diabetes for example; they are a list of behaviors that for whatever reason we do not like or cannot tolerate in a civil society, or we fear for the welfare of the person and frankly, want to impose our or society’s view of the world on them.

You can argue either or both points, but what you consider to be such a person’s “rights” might not be what they would want. It goes back to the argument of “helping” someone against their wishes, which is the point of an involuntary commitment and the arguments for and against it.

You might even regard the drugs as a chemical straitjacket rather than a physical one.

Instead of making a useless comment, why don’t you rebut with something substantive ?

YOU might think my comment is useless, but it merely suggests that the author is a whack job. First off-"ADHD Fraud". I agree that the diagnosis is overused, but there are legitimate cases of ADHD. Second, "the “big lie” ad campaign from the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel that psychiatric disorders/ and chemical imbalances are actual diseases"; that sounds like a liberal conspiracy theory, ala "Big Tobacco" is out to get us. Third, this article is teeming with misspellings. e.g. Cat après (coniine) (should be Catapres/clonidine), Ellaville (should be Elavil), amitrityline (should be amitriptyline), etc. Fourth-there is no link to this article; where did it come from? It doesn't deserve anything more substantive than the comment I made....

"ADHD Fraud". I agree that the diagnosis is overused, but there are legitimate cases of ADHD

Besides pulling that from your butt, what makes one case of ADHD more "valid" than another, when the diagnostic criteria are the same ? Might that be the fact that ADHD is in the eyes of the beholder, ie subjective ?

the “big lie” ad campaign from the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel that psychiatric disorders/ and chemical imbalances are actual diseases"; that sounds like a liberal conspiracy theory

sounds like ? Do you ever wonder what the differences are between neurology and psychiatry ? Or why as soon as someone's behavior is determined to have a physical cause, like Alzheimer's, it's no longer treated by a psychiatrist ? I've asked everyone and done lots of research on this - cite any study or test that locates any psychiatric disorder described in the DSM in a measurable physical cause. Any. One will do. I mean a definitive study that gives specific numbers, like such and such a level of serotonin causes y behavior or disorder. Tell me one, just one, psychiatric diagnosis that is made based on OTHER than behavior. Any one will do. There's a reason why psychiatric drugs have no specific doses, and are prescribed based on "take this and we'll see how it affects your behavior" and adjust the dosage. That's called trial and error, not medicine.

this article is teeming with misspellings

Yeah, that annoys me too but I can read past it to the info contained therein.

-there is no link to this article

You'd need to ask Lennyq, but here's a very short bio of Baughman - not a quack as you can see: Fred A. Baughman, Jr. M.D., is an adult and child neurologist and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. He has discovered and described real diseases. He has testified before Congress, the European Union, and the Parliament of Western Australia that ADHD and all claims that psychiatric diagnoses are diseases, are fraudulent. He has testified in legal cases regarding psychiatry's false claims of "chemical imbalances" and "diseases." He has appeared on national radio and television shows, and has authored over a hundred articles in medical journals and the lay press. He resides in San Diego, California with Annette, his wife of 45 years. He is the author/producer of the video ADHD--Total, 100% Fraud (1998), and is featured in The Drugging of our Children (a Gary Null Production, 2005--a dvd).

When all is said and done, I have only my own personal experience to draw on. I’m not a doctor or a psychiatrist, just a guy with a bipolar mom.

When she is off the meds, she IS a danger to herself and others. Her emotions rule the day, there is no rationality. She is not hyper or excitable, she can be dangerously manic.

When she is on the meds, she is the woman who raised me and my siblings. Eccentric, sure, but what else would one expect from an artist?

You mention that you have done a lot of research on this. Have you read any Dr Kay Redfield Jamison? A pretty highly respected doctor in her own right, and bipolar. To round out your research, IMO, you would do well to read some of her books. It paints a somewhat different picture than the ones you seem drawn to.

I obviously don’t know anything about your personal experiences with mental illness, and I was pretty much a skeptic myself, until my personal encounter with my mom’s bipolar disorder. I hope that you never encounter psychosis up close and personal, it’s not pretty, and it’s real, not something existing only in the minds of those who dislike the behavior (symptoms) of the disorder.

Or it might be that some docs treat ADHD due to parental pressure without considering whether the child fully meets the diagnostic criteria

There's a reason why psychiatric drugs have no specific doses, and are prescribed based on "take this and we'll see how it affects your behavior" and adjust the dosage. That's called trial and error, not medicine.

Oh, so psych is the only field that "adjusts" the dosage? I don't think so; I can name NUMEROUS instances where drugs are "adjusted" based on response. One size does not fit all, and every patient reacts differently to any given drug. Also, psych drugs DO have specific doses (look it up in any drug information book)

He has testified in legal cases regarding psychiatry's false claims of "chemical imbalances" and "diseases." He has appeared on national radio and television shows, and has authored over a hundred articles in medical journals and the lay press

Well, I guess that makes him an expert....

I’ve never read Jamison and will look it up. I’m always interested in new information.

I do not belittle mental problems - I’ve seen them up close and personal myself in a cousin who was a real problem for his family until he finally died of alcohol poisoning, and I know how bad it can be for a family who have other kids who deserve attention and a sensible atmosphere.

My beef is with the dishonesty and manipulation endemic in psychiatry. Psychiatrists want you to think that mental illnesses are biological conditions, and they are not. Again, that’s not to say there are no mental issues, it’s just that they are not from a biological cause.

And yes, maybe psychiatry can help by providing a rational outlet for a disturbed person, but they cannot help when they disguise the nature of the drugs and treatments (like ECT) and lie about their short- and long-term effects.

You cannot say the same about psychiatric drugs. There are no physical tests performed to see the effect of the drug on a specific area - it’s a reassessment of BEHAVIOR that is done before changing dosages.

And, what makes him an “expert” is the fact that he’s a neurologist, has produced peer-reviewed research on neurological issues, and has yet to find a single place or chemical in the brain that causes mental “illnesses” in all his years of practice. Epilepsy, for example, which used to be considered a mental illness treatable by psychiatrists, is now treated by neurologists because it is specifically a physical illness located in the brain.

Psychiatrists want you to think that mental illnesses are biological conditions, and they are not. Again, that’s not to say there are no mental issues, it’s just that they are not from a biological cause.
____________

This is where I think your assessment fails. You recognize that mental ‘issues’ exist, but then claim it is not from a biological cause. If one’s mental states are not a function of one’s biology, what are they a function of? Or, if mental illness is not a biological condition, what kind of condition is it?

If one cannot say for certain what it is, it stretches credibility to the breaking point to suggest that, in this particular case, you know what it is not.

Sure, there are many cases where dosages of drugs or physical ailments are adjusted - but they are always adjusted based on physical tests. Diabetics test their blood sugar levels before injecting insulin, thyroid patients get blood tests every so many months before their drug dosage is altered, and do on. You cannot say the same about psychiatric drugs. There are no physical tests performed to see the effect of the drug on a specific area - it’s a reassessment of BEHAVIOR that is done before changing dosages.

How do you explain titration of Miralax or Milk of Mag in the treatment of constipation. This is oftentimes done without any testing, and is based on SUBJECTIVE data, mainly the patient reporting that they are still constipated. Where is it written that drugs need to be dosed based on OBJECTIVE laboratory testing?

Since Psychiatry is the study/management of problem behaviors, it stands to reason that the criteria for dosing would be based on behavioral response to a particular med.

But we do know what mental issues are. They are, precisely, deviance from social or cultural norms.

Let’s take an example - schizophrenia

The definition from the DSM:
Schizophrenia is characterized by at least 2 of the following symptoms, for at least one month:

* Delusions
* Hallucinations
* Disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence)
* Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
* Negative symptoms (e.g., a “flattening” of one’s emotions, alogia, avolition; see below)

Tell me - can you physically measure a delusion as to precise physical manifestations either in chemical processes or other biological markers ? How about hallucinations ?

What about “grossly disorganized behavior” ? You know it when you see it, but do you characterize it as a messy room with all items thrown about carelessly or ... what ? [In that case almost every single child in the world has this symptom at one time or another]

You see what I mean ? Maybe mental problems are a function of biology, but to date, no one can point to what biological function is out of whack. Many things have been suggested, there have been and are many ongoing studies, but there is no definitive answer to date on any of the 300+ “disorders” addressed by psychiatry. We hear about “chemical imbalances”, but if you read the studies, they are still in the investigative stages and have no answers as yet.

And that’s the entire point. Will we have answers 10, 20, 30 years from now ? MAybe, but we don’t now, and for psychiatry to claim that they do is a gross order of malpractice.

Plain and simple.

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