Citizens Commission on Human Rights^®
of St. Louis

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DO PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS “HELP”?

Download and read the CCHR report
Common Psychiatric Drugs and Their Effects

Richard Hughes and Robert Brewin, authors of The Tranquilizing of America, warned that although psychotropic drugs may appear “to ‘take the edge off’ anxiety, pain, and stress, they also take the edge off life itself … these pills not only numb the pain but numb the whole mind.” In fact close study reveals that none of them can cure, all have side effects, some horrific, and due to their addictive and psychotropic properties, many people believe that they cannot deal with life without them.

Peter Schrag and Diane Divoky, authors of The Myth of the Hyperactive Child, say that dozens of drug experiments have been founded on the “dubious premise: that if the drug worked, or seemed to work, the subject must be suffering from the ailment for which drug was administered.” Because the person’s emotional state, behavior or outlook changes, there is a belief that the drugs are helping.

However, a person could drink alcohol or take cocaine and may think they “feel better.” It doesn’t make it right and, in the case of psychiatric drugs, it is potentially very dangerous because the drugs mask physical conditions, which left untreated, can be catastrophic.

Because of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatrists have deceived millions into thinking that the best answer to life’s many routine problems and challenges lies with the “latest and greatest” psychiatric drug.

However, the late Dr. Sydney Walker, III, a neurologist and psychiatrist, said that the DSM has “led to the unnecessary drugging of millions of Americans who could be diagnosed, treated, and cured without the use of toxic and potentially lethal medications.”

Imagine, he says, what would happen if a physician “simply gave patients symptom–masking drugs instead of diagnosing and treating them.” He gave the example of a patient visiting a general practitioner with a swollen hand that is twice its normal size, feels hot and is turning an unpleasant color. “Now suppose, the physician—instead instead of diagnosing the patient’s life–threatening infection and treating the infection with antibiotics—simply prescribes pain–killing drugs and sends the patient home! Treating a patient’s behavioral symptoms with Prozac and Ritalin is no different.”

While the patient may be lulled into a temporary sense of wellness, whatever condition has caused the symptom is still present and often growing worse. Professors Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk, authors of Making Us Crazy, say: “The public at large may gain false comfort from a diagnostic psychiatric manual that encourages belief in the illusion that the harshness, brutality and pain in their lives and in their communities can be explained by a psychiatric label and eradicated by a pill. Certainly, there are plenty of problems that we all have and a myriad [great number] of peculiar ways that we struggle to cope with them. But could life be any different? Far too often, the psychiatric bible [DSM] has been making us crazy—when we are just human.”

The repercussions are telling. Hundreds of children have committed suicide while taking the latest antidepressants. Millions more are prescribed “kiddy cocaine” [stimulants] for “disorders” that don’t exist and put at risk of addiction and worse. Children diagnosed with “ADHD” and prescribed stimulants can be later ineligible to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. In 1998, the military discharged more than 3,100 recruits with psychiatric histories, pointing to a rise in “medication” and treatment of ADHD and other “behavioral disorders” as a reason for discharge.

Dr. Walker emphatically stated: “Physicians who skip the work of making an accurate diagnosis, and cavalierly [casually] prescribe dangerous psychotropic drugs based solely on labels picked out of the DSM are violating one of the most basic principles of medicine: to do no harm. And physicians who prescribe drugs to perfectly normal, healthy patients looking for a magic pill to make them more popular, or less sensitive to life’s ups and downs, are even more misguided: they are actually creating brain dysfunction where none existed, and stunting their patients’ emotional growth as well.”