CCHR Calls on Healthcare Providers to Stop Promoting Scientifically Unsupported Theory of Brain Chemical Imbalance Causing Depression

Posted on February 17, 2025 by cchrstl

New research finds healthcare providers are prime promoters of the unproven theory, which influences the prescribing of antidepressants as treatment for depressed people.  Citizens Commission on Human Rights calls for an end to the continuing use of this misinformation.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

A new study reveals healthcare providers’ prime role in promoting and perpetuating the scientifically unsupported notion that a chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression.  This misinformation can interfere with treatment decisions for depressed people by encouraging a preference for antidepressants to fix the supposed imbalance instead of non-drug treatments that may be just as effective for many people, the researchers say.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls on healthcare providers to stop promoting the theory which, while lacking scientific validity, continues to fuel the rampant prescribing of antidepressants in the U.S.  Some 45 million Americans are currently prescribed antidepressants.

To find out where the chemical imbalance beliefs come from, a team of academic researchers surveyed over 1,200 students at three U.S. universities about where they had heard the chemical imbalance explanation.  Most had heard about it from the classroom, Internet/media, other people, and healthcare providers.  However, only hearing about it from healthcare providers (primarily doctors and therapists) was associated with the students believing that explanation.

“These results suggest that healthcare providers play an important role in the dissemination of the chemical imbalance message, which is an oversimplified, scientifically controversial, and potentially treatment-interfering narrative,” wrote Hans Schroder, PhD, a clinical assistant professor in the psychiatry department at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of the study.

The findings suggest that “providers may have shared/implied that a chemical imbalance is a reasonable, scientifically legitimate way of understanding depression,” Schroder wrote, rather than more accurately conveying that “this is an outdated, unsupported, and far too simplistic explanation of depression, or offering a more nuanced explanation of depression.” The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Psychology.

A landmark study published in 2022 established that the theory of a low level of a brain chemical (serotonin) causing depression has no scientific basis.

“The serotonin theory of depression has been one of the most influential and extensively researched biological theories of the origins of depression,” the researchers reported. “Our study shows that this view is not supported by scientific evidence. It also calls into question the basis for the use of antidepressants.”

Taking antidepressants exposes the users to the potential risks of side effects that include emotional blunting, sexual dysfunction that may be long-lasting or even permanent, stroke, heart disease, suicidal thoughts and actions, and violence.

When quitting antidepressants, patients may experience withdrawal symptoms that can be debilitating and long-lasting.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights calls on healthcare providers to stop promoting the misinformation of a chemical imbalance causing depression.  CCHR encourages patients to discuss any concerns about antidepressants with their prescribers, as well as to discuss potential evidence-based alternatives.

Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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New Research Links Antidepressants to Lower Levels of Nutrients in Mothers’ Milk

Posted on February 10, 2025 by cchrstl

The new study adds to the medical literature linking pregnant women’s use of antidepressants to possible harm to their newborns. Citizens Commission on Human Rights encourages women to discuss any concerns with their prescribers.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

A new study has linked mothers’ use of antidepressants with lower levels of nutrients in their maternal milk, which could negatively affect infant growth and present health risks for breastfed infants, according to the researchers conducting the study. The study found that while the mothers’ average nutrient levels were still within normal range, some individual samples had much lower levels of some nutrients. 

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says the new research adds to the medical literature indicating the possible harm of antidepressants to pregnant women and their babies and encourages patients to discuss any concerns with their prescribers.

Noting that breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of an infant’s life because of the protein and other nutrients in mother’s milk, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, collected and analyzed milk samples to determine if the mothers’ use of antidepressants or other prescription drugs altered the nutrient levels in maternal milk. Researchers wrote that the study, published in JAMA Network Open, was the first to investigate the association of prescription drugs with the composition of human milk.

In samples of maternal milk collected from 63 mothers using SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants and 20 mothers using other types of antidepressants, researchers found that protein levels on average were 15% and 21% lower, respectively, than in samples from mothers not using the drugs.  The average levels of carbohydrates, fats, and total energy in the milk indicated less effect.

The researchers reported that nutrient levels were still within a normal range, though some individual samples had “concerningly low levels” of some nutrients.  They advised that further research was needed to rule out other factors that could impact nutrient levels. 

The study adds to other research indicating potentially increased risks from the use of antidepressants during pregnancy. Recent research has indicated that pregnant women’s use of antidepressants is significantly associated with a higher risk of adverse birth outcomes, such as pre-term delivery, low birth weight, and admissions to neonatal intensive care units, irrespective of the type of antidepressant prescribed and the duration and trimester of use of the drug. Prenatal exposure to antidepressants is also associated with newborns experiencing neonatal withdrawal syndrome, which one study found to occur in 30% of newborns exposed to SSRI antidepressants in the womb.

The rationale for prescribing antidepressants – to correct a supposed chemical imbalance in the brain – has been questioned by researchers who conducted a comprehensive review, which for the first time integrated all relevant research, to evaluate whether scientific evidence supported the theory that a low level of the brain chemical serotonin caused depression. They concluded it did not.

“The serotonin theory of depression has been one of the most influential and extensively researched biological theories of the origins of depression,” the researchers reported. “Our study shows that this view is not supported by scientific evidence. It also calls into question the basis for the use of antidepressants.” 

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights encourages patients to discuss any concerns about the risks of antidepressants with their prescribers, as well as to discuss potential evidence-based alternatives.

Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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Take Action – Missouri Legislature

Posted on February 5, 2025 by cchrstl

Psychiatry’s Continued Attacks on Missouri Citizens

This session of the Missouri Legislature has several bills demonstrating the psychiatric industry’s continued attempts to defraud and abuse citizens.

Very Very Bad Bills

SB90  Decriminalizes the psychedelic drug psilocybin in certain cases, and requires the Department of Mental Health to conduct a study on it for mental health treatment.

Sponsor: Senator Stephen Webber (Democrat, District 19 – Boone)

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in over 200 species of mushrooms, commonly known as “magic mushrooms.” It alters perception, mood, and cognition, and produces hallucinations. It can also cause anxiety, paranoia, and depersonalization.

It is not known how psychedelic drugs are supposed to work as mental health treatment. Psychedelics carry the risks of devastating immediate and long-term harms, putting human lives and sanity at risk.

For more information about CCHR’s opposition to psychedelic drugs, please see the discussion here.

There are also two similar bills HB829 and HB951. 

Sponsor: Representative Richard West (Republican, District 102 – St. Charles)

Sponsor: Representative Matthew Overcast (Republican, District 155 – Stone, Ozark, Taney, Douglas)

There were two similar bills in last year’s Legislative Session, indicating that this is a hot topic for psychiatry. We are seeing a rapturous psychiatric reception given to these harmful psychedelics, buoyed by a re-hashed brain chemical theory and claims of a “renaissance” in mental health treatment. It took 30 years for the “chemical-imbalance-in-the-brain-causes-depression” myth to be fully recognized as pseudoscience and dangerously misleading to consumers. We should recognize the trademark signs of this same marketing scam with psychedelics and prevent America from “turning on and tuning out” to these mind-altering drugs before it is too late.

SB218  Provides for the establishment of a mental health treatment court as an alternative for the disposal of cases that stem from mental health or co-occurring disorders of criminal defendants.

Sponsor: Senator Rusty Black (Republican, District 12 – Andrew, Atchison, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Clinton, Daviess, Dekalb, Gentry, Grundy, Harrison, Holt, Linn, Livingston, Mercer, Nodaway, Sullivan, Worth and part of Buchanan County)

Basically, a mental health treatment court is a path to place offenders into the psychiatric mental health system, instead of handling criminal actors in the Justice System where they belong. This subversion of Justice has been a primary inroad for psychiatric fraud and abuse in society.

Psychiatry’s ideologies and actions have contributed to today’s failing criminal rehabilitation and increasing crime rate. 

For more information about this, please see the discussion here.

There are also two similar bills HB82 and HB227.  

Sponsor: Representative Dave Griffith (Republican, District 60 – Cole)

Sponsor: Representative John Black (Republican, District 129 – Webster)

SB44  This act establishes the “Committee on School Safety” within the Department of Public Safety. The Committee shall at least quarterly evaluate and establish guidelines for school safety concerns, including plans to prevent school firearm violence. While it does not specifically mention psychiatry or mental health, it does not preclude psychiatric interference in the matter such as mental health screenings for school children.

Psychiatric, mind-altering drugs have been found to be the common factor in an overwhelming number of school shootings. We urge you to alert your legislators to this fact, and ask them to incorporate this information into this legislation in order to head off fraudulent and abusive psychiatric involvement in any school safety committee.

Sponsor: Senator Travis Fitzwater (Republican, District 10 – Callaway, Lincoln, Montgomery, Pike and Part of St. Charles County)



HB680  Requires the department of mental health to apply for grant funding from the United States Department of Health and Human Services to establish mobile mental health units throughout the state in cooperation with local public health agencies.

What can we say about this? “Psychiatry does not commit human rights abuse. It is a human rights abuse.” – Thomas Szasz

Just take a look at one or more of the CCHR web sites to start to understand how very bad this bill is:

https://www.cchrstl.org

https://www.cchr.org

https://www.cchrint.org

Sponsor: Representative Michael Johnson (Democrat, District 23 – Jackson)


The Missouri Legislature

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Missouri and is composed of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The General Assembly is responsible for creating laws for governing the State of Missouri. The Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) are electronically available on this site:  http://revisor.mo.gov/.

You can find your Representative and Senator, and their contact information, by entering your 9-digit zip code here.

The current Session this year (103rd General Assembly, 1st Regular Session) convened on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, and will end on Friday, May 16, 2025. You can see all of the House Bills (HB) by clicking here; and the Senate Bills (SB) are listed here.

If you are not a voting resident of Missouri, you can find out about legislation in your own state and write your own state legislators; also, we are looking for volunteers to monitor legislation in Missouri and the states surrounding Missouri — let us know if you’d like to help out.

You can also help out by sending CCHR STL a tax-deductible monetary donation so that we can continue to alert you to these issues.

Check out our handy discussion about How to write to a legislator.

We Urge You To Contact Your Legislators To Express Your Own Viewpoints.

Please write, call or visit to express your viewpoint as an individual or professional, and not as a representative of any organization. Let us know the details and any responses you get. The full text of each bill can be found on the House and Senate Joint Bill Tracking site. Just put the bill number into the search box (e.g. SB123 or HB123).

While this list is not all the bad bills, and does not include any of the good bills, we’ve chosen the worst of the bad’uns to get you going on contacting your legislators!

Decide for yourself and take action.

Summary

Instead of these failed psychiatric approaches, the emphasis must be on workable mental healing methods that improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society by restoring people to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual well-being. Psychiatric drugs and psychiatric treatments are not workable.

Read the text of these bills to see how they encourage psychiatric fraud and abuse, and urge your Missouri state legislators to reject pro-psych bills in their current form.

The real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior as “diseases.” Psychiatry’s stigmatizing labels, programs and treatments are harmful junk science; their diagnoses of “mental disorders” are a hoax – unscientific, fraudulent and harmful. All psychiatric treatments, not just psychiatric drugs, are dangerous.

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CCHR Applauds Call for Human Rights-based Approach to Mental Health

Posted on February 3, 2025 by cchrstl

A new article in Health and Human Rights Journal calls for an approach to mental health in which every aspect of it and its determinants is endowed with respect for, and the realization of, human rights.

by CCHR National Affairs Office 

A new perspective article calls for a more comprehensive, human rights-based approach to mental health that addresses the wider social, economic, and environmental factors that cause emotional distress. The article was published in Health and Human Rights Journal, a joint publication of Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health & Human Rights and Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

The authors contrast a human rights-based approach with today’s biomedical approach, which assumes increased psychiatric screening, diagnosis and treatment of mental health symptoms will lead to mental well-being for individuals and nations. 

The article’s authors note that there has been criticism of the psychiatric influence, or “psychiatrization,” of the Sustainable Development Goals issued by the United Nations, which identified improved mental health as a priority for global development. Psychiatrization refers to the increasing influence of psychiatry through its institutions and practices affecting an increasing number of people and areas of life.

“Concerns about psychiatrization stem from the fact that the focus is predominantly on scaling up the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, without paying attention to how a biomedical approach is limited in addressing the environmental, social, economic, and political determinants of mental health,” wrote lead author Lisa Cosgrove, PhD, a professor in the Counseling Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts and co-founder of the Centre for Mental Health, Human Rights, and Social Justice.

Cosgrove and colleagues call for a human rights-based approach to mental health which “ensures that every aspect of health care and its determinants is imbued with respect for, and the realization of, human rights.”

The article references Dainius P?ras, a child psychiatrist and former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, who argued that mental well-being should not be defined as the absence of a mental health condition, but instead is the result of a social, political, economic and physical environment that enables people to live a life of dignity, with full enjoyment of their rights in the pursuit of their full potential.

“The Citizens Commission on Human Rights applauds the call for a human rights-based approach to mental health,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office. “CCHR is dedicated to ensuring human rights and dignity in the field of mental health.”

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End the Fraud and Abuse of Involuntary Psychiatric Detentions

Posted on January 27, 2025 by cchrstl

Research indicates psychiatric confinements against a person’s will have been increasing at three times the rate of the increase in population.  Investigations and U.S. Justice Department complaints have alleged that patients have been held and their insurance billed unnecessarily.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has resolved, as a major focus of its national efforts in 2025, to raise awareness of the abusive and costly practice of detaining people against their will in psychiatric facilities, with the goal of ending the practice.  CCHR is a mental health industry watchdog.

State laws on psychiatric detentions vary in the U.S., but nearly all states allow involuntary inpatient civil commitments, evaluation and treatment of individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.  However, this determination is completely subjective, which opens the potential for fraud and abuse. 

CCHR chapters around the world have for years complained to the proper authorities on behalf of individuals reporting to the organization that they were wrongly committed to a psychiatric facility, forced to take psychiatric drugs, held for long periods of time, traumatized by circumstances in the facilities, and released in worse condition than when they were first detained.

Exposés of the practice have also appeared in the press.  A recent investigation by reporters at the New York Times focused on Acadia Healthcare, one of the largest chains of for-profit behavioral health facilities in the U.S., and concluded, “Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary.”

Acadia allegedly maximized insurance billing by using various excuses to continue holding patients, sometimes until their insurance coverage ran out.  Acadia reportedly charges as much as $2,200 a day for some patients.  With the bulk of Acadia’s revenue coming from government insurance plans, including Medicaid and Medicare, taxpayers are footing the bill for most of these detentions.

In September, Acadia agreed to pay $19.85 million to settle allegations that the company knowingly submitted false claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE for medically unnecessary services for patients it improperly admitted to its facilities and patients held for excessive lengths of stay, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Similarly, in 2020 another of the largest U.S. chains of for-profit psychiatric facilities, Universal Health Services, agreed to pay $117 million to settle Justice Department allegations that included billing for medically unnecessary inpatient admissions and keeping patients longer than medically necessary.

Evidence shows that involuntary commitment has become far more prevalent in recent years.  A 2020 study at the UCLA School of Public Affairs found that in the 22 states which provided civil commitment data for the five-year period ending in 2016, the states’ average yearly involuntary detention rate increased at three times the rate of their average population growth.  It has been estimated that four of every ten admissions to psychiatric facilities are involuntary, a figure that reportedly rose by 27% over the last decade.

The increased risk of suicide in the period following discharge from psychiatric confinement is well recognized, with the risk even greater for those who are admitted to psychiatric facilities against their will.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on countries to end coercive mental health practices.  “People subjected to coercive practices report feelings of dehumanization, disempowerment and being disrespected.  Many experience it as a form of trauma or re-traumatization leading to a worsening of their condition and increased experiences of distress,” WHO advised.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is dedicated to ending this abusive practice.  “The power of a psychiatrist or other mental health practitioner to deprive individuals of their liberty based on purely subjective evaluations, which will always have the potential for abuse and which research has shown to be harmful to patients, must stop,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “This will be a major focus for us in 2025, as we work to restore human rights to the field of mental health.”

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Missouri Psychiatrist and Co-Conspirator Finally Brought to Justice

Posted on January 6, 2025 by cchrstl

In 2004 the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of St. Louis (CCHR STL) filed a formal complaint against St. Louis, Missouri psychiatrist Franco Sicuro, for fraud and abuse related to a patient’s alleged misdiagnosis and mistreatment lasting over a very painful fifteen months.

Sicuro headlined the news in 2020 when he was indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri, for $15 million in health care fraud.

Eventually Sicuro pleaded guilty in 2022 to a felony conspiracy charge and admitted that Medicare, Medicaid and other insurers lost more than $3.8 million based on fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted by clinical laboratories that he owned. Sicuro has since satisfied the restitution owed, and agreed to forfeit $3.1 million in assets.

Finally in 2024 the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri, reported that Sicuro’s co-defendant, Carlos Himpler, was sentenced to 20 months in prison and fined $100,000 for submitting more than $3.8 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and private health care benefit programs.

This kind of criminal fraud is rampant in the psychiatric industry. Experience has shown that there are many criminal mental health practitioners. If you become aware of such, file a fraud report here: https://www.cchr.org/take-action/report-psychiatric-abuse.html.

CCHR St. Louis was among the first to spot and make known this psychiatrist’s criminal behavior and thanks to its persistent education with health and regulatory agencies on the abuses of psychiatry justice was able to prevail.

What is needed is legislation that provides not only more effective oversight but also stronger accountability measures: criminal and civil penalties, removal from CMS programs (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and their funding, and hospital closure where systemic abuse is found. Only such a comprehensive solution can begin to thwart the level of abuse, fraud and malpractice that is so widespread today in the for-profit mental health industry.

Contact your local, state and federal representatives and express your opinions about this. Find contact information for your Missouri legislators here: https://www.senate.mo.gov/LegisLookup/ZipLookup

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New Study Finds Antipsychotic Drugs Worsen Behavior in Nursing Home Residents

Posted on December 23, 2024 by cchrstl

New research provides additional evidence that off-label prescribing of antipsychotic drugs for elderly patients with dementia is not effective in reducing behavioral symptoms and exposes them to risks of serious side effects.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

Antipsychotic drugs significantly worsened behavior in two out of three nursing home residents using the drugs, a new study indicates.  The researchers say their findings support the importance of focusing on approaches other than the use of antipsychotics for the behavioral symptoms of elderly patients.  The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) urges caregivers and family members to report any instance of harm or abuse from the use of antipsychotics to CCHR, as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). 

The new study explored the association between antipsychotics and worsening behavior in patients in long-term care facilities.  Antipsychotics are commonly prescribed for agitation or other behavioral disturbances in older people with dementia. 

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, analyzed data from nearly 500,000 Canadian nursing home residents from 2000 to 2022 and found that nearly 68% of the residents who used antipsychotics had worse behavioral problems during follow-up checks. 

“Our findings support the importance of focusing on non-pharmacological approaches to care, especially in the setting of those experiencing BPSD [behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia],” the researchers concluded.

The study further found that 26% of nursing home residents in Canada were prescribed antipsychotics for off-label uses not approved by the FDA. 

“Sometimes people may say they don’t have enough staff to deal with these issues, but the reality is that these medications can make disability and cognitive impairment worse,” said John Hirdes, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo University who was part of the research team. 

The researchers recommended getting to the source of dementia patients’ behavioral issues and providing non-drug support first.  That support may be in the form of better pain management, activities to reduce anxiety, gentle exercise, or music and art therapy, which have been shown to improve behavioral symptoms without the need for antipsychotic drugs. 

“Although the positive effects of non-pharmacological treatment are widely discussed in the [medical] literature, these approaches are infrequently and inconsistently implemented,” the researchers wrote.  The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

In 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its most serious “black box” warning for atypical (second-generation) antipsychotics, including Abilify, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Risperdal, after finding the drugs nearly double the rate of death in elderly dementia patients.  In 2008, the FDA extended the warning to all antipsychotics by including typical (first-generation) antipsychotic drugs, such as Haldol, Thorazine and Prolixin, and added a warning for stroke and other cerebrovascular adverse events in elderly patients with dementia.

Atypical antipsychotic drugs, initially promoted as safer than older generation antipsychotics, not only failed to prove safe when used for behavioral treatment in older adults with dementia, but also failed to show evidence of effectiveness, a 2013 study found. 

Antipsychotics carry the risks of serious side effects, including tremors, anxiety, confusion, restlessness, rigidity, tardive dyskinesia (uncontrollable muscle movements), cognitive decline, stroke, cardiovascular events, and an increased risk of death in elderly dementia patients that prompted the FDA warning.

The CMS National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes worked successfully to reduce the percentage of long-term nursing home residents in the U.S. who are prescribed antipsychotic drugs from 23.9% in 2011 to 14.8% at the end of 2023, but the rate hit a low of 14% in 2019 and has risen since then.  Some 2.2 million Americans aged 65 and older are currently prescribed antipsychotic drugs.

Resident rights in the federal regulations for long-term care facilities prohibit the use of medications for discipline or the convenience of others.  CCHR urges caregivers and family members to report any wrongful prescribing of antipsychotics to nursing home patients by contacting CCHR, as well as CMS.

WARNING:  Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antipsychotic or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

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CCHR Calls for Repeal of Laws Allowing Forced Psychiatric Detention Amid Evidence of Abusive and Racist Use

Posted on December 16, 2024 by cchrstl

New study finds requests made under Massachusetts law to transport people against their will for psychiatric evaluation were made by health professionals who had not seen the individuals who were the subject of their requests, and those individuals were disproportionately Black people.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

The vast majority of requests to law enforcement and emergency medical services in Boston to transport individuals against their will to a hospital or psychiatric facility for psychiatric evaluation, often leading to involuntary commitment, were made by health professionals who had not seen the individuals who were the subject of their requests, a new study has found.  The individuals forcibly transported and evaluated were disproportionately Black people.  The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is calling for the repeal of laws allowing such gross violations of human rights. 

A team of researchers led by Kevin M. Simon, MD, MPH, Chief Behavioral Health Officer of the Boston Public Health Commission and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, analyzed the 488 written applications made by health and mental health professionals for involuntary mental health transport and evaluation in Boston over a one-year period in 2021-2022. Massachusetts law allows the involuntary procedure if medical or mental health professionals believe a person is a danger to him/herself or others. 

The researchers found that in three out of every four (76%) requests, the professionals had not seen the individuals they were asking to be forcibly transported for psychiatric evaluation, acting instead on information received from other sources.  They further found that the individuals subject to the involuntary procedures were disproportionately Black people.

“The analysis revealed racial disparities: 41% of involuntary hospitalization applications were for individuals identified as Black or African American, but this racial group represents only 23% of Boston’s population,” the researchers wrote.  The study is available online in advance of publication in Psychiatric Services.

Statewide, tens of thousands of people are involuntarily transported for psychiatric evaluations each year in Massachusetts.  Similar involuntary procedures are found in state laws across the U.S. 

CCHR and investigative reporters have uncovered the fraud and abuse at many psychiatric facilities from the misuse of state mental health laws to wrongly detain, evaluate and treat individuals against their will, while billing their insurance for it.

Because of such reported harm, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidance in 2021, advising countries to end coercive mental health practices, which it said are used “despite the lack of evidence that they offer any benefits, and the significant evidence that they lead to physical and psychological harm and even death.” 

The WHO guidance extends its call for prohibiting coercion even to those in mental health crisis, stating, ”People subjected to coercive practices report feelings of dehumanization, disempowerment and being disrespected.  Many experience it as a form of trauma or re-traumatization leading to a worsening of their condition and increased experiences of distress.”

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights agrees.

“We must end the abusive business as usual of psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners depriving individuals of their liberty with the stroke of a pen, causing people to be taken by force to a psychiatric facility, forced to undergo unwanted psychiatric evaluation and treatment, then claiming that this coercive, traumatizing experience is for the good of the individual,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “Human rights must be restored to the field of mental health.”

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As International Human Rights Day Approaches, CCHR Urges Adoption of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights

Posted on December 9, 2024 by cchrstl

International human rights standards call for human rights-based approaches in the field of mental health.  Citizens Commission on Human Rights is working to make those rights a reality through the promotion of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) National Affairs Office announces it will be carrying out a promotional campaign, launching on International Human Rights Day, to raise awareness of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights.  This Declaration, like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that inspired it, lays out fundamental human rights, but as specific to the field of mental health. International Human Rights Day marks the signing of the UDHR on December 10, 1948.

All human rights organizations set forth codes by which they align their purposes and activities. The Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights articulates the guiding principles and goals for the field of mental health to which CCHR adheres.

The mental health rights in the Declaration include the right to be treated with dignity, the right to fully informed consent to mental health treatment based on the full disclosure of risks, as well as the right to refuse consent, and the right to know what alternative treatments are available.  The Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights sets forth these and other fundamental mental health human rights to which CCHR believes everyone is entitled.

International human rights standards call for changes in mental health approaches to ensure human rights are respected.  In 2017, Dr. Dainius P?ras, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, called for “a sea change” in mental health care around the world to replace “outdated practices that violate human rights.” 

More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidance in 2021 for promoting a rights-based approach to mental health.  WHO observed that “an entrenched overreliance on the biomedical model in which the predominant focus of care is on diagnosis, medication and symptom reduction…hinder[s] progress towards the full realization of a human rights-based approach.”  It called for mental health systems and services to align with international human rights standards, including the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which aims to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons with disabilities.

CCHR is making the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights more widely known.  Because adequate protections for human rights in the field of mental health are vital, CCHR urges that these rights be recognized by the widespread adoption of this Declaration.

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CCHR Calls on FDA to Require Updated Antidepressant Warnings After Research Finds Withdrawal Symptoms Are Common

Posted on November 25, 2024 by cchrstl

Withdrawal symptoms are experienced by nearly half of the people trying to quit antidepressants, even if tapered over several weeks, research finds.  CCHR says prescribing information and medication guides do not adequately convey this widespread risk and calls on FDA to require updates.

by CCHR National Affairs Office

Close to half of the people who quit antidepressants experience withdrawal symptoms regardless of whether they stop suddenly or taper their dosage over several weeks, a new study finds.  In light of recent research, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require antidepressant manufacturers to carry more adequate warnings in their prescribing information and medication guides on the risk of withdrawal symptoms when patients stop using the drugs.

The new research, published in Molecular Psychiatry, investigated the incidence of so-called antidepressant withdrawal syndrome by reviewing drug trials of antidepressants that included data on withdrawal symptoms.  What researchers found is that nearly half of study participants experienced withdrawal symptoms when stopping antidepressants after having used the drugs for 8 to 12 weeks in the trials.

“The pooled incidence of AWS [antidepressant withdrawal syndrome] from all available studies was 42.9% [and] from 11 RCTs [randomized controlled trials] was 44.4%,” the researchers concluded.  They found no significant difference in the incidence between the types of antidepressants used.  

They also found that the longer antidepressants were used, the greater the incidence of withdrawal symptoms, with the incidence rising to over 51% for those who quit after taking antidepressants for longer than 24 weeks. 

These findings are consistent with prior research.  One study found that more than half (56%) of people who attempt to come off antidepressants experience withdrawal effects, with nearly half (46%) of them describing the symptoms as severe.  Another found that among people whose withdrawal effects were persistent, ranging in duration from 5 to 166 months, 81% experienced mental health disturbances like anxiety, depression, emerging suicidality and agitation.  Physical symptoms, primarily headache, fatigue, dizziness, brain zaps, visual changes, muscle aches, tremor, diarrhea, and nausea, were experienced by 75%.

CCHR has previously called for updated warnings in prescribing information and medication guides to more adequately warn prescribers and consumers of the increased risks of atrial fibrillation, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and long-lasting and permanent sexual dysfunction from the use of antidepressants. 

CCHR has also called on the FDA to issue an updated Drug Safety Communication on the risks to newborns from their mothers’ continued use of antidepressants during pregnancy.  Those risks include premature birth, lower birth weight, neonatal hospitalization and withdrawal symptoms.

“The FDA, which is responsible for ensuring pharmaceutical drugs are safe, must take immediate action due to the growing body of research indicating that adverse effects when using or attempting to stop using antidepressants are more widely experienced and potentially more severe than current prescribing information and medication guides indicate,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “FDA action is long overdue on this urgent public health issue.”

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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