Psychiatrists expose the fraud of Psychiatry

Dr. Niall McLaren, an Australian practicing psychiatrist for 22 years, explains what is wrong with the psychiatric profession: That it cannot/will not take criticism, for fear the entire model of biological psychiatry will unravel.
That there is no science to psychiatric diagnoses, no brain based diseases. And that psychiatry only pushes mental disorders as biological disease in order to convince people to take psychiatric drugs, causing a host of dangerous side effects.

www.youtube.com...

For more psychiatrists/psychologists and doctors who have spoken out against the fraud of psychiatry's biological model of mental disorders
(chemical imbalance, etc) click here:

www.cchrint.org...

Psychiatrists, Physicians & Psychologists That Debunk Psychiatry as a Science

“There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.”
— Allen Frances, Former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman

“…modern psychiatry has yet to convincingly prove the genetic/biologic cause of any single mental illness…Patients [have] been diagnosed with ‘chemical imbalances’ despite the fact that no test exists to support such a claim, and…there is no real conception of what a correct chemical balance would look like.”
— Dr. David Kaiser, psychiatrist

“There’s no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biochemical imbalance,’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests. So what’s the biochemical imbalance?”
— Dr. Ron Leifer, psychiatrist

“DSM-IV is the fabrication upon which psychiatry seeks acceptance by medicine in general. Insiders know it is more a political than scientific document… DSM-IV has become a bible and a money making bestseller—its major failings notwithstanding.”
— Loren Mosher, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

“All psychiatrists have in common that when they are caught on camera or on microphone, they cower and admit that there are no such things as chemical imbalances/diseases, or examinations or tests for them. What they do in practice, lying in every instance, abrogating [revoking] the informed consent right of every patient and poisoning them in the name of ‘treatment’ is nothing short of criminal.”
— Dr Fred Baughman Jr., Pediatric Neurologist

“Psychiatry makes unproven claims that depression, bipolar illness, anxiety, alcoholism and a host of other disorders are in fact primarily biologic and probably genetic in origin…This kind of faith in science and progress is staggering, not to mention naïve and perhaps delusional.”
— Dr. David Kaiser, psychiatrist

“In short, the whole business of creating psychiatric categories of ‘disease,’ formalizing them with consensus, and subsequently ascribing diagnostic codes to them, which in turn leads to their use for insurance billing, is nothing but an extended racket furnishing psychiatry a pseudo-scientific aura. The perpetrators are, of course, feeding at the public trough.”
— Dr. Thomas Dorman, internist and member of the
Royal College of Physicians of the UK

“I believe, until the public and psychiatry itself see that DSM labels are not only useless as medical ‘diagnoses’ but also have the potential to do great harm—particularly when they are used as means to deny individual freedoms, or as weapons by psychiatrists acting as hired guns for the legal system.”
— Dr. Sydney Walker III, psychiatrist

“The way things get into the DSM is not based on blood test or brain scan or physical findings. It’s based on descriptions of behavior. And that’s what the whole psychiatry system is.”
— Dr. Colin Ross, psychiatrist

“No biochemical, neurological, or genetic markers have been found for Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Depression, Schizophrenia, anxiety, compulsive alcohol and drug abuse, overeating, gambling or any other so-called mental illness, disease, or disorder.”
— Bruce Levine, Ph.D., psychologist and
author of Commonsense Rebellion

“Unlike medical diagnoses that convey a probable cause, appropriate treatment and likely prognosis, the disorders listed in DSM-IV [and ICD-10] are terms arrived at through peer consensus.”
— Tana Dineen Ph.D., Canadian psychologist

Intro to Psychiatry: Industry of Death

www.youtube.com...

Nice post, Starred and Flagged.

I've always believed that Psychiatrists are little more than psychics. Using body language reading skills and ambiguous language to make the subject think that they have been helped, when in fact, it is the subject that has done all the work or given up all the information.

It's remarkable that many of the so called "psychiatric illnesses" weren't even a blip on the radar (people acting strangely etc) until the 20th century, when psychiatry first came to the forefront, during the 1920's and 1930's with Sigmund Freud etc.

I've always believed, especially in criminal cases, that using the "mental illness" defense has always been a cop out.

As far as claiming that things like alcoholism, drug addiction, and obesity are genetic, this is also a crock. If they were genetic, we'd be seeing these so called "illnesses" going back through generations of families, but in reality, certainly obesity has really only been a problem the last 60 years or so since World War II, and strangely enough, started to increase as the population became less about physical activity and more about sitting in front of the tv, and when food became easily abundant and fast food especially became easily accessible.

If obesity was genetic, you would see generations of fat families in family pictures, going back through grandparents, great grandparents, and beyond. The fact is, that once you hit certainly mostly grandparents and definitely grand parents, you see that the great grandparents of fat people were generally thin, making the genetic claim moot.

Obesity, alcoholism, and drug addiction are ENVIRONMENTAL, not genetic. Put a kid into a family with two fat parents who don't eat healthy, and they will follow their parents example. Kids eat what the parents put on the table. Put a kid in with alcoholic parents, and they will take to alcohol at an early age as it is freely available around the home, Remove the alcohol, or replace the unhealthy food with healthy food ONLY, and the cycle will be broken. If obesity was truly genetic, then people who eat healthy would also be fat, and this is simply not the case. People with fat or alcoholic parents are often thin or sober themselves, because they have taken it upon themselves to break the ENVIRONMENTAL cycle, therefore NOT genetic.

Side effects of psyciatric drugs do way more damage to people (including making them drug addicts for the rest of their lives) than their original perceived problems ever did.

As a prior drug rep for Smith Kline, Glaxo and Janssen I can tell you that psychiatric drugs are an unproven, dangerous solution to psychiatric orders in general. Lithium being the exception....it works remarkably well in bipolar and mood disorders. Anxiolytics like Xanax work well in anxiety disorder, but are highly addictive.

Psychiatrists don't really treat any disorder if they are only prescribing drugs. Psychoanalysis was never proven to work. Cognitive changes and reeducation tend to work wonders. The studies the drug companies issue, demonstrate that their antidepressants are barely better than a placebo....it may be the thought of being on a drug that makes you better. I have seen some of these drugs work, like Paxil, Zoloft and Wellbutrin, if they are dosed at obscene levels that bring on a host of side effects (sexual problems, weight gain).

Rarely have I heard a psychiatrist examine a patient's diet, sleep patterns, exercise regimen, and make modifications prior to prescribing a drug. Doctors are under enormous pressure from their own medical society to prescribe. If they don't immediately prescribe and conform to protocol, they can be sued for malpractice....that's why doctors throw scripts at you. If you commit suicide, at least they can show, in a court of law, that they followed protocol.

Diet, exercise, and relearning dangerous thinking patterns is a better solution, and ultimately better than a life of antidepressants.

No biochemical, neurological, or genetic markers have been found for Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Depression, Schizophrenia, anxiety, compulsive alcohol and drug abuse, overeating, gambling or any other so-called mental illness, disease, or disorder.”

so are you saying none of these things exist

do you mean its all in there minds wel theres a suprise

they might need some one to look into that

like maybe a shrink

How can you define depression when there is no absolute definition of happiness?
How can you define sanity when there is no absolute definition of normality?
How can you define delusion when there is no absolute definition of reality?

100 years ago, Freudian psychiatry was the standard.
Turns out Freudian psychiatry was actually archaic compared to the reality of the brain.

What's to say modern psychiatry isn't the same?
All psychiatrists really do is determine the best drug to prescribe to a patient.

There really is no "modern psychiatry," only "modern drugs"; most of which were discovered by Shamans thousands of years ago in the jungles; and only "re-discovered" by modern medicine.

The only person qualified to examine and judge your psychology is yourself.
Everything else is blindly poking and prodding.

reply to post by WWu777


You do realize that the information you're posting is from The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which is, in their own words:

CCHR was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology...

And we all know how the Church of Scientology believes about psychiatry.

Now, there are criticisms to be made about the industry, just as there are about any. Our knowledge of the workings of the mind and the physiology of the body as it's related to it, is a work in progress. But to deny that there are these sorts of illnesses, or that there are therapies and drugs to aid the conditions, is nonsense. Like any body of knowledge, there's the good and the bad, and we progress from the former and learn from the latter.

Great reply lostviking, I totally agree with you on you comment that :

Rarely have I heard a psychiatrist examine a patient's diet, sleep patterns, exercise regimen, and make modifications prior to prescribing a drug.

It's my first post on ATS and would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself, I currently work in the pharma industry (not as a sales rep though I'm at the Head Office, wont go further for confidentiality concerns) and I see how these drugs (especially antipsychotics) are being pushed for the whole spectrum of mood disorders even when in conditions where the "neurotransmitters hypothesis" tells us that it shouldnt work! I will give you a quick example of bipolar mania, which is "due to excessive dopamine activity", therefore justifying the use of an antipsychotic, blocking the dopamine hyperactivity. But the same antipsychotic is also used in treatment-resistant melancholic depression, which is supposedly due to the opposite mechanism (dopamine hypoactivity), and clinical trials have proven it as "safe and effective". To me this clearly shows that we dont understand the underlying mechanism of these disease.

Before this thread starts on going into the "psychiatric drugs are a scam", I'd like to clarify something: these drug have been shown to work in well-designed clinical trials, therefore there are some patients who can really benefit from these. To me, the major problems in this industry are publication bias (not publishing bad trials), over-diagnosis, and over-prescription. These drugs are required for some people (ie. the schizophrenic patients who's homeless, and cannot eat well and have a healthy lifestyle), but could avoided in some patients by some very simple lifestyle changes. Omega-3s in the right dosage and right ratio to omega-6 have been shown to be as effective as SSRIs in treating depression and proven to reduce cardiovascular risk (please do not take this as a "stop your SSRI and start Omega-3" without your doctors advice and follow-up). It's an easy change ANYONE can do (and dirt cheap!) to have a better mood and physical condition.

Physical exercice, good "unprocessed" food and meditation are probably the best "prophylactic" (prevention) medication anyone can take, but fortunately for some cases where these habits wont improve your condition science have made some incredible discoveries to help us... As example, I'm having chronic migraine headaches due to a cervical problem and my life would be a nightmare without triptans.

Nociceptin

reply to post by digby888


Found another site with some of the quotes listed

Real disease vs. mental disorder

I personally think psychiatrists are invaluable in society today.

I know there seems to be a homeopathic backlash, especially amongst the more religious-minded and alternative mindsets, but honestly human beings operate on a biochemical basis and seeking drugs to "make something right" has no shame. Yes when you start going overboard it can be very dangerous like mixing benzodiazepines with amphetamines and then going out and drinking alcohol. Bad, bad idea, but really psychiatric medicines do have benefits and many would attest to them, though they also have side-effects like all drugs and chemicals.

I had a debilitating case of OCD/Tourettes and the only thing that near-saved my life were SSRIs despite the less-than-desirable side-effects. But I wouldn't be able to function in society without them. I don't use them anymore since I've been OCD-free for many years but I still suffer from other mental conditions that are certainly less than normal in society. Those that think people should cherish such differences are usually just mistaken in presuming they know what others go through and how they function. An arrogant and fallacious assumption at best.

There are different categories of drugs that can be very helpful, just as there can be categories that are very dangerous. It's not that psychiatry isn't needed, it's a balancing act that seeks to find what suits an individual best. Certainly talking and cognitive therapy have their uses, but I know back when I had OCD that never helped me at all and I was suffering until I finally got on a combination of SSRIs and anti-psychotics. Thankfully I was off them not too long after and was fine from then on out in regard to OCD. Psychiatrists don't always just prescribe pills, many seek to talk it over with the patient and try to find what therapy will work best for them.

Yes as a society we tend to overuse drugs, but that does not mean there isn't a need for psychiatric drugs. Yes some drugs have known dangers. Anti-psychotics have the risk of tardive dyskinesia and other problems. Benzodiazepines are very addictive and dangerous in combination with other depressants (alcohol). Amphetamines have their own host of problems. SSRIs can have sexual side effects amongst other problems.

But all drugs have side effects even those you have in your own body and the foods you take in. That homeopathic stuff is no better and less rigorously tested than more conventional treatments.

This anti-psychiatry backlash reeks of Scientology-inspired fear-mongering.

Originally posted by Griffo
reply to post by digby888

 

Found another site with some of the quotes listed

Real disease vs. mental disorder

That is a Scientology-founded anti-psychiatry group.

You all have been misled into following a murdering, dangerous organization's dogma.

The article is BS. And I'm not just saying that because my degree is in psychology. Well ... maybe I am saying that because me degree is in psychology ... and because I've been educated in the field enough to know the difference between BS (like the article) and facts that have been proven.

Skinner ... awesome researcher and he nailed it.
Erickson ... right on the mark.
Evolutionary Psychology ... explains a whole lot!
The 5 stages of grief ... definately happens and psychology revealed it to the world.
etc etc

Okay .. Freud was a perv who projected his perviness (new word) onto others to make himself feel better. We'll skip Freud.

Psychology isn't fraud. Psychiatry isn't fraud. Like anything else in the medical profession, there is hit and miss when dealing with patients and research conclusions. A lot of research goes into both. A lot of what is taught in these classes makes perfect sense. Again - the article is ignorant.

Originally posted by WWu777
And that psychiatry only pushes mental disorders as biological disease in order to convince people to take psychiatric drugs,

Typical of Winston, believes what a Scientology website says about psychiatry!
www.winston-wu.com...

I think some mental illnesses can be traced to lack of correct constitution. The sufferer is living in a society in which the social structure is incompatible with his or her way of thinking. I'm not talking about schizophrenia or some of the more severe psychotic illnesses. I'm speaking personality and mood disorders like social anxiety disorder, depression, bipolar... You know, illnesses where you don't think aliens swapped out your tuna sandwich for an identical cyanide filled sandwich *hint hint* (sorry, couldn't resist).

I find psychiatry highly arrogant and uncaring because of this. In this way, I like to think of a psychiatrist like Patton teaching daycare. They just don't fit the role.

i my self think there is a great abuse os the system a lot of miss diagnosis

but to say these things dont exist is like saying there is no air why because we cant see

it. and the Church of Scientology an thing these people write i would take with a pinch of salt

In 1994 I separated from my wife and children. It was a very hard time for me and I became very depressed and thought some of my thought were not healthy so thought I would be stand up and address the issue. At the time I had no idea of how the psychiatric system worked here in Australia. I went to a mental health team and told them what I was feeling. At the next appointment I was told I was depressed ( gee surprise) and then told they could help and that I should start taking an anti depressent for a month or so. Within 6 weeks I was taking 26 tablets a day, anti depressents, anti psychotics, and of course the tablets for the side effects. I could no longer think and realised that this was making things much worse. When I voiced my concerns I was told I had a borderline personallity disorder and if I stopped taking the medication it would be forced upon me. I could not believe what I was hearing. I said but it is making things worse and they basically told me I was ill and was in no way able to judge that. I withdrew from society completely at this stage realizing something was awfully wrong with the system. Because of this I was forcibly dragged off into a mental health hospital. Within 2 years I had been diagnosed with anti social personality disorder/schizophrenia. I was left with no rights. They could do anything to me and often did. For 12 years they swapped my medications around did unspeakable things to me and basically totally destroyed my mind and life with what I call a chemical labotomy. Now obviously there is a lot more to this story but no space hear. I had never thought of suicide or self harm before these monsters stole my life. I wanted a little help getting over a separation, and they stole all my rights and forced massive doses of anti psychotics and anti depressents on me. These drugs made it impossible to think let alone heal. After twelve years of massive human right abuses I was finally able to show what was being done was wrong. It took me 6 months just to safely come off these drugs. At which time they admitted to me that I was not schizophrenic and that they had made a terrible mistake, oops sorry. I was then told that the Australian government had discerned that I should be paid out ( the figure mentioned was $1.6 million) but because it would start a prescident in Australia and too many people could sue they instead took all Freedom Of Information from me. Now as you can imagine I was dumbfounded, I had lost my living and my family and friends. I lost everything. The stigma attached to this situation is horrific. Although I was let out of their evil system and no longer am on their drugs. I am treated terribly by society. Mind you the only thing I have got back is my sanity. But I can no longer trust anyone. It has been 8 years since I came out but still have to deal with the long term affects of their action in more ways than I can explain here. From personal experience I can tell you the drugs they give for their so called mental disorders and chemical imbalances cause a person to longer be able to think straight,. I am not allowed to work, I have been put on a pension, if I try to stand up and say anything I am threatened, including threats to my childrens safety. Now you can say what you will but this system is soul destroying and I have watched many people lose their lively hood and sanity due to Mental Health australia. Yes people have problems and sometimes can use some help. But what psychiatry does is not help. They don't talk to you they break many laws and patronise people. While forcing their meds and false and unprovable doctrine. It is evil and anyone that has been taught through education that this is ok is a fool who does not know what they are talking about. I am a survivor of the terrible thing that psychiatry is....They have changed my life forever and it is wrong and evil...

Originally posted by FlyersFan


Okay .. Freud was a perv who projected his perviness (new word) onto others to make himself feel better. We'll skip Freud.

.

You should know that Freud's analysis of the human mind (id, ego, superego), though updated, is still in use today? And he is almost singlehandedly responsible for the deep, in depth study psychology has been given in the last 150 years?

Yeah, many of his later ideas are quite pervy, but to write him off and "skip" is irresponsible in my opinion. He had many excellent ideas and was right on the mark on many. I don't think however, all little boys want to sleep with their mothers

Anti-psychiatry is a subject I feel very strongly about. Psychiatrists are basically witch doctors. On the one hand they seem to deny the existence of the soul and the importance of religion and then on the other hand they teach Eastern mystic relaxation techniques. I'm not being judgemental; I'm just trying to point out the hypocrisy. They off-handedly deny the possibility of demonic possession. I don't see how the use of drugs for mood disorder is any different from, say, sorcery. It's basically a placebo effect. I don't understand how they decide who's crazy and who's sane. Where is the evidence to support the validity of psychiatry? I'm sure if it existed, people would know about it.

reply to post by WWu777


Spare me the psuedo-science, the probing guesswork, the leather-couched, hushed tones...the fake book-shelves full of OLD crap about printed fantasy-worlds of disorder...spare me the gold-leaf framed 'certified by other sham psychiatrists' certificates, sitting around in smoking jackets prognosticating on the diseased mind of the common man/woman...spare me the poor cousins of the priests of mumbo-jumbo - modern day witchdoctor incantations to the made-up beast within...spare me...the potion to cure my ills is available (and I happen to have a free sample here in my orofice - sorry office)...spare me the superior asides about a past you knoe nothing about, a past you did not live, could not have known...spare me the fake *breakthrough* in my rehabilitation (to what?)...spare me doctor(?)...
Spare me your deluded explanation of a delusion I have that does not exist, spare me...

'What did you really want to say Akushla?'

A99

Originally posted by Nociceptin
Great reply lostviking, I totally agree with you on you comment that :

Rarely have I heard a psychiatrist examine a patient's diet, sleep patterns, exercise regimen, and make modifications prior to prescribing a drug.

It's my first post on ATS and would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself, I currently work in the pharma industry (not as a sales rep though I'm at the Head Office, wont go further for confidentiality concerns) and I see how these drugs (especially antipsychotics) are being pushed for the whole spectrum of mood disorders even when in conditions where the "neurotransmitters hypothesis" tells us that it shouldnt work! I will give you a quick example of bipolar mania, which is "due to excessive dopamine activity", therefore justifying the use of an antipsychotic, blocking the dopamine hyperactivity. But the same antipsychotic is also used in treatment-resistant melancholic depression, which is supposedly due to the opposite mechanism (dopamine hypoactivity), and clinical trials have proven it as "safe and effective". To me this clearly shows that we dont understand the underlying mechanism of these disease.

Before this thread starts on going into the "psychiatric drugs are a scam", I'd like to clarify something: these drug have been shown to work in well-designed clinical trials, therefore there are some patients who can really benefit from these. To me, the major problems in this industry are publication bias (not publishing bad trials), over-diagnosis, and over-prescription. These drugs are required for some people (ie. the schizophrenic patients who's homeless, and cannot eat well and have a healthy lifestyle), but could avoided in some patients by some very simple lifestyle changes. Omega-3s in the right dosage and right ratio to omega-6 have been shown to be as effective as SSRIs in treating depression and proven to reduce cardiovascular risk (please do not take this as a "stop your SSRI and start Omega-3" without your doctors advice and follow-up). It's an easy change ANYONE can do (and dirt cheap!) to have a better mood and physical condition.

Physical exercice, good "unprocessed" food and meditation are probably the best "prophylactic" (prevention) medication anyone can take, but fortunately for some cases where these habits wont improve your condition science have made some incredible discoveries to help us... As example, I'm having chronic migraine headaches due to a cervical problem and my life would be a nightmare without triptans.

Nociceptin

I'll tell you about psychiatry.

I must take these antipsychoticums because my dopamine level is too high. Do you think, now, do you really think they did, ever, do a test on my dopaminelevel? I even read we are unable to measure the level of dopamine in the brain. So WTF.

Behavioral analysis? # with me and you can get some punches in your face. Isn't it like that? Lie to me, and you make me angry.

If you want to go to psychiatry to find someone with reason there, pls don't go. I've got pals here who take like 15/20 pills a day. Reds, yellows, blues whaeffe? Deadly cocktails man.

Today, I go to buddies bedroom. Completely wacked on pills so it seems. (I didn't know) He was laying in bed, sleeping. I said his name, he didn't answer me. Nurse (man) says, don't bother, he's gotten his new pills.

I thought, yeah, I get it already.

They give you pills that make you drowsy and sleepy and gain weight, and then they make you do sports and fitness. Weeks, that the nurses were angry about us not able to get out of bed in the morning. They don't know what they feed us. I'm a lucky one, I was against those pills and get a minimum dose.

Psychiatry only works with healthy patients.

and do you know what it is when one's dopamine level is high, one is happy.

Not to say this level doesn't remain the same for how long? They have no clue about what they are talking. But they kind of have the law behind them. It's freakin' scary at times, I tell you that. I'd rather be in prison than in a psychiatry. I know. In prison you know when you get out, if you do, but at least you know.

And this dopamine level control, they cannot fix it, the medication is just to temper it (they try to make you believe). And it doesn't even need curing.

Psychiatry is superstition if you ask me. A little eye of toad, and tail of cat.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
The article is BS. And I'm not just saying that because my degree is in psychology. Well ... maybe I am saying that because me degree is in psychology ... and because I've been educated in the field enough to know the difference between BS (like the article) and facts that have been proven.

Skinner ... awesome researcher and he nailed it.
Erickson ... right on the mark.
Evolutionary Psychology ... explains a whole lot!
The 5 stages of grief ... definately happens and psychology revealed it to the world.
etc etc

Okay .. Freud was a perv who projected his perviness (new word) onto others to make himself feel better. We'll skip Freud.

Psychology isn't fraud. Psychiatry isn't fraud. Like anything else in the medical profession, there is hit and miss when dealing with patients and research conclusions. A lot of research goes into both. A lot of what is taught in these classes makes perfect sense. Again - the article is ignorant.

would you say, as an educated person in this field, that this is not true?

"“There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.”
— Allen Frances, Former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman "