Psychotropic abuse is real, even if a Scientologist says so.

[JackRiddler]

I don't really care that Tom Cruise may be speaking thanks to the influence of a cult I dislike. That's in the background.

Fact is, he's right about Ritalin, right about psychotropics, right about the drug industry. I'd rather these issues were introduced because dissident doctors and healers were given their rightful voice in the media, rather than because a Hollywood star (who may not be as well-versed) said it. But it's better than nothing.

People in the U.S. currently swallow at least twice as many psychotropics for depression than they did 20 years ago. Is the suicide rate down? Is there less depression? Or is there more, necessitating a higher rate of consumption? And if more, what caused it?

Good news for drug companies and HMOs, anyway.

Something like 20 percent of all 5th-grade boys in the U.S. have been defined as ADD and put on a ritalin regime. What caused the ADD "epidemic"? Does ADD have an epidemiology, or is it just on the say-so of the shrink?

In France, by comparison: 1 percent. Are French classrooms in chaos? Are the 19 percent of French boys who are kept off drugs being cheated? Do the French kids get a worse education?

Discuss.

[NorCalDem]

1. I agree

especially about the part that Tom Cruise should not be the one saying this. These mental illnesses are real, but they are overdiagnosed.

[prole_for_peace]

2. that is true

but that doesn't mean that there are not people who actually need these drugs.

for years i have thought that ritalin was over prescribed. most of these children were just being children. it seems like parents, teachers and some doctors have forgotten how to let kids be themselves. they see them as little adults and expect them to behave as such.

[zapped 1]

3. agreed, and Laur was "glib"

He tried to dismiss Cruises charges of forced Electro-shock and forced drugging with a wave of the hand.

[Fight_n_back]

4. You know how bad medical doctors are?

I know this woman that had breast cancer and they cut off part of her breast! Barbaric!

[Al-CIAda]

5. The Psycho State

Chief Inmate declares nation an asylum Prozac-popping prez recommends mandated mental health screening for all Americans
http://proliberty.com/observer/20040806.htm

===

The Psycho State
by Rep. Ron Paul, MD (R, Texas)

 A presidential initiative called The “New Freedom Commission on Mental Health” has issued a report recommending forced mental health screening for every child in America, including preschool children. The goal is to promote the patently false idea that we have a nation of children with undiagnosed mental disorders crying out for treatment.

One obvious beneficiary of the proposal is the pharmaceutical industry, which is eager to sell the psychotropic drugs that undoubtedly will be prescribed to millions of American schoolchildren under the new screening program. Of course a tiny minority of children suffer from legitimate mental illnesses, but the widespread use of Ritalin and other drugs on youngsters who simply exhibit typical rambunctious, fidgety, and impatient behavior is nothing short of criminal. It may be easier to teach and parent drugged kids, but convenience is no justification for endangering them. Children’s brains are still developing, and the truth is we have no idea what the long-term side effects of psychiatric drugs may be. Medical science has not even exhaustively identified every possible brain chemical, even as we alter those chemicals with drugs.

Dr. Karen Effrem, a physician who strongly opposes mandatory mental health screening, warns us that “America’s children should not be medicated by expensive, ineffective, and dangerous medications based on vague and dubious diagnoses.” She points out that psychiatric diagnoses are inherently subjective, as authors of the diagnostic manuals admit. She also is concerned that mental health screening could be used to label children whose attitudes, religious beliefs, and political views conflict with the secular orthodoxy that dominates our schools.

Full-
September 14, 2004
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul203.html

==


11. Freedom Commission Roadmap Awaited
The release of the first iteration of the roadmap to operationalize the findings of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health is imminent. We will disseminate the document when it is unveiled. On a related note, the British Medical Journal, in anticipation of the roll-out, alleged in a disjointed story that the Bush administration will announce a plan to screen all Americans for mental disorders and promote antidepressant and antipsychotic drug use – allegations which we are told are well beyond the scope of anything the administration has planned and which seem to stem from a psychiatric survivors group. The BMJ story has gained some traction in derivative reports on the Internet, though mainstream media have not touched the story, in part thanks to APA’s work, for which the administration is appreciative.

http://www.psych.org/join_apa/mb/newsletters/advocacy/AdvNewsJuly2004.htm#21

====

LLINOIS launches compulsory mental health screening -WHY YOU NEED TO BE CONCERNED
Commentary by Laura Dawn Lewis

If you haven't noticed yet, the majority of new laws and policies being implemented are sold on fear through the necessity of good intentions and as a way to protect you by allowing your government to take care of you, as if the government is a better steward of your body, soul and mind. Each is euphemized to seem harmless and necessary.  Every time a law is passed, you give up a portion of your freedom.  This is a fact.  Some laws are necessary to allow society to function toward a common good.  Laws like murder is bad.  Stealing is unjust and beating a child unacceptable.  These create the commonalities that define civilization. 
Since September 11th, 2001 our governments, state, local and federal continue to push through resolutions, legislation and ideas directly in contradiction to the rules we've already established for America, set forth in our Constitution.  In effect, each of these chips at our civil liberties, forcing us further away from our values and principles.  This law in Illinois represents one such example.  Without a doubt the women pushing it through created it with the best of intentions; yet anytime something becomes mandatory, intentions become abuses.  The following are the key reasons I believe the citizens of Illinois and the rest of us in the United States must object to this legislation.  If we allow it to pass in one state without confronting it, others will follow.

Full-
http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/2004/BigBrotherPregnancy.htm  

[Endangered Specie]

6. What has caused ADD?

a combination of various rather nasty chemicals, and waaaay too much sugar.

[knowbody0]

7. i was ORDERED to put my foster child

on Ritalin in order to get him unsuspended from kindergarten. (he was FAS and drug addicted at birth, and horribly abused for 4 years)the left side of his face went slack-droopy eye, cheek and mouth, and he cried all the time.
i flushed the drugs and put him in martial arts. he's now 14, with a 3.5 GPA and got first place for his weight class in wrestling.
IMHO the whole problem with psychiatry today is that they fail to grasp the need for balance of mind body spirit and soul.

[mondo joe]

8. The fact that there is abuse doesn't make Tom Cruise right.

He didn't say legitimate treatment is often abused in this country. If he had he'd be right.

[candy]

9. Once BIG PHARMA was allowed to advertise the trouble

started.

Like everything else,it's all about money.

[gauguin57]

10. But Cruise wants people off drugs so Scientology can steal their money.

That's the truth. Scientology wants people to come to them for "auditing" with their fake machines -- they want to take thousands of dollars from them; some have committed suicide after losing all their money to the cult.

So, Cruise isn't talking about psychotropics for the good of children ... but for the good of the greedy, murdering cult he shills for!

And the fact that he shills for that cult -- a cult that is responsible for bankrupting people, the deaths of people, the harassment of those who investigate them -- means Cruise has BLOOD ON HIS HANDS.

Besides ... he's full of shit.

http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-06-14

Cruise Tripped Up by Magazine Over Scientology Claims

Tom Cruise's beliefs in Scientology are based on misinformation, according to US showbiz magazine Entertainment Weekly - after editors checked facts from a recent interview with the movie star. Just weeks after accusing Brooke Shields of being "misinformed" after she championed anti-depressants for helping her deal with post-partum depression, Cruise made a couple of sweeping statements to Entertainment Weekly reporter Benjamin Svetkey.

The writer chose to check Cruise's comments and found out he wasn't accurate. Supporting Scientology claims that psychiatry is "a Nazi science", Cruise stated, "Jung (Carl Jung, the father of modern psychiatry) was an editor for the Nazi papers during World War Two," which the magazine's researchers discovered is untrue, according to the New York Center For Jungian Studies.

The movie star continued, "Look at the experimentation the Nazis did with electric shock and drugging. Look at the drug methadone. That was originally called Adolophine. It was named after Adolf Hitler." The magazine also questions Cruise on this point, explaining, "According to the Dictionary Of Drugs And Medications... this is an urban legend."

[JackRiddler]

13. I don't care about Cruise's motives.

I think it's sad that legitimate criticism of the Pharma/Psychiatry complex should finally break into the big media by way of him.

Blame the media who never covered it until now.

[gauguin57]

14. Hell's bells ... I care about his motives, when his motives are to rob

people blind! When his motives are to make people give his cult all their money, in exchange for being hooked up to a machine that does nothing for you. When his motives are to lure people into a cult that KILLS AND HARASSES PEOPLE (and it DOES).

[JackRiddler]

17. false dichotomy / argument by false association

You can be against Scientology and also criticize the Psychiatry/Pharma complex.

Further, I doubt Cruise set out to do this. He didn't bring it up, the interviewer posed the question right at the end of the session.

[bloom]

18. What is this Psychiatry "Complex" of which you speak?

I think that is a bunch of nonsense.

Big Pharma I can go along with. I don't see any Psychiatry "Complex" - a lot of people get their SSRIs from GPs anyway.

[JackRiddler]

22. I feel like I'm on a right-wing board

and someone asks the same question about the "military-industrial complex." Like, does that really exist?

You haven't noticed a psychiatry industry? Or that it's tied in to the drug companies? Or that it receives billions in tax money? Or that it has about 1,000,000 people as inmates (willing and unwilling) at any given time? Or that it has a lobby and a bible of indicators of witchcraft (a.k.a. the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)? Or that its practitioners have an interest in eliminating competition, whether it's serious or not?

Hmmmm...

[bloom]

31. So you think that nobody has Schizophrenia?

Nobody is Bi-Polar or Paranoid or out of touch with reality?

Do you think everyone can be perfectly fine with a few vitamins?

Or that nobody can be helped with counseling or therapy of any kind?



That is an interesting world you live in.

[zapped 1]

39. LOL

I know what you mean.

[gauguin57]

20. Cruise has been doing this, on purpose, for years. Scientology has been

sending out press releases for YEARS about how no one should go to a psychiatrist or take any kind of medication. I've been reading them for years. Signed by Jenna Elfman and Juliette Lewis and Ann Archer and the whole celebrity branch of the cult.

Cruise has been all over Brooke Shields' ass about taking medication for her post-partum depression. I'm sure he wanted her, her husband and her baby to come to the Scientology Celebrity Center instead. They'd have fixed her right up, boy. She'd have probably jumped out the window (as many have after being destroyed by Scientology).

Of course America is pill-happy ... it's been that way for decades. In the '60s, every time my mom said she was "nervous," our family doctor would find some mother's little helper. I'm not arguing to the contrary.

BUT ... I was responding to your statement that YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT CRUISE'S MOTIVES. aaarrrrghhhh!!!!! I'm sure the parents of young people who have been lured into Scientology, stripped of all their worldly possessions, sometimes locked up for months without any access to medical care, etc. -- some have even died at the hands of Scientologists -- well, I'm sure THEY would care about Tom Cruise's motives. Because his motives are absolutely equal to the evil motives of Scientology.

I have been reading and researching Scientology for many years -- I know what they are, and what they've done. So don't TELL me that Cruise didn't do this on PURPOSE!

[oldcoot]

16. Is it a legitimate criticism?

There is a difference between saying that doctors tend to be too eager to prescribe certain drugs and saying that all drugs are evil. According to almost everything I have read about Tom Cruise, he apparently believes that psychiatry is evil and that drugs should never be used to treat mental health problems. He even made some very rude comments to Brooke Shields about her use of anti-depressants to treat post-partum depression.

[mondo joe]

28. Why do you think his criticism is legitimate? Do you think it

would be legitimate to say all drugs are bad because some are abused?

Or Islam is bad because some muslims are terrorists?

[bloom]

11. "What caused the ADD "epidemic"? "

Some people think that ADD and ADHD have become an epidemic along with Autism - with the same basic cause /precipitator - mercury.

Seems possible to me.


http://www.mercuryexposure.org/index.php?article_id=339

[Midlodemocrat]

33. ADD and ADHD are considered Autism spectrum disorders.

As an adult with ADD who has a son with ADD, personally, and professionally, I think the 'epidemic' has more to do with education and expectations for education than anything else. I don't think more people have ADD, but more are getting diagnosed with it.

I was able to get through school quite nicely without meds, even though I have full blown ADD. Heck, I even got my PhD in psychology. My 13 year old, however, can't get through school without meds., because so much more is required of him due to the Standards of Learning which have become the norm.

Teachers are under a lot of pressure to make sure that the kids pass these tests. When I was teaching, back in the 80s, it was very, very different. We could actually deviate a little from the curriculum and do something creative.

My nine year old little girl has a classic case of 'ants in the pants'. However, since she is able to focus on her schoolwork and do well, it is not an issue.

[nicholieeee]

12. my p.o.v.

i see both sides of the story. i was diagnosed with depression about 3 years ago (which was funny cuz i thought i had overcome it. i was way worse during my middle school/early high school years) anyway, my dr put me on a medication, (i forget the name but i'm pretty sure it was the generic form of prozac) then combined with the form of birth control i was on (the shot) i literally went crazy. there's almost an entire summer i don't remember because of the combo of meds. then i got both switched, i went on the pill and am now on effexor. no crazy mixing of hormones to confuse my brain. however, this past feb. i mentioned to my dr that i've noticed i've been having trouble concentrating and that my sleeping pattern was slightly odd. (i normally go to bed around 3 am...but i'm also in college. i just figured i should mention in case the two added up to something) he gave me a questionnaire to fill out, which took all of two seconds, looked at it and said "you have add. here's ur prescription" then he recommended a couple of over the counter sleeping pills. i never looked into the sleeping pills because i thought it was just ridiculous. anyway, after the add med (concerta. i think it was about 30-40 mg. i dont remember) i started feeling utterly lost. i was at a party that consisted of all of my close friends and absolutely no one i didnt know. yet i felt this uncontrollable urge to leave. over the next week or so, i didnt get it out of bed. my roommates would have friends over, and i just couldn't bring myself to leave my bed. finally, i web-md'd concerta. (yes i know, normally a bad move. but it helped me out)turns out that concerta is a type of medicine is a type of medicine that needs to monitored carefully when someone has depression, i.e. taking meds for it. so i told my doctor to fuck off and i threw out the concerta. i did notice a spike in my concentration level, but excellent grades are not worth feeling helpless, especially if i already get b's and c's. (ok c's not so great. but i'll take them over being a lazy bum) however, i'm still on the effexor, and i'll prolly never come off of it. there have been times where i didnt take it because my prescription hadnt been filled yet, and it was hell. and that was just for a few days at a time. i've heard absolute horror stories about what its like to come off of effexor.

my point is this: yes i do feel that there are meds out there that will help people. however, in my case, i was diagnosed after i had gotten over it on my own (which also isn't easy) and now i honestly believe that the medication has screwed with my brain so much that i am now dependent on it. and it blows. i used to think that dr's were only there to help their patients and only prescribe when absolutely neccessary. but now i know that's not true. we can only hope for a change in the near future.

[JackRiddler]

15. And let's not forget THE NEW FREEDOM INITIATIVE

The Bush plan to enforce mental-health diagnosis on the entire population, until everyone has been given (or force-fed) their med dose.

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040729101126355

Early in his administration Bush invited a group of pharmaceutical firms, among them companies that have been financing him since he was Texas governor, to join a commission on mental health and disabilities known as the New Freedom Initiative.

In its report presented in June, NFI proposes a universal program of mental health "screening" for everyone in the United States - starting with a captive market of 52 million pupils and 6 million teachers in the schools. The panel recommends that those diagnosed with a syndrome receive a prescription regimen based on treatment algorithms devised by the participating drug companies. (Now what makes me think there is a syndrome waiting for pretty much everyone?) The algorithms (hey, science!) derive from a program already implemented by Bush in Texas.

(snip)

The New Freedom program fits seamlessly into the Kean Commission report proposals for a national ID system using biometric indicators. If we are all about to be fingerprinted and retinal-scanned and fed into a single database integrating all federal and state information, why not include blood tests and mental screening?

more with links
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040729101126355

[Ilsa]

19. Yeah, but I don't want Tom Cruise or any other "expert"

like him running my child's medication protocol. He hasn't had to live with what we've lived with, and he hasn't seen the benefits to my child from his med regimen after trying diet therapies, etc. He shouldn't be making such broad statements.

[JackRiddler]

23. good idea

don't let Tom Cruise diagnose your child - and don't let the New Freedom Initiative do it, either.

[wookie294]

21. I agree

My brother has a form of schizophrenia, but the psychiatrists have abused my sister by claiming that she's bipolar. It was easy for the shrinks to convince my parents that, since my brother is schizophrenic, my sister must be bipolar. I'm convinced my sister is not bipolar, but the shrinks abused their power in order to make another drug sale for the pharmaceutical companies. And I'm not a scientologist. I'm an atheist. Psychiatry saved my brother, but it abused my sister who is now miserable and overweight from the unnecessary medications that she thinks she needs.

[earth mom]

24. Tom Cruise said what needed to be said!

He was BRAVE ENOUGH to speak out and I applaud him for it! How many people are speaking out about the wrongs that are perpetuated by big businesses on the people of this country?! A pitiful few! We all spend hours here on DU bitching about Walmart and Corporate Outsourcing and the Corporate stranglehold that has all of us in it's grip etc etc etc. And everyone around here complains that NO ONE is speaking out on T.V. about these issues! So Tom Cruise had the courage to speak out and warn people that they are being hoodwinked by the Pharmaceutical Corporate Bastards and people trash him because of his religion! :wtf: Give me a break! Who gives a damn what his religion is?! I don't see him telling everyone that Scientology is the way, the light, the truth! He is pointing out something that the public-the sheeple they are-have done which is to follow their doctors orders without question! Doctors DO NOT know everything! And far too many of them are on the payroll of the pharma giants and so totally controlled by the Insurance industry that as a result they don't give people the proper kind of care they should get in this day and age!

:rant:

[wookie294]

25. Psychiatrists make commissions from Big Pharma with each pill

In many instances, whenever a psychiatrist prescribes a pill to a patient, the psychiatrist receives a fee from Big Pharma. So, psychiatrists receive a commission from Big Pharma for each pill they prescribe. Therefore, psychiatrists have an incentive to over-prescribe and over-psychoanalyze. This practice must be outlawed.

[mondo joe]

32. Bullshit. "In many instances"? How many?

Pharmaceutical companies do some truly awful things, but I'd like the documentation on how many commissions there are.

[zapped 1]

37. how would you know that

where is the documentation that proves otherwise?

[mondo joe]

43. That's more Bush logic - "prove there are no WMDs"

It's the burden of the person making the allegation to demonstrate it.

[BeHereNow]

44. Here you go: Link

http://www.nofreelunch.org/aboutus.htm
Just one of many that I have about this situation.
This one contains several links in their required reading
page.
Enjoy-
BHN

[Midlodemocrat]

34. That is actual factually incorrect.

It is a federal crime for a doctor to accept payment from any pharmaceutical company for prescribing a particular pill.

Tap Pharmaceuticals went down on charges just a couple of years ago for this.

[zapped 1]

38. true

They just get fancy pensand get taken out for dinners.
Then they invest on the stock.

[Midlodemocrat]

40. That is also untrue.

New legislation prevents doctors or other prescribers from receiving gifts from the pharma industry. That includes fishing trips, dinners, golf outings, etc.

The pens and paper are more for the staff, and are considered to be the cost of doing business.

I have been around medical professionals most of my adult life due to a career choice, and I have never seen one choose a particular drug over another based on the 'gifts' from the rep. I think it probably happens, but not as much as you would think.

[NMMNG]

26. Somatic drug abuse is real as well.

Just take a look at the medicine cabinets of the average person, particularly a middle-aged or elderly person, and you are likely to see up to 10 different prescriptions, maybe more.

Medications as a panacea for all that ails you is nothing new, it hearkens back to the days of the old "snake-oil-salesman". Print and television advertising for prescription drugs has only caused an explosion in the use of these drugs, both somatic and psychotropic. Ask your doctor about the Little Purple Pill. I talked to my doctor about the antidepressant with a lower risk of sexual side-effects. Isn't it time you tried Cialis? For once a week convenience, ask about Ortho Evra.

Is it any wonder that the sales of prescription meds have increased dramatically? It is impossible to determine how many people are on medications they don't really need, or on brand-name medications where adequate (and less expensive) generic versions would do. The tv ads have consumers diagnosing themselves, then running to their doctors to request specific medications. Doctors have the right to refuse--they do hold the prescription pad after all. But all too often they succumb to their wish to please the patient (and sometimes the fear of malpractice suits) and give in.



As to ADHD and the explosion of cases. ADHD has only been around as a specific diagnosis since 1980. Accordingly we have only 25 years of data with which to work. I myself am skeptical with this particular disorder. I do not deny its existence, but I do question the dearth of diagnoses. I can't help but wonder how many of the children labeled ADHD are simply undisciplined, and would better be treated with counseling, structure and discipline rather than mind altering drugs.

Furthermore, while I believe that children who genuinely have mental illnesses should have the option to take medications, it should be done as a last resort since their brains are still forming and the medications can affect the neurochemistry. Other options, such as individual and family counseling should always be utilized prior to and in conjunction to using any medications. If medications are used they should be very closely monitored.

On suicide:

Between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, the suicide rate among U.S. males aged 15-24 more than tripled (from 6.3 per 100.000 in 1955 to 21.3 in 1977). Among females aged 15-24, the rate more than doubled during this period (from 2.0 to 5.2). The youth suicide rate generally leveled off during the 1980s and early 1990s and since the mid-1990s, it has been steadily decreasing.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/meesh/ActiveMinds/facts.html


Now as to the fact that more people take antidepressants I can give speculations for either side of the case.

Pro: More prescriptions are being written because depression is being diagnosed better. There is less stigma towards people with mental illnesses so those who feel depressed are more likely to seek help. There is also more awareness out there, between public awareness programs, television programming and commercials, so people are more able to recognize symptomatology in themselves and know that they need to get help.


Con: Print and television advertising prompt people to believe that they can cure bad moods, crappy days and naughty children with a trip to their doctor. Friends, coworkers, school administrators, medical professionals and others can subtly or even overtly influence us into thinking we should or must use medications for our good/our child's good.





*A side note on antidepressant use: Dry statistics on number of antidepressant prescriptions does not necessarily denote number of people using them for depression. They are sometimes used for other purposes. Desyrel (trazodone) is often prescribed as a sleep aid. A number of the SSRIs and some of the Tricyclics are prescribed as migraine prophylactics. Using these medications for "off label" uses has aided in the so called "explosion" of their use.

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. I've seen depression drugs work wonders on family members

That's anecdotal, to be sure, but if you've actually seen mental illness, then seen the effects of these drugs, you wouldn't make ridiculous arguments like Tom Cruise's anti-psychiatric nonsenses.

Second, as for the "natural" argument, it is well-documented that animals themselves seek out and partake of psychotropic substances, in the wild. Every so-called primitive culture (which general dingbattery considers 'closer to nature') also use psychotropic substances. Every human society has engaged in a number of methods for modifying consciousness, and most have included psychotropic substances in their regimes of experimentation. Oh, and the brain itself may produce substances that mimic the effects of "artificial" psychotropics (particularly DMT).

Don't get me wrong. I agree that certain pharmaceuticals are over-prescribed, and certain conditions (particularly ADD) are over-diagnosed. But we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater, which is what extremist nuts like Tom Cruise suggest.

[zippy890]

29. Excellent points - extremist views

against medication is a dangerously harmful trend. Psychiatry is not perfect science and has to rely on trial & error with different medications to be successful with different people.

There are script-happy drs and plenty of quacks out there for sure. It takes perseverance and time but one can find Dr's who are competent and not in bed with drug companies.

Without psychotropic meds my brother would not be alive. He has been able to live and work and see his children grow up, and now he does not take any meds and is doing fine.

way too much paranoia around here about the treatment of mental illness.

[NMMNG]

30. Indeed

People who wouldn't touch a psychotropic medication have no qualms about downing any number of somatic medications regardless of the potential side effects. People just get the heebie-jeebies sometimes when it comes to "mind altering" meds (but forget that even somatic medications can have psychiatric side effects).

People have been hurt by psychotropic meds, to be sure. But many have been helped, and lives have been saved. I am one of the millions who have been significantly helped by psychotropic medications. Do I think they are right for everybody? Of course not, just as I don't advocate a career in Human Services for everybody.

Don't see medications as a panacea, but don't see them as poison either.

[jmm]

35. Cruise went to far

Yes psychotropic abuse is real and the ADD ADHD epidemic has gotten ridiculous. On my mom's side of the family I am the only one in my generation who hasn't been diagnosed with either. I've seen the side effects and withdrawal symptoms of these drugs and they aren't pretty. However that doesn't mean they aren't a real help and are not needed by some people, just not as many as they are being prescribed to. Tom had no right to criticize Brooke Shield. He's not her psychiatrist. All he did is hear her share her experience in the news and jumped to conclusions unfairly targeted her not having a damn clue what she was going through other than a story or two he heard about her.

[Doctor Panacea]

36. Shut up, Cruise, you totally full-of-it sack!

In many instances, whenever a psychiatrist prescribes a pill to a patient, the psychiatrist receives a fee from Big Pharma. So, psychiatrists receive a commission from Big Pharma for each pill they prescribe. Therefore, psychiatrists have an incentive to over-prescribe and over-psychoanalyze. This practice must be outlawed.

Wrong!!!

Where did you come up with this? I hope you did not fabricate it yourself from whole cloth.

Speaking as a family physician, I can tell you that antidepressants are effective and have saved countless people from misery and suicide.

Does that mean that they are not sometimes prescribed when they should not be? No, of course not. There is a tendency in America to throw a pill at everything. It's the American quick-fix, "there must be a pill for it" attitude.

But Cruise is a fool. A fool, people, just a rich, pampered, self-deluded fool.

[leesa]

41. Well, hold on to your hats, it's about to get a whole lot worse. Teen

Screen is on the way to a child near you.

[QC]

42. Yeah, but Cruise discredits a good cause by being its spokesman.

You're right--psych meds are overprescribed. But having that case made by a profoundly ignorant megalomaniac who believes that our bodies are full of space aliens just makes a joke of the whole thing.

[H2O Man]

45. Far too many people

are on these drugs. Too many kids, too many adults. One of the issues I had in working for mental health was that the drug producers had far too much influence. It used to annoy me when the "drug reps" would come by for a presentation at lunchtime. They brought and wasted a lot of food, gave clinic employees pens, clipboards, coffee mugs, etc with ads for their product. It seemed cheesey to me.