Archive for July, 2009
New Jersey Forced To Halt Illegal Detention Of Psychiatric Patients
The Bazelon Mental Health Center, based in Washington, D.C., and Disability Rights New Jersey yesterday announced a landmark settlement with the State of New Jersey under which approximately 300 psychiatric patients in state psychiatric facilities will be released from those facilities and be provided with housing and services in the community. These people are already medically cleared to leave state hospitals–to be uncommitted in essence–but since the state couldn’t find housing for them in their communities (or didn’t want to find them housing), they were being held for a year and longer at state psych facilities in a kind of weird and cruel legal limbo.
Under the US Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead ruling, patients who are stable and deemed able to leave state psychiatric care, and who want to live in the community, are supposed to be able to leave the facilities with the state obligated to provide them community-based housing and supports. New Jersey was in violation of Olmstead and the above-mentioned groups sued the state.
I congratulate the people at Bazelon and Disability Rights New Jersey for striking an important blow for the freedom and decent treatment of the mentally ill.
The reality is that this kind of situation exists all across America and it is disgusting and inhumane. I wrote about a similar group of patients caught in the same net in Washington State in Seattle Weekly in 2004.
Posted in Way, Way Too Hot
It hit 103 degrees in Seattle yesterday–smashing all previous heat records–and my apartment continues to double as a sauna, so I’ll hope to get some new posts up when things are a bit cooler in the morning (since it’s about 85 in my apartment as I write this). Today promises to be in the high 90s.
It amuses me that in the seven years I’ve lived in Seattle I have witnessed the city’s hottest day ever, its hottest night ever, the 24 hour period with the most rain, the month with the most rain ever (17 inches or so) and, this past winter, some of the most intense snows this city has seen. Hopefully, all this record setting heat goes away soon and life can get back to normal.
It’s The Utter Lack of Air Conditioning
Seattle has been going through quite the heat wave this week and today is expected to top the all-time record (going back to the 1850s) of 100 degrees. While that may not sound like much to some of you (and God knows I’ve lived in hotter places), only 13 percent of housing in this city has air conditioning and, aside from newish office buildings and grocery stores, many business lack a/c as well. It really takes things down to a raw survival level.
All of which is to say that my apartment is a bloody sauna and will be for the next few days–and there’s virtually no way to escape it except for brief trips to the supermarket. Posting will be sporadic the next few days.
FDA Reviewer Calls About-To-Be-Approved Antipsychotic Unsafe
There was a flurry of attention yesterday in the business press around the still-awaiting-approval drug Saphris (asenapine), an atypical antipsychotic made by Schering-Plough. In briefing documents, the FDA’s psychiatry products chief Thomas Laughren said that the company had demonstrated effectiveness in trials of the drug as a treatment for schizophrenia and that it was about as safe as other atypicals. Which is to say not very safe at all, given the well-known problems with drugs like Zyprexa and Seroquel.
It sounds as if the drug is on its way to FDA approval for schizophrenia.
What’s troubling to me is this posting from the blog Shearlings Got Plowed, which tracks problems at Schering-Plough, identifies an internal FDA email showing an FDA reviewer who in 2008 recommended that the drug not be approved, cited safety problems with the drug (hypertension, cardiac effects) and stated that officials at S-P knew about “toxicity and specifically tried to prevent our [FDA's] detecting it.”
So this sounds like a perfect drug for FDA approval and a perfect opportunity to repeat the misdeeds of the other atypicals: approval for schizophrenia, drug declared best thing since sliced bread, drug off-label marketed for depression and agitation, a few years later the tales of patients dying and being injured show up, and so on. I cannot wait.
Books Written For and About Men
Rick Belden is a fellow Austinite who has written a book, Iron Man Family Outing of healing poetry about his own personal journey of growing up male in American society. His poetry is moving and poignant. His descriptions of his family, himself and his relationships strike a chord with everyone with whom I’ve shared them. I highly recommend this book. Rick has generously made many of his poems and excerpts from his book available at his website, http://rickbelden.com. Ordering information is also available at the site.
Another book I found valuable for understanding the effects of our culture and society on boys is William Pollock’s Real Boys
In Iron John: A Book About Men
The Weather Outside is Frightful: Depression & Cloudy Days
Yesterday’s issue of Environmental Health has an open access article by Shia T. Kent, et al, entitled “Effect of sunlight exposure on cognitive function among depressed and non-depressed participants: a REGARDS cross-sectional study.”
Scientology Mounts New PR Campaign
I just wanted to note this column in the Los Angeles Times that picks apart a new PR campaign by the Church of Scientology. I haven’t seen the ads myself, as they seem to be running in the LA Metro area only.
“And yet, as splendid as these spots are, I do have a couple of questions: What if you’re not good-looking? Nearly everyone in these ads is pretty, handsome or better.
“And some of these dewy, dreamy creatures are downright distracting, they are so beautiful. Does Scientology offer hope to the plain? What about the homely? Or should they stick with Catholicism?
“I’d also note that almost everyone in these ads is under 30. Now, reasonably, this is an age group that is more susceptible to the message, still searching, still curious, still credulous. However, it is also much less likely to be affluent. If money was important to my client — and money, it seems, is truly the dark matter that binds Scientology’s universe — I’d pitch to an older and better-heeled crowd.
“These ads might recruit only an anguished army of baristas and part-time shoe clerks.”
Methinks Xenu likes coffee and loose shoes.
Australian Mom Ripped Apart By Zoloft
An Australian woman named Rebekah Beddoe became pregnant, delivered a child, began suffering from post partum depression, went to a doctor who put her on Lustral (Zoloft) and she started experiencing anxiety and panic attacks. It gets more fun from there:
“There followed a meeting with my psychiatrist. He assured me that depression and anxiety very often went hand in hand. My dosage of Lustral was increased and, by now, Valium was being thrown into the mix. What I know now (and didn’t realise then) was that many of the side-effects of anti-depressants are the same as the symptoms of depression.
“I have strange recollections of the period that followed. I blocked out a lot of what happened, and only really found out the full extent of what went on later when I had the chance to refer to my medical records. I was referred to Ashgrove Private Hospital, which deals with those suffering from extreme cases of post-natal depression. My condition worsened, and I was placed on stronger drugs, which included the tranquilising drug Xanax. I considered self-harm, and became a suicide risk. I was transferred to Fernview, a major psychiatric hospital close to my home in Melbourne, and before long I became incapable of making rational decisions. I was even given electro-shock therapy. I ended up on a complicated cocktail of drugs including Prozac, Xanax, Zyprexa (which is used to treat schizophrenia), Dutonin (another anti-depressant) and sleeping pills. I was later put on Lithium, and several tranquilisers.”
She eventually had to take matters into her own hands and withdrew herself from her meds and is fine today–a cautionary tale for proponents of anti-depressants for post partum depression.
Swiss Psychiatrist Using LSD With Terminally Ill Patients
There’s a fascinating article on Der Spiegel’s website concerning a Swiss psychiatrist who is experimenting with LSD to see if it reduces fear in patients facing terminal illness. Very interesting.
Back in the 1960s, LSD was used by some psychiatrists as a gateway to intense psychotherapy, but the compound has since been banned in the US. I have no opinion, in case anyone wondered, about LSD’s use in therapeutic settings. It’s one of those things I simply don’t know enough about.
Lawmakers Seek To Limit TV Drug Ads
After 12 years of DTC advertising of prescription drugs on TV and elsewhere, several members of Congress are proposing limits on TV ads. One wants to ban erectile dysfunction drug ads during prime time, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) wants to ban DTC advertising of new drugs until they’ve been in the marketplace for some time, while another Congressman wants to stop drug companies from deducting the cost of DTC advertising on their taxes. All very interesting and all likely to go nowhere, given the epic power of pharma in Congress and the interests of the mainstream media, which makes billions a year off the ads.
Nonetheless, it is interesting to see some lawmakers pushing back against pharma.