Drs Moffic and Breggin and Thoughts on Newtown CT
By Teresa Conrick
With
the recent Sandy Hook massacre, Age of Autism had posted for our
readers, a number of articles discussing our response, as well as patterns
to other senseless massacres:
Age of Autism Responds to Newtown CT Autism Allegation in Media
Dear 60 Minutes: Which Professional Diagnosed Lanza with Asperger's?
Fox News On Autism and Adam Lanza: Rebecca Estepp and John Gilmore Speak Out
Pharmagunddon: School Shooters and Psych Meds
Patterns In Chaos: Child Psychiatry, Violence and Autism
Fighting The Asperger's Means Violence Stereotype
As we approach the one month anniversary, the terror and the possible future solutions to prevent mass killings, continue to keep the internet busy. I read two articles written by two different psychiatrists that I wanted to share, as each has a very different analysis of this horrible incident. Since my recent writing here on Age of Autism concerned Adam Lanza and the "P/M" factor [Psychiatry/Medication] I continue to read about this tragedy. I worked at a psychiatric hospital for 15 years, and therefore, I have a personal interest in the connection to Psychiatry.
Psychiatric Times sent out to their email subscribers, this article written by H. Steven Moffic, MD:
Excerpt:
"Amidst all the initial speculation on the reasons for the tragedy, my wife noticed an e-mail from a psychiatrist that struck us as possibly revealing deeper issues, some perhaps indirectly relevant. The subject was “Autism not a Mental Illness.” Autism was one of the initial diagnoses associated with this killer. Beyond such premature diagnostic speculations, the e-mail was reacting to a CNN coverage in which a physician and a reporter discussed that autism may not be an illness, since NIMH was considering autism and other mental conditions as “neurogenerative.” Perhaps, the e-mailer suggested, if autism was not considered to be a mental illness, would that be better because then, if the murderer did not have a mental illness, mental illness could not be blamed for the mass murder."
"If indeed the perpetrator of the Newtown tragedy fell on the Autism spectrum, how often does a mass murderer have that diagnosis?"
"The more impersonal ways of relating on the internet may veer us more toward the social deficits and lack of empathy that is characteristic of the Autism spectrum."
"That is when I began to think more seriously of evil, as did many in the aftermath of this recent tragedy"
"Recommendations
Soon after the tragedy, one of the fathers of a child killed tearfully pleaded
for society to learn from what happened in order to prevent future mass
murders. Here’s what I think psychiatry can contribute:
• Autism, Asperger, and most every other mental condition worthy of our
prime focus should be called diseases, not disorders
• All such diagnoses should be made or certified by a psychiatrist to qualify
for medical insurance coverage
• Do not make public diagnoses of anyone not personally examined, per our
Goldwater Rule
• This tragedy, following too many others, should spur further study of where
criminal behavior ends and psychiatric disease begins, if indeed there is even
such a line
• All psychiatrists should spend some clinical time in a correctional
institution, either during residency or later for continuing education
• Find better ways to educate the public about the early signs of homicidal
risk
• Advocate for a system of safe reporting of those felt to be at- risk for
homicidal behavior
• Provide better resources in order to improve early treatment of homicidal
ideation
• Convene a representative body of those injured by public violence and loved
ones of those murdered, to work on a national Task Force to reduce mass murder
• Advocate for a special anniversary date or holiday, December 14th, to not only
remember the Connecticut tragedy or others like it, but also as a way to
monitor how we are doing as a nation and a profession in trying to prevent more
such tragedies."
Here is another view of the Sandy Hook tragedy from Peter R. Breggin, MD, author of "Psychiatry Has No Answer to Gun Massacres"
Excerpt:
"In the last few days, talking heads on TV and even some of my friends have been arguing that we need stronger commitment laws and other psychiatric interventions to protect people from maniacal shooters. In additional to gun control, President Obama is talking about increased mental health services."
"As a psychiatrist, I know that increasing the power of psychiatry in our society is not the way to go."
"We know exactly what happens when the government pushes mental health services, because we can examine their results. The VA, state mental hospitals, and county clinics offer little else than drugs. Or consider the scandals involved in government-run foster care where children are routinely subdued with drug cocktails."
"mentally ill" people, that is, people who get diagnosed psychiatrically, are not more dangerous than the general population, including neighbors in their communities. However, individuals suffering from substance abuse do have increased rates of violence, but largely toward family members rather than the public"
"when psychiatry becomes involved, drugs are dispensed, and psychiatric drugs can cause or worsen violence. A recent study of reports to the FDA of drug-induced violence has demonstrated that antidepressants have an 840% increased rate of violence"
"For the first time, I'm making public the drug company report to the FDA confirming that Harris had a "therapeutic" level of the drug in his body at the time of the murders. This is the official report to the FDA on March 17, 1999, from Luvox (fluvoxamine) manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals confirming "the presence of a Luvox blood level at autopsy." I was an expert in cases surrounding the Columbine shootings and can also confirm that Eric Harris was taking the drug for a year, had a dose increase to 200 mg per day two and one-half months before the assault on the high school, and was showing signs of toxicity in the form of a drug-induced tremor five weeks before the event. Meanwhile, his writings indicate he was becoming more and more violent while taking Luvox."
"The most devastating recent shooters were all involved with psychiatric treatment and evaluation, and it did not prevent their violence. In some cases, it undoubtedly increased it.....It's dangerous folly to seek solutions to violence from within psychiatry."
"Families do need improved services to help with difficult, distressed, or potentially violent children, and a wide variety of empathic, caring approaches are available to provide this help. Schools also need more services to reach out to children and youth who are withdrawn and isolated, and on very rare occasion potentially violent; and again there are numerous effective ways of offering this help."
"Truly beneficial therapies and educational interventions do not rely on psychiatric diagnoses or drugs."
I
must confess that I find the article based on facts that Dr. Breggin
presented as far more convincing to the opinion piece from Dr. Moffic, in
which Moffic appeared to focus on DSM terminology, NO mention of
medications, and the painting of an "evil" portrait of autism
spectrum disorders, to be the scapegoat, rather than any possible
prescription pad. It is important to deal with facts, when patterns
emerge that harm so many. Avoiding the truth only perpetuates
that harm.
Teresa Conrick is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism.
Lisa,
When you said intensive, common-sense medical intervention, did you mean chelation?
Posted by: cia parker | January 14, 2013 at 11:57 AM
Maurine,
I've read that studies show that psychological or psychoanalytic counseling often doesn't work at all, and often makes the patients worse. I'm just saying, I've never had it. It's kind of like ABA therapy, that a lot of parents say hasn't helped their children at all, and that insurance resists paying for, because it's really unreasonably expensive. Insurance says it would pay for one hour of speech therapy for my daughter a week. What difference would one hour a week make? I decided not even to go down that road, I'm trying different methods at home to help her learn to speak better.
I don't personally see how counseling could help much, just trying to suggest ways of reframing the patient's thought patterns. It's cheaper to talk to friends.
I'm wondering now if insurance is going to pay for chelating all autistic people, once it's generally accepted that heavy metal poisoning from vaccines is a major factor in their (our) autism.
Sorry, I'm really just musing. But I am deeply grieved for the people Lanza killed, wondering how the parents are coping, if their loss has really soaked in yet. Thinking about the children waiting their turn to be mowed down. The parent's helplessness in running the movie of the murders through their minds, helpless to change the outcome, and furious at this destruction of their lives. I'm having a hard time coping with that myself.
Posted by: cia parker | January 14, 2013 at 11:55 AM
Lisa,
Adam Lanza was intelligent enough to foresee that he had no future, and his mother had taken him with her looking for a place to instititionalize him. And intelligent enough to use computers to learn techniques for extremely rapid reloading to kill as many people as possible in a very short time, and a Vietnam technique for making sure that his bullets had been treated so as to explode on entry, ensuring death of the victims. Intelligent enough to put his brother Ryan's ID in his pocket. Intelligent enough to plan his spree and drive to the school after murdering his mother in her bed. Intelligent and rational in these ways, but evil enough to decide that murdering these innocent adults and precious, beautiful children was appropriate revenge for the world's having left him out of account. I do not accept that he had no free will, and was forced to this horrible massacre by factors he had no control over.
And he undoubtedly was mercury-poisoned from vaccines, the way I and my daughter are. But in his sixth-grade picture he looks happpy and normal, and at that point he would have finished the vast majority of his vaccines. Would the more recent ones have been the straw that broke the camel's back? Maybe all the flu vaccines? Have they looked at his vaccine records? I saw that an autopsy report said that his brain looked normal.
Posted by: cia parker | January 14, 2013 at 11:42 AM
"I still cannot understand why no one has asked for the results of Lanza's toxicology report."
I want to see the first crime scene photos with HONEST timestamps. The first policeman on the scene described lots of 9mm cases with NO mention of .223 rifle cases. Later the story was changed to HUNDREDS of .223 cases.
Folks we need an HONEST investigation of Newtown. Our only problem is who can we trust to do it? Certainly not the Justice Department who is still covering up the murder of Doctor Martin Luther King some four decades and counting after the event.
IMO Newtown like the murder of Doctor King was a POLITICAL event. A politically sanctioned act of State.
http://books.google.com/books?id=8Bk9he6d1j8C&pg=PA329&lpg=PA329&dq=king+family+vs+jowers+et+al&source=bl&ots=S5MNcBFal0&sig=PQ_JtIGOOsLC9jZEqnonelFocxI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YRTOULOcDM6yigLz84CgAQ&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=king%20family%20vs%20jowers%20et%20al&f=false
Posted by: Lou | January 09, 2013 at 07:41 PM
"All psychiatrists should spend some [clinical] time in a correctional institution, ... "
Perhaps also if they prescribe, without clinically validated cause, the SSRI drugs known to incite violence and suicidal behavior. These proven violence inducing awful SSRI drugs are often handed out like mints to the poor trusting souls who visit these ... .
Posted by: Lou | January 09, 2013 at 07:30 PM
You may never see the results of Adam Lanza's toxicology reports... Columbine - Dennis Klebold friends stated he had taken both paxil and prozac his medical records remain sealed. Virginia Tech - Seung Hui Cho He had received prior mental health treatment, however his mental health records remained sealed. Why... why is the pharmaceutics history being withheld from the public?? The same thing is happening with James Holmes who shot up the theater at the Batman premiere. The police confiscated both 4 bottles of medicine as well as his immunization papers... most people don't realize there is Mercury in the shots in the form of a preservative and mercury poisoning has been linked to cardiovascular disease, AUTISM, seizures, mental retardation, hyperactivity, dyslexia and many other nervous system conditions. The pharmaceutics industry has our medical community by the rear end.
Posted by: Shimie | January 09, 2013 at 05:01 PM
I'm especially appreciative of Dr. Breggin's work.
I also can't help feeling like the "principle of innocent until proven guilty" is being completely side-stepped in these cases:
@Linda and anyone who might know something about this:
Something I read led me to understand that Lanza's autopsy and his mother's were performed after the other victims. I'm not sure, but wouldn't that delay possibly limit the value of a toxicology report?
@samaxtics: It seemed strange to me that it was ruled the Aurora case prosecution could "keep" that evidence. So, was the defense concerned about "doctor patient confidentiality" and didn't for some reason want jurors to know what prescriptions might have influenced James? Would information about the drugs he was taking somehow help the prosecution make a stronger case? I also thought it curious that the report included mention of immunization records. I haven't heard of any mainstream association of violence with vaccination. Then there was the "heavily redacted" part...
Anyone else here feeling like some of our children may be more vulnerable to exploitation than to drug-induced violence?
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | January 09, 2013 at 03:10 AM
Looks like the Aurora police knew what to look for:
"Aurora police seized four prescription bottles and immunization records when they searched theater-shooting suspect James Holmes' apartment in July, according to newly obtained filings in the murder case against Holmes."
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22323293/aurora-theater-shooting-%20cops-took-pill-bottles-from#ixzz2HPzclSZc
Posted by: samaxtics | January 08, 2013 at 10:50 PM
Re: "A recent study of reports to the FDA of drug-induced violence has demonstrated that antidepressants have an 840% increased rate of violence"
Fact 1: Psychiatric drugs dramatically increase the risk of violent behaviors.
Fact 2: Children under age 18 are shown to be at the highest risk of homicide and suicide due to reactions to psychiatric drugs.
Fact 3: Children with Autism and ADHD are routinely prescribed psychiatric drugs in spite of the black box warnings of the greater risks to children and young people.
Fact 4: Many autism treatment specialists state that psychiatric drugs are more dangerous to the sensitive neurological system of autistic patients.
Fact 5: The conventional medical system refuses to acknowledge the many successful non-drug therapies utilized by Defeat Autism Now and other autism therapy specialists.
Fact 6: As long as the medical system continues to prescribe psychiatric drugs to children with autism, there will be a high risk of aggressive and violent behaviors resulting from the dangerous side effects.
Fact 7: Since the news media is controlled by the pharmaceutical industry due to their financial power and influence, the true cause of the homicidal behaviors of children and young people, whether neurotypical or autistic, will never be acknowledged to the American public.
Fact 8: Therefore "autism", "depression" and everything but the kitchen sink will be blamed for the mass shootings and other homicides which are actually caused by brain chemistry alterations resulting from psychiatric drugs.
Posted by: AutismGrandma | January 08, 2013 at 07:56 PM
One thing that is not talked about at all is that this all happened around Danbury. Particularly Newtown, was an area where the felt-making industry was alive and well until the 1940s. Yes, I am talking about mercury-treated felt. The "Danbury Shakes" are coming from around there. That by itself does mean that much. But to ignore it and only talk about drugs and psychiatrists is not exactly all-inclusive. There are other reasons why someone might have gone off the deep end. Think in terms of Erithism mercurialis. It is real and it can happen particularly in a place where mercury was used for work. More info on this can be obtained here: http://www.danburymuseum.org/danburymuseum/Hatting.html
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | January 08, 2013 at 06:52 PM
- more allopathic induced tragedy:
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/adderall/adderall-lawsuit-heart-attack-side-6-18348.html
Did Adderall Play a Role in the Death of Ex-Navy Corpsman?
By Gordon Gibb
...As stated in the Military Times, [Kelli Marie] Grese had been prescribed clonazepam for anxiety and was on that medication when she was also prescribed Adderall. The Adderall, according to the report, was the trigger for what was described as "a cascade" of mental and emotion problems that included, but not limited to hallucinations, paranoia and total psychosis...According to the report, Grese was prescribed no fewer than 25 different medications in an effort to stabilize her emotional state. Some of those medications were prescribed simultaneously..."I don't understand how a physician can write a prescription for 450 pills and two months later write another prescription for 450," said Darla Grese, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, in comments published in the Military Times. "Something's broken. The system is broken."
Posted by: dar | January 08, 2013 at 06:36 PM
Vicki,
There is no reason or excuse for speculation. Lanza either was or wasn't under the care of a psychiatrist. He either did or did not have a history of licit or illicit drug use. Cut and dried, black and white - these questions should not be hard to answer. Not jumping to conclusions. The only fact we have is that we don't have any facts. Isn't that odd?
Posted by: Linda | January 08, 2013 at 05:43 PM
My son has been violent, but we now know that he has a genetic detox problem in three detox pathways and gets acidosis from mitochondrial dysfunction. All of this is manageable and is not "quackery", but well recognised medical conditions.
Not one of the psychiatrists ever involved with my son in 50 years has ever ordered a test that would reveal any of this.
Let's face it . Psychiatry is NOT medicine. This is the quackery.
Posted by: Christine MacVicar | January 08, 2013 at 05:37 PM
You're a hatchet man of the New World order": Gun advocate Alex Jones has on-air meltdown in explosive interview with Piers Morgan
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/alex-jones-piers-morgan-interview-cnn-rant-on-gun-control-113924767.html#CxuvD4p
Posted by: ANGUS FILES | January 08, 2013 at 04:24 PM
There is no evidence that I have seen yet that Lanza was under the care of a psychiatrist. Similarly, there is no evidence that he was taking any psychiatric drug. We say, "Don't jump to conclusions" about his family and friends saying that he had Asperger, but we make the same jumping error when we presume that he was seeing a psychiatrist or taking psychiatric drugs without any proof.
Posted by: Vicki Hill | January 08, 2013 at 02:20 PM
Psychiatrists are not practicing medicine--they are handing out drugs with virtually no medical assessment whatsoever. Young men of Adam Lanza's age received historically high levels of mercury in vaccines. He was most likely poisoned. No one seems to want to go there, but that is exactly what I think happened. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin. Psychosis resulting from heavy metal poisoning is well documented. He was intelligent enough to foresee his future: no future. He had guns, unfortunately, and no one to help. Meanwhile I don't care how little psychiatrists are paid--their whole profession is so corrupt that if they closed down there might be an improvement in mental health..Therapy I think is helpful but even better is to solve the problem through intensive, common sense medical intervention. Wow, for psychiatry that's a really far out, even crazy(!) idea. It is also the most cost effective solution.
Posted by: Lisa | January 08, 2013 at 12:52 PM
Yeah, that is right - most of these shooters were under psy care.
Oh for heaven sakes - what is a person to do?
Posted by: Benedetta | January 08, 2013 at 10:48 AM
In June 2008 .. the Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report that concluded "1 in every 16 young adults in the United States" is now "seriously mentally ill".
What in the world could have caused so many young adults in the US to become seriously mentally ill? If the number of mentally ill young adults was "1 in 16" five years ago .. what is that number today? Has it trended up .. or .. down.
Amy Upham quoted in Robert Whittaker's "Anatomy of an epidemic" may have the answer:
"With psychiatric medications, you solve one problem for a period of time, but the next thing you know you end up with two problems. The treatment turns a period of crisis into a chronic mental illness".
In any event, the explosion of psychothropic drugs routinely prescribed to children and young adults to solve a problem for a period of time .. are now implicated as a contributing factor in the burgeoning crisis of violent acts committed by children and young adults today.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | January 08, 2013 at 09:12 AM
Thanks, Teresa, for this important information. I have discussed these issues at length with some local psychologists and psychiatrists. One of the major problems is with insurance coverage. They simply don't pay enough on therapy(not drugs). There are fewer and fewer people going into psychiatry, for example, because they are not earning the money they used to get(whether it was excessive before is another question). And I am not just talking about medicaid payments. There used to be a time when insurance didn't limit so much the number of visits, etc. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that this is a major drawback to the mentally ill, those with a mental disease --getting therapy coverage. Our government talks more and more about the need for better psychiatric, but it just isn't there for them. Psychiatric units in hospitals and clinics have been closing down for years now.
Maurine
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | January 08, 2013 at 08:57 AM
I still cannot understand why no one has asked for the results of Lanza's toxicology report. One must have been done. He could have been on licit or illicit drugs, or both. The word toxicology hasn't even been uttered. Why? And what is wrong with everyone that no one has even asked? All this incessant disingenuous talk about why it happened, yet one month later, still, no one has mentioned, asked about or offered information about the most basic, accessible and crucial piece of the puzzle - his toxicology report.
But they're going to study his DNA.
Posted by: Linda | January 08, 2013 at 08:39 AM