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by Dr Martin Whitely
Encouraged by its Managing Director Mark Scott, the ABC has promoted Professors Patrick McGorry and Ian Hickie as independent mental health experts and unquestioningly backed their plans for reforming mental health. However both have significant ties to the pharmaceutical industry[1] and there has been prominent international criticism of their methods – and in Hickie’s case his integrity – which has been substantially ignored by the ABC.
Tags: ABC, ABC bias, Australia' mental health system, disease mongering, Ian Hickie, Mark Scott, Mental As, Patrick McGorry
The history of ADHD policy and regulation nationally from 1992 to 2012, in WA from 1993 to 2011 and in NSW from 2007 to 2011 is that regulatory capture occurred in the majority of policy development and regulatory processes. These ‘captured’ processes have been associated with subsequent ADHD child pharmaceuticalization. Conversely the only ADHD-critic dominated process identified occurred in WA in 2002 and was associated with subsequent ADHD child de-pharmaceuticalization. The findings of this thesis are consistent with Abraham’s assertion that regulatory capture is a significant driver of pharmaceuticalization.
PDF of full thesis available at Martin Whitely PhD Thesis Copy – ADHD and Regulatory Capture in Australia PDF
Tags: ADHD, Australia, John Abraham, Martin Whitely, PhD, Regulatory Capture, Thesis
I don’t intend to enter the contentious ‘smacking debate’… I am however struck by the contrast between the RACP’s anti-smacking stance and its promotion of the use of amphetamines to alter the behaviour of children, even pre-schoolers.
Sign the online petition to Boycott the DSM5 at http://dsm5response.com/
By Martin Whitely
DSM-5, the newest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s ‘Bible of Psychiatry’ will be officially released in May 2013 and is already available for presale. However, this edition of the DSM may not prove as profitable for the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as there is a growing international chorus of voices, many from within mainstream psychiatry, calling for a boycott of the DSM5.
Tags: Allen Frances, DSM5, Patrick McGorry
by Professor Allen J. Frances, M.D. Chairperson of the American Psychiatric Association DSM-4 Task Force
This blog was originally Published on December 2, 2012 in DSM5 in Distress at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201212/dsm-5-is-guide-not-bible-ignore-its-ten-worst-changes
This is the saddest moment in my 45 year career of studying, practicing, and teaching psychiatry. The Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has given its final approval to a deeply flawed DSM 5 containing many changes that seem clearly unsafe and scientifically unsound. My best advice to clinicians, to the press, and to the general public – be skeptical and don’t follow DSM 5 blindly down a road likely to lead to massive over-diagnosis and harmful over-medication. Just ignore the ten changes that make no sense.
WA Stimulants Regulatory Scheme 2011 Annual Report contains both good and bad news. The good news is that the 2011 report confirms there has been a massive decline in per-capita prescribing rates for children since the Stimulant Regulatory Scheme was introduced in mid-2003. However, the bad news is that there was a spike in the number of new cases diagnosed in 2011.
Stephen Colbert’s ‘Meducation’ plan for America’s third rate public schools – Don’t laugh too hard it is already happening!
A video and transcript of Colbert’s ‘Meducation’ rant is available at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/11/1143009/-Stephen-Colbert-on-medicating-children-to-improve-their-grades
On October 10 2012 American comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term “meducation” to describe the growing practice of drugging with ADHD amphetamines, American children with mediocre school grades, who do not have a diagnosis of ADHD.The catalyst for the mock right wing political commentator’s endorsement of ADHD drugs as smart pills was a front page article in the New York Times in which peadiatrician Dr Michael Anderson advocated their widespread use to compensate for America’s third rate public education system. Doctor Anderson said “we’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.” Unlike Colbert, Dr Anderson is not a comedian but unfortunately for some of the children of Ganton Georgia he is their doctor.
In his comedic monologue Colbert argues the child drugging program should be extended beyond amphetamines. “Folks, I believe this is a great fiscally responsible answer, but we can do more. I mean, we might be cutting arts programs, but one tab of acid, and your kid will be seeing colours you can’t find in a Crayola box.” Colbert’s mock rant concludes with a serious warning; “Now, of course, eventually it may turn out that drugging poor students creates more problems than it solves. In which case, we’ll have to stop trying to change our children, and think about changing ourselves.”
Despite Dr Anderson’s claims and Colbert’s mock endorsement, ADHD amphetamines are anything but ‘smart drugs’. Unique long term (8 year) Australian research shows that children diagnosed ADHD and ‘ever medicated’ with amphetamines were a staggering 950% more likely to be rated by their teacher as “performing below age-level” than children diagnosed with ADHD and ‘never medicated’. (see http://speedupsitstill.com/2010/02/17/excerpts-from-the-raine-study/ ) And as pointed out by Colbert the USA, the home of ADHD child drugging, lags most comparable developed nations (and a few second world nations) in terms of academic achievement.
The message is pretty clear – if you want to dumb down – speed up!
Tags: ADHD, meducation, smart drugs, Stephen Colbert
“Personalities, rhetoric and charisma are driving the direction of mental health rather than science and evidence.” (Martin Whitely MLA, Parliament of Western Australia, 25 September 2012)
Related Media
Sue Dunlevy, News Limited Sunday papers, 7 October 2012, Doubts cast on youth mental health program. Available at http://www.news.com.au/national/doubts-cast-on-youth-mental-health-program/story-fndo4eg9-1226489760605
Also see Patrick McGorry’s ‘Ultra High Risk of Psychosis’ training DVD fails the common sense test http://speedupsitstill.com/patrick-mcgorrys-ultra-high-risk-psychosis-theory-fails-common-sense-test
MARTIN WHITELY (Trancript of speech in the Legislative Assembly, Parliament of Western Australia, 25 September 2012): I want to use this opportunity to talk about some very serious concerns I have about the direction of the mental health policy in Australia. My basic contention is that personalities, rhetoric and charisma are driving the direction of mental health rather than science and evidence.
Tags: Allen Frances, Andrew Amos, attenuated psychosis syndrome, Cochrane collaboration, David Cappo, David Castle, disease mongering, DSM5, Early intervention, EPPIC, George Patton, Ian Hickie, Jon Jureidini, Mark Butler, Martin Whitely, NEURAPRO-Q trial, Orygen Youth Health, Patrick McGorry, Preventative Psychiatry, Psychosis Risk Syndrome, ultra-high risk of psychosis, Vaughan Carr
By Martin Whitely MLA
The off colour Australian colloquialism ‘you can’t polish a turd but you can cover it in glitter’ is a fitting analogy for the danger of legitimising ADHD as a diagnosable mental illness by developing treatment guidelines. However, treatment guidelines are being developed and the more conservative the treatment guidelines, the fewer children risk damage with the long-term administration of amphetamines.
That is why I welcome the release by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of the Australian ADHD Clinical Practice Points (CPPs) as a small but significant step in the right direction. (The CPPs available at http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/mh26_adhd_cpp_2012_120903.pdf )
Eventually ADHD will be regarded as an embarrassing footnote of history and society will collectively wonder how anyone ever thought it would be a good idea to give amphetamines to children. But in the meantime improvements like those in the ADHD CPPs, although modest, will hopefully see fewer children diagnosed and drugged.
That said, the CPPs are far from perfect. The statement that, “…stimulants might be considered for this age group (under 7 years)” leaves the door open for drugging very young children.[1] The manufacturers prescribing information for all stimulants state they should not be used in children under 6 years, since safety and efficacy in this age group have not been established.[2] Any clinician ignoring the manufacturers warning is inviting a future law suit for negligence.
Tags: ADHD, Australian ADHD Guidelines, Clinical practice points for ADHD, Mark Butler, Martin Whitely, Ritalin, Under 6 years
Part One – Is Nick Sick? (11 minutes) |
Part Two – Is Nick Sick? (9 minutes) |
Response to the ‘Is Nick Sick?’ video blog
by Professor Jon Jureidini
“Patrick McGorry’s Orygen Youth Health, CAARMS training video[1] on how to diagnose ‘Attenuated Psychosis’ demonstrates how not to carry out a psychiatric interview and interact with young people.”
As identified by Martin Whitely in his commentary about the CAARMS training DVD, describing Nick as being at ultra-high risk of psychosis (UHR) fails the common-sense test. Even more concerning is that Nick is labelled as having Attenuated Psychosis – in ordinary language, he is already mildly mad.
Tags: Alison Yung, attenuated psychosis, EPPIC, is nick sick, Jon Jureidini, Martin Whitely, Orygen Youth Health, Patrick McGorry, Psychosis Risk Syndrome, ultra high risk
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