Over Counter Sleep Aids Linked to Dementia

What is perplexing is how drug companies always cite FDA approval for drugs when  they are found to be dangerous. They do not explain that most of the management of the FDA is former drug company lawyers and officials. Who can rely on the FDA which has approved numerous dangerous lethal drugs for the American public? 

[From article]
New research is warning about a possible link between a very common allergy medicine and dementia.
CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez reported that long-term use of an antihistamine known as diphenhydramine, which is commonly sold as Benadryl and included in many over-the-counter medications for cold and allergies, may increase the risk of dementia and even cause irreparable harm.
Diphenhydramine, which also causes drowsiness, is in popular sleep aids such as Tylenol PM, Advil PM, and ZZZQuil.
“I would take these medications myself only very rarely and I will try at all costs to avoid taking them for a long term,” Stanford psychiastrist Barbara Sommer said.
Sommer is an expert on anticholinergic drugs like diphenhydramine. She said recent research found that older adults who took anticholinergics continuously for years performed worse on tests that measured short-term memory, verbal reasoning, planning, as well as problem-solving.
PET scans revealed their brains were less active and MRI scans showed their brains had shrunk.
“Whereas it’s always been thought if you stop anticholinergic drugs, all of the cognitive functions you’ve lost come back, now people aren’t so sure,” Sommer said. “And they’re worried that this may lead to or hasten the onset of dementia.”
These studies do not prove a cause and effect.
“The active ingredients are approved by the FDA and recognized as safe and effective when taken as instructed,” Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the group that represents the makers of these over-the-counter products, said in a statement.
Also, the labels are clear – people should only use them occasionally and for no more than two weeks.
Experts said if people need help sleeping fore more than a couple of weeks, they should consult a doctor.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/05/31/study-benadryl-dementia/

Research: Long-Term Use Of Benadryl, Many Over-The-Counter Cold Medications Linked To Dementia
CBS News New York NY
May 31, 2016 6:08 PM

Massachusetts Pharmacist Arrested At Logan Airport

CHARGED: NECC pharmacist Glenn Adam Chin, right, leaves court yesterday with his lawyer Paul Shaw after his arraignment in connection with the ongoing criminal investigation of the New England Compounding Center.

[From article]
A Canton druggist arrested yesterday at Logan Airport while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong with his family is just part of a large-scale criminal probe into a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy responsible for a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak, according to prosecutors.
Glenn Adam Chin, 46, was ordered held in home confinement with an unsecured $50,000 bond by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer Boal yesterday after a brief hearing in Boston.
Chin was in charge of a sterile clean room at the New England Compounding Center — the Framingham-based company that is being investigated after 64 people who used tainted steroids produced by the company died. Authorities said Chin didn’t sterilize or test equipment and willfully hid the unsafe practices.
[. . .]
Prosecutors said Chin and others are the focus of the investigation, and Chin is the first person to be charged in the inquiry.
“We are looking at Mr. Chin for a host of other criminal conduct,” Varghese said.

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/09/pharmacist_at_deadly_lab_busted_at_logan_sent_home

Pharmacist at deadly lab busted at Logan,
Friday, September 5, 2014
By: Bob McGovern
Boston Herald

Seattle College Shooter Stopped Taking Psychiatric Drugs

Here's another case of violence caused by psychiatric drugs. The drug industry with support for their useful professional idiots advocate drugs to stop violence. But if the patient stops taking them the drugs are a known cause of violence. So if stopping taking the drugs causes violence, why start? How much longer will psychiatrists and drug companies remain unaccountable for the many homicides they cause? 

http://www.kmph.com/story/25741087/prosecutor-seattle-campus-shooter-went-off-meds

Prosecutor: Seattle campus shooter went off meds
Posted: Jun 10, 2014 1:49 PM EDT
Updated: Jun 10, 2014 11:07 PM EDT


(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson). Shooting suspect Aaron Ybarra, left, is led in chains to a court hearing at a King County Jail courtroom Friday, June 6, 2014, in Seattle.
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press

Academic Lapdogs Approve Blaming Victims of Psychiatric Abuses

NBC quotes Paul Appelbaum, who is now a titled expert on ethics. He wrote an essay published in 1995, 
http://psychrights.org/research/Digest/Decisionmaking/MacArthuCompetencestudy1.pdf
"Mental Illness and Competence to Consent to Treatment" in which he concluded that mental patients have lucid moments when they can give informed consent to being used for medical research. But they are unable to exercise rational thought when it comes to owning guns. Isn't that convenient? And isn't that a troubling opinion to quote on this attempt by government to demonize all persons accused of mental illness? Margaret Hagan Professor of Psychology at Boston University exposed the fraud of mental illnesses in her delightful tome, "Whores of the Court." 

Appelbaum and others quoted by NBC share the interests of the drug industry. Appelbaum is affiliated with the New York Psychiatric Institute which conducted extreme experiments on patients without consent. Columbia University is enormously invested in the pharmaceutical industry. They place the blame on persons who are often forced to ingest psychiatric drugs which are a known cause of suicidal thoughts and violence. Even the drug-company controlled FDA requires a black box warning label on those drugs. Yet over paid misguided journalists and spineless politicians continue to divert attention from the cause of violence. It is the drugs not the troubled persons who are taking them that is the problem. So much for informing the electorate who favors more abuses of humans. More psychiatry will only increase the amount of violence. This is one more example of the upside down arguments by the misguided and misdirected control freaks who seek to eliminate individual freedom in the name of security.

Hitler and Stalin both took guns from the population, and used psychiatry to take freedom from others who did not comport with the wishes of the leaders. Journalists indicate their beliefs that American psychiatrists have had their genes cleansed of mendacity, greed and sadism. Appelbaum demonstrated his duplicity in published articles. Yet he is now a "respected ethicist?" How very comforting to drug industry interests. That is what passes for watch dogs in contemporary society. The watch dogs in the media and among academics have become lap dogs. 

NBC says, "If there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on, it’s that mentally ill people should not have access to firearms." Republicans and Democrats are unable to manage the budget. Now they are experts on predicting who is violent? Not even the omniscient and morally superior mental health priests can accurately predict the future. But that does not mean they are ever held accountable for their errors. Mental illness is now a political issue. It has never been a scientific discipline and perhaps enough scrutiny will expose it for the fraud that it is. Petitioning for more taxpayer funds is just exacerbating the waste and abuse of taxpayer funds. 

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/18/16588357-anger-violent-thoughts-are-you-too-sick-to-own-a-gun?lite

Anger, violent thoughts: Are you too sick to own a gun?
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer,
NBC News
January 19, 2013

* * *
On conflict of interest between psychiatry and drug companies.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/09/health/psychiatry-professional-suicide/index.html

Is psychiatry committing 'professional suicide'?
By Maia Szalavitz,
TIME.com
updated 10:09 AM EDT, Tue October 9, 2012

Misguided Editorial Standards

"Accused subway pusher Naeem Davis said he was off his meds for bipolar disorder and hearing voices." (CHUCK BENNETT, "Homeless crazies can’t be rounded up – until they attack," New York Post, December 10, 2012) Why is there no focus on the psychiatric drugs which are a known cause of suicidal thoughts and violence. Even the drug-company-controlled FDA requires a black box warning label. Are all journalists under the spell of the pharmaceutical industry, keeping people ignorant? When will psychiatrists be prosecuted for causing violence?

In addition the editors have their statistics backwards. Persons accused of mental illness are less violent than non diagnosed civilians. But psychiatrists make all human activity into mental illnesses. Under current psychiatric standards all criminals are mentally ill. Who needs due process protections and criminal courts if psychiatrists can identify the guilty people?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/homeless_crazies_can_be_rounded_BZYb2rbTraTJ8tcFDKAzHJ

Homeless crazies can’t be rounded up – until they attack
Laws keep future stabbers & subway pushers on street
New York Post
By CHUCK BENNETT
Last Updated: 3:11 AM, December 10, 2012
Posted: 1:11 AM, December 10, 2012

AP Panders for Drug Industry

The notion of "a chemical imbalance " is a fantasy promoted by the drug industry. There are no tests for chemical imbalances. But even if there were, there is no chemical balance against which to measure. The AP continues to deceive consumers on behalf of the drug industry and the psychiatrc industry. Bad enough. Why does the Washington Post print the garbage?

[From article]
"Moss told police he suffers a chemical imbalance that made him delusional and think he owned the home."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/24/AR2010122401800.html

Conn. renter shocks homeowner by selling his stuff
The Associated Press
Washington Post
Friday, December 24, 2010; 12:29 PM

Propaganda Promoting Psychiatry

The Post publishes pure propaganda for the drug industry exploiting tragedies to promote drug treatment. Torrey is a control freak and mercenary psychiatrist who focuses on finding new ways to criminalize human speech and behavior. The author scares the public into demanding a drug industry lackey be installed as NY Commissioner of Mental Health. Though recognizing the role of drugs in increasing violence, he promotes drugging vulnerable people. He laments increased prison populations of what he calls mental patients. But is unconcerned that Torrey's policies criminalizes protected speech and behavior. Torrey is like J. Edgar Hoover who was the arsonist and the Fire Chief. He created the problem that he now claims to solve.

[From article]
"When he was on his meds, you would never believe he was bipolar," said a relative.
[. . .]
all were abandoned by programs "certified" by the Office of Mental Health until they oh-so-predictably became violent."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/they_didn_have_to_die_q4iX3fggDtSyTQmMJHhDiJ

They didn't have to die
NY's mental-health mistake
By DJ JAFFE
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:18 AM, December 16, 2010
Posted: 10:40 PM, December 15, 2010

Drug Cos. Use Sports Celebrities, Not Cash

http://www.prwatch.org/node/9647

A Marketing Touchdown for Novartis
Source: FiercePharma.com,
PR Watch
November 12, 2010

Public Relations Effort By Drug Industry

http://www.prwatch.org/node/9642

Wendell Potter: "My Apologies to Michael Moore and the Health Insurance Industry"
Submitted by Wendell Potter
PR Watch
November 22, 2010 - 11:14am.

Repeating a Lie Creates Big Business

[From article]
"one of the most aggressive, lucrative, bewildering and often just plain useless sales forces humanity has ever seen - call it the ADHD-industrial complex.
[. . .]
The ADHD industry's exuberance matches the vulnerability of its target market: millions of desperate parents who, given the strongly hereditary nature of ADHD, are often just as distracted and impulsive as their progeny."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906511.html

For ADHD, lots of snake oil, but no miracle cure
By Katherine Ellison
Washington Post
Sunday, November 21, 2010

Promoting Drug Development Not Safety

This non profit affiliated with Tufts University promotes relaxed controls on drug research in order to reduce the time before they are marketed. Their figures are not always reliable favoring the drug companies as in the cost of development.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_right_way_to_stop_superbugs_V6w8VjuJqYcJBC5TOFMKGN

The right way to stop superbugs
By DAVID GRATZER
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:33 AM, November 12, 2010
Posted: 9:50 PM, November 11, 2010

Drug Companies and Doctors

[From article]
""When you're making that much money, how can you not be influenced by that?" asked Arthur Levin, head of the Center for Medical Consumers, a Manhattan advocacy group.
[. . .]
Herzog, the head of gynecologic oncology at Columbia University Medical Center, made $65,350 from drug giant Eli Lilly in 2009, which paid him for 28 educational programs and as a consultant.

GlaxoSmithKline paid him $60,450 for speaking fees in the first half of this year and another $32,000 last year for speaking and consultation.

He also earned paychecks from Pfizer and Merck, which makes the vaccine Gardasil to prevent cervical cancer.

Also on the Big Pharma payroll is psychiatrist Leslie Citrome, who earns $151,750 as a full-time program director at the Nathan Kline Institute, a state psychiatric-research center in Rockland County. Citrome also managed to earn what could be considered a full-time salary -- $154,707 -- since 2009 by working for four drug makers.
[. . .]
The nonprofit news organization ProPublica compiled the information, creating a database of 17,700 doctors, pharmacists, nurse practitioners and dietitians who have earned a collective $258 million since 2009."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/docs_big_pharma_cores_Lcn2RCdN75CMKwq6AKwUOL

Docs' Big Pharma $cores
By REUVEN BLAU and MELISSA KLEIN
New York Post
Last Updated: 6:39 AM, November 7, 2010
Posted: 11:42 PM, November 6, 2010

Harvard Med School and Drug Companies

[From article]
"Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, first reported in June 2008 that psychiatrist Joseph Biederman of Harvard-affiliate Massachusetts General Hospital received $1.6 million in consulting and speaking fees from the makers of drugs that he used to treat children for bipolar disorders."

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/7/21/policy-medical-schools-harvard/

Harvard Medical School Restricts Faculty Ties to Industry

New policy designed to curb faculty conflicts of interest with pharma and medical device-making companies

By Xi Yu,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Published: Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Earn More Money From Drug Caused Suicides

Check out the anti-depressants served up by the taxpayer funded ($2 billion each year) human services industry. They won't reveal that anti depressants cause suicidal thoughts and violence. Even the drug-industry-controlled FDA requires a warning on the bottles. But that won't stop those morally superior, selfless, altruistic, caring psychiatrists from feeding them to inmates to help them get happy in a cell.

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1268350

State hires specialist to address inmate suicides

By Associated Press
Boston Herald
Friday, July 16, 2010 -

Biotech Lobbyists for Higher Drug Costs

Biotech Lobbyists for Higher Drug Costs


This essay describes one example of how health care costs are kept artificially high due to lobbyists controlling the public discourse. The same pattern applies to psychiatric drugs.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8690

Genentech's Ghostwriting Animates Congressional Speeches on Health Reform
Submitted by Lisa Graves
Center for Media & Democracy
November 15, 2009 - 8:26am.

Obama, Drug Industry and Medical Lobbyists


One wonders why, if Obama wants to reform the health care industry he remains silent about the influence of the drug industry controlling of how treatment is delivered.

[link to Video ad included]
"The coalition of industry and liberal groups known as the Alliance for Stable Quality Care -- that is, PhRMA, the American Medical Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, and FamiliesUSA -- have more or less dropped the pretense of being something beyond a checking account for the White House political operation."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0909/PhRMA_allies_broadcast_Obama.html?showall

September 30, 2009
Healthcare
PhRMA, allies broadcast Obama
Politico.com

Let's Use Psychiatric Drugs on Babies and See What Happens


Wooden clubs achieve the same end, i.e., eliminating undesirable behavior and speech. A beating with a wooden club heals, and does not destroy brain cells as many psychiatric drugs do. Then of course the wooden club makers do not employ lobbyists like NAMI to scare politicians and journalists. The "experts" quoted are not identified nor any drug company funding received by them.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-02/the-preschool-depression-boom-1/full/


The Preschool Depression Boom
by Sara Reistad-Long
Daily Beast
September 2, 2009

Psychiatry: Causing or Solving Problems?


The drug industry and the psychiatric industry claim to have solutions for all problems -- drugs or therapy. They never recognize they may cause the problems. When did military operations begin having mental health clinics in battle fields? Like accountants making medical decisions at HMOs, here the military allows mental health counselors to make military decisions. Politicians are unable to accept accountability. Judges fear getting it wrong so they delegate decision-making to court psychologists and psychiatrists. These false prophets claim a moral superiority and knowledge of the future. When they are wrong there is no accountability. Here military prophets may be the cause of three deaths. But you'd never know that from the way that journalists report facts. The Conformist Party has taken control of the nation.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7565251&page=1


Camp Liberty Shooting: Alleged Shooter's Dad Says Soldier 'Just Broke'
Sgt. John M. Russell Charged in Shooting of Five People at Camp Liberty Stress Clinic
By LUIS MARTINEZ and MARTHA RADDATZ
ABC News
May 12, 2009

NAMI and Drug Companies

US Senate Probe Discovers:

Most NAMI Money is From Psychiatric Drug Industry

By MindFreedom News

NAMI has admitted to a US Senate probe that a majority of their funds
over the last five years, 56 percent on average, have been from drug
corporations. NAMI has agreed with the probe to immediately begin
quarterly postings to their web site with a list of drug company
donations and amounts.

MindFreedom obtained a letter sent last week by NAMI executive
director Michael J. Fitzpatrick to "NAMI Leaders and Members." The
letter is a response to the probe of NAMI by US Senator Charles
Grassley (R-IA) initiated on 6 April 2009.

In the 28 April letter, copied below, Mr. Fitzpatrick wrote, "As
reported to Senator Grassley, pharmaceutical companies contributed an
average of 56% of national NAMI's budget annually for the period 2005
- 2009."

Mr. Fitzpatrick passionately defends the drug company donations, but
says NAMI has a strategic plan to lower the percentage.

Commented MindFreedom director, David Oaks, "The NAMI board should
have listened to its own Consumer Council which voted for full
disclosure many years ago, but was ignored."

MindFreedom maintains a count of the number of times the NAMI web site
uses the phrase "biologically based" when referring to mental health
problems. Said Oaks, "There are as many theories about the cause of
extreme mental problems as there are colors in the rainbow.
Unfortunately, NAMI's rainbow is mainly green -- drug company money
green. Now we know why."

MindFreedom is encouraging an international "thank you" from everyone
to Senator Grassley for investigating psychiatric drug money
corruption, click here:

http://grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm

~ ~ ~

LETTER FROM NAMI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MICHAEL J. FITZPATRICK:

April 28, 2009

Dear NAMI Leaders and Members,

On April 6, 2009 Senator Charles Grassley asked NAMI national to
provide information about support it receives from pharmaceutical
companies. For the last three years, Senator Grassley has been
interested in various aspects of the pharmaceutical industry and has
made similar requests to other non-profit groups.

NAMI shares Senator Grassley's interest in transparency and has
cooperated fully with this request. Since the request was made, three
basic questions have been posed that are worth sharing and answering.

Does NAMI accept contributions from pharmaceutical companies?

Yes, we do -- and we're delighted to have this critical support for
our many programs and important work all across the country.

NAMI accepts charitable contributions from individuals, foundations
and corporations, including the pharmaceutical industry, for one
purpose -- to improve the lives of people with mental illness and
their families. These relationships are governed by NAMI's Guidelines
for Business Support Relationships, a NAMI policy originally developed
and approved by the Board of Directors in 2004. This policy ensures
that at all times NAMI will maintain an independent position on issues
affecting the welfare of people with mental illness. A copy of this
policy is available online at http://www.nami.org/BusinessGuidelines.

As you know from our strategic plan ( http://www.nami.org/stratplan ),
NAMI's goal is to reduce the percentage of our budget that is
supported by charitable donations from pharmaceutical companies.

While we deeply appreciate the support we have received, we set this
goal because we understand the value of diversifying our funding
sources -- both for fiscal stability and because we want to shed any
lingering, unfair accusations that somehow NAMI has been "bought" -- I
can assure you: nothing could be further from the truth. NAMI's
advocacy voice is loud and clear and uncompromised.

As reported to Senator Grassley, pharmaceutical companies contributed
an average of 56% of national NAMI's budget annually for the period
2005 to 2009. Many of NAMI's signature education programs, including
Family-to-Family, Peer-to-Peer, NAMI Connection, In Our Own Voice and
NAMI Basics have national corporate sponsors.

These programs are the essence of your work in your communities. They
are offered free of charge to thousands of consumers and families who
participate in them each year. Without support of these companies, we
would be hard-pressed to bring you these vital programs. Corporate
grants and charitable contributions also support the NAMI Web site,
Mental Illness Awareness Week, and other public education and advocacy
efforts.

Can we see who is giving NAMI what?

Yes, you can.

NAMI National has long made public lists of major corporate and
foundation donors in our annual reports, which you can view online: http://www.nami.org/governance
. In 2009, we have begun posting on the NAMI Web site on a quarterly
basis all foundation and corporate grants and corporate contributions
over $5,000 received by NAMI national. The first list covers January-
March 2009 and can also be viewed at http://www.nami.org/governance.

Now what?

We continue our incredibly important work together, at the national,
state and local level, on behalf of one of the most vulnerable and
discriminated against populations in our country.

NAMI has long enjoyed a great national reputation. In fact, NAMI is
one of only 248 national non-profit organizations that received the
BBB Wise Giving Alliance Charity Seal this year from the charity
monitoring organization affiliated with the Better Business Bureau.
Perhaps you saw BBB’s ad in USA Today two weeks ago which heralded
the exclusive list. NAMI also received three out of four stars from
Charity Navigator and is its number one rated mental health
organization.

Thank you for the tremendous work you do, day in and day out. If you
have any thoughts or questions, I hope you will be in touch.

Thanks,

Mike

Michael J. Fitzpatrick, MSW
Executive Director
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
2107 Wilson Blvd., Suite 300
Arlington, VA 2201
mfitzpatrick@nami.org
703-516-7977