New Study Finds Antipsychotics are Killing the Elderly
A new study released in the UK found antipsychotics linked to a significant increase in the mortality rate of the elderly. The study, funded by the UK's Alzheimers Research Trust, found only one-third of the patients taking antipsychotics were still alive after three years, compared with two-thirds of the patients taking a placebo. It also found that antipsychotics, used to sedate and control the elderly, were associated with a significant deterioration in mental functioning and in speech motor controls. In the U.S., despite the Food and Drug Administration-ordered black box warning about the fatal risks of antipsychotics for the elderly, seniors in nursing homes are routinely prescribed these deadly drugs.
Young children are also being prescribed these powerful antipsychotics in the U.S., despite a 2004 FDA request that six antipsychotic manufacturers add warnings to their labels about the risk of diabetes and blood-sugar abnormalities. A USA Today study of adverse events reported to the FDA between 2000-2004 found at least 45 child deaths in which antipsychotics were listed as the "primary suspect," in addition to 1,328 reports of serious, even life-threatening, side effects. These drugs are routinely prescribed to people who have been diagnosed as "schizophrenic," yet the validity of this diagnosis has been called into question by British psychiatrists and others. Richard Bentall, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Manchester, said the concept of schizophrenia is scientifically meaningless. In fact, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog, says there is no scientific evidence to justify the diagnosis of any "mental disorder" found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry's billing bible. The diagnoses are completely subjective—there are no physical tests, such as blood or urine tests, brain scans or X-rays, which can confirm the existence of any psychiatric disorder. To learn more about the DSM, read CCHR's publication, Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers, or click here to see what experts say about the issue.
Despite this lack of science behind psychiatric diagnoses, with psychiatrists pushing antipsychotics as an "effective treatment," antipsychotic sales in 2004 topped $9 billion—more than doubling in four years (according to IMS Health). Due to fraudulent marketing practices and withheld information on the potentially lethal side effects of antipsychotics, 8 states have filed suit against antipsychotic manufacturers. For more information on the dangers of psychiatric drugs, read the Report on the Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs by CCHR.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR's Media Department at 800-869-2247 or humanrights@cchr.org.
