Bush To Impose Psychiatric Drug Regime

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Plans to screen whole US population for mental illness

According to a recent article in the British Medical Journal, US president George Bush is to announce a major "mental health" initiative in this coming month of July. The proposal will extend screening and psychiatric medication to kids and grown-ups all over the US, following a pilot scheme of recommended medication practice developed in Texas and already exported to several other states.

The Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) will serve, according to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, as a model for the upcoming initiative. The TMAP medication guidelines were established in 1995 as an "expert consensus" based on the opinions of prescribers, rather than an analysis of scientific studies. The pharmaceutical companies who funded the scheme include Janssen Pharmaceutica, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Novartis, Janssen-Ortho-McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, Bristol Myers Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst and Forrest Laboratories. The drugs recommended as "first line treatment", many of them with potentially deadly side effects, are patented expensive drugs produced by the sponsors of the guidelines: Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroqual, Geodone, Depakote, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutron, Zyban, Remeron, Serzone, Effexor, Buspar, Adderall and Prozac.

TMAP was extended to cover children, again by "expert consensus", and no doubt the Bush program for widespread testing in schools all over the US will find hundreds of thousands if not millions of new "customers" for the dangerous psychiatric drugs the scheme promotes. A recent article in the New York Times about "the use of juvenile detention facilities to warehouse children with mental disorders" might give us an idea of how many future patients are already waiting in the sidelines. But more importantly it shows that the problem that fits the TMAP solution is now being promoted by the media - go figure.

A similar "patient recruitment" move for psychiatry is the re-definition of environmental illness - a debilitating condition with varying symptoms due to environmental causes such as chemical poisons and electromagnetic pollution - as a purely psychological phenomenon. "It's all in your head, stupid!" seems to be the rationale.

Diana Buckland, the Brisbane representative of the Australian Chemical Trauma Alliance calls for world wide submissions in a Global Recognition Campaign for sufferers of multiple chemical sensitivity or chemically induced illnesses.

Investigative author Martin Walker in his most recent book SKEWED, discusses how the recognition of biological causes of a whole variety of environmentally induced illnesses has been blocked by a small interest group of "experts" linked to the polluters - the multinational agro-petro-chemical industries. Those suffering from the debilitating effects of environmental illnesses are told that they are just imagining their symptoms and all they need is psychiatric help, perhaps some forced exercise, called "graded exercise therapy", re-education of "how to deal with" their illness, psychological counselling or maybe just antidepressants - for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Bush's Texas Medication Algorithm Project has recently run into a problem in Pennsylvania, one of several states it was exported to. Allen Jones, an investigator for the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, found heavy pharmaceutical corruption of State officials and medical experts involved in the original elaboration and the "selling" to Pennsylvania of the TMAP giudelines.

Instead of receiving a citation and help in his investigation, Jones was told to shut up and look the other way. After he went to the press with his findings, Jones was escorted out of his workplace on 28 April 2004 and told not to come back. On 7 May, Jones filed a whistleblower suit against his superiors charging that the Office of the Inspector General's policy of barring employees from talking with the media is unconstitutional. Jones' report is highly interesting - no wonder he is being told to shut up. I have summarised the document and linked it here following:

The Allen Jones whistleblower report
Revised January 20, 2004

This important document has been posted by the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, a non-profit dedicated to fighting the scourge of forced psychiatric drugging.

Download the original PDF document here.

What follows is my view of the highlights of the 66 page document, with some personal comments and recommendations added at the end
Josef Hasslberger

The Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) was developed with 1.7 million $ of initial financing from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, provided indirectly through a connected Foundation, and subsequent direct cash funneled through subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica. It was developed and implemented in the Lone Star State's hospitals, prisons, the Juvenile Justice system and the Foster Care system during George W. Bush's watch as governor. Bush used the "extended mental health care" scheme as a point in his 2000 presidential campaign. Before leaving for the White House, he recommended a 67 million $ spending increase to pay for additional medications for the Texas Prison and Mental Health Systems.

TMAP, the Texas project, was also exported to other states, including Pennsylvania, where an investigation into what is called PENNMAP there, uncovered improper pharmaceutical pressures and financial enticements in connection with the program. The investigator, Allen Jones, was told by superiors to shut up and look the other way. When Jones refused, he was unceremoniously removed from his job and prohibited to talk to the press. Jones has stood up to the pressure and has filed a civil suit to obtain protection under the "whistleblower" statutes. He continued his investigation as a private citizen and has produced a well documented report, which is available for download as a PDF file.

The TMAP medication guide was developed, starting in 1995, in a rather singular way. Instead of reviewing studies that show the relative efficacy of medications, an "expert opinion consensus" was developed, but both the experts and the survey questions were chosen by the pharmaceutical sponsors of the program which included Janssen Pharmaceutica, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Novartis, Janssen-Ortho-McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, Bristol Myers Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst and Forrest Laboratories.

The subsequent evaluation of the experts' opinions came to recommend several drugs, including Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroqual, Geodone, Depakote, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutron, Zyban, Remeron, Serzone, Effexor, Buspar, Adderall and Prozac, manufactured by - who would have thought so - the same companies that sponsored and controlled the development of the Texas guide. As the guide was adopted, doctors working with state health systems had to prescribe these drugs or face disciplinary action.

In his whistleblower report, Jones not only traces the funding and the influence of the pharmaceutical companies involved in producing and "selling" the Texas Algorithm to other states, but also shows that - according to independent research not financed by the pharma giants - the drugs recommended are neither more effective nor safer than the cheaper ones used before. If anything, their side effects are more serious and of course they are patented and rake in an incredible return for the companies involved - according to one estimate US medicare spends as much as 3.7 billion dollars for the treatment of schizophrenia alone.

Peter J. Weiden MD, one of the participants in the "Expert Consensus" process said in an article published in the Journal of Practice in Psychiatry and Behavioural Health in January 1999, three years after the experience:

“The most important weakness of the EC Guidelines is that the recommendations are based on opinions, not data. History shows that experts' opinions about ”best” treatments have frequently been disproved, and there is no assurance that what the experts recommend is actually the best treatment. One danger here is that clinicians or administrators may misinterpret “current consensus” as truth.

Another limitation involves the development of the survey itself. Treatment options are limited to those items appearing on the questions, and it was not possible to cover all situations. Another problem is potential bias from funding sources. The 1996 Guidelines were funded by Janssen (makers of Risperidone [Risperdal]) and most of the guidelines’ authors have received support from the pharmaceutical industry. This potential conflict of interest may create credibility problems, especially concerning any recommendations supporting the use of atypical antipsychotics."

The original TMAP recommendations, made for adults, were extended unchanged to become recommendations for medicating children - with the same drugs - as TCMAP or Texas Children's Medication Algorithm Project. No studies, no research - the original TMAP "experts" simply met and agreed that it would be a good idea to treat children with the same drugs as adults.

TCMAP, the