with Cathy Meadows
For Alternative Psychological Healing call: Cathy Meadows at 707-720-7137
Radio Interview with Cathy A. Meadows. The show aired on November 13, 2009.
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Do Greed and Subjectivity Rule Psychological Diagnostics and Treatment?
Cathy A. Meadows
There have been serious and blatant accusations against the mental health care system for years alleging that, some children who have been diagnosed with mental or emotional disorders are being used as vehicles for the financial success of the medical industry itself, and as guinea pigs for drug testing. For example, Fred Baughman, an active opponent of the ADHD diagnosis, and a child neurologist, in private practice, for 35 years, in a PBS interview, said that he didn't even believe that adhd was a real mental illness. He said that the problem with the children is in the adults, and that there is "zero evidence" for adhd. Baughman goes on to say that those at the top of researching adhd know this and that the whole adhd diagnosis is a scam for making money on the backs of our kids.
Children often mimic what they see in their environment but are quick to learn and adapt methods of self-regulation, even if their environments aren't optimal. For example, I've found and have used with my clients very simple techniques for alleviating depression.
~After some initial listening and sympathizing I will draw a line. If they begin to wallow too much in self-pity, day after day, I will tell them very pointedly something like, "Stop sitting around feeling sorry for yourself; it's not attractive or productive." Then I might add every platitude I can think of like, "The difference between a winner and a loser is that a winner gets back up." I also add lots of encouragement and verbal rewards for any task that has nothing to do with the behavior of feeling sorry for oneself. I might give them an exercise that has been shown to promote psychological well-being which is to simply pretend to be happy, even if they aren't in order to break the sadness habit.~
The easiest way for parents to make kids depressed is to feel sorry for them ad nauseum every time they can't get their own way, and to continuously complain and display sadness about their own lives. In time, children will then begin to feel sorry for themselves automatically and this can eventually lead to depression as they sink deeper and deeper into the "poor me syndrome." Parents should tell their children in no uncertain terms to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and keep moving forward and then model that behavior for them. This is not to say that we shouldn't show empathy. We should show compassion for the failings of children, but put a limit on it. Don't constantly remind kids how sad it is that things didn't go their way. In fact, downplay the event.
Another example of misdiagnosis has to do with delusional disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition, text revision (also known as the "the psychologists' bible") asserts that delusional disorder is "marked by false belief with a plausible basis in reality." Think about that; a plausible basis in reality. Yet, I have never heard about any Psychologist or Psychiatrist taking seriously, or seeming to take seriously, any patients who complained about a conspiracy against themselves as being "plausible." Yet, we all know that conspiracies against individuals exist for many reasons. For example, conspiracies are set up against whistle-blowers, for political reasons, for religious reasons, against peace organizations, for revenge, and on and on. Books have even been written on the subject of such covert conspiracies (Terrorist Stalking in America, and Protectors of Privilege) by credible professionals, and yet do we see a change in the attitudes of the mental health care professionals? The answer is "no" and the reason for that has mostly to do with money. The way the mental health profession professes ignorance at every turn that falls away from making a buck off the minions, at any cost to the patient, is thoroughly reprehensible. The question is, who is over-seeing, The American Psychological and Psychiatric Associations, and why aren't they doing their job? The co-conspirator in this game is the mental health profession itself, from top to bottom.
Perks from Pharmaceutical Companies to Doctors
Gifts from drug companies and salesmen is no longer allowed but wining and dining and shmoozing still is. Can't stop that. Check out the following story.
E. Haavi Morreim, Professor of Human Values and Ethics at the College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, has this to say about doctors and pharmaceuticals salespeople: "Gifts to doctors from drug companies have implications for patient interests...A recent letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association illustrates how effective drug advertising can be. It describes a patient who came into the hospital with an infected insect bite. The intern who first saw the patient first sensibly wanted to prescribe a nice, inexpensive penicillin, which is the drug of choice for a minor infection. But the resident overruled the intern and favored a more "modern" choice for this "severely" ill patient. He decided the patient had to have a brand-new antibiotic at $183 a day. The attending physician who supervised the house officers checked into the incident. It turned out the resident had just been wined and dined by the drug representative whose company made the new antibiotic. Think marketing doesn't do any good? Think again."
For Doctors, No More Drug Company Trinkets July 11, 2008
By Tara Parker-Pope
Clipboards, pens and mugs emblazoned with drug company logos are about to become collectors’ items. The pharmaceutical industry’s trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, has issued a new voluntary code of conduct that prohibits distributing the brand-adorned freebies to the nation’s doctors.
But as my colleague Gardiner Harris points out in The Times, eliminating the pens and notepads that every patient sees doesn’t do much to stop the influence of drug company money that patients don’t see.
The code provides no definite limits on the millions of dollars spent on speaking and consulting arrangements that drug makers have forged with tens of thousands of doctors. Nor does it ban the routine provision of office breakfasts and lunches, or the occasional invitation to educational dinners at fancy restaurants.
He also reports that the rules don’t apply to biotechnology or medical device makers, "many of which continue to give expensive gifts and resort vacations to high-profile physicians."
The drug companies seem to be the primary conspirators with regards to the products they dispense. Benedict Carey of the New York Times published in 2008 that, "The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs' true effectiveness..." For example, in published trials 60% of patients taking experimental antidepressants reported relief from depression while 40% of patients on placebos also reported relief from depression. The New England Journal of Medicine reported that the antidepressant drugs outperform placebos by only a modest margin. A small enough margin, in fact, to consider that perhaps the expectations of the patients themselves is really the magic pill operating here.
