Multiple studies confirm overactive symptoms linked to food colors and preservatives

The Food Standards Agency in Britain, issued a warning to parents on September 28 2007. Their news section states "...research, carried out by Southampton University, suggests that eating or drinking certain mixes of some artificial food colours, together with the preservative sodium benzoate, could be linked to hyperactivity in some children.

American medical news source Med Page Today.com tried to downplay the significance of this new warning by telling doctors the overactive symptoms observed were small.

But this American website either is ignoring or just lame by not reporting what the BBC has reported multiple times. The research looking at a link between food colors, preservatives and poor behavior in children has been ongoing for several years in the UK.

This latest study was one of the most tightly controlled ever completed. The changes observed were still significant and should not be glossed over.

For the American medical website to lessen the significance of this study is poor judgement. One should not forget that studies on SSRI antidepressants were approved with showing a 2 point improvement (out of 26) of change on a questionnaire the researching psychiatrist filled out regarding his opinion of the patient's behavior.

The FDA has issued major label changes for ADHD drugs so parents can be warned about those drugs causing psychiatric mania, stroke, heart attacks and sudden death

If you have your child on drugs for overactive behavior. You might want to try an elimination diet and avoid preservatives and food colorings. You should go see your doctor or a competent physician who conduct a comprehensive evaluation. If your child needs to be withdrawn from his prescriptions, it must be medically supervised and conducted over time to minimize any adverse withdrawal effects.

Never go off any psychiatric drug "cold turkey" and without medical supervision. It could be life-threatening.

A news article appeared in the BBC on 5 May, 2004, 00:05 GMT 01:05 UK

'Ban artificial food colourings'

Artificial colourings increased hyperactivity levels Artificial food colourings should be banned in the interest of public health, say UK experts. A team of researchers from Southampton University said removing these substances from foods could cut hyperactivity rates in young children. They are extending their research to see whether additive-free diets have a positive effect in older children too. The research on 300 three-year-olds appears in the journal Archives of Diseases in Childhood.

Food coloring and preservative linked to hyeractivity

In September 2007 over in the U.K. a study was released based on a grant from their Food Standards Agency. Experts issued a warning to parents about the links between tantrums and food colorings.

The Food Standards agency eventually jumped in to make parents aware that food colorings and preservatives have been shown to create overactive behavior in children.

The September study was the 3rd in 4 years completed to compare the effects of food colors and preservatives on a child's behavior.

In the U.S. the medical media writers attempted to downplay the significance of this report by misreporting the significance of these findings.

Anyone who is around young children enough has seen the misbehavior that arises after sweet foods have been ingested. So why does psychiatry scoff at a parent's suggestion that sugary food brings on hyper behavior?

There have been many studies looking at the effects of glucose sugar on children's behavior. Those studies have not been able to show a strong relationship between misbehavior and ingestion of common sugar.

This series of British studies seem to show that we Americans missed the true ingredients that were the true cause of the hyperactivity, namely food colors and preservatives.

This may explain why parents saw misbehavior which was blamed on sugar that Science could not prove a link to. I find it fascinating that the geniuses who spent time looking at the relationship of sugar to behavior did not further their investigation into all components of what constitutes the major ingredients of foods marketed to children.

Read your food labels and you are sure to find Blue # 7, Yellow #5, Red#6, etc, etc in a number of things. But remember, a low dose to us may still be a massive dose to a child.

The Food & Drug Administration does not require ingredients be tested on children. They just want to make sure your preservative doesn't kill you.

Take a look at Taylor's mice experiment. He found that mice given a small dose of yellow food coloring caused them to take 5 times longer to complete a maze then before getting the dye.

This is an incredible way to look at the cognitive "thinking" effects of a substance. I was amazed by Taylor's genius in creating this study.

So if you are having problems with behavior or concentration, try an elimination diet to see if the problems can be reduce or "cured" by staying away from potential bad foods.

Good luck.

ADHD front group terminiates coordinator for disclosing nutrition can help calm hyperactivity

Children and Adults with ADD or "ChADD" is a front group for the pharmaceutical industry to help ensure drugs are pushed as the only "scientific" treatment for overactive children.

Steve Plog was a chapter coordinator for ChADD in Las Vegas, NV. He was fired by ChADD for disclosing that real physical deficiencies could account for behaviors labeled as ADHD.

Click on the link above to read how he found that 20 years of ADHD drugs did not cure him.

Steve claims it was only when he was seen by a competent physician who completed a searching physical exam that he was given a course of treatment that resolved his complaints.

Dr Karl Hoffower MySpace www.myspace.com/drkarlcchr

Dr. Karl Hoffower is now on Myspace

Study proves food dyes and preservatives cause Hyperactivity

This month a study was published in the respected medical journal, The Lancet.

The study was commissioned by British Food Standards Agency after several other studies showed that food colorings and other additives caused children to exhibit hyperactive behavior.

Tests on more than 300 children showed significant changes in their behavior after they drank fruit drinks tainted with a mixture of food colorings and preservatives.

Researchers said. "These findings show that adverse effects are not just seen in children with extreme hyperactivity.

The link and brief text are below. You have to have a subscription to read the whole study. But the news was heard around the world.

However, did we really need another study to confirm what parents and other care givers already know?

The question now is: How do we help the millions of children falsely labeled with ADHD who have been taking mind-altering drugs?

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Food additives linked to increased hyperactivity in children
Artificial food colour and additives commonly found in children's food exacerbate hyperactive behaviours in children, at least up to middle childhood, according to a research article. Importantly, these adverse effects are reported in children in the general population and across a wide range of severities of hyperactivity, and not just in those with extreme hyperactivity as established in previous studies.

Stop "The Mother's Act" (H.R. 20) pregnant women & new mothers to be screened for mental disorders & "postpartum depression"

A bill is quickly moving through Congress called "The Mother's Act" (H.R. 20) that calls for pregnant women to be screened for mental disorders and new mothers to be screened for "postpartum depression," resulting in their being prescribed dangerous antidepressants or other psychiatric drugs.

A Senate Bill and a House Bill were introduced this year. The House Bill is right now in the Energy and Commerce Committee and a vote is expected within days, whereupon it will go to the House floor next week. The bill provides more appropriations for NIH to conduct research into "postpartum depression" and biological treatments (drugs).

Psychiatry is attempting to steal a real medical situation and turn it into a mental disorder. The effects of the massive changes in female hormones after the birth of a child are well documented. Estrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone change wildly at the start of, during and after a child is born.

Problems with these hormones can cause women to manifest a whole host of reactions. Add on top of that "sleep deprivation" and you can get quite a problem for the new mother.

BUT THAT IS NOT A MENTAL DISORDER.

Any symptoms that come about from the birth of a child and lack of sleep are from hormonal imbalances or fatigue. Those problems are not in the filed of psychiatry. They are treated by real doctors like obstetricians and endocrinologists.

Psychiatry is just looking for a new crop of patients to sell more drugs to.

Take a look at MedEdPPD. They are pushing support for of HR 20. Yet the website is paid for by the National Institute of Mental Health. The very institute that will benefit form the implementation of this bill.

Here's the real laugh. The company that manages the website is called, "MedSpin".

Classic!

I am glad these guys are at least truthful they are spin doctors in the effort to sell more drugs and create more patients out of normal women.

You can easily send a letter to Congress to speak out on how bad this bill is. Click here to go to CCHR's action website where you do something about this.

Thanks for your help.

Dr. Karl

CAN YOU SAY? "Farewell to Chemical Imbalance"

Farewell to Chemical Imbalance (Jan/Feb 2007)

Openmind January/February 2007

Farewell to Chemical Imbalance

How often have you heard that a chemical imbalance is the cause of depression? A hundred times? If you’re as old as me you’ve heard it a thousand times, and said by psychiatrists in tones of absolute certainty. It’s why the SSRI drugs were made specifically to put serotonin in the brain and thus right the imbalance.

However, without telling the rest of us, psychiatrists have changed their minds. A few weeks ago I was browsing the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website. The pamphlet on bipolar disorder had been removed and I wanted to see if a new one was in place. It was, and some curious changes had been made. I then looked at their pamphlet on depression. It’s a very long pamphlet, written in a chatty way. Under the heading, ‘Why does it [depression] happen?’ is a statement which says that sometimes there’s an obvious reason for becoming depressed and sometimes there isn’t. It’s different for different people. Then there’s a list of the things that can lead you to be depressed. These are: things that happen in our lives; circumstances; physical illness; personality (‘This may be because of our genes, because of experiences in our early life, or both.’); alcohol; gender (‘Women seem to get depressed more than men do. It may be that men are less likely to admit their feelings and bottle them up, or express them in aggression or through drinking heavily. Women are likely to have the double stress of having to work and look after children.’); and genes (depression can run in families). And that’s it. No chemical imbalance.

There’s never been any evidence for a chemical imbalance in the brain when a person is depressed. That idea was abandoned by scientists thirty years ago. However, a lack of scientific evidence has never stopped some psychiatrists from claiming black was white. It took the Royal College many years to accept that the minor tranquillisers are addictive; that the monoamine oxidise inhibitors are addictive; and, more recently, that the SSRI drugs can provoke suicidal and hostile thoughts. But it does seem, at last, that the Royal College has accepted that depression has far more to do with how we see ourselves and how we deal with our lives than it does with the physical make-up of our bodies.

Even the Institute of Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital has moved in that direction. They’re holding a conference in April 2007 called, ‘Depression: Brain Causes – Body Consequences’. On their website the preamble about the conference states,

Depression cannot be described any longer as a simple disorder of the brain, but rather as a series of behavioural and biological changes that span mind, brain, genes, body – and indeed affects both psychological and physical health. . . The experts will present neurobiological, psychological, genetic and evolutionary models, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms linking the brain to the endocrine and the immune systems, and therefore linking depression to physical health.

So everything about us is involved in getting depressed. Not a simple explanation in sight.

What about manic depression, or, as we have to call it now, bipolar disorder? What’s happened to the gene that’s supposed to cause this? The Royal College’s new pamphlet on this disorder says:

We don't have a complete answer to this, but:

• research suggests that it runs in families - it seems to have more to do with genes than with upbringing. there seems to be a physical problem with the brain systems which control our moods - this is why the symptoms of bipolar disorder can often be controlled with medication
• 
  
• episodes of illness can sometimes be brought on by stressful experiences or physical illness.

What do they mean by ‘brain systems’? No neuroscientist talks about brain systems. Do you ever get the feeling that some psychiatrists think that the public is so stupid they can be fobbed off with any nonsense?

Ever since the late nineteenth century when the German psychiatrist Kraepelin described depression as a mental illness psychiatrists have been trying to find a physical cause for this illness. Vast amounts of time and money have been spent on this fruitless enterprise. If only Kraepelin and his colleagues had seen their patients, not as specimens to be studied, but as fellow human beings who could describe and discuss what was happening to them. If this had happened we would have come to understand a great deal more about being depressed than we do today. In those intervening years we might have seen how it is our ideas that create pain, suffering, conflicts, poverty, cruelty, intolerance, selfishness, hatred, envy and stupidity, and that these ideas damage us. But they are just ideas, and we are free to change them. If only Kraepelin and his colleagues had understood that.

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/ http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/apps/depression/introduction.aspx

Psychiatry exposed

PSYCHIATRY HAS BEEN LYING.

STEVEN SHARFSTIEN, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION (APA) ADMITTED

"WE DO NOT HAVE A CLEAN-CUT LAB TEST" FOR A CHEMICAL IMBALANCE.

-PEOPLE MAGAZINE, JULY 2005

APA CHAIR, COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS MARK GRAFF SAID,

"I AGREE. THERE AREN'T ANY TESTS." "CHEMICAL IMBALANCE...IT'S A SHORTHAND TERM REALLY. IT'S PROBABLY DRUG COMPANY DERIVED." "WE DON'T HAVE TESTS BECAUSE YOU'D PROBABLY HAVE TO TAKE A CHUNK OF BRAIN OUT OF SOMEONE...NOT A GOOD IDEA." BUT "I AGREE. THERE AREN'T ANY BLOOD TESTS" [TO DETERMINED ANY MENTAL DISORDER.] -CBS STUDIO 2 LOS ANGELES, JULY 10, 2005

Go see the new CCHR museum, "Psychiatry an industry of death"

Psychiatric drugs kill child - Psychiatrist goes on paid leave while parents are jailed

Here is another tragic example of a psychiatrist prescribing drugs that kill a child.

What makes this more terrible is that the parents have been charged for their daughter's death. Child Protective Services has stepped in to charge the parents with murder.

For being an accomplice to this little girl's death, the psychiatrist is on PAID LEAVE. All while the parents had to suffer in jail.

Jailing the parents but not the psychiatrist shows how they are above the law in this country. If you or I were to cause a murder we would be arrested.

The psychiatrist calls lethal drugging a "medication regimen" and she gets to go on paid leave.

Psychiatrists are not above the law. They should be subject to the same consequences for their actions as any regular citizen is.

Until this becomes a fact, more children will continue to be killed under the guise of help by psychiatry.

Dr. Karl

Psychiatrist Won't Practice Medicine After Girl's Death

4-Year-Old Died Of Drug Overdose, Officials Said

POSTED: 3:02 pm EST February 7, 2007

UPDATED: 6:07 pm EST February 7, 2007

BOSTON -- The psychiatrist who prescribed medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder to a 2-year-old who later died of an overdose has agreed not to practice medicine, according to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine.Rebecca Riley, 4, was found dead in her home on Dec. 13, 2006. Her death was ruled a homicide after an autopsy determined that she died of a lethal combination of several prescription drugs, including clonidine, a drug prescribed for ADHD.Valproic acid, also known as Depakote; Dextromethorphan, a cough suppressant; and Chlorpheniramine, an antihistamine, were also found in the girl's system, the coroner said.

Riley's psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts-New England Medical Center, diagnosed her with ADHD and bipolar disorder when she was 2 ½ and prescribed several medications for treatment, including clonidine for ADHD and Depakote and Seroquel to treat bipolar disorder.Kifuji reached an agreement with the board to voluntarily halt her medical practice while the investigation into Riley's death is pending. All four members of the seven-member board who were present voted to accept the agreement."It requires and immediate cessation of practice. That absence for medical practice will stay in effect until such time as a final board action is taken," said Nancy Achin Audesse, a member of the Board of Registration.

"Dr. Kifuji is on paid leave from the hospital and has voluntarily agreed not to practice medicine during this time. Rebecca Riley's death is a terrible tragedy. We are bound by medical confidentiality and thus we can not expand further at this time," Tufts-New England Medical Center spokeswoman Brooke Tyson Hynes said in a statement.

Kifuji's attorney, J.W. Carney, quickly noted that the agreement is not an admission of wrongdoing."She absolutely did not over-prescribe, and her medical records will back that up 100 percent," he said.Carney was asked if Kifiji advised Riley's parents that increasing the dosage of clonidine could be fatal."I am not going to go into any conversation that my client had with the defendant, but she has reported those conversations to the state police," Carney said.

The Board of Pharmacy has not opened an investigation."There is no basis at this time. It is a criminal matter," said Donna Rheume of the Department of Public Health."The dosage was appropriate, the drug was appropriate and the monitoring was appropriate," Carney said.Riley's parents, Caroline Riley, 32, and Michael Riley, 34, pleaded not guilty to her murder on Tuesday and were ordered held without bail.

Previous Stories:

• February 7, 2007: 911 Tapes Released In Death Of Girl, 4
• February 6, 2007: Parents Charged In Death Of Daughter, 4
• February 6, 2007: Parents Charged In Daughter's Overdose Death
• February 5, 2007: Couple Charged In Daughter's Death

Copyright 2007 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Congressional Intervention Needed on FDA Failings

Click the link below to see the 1991 testimony of victims and surviving family telling the FDA advisory committee about how Prozac caused suicides. Then see the conflicts of interest these psychs had before they got to vote on warning the public about this dangerous drug.

Dr. Karl Hoffower

Congressional Intervention Needed on FDA Failings

15 Year Lapse Before Warning of Antidepressant Suicide Risks is Negligent Says Human Rights Group — Warnings Don’t Go Far Enough

Washington DC: December 14—Members of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the group that orchestrated an FDA Hearing into the antidepressant Prozac in 1991—today met with Members of Congress to demand an overhaul of the FDA’s reporting system and accountability to the American public. The demand is in response to the FDA’s Psychopharmacological Committee yesterday recommending an extension of the 2004 “black box” warning of suicide risk to under 18 year olds to include those 25 years of age and under. However, the Committee stopped short of applying the warning to all age groups.

Spokesperson and General Counsel for CCHR, Mr. Rick Moxon, who testified at yesterday’s hearing into antidepressants and suicide, presented footage of the 1991 FDA hearing where adults, with no history of violence or suicide, testified that they were driven to murderous acts of self-harm, influenced by the antidepressant. Moxon had filed a Freedom of Information request to the FDA in 1990, obtaining copies of the 17,000 adverse reactions reports (ADRs) against Prozac—at the time more ADRs than any other drug in the FDA’s history. Yesterday, he accused the FDA of “acting in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies instead of the public that you serve” when it ignored the earlier and yesterday’s testimony of adult suicide risk from antidepressants.

“The stories from the victims have not changed – but more importantly – neither has the FDA,” Moxon said. The 1991 panel included psychiatrists with financial interests in pharmaceutical companies and this incestuous relationship, Moxon said, has placed consumers at risk because of the FDA’s failure to warn them of antidepressant dangers. Yesterday it was given the opportunity to correct this and failed, according to Moxon.

“The FDA has not changed in the past 15 years,” Moxon added. “It is still dismissing adults who experience suicidal and violent side effects as anecdotal and still relying upon the pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists for its information.” With deeply imbedded financial ties to the antidepressant industry, whose sales topped $15.5 billion in 2005, FDA panel members routinely ignore testimony that threatens profits.

Mrs. Suzanne Gonzales admonished the panel for not acting in time to save her 40-year-old husband, who shot himself in the head shortly after he started taking Paxil. “I hold you all responsible for his death, and I always will,” she said.

In July, Senator Charles Grassley, who has conducted oversight of the FDA, responded to a Union of Concerned Scientists survey about the FDA, in which 81% of the 998 FDA scientists surveyed, agreed that the “public would be better served if the independence and authority of the FDA post market safety systems were strengthened.” Since then, he coauthored bipartisan legislation to improve post market surveillance of drugs by the FDA (S. 930) and to require information about clinical trials be publicly available (S. 470). Senator Grassley said that the FDA needed to “re-establish its relationship with its own scientists and distance itself from the drug industry.”

Moxon said this should also extend to the psychiatric industry that profits from pharmaceutical company funding. Congressional investigation and intervention is needed to ensure the FDA acts in the interest of consumers it was established to protect.

CCHR is an international psychiatric watchdog that has been in the vanguard of patients' rights since it was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

115 Suspicious Patient Deaths in Psychiatric Wards

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Exposes 115 Suspicious Patient Deaths in Psychiatric Wards

Physical Abuse, Massive Drugging and Medical Neglect Among Common Abuses

In the early morning of February 13, 2006, 14-year-old Sarah Crider, on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs, died alone at the Georgia Regional psychiatric hospital, lying in a pool of her own vomit. Her horrific and preventable death was exposed in an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), described in a January 7^th article, which uncovered at least 115 suspicious patient deaths in Georgia’s state psychiatric hospitals between 2002-2006, involving patients choking on food, lack of proper medical care, suicide, physical restraint and other unnatural causes. The AJC article reported that the findings—“employees beating patients with aluminum pipes to doctors widely prescribing sedatives just to maintain order—evoke images [of horrific psychiatric treatment] from the mid-20^th century….” According to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) a mental health watchdog, in just 4 decades, more Americans have died in psychiatric institutions than American soldiers killed in battle in all the wars since 1776—including World Wars I and II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf Wars and Iraq War.

A testament to the barbaric conditions still found in psychiatric facilities today, the AJC reported that at the end of her last visit to Sarah at the hospital, Sarah’s grandmother “heard a loud, prolonged scream from behind the locked door to Sarah’s unit. A hospital employee explained that a patient was being restrained.” According to Dr. Bernard Aarons, former director of the Center for Mental Health Services, restraint deaths by mental health staff could result in as much as 150 deaths a year.

Due to exposure of these needless and tragic abuses, federal regulations in the United States now prohibit the use of physical and chemical restraints to coerce or discipline psychiatric patients. However, with government-funded psychiatric institutions lacking independent oversight, deaths, rapes and abuses occurring in the facilities routinely go uninvestigated and unpunished. For more information on child deaths resulting from psychiatric "treatment," read The Silent Death of America's Children, a publication by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, or click here to learn more about violent and lethal restraints in psychiatric facilities.

====
The above is one more example of why psychiatry is a failure that should be abolished. There are better ways to treat people who are mentally frail and in need of compassionate help. Check out alternative mental health.com .

A medical evaluation field manual was created to help psychiatrists know what medical tests to perform when a person is so deranged that involuntary commitment is imminent. This field manual was created out of research which found that 40% of those people institutionalized had a untreated genuine medical illness that was causing or significantly contributing to the mental illness they had been labeled with.

Every County in America had a "Department of Mental Health". Have you ever heard of a "Department of Diabetes"? or a "Department of Heart Disease"? No and you never will. Psychiatry and the rest of the mental health industry has pushed to have patients forced to accept their treatment coupled with a reliable funding source... namely our tax dollars.

Fraud in the mental health field is not an isolated incident. Dr. Seltzer, M.D. is a psychiatrist who wrote about his experience as a fraud investigator in the Psychiatric Times Vol. XIII Issue 4

He writes: "For mental health providers to get reimbursed from Medicaid, patients had to be diagnosed with a major psychiatric illness, which then qualified them to apply for food stamps, SSD, SSI, free prescriptions and free medical and psychiatric care. Once they received Medicaid benefits patients also were eligible for disability. If they were well enough to work, they couldn't get free psychiatric care.

Thus, the psychiatry provider develops a strong self-interest to approve people for disability, and "patients" who are interested in taking the system for some money learn how to act seriously mentally ill.

It soon became very evident to me that many of my patients could work. One of my patients was on disability for depression. He was taking 20 credit hours at two different colleges, and denied any depressive symptoms.

"Look, Doc," he told me, "I'll get off welfare next year when I get my degree. I'll have to. I have a good job lined up as a nurse."

When I refused to sign his disability papers (he wanted food stamps on top of SSI), the clinic administrator spoke to me.

"I know some people shouldn't be here, but we don't get paid unless they are disabled. If you don't sign, the medical director just signs them off," he said.

The above is another example of an industry which seeks to keep its patients under control for the benefit of the psychiatrist, not the patient.

To learn more about the work of Citizens Commission on Human Rights or Dr. Karl Hoffower, click here for CCHR or here for Dr.Karl's myspace page

Does real illness cause Psychiatric Symptoms?

People sometimes ask me, "Don't you believe mental illness is real?" My response? Psychiatrists themselves admit there is no illness in "mental illness". Now does someone need help who is wrapping their head in tin-foil, screaming aliens are beaming microwaves into their head? Of course, but putting them under the authority of psychiatry is not the way to help them

If you have only seen by a psychiatrist, you weren't diagnosed. You were labeled by one of the lowest scoring medical students in the US. That isn't just a funny joke, it is the truth. Psychiatrists score the lowest compared to other physicians. They scored lower on United States Medical Licensing Examinations than any other type of medical doctor.

Diagnosis is a method of deciding what illness or injury you have that is different and separate form any other illness, disease or injury. Psychiatrists choose a label out of their own book, the DSM. This label was voted into existence by a show of hands at the annual convention of psychiatrists. it wasn't as if a real doctor "discovered" a new disease. Nope just...all of you guys think this is a good label? Raise your hand!!

Now to the title of this blog, does real illness cause mental duress and wierd behavior? The answer is yes and the psychiatrists have known about this for decades. Yet time after time a study exposes the fact that many people have a genuine, real and treatable medical illness that is causing or greatly worsening their mental state but are only getting psychiatric drugs. I've linked two of the 5 I found with a few hours searching.

Here is the conclusion of one study, " Active and important physical disorders are common among patients admitted to psychiatric inpatient units. Some patients' mental symptoms are caused or exacerbated by undiagnosed medical conditions. Additional research is needed to define cost-effective medical evaluation methods for patients in this setting and to devise ways to convince program administrators and staff to implement them".
Psychiatr Serv 53:1623-1625, December 2002
Medical Disorders Among Patients Admitted to a Public-Sector Psychiatric Inpatient Unit Lorrin M. Koran, M.D.,

Hosp Community Psychiatry 35:1151-1152, November 1984
© 1984 American Psychiatric Association

Mobile Medical Screening Teams for Public Programs
Lorrin M. Koran M.D.et al
"The high prevalence of previously undetected, important physical disease in mentally disordered patients argues strongly for medical screening of this population".

MY POINT? Go see a regular medical doctor and get a full and searching physical exam if someone is acting strange or saying weird things. Chances are they have an unusual manifestation of a real and actual disease.

Dr. Karl Hoffower
President, South Bay Chapter
Citizens Commission on Human Rights

Government Accountability - San Jose's Sunshine Reform Taskforce

Due to overwhelming pressure and the fact that San Jose's City business was occurring in the dark. The San Jose City Council created the Sunshine Reform Task Force (SRTF)

I serve as the Non-profit representative on the task force. My name was literally chosen out of a hat by the City Clerk, Lee Price.

I was very honored when City Council member, Linda LeZotte asked if I would be willing for her to submit my name into the pool of potential members.

I found out I was chosen when I got numerous emails and a few voice mails congratulating me. I think it took 3 or 4 emails before someone actually mentioned what they were congratulating me for.

It has been quite a learning curve for me, but one I truly cherish.

Essentially being raised in San Jose my whole life. I never realized just how big, powerful and widespread our city has become. It is unfortunate that we need a SRTF. But I am so glad that our City Council had the guts to make this a reality.

You can watch the meetings live via webcast or take a look at past meetings here.

I will keep you up to date on what we are going to be delivering to the new Mayor and City Council to help make San Jose a great city for all of us.

Dr. Karl Hoffower

Podcast with Dr Karl

I taped a podcast with Doc Wong for his New Civilization podcast site. He has lost a great interviews. You can download my podcast directly by clicking here.

Hope you like it.

Dr. Karl Hoffower


look here to - http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podcasts/17786

http://www.newcivilizationpodcast.org/

Mother sues Santa Clara County CPS for $400 million billing fraud

A few websites are publicizing an erroneous story about the $400 million fraud lawsuit filed against Santa Clara County. An innocent mother had her children removed by corrupt Social Workers. She got her kids back as soon as a Judge was seen. Later it was discovered that Santa Clara County's Department of Family and Children Services had submitted fraudulent bills on her case to the CA State and Federal Governments. The bills state Santa Clara County removed and processed more children than the mother had ever given birth to. Submitting bills for more work than you have done is fraud, pure and simple. County employees must be held to the same code of conduct as the average citizen.

When I found out about this lawsuit I helped write a press release to alert the public about this fraud. Late in the evening when CCHR South Bay sent out the press release, a very tired and ill reporter with the Bay City News Wire wrote a story about the lawsuit. She unfortunately made a mistake and did not correctly name who had filed the lawsuit.

When informed of the error, the Bay City News Wire wrote a correction. The San Jose Mercury News, CBS-KPIX TV, ABC-KGO TV, FOX KTVU TV and other media who carried the story replaced the news story with the corrected version that rightly names Attorney Doug Linde and this mother as the parties who filed the lawsuit.

You can read all about it below.

Dr. Karl Hoffower

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Fraud Investigation Against Department of Children and Family Services of Santa Clara County

The Linde Law Firm has filed a lawsuit, based upon specific evidence, alleging a pattern and practice by the Department of Children and Family Services of Santa Clara County of increasing its funding by setting up accounts for fictional children and seeking reimbursement from Plaintiffs the State of California and the United States of America for purported services on their behalf. Of course, no services are performed on behalf of these fictional children and all bills submitted in their regard are false claims.

A copy of the Complaint may be viewed here (PDF 143KB).

If your children have been taken and/or returned by the Santa Clara Department of Social Services, and you would like to assist in the investigation of these allegations, please provide the information indicated below in an email.

• Full name
• Address
• Telephone Number
• E-mail

Please e-mail us the above contact information.

Vested Mental Health Interests Under Attack - Texas Lawsuit

Lawsuit says drug companies conned state

By MARK HORVIT

Star-Telegram staff writer

A recently unsealed lawsuit accuses Johnson & Johnson and related companies, including Janssen Pharmaceutical, of conning the state of Texas into spending millions of dollars on costly psychiatric drugs.

The suit targets a controversial state program that instructs doctors at state-funded healthcare facilities about which medicines to prescribe for a variety of mental illnesses.

The suit was filed in 2004 in Travis County by Allen Jones, a former employee of the Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General who investigated drug companies' ties to his state's officials. In the process, he learned of allegations related to Texas. The Texas attorney general's office has joined the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was sealed until late Friday while the attorney general's office looked into the case. The suit seeks damages that would amount to millions of dollars.

Brand-name expenses

While the suit does not name a "state mental health program decision-maker" who it alleges received payments and other benefits, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission confirmed that the lawsuit refers to Dr. Steven Shon, who managed the program. Shon took more than 80 trips throughout the country and abroad to promote it, with his expenses often underwritten by drug companies.

Shon, who left the Department of State Health Services this fall while the investigation was ongoing, said he has not received money from drug companies in connection with his work for the state. Money paid for his travel expenses or to reimburse taxpayers for his time away from the office, he said.

"These assertions are really ridiculous," he said.

However, Shon said he received a few thousand dollars from Janssen several years ago for consulting work unrelated to his state job. He said he got approval from the department's legal staff, but commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said the agency was unaware of payments and would not have approved them.

The lawsuit alleges that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries misled state officials about the benefits of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, including promoting it for treating children when the drug had not been federally approved for such use. The company's influence led the state to purchase the expensive brand-name drug instead of cheaper generic alternatives, according to the lawsuit. The result, it alleges, was that the state paid excessive amounts in claims for Medicaid, which covers medical costs for low-income people.

Spokesmen for Janssen and the attorney general's office declined to comment Tuesday.

Drug-company donations

A major portion of the lawsuit focuses on the Texas Medication Algorithm Project, which Shon coordinated. That program offers a series of treatment plans, or algorithms, for various mental illnesses, including which drugs to use. In many cases, the plans recommend the newest drugs, which are the most expensive and are not available in generic form. The plan allows doctors to deviate from the recommendations if they have sound reasons to do so, state officials say.

Supporters of the algorithms say that in many cases, the newer drugs are more effective than their older counterparts and can have fewer debilitating side effects. But many of the newer drugs have come under increasing scrutiny from federal regulators, including warnings that they can increase the risk of suicidal behavior or can lead to illnesses such as diabetes.

Such drugs generate much income for pharmaceutical companies. In a recent three-year period, more than $190 million was paid in Texas for outpatient Medicaid claims for Risperdal alone, according to the state Health and Human Services Commission. During those same years -- 2002 to 2005 -- almost $700 million was spent on all antipsychotic medications combined. That does not include care for those who are in state institutions.

Drug companies, including Janssen, gave the state more than $1 million to help promote the plan. And the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, established by the founder of Janssen parent company Johnson & Johnson, gave $2 million. A company spokesman previously said the foundation is independent of the company.

The exact amount donated by the companies remains unclear. Shon has acknowledged that his agency did not always seek required approval from the department's governing board before accepting donations.

Forced out

Shon left his job with the state in October. Goodman would not say why Shon left but confirmed that department officials had been notified of the attorney general's investigation before his departure. In a memo provided to the Star-Telegram by the commission, the department's acting commissioner informed Shon that he was being terminated "effective immediately." No reason was given.

But Shon said he was given the option of resigning or being terminated, and he chose to leave. He said he was told that "the direction I was going in was not the direction the department was going in." He added that he believes that the pressure of the investigation played a role.

Shon said that in his role as coordinator of the project, he did not make decisions about which drugs should be recommended. Those were made by a panel of experts, he said.

He was not the only state official to make trips to promote the algorithms in various states and countries, including Italy, Japan and South Korea. Various versions of the Texas program have been adopted in more than a dozen states.

Goodman said the department still supports the algorithm program. A number of experts believe they are valid, she said.

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