/24-7PressRelease/ - VANCOUVER, CANADA, November 13, 2007 - Based on thousands of documented cases of psychiatric drug-induced suicide and violence, the mental health watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has launched a new public awareness campaign, "Get the Facts. Fight Back," featuring PSA's on the deadly side effects of psychiatric drugs on the nation's most vulnerable: children.
CCHR says that as far back as 1991, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the mental health industry have been aware that antidepressants can cause violence and suicide. Due to pressure from CCHR, concerned doctors, scientists and victims, the FDA held hearings into this issue but because of the vested interests of psychiatrists on the review panel with direct ties to the pharmaceutical industry, the information was buried for more than 14 years. Finally in 2004, the FDA issued its most severe warning, the black box, on all antidepressants due to the risk of suicide. The toll to the public has been great, and with an estimated 63,000 suicides attributed to antidepressants alone, there has yet to be any federal investigation of the drugs causing violence.
Eight recent school shootings by teens under the influence of psychiatric drugs, now documented by the FDA to cause suicidal behavior, mania, psychosis, hallucinations, hostility and "homicidal ideation," have resulted in 29 dead and 68 wounded. The list of school shooters on psychiatric drugs includes Jeff Weise in Red Lake, Minnesota, Eric Harris at Columbine, Colorado and Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon.
In September 2005, following confirmation that school shooter Jeff Weise was under the influence of the antidepressant Prozac, the National Foundation of Women Legislators (NFWL) urgently called for a Congressional investigation into the correlation between psychiatric drug use and school massacres. To date there has been no response to this request.
CCHR warns that despite the evidence linking psychiatric drugs to suicide and violence, psychiatrists indiscriminately prescribe the drugs to millions of children and teens based on subjective diagnoses made without any physical tests—such as blood tests, brain scans or X-rays.
The deadly drugs along with there side effects are being doled out to millions of children. CCHR's message is featured at the end of each ad for unsuspecting parents who are being pressured to administer these drugs to their children: "Get the Facts. Fight Back." CCHR says it is imperative that parents have access to information from sources other than those who stand to profit from what has become a billion dollar child drugging industry.
CCHR is an international psychiatric watchdog group 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, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.
To contact CCHR's Media Department, call 800-869-2247 or email humanrights@cchr.org.
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