Monday Morning Cute Fix: I Can’t Stop Watching This
liz | 10:08 AM | cute fix
This Woman Is Brilliant
How can you get off that Klonopin you’re tired of? Listen to Dr. Heather Ashton. She knows.
liz | 10:53 AM | meds
Fiscal Suicide
No, I’m not referring to what our country is doing to itself. I’m referring to the recent spate of suicides by people either in the financial industry or impacted by financial disaster. One such death was noticed by a TTWS reader, whose name I won’t use just in case he doesn’t want me to, who wrote:
Liz — For what it’s worth, thought you might find this interesting. Once again, the reaction to a high-profile suicide focuses solely on the life events that supposedly caused it. I’m not saying the job pressures didn’t play some role, maybe a very big one, in David Kellermann’s death. But the total focus on external events doesn’t exactly help anti-suicide efforts, especially given the percentage of suicide victims who suffer from mental disorders of one kind or another (I’ve seen numbers as high as 90 percent). Could the troubles at Freddie Mac have triggered an underlying mood disorder? Certainly. Could those troubles alone have led to this suicide? It’s possible, but it seems unlikely. Personally, I don’t necessarily mind some focus on his life’s problems, but I’d really like to see some mention of the possibility of underlying emotional problems. Why would this one person, among everyone dealing with this kind of recession-driven strain, kill himself, & leave a grieving family?
I hear what this reader is saying, but I actually do think the stress can prompt an otherwise “healthy” person to “snap” — and I use these words advisedly because I know they can be misused. Here’s an interesting reflection on the issue by Stephanie Desmon and Scott Calvert of the Baltimore Sun:
As economic crisis goes on, financial fears can push some over the edge
Abuse of Mentally Ill Man
I often look on my iPhone at the AP’s Mobile News, which as a section called “Wacky.” Much of the time the stories are about a wild pig who bit a woman’s leg in her backyard, or a moose who made love to a lawn ornament. But yesterday I saw one that blew me away. The mobile version was brief, but here’s the full story:
Judge orders defendant’s mouth taped shut
POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — An eastern Idaho judge who lost patience with the disruptive behavior of a defendant ordered court officials to tape the man’s mouth shut with duct tape during a court hearing. The unusual move was ordered by 6th District Judge Peter D. McDermott during a probation violation hearing for Nicklas Frasure, 23.
Frasure was convicted of felony theft in 2008, but the judge retained jurisdiction for sentencing depending on Frasure’s response to treatment. In October, Frasure was released from a state mental hospital in Blackfoot.
He is accused of violating his probation by not taking prescribed medication.
During the hearing, witnesses told the judge that Frasure’s behavior had been strange and erratic since his release from the state hospital. They also said he has not been taking his medication and has been consuming alcohol, factors also contributing to mood and emotional swings.
Probation officer Julie Guiberson testified that Frasure is a threat to himself and others.
During Monday’s hearing, Frasure interrupted the proceedings with repeated verbal outbursts and unusual behavior and ignored several orders from McDermott to restrain himself. After another series of outbursts, McDermott told bailiffs to silence Frasure.
The bailiffs then found a roll of duct tape, tore off a piece and put it over Frasure’s mouth, according to the Idaho State Journal.
“He’s obviously not mentally competent,” Frasure’s lawyer Kent Reynolds told the judge.
Earlier in the hearing, Reynolds had asked the judge to order a mental competency evaluation for Frasure.
McDermott said he would consider the request, but did not immediately rule on it. McDermott placed Frasure under the jurisdiction of the Idaho Department of Correction. He is being held in the Bannock County Jail awaiting transfer to a state facility.
…
The American Civil Liberties of Idaho refrained, for now, from commenting on McDermott’s decision to silence Frasure.
“The ACLU of Idaho cannot comment on the specifics of this case,” said Monica Hopkins, executive director. “However, on one hand judges have a right to keep order in their court and on the other the defendants have a right to assist in their own defense and be present at trial. Our hope is that judges employ the least restrictive manner of keeping order in their courts.”
Emphases mine. Wacky!
liz | 1:15 PM | criminal justice system
Voice Awards Deadline Approaches
Thanks to Fran Hazam for sending this along:
Deadline for Mental Health Consumer Nominations Fast Approaching
Don’t forget to join with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to recognize mental health consumers who give a voice to people with mental health problems. The Voice Awards honor consumer leaders who inspire us with their contributions toward promoting the social inclusion and recovery of people with mental health problems.
If you know of mental health consumers who have led efforts to promote social inclusion, demonstrated that recovery is real and possible, and made a positive impact on their workplaces, communities, and/or schools, there is still time to nominate them for a 2009 Consumer Leadership Voice Award. Additional consideration will be given to nominees who have made a positive impact within special populations such as culturally diverse groups, young adults ages 18 to 25, and those who have worked to prevent suicide.
Nominations are open to anyone, are free, and there is no limit to the number an individual can submit.
The Voice Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in Los Angeles on October 14, 2009. Please visit www.voiceawards.samhsa.gov for more information about the Voice Awards and updates on this exciting event.
If anyone wants to nominate me, that’s great, ’cause there’s nothing I love more than having an excuse to spend time in a hotel room with cable TV while I eat a box of Hot Tamales.
Go here to nominate people.
liz | 10:08 AM | Uncategorized
Funny or Offensive?: Psycho Donuts
Okay, I’ve been restraining myself from getting involved in this debate, though frankly I have no idea why. At any rate, here’s the deal: There’s a donut shop in Northern California that takes an insane asylum as its theme. There’s a padded cell, a “nutcase” art display, and strange videos like this one:
Stigma watchers are not amused. In an open letter to Psycho Donuts, the National Stigma Clearinghouse’s Jean Arnold wrote:
In this bring-the-kids mecca of mega-calories, children can pose in a padded cell encased in a straitjacket. … What’s endearing about a straitjacket? Why do straitjackets, a symbol of force and humiliation, appeal to advertisers and product marketers? We can’t answer that question, but the National Stigma Clearinghouse archive shows straitjackets have been used as a marketing tool for many years. Twice in our experience, the marketers have tangled with Human Rights commissioners.
Although straitjackets are now mainly found on bondage websites and in S&M shops, for decades they caused death and suffering to untold thousands of mental institution inmates. Children are especially vulnerable, according to research by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis in 1998, accounting for 25% of the deaths. That study brought calls for nationwide reform.
… Unlike other powerful symbols of oppression (a lynching noose for example), it is sad that psychiatric medications, straitjackets, and padded cells are still used to amuse the general public. We respectfully ask Psycho Donuts to rethink the theme of their new store.
That’s unlikely. In an article in the Silicon Valley Mercury News, the store’s owner is quoted:
“I think that the community out there has taken what we’re doing and has turned it into something that was never our intention. When we’re talking about Psycho Donuts, we’re not referring to people; we’re referring to doughnuts,” Zweigoron said. “Our intention in all of this was never to hurt anyone. It was simply as a fun type of thing, adding an interesting and unique twist to selling doughnuts.
“There’s a Psycho Mouse ride at Great America, and there’s El Pollo Loco. At what point do you cross the line?” … “I find that the community at large is not offended by what we’re doing.”
But NARSAD disagrees. Below, a letter to the owners from the esteemed organization:
The website also has really good games on it, like Asteroids, which I just wasted 15 minutes on, and a virtual Etch-a-Sketch. The gallery has “weird” art, which is a stupid idea, but some of the artists seem vaguely talented. I like this work called The Lonely Satellite by Nicolas Caesar.
liz | 10:01 AM | Funny or Offensive?, hospitals / hospitalization, suicide
Good Morning America, Et Al: Mental Illness Made Her Do It?
Melissa Huckaby is charged with murdering and raping Sandra Cantu, a little girl in her care. In an interview with Good Morning America, her ex-husband is asked, insistently, about his ex-wife’s mental health. Check out the video of the interview here.
I know it’s valid to ask about her mental state, but the way it’s done in this instance makes me uncomfortable. I notice the Australian coverage of the case doesn’t mention the possibility of mental illness, which is nice, considering she hasn’t even been proven guilty yet.
Perhaps I’m being overly sensitive, but I resent the persistent connection between violence and mental illness that’s played up in the press. I mean, there’s a whole article here about why the insanity plea in this case probably won’t work. It begins:
The fact that the woman charged with killing Sandra Cantu was recently mentally evaluated through the San Joaquin court system raises the question of whether she might use an insanity defense if the case goes to trial.
Emphasis mine, because this kind of speculation is ridiculous! It’s followed up by:
“She might be extraordinarily mentally ill but still legally responsible for the crime,” said Loyola University criminal law professor Laurie Levenson.
Or she might frickin’ not be. WE DON’T KNOW YET. All this article — and coverage like it — does is foster the linkage between mental illness and crime. And the funny thing? Here’s all we know for sure: Her family may have said that she might have been depressed after her divorce.
Eff you, media world. I’m sick of it.
liz | 1:40 PM | criminal justice system, depression, media, stigma
Amazing Animal Feats!
Last night I went to the laundry room in my apartment building, and when I got back, I saw this note posted on my door:
My Chihuahua never ceases to amaze me. She seems really dim, but it’s all an act. I guess she had to chew the bottom of the paper to get it out of the notebook.
liz | 12:03 PM | cute fix
Grandfathering ECT Machines
I only had one grandfather as I grew up (the other was dead before I was born — a good thing, I was told), and he wasn’t much good to me. Mainly, he ignored me. I would see commercials on TV about warm, loving grandfathers and I would think, What the hell went wrong? That didn’t look at all familiar.
But the kind of grandfather I speak of now is different. It’s about ECT machines — the little zappity zappers they use to jolt you with electricity to make you convulse so that you can have relief from your symptoms for, at best, a few weeks, but be left with side effects that can last years. And this isn’t just my opinion on it; the industry itself concedes that benefits are not long-term, but negative effects can be.
The best, most comprehensive book on this matter is by Linda Andre, long-time advocate and thorn in the side of ECT manufacturers and practitioners. It should be noted that for years she was dismissed as something of a kook, but she never stopped working to have the practice reassessed. This year she had a book, Doctors of Deception: What They Don’t Want You to Know About Shock Treatment, published by Rutgers University Press, and I’m still working my way through it. I’m not aware of any other book that treats the subject so thoroughly, or indeed at all.
I’ve “known” Linda Andre for years. We’ve corresponded on and off, as I’ve written about my own experience with ECT and also subjected the industry to scrutiny. At some point I felt I was repeating myself and that it was hopeless, but Andre never gave up. Yesterday she sent me the following email:
Now: I won’t take no for an answer on this one. Have you read that the FDA is waking up and calling on the manufacturers of shock machines (and other medical devices) to submit evidence of safety and efficacy for their products? I just forwarded you one of the news items. It has been in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
The manufacturers are supposed to submit something by the end of the summer. Of course they won’t, and the FDA will just go ahead and reclassify the device as it’s always wanted to. Unless we can prevent it by public outcry!
Basically this is validating the story I just broke in the book about how the devices have never been tested, though of course the book adds the story of how patients and doctors battled over this for decades.
She’s right, of course. The machines have not been regulated because they’ve been grandfathered out of regulation, which is patently insane. This means they’ve never been approved for safety, so a machine can be as trashed and iffy as an old radio in a garage, and no one would be the wiser.
From Medpage.com:
WASHINGTON, April 9 — The FDA is finally closing a loophole that has allowed high-risk medical devices to remain on the market in the absence of clinical test data.
The agency decreed Wednesday that it would require safety and efficacy data from manufacturers of certain medical devices who, thanks to a quirk in previous regulations, never had to prove their safety or efficacy.
The devices fall into 25 categories and include automated external defibrillators, female condoms, and electroconvulsive therapy machines. Their manufacturers have until this August to submit data on these devices.
They may be required to go through the agency’s full premarket approval process as if they were entirely new products.
In 1976, the agency began requiring that new medical devices undergo a rigorous premarket approval process in which manufacturers either had to prove they were safe and effective, or show that they weren’t high-risk and therefore didn’t need such stringent review.
In this context, high-risk means that the device’s failure to function properly could lead to serious or life-threatening complications. But companies with high-risk products already on the market were allowed to keep selling them, with the understanding that eventually the agency would require them to submit the same type of data needed for newer products.
…
In the case of electroconvulsive therapy machines, for example, there are eight companies that market the devices, none of which were ever required to undergo premarket approval.
Rather, they all were cleared under the so-called 510(k) process, which automatically okays the devices if it is “substantially equivalent” to an already approved product, called a predicate device.
Since no ECT machine went through the premarket approval process, there is no predicate device. Hence, manufacturers of ECT machines must seek approval for them as if they were new to the market.
Keep your eyes peeled for more.
liz | 10:28 AM | electroshock (ECT)
You Can Feel It on Your Skin
You know how when you’re lying — even if it’s a white lie — you feel a little tense? I mean physically tense. Your muscles tighten; for me, it’s in my shoulders. If it’s a bigger lie, or an ethical compromise, I feel tight muscles and a coating on my skin, something slimy and creepy.
This is why it’s better to do the right thing — because your body (told by your brain, of course) feels good. Here’s what I mean: Without getting into too much detail, an opportunity came my way to be part of a documentary. It would have been fun, and probably good for my career, whatever that means. But then I found out the funding for the doc would be coming from Astra Zeneca, with a sponsored by Seroquel button or something Though the producers swore up and down that the funding had nothing to do with content, I said I couldn’t do it if AZ or Seroquel were involved.
The funny thing is that as soon as I sent that email, my entire body relaxed and I felt elated, briefly. I just knew I was doing the right thing by turning down the opportunity, despite the fact that I very much respect the makers of the documentary and I would’ve enjoyed doing it.
I just felt like I can’t be part of an effort that promotes Seroquel — funny, I know, coming from someone who A. relies on the drug, and B. used to speak for AZ on just that topic. But times — and Big Pharma — sure do change, don’t they?
liz | 11:30 AM | BIG PHARMA
