November 30, 2006

Some News For TAC

We all know that the fine folks at Fuller Torrey's Treatment Advocacy Center love, love, love their database of "preventable tragedies" and have defended its integrity to me when I challenged them on some of their stats back in May, as well as calling them on their data collection methodology. When I noticed back then that their data included no information on whether mentally-ill people who had (allegedly, in some cases) committed acts of violence had been taking meds (or not) at the time of their alleged misdeeds, I asked a TAC official why they didn't do so.

"It wouldn't be possible," the TACer said. It sounded like a lazy excuse to me, since I know how simple it can be to pick up the phone and get answers, even about complex circumstances around an alleged crime (or an actual crime, too). When I pressed further, I was given this emailed blow-off:

"I appreciate your interest in assisted treatment law and our statistics. However, my time is limited and I have to put TAC's mission first - so I must sign off. Best of luck."

But then TAC basically makes the blanket assumption that the mentally-ill caught up in crimes and tragedies are off-meds. The the group uses these instances to buttress its call for forced medication of the mentally-ill. Ooops, that would be "assisted outpatient treatment."

My argument isn't that meds may or may not have made someone commit a crime (some make that argument, and recently some courts have bought such defenses in criminal cases, ie, the case of Jeff Reardon and the bad-Butrin case out here in Washington State). Instead, I just think TAC needs to be fully-honest about just how effective forced medication would be in the real world. I've spent a decade observing, in a professional sense, life on the hard streets of San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland and, most especially, Seattle. Based upon that, I can report seeing many cases of people with really nasty schizophrenia on-meds getting into all manner of gnarly tangles.

Thanks to longtime reader and encourager Moira for passing along an item that confirms my hunch about that database.

On December 25, 2005, "Nathan Cheatham shot and killed his mother in the driveway of her McLean, Va., home. He then drove 10 miles to a home in Great Falls, Va., and fired more than 50 shots that killed three other people, before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide" to quote from TAC's database of Record ID #4145, citing a sole television news report two days later.

But, according to a subsequent press account in the Fairfax Times, Cheatam was indeed on-meds at the time of his crime (maybe not the right ones, but that's beside the point). Not so hard to figure out after all in the midst of a very, very sad story.

If there is one thing I have learned as a reporter, it's that TV and radio stations usually have the thinnest accounts of the circumstances around an alleged crime. Print reporters tend to be more exhaustive in their reporting. Just a tip, guys!

I look forward to TAC correcting this entry in their database, as well as to their going back through their cases and working to determine how many people in there were on or off-meds.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at November 30, 2006 12:03 AM
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I have said it 1000 times, to professionals, and caseworkers that my daughter was fully medicated on several meds (in one case Haldol/Zyprexa combo). It is worth repeating here, that she was medicated and violent, stopped traffic by standing in the center of a 2 lane 45 mph roadway, among other things.
Once on the RIGHT meds, this stopped.
Once OUT of the hospital (was also medicated as all patients are inside psych wards, and that's a pretty violent place sometimes as well hmmm), and meeting up with case manager:
Casemanager wanted to know what her worst symtoms were and noted that her file said she has a violent history, and proceeded to give my daughter a lecture on being med-compliant.
As far as alleged and proof for data base? the police dept. has a file to back up the horrible days my daughter was over-loaded on meds and, how many times they had to pick her up. She is not a "run away" and on meds, I had to tell them over and over also. I am personally sick and tired of people (even recently a school teacher) asking me if she is taking her meds due to "being weird." NO SHIT.

She was always med compliant.

The case manager was baffled as to how to chart that, on her pre-printed standard form, there is no place to check a box violent on meds.

So she made a new statement:

"Can sometimes be violent when overly medicated on wrong medications."

There you go Seattle Mental Health , NAMI and TAC. Start the printers, cause there's a new box to check.

Posted by: Stephany at November 30, 2006 09:21 AM

For another way of interpreting some of the "stories" on E. Fuller Torrey's database, go to www.ssristories.com. This is a database of stories, mostly criminal in nature, that have appeared in the media since the launch of antidepressants. Our interpretation is that the drugs could well have been a trigger for most, if not all, of these 1100+ incidents, either because of adverse effects (including improper dosing) or abrupt withdrawal. We have highlighted details of the narrative that implicate the drug's role in the incident in the summary at the top of the link that can be reached through the date. If a drug has the potential to cause incidents like this whether administered correctly or incorrectly should it really be on the market? E. Fuller Torrey and his cronies should pay a lot more lip service to the effects of chemical dependency, withdrawal and rebound before they start promoting forced treatment. In many cases treatment worsens the "disease" far more than its natural progression ever could have. Remember many mental illnesses, even psychosis, are self limiting without drug treatment.

Posted by: Sara at November 30, 2006 11:17 AM

HI. I am new to this site, and battling memory and cognitive problems (possibly due to benzos), so please forgive any mistakes in this post. I just wanted to briefly share my own story. I used to suffer from depression, and took various SSRIs until I discovered Celexa, and it seemed to work (I say seemed to, because it took two years, and moderate depression will remit on its own without any treatment). I then discovered acupuncture, which DRASTICALLY improved my depression. (Incidentally, it can also be used for bipolar disorder, but it must be maintained, and can be quite expensive). Two years later, due to several personal problems, I detected a mild problem with my memory, and thought the depression was returning. No problem, I thought, I'll just take the Celexa again. Well, I may as well have ingested a completely different drug. I had been suicidal while off meds, but it was always just a THOUGHT. However, on my second round with Celexa it became a DRIVE. It was the difference between a satiated person saying "I could eat a little more chicken" and a starving person doing anything within their means to get the chicken. The suicidal urges the second time around would just pop up in my head, and they had to be FOUGHT AGAINST. I also had homicidal drives which I had to fight against. I am normally very passive. However, without medication, I have an occasional OCD moment where I think things like "I could just stab someone with this knife I am holding". The key word is THINK. I have never committed an act of violence in my life. As soon as the Celexa was taken away, the violent thoughts miraculously disappeared. I am not sure if you are just concerned with violence against others, but a good way to discern if a woman committed suicide due to drugs versus depression (I can't speak for other mental illnesses) is the degree of violence used in the suicide. Women without meds do not tend to commit suicide in violent ways.
O

Posted by: Rebecca at November 30, 2006 10:49 PM

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