A Critique of Bio-Psychiatry’s Use of Neuroleptics for Psychotic Disorders, Describing a Paradigm of Care Divorced from Reality and Out of Control.


The Illegitimacy of Long-Term Neuroleptic Use and the Harm it Causes
Psychiatry does not engage in medically diagnosing people, because diagnosis means finding the root cause of the disorder. Psychiatrists merely label people with diagnostic labels according to their DSM "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders". Every single mental disorder or illness in the manual is invented not discovered. Moreover, there are no blood tests, no cerebrospinal fluid tests, no brain scans of any kind to independently confirm or objectively verify a psychiatric diagnosis. No scientifically valid method is used to arrive at a psychiatric diagnosis. Mental illnesses are not demonstrable brain diseases. Mental illness is psychiatrically "diagnosed" only on the basis of what the patient says, what is said about the patient, and the patient's behaviour, none of which can be a disease. That is not what diseases are.

The Adverse Effects of Neuroleptic Use
The “side effects” of antipsychotics can include a lack of motivation, indifference, flattening of affect, and blunting of emotions, etc. Neuroleptics render people indifferent, unmotivated, depressed, apathetic, docile, and inflict mental suffering (torture). Neuroleptics dampen down thought processes. It is a demonstrable fact, verifiably accurate, that neuroleptics cause learning disabilities and deficits, such as impairment of short-term memory, attention, the ability to concentrate, and to learn. Neuroleptics impair one’s abilities to learn, study, and perform on tests. Neuroleptic use can induce Neuroleptic-Induced Deficit Disorder, causing “negative symptoms (of schizophrenia)”, such as disorder of diminished motivation, blunting of affect, apathy and indifference, emotional disengagement from the world, lack of drive, initiative and preoccupation, impairing one’s ability to think, concentrate, and learn.


On the Chemical Imbalance Hoax
Neuroleptics, so called "anti-psychotics," do not exert their therapeutic (pharmacological target) effects on psychosis (positive symptoms of schizophrenia) by rectifying a brain abnormality, such as a chemical imbalance, nor do they target any physiological process that produces the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, but rather neuroleptics suppress symptoms of schizophrenia, by a profound slowing up and dampening down of mental processes by putting a brake on dopaminergic neurotransmission - they arrest natural brain function. Neuroleptics are major tranquilizers, neurological inhibitors, suppressants, and depressants of the central nervous system. Neuroleptic means "nerve seizing".

Neuroleptics work to treat psychosis by disrupting normal brain function in the reward (mesolimbic) pathway, and in the mesocortical pathway - connecting to the frontal lobe (the part of our brain that makes us human). Neuroleptics do not exert their psychosis-treating effects by targeting an underlying disease process or brain abnormality, such as a chemical imbalance, i.e. dysregulation of the dopaminergic neurotransmitter system = overactivity of dopamine neurotransmission in the 4 dopaminergic pathways: mesolimbic (reward), mesocortical (humanity), nigrostriatal (target of antiparkinsonian agents), and tuberoinfundibular (hormones, i.e. prolactin).

Neuroleptics seize the central nervous system, dampen down dopaminergic brain activity, suppress function by occupying 70% - 90% dopamine D2 receptors. Neuroleptics are first and foremost psychoactive drugs. Their psychoactive effects (their global alterations of physical and mental states) treat symptoms of schizophrenia. Neuroleptics are not antidotes for psychosis.

Neuroleptics are not disease-specific treatments in schizophrenia, but rather mind-altering agents producing such mental and physical alterations that suppress symptoms (superimpose upon the symptoms that they are treating).

Neuroleptic effects (target and side effects) may be useful in treating (dampening down) psychotic states, but that depends on the context. They do not exert their therapeutic effects by reversing or rectifying a disease process, nor are they curative agents: they cannot cure psychosis, nor prevent, nor decrease the probability that one will become ill or lessen the severity of the illness (quite to the contrary!).

The chemical imbalance theory of schizophrenia carries no credibility in the modern psychiatric research establishment. The researchers do not find there to be a lesion (pathology) in the dopamine neurotransmitter system that is the primary cause of schizophrenia. The chemical imbalance theory of schizophrenia is a hoax!

Relevant Literature
Does treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic medications eliminate or reduce psychosis? A 20-year multi-follow-up study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25066792/
A 20-Year Multi-Followup Longitudinal Study Assessing Whether Antipsychotic Medications Contribute to Work Functioning in Schizophrenia https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5661946/
The influence of chronic exposure to antipsychotic medications on brain size before and after tissue fixation: a comparison of haloperidol and olanzapine in macaque monkeys https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15756305/
Maintenance antipsychotic therapy: is the cure worse than the disease? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2021/
Magic Bullets for Mental Disorders: The Emergence of the Concept of an “Antipsychotic” Drug https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4118918/

Beneficence, Parens Patriae, & Police Power
Source [6]. https://www.counseling.org/docs/ethi...ners_guide.pdf

Kitchener’s Moral Principles
  • Autonomy – Respect freedom of clients to make their own decisions and choices. Do not restrict choices and take away options
  • Non-maleficence – Not harming the client neither intentionally nor actively
  • Beneficence – Promoting good health & wellness in the client
  • Justice – Treating people fairly and with respect
  • Fidelity – Loyal towards clients, honouring commitments & obligations



Four Dimensions of Ethical Principles
  • Possessing adequate knowledge, skills, and judgment to produce effective interventions
  • Respecting the dignity, freedom, and rights of the client
  • Using power inherent in the councillor’s role judiciously & responsibly
  • Conducting oneself in such a way that promotes the public’s confidence in the profession



Jim Gottstein’s lecture on YouTube titled
“A Human Rights Lawyer’s Perspective on the Mental Health System”

Source [7]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Fb0F2RrEo
  • Neuroleptics cause massive amounts of harm
  • Neuroleptics are substantially responsible for cutting life span by over 25 years
  • Neuroleptics are substantially responsible to cutting the recovery rate at least in half
  • Neuroleptics are substantially the cause of the 6-fold increase in mental illness disability rate
  • Neuroleptics are hugely and unnecessarily expensive to the government
  • Neuroleptics inflict tremendous unnecessary human toll
  • Neuroleptics are life ruining social death penalty
  • Neuroleptics are intolerable and ineffective treatment



Principles that must govern the interpretation of law in this area:
  • First do no harm to the person
  • Second do good for the person
  • Respect the freedom of choice and the right to self-determination
  • Right to develop one’s own personality
  • Respect the person’s autonomy and authority over his own being
  • Freedom from force, fraud, violence, exploitation, and abuse
  • No structural or institutionalized discrimination or harassment


Source [8]. Jim Gottstein - Human Rights Lawyer (Mental Health Law)
psychrights.org/Education/PsychOut2011/PsychOut2011IllegalPsychiatry.pdf

The Illegality of Forced Drugging
Psychiatric Imprisonment and Forced Treatment are Illegal in Practice:
  • Violations of Procedural Due Process
  • Violations of Substantive Due Process
  • Violations of Right to Effective Counsel


Procedural Due Process:
  • Meaningful notice
  • Meaningful opportunity to be heard (and have a neutral decision maker)


Substantive Due Process:
  • State action furthers a compelling state interest
  • State action is the least restrictive or intrusive alternative
  • Involuntary commitment and medication are deprivations of fundamental rights to liberty and security, and in the case of neuroleptics, the right to life is also engaged because it is demonstrable that neuroleptics cause a 25-year earlier death compared to the general population - thus, state action imposes a heightened risk of death!


Sources of Forced Drugging Authority
Parens Patriae = We are from the government and here to help
Police Power = Protection from harm (self or others)

When Non--Emergency Forced Drugging is Constitutionally Permissible
  • Court must conclude the following:
  • Important governmental interests are at stake.
  • Will significantly further those state interests substantially unlikely to have side effects that will interfere significantly (with achieving state interests),
  • Necessary to further those interests. The court must find that any alternative, less intrusive treatments are unlikely to achieve substantially the same results,
  • Medically appropriate, i.e., in the patient's best medical interest in light of his medical condition. The specific kinds of drugs at issue may matter of his medical condition. Different kinds of antipsychotic drugs may produce different side effects and enjoy different levels of success.


The Illegality of Police Power Forced Drugging
The State Must Prove:
  • The treatment is in the person's best interests
  • No less restrictive or intrusive alternative is available
  • If alternative to drugging is feasible, must be provided and the person let go
  • Failure to provide evidence sufficiently in advance is a due process violation
  • Petition must include detailed best interests’ allegations



Do even 10% of Psychiatric Inmates Meet Commitment Criteria?
The best instrument-based predictions of violence only achieve 50% reliability, which does not satisfy "clear and convincing" standard of evidence, or preponderance of evidence for that matter.

Testimonial Dishonesty (Perjury)
Psychiatrists (as expert witnesses) show a high propensity to purposefully distort their testimony in order to achieve desired ends.
- Dishonest testimony is often regularly and unthinkingly accepted.
- Statutory and case law standards are frequently subverted
- Unbeatable barriers are raised to ensure that the allegedly "therapeutically correct" social end is met.
The mental health system often deprives individuals of liberty disingenuously and upon cases that have no relationship to the law.

The “Side Effects” of Neuroleptic Drugging

Neuroleptics block dopamine receptors. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in attention, learning, mood, pleasure, sex, and movement. Dopamine is the brain's pleasure and reward chemical. Blocking dopamine receptors results in a reduction of the brain's ability to produce pleasurable effects from food, music, drugs, and sex, thereby significantly reducing the quality of life of the patient. People lose their zest for life on antipsychotics and become indifferent, apathetic, unmotivated, depressed and anhedonic.

Neuroleptics cause flattening of affect, indifference and apathy, blunting of emotions, sexual dysfunction (dysfunctions in libido, arousal, and orgasm), lack of motivation, cognitive impairment, anhedonia (lack of pleasure), depression, negative symptoms of schizophrenia, difficulty concentrating, lack of initiative, attention deficit, lethargy, bradykinesia (slowing down of movements and speech), impoverishment of thought and speech. Furthermore, antipsychotics cause mental and physical stagnancy, emotional suppression and emptiness, lethargy, indifference, as well as affective flattening (numbing of emotions). Neuroleptics render people indifferent, unmotivated, apathetic, and docile and inflict mental suffering (torture), cause emotional numbing, apathy, slowing down of thought tempo, causing akathisia (torturous inner restlessness). Neuroleptics further raise prolactin levels which also contributes to sexual dysfunction in addition to the dopamine blockade.

Iatrogenic (Treatment-Induced) Complications from Long-Term Neuroleptic Drugging
Neuroleptics cause upregulation of dopamine receptors. Antipsychotics super-sensitize the brain to dopamine. This defect increases the risk of psychosis Antipsychotics block dopamine receptors. The brain, being a neuroplastic organ, goes through compensatory adaptation by manufacturing 40% or more dopamine receptors. These extra receptors sensitize the brain to dopamine. Thus, when the antipsychotic is withdrawn, the brain ends up being in a high dopaminergic state, which makes people vulnerable for relapse. This phenomenon is called "Supersensitivity psychosis" and it is induced by the antipsychotic drugs.
Antipsychotics are psychoactive drugs. In order to avoid misusing antipsychotics, one needs to know the full range of
  • mental effects,
  • physical effects,
  • short term effects,
  • long term effects, and
  • withdrawal effects.


Neuroleptics induce a deficit syndrome which was characterized by Pierre Deniker, the father of modern psychopharmacology:
"The apparent indifference, or delay in response to, external stimuli, the emotional and affective neutrality, the decrease in both initiative and preoccupation without the alteration of conscious awareness constitute a psychic syndrome due to treatment."
Neuroleptic treatment forced against one’s will is humiliating and demoralizing. Neuroleptics produce docility with a chemical lobotomizing disruption of the brain. Neuroleptics induce Parkinson's disease.

Reasons Why One Should Avoid Preventative or Maintenance Use of Neuroleptics
  • Neuroleptics are chemical lobotomizers
  • Neuroleptics cause brain shrinkage: atrophy of the frontal lobes.
  • Neuroleptics are chemical restraints acting like chemical straightjackets
  • Neuroleptics cause metabolic dysfunction such as diabetes
  • Long term neuroleptic use causes the brain to manufacture 40% or more dopamine D2 receptors in response to the neuroleptics blocking 70%-90% of dopamine D2 receptors. The extra receptors sensitize the brain to dopamine. This supersensitivity to dopamine causes withdrawal-related psychosis due the discontinuation of the neuroleptic after long-term usage. Therefore, a gradual withdrawal / discontinuation regime is superior to maintained long term treatment with neuroleptics. People maintained on neuroleptics have worse outcomes than those who only use neuroleptics acutely.
  • Antipsychotics shrink the brain. They cause atrophy of the frontal lobes which are the parts of the human brain that make us human. Furthermore, antipsychotics cause prefrontal connectivity reductions. A reduced number of connections in the prefrontal cortex may translate to reductions in complex thinking, planning, attention, emotional regulation, judgment, and memory.


[Source 9: Mental Health Daily - Antipsychotics and Brain Damage: Shrinkage & Volume Loss:
https://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/0...e-volume-loss/ ]

Disease Model vs. Drug Model
of Neuroleptic ("Antipsychotic" Drug) Action
I adhere to the drug centered model of antipsychotic drug action because that is where the evidence leads. According to the disease centered model neuroleptics are thought to exert their therapeutic effects by fixing an underlying brain abnormality such as a "chemical imbalance" i.e. dopamine dysregulation: i.e. too much dopaminergic activity in the mesolimbic (reward) pathway. This imbalance is thought to be the cause of the illness but has not yet been demonstrated to be the case.

How Do Antipsychotics Work?
There are two views of antipsychotic drug action in psychiatry:
The Disease-Centered view = Antipsychotics work by normalizing neurotransmitter function. Therapeutic effects are thought to derive from the actions of the antipsychotic on an underlying disease process; like a chemical imbalance.

The Drug-Centered view = Antipsychotics work by altering normal neurotransmitter function. It is the altered mental state that suppresses psychiatric disorders from manifesting, but this is not the same as reversing an underlying abnormality.
  • Antipsychotics do not target an underlying biological abnormality in a very sophisticated way:
  • Antipsychotics alter the mental state of the person. They make people quieter and more placid, which can be useful, but this depends on the context.
  • Antipsychotics reduce and restrict people's physical and mental activity, and cause a blunting or flattening of affect and emotions, etc.
  • These psychoactive (drug-induced) effects may be useful for treating certain psychiatric disorders, but that is not the same as reversing a biological abnormality or disease processes.
  • Antipsychotics do not reverse an underlying disease process.
  • Antipsychotics are not antidotes for psychosis.
  • Antipsychotics cannot cure or prevent psychosis.
  • Antipsychotics are not curative agents: they merely treat symptoms.
  • Antipsychotics merely reduce positive symptoms of active psychiatric illness in the short term: < 6 weeks; that is why they are permitted by law to be prescribed as prescription drugs, but there is no (sufficient) evidence for the long-term efficacy of antipsychotics.


Dr. Joanna Moncrieff Exposes the Chemical Imbalance Hoax In the Following Video Clip!
Source [10]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biEi8s_K5FU

Dr. Moncrieff adheres to the drug-centered view of psychiatric drug action (as opposed to the disease-centered view).Dr. Moncrieff has written critiques of the dopamine theory of schizophrenia and psychosis. She says there is insufficient evidence to conclude too much dopamine is the cause of psychosis. She is a critic of psychiatry and a practicing psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry. Dr. Moncrieff has written the following books about psychiatry: "A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs" (which I have read), "The Myth of the Chemical Cure", and "The Bitterest Pills (an entire book about antipsychotics which I own)."

Dr. Moncrieff explains that antipsychotics do not reverse an underlying abnormality and that the therapeutic effects of the antipsychotics are derived not from their rectification of a chemical imbalance, but rather by inducing a state of neurological suppression which treats symptoms of some psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or psychosis.

Dr. Moncrieff explains that antipsychotics are not antidotes for psychosis; they are not curative agents, but merely treatments.
Moreover, Dr. Moncrieff suggests that psychiatric drugs ought to be renamed to avoid the presumption that they work as disease specific treatments.
Dr. Moncrieff explains that antipsychotics do not exert their therapeutic effects by working to reverse an underlying abnormality, such as a dopamine dysregulation in psychosis, but rather they induce alterations in physical and mental states which suppress symptoms of psychosis.

Dr. Moncrieff stresses that psychiatric drugs are first and foremost psychoactive drugs which alter the way the brain normally works. Therefore, antipsychotics cannot be said to be normalizing agents.

The following standards of proof are used in a court of law:
(i) On a balance of probabilities
(ii) Clear & convincing evidence
(iii) Beyond a reasonable doubt

The profession of psychiatry cannot prove its dopamine theory of schizophrenia sufficient to the standard of proof used in a court of law, let alone through a scientific peer-review process in which the standard of proof is much higher than that used in court! Standard of proof = the kind & amount of evidence that would constitute proof of the hypothesis.

According to the drug model of antipsychotic drug action, neuroleptics acts as antipsychotics by inducing an altered mental state which treats psychosis. But the disease is not necessarily the opposite of what the neuroleptic drug does. This is the drug-centered model of neuroleptic drug action.

Under a disease-centered model of drug action, antipsychotics are thought to act on mechanisms that produce psychotic symptoms. From this viewpoint, the therapeutic actions of drugs (their actions on disease processes) can be distinguished from other effects accordingly termed “side effects”.

An alternative, drug-centered model of drug action, on the other hand, stresses that psychiatric drugs are, first and foremost, psychoactive drugs. The alteration caused by the drug is thought to suppress the manifestations of certain mental disorders. Under this model, antipsychotics are viewed as inducing complex varied physical and mental states that patients typically experience as global, rather than distinct therapeutic effects and side effects.

The early investigators of neuroleptic or antipsychotic drugs suggested that they worked by inducing a neurological syndrome consisting of physical restriction and mental symptoms such as cognitive slowing, apathy, and emotional flattening, which resembled Parkinson's disease. These effects also reduced the intensity of psychotic symptoms. Thus, extrapyramidal effects, and their conjoined mental effects, were not regarded as side effects but as the mechanism by which the drugs produced their intended outcome.

Biological aetiological theories such as the dopamine theory of schizophrenia or psychosis and the monoamine (serotonin, norepinephrine) theory of depression seem to support a disease centered view of drug action, although their strongest support remains the presumed specificity of drug treatment.

Proponents of the dopamine hypothesis argue that anti-psychotics exert their therapeutic action by correcting an underlying dopamine dysregulation.

However, little evidence suggests that any abnormality of the dopamine system is specific to psychosis and not accounted for by other factors associated with dopamine activity, such as increased arousal or stress.

What's more is that some effective antipsychotic drugs such as clozapine have relatively weak action on dopamine receptors also seems to contradict the dopamine theory of schizophrenia.

Drinking alcohol treats anxiety:
This does not mean that anxiety is due to an alcohol deficiency!
Or that anxiety is due to a GABA dysregulation, for that matter!


So too...taking a dopamine blocker/reducer treats psychosis. This does not mean that psychosis is due to "too much dopamine" activity. The hypothesis that too much dopamine (dopaminergic activity) is the cause of psychosis does not carry any credibility in the modern psychiatric research establishment: that is, current scientific evidence does not support the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia and psychosis!

[See: Joanna Moncrieff's Critique of the Dopamine Theory of Schizophrenia: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/...73220902979896, for more information]
References:

Does treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic medications eliminate or reduce psychosis? A 20-year multi-follow-up study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25066792/

A 20-Year Multi-Followup Longitudinal Study Assessing Whether Antipsychotic Medications Contribute to Work Functioning in Schizophrenia https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5661946/

The influence of chronic exposure to antipsychotic medications on brain size before and after tissue fixation: a comparison of haloperidol and olanzapine in macaque monkeys https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15756305/

Maintenance antipsychotic therapy: is the cure worse than the disease? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2021/
Magic Bullets for Mental Disorders: The Emergence of the Concept of an “Antipsychotic” Drug https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4118918/
https://www.counseling.org/docs/ethi...ners_guide.pdf

“A Human Rights Lawyer’s Perspective on the Mental Health System”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Fb0F2RrEo

psychrights.org/Education/PsychOut2011/PsychOut2011IllegalPsychiatry.pdf

Mental Health Daily - Antipsychotics and Brain Damage: Shrinkage & Volume Loss:
https://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/0...e-volume-loss/
Dr. Joanna Moncrieff debunks commonly held misconceptions about neuroleptics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biEi8s_K5FU