“Psychiatric drugs are responsible for the deaths of more than half a million people aged 65 and older each year in the Western world [in the US and the European Union],” writes Prof. Peter Gøtzsche, MD.

Later in the article he writes,
    “I used Danish prescription statistics to estimate the number of deaths caused by these three classes of drugs.
    “Because falls, which are much more common in older people, are an important cause of death in people taking psychotropic drugs, I included only people at least 65 years of age and used conservative death rates: 1% for antipsychotics, 1% for benzodiazepines and similar drugs, and only 2% for antidepressants.
    “The total number of deaths a year in Denmark (3693) when scaled up corresponded to 539,000 in the United States and European Union combined.”

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“We have used antidepressant drugs for more than 50 years, but it is unlikely that they have a real and useful effect on depression, whereas their many harmful effects are not in doubt,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 3 Depression of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

More Harm Than Good

Antidepressants cause more harm than good

“Antidepressants cause more harm than good,which the remainder of this chapter is about.”

The subheading for this section in the book is “Antidepressant drugs don’t work for depression”.

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“Allen Frances, chairman for the DSM-IV task force [for creating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which define psychiatric conditions], now believes the responsibility for defining psychiatric conditions needs to be taken away from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and argues that new diagnoses are as dangerous as new drugs: “We have remarkably casual procedures for defining the nature of conditions, yet they can lead to tens of millions being treated with drugs they may not need, and that may harm them,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 2 What does it mean to be mentally ill? of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

3 False Epidemics

This created 3 false epidemics

“Frances noted that DSM-IV created three false epidemics because the diagnostic criteria were too wide: ADHD, autism and childhood bipolar disorder.”

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“Very few leading psychiatrists are willing to admit that their specialty has spiralled out of control and when issues of overdiagnosis and overtreatment are brought up, their standard reply is that many patients are underdiagnosed,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 2 What does it mean to be mentally ill? of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

“In a 2007 survey, 51% of 108 Danish psychiatrists said they used too much medicine and only 4% said they used too little.”

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“In the United States, 1% of children up to only four years of age are on psychotropic drugs, although the first three years of life are a period of rapid neurodevelopment, and about a quarter of the children in American summer camps are medicated for ADHD, mood disorder or other mental health problems,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 2 What does it mean to be mentally ill? of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

“It is psychiatry that has become insane, not our children.

“Some child psychiatrists brag that they can make an initial assessment of a child and write a prescription in less than 20 minutes, and for some paediatricians it takes only five minutes.”

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“It should be forbidden to make new diagnoses while the patient is in treatment with psychotropic drugs, and if psychiatrists cannot resist the temptation, they should by default call it a likely drug-induced disorder,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 2 What does it mean to be mentally ill? of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

“Doctors need to realise that it’s impossible to judge whether a patient truly also suffers from these additional “illnesses,” as long as the patient is under influence of mind-altering chemicals.”

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“I have heard several senior psychiatrists say it cannot hurt anyone to get a diagnosis. Such people shouldn’t work as psychiatrists,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 2 What does it mean to be mentally ill? of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

“All professional interventions in citizens’ lives, including giving people diagnoses, can cause harm.

“It is a paradox that public debates and reports in the news media are dominated by the beneficial effects of diagnoses and interventions when the first thing we know about any intervention is that it can be harmful.

“If this were not the case, it could not have any potentially beneficial effect.”

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“When I – as invited speaker at large scientific meetings for psychiatrists – have pointed out how harmful screening for depression is, they didn’t pay the slightest attention,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 3 Depression of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

“This organised denial has shocked me, particularly when the professor at my own hospital – in reply to my remark that screening leads to treatment of many healthy people with antidepressants – said that it didn’t matter because antidepressants have no side effects!

“Really?

“To a substantial extent, the “risk groups” comprise those who have lived more than five decades, and antidepressants kill many of these (see Chapter 14).”

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“Psychiatric drugs are so harmful that they kill more than half a million people every year among those aged 65 and over in the United States and Europe (see Chapter 14),” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 1 Introduction of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

“This makes psychiatric drugs the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer.”

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“Very many people are wongly diagnosed with schizophrenia,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 2 What does it mean to be mentally ill? of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

“A 1982 study found that two-thirds of 1,023 African-Americans with schizophrenia didn’t have symptoms necessary for this diagnosis according to current guidelines.

[In other words, 67% were misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.]

“In 1985, the chief psychiatrist at Manhattan State Hospital reviewed the records of 89 patients with schizophrenia and concluded that only 16 should have gotten the diagnosis.”

[In other words, 82% were misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.]

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“It’s not surprising that when therapists were asked to use DSM criteria [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] on healthy people, a quarter of them also got a psychiatric diagnosis,” writes Prof. Peter C. Gotzsche, MD in Chapter 2 What does it mean to be mentally ill? of his excellent book Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial.

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Sleeping pills are estimated to cause 320,000 to 507,000 excess deaths per year in US alone according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA.

"Rough order-of-magnitude estimates at the end of the supplemental files suggest that in 2010, hypnotics may have been associated with 320 000 to 507 000 excess deaths in the USA alone," the paper notes.

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People taking sleeping pills (hypnotics) were 4.6 times more likely to die over an average follow-up of 2.5 years compared to nonusers according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA. Read the entire article | Email this article

People taking just one (1) to 18 sleeping pills per year -- and the average in this group was only 8 pills per year -- were 3.6 times more likely to die over an average follow-up of 2.5 years compared to nonusers according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA.

Realize that this is taking sleeping pills for only 2.5 weeks a year or less which caused this dramatic increased risk of death

"Perhaps the most striking finding was that an increased hazard for death was present even in the lowest tertile of hypnotic use, such that hypnotic drugs were associated with a 3.6-fold increased risk of dying for patients using <18 hypnotic pills per year," the paper notes.

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People taking just 18 to 132 sleeping pills per year -- the average in this group was 57 pills per year -- were 4.4 times more likely to die over an average follow-up of 2.5 years compared to nonusers according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA.

The average number of pills taken in this group was 57. This is taking sleeping pills for only two months a year which caused this dramatic increased risk of death.

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People taking just more than 132 sleeping pills per year -- the average in this group was 469 pills per year -- were 5.3 times more likely to die over an average follow-up of 2.5 years compared to nonusers according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA. Read the entire article | Email this article

Adjusting for poor health, things such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, etc, did NOT explain the increased risk of death associated with sleeping pills.
"Control of selective prescription of hypnotics for patients in poor health did not explain the observed excess mortality," the paper notes.
Later they say, "neither the level of individual health nor the presence of particular [health problems such as asthma or cardiovascular disease or kidney disease, etc] explains the bulk of the hazard associated with the use of hypnotic medications." Read the entire article | Email this article

People taking just 18 to 132 sleeping pills per year—the average in this group was 57 pills per year—were 20% more likely to develop a major cancer over an average follow-up of 2.5 years compared to nonusers according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA. Read the entire article | Email this article

People taking just more than 132 sleeping pills per year -- the average in this group was 469 pills per year -- were 35% more likely to develop a major cancer over an average follow-up of 2.5 years compared to nonusers according to a recent study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, USA. Read the entire article | Email this article

Sleeping pills were associated with a 4.6 times greater risk of death over 2.5 years according to a recent study.

Instead of sleeping pills, you might try L-tryptophan or pumpkin seeds (which contain tryptophan), or (raw) milk instead of sleeping pills.

(See the Weston A. Price Foundation for why raw milk is better than pasteurized milk. See here or what the excellent presentation by Sally Fallon from the Weston A. Price Foundation talking about raw milk here.)

I've taken L-tryptophan for sleep for 30 years -- occasionally for the first 11 years, and just about every night for the last 19 years. (I have NOT tried pumpkin seeds.)

More is not better.

If I take too much, I will wake up after 3-4 hours.

I'd prefer to take a small dose (500 mg) and bedtime, and then if I wake up too early, take another small dose (250-500 mg).

If I eat chicken or turkey at night, I will NOT take the tryptophan at bedtime.

If I drink raw milk late at night, I will reduce the dose of tryptophan to 250 mg because milk contains tryptophan.

I have also found that taking larger doses of iodine for the past several years has reduce the amount of tryptophan I need.

I have very little experience with 5-HTP -- 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan -- which is made in our bodies from L-tryptophan.

However, I have read that 5-HTP can cause stimulation several hours later, so be aware of this. L-tryptophan makes more sense to me than 5-HTP since this is what is found in our diet. Read the entire article | Email this article