Psych Observer – Exposing Bad Psychiatry

By ALAN GUENTHER
STAFF WRITER
reported from APP.com

March 28, 2008
A psychiatric patient who was supposed to be kept under close supervision nearly choked to death Monday night at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital, the Asbury Park Press has learned.

Marie Marcucci, 58, of Salem County is in critical condition at Kessler Memorial Hospital in Hammonton, being kept alive with a respirator.

Her medical records show she had a history of choking and was not supposed to consume anything but pureed food.

A hospital orderly had been assigned to Marcucci and was supposed to stay within an arm’s length of her at all times.

But at 6:25 p.m. on Monday, a candy cart was brought into Ancora’s Elm Hall building, where Marcucci was living, her medical records show. She ate a solid candy bar and began to choke. A nurse could not be immediately located, and so an orderly, with no extensive medical training, tried to clear her airway.

Doctors in Elm Hall had already gone home for the evening.

By the time the medical officer on duty reported to the scene from the far end of the Ancora campus, Marcucci was unresponsive, her records show.

Marcucci’s accident is the latest incident calling into question the quality of care at Ancora. In December, a patient who was supposed to be monitored by two orderlies somehow escaped their attention and hanged himself.

In February, the day before a legislative hearing in Trenton, another patient with an eating disorder, Felicia DeBraux of Atlantic City, died. Her death was not disclosed by hospital administrators during a five-hour legislative hearing on conditions at the state’s largest psychiatric hospital.

“To me, this is another tragedy of the kind that continues to plague this facility,” said Assembly Budget Chairman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, who has been pressing hospital administrators to present a business plan and a timetable for reforms.

“So far, there has been no plan presented to reform the culture of neglect and abuse that seems to permeate that institution,” Greenwald said. “My real question would be, would any member of the state Human Services department put their loved ones in that facility?

“I know I wouldn’t let any of my family members go there,” Greenwald said.

Human Services spokeswoman Pam Ronan said the incident remains under investigation and that it was “premature” to say whether any staff will be disciplined.

“An investigation is under way that includes video surveillance. The preliminary review reflects that there was a quick response time at the location of the incident,” Ronan said in a written statement. “When the investigation is complete, we will be able to report on the finding.”

Mental health advocates said the incident pointed out the urgency of needed changes at Ancora.

“Although the administration is making headway in reducing the (patient population) at Ancora and (is) addressing a wide range of internal issues, this unnecessary tragedy is evidence that there is still a long way to go,” said Mary Lynne Reynolds, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Southwestern New Jersey.

“This is further evidence of the need for more staff training in order for staff to have a level of expertise that ensures patient safety. A system must be put in place that will ensure that those who are responsible for such incidents are held accountable,” she said.

Robert Ruffin, head of the union representing the orderlies — or human services assistants, in hospital jargon — declined comment.

Carolyn Wade, head of the Communications Workers of America union that represents Ancora’s nurses, said the investigation should focus on the orderlies who were supposed to be watching Marcucci, and not the nurse on duty.

“How does the client (Marcucci) get the candy bar in the first place if they were doing their job?” she asked.

“Everything don’t start and stop with the nurse,” said Wade, who said that sometimes staff were left to deal with “an impossible situation.”

Marcucci is in Kessler’s intensive care unit. She was slightly more responsive Thursday than she was earlier in the week, her records show, but she is unable to breathe on her own.

Sylvia Axelrod, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness New Jersey chapter, said that she knows that the state is trying to make changes at Ancora.

“But it’s at a point now where it needs to happen immediately,” she said. “They are taking steps, but it’s just got to happen.”

Reported from WRAL.com
Posted: Mar. 26 5:40 p.m.
Updated: Mar. 26 9:15 p.m.

Raleigh, N.C. — Gov. Mike Easley says patients are dying in North Carolina’s psychiatric hospitals and that needs to stop. One response has been new guidelines that went into effect last week and that require all deaths in state-operated mental-health facilities to be reported to the local medical examiner’s office.

Before, hospitals told medical examiners only if a death was the result of suicide, violence or an unknown cause. The policy was changed to increase openness and oversight in the mental-health system, Department of Health and Human Services officials said.

Autopsies will be conducted at the discretion of the medical examiner.

Dempsey Benton, secretary of the department, talked to lawmakers Wednesday about their efforts to improve the mental-health system.

“I think what you’re putting forward is a good first step, but as they say ‘the proof is in the pudding,’” he said.

“This is only one step in a comprehensive re-examination of our procedures covering the death of anyone in the care of our facilities,” said James Osberg, chief of State-Operated Services Section, which oversees the state’s 15 mental heath, developmental disabilities and substance abuse facilities.

The state’s mental-health system has been struggling with problems and claims of abuse for years.

For the first time in two months, Benton addressed the legislative Mental Health Oversight Committee Wednesday.

A committee report identified areas that need immediate attention, including the state’s psychiatric hospitals and crisis centers and accountability of mental-health services.

The department is working on legislation it wants to see proposed.

“We’re very much working on the details in order to get our package to the governor’s office,” Benton said.

“We need to attack the problems swiftly and justly,” said Rep. Van Braxton, D-Lenoir.

The package, which won’t be ready for Easley for several more weeks – includes the mental-health department’s agenda for the legislative session – which begins in mid-May.

“But I think we’ll be able to get our package together, so it gets reasonable consideration,” Benton said.

The department plans to ask for increased funding for more hospital beds, cameras in all hospital restraint rooms, staff increases and incentives.

The agency needs more workers, “especially in the skilled jobs because our ratios are on the low-end,” Benton said.

Just last year, turnover among nurses was more than 30 percent at Dorthea Dix state psychiatric hospital in Raleigh.

Benton said he will ask the General Assembly for an additional $65 million to $70 million to improve mental-health care.

    Call For Action from MindFreedom International

    USA Presidential Election Opens Big Opportunities for Movement to
Change Mental Health System

    How You Can E-mail to Issue Committees for the Three Presidential
Candidates

When the social change movement led by psychiatric survivors and
allies began in the 1970s, it was hard to imagine when, or if, we
would become part of mainstream politics. We were pretty invisible on
the political radar.

But psychiatric survivors do not give up. Activists such as Ted
Chabasinski -- who spent almost his entire childhood in a state
hospital in New York -- devoted decades to courageous advocacy and
community organizing. Since 1971 Ted, who is now an attorney and
board member of MindFreedom International, has continued to speak
truth to power, as you will see from his powerful call for action,
below.

Nearly four decades later, we've come a long way. The public has come
to see more and more how everyone is affected by abuse in the mental
health system.

*** Today, drug giant Eli Lilly just made another settlement about
their psychiatric drug Zyprexa with another outraged State, Alaska.

*** Major newspapers run stories about false advertising, suppressed
studies, and the corruption and undue influence of drug companies.

*** Outraged parents organize against mental health screening.

*** A poll by the American Psychiatric Association even found at
least one third of Americans surveyed thought psychiatric drugs do
more harm than good.

And when we bring our cause into the political arena, we have had
victories. In 1982, voters in Berkeley, California, often among the
first to support new causes that later become mainstream, voted
overwhelmingly to ban shock treatment there in a ballot campaign led
by psych survivors.

More recently, the California Network of Mental Health Clients fought
an outpatient commitment bill to require citizens to take psychiatric
drugs while living in their own homes. In a campaign lasting several
years, and using tactics ranging from lobbying legislators to showing
up at hearings wearing the black triangles that Hitler forced "mental
defectives" to wear, the Network succeeded in gutting the bill so
that it was essentially unenforceable.

Our movement has grown tremendously. MindFreedom International alone
now has thousands of members and over 100 groups from countries all
over the world in its coalition. And MFI is just one group among many.

PLEASE ACT ON THE PASSIONATE WORDS BELOW from Ted Chabasinski.
Whether you live in the USA or not, please speak out now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A CALL FOR PASSION, A CALL FOR ACTION!

    E-MAIL TO USA PRESIDENT CAMPAIGNS TO SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS IN
MENTAL HEALTH

BY TED CHABASINSKI

It is time we realize we now have the strength as a movement to be
taken much more seriously. We should take advantage of this window of
opportunity, where voters are paying more attention to political
issues than they have in decades.

The major-party candidates for President have committees that are
working on their positions about disability rights issues. The
movement of people with disabilities, has been very supportive of the
issues of psychiatric consumer/survivors, and we should be contacting
the campaign staff of the candidates and letting them know what is
important to us.

Although the campaign organizations are huge, the "issue committees"
working on platforms are relatively small. A few hundred letters
would be noticed and make a big difference. Let's show these
candidates that there is a real movement out there, and push them to
take our issues seriously.

*** We can educate the campaigns about the emergency of human rights
violations in the mental health system, like forced drugging and
forced electroshock.

*** We can oppose the moves to replace the current legal safeguards
for involuntary commitment with a standard of "need for treatment."

*** We should talk about replacing a system that offers nothing but
drugs, drugs, and more drugs, with programs controlled by their users
that offer real help.

*** We should demand that the practice of drugging small children
even to the point of death, as in the Rebecca Riley case in Boston,
be stopped.

There are many other things we can and should tell these politicians.
And it's time we came forward and did just that.

Because it is important that the campaigns know that there is a real
movement, if you represent or are active in an organization, say so.
Mention MindFreedom, too. Or just talk about your own concerns.

Tell these officials that our issues count.

*** That we are citizens whose rights must be respected.

*** That forced electroshock, forced drugging, and forced restraint
are unacceptable practices that cannot continue and must be stopped.

*** That we all need alternatives to a drug-based, one-size-fits-all
mental health system.

We have reason to think that at least some of the people you will
write to are already somewhat sympathetic to our cause, and will
listen. But we need to make them see that there is a real movement
out there, and that the excesses and abuses of the current mental
health system threaten everyone.

So, yes, write with PASSION! Let's get these politicians to take us
seriously.

Now is the time for our movement to make itself heard. Let's take
OURSELVES seriously and do this!

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are
people who want crops without plowing up the ground...Power concedes
nothing without a struggle. It never has and it never will." -
Frederick Douglass

~~~~~~~~~~~~

    * * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * *

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

E-MAIL a civil but passionate note to the chairs of the disability
committees of these USA Presidential candidates:

BARACK OBAMA CAMPAIGN:

    Stan Klein -- stan@disabilitiesbooks.com; Seth Harris --
sethdharris@comcast.net

HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN:

    Catherine Brown -- cbrown@hillaryclinton.com

JOHN McCAIN CAMPAIGN:

    Donna Jones -- djones@mccain08hq.com

I was watching the news with my father earlier tonight and I couldn’t help but to see this latest story about how psychiatry is trying to classify the excessive usage of an E- device, like Blackberry, I-phone, Email,SMS,etc as a mental illness.

Dr Jerald Block mentions the four symptoms: suffering from feelings of withdrawal when a computer cannot be accessed; an increased need for better equipment; need for more time to use it; and experiencing the negative repercussions of their addiction. that can indicate someone being an addicted to the cyberspace world.

Let’s go over this shall we?

1. suffering from feelings of withdrawal when a computer cannot be accessed

• Sure when someone isn’t happy with their lifestyle of choice (depression) they will ultimately search for another another source like entertainment, like the computer for instance. People uses the Internet for variety of reasons, Some are for good reasons and some are for bad reasons.

2. an increased need for better equipment

• This has got to be the most silliest symptoms to describe an addiction to cyberspace. Do I need to say more? I better not upgrade my hard drive or I’ll be labeled with a mental disorder! People have the right to spend their money on their passions of computers without feeling guilty and fearing that their going to get labeled as having a mental disorder by the Pseudo-psychiatrists.

3. need for more time to use it

• After spending a lot of money on upgraded 3D graphics cards, a good hard drive, including faster processors and so on you’re obviously going to be wanting to spend more time to discover how your computer is. If you finally had the money to spend on a 2008 Ferrari 430 Scuderia, wouldn’t you want to spend more time with your new toy? I think it would be insane to leave it in your garage untouched.

4. experiencing the negative repercussions of their addiction

   Sure! If you choose to sit on the computer all day, nothing gets accomplished.

I wonder what the treatment for this new addition addiction? I get it! medication Drugs! Get more people hooked on psychiatric drugs so the pharmaceutical companies along with psychiatry can make more money off of fake illnesses.

Read the rest…

Three die at psychiatric hospital

Mar 20, 2008 4:17 PM

 TVNZ – New Zealand

An unprecedented series of events is how Canterbury District Health Board is describing three unexpected deaths at one of its mental health units.

The deaths have prompted a review into the service provided at Hillmorton Hospital’s Acute Adult Inpatient Service in Christchurch.

The DHB’s chief of psychiatry, Associate Professor Phil Brinded, says the deaths are a tragedy for the patients, their families and staff who cared for them.

He says the DHB is particularly concerned about the deaths because they happened in a very short space of time.

The first death happened a few weeks ago and the other two were within the last 10 days.

Brinded says the review will cover admission, assessment and treatment of people entering the facility.

How long that will take is yet to be determined.

UCLA Medical Center will fire some employees and discipline others for snooping at the confidential medical records of Britney Spears, who was hospitalized in its psychiatric ward, a hospital official told The Associated Press.

Jeri Simpson, the hospital’s director of human resources who was involved in the investigations of the confidentiality breach, confirmed the action but could not say how many employees were affected. The hospital did not say when the snooping took place or which of Spears records were looked at.

The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Friday that the breaches stemmed from incidents before Spears’ most recent hospitalization, but did not elaborate.

The newspaper said more than 13 employees, none of whom are doctors, would be fired. Twelve others, including several doctors, will be disciplined otherwise for looking at her computerized records, it reported.

This is not the first time the hospital has had to reprimand employees for looking at Spears’ records. Several workers were fired after they were caught snooping after Spears gave birth to her first son, Sean Preston, in September 2005.

“It’s not only surprising, it’s very frustrating and it’s very disappointing,” Simpson told the newspaper, adding that she felt “horrible” that it happened again.

Spears was admitted to the hospital twice in January under a state law allowing patients to be held against their will for up to 72 hours for evaluation if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others. On her second trip to the medical center, Spears stayed for nearly a week.

Leading up to the hospitalizations, Spears had been behaving bizarrely. She shaved her head, was seen in public without underwear, ran over a celebrity photographer’s foot and attacked a vehicle with an umbrella.

After her Feb. 6 release, a judge placed Spears and her estate under a temporary conservatorship. Conservatorships are granted for people deemed unable to take care of themselves or their affairs.

Spears has since had very limited contact with her toddler sons who are under the sole physical and legal custody of her ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Bloomberg News

March 15, 2008

ANCHORAGE — Eli Lilly and Co.’s chief operating officer said the company should “seize the opportunity” to market its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa to teenagers and children in 2003, the state of Alaska claimed in a trial, citing a company e-mail.

John Lechleiter sent the March 17, 2003, e-mail to other company employees, noting that among child psychiatrists Zyprexa ranked “a distant third across a range of disorders” for drugs doctors were prescribing at the time. Along with Zyprexa, Lechleiter referred in his e-mail to Strattera, a Lilly drug approved for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adults.

“It appears to me that the fact we are talking to child” psychiatrists and pediatricians “and others about Strattera means that we must seize the opportunity to expand our work with Zyprexa in this same child- adolescent population,” he said in the e-mail shown at a hearing without the jury present.

Lechleiter is slated to replace Sidney Taurel as Lilly’s chief executive officer in April.

Alaska sued Lilly, the world’s largest maker of psychiatric medicines, in 2006, claiming the company withheld data on Zyprexa’s side effects on blood sugar, costing its Medicaid program millions of dollars by increasing the incidence of diabetes. The drug was approved only for adults with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The state’s attorneys said the “seize the opportunity” phrase showed the company was marketing the drug for unapproved uses, in violation of federal law.

On Tuesday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Mark Rindler denied Alaska’s motion to introduce the e-mail as evidence because he previously dismissed the state’s claim that Lilly marketed the drug for off-label uses. The state had said marketing for off-label uses was a form of failing to warn doctors and patients.

The e-mail was flashed before the jury briefly Thursday while attorneys for the state presented portions of Lechleiter’s deposition, taken last year. The exhibit was removed immediately.

The e-mail doesn’t indicate any improper marketing of Zyprexa, Lilly spokeswoman Tarra Ryker said Friday in a phone interview.

“The wording is unfortunate,” Ryker said. “What he meant was we needed to expand our clinical work so that we are able to answer doctors’ questions about using Zyprexa in adolescent patients.”

Lilly has conducted two clinical trials studying Zyprexa in teens and is awaiting an FDA decision whether it can expand the label allowing adolescent use, she said.

Before 2007, no so-called atypical antipsychotics had been approved for adolescents, Ryker said. Doctors were prescribing these drugs, and Lilly needed to provide safety and drug information, she said.

Alaska is seeking as much as $270 million in damages. The state claims Lilly withheld information about the drug’s risks to boost sales. Sales of Zyprexa tablets rose 9 percent to $4.76 billion last year, accounting for about a quarter of Lilly’s revenue.

Lilly shares fell $1.35, or 2.8 percent Friday, closing at $47.81, the lowest point in nearly 11 years.

I think Dr. Perveen Rathore should be given the same treatment as a mental patient receives when they’re out of control.. be forcefully restrained by the men in white coats, get injected with powerful chemical straitjacket (Anti-psychotics) drugs and be thrown into the padded room (quiet room) where she can stare at the walls for hours on end, heck maybe she can see the pretty flowers and the cute little bunny rabbits.

By Scott O’Connell/Daily News staff
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Mar 15, 2008 @ 12:49 AM

WESTBOROUGH — The state Board of Registration in Medicine last week stripped the license of a Westborough psychiatrist accused of assaulting two police officers and a nurse at UMass Memorial Medical Center last spring.

Dr. Perveen Rathore, 51, of 5 Arrowhead Lane, voluntarily agreed not to practice medicine shortly after the May 2007 incident. The state suspended her medical license indefinitely on March 5.

Rathore worked as an on-call psychiatrist at UMass and also had a private practice in town called Child and Family Services of Westboro.

According to the board’s order, on Sunday morning, May 20, 2007, Rathore was working on-call at UMass when she failed to appear at the hospital to perform a requested patient evaluation. When a medical director at UMass contacted her later that morning, Rathore refused to come in until the conclusion of a party she was attending at the time.

The medical director then informed Rathore she was relieved of her call duty for that day and the rest of the week, and went to the hospital to evaluate the patient. That afternoon, Rathore arrived at the hospital and saw the patient as well. The medical director saw her and told her to leave the hospital.

When Rathore refused to leave, a nurse called UMass police, which sent two officers to escort her out of the hospital. The officers approached Rathore as she was sitting at a computer and told her to leave, but police said she ignored them and continued typing.

“The police officers then informed the respondent that she was under arrest,” the board’s order states. “When one of the police officers placed their hands under the respondent’s elbow to place her under arrest, the respondent began to scream and resisted the officers. A physical altercation ensued.”

Rathore also struck the nurse supervisor and continued to resist even after the officers placed handcuffs on her, the board’s order reads. She was charged with three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shoe), disorderly conduct and trespassing, charges that were later dismissed, according to Worcester Central District Court records.

The order concluded that Rathore’s behavior “places into question the physician’s competence to practice medicine,” and accused her of practicing medicine while “impaired by alcohol, drug, physical disability or mental instability.”

Sometime during or shortly after the arrest, Rathore complained of chest pain and was taken to the UMass Emergency Department for evaluation. When attempts to calm Rathore were unsuccessful, she was committed to Wing Memorial Hospital and released two days later.

According to UMass Memorial spokeswoman Allison Duffy, Rathore “hasn’t worked (at the hospital) since the event.” The phone number at her West Main Street private practice has been disconnected.

The board’s sanction states that Rathore can have her license restored if she performs a treatment program and undergoes follow up evaluation. Rathore, a 1980 graduate of the King Edward Medical College at the University of Punjab in Pakistan, had held her medical license in Massachusetts since 1997, according to the board’s order.

 Reported from Mydesert.com

A Murrieta psychiatrist accused of violating federal drug laws for allegedly prescribing pain medications without performing the required medical exams is scheduled to be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

Joel Stanley Dreyer faces federal narcotics distribution charges for allegedly making prescription opiates like OxyContin and Vicodin, as well as anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax, available to patients in return for a $100 fee — and free of any diagnostic procedures, according to prosecutors.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has also charged Dreyer with multiple felony counts of filling false prescriptions.

The 70-year-old psychiatrist, whose license to practice medicine in California has been suspended, was arrested in July on state charges, posted bail, then was taken into custody by FBI agents on Feb. 14 while appearing for a scheduled hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Akrotirianakis said the defendant is free on a $50,000 federal bond but must wear an electronic ankle bracelet with GPS tracking technology at all times.

“He can go to the doctor, attend religious services and meet with his lawyer, but in all instances he is restricted to traveling within the Central District of California,” which includes Riverside, Los Angeles and Orange counties, Akrotirianakis said.

He said between December 2005 and last summer, it’s believed Dreyer wrote thousands of prescriptions for painkillers and anti-anxiety pills.

A joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency, California Medical Board, California Department of Justice and Murrieta Police Department got under way after one of the doctor’s former patients died from an overdose of OxyContin on Christmas Day 2005, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The victim’s brother, apparently conducting his own investigation, went to Dreyer for painkillers and sleeping aids, which the doctor allegedly prescribed without hesitation, or even a cursory exam, according to the complaint.

Undercover law enforcement agents, posing as patients, visited Dreyer’s Murrieta office in 2006 and 2007, allegedly telling him they did not suffer from anxiety or panic attacks, but still wanted something to help them “relax and decompress,” the complaint stated.

Some agents requested pain-relieving narcotics — while admitting they
were not in any significant pain — and, in both instances, were given what they asked for, according to the complaint.

“Even though they indicated they were not experiencing serious pain, or were actually seeking the drug for another person, they were prescribed the pills in exchange for $100 cash payments,” Akrotirianakis said.

Dreyer is expected to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Oswald Perata at 3 p.m.

If he’s convicted on the federal charges, the doctor could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

He is scheduled to appear for a felony settlement conference at the county courthouse in Murrieta on April 1.

Posted Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:09am AEDT

Reported by ABC news

A patient at a Sydney psychiatric hospital has been stabbed to death during a fight with another patient.

Police say a fight broke out between the two men at Rozelle Hospital, in Sydney’s inner west, about 7:20pm (AEDT) last night.

It is believed one of the men pulled out a knife and attacked the other man.

Ambulance officers were called to the hospital to treat the man for knife wounds to his upper body, but the 35-year-old died a short time later.

Police set up a crime scene at the hospital and witnesses to the fight are assisting with the investigation.

A 37-year-old man is being interviewed by police at City Central Police Station.