Psych Observer – Exposing Bad Psychiatry

By Fiona Barton
Last updated at 11:51 PM on 27th June 2008

A psychiatrist who released a mental patient who then stabbed a retired banker to death is suing for compensation.

Consultant Gill Mezey wants more than £300,000 from her employer for damage to her career.

She claims she has lost out financially and been ‘humiliated’ by her bosses, who suspended her on full pay.

Dr Mezey, 50, decided to let paranoid schizophrenic John Barrett out of hospital for an hour’s leave without even seeing him, in September 2004.

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Posted by Harlan Spector June 25, 2008 21:00PM

A Cuyahoga County court case involving a patient who had multiple sex partners at a psychiatric hospital highlights what one lawyer called “one of the most threatening issues” facing mental health officials.

Sexual hookups at mental hospitals are to some, a right, but to others, an outrage.

Should sex be allowed? How do hospitals decide whether a mentally ill patient has the capacity to consent? How do they police against coerced sex? How do they provide for safe sex practices?

It may be inevitable that patients engage in sexual relations, particularly in state hospitals where they may live for months or years. But it represents a clinical and legal minefield.

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Jun 23 2008  By Kelly Fenna

A NORTH Wales professor who had work ripped off by a TV psychiatrist said he was “flabbergasted” presenters Richard and Judy are sticking by the shrink.

Struck-off Raj Persaud used chunks of Richard Bentall’s work which featured in two articles and a book.

The Bangor University professor said he was shocked to learn the celebrity pair still intend to use Persaud for their programmes.

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By Mike Adams
(NaturalNews) It appears that the use of electroshock punishment tactics isn’t limited to the U.S. military these days: The state of Massachusetts has renewed a special education school’s authority to use electric shocks as a form of punishment, even after the school admitted to administering excessive and unfair shocks to two children after being told to do so by a prank caller.

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By Dublin | Monday June 23 2008

Slowly, the people of Ireland are beginning to fight back against mental health treatment in this country — not only the facilities but the wildly inaccurate diagnoses and frequently inappropriate, if not downright dangerous, treatments themselves.

On Wednesday, Dr Michael Corry, a consultant psychiatrist, will bring his private member’s Bill to the Seanad — hoping to get ECT (electroshock therapy) banned in this country once and for all, as the barbaric and useless practice it demonstrably is.

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The Times Of India

LONDON: Indian origin psychiatrist Raj Persaud, known across Britain for his television and radio appearances, is dishonest and has brought disrepute to his profession by passing off other experts’ works as his own, the General Medical Council (GMC) has ruled.

Persaud, 45, on Thursday was found guilty by the GMC of using other academics’ material for articles published in newspapers and magazines as well as his 2003 book “From the Edge of the Couch”. He admitted plagiarism but denied that his actions were dishonest or could bring the profession into disrepute.

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AstraZeneca’s CEO to be Deposed in London on Friday, June 20, 2008 NEW YORK, June 19

NEW YORK, June 19 /PRNewswire/ — Weitz & Luxenberg, PC, one of the
leading plaintiffs’ litigation law firms in America, filed a lawsuit today
against pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on behalf of a New York City Fire
Department Emergency Medical Technician whose diabetes was allegedly caused by
AstraZeneca’s drug Seroquel. The plaintiff, EMT Ernest Armstead, was one of
the many brave responders on the morning of September 11, 2001. He was
severely injured when the World Trade Center’s North Tower collapsed as he was
helping victims at the foot of the buildings.

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Psychiatric hospital workers who appear to be impaired should be subject to on-the-spot drug testing.

The problems that have beset Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow in recent years have made it clear that major changes are needed at the facility. In December, the director of the facility was ousted and replaced following another patient escape.

While the leadership change was needed, it’s going to take more than that to stop the escapes and patient deaths that have plagued Ancora.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today exercised its new authority under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA) to require manufacturers of “conventional” antipsychotic drugs to make safety-related changes to prescribing information, or labeling, to warn about an increased risk of death associated with the off-label use of these drugs to treat behavioral problems in older people with dementia.

In 2005, the FDA announced similar labeling changes for “atypical” antipsychotic drugs. At that time, Boxed Warnings, the FDA’s strongest, were added. The Boxed Warning will now be added to an older class of drugs known as “conventional” antipsychotics. The warning for both classes of drugs will say that clinical studies indicate that antipsychotic drugs of both types are associated with an increased risk of death when used in elderly patients treated for dementia-related psychosis.

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