Would you give this child harmful drugs?

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As an advocate for children and youth mental health I’m concerned about a worrying trend to ‘catch the early signs of psychosis’ in very young children and young adults based on Patrick McGorry’s evangelical rantings. There is no current definitive scientific test that can distinguish the early signs of mental illness in youths or adults.

The current catch cry from psychiatrists is, ‘Detecting Early Psychosis will result in earlier treatment and better quality of life’. This Early Psychosis prevention is NOT based in science and has been and continues to be evangelized without one shred of verifiable evidence by psychiatrists like Patrick McGorry in his EPPIC and PACE programs.

It’s also disturbing to see Canada involved in a  four-year-old early intervention and psychosis program that is [in part] Government funded being touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, even without long-term health studies of future repercussions.

Recently Patrick McGorry was willing to undertake (with Australian Government funding) Human Drug Trials to systematically medicate large numbers of young people with anti-psychotic medication to find the one person he says ‘needs to have these drugs’. These Human Drug Trials are experimentations with old drugs that have been proven to have scant benefit but massive side effects.

The Sunday Age recently revealed information relating to, “13 local and international experts [who] lodged a formal complaint calling for the trial not to go ahead due to concerns children who had not yet been diagnosed with a psychotic illness would be unnecessarily given drugs with potentially dangerous side effects”.

Patrick McGorry’s EPPIC and PACE programs systematically medicate large numbers of children and young people with anti-psychotic medications like Quetiapine, sold as Seroquel, in the ‘hope’ of finding the one child that ‘may’ at some [undisclosed] time require mental health assistance. This makes me think that maybe we’re not paying attention to what’s happening in the world of Psycho-medication.

It’s also disturbing to uncover that one of the medications recommended by Patrick McGorry, Quetiapine (Seroquel), is manufactured by AstraZeneca, one of the largest sponsors providing unlimited funding to McGorry. Endeavoring to find the one young person that ‘may’ succumb to early psychosis by attempting to evaluate every child (via a tic-the-box system) and then medicating a large group of children suspected of developing psychosis in the future is akin to practicing Voodoo Science and administering Snake Oil on the part of any medical professional.

Considering the vast number of debilitating and some-times fatal side effects adults are currently experiencing from pharmaceutical medications, one has to ask, Do we want to subject innocent children to a lifetime of legal drug exposure disguised as Early Psychosis Prevention?

Katherine McCormick (CEO)
Utopia Research Institute Limited

This is a reply to Cathy David’s post on Allegations Against Psychiatrist Graham Burrows …let’s start with her comments…

“I am really disappointed that you are publishing this article without ethically including the other side of the story. Pretty much all the patient quotes in the ‘body’ of the article are from the one website ratemds.com and you haven’t included any of the positive comments. Anyone can do a search of that site and see more than 50% of the comments are supportive of the treatment received from Prof Burrows. I have spoken to many patients who are very happy with his treatment. I’m not denying that a percentage are not suited to his style of practice but my personal opinion is don’t crucify a man who has probably done more for mental health promotion and awareness in Australia over the last few decades than any other mental health professional in the country. Those who are unhappy should take action through the medical board or through the legal system. Trial by media is never an appropriate course of action”.

"I don’t think there’s anyone in the world today who could emphatically say how an anti-depressant works"

From your posts on the web I would have to say that anyone who has been part of the mental health culture for over two decades and can make statements like… “I have seen patients of his [Graham Burrows] on about 15 different brands of anti-depressants and four different brands of antipsychotics”, and, “I’m not a doctor but it does appear to my eyes in recent years that Seroquel and Abilify are the two most effective antipsychotic medications”… would mean that you are most likely a psychiatric nurse and not only interested in keeping your job but also a personal supporter of Graham Burrows.

This blog was written to give desperate people a chance to have their voice heard.  And no, they couldn’t find another doctor and no, it would have been impossible for them to be able to articulate their suffering at the hands of such a lauded doctor to the medical board who are well known to protect even the most reprehensible doctors in the medical profession.

7News is not to my knowledge ‘on a witch hunt’. They had over 700 patients of Graham Burrows contact them with horror stories and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Graham Burrows s disdain and mistreatment for even one person in his care is a flagrant disregard to both his oath as a doctor and his obligation to his patient. In his arrogance he dispensed his own personal brand of un-professionalism to thousands of desperately ill people and it is evident from his patients own comments that they feel he treated them like lab-rats, over medicated them, misdiagnosed them and has continued to fully support the pharmaceutical industry until the 7News report was aired.

Graham Burrows has been called the ‘Cosmetic Psychiatrist‘, a ‘gun for hire‘ and only now the Medical Board is monitoring allegations made by patients.

Perhaps you are unaware Cathy that Seroquel is an anti-psychotic that comes with increased risks of obesity, diabetes, muscle spasms and other serious life threatening side effects and that just this March, AstraZeneca paid $68.5 million to settle claims that it improperly marketed Seroquel for children and for other unapproved uses beyond the treatment of adult schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

I’ll close with this little number from dear Professor Graham Burrows, he said, “I don’t think there’s anyone in the world today who could emphatically say how an anti-depressant works – whichever antidepressant group and having said that we do know a lot of chemistry about what actually occurs. Now I sometimes say does anyone know what electricity is, but we use it”. [no citation needed as it's spread over hundreds of web-pages by now!]

Cathy, I know how much Graham Burrows likes to recommend electroconvulsive therapy…what are his words again…oh yes he said it was, “the most effective treatment for severe depression“. Well…if you see Graham tell him that before he schedules another patient for ECT if he would like me to explain just how electricity works…he can give me a call.

{EAV_BLOG_VER:d963f877b2d8efe4} The number of psychiatrists that have moved away from true psychotherapy and are now not just practicing but specializing in pure medication management is astounding and the number of doctors following them is stupefying. All I can say is, it must be a lucrative business with endless customers.

Don’t you think it’s time we stopped placing Doctors and Psychiatrists on a pedestal? After all they’re real people, people that – just like you and I – have human weaknesses and faults. I know it’s difficult to change decades of training. I look back over that past sixty odd years and see how well Pavlov’s theory worked on millions of unsuspecting people.

It’s become evident that when [some] Doctors and Psychiatrists live and breath the rarefied air of fame and fortune, when they live in an academic bubble and are elevated in the minds of not only their peers but by virtue of the media into the mind of every man, woman, and child and are thereby held in high esteem…the mind changes, their ego inflates and grandiose thoughts and ambitions can over ride common sense.

Add to this a hyper-ego boosting DeLorean ride when these lauded Doctors and Psychiatrists are courted by the Pharmaceutical Industry and showered with gifts such as first class travel and accommodation, front row tickets to major sporting events and expert witness or [conference] speaker fees lavished on them. Well, it stands to reason that most will fall from grace and use their influence in all the wrong ways while all the time believing that they…and only they…have all of the answers to humanities ills in a little pill.

Perhaps now you can see why there are large numbers of psychiatrists that have moved away from true psychotherapy, why most will only give a patient a few minute of their precious time. Perhaps you can see now why so many are specializing in pure medication management and are now doubling their efforts with Government and the media to capture the pediatric [and adolescent] ‘at risk’ mental health market.

All I can say is that they must see a very lucrative business with endless customers.

Patrick McGorry and Ian Hickie have found a new market regardless of Patrick’s own meager attempts at research, and the financial backing of multinational pharmaceutical companies. “It is also evident that our government, even in the face of opposition by the world-wide scientific community, will attempt to shove this unholy pseudo-science down the throats of children and young adults via their families through the use of financial [tax] blackmail and the soon to be released e-Health records, while continuing to accept McGorry’s unverified statements that it is imperative to pre-drug our next generation“.

Conclusion

During my research the same names kept coming up over and over again on boards and committees of Government Health Organizations, NGOs and Pharmaceutical Companies, as expert advisers and or as funding recipients.

The documentation indicates a long and disturbing trend of manipulation, lies and deceit conducted by a handful of individuals to insure that a vast majority of the population is diagnosed with some form of mental disorder and medicated.

In addition, it would appear that these individuals have incorporated a much larger body of peers and government officials that have blindly and in some cases willingly supported this insidious brand of Voodoo Science and Snake Oil.

I call it a massive conflict of interest and one that our Government should address right now!

A 7News special investigation has uncovered a major medical scandal, with serious allegations against one of Melbourne’s most senior psychiatrist Graham Burrows. He is the President of the Mental Health Foundation of Australia also President of the Mental Health Foundation (Victorian branch) and former president of the Alzheimer’s Association of Victoria. From 1981-1985 he served as Regional Vice-President Oceania Regional and Life Member of the World Federation of Mental Health.

Graham Burrows has published the Handbook of General Hospital Psychiatry and has contributed chapters to approximately 190 other scientific books. He serves on the editorial boards of 30 international and Australian journals. It sounds like Graham Burrows’s a man on a mission…but who’s mission? As chairman of the Mental Health Foundation it is known that he accepted funding on behalf of the Foundation from AstraZeneca, Servier and Pfizer.

How did it all begin?

The Mental Health Foundation of Australia was born in July 1981when five people (Dr Graham Dene Burrows, Graeme Angus, Anne Thomson, the Reverend Alan Jones and Albert Moore) gathered at the Department of Psychiatry at Melbourne University to form the Foundation.

The MHFA was begun as a charitable organization. Graham Burrows and his four friend wanted to draw attention to what psychiatry called ‘the nation’s rapidly mounting mental health problem’. I’m sure this merry little band could also see that a charitable organization was (is) a lucrative business with lots of perks as long as one kept up the spin of disinformation to both the public and the Government. And much of their reasoning was true. Certainly there were [and are still today] an inadequacy of mental health care due to cost cutting exercises by the Government that had resulted in closing mental health hospitals in favor of [underfunded] community care and pharmaceutical medication.

The MHFA quickly came to be considered a ‘peak body’ and defined one of it’s fundamental aims as: “To encourage and promote mental health at a personal and social level according to such values as justice, equality and humaneness”. But as we can see from the news on channel 7 there is a palpable difference in the attitudes of a great many of Graham Burrows’s patients and certainly with this type of exposure there will be a greater awareness within the community.

My conclusion is this in terms of Graham Burrows is that he is not the only rotten apple in the barrel. He’s not the only megalomaniac with a bad case of, “ look at me – I’m God”. I could name two or three dozen others just like him. The two that come to mind are Patrick McGorry and Ian Hickie.

Psychiatrist Graham Burrows

Here are just some of the [very raw] comments I found online…let their voices be heard.

Prof Burrows decision to start me on medication started a snowball effect that ruined my life for 4 years. I had an eating disorder, was under-weight and suffering psychosis directly from malnutrition. I was put on a ridiculously high dose of Schizophrenia medication along with sleeping tablets and anxiety tablets, before I had even been properly assessed by him that he continued to increase while I was under his care. My mum fought so hard to get me off the medication as what I needed was gentle, caring treatment for the eating disorder, re-feeding and understanding. The medication turned me into a zombie and I could barely function. This then gave them permission to say I was mentally unwell, and I was put on and off many medications for way too long, which knocked both my mind and body around immensly. I finally was taken off medication 1 year ago and my life feels like it has just started, life is now fantastic. And as my mum says, Burrows ego arrives 5 minutes before he does.

And…

“Dr. Burrows is an arrogant, mindless idiot of the highest order. Not only did he WRONGLY DIAGNOSE ME WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA when I was suffering a psychosis, as a result of severe malnutrition… he put me on a ridiculously high dose of schizophrenic medication- FAR exceeding any amount that a person of my height and weight should have been taking… I was an eighteen year old girl and I was taking quadruple the dose of the adult males in the clinic!! The medication turned me into a dribbling zombie, but he kept UPPING THE DOSE because he couldn’t understand why it wasnt workng… HINT… maybe because I DIDNT HAVE SCHIZOPHRENIA!?! This high dose resulted in me having my first grand mal seizure. He should be out of practise. He is an absolute fool, an arrogant, unkind, unempathetic, heartless man”.

And…

“Throughout the 1990s, Dr Burrows was the public face of the Australian False Memory Association. For years, Dr Burrows has promoted the false notion that many women with histories of sexual abuse are, in fact, liars and fantasists. He subsequently wrote a character reference for another psychiatrist, who was also a Board Member of the Australian False Memory Association, who was struck off for having a sexual relationship with a patient who subsequently committed suicide. Dr Burrows defence of people accused of sexual offences raises serious questions about his credibility and professionalism”.

And…

“Nasty, small minded old man. Of all the doctors i have seen Burrows really takes the cake. Thank the gods that he has been given the boot from Austin Hospital. This foolish old man thinks that just because he can stick a few certificates on his wall, that he is a competant Dr. I had to have a medical report written by him for a Work Care claim. He charged almost $786.00 for less than half a page of nonsensicle dribble. I pity any person that happens to be unfortunate enough to be placed under his so called care. Beware of this man. Try every other doctor you can before you even think about making an appointment with this evil little man. His license needs to be revoked and it is entirely possible that he himself requires treatment for a Schizo-effective Narsosistic Personality Disorder. He needs to be questioned as to his intent when dealing with Mental Illness. His lack of Empathy, Sympathy and Understanding is well known amongst his colleagues. He needs treatment himself”.

And…

“Amaazed that he can be so rude and lack empathy to his patients. When questioned about drugs,he cannot cope with it, as b/c he is a professor no one should dare question him as to what he says. Reasuring to see that Iam not the only one he has been so judgemental, calling names etc and so very rude and makes his pts feel toatlly lacking in self esteem and any likley hood in getting better unless taking, handfuls of addictive drugs.Once he has you. he wontlet you go and just maybe he continues to destroy you”.

And…

“I find it scary that this man is still able to practice as a psychiatrist. It needs to be public knowledge that Graham Burrows has ruined many peoples lives. He gives out drugs constantly, you would have to wonder if he is getting paid commission from the pharmacutical companies. Just dont go to Dr Burrows. He is very bad person. And going by this board, has hurt alot of people. And Graham if you are reading this, maybe you need to go take a look at yourself and reaccess your motives and take a long hard look at what you have done to people. Maybe you could apologise to people whose lives you have ruined”.

And…

“This man is perhaps the most arrogant professional i have ever met in the mental health field. i found him to be mysoginistic and to be completely therepeutically unskilled in his preparedness to cross boundaries. no doubt he knows about medication, but i question his understanding of human behaviours. he lacks humility and actually boasts that he is arrogant”!

And…

“I seriously wonder how an obesessive compulsive can be diagnosing patients and deciding their course of treatment when he needs to sort out his own headspace. He’s also rude and very possessive of the seats in his waiting area if other patients sit near his suite he clears them away claiming that they are his seats!. This guy has so many issues that he is not fit to treat anyone. I would also suggest that before he diagnoses someone with a schizoaffective disorder, he should sit back and think how a mother feels about being separated from her year-old child. I would take out anyone who tried to separate me from my kids and from what I could see, the woman’s attitude was reactive to the situation. Burrows has no empathy. He has his own issues to deal with, so don’t expect him to have time for yours”!

And…

“Like many of you i was unfortunate enough to have Graham burrows as my doctor. He was rude, arrogant, denegrated me and my family, prescribed me excessive amounts of addictive drugs and above all treated me like i had no hope of recovery or a normal life when infact since iv stopped seeing him my life is greater than it was before i got sick. He is cruel and hurtful to those people who desperatly come to him for help. He is a money hungry, self righteous man who should NOT be working in mental health. STAY AWAY FROM THIS DOCTOR”.

And…

“I saw Graeme Burrows for 3 years. He prescribed an addictive drug and when I queried taking it for such a long time he told me it didn’t matter as would be on them for the rest of my life.WRONG> I changed Drs. and got off the medication. This man is a professor and AO, HE IS VERY HIGHLY REGARDED BECAUSE HE CONVINCES ALL AND SUNDRY THAT HE IS JUST ONE STEP BEHIND MOTHER TERESA BUT IS JUST ABOUT TO PUT HIS FOOT ON HER VEIL”.

And…

“One of the worst professionals I’ve ever been to… completely lacks empathy or human connection. Without giving away too many details, I can say that my health (both emotional and physical) were greatly saved by cutting him out of my treatment team… he treats patients like lab rats”.

And…

“Dr Graham Burrows is a someone who believes because he is a Professor he is above everyone. If you go and see this doctor it is unlikely you will be helped. He may write you out a prescription for a drug of addiction to shut you up or you may spend your time being spoken down to. I hve spoken to many, many people who have come out worse after been treated by this so called “doctor”. He wrongly diagnoses people, refuses to listen and is just damn right arrogant. All this doctor did for me was give me drugs, wrongly diagose me and took my money. To Graham Burrows we are not his patients. We are his customer”.

I eagerly await the next installment of this saga and can only hope that the voices of mental health patients and the community will be heard and a [transparent] inquiry will be held in the very near future.

Please add your voice to theirs and share your story with others.

{EAV_BLOG_VER:f5bb118716b7b1c2} This post was inspired by Truthman’s open letter to Andrew Witty (CEO of  GlaxoSmithKline)…

Truthman wrote, “An Open Letter To The CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical Company“.

Truthman asks, “Can ethics exist when profits are the dominant principle“?

Seroxat is one of the world’s biggest selling and [we are told] most successful anti-depressants.

But this Panorama investigation discovers the drug may have a darker side – the programme reports that people can get hooked on it, suffering serious withdrawal symptoms when they try to come off it.

For some it can lead to self harm and even suicide. But little warning of these possible side effects accompanies the drug.

These are accusations that the drug’s maker GlaxoSmithKline denies.

The programme follows one Seroxat user and charts her nine month struggle to wean herself off it.

Panorama also spoke to Dr David Healy, an expert on the drug who has had access to confidential Seroxat studies in the GlaxoSmithKline archives.

Thanks to the Panorama Team:

Production team:
Reporter: Shelley Jofre
Producer: Ed Harriman
Director Gerry Troyna
Assistant Producer: Sarah O’Connell
Assistant Producer: Calum Walker
Editor: Mike Robinson

{EAV_BLOG_VER:7719450fc4090ae4} Are our children really AT RISK or is Patrick McGorry selling us Voodoo Science & Snake Oil?

Should we trust our children's lives to Patrick McGorry?

Do we want our children to be labelled with Psychosis Risk Syndrome? The Federal Government has handed $400 million dollars to Patrick McGorry for a national program to create early psychosis prevention and intervention centers.

MARTIN WHITELY, WA LABOR MP

In the insightful article by Martin Whitley, A Stitch in Time Or A Step Too Far? Patrick McGorry is recognized as, ‘a leading international advocate for the inclusion of Psychosis Risk Syndrome. Patrick McGorry acknowledges that, ‘the false positive rate may exceed 50-60%’ nonetheless has justified the use of pre-psychosis drugs by arguing ‘all those identified are by definition seeking help and need some form of care’.

In his article Whitley continues with this…”Former Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry, and to a lesser extent his close colleague Professor Ian Hickie, have dominated the long overdue debate about the future of mental health service delivery in Australia. Their claims of massive unmet need and proven 21st century solutions are being accepted almost without question by the Gillard Government, the Abbott Opposition, the independents, the media and the public”.

Well Patrick! Your first research in this area appears to have been an abysmal failure and your second, in 2000, has still not been published yet the Australian Government is so enamored of you it has thrown millions of our tax dollars your way to pre-drug our children…we have to ask, why?

In Speed Up & Sit Still, the Story of ADHD in Australia, Martin Whitley asks, “Is Patrick McGorry’s blueprint for Australian mental health a prescription for  more ‘psychiatric disorders’, ‘off label’ prescribing and youth suicide or the way forward”?

Whitley makes this bold statement as well “No sensible person would argue against [the former] Australian of the Year, psychiatrist Patrick McGorry’s call for early intervention to prevent psychosis; unless of course you know the detail of what Professor McGorry has advocated as early intervention. Put bluntly, Professor McGorry has advocated the use of anti-psychotics, with a host of serious potential adverse side effects, on the hunch that adolescents may later become psychotic”.

Martin Whitley has the ability to get right to the heart of the matter, and as I concur with his concerns, I have included them here (just encase you do not get to read his article).

Mr Whitley outline his concerns in relation to the blueprint including the:

• proposal to increase funding to Headspace by $226 million given the advocacy by Professor McGorry and Headspace of ‘off label’ prescribing of SSRI antidepressants to young people. This is despite clinical studies and FDA and TGA advice that the use of SSRI’s increases the risk of suicidal behavior by young people.
• proposal to increase funding to EPPIC by $910 million given Professor McGorry advocacy of the recognition of Psychosis Risk Syndrome as a diagnosable psychiatric disorder. This is despite the concerns of numerous high profile psychiatrists including his close colleague Professor Alison Yung who questions; ‘ Is the agenda really to use anti-psychotics?…the risk is that instead of getting maybe supportive therapy, they get anti-psychotics and they will be diagnosed with the risk syndrome.
• lack of publicly accessible evidence of patient outcomes and the cost effectiveness of the mental health ‘best buys’ identified in the blueprint.
• alarmist claim by Professor McGorry that in 2011 four million Australian’s including 1 million young people will have a mental disorder requiring treatment.

Mr Whitley’s articles are well written and certainly well researched, and his insight into his subject is without question the best I’ve come across, both are well worth a through read.

So, is early intervention in the major of psychiatric disorders justified?

Well Patrick McGorry says yes. But Anthony Pelosi is unconvinced that current evidence of benefit is enough to balance the potential harm, and he said, “ Who can blame policy makers for diverting resources to such services when nobody explains to them that such differences in outcome can only be due to patterns of referral”?

Thomas McGlashan a professor of psychiatry at Yale University is just one of hundreds of Psychiatrists that have written reports indicating that anti-psychotic drugs can produce not only weight gain and  metabolic problems including diabetes, but there is also evidence to suggest that the anti-psychotic drugs Patrick McGorry proposes to prescribe to children as young as 12 years old, could negatively impact the developing adolescent brain.

Coincidentally a number of these anti-psychotic drugs are manufactured by Janssen- Cilag, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myer Squibb, Astra-Zeneca, Pfizer, and Novartis pharmaceutical companies who provided unrestricted research grants to Patrick McGorry. And to add oil on the flames, Patrick McGorry has been paid as a consultant and speaker by several of these companies.

If you took a closer look at just who’s funding the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention programs you would find that both Patrick McGorry and several of the  organisations he runs have received sizable amounts of funding from the big pharmaceutical industries. And even more disturbing is this…Patrick McGorry is the Treasurer [and former President] of the pharmaceutical industry funded ‘International Early Psychosis Association’.

Are we talking ‘CONFLICT OF INTEREST’? It’s certainly not a conflict of interest for Patrick or for his best mate Ian Hickie who is the executive director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney. Yes, the University of Sydney, the same university that owns all of those ECT (Electro Convulsion Treatment) machines. It’s a small, small world after all…

One has to ask, WHY?

Why did these Pharmaceutical companies invest so much money? Why did the Australian government give  Patrick McGorry so much money even though his clinical results indicated that his Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention program was a failure?

Mr Whitley tells us that “These potential conflicts of interest may have been known by the politicians controlling funding, however, it is apparent the media were either ignorant of, or disinterested in them and happily portray McGorry and Hickie as independent advocates”.

Let’s just count up the numbers.

Patrick McGorry told the ABC’s Lateline, that “4 million Australians have mental health problems in any given year. Only one third of them get access to treatment… there are 1 million young Australians aged 12 to 25 with a mental disorder in any given year. It’s the peak period across a lifespan when mental disorders appear. And 750,000 of them have no access to mental health care currently”.

These are certainly alarming claims, but what I see is a man that has a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power and an obsession with grandiose actions regardless of the detrimental long-term outcomes. It makes one think that the next award he’s going for is the Nobel Peace Prize.

OK, so he looks good, speaks softly and has lots of friends in high places…is that a reason to let him pre-drug our children with pharmaceutical medications that have well documented evidence of dangerous side effects?

Seriously…I just have to say this…Psychiatry in not a Science. I’ve stood up in front of 150 people with one third consisting of Psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, mental health professionals and social workers and said, “Psychiatry in not a Science” and not one of them disputed the fact, but I did get a rousing round of applause from many others in the room.

So what are some of the medications Patrick McGorry is using? One of the main drugs McGorry is using in combination with Ritalin (and we all know what that does), is a drug called Risperidone.

If medications can harm adults, what do you think it will do to a child?

Risperidone has been associated not only with weight gain, but with, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, low blood pressure, high blood pressure, muscle stiffness, muscle pain, and tremors.

In addition, Risperidone treatment can cause photo-sensitivity – an added caution to young people in a country with a high rate of deaths from melanoma.  Other skin conditions have also been reported, including rashes, excessive dry skin, acne vulgaris, and even hair loss.

May I add that many anti-psychotics are well known to cause hyperprolactinemia which may trigger production and spontaneous flow of breast milk and disruptions in the normal menstrual period, infertility and sexual /erectile dysfunction and may lead to hypogonadism-induced osteoporosis, and male breast development.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…think…can you imagine how a 12 to 25 year old will handle any one of those side effects?

Let’s take stock of the worst case scenario. Our children and young people that undertake the EPPIC program may experience disruption in brain development and or an inability to reproduce…I know that’s a strong statement, but the possibility is frightening. We all know that governments around the world are seeking to reduce the population, but this is the wrong way to go about it.

Patrick McGorry is going to be relying on state governments to also kick in some of the money for these projects. And later this year Patrick will have an opportunity to speak to COAG (Council of Australian Governments) about just how much funding he wants them to cough up. McGorry said, “I believe we’ll… but it is vital the state governments now step up to the plate and begin to match the Federal Government’s investment”.

That’s our Tax dollars you’re talking about Patrick…money that could be spent on REAL SCIENCE  by supporting and promoting effective biochemical (blood and urine) assessment to detect any early warning signs of inadequate or depleted essential nutriments, minerals and emzines. Then  administrating complementary advanced biochemical treatments of more natural compounds to address mental health and behavioral issues.

But no, sadly Patrick, like most Psychiatrists reach for the psychotropic medications to manage these conditions instead of investigating and treating the cause.

It is well know in science that all of us have innate biochemical factors influencing our personalities, our behaviors, and our mental health, in addition our biochemistry regulates our immune system…the list goes on.

The possible number of genetic combinations in a child with the same parents is in excess of 42 million. Can anyone tell how McGorry can detect biochemical imbalances without conducting both a blood and urine sample to determine if a child or young person has high or low histamine, hi or low copper level that acts as a natural poison to both the body and brain in large quantities, low zinc, or any other biochemical imbalances that can lead to any number of mental or physical disorders?

My final conclusion is this, Patrick McGorry has had political rather than clinical or scientific success based on his own meager attempts at research, and the financial backing of multinational pharmaceutical companies. It is also evident that our government, even in the face of opposition by the world-wide scientific community, will attempt to shove this unholy pseudo-science down the throats of children and young adults via their families through the use of financial [tax] blackmail and the soon to be released e-Health records, while continuing to accept McGorry’s unverified statements that it is imperative to pre-drug our next generation.

God help us…God help us all.

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Please note: Despite what you may hear or read Katherine McCormick is not, nor has she ever been a Scientologist and has never been a member of any organization associated with any religion, she respects the right of individuals to their own religious beliefs.

After a tight budget the Federal Government allocated several billion dollars for mental health services, millions will go to Patrick McGorry to fund 30 more  Headspace mental health

Is this the face of a Brave New World? Or a part of the DeLorean Club lining their pockets?

services for young people. State Governments will have to cough up 50 per cent to help Patrick McGorry cover the cost of establishing 12 extra early psychosis prevention and intervention centres.

On the ABC AM program, Budget Provides Mental Health Relief with Peter Cave, Patrick McGorry made this comment, “Well Headspace is being very steadily scaled up across the country and now for the first time it is being backed up by EPPIC (Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre) programs, early psychosis programs”.

So now dear Australians, we have a government committing millions of dollars to create an extra 30 Headspace and EPPIC centres that will be focusing on our young people.

So, why do I have this sinking feeling that that’s not such a good thing?

On  11th May 2001 ABC’s Online with Tony Jones talking to Mark Butler, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mr Butler said during the interview that, “Two-thirds of all mental illnesses present before age 21 and early intervention is vital”.

Tony Jones was full of praise for Patrick McGorry saying, “Yes, we’ve spoken to Patrick McGorry in the past about the critical need for early intervention to catch and treat psychosis in young people and adolescents, but as you’ve just pointed out, you’re also talking about catching and treating disorders in very young children”.

Mark Butler’s reply sent a chill down my spine, he said, “There is. I mean, the evidence is emerging. It’s at a younger stage – forgive the pun – at a younger stage than the evidence around teenagers and early 20-year-olds. But, our advisory group presented very clear evidence that the nought to 12 age is a very important age. As young as three, we know that infants can present signs of emerging behavioural disorders, which if they’re not caught in time, they’re not treated, can become a very serious problem in primary school and develop into quite serious mental illness in adolescence”.

Tony Jones then asked, “Have I understood you correctly that as part of the new program, all Australian children will be checked at the age of three for signs of mental illness”?

Mark Butler’s answer had, in my opinion, a sinister ring to it, he said, “Well, the Commonwealth – our government introduced a healthy kids check at four years old. It obviously is a voluntary check. It is tied in many ways to the family tax benefit part A, but it obviously is a voluntary check. At the moment, it takes place at four and it tends to check things like hearing, vision, physical health, but the very clear advice to us was twofold: firstly, the check should be brought back to three years old, and secondly we should broaden the check to incorporate social and emotional well-being and development”.

Imagine that! The Government is tying the voluntary health check for every four (soon to be three) year old in the country into the family tax benefit’s to facilitate compliance!

Is this now the age of ‘Voluntary Compliance’ that hard working young families will have to undertake in order to just survive?

Is this the Governments way of coercing young parents into cooperating in the new 2012 e-Health Records?

Is this how our government will ensure that every person (in the future) will be listed on the e-Health Records and if deemed ‘At Risk‘ will be labelled with ‘Psychosis Risk Syndrome ‘ and required to under go Patrick McGorry’s Anti-Psychotic Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention program?

Well you have to hand it to them [the Government], they have woven a very nice web, one that will ensure that all of us that want or need any type of health services for our children will have to voluntarily comply by giving them all of our private health information. All information will be logged in the Government’s (expensive but unsecured) database that can be viewed by anyone involved in a health research study, including the pharmaceutical companies that fund the studies and the EPPIC.

Bravo! No fuss. No arguments. Let’s all get our kids on the [legal] drugs.

The method government has chosen ensures the little sheep of Australia will do as they’re told, because if they don’t, they’ll lose their tax benefits and have to stick their hand down (very deep) into their pockets to pay for services they want or desperately need.

Mark Butler went on to say when asked by Tony Jones on this enlightening ABC program, “So what happens if you find an emerging disorder in a three-year-old child?” Butler replied at the end of a rambling sentence, ”We’ve got models…” yet there was no elaboration on just what ‘models’ the Government was proposing.

So who will be monitoring these services? Any guesses? Well it’s the mother of ‘Big Brother‘. All family mental health support services will be run under FaHCSIA. This is the department that has it’s fingers in every pie, so if parents don’t ‘Voluntarily Comply’ they may be seen to be neglecting their child’s health care needs and  FaHCSIA will then alert  DoCS who are obliged to make an assessment regarding the parents unwillingness to ‘Voluntarily Comply‘.

The child and family may be visited by a DoCS worker because the information provided by FaHCSIA will indicate that the child is in immediate danger – by law, Community Services must investigate where a child or young person is or may be at risk of significant harm from abuse or neglect. DoCS has the power to remove any child or young person it deems ‘at risk’.

Since the Government now considers ALL children and young people ‘At Risk’…parents won’t have a leg to stand on. It will be a case of ‘Voluntarily Compliance’ or risk lose your child.

Sound like a nightmare? Well it gets worse…in the next blof we will get back to Patrick McGorry. There are several disturbing elements in Patrick McGorry’s research and I’m not the only one to question his motives or methodologies. We’ll take a closer look in the next blog.

Thank you for joining us here at Utopia.

On today’s video program in ‘Bio Science Education’, we will be introducing you to Dr Mary Megson.

Dr. Megson is a developmental pediatrician in private practice in Richmond, Virginia. She is board certified by the American Academy of Pediatrics and was Director of Developmental Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Richmond for nine years.

Dr. Megson’s current private practice is devoted to diagnosing and treating developmentally delayed children, specializing in autism. Research area is use of vitamin A and Bethanecol in treatment of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. She conducted a clinical trial to investigate her hypothesis that G-alpha protein defect is a high risk factor for developing autism after vaccination.

Our next ‘Bio Science Education’ program will be on 8th May 2011

Utopia continues our video program ‘Bio Science Education’ by introducing you to Dr Bill Walsh who talks on what are the causes of depression. In this video Dr Walsh will cover the 5 different types of depression.

Utopia Research Institute’s aim is to make available in Australia information on the use of a comprehensive biochemical assessment and advanced complementary nutritional treatment of a range of disorders such as behavioural disorders, ADD, ADHD, learning disorders and Autism as well as mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Dr Bill Walsh created the Walsh Research Institute exclusively for research, educational and charitable purposes, including, for such purposes to:

1. engage in research in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology;
2. train and educate in the areas of biochemistry and advanced nutrient therapy;
3. aid or assist medical researchers and/or medical practitioners in clinical practice;
4. establish, assist in establishment of or otherwise finance research and education in the fields of autism, behaviour disorders, ADHD, depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, neurodegenerative diseases, and various orphan diseases;
5. promote, develop and expand awareness of the efficacy and power of individualised nutrient therapy;
6. prepare and publish information regarding research findings, clinical methods and outcomes, advanced laboratory assays, advanced treatment protocols, and the genetics, biophysics, and biochemistry of mental disorders; and
7. supplement or assist in the work of any school, college, university or institute in scientific research and the development of advanced treatment modalities.

Our next ‘Bio Science Education’ program will be on 7th May 2011

Today we at Utopia begin our video program ‘Bio Science Education’. Our first presentation is by Dr Albert Mensah on Biochemical Imbalances from the Outreach 2010 Biobalance

Dr Albert Mensah, received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) and his medical degree from Finch University of Health Sciences-Chicago Medical School, and completed his residency in family medicine at Swedish Covenant Hospital (Chicago). Following his residency Dr Mensah completed additional fellowship training in academic development at JHS Cook County Hospital (Chicago). He practiced as a staff physician at Melrose Park Clinic (Illinois) and is an adjunct professor of clinical medicine at Malcolm X College (Chicago).

Dr Mensah continues his devotion to the education of medical professionals by serving as the current Medical Director of the Physician Assistant Program at Malcolm X College and has treated patients at the Pfeiffer Treatment Center, an organization rooted in the treatment of biochemical imbalances including children with autism. Answering the need for specialist with backgrounds in both traditional as well as orthomolecular medicine, Dr. Mensah cofounded Mensah Medical.

His current practice includes family medicine as well as the management of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety syndromes, ADD/H and post-partum depression.Philosophy of Care: …“We are not given knowledge to rule over the world for the sake of power, but to have power for the sake of serving.Taking the time to educate our patients, their families, and the health care community at large is consistent with our directive to leave the universe a better place than when we came”.

Utopia’s next ‘Bio Science Education’ program will be on 6th May 2011 at 10:00 am