Some 'presumed' causes of Schizophrenia and/or Psychosis

Cause: Kundalini

Two patients are described who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic, but had actually instead been going through spiritual crises, which in Eastern spiritual tradition are called raising the kundalini. Perhaps this experience is not a disease, but many--especially if not understood by oneself, the nearest relations and the medical profession--cause mental illness. In WHO ICD-10 the experience could be classified as F48.8, disordines neurotici specificati alii. The process falls outside the categories of both normal and psychotic. When allowed to progress to completion this process culminates in deep psychological balance, strength, and maturity.

Source: Schizophrenia or spiritual crisis? On "raising the kundalini" and its diagnostic classification

Have you ever heard anything about schizophrenia and gluten intolerance?
I read somewhere about how some that where found to have gluten intolerance and then had it restricted from their diet had an improvement in their schizophrenic symptoms. I can't find where I read that though-- do you know anything about it?

mandy

Cause: Gluten Intolerance

Intriguing early research suggests that people with a genetic intolerance to gluten may also be at increased risk for schizophrenia. Investigators say the link, if proven, could lead to new treatment options for a small subset of schizophrenic people.

Using a Danish health registry, researchers from John's Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health found people with the genetic digestive disorder known as celiac disease to be three times as likely as the general population to develop schizophrenia. Lead researcher William W. Eaton, PhD, says the next step is to determine if following a gluten-free diet makes a difference in the symptoms of schizophrenic people with celiac disease. He estimates that 3% of schizophrenic people could potentially benefit from such a diet.

Celiac disease is a lifelong (chronic) condition in which foods that contain gluten damage the small intestine. Gluten is a form of protein found in some grains (notably wheat, barley, and rye). The damage to the intestine makes it hard for the body to absorb nutrients, especially fat, calcium, iron, and folate, from food.

"We can now screen for celiac disease, so it is at least conceivable that we can locate the folks with schizophrenia for whom gluten withdrawal might work," he tells WebMD. "But we still have to do those studies."

Source: Gluten Intolerance Linked to Schizophrenia

There you go Mandyfins. There is a link between gluten intolerance and schizophrenia. I beg of you (and all other readers) please do not ask me if the brand of lightbulb used in your bedside table during childhood is a cause of schizophrenia. I'm afraid that if I go looking for an answer, I'll find a study that a causal link has been found between the use of Brand X lightbulbs and schizophrenia, although naturally, more studies are needed.

As a side note, some of you may have noticed that the title of this topic changed. It was suggested to me that the insertion of the word "Presumed" would be most appropriate. I agreed wholeheartedly and Moderator LMo was good enough to edit the opening post on my behalf -- I could no longer do so because the 90 minute editing period had expired.

I thank you kindly for your assistance LMo.

Thank you spiritual_emergency.
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I beg of you (and all other readers) please do not ask me if the brand of lightbulb used in your bedside table during childhood is a cause of schizophrenia.

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Not to worry, I'm not brainstorming for things.... I'd researched a while back about causes and thought I'd read about gluten intolerance-- thus the reason I brought that up. I promise no "lightbulb" questions or if one stands on their head too long or...etc...etc...

mandy

mandyfins: I promise no "lightbulb" questions or if one stands on their head too long or...etc...etc...

lol. It is kind of funny. I've occasionally put such a list together off the top of my head but this is the first time I've compiled this kind of list to this degree. I intend to add to it if I come across other "causes" and I hope others will too. I also confess to rolling my eyes at some "causes" whereas others really resonated for me. I have no doubt that other readers may have had the same reaction.

There was also some information in there that I might follow up on personally. For example, some of the nutritional information looked intriguing to me -- I suspect that somewhere in there my adrenal glands got fried so I'll probably follow up on that "adrenochrome hypothesis". I'm past the point of looking for a cure but I acknowledge that bodies still have to heal. It's quite possible that other readers identified areas that may be applicable to their personal situation.

Overall, it was both fun to do and informative. And that video opener was perfect for this topic! It makes me laugh every time I see it.

Thanks for posting this, Spiritualemergency. I, and many others, I am sure are frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer number of scientific study findings out there and like myself, do not know what has been discredited and what is good science. Lots of studies seem to funded or affiliated in some way by those who stand to profit .

Your "research" supports a scientific conclusion:

"It's no wonder our heads are spinning."

Meta

Meta: Thanks for posting this, Spiritualemergency. I, and many others, I am sure are frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer number of scientific study findings out there and like myself, do not know what has been discredited and what is good science. Lots of studies seem to funded or affiliated in some way by those who stand to profit .

You're most welcome Meta. I found myself wondering too about some of the links between studies and funding -- perhaps there's more research dollars out there if you tag the term "schizophrenia" to your research.

It is interesting to begin gathering up all the "presumed causes" in one place, (I'm certain we can add to that list). Nonetheless, having done so we can begin to break the "presumed" causes down into a few subsets...<blockquote>[*] Nutritional: Milk; Lack of Sunlight/Vitamin D; Niacin Deficiency; Caffeine; Lack of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids; Gluten Intolerance

[*] Psychosocial: Trauma; Stress; Social Environment; Attempt at Self-Healing; Cultural Memes &amp; Mutations; Double-Bind Theory &amp; The Family; Ego Collapse

[*] Biomedical: Dopamine Dysfunction; Genetics; Brain Trauma; Blood Type

[*] Viral / External Cause: Cat Poop; Marijuana; Neuroleptics; Cough Syrup; Qigong

[*] Psychospiritual: Demon Possession; Shamanic Calling; Ego Death; Kundalini</blockquote>Based on what we each know of our personal histories, we can then begin to identify which subset and therefore, which form of treatment may best aid us in recovering on an individual basis. For instance, in my own case, psychosocial and psychospiritual factors are the most significant "causes". Is it any wonder then that I responded best to "talk therapy" and the insights and spiritual connection offered by "depth psychology"?

It's worth drawing attention to this entry as well: Schizophrenia &amp; Hope. The two clinicians with the best recovery rates -- 80% to 85% -- are a clinical psychologist (Jaakko Seikkula) and a Jungian psychiatrist (John Weir Perry). With that kind of match between cause and treatment, it was almost inevitable that I would make a full recovery. Naturally, it doesn't hurt to have "Jesus" (Love) and "Kali" (Time) on your side either.

Cause: Multiple

The term "schizophrenia" is an inadequate and misleading diagnosis. "Disperceptions of unknown cause" is a better term.

If we include fevers, environmental pains, and drug reactions, there must be a hundred ways to go crazy and be diagnosed as schizophrenic.

A comprehensive list of possible causes for disperceptions that cause schizophrenia is shown in the table below.

Causes of Schizophrenia – well-known, less-known, and almost unknown<blockquote>Well-known:[*] Dementia paralytica [*] Pellagra [*] Porphyria [*] Hypothyroidism [*] Drug intoxications [*] Homocysteinuria [*] Folic acid/B12 deficiency [*] Sleep deprivation [*] Heavy metal toxicity

Less Well-known[*] Hypoglycemia [*] Psychomotor epilepsy [*] Cerebral allergy [*] Wheat-gluten sensitivity [*] Histapenia – copper excess [*] Histadelia [*] Pyroluria [*] Wilson's disease [*] Chronic Candida infection [*] Huntington's chorea

Almost Unknown[*] Prostaglandins [*] Dopamine excess [*] Endorphins [*] Serine excess [*] Prolactin excess [*] Dialysis therapy [*] Serotonin imbalance [*] Leucine, histidine imbalance [*] Interferon, amantadine, anti-viral drugs [*] Platelets deficient in MAO (monoamine oxidase)

[b]Read the full article here: Twenty-Nine Medical Causes of “Schizophrenia”

Cause: Repressed Bisexuality

Mankind has long searched for the cause and meaning of madness. The 639 quotations contained in this volume, each followed by explanatory comments by the author, point inexorably to the factor of unconscious bisexual conflict/gender confusion as forming the basic etiological role in all functional mental illness, including schizophrenia. Because we are all born with an innate bisexual constitution, we all have the potential to become mad when this basic bisexuality is unnaturally repressed and denied. Many examples of how this transpires are examined throughout the pages of this book, and a clear and irrefutable answer is thus provided to the age old question: What is the cause of madness?

The disease we call 'schizophrenia' is but an arbitrary name used to designate the end-stage of a process beginning with a slight neurosis. The more severe the bisexual conflict and gender confusion in the individual, the more severe the degree of the mental illness which is experienced. No other species but man is afflicted with mental illness, because no other species has either the intellectual power to repress their sexual feelings nor the motivation to do so.

Source: Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease

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Note: I am including all "presumed causes" I can find in this list and while I must say that a number of them have caused me to roll my eyes, this is the first one I've come across that I would say is downright offensive. It doesn't take much perusing of the site to realize that the author is extremely biased in his perception, i.e., on the death of Joan of Arc...<blockquote>Joan herself reported during her trial that her voices and visions first appeared to her at the age of thirteen, and here we are informed by another source that she first adopted "man’s attire" at the age of fourteen. Thus her hallucinations and her transvestism, following closely the one upon the other, were the first concrete signs of her schizophrenic psychosis, which clinically would be termed of the paranoid type. ...

Thus we are presented with the tragic and heart-rending spectacle of a severely mentally-ill young girl, no more than 19 or 20 years of age at most, being tied to the stake and burned alive as the direct consequence of actions she had taken in pursuance of the tasks, and in obedience to the commands, levied upon her by her hallucinated "voices".

Source: Sample Quotes</blockquote>

This assessment completely ignores the history of the times in which Joan of Arc lived. As another site notes...<blockquote>Joan of Arc, in French, Jeanne d'Arc, also called the Maid of Orleans, a patron saint of France and a national heroine, led the resistance to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. ...

In 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians while defending Compiegne near Paris and was sold to the English. The English, in turn, handed her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen to be tried for witchcraft, heresy and for wearing male clothing, which was considered an offense against the church. Joan was convicted and on May 30, 1431 she was burned at the stake in the Rouen marketplace.

Source: The History of Joan of Arc</blockquote>

How many women went to war in dresses during the Hundred Years War? How many women led the resistance to the English invasion of France? How many women were sold to Rome to be tried as a witch? Is the reader supposed to disregard these facets of that reality in favor of believing that Joan of Arc's tragic demise was directly related to her repressed sexuality as evidenced by her wearing men's apparel?

A similar story is alleged to have taken place some 300 years earlier...<blockquote>In this account the alleged popess is placed about the year 1100, and no name is yet assigned her. The story runs that a very talented woman, dressed as a man, became notary to the Curia, then cardinal and finally pope; that one day this person went out on horseback, and on this occasion gave birth to a son; that she was then bound to the tail of a horse, dragged round the city, stoned to death by the mob, and was buried at the place where she died...

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia</blockquote>

Is this yet another tragic tale of a repressed bisexual or was it simply a matter that men were afforded greater value and opportunity in that era and both women were capable of seeing as much?

Cause: Subliminal Distraction

In the 1960's designers and engineers accidentally discovered a 'conflict of physiology' when it caused mental breaks for office workers. They were using prototypes of movable close-spaced workstations. The cubicle was their solution to stop the mental breaks.

They made three basic mistakes.
[*] They thought their encounter was the first time the phenomenon had appeared.
[*] They believed that it could only happen in a business office.
[*] To this day they believe it can only cause a harmless period of confusion and pseudo psychotic behavior.

This site gathers historic records to show that none of that is true. So few people are aware of it that it is never considered when there is a mass school shooting, college suicide, or strange student disappearance.

Source: Subliminal Peripheral Vision Psychosis

It was pointed out to me, quite correctly, that I hadn't included my own "cause" within this list. Mine borrows on some of the above themes but I'll include it anyway.

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<blockquote>How To Produce an Acute Schizophrenic Break

To produce a schizophrenic break you need to collapse the ego, preferably as rapidly as possible. There are different ways of defining the ego but I define it thusly: The ego is a structure of the personality that is made up of what we believe to be true about ourselves, others, the world around us, and our place in it. We form these beliefs as based on our relationships, our experiences, the roles we play and the activities we engage in. All of these combined create our ego, which is, for most of us, our sense of "who we are". I prefer to think of the ego in this regard as the little self.

When the ego collapses, fragments or disintegrates, shadow and archetypal content floods in from the personal and collective unconscious. Those are Jungian terms and I use them because it's the best model I've found thus far for explaining this experience to others. During psychosis, what is experienced, and what is seen by the people around you, are fragments of the collapsed ego (one's shattered sense of self), shadow material (which produces fear, terror, paranoia, shame, etc.), and archetypal material, such as the sense that one is Jesus Christ, or Buddha, or God... or has just seen one of those figures get into a cab on 49th street.

Yet, each of those religious icons are also symbols of center which is where the larger Self resides. If you make it all the way through the unconscious to the center, for a little while at least, -- you don't just play God, you are God -- because there is nothing left at that point to separate the I-From-The-Thou. Within an Eastern framework, this might be called Self-realization or God-realization. In the West, it's called delusions of grandeur.

There are a number of spiritual traditions that work to slowly polish these layers of selfhood away so as to come into contact with the pure source of the All; meditation in the Buddhist tradition or contemplation in the Christian mysteries are two such examples. There are also various drugs that temporarily displace the ego such as the use of peyote among Native Americans; LSD among university professors; ayahuasca among shamans of the Amazon. In addition, there are ritual activities one can engage in -- kundalini yoga, drumming, chanting, sacred forms of dance, tantric love-making or creating a work of art. Note that none of these activities produce neurological dysfunction, they simply remove the ego -- one's sense of the little self from the larger equation.

Falling in love can displace the ego. Losing someone you love can displace the ego. Shock and trauma can displace the ego. Retiring, or losing a job or role you had strongly invested yourself in can displace the ego. All of us have likely had these kind of experiences and we're familiar with the feeling that life feels a bit shaky for a while afterwards. We don't quite know how to be who we believed we were if we're no longer "Joe's wife" or "Director of Internal Affairs" or "Mary's best friend". If we thought of those people, roles, belongings as positive (i.e., we were attached), we experience their departure as losses. We may need to replace them in some form -- a new spouse, new friend, or a new job -- before stability returns and we feel we are back to being "ourselves" once more.

In a matter of months I lost my self-identity as a daughter, my self-identity as a mother, my self-identity as a wife, my self-identity as a worker, and I also lost my community and my two best friends; externals that otherwise could have helped provide some structure in the midst of those losses. In addition, trauma was interwoven through those events: trauma from my past, trauma in my present, and a trauma that came to be in which many people died and I felt responsible in some twisted way for their deaths. I wasn't, but something doesn't have to be true to believe that it's true.

You cannot try this at home because you require the co-operation of the entire Universe which strips you of most everything that you have loved or believed in, in one relentless blow after another with hardly any time in between to catch your breath until you really and truly, absolutely cannot stand anymore. This is how you produce rapid ego collapse, which in turn, produces an acute schizophrenic break -- no faulty neurological wiring required.

Source: How to Produce an Acute Schizophrenic Break

[b]See also: [*] Ego Death[*] The Mandala Experience: Schizophrenia and Self-Disintegration[*] The Inner Apocalypse[*] Jung's Model of the Psyche[*] Strange Days ~ Beautiful Midnight[*] Episodes of Unitive Consciousness

Cause: Parental Exposure to Dry-Cleaning Agents

A reader (who wants me to write an article on autism and paternal age-- I swear I'm getting to it) sent me a reference to a 2007 article finding an increased rate of schizophrenia in those born to parents who were dry cleaners... The authors speculate it's tetrachloroethylene exposure.

Source: The Last Psychiatrist

Cause: Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is no small health threat to persons living in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic states, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and northern California. True, the first signs of its onslaught are usually no more than flulike symptoms. But it is also capable, over the long haul, of inflicting a variety of other physiological insults—say, muscle pain, arthritis, heart inflammation, severe headache, stiff neck, or facial paralysis.

Now a new study adds one more malady to that list: psychiatric illness.

The study was conducted by Tomá Hájek, M.D., a psychiatry resident at the Prague Psychiatric Center in the Czech Republic, and his colleagues. It is reported in the February American Journal of Psychiatry.

Source: Psychiatry Online

hi spiritualemergency. one of the presumed causes was:

"Heavy metal toxicity "

was that referring to metal as in the genre of music or are we talking chemicals found in metals?

sorry just wanted to clear it up out of cuiosity as im a massive heavy metal fan.

tc cheers

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Cause: Cat Poop

Pet Theory: Do Cats Cause Schizophrenia?

Read the full article here: Pet Theory - Do Cats Cause Schizophrenia

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I’m almost going to dismiss this one as I am more then certain that we can find multiply cases where there were no cats to be found.

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Cause: Milk


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Produces exorphins, morphine-like compounds

I have highlighted the area of interest. Well ask yourself. What does this do? This is basically a stimulant.. Correct? Well if there are added stimulants to the brain, what does that do? Creates tension.. Correct? Now if there is tension during the fundamental developing stages, then that would indicate that there is increased brain activity... Correct? Well if there is increased brain activity then it breaks down the natural defenses of the unconscious leading to schizophrenic symptoms.

The only link that I can possible think of between autism and schizophrenia is the fact that stimulants are passed on to the child in the womb. Now both seem to have this enzyme deficiency, well if both have the deficiency then we have to relate what is happening to the state of the body. Well if the body basically decides to not accept any more stimulants which would be the case since it is stimulants causing the dysfunction. It doesn’t process them. Well if they don’t process them then the enzymes would hang around in the blood stream. I dont know if this is plausable though as the explanation below is better suited.

The only thing that I don’t really understand is schizophrenia appears later on in life. Which autism appears during the first few yrs. Ether these people are drinking tons of milk for this experiment or something else is a miss because people usually don’t have the same eating habits.

There is another thing that comes to mind as well. After the age of 2 people we lose the proper enzymes to digest milk. We are the only mammal on the face of this planet that drinks milk after we are supposed too and the only mammal that drinks another animal’s milk. Milk is for growth to get the nutrients we need. There is no other purpose and could be the cause of the build up. This would also explain why both groups have the deficiency.

We could also compare schizophrenia stats from other countries that don’t drink milk and see if they go up or down, that would disprove this theory right then and there.

Another way to find out if the data is correct would be to test the normal population as well and see how much of the enzyme turns up there as well.

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Cause: Demon Possession:


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I don’t think soo. But if it were it would be the perception of demons in the persons mind working up the brain into a frenzy. The mind rebounds by releasing the ideas.

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Cause: Trauma


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Trauma creates bad memories; memories create cyclical activity as the mind tries to conquer the situation. Defenses break down as the mind releases the ideas creating the activity. Conscious thought is broken in the process leading to schizophrenia.

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Cause: Lack of Sunlight/Vitamin D


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Winter to spring. Which means they were conceived 9 months earlier… hmmmm When is that? I would say about jan – march, well what happens in this time? Partying from the new yr by somewhat dysfunction teens and adults a like, and spring time. When the pheromones are produced and animals mate. I wonder if we can correlate if there is an increase of birthrate among this time automatically bringing up the schizophrenic cases as well.

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Cause: Marijuana


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If anything marijuana brings feelings to the surface, but I doubt this as marijuana is used everywhere by people.

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Cause: Niacin Deficiency


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Ever notice that all these theories revolve around stimulants? Well if you already have a weak mind from the context of every day living. These stimulants are only going to arouse it further. I still think my idea that the mind works on a basis of equilibrium and enters schizophrenic states is the proper one.

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Cause: Stress



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Most definitely. Stress works up the mind. And the mind responds to restore the equilibrium bringing out the symptoms.

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Cause: Caffeine


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More stimulants. Speaks for itself. Leading to an active mind.

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Cause: Dopamine Dysfunction


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I covered much of this in my theory.

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Cause: Neuroleptics


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The brain is dynamic machine. If you are shoving drugs down somebody’s throat to block the release that the unconscious is trying to fulfill. Then you are going to get shrinkage. Evolution works on the basis of stimulation and when something is stimulated it responds to growth, and when it doesn't it shrinks, Darwin's laws in full effect. This is one of the reasons why I am against drugs. They provide an artificial negative response that not only ages the cells used to fight against it naturally, but also screw with our ability to recover as we become dependant on them. And the symptoms get worse with time.

This is why it is so important to study other areas that relate to psychology as it offers answers in unexpected places. I came to this conclusion on my own just by observing the way things work.

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Cause: Lack of Polyunsaturated fatty acid


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Of course, no metabolism, no function. Brain shrivels and loses its ability to coup when stress is endured. Mass cell psychology is shared, just the way the body works.

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Cause: Genetics


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I don’t know. I tend to question this, is it really a genetic factor or just bad family traits passed on down from family member to family member. I covered some of this in my write up.

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Cause: Social Environment


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Huge indicator, social environment draws on all kinds of criticism leading to mental breakdown.

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Cause: Shamanic Calling


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I highly doubt this. But ok

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Read the full article here: The Inner Apocalypse


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I really believe in this, if schizophrenia is indeed induced by erratic emotion, then that is negative stimulus being applied. Well you would have to apply positive stimulus to counter it. Just makes sense and is really how I came to my conclusion on the subject. It’s self induced by the level of activity the brain is enduring and is just trying to get back to a state of equilibrium.

More coming when I get the chance..... I’m also going to edit the milk one.

> E. Fuller Torrey

Oh boy. The bane of the consumer/survivor movement. And think of all the awards and recognition he gets.

Or has his reputation suffered in recent years?

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spiritual_emergency said:
Cause: Trauma


The cornerstone of Read's tectonic plate-shifting evidence is the 40 studies that reveal childhood or adulthood sexual or physical abuse in the history of the majority of psychiatric patients (see, also, Read's book, Models of Madness).[/b]


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Do you know how long it took for the theory of plate tectonics in geophysics to get accepted? It was ridiculed and mostly ignored for a long time.

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spiritual_emergency said:
Cause: Parental Exposure to Dry-Cleaning Agents

A reader (who wants me to write an article on autism and paternal age-- I swear I'm getting to it) sent me a reference to a 2007 article finding an increased rate of schizophrenia in those born to parents who were dry cleaners... The authors speculate it's tetrachloroethylene exposure.

Source: The Last Psychiatrist



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It's the lawsuits that enraged customers bring when the cleaners lose their pants...

Here is stuff on E. Fuller Torrey and his TAC; excerpts from Wikipedia:

'The Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC) is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1998 by schizophrenia researcher E. Fuller Torrey and was originally part of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). TAC's focus is on promoting laws allowing Assisted Outpatient Commitment (AOC) "for individuals who, due to the symptoms of untreated severe mental illness, become either dangerous or in need of treatment and incapable of making rational medical decisions." [1] According to their website, TAC advocates "elimination of legal and clinical barriers to timely and humane treatment for Americans diagnosed with severe psychiatric disorders who refuse care." TAC seeks to expedite involuntary treatment for people with severe mental disorders who refuse treatment.'

'Torrey says, "Until we find the causes and definitive treatments for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, we have an obligation to those who are suffering to try to improve their lives. Except for biological chance, any one of us might today be there, living on the streets or in jail. TAC is the only organization willing to take on this fight, and I am very proud to be part of it."' (My comment: "it's for their own good.")

'"People care about public safety," TAC publicist D.J. Jaffee told attendees at a 1999 National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) conference. "Once you understand that, it means that you have to take the debate out of the mental health arena and put it in the criminal justice/public safety arena." Jaffe went on to point out that efforts by NAMI to enact 'assisted' treatment laws as a way to provide better care for the mentally ill had failed because the public doesn't care about the seriously ill.'

'At a psychiatrist's meeting in Baltimore, Maryland in 1993, Torrey expressed his concern that "the public stereotype that links mental illness to violence is based on reality and not merely on stigma."'

'The Treatment Advocacy Center has critics due to the human rights implications of coerced treatment...'

'Critics believe that TAC uses fear tactics to win support for assisted outpatient treatment.'

Can you tell that this subject bugs me?

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It's the lawsuits that enraged customers bring when the cleaners lose their pants...

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LOL!! and also-- I'd like to see those lost pants that the guy is asking hundreds of thousands of dollars for-- in the lawsuit.... are they made of gold?

oops!! sorry off topic-- I apologize!

carry on........... I do have some worried concerns about that "TAC"..... been reading about it in this book called, "Crazy" by Pete Earley..... part of the book is about the struggles he had with his bi-polar son and then part of the book is about how so many mentally ill end up in a revolving door, in and out of jail-- not even committing violent/ or felony crimes......it's just-- there's no where for them to go.....

mandy

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mandyfins: I do have some worried concerns about that "TAC"..... been reading about it in this book called, "Crazy" by Pete Earley.....

You may find the following expands your reading material...

<blockquote>May 15, 2006: Fuller Torrey Is Dangerous

I was attempting to write an op-ed tonight. It is a response to an op-ed in the May 12 Washington Post by Pete Earley, who seems to be the front man for those who argue that the mentally-ill should be forcibly medicated in outpatient settings with very little due process, acknowledgement of just how poorly meds work or regard for their human rights. Basically, I am still trying to figure out how to respond to Earley because the WaPo limits op-eds to 800 words and Earley did so much damage in his copy that it would take 3 times the space just to answer him.

Anyway, I was trying to settle my mind about one of the points Earley makes in his piece--that the mentally ill shoot police 5 times more than the general population does (whatever the general population that shoots police is) and that kinda made me do the old "Huh? What?" I've been reporting on cops for 7 years and mental illness for much of that time as well, and I have never run into that number nor have I ever had a cop mention it to me. So it made me skeptical. Where did that number come from? What's the supporting dataset? Earley had mentioned that the number came from the Treatment Advocacy Center.

TAC is Fuller Torrey's non-profit that goes around demonizing all mentally-ill Americans on the basis of the violent behavior of a few. Torrey is a controversial figure in psychiatry. He believes that a virus present in cat %#@&#! is the source of schizophrenia. I am not kidding. He has also spent much of his career accusing schizophrenics and bipolars of being John Hinkleys-in-waiting. He is also the author of the best-selling Surviving Schizophrenia. He is quoted in the press probably more than any other single expert on mental illness. He and his colleagues are powerful and argue for outpatient commitment laws before public bodies.

So I went to TAC's website looking for the data. I couldn't find it, but I ran into this press release: "NEW STUDY LINKS VIOLENCE AND SCHIZOPHRENIA." That was news to me since I am fairly up to speed on the psych journals, especially in regards to the CATIE study on schizophrenia. In the press release, Torrey asserts that violence is common among some schizophrenics, that the reason is because they weren't taking their meds, and that they must be legally forced into "treatment" compliance.

Then I went to the abstract of the study he cited. (I'll get the full paper in a day or two.) It is something of a sub-study of the full 4,000 patent CATIE study. Here the sub-group is 1,400 patients. Of those, the study authors found that 19 percent had committed a violent act of some kind in the previous 6 months. That much of the data Torrey reports before going off on his usual tirade for forced treatment. That works out to about 266 people from the 1,400.

Here's what Torrey fails to mention. From the abstract itself: "Violence was classified at 2 severity levels: minor violence, corresponding to simple assault without injury or weapon use; and serious violence, corresponding to assault resulting in injury or involving use of a lethal weapon, threat with a lethal weapon in hand, or sexual assault."

Minor violence was reported in 15.5 percent of the cases or with 217 people. Serious violence was reported in 3.6 percent of the cases or in 49 people of the 1,400 in this study. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like seeing discussions about how we grapple with mental illness in this society being driven by 49 people out of 4,000 people in the entire f***ing study.

What's interesting to me is that in his press release Torrey is wound up over the fact that most of the minor violence was directed against family members by patients being dragged off to the hospital. Having seen that dynamic play out before in the lives of patients I know, I can assure you that whatever hit mom or dad took from their son was partly driven by mom or dad screaming in their faces. I've seen this before. I wouldn't hit anyone over it, but I can understand how the supercharged dynamic gets out of hand and a shove turns into an assault turns into a crime turns into a poster child for Torrey. It's interesting to me that Torrey is so stirred up over it. I wonder if he ever had a son or daughter hit him, or if it is a result of his years working on the wards at St. Elizabeth's where John Hinkley is kept. It's interesting to me, too, that Earley seems to be tied in with Torrey--they are both in the DC area and I wouldn't be surprised if Earley leans on TAC for more than just the numbers of mentally ill people shooting cops data. I wonder, too, if Earley's bipolar son ever struck him. Anyone know?

But what's really interesting to me is that more people in the CATIE study weren't connected with violent acts, minor or major. In the original paper published last September, study authors outline the sad demographics of the 4,000 study particpants. I don't have the study with me, but from memory, my feeling was that it was like the study participants had been plucked from homeless shelters around the country, VA hospitals and the outpatient clinics with the most hardcore populations. Most of the people in the study were unmarried, a huge majority were unemployed and barely educated. The average age was about 40 and most had been schizophrenic for about 20 years. Men outnumbered women. Strangely for a public health study, there was a high percentage of African-American participants (psych studies are most often heavily tilted towards Whites).

My point is that if out of 1,400 long-term, deeply schizophrenic men and women who had endured decades of the streets and the psychological torture of their illness that the most they could find was 49 people who'd committed criminal level assualt, then I wouldn't call that quite the stirring indictment of schizophrenics that Torrey thinks it is. I would call it a victory for the other 1,351 patients and a rather stirring testimony to the strength of the human spirt. I don't say ***** like that very often. But I am proud of these people.

Read the full article here: <a href=http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2006/05/fuller_torrey_is_dangerous.html>Furious Seasons</a></blockquote>

Contrast that with the following...

<blockquote>
Of all the misconceptions about people with mental illness — that they lack intelligence, have nothing to contribute or cannot recover — the most common misconception is that people with mental illness are violent or dangerous.

This widely-held belief is fueled by sensationalist news headlines such as "Psycho Killer" and "Madman with a Machete" and by highly-publicized cases involving violent behaviour including several police shootings of men with mental illness in the Lower Mainland.

Mental health issues rarely make headlines unless violence is involved since violence and crime drive the content of daily news. As a result, media reports tend to perpetuate misconceptions that people with mental health problems are an especially violent class of society, when current research suggests that the level of public fear of violence from people with mental illness in the community is largely unwarranted.

...

"It is unlikely that a large portion of community violence is attributable to persons with mental illness," Heather Stuart, professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, notes. Stuart and a colleague conducted an analysis among inmates to determine what proportion of violent crimes could be attributed to mental illness or substance use disorder. "From the perspective of public health interventions, only one in ten violent crimes in our sample could have been prevented if these disorders did not exist," she explains of the study's results. In fact, seven per cent were attributed to substance use disorders, and only three per cent were attributable to mental illnesses. "The notion that mentally ill individuals are dangerous and pose a significant risk of violence to the public reinforces social stigma and discrimination and reduces opportunities for successful community integration and improved quality of life," Stuart warns.

Source: Mental Disorders, Addictions and the Question of Violence

See also: Governor seeks to cut mental services for homeless

<blockquote>
A point worth pondering...

<blockquote>"From the perspective of public health interventions, only one in ten violent crimes in our sample could have been prevented if these disorders did not exist," she explains of the study's results. In fact, seven per cent were attributed to substance use disorders, and only three per cent were attributable to mental illnesses.

If only 1 in 10 violent crimes can be attributed to those with substance abuse disorders or mental illness... what does that say about the other 9 out of 10 -- that they are committed by the mentally well?

Makes you think, doesn't it?

spiritual_emergency:

"It's interesting to me that Torrey is so stirred up over it. I wonder if he ever had a son or daughter hit him..."

This information may be out of date, or even wrong, but I remember reading at one time that Dr. Torrey has a "schizophrenic" sister, whose illness was never successfully dealt with, including by medications. This might explain his concern with the problem, as well as his insistence on the use of medications in spite of, or because of, his frustration with his sister's continuing decline.

I think the original article link goes into a bit of detail regarding Torrey's sister and his theory related to schizophrenia. However, the writer at Furious Seasons isn't overly concerned about Torrey's sister or his theories -- he's concerned that accurate information be portrayed. If only 3.9 % of the individuals in the CATIE study or 3% in Queen's University study have actually committed violent acts, what is fuelling the agenda of TAC? If it's not factual evidence, what is it --bias? projection? fear?