[news] hunger strike vs. psychiatric drug industry

[resist]

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Liz <yashi at direct.ca>
To: Project-x <project-x at lists.resist.ca>
Subject: [pr-x] on hunger strike vs. psychiatricdrug industry
Date: 27 Aug 2003 09:19:42 -0700

August 26, 2003

Activist strikes over psychiatrists' faith in
drug therapy

By Tim Christie
The Register-Guard -- Eugene, Oregon, USA

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2003/08/26/d1.cr.mindfreedom.0826.html

Since 1987, David Oaks of Eugene has been leading
a quiet war against the psychiatric establishment
and its reliance on pharmaceutical drugs to treat
mental illness, sometimes against the will of
patients.

Now, Oaks said, he and his organization,
MindFreedom Support Coalition, are turning to
direct action, in the form of a hunger strike, to
turn up the heat on psychiatrists and drug
companies.

"It's time for our social change movement to move
to bolder actions, from patience to passion," he
said Monday from Pasadena, Calif., where he and
four other activists have gone without solid food
since Aug. 16.

A sixth member of the group dropped out of the
strike Sunday because she had lost too much
weight and was starting to suffer health
problems. But about 17 other people in other
parts of the United States and Europe also began
hunger strikes in solidarity, Oaks said.

At issue is the notion that mental illness is the
result of a chemical imbalance in the body that
can only be corrected with drugs, he said.

Oaks became an activist after his own experiences
with the mental health system. When he was a
student at Harvard, he became depressed and
overwhelmed. He said he was locked into a cell in
a psychiatric unit and forcibly injected with
psychiatric drugs.


He describes MindFreedom as a coalition of 100
groups in a dozen countries "working for a
nonviolent revolution in the mental health
system."

Oaks said his group isn't opposed to the use of
psychiatric drugs, but believes that they
shouldn't be the only option for mentally ill
people.

"We feel choice is being squeezed out by the
psychiatric drug industry," he said. "When a
family has a member in crisis ... there needs to
be a range of options: jobs, housing, counseling,
peer support."

Oaks contends that there is no scientific
evidence to support the assertion that mental
illness is the result of chemical imbalance.

The hunger strikers are demanding that the
American Psychiatric Association produce
scientifically valid evidence that mental illness
is biologically based.

A spokeswoman for the the association, Laurie
Oseran, declined comment, but pointed to a letter
that the group's medical director wrote to Oaks
before the hunger strike began.

In the letter, Dr. James Scully told Oaks the
hunger strike was "ill-advised" and said that the
answers to his questions are "widely available in
the scientific literature and have been for
years." He referred to several medical texts and
journals, but made no specific citations.

A 14-member panel of medical doctors and
psychologists assembled by MindFreedom to review
the evidence checked Scully's sources and found
the opposite: 10 different citations that
indicate no scientific evidence exists that
mental illness is biologically based.

The hunger strikers are assembled at the Pasadena
Church of Religious Science - Oaks said it isn't
connected to the Church of Scientology, a
vociferous critic of the psychiatric
establishment. They picked the church because it
was available for a reasonable cost and in a
major media center.

They have had only clear broth, fruit juice,
vegetable juice and coffee or tea, Oaks said.
That includes a concoction that Oaks has been
making from kale, carrots, beets and garlic.

Oaks said he's starting to feel a little weak and
tired, but doesn't know how long the strike will
continue. The group is looking for an
acknowledgement from the American Psychiatric
Association that it has reasonable concerns, Oaks
said.

"We feel there's some possible middle ground and
we're feeling out what that means," he said.

Failing that, "People are prepared to go on," he
said. "Several people are pretty strong and
prepared to go quite a long distance."

HUNGER STRIKE

For more information on the hunger strike by
members of MindFreedom Support Coalition
International:

http://www.mindfreedom.org.