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Associated Press
27-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
CCHR Seeks End to Mandated Community Psychiatric Programs, Citing Global Alarm
LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 27, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog, is calling for an overhaul of psychiatric hospitalization and community treatment laws. With 54% of U.S. psychiatric patients held involuntarily, CCHR warns the system has normalized coercion. Most U.S. states authorize Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) laws that compel individuals in the community to receive psychiatric treatment—typically drug-based—under threat of court orders or rehospitalization. Critics say the laws criminalize noncompliance and medicalize dissent. A Pennsylvania source reported that under AOT, 'noncompliance is pathologized, autonomy is dismissed…Treatment ceases to be chosen; it becomes imposed.'[1] A 2021 NIH-funded study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology found that 70% of youth aged 16–27 who were involuntarily hospitalized reported long-lasting distrust of clinicians—even when they remained in therapy. Meanwhile, a Cochrane Review concluded that AOT laws showed no consistent benefit over voluntary care.[2] Many mental health consumers are also forced to accept involuntary treatment in the community by being made subject to community treatment orders (CTOs), under threat that non-compliance can result in them being detained against their will in inpatient facilities and institutions.[3] A broader 2016 systematic review published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry analyzed more than 80 studies on CTOs, including three randomized controlled trials and multiple meta-analyses. The result: 'No evidence of patient benefit.' CTOs did not reduce hospitalizations or improve quality of life—but did result in patients spending significantly more time under coercive state psychiatric control.[4] Patients are often forced onto antipsychotic drugs. Bioethicist Carl Elliott says such neuroleptics cause 'tardive dyskinesia, a writhing, twitching motion of the mouth and tongue that can be permanent.' Psychotropic drug side effects can include violent behavior, aggression, paranoia, psychosis, dangerously high body temperatures, irregular heartbeat, and heart conditions, disorientation, delusion, lack of coordination, suicidal tendencies, and numerous physical problems.[5] Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International says, 'Ironically, the very side effects of antipsychotic drugs—such as agitation and aggression—are the same behaviors often cited to justify forced hospitalization and involuntary treatment in the first place.' Yet, under AOT regimes, complaints about side effects or treatment refusals are used against patients as evidence of illness. The term 'anosognosia'—defined as an inability to recognize one's illness—is routinely invoked to override consent, framing resistance as delusional and justifying further force. As one media source put it: 'It casts resistance as malfunction… Instead of seeing dissent as meaningful or contextual, it reframes it as a symptom of a broken brain. This framing is not just misguided—it's dangerous.'[6] Amalia Gamio, Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, helped open CCHR's Traveling Exhibit, Psychiatry: An Industry of Death in Los Angeles on May 17, denounced global psychiatric coercion: 'Involuntary medication, electroshock, even sterilization — these are inhuman practices. Under international law, they constitute torture. There is an urgent need to ban all coercive and non-consensual measures in psychiatric settings.' Rev. Frederick Shaw, Jr., President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Inglewood-South Bay Branch, condemned how psychiatry disproportionately targets African Americans. 'More than 27% of Black youth—already impacted by racism—are pathologized with labels like 'Oppositional Defiant Disorder,' which has no medical test,' he said. 'This mirrors how Black civil rights leaders in the 1960s were once labeled with 'protest psychosis' to justify drugging them with antipsychotics,' he added. 'Psychiatry didn't just participate in suppressing Black voices—it orchestrated it. And they're still doing it.' Psychiatric diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) are not discovered through scientific testing but are voted into existence by APA committees. CCHR says despite the absence of objective medical proof for these labels, they can create lifelong patients to be drugged and subjected to involuntary interventions. Forced psychiatric practices have been condemned by the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO), which have repeatedly called for an end to forced institutionalization, electroshock, drugging, and community-based coercive measures.[7] In the U.S., over 37% of children and youth in psychiatric facilities are subjected to seclusion or restraint.[8] Some—as young as 7—have died under these conditions. In multiple cases, medical examiners ruled the deaths homicides, yet prosecutions have been rare.[9] 'This is not mental healthcare. This is systemic cruelty and homicide,' adds Eastgate. CCHR and its global network are demanding regulations that prohibit coercive psychiatric treatment. 'These are abuses. Forced treatment is torture passed off as mental health 'care,'' CCHR says. About CCHR: The group was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist and author Prof. Thomas Szasz. CCHR has exposed and helped bring accountability for psychiatric abuses globally. Its advocacy now echoes international calls by the UN and WHO to end coercive mental health practices. To learn more, visit: SOURCES: [1] 'Brave New Pittsburgh: Forced Use of Psychotropic Pharmaceuticals is Coming,' Popular Rationalism, 16 May 2025, [2] [3] 'Ensuring compulsory treatment is used as a last resort: a narrative review of the knowledge about Community Treatment Orders,' Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 6 Jan 2025, [4] [5] Susan Perry, 'Recruitment of homeless people for drug trials raises serious ethical issues, U bioethicist says,' MinnPost, 11 Aug. 2014, [6] 'Not Broken, Not Sick: A Rebellion Against the Anosognosia Frame,' Underground Transmissions, 13 May 2025 [7] World Health Organization, 'Guidance on mental health policy and strategic action plans,' Module 1, pp 3-4, 2025 [8] Mohr, W, 'Adverse Effects Associated With Physical Restraint,' The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry—Review Paper, June 2003, [9] Deborah Yetter, '7-year-old died at Kentucky youth treatment center due to suffocation, autopsy finds; 2 workers fired,' USA Today, 19 Sept. 2022, Taylor Johnston, ''He didn't deserve that': Remembering young people who've died from restraint and seclusion,' CT Insider, 31 Oct. 2022, MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: 'Involuntary medication, electroshock, even sterilization — these are inhuman practices. Under international law, they constitute torture. There is an urgent need to ban all coercive and non-consensual measures in psychiatric settings.' – Amalia Gamio, Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, CCHR International, Jan Eastgate, coercive psychiatry, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P126451 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
Associated Press
06-05-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Psychiatry's Legacy of Racism and Coercion Highlighted in Restraint Deaths
LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 5, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — With May being Mental Health Month, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is spotlighting a disturbing new study published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, titled 'I Can't Breathe' – A Study of Civil Litigated Cases on Prone Restraint Deaths. The review analyzed 229 fatal police restraint cases from 2010 to 2019. Of those where race was reported, 38% of the victims were African American. In 58% of cases, death occurred within five minutes of restraint; more than 20% of victims were recorded gasping, 'I can't breathe'—a hallmark of lethal respiratory failure.[1] The mental health watchdog warns that such deaths are rooted in eugenic ideologies that historically promoted coercion under the guise of control. The disproportionate representation of African Americans in restraint-related deaths reflects entrenched psychiatric and psychological racism—pseudoscientific theories that falsely declared Black inferiority and continue to influence profiling today. This coercive culture is echoed in 'warrior-style' or 'killology' law enforcement training developed by a psychology professor 20 years ago that promotes a 'kill or be killed' mindset. It conditions officers to respond with deadly force. As Mother Jones reported, such training 'often runs the risk of the use of unnecessary, and sometimes, fatal force.'[2] Such force reflects a broader, systemic pattern: racial profiling and the use of physical and chemical restraints, disproportionately on African Americans. A 2017 New York Law School Journal report confirmed: 'Behavior by African-Americans is more often interpreted as 'dangerous' than identical behavior by whites,' and they are more likely to be labeled with psychiatric conduct disorders.[3] These injustices trace back to the slave era. Benjamin Rush, dubbed the 'father of American psychiatry,' claimed Blacks suffered from 'Negritude'—a disease curable only by whitening their skin. His protégé, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, fabricated the diagnosis 'Drapetomania' to explain why slaves tried to escape, advocating that 'whipping the devil out of them' was therapeutic.[4] Myths that Blacks were 'more durable to pain' persist today, known as Black hardiness,' stereotypes that influence restraint and drugging. CCHR highlights the enduring racism embedded in psychiatric practice: Further compounding harm, psychiatrists prescribe African Americans higher doses of antipsychotics, which can cause tardive dyskinesia (TD), a neurological disorder marked by uncontrollable movements.[9] African Americans are twice as likely to develop TD compared to whites.[10] Antipsychotics may cause suicidality, diabetes, brain shrinkage, compulsive behaviors, and are even linked to breast cancer, according to a recent study.[11] CCHR points to the tragic deaths of children under psychiatric restraint: Each case underscores a system not of healing, but of unchecked coercion. The United Nations and World Health Organization have repeatedly condemned coercive psychiatric practices, equating them with torture. Despite these clear international mandates, African Americans remain disproportionately subject to such practices in the U.S. CCHR, established 56 years ago by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry, Thomas Szasz, calls for a permanent end to coercive psychiatric practices: banning forced treatment, physical and chemical restraint, and psychological 'killology' law enforcement training. They also demand accountability for harm and deaths caused by such practices. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] Alon Steinberg, et al., 'I can't breathe' – A study of civil litigated cases on prone restraint deaths ,' Journ. of Forensic and Legal Medicine, May 2025, [2] [3] Michael L. Perlin, et al., 'Tolling For the Aching Ones Whose Wounds Cannot Be Nursed,' Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, Vol. 20, Issue 3 (Summer 2017), pp. 431-45, [4] Samuel A. Cartwright, M.D., 'Report on the Diseases and Physical Peculiarities of the Negro Race,' New Orleans & Surgical Journal, 1851; Thomas Szasz, Insanity, The Idea and Its Consequences, (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1990), p. 306, 307; -mental-health-month-may-spell-mental-health-slavery/ [5] [6] 'Racial disparities in the management of emergency department patients presenting with psychiatric disorders ,' Ann Epidemiology, May 2022 [7] [8] 'National Review of Restraint Related Deaths of Children and Adults with Disabilities: The Lethal Consequences of Restraint,' Equip for Equality, 2011, p. 30 [9] 'Best Practices: Racial and Ethnic Effects on Antipsychotic Prescribing Practices in a Community Mental Health Center,' Psychiatric Services, 1 Feb. 2003, [10] [11] 'J&J and Eli Lilly Concealed Breast Cancer Risks in Blockbuster Antipsychotics for Decades, Wisner Baum Lawsuit Alleges,' PR Newswire, 23 Apr. 2023 [12] 'Mental health and human rights,' Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 28 September 2018 [13] World Health Organization, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 'Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation,' 9 Oct. 2023 MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: CCHR calls for a permanent end to coercive psychiatric practices: banning forced treatment, physical and chemical restraint, and psychological 'killology' law enforcement training. They also demand accountability for harm and deaths caused by such practices. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, Mental Health Month, CCHR International, Study of Civil Litigated Cases on Prone Restraint Deaths, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P125954 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
Associated Press
15-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
CCHR Exposes Invasive Brain Treatments: Mental Health Patients Pay the Price
LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 15, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a leading mental health industry watchdog, has released a damning report detailing how psychiatry is blaming patients—rather than failed treatments—to justify a surge in brain stimulation interventions. 'When psychiatric drugs and therapy don't work, psychiatry rarely blames the treatment—it blames the patient, saying they are 'treatment-resistant,'' said Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International. ''Treatment-resistant' isn't a diagnosis—it's a deflection. And it's being used to push invasive procedures like Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS), and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).' These brain stimulation devices were 'cleared' by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or approved under Humanitarian Device Exemptions (HDEs), bypassing the rigorous testing normally required of most medical devices. Many were greenlighted based on the device delivering ECT—a practice known for causing brain damage, memory loss, and even death.[1] Even industry insiders acknowledge concerns. 'The precise physiological mechanisms of DBS are not yet fully understood,' admits one clinical review.[2] A professor of psychiatry at Brown University's Alpert Medical School, put it more starkly: 'This really is a kind of mind control.'[3] The term 'treatment-resistant' is a psychiatric sleight of hand, now used to justify a global neurostimulation industry projected to hit $51 billion by 2030. Labeling up to 60% of psychiatric patients as 'resistant' creates a false pretext for experimental interventions.[4] Meanwhile, 25% of patients develop drug tolerance within weeks, prompting ever-riskier 'solutions.'[5] Electroshock: Psychiatry's Recycled Blunder ECT involves sending up to 460 volts through the brain to trigger seizures. Contrary to PR spin, Eastgate says, experts report modern ECT is no safer—voltage levels are higher than when broken bones were common due to convulsions.[6] Attorney Jonathan Emord, who has challenged the FDA's approval processes, stated: 'All patients who receive ECT suffer memory loss and cognitive impairment… many forgetting much of their lives before treatment.' A 2020 peer-reviewed review concluded ECT has 'no place in evidence-based medicine.'[12] Brain-Altering Experiments in Disguise Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS): Electrodes are surgically implanted into the brain, powered by a device in the chest. Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS): Electrical stimulation delivered via electrodes wrapped around the vagus nerve near the heart. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): Magnetic pulses are aimed at the brain over six weeks. New variants—rTMS, iTBS, cTBS—deliver hundreds of brain pulses per session with unknown long-term risks. No Proof of Disease, No Justification for Devices Despite the sophistication of these procedures, there is still no objective medical test to diagnose any psychiatric disorder. No blood test. No brain scan. No biomarker.[19] Dr. Thomas Insel, former director of the National Institute for Mental Health advised: 'Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] diagnoses are based on a consensus… not any objective laboratory measure.'[20] 'It's not the patient that's resistant—it's the system that's resistant to accountability,' Eastgate said. 'In any other field, if the intervention failed, the treatment would be reevaluated. But psychiatry doubles down, pushing more dangerous interventions instead.' CCHR urges policymakers to: CCHR, established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz has a record of reforms that include banning lethal Deep Sleep Treatment, outlawing ECT use on children in several U.S. states, and securing global recognition for patient rights. Today, the United Nations and WHO echo what CCHR has long fought for: coercion has no place in mental health care. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] FDA, Final Rule on Electroconvulsive Therapy Devices, Federal Register, Dec. 26, 2018; WHO-OHCHR, 'Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation,' 9 Oct. 2023, p. 58, [2] Lavanya P. Sharma, et al., 'Deep brain stimulation – A primer for psychiatrists,' Asian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 104, Feb. 2025 [3] Lavanya P. Sharma, et al., 'Deep brain stimulation – A primer for psychiatrists,' Asian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 104, Feb. 2025 [4] 'Treatment resistance in psychiatry: state of the art and new directions,' Mol Psychiatry, July 2021, [5] [6] Douglas G. Cameron, 'ECT: Sham Statistics, the Myth of Convulsive Therapy, and the Case for Consumer Misinformation,' The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Vol 15, Winter-Spring 1994, pp 177-198, [7] WHO- OHCHR, 'Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation,' 9 Oct. 2023, pp. 15, 58 and 59; [8] 'Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy Lawsuit – What You Should Know About ECT,' [9] Peter Simons, 'ECT Does Not Seem to Prevent Suicide,' Mad In America, 17 Feb. 2023, [10] Based on Freedom of Information Requests to 27 states [11] Tricare Encounter Data (TED) Non-Institutional (Outpatient) for Purchased Care claims, Data Extract as of 10/21/2016, Data received from CCHR International Freedom of Information Request, 2016 [12] Jonathon Emord, 'FDA unjustified in downgrading shock therapy brain injury risks,' The Washington Times, 12 Oct. 2016, [13] 'Brain Stimulation Therapies,' NIMH, accessed 21 Feb. 2011; Dr. Ananya Mandal, MD, 'Deep Brain Stimulation Side Effects,' News Medical Life Sciences, 22 July 2023, [14] Danielle Egan, 'Adverse Effects: The Perils of Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression,' Mad in America, 24 Sept. 2015 [15] [16] Natasha Tracy, 'Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) for Treating Depression,' Healthy Place, 11 Jan. 2022, [17] FDA MAUDE report, Neurostar TMS, 07/14/2021, [18] [19] [20] MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: 'It's not the patient that's resistant—it's the system that's resistant to accountability. In any other field, if the intervention failed, the treatment would be reevaluated. But psychiatry doubles down, pushing more dangerous interventions instead.' – Jan Eastgate, President CCHR International. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International CCHR, mental health industry watchdog, brain stimulation interventions, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P125512 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
Associated Press
07-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
CCHR Says Despite Record-High Spending, Mental Health Outcomes Decline-Experts Say Fault Lies with Flawed Diagnostic System
LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 7, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is sounding the alarm on the unchecked expansion of psychiatric diagnoses—most notably through the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). What began in 1952 with just 106 diagnoses exploded to over 300 by 2013, despite a lack of objective biological testing to support these labels. The United States is spending more than ever on mental health – yet outcomes continue to worsen. Suicide rates are rising, psychiatric hospitalizations are increasing, and more Americans than ever are on psychiatric drugs. A growing number of experts and watchdog organizations argue that the root of the problem lies not in a lack of access or funding, but in the very foundation of modern psychiatry: an unscientific diagnostic system that pathologizes normal life. According to neurologist Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan, author of ' The Age of Diagnosis,' 'fad' diagnoses pathologize the human condition itself. 'We are not getting sicker,' she writes, 'we are attributing more to sickness.'[1] Despite massive investments in mental health care, U.S. outcomes are deteriorating: Mental health/behavioral spending reached $329 billion in 2022—a 94% increase since 2012 [2]—yet suicide rates have jumped 30% since 2000.[3] Time in a psychiatric hospital raises suicide likelihood by over 44 times; psychotropic drugs alone can raise it nearly six times.[4] One-third of admitted psychiatric patients are readmitted within a year, highlighting treatment failure.[5] Involuntary commitment accounts for over half of all psychiatric admissions.[6] Yet evidence shows that forced treatment is ineffective.[7] The diagnostic system's credibility is undermined by deep financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. According to research: 69% of DSM-5 task force members had financial ties to drug companies. Lisa Cosgrove, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Boston, warns that the 'disease model' of psychiatry secured legitimacy for the field but at the cost of objectivity. 'It opened the door to an improper dependence on the pharmaceutical industry,' she says. DSM-driven diagnostic inflation has led to an explosion in labels that often medicalize experiences. Examples now classified as disorders include: Caffeine Use Disorder (8%) Restless Leg Syndrome (13%) Adjustment Disorder (15%) Oppositional Defiant Disorder in children (6%) Some estimates suggest that, when added together, DSM-labeled 'illnesses' outnumber the U.S. population. While the DSM gives the appearance of a clinical guidebook, it remains—by the admission of psychiatrists—scientifically unsound. Dr. Thomas Insel, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, declared: 'The weakness of DSM is its lack of validity…. DSM diagnoses are based on consensus about clusters of symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure.'[8] Psychiatrist Allen Frances, who led the DSM-IV task force, has since warned that DSM has led to the 'medicalization of childhood' and a 'massive, careless over-diagnosis' epidemic. He emphasized: 'Mental illness is terribly misleading because the disorders we diagnose are merely descriptions of behaviors, not well-established diseases.' In other words, there is no verifiable biological test for depression, ADHD, bipolar or other any other mental disorder. Yet millions are labeled and treated as if they were suffering from chronic medical diseases. Psychiatric diagnoses do not reveal chemical imbalances. In fact, psychiatrist Professor Joanna Moncrieff, of University College London, notes: 'The theory that depression is caused by low serotonin is not supported by reliable evidence.' Still, patients are routinely prescribed antidepressants under the presumption of such imbalances. The consequences of psychiatric diagnosing are not just financial—they're deeply personal and often devastating. Women and children are disproportionately affected. Two-thirds of electroshock recipients are women. Children as young as five are prescribed psychiatric drugs. The American Academy of Pediatrics reported a 66% rise in antidepressant use in ages 12–25 between 2016 and 2022.[9] TIME and Smithsonian have reported on the enduring trend of diagnosing women's physical and emotional struggles as mental illness, delaying real medical care and increasing vulnerability to psychiatric interventions.[10] Even as access to treatment expands, mental health is declining across all major metrics. TIME summed it up: 'Even as more people flock to therapy, U.S. mental health is getting worse.'[11] Experts and advocates are calling not for more funding, but for systemic change. Dr. Frances advises: 'Ignore DSM-5. Its suggestions are reckless, unsupported by science, and will result in unnecessary, harmful, costly treatment.'[12] 'The DSM must be abolished,' says psychiatrist Samuel Timimi.[13] CCHR, established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz, urges lawmakers, healthcare leaders, and the public to reconsider the current trajectory of mental health policy. 'Until psychiatry is held accountable for its unscientific diagnostic system and the harm it inflicts,' says Jan Eastgate, President, CCHR International, 'the crisis will only deepen.' Sources: [1] Hanna Barnes, 'Our overdiagnosis epidemic: How a marked rise in the treatment of certain conditions – physical and mental – is harming, not protecting, public health,' The New Statesman, 10 Mar. 2025, [5] 'Readmission of Patients to Acute Psychiatric Hospitals: Influential Factors and Interventions to Reduce Psychiatric Readmission Rates,' Healthcare (Basel). 2022 Sep 19;10(9):1808, [6] 'National Mental Health Services Survey (N-MHSS): 2018 Data on Mental Health Treatment Facilities – Data on Mental Health Treatment Facilities,' SAMSHA, 2019; Christopher Lane, Ph.D., 'When Psychiatric Treatment Isn't Voluntary,' Psychology Today, 31 Mar. 2023, [7] 'Forcing homeless people into mental health treatment isn't the way to solve homelessness,' Los Angeles Times, 28 Jan. 2020, [8] Thomas Insel, 'Transforming Diagnosis,' NIMH Website, 20 Apr. 2013, [11] 'America Has Reached Peak Therapy. Why Is Our Mental Health Getting Worse?' TIME, 28 Aug. 2024, [13] Samuel Timimi, 'No more psychiatric labels: Why formal psychiatric diagnostic systems should be abolished,' Int. Journ. of Clinical and Health Psychology, Sept.-Dec. 2014, MULTIMEDIA: Image caption: 'Until psychiatry is held accountable for its unscientific diagnostic system and the harm it inflicts, the crisis will only deepen.' – Jan Eastgate, President, CCHR International NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, psychiatry, LOS ANGELES, Calif. Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P125332 APNF0325A
