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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
28-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
CCHR Urges U.S. to Adopt WHO Mental Health Policy Condemning Coercive Psychiatry
LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 28, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a powerful new directive urging nations to eliminate coercive psychiatric practices, including forced hospitalization, drugging, and seclusion. The Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plans outlines a rights-based approach that marks a sharp departure from institutionalization and involuntary treatment. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a global mental health watchdog, has welcomed the guidance while warning that U.S. psychiatry remains dangerously out of step. The new WHO framework expands upon existing United Nations human rights resolutions that have consistently declared coercive psychiatric practices torture and an abuse of patient autonomy and human rights. According to the Guidance, mental health care must be voluntary, informed, and person-centered. WHO Principles: Ending Abuse, Enforcing Accountability The WHO recommends: The WHO further demands robust accountability measures, including public tracking of: Despite these mandates, CCHR points out that the U.S. lacks a national, publicly accountable system to collect or publish such data. Transparency is scarce, and institutions are rarely held accountable for harmful or fatal outcomes. A rare investigation by a national news outlet revealed that, between 2020 and 2023, exposed a deadly national pattern—a lack of transparency and accountability involved in patient restraint and seclusion in hospitals generally, including behavioral and psychiatric. From 2020 to 2023, it found more than 14,300 patient deaths linked to restraint or seclusion. Nearly 1,000 involved drugs used as chemical restraints, including opioids, sedatives, and antipsychotics. Nearly 2,700 patients died while in seclusion or restraints, and almost 11,700 deaths occurred within 24 hours of removal from restraint or seclusion.[1] These deaths, however, reflect only one aspect of systemic coercion. Research shows that more than half of psychiatric admissions in the U.S. are involuntary.[2] On a single day in 2018, 57% of psychiatric hospital patients were admitted against their will, rising to 89% in public psychiatric facilities.[3] Patients in these environments report widespread abuse: 'The data is clear—coercion is not a rare exception under U.S. psychiatric treatment. It is a defining feature of the system,' said Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR. 'And the longer this is ignored, the more lives will be lost to silence, trauma, and preventable harm and deaths.' The WHO Calls for Systemic Change The WHO's solution is bold: close institutions and eliminate financial incentives that perpetuate institutionalization. CCHR strongly supports this recommendation, having documented ongoing abuse in high-volume psychiatric facilities, especially those operating under profit-driven models. Numerous reports have exposed neglect, physical assaults, and preventable patient deaths in such environments, including in 21 for-profit psychiatric hospitals in California. 'These facilities often operate without effective independent oversight or transparency,' said Eastgate. 'It is unacceptable that vulnerable individuals are placed in high-risk environments with little to no accountability for the patient sexual abuse, forced treatment and deadly restraints that occur behind closed doors.' Rejecting the 'Brain Disease' Model The WHO Guidance also challenges the prevailing psychiatric model that treats mental distress as a brain-based disease requiring lifelong drug treatment. Instead, it promotes non-coercive, person-led recovery and psychosocial supports. It calls on governments and providers to: CCHR emphasizes that these principles are not radical—they are now the official global standard. Yet U.S. psychiatry continues to advocate for involuntary commitment, forced drugging, and electroshock, including on minors. 'This biomedical model has failed not only patients but public trust,' said Eastgate. 'It has resulted in a mental health system plagued by poor and lethal outcomes and human rights violations.' CCHR, which was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and world-renowned psychiatrist and author, Prof. Thomas Szasz, is now calling on: 'This is a moment of reckoning for psychiatry,' Eastgate concluded. 'The evidence of harm is overwhelming. The guidance for reform is clear. Now, it is up to the U.S. to either embrace change—or be held responsible for the continued suffering of those entrusted to its care.' About CCHR: Mental health industry watchdog CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz. CCHR has achieved hundreds of reforms, including bans against coercive psychiatric practices such as on electroshock for minors and federal protections against forced drugging of schoolchildren. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] David Robinson, 'Why did 14K people die with ties to hospital restraints amid pandemic?,' Democrat & Chronicle, New York State team, 17 July 2024, [2] Morris, N., 'Involuntary Commitments: Billing Patients for Forced Psychiatric Care,' Am J Psychiatry, 1 Dec 2020, [3] MULTIMEDIA: IMAGE LINK for media: Image caption: 'This is a moment of reckoning for psychiatry. The evidence of harm is overwhelming. The guidance for reform is clear. Now, it is up to the U.S. to either embrace change – or be held responsible for the continued suffering of those entrusted to its care.' – Jan Eastgate, President CCHR International. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, Jan Eastgate, coercive psychiatry, Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plans, 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: S2P125779 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
21-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
New York Times Exposé Vindicates CCHR: ADHD Isn't Biological, Says Watchdog
LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 21, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — A recent exposé in The New York Times Magazine will send shockwaves through the psychiatric community, affirming what the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) has warned for decades: there is no medical proof that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a biological disorder.[1] Yet, over 3.4 million American children are labeled with ADHD and prescribed powerful, mind-altering stimulants. According to Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, The Times' revelations 'should prompt federal lawmakers and public health officials to investigate how millions of children could be drugged under a false premise—and why dissenting voices were ignored.' The New York Times Magazine article by Paul Tough details how ADHD was long marketed as a neurobiological disorder requiring medication, despite lacking any objective test. Tough writes that the entire system rests on shaky assumptions: 'that ADHD is a medical disorder that demands a medical solution; that it is caused by inherent deficits in children's brains; and that the medications we give them repair those deficits.' But many of those once involved in building this narrative are now disowning it. As the article concedes: 'Unlike with diabetes, there is no reliable biological test for ADHD,' and diagnosis often relies on 'subjective judgment.' Eastgate underscores the damage: 'Millions of parents were led to believe their children had a brain disorder—one that science now admits it cannot medically confirm. That's not mental healthcare. That's institutional betrayal.' EXPERTS RETREAT FROM ADHD'S SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION Among the most striking revelations is the reversal of leading researchers who once championed the disorder and its treatments. Dr. James Swanson, a research psychologist and one of ADHD's early proponents, was central to efforts in the 1990s that drove public acceptance of the diagnosis. At that time, CCHR was actively protesting the mass drugging of children, warning that the supposed science behind ADHD was fundamentally flawed. Their concerns are now echoed by Swanson himself. After three decades of research, Swanson told the Times: 'I don't agree with people who say that stimulant treatment is good. It's not good.' He also found that children taking the drugs were still symptomatic years later and were shorter than their peers. Other prominent scientists quoted include: Sonuga-Barke went further, calling the search for a biological marker a 'red herring,' and admitting: 'There literally is no natural cutting point where you could say, 'This person has got ADHD, and this person hasn't got it.' Those decisions are to some extent arbitrary.' THE HUMAN TOLL: WHY KIDS QUIT THE DRUGS The exposé also reveals how teens themselves reject ADHD stimulants. Swanson notes the high dropout rate among young users—many of whom said the drugs made them feel worse. 'If it's so effective, why do people stop?' he asked. Eastgate responds: 'For decades, parents were told by doctors, 'If you don't medicate your child, you're a bad parent.' But when children themselves report the drugs made them feel bad, it's psychiatry that refuses to listen.' In response to the widespread overuse of ADHD diagnoses and stimulant prescribing—even in children under five—the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a federal review. CCHR welcomes this as long overdue. For over 40 years, CCHR has maintained that psychiatric labels such as ADHD are not rooted in biological science but are voted into existence through panels of psychiatrists—not discovered through medical testing. As far back as the 1980s and 1990s, CCHR was on record opposing the mass diagnosis of ADHD and the marketing of stimulants to schoolchildren. 'This investigation must look at how pseudoscience became policy,' said Eastgate. 'And why the system ignored watchdogs, parents, and even the United Nations, until some of the same researchers who created the mess began to admit their mistake.' In 2017, Dr. Dainius Pūras, a psychiatrist and then UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, urged governments to move away from the biomedical (drug-based) model of mental health.[2] CCHR had already submitted evidence to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), documenting psychostimulant prescribing in 14 countries. The UNCRC responded by recommending strict monitoring of ADHD drug use in children and criticized the 'medicating' of children without addressing root causes or offering alternative supports.[3] More recently, the World Health Organization and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights jointly declared that 'legislation on mental health must… move away from the narrow traditional 'biomedical paradigm.''[4] The New York Times exposé represents a landmark moment in pediatric mental health. It exposes how ADHD's 'biological' foundations were misleading, and the harms of its treatments were undersold. CCHR says it validates what the group has long stood for: that millions of children were mislabeled and drugged. 'This is a reckoning,' concludes Eastgate. 'But it must become a reform. It's not enough to admit the science was wrong. The system must now be held accountable for what it did with that false science—and ensure it never happens again.' About CCHR: Mental health industry watchdog established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz. CCHR has achieved hundreds of reforms, including bans on minors being electroshocked and federal protections against forced drugging of schoolchildren. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] Paul Tough, 'Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong?' The New York Times Magazine, 13 Apr. 2025, [2] 'World Needs 'Revolution' in Mental Health Care, U.N. Health Rights Expert Reports,' CCHR International, 14 June 2017, 'World needs 'revolution' in mental health care – UN rights expert,' United Nations, 6 June 2017, [3] 'Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 44 of the Convention,' UNCRC, 17 Sept. – 5 Oct. 2012, p. 15, [4] 'New WHO Mental Health Guideline Condemns Coercive Psychiatric Practices,' CCHR International, 18 Sept. 2023, 'Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation,' World Health Organization, OHCHR, 9 Oct. 2023, p. xvii, MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: 'This is a reckoning. But it must become a reform. It's not enough to admit the science was wrong. The system must now be held accountable for what it did with that false science—and ensure it never happens again.' – Jan Eastgate, President CCHR International. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, mental health, 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: S2P125617 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.
