Haldol and your shrinking brain

Drug for schizophrenia causes side effects by shrinking part of the brain.

My comments: Just think of the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's being prescribed Haldol, a fluoride-based anti-psychotic, and the reports associating brain shrinkage with the diagnosis.
Additionally, the severe side effect from Haldol is known as Tardive Dyskinesia, with symptoms noted in italics below. (One nautral treatment for TD is the use of organic and properly prepared valerian root extract.)

by Amy Maxmen

A commonly-prescribed antipsychotic drug shrinks the brain within hours of administration.

A leading antipsychotic drug temporarily reduces the size of a brain region that controls movement and coordination, causing distressing side effects such as shaking, drooling and restless leg syndrome.

Just two hours after injection with haloperidol, an antipsychotic commonly prescribed to treat schizophrenia, healthy volunteers experienced impaired motor abilities that coincided with diminished grey-matter volume in the striatum1 — a brain region that mediates movement.

"We've seen changes in the brain before, but to see significant remodelling of the striatum within a couple of hours is staggering," says Clare Parish at the Howard Florey Institute for brain research in Melbourne, Australia, who was not involved in the study.

complete article continues here

Death Effects and Schizophrenia Drugs

MEDLINE Abstract

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11-year follow-up of mortality in patients with schizophrenia: a population-based cohort study (FIN11 study).
Lancet. 2009; 374(9690):620-7 (ISSN: 1474-547X)
Tiihonen J ; Lönnqvist J ; Wahlbeck K ; Klaukka T ; Niskanen L ; Tanskanen A ; Haukka J
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Kuopio and Niuvanniemi Hospital, Department of Clinical Physiology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland. jari.tiihonen@niuva.fi

BACKGROUND: The introduction of second-generation antipsychotic drugs during the 1990s is widely believed to have adversely affected mortality of patients with schizophrenia. Our aim was to establish the long-term contribution of antipsychotic drugs to mortality in such patients. METHODS: Nationwide registers in Finland were used to compare the cause-specific mortality in 66 881 patients versus the total population (5.2 million) between 1996, and 2006, and to link these data with the use of antipsychotic drugs. We measured the all-cause mortality of patients with schizophrenia in outpatient care during current and cumulative exposure to any antipsychotic drug versus no use of these drugs, and exposure to the six most frequently used antipsychotic drugs compared with perphenazine use. FINDINGS: Although the proportional use of second-generation antipsychotic drugs rose from 13% to 64% during follow-up, the gap in life expectancy between patients with schizophrenia and the general population did not widen between 1996 (25 years), and 2006 (22.5 years). Compared with current use of perphenazine, the highest risk for overall mortality was recorded for quetiapine (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.41, 95% CI 1.09-1.82), and the lowest risk for clozapine (0.74, 0.60-0.91; p=0.0045 for the difference between clozapine vs perphenazine, and p<0.0001 for all other antipsychotic drugs). Long-term cumulative exposure (7-11 years) to any antipsychotic treatment was associated with lower mortality than was no drug use (0.81, 0.77-0.84). In patients with one or more filled prescription for an antipsychotic drug, an inverse relation between mortality and duration of cumulative use was noted (HR for trend per exposure year 0.991; 0.985-0.997). INTERPRETATION: Long-term treatment with antipsychotic drugs is associated with lower mortality compared with no antipsychotic use. Second-generation drugs are a highly heterogeneous group, and clozapine seems to be associated with a substantially lower mortality than any other antipsychotics. Restrictions on the use of clozapine should be reassessed. FUNDING: Annual EVO Financing (Special government subsidies from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Finland).

PreMedline Identifier:19595447

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Another Oprah Faux Pas

UPDATE:  Not Surprising to NHN
No Free Speech for Oprah: A woman who tried to get her story told on the Oprah Winfrey show was told that they could not air her story because they were supported by the pharmacuetical companies. So here is Oprah Winfrey, one of the most influential, wealthy personalities on the planet controlled by the pharmaceutical companies.

UPDATE: Thank you to Shari Roan of the LA Times for kindly responding to my note to her about this situation.

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I continue to be amazed at the failure of Oprah Winfrey and her staff. 

With all of the alleged talent and money available at Harpo Productions one just might think the producers and Oprah just might open up their minds to reach out-of-the-box on "schizophrenia", especially when it comes to drugging children.

Jenny and her parents featured on today's Oprah discuss their situation as how it relates to this very young child taking lithium and clozaril for her condition.

At no time is there even a minuscule mention of natural treatment that is proven in schizophrenia.

The problem for the parents is they probably do not even know that Valencia CA is close to the office of the Safe Harbor Project.

Psychiatric Drug Side Effects Search Engine

And please also refer to Orthomolecular Medicine and especially the work of Abrahm Hoffer, MD.

You may also refer to this website

"Mental Health Care should be held to the ethical creed, "First, Do No Harm" and should be driven by positive patient outcomes, not profit. Psychiatric drugs pose very real health risks including psychosis, worsening depression, diabetes, stroke and sudden death. 

There are non-harmful medical solutions that do not require stigmatizing psychiatric labels and dangerous drugs."  Hyla Cass, MD

Neuroliminal Training

Shari Roan

Even Jenny's parents are taking antidepressants!  Michael and Susan

It does not have to be like this.  There is real non-drug help for this family.

And on a related and well known issue, as psychiatric drug reimbursement under Medicaid has been called to task, Poor Children Likelier to Get Antipsychotics.

O, Oprah

Oprah again had a real opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the children, their parents and the families interviewed on her program today, but she looked the other way.

Not far from Chicago is an excellent researcher who heads an organization that over the years has helped many children, adults and families with many forms of mental illness, including schizophrenia.

At no time during the Oprah show today did this organization get even the slightest mention, nor did Oprah offer any options to these families or her listeners that have clinically established over 50 years ago that schizophrenia is a brain allergy syndrome.

Of course mainstream medicine treats this as a DSM billable situation, even though for many decades psychiatrists have admitted they do not know what schizophrenia.

Now there is also the consideration that there are no new drugs for schizophrenia that are actually approved for use in children, and many of these drugs that are used carry serous black box warnings.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world when we could turn on the Oprah show and see her discussing the known ways that resolve schizophrenia?

If we are to get real health reform, then this may be one of the best places to start.

Flu, Pregnancy and Schizophrenia

If one understands that a vaccine raises the risk you will contract the disease in the vaccine, putting pregnant women and their progeny at risk is unconscionable.

CDC Flu TARGET Group Guidelines for H1N1

Looking at the terrible state of mental health care today and the damge wrought by dangerous drugs used even more so makes a thinking person wonder what experiment will be next.

Flu During Pregnancy May Increase Risk Of Schizophrenia In Certain Offspring

ScienceDaily (2009-06-11) -- When mothers become infected with influenza during their pregnancy, it may increase the risk for schizophrenia in their offspring. Influenza is a very common virus and so there has been substantial concern about this association. A new study suggests that the observed association depends upon a pre-existing vulnerability in the fetus. ... > read full article

Make sure to read "Vitamin C Facts" for natural approaches to schizophrenia, Flu and Autism