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This page is for working with Psychiatric abuses, per the deletion review. HG | Talk 14:42, 8 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a sample dab.

Due to GFDL concerns, I've reverted the temporary cut-and-paste work in the Soviet psychiatry and in Psychiatry articles. Still need to deal w/Falun Gong, already reworked. Thanks to Dhaluza for assistance.HG | Talk 14:23, 8 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

N.B. A user has created both Category:Political abuses of psychiatry and a stub for a main article, Political abuses of psychiatry. HG | Talk 18:04, 8 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Psychiatric abuse is a generic term for real and alleged mistreatment of people under psychiatric care by doctors, middle-medical personnel or orderlies.[1] There are several highly polarized views of varying standards about what constitutes "Psychiatric abuse". Actual mistreatment can range from simple malpractice, to human rights violations up to and including torture[1][2] and euthanasia.[3] The term is used by scholars to describe state sanctioned oppression and abuse against dissidents.[1][2] It is also used by critics of Psychiatry to criticize mainstream treatments believed to be clinically effective, such as electroconvulsive therapy.[4][5] The the World Psychiatric Association’s 1996 "Declaration of Madrid" is an internationally accepted standard for ethical psychiatric care, and many recent claims of psychiatric abuse cite violations of its provisions as the basis for this determination.[6][7][8]

Scientology and antipsychiatry viewpoints

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"Psychiatric abuse" is a major doctrinal concern of the Church of Scientology, which is publicly, often vehemently, opposed to all psychiatric treatment.[9] The Church maintains a museum against psychiatry (Psychiatry: An Industry of Death) and an institute that regards psychiatry as a human rights abuse (Citizens Commission on Human Rights).[10][11] From the Scientology standpoint, the phrase "Psychiatric abuse" is defined broadly.[attribution needed]

Similarly, the Psychiatric Survivors Movement and the movement of antipsychiatry, among others, believes that non-consensual electroshock treatment, psychosurgery, involuntary confinement and medication, all accepted by most psychiatrists as sometimes necessary for the severely mentally ill, and all commonly accepted standards of care, are also considered Psychiatric abuse.[citation needed]

Suppressing dissent

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In both religious and secular societies, psychiatric abuse has been one of a number of methods used to suppress dissent and enforce conformity available to be employed by restrictive regimes.

Abuse of Soviet dissidents

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See also: Psikhushka, Gulag, and Moscow Serbsky Institute

From the late 1940s onward, psychiatric hospitals in the Soviet Union were used as prisons to isolate political dissidents, break them mentally and physically, and discredit their ideas. At least 365 people were misdiagnosed, confined, and subjected to a variety of abuse such as beatings, painful lumbar punctures, electric shocks, and forced drugging.[citation needed] This abuse was first exposed to the outside world in 1971.[unreliable source?] There has been a report of a similar case more recently. In 2007 Larisa Arap alleged that mental patients at Apatity mental were treated improperly. As a result of her exposure of these conditions, she states she was detained in the same mental hospital she wrote about. She reported on her experience of being abused while hospitalized and also on her assessment that sane but 'inconvenient' people were detained there. She made other allegations based on the reported experiences of other patients.[12] Her situation is being investigated.[13]

Persecution of Falun Gong

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See also: Persecution of Falun Gong and Falun Gong and live organ harvesting

In 1999 the Peoples' Republic of China banned Falun Gong and began a crackdown on its practitioners. The Chinese government has admitted a sharp increase in the psychiatric detainment of Falun Gong adherents, blaming alleged harmful effects of the practice. One government source quoted by Robin Munro claimed that 30 per cent of the mental patients in China were Falun Gong. (A Peoples' Daily Online story dated September, 2006, stated that China had 16 million mental patients, and mentions a new law that fines people who reveal the identity of mental hospital patients.)[14] Lu and Galli state that the perversion of mental health facilities for the purpose of torture of Falun Gong practitioners is widespread in China.[15] However, that report has been challenged by Harry Wu, political activist for human rights in China, who said the evidence came from two witnesses who did not see the alleged organ harvesting first hand.[16] In February 2005 a World Psychiatric Association delegation visited China with little result.

The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) and the Chinese Society of Psychiatrists (CSP) negotiated an agreement to respond to allegations from around the world[attribution needed] that the Chinese government used the psychiatric establishment to punish members of Falun Gong for their political and religious beliefs. WPA representative Dr. Abraham Halpern expressed doubt that the charges of torture, fraudulent diagnoses and human rights violation involving thousands of people should be dismissed as mere 'failures in diagnosis.' Disagreeing with Dr. Halpern, Arthur Kleinman, M.D., a professor of medical anthropology and psychiatry at Harvard University, expressed the view that the allegations of psychiatric abuse of Falun Gong members are exaggerated and some of the accounts "distorted." He noted that many cases came to light in which Falun Gong adherents appeared to have a diagnosable mental illness, including obvious symptoms of psychosis, "and were put in psychiatric hospitals for good reasons".[17]

Ethically disputed treatments

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Electroconvulsive therapy

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The use of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial issue in psychiatry. Social critical movements such as Scientology argue that ECT in an of itself constitutes abuse.[18][19]

Ethical standards in psychiatry

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In 1977, spurred by a case documented by Human Rights Watch of political psychiatric abuse in the Soviet Union,[20] the World Psychiatric Association adopted the Declaration of Hawaii,[21] a basic set of ethical standards for psychiatrists everywhere. To expand and clarify the ethical rules that had been proposed, the WPA adopted the Madrid Declaration.[22] Every psychiatrist is enjoined to follow the Madrid Declaration rules, which prohibit human rights violations, such as neglecting to obtain informed consent for treatment, forcing treatment on patients, failing to respect their dignity and confidentiality, and failing to treat patients in their best interest. Prior to the Madrid Declaration, Serbian psychiatrist, poet, soccer coach and politician, Radovan Karadzic was indicted as a war criminal,[23] the first doctor so indicted since the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial in 1946.[24]

Notable reformers

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Gluzman, S.F. (1991). "Abuse of psychiatry: analysis of the guilt of medical personnel". J Med Ethics. 17: 19–20. Retrieved 2007-09-30. Based on the generally accepted definition, we correctly term the utilisation of psychiatry for the punishment of political dissidents as torture.
  2. ^ a b Debreu, Gerard (1988). "Part 1: Torture, Psychiatric Abuse, and the Ethics of Medicine". In Corillon, Carol (ed.). Science and Human Rights. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2007-10-04. Over the past two decades the systematic use of torture and psychiatric abuse have been sanctioned or condoned by more than one-third of the nations in the United Nations, about half of mankind.
  3. ^ López-Muñoza, Francisco (2006-12-07). "Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry : Psychiatry and political–institutional abuse from the historical perspective: The ethical lessons of the Nuremberg Trial on their 60th anniversary". Cecilio Alamoa, Michael Dudleyb, Gabriel Rubioc, Pilar García-Garcíaa, Juan D. Molinad and Ahmed Okasha. Science Direct. doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2006.12.007. Retrieved 2007-10-04. These practices, in which racial hygiene constituted one of the fundamental principles and euthanasia programmes were the most obvious consequence, violated the majority of known bioethical principles. Psychiatry played a central role in these programmes, and the mentally ill were the principal victims. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Lebensohn, Z.M. (1999). "The history of electroconvulsive therapy in the United States and its place in American psychiatry: A personal memoir". Comprehensive Psychiatry. 40 (3): 173–181. Retrieved 2007-10-05. Networks of former patients such as NAPA (Network Against Psychiatric Abuse) have aligned themselves with various antipsychiatry organizations
  5. ^ McCall WV, Prudic J, Olfson M, Sackeim H. Health-related quality of life following ECT in a large community sample. J Affect Disord. 2006 Feb;90(2-3):269-74. PMID 16412519 "ECT is associated with improved HRQOL in the short- and long-term, with the enhancements largely explained by improvements in depressive symptoms."
  6. ^ Okasha, A. (2005). "WPA Continues to Pursue Concerns About Chinese Psychiatric Abuses". Psychiatric News. 40 (3): 24–24. Retrieved 2007-10-05. The Madrid Declaration is concerned with the protection of the rights of our patients and the nonabuse of our profession.
  7. ^ Munro, R. (2002). "Dangerous Minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao Era" (PDF). HR Watch. Retrieved 2007-10-05. The Chinese authorities' frequent imposition of this extreme measure on individuals (mentally normal or otherwise) whom they regard as posing only a "political threat" to society stands in clear and direct violation both of the World Psychiatric Association's 1996 Declaration of Madrid... {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Helmchen, H. (2000). "From the Hawaii Declaration to the Declaration of Madrid". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 101 (399): 20–23. Retrieved 2007-10-05. At that time, the WPA was concerned with the abuse of psychiatry and psychiatrists by some governments in the world. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ faq.Scientology.org Official statement by the Church of Scientology
  10. ^ Libin, Kevin (2007-08-09). "Torture, or just plain torque? 'Industry Of Death' Exhibition On Psychiatry Walks A Fine Line". National Post. Retrieved 2007-09-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ http://www.cchr.org/index.cfm/13216 CCHR - a Scientology-affiliated organization
  12. ^ [1] 'Putin critic tells of her mental hospital ordeal' By Alastair Gee, Independent (London) August 22, 2007
  13. ^ "Psychiatric abuse claim in Russia". BBC News. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-03. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  14. ^ [2] 'Draft Rules For Divulging Mental Patients' Identity' Peoples' Daily Online, 9/16/2006
  15. ^ [3] 'Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong Practitioners in China' Lu & Galli, 2002
  16. ^ "Harry Wu challenges Falun Gong organ harvesting claims". South China Morning Post. 2006. Retrieved 2007-10-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. ^ [4] 'WPA, Chinese Psychiatrists Agree on Psychiatry Abuse Charges' by Ken Hausman, Psychiatric News, August 6, 2004
  18. ^ [5] 'The Cognitive Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Community Settings,' Sackeim, et al., 2007
  19. ^ [6] 'The Ethics of Electroconvulsive Therapy,' by Dr. Loren D. Mosher and David Cohen, PhD, AMA Journal of Ethics, October 2003
  20. ^ [7]Robin Munro, Columbia Journal of Asian Law, quoted in Human Rights Watch
  21. ^ [8] The Declaration of Hawaii
  22. ^ [9] Madrid Declaration
  23. ^ [10] "Dr. Radovan Karadzic: Psychiatrist, Poet, Soccer Coach and Genocidal Leader' by Robert M. Kaplan, Australasian Psychiatry, March 2003
  24. ^ [11] 'Psychology Behind Wars', by Jura Nanuk, Budapest Sun, June 24, 1999

Further reading

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Books

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  • Bloch, S. (1984). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. Gollancz. ISBN 978-0813302096. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Bloch, S. (1977). Psychiatric Terror: How Soviet Psychiatry is Used to Suppress Dissent. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-06488-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Stover, E. (1985). The Breaking of Bodies and Minds: Torture, Psychiatric Abuse, and the Health Professions. Freeman. ISBN 978-0716717331. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Van Voren, R. (1989). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse in the Gorbachev Era. International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry. ISBN 978-9072657015. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Journals

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