Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Most Suiciders Do Not Warn Others

As in this sad case.


In this series, they differed little from others, or had above average function. And, "The striking failure of intensive screening and preventive measures to prevent these suicides highlights unresolved questions of etiology and intervention."


Irresponsible, Lethal FDA at It Again

This agency must be eliminated by law.

These peddlers of garbage science now want to have many more suicide assessments, even in non-psychiatric medications. They will mandate suicide assessments in trials for medications for medical conditions. "Medicines to treat acne, hypertension, high cholesterol, swelling, heartburn, pain, bacterial infections and insomnia can all cause psychiatric problems, effects that were discovered in most cases after the drugs were approved and used in millions of patients." (from this NYT article. Thanks to Simon Levane.)

They will impose this suicide assessment.

Where is the evidence that this bogus assessment can detect, lower, or have any effect on the suicide rate? If these geniuses impose this screening, and a difference emerges from the rate of suicidality in the placebo group, then the excess number should be evaluated for ecological risk factors. Relational, familial, and extra-familial factors must be controlled for before attributing any excess risk to drug treatment. This control for external factors is mandatory because the randomization assumption is always violated by any exclusion criterion.

As this bogus paper shuffling is added to the treatment of the conditions covered by this unfunded mandate, more doctors will be deterred from using these medications. As they forego these treatments and reject these patients, far more patients will die of the underlying condition. For example, the peddlers of garbage science have alleged acne medication caused suicides. People with acne have a high rate of suicide. When ascertaining the baseline rate, acne medications reduce the suicide rate. A lawyer used his position of power in Congress to scapegoat the medication for the intentional suicide of his son. Instead of looking at the real factors, he chose to scapegoat the medication. By preventing its use in some people, this peddler of garbage science may have increase the suicide rate in other people with acne, now untreated.

If anyone hears of any plaintiff expert promulgating garbage science in form of the suicide assessment, or in the form of a link between these medications and suicide, please, let me know the case.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Dr. Wendy Packman, JD, PhD, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Send the References

Dr. Packman: You authored an article:

http://www.directionsinpsychiatry.com/pdfs/Packman.pdf

In it, you claimed a number of duties to prevent damage in the form of suicide. Those cases represented the victory of garbage science in pro-lawyer biased courts. You are a lawyer.

I demand that you provide me with the scientific data supporting the garbage science you peddled. I found nothing about preventing harm, in your article, to have the slightest scientific validity.

There is no evidence that compliance with any of the garbage you enumerated has any effect on suicide.

If you fail to provide these data, you will have peddled misleading garbage science.

If you serve as a plaintiff expert, I will not be filing an amicus brief. I will be filing an intervention claim, seeking sanctions from your personal assets for your garbage assertions. Take this opportunity to gather your data for this request, or rush to do so in a trial.

Any reply will be posted publicly.

Byllying Causing Suicide

Mother blames school for the bullying. Naturally.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Horrid Cascade of Suicide Contagion in Adolescents

Here.

Or just a fad.

Count goes to 13.

To 14.

Bird Flu May Increase Suicide by Bird Farmers and Traders

A surprising consequence of the bird flu.

Shortness at Birth Doubles Risk of Suicide

This risk is despite normal adult height, according to this article. Presumably, short babies have a higher risk of impulsivity later in life. The authors speculate about the potential damage to the brain serotonin system. The latter system gets a boost from many anti-depressants.

Monday, January 21, 2008

"What Keeps You From Killing Yourself?"

Dr. Geoffrey Neimark includes a positive approach to questioning the suicidal patient. It's a good idea. (Link requires free email registration.)

The Suicider Wants Company, The Lawyer Wants a Scapegoat with Deep Pockets

Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.

If anyone associated party has any money, I have no doubt, a lawsuit will follow.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Thank the Supreme Court

Another suicider takes her niece and nephew, into oncoming traffic and oblivion after stripping. Now she qualifies for enforced treatment.

Literature Review of Inpatient Suicide

Article. Fortunately rare. No evidence that commonly touted standards of due care make any difference.

Suicide in Primary Care

Many depressed patients see their family doctor before committing suicide. Some believe that primary care doctors cannot treat depression, especially if suicidal urges arise.

When primary care physicians treat depression, the suicide rate in the area decreases. Primary care doctor may have a greater impact, by long term treatment of depression, than psychiatrists. This is because most depressed patients do not see psychiatrists. When primary care doctors are deterred from treating depressed patients, by black box warnings, suicide increases.

Article reviews the management of this important patient group.

Suicidality in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

It's possible BPD does not exist, or is a mild form of antisocial personality disorder. It involves a lot of substance abuse. It has a hard outcome of 10% rate of suicide.

This article reviews the association with suicide. It makes the point that repeated hospitalizations may encourage more suicidal gestures, and increase them.

Restraint and Seclusion Regulations May Pre-Empt a Standard of Care Claim

One should review these national regulations. If a plaintiff expert asserts a standard of care that violates any of these regulatory restrictions on restraints, then it violates the law. For example, the expert claims the staff of a hospital should have restrained the suicider. The regulations do not allow that in the absence of an imminent attempt to hurt self or others. If the expert does not retract his unlawful standard of care, then sanctions of the expert and of the plaintiff lawyer should be requested of the judge.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Bias in Favor of Positive Findings - What Is Unsaid

This article reviews a bias to publish positive findings, and to not publish negative findings (hat tip to Simon Levane).

The study has no credibility coming from a left wing propaganda organ, the New England Journal of Medicine. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:252-60. An author is from Harvard, invalidating the review. These are biased left wing ideologues, clinician haters, seeking the destruction of corporate America.

These ideologues forgot something. The more severe the depression, the more likely and the greater the response to anti-depressant medication. That has been known for 50 years. The imipramine responder resembles the Parkinson patient. There is a lot of overlap between the two conditions. Many patients with Parkinson Disease are depressed. The severely depressed are slowed down, mute, have pseudo-dementia. The other feature of severe depression is, of course, intense suicidal urges. Patients with such strong biological symptoms are less likely to respond to placebo, when compared to patients with mild depression or even stress and normal sadness from loss.

The intensifying fear of litigation has caused severely depressed, and suicidal patients to get excluded from clinical trials. A patient suicide may end the clinical trial because of sanctions by the biased FDA and lawsuits. The patients who would cause the largest separation between drug and placebo have been progressively excluded.

Left wing ideologues like these biased, misleading, Harvard twits have intimidated companies into excluding severe patients. They caused the progressive failure of separation of drug from placebo responses. Then these clinical care haters complain that studies fail to separate drug from placebo responses.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Preparation of the Plaintiff Expert Witness

The defense attorney, and the defense expert should read this advice. The defense expert should help the defense attorney pierce through the claims of the plaintiff expert. The resume and the report should be read word for word, at least three times, preferably more. I would add that criminal sanctions should be requested for any factual perjury.

Skip Simpson Website Frequently Asked Questions About Psychiatric Malpractice

This is the lawyer view of the subject. If anyone is sued by this misleading land pirate, I would like to hear about the claim.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Saturday, January 12, 2008

High Suicide Rate Among Indian Teens, Especially Girls

See the article.

Perhaps, they take too many anti-depressants, there too.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Expectant Father, 17, Hangs Self

Was happy, as far as everyone thought.

Unqualified Coroner Makes Allegation of Negligence, Dismissed by Inquest

The Coroner has no qualification to assess the conduct of a psychiatric ward. This presumptuous allegation of malpractice requires that this unqualified coroner, Dr John Osborne, resign immediately. His frivolous, unqualified allegation is dismissed at inquest.

I demand this unqualified coroner, Dr John Osborne, provide scientifically validated evidence the taking of a belt from someone has ever prevented a single suicide.

Under no circumstances does a coroner have the slightest qualification to judge the standard of psychiatric care of a hospital. I strongly urge the hospital and all staff implicated to file a defamation lawsuit against this over-reaching, unqualified coroner. Ethics charges for unprofessional conduct should also be filed against this Brit twit.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Smoking Is a Risk Factor for Suicidal Ideas

Smoking increased the chance of having suicidal ideas by a significant amount. This study began when subjects were in their teens. Future studies of risk of suicidal ideas should control for this factor.

Army Has Yet to Adopt Effective Air Force Suicide Prevention

Article illustrates the consequences.

Prosecutors Seek Fraud Angle in MySpace Suicide Case

A woman posed as a 16 year old boy, and berated a girl. The girl committed suicide. No crime could be charged. Now, Federal prosecutors seek to investigate the woman for defrauding MySpace.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Taunts by Felons, Compounded by Media Harassment Cause Suicide of Good Prison Guard

Here.

Suicide by Lion

Described here.

Criminal Lovers Punish the Wrong People for the Suicide of a Parent Butcher

The suicide of this parent killer gets staff punished, instead of rewarded.

Resign. All of the criminal lover administration of Ancora State Hospital, and all of their lawyer puppet masters in Trenton. Criminal lovers, stop bullying clinical staff, and trying to protect parent butchers.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Britney Spears on a Watch for Suicide

Reviewed here.

Then released.

Literature Review of Hospital Suicides

Here.

The take home message? Unforeseeable, and not preventable. A number of suiciders had been under continual observation.

Because the superior knowledge doctrine is at the heart of the plaintiff case, this review rebuts the central legal justification of the plaintiff case.

Glenn Beck Gets Suicidal

One has to read to the end of the article. He was boozin', druggin', and had suicidal relatives.

Friday, January 4, 2008

China: More Awareness of Need for Suicide Prevention

Here.

Jury Favors Doc and Hospital in Suicide Claim; Boyfriend Forced Her to Watched Porn, Tied Up

I would like to know the name of the plaintiff expert.

Article fails to mention name. So apparently do commenters.

Sensible commentary on this case at Overlawyered. Best point? Large state hospital wards reduced privacy, and decreased opportunities for in hospital suicide. Thank the lawyer for that the change that supervision much harder, and raised the cost of hospitalization.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Too Few Suiciders Had Anti-depressants in their Bodies

Only a small fraction of suiciders had anti-depressants, at time of death. Here.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Use of Web Widespread

According to this survey.

This means the reasonable person in the US of the recent past has access to the Internet. That establishes a duty to inform oneself about any medication or other treatment.

The claim of lack of informed consent no longer has any merit.

Can Litigation Cause Suicidal Ideas? Should All Lawsuits Carry a Suicidal Ideas Black Box Warning?

The worthless data used by craven, PC, academics to justify a black box warning on anti-depressants gets a review here.

Unlike the possibility that anti-depressants may cause suicidal ideas, the black box warning has been followed by the deterrence of non-psychiatric doctors from treating depressed people. The rate of hard outcome suicide, not just thoughts, shot up. It had been dropping prior to that.

What else causes suicidal ideas, I wonder? Do people have more suicidal ideas or fewer after being sued? Why don't lawsuit complaints carry suicidal idea warnings? If a lawsuit complaint fails to carry such a warning, should the court, the plaintiff, the plaintiff lawyer be held accountable in a defective product liability? I bet more people feel suicidal after getting sued than after starting an anti-depressant.

Here. Here. Here.