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We have included in this month's issue comments from some of the contributors to the list. Our thanks for their permission to reprint.

One of the key barriers to the expansion of alternative mental health treatments among practitioners is the simple lack of knowledge. We hope this list will contribute toward the greater use of safe mental health treatments around the globe.

The group meets at 7 PM on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at the Safe Harbor office at 1718 Colorado Blvd in Los Angeles. For further info, contact the office at (323) 257-7338.

It opens with a one-hour "Ask the Doctor" session, with questions answered by national alternative mental health experts William Walsh, Ph.D., Priscilla Slagle, M.D., and Hyla Cass, M.D.

The awards event follows with inspiring presentations by world champion amputee athlete Paul Martin, two recoverees from mental disorders, psychiatrist Stuart Shipko, Safe Harbor president Dan Stradford, Priscilla Slagle, M.D., and William Walsh, Ph.D. Also included is a 15-minute video presentation and special message by country star Cledus T. Judd, who has recovered from bipolar disorder without psychiatric drugs.

In the middle of the event is a dramatic musical performance by rock gospel queen Robbie Brown and her family that completely brought down the house.

Videos may be ordered at (323) 257-7338 or may be purchased online at https://nt7.corpsite.com/secure_alternative/donation.htm (Simply note "Event video" in the message box.)

Further support for the effectiveness of omega-3 comes from a new study by Peet and Horrobin, reported in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, and a parallel study conducted at Harvard Medical School with similar group size and methods.

Dr. Malcolm Peet of the Swallownest Court Hospital in Sheffield, England and his colleague, Dr. David F. Horrobin, observed a decrease in symptoms of depression in patients who received a daily dose of 1 gram of the omega-3 fatty acid ethyl-eicosapentaenoate (EPA) for 12 weeks.

70 depressed patients who had not responded to antidepressant medications were given a daily dose of either 1 gram, 2 grams or 4 grams of EPA, or an inactive drug. Before and after the testing period, the patients' levels of depression were assessed using 3 different rating scales.

The greatest response was recorded in the group that received the 1-gram daily dosage. 69% of this group achieved a 50% reduction in their symptoms of depression, as compared to 25% of the patients given an inactive drug.

One of the authors of the Harvard study, psychiatrist Andrew Stoll, M.D., told Prevention magazine: "All cell coatings are made of fats, and when those fats are omega-3s, the serotonin receptors on the surface of brain cells seem to function in a healthier way."

Earlier studies found relatively low levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood of depressed patients and those diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases.

Omega-6 fatty acids are also essential. Abundant in processed foods, omega-6 fatty acids outweigh omega-3 by 20 to 1 in the typical modern diet. The ratio should be 1:1 for optimum functioning, according to Jenny Thompson of the Health Sciences Institute.

Thompson says the best source of omega-3 is fish, particularly dark meat fish such as tuna and swordfish. The problem is the threat of ingesting too much mercury, sometimes present at high levels in these fish. "Fish oil supplements are an excellent alternative, and will deliver far more omega-3 than your diet ever could, unless you happen to eat large amounts of tuna and swordfish every day."

The article outlines four case histories of children who were place on SSRIs resulting in attenuated growth in each child. The report provides "new and controversial evidence of a possible association between treatment with SSRIs and endocrinologic adverse events."

The report was written by Naomi Weintrob, M.D., of the Institute for Endocrinology and Diabetes at Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, and colleagues. All four children showed growth attenuation and decreased growth hormone (GH) secretion during treatment with SSRIs for obsessive-compulsive-disorder or Tourette syndrome.

All patients were treated with either fluvoxamine (Luvox) in the dose range of 50 to 100 mg per day or fluoxetine (Prozac) in the dose range of 20 to 80 mg per day for a period of six months to five years. All demonstrated growth attenuation or arrest despite the absence of chronic disease and other hypothalamic-pituitary function abnormalities. The patients in the study, three boys and a girl, were referred to an endocrinologic clinic for short stature, slow growth rate and/or overweight. In each of the patients, weight gain was consistent during SSRI therapy, and thyroid, prolactin and urinary cortisol levels appeared within normal range.

Responding to the report, Stuart Shipko, M.D., one of the world's leading experts on SSRI's, told the Alternative Mental Health News, "This is more than academic. It is a case report of only four cases, but I have already seen one that is similar in my office -- and I don't see that many kids."

Hearing is a complex process, explains Judith W. Paton, M.A., an audiologist in private practice in San Mateo, CA. "Not all the hearing is done in the ear. In fact, simply stated, the ear merely brings in all the environmental sounds human beings can hear and delivers them unseparated to the bottom of the brain in the brain stem (just above the spinal cord).

"As the hearing nerves criss-cross up these several inches the 'sorting out' or processing begins.... The auditory system must convey the speech sounds (they are not yet identified as words) without distortion up to the cortex of the brain. Here the temporal lobe organizes them into words and the information is routed to other centers of thought, action, sight, and so on."

Several elements are depended upon for these actions to occur. There must be enough nerve fibres, no cell loss, all the nerves have to transmit at normal speed, and the brain must be able to produce proper amount of neurotransmitters for the nerves to carry the messages.

Cells can be lost through improper development of the embryo or by lack of oxygen at birth. Head injuries, strokes, and sometimes allergies, can cause the brain to swell, which, in turn, can cause the nerves to transmit at diferent speeds. Additionally, production of neurotransmitters can be inhibited in certain conditions such as Parkinson's Disease, Tourette's Syndrome and autism.

Some symptoms of Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD) can mimic hearing loss within the ear itself, but if a regular hearing test has normal results, it may be time to test for CAPD. There are many symptoms to look for, including:

1. greater tendency to ignore a speaker when engrossed in something;
2. unusual sensitivity to or complaints about noise;
3. difficulty telling the direction from which the parent is calling;
4. tendency to confuse similar-sounding words;
5. confuses or forgets directions if several given in one sentence.

It is usual that CAPD is accompanied by other problems such as difficulty focusing the eyes and tracking words across a page. The condition is also not limited to children. For guidelines to help you decide if audiological tests are indicated, and for more information on symptoms, diagnosis, and remedies, see Paton's article at www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/process_deficit/capd_paton.html.

So says the first Annual Report on the mental health system in King County, Washington submitted at the end of April this year.

In October, 2000 an ordinance was passed by the Metropolitan City Council of King County requiring improved "customer service and performance measurement for clients" and setting the new purpose of the mental health system as "to assist individuals in progressing towards recovery." The Alternative Mental Health News was the first to report on this when it happened and the full ordinance is posted at www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/article_KingsCounty.htm.

The "clients" are patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia and depression, including major depressive, bipolar and dysthymic (long-term depression) disorders. The first report on the efficacy of the system was due April 30, 2002, and covered the period January 1, 2001 through December, 2001.

Per the report, of 7831 patients, 6,949 (88.7%) showed no improvement, 597 (8%) showed some improvement, 285 (4%) regressed, and four (.05%) recovered.

The goal for patients in the system is recovery - defined in the ordinance as "a process, a way of life, an attitude, and a way of approaching the day's challenges. It is the hope and expectation that a meaningful life is possible despite mental illness. Recovery emphasizes the restoration of self-esteem and on attaining meaningful roles in society. Recovery includes development of self-esteem through active participation in society."

King County alone budgeted $90,199,426 to the mental health division to serve clients as well as budgeting significant dollars for related services in 2000. 

Ireland told GlaxoSmithKline to recall its $2.7 billion drug, because its information leaflet to patients fails to warn about possible suicidal behavior. SSRI antidepressant drugs that were touted as a treatment to reduce suicide have been linked to inducing suicide in some patients.

The U.K. pharmaceuticals company has been ordered to recall all stocks of the antidepressant drug Seroxat stored by wholesalers, said the Irish Medicines Board, which controls the sale of medicines in Ireland.

The board had asked GlaxoSmithKline to change the leaflets at the end of 2001. Glaxo's revised wording merely warned patients that suicidal thoughts may increase in the first few weeks of treatment.

The Brentford, England-based company has now been told to "revise the wording on the license and patient information leaflets to include a reference to suicidal behavior and depression," the board said in the statement.

On October 13, the British Broadcasting Company BBC aired an investigative report about the adverse side effects of Seroxat (Paxil) and the other SSRIS, presenting patients who had been affected, doctors and pharmacists. The BBC expose can be viewed online at www.drugawareness.org.

The report interviewed David Healy, MD, an expert on SSRIs, who was allowed access to confidential documents in the GlaxoSmithKline archives. He served as an expert witness in a successful U.S. lawsuit against the company last year.

"Donald Schell was a man with a history of several relatively brief episodes of depression," Healy wrote in an informative article titled Ploughing the Archives.

"He had a prior history of an adverse response to Prozac in 1990.

"He had then subsequently been put on Seroxat by another physician in 1998 and 48 hours later had murdered his wife, along with his daughter and granddaughter who were staying with Don and Rita Schell for a few days before killing himself.

"His surviving son-in-law, Tim Tobin, took out a case for wrongful death against Glaxo-SmithKline.

"As part of my background research for this case, I had been given access to GlaxoSmithKline's Seroxat healthy volunteer archive. This involved being brought into a room with several hundred thousand pages of data from healthy volunteer trials.

"The reason to chase these files was that it had shortly before become clear to me from a study conducted in north Wales on healthy volunteers taking sertraline, another SSRI, and from looking through the healthy volunteer archives held by Pfizer on sertraline, that SSRIs could trigger suicidality in even healthy volunteers.

"Access to GlaxoSmithKline's archive in Harlow had only been granted, as far as I know, essentially a week before my final report in the case was due to be submitted.

"Nevertheless, it was possible to find and assess all the records that were present from studies conducted before Seroxat came on the market. Some records were clearly missing and have not been provided since.

"It was clear from this that Seroxat caused agitation in around 25% of takers, that it made things worse when the dose of the drug was increased and problems cleared up when the drug was stopped only to re-emerge when it was restarted.

"According to the usual rules therefore this drug was causing agitation. There had also been a suicide in the program. And Seroxat in one healthy volunteer study was linked with withdrawal effects in around 85% of subjects."

In the course of the proceedings, it was not contested that key studies had been terminated early with their results left unpublished.

The experts for SmithKline in the case agreed they had not seen the raw data from the clinical trials programme for Seroxat. It was also not contested that despite grounds for concern, no tests had been conducted to see whether Seroxat or other SSRIs could make people suicidal.

On June 6th the Court came to a verdict, which found against GlaxoSmithKline and awarded damages of $6.4 million.

"All the records in my possession have now had to be returned, and as far as I know the only other outsiders who could conceivably get access to them, would be expert witnesses in further legal cases," Healy concluded.  

A recent government-funded study by UK's Asthma & Allergy Research Centre has now found that food colorings in food commonly eaten by children also can effect a child's mood and behavior - even in those who have no history of hyperactivity.

The month-long study in the Isle of Wight tested 277 three-year-olds. For the first two weeks, the children drank fruit juice dosed with 20 mg. of artificial colorings, and 45 mg. of a preservative. During the last two weeks, the children drank an identical-looking placebo fruit juice with no additives.

Parents assessed behavior such as "interrupting," "fiddling with objects," "disturbing others," "difficulty settling down to sleep," "concentration," and "temper tantrums," and then filed reports.

The researchers concluded that "significant changes in children's hyperactive behaviour could be produced by the removal of colourings and additives from their diet. The findings of the present study suggest that benefit would accrue for all children from such a change and not just for those already showing hyperactive behaviour or who are at risk of allergic reactions."

Further, the researchers estimated that if the problem additives were removed from all children's diets in the UK, the rate of hyperactivity would go down from one child in six to one child in 17.

The preservative Sodium Benzoate E211 was used in the study, as well as the artificial colorings known as Tartrazine E102, Sunset Yellow E110, Carmoisine E122, and Ponceau 4R E124.

A survey by the Food Commission, a national non-profit watchdog organization, found that 41% of children's food products in the UK contain added color. The Food Commission has now written to the UK Food Standards Agency asking what action it will take to protect children from the problem additives, and whether guidance will be issued to food companies to remove these additives from children's food. 

"A Message of Hope and Recovery"

Support Safe Harbor, the nation's Voice of Alternative Mental Health, at an evening of inspiration and fun!