Alternative Drug Abuse Recovery Program For Overcoming Drug Addictions

This report from CCHR is an overview of the side effects of common psychiatric drugs and includes information on drug regulatory agency warnings, studies and other reports that may not appear in the packaging information for the drugs. For further information consult the Physicians’ Desk Reference which can be found at pdrhealth.com.

It could be dangerous to immediately cease taking psychiatric drugs because of potential significant withdrawal side effects. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, medical doctor. CCHR does not offer medical advice or referrals. The information in this publication is offered as a public service. Some of the brand names of drugs included relate to countries outside of the United States.

The publication is available here:
www.cchrint.org/pdfs/The_Side_Effects_of_Common_Psychiatric_Drugs.pdf

Here is also a database you can search:
www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers

In recent research, Chantix (varenicline), the smoking cessation drug showed a substantially increased risk of reported depression or suicidal behavior compared to other smoking-cessation treatments.

The researchers found that 90 percent of all reported suicides related to smoking- cessation drugs since 1998 implicated Chantix! It was eight times more likely to result in a reported case of suicidal behavior or depression than nicotine replacement products.

The researchers also stated that “Chantix has been associated with aggression and violence in three studies and carries a warning about this behavior. Its effects on vision, cognition and motor control and other risks have led to its being banned for airline pilots, air traffic controllers, military pilots and missile crews, and restricted for truck drivers.”

Why would anyone in their right mind ever try this drug? The risks simply outweigh the benefits.

[Read more →]

In the webinar (Link below), Dr. C.E. Gant explains why a significant and often overlooked cause of most common chronic medical and psychiatric problems, including drug addictions is toxicity or total toxic load (TTL). Even if TTL is recognized as an issue at all, few treatment centers offer a comprehensive strategy which individualizes the treatment to the unique genetic and biochemical status of each patient. Many approaches to TTL involve the use of one or a few long term therapies which can take years to complete, can often cost many 10s of thousands of dollars and at the end of treatment patients are often not sure if they have achieved results.

Over 100 million Americans are socially, vocationally, medically and/or psychiatrically disabled, and most don’t know why. Most are told that “illness just happens” and it’s the luck of the draw, or that their “symptoms are all in their head.” Like the metaphor of the frog which fails to jump out of a slowly heating pot of water and eventually boils to death, we have slowly become so desensitized to chronic emotional and physical pain, to feeling sick and tired and to dysfunctional behaviors, that many believe these endemic disabilities are normal.

Much of this disability is due to a TTL from the combined effects of heavy metals, plastics, solvents, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, preservatives, food additives, petrochemicals, fluorine, chlorine, gastrointestinal-, dental- and sinus-derived toxins, OTC and prescribed medications, abused psychotropic substances (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs), chronic infections (e.g., lyme) and other sources of toxins in the polluted modern age, not to mention electrosmog from cellphones and microwave cookers, all of which can be routinely uncovered by laboratory testing and other methods of determining sensitivities to these potentially noxious agents.

[Read more →]

Research published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (August 2011), found that low levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the major omega-3 fatty acid concentrated in the brain, may increase suicide risk. A retrospective case-control study of 1600 United States military personnel, including 800 who had committed suicide and 800 healthy counterparts, showed that all participants had low omega-3 levels. However, the suicide risk was 62% greatest in those with the lowest levels of DHA.

According to Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD, acting chief, Section on Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, “Omega-3 is already recommended by the American Psychiatric Association as adjunctive therapy for anybody with a psychiatric disorder, especially for those with major depression.”

Suicide rates in military personnel have doubled since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and now “rival the battlefield in toll.” Other data and research suggests that nutritional deficiencies in the omega-3 fatty acids may increase vulnerability to combat deployment stress, manifesting as psychiatric symptoms including adjustment disorders, PTSD, substance abuse and alcoholism, major depression, impulsive violence, and suicide. In addition, studies conducted in civilian populations have also suggested that low DHA levels are linked to increased risk for suicide attempts and may contribute to adverse psychiatric symptoms.

Comments by Dr. C.E. Gant, a leading authority on brain disorders such as ADHD, addiction and PTSD follows: I suppose that the immediate response to this horrific data would be to somehow ensure that all military personnel receive 2 or 3 concentrated fish oil capsules a day, which would likely assure adequate delivery of DHA and offset the incidence of depression and suicide in most individuals. Such a widely applied treatment would be consistent with the current paradigm of medical care, e.g. – prevent or treat symptoms or conditions by blindly prescribing an intervention without first attempting to diagnostically determine who is the most vulnerable to certain conditions, based on their nutritional status, heredity or environmental stressors.

Use Functional Lab Testing

Simple, inexpensive, laboratory testing can measure DHA, its precursor fatty acids and also critically important, mood-elevating, omega 6 fatty acids, in order to determine who is nutritionally the most vulnerable to suicide and depression (1). Several B vitamins (B3, B5, B6, biotin), a few minerals (zinc, magnesium), vitamin C and carnitine (a nutrient involved with fatty acid metabolism), are all needed as cofactors to assist 4 enzymes in the synthesis of DHA. These simple functional laboratory tests could determine who would have the greatest difficulty in synthesizing DHA, and thus possesses the most vulnerability to depression and suicide.

[Read more →]

This article by Dr. C.E. Gant just might make you re-think your assessment of “parenting skills” of parents of children who abuse drugs.

The Nurture Assumption and Genomics

Having certain genes which guarantee me lifetime struggles with insomnia, I voraciously read lots of books to cope. And as I travel frequently, I never know what books pop up to eventually bore me into a good snooze.

While visiting my brother and sister-in-law recently, I happened upon a Pulitzer Prize finalist copy of The Nuture Assumption, why children turn out the way they do, by Judith Rich Harris. Sometimes well-written, provocative books have the opposite effect and keep me awake into the wee hours. Such was the case here.

The Nuture Assumption makes a compelling case, based on sound research on identical twins and other data, that within reasonable attempts to provide our kids with a non-abusive environment, parenting does not matter much in how your children turn out!

I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but you may now point out to those obnoxiously, proud parents who raised exceptionally talented and gifted children, that they are full of braggadocio hot air. And other parents, who despite their best efforts, nurtured kids who became dropouts, addicts and flunkies, can now get off their guilt trips.

Identical twins, separated at birth and brought up in utterly different circumstances, turn out pretty much the same. In fact their quirky traits, talents and behaviors have astonishing similarities.

[Read more →]

Isn’t it interesting that the Amy Winehouse lyrics for her hit song “Rehab” start out with these words: They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, “no, no no”.

Of course she did not want to go back since the rehab centers are a complete failure – they are just drug recycling centers.

It is rumored that she may have died from alcohol poisoning or withdrawal. In cases of severe alcoholism, withdrawal can be life-threatening. You could experience the DTs (delirium tremens) and should be under the care of a professional addiction treatment facility.

In regards to treatment for alcoholism, Dr. Joan Mathews-Larson, one of the pioneers in holistic treatment of addiction, stated that “the conventional treatment system is antiquated because it isn’t based on science. It’s based on someone’s notion that there is some psychological flaw in alcoholics and that if we talk to them long enough, we’ll straighten them out.”

If you want to get the truth about recovering from alcoholism or other drug abuses, check this page: AddictionSolutionCenter.com