More Evidence Antipsychotics Reduce Brain Volume

Rob Wipond
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People diagnosed with schizophrenia experience reductions in brain volume that increase over time, and the amount of those reductions increases in proportion to the quantities of antipsychotics taken and not symptom severity, according to research reported in PLOS One. Investigators from the University of Oulu in Finland performed brain scans on 33 participants diagnosed with schizophrenia and 71 control participants over a ten-year period, and found reductions in the antipsychotic users especially pronounced in the temporal lobe and periventricular area.

Even after adjusting for alcohol use and weight gain, the researchers found that “mean annual whole brain volume reduction was 0.69% in schizophrenia, and 0.49% in controls.”

“Symptom severity, functioning level, and decline in cognition were not associated with brain volume reduction in schizophrenia,” stated the researchers. “The amount of antipsychotic medication… over the follow-up period predicted brain volume loss.”

Longitudinal Changes in Total Brain Volume in Schizophrenia: Relation to Symptom Severity, Cognition and Antipsychotic Medication (Veijola, Juha et al. PLOS One, July 18, 2014. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101689)

9 COMMENTS

  1. Bob Whitaker has done some excellent articles at MIA and Psychology Today exposing that Nancy Andreasen who did some of the most important studies on the lethal effects on the brain from neuroleptics found that not only did these drugs shrink the brain, they also caused cognitive decline and much worse functioning and other negative effects over time:

    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mad-in-america/201102/andreasen-drops-bombshell-antipsychotics-shrink-the-brain

    Here is a great quotation from Bob Whitaker’s article:

    In this February report, Andreasen does not tie the drug-related brain shrinkage to an increase in negative symptoms, functional impairment, and cognitive decline. But in earlier articles, she did just that. And it is that larger context that makes this February report such a bombshell: When pieced together, this is a story of drug treatment that, over the long-term, causes long-term harm.

    Typically, because these lethal drugs have made billions for the psychiatry/Big Pharma cartel, they have been trying to cover up this “inconvenient truth” ever since it has been exposed with even Nancy Andreasen trying to hush it up in later studies and interviews as Bob exposes above. Also, she admits to sitting on her discovery of this drug induced brain damage/atrophy for years. so that psychiatry’s victims would continue to be forced to take their toxic drugs. Moreover, Bob exposed in his books that psychiatrists knew that these drugs caused chemical lobotomies and brain damage right from the start when these poison drugs were introduced to lobotomize the “mentally ill” in institutions to make them easier to “manage.”

    Dr. Peter Breggin has also exposed that psychiatry made no secret of the fact that their toxic treatments were meant to damage and disable the brain to dumb people down as so called “treatment” for those targeted by those in power using the pretense that psychiatric fascist agents of control were practicing medicine when they falsely committed dissidents and other inconvenient people to prisons falsely called hospitals against their will and brain damaged them into oblivion while ensuring they would be discredited, ostracized and destroyed socially as “mentally ill.” Such “mental health” tactics were well portrayed in movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

    Dr. Peter Breggin on Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry:

    http://www.breggin.com/braindisabling.pdf

    Dr. Nancy Andreasen admits that neuroleptic drugs cause brain atrophy:

    http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/772/9/

    List of articles from Dr. Peter Breggin’s Toxic Psychiatry web site on neuroleptic brain damage and negative impact on cognition and functioning:

    http://www.toxicpsychiatry.com/antipsychotics/

    The Scientific Case Against Forced Treatment by Robert Whitaker

    (Emphasizes perils of neuroleptic drugs mostly used in forced treatment)

    http://www.mhlac.org/Docs/Whitaker_2.1.2013.pdf

    Dr. Grace Jackson on Drug Induced Dementia: The Perfect Crime and Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide to Informed Consent

    http://isepp.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/drug-induced-dementia-a-perfect-crime-by-isepp-member-dr-grace-jackson/

    http://www.amazon.com/Drug-Induced-Dementia-MD-Grace-Jackson/dp/1438972318

    Those at MIA who have been reading Robert Whitaker and concerned experts for a long time know about the toxic effects of neuroleptics and other psychiatric drugs, ECT and other so called psychiatric brain/body damaging/disabling treatments.

    It is good to see that studies like the one in this post are still focusing on such neuroleptic induced brain damage/shrinkage, but it seems that like Nancy Andreasen and cohorts, they have been minimizing this damage and not acknowledging the deadly long term effects of thee toxic drugs on the brain and body and one’s quality of life or lack thereof resulting in early death by about 25 years on average.

    Dr. Joanna Moncrieff who posts at this web site has accused psychiatrists of burying their heads in the sand about the truth about toxic neuroleptics, but since she is a psychiatrist, I question if even she acknowledges the huge harm done by these toxic drugs as she justifies their use for so called psychosis or schizophrenics when this so called disease has never been proven to be a disease since there is no scientific, medical or other evidence to show it or any other bogus DSM stigma exists. On the other hand, there have been many treatments like Open Dialog, the Hearing Voices Movement and psychotherapy that have been successful with these people without destroying their brains and bodies.

    • “psychiatrists knew that these drugs caused chemical lobotomies and brain damage right from the start when these poison drugs were introduced to lobotomize the “mentally ill” in institutions to make them easier to “manage.””
      I’ve heard that being said (exactly this was: “these drugs are essentially chemical lobotomisers”) during a lecture at the Medical University I attended as a student. So there is no question that people who go on to become psychiatrists from this university have any doubt as to the real effects of these drugs.

  3. Dopamine 2 Receptor Tranquillizers Cause Brain Damage

    Abram Hoffer, M.D. 2000 “Psychosis Cured with Vitamin Therapy: Nutrition Protocols and Case Histories of Dr. A. Hoffer”

    Quote, “Tranquilizers cause brain damage. The amount of the damage depends on the total dose in grams. Thus if a patient takes 100 milligrams each day of one of the older drugs for 1000 days, the total dose is 100,000 milligrams or 10 grams. One multiplies the daily average dose by the number of days on that drug”

    Raymond J. Pataracchia, BSc.
    “Optimal Dosing” — Safe Harbor Project Articles

    http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/nutrients-schizophrenia.htm

    Quote, “The Optimal Neuroleptic Dose to Maintain Brain Structure Integrity
    Brain structure loss is one of the biggest and most significant ‘side-effects’ of neuroleptic treatment.

    Maintaining brain structure is an important part of the nutritional protocol for schizophrenic pathology.

    The natural course of this disease and neuroleptic exposure are both associated with brain structure compromise.”

    _________________________________________

    Lisa Cosgrove, “One hundred percent of the members of the panels on ‘Mood Disorders’ and ‘Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders’ had financial ties to drug companies.”

    https://www.google.com/#q=Lisa+Cosgrove+hundred+percent+
    _________________________________________

    Robert Whitaker comments on Raquel Gur’s Imaging Study conclusions
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vkRt46QMms

    http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhitaker.org/Schizophrenia_files/subcortical.pdf
    _________________________________________

    “Dr. Lisa Cosgrove (Harvard University) and Dr. Sheldon Krimsky (Tufts University) documenting the financial ties of each committee of the DSM-IV (2006), and their comparison analysis of DSM-IV and DSM-5 panel members’ financial ties to industry.

    Their DSM-IV findings:
    “Our inquiry into the relationships between DSM-IV panel members and the pharmaceutical industry demonstrates that there are strong financial ties between the industry and those who are responsible for developing and modifying the diagnostic criteria for mental illness. Of the 170 DSM panel members 95 (56%) had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.

    The connections are especially strong in those diagnostic areas where drugs are the first line of treatment for mental disorders. One hundred percent of the members of the panels on ‘Mood Disorders’ and ‘Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders’ had financial ties to drug companies. The leading categories of financial interest held by panel members were research funding (42%), consultancies (22%) and speakers bureau (16%).

    Drs. Cosgrove and Krimsky’s comparison study of the DSM-IV and DSM-5 panel financial interests found, ironically, that APA’s financial disclosure policy adopted for the DSM-5 panel was not accompanied by a reduction of financial conflicts. Instead, the financial ties to industry INCREASED from 56% to 70%. “

  4. As I gave this article some more thought, I did see something quite positive in the following quotation from the article:

    “Symptom severity, functioning level, and decline in cognition were not associated with brain volume reduction in schizophrenia,” stated the researchers. “The amount of antipsychotic medication… over the follow-up period predicted brain volume loss.”

    This admission is rather positive and unusual for psychiatry in that it clearly places the blame for the brain shrinkage on the neuroleptic drugs and not the victim’s so called mental illness as is all too typical of psychiatry. In fact, Dr. David Healy has exposed that Mitch Daniels, a Big Pharma CEO, invented the dirty trick of always blaming the victims’ so called mental illness for any toxic effects of Big Pharma’s nasty psychiatric and other drugs.

    Therefore, it appears that the authors of this study probably had good intentions now that all the negative information about these toxic drugs is being exposed more and more.

    Although the authors didn’t address the decline in cognition and functioning after being on neuroleptics that others noted above have found, it is important that they have also identified the brain shrinkage or atrophy caused by these dangerous drugs. Many experts are now questioning long term use of these drugs as did Robert Whitaker and are emphasizing seeking other alternatives, lower doses and trying to taper people off these drugs whenever possible.

    • ” always blaming the victims’ so called mental illness for any toxic effects of Big Pharma’s nasty psychiatric and other drugs”
      Catch 22:
      – if you follow their treatment and get worse – well, it’s this horrible mental illness in action despite the drugs (how much worse would it be without them)
      – if you decide to break free and have any type of problems, be it trauma from the mistreatment or withdrawal from the drugs – well, see what happens when you don’t accept “treatment”?
      You can’t win with this logic.

      • I agree, Donna, pointing out it’s the drugs causing the brain damage, and not just more blaming the patient, is a good thing.

        B,
        Believe it or not, a doctor who realized I was being poisoned with massive drug cocktails, so my PCP could cover up her husband and her malpractice on me, who was also humane enough to let me go off one of the drugs that caused the supposed “bipolar,” initially. But that doctor didn’t want to be involved in a malpractice suit, so he called himself, in my medical records, “Dr. #22.”

        The antipsychotics have been used since their inception for evil purposes by the medical community. And the medical community, as a whole, is not ethical enough to handle them.

        • Thats bizarre someone else. Dr # 22? Catch I presume.

          It’s no wonder that psychiatrists and mental health ‘experts’ are pushing for CTOs, and the use is exploding here in my community.

          Is it because the truth is starting to spread and if people wont take the drugs willingly, they will force them onto the community? Standard operating procedure when you think about it.

          The community starts to say that ugly word they despise hearing, NO, so other avenues are sought to force them.

  5. http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psychiatric-drugs/antipsychotics/neuroleptic-brain-damage/brain-tissue-loss

    JAMA Psychiatry, February 7, 2011

    Long-term Antipsychotic Treatment and Brain VolumesA Longitudinal Study of First-Episode Schizophrenia FREE

    Beng-Choon Ho, MRCPsych; Nancy C. Andreasen, MD, PhD; Steven Ziebell, BS; Ronald Pierson, MS; Vincent Magnotta, PhD

    http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=211084

    Study referred to by Robert Whitaker above about antipsychotics causing brain shrinkage/damage/atrophy causing authors of study to recommend rethinking the growing long term usage of these toxic drugs especially for off label non-psychotic symptoms such as the misbehavior of children or the elderly in nursing homes for social control and silencing the vulnerable and powerless.