Letter to Randall Kaye MD, Director-Team Leader, Pediatric Health, Pfizer Inc.
October 18, 2001 Randall Kaye, MD Director-Team Leader, Pediatric Health Pfizer Inc. 235 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10017-5755 Dear Dr. Kaye, I just received your guide, "Talking to Kids About Brain-related Conditions," prepared by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), published and distributed by Pfizer. This brochure was created along with the exhibit: "BRAIN: The World Inside Your Head, now at--of all places, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. This exhibit, like the brochure, was made possible by Pfizer and was produced by BBH Inc. in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. Referring to the guide/exhibit, Pfizers cover letter states: "It also teaches people that brain-based diseases are like any other diseases." The first page of the guide begins: "Understanding brain-related conditions such as mental illnesses can be challenging for adults and for children. Like any other disease of the body, they can be treated." Here, make no mistake, Pfizer, AACAP and the NIH refer to mental/psychiatric conditions, as diseases, when none of them are. On page 2 we read: "There are 2 kinds of brain-related conditions: neurologic disorders and mental illness. People usually find it easier to understand that neurologic disorders are diseases because they can see the symptoms. For example, people with Parkinsons disease might shake or have tremors of their hands." Here, those responsible for the guide/exhibit (Pfizer, AACAP, NIH) mean to impart that it is easier to perceive of neurological disorders as actual diseases than mental illnesses. Next they say it is easier to understand that neurological disorders are diseases because you "can see the symptoms." The psychiatrists of the AACAP--physicians all, know perfectly well that symptoms are subjective and cannot be seen. When one sees a tremor or feels a mass in the abdomen or hears a significant heart murmur, we speak not of symptoms but of signs, of objective abnormalities, those which confirm the presence of disease. You, Dr. Kaye, and all physicians (including all of the AACAP and the NIH) know this is a misuse of the term "symptoms." Hardly accidental. In psychiatry/mental health there are only symptoms, only things subjective. In psychiatry there are no signs /objective abnormalities, and therefore, no disease. This wording, like the wording throughout, is deceptive, and is contrary to science and to the ethical practice of medicine, which demand full and true disclosure for purposes of informed consent. Here, it seems to me, a concerted effort is underway to erase the line between disease and absence of disease; neurology and psychiatry (the 2 specialties were officially divided along organic/non-organic lines in 1948); abnormality and normality, chemical imbalance and chemical balance. Might this have something to do with selling "chemical balancers"pills? Page 2 continues: "Mental illnesses such as depression are more difficult to recognize because the symptoms may not be so obvious." Saying "mental illnesses" they mean disease. Saying "because the symptoms may not be so obvious" they mean, once again to confuse the reader as to the fundamental difference between symptoms which are subjective, and never confirmation of disease, and signs; objective abnormalities, confirming the presence of disease. While depression is regularly said, by psychiatrists, to be a disease having a presumed brain abnormality or chemical imbalance, not a single, solitary psychiatric entity is known that has a confirming physical or chemical abnormality anywhere in the brain or body. ADHD expert James Swanson, Ph.D., a speaker at a the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, March 7, 1998, surprised his audience with this confession: "I would like to have an objective diagnosis for the disorder (ADHD). Right now psychiatric diagnosis is completely subjective We would like to have biological testsa dream of psychiatry for many years I think we will validate it." Swanson, and all present-day practitioners of "biological" psychiatry, regularly tell us they will validate mental/psychiatric/psychological disorders, as actual diseases. Having said this, they believe they are justified in telling patients and the public at large, that such consensus-contrived inventions are actual brain diseases. On page 5 we read: "We still do not know exactly what causes most mental illness. They appear to result from a complex interaction of any of the following factors. Biologic factors, temperament, coping abilities, vulnerability, family stress, environment." Saying " mental illness appears to result from a complex interaction of any of the following factors," they can disavow in any particular instance that they claimed that "biological factors" exist. Very cute indeed. And, think of it, our very own National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a party to this deception. But this should not come as a surprise; Surgeon General, David Satcher has been hard at work since his December, 1999 statement on mental health, trying to get the US to believe that all things psychiatric, emotional and behavioral are actual diseases. Page 5 (continuing) : "Biological factors can include brain chemistry and structure, as well as genes." As all parties to the statement know, not a single psychiatric/mental, illness/disorder, has been shown to have an abnormal biological factor such as one of brain chemistry, structure, or of the genes. Page 7: "Some types of mental illness go away completely with treatment and time, while others can have ongoing symptoms." Saying "mental illness" they mean disease and they clearly state that mental illnesses/diseases (which they are not) go away, if at all, only with "treatment and time." This is as if to say being depressed, being anxious, being panic-stricken, or being over-excited, are states that do not go away with time alone and with besting ones personal dilemmas. That is exactly the impression they wish to convey, for if believed, everyone would have to see a psychiatrist and everyone would need a "chemical balancer," a pill. Page 7: "For some mental illnesses, medicines can be helpful. They work by affecting the brains chemistry and function." Saying mental illnesses they mean diseases and they imply and state this having no proof /signs/objective abnormalities in the patients they call "diseased"/ "abnormal." Saying "They (medicines, pills) work by affecting the brains chemistry and function," they would have us believe there was an abnormality of the brains chemistry and function to begin with. There was not. The only demonstrable abnormalities of chemistry or function are those induced by the drugs themselves. Page 7: "It is very important that a doctor monitor anyone who is taking a medicine for a brain-related condition" Saying "brain-related condition," who among us would doubt they mean brain disease. Againthere are none are. Page 8: "It is very important to emphasize that brain-related conditions are just like any other disease." Who doubts now they are telling you that mental/psychiatric/psychological/emotional/behavioral, diagnoses/conditions/disorders are diseases. They are fraudulently saying this to you and to the parents and children of the nation, thats what. And this fraud and disinformation is now an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute. Page 10: "Talking with your child about brain-related conditionsespecially mental illnessescan be difficult." Here they speak of mental illnesses as if they were the best known of all the brain diseases, better known brain/neurological diseases, perhaps, than Parkinsons disease. Page 10: "Educating our children is the first step in helping all people understand that mental illnesses can and should be treated like any other physical disease or condition." The prime aim of this exhibit/guide, there can be no doubt, is to have you believe that mental/psychiatric/psychological conditions, entirely subjective, devoid of the objective signs/physical & chemical abnormalities which, alone, throughout all other medical specialties, confirm/equate with organic disease. All other physicians, in referring patients with mental/psychiatric/psychologic symptoms to psychiatrists, do so only after they have determined that no organic disease; no physical or chemical abnormalities are present. This is the single, most important aspect of diagnosing a mental/psychological/psychiatric condition. This being the case, it is all other physicians, not psychiatrists, that shoulder the lions share of responsibility for psychiatric diagnosis; of determining that no organic disease is present, that, by process of elimination, the patients symptoms must be psychogenic. Your guide/exhibit is intent, from start to finish, not upon informing but upon mis-informing, misleading; deceiving and violating the informed consent rights of all Americans, starting with the children. Tragically, the AACAP, the NIH, and the Smithsonian, who, most of all, should be champions of the people, have joined together in an effort to deceive the American people and to have them believe that they are disease/ill/sick/abnormal, when they are not, so that the now-favored constituentPfizer and the rest of Big Pharma can sell them medicationsmedications, when there is nothing at all medically wrong with them. For the moment, Americans cannot imagine the deception and betrayal. Sincerely, Fred A. Baughman Jr. MD 1303 Hidden Mountain Drive ElCajon CA 92019 CC President, Am. Acad. Child & Adolescent Psychiatry CC Secretary, Dept. Health & Human Services, Tommy Thompson CC Director, National Institutes of Health CC Director Smithsonian Institute CC Senator Pete Domenici CC Senator Teddy Kennedy CC Senator Paul Wellstone CC Representative Christopher Shays