Documentaries
This documentary tells the hidden story of how benzodiazepines can both main and kill. The serious crippling physical side effects of these drugs can last for years after the medication is stopped, possibly permanently. Renowned expert Professor Heather Ashton compares the tragedy affecting many people worldwide to the Thalidomide scandal.
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XANAX (Alprazolam) – More Addictive than Heroin
Broadcasting Company: Seven Network (Australia)
News Program: Sunday Night (Documentary)
Date of Broadcast: 15 July 2012
Reporter: Tanveer Ahmed
Producer: Alex Hodgkinson
Abstract:
Said to be more addictive than cocaine, Xanax (type of benzodiazepine) is the anti-anxiety drug in the medicine cabinet of millions of Australian homes.
Many feel it is being over prescribed here by inexperienced doctors unaware of the drug's dark side.
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Prescription for Abuse (2012)
Broadcasting Company: KCTS-TV (US)
News Program: KCTS 9 Documentary
Date of Broadcast: 30 January 2012
Reporter: Carol Smith
Producer: Ethan Morris
Abstract:
KCTS 9 and InvestigateWest report on the alarming increase in prescription-drug abuse in Washington state, looking at doctors who overprescribe, the lack of regulation or treatment options, and how this epidemic is affecting teenagers, seniors and middle-class families.
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Everything is a Disorder?
Broadcasting Company: Fox (US)
News Program: Fox News
Date of Broadcast: ?
Reporter: ?
Speaker: Dr. Keith Ablow (Fox News Medical A-Team)
Producer: ?
Abstract:
This news clip further shows how experts are concerned about over-diagnosing and overprescribing in the present medical world.
Speaker Profile:
Keith Ablow, MD is one of America’s leading psychiatrists. He is also one of the nation’s most well-known expert witnesses in legal cases involving psychiatric issues.
He is an assistant clinical professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and is board certified in adult, adolescent and forensic psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology.
Dr. Ablow is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of numerous books on developing self-esteem, building success and overcoming depression, anxiety disorders and other psychological challenges.
He is the Fox News expert on psychiatry, a sought-after speaker and a contributing editor at Good Housekeeping.
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Normal behaviour defined as mental illness?
Overwhelmed by drug company marketing?
Dr. Allen Frances (Former Chair of the DSM-IV Task Force)
Link to Video
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Documentary (Lateline)
Broadcasting Company: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
News Program: Lateline
Date of Broadcast: 20 May 2013
Reporter: Emma Alberici
Speaker: Dr. Allen Frances (Chair of the DSM-IV Task Force)
Producer: ?
Abstract:
Dr. Allen Frances, who supervised the fourth edition of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders (DSM 4), nineteen years ago, discusses the latest edition (DSM 5) which he says turns normal behaviour into mental illness.
Speaker Profile:
Allen Frances, M.D., was chair of the DSM-IV Task Force and of the department of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC. He is currently professor emeritus at Duke University.
He is author of Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life (New York: William Morrow; 2013) and Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis (New York: Guilford Press; 2013).
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Behind The Orange Curtain (Official Trailer)
About:
This award winning documentary delves into the PRESCRIPTION drug epidemic plaguing America. 1 life every 19 minutes is lost.
Description:
Behind the Orange Curtain is a documentary that examines prescription drug abuse issues in Orange County and across the country. No one is exempt. It doesn't matter if you live on Park Avenue or the park bench. One life is lost every 19 minutes to a prescription overdose in America. Big Pharma is making billions and our young men and women are dependent on prescription drugs and moving to heroin because it's cheaper and produces the same high. This documentary features DEA, parents, addiction specialists, coroner and teens all of whom have been affected. This film is a wake-up call and call to action. Watch for free on HULU.com
Plot outline:
Who is to blame? Doctors? Pharmaceutical Companies? Parents? Or Our Society? We will ask the hard questions and help educate parents and kids.
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Work-in-Progress trailer for AS PRESCRIBED, a feature documentary exposing the human devastation caused by benzodiazepines.
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Decades after they were sold as "safe and effective" medicines, millions who were prescribed antidepressant, antipsychotic and other psychiatric drugs discovered their hidden perils. "Letters from Generation Rx” represents the stories of thousands of real people who experienced firsthand how the cavalier use of these powerful psychotropics created a new class of disability—and an avalanche of other devastating consequences. Directed by Kevin P. Miller and Narrated by Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton.
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Notice
In 1988 the Committee on Safety of Medicines in the UK recommended that "benzodiazepines should not be used alone to treat depression or anxiety associated with depression. Suicide may be precipitated in such patients".
Depressive symptoms are common both during long-term benzodiazepine use and in withdrawal. It is not surprising that some patients feel depressed considering the amalgam of other psychological and physical symptoms that may assail them. Sometimes the depression becomes severe enough to qualify as a "major depressive disorder", to use the psychiatric term. This disorder includes the risk of suicide.
Suicides have occurred in several reported clinical trials of benzodiazepine withdrawal.
(Source: The Ashton Manual)
The primary language of this website is English. Japanese appears as translations only (except for some original court documents).
These translations have been done by many different translators including me. Therefore, there are differences in quality and styles.
Please understand that I am not native Japanese and subsequently there are parts that may sound unnatural in Japanese.
THE WRITING IS
ON THE WALL
for benzodiazepine use
Dr Andrew Byrne
Redfern NSW Australia
Benzodiazepine Dependence, 1997
“If any drug over time is going to just rob you of your identity [leading to] long, long term disaster, it has to be benzodiazepines.”
Dr John Marsden,
Institute of Psychiatry, London
November 1, 2007
“Benzos are responsible for more pain, unhappiness and damage than anything else in our society.”
Phil Woolas MP,
Deputy Leader of the House of Commons,
Oldham Chronicle, February 12, 2004
“The benzodiazepines are probably the most addictive drugs ever created and the vast army of enthusiastic doctors who prescribed these drugs by the tonne have created the world's largest drug addiction problem.”
The Drugs Myth, 1992
“If there's a pill, then pharmaceutical companies will find a disease for it.”
Jeremy Laurance,
The Independent, April 17, 2002.
“To rely on the drug companies for unbiased evaluations of their products makes about as much sense as relying on beer companies to teach us about alcoholism.”
Marcia Angell MD
(Former) Executive Editor New England Journal of Medicine
“It is more difficult to withdraw people from benzodiazepines than it is from heroin.”
Professor Malcolm H Lader
Institute of Psychiatry London
BBC Radio 4, Face The Facts
March 16, 1999
“Withdrawal symptoms can last months or years in 15% of long-term users. In some people, chronic use has resulted in long-term, possibly permanent disability.”
Professor C Heather Ashton
DM, FRCP,
Good Housekeeping, 2003
“Clearly, the aim of all involved in this sorry affair is the provision of justice for the victims of tranquillisers.”
This section focuses on some of the apparent injustices of the Japanese courts in my case. To help highlight these, some parts of this section include cross-referencing between the High Court Verdict and the Dependency Reports which were all based on the official evidence and the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for dependency.