"One of Freeman's youngest [lobotomy] patients is today a 56-year-old bus driver living in California. Over the past 2 years, Howard Dully has embarked on a quest to discover the story behind the procedure he received as a 12-year-old boy." npr.org/2005/11/16/501…
"As those who watched the [lobotomy] procedure described it, a patient would be rendered unconscious by electroshock. Freeman would then take a sharp ice pick-like instrument, insert it above the patient's eyeball through the orbit of the eye...."
"....into the frontal lobes of the brain, moving the instrument back and forth. Then he would do the same thing on the other side of the face...." npr.org/2005/11/16/501…
"In an entry dated Jan. 4, 1961, two and a half weeks after the boy's lobotomy, Freeman wrote: "I told [12-year-old] Howard what I'd done to him... and he took it without a quiver. He sits quietly, grinning most of the time and offering nothing."" npr.org/2005/11/16/501…
""I'll never know what I lost in those 10 minutes with Dr. Freeman & his ice pick," Dully says. "By some miracle [lobotomy] didn't turn me into a zombie, crush my spirit or kill me. But it did affect me. Deeply...." npr.org/2005/11/16/501…
"Walter Freeman's operation was supposed to relieve suffering. In my case it did just the opposite. Ever since my lobotomy I've felt like a freak, ashamed."" npr.org/2005/11/16/501…
"In late 2004, Rodney Dully agreed to talk with his son about the [lobotomy. He said Howard's stepmother] "took you...I think she tried some other doctors who said, '...there's nothing wrong here. He's a normal boy.' It was the stepmother problem."" npr.org/2005/11/16/501…

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More from @Altostrata

6 Oct
With all due respect to the fine @awaisaftab, these are the varieties of #antidepressant withdrawal syndrome:

1) WS with only physical, no emotional symptoms
2) WS with both physical & emotional symptoms
3) WS with only emotional symptoms
4) WS manifested as emotional anesthesia
@awaisaftab Of the above, types 1 & 2 are WS, not "relapse", even if "depression" is present. Emotions such as those that compose "depression" do not exist apart from experience. Emotional reaction to feeling neurobiologically out of control should not be diagnosed as "depression".
@awaisaftab Type 3 may include the waves of intense anxiety, fear, & "black holes" characteristic of WS. Characterized by intense sensations with interludes of relative calm. Typically, these very gradually abate over months.
Read 14 tweets
6 Oct
$10K cost per patient: "In late 2012, when the team finally had 6 months of data on 90 patients, the depression-score reductions....[were] essentially matched by the control group, who after 6 months with inactive devices had 17% hitting the improvement target & 7% in remission."
"As expected, it failed to help many....1st year, 10/90 patients left the study (& 4 had their devices removed), for reasons ranging from worsening depression to a suicide attempt. Eventually, of the 90 patients, 37—most of those who’d felt no benefit—had the devices removed."
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Read 7 tweets
26 Jun
Dystonia from #psychiatric drugs since 2014: "I have worked so hard over the years to increase my physical activity after WD, so I am extremely proud of the 2 or 3 times a week that I manage to shuffle up & down the block, and manage to lift tiny weights." survivingantidepressants.org/topic/7485-wig…
"If I "walk" (a.k.a. limp/amble/shuffle) too far or for too long, the D (dystonia) will flare. If I do too many reps with my small weights, the D will flare. If I have a cold or flu, the D will flare....I try maintain a balance of being lightly active so I can feel happy."
From her history: "-Dual cold turkeys off TCA & Ativan in Oct 2014. Prescribed from 2011-2014
-All meds were Rxed off-label for an autoimmune illness. It was a MISDIAGNOSIS, but I did not find out until AFTER meds caused damage. All med tapers/cold turkeys directed by doctors"
Read 8 tweets
13 Jan
@sash_andy @samwoolfe @lisa63artist @jonathanstea @bmj_latest @hrw @C4Dispatches @gmcuk Sam, please note 3 Blind Psychs whining that there are real, serious flaws that need attention in #psychiatry but they are prevented from addressing them because dings from "anti-psychiatry" patients (on Twitter, no less) hurt their feelings. What does this say about the doctors?
@sash_andy @samwoolfe @lisa63artist @jonathanstea @bmj_latest @hrw @C4Dispatches @gmcuk The epithet "anti-psychiatry" directed at patients is nothing but ad hominem from clinicians who have no intention of bringing patients into the discussions of improving clinical care. (This is #psychiatry we're talking about, the science of human emotion.)
@sash_andy @samwoolfe @lisa63artist @jonathanstea @bmj_latest @hrw @C4Dispatches @gmcuk The argument that people are dissuaded from necessary #psychiatric treatment by purported "anti-psychiatry" is intellectually dishonest on so many levels.

1) #Psychiatric prescribers report being swamped by demand for their services; they plead for additional prescribers. /1
Read 18 tweets
5 Jan
@awaisaftab Hello, Awais. I will attempt to answer your excellent questions. @HengartnerMP may wish to add his perspective as well. /1
@awaisaftab @HengartnerMP Re your #2: This was a retrospective study. Duration & symptom criteria from Chouinard & Chouinard, 2015 were used in selecting subject population. Other of C&C's criteria (C) were addressed in analysis & discussion. The paper only weakly corroborates C&C's criteria (C). /2
@awaisaftab @HengartnerMP "Greater severity of illness": We relied upon subjects reporting symptoms were qualitatively different than prior to treatment. It is impossible to quantify "greater severity", the symptoms being so various & most unlike original condition. They certainly were distressing. /3
Read 27 tweets
13 Dec 20
Let's unpack why @psychunseen publishes posts such as this one, seeking to delegitimize patient movements he's observed on Twitter. He's been doing this for more than a year. /1
First, everyone should be aware @psychunseen is a #psychiatrist who treats inpatients for the Veterans Administration in Los Angeles.

The target of the tweet is the "drop the disorder" people, but, ill-advisedly, he swipes at chronic Lyme & CFS patients as well. /2
@psychunseen has been working on this thesis for a long time: That patient campaigns on social media are driven by pathological psychiatric conditions, not the desire of patients for better care from doctors. /3
Read 16 tweets

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