ABSTRACT
Psychiatry is the drug industry’s paradise as definitions of psychiatric disorders are vague and easy to manipulate. Instead of trying to understand the patients, psychiatry has developed into a checklist exercise, which one could ask a secretary or the patients themselves to do. In 2011, an enterprise – evidently working on behalf of an anonymous drug company – sent a most bizarre invitation to Danish specialists treating children and adolescents for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychotropic drugs can lead to violence, including murder. Considering the many effects psychotropic drugs have, their massive use is harmful. An analysis of adverse drug events submitted to the Food and Drug Administration between 2004 and 2009 identified 1937 cases of violence, 387 of which were homicide. In clinical trials, doctors have an incentive to persuade the patients to take the drugs, but in general practice, more than half of the patients stop them again within 2–3 months.
