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Associated Press
07-07-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
CCHR Warns Troubled Teen Camps Must Be Banned as Deaths Spur Closures
- Despite closures since 2019, CCHR says the troubled teen industry still endangers kids' lives, and tougher bans and oversight of both facilities and the youth transport system are needed to ensure no child dies for profit - LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 7, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Despite dozens of closures of abusive 'troubled teen' programs in behavioral and psychiatric centers, including wilderness camps in recent years, a leading mental health industry watchdog warns that children's lives remain at risk unless stronger laws ban the worst offenders and the secretive youth transport practices that feed them. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a nonprofit mental health industry watchdog, says that while public outrage and media exposure have forced some notorious facilities to close, the underlying problems that enable these abusive programs still persist—and more children will die if lawmakers do not act. Two teen suicides occurred last month in a North Carolina behavioral facility, forcing its closure.[1] 'These so-called 'therapy' camps have a disturbing history of traumatizing vulnerable young people while charging desperate families tens of thousands of dollars,' said Jan Eastgate, international president of CCHR. 'When a child dies in these programs, that should be the last death. We need permanent bans—not just temporary closures.' Wilderness therapy camps, residential treatment centers, and other 'troubled teen' programs often market themselves as life-saving alternatives for youth struggling with behavioral or emotional challenges. But critics say that behind the glossy brochures is an industry built on secrecy, harsh discipline, and abusive staff. 'Many of the methods used in these camps would violate the Geneva Convention if applied to prisoners of war,' wrote journalist Maia Szalavitz in Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids.[2] Her book, along with years of survivor accounts and investigations, has shown how children are subjected to extreme isolation, physical restraints, humiliation, and medical neglect. Other recent closures have been prompted by tragic deaths, including a 12-year-old boy who died within 24 hours of admission to a wilderness program in North Carolina after being restrained. Numerous youth facilities and wilderness camps across the U.S. have faced criminal charges, lawsuits, and license revocations following deaths, suicides, or widespread abuse. Many charged fees ranging from $30,000 to more than $100,000 per child per year.[3] State audits have exposed repeated failures. A 2022 Salt Lake Tribune investigation in Utah—long known as a hub for these programs—found thousands of inspection reports detailing rampant abuse, sedation, and neglect even after an oversight law was passed in 2021.[4] Utah Senator Mike McKell, who spearheaded the law admitted the state had been 'learning the hard way,' that this was inadequate, citing at least seven preventable deaths since 2021. He led the amendment to the law this year, creating a children's ombudsman and new whistleblower protections.[5] In Maryland, legislators led by Delegate Vaughn Stewart passed the Preventing Abduction in Youth Transport Act this year to curb some of the worst practices, including the forcible removal of children from their homes at night by 'secure youth transport' companies. The law prohibits dangerous restraint use by these companies. This often-unregulated youth transport industry has been described by journalists as 'authorized kidnapping,' with children handcuffed or restrained as they are shuttled to remote facilities far from home. Survivors, including prominent advocates, Paris Hilton, attorneys and CCHR, say this practice can leave children deeply traumatized before they even reach a program.[6] CCHR points to a deeper issue fueling the troubled teen industry's survival: the widespread psychiatrizing of normal childhood and adolescent behavior. 'Too many of these kids are labeled with vague or unscientific mental health diagnoses simply for acting like teenagers,' said Eastgate. 'This creates a pipeline to often harmful treatments—and big profits.' Psychiatrist Allen Frances, who chaired the task force that revised the fourth edition of the ' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders' (DSM), famously admitted that the expansion of psychiatric labels has been excessive. ADHD diagnoses alone have tripled over the past two decades. 'Human nature just doesn't change that quickly,' Frances said. 'Our kids haven't suddenly become sicker; it's just that diagnoses are applied to them more loosely.' This diagnostic inflation has proven lucrative. In the U.S., the troubled teen segment alone is estimated to be worth $50 billion.[7] Between 2017 and 2021, total medical spending for pediatric mental health conditions jumped by over 45%, with these conditions now making up nearly half of all pediatric medical spending—around $31 billion in direct child costs and $59 billion in related household expenses.[8] CCHR says that while some private equity firms are quietly exiting the troubled teen market amid mounting lawsuits and bad press, the industry continues to operate largely in the shadows—propped up by misleading advertising, false diagnoses, and an unregulated transport network. 'Every state must investigate these programs thoroughly, shut down any that endanger children's lives, and permanently ban the worst practices,' said Eastgate. The watchdog says that true reform must hold facilities accountable for abuse and deaths, end the use of psychiatric labels to funnel youth into profit-driven programs, and shut down the loopholes that allow dangerous operators to rebrand and reopen under new names. 'The recent closures show that change is possible when families, survivors, the media, and lawmakers work together,' said Eastgate. 'But as long as one child can still be abused or die in these behavioral-psychiatric camps, this fight isn't over. No child's life should ever be gambled away for profit.' CCHR is a nonprofit mental health watchdog established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz. It has helped enact more than 190 reforms worldwide to protect individuals from abusive or coercive psychiatric practices. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: CCHR says while public outrage and media exposure have forced some notorious facilities to close, the underlying problems that enable these abusive programs still persist – and more children will die if lawmakers do not act. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: General Editorial, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, Troubled Teen Industry, Wilderness Camps, Jan Eastgate, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P127454 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
Associated Press
09-06-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
CCHR Demands Urgent Reform to Stop Child Abuse in Youth Behavioral Facilities
LOS ANGELES, Calif., June 9, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Amid a surge of reported abuse and deaths in psychiatric and behavioral residential programs for youth, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is urging immediate and sweeping federal intervention. CCHR warns that continued inaction by state and federal agencies endangers lives and enables a mental health system where vulnerable children and adolescents are subjected to trauma, neglect, and avoidable harm. In December 2024, Congress passed the bipartisan Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, calling for a study by the National Academies of Sciences into the state of youth in institutional programs. However, the legislation granted a three-year window to complete the investigation—a delay CCHR deems unconscionable now, given ongoing reports of harm. 'Children are dying. Others are being restrained, secluded, forcibly drugged, or sexually abused,' said Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International. 'How many more cases of tragedy must occur before regulators respond with urgency? A three-year timeline is a death sentence for some of these children.' A 2024 peer-reviewed study in Psychiatric Services confirmed that the use of seclusion and mechanical restraints remains widespread in U.S. psychiatric hospitals, despite the documented trauma and risk of death. The study called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission to implement reforms to end the practice. A previous New York Times investigation estimated at least 86 deaths in youth behavioral programs from 2000 to 2015, noting that children in these institutions are often subjected to conditions that would be unlawful for prisoners—including isolation, and physical and chemical restraint.[1] In just the past few weeks, a string of new incidents has surfaced from across the U.S. involving youth facilities, including: Two girls, aged 12 and 13, died by suicide in May in a North Carolina behavioral treatment facility, forcing its closure.[2] Reports of hundreds of prolonged restraint incidents in a single California psychiatric facility within months.[3] A teenage boy was repeatedly sexually abused by staff at a New Mexico behavioral facility.[4] Seclusion and restraint of children as young as five; Vermont state authorities confirmed over 500 cases.[5] New legislation was passed in Maryland restricting the use of physical restraints during youth transport to psych facilities.[6] Although multiple federal investigations have led to substantial fines and civil settlements, CCHR asserts these penalties have failed to deter misconduct, patient harm, and deaths. 'Financial penalties are clearly not enough. Many of these settlements are treated as the cost of doing business,' Eastgate noted. CCHR also emphasizes that current tools used by government agencies—such as consent agreements or Corporate Integrity Agreements (CIAs)—do not work. These measures allow institutions with a history of serious violations to remain operational after promising internal improvements. 'Voluntary promises are violated again and again, and children suffer the consequences,' Eastgate said. 'These agreements create a dangerous illusion of accountability.' The organization is calling on Congress and the Administration to take such actions as: Accelerate the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act investigation. Withhold CMS and Medicaid funding from facilities with substantiated abuse records. Freeze new licenses or bed expansions for companies under investigation. Establish criminal penalties for executives and staff found complicit in systemic abuse. Prohibit the use of further Corporate Integrity or improvement agreements for known violators. In June 2024, a U.S. Senate Finance Committee report into several for-profit youth behavioral hospital chains described the harms children experienced resulted, in part, from financial models that prioritize revenue over safety. The Committee urged 'bold intervention' to prevent further tragedies. Prominent legal professionals agree. KBA attorney Kayla Ferrel Onder stated: 'More effective oversight systems need to be in place to protect patients. This includes stricter penalties for facilities found guilty of abuse or fraud. Jail time for executives and significantly larger financial penalties may be necessary to curb misconduct prevalent in the behavioral healthcare industry.'[7] Attorney Tommy James cites horrendous physical abuse and emotional trauma in behavioral residential facilities, stating, 'those responsible must be held accountable.'[8] Another attorney, Kayla Ferrel Onder said the abuse is so extensive that it reflected a 'systemic failure,' which needs to stop.[9] CCHR maintains an extensive record of documented youth abuse in psychiatric facilities, including seclusion, restraint, sexual assault, and forced drugging. 'Children should not be warehoused, abused, or silenced,' said Eastgate. 'What is happening now is a humanitarian crisis hiding in plain sight.' Quoting lawmakers who have supported the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, Rep. Ro Khanna stated: 'The industry has gone unchecked for too long.'[10] Senator Tommy Tuberville added: 'We need more sunlight… to stop the waste, fraud, and abuse in the system.' 'This is not a policy debate—it is a moral imperative,' Eastgate concluded. 'We are calling on legislators, prosecutors, and health agencies to act now. No more broken promises. No more promises of avoidable deaths. No more children forgotten in the system.' About CCHR : The government-acclaimed watchdog and award-winning advocacy group was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] Alexander Stockton, 'Can you punish a child's mental health problems away?' The New York Times , 11 Oct. 2022, [2] Jeffery Collins, 'Residential treatment school closes in North Carolina after deaths of 2 girls,' AP News , 3 June 2025, [3] 'California watchdog finds for-profit psychiatric hospital abused patients,' San Francisco Chronicle , 19 May 2025 [4] 'Suit alleges teen repeatedly abused by worker at former youth residential treatment center,' Santa Fe New Mexican, 29 May 2025, [5] 'Youth in Vermont custody have been physically restrained hundreds of times in recent years,' VT Digger , 22 May 2025, [6] [7] [8] Erica Thomas, 'Tuskegee youth facility dubbed 'House of Horrors' in latest lawsuit,' 1819 News , 27 Aug. 2024, [9] 'Letter: The alarming pattern of abuse at Acadia Healthcare facilities,' Springfield Daily Citizen , 29 May 2025, [10] citing MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: 'Children should not be warehoused, abused, or silenced. What is happening now is a humanitarian crisis hiding in plain sight.' – Jan Eastgate, President, CCHR International. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Family and Parenting, Reform, Stop Child Abuse, Youth Behavioral Facilities, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, Jan Eastgate, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire . Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P126791 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
CCHR Seeks End to Mandated Community Psychiatric Programs, Citing Global Alarm
LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 27, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog, is calling for an overhaul of psychiatric hospitalization and community treatment laws. With 54% of U.S. psychiatric patients held involuntarily, CCHR warns the system has normalized coercion. Most U.S. states authorize Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) laws that compel individuals in the community to receive psychiatric treatment—typically drug-based—under threat of court orders or rehospitalization. Critics say the laws criminalize noncompliance and medicalize dissent. A Pennsylvania source reported that under AOT, 'noncompliance is pathologized, autonomy is dismissed…Treatment ceases to be chosen; it becomes imposed.'[1] A 2021 NIH-funded study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology found that 70% of youth aged 16–27 who were involuntarily hospitalized reported long-lasting distrust of clinicians—even when they remained in therapy. Meanwhile, a Cochrane Review concluded that AOT laws showed no consistent benefit over voluntary care.[2] Many mental health consumers are also forced to accept involuntary treatment in the community by being made subject to community treatment orders (CTOs), under threat that non-compliance can result in them being detained against their will in inpatient facilities and institutions.[3] A broader 2016 systematic review published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry analyzed more than 80 studies on CTOs, including three randomized controlled trials and multiple meta-analyses. The result: 'No evidence of patient benefit.' CTOs did not reduce hospitalizations or improve quality of life—but did result in patients spending significantly more time under coercive state psychiatric control.[4] Patients are often forced onto antipsychotic drugs. Bioethicist Carl Elliott says such neuroleptics cause 'tardive dyskinesia, a writhing, twitching motion of the mouth and tongue that can be permanent.' Psychotropic drug side effects can include violent behavior, aggression, paranoia, psychosis, dangerously high body temperatures, irregular heartbeat, and heart conditions, disorientation, delusion, lack of coordination, suicidal tendencies, and numerous physical problems.[5] Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International says, 'Ironically, the very side effects of antipsychotic drugs—such as agitation and aggression—are the same behaviors often cited to justify forced hospitalization and involuntary treatment in the first place.' Yet, under AOT regimes, complaints about side effects or treatment refusals are used against patients as evidence of illness. The term 'anosognosia'—defined as an inability to recognize one's illness—is routinely invoked to override consent, framing resistance as delusional and justifying further force. As one media source put it: 'It casts resistance as malfunction… Instead of seeing dissent as meaningful or contextual, it reframes it as a symptom of a broken brain. This framing is not just misguided—it's dangerous.'[6] Amalia Gamio, Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, helped open CCHR's Traveling Exhibit, Psychiatry: An Industry of Death in Los Angeles on May 17, denounced global psychiatric coercion: 'Involuntary medication, electroshock, even sterilization — these are inhuman practices. Under international law, they constitute torture. There is an urgent need to ban all coercive and non-consensual measures in psychiatric settings.' Rev. Frederick Shaw, Jr., President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Inglewood-South Bay Branch, condemned how psychiatry disproportionately targets African Americans. 'More than 27% of Black youth—already impacted by racism—are pathologized with labels like 'Oppositional Defiant Disorder,' which has no medical test,' he said. 'This mirrors how Black civil rights leaders in the 1960s were once labeled with 'protest psychosis' to justify drugging them with antipsychotics,' he added. 'Psychiatry didn't just participate in suppressing Black voices—it orchestrated it. And they're still doing it.' Psychiatric diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) are not discovered through scientific testing but are voted into existence by APA committees. CCHR says despite the absence of objective medical proof for these labels, they can create lifelong patients to be drugged and subjected to involuntary interventions. Forced psychiatric practices have been condemned by the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO), which have repeatedly called for an end to forced institutionalization, electroshock, drugging, and community-based coercive measures.[7] In the U.S., over 37% of children and youth in psychiatric facilities are subjected to seclusion or restraint.[8] Some—as young as 7—have died under these conditions. In multiple cases, medical examiners ruled the deaths homicides, yet prosecutions have been rare.[9] 'This is not mental healthcare. This is systemic cruelty and homicide,' adds Eastgate. CCHR and its global network are demanding regulations that prohibit coercive psychiatric treatment. 'These are abuses. Forced treatment is torture passed off as mental health 'care,'' CCHR says. About CCHR: The group was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist and author Prof. Thomas Szasz. CCHR has exposed and helped bring accountability for psychiatric abuses globally. Its advocacy now echoes international calls by the UN and WHO to end coercive mental health practices. To learn more, visit: SOURCES: [1] 'Brave New Pittsburgh: Forced Use of Psychotropic Pharmaceuticals is Coming,' Popular Rationalism, 16 May 2025, [2] [3] 'Ensuring compulsory treatment is used as a last resort: a narrative review of the knowledge about Community Treatment Orders,' Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 6 Jan 2025, [4] [5] Susan Perry, 'Recruitment of homeless people for drug trials raises serious ethical issues, U bioethicist says,' MinnPost, 11 Aug. 2014, [6] 'Not Broken, Not Sick: A Rebellion Against the Anosognosia Frame,' Underground Transmissions, 13 May 2025 [7] World Health Organization, 'Guidance on mental health policy and strategic action plans,' Module 1, pp 3-4, 2025 [8] Mohr, W, 'Adverse Effects Associated With Physical Restraint,' The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry—Review Paper, June 2003, [9] Deborah Yetter, '7-year-old died at Kentucky youth treatment center due to suffocation, autopsy finds; 2 workers fired,' USA Today, 19 Sept. 2022, Taylor Johnston, ''He didn't deserve that': Remembering young people who've died from restraint and seclusion,' CT Insider, 31 Oct. 2022, MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: 'Involuntary medication, electroshock, even sterilization — these are inhuman practices. Under international law, they constitute torture. There is an urgent need to ban all coercive and non-consensual measures in psychiatric settings.' – Amalia Gamio, Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, CCHR International, Jan Eastgate, coercive psychiatry, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P126451 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
Associated Press
28-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
CCHR Urges U.S. to Adopt WHO Mental Health Policy Condemning Coercive Psychiatry
LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 28, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a powerful new directive urging nations to eliminate coercive psychiatric practices, including forced hospitalization, drugging, and seclusion. The Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plans outlines a rights-based approach that marks a sharp departure from institutionalization and involuntary treatment. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a global mental health watchdog, has welcomed the guidance while warning that U.S. psychiatry remains dangerously out of step. The new WHO framework expands upon existing United Nations human rights resolutions that have consistently declared coercive psychiatric practices torture and an abuse of patient autonomy and human rights. According to the Guidance, mental health care must be voluntary, informed, and person-centered. WHO Principles: Ending Abuse, Enforcing Accountability The WHO recommends: The WHO further demands robust accountability measures, including public tracking of: Despite these mandates, CCHR points out that the U.S. lacks a national, publicly accountable system to collect or publish such data. Transparency is scarce, and institutions are rarely held accountable for harmful or fatal outcomes. A rare investigation by a national news outlet revealed that, between 2020 and 2023, exposed a deadly national pattern—a lack of transparency and accountability involved in patient restraint and seclusion in hospitals generally, including behavioral and psychiatric. From 2020 to 2023, it found more than 14,300 patient deaths linked to restraint or seclusion. Nearly 1,000 involved drugs used as chemical restraints, including opioids, sedatives, and antipsychotics. Nearly 2,700 patients died while in seclusion or restraints, and almost 11,700 deaths occurred within 24 hours of removal from restraint or seclusion.[1] These deaths, however, reflect only one aspect of systemic coercion. Research shows that more than half of psychiatric admissions in the U.S. are involuntary.[2] On a single day in 2018, 57% of psychiatric hospital patients were admitted against their will, rising to 89% in public psychiatric facilities.[3] Patients in these environments report widespread abuse: 'The data is clear—coercion is not a rare exception under U.S. psychiatric treatment. It is a defining feature of the system,' said Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR. 'And the longer this is ignored, the more lives will be lost to silence, trauma, and preventable harm and deaths.' The WHO Calls for Systemic Change The WHO's solution is bold: close institutions and eliminate financial incentives that perpetuate institutionalization. CCHR strongly supports this recommendation, having documented ongoing abuse in high-volume psychiatric facilities, especially those operating under profit-driven models. Numerous reports have exposed neglect, physical assaults, and preventable patient deaths in such environments, including in 21 for-profit psychiatric hospitals in California. 'These facilities often operate without effective independent oversight or transparency,' said Eastgate. 'It is unacceptable that vulnerable individuals are placed in high-risk environments with little to no accountability for the patient sexual abuse, forced treatment and deadly restraints that occur behind closed doors.' Rejecting the 'Brain Disease' Model The WHO Guidance also challenges the prevailing psychiatric model that treats mental distress as a brain-based disease requiring lifelong drug treatment. Instead, it promotes non-coercive, person-led recovery and psychosocial supports. It calls on governments and providers to: CCHR emphasizes that these principles are not radical—they are now the official global standard. Yet U.S. psychiatry continues to advocate for involuntary commitment, forced drugging, and electroshock, including on minors. 'This biomedical model has failed not only patients but public trust,' said Eastgate. 'It has resulted in a mental health system plagued by poor and lethal outcomes and human rights violations.' CCHR, which was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and world-renowned psychiatrist and author, Prof. Thomas Szasz, is now calling on: 'This is a moment of reckoning for psychiatry,' Eastgate concluded. 'The evidence of harm is overwhelming. The guidance for reform is clear. Now, it is up to the U.S. to either embrace change—or be held responsible for the continued suffering of those entrusted to its care.' About CCHR: Mental health industry watchdog CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz. CCHR has achieved hundreds of reforms, including bans against coercive psychiatric practices such as on electroshock for minors and federal protections against forced drugging of schoolchildren. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] David Robinson, 'Why did 14K people die with ties to hospital restraints amid pandemic?,' Democrat & Chronicle, New York State team, 17 July 2024, [2] Morris, N., 'Involuntary Commitments: Billing Patients for Forced Psychiatric Care,' Am J Psychiatry, 1 Dec 2020, [3] MULTIMEDIA: IMAGE LINK for media: Image caption: 'This is a moment of reckoning for psychiatry. The evidence of harm is overwhelming. The guidance for reform is clear. Now, it is up to the U.S. to either embrace change – or be held responsible for the continued suffering of those entrusted to its care.' – Jan Eastgate, President CCHR International. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, Jan Eastgate, coercive psychiatry, Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plans, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P125779 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
Associated Press
21-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
New York Times Exposé Vindicates CCHR: ADHD Isn't Biological, Says Watchdog
LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 21, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — A recent exposé in The New York Times Magazine will send shockwaves through the psychiatric community, affirming what the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) has warned for decades: there is no medical proof that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a biological disorder.[1] Yet, over 3.4 million American children are labeled with ADHD and prescribed powerful, mind-altering stimulants. According to Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, The Times' revelations 'should prompt federal lawmakers and public health officials to investigate how millions of children could be drugged under a false premise—and why dissenting voices were ignored.' The New York Times Magazine article by Paul Tough details how ADHD was long marketed as a neurobiological disorder requiring medication, despite lacking any objective test. Tough writes that the entire system rests on shaky assumptions: 'that ADHD is a medical disorder that demands a medical solution; that it is caused by inherent deficits in children's brains; and that the medications we give them repair those deficits.' But many of those once involved in building this narrative are now disowning it. As the article concedes: 'Unlike with diabetes, there is no reliable biological test for ADHD,' and diagnosis often relies on 'subjective judgment.' Eastgate underscores the damage: 'Millions of parents were led to believe their children had a brain disorder—one that science now admits it cannot medically confirm. That's not mental healthcare. That's institutional betrayal.' EXPERTS RETREAT FROM ADHD'S SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION Among the most striking revelations is the reversal of leading researchers who once championed the disorder and its treatments. Dr. James Swanson, a research psychologist and one of ADHD's early proponents, was central to efforts in the 1990s that drove public acceptance of the diagnosis. At that time, CCHR was actively protesting the mass drugging of children, warning that the supposed science behind ADHD was fundamentally flawed. Their concerns are now echoed by Swanson himself. After three decades of research, Swanson told the Times: 'I don't agree with people who say that stimulant treatment is good. It's not good.' He also found that children taking the drugs were still symptomatic years later and were shorter than their peers. Other prominent scientists quoted include: Sonuga-Barke went further, calling the search for a biological marker a 'red herring,' and admitting: 'There literally is no natural cutting point where you could say, 'This person has got ADHD, and this person hasn't got it.' Those decisions are to some extent arbitrary.' THE HUMAN TOLL: WHY KIDS QUIT THE DRUGS The exposé also reveals how teens themselves reject ADHD stimulants. Swanson notes the high dropout rate among young users—many of whom said the drugs made them feel worse. 'If it's so effective, why do people stop?' he asked. Eastgate responds: 'For decades, parents were told by doctors, 'If you don't medicate your child, you're a bad parent.' But when children themselves report the drugs made them feel bad, it's psychiatry that refuses to listen.' In response to the widespread overuse of ADHD diagnoses and stimulant prescribing—even in children under five—the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a federal review. CCHR welcomes this as long overdue. For over 40 years, CCHR has maintained that psychiatric labels such as ADHD are not rooted in biological science but are voted into existence through panels of psychiatrists—not discovered through medical testing. As far back as the 1980s and 1990s, CCHR was on record opposing the mass diagnosis of ADHD and the marketing of stimulants to schoolchildren. 'This investigation must look at how pseudoscience became policy,' said Eastgate. 'And why the system ignored watchdogs, parents, and even the United Nations, until some of the same researchers who created the mess began to admit their mistake.' In 2017, Dr. Dainius Pūras, a psychiatrist and then UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, urged governments to move away from the biomedical (drug-based) model of mental health.[2] CCHR had already submitted evidence to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), documenting psychostimulant prescribing in 14 countries. The UNCRC responded by recommending strict monitoring of ADHD drug use in children and criticized the 'medicating' of children without addressing root causes or offering alternative supports.[3] More recently, the World Health Organization and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights jointly declared that 'legislation on mental health must… move away from the narrow traditional 'biomedical paradigm.''[4] The New York Times exposé represents a landmark moment in pediatric mental health. It exposes how ADHD's 'biological' foundations were misleading, and the harms of its treatments were undersold. CCHR says it validates what the group has long stood for: that millions of children were mislabeled and drugged. 'This is a reckoning,' concludes Eastgate. 'But it must become a reform. It's not enough to admit the science was wrong. The system must now be held accountable for what it did with that false science—and ensure it never happens again.' About CCHR: Mental health industry watchdog established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz. CCHR has achieved hundreds of reforms, including bans on minors being electroshocked and federal protections against forced drugging of schoolchildren. To learn more, visit: Sources: [1] Paul Tough, 'Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong?' The New York Times Magazine, 13 Apr. 2025, [2] 'World Needs 'Revolution' in Mental Health Care, U.N. Health Rights Expert Reports,' CCHR International, 14 June 2017, 'World needs 'revolution' in mental health care – UN rights expert,' United Nations, 6 June 2017, [3] 'Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 44 of the Convention,' UNCRC, 17 Sept. – 5 Oct. 2012, p. 15, [4] 'New WHO Mental Health Guideline Condemns Coercive Psychiatric Practices,' CCHR International, 18 Sept. 2023, 'Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation,' World Health Organization, OHCHR, 9 Oct. 2023, p. xvii, MULTIMEDIA: Image link for media: Image caption: 'This is a reckoning. But it must become a reform. It's not enough to admit the science was wrong. The system must now be held accountable for what it did with that false science—and ensure it never happens again.' – Jan Eastgate, President CCHR International. NEWS SOURCE: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Keywords: Religion and Churches, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR International, mental health, LOS ANGELES, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P125617 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. 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