Tag: mental illness

Research Shows Gender-Reassignment Treatments Have No Mental Health Benefits, National Pediatricians Group Says

A review of more than 60 studies has concluded that “there is no long-term evidence that mental health concerns are decreased or alleviated after ‘gender-affirming therapy,’” according to a national group of physicians.

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) on Wednesday issued its position statement opposing the use of so-called “gender-affirming” medications, such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, social transition, and surgery for youth who have a gender identity not congruent with their sex.

“We urge medical professionals and parents to affirm the truth about childhood gender dysphoria in the presence of harmful thoughts and address the underlying mental illness, adverse events, and family dysfunction,” said Dr. Jane Anderson, lead author and vice president of ACPeds, in a statement.

The group found there is substantial evidence that transgender youth suffer from high rates of mental health problems.

“From this review of the literature, there is strong evidence that children and adolescents who identify as transgender have experienced significant psychological trauma leading to their gender dysphoria,” ACPeds concluded.

ACPeds position outlines the studies that have led a number of European countries, including Finland, Norway, and Sweden, to reverse their positions and reject gender-reassignment treatments in young people.

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Ex-prison officer charged in death of NH psychiatric patient

A former corrections officer was charged Thursday with second-degree murder in the death of a patient at New Hampshire’s prison psychiatric unit nine months ago.

Matthew Millar, 39, of Boscawen, is accused of kneeling on Jason Rothe’s torso and neck for several minutes on April 29 while Rothe was face-down and handcuffed in the secure psychiatric unit at the state prison in Concord. The unit treats inmates in need of acute psychiatric care, those found not guilty by reason of insanity and those — like Rothe — who haven’t committed crimes but are deemed too dangerous to remain at the state psychiatric hospital.

According to court documents, Rothe, 50, was committed to New Hampshire Hospital in 2019 because of mental illness and transferred to the prison unit in 2022 out of concern he posed a risk to himself or others. Shortly after his death, investigators said Rothe died after a physical altercation with several corrections officers and that an autopsy was inconclusive. On Thursday, the attorney general’s office said Rothe’s cause of death was combined compressional and positional asphyxia.

Millar made an initial appearance Thursday in court, where his attorney said he intends to plead not guilty. He was ordered held without bail pending a hearing Feb. 14.

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‘Cruel and unusual’: Daughter of inmate with bipolar disorder who killed self sues prison for failing to provide adequate mental health care

An inmate classified as among the most severely mentally ill killed himself in solitary confinement at a Wisconsin state prison after officials failed to provide adequate mental health care and medications, the man’s daughter alleges in a federal lawsuit filed this week.

Dean Henry Hoffmann, 60, died in June at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI), a beleaguered facility with chronic inadequate staffing and inmate overcrowding, more than an hour northwest of Milwaukee.

“Every day I fight for some type of change within the system, and I’m hoping that this really drives that home, and something like this — holding them accountable — will lead to change,” Megan Hoffmann Kolb told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Prison officials declined to comment, citing a policy against commenting on pending litigation, the newspaper reported.

Court documents obtained by Law&Crime outline the events leading up to Hoffmann’s suicide after he was sentenced last February to 28 years in prison after his conviction for assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

Hoffmann had a history of mental illness that included bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, hypothyroidism, diabetes, and anti-social personality disorder, court documents said.

Before his trial, he had been deemed by mental health professionals and the court as being mentally ill but competent to stand trial, even though there was strenuous disagreement, the lawsuit said. In custody, he was categorized as “MH-2A,” the most severe category of mental illness, court documents said.

On April 10, Hoffmann was transferred to WCI with about 30 days of medication. When he went in, the facility had been locked down for safety reasons after some inmates had broken prison rules, court documents said. Because of lockdown restrictions, Hoffmann was never given a psychological exam and had received only some of his prescribed medications, the lawsuit alleges. He had only been able to use the phone twice in the first weeks. Guards unplugged the phone on him mid-conversation in one call.

He asked for medical treatment and showed serious symptoms of mental illness, including severe anxiety, paranoia, pressured speech, poor judgment, poor insight, loss of appetite, weight loss and insomnia, court documents said.

His frustrations mounted on June 20, when he refused to return to his cell after showering, citing “fear of his safety because of threats his cellmate made to him,” the lawsuit said.

When guards ordered him into his cell, he refused. He was handcuffed and escorted into the prison’s Restricted Housing Unit for “a minor incident despite Mr. Hoffmann expressing concerns for his safety.”

While in solitary, Hoffmann began to rapidly deteriorate mentally and physically.

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Kolstad Family Faces Imminent Arrest Amid Legal Battle After Losing Custody of Daughter in Gender Transition Dispute

Krista and Todd Kolstad have been informed that they will be arrested upon returning to Montana, the family’s spokesperson told The Gateway Pundit.

This news comes amidst allegations that Governor Greg Gianforte (R-MO) is orchestrating a smear campaign against the family, accusing them of being unfit parents after they refused to send their 14-year-old daughter out of state for mental health care.

The Kolstad family has been in the spotlight after their daughter, Jennifer, who now wished to be called “Leo” and use male pronouns, was taken into state custody.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that their daughter was transported to Wyoming, a state with different laws regarding the medical transition of minors, by the Montana CPS for treatment of her sudden onset “gender dysphoria,” despite the parents’ express disapproval.

In August 2023, police informed the Kolstads of a text message from their daughter claiming she was suicidal. They were notified by police that their daughter had allegedly ingested drain cleaner and taken an overdose of ibuprofen.

The hospital found no evidence of drain cleaner and ibuprofen, which was later confirmed by a negative toxicology report. Despite this, Jennifer was admitted for observation.

“The hospital continued to call our daughter Leo, even though she’s a minor, and after I stated it’s against our wishes, our religion, and our core family values, the hospital told me to call their lawyer if I have an issue, as they will do what the patient tells them,” Krista Koldstad said in a video.

“I said to them, according to State Bill 99, they may not under the law provide transgender care nor transition our child. Their response was, they are not providing surgery or hormones, so they’re operating in the gray area of the law. I further explained that my understanding of the law was a minor is a minor, and there’s no difference between a four-year-old and a 14-year-old, and we prefer to be called by her birth name,” she added.

A hospital aide discussed “top surgery” (elective double mastectomy) with the girl, leading to a complaint from Krista Kolstad.

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Washington therapist reveals how she was told to ‘throw out all her training’ and give ‘gender affirming care’ to abused, autistic, suicidal 13-YEAR-OLD

A Washington therapist has revealed how she was told to ‘throw out’ all of her medical training and give ‘gender affirming care’ to an abused, autistic, and suicidal 13-year-old.  

Tamara Pietzke, 36, quit the profession after she was reprimanded by her superiors for not immediately signing off on children’s requests for puberty blockers and sex change surgeries. 

Some of the kids who wanted to be transgender had a multitude of issues – including physical and mental abuse, raging anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. 

Despite this, she was shunned into quickly signing papers to give them life-changing medication – and when she brought up her concerns, she was accused of being prejudiced against trans kids, reports The Free Press.  

Mom-of-three Pietzke decided to become a therapist in her 20s, and she graduated from the University of Washington with a master’s in social work in 2012. 

Pietzke has worked with hundreds of clients in Puget Sound, Washington, over the last decade – but she quit her job in January because she was told to ‘throw out’ her training if a young person had gender dysphoria.

Instead of assessing them properly, she was told to just approve their medical transition. 

Writing in The Free Press, the therapist revealed: ‘I was getting the message from my supervisors that when a young person I was seeing expressed discomfort with their gender—the diagnostic term is gender dysphoria—I should throw out all my training.

‘No matter the patient’s history or other mental health conditions that could be complicating the situation, I was simply to affirm that the patient was transgender, and even approve the start of a medical transition.’ 

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Canada halts controversial assisted suicide program for mentally ill due to lack of doctors willing to participate

Canada has delayed the extension of its assisted suicide program to people suffering solely from mental illness, health officials announced Monday. 

Canada offers medically assisted death to terminally and chronically ill people, but the plan to extend the program to people with mental illnesses has divided Canadians, the New York Times reported.

Some critics attribute the problem to a lack of adequate psychiatric care in the country.

The controversial policy would allow anyone in Canada with an incurable medical condition to apply for assisted suicide, even if the disease is not terminal, which makes the law one of the most liberal assisted suicide programs in the world. 

Canada introduced medically assisted dying after its Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that requiring people to cope with intolerable suffering infringed on fundamental rights to liberty and security.

The law was expanded in 2021 to include people experiencing “grievous and irremediable” conditions, such as depression and other mental health issues. 

Over 13,000 Canadians were euthanized as part of the program in 2022, the Daily Mail reported. 

When the program was announced last year, one conservative lawmaker “charged that the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promoting a ‘culture of death.’”

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New Hawaii Bill Would Create A Limited Therapeutic Psilocybin Program To Treat Certain Mental Health Conditions

Newly introduced legislation in Hawaii would create explicit legal protections around the therapeutic use of psilocybin, with eligible patients able to possess and consume the psychedelic under a trained facilitator’s care.

The measure is the result of a task force on breakthrough therapies that was formed last year to explore the issue, its sponsor, Sen. Chris Lee (D), told Marijuana Moment.

SB 3019 would not legalize psilocybin itself but would instead create an affirmative defense for qualified patients and their caregivers, effectively exempting them from state laws against psilocybin. A companion bill in the House, HB 2630, is sponsored by Rep. Della Au Belatti (D) and 13 others.

“There’s a lot of use cases where these kinds of things can really help improve quality of life, and significantly, at minimal cost compared to other kinds of alternative treatment,” Lee said of psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA, both of which have been designated by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as breakthrough therapies.

In Hawaii in particular, he noted, there are large numbers of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other behavioral health ailments, as well as older people seeking end-of-life care—groups that might benefit from facilitated psilocybin use.

Under the new legislation, mental health professionals would need to identify a person as having at least one of several listed eligible medical conditions, then write a recommendation for therapeutic psilocybin. Patients would be allowed no more than five grams of psilocybin per session and would need to complete a preparation session prior to the drug being administered.

Eligible conditions for treatment with psilocybin would include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); treatment-resistant depression or major depressive disorder; end-of-life anxiety, existential stress and demoralization; eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, substance use disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Additional qualifying conditions could be added by the state Department of Health in response to requests from patients or mental health professionals.

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I spent over £100,000 on therapy… but it was taking magic mushrooms that helped me conquer my OCD

On the surface, Pandora Morris, 35, has everything. She’s pretty, blonde, well-connected and has a posh London address – the type of woman you might see on the pages of society magazine Tatler.

But there is a sadness about her cornflower blue eyes which reflect a less golden story. Pandora, a lawyer by profession and scion of a large London banking dynasty, has spent decades battling obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which developed into a severe exercise addiction and eating disorder in her early teens.

It has been more than three years since her last ‘relapse’, and though wary of describing herself as ‘cured’, Pandora is now in a very different place to her condition before lockdown, when her heart rate fell to 31 and doctors told her that if she didn’t stop exercising eight hours a day and eat more than 700 calories, she would probably die.

When we meet, Pandora has just come from the studio where she is recording the second series of Hurt To Healing, the podcast she launched in October 2022, in which she interviews experts and those who have struggled with mental health issues.

Pandora certainly knows her subject. Her desperate parents spent the price of a small house on treatments — none of which, including seven months in an eating disorder clinic in South Africa, seemed to work long term.

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Teen tourists stabbed by deranged stranger at Grand Central who shouted ‘I want all the white people dead’ on Christmas: police

A troubled vagrant randomly stabbed two teenage girls enjoying a Christmas morning meal with their parents at a Grand Central Terminal restaurant — after ranting that he wanted “all white people dead,” authorities said.

The girls, 14- and 16-year-olds visiting from South America, were attacked at Tartinery in the Grand Central Dining Concourse around 11:25 a.m. Monday and suffered non-life-threatening stab wounds, police and sources said. 

“I want all the white people dead,” the suspect, Steven Hutcherson, 36, allegedly yelled, according to police sources. “I want to sit next to the crackers.”

He then allegedly lunged at the unsuspecting teens, plunging a knife into the 16-year-old’s back, nicking her lungs, and stabbing the younger girl in the thigh, police and a law enforcement source said.

Hutcherson — who cops and sources said has a slew of prior arrests and a history of mental health issues — had allegedly popped up at the restaurant and said he wanted a table but wasn’t going to order anything, staffers told The Post.

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Psilocybin’s ‘Efficacy And Safety’ For Bipolar II Depression Demonstrated By American Medical Association Study

Results of a new clinical trial published by the American Medical Association “suggest efficacy and safety” of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of bipolar II disorder, a mental health condition often associated with debilitating and difficult-to-treat depressive episodes.

“The 15 participants in this trial had well-documented treatment-resistant BDII depression of marked severity and a lengthy duration of the current depressive episode,” authors wrote. After seven psychotherapy sessions, one involving a single dose of psilocybin, the paper says, study subjects “displayed strong and persistent antidepressant effects, with no signal of worsening mood instability or increased suicidality.”

In the nonrandomized controlled study, which was conducted at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Baltimore, “12 patients met both response and remission criteria” at the end of a 12-week study period, the trial found, meaning that measures of the diagnosis had dropped by more than half and fell below a minimum threshold.

“The findings in this open-label nonrandomized controlled trial suggest efficacy and safety of psilocybin with psychotherapy in BDII depression.”

Patients’ self-reported quality of life scores “demonstrated similar improvements,” the study, which was funded by the biotechnology company COMPASS Pathways that develops psychedelic treatments, found. In terms of safety, metrics of suicidal ideation and mania “did not change significantly at posttreatment compared to baseline.”

The nine-author study, published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, involved administering a single, 25-milligram dose of psilocybin. Patients with bipolar II disorder (BDII) met with therapists seven times—during three pre-treatment sessions, once during an “8-hour dosing day” and at three post-treatment integration sessions.

“In this study, most participants remitted rapidly (ie, within 1 week of dosing), and in most participants, remission persisted for the 12-week study duration,” the report says. “The 3 participants who restarted medication due to lack of benefit or relapse following improvement generally had poorer response throughout the trial.”

“In a sample of patients with treatment-resistant cyclical mood disorder, achieving persistent remission over a 3-month period is notable, especially given the single dosing of psilocybin,” it continues. “Further follow-up is warranted.”

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