Garth Daniels - Shock At the Crossroads

"Whether a patient gets shock treatment depends less on the patient's mental condition than on the doctor's mental and moral condition." Peter R.Breggin, MD. The Anti-Depressant Fact Book, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Mass, 2001. P.167


In early 2013 Garth Daniels voluntary signed into a Melbourne clinic to participate in a group therapy program. This was not to be... within less than twenty four hours Garth found himself hand-cuffed by police and bundled off to St. Vincent's Psychiatric Ward in the public sector.


Garth Daniels recollection of events was that he had "flashbacks", approached nurses and asked them if their conscience was not affected by their prior treatment of him. In reply Garth Daniels recalls hearing the duress alarm....


Within a short space of time Garth Daniels says he was surrounded by police who demanded he kneel on the floor, place his hands behind his back...Garth Daniels states he was then bundled into a police van and transported to St.Vincent's Hospital Psychiatric ward.


At St.Vincents adjustments were made to his pharmaceutical drug prescriptions and within two weeks he was discharged. ... it was soon realized that the alteration of the drug prescriptions required further review and adjustment... and, that this required monitoring which could best be achieved in a hospital setting. A negotiated and agreed treatment protocol was embarked upon with the treating clinician at Dandenong Hospital, Southern Health.


Since that initial negotiation and an improved outcome for Garth Daniels... a rotation of clinicians led to Garth being treated by Dr.Neeraj Sareen.... who railroaded over this understanding and forced a management plan upon Garth Daniels which resulted in known adverse drug reaction...  Subsequently, culminating in Garth Daniels being accused of intentionally being violent towards staff and causing injury.


Despite a prior advanced directive in the form of Refusal of Treatment Certificates 'which included a definitive DO NOT CONSENT TO ECT (shock treatment)...reinforced verbally by Garth Daniels. It appears the Medical Program Director, A/Prof. David Barton, his Clinical Director Dr. Fernandez and their consultant/registrar Dr. Neeraj Sareen have placed shock treatment at the crossroads... they authorized that Garth Daniels be given numerous shock treatments... Electro-Convulsive Therapy to curb his violence????.


Garth Daniels appeared before the Mental Health Review Board, who in their wisdom again found that Garth Daniels did not meet the criteria for continued involuntary treatment and discharged Garth Daniels from Dandenong Hospital... in August 2013.


...shortly after Garth Daniels discharge from Dandenong Hospital in August 2013... a policeman delivered Garth Daniels a Summons and Charge for assault to appear in the Dandenong Magistrates Court on 30 January 2014.

Garth Daniels - Bohemian Polypharmacy

Parody of a  classic

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp3pFjKoZl8

Garth Daniels - Amygdala - Fear Rage & Aggression

The Amygdala is almond shaped found in that region in the brain protected by the temporal bones immediately behind the ears. The Amygdala sits roughly on a horizontal plane midway between the ears and directly in line with the eyes.

The Amygdala interconnects with four major lobes of the cerebral hemisphere.  These interconnections serve to convey sensory information which the Amygdala processes as external inputs which may for example be a result of a negative or painful event.   These inputs encompass  pain, sound, touch and visual systems to which the Amygdala creates an associated response with these  negative stimuli and random events.    A particularly negative stimuli is fear which prompts the Amygdala to reinforce and trigger a learned response to such fear, much like that of Pavlov's Dog.

Is it the effects of drug toxicity (poisoning) coupled with negative environmental stimuli, sensory inputs, that the interconnections outputs within the Amygdala triggers various kinds of integrated activities as a defense mechanism ?   "... fear is one of the most common manifestations of amygdaloidal electrical stimulation and abnormal activations"(Rhawn Joseph, PhD.)

Is this a route cause which culminates in the involuntary actions of a patient taking these drugs being labeled violent?

Garth Daniels - and - "Syndrome Malin des Neuroleptique"

Despite an ALERT first recorded by Eastern Health in the medical files of Garth Daniels more than fifteen years ago, it appears that little attention was given to this treatment emergent condition first described by Delay and Deneker in 1960. "Syndrome Malin des Neuroleptic" that is Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome...

The first reaction to it as described by the French clinicians Delay and Deneker is removal of the causative agent... The first recorded response is almost always the correct response... the literature confirms that the standard response has and always should be removal of the causative agent. Interestingly, that is precisely the response executed by Eastern Health when Garth was first treated there in 1996. What have been the consequences ?

The introduction of polypharmacy as has been documented in Garth Daniels volumes of medical records merely reinforces the notion that polypharmacy serves to "mask" underlying symptoms of this potentially fatal condition... So, why has it continued by other service providers?

Garth Daniels - A Paridigm Shift, Polypharmacy and the TGA

The Therapeutic Goods Administration ( Australia) is equivalent to the Food and Drug Administration (USA).

In 2008 the TGA convened a scientific study of reports based on numerous cases submitted to it by a psychiatrist who has an interest in forensic and medico - legal issues in psychiatry. The case studies encompassed numerous reports which described adverse events and complicated psychotropic medication histories over an extended periods of time.  The scientific study was undertaken by the Psychiatric Drug Safety Expert Advisory Panel established by the TGA.

In its Executive Summary The Panel considered that "the reports were most valuable for highlighting a number of issues associated with the use of psychotropic medicines, including

• ...extent of the problems associated with polypharmacy...
• lack of evidence for the use of many of the prescribed combinations...
• potential of increased adverse events when multiple medications are used concurrently...
• clinicians difficulties in "distinguishing" side effects as akathesia from underlying psychiatric disorders
• inconsistencies between current Australian Product Information documents and international monographs...

...there was usually clear evidence of a temporal relationship between the onset of symptoms ( e.g. akathesia or suicidal ideation ) and the use of medication and evidence that the symptom improved on discontinuation or reduction in dose of the drug...."

Why is it that on each and every occasion Garth Daniels presented to hospital...whether voluntary or involuntary is not the question... Why has it been that his drug prescription is always increased culminating in unnecessary traumatic and lengthy inpatient hospital stays?

Perhaps now there is a paradigm shift... initiated as a result of a short stay at St.Vincents Hospital and recognition that the alternative to a C-Max dose.. and polypharmacy is a reduction.

Therapeutic dose should be based on the rate of clearance the formula of which equates to dosing rate divided by drug concentration, shouldn't it ?

GARTH DANIELS - An Awakening

After more than sixteen years of  pharmaceutical drug interventions Garth now suffers from significant residual problems.  To the extent that  he considered it appropriate to enter the private hospital sector to monitor these residual effects more intensely. On Monday 11 March Garth found himself in the invidious position of  needing hospitalization in order to deal with the consequences of polypharmacy with respect to the subsequent difficulties with etiology.

GARTH DANIELS - The Ides of March

 http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/1287206/mental-health-institute-to-slash

Garth Daniels was NOT CRIMINALLY INSANE... His mere incarceration at Thomas Embling was in fact defamatory, if not criminal.  The implication appears to be that if one is diagnosed as having a mental illness then it is likely that you will offend...  Garth was not part of the Criminal Justice System nor had he been found guilty or least of all sent to Thomas Embling for reasons of mental impairment by the courts.  Garth was admitted to Thomas Embling by the mere strokes of a few psychiatrists' pens for the purpose of providing greater freedom.(sic)
P.S. Garth Daniels was never allowed unescorted off campus leave.