You will be treated like trash in this place. I asked about my informed consent like it sais on the patient bill of rights and was ignored. It looks like this:\r
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I, the undersigned, understand that I am about to be prescribed one or more drugs by Dr. __________________.\r
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The drug(s) I am to be prescribed is (are) the following: \r
____________________.\r
____________________.\r
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I understand that a DSM-IV diagnostic label has been assigned to me, based on my doctor's (and perhaps also on other people's) subjective judgment of my speech, manner, and behavior during our meeting, which lasted approximately _____ minutes. \r
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I understand that although my doctor says that I am sick or that I have a treatable illness or disease, he or she is just using a figure of speech and cannot establish, with any test or procedure known to medical science that I in fact ""have"" the ""illness"" implied by the diagnostic label.\r
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Indeed, I am aware that although medical opinion may now hold that a ""chemical imbalance,"" a ""brain abnormality,"" or some physical problem ""underlies"" or ""produces"" my distress or suffering, no objective information (through lab tests, scans, etc.) concerning the state of my body has been obtained in order to arrive at a DSM-IV diagnosis. If, by chance, such information has been obtained for that purpose, I understand that this information plays no role whatsoever in fulfilling any criteria for any DSM-IV diagnosisor diagnoses that I have been given by my physician except perhaps for diagnoses related to drug-induced disorders such as tardive dyskinesia.\r
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I understand that the drug I am about to take cannot restore any of my physical or psychological functions ""back to normal."" Rather, the drug is expected to produce many new mental and physical symptoms, which might help make my original complaints seem less disturbing for a while.\r
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I have been informed, if I am prescribed a neuroleptic drug such as Haldol or Risperdal and if I take it regularly for a few years, that I have at least a 30% chance over the next 5 years of developing tardive dyskinesia, a possibly irreversible disorder characterized by abnormal involuntary movements of my face or other body parts. I have been informed that I may also suffer from other acute or chronic movement problems, such as parkinsonism, akathisia, and dystonia, and their associated unpleasant mental states.\r
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I have been informed that if I am prescribed lithium, I do not have a ""lack"" of lithium in my body, nor can such a ""lack"" be demonstrated by any existing test. I understand that the blood tests that I will undergo regularly will be for the sole purpose of determining just how much lithium has been introduced into my bloodstream and whether this could produce toxic symptoms, since, as a result of the mental dullness that lithium is expected to produce, I will be in no position to recognize some of these toxic symptoms.\r
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I understand that the drug is likely to provoke various unpleasant effects when I stop taking it, especially if I stop too suddenly. I understand that although withdrawal reactions are systematically ignored in psychiatric drug treatment or research, they might represent the worst part of my whole drug-taking episode. I further understand that these reactions will often closely resemble the original symptoms for which the drug was prescribed to me, and are likely to be taken for a return of these symptoms (a ""relapse""), rather than for withdrawal effects. I realize that my doctor or the researcher is likely to interpret these reactions as a sign that my ""illness"" is chronic and that my drug is ""effective.""
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