LETTERS; PSYCHIATRISTS NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

To the editor:

I read with some horror the Jan. 9 and Jan. 10 articles on Steven Marberry's suicide. The horror has as much to do with misrepresentations of the effects of Xanax addiction as it does with this poor man's unfortunate fate.

The connection between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence and suicide has been known for years. The argument is sometimes made that violence occurs because the individual was not taking psychiatric medication. This is a red herring pushed in the media by psychiatric interests to take attention off the drugs as the creator of violence. Another little-known fact is that withdrawal from addictive psychiatric drugs can turn people horrifically violent. Psychiatric drugs and treatments create violence. The violent condition is not pre-existing but is actually caused by the psychiatric intervention.

Psychiatrists must be brought under the law by holding them legally accountable for the violence of their patients. Please write to your legislators about this.

MORITZ FARBSTEIN

St. Louis