The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Psychiatric Medication" ...
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Medicating the Military
The stories looked at the nature and scope of the use of prescription drugs in the military community, with a focus on psychiatric medications and painkillers. The reporting found that use of psychiatric medications has risen dramatically in the past several years and some doctors suggest it may be a factor in the military's suicide epidemic of recent years. Reporters found that many psychiatric drugs - including powerful anti-convulsants and anti-psychotic medications - were being used "off label", or in ways not formally approved by the FDA. Reporters found that many troops were taking up to 10 medications at a time in so-called drug cocktails that experts say are untested and unproven in these combinations. Reporters also found that deaths caused by accidental drug overdoses had tripled during the past several years and that the Army's specialty care units were quietly conducting internal investigations and making significant changes to hospital protocols to reduce risk of accidental deaths. Finally, they found that psychiatric drug usage was also up significantly among military children.
Tags: Military; Army; Veteran; Health; Wellness; Medicine; Drugs; Pain killers; Psychiatric Medication; Mental Health; Suicide; Depression; Military Children; Hospital; Prescription
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Careless Detention
Four-part series on the medical treatment of immigrant detainees in the United States. Goldstein and Priest exposed the shoddy, unethical and, at times, fatal treatment of immigrants during their detentions and as they were being deported to their native countries. Their stories led readers deep inside America's network of immigration prisons--a world that had grown exponentially in the years since 9/11, yet remained largely unknown and hidden from view. Their stories documented the deaths of 83 detainees. And in one of the most stunning revelation, Goldstein and Priest disclosed the previously unreported scope of a practice of forcible sedation of immigrants with dangerous psychotropic drugs during deportation to their native countries; they found more than 250 instances in which the drugs were used on people with no history of psychiatric problems. Their stories also revealed that the most prevalent cause of death among the immigrant detainees is suicide, including the hangings of detainees known to be in such fragile mental health that they had been assigned suicide watchers. They profiled the slipshod treatment of an ailing Korean immigrant, a legal U.S. resident for three decades detained in a rail in the Arizona desert, with a history of recurrent cancer. And they documented the flawed medical practices, bureaucratic ineptitude, sloppy record-keeping and staff shortages that cause detainees who are sick to suffer and sometimes to die.
Tags: detained immigrants; September 11th; 9/11; medical treatment of prisoners; immigration prison; HIPAA
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A Hidden Shame: Danger and Death in Georgia's Mental Hospitals
This series exposed problems in Georgia's state psychiatric hospitals. At least 155 patients died under suspicious circumstances related to neglect, abuse and poor medical treatment. Furthermore, patients are often discharged to places where their continued treatment is doubtful, such as homeless shelters, bus stations and street corners.
Tags: hospitals; health; psychology; state government; mental illness
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Captain WOW: When is Mental State Of a Pilot Grounds for Grounding Him?
The Wall Street Journal reports on the case of a pilot, Capt. Witter, diagnosed with personal disorder. "The Witter case, offering a look inside the normally closed world of the cockpit shows just how difficult it can be to decide whether a pilot is mentally fit to fly. Of 5.066 pilot groundings for medical reasons in the past two years, 915 involved psychological or psychiatric disorders."
Tags: domestic violence aggression; alcohol abuse; FAA; NTSB; safety; Delta
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The Perils of Pills
The rapid increase of psychiatric medication on children could be due to hapazard treatment. Often general practitioners who lack experience in mental health are prescribing the drugs without sufficient knowledge or reasoning.
Tags: medicine; prescription drugs; ritalin; ADD; ADHD
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Dangerous Minds
This story looks at a number of crimes around Washington, DC committed by people with a history of mental problems. It points out flaws in the mental health system that allow people who are violent and mentally ill back out on the streets. Legal limitations and a lack of adequate resources contribute to the problem.
Tags: Kevin Shifflett; Gregory Murphy; murder; Alexandria; Va.; mental illness; DC; crime; mental-health care; prison; bipolar disorder; schizophrenia; violent behavior; medication; psychiatric treatment; Russell Weston; mentally ill; Medicare; Medicaid; Maryland; Virginia; out-patient commitment law
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Inside the happiness business
New York reports on the aggressive marketing of drugs, and antidepressants in particular. The story looks at the techniques used by drug sales representatives to attract doctors' attention to the new medications available on the market. The promotion strategies - including free lunches, vacations and gifts - have convinced many doctors to start prescribing a new drug despite some evidence of potential side effects, the investigation reveals. The article focuses on the sales of the newest antidepressant in the U.S.A., Celexa, originally developed by a small Danish company in 1972. The reporter points to the concerns of Dr. Robert Goodman who has started a 'no-free-lunch' campaign against the practices of the drug sales reps.
Tags: Prozac; Zoloft; Paxil; health; doctors; patients; psychiatry; corruption; Pfizer; FDA; depression; weight gain; American Psychiatric Association
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Unsafe Haven
CBS News 60 Minutes reports "a year-long ... investigation of practices in the adolescent units of Charter Behavioral Health Systems, the nation's largest chain of private psychiatric hospitals.... (It) revealed evidence of unsafe conditions, injuries, deaths and cover-ups in Charter hospitals from Massachusetts to California. "
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Final victims
CNN exposes Dr. Heinrich Gross and the Nazi campaign of medicine against the useless. Dr. Gross participated in the killing of hundreds of children at the Vienna State Psychiatric Hospital during the Nazi era. Gross continues to be a well-respected member of the Viennese medical community and to this day has never been tried for murder.
Tags: TAPE Austria
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Deadly Disregard
The story details a pattern of neglect and abuse of patients at a psychiatric hospital, East Bay Hospital, which contracts with several Northern California counties to provide service to Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Major findings include the establishment of a five year pattern of abuses in three major care areas: seclusion and restraint, medical care and staffing levels. Using Department of Health Services public records, as well as interviews with hospital workers, patient advocates and patients' families, the Bay Guardian was able to show that despite repeated promises of reform, East Bay Hospital continued to survive on money from county health care systems, while providing seriously substandard care to some of our region's most vulnerable citizens. (August 14 - 20, 1996)
Tags: Griswold Deadly disregard Contest entry Mental health 6 pgs.