Yesterday, Dr Leaf opened a proverbial can of worms with her quote from Gøtzsche, that “Psychiatric Drugs are the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and cancer.”

Dr Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and a cognitive neuroscientist. Clearly scrambling, she attempted to placate her growing number of detractors with an unprecedented explanatory statement. But rather than distancing herself from her comments, she still chose to portray psychiatric medications as harmful and ungodly.

Instead of quelling the fire, this seems to have thrown fuel on it. Dr Leaf has continued to try and justify her comments with a further two statements today. Neither of them contain a retraction or an apology.

Earlier today, she wrote:

Dear all, regarding the recent two posts I put up on mental health and medications and the flood of positive and negative responses that followed, I would love you to hear my heart: all my posts are lovingly crafted, designed to help, based on my years of extensive research and experience in the field of mind, learning and mental health, including within my immediate and extended family..and {sic} most importantly, they are Holy Spirit led. I work with a team of professionals, that include medical doctors, neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuroscientists, theologians, pastors and historians in order to provide excellent information. I am a messenger: I teach and provide information and encourage you, in turn, not to be reactive, but to read, do your own research and think. To this end, I provide as much help as I can on my web page and TV shows and resources with information and research links and citations. I DO believe in using general medications and surgeries when managed correctly and not abused, I myself have been helped by surgery and used medications when necessary, as have my family. I DO NOT judge anyone. I believe in your right to choose; I DO NOT tell anyone to go off their meds, I recommend supported and supervised withdrawal if this is what you choose; I DO encourage you to make Holy Spirit led educated choices about your choices, I DO encourage you to use your love, power and sound mind – your intellect, will and emotions, the way God designed these to be used – led by Him continuously. Please watch this incredible and touching video by Laura Delano on You Tube, which highlights why I do what I do. https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLK_W1lA1BNLk2vbBH2XetI80LDpmaGTUG&params=OAFIAVgF&v=b6ZljUs4Xos&mode=NORMAL Many blessings to you all and my prayer for you is: “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body) may keep well, even as [I know) your soul keeps well and prospers.” 3 John 1:2 AMP see http://www.drleaf.com scientific FAQ’s for more information, citations and links

then later in the day:

Dear all, some of you have questioned whether or not I have ever dealt with people experiencing severe mental health issues. As someone who has specialized in the mind over the past 30 years, I have been given the opportunity to work, first hand, with people experiencing mental and physical pain in the most terrible life situations, from severe traumatic brain injuries to rape, murder and abysmal poverty. I have seen these individuals choose with their minds not to allow their life circumstances to take control over their identity… through the power of God, love and community they overcame what life threw their way. But, on a more personal level, my eldest daughter (@therascalcook) was severely bulimic, suicidal and depressed for most of her early years due to a chronic illness and traumatic bullying. I have been in hospitals, crying beside her bed when she nearly died. I have experienced her pain…I am crying as I write this. But as a family we supported her and loved her through it, as did her friends and many of our loved ones, (it was not easy but it was worth it!). She never took a single medication nor was she institutionalized, even though doctors were telling me she would never recover if she didn’t. Yet today, after rejecting God and life for many years, she is a graduate student in historical theology, whose life goal is to bring a piece of heaven to earth through sustainable farming communities in disadvantaged areas. There is hope, God is greater than anything, and magic bullets are never the answer. You are not a label or a faulty biological machine. You are a child of God, as we all are. Unless all of us realize what it truly means to be the church, to bring heaven to earth as we love our God and people, to be the community of love that this world is so desperately crying out for, people will continue to have mental health issues, be labeled {sic}, face stigma and suffer. We all have this responsibility, and none of us can do it alone. We were created by God to help each other. Jessica used to call me her Sam. We all need a Sam, because we all know what it is like to be Frodo.

Kudos to Dr Leaf for the bravery and vulnerability that sharing such a personal story took. I’m genuinely happy that Jessica found her way through those dark and distressing days and has once again found peace and success. I have been through the same dank and destructive times of depression, and I know what it feels like. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. When I hear stories of people who have overcome, I truly appreciate their joy.

I also recovered from my depression without ever using medications. What helped me enormously was a psychologist who listened to me without judgement as I unloaded years of emotional turmoil and distress. To this day, I don’t remember what we actually talked about in my first session with him. All I remember is getting ten minutes in and then crying almost uncontrollably for the next forty. Thankfully, I did more talking and less crying over the few months as my mood lifted and I grew to accept my brokenness, just like God does.

Clearly, the story of Jessica Leaf is heart-warming and uplifting. Dr Leaf clearly understands the pain and distress that severe mental illness brings to those who suffer with it, and their families. But all emotions aside, Dr Leaf has still left important issues unresolved. Indeed, those who are more cynical might see such an emotional recollection as a play for sympathy and a distraction from the lingering questions surrounding Dr Leaf’s handling of this issue, and of her expertise in mental health.

Dr Leaf’s expertise, revisited.

Dr Leaf’s experience during those darkest of times may give her a legitimate platform to discuss what worked for her daughter and her family, but however moving, it does not qualify her as an expert in mental health more broadly. Science isn’t about generalising from your personal experience. It’s about looking at the evidence from a number of rigorously designed trials with a minimum of bias, conducted across a broad range of participants.

When women come to see me in the few weeks after giving birth, they’re usually confused. Nearly every woman that’s ever given birth sometime in the last century believes their experience automatically qualifies them as experts in breast feeding and infant health. But their ‘helpful’ advice, given with the best of intentions, often conflicts with the opinion of every other self-proclaimed motherhood expert. By the time the poor new mother comes to see me, they’ve been given so many pieces of conflicting advice that they’re completely lost.

Just living through an experience doesn’t qualify you as an expert. So I don’t claim to be an expert in mental health just because I’ve lived through prolonged periods of anxiety and depression. Nor should Dr Leaf.

Dr Leaf can’t use the fact that she has worked with people who have mental health problems as a claim to expertise either. She may been given the opportunity to work, first hand, with “people experiencing mental and physical pain in the most terrible life situations, from severe traumatic brain injuries to rape, murder and abysmal poverty.” That doesn’t make her an expert in mental health any more than seeing female patients makes me a gynaecologist.

That’s because expertise in medical fields requires specific training. You can read surgical textbooks for thirty years but that doesn’t quality you as a surgeon. You can learn a bit of anatomy and physiology in the same lab as some medical students, but that doesn’t make you equivalent to a medical doctor. You might do some research involving some neurobiology, but that doesn’t make you a neuroscientist.

Dr Leaf is a communication pathologist who completed a PhD which included some educational psychology. She is not a counsellor, she is not a psychologist, she is not a medical doctor and she isn’t even a cognitive neuroscientist. Dr Leaf is not qualified to provide an expert opinion on the risks and harms of psychiatric medication.

Dr Leaf’s heart

Coming back to Dr Leaf’s first statement today, Dr Leaf said that she wanted to share her heart:

all my posts are lovingly crafted, designed to help, based on my years of extensive research and experience in the field of mind, learning and mental health, including within my immediate and extended family..and {sic} most importantly, they are Holy Spirit led

If I were Dr Leaf, I’d be careful about blaming the Holy Spirit for her posts. I have rebutted and debunked scores of Dr Leaf’s memes over the last couple of years. The Holy Spirit is the ‘Spirit of all truth’, not of half-baked facts and misquotes.

Dr Leaf goes on to say

I teach and provide information and encourage you, in turn, not to be reactive, but to read, do your own research and think. To this end, I provide as much help as I can on my web page and TV shows and resources with information and research links and citations.

I respectfully disagree. Dr Leaf rarely references her social media memes, and until recently, her website was bereft of citations. I have never seen her encourage critical thinking before. And if Dr Leaf really wanted to encourage thinking amongst her followers, then why does her team actively block people on social media who dare to disagree with her? That’s not encouraging free thinking, that’s presenting an illusion of conformity.

Dr Leaf’s Do’s and Don’ts

To clarify her position on several issues, Dr Leaf stated:

I DO believe in using general medications and surgeries when managed correctly and not abused, I myself have been helped by surgery and used medications when necessary, as have my family. I DO NOT judge anyone. I believe in your right to choose; I DO NOT tell anyone to go off their meds, I recommend supported and supervised withdrawal if this is what you choose; I DO encourage you to make Holy Spirit led educated choices about your choices, I DO encourage you to use your love, power and sound mind – your intellect, will and emotions, the way God designed these to be used – led by Him continuously.

Dr Leaf may say that she doesn’t tell anyone to go off their meds, but I think that’s a little disingenuous.

Sure, Dr Leaf never directly said to stop taking their medications. She just said that psychiatric medications were unscientific and unbiblical [1: p31-32], that psychiatric medications are the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer, and admonished her followers to “Take all thoughts into captivity, not drug all thoughts into captivity.” And just yesterday, she also linked psychiatric medications with evolutionary theory and said that they strip 15-25 years off your lifespan.

So it’s more like, “I DO NOT tell anyone to go off their meds, I just scare them by telling them the drugs are unholy poison”.

That’s not encouraging “Holy Spirit led educated choices”, it’s encouraging fear-driven poor choices.

Dr Leaf’s support team

One last point. Dr Leaf stated,

I work with a team of professionals, that include medical doctors, neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuroscientists, theologians, pastors and historians in order to provide excellent information.

Really? Dr Leaf’s work consistently conflicts with basic medical and psychological science, and she regularly misquotes scripture. Would they be willing to be named? Because either they’re providing Dr Leaf with terrible oversight or Dr Leaf is ignoring everything they say.

Dr Leaf still hasn’t apologised for, or retracted her statements

It’s no secret that I disagree with Dr Leaf’s teaching, and I have outlined why I think some of her statements today are disingenuous. You may agree with me, or not. I don’t mind. Hey, I could be wrong.

Though when you get down to brass tacks, the most important issue is that Dr Leaf remains legally vulnerable.

Since she opened up the can of worms with her Gøtzsche quote, she has made three separate statements, none of which apologise for potentially misleading nearly 150,000 people about the true risks and benefits of psychiatric medications. Nor has she issued any retraction or taken the posts down.

When Dr Leaf says that psychiatric medications are unbiblical and poisonous, people on psychiatric medications will want to come off them. She may not have said the words “Stop your medications”, but people will still want to come off them because they’re afraid, or because of the stigma, or because of their desire to live true to God. And as I discussed yesterday, there is a very real chance that some of those people who were stable on their medications but who unnecessarily cease them because Dr Leaf told them to, may harm themselves or take their own life, since that’s what the studies tell us [2, 3]. At the very least, they are likely to have a shorter life expectancy because of it [4, 5]. This may open Dr Leaf to law suits, as well as the possibility of having someone’s death on her conscience.

No one wants that scenario. But the only way to avoid it is to:

1. Take the offending posts down
2. Issue an apology
3. Specifically direct those of her followers on psychiatric medications to stay on them until they have spoken to their doctors,
4. In future, provide a balanced view of the benefits of psychiatric medications as well as their harms.
5. Better yet, unless Dr Leaf gets a medical degree, it may be better not to publically discuss psychiatric medication at all.

Again, I implore Dr Leaf, for her sake and for the sake of her ministry and those who follow her, please unequivocally apologise, retract your statement, and encourage people to see their doctors if they have concerns about their medication, or their mental health.

This is not a game: people’s lives are at stake. I hope that Dr Leaf sees this before it’s too late.

References
[1]        Leaf CM. Switch On Your Brain : The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2013.
[2]        Correll CU, Detraux J, De Lepeleire J, De Hert M. Effects of antipsychotics, antidepressants and mood stabilizers on risk for physical diseases in people with schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association 2015 Jun;14(2):119-36.
[3]        Tiihonen J, Suokas JT, Suvisaari JM, Haukka J, Korhonen P. Polypharmacy with antipsychotics, antidepressants, or benzodiazepines and mortality in schizophrenia. Archives of general psychiatry 2012 May;69(5):476-83.
[4]        Tiihonen J, Lonnqvist J, Wahlbeck K, et al. 11-year follow-up of mortality in patients with schizophrenia: a population-based cohort study (FIN11 study). Lancet 2009 Aug 22;374(9690):620-7.
[5]        Torniainen M, Mittendorfer-Rutz E, Tanskanen A, et al. Antipsychotic treatment and mortality in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia bulletin 2015 May;41(3):656-63.

Remember: This article is a rebuttal of Dr Leaf’s opinion regarding psychiatric medication.  This blog doesn’t constitute individual medical advice.  If you do not like your medication or think you should come off it, please talk to your own GP or psychiatrist.  Do not stop it abruptly or without adequate medical advice.