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Psychiatrists Not Feeling the Love For Cruise

The fallout from Tom Cruise's Today Show appearance last week (when he lectured Matt Lauer about the evils of the "pseudo-science" called psychiatry) continues unabated. Today The American Psychiatric Association put the smackdown on the actor with a sharply-worded statement about Cruise's Today Show ravings about the evil history of psychiatry--which only he knows. They also seemed furious (in a restrained, scholarly way) about Cruise's denial that chemical imbalances do not exist and his insistence that the Attention Deficit Disorder drugs Ritalin and Adderall are "street drugs."

"It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need," APA President Dr. Steven Sharfstein said in a statement. The rebuke from the APA, which represents nearly 36,000 physicians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, challenged Cruise's assertion that psychiatry lacks scientific merit.

Rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment (of mental illness) works," the APA statement said. "It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy."

Posted on June 27, 2005

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