No one is safe from this terrible new mental disorder – or the drug to treat it

At any moment, you’re only a snack away from having a new mental disease.

If you’ve eaten more food than normal, lately, or been “uncomfortably full” several times a month, voila!  Chances are you have “binge-eating disorder.”

And because binge-eating disorder was officially designated in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, it’s now a genuine mental illness.

And you know what happens in this country for a genuine mental illness…

Yes, even worse than being labeled as “crazy” because you ate that whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s is the drug that Big Pharma had waiting in the wings for this new disease.

The new “crazy”

It not the latest Harry Potter book or a best-selling Dan Brown novel.

But when the newest edition of the DSM got released two years ago, it was just as exciting — to everyone in Big Pharma, that is.

Because there’s nothing more thrilling than being able to sell your old drug to millions more for a brand “new” disease. And to do it with the FDA’s blessings.

And that’s exactly what Shire Pharmaceuticals can do.

Just at the end of January, the FDA approved its drug Vyvanse (at record speed) for binge-eating disorder. Of course, when you’ve got an officially named disease with no official drug to treat it — that calls for super-fast action.

And this may have been the fastest dash ever through the agency, at just four and a half months from submission to on the shelves at Walgreens.

Now, if Vyvanse sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s the same horrible med given to children for another over-diagnosed, created disease – ADHD.

While Vyvanse is something that should never, ever be given to a child, in adults it can cause “sudden death, stroke and heart attacks.” That warning comes straight from Shire’s web site.

And because the drug is a nervous-system stimulant, the most common side effects are insomnia, “jittery feelings,” and anxiety. Those sure sound like the very things that could cause people to start binge-eating — even if they’ve never raided the fridge at midnight before.

It’s obvious that whenever the DSM gets a revision, we’re all in danger of coming down with something. But when you hear why it happens this way… well, it all starts to make sense.

This “bible” of the mental health industry first came out in 1952. The American Psychiatric Association gets together every so often and decides what new mental disorders are ready for prime time.

And, of course, insurance coverage.

And lest you think these new diseases are based on what doctors are reporting or patients are struggling with, think again.

But if you take a quick look at the rolodex of the head honcho responsible for the last DSM, Dr. David Kupfer, you’ll see how these new diseases are really generated.

His affiliations include ties to Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Solvay Wyeth.

And he’s willing to label all of us “crazy” to ensure their insane profits.

Sources:

“FDA approves ADHD drug for binge-eating disorder” ABC News, January 30, 2015, abcnews.go.com

“FDA expands uses of Vyvanse to treat binge-eating disorder” FDA News Release, January 30, 2015, fda.gov