SAGB

These are excerpts from the last SAGB Newsletter Oct. 06. "Please WRITE to the Home Secretary, John Reid, to express your disgust at the large-scale imprisonment of the mentally ill offender. The Rt.Hon John Reid House of Commons London SW1A 1AA DISREGARDED MCNAUGHTON RULES: Thus we punish, in increasing numbers, the mentally ill offender. The McNaughton Rules of 1843 seem to be totally ignored these days and yet these rules made it clear that if an accused person was of unsound mind they should not be punished for any criminal action they had committed. It is a most terrible indictment of our present-day society that we so often add cruel punishments to the suffering endured by the mentally ill.
URGENT NEED FOR MORE HOSPITALS AND NOT MORE PRISONS
The discovery of the NEUROLEPTIC DRUGS was undoubtedly a blessing, but they certainly are not a cure. If the drug is withdrawn then the symptoms return. And they have their own side effects. There are also reports that they can alter the structure of the brain. The real answer for cure will only come when the cause of the brain symptoms is discovered.
IT IS THE CAUSES WHICH MUST BE THE FOCUS OF ATTENTION AND NOT MORE NEUROLEPTICS.
Research on physical causes of mental illness has been going on through the 20th C. The hypothesis of a genetic link between mental illness and coeliac disease is still being investigated. For details write to the SAGB (The Schizophrenia Assoc.
of GB, Bryn Hyfryd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2AG) for a copy of their No.42 Newsletter.