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CITIZENS COMMISSION ON H UMAN RIGHTS I NTERNATIONAL Established in 1969 by the Church of to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights

INTERNATIONAL Connecticut Medical Examining Board Politics & Law PRESIDENT State Rep. Russell Albert (NH) Jan Eastgate Jeff Kardys, Board Liaison Timothy Bowles, Esq.

NATIONAL U.S. Lars Engstrand PRESIDENT P.O. Box 340308 Patrick Griffin, LL.B. Bruce Wiseman State Rep. Wayne Harper (UT) Hartford, CT 06134-0308 3 July 2006 Gregory Hessian, J.D. BOARD MEMBER State Sen. Karen Johnson (AZ) Isadore M. Chait Leonid Lemberick, Esq. Vladimir Leonov, M.P. COMMISSIONERS Jonathan W. Lubell, LL.B. Founding Commissioner Lev Levinson Thomas Szasz, Professor of Jeff Lustman, Esq. Psychiatry Emeritus, State C O M P L A I N T Lord Duncan McNair University of New York Health Kendrick Moxon, Esq. Science Center Psychiatrist Peter Benet, MD, lic. #021984 State Rep. Curt Oda (UT)

Science, Medicine & Health Steven Russell, Esq. Rohit Adi, M.D. State Sen. Nancy Schaefer (GA) Giorgio Antonucci, M.D. Anne Kristine Blake contacted the Citizens Commission on State Rep. Aaron Tilton (UT) Mark Barber, D.D.S. State Rep. Michael Thompson (UT) Lisa Bazler, B.A., M.A. Human Rights International (CCHR) to report treatment by Dr. State Rep. Matt Throckmorton (UT) Ryan Bazler, B.S. Professor Barry Turner Benet that was below the standard of care: she was misdiagnosed, Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D. Arts & Entertainment Lisa Benest, M.D. overmedicated and ended up addicted to a highly addictive Kirstie Alley Mary Ann Block, D.O. Anne Archer John Breeding, Ph.D. Schedule IV Controlled Substance. David Campbell Anthony Castiglia, M.D. Raven Kane Campbell Roberto Cestari, M.D. Nancy Cartwright Ann Y. Coxon, M.B., B.S. Ms. Blake began working for the State Department of Mental Kate Ceberano Moira Dolan, M.D. Chick Corea David Enger, Ph.D. Retardation (DMR) in 1993. In late September 1997, while Bodhi Elfman Seth Farber, Ph.D. Milton Fried, M.D. working in an understaffed group home, she ruptured a disc in her Isaac Hayes Mark Filidei, D.O. back while trying to move a patient by herself. She went on Steven David Horwich Professor Garland Allen Donna Isham Edward C. Hamlyn, M.D. medical leave. Mark Isham Brett Hartman, Psy.D. Jason Lee Georgia Janisch, R.D. Geoff Levin Jonathan Kalman, N.D. Gordon Lewis Joan Mathews-Larson, Ph.D. When she returned to work at the DMR in September 2000, she Juliette Lewis Conrad Maulfair, D.O. found they were not willing to give her back her position or assign Marisol Nichols Coleen Maulfair John Novello Clinton Ray Miller her to a less physically demanding one. She filed a complaint David Pomeranz Craig Newnes, M.D. Kelly Preston Mary Jo Pagel, M.D. with Labor Relations, her union and the Connecticut Human Harriet Schock Vladimir Pshizov, M.D. Rights Office. Michelle Stafford Lawrence Retief, M.D. Cass Warner Megan Shields, M.D. Miles Watkins David Tanton, Ph.D. Kelly Yaegermann

William Tutman, Ph.D. Beginning in 2000, she also began to feel exhausted. She felt like Education Michael Wisner sleeping all the time. She also began gaining weight and Doctor Samuel Blumenfeld Tony Urbanek, M.D., D.D.S. Cassandra Casey Julian Whitaker, M.D. experiencing chills and moodiness. She had for a long time Gleb Dubov, Ph.D. Sergej Zapuskalov, M.D. Beverly Eakman Norman Zucker, M.D. experienced an excessive flow during menstruation. (This data Professor Antony Flew Business seems unrelated but will figure strongly later in the complaint.) Wendy McCants-Thomas Lawrence Anthony James Paicopolos Lloyd McPhee Nickolai Pavlovsky Roberto Santos Professor Anatoli Prokopenko

Religion During this period while she was involved in the dispute with the Gayle Ruzicka Reverend Doctor Jim Nicholls state over her job and was experiencing great exhaustion, she Joel Turtel additionally experienced three terrible emotional shocks:

1) In March 2002, her best friend was murdered by her husband.

6616 SUNSET BOULEVARD • , 90028 • (323) 467-4242 • FAX (323) 467-3720 Internet Address: http://www.cchr.org • E-Mail Address: [email protected] 2 2) In April 2002, her car was vandalized with death threats and racial epithets on DMR property during a hearing on her case.

3) She was sterilized by her Ob-Gyn to handle her menstruation complications, but it didn’t change anything.

This combination of events and conditions was emotionally overwhelming to Ms. Blake and she sought the help of a psychiatrist. None she contacted were willing to take her as a patient, fearing that they would be called to testify in her labor dispute. Only Peter Benet agreed to take her on.

In 2003, she began treatment with Dr. Benet, which consisted solely of drugs. Benet prescribed her Lamictal (anti-seizure drug), Risperdol (anti-psychotic drug), Xanax (tranquilizer), Effexor (antidepressant), Lithium (mood stabilizer) and Ambien (for insomnia).

Despite her emotional condition following the aforementioned emotional shocks, Ms. Blake had been a fully functioning person, able to work and raise her son. After beginning treatment with Dr. Benet, she could neither function, nor care for her child. She just cried all the time. Despite her emotional upsets, Ms. Blake never considered suicide. However, after being on the enormous amount of drugs prescribed by Dr. Benet, Ms. Blake states, ”I told him the medications made me feel more depressed, explosive and suicidal. Right in front of my son, I went to take the whole bottle of Xanax so my family would not have to deal with my crying anymore.”

She had known from the start that Xanax was highly addictive and asked Dr. Benet if there weren’t some alternative he could prescribe. He would not budge on the Xanax and in fact kept increasing her dosages of the tranquilizer.

In late August 2004, she read an article about low thyroid and found she was exhibiting many of the symptoms: heavy menstrual flow, chills, fatigue, hair loss, mood swings.

She told Benet that she was suffering from low thyroid and asked to have her medications changed. He noted the low thyroid in her medical record but no prescription changes were ever made.

Benet changed her diagnosis in response to side effects brought on by the drugs he prescribed her. This is an additional misdiagnosis to the failure to recognize her low thyroid condition. Initially diagnosed with “post-traumatic stress disorder,” by July 2004, he changed it to “bipolar.” But she realized that it was only the drugs that were making her that way but Dr. Benet was unable or unwilling to observe the obvious changes that began coincident with the drugs.

She sought a second opinion at University of Connecticut Health Center, where she was seen by psychiatrist Debra Johnson. Dr. Johnson disagreed with the Benet’s diagnosis (as did her psychotherapist, Dave Johnson, who worked in Benet's office).

Dr. Johnson weaned Ms. Blake down to just .5mg of Xanax. She is currently working to get entirely off the Xanax, which is a highly addictive drug. Dr. Johnson was aware that Ms. Blake had experienced three terrible tragedies in a six-month period. She stated that Ms. Blake was suffering from anxiety— which is understandable considering the circumstances—and that she was in no way bipolar.

Ms. Blake’s symptoms—fatigue, heavy menstrual flow, mood swings, etc.—all disappeared when she started treatment with a synthetic hormone—proof that the real underlying cause of her troubles was hormonal and that she was never “bipolar” or suffering from “post-traumatic stress disorder.”

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Ms. Blake and CCHR now call up on the Connecticut Medical Examining Board to investigate these allegations, as we believe Dr. Benet’s treatment of Ms. Blake fell below the standard of care.

Ms. Blake can be reached at 29 Oakwood Road, Manchester, CT 06040-3207.

Sincerely,

Steve Wagner Director of Litigation & Prosecution