Prescription for Disaster: VIDEO

Hospital ads for kiddy drugs: VIDEO

The Drugging Of Our Children: VIDEO

US online video documentary, 1 hour 43 minutes long.
Director Gary Null.



"SYNOPSIS

How are large drug companies benefiting from the latest trend of selling powerful psychoactive drugs to America's children? Do these drugs really help our children cure symptoms of supposed mental illness, or do they tend to increase depression, violence, and suicide? Are we really treating the root causes of mental illness, or are we just eliminating annoying symptoms?

This feature-length documentary examines the alarming growth in the prescription of powerful psychotropic drugs for adolescents and children. Leading experts, as well as Neil Bush, Michael Moore and Gary Null, provide insightful commentary about the growing trend to pathologize the behavior of children, and then require them to take mind-altering pharmaceutical drugs as a "cure." The documentary recounts the national tragedy of Columbine and focuses on the largely unknown fact that teenage shooter Eric Harris was on the psychotropic drug Luvox at the time he and Dylan Klebold took the lives of 13 other students at their high school. Violence and aggression, precipitated by prescribed drug use, is also explored in an unprecedented discussion between Mark Taylor, the first shooting victim in the Columbine tragedy, and Cory Baadsgard, a teenager on Paxil and Effexor who, in another violent incident, took his teacher and 23 students hostage at gunpoint in his Washington high school. The film proceeds to show the dangerous links between psychotropic drugs like Paxil, Luvox, Effexor and Prozac – commonly prescribed to adolescents for anxiety, depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - and the increased incidents of violence, suicide and psychotic behavior often observed in those children and adolescents who are taking the drugs. The film also provides compelling personal accounts, including a mother going to prison and losing her son to government authorities because she refused to give her son psychiatric drugs. Leading medical authorities and mental health professionals speak the unvarnished truth about current increased diagnoses of recently devised mental illnesses and the unprecedented prescription of a host of very powerful psychoactive drugs to "treat" them. Finally, this documentary explores safer, alternative methods for treating childhood mental illness."


Related: "TEENSCREEN", USA petition calling for a stop to the mandatory screening of schoolchildren for mental disorders: Teenscreen Petition

Scientific Misconduct Blog giving some excellent insight into 'all manner of corporate pharmaceutical scientific misconduct'.

Scientific misconduct blog

Discusses the problem of SSRI's and misconduct in those studies at several points e.g

Did the MHRA collude with corporate scientific fraud over SSRI's?

The MHRA : Why is the government not acting?

Summer time, and tbe living is - Camp Meds for Kids

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003130146_campmed1...

Camp fixtures: bugs, s'mores and pills
By Jane Gross

The New York Times

BURLINGHAM, N.Y. The breakfast buffet at Camp Echo starts at a picnic table where children jostle for their morning medications: Zoloft for depression, Abilify for bipolar disorder, guanfacine for twitchy eyes and a host of medications for attention-deficit disorder.

A quick gulp of water, a greeting from the nurse, and the youngsters move on to the next table for orange juice, Special K and chocolate-chip pancakes. The dispensing of pills and pancakes is over in minutes.

The medication lines like the one at Camp Echo were unheard of a generation ago but have become fixtures at residential camps across the country. Between one-quarter and one-half of the youngsters at any given summer camp take daily prescription medications, experts say. Allergy and asthma drugs top the list, but behavior-management and psychiatric medications are now so common that nurses who dispense them no longer try to avoid stigma by pretending they are vitamins.

"All my best friends take something," said David Ehrenreich, 12, who has Tourette's syndrome yet feels at home here because boys with hyperactivity, mood disorders, learning disabilities and facial tics line up just as he does for their daily meds.

With campers far from home, family and pediatricians, the job of safely and efficiently dispensing medications falls to infirmaries and nurses whose stock in trade used to be calamine lotion and cough syrup. Three times a day, at mealtimes, is the norm, with some campers also requiring a sleep aid at bedtime to counteract the effect of their daytime medications.

"This is the American standard now," said Rodger Popkin, an owner of Blue Stars Camps in Hendersonville, N.C. "It's not limited by education level, race, socioeconomics, geography, gender or any of those filters."

Peg Smith, the chief executive officer of the American Camp Association, a trade group with 2,600 member camps and 3 million campers, says about a quarter of the children at its camps are medicated for attention-deficit disorder, psychiatric problems or mood disorders.

Many parents welcome the anonymity that comes when a lot of children take this, that or the other drug, so none stands out from the crowd.

"It's nobody's business who's taking what," said one parent of an Echo camper who is medicated for attention-deficit disorder. The parent asked not to be named for privacy reasons. "It could be an allergy pill. The way they do it now, he feels comfortable. He just goes up with everybody else, gets it and then carries on with his day."

Year-round regimen

Increasingly popular is a service offered by a private company called CampMeds, which provides a summer's worth of prepackaged pills to 6,000 children at 100 camps. The company's founder, Dana Godel, said 40 percent of the children regularly took one or more prescription medications, compared with 30 percent four years ago. Eight percent used attention-deficit medications last year; 5 percent took psychiatric drugs.

Borrowing technology developed for nursing homes, CampMeds distributes pills in shrink-wrapped packets marked with a name, date and time. Camp nurses tear each packet and dispense, sparing them the labor-intensive task of counting pills and reducing the risk of error, and thus, liability.

The proliferation of children on stimulants for attention-deficit disorder, antidepressants or antipsychotic drugs, or on cocktails of all three, is not peculiar to the camp setting. Rather, it is the extension of an increasingly common year-round regimen that has also had an impact on schools, although a lesser one, since most medications are taken at home.

Exacting diagnoses and proper treatments enable some children to go to camp who otherwise could not function in that environment, said Dr. David Fassler, a child-and-adolescent psychiatrist and a professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

Fassler said that children with one behavioral or mood disorder often "have a second or even a third diagnosis." A child with attention-deficit disorder may also be depressed and anxious, he said, a combination of symptoms that can make such children pariahs in the close quarters of a summer-camp cabin without the proper combination of remedies.

Too many meds?

Some camp owners question the trend, however. Popkin, the camp owner in North Carolina, is among them. "It's universal, and nobody really knows if it's appropriate or safe," he said.

And many experts say family doctors who do not have expertise in psychopharmacology sometimes prescribe drugs for anxiety disorders and depression to children without rigorous evaluation, just as they do for adults.



"There is no doubt that kids are more medicated than they used to be," said Dr. Edward Walton, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan and an expert on camp medicine for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "And we know that the people prescribing these drugs are not that precise about diagnosis. So the percentage of kids on these meds is probably higher than it needs to be."

A few medicines growing in popularity, like Abilify and Risperdal, are used for a grab bag of mood disorders. But according to the Physicians' Desk Reference, the encyclopedia of prescription medications, they can have troublesome side effects in children and teenagers, including elevated blood sugar or a tendency toward heat exhaustion, which requires vigilance by counselors during long, hot days.

Some doctors, nurses and camp directors are uneasy about giving children so-called off-label drugs like Lexapro and Luvox. Such medications are used for depression and anxiety, and have been tested only on adults but can legally be prescribed to children. Clonidine is approved as a medication for high blood pressure but is routinely used for behavioral and emotional problems in children.

"That doesn't mean they are inappropriate or unsafe," Fassler said, adding that camp nurses should be able to call the physician when they have questions, but that not all parents welcome that.

Few camp directors risk discussions with parents about behavioral or psychiatric drugs. "We don't make these judgments for families," said Marla Coleman, an owner of Camp Echo and a past president of the American Camp Association.

Trial, error, fears

Figuring out how to distribute all this medicine has taken some trial and error, beginning with supervision by the nurses, who watch the children take their pills.

Some camps do it in the mess hall, citing informality to put campers at ease and the convenience of having everyone assembled in one place.

Other camps prefer the infirmary, to provide more privacy. Camp Pontiac in Copake, N.Y., built a special medication wing with its own entrance and a porch where campers wait their turn.

In Fishkill, N.Y., at a Fresh Air Fund camp for underprivileged children, one nurse in the infirmary deals with bug bites and skinned knees and the other dispenses Strattera and Zoloft, the first for attention-deficit disorder and the second for depression, social anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The potential for harmful drug interactions is compounded by the widespread use of allergy and asthma medications. Tofranil, an antidepressant for adults that is used for bed-wetting in children, is not recommended in combination with Allegra, for seasonal allergies; Advair, an asthma drug; or epinephrine, the injectable antidote to deadly allergic reactions to bee stings, insect bites and certain foods.

Despite a tenfold increase in childhood allergies over the past decade, some camp doctors think daily medication is overused. The owners of Camp Pontiac, Ken and Rick Etra, brothers who are ear, nose and throat doctors, urge parents to forgo prescription remedies for seasonal allergies when occasional over-the-counter antihistamines are sufficient. Their summer camp does not overlap with the height of the pollen and grass season, the Etras say.

They also discourage bed-wetting medications, which can leave a youngster groggy.

"They don't pee, but they're zombies," said Mimi Burcham, Pontiac's head nurse. Instead, camp directors train counselors to wake certain children at midnight for a trip to the bathroom and replace soiled linens with identical sheets to avoid embarrassment.

CampMeds charges $40 per child for any length of stay or for any regimen, a cost that most camps pass along to families. The Fresh Air Fund camps do not use CampMeds, but not because of cost, said Jenny Morgenthau, the fund's executive director. Rather, Morgenthau said, many of the families are too disorganized some in shelters or in prisons to do the preparatory paperwork.

So Fresh Air's campers arrive with an array of unmarked bags and bottles that cannot be used under state regulations, and without some of their essential medications. Susan Powers and Leticia Diaz, who run the infirmary at the girls' camp, are accustomed to children bringing their brother's expired asthma inhaler or their grandmother's sleeping pills in a perfume bottle. Sometimes the medications are missing because they have been sold on the street or used by adults, Powers and Diaz said. It takes a few days to unscramble.

The nurses at high-end camps have the opposite problem, with parents who try to involve themselves in all aspects of their children's lives with ceaseless efforts to help. That mind-set has the potential to lead to overmedication, many camp owners and doctors say.

Burcham, a special-education nurse during the school year, said she often worries about her unfamiliarity with some of the drugs. She often turns to the Physicians' Desk Reference for guidance, or sometimes calls her father, a psychiatrist.

Unpacking the shipment of medicine at Pontiac in mid-June, she tried to make sense of a packet from CampMeds for an 11-year-old who, for the first time, would be taking Concerta, for attention-deficit disorder, along with clonidine and Wellbutrin, both mood-disorder drugs.

"I'm not a specialist, and that's very disturbing sometimes," Burcham said. "How do I know if we're really getting it right?"

Then she carefully placed the medications in a plastic bin marked with the camper's name. "

Strattera - From Failed Antidepressant to New Drug for ADHD

An investigative journalist has been chasing up some rather worrying matters about Strattera, which proved to be a 'failed' antidepressant and so was repackaged as a new drug for ADHD to recover profits at the risks of children.

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=12752

"Eli Lilly withheld disastrous effects of Strattera from parents and children

The wording of the parent and children information in an ongoing clinical trial of Strattera has been revealed. Eli Lilly withheld the drug's disastrous effects in order to get children to participate in the study.


/24-7PressRelease/ - HAGERSTEN, SWEDEN, April 05, 2006 - The "ADHD medication" Strattera is not approved in Sweden. Eli Lilly decided to do a one-year clinical trial of the drug on children. The purpose of the study was to get Strattera approved by the Medical Products Agency (MPA). The company hired the psychiatric authority Bjorn Kadesjö to lead the trial.

The 100 participating children and their parents needed information about the adverse effects of the drug in order to sign the consent form. They thought they got it. They did not.

Eli Lilly deliberately withheld information about disastrous effects of Strattera - information which could have made the parents and children want to withdraw from the study; information which could have made the Regional Ethical Review Board want to disapprove the application; information which could "disturb" the result of the trial.

The "updated" information given to parents and children about adverse effects was from January 31, 2005. The only serious adverse effect mentioned was liver injury in very rare cases.

But documents now made public show that Eli Lilly knew about several serious effects from Strattera at that time.

Take the FDA report Psychiatric Adverse Events Associated with Drug Treatment of ADHD: Review of Postmarketing Safety Data, released for the FDA Pediatric Advisory Committee meeting, March 22. It says that Eli Lilly (and other pharmaceutical companies) were asked to provide information about a) signs and/or symptoms of psychosis or mania; b) suicidal ideation and behavior; c) aggression and violent behavior, (for Strattera for the period November 2002 - June 2005). In that period Lilly had received 350 reports of psychosis or mania, 900 reports of aggression and violent behavior and 400 reports of suicidality. In a Preliminary Assessment Report from December 2005, written by the British medical regulatory agency MHRA, it is mentioned that Lilly from November 2002 to September 2005 had received 766 reports of heart disorders connected to the use of Strattera. (It should be noted that credible estimates of the percent of adverse reactions that are reported range from 1-10%.)

It is certainly not so that Eli Lilly had received these reports in the period February - June 2005. Almost all of reports had been received in the foregoing 26-month period and only a minor part in the 5 month up to June 2005.

This means that Eli Lilly deliberately withheld Strattera's disastrous effects of psychosis and mania, aggression and violent behavior, suicidality and heart disorder, in the information to parents and children in the clinical trial. "



http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=11901

MHRA forbids Sweden to reveal Strattera suicide data

The British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has forbidden Swedish authorities to reveal Strattera suicide data. A release in Sweden of data about suicides and suicide attempts from Eli Lilly's Strattera is said to hurt the relations between the two countries.


/24-7PressRelease/ - SWEDEN - March 10, 2006 - Data about the harmful effects from the ADHD drug Strattera were revealed in a document from 9 December 2005, written by the British MHRA and sent to the Swedish MPA (Medical Products Agency). The information was gotten as a result of FOIA-requests, and released by court order.

The document told about 130 reports of suicidality in one month from treatment with Strattera. It told about 766 spontaneous reports of cardiac disorders and 172 of liver injury, and about 20 completed suicides. The 130 cases of suicidal and self-injurious behaviour were reported September 23 - October 25, 2005.

The main part of the information was classified and not released. So was, for example, the full assessment of all data about suicidality withheld from the public. That review - on which MHRA based their conclusions - was made by the manufacturer, Eli Lilly, and was named Annex 4 to the report. It would of course be of tremendous value for independent researchers to read how Lilly has treated the statistical data, but this has not been possible.

And now MHRA has forbidden Sweden to release Lilly's review. In a decision made by the Swedish MPA, as a result of a new FOIA-request, it is written that contact has been taken with the British authority MHRA and that the release of Lilly's suicide review would hurt the relations between the two countries! Thus the review cannot be released.

The MHRA, as well as FDA and other national medical agencies are supposed to be "watchdogs", supposed to protect the public from harmful effects of dangerous drugs. That the MHRA now gives directive to other countries to hide the information about Strattera suicide data is a big medical scandal.

All information about the harmful effects of this psychiatric drug should now be made public by the medical authorities and an impartial evaluation of the data should be done. Psychiatrist should no longer be allowed to prescribe poisonous drugs to normal children; children who do not have any objective abnormality but whose behaviour are deemed inappropriate."




http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=16662

Strattera - 10,988 adverse "psychiatric reactions" reported in less than three years

In less than three years 10,988 adverse "psychiatric reactions" have been reported to Eli Lilly for the ADHD drug Strattera. This is revealed in a document treated as a "state secret" by the British and Swedish medical agencies.

/24-7PressRelease/ - HAGERSTEN, SWEDEN, August 01, 2006 - The document, Psychiatric Adverse Events including Cumulative review of spontaneous reports of suicidal and self-injurious behaviour, is an attachment to an unpublished report about Strattera from the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), January 2006.

The attachment, mentioning the 10,988 "psychiatric reactions", also gives a good insight into how psychiatric drugs and drug cocktails are killing children and adults, and how psychiatric diagnoses are used to hide the harmful effects of drugs.

A court in Sweden has recently ordered the document to be made public.

This was done after the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) and the British MHRA in their response to FOIA [FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT] requests had treated this document as if it was a "state secret".

In its arguments to the court the Swedish MPA even said that issuance of it would hurt the relations between Sweden and UK. Neither the British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), responsible for "guidance on the appropriate treatment", being in possession of the document, was willing to reveal the data in it. NICE said in an answer to a FOIA-request that the document was "received in confidence and disclosure of that information would amount to an actionable breach of confidence".

These agencies, responsible for protecting the public from harmful drugs and for "appropriate treatment", consider a document reviewing the "suicidal and self-injurious behaviour" caused by a psychiatric drug in the category of state secrets, and that it would be "an actionable breach of confidence" to let the public know about these data.

But a court in Sweden has made the document public. The document consists mainly of Eli Lilly's review of the 431 cases of suicidal and self-injurious behaviour reported for Strattera from November 2002 up to October 2005. 130 of these reports were submitted in one month (October 2005), after the warnings were issued in September that Strattera increased the risk for suicidality.

Lilly's review is an excellent example of how to explain away suicides, suicide attempts and suicide ideation caused by psychiatric drugs - and of how the assessing medical agency then buys these explanations.

It can be seen in the review that children and adolescents in many cases are getting psychiatric drug cocktails - Strattera together with antidepressant SSRI drugs (as Zoloft and Prozac) and antipsychotic drugs (as Risperidone and Zyprexa). The reason for the adding of more drugs to the first one, is that one psychiatric drug's harmful effect - according to the psychiatric ideology - is seen as yet another "psychiatric disorder", to be treated with yet another mind altering (poisonous) drug. And so on.

The alleged psychiatric brain disorder ADHD (without any objective abnormality) is NOT associated with suicidal thoughts in its list of "symptoms". However as the reports of suicidal behaviour from "treatment" with Strattera kept coming in, Eli Lilly had to connect depression and suicidal behaviour with ADHD, to exonerate the drug and blame it on the children's "underlying condition". For this purpose Eli Lilly claimed in its submission to the FDA in September 2005: "Depression is present in up to 40% ...of ADHD adolescents and children."

It is very convenient for drug companies that psychiatrists are adding more poisonous drugs to the first one when its harmful effects are showing up. No single drug can then be blamed for the death of children.

It is even more convenient to blame the harmful effects of a drug on a (presumed) "underlying condition". This is what Eli Lilly and the psychiatric experts at the MHRA are doing when they in cases of suicidal behaviour in connection with Strattera find "confounding factors" present. No matter how obvious the case of poisoning the conclusions from the medical agency become (at best): "the possibility that atomoxetine [Strattera] may have exacerbated the individuals underlying condition in these cases cannot be excluded."

In its report about Strattera (January 2006) the MHRA talks about "the large number of psychiatric reactions". It says the agency in September 2005, due to this large number of harmful effects, had requested Eli Lilly "to perform a cumulative review of all psychiatric disorders reported for atomoxetine [Strattera]".

In the attachment, containing the review by Eli Lilly of suicidal behaviour, no review of "the large number of psychiatric reactions" can be found. What can be found is the number of reported reactions (up to September 2005): 10,988 adverse "psychiatric reactions" described in 6,751 reports. Example of reactions: The two categories aggression and anger are reported in 1117 cases, abnormal behaviour in 989 cases, and homicidal ideation in 19 cases.

The MHRA has still not let the public know any details about this "large number of psychiatric reactions". Neither has the agency let the public know the updated figures for suicidal behaviour in connection with Strattera.


Janne Larsson
writer from Sweden - investigating psychiatry

The Sweetner in our childrens Junk Food & Drinks: Aspartame & Brain Tumours Legal Action. Rumsfeld was CEO.

UPDATE TO THE ITEM BELOW, FEB 16th 2007:
Two New Studies on Aspartame and Diet Drinks Confirm Source of Obesity, Cancer/Malignant Brain Tumor Epidemics


__________________________________________________________________


Link to LALEVA.ORG

Aspartame Braintumor Link - Victims To Start Legal Action
By Dr. Betty Martini
Mission Possible International

Mission Possible is seeking New York and New Jersey plaintiffs for litigation on aspartame.

ATLANTA (PRWEB) April 12, 2005 -- Consumer rights advocacy group Mission Possible is leading a campaign to fill a product liability lawsuit with New York and New Jersey residents whose brain tumors may be linked to the consumption of the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful, etc.).

"Neither congressional hearings or repeated petitions calling for a ban have stopped aspartame manufacturers from exposing the public to this sweet poison. In fact, aspartame producers are reporting increased sales and boasting the marketplace addition of 'neotame,' a new aspartame product," explained Mission Possible International Founder Betty Martini.

For 16 years, the FDA resisted pressure to approve aspartame due to safety studies linking the artificial sweetener to numerous adverse reactions, including the development of brain tumors in animal studies.

In 1977, FDA investigator Jerome Bressler released a report describing how, in clinical studies submitted to the FDA, Searle removed aspartame-induced brain tumors that developed in lab rats and placed them back into the study. If the rats died, Bressler reported, Searle would resurrect them on paper.

In a personal conversation with Martini and prominent aspartame experts, Doctors H. J. Roberts and Russell Blaylock he admitted the studies were so bad FDA removed 20% of the most damaging data of his report. Three years after Donald Rumsfeld became CEO of Searle, aspartame was approved for use in dry goods.

To find out how he accomplished this feat, click into the new movie, "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World" and hear the words of renowned Washington Consumer Attorney James Turner as he speaks about President Reagan's Executive Order: http://www.soundandfury.tv/pages/Rumsfeld2.html

Since its 1981 approval, the FDA has published a list of 92 symptoms of aspartame poisoning, which includes headaches, vision loss including blindness, seizures, neurological problems, cardiovascular problems and death.

The FDA admits adverse reactions to aspartame comprise about 80 percent of consumer complaints it receives each year. Martini has been networking victims, scientists, and physicians under an umbrella of scientific data and published medical literature that has been growing since Mission Possible formed in 1992.

Having exhausted her executive and administrative remedies regarding the removal of aspartame from the marketplace, Martini is convinced that, "Litigation is the only way to spare consumers the misery of aspartame poisoning." Martini's reasoning is supported in the outcomes of recent product liability controversies. It was class action lawsuits -- not government agency intervention -- that forced the epidemic of Vioxx-induced heart attacks out into the open where the FDA had to take administrative action, banning sales of the dangerous pain relief drug. Information from the experts and in medical texts show aspartame is actually a neurotoxic drug that interacts with other drugs and vaccinations.

The story of how aspartame was discovered and approved by the FDA has been pieced together over the years through documents obtained by Mission Possible. That aspartame overcame FDA neurotoxicity concerns and is now found in over 7,000 commonly consumed foods, beverages and medical preparations is a case study of how power politics trumps science and public safety in the product approval process.

In one set of documents, aspartame producer G.D. Searle used poor people from six third-world countries as test subjects for a study conducted in 1983/84. The data shows that, over the 18-month duration of the study, some of the subjects developed brain tumors; others began to experience seizures. In one case, a pregnant woman spontaneously aborted, began hemorrhaging and then disappeared from the study.

The study showed that the numbers of people whose brains and central nervous systems are adversely affected by aspartame are statistically significant enough to warrant a review of its status as an FDA-approved artificial sweetener. But the FDA was not provided with the results of the Searle study nor was it allowed to review the clinical data.

A study was done at Kings College in England by Dr. Peter Nunn in 1999 on aspartame and brain tumors. Monsanto insisted that aspartame could not cause brain tumors because it doesn't get in the blood stream even though Martini says industry's own studies shows it does and released this information in a report, which can be read at http://www.rense.com/health3/asptumor.htm

In the result of this study it said: "Interestingly, when we exposed human brain tumor cells to nitrosated DKP the cells became more motile and their rate of proliferation was significantly elevated. While it is somewhat early to speculate, it is possible that the aspartame breakdown product may be capable of enhancing the rate of malignant progression of pre-existing (and possibly clinically silent, undiagnosed) tumors in the brain." This was exactly what the famed neuroscientist Dr. John Olney said when he made world news in l996 over the aspartame/brain tumor association.

Monsanto, the maker of the controversial bovine growth hormone that has been linked to the development of cancer in humans and cattle, bought Searle (and the rights to produce aspartame) in 1985. They sold in l999 to other companies.

The prevalence of brain tumors in the U.S. has been increasing steadily since the early 1980s. Today, about 70 percent of adults and 40 percent of children are regular consumers of products that contain aspartame.

"There is not one shred of evidence to suggest that aspartame is safe. Yet, our files are overflowing with studies and reports proving that aspartame is a not a food additive but a neurotoxic drug that breaks down to a brain tumor agent, DKP. And now, 25 years later, we have epidemic proportions of people developing brain tumors and a full spectrum of other neurological disorders," Martini said.

Aspartame's road to marketplace approval and its effect on public health is extremely well documented. The aspartame story has been described in the 1,038-page medical text "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" by H.J. Roberts, MD. (http://www.sunsentpress.com). Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D., also describes these problems. http://www.russellblaylockmd.com

Former aspartame-induced multiple-sclerosis sufferer Cori Brackett traveled over 7,000 miles to interview physicians, scientists, attorneys and FDA investigators about aspartame neurotoxicity and how then former (and now current) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used his political muscle to achieve aspartame's FDA approval. The result is the powerful video documentary "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World" (www.soundandfuryproductions.com). Also see the page at http://www.wnho.net/sweet_misery_movie.htm

The largest collection of aspartame-related studies, reports and case histories available anywhere in the world can be found online at http://www.dorway.com, the Mission Possible website. Aspartame Toxicity Center is http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

New York and New Jersey residents who believe they may qualify as a plaintiff in a product liability lawsuit against aspartame producers are encouraged to contact Mission Possible at (770) 242-2599. To qualify, one must be able to establish themselves as an aspartame consumer prior to developing a brain tumor and fall within the three-year statute of limitations.

Contact:

Dr. Betty Martini
Founder, Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
http://www.dorway.com
http://www.whno.net

New Aspartame Information List - click on banner on http://www.wnho.net

Movie on aspartame - contact cori@soundandfuryproductions.com Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World or see the page at http://www.wnho.net/sweet_misery_movie.htm

The Psych Drugging of Babies. Bush's Brave New World, and its SHAMEFUL violation of Human Rights.

DRUGGED INTO SUBMISSION [ DAY 2 OF 2 ]

Even babies getting treated as mentally ill
Prescriptions on the rise even though they haven’t been tested on children
Monday, April 25, 2005

Encarnacion Pyle
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Drugged into Submission
Monday, April 25

Even babies getting treated as mentally ill

Stephanie Hall died after her daily dosage of Ritalin was doubled, and her parents blame the stimulant for her heart attack at age 11. Stephanie began taking medications for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder when she was 6, after a teacher pressured her parents.

Doctors prescribed sedatives and powerful, mood-altering medications for nearly 700 Ohio babies and toddlers on Medicaid last summer, according to a Dispatch review of records.

There’s no doubt that mental health drugs can help troubled youngsters, whether they’re on the government insurance program for the poor or not. But dozens of advocates, child-welfare workers and psychiatrists interviewed by The Dispatch question the wisdom of prescribing potent medications, most of which have never been tested on kids, for so many young, vulnerable children.

‘‘It’s shocking," said Dr. Ellen Bassuk, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. ‘‘Who’s really being helped by these children being drugged? The babies? Or their caregivers?

‘‘These medications are not benign; they can have dangerous side effects and have to be closely monitored."

Federal officials have long required that drugs be screened for safety in adults. But less than one-fourth have been tested on children.

‘‘Kids are not little adults," said Dr. Patricia Goetz, assistant medical director for the state Department of Mental Health.

‘‘Children’s brains are different. They don’t fully develop until after adolescence."

That often leaves doctors with more questions than answers about the long-term effects of many drugs on children.

Physical side effects can range from headaches, nausea and weight gain to heart attacks, liver damage and sudden death.

Psychological effects remain a mystery. But several antidepressants carry FDA-required warnings that they can increase the risk of suicide. Some antipsychotics have caused learning problems in 3- to 6-year-olds.

‘‘It seems a growing number of yesterday’s wonder drugs, such as Adderall, have turned into today’s suicide pills," said Laura Wissler, a parent advocate for the Mental Health Association of Summit County.

In February, Canada pulled the attention-deficit hyperactivity drug from the market, saying it was related to 20 sudden deaths. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviewed those deaths last year and determined Adderall should carry a warning that it not be prescribed to people with heart trouble.

A Westerville woman watched her daughter’s high spirits disappear under the influence of Paxil, which she was taking for anxiety.

‘‘The stuff did not work for her, and it was in weaning her after only two apparently ineffective weeks that we saw the horrifying effects we now know are typical," said Lucy, who asked that her full name not be used, to protect her child’s identity.

Lucy noticed the drug’s effect 2½ years ago, the night of her daughter’s 11 th birthday.

‘‘My wonderfully precocious child told me, ‘I don’t think it would be so awful to die, except I couldn’t bear what it would do to you,’ " she said.

‘‘I’ve never seen her so miserable and hopeless."

Those scary days are long gone, but Lucy and her daughter can’t forget the memory.

Drugs become first option

Many advocates worry that mental-health disorders are overdiagnosed and youths aren’t given options such as counseling.

‘‘Medications only help control symptoms," said Yvette McGee Brown, president of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Children’s Hospital. ‘‘Counseling helps children control their behaviors, feelings and thoughts. You can’t put kids on a bunch of drugs, then take them off thinking they’ll know how to cope."

Advocates are especially concerned about the very young.

‘‘Research shows that 0 to 3 are the most critical years for the development of children and their success in the future," said Patricia Amos, a member of the Family Alliance to Stop Abuse and Neglect in New Jersey.

‘‘How do we know we’re not messing that up by starting children on one medication, then adding on another and another, until their brains are hyperaroused, overstimulated and permanently altered?"

But others say the more early intervention, the better.

‘‘The biggest public-health crisis facing the state and nation is the number of children with mental illness who fail to receive any care or treatment," said Michael Hogan, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

‘‘It’s true children are more likely to get medication than counseling or other behavioral therapy if they go to their pediatrician or family doctor. But at the end of the day, meds are quite safe and effective."

There is such a shortage of child psychiatrists that the wait often is three months or more for an appointment. Many parents simply can’t wait that long, so they take their kids to a family doctor.

One survey said as much as 70 percent of psychiatric drugs are prescribed by family doctors.
Struggling youngsters lucky enough to get into the mentalhealth system are three times as likely to receive therapy as to receive drugs, Hogan said. Research suggests that children who receive both are more likely to be successful than those who receive one or the other, he said.
Still, 80 percent of troubled youths nationwide fail to receive any help, said Terry Russell, executive director of the Ohio chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

‘‘Psychotropic medications for young children should be used only when anticipated benefits outweigh the risks," Russell said. ‘‘But we’d hate to see doctors’ hands tied, because research shows that reaching children with mental illness early significantly improves their long-term prognosis."

Big profits in medications

Psychiatric medications are big business.

In 2002, drug companies made $12 billion in profits from antidepressants alone. Those numbers continue to grow, largely because of increasing use on children.

Nationwide, the number of children using psychiatric medications tripled between 1987 and ’99.

But researchers say they don’t have the data to know whether kids are being given risky combinations or dosages, practices experts say occur frequently.

Concerned by these issues, the Ohio departments of Mental Health and Job and Family Services are reviewing two years of Medicaid claims for red flags, including children who are on three or more mental-health drugs.

A consultant hired by the state will begin sending letters next month to physicians whose practices raise concerns, said Margaret Scott, a state pharmacologist.

The consultant, Comprehensive Neuroscience, of White Plains, N.Y., has helped several states, including Florida, where 442 doctors have received such letters.

Private insurance plans don’t report how psychiatric drugs are used by their clients, but because Medicaid is government-run, more information is available.

Nearly 40,000 Ohio children on Medicaid were taking drugs for anxiety, depression, delusions, hyperactivity and violent behavior as of July. For the entire year, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services paid out about $65.5 million for kids’ mental health drugs.

Concerns also have been raised nationally about the high number of children being medicated in foster care, residential treatment and youth prisons.

In Ohio, 31 percent of children ages 6 to 18 in foster and group homes took mental-health medications in July. And 22 percent of children in detention were on a psychiatric drug as of January. Many were on five or more.

Those who defend the use of medications on these youths note that they often have been victimized.

‘‘A lot of these kids have been beaten, sexually assaulted and emotionally wrung through the wringer," said Laura Moskow Sigal, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Franklin County. ‘‘They have poor self-esteem, feel unloved and suffer from severe psychiatric problems."

Still, parent concerns have prompted other states to respond.

In Texas, Controller Carole Keeton Strayhorn criticized her state’s child-welfare agency for spending as much as $4 million a year on mental-health drugs without enough oversight. She also blasted the agency for giving children drugs to make them docile and so ‘‘doctors and drug companies can make a buck."

Some people think drugs are the cheapest, easiest way to subdue kids for overburdened foster parents and understaffed residential centers. Most pills cost from 2 cents to 17 cents, while child psychiatrists can earn more than $500 per day.

Others think some foster parents want children on drugs so they can get more government money for being classified as a ‘‘treatment" or ‘‘therapeutic" home.

A few say the only way to solve the overmedication problem is to keep children with their parents.

‘‘Only a parent, or another close relative, is likely to put up with difficult behavior from a child, because only family loves that child enough to put up with it," said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va.

Doctors may know the disease best, but parents generally know their children best, Wexler said.

Even infants put on pills

Advocates are equally distressed by the high numbers of drugged-up infants.

In 1994, 3,000 prescriptions for Prozac were written nationwide for children younger than 1 year old, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Almost all psychiatric prescriptions for toddlers and preschool children are ‘‘off label" — without dosage recommendations and for conditions other than those for which the drugs were created.

Physicians frequently ‘‘dose down" adult medications by adjusting for a child’s weight.

At least 696 Ohio children who were newborn to 3 years old received mental-health drugs through Medicaid in July. Hydroxyzine was prescribed most often, with about three-quarters taking it.

The drug, a long-acting antihistamine, has many uses. It relieves itching caused by allergies, controls vomiting and reduces anxiety. It’s given most often to young children for its sedative effects.

‘‘It’s generally calming, has low side effects and is pretty inexpensive," said Bob Reid, pharmacy program director for Job and Family Services. ‘‘It’s a real bargain."

But Bassuk, the Harvard psychiatrist, says doctors should avoid giving babies, especially those still in diapers, unnecessary medications.

‘‘Sure, there are drugs that make kids sleepy, but what’s the point if they don’t have any medical purposes?" she said.

More than 90 of the children were on another antihistamine, 48 were taking anti-anxiety medication and 28 were prescribed antidepressants, including Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft, which have been found to increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in some children. Twenty-seven received Valium, and 18 were on antipsychotics.

"It’s troubling," said John Saros, executive director of Franklin County Children Services. ‘‘How do doctors even determine that a 2-year-old is anxious? There’s a reason they call it the terrible twos."


But Martha Hellander, of the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation in Illinois, says she has seen babies who cry for hours, 2-year-olds who fly into unprovoked rages and 3-year olds who try to jump out of moving cars.

[One Small Voice: Would that be a very well paid Nurse Ratchet?]

‘‘The medication is essential for these kids," said Hellander, the group’s research policy director.

Girl’s death haunts parents

Mike and Janet Hall, of Canton, can’t help wondering whether their daughter Stephanie would still be alive if they hadn’t agreed to medicate her. Stephanie died of a heart attack in January 1996, the morning after a doctor doubled her daily dose of Ritalin.

The Halls say Stephanie’s firstgrade teacher pressured them to drug their daughter when she was 6. She remained on medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder for years and died in her sleep six days before her 12th birthday.

‘‘I almost wish she had died 12 hours later at school, on their doorstep," said Mrs. Hall, 40. ‘‘They started this thing by telling us she had to be on medication because she had a problem getting up out of her chair. What do they expect from a 6-year-old?"

The day before she died, Stephanie was ‘‘out of it" in the morning but seemed fine later, Mrs. Hall said.

When her father tried to wake her the next morning, she didn’t move.

‘‘At first, we thought she had the flu," Mrs. Hall said. ‘‘But then I noticed she was cold and blue."

They sued the company that makes Ritalin in January 2000, but the case was thrown out because the statute of limitations had expired.

Today, the Halls warn other parents to research the pros and cons before placing their child on psychiatric medications.

‘‘Stephanie used to tell me, ‘Mom, I’m going to be a firefighter or paramedic because I’m going to save people,’ " Mrs. Hall said.

‘‘But who could save her? No one. She was just a human guinea pig in a failed medical experiment."

epyle@dispatch.com"






SAY NO TO THE PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGGING OF OUR CHILDREN!

Ohio CHILDREN from aged 5, criminal physically and mentally abused, forcibly drugged into submission in the name of "Mental Health TREATMENT".

Local/State > Special Reports
DRUGGED INTO SUBMISSION [ DAY 1 OF 2 ]
Forced medication straitjackets kids
State: Shots needed in emergencies Critics: Children put at risk
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Encarnacion Pyle
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Drugged into Submission
Monday, April 25

Even babies getting treated as mentally ill
Prescriptions on the rise even though they haven’t been tested on children
Chart: What kids are taking
Chart: Prescribed for children
Chart: Common disorders
About this series
Sunday, April 24
Forced medication straitjackets kids
State: Shots needed in emergencies Critics: Children put at risk
Reformers push to end restraint, seclusion;
Chart: Bruises and broken bones




LISA MARIE MILLER DISPATCH PHOTOS

Chelsey Kennedy, 15, of Gahanna, says she ‘‘slept for four days and was in a drug-induced fog for a week" after being subdued with three shots of a powerful drug at a Dayton treatment center. Now she’s at a Columbus center, but her mother worries about the number of medications she takes daily — 14, compared with two when she went into treatment two years ago.

Nurses Andy Hooks, Debbie McCoy and Melani Scurlock, from left, prepare to give children at Pomegranate Health Systems their medications. A state doctor warned the Byesville, Ohio, center about its use of ‘‘drug cocktails" last summer, but officials there say many of the troubled kids Pomegranate treats arrive with multiple prescriptions.


CHRIS RUSSELL DISPATCH

Nick Malcuit, 16, endured drugs that made him sleep 18 hours a day, gain 50 pounds and become hyper before doctors found the one to treat his bipolar disorder. Behind him in his family’s Strasburg, Ohio, home are his stepfather, Aaron Brown; brothers, Maxwell and Nathaniel Brown; and mother, Gwen Malcuit.



They are sent away for help.

But when they act out, some troubled children are controlled with potentially dangerous mind-numbing drugs. No one knows how often residential centers for hard-to-control kids use psychiatric drugs to subdue them. Privacy laws shroud the centers in secrecy.

But a three-month investigation of thousands of state inspection records as well as more than 80 interviews with child-welfare workers, doctors, families, lawyers and industry officials reveal growing concerns that pills and injections, most of them untested on youths, have become a quick fix to stifle troublemakers.

‘‘At its worst, it’s like a scene from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with Nurse Ratched chasing after kids with syringes of psychiatric drugs," said Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, legislative director for the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

At best, it’s a rare problem being addressed through better training, says the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

But an advocacy group says Mental Health is making it easier for treatment centers to force powerful drugs on kids without reporting it.

Ohio Legal Rights Service, which is leading the charge for change, says the opposite should be done. Mental Health needs to impose far stricter rules to limit the use of medications and hold centers accountable for abuses, it says.

Both sides agree that psychiatric drugs can help kids suffering with anxiety, depression or a host of other mental illnesses. The question in these cases is whether medications are being used to treat children or as a chemical straitjacket.
Legal Rights, an independent state agency, has examined nearly 500 cases involving chemical restraints during the past five years, including:

• A 5-year-old boy who was so doped up that he couldn’t stop batting the air, complaining about imaginary bugs and smacking his lips. A doctor ordered him off all medication.

• A 10-year-old boy who was chemically restrained 69 times over 80 days. Doctors prescribed up to six drugs at a time — and never conducted trials to determine which pills worked for what symptoms or disorders.

• A 12-year-old girl who was injected six times over nine months with high doses of Thorazine, a powerful sedative that can knock kids out and cause muscle spasms and twitches. She also was physically restrained 31 times by as many as three men, despite a history of being physically and sexually abused.

‘‘It’s scandalous that medications are used to subdue kids for overworked and underpaid staff or as punishment for bad behavior," said Carolyn Knight, the group’s executive director.

Children already traumatized by abuse, neglect or mental illness can be hurt further by being forced to take a medication, especially when held down by adrenaline-pumped adults, said Dr. Ellen Bassuk, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who has reviewed Ohio cases.

‘‘The mental-health system is a mess," she said. ‘‘Not only are these places giving chemical restraints, but they’re prescribing risky combinations and dosages of drugs that are as dangerous and inhumane."

State officials say Ohio law prohibits chemical restraints except in emergencies when a child or worker is in danger. Even then, they’re supposed to be used only after lessforceful options fail.

‘‘It’s been outlawed," said Thomas Wood, chief of licensure and certification for the Department of Mental Health.

Critics say the state’s 52 private residential centers often skirt the law by calling the restraints emergency medications or a PRN order — short for a Latin term for giving drugs as needed.

‘‘No one wants to call it a chemical restraint because it is too emotionally charged a term," said Curtis Decker, executive director of the National Association of Protection & Advocacy Systems in Washington.

Others say the practice is protected by an unspoken rule: ‘‘Don’t ask, don’t tell."
‘‘It happens underground all the time," said Steve Eidelman, executive director of the ARC of the United States, a national advocacy group for the developmentally and mentally disabled, based in Silver Spring, Md.

‘‘It’s all about what’s easiest for the treatment providers, not what’s good for the kids."

In response to that concern, workers at these centers increasingly are being taught ways to prevent power struggles instead of how to physically control children.

‘‘It can be as easy as sitting down with a kid and telling them you hurt my feelings when you called me a name instead of tackling them to the ground," said Bob Bowen, chief executive officer of David Mandt and Associates, a Texas-based training company that Bowen runs from his Canton office.

Injections as threats

Concerns about overmedicated kids are being heard nationwide.

A children’s psychiatric hospital in Louisville, Ky., was chastised in 2003 for giving drugs to children before they could cause problems — sometimes while still asleep. Kids who refused to take pills were told they would receive a shot of Thorazine.

In May 2000, a nonprofit group filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 9,000 Tennessee children in large institutions who were given psychiatric drugs and other restraints without proper legal consent.

‘‘There’s no reason to think that Tennessee is an aberration," said Doug Gray, a lawyer for the New Yorkbased, nonprofit Children’s Rights.

Defenders say drugs sometimes are needed to control the increasingly unruly, violent youths being sent to the centers.

‘‘They bite, hit, kick and spit," said Penny Wyman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies, which represents residential centers. ‘‘They curse, yell and throw furniture. They’re angry and have a lot of issues to work out."
Many of the children need the kind of intensive care they’d get at a hospital, but there aren’t enough beds, Wyman said. The state closed most of its mental institutions in the late 1980s and early ’90s but sent little money to community health centers to help with increased caseloads.

She said Ohio Legal Rights’ leaders don’t understand the challenges providers face and are on a ‘‘witch hunt," even though treatment centers use psychiatric drugs only as a last resort.

Others say they don’t understand the fuss.

‘‘It’s shocking that we focus so much attention on the residential treatment centers, which have fewer than 1,000 beds," said Michael Hogan, executive director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

The department licenses the centers, four- to 115-bed facilities that together can house 919 children. Thousands of kids flow through the centers in a year, and many more are closed out.

Hogan says the biggest danger facing children is depression. There were 168 youth suicides statewide in 2002, the most-recent figures available.

‘‘No case of abuse or neglect is good," he said. ‘‘But it would be wrong for us to ignore the bigger issues, especially as our money gets tighter and tighter."

Most treatment centers are doing their best, he said. They’re adding psychiatrists, reducing overall restraint use, training staff members and trying new, positive methods for responding when kids blow up.

Hogan’s department thoroughly inspects the centers every two years, or when concerns arise.

The centers typically charge $100 to more than $1,000 a day. But most still have few hiring standards and are plagued by high turnover, Knight said. Workers often are fresh out of college and are paid about $7 an hour.

The department’s assistant medical director agrees that treatmentcenter workers often are too quick to push drugs because they want calm, obedient children.

‘‘It’s human nature. A lot of adults think children should be seen, not heard," Dr. Patricia Goetz said. ‘‘It doesn’t help that we’re a culture where you can manage everything with a pill."

State intervenes

Last April, the state ‘‘strongly recommended" that Belmont Pines Hospital, in Youngstown, stop using emergency medications after Goetz uncovered several troubling trends.

She reviewed 11 cases in which a total of 27 shots of the powerful drugs Haldol and Thorazine were given to calm angry children.

In a letter, Goetz noted that the medications ‘‘have effects that last far longer than required for a patient to regain self-control."

Sleepiness can persist for hours or days. And unlike the use of other restraints, such as padded handcuffs or physical holds, there are no limits on how long kids can be drugged, said Laurel Stine, director of federal relations for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington.

‘‘It’s just another way to abuse children who have already been victimized," Stine said.

Two years earlier, the Department of Mental Health placed Belmont Pines on probation for five months and barred the 45-bed center from admitting more children.

The agency took action after Ohio Legal Rights and several Belmont Pines employees complained that the facility gave too many shots of Haldol, Thorazine and Vistaril, an antihistamine used for sedation.

One man reported that his son was so drugged up during visits that he couldn’t talk or walk. The boy essentially was being treated as a ‘‘pincushion," said Judy Jackson-Winston, a client-rights officer for the Cuyahoga County Mental Health Board who spoke with the father.

Belmont Pines officials said they have stopped using emergency medications and had reduced their use by 86 percent before the state warning.

‘‘We had already made a decision that we were going to reduce, then eliminate their use," said Dr. Phillip Maiden, the group’s medical director. ‘‘The Ohio Department of Mental Health just made us do it a little quicker."

Although he regrets that the center was placed on probation, Chief Executive Officer George Perry said, ‘‘There’s no question, we’re better for it."

Multidrug cocktails

Last summer, Goetz warned about the use of ‘‘drug cocktails" at Pomegranate Health Systems, which runs a center in Byesville in Guernsey County and plans to open a $5 million, 60-bed facility in Franklinton next year.

She questioned why five drugs were needed for a 15-year-old with posttraumatic stress disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, which leads to sudden outbursts of violence.

‘‘It is very concerning that this child is on three mood stabilizers — Depakote, Topamax and Trileptal — and two antipsychotic medications — Haldol and Seroquel," Goetz wrote. ‘‘There is no evidence that Topamax or Trileptal decreases aggressive behavior."

Few scientific studies have explored the risks associated with using multiple psychiatric drugs.

However, experts and researchers agree that drug cocktails increase the likelihood of death or bad side effects. Also, many behaviorial-health drugs agitate children, so workers respond by giving them more medication.

Goetz also criticized Pomegranate for using Haldol too often and in high doses, even though the drug can cause potentially fatal side effects, including involuntary muscle contractions, low blood pressure and rapid heartbeat.

Pomegranate officials defend their medication practices, saying they treat the most difficult, disturbed children, including those who are victims of violence or attempt suicide.

On average, the kids they see have been through 20 foster, group and residential homes, administrator Bob Hall said. Some have had as many as 33 placements.
Most have been to a different physician or psychiatrist with each move, and each doctor has prescribed multiple drugs. Complicating matters, the children’s medical records often don’t keep pace with their moves.

Pomegranate deals with the problem by creating medical and mentalhealth work-ups within 30 to 45 days of each child’s arrival, Hall said.

‘‘We just received a 71-page package on a kid, and there wasn’t one fact about the kid’s medications in all that paper," Hall said.

This type of slip-up proves the system is broken, said Yvette McGee Brown, a former juvenile court judge who is now president of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Columbus Children’s Hospital.

But it doesn’t take residential centers off the hook.

‘‘They should get those files," she said. ‘‘Anything less is malpractice."
While on the bench, McGee Brown frequently called the doctors of children she thought were overmedicated.

‘‘I had a 10-year-old who was so doped up he was walking around like a zombie," she said. ‘‘Sure, he wasn’t creating any problems. But he was barely conscious."

Problems with staff members

Chelsey Kennedy, 15, of Gahanna, never will forget the effect of being given three shots of Haldol one afternoon at Kettering Hospital Youth Services in Dayton.
‘‘I slept for four days and was in a drug-induced fog for a week after finally waking up," she said. ‘‘That’s just wrong!"

Chelsey, who has bipolar disorder, admits being combative and mouthy at times. But she said residential staff members often egg on patients.

State records reflect that.

For instance, the Mental Health Department reprimanded a southern Ohio center in January for creating a ‘‘culture of fear and intimidation." State inspectors said the children at Oak Ridge Treatment Center, near Ironton, complained about being cursed at, called names and insulted by staff members.

They also reported being choked, kneed, ‘‘slammed" and put into a ‘‘sleeper" wrestling hold that temporarily cuts off their breathing.

Wendy Kennedy, 40, said teens are ‘‘manhandled" at Residential Treatment Centers of Ohio, a South Side facility where her daughter has lived since early March.

‘‘When I went to visit Chelsey recently, one of the girls had a black eye, bloodied nose, busted lip and she couldn’t move her shoulder — all because of a restraint," Kennedy said. ‘‘Using brute force is so wrong."

Residential Treatment officials denied using excessive force and said no children have been hurt. ‘‘Franklin County Children Services has found nothing to substantiate any abuse," Chief Executive Officer Jeff Beasley said.

But in March 2003, Children Services pulled 11 teens from the center after a worker bruised a girl’s wrist during a restraint. The state also placed Residential Treatment Centers on probation for failing to meet rules.

Beasley said the center doesn’t use any emergency medication — ‘‘only drugs ordered by the doctor."

However, state mental-health officials cited the facility in August for using a ‘‘medication as a restraint to control behavior."

Kennedy is concerned that Chelsey might be on too many and maybe even the wrong medications.

Before entering residential care a year ago, Chelsey was on two drugs. She’s now prescribed 14 — 11 psychiatric and three for diabetes.

‘‘The side effects are terrible," said Kennedy, who turned over custody of her daughter to Franklin County Children Services in 2004 to get her mental-health help. ‘‘She has joint pain, reflux and no hormone levels, which have baffled doctors."

Chelsey also hasn’t been herself.

‘‘She can be normal one minute and like a small child another," Kennedy said. ‘‘I just don’t understand why they give her so many drugs but no meaningful counseling. It kills me."

Gwen Malcuit, 33, of Strasburg in Tuscarawas County, understands Kennedy’s pain. Her 16-year-old son, Nick, was misdiagnosed four times and given more than a dozen medications before doctors concluded he has bipolar disorder.

One drug made him sleep 18 hours a day. Another caused him to gain 50 pounds. A third made him fidgety and hyper.

‘‘I really believe the medications impaired his learning," Malcuit said. ‘‘He was angry, out-of-control and thought I had betrayed him."

Today, Nick is on one medication and enjoys life as a 10 th-grader. He is doing well in school, has a girlfriend and is looking for a part-time job.

‘‘Look at what happens when you give a child what he really needs: appropriate services in his own home," Malcuit said.

She lays part of the blame on the confusing system.

For example, four state agencies license residential centers: the departments of Health; Job and Family Services; Mental Health; and Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Each has different licensing standards. The Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services also certifies some programs.

‘‘It’s a maze that leaves families feeling left out," Malcuit said.

It doesn’t help that families often relinquish custody of their children to county child-welfare agencies because mental-health care is so expensive. And when they do, they frequently lose the power to make decisions about medications.

They’re also afraid to challenge decisions out of fear their children won’t be returned.

Fewer reports

Finding out how often treatment centers use drugs to restrain children has become more difficult.

In January 2004, the Department of Mental Health stopped requiring treatment centers to fill out incident reports for restraints unless they involved abuse or neglect, or resulted in an attempted suicide, injury or death, Knight said.

As a result, the number of reported restraints — both emergency medications and physical holds — dropped from 6,815 in 2003 to 113 last year. Reports of emergency drugs declined from 118 in 2003 to 10 last year.

Mental Health officials say providers now have to log the use of restraints daily. The department regularly reviews them and compiles totals every six months.

But advocates say the centers aren’t required to note the use of emergency drugs.

Meanwhile, state developmental disability officials have toughened their reporting requirements, causing their figures to spike from 12 reported restraints in 2001 to 542 last year.

The Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities also considers the use of any unapproved psychiatric drug — whether in an emergency or not — a chemical restraint.

‘‘They’re well ahead of the Department of Mental Health on this issue," Knight said.
MRDD officials admit they toughened their requirements after a scathing audit by what is now the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Washington.

‘‘It’s tough asking the painful questions, but if you don’t you’ll never know if a provider is doping a client up with a powerful psychotropic medication just for convenience," Director Kenneth Ritchey said.

Since 2000, the department has added 14 people to its investigative unit, created an online registry of caregivers who have abused people with disabilities, and developed a Webbased reporting system for incidents.

Ohio Legal Rights would like the Department of Mental Health to be equally vigilant, particularly in requiring treatment centers to report the use of all restraints.


Legal Rights points to an incident at Kettering Hospital in Dayton last July in which a 14-year-old girl was restrained — with drugs, handcuffs, other devices and physical force. Eight staff members, a guard and two police officers were involved in the episode, which stretched over ‘‘eight horrendous hours," according to Legal Rights.


Details remain sketchy, but the agency’s investigation found:

• The teen became agitated and was put in a seclusion room. State officials say she was spitting and threatening staff members.

• While in the room, she managed to pull a mattress cover off a bed and zip herself inside. Police were called and put her into handcuffs until she calmed down. Staff members replaced the cuffs with other restraints and kept her tied up for more than seven hours, against state rules.

• The girl was given three shots each of Haldol and Cogentin, a medication used to offset potential side effects from the Haldol, including stiffness and tremors. The child-welfare agency responsible for the teen had never consented to the use of Haldol.

In the end, the guard filed charges against the girl because he had thrown out his back during the restraint, and she was discharged to another facility.

Executive Director David Drawbaugh said Kettering is now committed to a zero-tolerance policy for restraints and seclusion.

State mental-health officials said the incident ‘‘raised a lot of concerns" but was not reportable as a ‘‘major unusual incident" under the department’s standards.

‘‘This is the kind of human-rights abuse that occurred in the back wards of psychiatric hospitals 25 years ago," said Laura Wissler, a parent advocate for the Mental Health Association of Summit County.

‘‘If this isn’t reportable, what is?"



END OF ARTICLE.


More shameful abuse. Horrific violation of the Human Rights of children.

Serious physical abuse.
Serious mental abuse.
Serious psych drug abuse.

All this in a "civilized" western nation and one which sets itself up as the self-appointed judge and jury regarding Human Rights violations of less privileged, less educated third world countries. This is just one small glimpse of Bush's Brave New Pharmapolitical World.

Almost too simple and obvious to be true -v- toxic drugs that kill: Omega 3 Studies.

There's a lot of studies that tend to be pushed under the carpet by the pharmaceutical industry which should maybe be looked at closer? An obvious, simple, solution to whats perceived as a 'disorder' by people trying to make a financially profitable chemical solution doesn't make the simple, natural and perhaps obvious, solution any less valid.

Essential Fatty Acids are something that would have naturally been part of our diet pre-junk food. Oily fish is the best food source of essential fatty acids, though there are other sources.

Essential Fatty Acids contain DHA and EPA, which are the two basic components of Omega 3.


At this url:
INTEGRATIVE PSYCHIATRY
there are quite a number of links and each heading below (when on the website) are links:

"...Scientific Articles (full text):

Theory of Omega-3 activity in depression PDF
Omega-3 improves outcome in schizophrenia PDF
Omega-3 treatment of depression in pregnancy PDF
Omega-3 and risk of postpartum depression PDF
Omega-3 treatment of borderline personality disorder PDF
Omega-2 treatment of bipolar disorder PDF
Fatty acid deficiency in bipolar mania PDF
Pure DHA does NOT work in major depression (you need EPA also) PDF
Omega-3 decreased in schizophrenia PDF
Essential fatty acids and depression in the elderly PDF
Omega-3 in refractory depression PDF PDF2 PDF3
Fish consumption & postpartum depression PDF
Fish oil and rheumatoid arthritis PDF
Fish oil and inflammatory bowel disease PDF
Fish and the risk of dementia PDF
Fish oil in asthma PDF
Fish oil reduced stroke in men PDF
Fish oil reduces sudden death PDF
Omega-3 may reduce coronary heart disease and death in elderly PDF
Omega-3 and aggression PDF PDF2
Omega-3 in schizophrenia PDF PDF2 PDF3 PDF4
Omega-3 in depression & heart disease PDF
DHA and aggression PDF
DHA & violence PDF
Essential fatty acids in alcoholics PDF
Essential fatty acids & schizophrenia PDF PDF2
Fish consumption & suicidality PDF
Fatty acid supplementation in monkeys PDF
Effects of supplements in prisoners PDF
Omeag-3 inhibition of PKC PDF
Omega-3 in schizophrenia PDF PDF2
Omega-3 in depression & heart disease PDF
Omega-3 in health & disease PDF
Omega-3 in dyslexia PDF
Omega-3 in ADHD PDF..."


Nowadays most people seem to have too busy a life to be cooking fish alongside too easy an access to junk food, etc. But Omega 3 is essential for the smooth running of a LOT of organs, including the brain. It doesn't cause Tardive Dyskinesia or the other ADRs associated with psych drugs, its natural (therefore discredited as "quakery" and "alternative" by chemical drug defenders) and its just about free save for the cost of food, (or Omega 3 capsules if its difficult to follow a healthy diet).

A simple solution perhaps, though not at all popular with an industry making a profit out of chemical cocktails that cause homicidality, suicidality, tardive dyskinesia, akathisia, convulsions, strokes, heart attacks, etc.



YOU COUNT. YOUR VOICE MATTERS. MAKE IT HEARD.
SAY NO TO THE PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGGING OF OUR CHILDREN!

Some of the BRAIN DAMAGE caused by antipsychotic drugs, also known as neuroleptic drugs (which includes antihistamines such as phenergan!).

These drugs are given to 'schizophrenics' and also to many other people for a variety of other 'disorders' from anxiety down to migraines, and even packaged as antihistamines such as phenergan (generic name Promethazine) distributed to unsuspecting people and their children for allergies, travel sickeness, etc.

[www.rxlist.com: "Promethazine is a phenothiazine derivative which differs structurally from the antipsychotic phenothiazines by the presence of a branched side chain and no ring substitution. It is thought that this configuration is responsible for its relative lack (1/10 that of chlorpromazine) of dopamine antagonist properties...CNS Depression...Phenergan Tablets and Suppositories may impair the mental and/or physical abilities required for the performance of potentially hazardous tasks, such as driving a vehicle or operating machinery. The impairment may be amplified by concomitant use of other central-nervous-system depressants such as alcohol, sedatives/hypnotics (including barbiturates), narcotics, narcotic analgesics, general anesthetics, tricyclic antidepressants, and tranquilizers; therefore such agents should either be eliminated or given in reduced dosage in the presence of promethazine HCl (see PRECAUTIONS-Information for Patients and Drug Interactions)...Respiratory Depression...Phenergan Tablets and Suppositories may lead to potentially fatal respiratory depression...Use of Phenergan Tablets and Suppositories in patients with compromised respiratory function (e.g., COPD, sleep apnea) should be avoided...Central Nervous System...Drowsiness is the most prominent CNS effect of this drug. Sedation, somnolence, blurred vision, dizziness; confusion, disorientation, and extrapyramidal symptoms such as oculogyric crisis, torticollis, and tongue protrusion; lassitude, tinnitus, incoordination, fatigue, euphoria, nervousness, diplopia, insomnia, tremors, convulsive seizures, excitation, catatonic-like states, hysteria. Hallucinations have also been reported...Cardiovascular-Increased or decreased blood pressure, tachycardia, bradycardia, faintness...Dermatologic-Dermatitis, photosensitivity, urticaria...Hematologic-Leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, thrombocytopenic purpura, agranulocytosis...Gastrointestinal-Dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, jaundice...Respiratory-Asthma, nasal stuffiness, respiratory depression (potentially fatal) and apnea (potentially fatal). (See WARNINGS-Respiratory Depression.)...and on and on, things you don't get told about this innocent-sounding "antihistamine" pill, but which you MIGHT suspect if you were informed it was actually a neuroleptic drug??]


Back to some of the studies done on antipsychotic/neuroleptic drugs (including antihistamines such as phenergan!). One of the brain damaging effects of drugs is Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) which produces those 'movement disorders' most commonly associated with a view of psychiatric hospital patients, such as, for instance, facial grimacing and sticking the tongue out in a distorted fashion, now well known as being caused by the 'medication', damage that is usually permanent. Tardive Akathisia (TA)is another fairly similar manifestation of drug/med-induced brain damage:

http://www.moshersoteria.com/litrev.htm

"...Brain Damage Associated with Neuroleptic Drug Treatment:

Ballesteros J, Gonzales-Pinto A, & Bulbena A. Tardive dyskinesia associated with higher mortality in psychiatric patients: results of a meta-analysis of seven independent studies. J Clin Psychopharmacology, 20:2, 188-194, 2000.

E Christensen. "Neuropathological investigations of 28 brains from patients with dyskinesia." Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 46,14-23, 1970. (TD patients have structural abnormalities in the basal ganglia, enlarged ventricles, and sulcal markings.)

OO Famuyiva. Tardive dyskinesia and dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 500-504, 1979. (TD associated with cognitive impairment.)

JT Wegner. Cognitive impairment in tardive dyskinesia. Psychiatry Research, 16, 331-337. 1985. (TD associated with cognitive impairment.)

James Wade. Tardive Dyskinesia and Cognitive Impairment. Biological Psychiatry, 22, 393-395, 1987. (Association between TD and cognitive impairment. "The relationship appears to be linear: individuals with severe forms of the disorder are most impaired cognitively.")

JL Waddington. Cognitive dysfunction, negative symptoms, and tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 907-912, 1987. (TD associated with cognitive impairment and worsening of negative symptoms.)

Waddington J et al, Mortality in schizophrenia: Antipsychotic polypharmacy and absence of adjunctive anticholinergics over the course of a 10-year prospective study, Br J Psych, 1998, 173; 325-329. (This study found that a reason that schizophrenics have a shorter life expectancy was neuroleptic drug treatment)

JB Wade. Cognitive changes associated with tardive dyskinesia. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology. 1, 217-227. 1989. (TD associated with cognitive impairment. The researchers conclude: "TD may represent both a motor and dementing disorder.")

R. Yassa. Functional impairment in tardive dyskinesia: medical and psychosocial dimensions. Acta Psychiatr Scand 80, 64-67. 1989. (TD associated with gait, speech difficulties, and psychosocial impairment.)

Michael S. Myslobodsky. Central Determinants of Attention and Mood Disorder in Tardive Dyskinesia (Tardive Dysmentia.). Brain and Cognition, 23, 88-101. 1993. (TD patients lose the motor part of their "road map of consciousness." TD may represent "larval dementia.")

Herbert Spohn. The effect of attention/information processing impairment of tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptics in chronic schizoprhenics." Brain and Cognition 23, 28-39, 1993. (TD exacerbates cognitive impairment.)

Jacinthe Baribeau. Tardive dyskinesia and associated cognitive disorders: a convergent neuropsycological and neurophysiological approach. Brain and Cognition 23, 40-55, 1993. (TD associated with cognitive dysfunction.)

John Waddington. Cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia: organic vulnerability factor or state marker for tardive dyskinesia? Brain and Cognition 23, 56-70, 1993. (He reviews 22 studies from 1979 to 1991 that concluded that patients with TD were cognitively impaired on a variety of measures, which include learning, memory, cognitive function, intellectual function, visual retention, orientation, etc.)

James Wade. Factors related to the severity of tardive dyskinesia. Brain and Cognition 23, 71-80, 1993. (A review of research shows that "biochemical and neuropathological changes associated with TD indicates that similar alterations are associated with Hungtington's disease and or Parkinson's." In their own research, "cortical dysfunction, characterized by impairment in nonverbal function, is associated with TD severity.")

Emmanuelle Pourcher. Organic brain dysfunction and cognitive deficits in young schizophrenic patients with tardive dyskinesia. Brain and Cognition 23, 81-87, 1993. (This is a study of patients under 40. They find that TD is associated with cerebral dysfunction, which in turn is associated with exposure to neuroleptic drugs.)

Thomas Gualtieri. The problem of tardive akathisia. Brain and Cognition 23, 102-109, 1993. (He states that tardive akathisia may be thought of as a disease of the basal ganglia, much like Parkinson's, Huntington's and Wilson's. MRI studies have demonstrated basal ganglia lesions in TD patients, especially in the caudate nucleus. Basal ganglia diseases all cause behavioral instability and intellectual impairment (even psychosis and dementia)).

Miranda Chakos. Increase in Caudate Nuclei Volumes of First-Episode Schizophrenic Patients Taking Antipsychotic Drugs. Am Jour Psych 151, 1430-1435. 1994. (Neuroleptics increase caudate volumes 5.7% during first 18 months of treatment in first-episode schizophrenic patients. Higher dosage is associated with larger increase in caudate volumes.)

J.S. Paulsen. Neuropsychological impairment in tardive dyskinesia. Neurospsychology 8, 227-241. 1994. (Review of 31 studies that compared cognitive function in schizophrenics with and without TD. In 24 studies, TD patients were found to do worse. The more severe the TD, the greater the impairment in cognitive function. They conclude that "TD involves an alteration of brain function that affects both motor and cognitive control.")

P. Sachdev. Negative symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, tardive akathisia and tardive dyskinesia." Acta Psychiatr Scand. 93, 451-459. 1996. (Both tardive akathisia and tardive dyskinesia are associated with more cognitive deficits and negative symptoms. This association is stronger with TA than with TD. The implication is that movement disorders seen in TA and TD are "but one feature of complex syndromes that include motor and cognitive features. A comparison must be made with other movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, in which neuropsychological deficits, and indeed subcortical dementia are known to occur.")

John Waddington. Cognitive dysfunction in chronic schizophrenia followed prospectively over 10 years and its longitudinal relationship to the emergence of tardive dyskinesia. Psychological Medicine, 26, 681-688. 1996. (Progressive deterioration in cognitive function is seen even late in chronic phase of schizophrenic illness. Deterioration derives primarily from emergence of TD. They find that marked deterioration in cognitive function occurs at same time as emergence of movement disorder.)

Rupert McShane. Do Neuroleptic Drugs Hasten Cognitive Decline in Dementia? Prospective Study with Necropsy Follow Up. British Medical Journal, 314, 266-270. 1997. (The decline in cognitive function in dementia patients who take neuroleptics is twice the decline in patients who did not take he drugs.)

Raquel Gur,et. Al. Subcortical MRI Volumes in Neuroleptic-Naïve and Treated Patients with Schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 1711-1717. 1998. (Drugs cause hypertrophy of the caudate, putamen, and thalamus, which is thought to be "structural adaptation to receptor blockade." The drug-induced hypertrophy is also "mildly associated with greater severity of both negative and positive symptoms.")

Raquel Gur, et. Al. A follow-up of magnetic resonance imaging study of schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55, 145-151, 1998. (Use of neuroleptics is associated with volume reduction (or atrophy) of frontal lobes and temporal lobes. As the brain atrophies in this way, here is said to improvement in delusions and thought disorder (the brain-damaging principle at work). A greater rate of reduction in volume is associated with higher dose. At the same time, reduction in volume is associated with decline in some neurobehavioral functions.)

Al Madsen. Neuroleptics in progressive structural brain abnormalities in psychiatric illness. The Lancet, 352, 784-785. Sept. 5, 1998. (Neuroleptic use is associated with atrophy of cerebral cortex. The estimated risk of atrophy increases by 6.4% for each additional 10 grams of neuroleptic drug.)

G. Tsai. Markers of glutamergic neurotransmission and oxidative stress associated with tardive dyskinesia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 1207-1213. 1998. (This study suggests that neuroleptics cause neuronal damage as a result of oxidative stress, and that this is the degenerative process that produces TD.)..."

Durham (UK) trials show SUCCESS in treating 'ADHD' problems with Omega 3 Fatty Acids, which are found in oily fish.

No 'magic pill'. No adverse side effects. No withdrawal syndrome.
Just plain common sense. Getting back to one aspect of pre-pharma nutrition.
And so far outstanding relative success each time..
A success that has entirely eluded toxic psychoactive "medication" trials.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4511759.stm

"Wednesday, 4 May, 2005, 07:37 GMT 08:37 UK

Oil pills boost pupil brain power

Some of the school children taking part in the trials
Children who were under performing in class have seen an improvement in concentration and behaviour after taking a cocktail of natural oils.

The research showed children's learning and behaviour improved significantly when taking the natural fatty acids.

The children were tested at the outset and again after three months for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms, co-ordination and short term memory.

Sources of omega-3 oils
herring
kippers
mackerel
pilchards
sardines
salmon
fresh tuna
trout
anchovies

Results suggested that after three months, the group using the fatty acid made "highly significant improvements" in 12 out of 13 behavioural scales, including three diagnostic ADHD features - inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Short term memory also significantly improved.

One head teacher said children with specific difficulties now concentrate more, read better, and their self-esteem has rocketed.

Dr Madeleine Portwood, an education psychologist from Durham Education Authority, said: "As a psychologist working in schools in Durham I became increasingly aware of the number of children under achieving because they are hyperactive and cannot concentrate.

"In the late 1990s there was lots of research available suggesting fatty acids would make a difference. So I put it to a number of heads and they said we'll give it a go.

"For six months the children were taking supplements during the school day and we measured improvements.

"The most dramatic improvement was in concentration and the spin off was children had better attainments so their reading score improved - some children improved by as much as four years in the six months trial."

END OF ARTICLE

A simple case of Nutrition. Diet. And children once labelled ADHD, a label 'invented' by greedy and corrupt pharma/psych/political interests, become normal, well behaved, well adjusted children capable of catching up with four years of schoolwork in just six months.

How easy can that be?

No time to cook fish?
Omega 3 fish oils are available over the counter.
Buy the best quality capsules you can.
The important ingredients when determining the quality are the levels of:
EPA and DHA.

Now why don't/can't doctors suggest a diet to include essential fatty acids found in oily fish (or Omega 3 capsules) for behaviourable problems?
Because the only profit to the pharmaceutical industry is in creating a disease from a nutritional deficiency, and creating toxic drugs to 'cure' the disease, at the cost of the lives of many children.

There is absolutely NO profit for the pharmaceutical industry in oily fish, or concentrated fish oil capsules.

The future safety and well-being of our children is in the hands of each and every one of us.

YOUR voice matters. Make it heard.

SAY NO! TO YOUR DOCTOR.
SAY NO! TO YOUR SCHOOL.
SAY NO! TO YOUR GOVERNMENT.

SAY NO TO THE PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGGING OF CHILDREN!

Bush-backed death-dealing drug marketing schemes for 52 MILLION children of the USA.

(Article dated 26th April 2005)

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/04/26/pringle.htm

"Bush-Backed Drug Marketing Schemes
Evelyn Pringle

At an FDA hearing on the safety of psychotropic drugs on Feb 2, 2004, dozens of tortured parents testified that their children had committed suicide or other violent acts after being prescribed the same drugs that are being marketed in the Bush-backed pharmaceutical industry schemes aimed at recruiting the nations 52 million school children as customers.

In July 2003, the Bush appointed New Freedoms Commission on Mental Health (NFC) recommended screening all children for mental illness and designated TeenScreen as a model program to ensure that every student receives a mental health check-up before finishing high school.

The NFC also has a preferred drug program in place modeled after the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP), that lists what drugs are to be used on children found to be mentally ill.

The list contains every drug that people complained about at the FDA hearing, including Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutron, Zyban, Remeron, Serzone, Effexor, Buspar, Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroqual, Geodone, Depakote, Adderall, and Prozac.

There is little if any evidence that these drugs work on children but nevertheless, an estimated 10 million children in the US are now taking these mind-altering drugs even though they have documented side-effects including suicidal ideation, mania, psychosis, and future drug dependence.

According to a May 2003 report in the New York Times, national sales of anti-psychotics reached $6.4 billion in 2002, making them the fourth highest-selling class of drugs which proves the drug companies are already making a killing by drugging our kids.

Experts Against Screening

Dr Jane Orient is an internist and executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. She offered a few words to the wise in United Press International's "Outside View" on December 16, 2004.

In regard to TeenScreen, Orient says parents ought to be asking some very serious questions before the government experts interview the first child such as:

What are the credentials of the screeners? What are the criteria for possible abnormality? What is the scientific validation? Will you be allowed to get a second opinion? Can you see the record and enter corrections if indicated? Will the record at any point be destroyed, or will the stigma of a diagnosis such as "personality disorder" follow the child throughout life?

What will happen if your child fails the screen? What sort of treatment will be given? Who will supervise it? What if you don't approve of it?

Do drug companies expect to have a large number of new consumers of their psychoactive drugs? Who might profit from the program (perhaps discoverable by asking who lobbied for it)? Bingo, right question Dr. Who stands to profit?

In 2003, Medico Health Solutions, reports that the use of behavioral drugs for children topped all other types of drugs at 17% of total spending. In the year 2003, the market research firm, IMS Health, calculated worldwide sales of antidepressants at $19.5 billion, up 10% from the year 2002.

Phyllis Schlafly, author of "No Child Left Unmedicated," raises several valid questions. What are the rights of youth and parents to refuse or opt out of such screening? Will they face threats of removal from school, if they refuse privacy-invading interrogations or medications? How will a child remove a stigmatizing label from his records?

Psychiatrist Peter Breggin, a court-qualified medical expert, and author of books, Talking Back to Prozac and The Anti-Depressant Fact Book, warns about the life-long damage a label of mentally illness can cause.

"There is nothing worse that you can do to a human being in America today than give them a mental illness kind of label and tell them they need drugs and these children are 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 years-old being treated in this manner," Breggin reports, "I then see them coming to me as adults saying I'd like to be a doctor but how can I when I have crossed wires in my head," he warns.

In a report, Allen Jones, former investigator Penn Office of Inspector General Bureau of Special Investigations, points out that there has been a 500% increase in children being prescribed drugs during the past 6 years.

Jones says the NFC call for mandatory screening of all students, with follow-up treatment as required, translates into putting more kids on mind-altering and potentially lethal drugs.

"TeenScreen is purely and simply a marketing scam to sell psychotropic drugs," according anti-child drugging advocate, Ken Kramer, "When they use "even if we save one life" as an argument to arouse emotions in parents that truly care, they are lying," he warns.



Bush Promotes Dangerous Drugs

The truth is, with full support from Bush, the pharmaceutical industry is using TeenScreen as a vehicle to push dangerous drugs on children who in the eyes of many experts are already being overmedicated.

Despite that the fact that SSRI antidepressants are banned for use with children in the UK and despite the FDA “black box” warning label now required on all SSRIs that the drugs increase suicidal thinking and behavior in kids, the NFC not only recommends that the same drugs be prescribed to children, it promotes the very schemes that will increase the number of kids on these drugs in schools and other public institutions.

According to a report by the Florida Statewide Advocacy Council, posted on Ken Kramer's website records@psychsearch.net, an investigation in Florida found that of 1,180 kids in foster care, 652 were on one or more psychotropic drugs.

In Texas, Dr John Breeding, an Austin psychologist, has seen cases where some foster children were placed on as many as 17 drugs and says drugs are being used as chemical restraints in Texas. He wants all SSRIs and neuroleptic drugs banned from use on children “The SSRIs are extremely harmful and addictive; and can cause or exacerbate suicidal or homicidal tendencies; withdrawal is painful and dangerous,” Breeding warns.

Dr Ann Blake Tracy is the Director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness, holds a doctorate in biological psychology, and is a specialist in the adverse reactions to SSRI medications. Tracy claims the whole hypothesis of SSRIs is "backwards." She says the drugs increase serotonin while decreasing the metabolism of serotonin, especially in the 7 to 10% of the population that studies have shown don't have the proper enzyme to metabolize SSRIs in the first place, according to the Aug 22, 2004 Desert Morning News.

Dr Tracy can recite hundreds of horror stories involving violence by people taking the same drugs that TeenScreen is marketing to more children.

She told the Morning News about, “the professor on Prozac who bit her mother to death; the Stanford graduate on Paxil who stabbed herself in the kitchen while her parents slept; the mother who bludgeoned her son and then drank a can of Drano; and the 12-year-old girl who strangled herself with a bungee cord she attached to a plant hanger on the wall."

"Most of these drugs are not approved for children, but it doesn't stop doctors from prescribing them," Tracy points out.

Turning People Into Psychotic Murderers

Besides causing suicide, enough evidence now exists to prove that psychotropic drugs have played a major role in the senseless acts of violence by school-age children in this country in recent years.

Dr Breggin, is against the use of psychotropic drugs in children, and has testified in civil and criminal cases numerous times about the link between SSRIs and suicide and other acts of violence.

On April 15, 2001, 16-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his High School in Washington State and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. Cory sat in jail for 14 months before finally being released based on expert testimony by psychiatrists that his behavior was an adverse reaction to the drugs he was prescribed.

Cory has no memory of his actions at the school that day. 21 days before the event, he had been taken off Paxil and prescribed a high dose of the drug Effexor.

Cory's father Jay told Insight News, "They always talk about how the kids who do these things are the ones who get picked on by the jocks and stuff, but Cory was a jock. He was on the varsity basketball team, played football and golf, and was very popular in school.

Jay wants the media to warn people about the dangers of putting kids on these drugs, "If Cory had been on PCP the media would say 'Oh, he needs drug rehabilitation,' but because these were prescribed medications they say 'Oh, it can't be that,' but now we know it can be," he said.

"The morning that Cory went to school and did what he did, my wife and I just knew that it had to be something with the drugs," Jay reports. One of Cory's friends described the incident to Jay, "Cory was yelling and then he just stopped, looked down and saw the gun in his hand and woke up," he said.

Cory recently made an unlikely new friend in Colorado, when he met Columbine High School shooting victim, Mark Taylor, who is suing the manufacturer of the antidepressant that Eric Harris was on when he opened fire at Columbine.

Kelly Patricia OMeara interviewed Mark Taylor, and recounted his description of the shooting incident in a report for Insight on Sept 2, 2002.

Taylor told Kelly, "I was sitting on a hill outside the school eating lunch with my best friend when Eric Harris came over and started shooting me," Taylor recalled, "I was shot between seven and 13 times. No one really knows the exact number because there were so many bullet tracks. Most of the bullets just went right through me. After I was shot I just lay there, playing dead, and could see others being shot," Taylor recalled.

It has never been revealed if Dylan Klebold was on any legal drugs at the time of the shootings, but an autopsy revealed that Harris was on the psychotropic drug Luvox, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).

Taylor's attitude toward the teen who nearly killed him is surprising. He told O Meara, "I'm suing Solvay because I believe that Eric Harris did what he did because of this drug."

Taylor's suit claims the drug made Harris manic and psychotic and as a consultant in the suit, Dr Tracy agrees. "All you have to do is read the Luvox package insert to see that Eric's actions were due to an adverse reaction to this drug," she told Insight News, "Show me a drug anywhere that has listed mania and psychosis as frequent adverse reactions. That is what the insert says for Luvox. There is no doubt in my mind that Luvox caused Eric Harris to commit these acts," she explained.

Gary Null & Associates of New York is filming a documentary called “The Drugging of Our Children,” that will feature interviews with both Cory Baadsgaard and Mark Taylor, and will chronicle the long history of tragic events that have resulted from the use of these drugs on children.

A little known fact is that a few days before the Columbine tragedy, Eric Harris had been rejected by the Marine Corps specifically because he was taking the drug Luvox.

In 2001, 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, shot five students and teachers at a California High School, while on the drugs Celexa and Effexor, and he too was rejected by the Navy one day before he went on his rampage, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

In a letter to his mother, Hoffman said, "I want people to know that what happened was not the real me, I was just angry, maybe my medication. It was a fluke of the moment. The person was not the true Jason Hoffman," he wrote.

On Oct 29, 2001, Jason Hoffman killed himself by hanging from a vent screen in his jail cell, the Tribune reported.

Kip Kinkel was 15 on May 21, 1998, when he murdered his parents, and then went to Thurston High School in Springfield, OR where he shot and killed 2 students and injured 22 more. Kinkel was on Ritalin and Prozac at the time of the killings even though Prozac was not approved for pediatric use.

Seven years after the senseless killings by Kinkel, on December 18, 2003, Eli Lilly sent letters to British healthcare providers, warning that Prozac was not recommended for any use in children.

14 year-old Elizabeth Bush was on antidepressants when she took a gun to school and wounded another student in Williamsport, PA in 2001.

12-year-old Christopher Pittman was on Zoloft when he shot his grandparents and set their house on fire, and says his violence was caused by the drug he was. Before Zoloft, he had been on Paxil.

According to court records, the doctor who prescribed the drug to Christopher mentioned no problems in his medical notes. A few days before the murders, the doctor wrote: "Lots of energy. No plans to harm self. Not flying off the handle."

Christopher now sits in prison.

His father, Joe Pittman, testified about the effects of the drugs on his son at the FDA Hearing and read a letter Christopher wrote that described how he felt when he committed the murders, "Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite TV show," he wrote, "You know what is going to happen but you can't do anything to stop it."

Dr Tracy explains how this happens. SSRIs suppress "the REM state or dream state [of sleep] ... These drugs allow a person to be awake but at any time they can slip into the REM state. This is why people often discuss how they couldn't tell the difference between the dream and reality. These drugs are horribly damaging to the entire system," she warns.

Even the people closest to Jeff Weise are at a loss to say what led to the deadly killing spree by Weise in Minnesota, where the 16-year-old shot his grandfather, his companion, and then went to the high school and shot 5 students, a teacher and a security guard before killing himself. According to school employee, Gayle Downwind, Weise was on Prozac at the time of the shootings.

Dr Tracy has consulted on many cases where children engaged in violent behavior including a 15-year-old boy on Zoloft who shot and killed a woman and is serving life in prison; a 17-year-old boy on Paxil for three months who jumped off an overpass into the path of a trailer truck; a 14-year-old girl prescribed Paxil to deal with the suicide of her father (who was on Paxil before killing himself) drank Drano in a suicide attempt; and a 16-year-old boy on Paxil who stabbed a woman over 60 times, drove his car into a cement abutment in a failed suicide attempt, and is now serving life in prison.

"In each of these cases," Tracy told Insight News, "individuals close to them were shocked at the violent and destructive behavior because it was so out of character for them."

Courts Starting to Get It

Drug companies are finally starting to be held responsible for violent behavior associated with these drugs. A jury in Cheyenne, Wyoming recently determined that Paxil, "can cause some individuals to commit suicide and/or homicide." The jury decided Paxil caused Donald Schell to shoot his wife, daughter and granddaughter before killing himself after being on the drug only two days.

The jury allocated 80% of the fault on Paxil drug maker GlaxoSmithKline and awarded the surviving family members $8 million in damages.

On June 18, 2003, GlaxSmithKline issued a warning to British physicians against the use of Paxil in children, acknowledging failure of clinical trials "to demonstrate efficacy in major depressive disorders and doubling the rate of reported adverse events - including suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts - compared to placebo."

In Bismarck, ND, 10 days after Ryan Ehlis began taking Adderall, he shot and killed his 5-week-old baby and then turned the gun on himself. He survived and was tried for the murder but was acquitted after the Judge agreed with psychiatrists who testified that the murder resulted solely from a psychotic state caused by the drug.

In February 2005, Canadian regulators ordered Adderall off the market after the drug was linked to 20 sudden deaths and a dozen strokes. Of the 20 deaths, 14 were children.

There has been a lot written about the increase in teen violence and school shootings but no one has identified a common denominator in the lives of these kids with one exception, the drugs. If we allow the Bush-backed marketing schemes to succeed in recruiting more kids as customers for these dangerous drugs, according to Tracy, we had better prepare for more of the same.

"We've got a nightmare on our hands with these drugs, an absolute nightmare," she warns, "We've got kids on these drugs that are ticking time bombs in every school in America."

"When all of this is over and we count up the dead, we're going to be in shock," she adds.

Miamisburg OH

(Evelyn Pringle is an investigative journalist focused on exposing government corruption)"