NJ Legislator: Probe Antipsychotics, Kids & Medicaid
111 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // February 25th, 2008 // 3:20 pm
| Product | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abilify | $0 | $0 | $0 | $309,257 | $1,420,414 | $3,081,174 | $4,984,463 | $6,115,322 |
| Geodon | $0 | $41,565 | $129,088 | $212,560 | $295,085 | $390,794 | $437,207 | $397,331 |
| Haldol | $6,655 | $8,558 | $13,311 | $18,172 | $17,206 | $13,764 | $8,113 | $9,448 |
| Risperdal | $1,954,461 | $3,259,323 | $4,022,473 | $4,885,024 | $4,986,423 | $5,419,384 | $5,797,825 | $5,522,290 |
| Seroquel | $150,717 | $422,674 | $905,333 | $1,556,533 | $1,882,016 | $2,375,059 | $2,732,248 | $3,011,707 |
| Thorazine | $36,905 | $41,403 | $36,226 | $26,881 | $14,458 | $14,027 | $15,009 | $18,100 |
| Zyprexa | $751,867 | $1,270,683 | $1,504,897 | $1,719,372 | $1,594,270 | $1,282,623 | $1,271,629 | $1,107,777 |
New Jersey’s Medicaid program spent more than $73 million on antipsychotic medications for children less than 18 years old between 2000 and 2007, according to state records, even though the drugs weren’t approved by the FDA for treating kids. And a state official acknowledges the drugs may have been prescribed for conditions other than schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the approved uses. As a result, a state legislator is calling for an investigation and is formulating legislation.
“There are horror stories about these meds and there’s a reason they’re not prescribed for kids,” says New Jersey assemblyman Pat Diegnan, who adds that he plans to draft a bill to change the practice and to hold talks with the New Jersey attorney general’s office, which recently formed a task force to examine interactions between pharma and docs. “The entire issue is frightening and the state should be taking a closer look at this. I’m concerned about the casual prescribing by doctors and the enormous amount of money being spent.”
The disclosure comes amid growing debate over antipsychotics. At issue are fears that children are misdiagnosed; drugs are inadequately studied; some docs presribe the pills too readily, and drugmakers promote the meds improperly. As reported previously, a growing number of states are suing various drugmakers over marketing that led Medicaid programs to pay unnecessarily for the meds.
Florida, for instance, is reviewing whether antipsychotics were prescribed improperly for ADHD. “There are no studies that have shown they (atypicals) are safe, or for that matter, that they are effective for children,” Ronald Brown, a Temple University pediatric psychology professor who headed an American Psychological Association committee that examined the issue, told The St. Petersburg Times last year. “The bottom line is that the use of psychiatric medications far exceeds the evidence of safety and effectiveness.”
UPDATE: Brown called us directly to say this: “The issue at hand is that the health care system is completely inadequate to deal with childrens’ mental health needs. There’s simply insufficient coverage for kids and adolescents….We don’t know the long-term outcomes. So more research needs to be done and, simultaneously, more services need to be provided.”
In their defense, New Jersey Medicaid officials say payments are made for any drug that is approved by the FDA, regardless of whether off-label usage is involved. “We don’t practice medicine and we don’t second guess prescribers,” says Kaye Morrow, assistant director for Medicaid in the Department of Health’s division of medical assistance and health services. “If there’s an FDA approval for a drug and there’s no restriction on a drug, we pay for it.”
However, she adds that usage will be examined and data is being gathered by an outside contractor, Comprehensive NeuroScience, a consulting firm that helps states manage their drug costs. The practice, however, is controversial because Lilly, which markets Zyprexa, provides funding that pays for the firm’s services. Such arrangements have been criticized elsewhere, because the drugmaker will monitor ’sloppy prescribing’ by docs, but only if a state agrees to let docs prescribe Zyprexa without first seeking permission from the state. A NJ health department spokeswoman maintains the state avoids this problem because its Medicaid program doesn’t have a formulary and, therefore, a mechanism isn’t in place to influence docs and their prescribing habits.
Meanwhile, though, the FDA has begun approving antipsychotics for youngsters of certain ages. Last summer, Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal was approved for schizophrenia in teenagers and bipolar disorder in children ages 10 to 17. Last fall, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Abilify was also approved for teenagers and Lilly’s Zyprexa is being reviewed by the FDA for similar usage.
Dan
Causing potential harm to children ranks as one of the top evils one can commit. It’s possible that these kids are so medicated with these psychotropic drugs is so that thier parents are exonerated then from any responsibility they may have for thier actions and behavior. So these parents allow doctors to prescribe such meds to these children so thier behavior will certainly not be a concern afterwards, as they will be altered remarkably, and perhaps permanently.
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Amy G
I believe America has lost faith in the FDA and now on top of that this NJ State Medicaid program is paying for antipsychotic drugs for children for ADHD that not even the FDA has approved!
Disgusting. State executives better wish they don’t live in China. You may have heard what the government there does to Chinese who pull such blunders.
Leslie
I hope that N.J does fully investigate this issue because it is too easy for this to get caught up in “meetings” and “committees” that won’t really look at the fact that children are being prescribed drugs that can cause mania, violent behavior, diabetes, etc. The Medicaid office has to really answer up to how could they reimburse for these drugs.
Carol W
These psychiatric drugs are dangerous especially for children in the short and long term. We need to stop prescribing these drugs for children.
James Randall
these drugs should never be given to children, my
grandson took some for hyper activity, which is only
natural for children. What are doctors thinking of
are they too lazy to figure out the problems if there are problems!
Tiffany
This is ridiculous. These drugs should be pulled off the market. Money hungry big pharma obviously dosen’t care about peoples’ well being.
Roger
Way to go Mr. Silverman!
Follow the money!
Nick Lister
These drugs are wrong to administer to children. They are mind altering.
Joanne
Thanks to Ed Silverman for putting this on the web!
What a news story! I’m horrified!
Think about it!
How could we, taxpayers, be paying for children, little kids, to be put on anti-psychotics?
I read that some children, as young as 6 years old, grow breasts while on these drugs. Talk about NEWS!
There needs to be answers, clear regulations and no more back and forth on this type of thing.
Russ Reiser
Drugging children with these psychiatric drugs is a crime against humanity. We must spread the word and wake people up.
Oscar Wegner
It’s time to end this criminality. It’s been devastating, not only for families, but for the future of America.
Anti Psych Fighter
This is DISGUSTING, INSANE and MURDER!
The FDA are contributing to murdering our future generation. The real question is, why are children or anyone for that matter being described anti psychotic medications? People were prescribed sedatives and given kind care and rest by nurses and medical doctors until they came back to health. Why is this not being done again to help people regain their sanity? And why isn’t the cause of the insanity being found, namely stress. And who is causing the stress in the lives of these people? Psychiatry has NEVER ONCE IN IT’S HISTORY CURED ANYONE OF ANYTHING and lie to us that nothing can be done. This is complete, bogus garbage! Just look at the statistics prior to the 1950’s of the state of sanity of the U.S. populace!
Grant
What the hell is happening with the world? Is it all of a sudden that people are born defective????
Let’s not allow this nation to become a zombie nation run by pill-pushers!
Susan
How many deaths is it going to take to pull these drugs off of the market completely? These drugs are hypnotics! They put a person into a hypnotic state so that they can be influenced by anything, over and above any moral standards or ethical codes instilled in them. Furthermore, they are horrendously addicting; the withdrawal symptoms include psychosis, rages, physical pain, etc. (they are promoted as not addicting!). This means that 1) whoever is taking these drugs develops the above symptoms while taking the drugs, and these symptoms can only be relieved by taking larger and larger doses, and 2) people start to understand that they’re being destroyed so they quit cold turkey — and then we get major headlines like Virginia Tech and Illinois. Something must be done to stop these drugs completely. Per all of the testing finally disclosed, none of them work!
Sandra
Any doctor who prescribes an antipsychotic for a disorder or syndrome for which there is no scientific test to prove that it exhists should be arrested for Treason (Betrayal after trust.) Any doctor who prescribes an antipsychotic to a anyone (especially a child)labeled with one of these bogus disorders or syndromes, and who benefits financially from this act, should further be accused of malpractice and fraud and have their license revoked.
I certainly hope that the pending investigation results in a product of real findings and that appropriate actions are taken. We all know how these meetings can get prolonged and tied up in red tape and never get anything done.
Well intentioned investigations of this sort can also get suppressed or stopped by the government, the lobbyists and the media through threats and intimidation to protect Big Pharma and the FDA. I hope that there are enough truly outraged citizens in these meetings and on the committees to not allow this to happen.
The FDA is a joke. They are funded by Big Pharma and serve Big Pharma’s interests. They are not to be trusted.
Jack
I am so thankful that you are bringing this to people’s attention.
My main attention is on the drugging of children.
But I think by bringing up the $$$$s that are being spent on the drugging of children seems to grab people’s attention because it is “their” money paying for it.
Whatever it takes to bring people’s awareness of the outragous number of children being drugged - go for it.
Again, thank you so much for what you are doing.
Frank
I hope our country’s citizens wake up to this horrible crime against children and Mankind that psychiatry and pharmaceutical companies are perpetrating!
There isn’t much worse you could do if you wanted to destroy a civilization and its future! The children are our future.
Linda
I agree with all of the above. Mr. Silverman has done a wonderful job and I hope he continues as Robert Whitaker has done with exposing and sharing the truth “Mad In America”. Dr. Tracy also has exposed and appeared as an Eye Witness Expert on many occassions and she continues to battle for humans everywhere http://www.drugawareness.org. Dr. Fred Baughman, Jr. retired Pediatric Neurologist, Eye Witness Expert continues to fight for the truth against “brain diseases” versus DSM made up crap.
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Bob Freeman
I agree with the observations that this is inappropriate drug utilization and would also point out that atypical antisychotics are also used at sub-clincal doses for nursing home patients to keep them manageable at night. This is another practice that has to be banned.
Mr. Richard M. Greene
Atypical antipsychotics such as Zyprexa are acknowledged to cause frequent hyperglycemia leading often to permanent diabetes mellitus. What child wants a life, starting early, consisting of unnecessary daily insulin injections, ending in peripheral neuropathy, loss of feeling in hands and feet, and retinal separation, going blind gradually from “floaters” in the eyeball.
As for typical, neuroleptic, antipsychotics such as stelazine, the Health Ministry of Finland has proven through extended clinical trial and statistical analysis, that neuroleptics cause 25 years premature death in schizophrenics, as compared with placebo administered to schizophrenics.
Antipsychotics do nothing to cure schizophrenia or any other mental disorder. Strait jackets and leather humane restraints control violent behavior without doing near the permanent internal damage of antipsychotics, whether atypical or neuroleptic. Richard M. Greene, Ignacio, Colo.
CriticalMass
FDA is supposed to be the watchdog of the pharmaceutical industry and instead they are the lapdog of the whole industry. Foster kids are on the wrong end of this and they are not being protected.
Love and protection from greedy doctors and companies is what our mentally ill truly need. The numbers don’t lie folks.
Joanne Cali
Kids depend on us to care for them. Parents and adults who decide that normal childhood behavior is “wrong” or “disordered”, and drugs it, are the enemies of our society. They are destroying life and the future generations by suppressing nature, rather than loving and caring for it. The high activity level of kids, their scattered interests and short attention spans, all have survival value. Depressing these is a force towards death, not life. It’s the shrinks who should be forced down, not kids. Foster kids especially have no one to stand up for them. Cold, clinical authorities are rampantly diagnosing and drugging these kids, instead of supplying the love and care they lack in their parent-less states. It’s very sad - and it’s criminal what’s being done.
Ruth Whalen, MLT (ASCP)
The time has come to educate doctors and say goodbye to psychiatric drugs:
A medical technologist, I was misdiagnosed for 24 years. I am allergic to caffeine, but undereducated doctors couldn’t diagnose a simple allergy to caffeine. Instead, doctors pushed psychiatric drugs. I refused the drugs. A good doctor diagnosed my allergy to caffeine, and I eventually recovered and researched.
Stressors, including caffeine and other approved poisons in our foods and beverages, cause so-called ADHD, mental illness, Parkinson’s disease, and many other named disorders. The body has a second gear system. When under the influence of caffeine, other approved toxins, worry, alcohol, or a million other stressors, the body can shift. This shift causes so-called ADHD, mental illness, Parkinson’s disease, and other named disorders.
The truth is in the biochemistry.
Diagnosis means the gods know what’s wrong. In Gaelic, Dia means God. Gnosis means to know. And the real Father of Medicine is Chiron, a Celtic. Ancient doctors were gods. They knew what was wrong with their patients. Nowadays, many doctors are deficient in biochemistry knowledge, and they don’t know what’s wrong with patients. As they did with me, and hundreds of people who emailed me, many doctors make guess diagnoses, and they push drugs. It’s that simple.
Ethically,
Ruth Whalen, MLT (ASCP)
Dr. Hyde
Doctors LIKE drugs, heh heh.
Bill
We are making the druglords of South America look like midgets…why are we “legally” drugging our own children like this? Something is wrong: The Psychiatrists are getting rich, and Big Pharmaceutical firms are paying them a ton from their drug profits.
Mr. Jekyll
I’ll say they do! heh heh
Sir Win Bischoff
But I like them most of all - I’m the head of Eli Lilly and CitiBank!
Francesca
This drugging of of people, children in particular, is obviously not working and finally people begin to see not only that but the fact that it is criminal to do so. If the child or person really has a problem (and being a 4 year old who cannot pay that much attention in class is only the problem of the teacher and NOT a mental problem or disability) then you need to find a way into educating and helping get rid of the cause. NOT drug the person to keep them less active or to “numb” the problem. I think the more drugging the worst it gets.
Viviane Marescot
I’ve seen a kid in my kid’s school who was in his mid- teens with “Tardive Akathisia” who’s only crime was to have an alcoholic Mother. The kid was supposedly diagnosed with ADD or ADHD at the age of 4 then with Tourette syndrome at 9 and so forth…Psychiatric drugs have iatrogenic effects which brings on physiological disorders and they should be totally banned…
truthman
Any comments Brian ?Nathan? Bob? …
Madelynn
My granddaugher was diagnosed with ADD when she was about 8 and prescribed Risperdol. She lost her appetite, lost serious weight, had no appetite, was lethargic, suffered from insomnia developed stomach problems and lacked normal child emotions of pleasure and joy. She tried to get away with not taking them because of how they made her feel but got in trouble when discovered. It took me 2 years to convince her mother she didn’t need and shouldn’t be taking that drug.
Giving children these drugs is criminal. On the part of the drug companies because they KNOW they’re urging doctors to prescribe them for problems they’re not meant to treat. On the part of doctors because:
1. they dispense them solely on the word of drug companies who it’s common knowledge lie to us about their drugs harmful effects.
2. Few make any effort to responsibly monitor the drug use and effects on children.
Chuck
These drugs are dangerous and should not be given to children (or adults). Look at all the school shootings and you will see that the kids doing them were on such drugs, or withdrawing such drugs. Big Pharma and Psychs are promoting murder in our schools, and states are paying for it!
Jerome P
In my 15 years as an insurance investigator, whenever I have had to interview children on such “medication” it always struck me as odd how they seemed…vacant, lacking mental clarity compared to children who were not on medications.
I’ve been forced to adopt a viewpoint from first hand experience that these types of medications do not belong anywhere near children, and don’t get me started on my experience with adults, either!
ErnestR
It’s the same story in Michigan. Eli Lilly is using Comprehensive Neuroscience in Michigan and pushing “off-label” Medicaid prescriptions of Zyprexa for kids with ADD/AHDH. I have presented all this to my state legislator Rep. Kathy Angerer (Health Policy Committee Chairperson) through her assistant Eric Candela all to no apparent result. If anyone out there is willing to take the time to email these people and politely tell them how important it is to investigate this issue please email Eric Candela at Ecandela@house.mi.gov and Rep. Kathy Angerer at kathyangerer@house.mi.gov. You could send a copy to Randy Thompson who is the Constituent Affairs Director in the Michigan Attorney General’s office at thompsonr6@michigan.gov. Thanks so much.
Steve Szmidt
I think you can measure the sanity of a society by how much “Legal” drugging it does. To see how these guys lobby to be allowed to drug three months old babies is distgusting. You know that money is the big motivator here. Nobody in their right mind can come up with ANY excuse for this behavior. They are lucky we are too “civilized” to deal properly with them. They all seem to have this love for inflicting pain on the masses under the guise of helping. Let’s outlaw the lot!!
Theresa
I cannot believe that these drugs are still allowed on the market. Even more surprising is how on earth they ever got to the market to begin with. I have no faith in the FDA. It really seems they are trying to either kill us or make us wish we were dead, so that we would have to take another one of their drugs to control the side effects (That is, if the first one didn’t kill us first!!!!!!!!) Come on FDA, get with it! We don’t want this garbage for our children. In fact, we won’t even take it ourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brian
Psychosis and/ or schizophrenia generally develop in late teens. During early development of these diseases medication can have a benefit on the long term outcome. An unmedicated schizophrenic must be remanded to an institution. I guess it comes down to a question of diagnosis. If a young patient has been diagnosed as psychotic, the parents should get a second opinion before treatment or refuse treatment if they don’t trust pharmaceutical companies.
Paul M
Way to go Ed!! Keep the pressure on these sleeze bags.
Dori Hare
I cannot believe that these harmful drugs are being given to anyone let alone the kids of this country. I feel that i is a “solution” to a problem that not only doesn’t handle the problem but makes it worse. The only one who benefits are the drug companies and their pushers and they should be brought up on criminal charges.
Dawn W
How many of us would have been medicated for our mischievous deeds as children? I got my rear end busted NOT medicated! We are losing our freedoms more and more each day - and now they are taking freedom away from our children. This is getting out of control.
Timothy Baxter
There is little more threatening to the survival of our culture than the lucrative (for Pharma) epidemic of turning youth into life-long customers of their products and otherwise introducing adolescents and teenagers to a sanctioned lifestyle of mind and mood altering drugs. Funny how America became great way before our youth began being labeled wholesale with psychiatric disorders which were merely created and voted in by psychiatrists (a profession with historically the highest suicide rate and whose ranks are routinely convicted of crimes), and for which there are no scientific or medical test or validation to date.
John Wood
Have a look at these hard-hitting PSAs that get across, loud and clear, why drugging kids is such an inhumane thing to do:
http://www.cchr.org/psas/index.html?item=psa1
jeffrey dach md
Zyprexa (Olanzapine) and Seroquel are used for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, dementia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), gambling addictions, and postpartum depression. Zyprexa and Seroquel cause Tardive Dyskinesia, diabetes, hyperglycemia, pancreatitis, and ketoacidosis. Eli Lilly has already agreed to pay $1.2 billion to settle 28,500 lawsuits. Secret Zyprexa documents have been disclosed to the public by medical heroes at great personal risk.
.
Dr. Timothy Scott, author of, “America Fooled: The Truth about Antidepressants, Antipsychotics and How We’ve Been Deceived, reports a 2005 study that found there are approximately 30,000 children under 5 on these atypical anti-psychotic drugs.
.
Dr. Fred Baughman, author of “The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” of Normal Children,” reports that 10 million of the 50-million school children in the nation are on one or more psychiatric drugs and states: “This is death by psychiatry.”
.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recently found that 19% of children who were newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes were being treated with these new atypical anti-psychotic drugs which cause obesity and diabetes.
.
Risperdal (Risperidone) is an anti-psychotic medication by Janssen Pharmaceutical, Johnson & Johnson used for bipolar disorder. Serious side effects: Diabetes, Diabetic Coma, Hyperglycemia, Ketoacidosis, Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome, Pancreatitis, Stroke, Tardive Diskinesia, Weight Gain, Death
.
http://jeffreydach.com/2007/08/26/protect-your-family-from-bad-drugs-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx
.
Protect Your Family from Bad Drugs
.
Jeffrey Dach MD
http://www.drdach.com
Joel Ervin
We were supposed to say NO to drugs. When the medical doctors and psychs got involved, all of a sudden their drugs were no longer drugs but “prescriptions”. These are still DRUGS. Drugs alter the physiological cell structures of the body which in turn affect the person trying to operate the body. Try driving a car with two hands tied behind your back. Same thing. The pharmaceutical companies want to SELL you the drugs. Have you noticed how many commercials for DRUGS have been on TV? They are drug dealers. Let’s say NO to drugs and put all the drug dealers out of business! Our horrific school/work killing events will decline dramatically. I guarantee it! Joel Ervin
Christina Illsley
BETWEEN CPS STEALING OUR CHILDREN AND THE DOCTORS THAT USE THEM FOR LAB RATS AND THE ATTORNEYS IN WHICH ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. DON’T YOU THINK IT IS TIME TO GET OUR CHILDREN BACK.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I NOT TALKING I AM DOING.
WHEN MY SON WAS FIRST KIDNAPPED FROM ME I WENT TO THE GOVERNOR AND I BEGGED HIM TO HAVE AN INVESTIGATION DONE NOT JUST ON MY CHILD CASE BUT FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN CASES. WELL 6 WEEKS LATER MAY 9 2006 ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE DAILY BREEZE AND THE TIMES THEY ANNOUNCE THE (OIR)OFFICE OF INDEPENDENT REVIEW. THEIR JOB WAS TO OVER SEE DCFS LIKE THEY DID WITH THE LA RAMPORT POLICE DEPT FOR CORRUPTION.I HONESTLY DIDNT THINK THAT THEY DID ANYTHING, BUT THEN JUDGE DAVID MILTON DEPT 407 WHOM HAS BEEN KILLING OUR CHILDREN FOR YEARS, WHEN I CALLED HIM ON IT,HE SIMIPLY LOOKED AT ME, DIRECTLY IN TO MY EYES WITHOUT BLINKING AND SAID WITH AN ATTITUDE, THEIR WAS NOT A THING I COULD DO ABOUT IT! BY MY NEXT COURT DATE HE WAS OUT OF A JOB. I STILL DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY CREDIT ,BUT MAYBE IF WE START HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE ONE CHILD AT A TIME.ONE THING I DO KNOW WE NEED MORE EXPOSURE THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT ACTUALLY BELEIF THAT THE PARENTS DESERVE LOSING THEIR CHILDREN IF WE CAN EDUCATE THEM.MAY BE WE CAN GET THE WORD OUT I PERSONALLY WOULD EDMUNDS CHILDREN COURTHOUSE. LET DO THE WALK NOT JUST THE TALK!
Donna
Great Job ED…..This is a BIGGIE!!! and an eyeopener I’m sure to many…..it horrify’s me to think that my money contribute’s in any way to the unecessary prescribing of these med’s to children…
Scott
I looked over the comments of readers, and I did not find a single person who wants kids to be taking psychiatric drugs. It seems to me that legislators don’t even listen to the people they legislate. It’s so sad.
Justice in Michigan
To say the obvious, lots of powerful interests involved. The “TMAP” program has itself become an expression of madness.
This is one more issue about which that I would like to see every candidate - on both state and federal levels - he pushed to take a specific position. Political party is irrelevant. The point is to make sure candidates address the issue directly - no wriggling, no squirming. This is as important as all the other healhcare issues about which he hear endless commentary.
Belinda
If the doctors who prescribe these harmful drugs really are “doctors”, then why don’t they investigate a little further as to whether there is a legitimate “disorder” and if there is something abnormal there, check the child for his diet, allergies, you know, the physical things doctors are trained to understand and know! Or are they trained only to prescribe drugs? If that’s the case then they are only salesmen for the drug companies.
Another thing to watch out for, the drug companies are now trying to drug children even before they’re born — pregnant mothers may have to be mandatorily screened for mental illness or susceptibility to post-partum depression. Now that’s taking it way to far! When is enough enough? People have to wake up and take a stand!!!
Bob G
This behavior by the pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists and drug dispensing doctors is simply a horrible come-to-life of Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s 1984 and movies like Serenity.
The ultimate end is the end of the planet’s population - except for the police force that controls the remaining zombies. If we don’t want this, we must fight these, yes, very evil strictly money-motivated vested interests.
Brian
Sorry folks but it’s much much more complicated than this. Psychosis and schizophrenia generally develops in late teens ie 16, 17 < 18 or early 20’s. It is not always easy to diagnose but the earlier the better for the long term outcome. During early development of these diseases medication can have a major benefit on the patient’s future. An unmedicated schizophrenic must be remanded to an institution. I guess it comes down to a question of diagnosis. If a young patient has been diagnosed as psychotic, the parents should get a second opinion before treatment or refuse treatment if their issue is that they don’t trust pharmaceutical companies.
Does it make sense to you that a parent would allow their adolescent to be on antipsychotic medication first without trying counseling, behavior modification and then ADHD medication? I wouldn’t have let my child be put on this medication as a first resort. Who are they now blaming?? The pharmaceutical companies? I assume they went to the doctor after many years of uncontrolled behavior problems or am I to believe the doctor showed up at their house one day and handed them some medication.
dbear
We are fighting the hundreds of millions of dollars the pharmaceutical companies spend each year to protect their multi-billion dollar drug sales. It’s a big job, but our numbers are growing and we’re starting to win. Hopefully, as these lawsuits progress, the truth about government bureaucrat payoffs, influencing of universities and medical education by “charitable” grants, and all the other unscrupulous activities of the pharmaceutical industry will begin to come out as well.
Larry T
It’s amazing to me that we give mind altering drugs as a solution to mental health. But it’s even more amazing to do it to children whose brains are still developing. I’ve seen people develop shaking motions from the damage these drugs cause the central nervous system. This is not a cure but a chemical straight jacket. It’s a sad comment on where the medical community has gone in this area. There are better alternatives. They may take more effort and make less money for the manufacturers, but for the future of the child it’s worth it.
Theresa
The psychiatrist put my step-son on Risperdal when he was only seven years old. One month after starting kindergarten, he was diagnosed with ADHD & started down a road of one drug cocktail after the next despite mine and my husbands extreme disapproval. I can name at least 7 different psychiatric medications he was on in less than a year! After an abrupt withdraw from Strattera, my step-son was experiencing extreme moodiness, depression, agitation, violent behavior, hallucinations, & he began living in a fantasy world. The good old psych decided that he needed put on an antipsychotic due to his imaginary friend! We were outraged! He was on Risperdal for a year and a half and developed terrible uncontrolled body movements, rolling upwards of the eyes, head rubbing shoulder, moving arms & legs in strange ways, etc. etc. We went to court to try to get him off of this drug before he was disabled for life! This was a long & costly process which ended in my husbands legal rights taken away. After a few months of being drug free, he is now back on a combination of Strattera and Risperdal & is diagnosed with ADHD combined Asperger’s Autism, OCD, tic disorder, anxiety disorder, and Tourette’s Syndrome! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! What they are doing to our innocent children is criminal!!!! Psychiatric drugs should not be pushed on developing children! I’ve seen first hand the devestating & permanent side effects. Some children lost their life to these drugs! When is this going to end???
Tony Miller
The monetary inducements of big pharma buys a lot of integrity. Politicians, the FDA and unscrupulous scientists, with their hands in the very large cookie jar, look the other way when they know full well the drugs pushed by psychiatry are clinically insignificant as to good and with very real dangerous side effects.
It is sad that harmful drug dealers both street and prescribed
sell the idea that the temporary ‘fix’ is all there is.
There is a cause of problems ask any physicist.
Drugs only mask the effect and prevent any true help.
Noelle B
My son is 11 and has bipolar disorder. He’s been hospitalized twice for being suicidal and hearing voices. It’s a horrible illness that I would not wish on anyone.
The issue is really about responsibility. I talk to his teachers, Big Brother, coaches, Youth Pastor, therapist and psychologist on a regular basis - and we all work together to help him develop and use the appropriate skills, etc.
I educate myself, ask a lot of questions, join support groups - everything I can think of to have the appropriate knowledge in order to make educated decisions about my son’s illness and treatment.
It is the combination of all of these things that have helped him to get to the wonderful point in his life that he is in now - and that includes medication - one of which is Seroquel. The medications make him feel normal, and he is able to function in every day life activities.
I think drugging kids up for behavioral issues is wrong. But the fact is, my son has a mental illness, and I believe he would have killed himself by now if it were not for the medication. Drugs alone are not the answer, but they are part of his therapy.
It upsets me greatly that people have such a negative view of mental illness. I have a chronic autoimmune illness which affects one of my organs. His illness affects his brain.
If he had cancer and had to take medications for that no one would say a thing. But because it is “mental” the perception people have is just so wrong. To me it’s a lack of knowledge that causes fear, and that fear causes people to react strongly.
I wish people would get more educated about mental illness before throwing opinions around based on their inaccurate perceptions.
November
Do not put your faith in the FDA, they are just a government monitoring group, they have too much on their plate. A government agency that has more than they can handle. In studying government policy, I’ve noted that they are just a name, with plenty of staff, but that’s about it, do they actually know what they are approving. Yes and no, they are approving what the drug companies want them to approve and this is by committees, research and hearing, however, there is not contrast in their research, no non-partison insight to what they consider as safe. Only what their shareholders and CEO’s and those in charge of pushing the drugs put on their reports, and that is what the FDA goes by, just like any other legistlator or board, committee, analylist, they go by the info infront of them. Whose to protest that. Well, people do protest, but they’re considerations are not taken into account, because money cannot be made without drugs being sold. So we must stop them by not buying their poisons.
November
If you want to know that truth about what these drugs are doing then go to site citizen’s commission on human rights. They have a free dvd you can get it’s horrifying. About 2 hours long along with a free booklet on the history of psychology. The best i’ve read on it by far. People protest this group but that’s just a way of fighting back in support of the most powerful of people. The drug companies, if you want the shocking truth, get that shocking dvd, I guarantee, you will never look at drugs the same again.
Clover Greene
Psychiatry Condemns Little Children Because They Are Born with the Ways of the Child, Providing Neither the Self Actualization Tools Needed for Adult Growth and Indeed Have Not Even had Time to Develop If They Had Been Provided.
Every child is born powerless and dependent on others to provide the vital physical and psychological needs for growth into the adult. The child is mentally irresponsible with naive concepts and automatic emotional reactions to the environment. To the degree of the severity of the environment and lack of nurturing, the automatic emotional-reaction sickness of fear builds into terror, anger into rage, and anxiety into despair, even unto death.
Nurturing with the vital needs of acceptance unity, truth, knowledge, and love, divinity empowers the mental tools needed for growth into the adult. The adult perceives the conscience reality of responsibility to love and serve oneself by loving and serving others, with joy the natural byproduct.
I was born into a work-ethic environment that was nurturing to my brothers and sisters but too deficient in shared laughter for me to feel loved. Naturally reacting with fear, collapsing from the grief of not being loved, I was committed to psychiatry when I was 21 years old.
Psychiatry is a hopeless destitute environment and severe system of physical control of emotions with brain usurping electricity and drugs. Psychiatry is a revolving door of repression, stimulation and rebound — apathy and exploding suicidal and homicidal terror, rage, and despair.
I was still an automatic emotional-reaction three year old psychological child automatically reacting to psychiatry and its treatment and drugs when I was 51 years old. I was, of course, suicidal and homicidal. Real doctors in real hospitals saved my life over and over from my suicide attempts, physical drug damage, and drug withdrawal.
After 31 years in the hopelessness of psychiatry, I was incredibly still alive. A male nurse in an emergency room said, “Go to Alcoholics Anonymous. They teach people how to get well there.” It took me 6 months to acquire the characteristics of the adult: self-examination, self-knowledge, self-healing, self-control, self-dependency, self-actuation of the real loving me, an equally worthy person just like everyone else.
I was once a bag woman sleeping under bushes, screaming my rage on the street, grabbing for policemen’s guns. I am now one of the most blessed of women. My well-read autobiography, Escape from Psychiatry is now on the library shelf and I am a member of the Town of Ignacio Planning Commission. Psychological development programs in schools, mental rehabilitation centers, and prisons — people acquiring the mental tools needed to live in this world and enjoy it — would save our tax dollars, families, lives and world.
Contact me at (970) 563-4433, P.O. Box 116, Ignacio, CO 81137-0116. Visit our web site, http://www.welcomeworld.org.
Amy Philo
No surprise to see news coming from New Jersey, home of pharma-friendly laws… As I said earlier today, it’s impossible to have informed consent, because if you were truly informed, you would NEVER consent! Psychiatry thrives on fear and intimidation and in the worst cases, force. These drugs should be banned!! How many more deaths will it take before we do something?
By the way, there is another issue related to New Jersey and drugging the vulnerable… please sign a petition against the MOTHERS Act. The URL for the petition is on my website, uniteforlife dot org, as is the video I made today to show you WHY you have to stop this bill… forced screening and drugging / hospitalization of expectant and new moms! NO THANK YOU, FEDS!!!! PLEASE HELP ME STOP THEM.
Amy Philo
Let’s try this and see if you accept urls…
The petition is at… http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-dangerous-and-invasive-mothers-act
and my video is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQW23XCmOCw
The Senators consider this on Wednesday
Amy Philo
Oops, forgot to mention, NJ was the first state to pass a mandatory screening law for new moms for PPD. Yep, that’s right, women of America, you are now UNDER SUSPICION and NOT FIT to live a normal, free life. Good luck, babies of AMERICA!!!
Amy Philo
By the way, the much un-discussed implications of this - it will help the pharmaceutical companies get more patients starting with babies. We already drug them starting at two, why not go ahead and bump that up by addicting them while they are in the womb. After all, everyone knows a little poison won’t hurt the baby if you make sure to pretend a little bit… and they promote Zyprexa to nursing moms now too… http://www.uniteforlife.org/zyprexa%20objection.htm
It’s FDA-Approved poison, so it’s okay.
Hansi
Pharmas and psych’s has really gone insane.
Not that they were ever sane.
It’s strange to see these maniacs claiming they
are the one’s knowing anything about “mental health”.
I mean, drugging babies, pregnant women and giving
kids amphetamine just because they are energetic…
How do they get away with it?
Common sense tells me that giving narcotics (amphetamine,
to kids and calling it “medicine” is soo crazy!
Carolyn Meece
What we are seeing is bad doctors and doctors who are abusive, delusional, and psychotic. They feel they can defraud records using false labels and stating that the victim/target/survivor needs to see a psychiatrist and could benefit from psychiatric drugs. It is all a lie from the pits of hell. They are defrauding the records and making false statements in the records that the person never stated. It is also amounting to libel and degrading good and healthy people. They feel they can cover up what is illegally taking place. The records have to be reliable and accurate. There was also a big problem with getting a prescription filled for medication needed. The abuser feels he/she can act like they are being victimized instead of the bully they really are. I find it totally ridiculous that these people do not have any regard for human life.
That they feel they can try to play God in who can live and who has to die. The corrupt for years have been demanding to force feed the psychiatric drugs for fake illnesses. These people who are into criminal activity are paranoid because they refuse to stop their sick games and admit they have lied and broken the law. They do not feel they have to stop until they have succeeded in making the ends justify the means. It is the system that is raping the rape victims, destroying minds, and killing good people.
It is time that they grow up instead of acting like children and take responsibility for their criminal activity involving fake labels, fake illnesses, kidnapping,hostage taking, etc.
Even today when some guy that I knew as a teenager called my home. He stated that he was on Risperdal and it is a shame what the drug is doing to him. It is a tragedy what these evil killer psychiatric drugs do to many lives and how they are illegally used against good people for illegal purposes. The fact that mental health is also used as a false front for the cruel, inhumane, degrading treatment and punishment, abuse, and forms of torture that take place behind closed doors. Much of psychiatrists is nothing but mad doctoring, sham, con game, wicked witchcraft, pseudo-science, etc. I look at it as “Assault & Battery” when a person is force fed these evil killer psychiatric drugs.
It is illegal to use them for illegal forced confessions. Psychiatry is certainly a dying industry and reeks of the stench of death.
The Disenchanted Forest
The drugging of America’s kids…
Every day, thousands of kids are getting pharmacologic treatment with psychotropic drugs they probably don’t benefit from and that may well endanger them. New Jersey, like other states, has formed a task force to probe the use of antipychotics in chi….
Lisa Van S
Noel
what came first,..the antidepressant or the Bipolar diagnosis.
Lisa Van S
Hey Brian,
Im curious,… how do you diagnose Schizo or Bipolar disease in Infants and Toddlers?
Steve Hutton
My son Ryan was taking Effexor when he was 22 in ‘02 and received 5 years probation in Texas because he took a gun to his place of employment.
Ryan doesn’t remember going to work, getting the gun or anyhing. He just woke up and found himself at work. No one was hurt - Thank God. The Dr that prescribed this garbage was himself getting psyhiatric treatment - which we never knew about.
There wasn’t a lawyer that would take his case. The Dr quit his practice and my son’s nightmare will end this December when he completes his probation.
Ryan is a very gentle person and this wouldn’t have happened without the Effexor.
Theresa
Noelle B,
You can not compare mental illness to cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, allergies, etc. ect. Real diseases/illnesses can be proved by science. There are medical tests used to diagnose all of the above listed conditions. As with mental illness, no such test exists. After many, many years of research, psychiatrists are no closer to understanding the human brain than they were when they started! There are some fraudulent studies out there that state that children with ADHD have smaller frontal lobes than with those children that do not have ADHD. The truth is that the children used in this study were already taking stimulant medication. So…to sum it up, all this test tells me is that stimulant medication shrinks a child’s developing brain! Simular tests were also done but this study compared the brains of small children to those in their teenage years. Common sense kicks in here. Younger children should have smaller brain regions than older children!
You had mentioned about people getting educated on mental illness before forming an opinion on the subject. I’d like to know what science that there is to learn. I’ve researched mental illness & psychotropic drugs for the past four years & have yet to find any scientific/medical information out there that justifies mood instabilities as a disease. I’m not saying that emotional problems do not exist. When we are happy is this an emotional problem? How about when we are excited? Sad? Depressed? IMO this is all part of life. We all have our ups and downs. I feel much of this can also be tied to a hormonal imbalance, food allergies/sensitivies, or a vitamin deficiency…which all can be proved by science.
When your son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder did they prove that to you by showing you medical test results on paper or just simply asking you or your son a bunch of questions while checking off the symtoms?
If there were science behind mental illness then this subject would not be controversial. Cancer treatment or diabetes treatment for example are not controversial due to valadity of its existence through medical tests.
Steve
“In their defense, New Jersey Medicaid officials say payments are made for any drug that is approved by the FDA, regardless of whether off-label usage is involved.” … “If there’s an FDA approval for a drug and there’s no restriction on a drug, we pay for it.”
In fact, NJ Medicaid has paid for thousands of prescriptions written on pediatric patients for psychiatric drugs that are explicitly not FDA-approved for pediatric use.
See the table of New Jersey Medicaid Reimbursements for Psychiatric Drugs not FDA-Approved for Pediatric Use from October of 2006 at http://www.psychdrugdangers.com/NotApprovedPediatricUse.html which was compiled from a report obtained from NJ Medicaid by Laurie York in November of 2006 (a link to the original spreadsheet is provided). Included is a “Black Box Warnings” tab which contains links to the Black Box Warnings for the drugs whose prescriptions were paid for by NJ Medicaid. These Black Box Warnings were in effect when the payments were made (and are still in effect).
The following drugs have explicit “not approved for use in pediatric patients” statements in their Black Box Warnings:
Amitriptyline
Budeprion (Bupropion)
Celexa (Citalopram)
Cymbalta (Duloxetine)
Desyrel (Trazodone)
Doxepin
Effexor (Venlafaxine)
Lexapro (Escitalopram)
Imipramine (Imipramine Pamoate)
Nefazodone
Nortriptyline
Parnate (Tranylcypromine Sulfate)
Paroxetine
Paxil (Paroxetine)
Seroquel (Quetiapine)
Tofranil (Imipramine Pamoate)
Trazodone
Vivactil (Protriptyline)
Wellbutrin (Bupropion)
None of the above drugs are FDA-approved for pediatric use (defined as “under 16″ or “under 18″ depending on the reference) for any indication (the condition the medication is supposed to treat). None of the several thousand prescriptions per month written for these drugs should have been, should now be, or should in the future be paid by Medicaid. “Off label” use is not a factor. These drugs are explicitly not FDA-approved for pediatric use for any indication. Period.
Prescriptions for the following drugs were also reimbursed. As Indications were not included in the NJ Medicaid report, payments for these prescriptions may have been Ok, but if any were prescribed for “off label” indications, they should not have been paid for by NJ Medicaid since the FDA statement is “only approved for …”
Clomipramine - only approved for OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)
Fluoxetine - only approved for MDD (major depressive disorder) and OCD
Fluvoxamine - only approved for OCD
Prozac (Fluoxetine) - see Fluoxetine
Zoloft (Sertraline) - only approved for OCD
Understand that we are paying for these prescriptions. “Medicaid Funds” do not come from some nebulous source “over there”. This is your money, this is my money, this is our State and Federal tax dollars that have been (probably are still being) misspent. Even if you don’t live in New Jersey, your Federal taxes paid for half of the bill on these prescriptions, and if you live in New Jersey, your State and Federal taxes paid for the lot. (And if you live in New Jersey, your Federal taxes are funding half of similar Medicaid payments in other States.)
A larger table, culled from the same original NJ Medicaid report, lists projected atypical antipsychotic drug prescription amounts that were paid. As no cost information was included in the original report, I looked up an average price per pill and extended that cost to a 30 day supply, which adds up to a reasonable estimate of the cost to us taxpayers for these prescriptions of $2,526,365.28! That is 2 and 1/2 MILLION Dollars for October 2006 alone, for the 6 atypical antipsychotics alone, for the State of New Jersey alone. You can view that table at http://www.psychdrugdangers.com/Prices.html
Noelle B
From the National Institute of Mental Health - “Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe.”
His Bright Light by Danielle Steel
“This is the story of an extraordinary boy with a brilliant mind, a heart of gold, and a tortured soul. It is the story of an illness, a fight to live, and a race against death.
I want to share the story, and the pain, the courage, the love, and what I learned in living through it. I want Nick’s life to be not only a tender memory for us, but a gift to others. . . . I would like to offer people hope and the realities we lived with. I want to make a difference. My hope is that someone will be able to use what we learned, and save a life with it.”—Danielle Steel - Her son Nick had Bipolar Disorder and was dead by the age of 19. You should read the book. It is quite enlightening.
There is nothing anyone can say to change the reality that this brain disease is in my son’s life and mine. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but you have never walked a mile in his shoes.
Noelle B
This is an interesting “snapshot” of what a day in the life of a bipolar child looks like.
http://www.bpchildresearch.org/pdf/may06-newsletter.pdf
newman
There will come a day when these people prescribing these drugs and the ones making them will be charged with criminal and inhumane activites. A child that is diagnosed with these and then has to live with it the rest of their lives is a GROSS VIOLATION of their civil and human rights. Just because they are underage is no reason to take advantage of them. Why not require parents and anyone giving these meds to first take them themselves or the eqivalent for adults. I guarantee these adults would NOT put their children on these meds. There are alternative methods that take a lot of work but they do work and the child retains their own life!
truthman
Noelle ..
While I would not doubt the bi-polar diagnosis of the child..
I would absolutely doubt the validity of the psychiatric bi-polar definition..
And i would also doubt the scientific validity of the definition of bi-polar as defined by the bi-polar-biological-disease model..
Like depression and anxiety, Bipolar can encompass a range of different human experiences across a spectrum of reactions…(psychical, mental and emotional)
One individual child’s diagnosis of “bi-polar” disorder could be completely different both in symptom and scope than another..
When diagnosing children with psychiatric disorders , it is effectively branding that childs personality, experience and essence of self as being “because of a disease” ..
This is wholly wrong for so many reasons..
Noelle B
Some scientific info: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2007/extreme-irritability-is-it-childhood-bipolar-disorder.shtml
Bipolar Disorder is a real disease - a brain disease, just like heart or lung disease. That is the whole point I was trying to make about people’s perception of mental illness. People’s perception is that it’s just a simple matter of controlling emotions, and that is wrong.
The doctors didn’t need to convince me of anything - I lived the reality of watching my son rapid cycle several times within an hour - him being terrified by the voices he heard in his head, and paranoid about the man outside who wanted to kill him (and there was noone there) - and when he takes the medication he feels “normal”.
You will notice if you take the time to read any of the true life stories of people suffering with the disorder that it is when they don’t take the medications that is when there are problems - such as Danielle Steel’s son.
Someone who does not need the medication and takes it - they will have negative affects from the medicine. It is important to get an accurate diagnosis.
Testimony from a bipolar support group member - “I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you … the enormous help [chapter name] has been to me. I really felt that no one understood what I was going through until I came to the group and listened and was able to talk about it. I didn’t understand that kind of depression before, and I was probably one of those crude people that say “why can’t they just get over it?”…until it happened to me.
—B., chapter member”
I truly hope you will never have to learn first hand that this illness is not just a simple bad mood.
I completely agree that much of this can also be tied to a hormonal imbalance, food allergies/sensitivies, or a vitamin deficiency - all of which I have looked into and adjusted in his daily routine.
Brian
Noelle,
I think Truthman is volunteering to baby sit if you need a break
Truthman
What are you smoking..Have some compassion..You’re just selling your silly ideas
Noelle B
My son is in no way defined by his illness. It is not who he is. He is a child of God, and he knows that. He doesn’t even know he has an illness.
I’m a single mom, and I am not working right now (I’m living off my savings - not government money) so that I can devote the extraordinary amount of time, work and energy it takes to provide him with all of the alternative methods so that he can have a normal, productive life. And he does, but it is a combination of everything - therapy, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Youth Group at the church, social skills classes, playing baseball, my love and support for him - and the medication - that enables him to have a normal, productive, healthy, happy life.
Noelle B
Thank you Brian! I’ll take him up on the offer - LOL. He can explain the lack of scientific explanation while my son has a melt down - LOL. Oh, thank you for the laugh.
Noelle B
Just one more thing - I truly hate the idea that he has to take medication - I wish he didn’t. I pray every day for his complete healing from this illness, and I am believing God for delivering him from Bipolar Disorder. I also believe God gave me my son for His good purpose, and that He will use Dylan for His good purpose - possibly to educate people that mental illness is a real illness, and to bring people to know Him when He does deliver my son to a full, healthy life - without the need for medication.
Don
This is so wrong!! We are teaching our kids to use drugs as a way of handling life.The side effects of these drugs are worse than the upset the kids are going through. Psychs have no effective way to help so they drug instead hoping the kid will eb more tractable. How is that a solution?
truthman
All i can say is Noelle..
If you are so easily duped into accepting a psychiatric diagnosis of bi-polar for your child then your child is very unfortunate …
I have a 13 year old brother who was diagnosed with all sorts of behavioral problems, he was an absolute nightmare, it turns out he has dyspraxia (which means he has problems with reason, logic and learning) ..
If you send your child down a psychiatric route..
You are condemning him to a system which will destroy him..
Actually i think Brian should babysit your kid..
It seems he would agree with destroying him with drugs and psychiatry..
Where as i would not..
truthman
Oh and by the way Noelle ..
The link you provided from the NIMH..
If you do some googling on the net you will easily see how closely tied the MIMH and the pharmaceutical industry is..
It is in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry and the NIMH to diagnose and drug every child and teen in the US..
Hence why it is so supportive of teenscreen..
Noelle B
Medicine alone is not a solution. Medication is only a part of the solution, but parents have to take the time to provide the other things necessary - Counseling and Therapy to learn appropriate coping skills in order to handle life. There are parents who just give the medicine and don’t provide the other methods available to help their children. That’s why education is so important. It’s not easy to know what to do or where to go to get help, but it is out there. NAMI and DBSA are great resources.
Noelle B
I didn’t easily accept the diagnosis. It was only after many years, many doctors, many methods that we have gotten to the point we are now.
I don’t really care what it’s called - a learning disorder, behavior disorder, brain disorder, mental disorder - the name has no meaning to me. What I do know is that what we are doing right now is working, and he is at a very good place in his life.
The only route we are taking is spiritual.
truthman
I would be curious to know what meds you have him on and what age he is?..
Lisa Van S
Noelle B
You never answered my Question,… did the Bipolar diagnosis come before, or after your son was placed on medication? Antidepressants and ADD/ADHD can and will cause mania!!!
Ive walked in your shoes,…. thank god I wasnt so easily duped!!!
Lisa Van S
Many years ,..Many Dr.’s,.. Many methods.
I guess that answers my question
richard w
There is no science behind any of these drugs, for children or otherwise. Barely better than placebos, with enormous downside risks for the consumer and our society.
They cannot cure anything, just numb and make mindless those who are sufferring.
These cash cows are truly disgusting to behold. They should be taken away from the feeding pens and used for shoe leather.
Peter Blackerby
Well more drugs for kids.
I am a school teacher and so many of my kids are being “tested” and placed on drugs. Yes it calms them down, but it also makes them strange! You can tell something is not right with them. The biggest thing is they lose the idea of fun and thier sense of humor. I don’t know at which point they start idealizing about guns and suicide, but I see a conection with the loss of fun and just being a kid.
Oh I may have lost some of you. Read the black box warning.
Side effects may include thoughts of death and suicide.
Theresa
Peter,
You are absolutely right about these drugs erasing a child’s sense of humor & fun. I’ve witnessed this first hand with my step-son. He had such a great sense of humor. He was so much fun & had such a great imagination. After he started on ADHD drugs he was a totally different boy. He rarely laughed or smiled, had no sense of creativity or imagination. It was like his whole personality was wiped away. The stimulants also made him violent towards the family pets. He LOVES animals! His real self would NEVER do anything to hurt them! I would catch him kicking the cats or pinning them down on the ground while squeezing his hands into the cats belly really hard! It scared the heck out of me! When I would talk to him about how this was bad & ask him why he would do something like this, he would immediately start crying and say how sorry he was. He would say how much he loved the cats and that he would never want to do anything to hurt them! He would then lay there next to the cat for a long period of time crying & apologizing over & over & over! Tell me these drugs are helping! They were tearing him apart inside!
Another incident that I will never forget is something that happened last year while he was in second grade. It was during our custody time with him right before it was time to take him back to his mother. While going downstairs he just abruptly stopped & sat down. He started shaking & put his head down between his knees. I immediately ran over to him & asked him what was wrong. He started crying & saying how much he hated his life!!!! He said that he wished that he didn’t have to live anymore!!! He said that he felt too much pressure & that he was afraid that he was going to fail at school! He said his life was too hard & school was too hard. He wished he had somebody else’s life because his life was no fun!!!! This was coming from a 7 year old!!!! I believe that he was on Strattera this time. So yes…these drugs to cause suicidal thoughts…I’ve witnessed this first hand from a small child!
Other strange/bizarre behaviors: throwing scissors in school, drinking from the toilet in school plus another disgusting behavior that I won’t even mention, sticking odd things up his nose & in his ears….I could go on & on.
My husband begged his mother to have him taken off the drugs…she refused saying that “he needs them to do well in school.” He would call the doctors & they would say that this is all normal behavior & nothig to worry about!!!! My husband then began to threaten to sue the doctors if anything happened to his son..this seemed to work because the doctors would run scared & quit prescribing. Well after having to find a new doctor for the third time he ended up in court & has lost all legal custody of his son.
I am bitter & disgusted. I am angry at his mother for caring more about her son acting like a perfectly good little soldier. I am angry at the doctors for prescribing my beautiful step-son this poison…without warrant! I am angry at the school system for not caring about him whatsoever…only caring that he sits perfectly in his seat & never speaks out of turn. I am angry with the judge for taking my husbands rights away when he is the only parent that actually cares for his child & was only trying to protect him. I am angry with our attorney for saying that we have to go along with what everybody says no matter if we like it or not. I AM DISGUSTED!
What in the hell as happened to this country?! CORRUPTION, MONEY AND GREED BEHIND PREYING ON OUR MOST VULNERABLE…THOSE WITHOUT A VOICE…OUR CHILDREN!!!!!!! IT IS IF THOUGH CHILDREN ARE NOT EVEN HUMAN IN THEIR EYES…ONLY AN EASY, DEFENSELESS TARGET TO ATTACK THEN TRAP IN THEIR CORRUPTED WEB TO SUCK BILLIONS OUT OF!!!
Sorry for the hostility but…enough is enough. How much longer do I have to watch my step-son suffer? It is killing me inside & nobody will listen. Nobody will help. If my husband or I even dare mention his name to anybody regarding this subject, expressing our concerns, the judge threatened to take our custody time away. He views this as an “interference with his medical needs”. Hmmmm I wonder how much money is put in his pocket to ensure the continued drugging???? This whole system SUCKS!!!!
Songbd
Mr. Silverman, the children of New Jersey and their parents thank you but this is not where it stops.
The next time you hear about some school shooter on or coming off of a psych med know that this is a side effect of these horrendously harmful drugs and feel the pain of the families involved and the friends and neighbors… unless you are also on these drugs in which case you are probably all ‘numbed out’ which is exactly what these drug pushers count on.
Time to go into the schools and round up the names of the doctors who are doing the prescribing and along with the pharma companies put THEIR NAMES IN LIGHTS.
CA
This is not OK. Our taxes are paying for the drugging of our own children. These drugs suck the life right out of them.
For Noelle: You sound like a great mom and that you are really trying to help your child. I understand that you do not agree on drugs and waited a while before you did. This leads me to believe that you are educated and did some research before you decided. Consider doing a little more research. Particularly take a look at the side effects of these meds (short term and long term). I know there are alternative approaches to this situation and it may cost a little more money which may be an issue as a single parent. Do your own research and look into holistic. You may be able to completely get rid of the problem and not have to have your child on medication for the rest of his life. Just an idea….
Karin
When we were growing up, kids acted pretty much the same as they do now, and we all got along fine without psychotropic drugs. Here we are as adults, and we finished school, got higher education, got jobs and started raising families—again, despite the normal ups and downs of life—n real need for drugs. What’s changed? The only difference is the PERCEPTION that these kids are not NORMAL and thus need drugs. However, upon questioning, psychiatrists admit themselves that they don’t really know how the mind works and it is common practice to prescribe various drugs one after another, or even “cocktails” of opposite-effect drugs, to “see what works.” That’s pretty scary, and considering that upon investigation, EVERY school shooting was committed by some kid on or just off of psych drugs. We need to be alert to what other parents ar allowing, even if we wouldn’t put our own kids on these drugs. I fervently hope our NJ State legislators will investigate this issue thoroughly and, ignoring the vested interests on Big-Pharma, will listen to their constituents, not to mention their own consciences, instead.
Aliza
Everything about the pharmaceutical industry is a fraud. They are not there to help anyone, they are there to benefit for themselves on all the money they get. Their bank accounts, homes, vacations, etc. The doctors are told to prescribe drugs, which then gets them into the hands of kids, which then creates the new generation of murderers, rapists and, yes, thieves. But even worse, some won’t make it because of the effects of the drugs. And some do, but become so destroyed as a person that they no longer are really “there”. I can’t believe people think that, to this day has not been proven to work, you can take a pill and it will all go away. It is the one of the biggest lies out there and guess who benefits?? The doctor, the psychiatrist, the psychologist, the pharmaceutical doctor, etc. All these guys do is make up names of “diseases” and create mind-altering drugs. The drugs don’t benefit the person ingesting them, the parents, the friends. It is a crime to allow this to continue with the drugging of children, and even adults. More people need to wake up and really look at the world that you live in. You really think that one day some kid won’t walk into school with a gun and shoot your child and/or his self? Please. Get real. This needs a better handling then “let’s give them _____.”
Jennifer
It’s really disgusting that I am potentially paying to get my future children drugged.
Anyone within the profession of creating, naming or prescribing pharmaceutical drugs need to get a reality check or thrown in an azylum, because these are the guys are that the psychotics.
Matt
I see that the perscription of antidepressents and other psychotropic agents to children is becoming a fervent area of discussion, with much of the discourse being negative as is seen on this site. To those who have had these drugs negatively impact their or their childrens’ lives, I understand your feelings of anger and hostility toward those who create, market, administer, etc. these psychotropic drugs for children. However, with you being the parent(s) or future parent(s) of these children why are you getting so mad at other people when you are the ones assenting to the drugging of your children? If a doctor hands you a gun and tells you that this is supposed to ‘cure’ your child of whatever is ailing them, are you going to ‘administer’ the gun to your child? If you don’t like what is happening when you use a drug and the alternative to not using the medication isn’t life threatning then don’t use the drug.
Additionally, when one takes medication, the benefits of taking the drug versus not taking need to be compared. Drugs are not ‘wonder pills’ that always give us exactly what we want, hence we need to think more critically…does the benefit I gain (if any) from taking this drug out weigh any potential side effects. Sometimes this is a tough decesion, but you always have the option to not take medication if you do not believe you are benefitting from the its use. The choice to use is your own, not the drug makers and physicans. Thought I would introduce another facet to the discussion as many of the posts appear to be very one sided.
Lynn
Matt,
I get the point of your post. Basically if you don’t like drugs don’t take them or don’t give them to your kids. You suggest not getting angry or upset at other people that take them or give them to their kids. You are not understanding the big picute here. It is not that basic. I do have a right to be upset & angry that other people’s children are drugged because this directly affects my daughter’s safety. In EVERY school shooting the use of psychotropic drugs were involved. My daughter is in the public school system & I constantly wonder how many kids in her school are on these drugs. Once she graduates school & moves on to college the worry doesn’t even stop here!!! Look at all of the college shootings! Again…ALL cases involved psychiatric drugs!! So basically it is my business to care about the decisions that others make.
Also, when part of my paycheck that I have worked for is going towards drugging children that gives me an automatic right to be angry! It is MY money going towards something that is harming, possibly killing children (yes, children have died from these drugs) and putting my own daughter at risk of being around other kids who are in a state of drug induced psychosis who could flip out without warning! THIS IS WRONG! How is there another side???
Donna
Black Box Warning along with Parental Consent would solve alot……..most parent’s will give their child what the doctor prescribe’s, I know I did it…but did’nt know then what I know now…Thankfully my children will be better informed when they have children of their own, if not by the doctor….then by me…
Donna
Lynn,
I hear you, I have one in college and two in high school and I have the same worry’s,who might be sitting beside my kid and what they might be on, i’ve heard some thing’s and have known of many on med’s for adhd, hyper etc. since elementary school..some of which were attributed to food allergies and thankfully the kid’s are doing fine, we did have a suicide in the last year but not sure may have been alchohol or street drug’s, anyway as parent’s we all share the same fear’s that of the unknown….
Phillip Bradshaw
The F.D.A. has clearly betrayed the public trust. Toxins that cause mutations or mutilation of the brain and/or nervous system, should not be used or called medications. Fraud is fraud and poison is poison. Our taxes are supposed to be used for the the general public’s best interest, not destruction. The American Medical Association should the license to practice medicine from the field of psychiatry completely.
Phillip Bradshaw
The F.D.A. has clearly betrayed the public trust. Toxins that cause mutations or mutilation of the brain and/or nervous system, should not be used or called medications. Fraud is fraud and poison is poison. Our taxes are supposed to be used for the the general public’s best interest, not destruction. The American Medical Association should revoke the license to practice medicine from the field of psychiatry completely.
Dona Wheeler
I am an adult, 14