Comments on: FDA Warned Psychiatrist Over Foster Kids In Trials

By: Lisa Van Syckel

Lisa Van Syckel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:40:03 +0000

Justice for these children, Would be to throw this creep in a 6 by 6 jail cell..

By: AmyG

AmyG — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:29:27 +0000

Punjwani is in deep. Investigations by various agencies and at least one lawsuit.

By: M Helm, MD

M Helm, MD — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:53:24 +0000

This stuff breaks my heart every day. It is great to start with protections for children enrolled (legally or not) in clinical trials. What about the kids who are not in trials whose parents/guardians have never seen an informed consent document, and don’t know that for the most part they are subjecting their child to an uncontrolled experiment on a very young and vulnerable human being.

I would bet the medication used in the study in question was an antipsychotic. I don’t think duloxetine or desvenlafaxine have been around long enough to justify trying for the 6 month exclusivity extension.

If you ask the good child and adolescent psychiatrists, they will admit that overmedication is common. My preferred referral docs in CAP spend more time taking kids OFF medications than putting them on meds. Sometimes this just means cutting the kids back from three (sometimes competing) meds to one.

There is lots of inappropriate treatment of childhood behavior with medications. The best response to behavior problems in children tends to be a behavioral solution - especially in younger children (for proof, just watch SuperNanny). Funny enough, mood problems in children tend to respond quite well to non-pharmacologic interventions too, though OCD can still be troubling.

It is hard to imagine what could drive a 7 year-old to suicide. Easier to imagine with a teen, but still just as tragic.

JaT, I think your friends are exactly right, and Florida is not the worst state regarding psychotropic medication use in children. They just have better reporting.

By: JaT

JaT — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:05:07 +0000

BTW, this was not in Florida.

By: JaT

JaT — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:02:56 +0000

We know some people that looked into bringing in a foster child who was deemed to be a difficult child. They got a package describing what classes they would have to take and that there is an emergency intervention number that could be called, what kind of doctors the child would be required to see, how often, etc, etc..
What kept them from going forth was the drugs. There was no way to avoid participating in the psychotropic drug program. They wanted to help to bring this child to a more normal state and felt that the drugs were going to interfere and they couldn’t bring themselves to do it.
So they asked if there were any of these kids that did not have the same medication requirement. All being “difficult children” the answer was no. Not from that agency anyway.
This is a great way to make a buck if you are willing to participate in the dispensing of medications. So much for quality foster parents- as they were not in it for the money.

By: Lisa Van Syckel

Lisa Van Syckel — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:17:50 +0000

The Psychiatrist should be stripped of his license. The FDA should have released the name of the corporate sponsor, and the study medication. Was the study medication an antipsychotic, and if so, was this study used to win FDA approval?

Im sure this case isnt an isolated incident!

By: pharmavet

pharmavet — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:30:51 +0000

South Florida is notorious for clinical investigators ignoring the rights of patients. You have the perfect storm: a large indigent population of Hispanic and other minorities and greedy investigators trying to make a fast buck off these poor folks. I personally witnessed the debacle that was South Florida Bioavailability Clinic (SFBC), that was closed down several years ago because of numerous violations of both patients’ rights and a number of other factors.

http://www.floridatrend.com/print_article.asp?aID=46147