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Military’s drug policy threatens troops’ health, doctors say

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

NextGov
By Bob Brewin
January 18, 2011

Army leaders are increasingly concerned about the growing use and abuse of prescription drugs by soldiers, but a Nextgov investigation shows a U.S. Central Command policy that allows troops a 90- or 180-day supply of highly addictive psychotropic drugs before they deploy to combat contributes to the problem.

The CENTCOM Central Nervous System
Drug formulary includes drugs like Valium and Xanax, used to treat depression, as well as the antipsychotic Seroquel, originally developed to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, mania and depression.

Although CENTCOM policy does not permit the use of Seroquel to treat deploying troops with these conditions, it does allow its use as a sleep aid, and allows deployed troops to be provided with a 180-day supply, even though the drug has been implicated in the deaths of two Marines who died in their sleep after taking large doses of the drug.

The Army endorsed Seroquel as a sleep aid in the May 2010 report of its Pain Management Task Force, which, among other things, called for a reduction in the number of prescription drugs given to troops. An appendix to that report recommended taking Seroquel in either 25- or 50-milligram doses for sleep disorders.

A June 2010 internal report from the Defense Department’s Pharmacoeconomic Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio showed that 213,972, or 20 percent of the 1.1 million active-duty troops surveyed, were taking some form of psychotropic drug: antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedative hypnotics, or other controlled substances.

Dr. Grace Jackson, a former Navy psychiatrist, told Nextgov she resigned her commission in 2002 “out of conscience, because I did not want to be a pill pusher.” She believes psychotropic drugs have so many inherent dangers that “the CENTCOM CNS formulary is destroying the force,” she said.

Dr. Greg Smith, who runs the Los Angles-based Comprehensive Pain Relief Group, which treats chronic pain and prescription drug abuse through an integrative medical approach called the Nutrition, Emotional/Psychological, Social/Financial and Physical program, said he was shocked by CENTCOM’s drug policy for deployed troops. “If I was a commander I’d worry about what these troops would do,” as a result of their medications, Smith said.

Dr. Peter Breggin, an Ithaca, N.Y., psychiatrist who testified before a House Veterans Affairs Committee last September on the relationship between medication and veterans’ suicides, said flatly, “You should not send troops into combat on psychotropic drugs.” Medications on the CENTCOM CNS formulary can cause loss of judgment and self-control and could result in increased violence and suicidal impulses, Breggin said.

The Army implicated prescription drugs as contributing to suicides in a July 2010 report, which said one-third of all active-duty military suicides involved prescription drugs.

When the suicide report was released, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said the service needed to develop better controls for prescription drugs. “Let’s make sure when we prescribe that we put an end date on that prescription, so it doesn’t remain an open-ended opportunity for somebody to be abusing drugs,” Chiarelli said.

But when it comes to the CENTCOM CNS formulary — which for some drugs allows a 180-day supply when troops deploy, followed by a 180-day refill in theater, according to an October 2010 update to the psychotropic drug policy — neither the Army nor CENTCOM sees a need for change.

In an e-mailed statement to Nextgov, Col. John Stasinos, chief of addiction medicine for the Army surgeon general, and Col. Carol Labadie, pharmacy program manager in the Directorate of Health Policy and Services for the surgeon general, said soldiers are supplied with up to 180 days of medications because they “serve in remote areas without easy access to pharmacies. It is important that soldiers on chronic medications do not run out of them during combat operations, because not taking the medications can be as dangerous as taking too much medication.”

Abuse of prescription drugs, Stasinos and Labadie said, can be prevented by improved communication among health care providers, soldiers and commanders. Comprehensive reviews of soldiers’ medication profiles by pharmacists are another way to prevent abuse, they said.

The statement from Stasinos and Labadie added that it is possible that troops could receive a 180-day supply of more than one psychotropic medication.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Speaks, a CENTCOM spokesman, echoed comments from the Army. He said the drug-supply policy for deployed troops was “established to ensure personnel who required these medications had an adequate supply before deployment to last through pre-deployment activities and training as well as travel to theater and initial deployment phase.”

He added, “Some of these medications can cause duty-limiting side effects if they are withdrawn abruptly [i.e. if the individual runs out]. This policy prevents that from occurring.”

Speaks said, “Abuse is always a possibility the prescribing clinician must consider … demonstration of clinical stability, medication quantity limits and in-theater review of prescriptions reduces the potential for abuse.”

Suicide and Drug Abuse

The Army’s suicide report drew a link between a significant increase in prescription drug use among troops and the service’s rising suicide rate. It also raised serious concerns about troops trafficking in prescription drugs.

Jackson, the former Navy psychologist, now has a civilian practice in Greensboro, N.C. She said at least one drug on the CENTCOM formulary — Depakote, an anticonvulsant, which military doctors prescribe for mood control — carries serious physical risks for troops. Depakote is toxic to certain cells, including hair cells in the ears, and can lead to hearing loss. Troops in a howitzer battery who already run the risk of hearing loss should not take Depakote, she said.

The medication also can cause what she calls “cognitive toxicity,” also known as Depakote dementia, impairing a person’s ability to think and make decisions. Jackson said that while Depakote has been investigated as an adjunct therapy for cancer, its use has been limited due to the drug’s effects on cognition.

The antidepressant Wellbutrin, also on the CENTCOM formulary, likely poses a long-term risk of Parkinson’s disease, especially for older troops, said Jackson, author of Drug-Induced Dementia: A Perfect Crime (AuthorHouse, 2009).

Jackson and Breggin both expressed deep concerns about Xanax, perhaps the most addictive of all benzodiazepines, a class of depressant medications used to treat anxiety, on the CENTCOM formulary.

Breggin, author of Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009), called Xanax “solid alcohol” and said all the benzodiazepines on the CENTCOM formulary “amount to a prescription for abuse.” He also said there is no rationale for prescribing multiple psychotropic drugs to troops.

Smith said he was “flabbergasted” that military doctors prescribed Seroquel as a sleep aid, as the Food and Drug Administration has not approved such a use and other drugs are more effective. Breggin agreed, calling Seroquel “very dangerous, expensive and not proven to be more beneficial than other drugs.”

Jackson noted Seroquel has the addictive potential of opioids, such heroin.

CENTCOM’s allowance of Seroquel as a sleep aid also seems to fly in the face of a high-level Defense policy set in November 2006. In a memo titled “Policy Guidance for Deployment Limiting Pyschiatric Conditions and Medications,” William Winkenwerder, then assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, said psychotropic medications that would prohibit troops from deployment included those used to treat chronic insomnia.

Asked if prescribing Seroquel to aid sleep violated this policy, Stasinos and Labadie said in an e-mail, “Seroquel is not prescribed for chronic insomnia. Lower doses have been used to aid soldiers with troubled sleep for anxiety-related nightmares.” They added while other sleep medications are on the CENTCOM formulary, none appears to relieve nightmares as effectively as Seroquel.

Laura Woodin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. division of London-based AstraZeneca, which makes Seroquel, said the drug is not approved by the FDA as a sleep aid or to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But, she added, mental health professionals often prescribe it to treat conditions not approved by the FDA. “Like patients, we trust doctors to use their medical judgment to determine when it is appropriate to prescribe medications,” Woodin said.

Nightmare

Stan White, a retired high school teacher who lives in the small town of Cross Lanes, W.Va., has observed the effects Seroquel can have. When his son Andrew returned from a tour in Iraq with the Marine Reserve 4th Combat Engineer Battalion in 2007, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was prescribed three psychotropic drugs, including Seroquel, by the Huntington Veterans Affairs Medical Center, White said.

VA started Andrew on 25 milligrams of Seroquel a day and upped the dose to 1,600 milligrams a day (the CENTCOM-approved dose is 25 milligrams a day). Andrew White died in his sleep Feb. 12, 2008, six months after seeking help.

White said Andrew was so befuddled by his drug cocktail, which included Klonopin, a benzodiazepine, and hydrocodone, an opiate, that his wife, Shirley, had to dole them out forAndrew. White said Seroquel did not diminish Andrew’s nightmares at even such a high dosage.

While talk therapy is widely viewed as one of the most effective treatments for some mental health problems, including PTSD, White said Andrew had only a few such sessions, primarily with a local veterans’ peer therapy group. It was not until the week Andrew died that a VA psychiatrist decided to begin intensive sessions with him.

Stan White says his mission in life today is to expose the dangers of Seroquel. The drug, he said, “turns people unto zombies. I cannot imagine going into battle on Seroquel.”

MEDS AND MREs

Some of the drugs on the CENTCOM Formulary of CNS Medication Restrictions require patients to follow restricted diets, a tall order for deployed troops operating in remote areas and eating a steady round of Meals Ready to Eat field rations, according to Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist.

At least three of the antidepressant drugs on the CENTCOM formulary are monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which also exist in the intestine and help break down a substance in food know as tyramine.

MAOIs on the formulary include Marplan, Nardil and Parnate, and patients taking these drugs should avoid foods that contain significant amounts of tyramine, which interferes with the action of natural tyramine in the intestines. If not, too much of the MAOI could enter the bloodstream, which could cause a hypertensive crisis due to elevation of blood pressure.

Foods in MREs that contain tyramine include pepperoni and cheese and, among the favorite snacks, raisins and peanuts.

MAOIs also increase the amount of norepinephrine, a hormone, neurotransmitter and blood vessel constrictor, and patients taking these medications should not be prescribed other drugs that could also increase norepinephrine levels. These include amphetamines, dextroamphetamine and Ritalin, which are also on the CENTCOM formulary.

Read article here:  http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110118_8944.php?oref=topstory

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Want to beat depression? Do what I did – just get a grip!

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

The Mail Online – January 18 2011

By Angela Patmore

When I was in my early 20s, I suffered from suicidal despair. I cried for days, sobbed in the street, lost all my self-respect.

Turn a frown upside down: Many people can overcome depression without drugs with the right attitude

I won a prestigious scholarship to America to study ­literature for two years in ­Williamsburg, Virginia, and I became so ­desperately lonely that I took an overdose of sleeping pills. I was found outside my apartment by my flatmate and rushed to hospital, where they pumped out my stomach.

I’d always been a depressive, morbid ­character and suffered from panic attacks. I’d had a very difficult childhood, with a violent father who was addicted to powerful tranquillisers and attacked my mother and me.

Somewhere inside, I knew there was more to life than this. I tried softly-softly therapies such as psychiatry, ‘stress’ management and counselling. They promised to protect me from problems, but all they did was make me feel more helpless.

I could not bear to take antidepressants or tranquillisers because I had seen my father’s character changed by his addiction to them.

But I wasn’t getting better. During one panic attack, I ended up shutting myself in a phone box to ring for help, but I was shaking so badly I couldn’t dial the numbers.

For most of a decade I floundered, working through research, training and academic degrees in search of a magic mindset to make me happy and self-reliant. (I eventually ended up at the University of East Anglia as a research fellow investigating stress.)

Then I turned my research in a different direction, looking instead at what made ­people succeed in difficult or distressing ­circumstances. I studied sports psychology. I looked at the ancient character training used by the Roman army.

The secret, I learnt, was to develop resilience in the face of adversity; to face the problem and be deeply changed by that experience. I came to realise our modern approach to depression and despair often makes the problem worse.

We live in an unusually protective, safety-conscious society that thinks the way to help the weak and vulnerable is to nurse them like infants and prevent them from feeling bad. But look at the number of adults who are suffering from depression and anxiety today and ask yourself: softly-softly — is it helping or harming?

Today, one in three GP patient appointments involves a patient reporting depression. More than six million people in Britain regularly take antidepressants.

A study published just last week found two-thirds of women in England and Wales have suffered mental health problems such as ­anxiety and depression.

‘Being labelled as depressed is not a cure.

It might actually demoralise you and prolong

the whole bitter episode’

Depression is a pandemic, so it must have an underlying cause. I suggest it’s this: we have come to see negative emotions as an inconvenience or an illness. And our modern therapy culture is far too ready to give people labels for their distress — labels that make them feel mentally abnormal and unable to help themselves out of their troubles.

Many people believe they suffer from ‘depression’ or ‘clinical depression’ simply because they are grieving over one of life’s maulings, don’t know what to do to feel better and think it might help if they had a label for their bad feelings.

The label acts like a baby’s dummy or the security blanket of Charlie Brown’s best friend Linus in the Peanuts cartoon — he sucks his thumb and holds it to his ear in times of trouble, though it doesn’t actually serve any useful purpose.

This label is not a cure. It might actually demoralise you and prolong the whole bitter episode.

Once patients are officially labelled ‘depressed’, it tends to sap what little energy they have left to get off their bottoms and set about changing their outlook on life.

Poet John Keats described depression as the ‘drowsy numbness that pains the sense’. It is not only disastrous to life, but dangerous to health. It shouldn’t be mollified with tea and sympathy, but faced down and defeated.

I had such an experience when I was young. I was starting out as a writer, living with my parents, and suffering from panic attacks that were becoming more and more distressing. My habit had been to try to escape the symptoms by surrounding myself with friends and keeping busy. But nights were terrifying spirals and I feared for my sanity.

One evening I decided I couldn’t outrun this any more: I was too exhausted. I’d turn and face the monster. So I went to my room, lay down, folded my arms and waited for the worst.

But suddenly, instead of terror, I felt absolute peace. I went downstairs and looked at my violent, drug-addicted father watching a film on television — On The Waterfront. I was overwhelmed with love and pity for my father, admiration for the film, gratitude for our tiny council house, the lamp on the television, the world I lived in. Everything suddenly made sense. I never suffered from panic attacks again.

Another term commonly applied to depressed people is that they are ‘traumatised’ by some terrible experience. We hear it all the time — schoolchildren have seen an accident in the playground and are therefore ‘traumatised’.

Viewers can apparently even be ‘traumatised’ by watching a particularly challenging episode of EastEnders. But well-conducted studies show that this label, too, can cause far more harm than good. For example, post-traumatic stress counselling can make people feel much worse after they have encountered something shocking.

It can convince them that their reactions are abnormal and a sign of mental illness, causing further anxiety, helplessness and disease.

In fact, negative emotions that go by the name of ‘stress’ can be ­bountifully positive.

A number of Nobel Prize-winning scientists have been studying what are technically known as ‘complex systems’. Examples of complex ­systems include piles of sand, pans of simmering water, the money ­markets and insect swarms.

At the highest point of tension and on the very edge of chaos, they ‘change gear’ and spontaneously produce order.

For example, when a pan of water is put on to boil, all the water molecules behave more and more randomly and ­chaotically until suddenly they all organise themselves into a hexagonal pattern of heat convection and then simmer. From the very edge of chaos emerges order.

‘Nothing to do with me,’ you might think. Except that one of the ­complex systems under study is the human brain, and whether it responds to tension in the same way. Undergoing tension and resolution might be crucial to its vital work.

The nervousness that our stress-managed age has come to fear and avoid might actually be part of a complex process designed to upgrade our abilities, and beat depression and despair.

‘If we are numbed or coddled, we are denied these life-changing breakthroughs’

When we face a threat or challenge, the body goes into the ­complex ‘fight-or-flight response’.

Stress management people are fond of telling us that this is a ‘very primitive’ threat mechanism — one that is suitable for fighting sabre-tooth tigers, but inappropriate for our modern lives.

The mechanism is, in fact, highly sophisticated. Scientists have revealed that it triggers a chain of hormonal and neurological ­reactions which mean that the brain, at the very height of a crisis that threatens to disintegrate us, can suddenly convulse its powers and produce a life-changing revelation.

This miraculous process, which in part is literally a carefully controlled ‘rush of blood’, is what rescued me when I was young and suffering from crippling anxiety.

The brain changes gear when we face threats and challenges. It has to. It is designed to help us survive and learn, to produce brilliant ideas when we’re in the middle of bad experiences. If we are numbed or coddled, we are denied these life-changing breakthroughs — the sudden moments of calm, clarity and visionary joy that occur at the very climax of a personal crisis.

So if you have been ‘diagnosed’, don’t just sit there and succumb. Your brain has untapped powers of recovery just lying there, waiting to help you survive and grow, waiting for you to say: ‘Blast all this. I’m going to get better.’


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Why Mental Health “Advocacy” Groups Aren’t Calling for Psychiatric Drug Investigation in Arizona Shooting: They’re Pharma Funded

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Note from CCHR:  In the wake of the Jared Loughner shooting in Arizona, we pointed out that the press seemed more interested in featuring Pharma-funded mouthpieces speculating on why Loughner wasn’t “treated” (drugged)  and using this tragedy to start banging the drum for more government funding for more mental health treatment, (drugs) before even bothering to find out whether or not Loughner was, or had been, on psychiatric drugs.  The logical question for anyone concerned with mental health would be;  Was Loughner yet another in the long list of  mass shooters already under the influence of psychiatric drugs documented to cause mania, psychosis, violence, homicidal and suicidal ideation that have resulted in 54 dead and 105 wounded in 10 such similar massacres? Isn’t that something we should know before spending billions more dollars on a pharmaceutically based mental health agenda?  Shouldn’t we be investigating that instead of using this tragedy to get more funding for mental health “treatment”?     So let’s just cut to the chase.   The most prominent “mental health” groups using this shooting to cry out “give us billions more funding,” are themselves, funded by Pharma.   Perhaps this sheds light on why despite the overwhelming evidence psychiatric drugs cause violence and even homicide,  groups such as the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), which claims to be a “patient’s rights” organization for the “mentally ill”  are not calling for an investigation of what, if any role, psychiatric drugs played in this or any other mass shooting in the last 10 years,  we are.

To find out more about these pharmaceutical front groups and their real agenda, click here.

Study: Drug firms fund health advocacy group

The Chicago Tribune – January 13th, 2011
by Judith Graham

Many health advocacy organizations rely on financial support from drug companies. But few disclose the extent of that funding or make information easily accessible, according to a new report published Thursday by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The groups often sit on important federal advisory boards and press lawmakers for greater funding for medical research, more generous reimbursement for brand-name drugs, and easy access to diagnostic tests and medical devices for people afflicted by various illnesses.

Because of this, “our feeling is that a lot more openness and disclosure needs to take place,” said Sheila Rothman, lead author of the report in the American Journal of Public Health and a professor at the Mailman School.

The study analyzed data from Eli Lilly & Co. from the first half of 2007 and found that only 25 percent of 161 organizations disclosed funding they received from the drug giant on their Web sites. Just 18 percent acknowledged Lilly’s grants in their annual reports, and 1 percent listed Lilly on a corporate sponsors page.

Lilly gave $3.2 million to advocacy groups during this period, 10 percent of all the grants awarded to doctors, medical organizations, non-profits and other entities.

Rothman called the information a “baseline picture” of how secretive organizations were about industry funding before pharmaceutical firms began releasing this information under terms of legal settlements. Lilly began releasing details of its grants in May 2007, becoming the first drug company to do so.

“These were practices at the time,” she said.

Since then some groups have changed their practices, prodded by heightened concern over potential conflicts of interest and an ongoing, high-profile investigation of drug industry funding to physicians and non-profit health groups by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

While complete results of Grassley’s investigation are not yet available, some details have emerged. For instance, the New York Times reported that the National Alliance on Mental Illness received almost $23 million from pharmaceutical firms between 2006 and 2008; state NAMI chapters have received millions more, according to a letter sent to the organization by Grassley’s office last year.

NAMI now lists corporate grants of $5,000 or more for its national operations on its Web site, but individual chapters’ funding sources aren’t included. The organization has a strict policy against endorsing specific products or services, its Web site says.

Lilly targeted funding to advocacy groups representing patients with neurological or psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar illness, and depression; endocrine disorders such as diabetes; and cancer, the new report found. These were the three largest categories of U.S. sales, worth $10.1 billion for the drugmaker in 2007.

The researchers arrived at their conclusions by checking advocacy organizations’ 2007 annual reports and federal tax forms and performing a comprehensive review of their Web sites between Sept. 30, 2008, and Jan. 12, 2009. All mentions of Eli Lilly funding were noted, but some information may have been missed if it was posted on Web sites earlier.

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Note to Press Re: Arizona Shooting—Before Touting Pharma’s “More Mental Health Treatment Needed” Line – Try Asking The Right Questions

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

By CCHR International

10 recent massacres were committed by those under the influence of psychiatric drugs resulting in 54 dead and 105 wounded

Every single time there is a school shooting, or some senseless massacre, the press are quick to start touting the need for more mental health treatment to “prevent” these tragedies—well before the facts of the case have been investigated. In fact, most of the press don’t appear as interested in bringing the facts to light as they are in making “recommendations” based on assumptions and calling for more mental health services/treatments.   How one can make recommendations before finding out what actually occurred seems illogical to us, and we’re hoping we’re not the only ones.   What also seems illogical is the lack of direct questioning and demand for answers given the facts already known about prior massacres/shootings, such as:  The majority of those who committed such acts had already undergone mental health “treatment,”  and were already on psychiatric drugs.   Drugs documented by international drug regulatory agencies to cause violence, mania, psychosis, hallucinations, suicide and even homicidal ideation.

In the case of prior massacres/shootings, what has repeatedly occurred is that when the facts finally came out,  due solely to the efforts of those few  determined investigative reporters (such as Fox National News reporter Douglas Kennedy), and it was revealed that the shooter had been under the influence of psychiatric drugs, or in withdrawal from them,  most of the press were quick to counter the drug/violence connection by featuring some Pharma mouthpiece touting the “there is no evidence that these drugs cause violent or homicidal behavior” line.

Really?    No evidence? There have been 22 International Drug Regulatory Agency Warnings on psychiatric drugs causing violence, mania, psychosis and even homicidal ideation.   These warnings have been issued by drug regulatory agencies in the United States,  the European Union, Japan,  The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

And consider that just last week, TIME Magazine reported on a study from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices that  “based on data from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System has identified 31 drugs that are disproportionately linked with reports of violent behavior towards others.”  And out of the Top 10, 8 were psychiatric drugs.

From Time Magazine: “When people consider the connections between drugs and violence, what typically comes to mind are illegal drugs like crack cocaine. However, certain medications — most notably, some antidepressants like Prozac — have also been linked to increase risk for violent, even homicidal behavior.

The Top 10 included  the Antidepressants Pristiq, Effexor, Luvox, Paxil, Prozac, ADHD Drugs, Strattera and the Anti-Anxiety drug,  Halcion.

Now, to be perfectly clear, we’re not saying for a fact that Loughner was taking  psychiatric drugs at the time of the shooting, or in the past, which studies show can cause long-term  damage long after an individual has stopped taking them.   We’re saying, why aren’t the press finding out?   Consider that 10 recent massacres were committed by those under the influence of psychiatric drugs documented to cause mania, psychosis, violence and even homicide, resulting in 54 dead and 105 wounded—and those are just the ones we know about. In several cases, medical records were sealed or autopsy reports not made public or, in some cases, toxicology tests were either not done to test for psychiatric drugs, or not disclosed to the public.   But let’s just consider what we do  know about the mental health “treatment” of those who committed these acts of violence:

  • Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 16 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system.
  • Omaha, Nebraska – December 5, 2007: 19-year-old Robert Hawkins killed eight people and wounded five before committing suicide in an Omaha mall.  Hawkins’ friend told CNN that the gunman was on antidepressants, and autopsy results confirmed he was under the influence of the “anti-anxiety” drug Valium.

  • Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.

  • Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life.  Court records show Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.

  • Blacksburg, Virginia – April 16, 2007: 23-year-old Seung Hui Cho shot to death 32 students and faculty of Virginia Tech, wounding 17 more, and then killing himself.  He had received prior mental health treatment, however his mental health records remained sealed.

  • Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.

  • Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun.  Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg.  Romano had been taking “medication for depression”.

  • El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School.

  • Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2001: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.

  • Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with antidepressants when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.

  • Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves.  Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox.  Klebold’s medical records remain sealed.

  • Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students.  He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.

  • Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 22.  Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac.

So, given the fact that these shooters were on psychiatric drugs, given the fact that 22 international drug regulatory agencies warn these drugs can cause violence, mania, psychosis, suicide and even homicide, given the fact that a major study was just released confirming these drugs put people at greater risk of becoming violent,  here are the questions we think deserve to be answered.

1) Court records show that a case against Jared Loughner was dismissed on Dec. 9, 2008, after he completed some type of diversion program.    What was the diversion program?  Did it include mental health treatment or do the case notes include any information about any prior mental health treatment  Loughner may have undergone?  Such was the case of Columbine shooter Eric Harris’s “diversion program”, where case notes dated 4/16/98 revealed that “Eric has been having difficulty with his medication for depression.  A few nights ago he was unable to concentrate and felt restless.  He went to the doctor and the doctor is changing his medication.”

* Further note to press: Sometimes finding the psychiatric drug connection requires a bit more due diligence than just asking the question; case in point,  following the Columbine massacre, the Coroner’s office initially reported no drugs were found in Eric Harris’ tox reports.   Following this, an investigative reporter found that Harris was rejected from the military and psychiatric drug use was suspected as the cause for the rejection.   When this became known,  the coroner’s office seemed to find that  Harris did in fact have the antidepressant Luvox in his system.

2) The Wall Street Journal reported, “One high-school pal said Loughner had become suicidal”.  Considering the FDA has issued black box warnings that antidepressants can cause suicidal ideation (as can other psychiatric drugs) was Loughner already under the influence of these drugs?

3) The press has reported that Loughner was “barred from campus pending a psychological evaluation.”  So what happened?  Did he get one?  Was he ever in mental health treatment, or prescribed a psychiatric drug? Ever?

As a final note:  Whether or not Loughner was yet another in the long list of shooters under the influence of drugs documented to cause mania, psychosis, hallucinations, aggressive behavior, suicidal and homicidal ideation—Given the international drug regulatory agency warnings & studies, the just released Institute for Safe Medication Practices study, this much we know for certain; the  last thing we need is more kids on psychiatric drugs.    And given what we already know about the risks of these drugs, any recommendation for more mental health treatment, meaning more people and more kids put on these drugs, is not only negligent, but considering the possible repercussions, criminal.

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“Plato, Not Prozac! Applying Eternal Wisdom to Everyday Problems” A look at how philosophy can be therapeutic

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Salisbury Post – Jan 9, 2011

by Dr. Jim Spiceland

“Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering.” — Epicuris


An important objective of “Plato, Not Prozac!: Applying Eternal Wisdom to Everyday Problems” is to introduce the reader to the methods and value of “philosophical practice.”

The author, Dr. Lou Marinoff of City University of New York, is aware that this may seem like a new concept to some American readers. He reminds them of the words of one of the west’s earliest philosophers, Socrates, who counseled his students to “know themselves.”

Socrates also claimed that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” and many of his dialogues, brought to us by his student Plato, can plausibly be viewed as counseling sessions.

Socrates clearly wanted his students to face their problems, and his dialogues demonstrate a constructive method for dealing with them. Indeed, Marinoff claims that philosophical dialogue, the exchange of ideas itself, can be therapeutic.

Socrates also referred to the philosopher as a “midwife,” one who is skilled in assisting the student in the sometimes painful process of uncovering his or her own inner life.

Philosophical practice is not something new. It has been around, in one form or another, for a very long time.

Marinoff calls philosophical practice “therapy for the sane,” which makes it useful to just about all of us. He laments the “medicalization” of many of the ordinary stresses of modern life.

Emotional distress is not necessarily a disease. Modern psychiatry, however, appears to thrive on this model. Marinoff points out the growth of its major reference book, “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual” (DSM). Marinoff says that just about any conceivable behavior can end up listed in the DSM and diagnosed as a symptom of mental illness.

This is in spite of the fact that a majority of the mental illnesses listed in the DSM have never been shown to be caused by any brain disease.

In 1952, the DSM listed 112 disorders. The current edition, first published in 1994, presents nearly 400 disorders. The target date for the next edition is 2012. One wonders how long its list of disorders will be. Marinoff claims “…the pharmaceutical industry and the psychiatrists who prescribe their drugs are committed to identifying as many ‘mental illnesses’ as theypossibly can.”

This, of course, results in the transfer of a lot of wealth and power in their direction. In the 1980s, psychiatrists suggested that about 10 percent of the U.S. population was mentally ill. By the 1990s, the number was up to 50 percent.

There are people who need to be medicated, and it is also true that a few need to be institutionalized to protect themselves and others. It should be equally clear, however, that something has gone wrong here.

Half of us are mentally ill? On the contrary, it is normal to have problems. Most educated people have the intellectual means to recognize and deal with the problems that come with life in our hurried technological age.

We may, however, profit from the collective insights of philosophy. “Plato, Not Prozac” is replete with interesting discussions of how to apply philosophy to personal moral dilemmas, conflicts between reason and emotion, problems with relationships, midlife changes and mortality.

Marinoff writes of a “great philosophical plague of … widespread feelings of personal pointlessness. So many people are without a firm sense of purpose or meaning in their lives that the lack has come to seem normal.”

There is good reason to believe that most of us can work through these issues on our own, and a careful reading of this book can be a good beginning. Its purpose is to be a practical guide to help deal with life’s most common struggles. It deals with important questions that all people grapple with, and considers answers given by some of history’s great thinkers. Most important of all, it presents strategies that help the reader find his or her own answer.

The book is neatly divided into four sections, each of which builds on the other, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of the methods and values of philosophical practice.

The first part of the book discusses “New Uses for Ancient Wisdom” and does an excellent job of demonstrating how the perennial questions of the discipline are relevant to our fast-paced lifestyle.

When confronting a problem philosophically, one practical method is what he labels the PEACE process. This involves identifying the problem, examining the emotions provoked by the problem and an analysis in which you list and evaluate options for solving it.

The fourth stage requires a person to take a step back, gain perspective and contemplate the entire context of the problem.

“To this point, you’ve compartmentalized each of the stages in order to get a handle on them. But now you exercise your whole brain to integrate them. Rather than dwelling on the individual tree, you examine the shape of the forest.”

This will enable a person to consider which philosophical systems, insights and methods might be helpful in managing the issue. These four steps, when carefully applied, should bring an understanding of the problem which makes the appropriate action clearer.

Part II discusses “Managing Everyday Problems,” such as seeking a relationship, maintaining a relationship, family life and strife, workplace issues, midlife problems and many other issues. The discussion is enriched by case studies from the author’s practice.

Part III presents the application of philosophy to contexts beyond client counseling. European philosophical cafes are presented, along with the need for specialized ethical consultants in areas like health care, business and law.

A clear description of a “Socratic dialogue,” such as those conducted at German spas and resorts, is in this section. The author even mentions a colleague who is marketing Socratic dialogues to cruise lines: “Sun, Sea, and Socrates.” Certainly a new and interesting idea.

The last section is a discussion of more than 60 philosophers whose work is relevant to philosophical counseling. Several of them are mentioned in the book, but these brief presentations elucidate their relevance to many philosophical problems.

“Plato Not Prozac” is a good read. And the book is not as polemical as the title implies. Fairly early on, Marinoff suggests that in our fast-paced lifestyle, some people will benefit from Plato and Prozac. The book represents a refreshing and much-needed perspective.

http://www.salisburypost.com/Entertainment/010911-book-plato-not-prozac-qcd

Lou Marinoff  is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at City College New York, and the Founding President of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA)

http://www.loumarinoff.com/Lou%20Marinoff%20Bio%201209.pdf

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Finally—An Official Admission: Psychiatric Drugs Cause Violent & Homicidal Behavior

Friday, January 7th, 2011

NOTE FROM CCHRINT: Finally.  An admission.  From TIME Magazine no less.  We at CCHR would  like to take this opportunity to point out that it was due to CCHR’s efforts in 1991 that the FDA held public hearings on the antidepressant Prozac causing violence and suicide in patients.  Scores of victims and families gave testimony along with medical experts that people with no prior history of violence or suicidal behavior  became so under the influence of an antidepressant.   However, the FDA panel, comprised of individuals and psychiatrists with heavy conflicts of interest and numerous ties to the pharmaceutical industry, ignored the evidence.   It would take the FDA 13 years to finally issue black box warnings that antidepressants can induce suicidality.  They have yet to issue black box warnings on antidepressants causing violence…. despite the fact numerous school shooters have been under the influence of such drugs.   Watch CCHR’s exclusive footage of the 1991 FDA hearings on Prozac.

TIME MAGAZINE – JAN 7, 2011

Top Ten Legal Drugs Linked to Violence

by Maia Szalvitz

When people consider the connections between drugs and violence, what typically comes to mind are illegal drugs like crack cocaine. However, certain medications — most notably, some antidepressants like Prozac — have also been linked to increase risk for violent, even homicidal behavior.

A new study from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices published in the journal PloS One and based on data from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System has identified 31 drugs that are disproportionately linked with reports of violent behavior towards others.

Please note that this does not necessarily mean that these drugs cause violent behavior. For example, in the case of opioid pain medications like Oxycontin, people with a prior history of violent behavior may seek  drugs in order to sustain an addiction, which they support via predatory crime. In the case of antipsychotics, the drugs may be given in an attempt to reduce violence by people suffering from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders — so the drugs here might not be causing violence, but could be linked with it because they’re used to try to stop it.

Nonetheless, when one particular drug in a class of nonaddictive drugs used to treat the same problem stands out, that suggests caution: unless the drug is being used to treat radically different groups of people, that drug may actually be the problem. Researchers calculated a ratio of risk for each drug compared to the others in the database, adjusting for various relevant factors that could create misleading comparisons.

10. Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) An antidepressant which affects both serotonin and noradrenaline, this drug is 7.9 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

9. Venlafaxine (Effexor) A drug related to Pristiq in the same class of antidepressants, both are also used to treat anxiety disorders. Effexor is 8.3 times more likely than other drugs to be related to violent behavior.

8. Fluvoxamine (Luvox) An antidepressant that affects serotonin (SSRI), Luvox is 8.4 times more likely than other medications to be linked with violence

7.Triazolam (Halcion) A benzodiazepine which can be addictive, used to treat insomnia. Halcion is 8.7 times more likely to be linked with violence than other drugs, according to the study.

6) Atomoxetine (Strattera) Used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Strattera affects the neurotransmitter noradrenaline and is 9 times more likely to be linked with violence compared to the average medication.

5) Mefoquine (Lariam) A treatment for malaria, Lariam has long been linked with reports of bizarre behavior. It is 9.5 times more likely to be linked with violence than other drugs.

4) Amphetamines: (Various) Amphetamines are used to treat ADHD and affect the brain’s dopamine and noradrenaline systems. They are 9.6 times more likely to be linked to violence, compared to other drugs.

3) Paroxetine (Paxil) An SSRI antidepressant, Paxil is also linked with more severe withdrawal symptoms and a greater risk of birth defects compared to other medications in that class. It is 10.3 times more likely to be linked with violence compared to other drugs.

2) Fluoxetine (Prozac) The first well-known SSRI antidepressant, Prozac is 10.9 times more likely to be linked with violence in comparison with other medications.

1) Varenicline (Chantix) The anti-smoking medication Chantix affects the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, which helps reduce craving for smoking. Unfortunately, it’s 18 times more likely to be linked with violence compared to other drugs — by comparison, that number for Xyban is 3.9 and just 1.9 for nicotine replacement. Because Chantix is slightly superior in terms of quit rates in comparison to other drugs, it shouldn’t necessarily be ruled out as an option for those trying to quit, however.

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Federal disability program induces child drugging in low-income families

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

NaturalNews Jan 5, 2010
by Monica C. Young

In 1990 only 8 percent of children received SSI funds for behavioral issues; by 2009, that percentage had soared to 53 percent. Shockingly, children under 5 form the fastest-growing segment of this steep trend.

(NaturalNews) A $10 billion federal disability program gives low-income parents a strong financial incentive to have their children diagnosed with behavioral disorders and prescribed powerful psychotropic drugs. This is the core finding of a recent Boston Globe in-depth investigation.

Congress created Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in 1974 to aid the aged, blind and severely physically disabled, such as children with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. Yet per the Globe, half of today’s SSI recipients are children diagnosed with mental disorders such as ADHD and bipolar. But to qualify, those children really need to be on prescription drugs. Per the SSI associate commissioner’s own words, “medication helps confirm a diagnosis.”

In 1990 only 8 percent of children received SSI funds for behavioral issues; by 2009, that percentage had soared to 53 percent. Shockingly, children under 5 form the fastest-growing segment of this steep trend.

The article’s author, Patricia Wen, reports this has, “created, for many needy parents, a financial motive to seek prescriptions for powerful drugs for their children. And once a family gets on SSI, it can be very hard to let go.” A child diagnosed with ADHD and forced onto a daily med regimen yields $700 a month, which can be more than half the family’s income.

It is not surprising then that children of poor families are diagnosed and prescribed psychiatric drugs at a higher rate than in higher-income families. This system encourages needy parents to obtain psychiatric labels for their kids and keep them medicated. It also discourages healthy alternatives and deters improvement. If a clinician finds the child no longer meets prescription requirements for depression, hyperactivity, study difficulties or such, that assurance of a monthly check is gone.

One unemployed single mother, seeing other medicated boys in the community become “zombie-like”, had resisted advice to medicate her three sons for oppositional defiant disorder and other alleged problems. Her applications for SSI were rejected. Strapped financially and after strong urgings from school officials, she finally conceded to a drug for her 10-year-old for his impulsiveness. Within weeks her SSI application was approved. “To get the check,” she confided to the Globe, “you’ve got to medicate the child.”

Still, she hopes to get her son off the drugs as soon as possible and keeps on hand as a favorite article: “What if Einstein had been on Ritalin?”

The Boston Globe’s report (see Sources below) is well worth reading in full.

Another point to note however is the parallel to drug company revenue. While SSI payouts for behavioral issues rocketed since the ’90s, so have drug profits. Pharmaceutical sales shot up from $40 billion in 1990 to $234 billion in 2008. The drug industry’s vast front network of mental health advocates lobby at every opportunity for government backing of their child medicating campaign.

Common vagaries of growing up — the frustrations, defiances, mood swings, spontaneity — have been redefined into psychiatric “disorders”. With some 15 million kids reportedly having “learning disabilities”, this points to a failure with the schools, not the students.

The truly “mentally disordered” it seems are drug makers and cohorts who push parents to believe this myth and comply with drugging their children.

The tragic victims are the kids. This adult (not youth) lunacy endangers children’s health and can crush their self-esteem and derail their future. Not only are they led onto a life of drug dependency and serious side effects, they are also convinced there is something innately wrong with them — a lie.

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Now this, is the kind of mental therapy we can get behind—”Psychiatrist tries a different approach with dementia patients”

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

STAFF PHOTO / CRAIG LITTEN - Dr. Miguel Rivera visits with patient Helen Kidd last month at the Pines of Sarasota. Under Rivera's direction, Pines caregivers have deployed some simple spa comforts to reduce agitation. As a result, dosages of antipsychotic drugs have dropped.

Herald Tribune
By Barbara Peters Smith
January 2, 2011

The pixie-like patient in a pink dress and a long, flirty strand of pearls lights up as visitors approach, and scoots her wheelchair along the corridor to give them her standard greeting.

“Okinawa! Saipan! Iwo Jima! Rome!” she chirps, alluding to the military career that took her around the world — long before dementia brought her here, to the Garden Memory Unit at Pines of Sarasota.

She tags along as the visitors inspect a shower room that has been freshly painted with an expansive scene of Gulf-front sand and sky. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?” she asks them. “I love it in there!”

One of the Pines’ calming shower rooms.

Dementia patients can get anxious to the point of violence while bathing, and this cheery beach mural is one of many small innovations that have lifted moods here in recent months. Under the direction of psychiatrist Dr. Miguel Rivera, caregivers at the Pines have deployed such simple spa comforts as music, massage and calming colors to help reduce agitation. As a result, dosages of antipsychotic medications have dropped to less than half the state average for this most challenging patient population.

Rivera, a gentle, sweet-spoken native of Puerto Rico who completed his psychiatric residency at the University of South Florida in 2001, stresses that none of these therapeutic tactics are his own invention.

“These were not things they taught us in our residency program, but I didn’t create them, either,” he says. “I’m more the person that maybe has the credentials to bring this to people, and people will tend to believe me because I have this M.D. behind my name.”

But Pam Polowski, the Alzheimer’s Association program specialist for Sarasota County, says Rivera works a kind of magic that is rare in this field.

“One of the things that is really important to know is that we can’t drag our dementia patients into our world,” Polowski says. “We have to go to their world and join them on that journey. And he gets that.”

Dementia is a loss of brain function that cripples memory, emotions and behavior. Medicare payments for services to dementia patients are expected to total $172 billion in 2010. So low-cost interventions such as Rivera’s could save tax dollars.

In a light-filled common room at the Pines, activities director Shirley Riesz is using karaoke to help 20 or so residents power through the normally trying hours before suppertime. Dementia patients’ circadian rhythms can make them prone to “sundowning,” Rivera explains, when they “begin to pace, get aggressive, want to go home and set off alarms” on the unit’s doors to the outside world.

A music therapy session at any long-term care facility can be a dreary, halfhearted ritual. But here, the atmosphere is alive. As “High Hopes” plays, Riesz holds the microphone for a man who sings out strongly, “Whoops, there goes another rubber tree plant!”

Even those not joining in are attentive and mostly smiling. Several wave at Rivera, and he waves delightedly back.

“They don’t know I’m a doctor,” he said, indicating his casual, golf-style shirt. “They just think I’m this friendly guy who comes around a lot.”

Through research and trial and error, Rivera has discovered that what he calls “courting music” — from the days when his patients were young and in love — evokes the most dramatic responses. He explains that the vivid connection between a particular song and a potent emotion reflects “things that the mind doesn’t really know. If you are really able to concentrate and visualize through music, you get transported and the body responds.”

Rivera tells the story of Ann, who moved to the memory unit from the assisted-living section of the Pines after a stroke. Unable to speak, she was despondent and withdrawn.

“I had the intuition that what we really needed to do was to start her on a singing program,” he recalls. “We started to notice early on that she was able to sing words and phrases that she was not able to speak. Little by little, it started to spill into her day. She started saying ‘OK’ or ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ We never knew that she liked coffee until the other day, when she told Shirley, ‘I love coffee.’ So now she gets to enjoy her coffee.”

And there is Grace, the patient so upset by the bathing process that she was giving her attendant bruises.

“This is a Monday ritual without fail,” Riesz wrote in a recent e-mail message to Pines education director Joann Westbrook. “But today there was NO screaming, just laughing, dancing and singing.”

The song that did the trick, according to certified nurse assistant Valrie Miller, was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” After the first nonviolent bath time, Miller says, Grace asked her, “Will you love me today?”

Thanks to a small grant that paid for iPods and “courting music”; waterproof plastic iPod holders made by Rivera’s neighbor, a retired engineer; and those calming beach scenes painted by Westbrook’s husband, K.C. Higgins, the Pines found a way to do for Grace what the strongest pharmaceuticals could not.

“What is ironic,” Riesz added, was that “her daughter gave me a preferred music CD and it has no connection or relation to the genre she was enjoying. Let that be a lesson to us: Make up your preferred playlist of music now, because someday your children may do it for you.”

Rivera, who works as a mental health medical director for seven long-term care facilities in Sarasota, did not plan any of this.

He came to Sarasota in 2001 with what he now calls the “grandiose” idea of running an alternative, yoga-based medical practice that would “teach people how to change their lives.” The business failed.

“Right around the same time that this is disappearing,” he says, “I get a call from Bruce Robinson, the chief of geriatrics at Sarasota Memorial. And he said, ‘Hey, I heard you were in Sarasota; would you mind doing some nursing home consultations for me?’ They say in Spanish, when you’re born to be a hammer, it rains nails from the skies.”

Robinson says finding trained psychiatrists to take on this work is a struggle.

“There’s a desperate need for more mental health care in long-term facilities,” he says. “It’s a shame there aren’t more doctors like Miguel. He’s there. He answers his phone.”

Rivera took to his mission right away. But he was frustrated that his only option for helping distraught patients was to increase their medications.

“I remember so many times walking through that old west hallway at the Pines” before the building was remodeled, he says. “After the first few years of me working there and seeing how people were overmedicated, and boredom was so prevailing, I remember — and I feel it right now — just walking down that hall, and praying, saying, ‘Please, God, show me a way.’ ”

It was Rivera’s wife, Natasha, he says, who put him on a path to exploring alternatives to drugs. Both practitioners of TriYoga, they met in 2007 on a spiritual trip to India. By the end of the three-week stay, they were married. A year later, she joined him in Sarasota from her native Russia. And almost immediately, Rivera says, she changed the way he was doing his job.

“All of a sudden there is this fresh pair of eyes that is asking all these questions,” he says. “‘What is Alzheimer’s disease? Why do people get it?’ It made me look at things; it took me out of that automatic mode.”

Rivera soon found research on the use of music, massage and other therapies on dementia patients. His reading also led to the use of daily affirmations by Pines staffers, who tell the patients, “You are safe; you are loved; you are happy.” The result, says Westbrook of the Pines, was “this whole beautiful circle he has created here that has changed that unit.”

Robinson views Rivera’s work from a more scientific standpoint, and applauds the fact that out of some 40 patients in the Pines memory unit, only eight are taking antipsychotic drugs.

“I am happy to have them report that,” he says. “Since the only evidence we have for the effects of antipsychotics is that they kill people, anything that can reduce that is a good thing.

“The life of an old person with dementia can be very meager: Where’s the fun?” Robinson adds. “The idea of having something positive in your life, like massage — all those things have an evident face validity.”

Read the rest of the article here:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110102/ARTICLE/101021037/2055/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg

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12-year old’s suicide while on antidepressant highlights alarming rise in psychiatric drugging of military kids

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Click image to watch video: Psychiatric Drug Side Effects

Note from CCHR: This article highlights the self-harm and suicide of a 5th grade boy who was prescribed an antidepressant by a psychiatrist at Fort Hood’s Darnall Army Medical Center.   More than 30 international drug regulatory agencies and studies have documented that antidepressants (and other psychiatric drugs) can cause self-harm (such as cutting) and suicide in under 18-year-olds.    Click here for international warnings/studies http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/ Also see this video, Psychiatric Drug Side Effects

The Army Times – Jan 3, 2011
by Karen Jowers and Andrew Tilghman

Prescriptions increase as families struggle with repeated deployments

Before his father deployed to Iraq, Daniel Radenz was a well-adjusted fifth-grader earning straight A’s and B’s in school near Fort Hood, Texas.

But shortly after Army Lt. Col. Blaine Radenz left home in June 2008, his 11-year-old son became withdrawn and anxious. His grades at school slipped and his mother noticed mood swings. The child’s longtime pediatrician referred him for counseling.

A psychiatrist at Fort Hood’s Darnall Army Medical Center prescribed the antidepressant Celexa. Daniel also saw a psychologist there. Doctors added to and changed Daniel’s drug regimen, but his problems grew worse, said his mother, Tricia Radenz.

Daniel started cutting himself and once used his own blood to write “the end” on a bathroom wall at school. One day in band class, he began hallucinating and ran into the hall, where teachers found him crouched and hitting and scratching his face.

On June 9, 2009, Daniel hanged himself from a bunk bed in his home.

“I really feel the drugs played a significant role in Daniel’s death,” said Tricia Radenz, a 41-year-old emergency-room nurse.

It’s impossible to know precisely why a 12-year-old chose to take his own life. But the boy’s problems — and the use of powerful psychiatric drugs to treat them — highlight a concern for a growing number of military families who are struggling with the impact of long, frequent deployments on their children left at home.

The use of psychiatric medications by military children is on the rise. Overall, in 2009, more than 300,000 prescriptions for psychiatric drugs were provided to children under 18 who are Tricare beneficiaries.

That’s up 18 percent since 2005, according to data provided to Military Times — a period when the under-18 population increased by less than 1 percent. And some drug categories have shown even higher rates of increase — antipsychotic drugs are up about 50 percent and anti-anxiety drugs are up about 40 percent.

That mirrors a similar trend in the active-duty force, which has seen a 76 percent increase in prescriptions for psychiatric medications since the start of the war in Afghanistan.

Dr. Patricia Lester, a psychiatrist at University of California, Los Angeles, said the rise in drug use among children tracks with studies she and others have done showing how repeated deployments are taking a toll on military kids.

“There is a consistent story coming out showing that these kids have more distress,” Lester said. “And it’s not just the period of deployment. It appears to be during re-integration as well.”

Two studies link parents’ deployments to their children’s lower academic achievement scores, and to increased mental and behavioral health problems.

In one study, Rand Corp. researchers matched soldiers’ records with children’s academic achievement records and found lower scores among military children whose parents were cumulatively deployed for 19 months or more since 2001.

In the mental health study, led by a professor of pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, researchers found that when a parent was deployed, outpatient visits among children ages 3 to 8 for pediatric behavioral disorders rose 18 percent, and for stress disorders by 19 percent, compared with military children whose parents were not deployed.

Prescription psychiatric drugs can help treat some of those behavioral disorders. But many of those drugs come with potential side effects, Lester said.

“Whenever one is prescribing medication, there is a risk-benefit analysis that has to occur, and the parents and patient need to be included in that,” Lester said.

Suicide risks

Tricia Radenz said nobody ever warned her about the suicide risks associated with the drugs her son was taking.

“The psychiatrist never once told me Celexa was a risk. He said he’d had great success with this drug,” Radenz said in an interview.

“Any antidepressant carries the warning, but I didn’t find out the seriousness until after he died,” she said.

Celexa, along with Wellbutrin, which Daniel was also taking at the time of his death, carry “black box” warnings from the Food and Drug Administration — the FDA’s most serious warning — about increased risks for suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Moreover, neither drug is recommended for children, although doctors may legally prescribe them after determining that they may benefit individual patients.

Experts say any medication should be matched with intensive therapy or counseling as a way to monitor for side effects and treat underlying problems that drugs cannot address.

Radenz said Daniel saw the psychologist and psychiatrist once or twice a month. She said the psychiatry department didn’t respond to her pleas for help when she called after Daniel had cut himself at school and used his blood to write on the bathroom wall.

The mother left a phone message with the psychiatry department, with details about what had happened, asking that someone call back for an appointment. Nobody returned her call, she said.

“I was essentially staying with him 24/7,” Radenz said. “I was outside the bathroom if he was in there. He was sleeping with me.”

She said that after she was unable to get help from the child psychiatry department, she e-mailed her husband in desperation, and he came home from Iraq on emergency leave May 25.

Daniel was thrilled to see his father. For days as the family spent time together, Radenz said, Daniel laughed and joked and said many times: “I’m so glad Dad is home.”

Daniel’s father went to the local clinic and asked why his wife’s phone calls had not been returned, even by June 1. He told them he was on emergency leave because of his son’s decline.

The clinic staff apologized, Tricia Radenz said, and explained that no one was checking the answering machine because the staff was overwhelmed.

Her son’s death a week later “was completely preventable, had he received competent care instead of being herded through the system like a piece of cattle at an auction,” she said. “I want someone held accountable, and I don’t want anyone to ever have to go through this again.”

Officials at Darnall Army Medical Center said they conducted an investigation into Daniel’s treatment, but a spokeswoman declined to disclose any of its findings. However, the spokeswoman said, “rest assured that all medical treatment was thoroughly evaluated” and “any lessons learned as a result of that review have been incorporated into our practices here at Fort Hood.”

Tricia Radenz knows nothing can bring her son back.

“But why can’t they say they were wrong? That they’ve made changes? All I want is to know they’ve corrected their process that cost me my son.

“No other family should ever have to endure the agony my family suffers daily. My husband made more than the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ … he sacrificed his son to serve.”

Read the rest of the article here:  http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/01/military-children-taking-more-psychiatric-drugs-010211w/

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