The MetroWest Daily News
By Jacob Azerrad
June 10, 2010

In 2001, Harry Markopolos repeatedly warned the authorities about Bernie Madoff. No one listened. Only a serious downturn in the economy led to Madoff’s downfall. It’s not a Ponzi scheme, but once again, no one is listening and the red flags are everywhere. This time the victims are our very young, innocent children in the millions. Today, children as young as 2, are being prescribed powerful anti-psychotic medications. Side effects include tics, drooling, and incessant eating. Some children have gained up to 100 pounds and often progress to becoming diabetic.

Virtually nothing is known about the long-term impact of these medications. And no one seems to care. Certainly not the drug companies pushing these drugs, nor the doctors who have been coerced by the pharmaceutical industry and panicking parents alike into prescribing them. The increase in the use of anti-psychotics is directly tied to the rising incidence of one particular diagnosis, bipolar disorder. Experts estimate that the number of kids with this diagnosis is now more than one million and rising, making it more common than autism and diabetes combined. To treat it, doctors are administering medications that have yet to be approved for children. Mothers are legally medicating their two-year-olds with Risperdal to quiet their tantrums, Trileptal to stabilize their moods, and Clonidine to help them sleep.

This is not the old story about ADD or ADHD and the use of Ritalin or other approved drugs in use since the 1970′s. This is not about helping the child who fidgets and can’t concentrate in their elementary school classroom. This is about tens of thousands of energetic, outgoing, healthy, and normal 3- and 4-year-olds who just won’t sit still in Mommy and Me. It is those children who have now been diagnosed with a new and controversial diagnosis – Childhood Bipolar Disorder.

On Sept. 4, 2007, The New York Times stated that studies in the 1970s and 80s concluded bipolar disorder was rare in children, but between 1994 to 2003, there was an astounding 40-fold increase in the number of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

In a 2007 “60 Minutes” episode, Katie Couric focused on the short life of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley of Hull. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 28 months, she was dead one year later from an overdose of a psychotropic drug cocktail. At one point, Couric asks Rebecca’s mother, who had been charged with her daughter’s murder, if she thought her child’s behavior might have been normal. That in fact, maybe little Rebecca was just exhibiting Terrible Two’s behavior.

On Nov. 19, 2008, the New York Times reported that 31 children who were diagnosed with Childhood Bipolar Disorder and given the drug Risperdal for tantrums died, and 1,176 suffered serious side effects.

Read entire article:  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/x1602634540/Azerrad-Drugging-pre-school-children-A-crime-against-childhood

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The Herald Sun
March 24, 2010

CHILDREN as young as one are being prescribed powerful anti-psychotic drugs that have been linked to deaths overseas.

The strong medication is designed to quell psychotic episodes normally experienced by adults with schizophrenia and bi-polar.

There are concerns some doctors are illegitimately writing scripts for pre-schoolers and primary school children for unapproved medical reasons, such as behavioural problems or ADHD.

Figures provided by the Therapeutic Goods Administration showed up to 3351 NSW children aged under 18 were prescribed the drugs in 2007-08.

Of them, at least 62 toddlers aged five and under — including five one-year-olds — were prescribed the drugs in NSW in that period.

“You can assume children under 12 are illegitimately being prescribed these drugs for behaviour problems. It should not be the case,” University of South Australia’s associate professor in psychiatry Dr Jon Jureidini said yesterday.

“These drugs are not marketed or recommended by the TGA for that use.”

Common medications such as Risperdal, Zyprexa and Abilify are not approved for children under five. The TGA has approved Risperdal to treat children with autism.

Side effects can be so severe in adults that elderly patients with dementia are warned they have a higher risk of sudden death.

Read entire article:  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/kids-prescribed-toxic-drug-cocktail-of-anti-depressants/story-e6frf7l6-1225844541982

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The Herald Sun
March 24, 2010

CHILDREN as young as two are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs that have been linked to deaths overseas.

Almost 2000 children aged under 18 were prescribed the drugs in Victoria in 2007-08.

Figures provided by the Therapeutic Goods Administration reveal at least four two-year-olds were among 422 under-10s given drugs designed to quell psychotic episodes normally found in adults with schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.

But there are concerns some doctors are writing scripts for preschoolers and primary school children for unapproved medical reasons, such as behavioural problems.

“You can assume children under 12 are illegitimately being prescribed these drugs for behaviour problems. It should not be the case,” said University of South Australia’s Assoc Prof in psychiatry Dr Jon Jureidini.

“The vast majority of preschoolers who are prescribed are not for psychotic episodes but for behaviour problems,” he said.

“These drugs are not marketed, or recommended by the TGA, for that use.”

Common medications such as Risperdal, Zyprexa and Abilify are not approved for use in children under five due to the lack of evidence on their safety.

But the TGA has approved Risperdal to treat children with autism.

In 2007-08, almost 10,000 under-18s were prescribed anti-psychotic medication in Australia.

Side-effects can be so severe in adults that elderly patients with dementia are warned they have a higher risk of sudden death.

Read entire article:  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/toddlers-given-anti-psychotic-drugs/story-e6frf7kx-1225844491890

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John Hendren
ABC World News
January 5, 2010

What happened in a bucolic nursing home nestled in the California mountains starting in 2003 shocked investigators. When residents at the Kern Valley Nursing Home complained or annoyed nursing director Gwen Hughes, prosecutors say she chemically restrained them with powerful anti-psychotic drugs. Her methods were so severe, three residents died.

Phyllis Peters’ mother Fannie Mae Brinkley was a feisty 97-year-old who suddenly lost energy. “I’d say, ‘I can’t get my mom awake,’” Peters remembers. “She just won’t rouse, she’s lethargic.”

No one told Peters that her mother had been given a powerful anti-seizure drug that prosecutors say killed her.

Peters says of her mother today, “I’m absolutely convinced she would have lived to be 100. Absolutely.”

Read entire article: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/abc-world-news-deadly-chemical-restraints-kill-california/story?id=9483981

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Jennifer Thomas
BusinessWeek
January 4, 2010

The rate of children aged 2 to 5 who are given antipsychotic medications has doubled in recent years, a new study has found.

Yet little is known about either the effectiveness or the safety of these powerful psychiatric medications in children this age, said researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University, who looked at data on more than 1 million children with private health insurance.

“It is a worrisome trend, partly because very little is known about the short-term, let alone the long-term, safety of these drugs in this age group,” said study author Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City.

Prescribing antipsychotics to children in the upper range of that age span — ages 4 and 5 — is justifiable only in rare, intractable situations in which all other treatments, including family and psychological therapy, have been tried and are not working, Olfson said.

And it’s questionable whether 2- and 3-year-olds should ever be prescribed antipsychotics, Olfson said.

Read entire article: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634536.html

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Jim Edwards
BNET
November 20, 1009

Britain’s National Health Service is losing a fight against the Bonkers Institute for Nearly Genuine Research — a web site that publicizes the underbelly of psychiatric medicine — over brochures for children that tell them how to take antipsychotic medicines such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)’s Risperdal (risperidone).

The Bonkers Institute added three leaflets — for risperidone, atomoxetine and olanzapine — to its gallery of advertising for kids’ mental health medicines. The NHS has asked the web site to take them down as they are intended for patients only.

The brochures say things such as:

Why am I taking risperidone?     It can help if you are having thoughts that leave you feeling frightened or confused, or if you are hearing upsetting or annoying voices when nobody is there. It can also help if you are worried or frightened, or confused, and if you are finding it hard to concentrate on doing normal everyday tasks.

Risperidone is not approved for children in the U.S., and its off-label use in kids is controversial.

Read entire article: http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10005419/nhs-loses-fight-over-publication-of-antipsychotic-meds-brochures-for-kids/

See more cartoon kiddie drug promo for kids in Britain: http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/atomoxeteen.html

http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/risperrydone.html

http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/olanzapeen.html

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AboutLawsuits.com
November 16, 2009

According to a new report, side effects of antipsychotics, such as Seroquel, Zyprexa, Risperdal and Abilify, could be responsible for as many as 1,800 deaths and 1,620 strokes each year among the elderly with dementia in the United Kingdom.

The report, which was commissioned by the British government, found that the use of antipsychotics for dementia has been largely ineffective, resulting in improvement in only 20% of patients. As a result of the findings, the U.K. Department of Health has initiated plans to reduce the use of atypical antipsychotic drugs like Zyprexa, Risperdal, Abilify and Serquel for dementia in its own health system, and hopes that the reduction will be picked up by other nations as well.

There are an estimated 180,000 elderly people with dementia in the United Kingdom currently being treated with the antipsychotic drugs, according to the report’s author, Professor Sube Banerjee. However, only 36,000 were found to derive any benefit from the drugs.

“The findings of my review confirm that there are indeed significant issues in terms of quality of care and patient safety,” said Banerjee, professor of mental health at King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry, in a letter to the Minister of State that accompanied the report. “These drugs appear to be used too often in dementia and, at their likely level of use, potential benefits are most probably outweighed by their risks overall.”

Read entire article: http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/antipsychotics-for-dementia-blamed-for-deaths-6965/

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