Posts Tagged ‘children’

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The Daily Mail— Nazi soldiers given highly addictive crystal meth to help them fight harder & longer

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Note from CCHR: The drug cited in this article, Pertivin, was Methamphetamine, what the Daily Mail is referring to as crystal meth.  Methamphetamine is FDA approved for  use in children under the trade name Desoxyn for the ‘treatment’ of ADHD.  So today,  children are basically being given the same ‘highly addictive’ crystal meth that the Nazi soldiers were given…

Daily Mail
Alan Hall
March 31, 2011

  • 200 million pills were given to soldiers during the War

Hitler’s propaganda stressed the importance of keeping fit and abstaining from drink and tobacco to keep the Aryan race strong and pure.

But in reality his soldiers were taking addictive and damaging chemicals to make them fight longer and more fiercely.

A study of medicines used by the Third Reich exposes how Nazi doctors and officers issued recruits with pills to help them fight longer and without rest.

The German army’s drug of choice as it overran Poland, Holland, Belgium and France was Pervitin – pills made from methamphetamine, commonly known today as crystal meth.

Drugged up: German army records show millions of Pervitin amphetamines were doled out to Nazi troops in WWII

Second World War speed: Nazi troops were given pervitin to boost their performance

By the time the invasion of the Soviet Union was launched in 1941, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were doped up on it. Records of the Wehrmacht, the German army, show that some 200 million Pervitin pills were doled out to the troops between 1939 and 1945.

Research by the German Doctors’ Association also showed the Nazis developed a cocaine-based stimulant for its front-line fighters that was tested on concentration camp inmates.

‘It was Hitler’s last secret weapon to win a war he had already lost long ago,’ said criminologist Wolf Kemper, author of a German language book on the Third Reich’s use of drugs called Nazis On Speed.

Cruelty: Inmates at the Dachau camp were victims of horrific Nazi experiments aimed at helping troops' injuries

Experiments: Inmates at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where 100,000 people died, suffered chemical burns as Nazi doctors tested the impact of phosphorous shells

The drug, codenamed D-IX, was tested at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, where prisoners loaded with 45lb packs were reported to have marched 70 miles without rest.

The plan was to give all soldiers in the crumbling Reich the wonder drug – but the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, coupled with crippling Allied bombing, scotched the scheme.

‘The Blitzkrieg was fuelled by speed,’ said a pharmacologist. ‘The idea was to turn ordinary soldiers, sailors and airmen into automatons capable of superhuman performance.’

Medical authorities say the downside of the plan was that many soldiers became helplessly addicted to drugs and were of no use in any theatre of war.

Otto Ranke, a military doctor and director of the Institute for General and Defence Physiology at Berlin’s Academy of Military Medicine, was behind the Pervitin scheme.

He found that the drug gave users heightened self-confidence and self-awareness.

On the eastern front, where the fighting was the most savage of the war, soldiers used it in massive quantities against an enemy that showed no mercy.

In January 1942, one group of 500 troops surrounded by the Red Army were attempting to escape in temperatures of minus 30 Degrees C.

‘I decided to give them Pervitin as they began to lie down in the snow wanting to die,’ wrote the medical officer for the unit.

‘After half an hour the men began spontaneously reporting that they felt better.

‘They began marching in orderly fashion again, their spirits improved, and they became more alert.’

Concentration camp prisoners were also the victims of terrible experiments overseen by German doctors aimed at making the war less risky for their own troops.

At Dachau hundreds died in vats of ice water as physicians sought to find a way to better insulate the flying suits of Luftwaffe pilots brought down in the sea.

And at Mauthausen in Austria inmates suffered horrific chemical burns as the doctors sought cures for phosphorous shell injuries.

Physician’s group president Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe said: ‘I will be the last president of this group who lived through this time.

‘It is intolerable to think that so many physicians were silent or complicit in what was done in the name of medicine at this time.’

Read article here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371512/Nazis-fed-speed-infantrymen-tested-cocaine-like-stimulant-concentration-camps.html

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Court Ruling Clears Way for Jury Trial in $1 Billion Texas Medicaid Whistleblower Lawsuit

Friday, March 4th, 2011

AUSTIN, TX, Mar 04, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX News Network)

A recent state district court ruling has cleared the way for a jury to hear claims filed by the State of  Texas and plaintiff Allen Jones based on allegations that pharmaceutical manufacturer Janssen L.P. used false marketing tactics to convince state officials to spend millions on a schizophrenia drug.

The ruling was issued late Thursday, March 3, 2011, in Judge John Dietz’ 250th District Court in Travis County following summary judgment motions filed by both the State of Texas and Janssen, a division of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).

The original complaint was filed in 2004 based on evidence uncovered by Mr. Jones during his work as an investigator with the Pennsylvania Inspector General’s Office. The lawsuit says Janssen engaged in a systematic and wide-ranging scheme to convince state Medicaid officials to give preferential treatment to the company’s Risperdal schizophrenia medication.

The drug was no better and no safer despite being substantially more expensive than older medications that treat the same illness, the lawsuit alleges. Janssen worked to build revenue by actively and purposefully marketing the powerful antipsychotic drug for use in children, the lawsuit says, even though the medication was approved only for the very narrow purpose of treating adult schizophrenia. In the years since Risperdal was first introduced, Texas has paid more than $500 million for the drug.

“We are very pleased that a Texas jury finally will be able to scrutinize Janssen’s actions, which we allege have unfairly cost the state’s taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a drug that was no better than older, cheaper medicines,” says Dallas attorney Tom Melsheimer, who represents Mr. Jones with Austin attorney Tommy Jacks. “The defendants fought tooth-and-nail to keep this case from a jury, and that effort has failed.”

The defendants’ total exposure in the anticipated jury trial, currently set for June 21 in Austin, exceeds $1 billion, including damages, penalties, and other potential liabilities, Mr. Melsheimer says.

http://www.stockhouse.com/News/USReleasesDetail.aspx?n=8081412

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The hidden tyranny: children diagnosed and drugged for profit

Friday, March 4th, 2011

NaturalNews.com  March 4, 2011

by Monica G. Young

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” —Thomas Jefferson

Not everyone has fallen for the grand hoax: 20 million kids worldwide diagnosed with mental disorders, necessitating psychiatric drugs for years or life. Some individuals are speaking out. Yet so many parents, kids and schools have fallen prey to one of the most insidious yet most profitable misinformation campaigns of modern society.

Kids who fidget, get distracted or bored easily, talk too much (or too little), defy rules, are not as obedient as some adults may like or have mood swings, are liable to be tagged with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder or other such ills. In short, what used to be known as typical child and adolescent behavior has been redefined as mental illness.

ADHD is the disorder most commonly assigned to kids (over five million in the U.S.). Statistical studies in the U.S. and other nations show boys are far more likely than girls to be branded with ADHD and prescribed stimulants.

A recent article entitled “Sedation nation: The cost of taking boisterous out of boys,” reports five times as many Australian boys being medicated with Ritalin than girls. The author asks, “Are we in danger of seeing boyhood itself as a disorder?” She cites an example of a 10-year old very bright and sporty boy who got into a skirmish on a cramped school playground. No damage occurred, no blood, yet this led at once to a referral for psychiatric treatment.

This situation can be worse for African-American males. Umar R. Abdullah-Johnson, a psychologist and activist for the educational rights of black boys, has traveled to schools across the country. In a recent article headed “Psycho-Slavery,” he writes, “It has become a travesty of epic proportions; black boys are being sent in record numbers to the psychiatrist for mind-altering medications that come with a plethora of side effects.” He reports that in many classrooms, 50 percent of the black male students are being referred for medication. Some children are evaluated, diagnosed and prescribed in less than five minutes.

Abdulla-Johnson points out the hypocrisy of a society that has declared a War on Drugs yet is so busily drugging a generation of black boys on substances which often lead to illegal drugs later in their lives. “They claim to LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND,” he writes, “but are totally content leaving our boys with side effects from these drugs years after they have graduated from school, if they ever graduate at all.”

This system coerces youth into obedient conformity with a psychiatric standard of normality. Kids are also left with a message that they can’t cope with school or life without drugs.

But let’s look at history:

Thomas Edison, one of the world’s most prolific inventors, was kicked out of school at an early age as his teacher lost patience with his persistent questions and wandering mind. Where would we be now if his creative spirit had been numbed by prescription drugs?

Albert Einstein, father of modern physics, was a quiet child who kept his distance from his peers. He resented the rote learning methods enforced in school and was labeled a foolish day dreamer. Imagine if he had been medicated into conformity.

Winston Churchill, the great statesman and orator, had an independent and rebellious nature as a youth and was often in trouble. Surely he would have been deemed ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) by today’s psychiatric standards.

Frederick Douglass, one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement (and a blood relative of Umar R. Abdullah-Johnson, quoted above) began defying the rules for blacks when he was a child. And the list goes on.

The massive propaganda asserting the validity of these disorders and efficacy of these medications is staggering. However a 731-page report from the Drug Effectiveness Review Project of Oregon State University in 2005 – analyzing 2,287 separate studies around the world – found inadequate evidence to show that drugs used to treat ADHD are safe in the long term or help school performance. (http://psychrights.org/articles/Tac…).html)

No medical tests are used for diagnoses. Yet most diagnosed youths are put onto highly toxic drugs which have been shown to cause insomnia, stunted growth, hallucinations, anxiety, heart attacks, psychosis, violence, suicide and sudden death.

Peter Breggin MD, a leader in psychiatric reform, stated in the Huffington Post, “Our society’s particular form of child abuse is the psychiatric diagnosing and drugging of our children.” And, “all psychoactive substances from alcohol and marijuana to psychiatric drugs reduce and compromise the function of brain and mind, and none improve it.” Even toddlers are being assigned mental disorders and prescribed such drugs.

Many clinicians fear that prescribing stimulants to children may foster a drug habit and lead them later to illegal stimulants, such as cocaine and crystal meth. A recent UCLA research project confirms this concern. They analyzed 27 long-term studies that followed 4,100 children diagnosed with ADHD and 6800 without ADHD into adolescence and young adulthood. The ADHD-diagnosed kids were two to three times more likely than other children to develop serious substance abuse problems. (Per a Consumer Reports survey, 84 percent of ADHD-labeled children are treated with medications.)

So if these drugs are so harmful, why do drug companies market them so heavily for kids?

“Children are known to be compliant patients and that makes them a highly desirable market for drugs,” says former drug company sales rep Gwen Olsen, author of Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher. “Children are forced by school personnel to take their drugs, they are forced by their parents to take their drugs, and they are forced by their doctors to take their drugs. So, children are the ideal patient-type because they represent refilled prescription compliance and ‘longevity.’ In other words, they will be lifelong patients and repeat customers for Pharma.”

ADHD, ODD, Bipolar and the others were voted into existence by APA committees and made official by issuance in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. A 2006 investigation by the University of Massachusetts and Tufts University disclosed that the majority of the committee members had financial ties to drug companies. (www.tufts.edu/~skrimsky/PDF/DSM%20C…)

The psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries admittedly do not cure anything, but only claim to manage symptoms with their psychoactive drugs.

Vice president of drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb recently announced FDA approval for an expanded use of their bipolar blockbuster. He states, “Because bipolar disorder is a lifelong and recurrent illness, this labelling update provides physicians with the option to prescribe Abilify as an add-on to either lithium or valproate as a long-term treatment to help manage symptoms of Bipolar I Disorder.” Translation for bipolars: “You’ll be hooked on our medications for life.”

Psychiatric drugging of children is big, big money, raking in billions a year.

But it’s also a form of tyrannical social control. By classifying out-of-the-box, divergent behavior as “mental disorders” that must be subdued with medication, our next generation is conditioned into being good robots who know not to deviate from the status quo.

It seems we better pay more heed to Thomas Jefferson’s warning: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

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Texas Doctors Prescribe $47 Million Worth of Antipsychotic & Anti-Anixety Drugs, Primarily for Kids—One Child Psychiatrist Alone Wrote 27,000 Prescriptions For Xanax

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

The Star Telegram – Dec 12, 2010

By Darren Barbee

The boy, 20 months old, is a maelstrom of tears and self-abusive behavior. Simply holding him sets off hours of crying, banging of his head or biting himself. His mother used drugs during her pregnancy. Clinical notes recommend he receive potent antipsychotic medication, one for adults suffering bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. — State medical records

With little oversight and apparent carte blanche, a relative handful of Texas physicians wrote $47 million worth of Medicaid prescriptions for powerful antipsychotic and anti-anxiety drugs over the past two years, according to a Star-Telegram analysis.

The top five doctors alone wrote $18 million worth.

Most of the drugs have gone to children and adolescents, although prescribing the drugs to children, such as a toddler, is considered “off-label” — uses not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Now the state’s Medicaid program is among others under scrutiny, after Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, began investigating the use of mental-health drugs this year. Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, told federal health officials to keep a better watch on top prescribers. His conclusion: Either some physicians have specialized expertise or the number of prescriptions suggests “overutilization or even health care fraud,” according to an October letter sent to the Health and Human Services Department.

Some advocates are concerned that the drugs are unsafe for children, who make up nearly 75 percent of Texas Medicaid’s 3.2 million recipients. In a 16-state study, Texas had the maximum rate of prescribing multiple mental-health drugs to youths in foster care. Although the number of prescriptions had dropped 19 percent by 2007, Texas was still tops, according to the June study.

John Breeding, a psychologist concerned that the drugs may cause permanent neurological and metabolic damage, told the state, “That so many of our very young children, younger than 4 or even 3 years old, are being given these drugs is so very sad and upsetting.”

And some doctors churn out prescriptions for children and others at an alarming rate. Antipsychotic drugs prescribed to children under 6 grew by 20 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to a November report by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

About 1.7 percent of children on Medicaid received antipsychotic drugs in fiscal 2009, state officials said.

Some children are overmedicated: One area doctor routinely prescribes five potent mental-health drugs simultaneously, said one of the state’s top prescribers. He said he tries to scale back the number of drugs the children are on.

Some experts believe that medication has pushed aside talk therapy, which might be effective and reduce medication needs.

“I do think that a lot of people receive medication without any therapy,” said Tami Mark, a researcher with Thomson Reuters in Washington, D.C. “Most of the literature suggests that therapy is effective and can improve the effectiveness of the medication. So it’s better to get both.”

Top prescribers

The child, 31/2, suffers from shaken baby syndrome. When stressed, he pulls at his ventilator hoses and tracheotomy tube so much that his hands must be tied to the bed. He is prescribed antipsychotics because other sedatives could suppress the breathing centers of the brain.

Grassley asked Texas and other states for the top 10 prescribers who billed Medicaid for certain drugs. The Star-Telegram used prescriber numbers to identify the doctors, then sorted and tallied the drugs they were prescribing. Also reviewed was information on other mental-health drugs that have cost taxpayers about $1.3 billion during the past five years.

The analysis and research found:

In the past two years, 72 Medicaid providers wrote 186,992 prescriptions, an average of 2,597 each.

The state’s top prescriber, child psychiatrist G.K. Ravichandran of Houston’s Shamrock Psychiatric clinic wrote 27,000 scripts for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in the past two years. The next-closest physician wrote 6,300.

Under his license, 44,138 prescriptions for antipsychotic drugs were written, at a cost to Medicaid of $6.4 million.

Ravichandran did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Dr. Fernando Siles, a child psychiatrist in Greenville, is the second most prolific Medicaid prescriber. He sees children from across North Texas, including Tarrant County.

In the past two years, Siles’ medical license was used to write 13,601 antipsychotic prescriptions at a cost of $4.6 million.

Siles, who treats solely Medicaid recipients, some as young as 3, has three nurse practitioners who also write prescriptions under his license, he said.

Many children referred to him are already on multiple antipsychotic drugs, and he tries to cut back, he said. “Fifty percent of the medications I prescribe, I did not start them on the medicine,” he said. “They came from other doctors.”

There may be other physicians who are also prescribing high volumes of antipsychotic drugs but aren’t as easily detected, state officials say.

Some physicians use a clinic to hide the volume of their prescribing, said Stephanie Goodman, spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees Medicaid.

“To be quite honest, we feel like single doctors have started to bill under clinics to maybe hide that, to make it look like it’s not a single doctor prescribing all these,” she said.

State sanctions

The 13-year-old girl suffered depression and post traumatic stress disorder. She cut her arms and stomach. Her stepfather molested her, and then beat her when she refused to have sex. She cannot sleep at night for the nightmares of being locked in a closet. Prescribed an antipsychotic off label, she begins to have fewer flashbacks and nightmares.

Another top prescriber, Dr. Adolphus Lewis of Fort Worth, is a family physician who also treats the elderly. In one year ending in 1994, he wrote 61 prescriptions for one male patient, including enough Vicodin and Valium to pop seven pills a day.

The state medical board accused Lewis of prescribing “medically excessive” numbers of pills to a woman who later died, court documents show. Her death, which was due to respiratory failure, implicated three drugs, including two that Lewis previously prescribed, according to the documents.

Lewis did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

About 40 percent of the 72 top Medicaid prescribers among certain antipsychotic drugs have been disciplined by the state medical board. By comparison, last year the state disciplined less than 1 percent of the state’s 62,521 doctors.

In 2002, the Texas Medical Board restricted Ravichandran’s license for five years for “unprofessional or dishonorable conduct that is likely to deceive or defraud the public or injury the public.” The restriction, which was not related to prescriptions, was lifted within three years.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/12/11/2697798/some-doctors-handing-out-prescriptions.html#tvg#ixzz17uj9SWtQ

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Psychiatrist Asks, “Why Are People So Divided When It Comes To Children’s Mental Health?” We’ve Got the Answer…

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

20 million kids are being prescribed dangerous mind-altering drugs

By CCHR

Today’s Huffington Post features an article from psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz, frequently seen in the press leading the cheer for more psychiatric diagnosing and drugging of children.   In today’s article, Koplewicz makes a plea to ‘Stop the Stigma’ which is preventing children from being diagnosed mentally ill.   Pretty catchy slogan isn’t it? “Stop the Stigma.”  It ought to be, it’s a brilliant marketing campaign, brought to you by Big Pharma, via the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a group that  masquerades as a “patient’s rights group for the mentally ill”  but receives tens of millions in Pharma funding.

But here’s the real rub—What entity is most responsible for stigmatizing millions of children? What group has pathologized childhood behavior and repackaged a list of behaviors into a “disease” called ADHD?  Psychiatry and Pharma.   You can’t be a kid anymore.  If you display child-like behaviors you can be  branded mentally ill for life. And its not just us saying this.  Consider that the former Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM task force,  psychiatrist Allen Frances, stated “Our country is in the midst of a fifteen year ‘epidemic’ of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). There are six potential causes for the skyrocketing rates of ADD—but only five have been real contributors. The most obvious explanation is by far the least likely – that the prevalence of attention deficit problems in the general population has actually increased in the last 15 years. Human nature is remarkably constant and slow to change, while diagnostic fads come and go with great rapidity. We don’t have more attention deficit than ever before-we just label more attentional problems as mental disorder.”

He  also talked about “stigma,” but sourced the industry creating it—psychiatry: “The ‘epidemic’ of childhood Bipolar Disorder has created a public health dilemma” and that it is  “based on much hype and very little scientific evidence. The label Bipolar Disorder also carries considerable stigma, implying that the child will have a lifelong illness requiring lifetime treatment.”

Exactly.

The title of Dr. Koplewicz’s article is “Why Are People So Divided When It Comes to Children’s Mental Health?” so we’d like to answer that question, as it’s pretty simple —Some of us are for children’s rights and putting their best interests above all else, while others are for Psycho/Pharma and putting their best interests above all else.

That’s the short version.  Here is a bit more detailed answer;

Point 1) Millions of children have been stigmatized with bogus psychiatric “labels” that are based solely on opinion, and not one shred of medical evidence that there’s anything physically wrong with them.  No blood tests, brain scans, X-rays, MRIs or any proof whatsoever they are “mentally ill” and require drugs euphemistically being called “medicine.”    Unlike real medical diseases which are discovered in labs, psychiatric diagnoses are invented by psychiatrists in committee, by  the following “scientific” process;  Cluster a number of behaviors into a nice little package, give it a name and add “disorder” on the tail end of it,  then take a vote.  Majority wins.   That’s about it. And that’s why mental disorders can be here one day and gone the next, because of majority opinion — namely, psychiatry’s.   So while psychiatrists talk about the “amazing progress” they’ve made, and how “close” they’ve come to proving mental disorders are “real medical conditions,” we’d like to point out the obvious—they haven’t.   They couldn’t prove mental disorders were physical/medical conditions 50 years ago, and can’t prove it today despite billions in government funding.    No progress.  Whatsoever.   Zippo.  Nada.    So understandably, Dr. Koplewicz,, as people become more educated about this ludicrous subjective process of disorders made to order, they are concerned about the lack of real science to psychiatric “diagnoses” particularly where their children are concerned.

Point 2) The majority of psychiatrists within the American Psychiatric Association that “decide” on what will and will not be a mental “disorder” are funded by Pharma.  That’s called a Conflict of Interest.  A serious, egregious conflict of interest.  No “conspiracy” here Dr. Kopelwicz, just some facts about your colleagues and their incentives for developing more mental disorders.

Point 3) Due to these subjective, invented mental disorders,  20 million children are currently taking mind-altering, life-threatening drugs, acknowledged by international drug regulatory agencies to cause future drug dependence, stunted growth, mania, psychosis, violence, aggression, hallucinations, heart attack, stroke, sudden death and suicidal ideation.  All international studies and warnings on psychiatric drugs along with all the reports filed with the U.S. FDA’s Medwatch by doctors, pharmacists and healthcare providers reporting suicidal ideation and death from psychiatric drugs given to toddlers, young children and teenagers can be found here:  http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/

Point 4) While Koplewicz has the audacity to call the “over-drugging” of children “a myth”,  consider that the Government Accountability Office has launched a federal investigation into the massive increase of drugging children in foster care.  “The investigators will attempt to account for estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars of possible fraud arising from prescriptions for drugs explicitly barred from Medicaid coverage.  The GAO is collecting data from six states to search for patterns of abuse.  According to a number of foster care experts who spoke with Politics Daily, children in foster care, who are typically concurrently enrolled in Medicaid, are three or four more times as likely to be on psychotropic medications than other children on Medicaid. Alarmingly, many of these drugs are medically prohibited for minors and dangerous to the children taking them.”

Point 5) Senate investigations this past year revealed that some of the “leading” psychiatrists touting the wonders of diagnosing and drugging kids, and largely responsible for massive increases in kids unnecessarily placed on dangerous psychiatric drugs, were on Pharma’s payroll, and failed to disclose this.  Psychiatrists such as Joseph Biederman, who was being paid millions of dollars by the Pharmaceutical companies while skewing the results of drug trials to show false benefits for kids, in order the launch a nationwide campaign to get children diagnosed as “bi-polar.”

And he’s not the only one: Here are some of the “leading” psychiatrists exposed by Senate investigations:

Melissa DelBello, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, was exposed in 2007 by the Senate Finance Committee for concealing $180,000 she received from AstraZeneca in 2003 and 2004.  DelBello’s studies of the antipsychotic Seroquel, made by AstraZeneca, in children helped to fuel the widespread pediatric use of antipsychotic drugs.

In 2008, Joseph Biederman, a leading Harvard child psychiatrist whose work helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic drugs in children, was exposed for withholding earning at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers between 2000 and 2007.

Alan Schatzberg, president-elect of the APA, and Professor and Department of Psychiatry Chair of Stanford University was also investigated in 2008 by the Senate Finance Committee.  Schatzberg was forced to step down as principal investigator in an NIH funded research project into a drug called Mifeprestone, to treat “psychotic depression.” Senate investigators found that Schatzberg failed to report $4.8 million worth of stock in Corcept Therapeutics, a drug company which he co-founded and acted as lead researcher on a drug development project for until he was forced to surrender that role after being exposed.

A Senate investigation found Charles Nemeroff, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Chairman of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine had concealed $2.8 million he earned from drug companies. He was forced to step down as Chairman of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory due to being exposed for his hidden pharmaceutical pay and attempted cover up.

In December 2009, Sen. Charles Grassley filed a complaint about Fernando Mendez-Villamil to federal authorities for his excessive prescribing of antipsychotics to children that were not approved by the FDA.  This cost taxpayers $43 million over six years.  Mendez-Villamil is apparently also currently under investigation by the Medicaid program.  Mid 2009, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reported that that Mendez Villamil is the top Medicaid prescriber of mental health drugs in the state—for all ages.  It was calculated that he wrote more than 150 prescriptions a day, seven days a week for six years

So to summarize, we don’t have an epidemic of mentally ill children, we have an epidemic of psychiatry stigmatizing children with mental disorders that cannot be medically/scientifically proven to exist.  We have an epidemic of children prescribed dangerous and potentially lethal psychiatric drugs, including infants and toddlers.  And we have the real source of stigmatization—the Psychiatric/Pharmaceutical industry.

To read Koplewicz’s article, click here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-harold-koplewicz/mental-health-being-openminded_b_791706.html

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Psychiatrist on Payroll of Glaxo Pleads Guilty to Research Fraud

Monday, November 29th, 2010

NaturalNews, November 29,2010

by David Gutierrez

GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of Paxil, paid Palazzo $5,000 for every child she enrolled in the study.

A psychiatrist on the payroll of GlaxoSmithKline has been sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to committing research fraud in trials of the company’s antidepressant Paxil on children.

Maria Carmen Palazzo is already serving a sentence of 87 months for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.

Palazzo was accused by the FDA of enrolling children in a clinical trial even though she knew they did not actually suffer from major depressive or obsessive compulsive disorder, the conditions being studied. Palazzo then falsified records and psychiatric diagnoses.

GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of Paxil, paid Palazzo $5,000 for every child she enrolled in the study.

The case’s significance goes beyond simple research fraud, as Glaxo is now defending itself against charges that for 15 years it deliberately concealed evidence that Paxil increases the risk of suicide in children.

Glaxo is also defending itself against accusations that it manipulated data to conceal the risks of its diabetes blockbuster Avandia, and that it failed to warn parents that Paxil may cause birth defects if taken by pregnant women. The company has already agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle roughly 700 birth defect lawsuits; another 100 or so suits are pending.

Although the FDA eventually required Paxil to carry a warning about the risk of birth defects and an even more prominent “black box” warning about suicide risk, many critics allege that the agency acted too slowly.

“There [had] been hints for many years that antidepressants, such as Paxil, when given to children, can cause serious side effects, including suicide, but the FDA delayed taking any action to prevent these drugs from being prescribed for children,” writes Brent Hoadley in Too Profitable to Cure.

Palazzo will not actually serve any additional prison time for potentially placing children’s safety at risk; her new term will be served concurrently with her first.

http://www.naturalnews.com/030557_psychiatry_fraud.html

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Quarter of children with sleep problems being put on psych drugs

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Note from CCHR:  The most glaring omission in this study is whether the children who were having sleep problems,  and who were all under psychiatric “care”,  were being prescribed psychostimulants (Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta)  in the first place.   These drugs are in the same category of highly addictive substances as cocaine according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.    That would account for the children’s inability to sleep.    And instead of referring to this condition as  “sleep disorder” a term which enables psychiatrists to prescribe  even more drugs, (as stated in the article posted below)  we should demand to know what drugs  psychiatrists had prescribed these children that stripped them of  one of the most vital natural functions every child needs—sleep.

NaturalNews, November 8, 2010

by David Gutierre

One in four children with difficulty sleeping is given a psychoactive drug, according to a study conducted by researchers from Hasbro Children’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s University/Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Case University School of medicine.

Although no sleep drugs have been approved by the FDA for use in children under the age of 18, “treatment of insomnia symptoms with both over-the-counter and prescription medication is a common clinical practice, particularly for children and adolescents with special needs and co-morbid psychiatric disorders,” said lead author Judith Owens.

Researchers surveyed almost 1,300 members of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry about their school-aged and adolescent patients, finding that one in three suffer from trouble sleeping. Ninety-six percent of respondents said they recommend at least one prescription sleep drug in an average month, while 88 percent recommend at least one over-the-counter drug. Medications used include antihistamines, sedatives, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and antipsychotics, and even stimulant drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Prior studies have found that sleep disorders are one of the main reasons for psychiatric drug use in children. Yet behavioral treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques and sleep restriction have been shown to be effective treatments, without the risk of side effects.

The over-sedation of children continues a dark tendency in the history of U.S. psychiatric medicine.

“[In the early 20th century,] bromides were given to pregnant women for ‘nerves,’ to children for ‘overactivity,’ and to just about anybody who couldn’t sleep well at night,” writes Sydney Walker in A Dose of Sanity: Mind, Medicine, and Misdiagnosis.

“By 1930, four out of every ten prescriptions written by doctors were for drugs containing bromides,” Walker writes. “It took doctors nearly half a century to recognize (and admit) that bromides were terribly toxic, and that thousands of Americans were suffering from anxiety, dementia, or schizophrenia-like symptoms brought on entirely by ‘bromide intoxication.’ By then, many of their patients were in mental institutions.”

http://www.naturalnews.com/030323_children_psychiatric_drugs.html

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Instead of Prescribing Deadly Drugs, Prescribe Children More Time Outdoors and More Play Time

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Note from CCHR: This is just one example of rational, workable and non-harmful programs that help kids and which do not require prescribing them dangerous and potentially lethal drugs— due to the fact psychiatrists have determined that childhood itself is a mental “illness.”   For more information on non-harmful, non-drug solutions for children, visit our alternatives page http://www.cchrint.org/alternatives/


The Guardian, September 28, 2010

by Ruth Stokes

Kim Yucksei, rosie, recipe tree

Photograph: Gareth Davies

Kim Yucksei, with two-year old granddaughter Rosie and friend Ashton looking at the recipe tree on their estate in east London Photograph: Gareth Davies

Schemes are growing up around the UK that seek to reconnect inner city children with nature by encouraging them to appreciate the bugs and birds on their doorstep.

“We want to let people know that they can just go outside their front door to see wildlife,” says Isabel MacLennan, development officer of Nottinghamshire Wildlife trust.

Next month will see the official launch of Wildlife in the City, a collaboration between Nottingham city council and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, that will focus on 10 groups within the city failing to make use of their local green spaces and with a poor understanding of the benefits of doing so.

One of the key focuses of Wildlife in the City is the attitudes of children. In outreach work done by the trust earlier this year in preparation for the project, children were asked where they go to see nature. Many said they would have to go on jungle and safari trips; one answered that their family didn’t have a car.

“People aren’t accessing natural spaces, or if they are they’re not really understanding or appreciating what’s there,” says MacLennan.

A UK survey commissioned this summer by the Eden TV channel, looking at 2,000 eight- to 12-year-olds, found that a fifth had never climbed a tree or visited a farm, more than a quarter did not know what happens to a bee after it stings you, and a third play outside only once a week or less.

Nature-deficit disorder

US author Richard Louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” in his 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, to describe the trend of children spending less time outdoors, resulting in a wide range of behavioural problems.

MacLennan agrees that it is particularly important for children to connect with nature. “There are health and social benefits associated with access to natural spaces. And if you work with people from a young age, they’ll hopefully carry that through to when they’re older,” she says.

Wildlife in the City will attempt to create interest by running hands-on activities such as bug hunting and bird-house building alongside walks and talks. But MacLennan admits that it probably won’t be easy. “It will be a huge challenge. We will be using arts and crafts – that sort of thing – to break down barriers.”

Tim Howell has been running a young people‘s nature and activity project, Change of Scene, in Northampton since the beginning of August. For him, the key to sparking interest is having a combination of activities within the city and trips farther afield, and putting an attractive spin on ideas.

“To get young people to appreciate the natural world, we need to think outside the box,” he says. “If we turn to them and suggest looking at flowers or appreciating some birds, that’s not going to get them going. But when we say let’s go and climb a mountain and take a photo from the top, that’s a bit more interesting. It’s all about finding the right hooks.”

Change of Scene, funded by Natural England’s Access to Nature grant scheme, aims to engage 300 young people over three years from five estates in the east of the city, and hopes not only to improve knowledge and enjoyment of nature but also to raise aspirations and goals through schemes like the Duke of Edinburgh’s award. It has already signed up 127.

“It’s not necessarily about the flora and fauna; it’s about that connection with the world around you,” says Howell. “When I take the young people on residentials, they tell me that one of the most enjoyable experiences is lying down on their back in a field, surrounded by darkness, looking at the stars. Because you don’t get to see that in a town – firstly you don’t get a chance, and secondly you’ve got all the light pollution. You just don’t know what an experience could open up for a young person.”

But for projects working exclusively with green spaces confined within urban areas, how easy is it to create a lasting and meaningful connection to nature? The reinvention of a green space on the Eric Estate in east London, financed by Kerrygold Farmer Cooperative, has certainly made a difference since it was completed in May, according to Kim Yucksei, who has been a resident on the estate for 28 years.

Planting vegetables

“There was a green space there, but it wasn’t used for anything other than people putting their dogs on there,” she says. “Now we’ve got a wonderful play area with tables, benches, natural wooden climbing frames, little hills and a recipe tree [which residents use to share recipes]. The children are very enthusiastic because there’s nothing else here. We all love it.

“The children helped plant vegetables and we left the labels on the plants so they can see what’s what – they go there and say ‘that’s the one I planted’, help water them, take out the dead leaves. They didn’t just plant it and leave it, they’re now looking after it, and they’ve got a sense of pride.”

Penny Wilson, head of play at Play Association Tower Hamlets, believes the health benefits of engaging children and young people with the natural world shouldn’t be underestimated. “If you watch a child playing outside they’re just doing so many physical tasks – they run for hours, dig, climb. If you told them to do it they wouldn’t, but they want to because they’re playing. You won’t get that level of physical activity with anything else. As far as their mental health goes, a child that doesn’t play is a frustrated, unhappy and unbalanced child.”

Read the rest of the article here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/28/back-to-nature-inner-city-children

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One Million Kids on Anti-Psychotics

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Dissident Voice

by Susan Rosenthal,  September 25th, 2010

In July, the Washington Post reported that Corporate America is hoarding a record $1.8 trillion in cash while it waits for profit-making opportunities. At the same time, record numbers of American children are being prescribed toxic psychiatric drugs at earlier ages. These two facts are connected.

The corporate class stole its trillions from us, by exploiting workers at home and abroad – paying us less than our labor is worth – and by laying off workers and squeezing the rest to work a lot harder for much less.

They also steal from our children.

Exploitation and deprivation cause parents to be distressed, depressed, angry, anxious and overwhelmed. An estimated 15 million American children (one in five) live with an adult who suffered a major depression in the previous year. Children respond to parental distress with symptoms and behaviors. The greater the parent’s distress, the greater the child’s distress.

Instead of using some of the corporate treasury to invest in families, distressed children are being labeled with mental disorders and drugged into submission. These children are being robbed of their health and the hope of any real improvement in their lives.

For several decades, researchers like Peter and Ginger Breggin have documented the shocking extent to which American children are being drugged with stimulants and anti-depressants.

Now, thanks to the power of drug-company marketing, distressed children are being drugged with powerful anti-psychotics. In adults, these toxic compounds increase the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, suicide, seizures, infection, kidney failure, nervous-system damage and sudden death. The effects on children are unknown.

Last September, an FDA report found that the number of anti-psychotic prescriptions dispensed to children (0-17 years) had risen 22 percent over the previous five years.

The FDA examined six anti-psychotic drugs: Seroquel® (quetiapine); Zyprexa® (olanzapine); Risperdal® (risperidone); Abilify® (aripiprazole); Geodon® (ziprasidone); and Invega® (paliperidone).

In 2008, of the 32 million prescriptions dispensed for these drugs, 4.8 million were dispensed to children (15 percent of the total).

That same year, one million individual children were prescribed these anti-psychotics (19 percent of the total of 5.5 million individuals). Here are the numbers, by age group:

1,770 children aged 0-2
64,664 children aged 3-6
414,451 children aged 7-12
540,760 children aged 13-17

Diagnoses applied to the infants and toddlers (aged 0-2) included: Attention Deficit Disorder; Mental/Behavior Problems, Behavioral
Problems; Other Emotional Disturbances, and Residual Schizophrenia, a diagnosis that can be made on the basis of “odd beliefs and unusual perceptual experiences.”

A more accurate diagnosis for these children’s symptoms and behaviors would be “Parental Distress due to Heartless Social Policies.”   A recent report from the Urban Institute found that 7 percent of all 9-month-old infants live with severely depressed mothers, and 41 percent of 9-month-old infants live with mothers who suffer some form of depression. These rates are higher among mothers living in poverty, who are also more likely to suffer domestic violence.

Only a sick social system would enrich the few by stealing the present lives and future hopes of the many.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/09/one-million-kids-on-anti-psychotics/

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Psychotropic Drugs, Our Children and Our Pill-Crazed Society

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

The Huffington Post
By Dr. Ronald Ricker and Dr. Venus Nicolino
September 8, 2010

Today, the use of psychoactive drugs by children (6-17) is all too common, relied on far too much and growing at an alarming rate. It all started in the ’70s.

Memorialized in 1966 by the Rolling Stones’ “Mothers Little Helpers,” it was at that time that our society took the first steps at becoming “Pill Crazy.” Valium and Librium and Quaaludes were “Mother’s Little Helpers. The first drugs to enter the stage. If you couldn’t stand Johnny, your friends, your husband, in-laws, etc, tranquilizers smoothed you out, made you tranquil. Not surprisingly, in the 70s, the consumption of these tranquilizers, once discovered and available, skyrocketed. Anxiety was the popular diagnosis. Antidepressants were beginning to raise their heads as well. Their popularity at that time, however, was muted by the fact that they didn’t work well, and also sported many side effects, some of which were very annoying and occasionally dangerous. And, no one knew what was just around the corner.

Prozac

Prozac was first marketed in 1987. It was a totally new type of antidepressant, which seemed to work and had far less side effects. What had been a stream of tranquilizers became a tsunami of Prozac’s and tranquilizers. Other ‘Prozac’s’ entered the scene–Zoloft, Celexa, Paxil and Luvox, all vying to take part of Prozac’s market share. Promotion of these drugs by drug manufacturers exploded. Where there had been a surge in the diagnosis of anxiety, now the diagnosis of the decade was ‘depression.’ Housewives by the droves needed and demanded antidepressants and even more tranquilizers. If one was good, two must be better. The pill craze was on.

Diagnoses started to morph. The more the diagnoses, the more opportunities to sell drugs. Anxiety became anxiety neurosis, panic disorder, panic attacks, etc. ‘Depression,’ as a diagnosis, was of course and remains very popular. However, many patients don’t and didn’t like that diagnosis–perhaps it sounded too much like a disease. So a new depression explanation and diagnosis emerged–’chemical imbalance,’ which sounded more sheik and less like a disease and, of course, yielded more customers.

Not far behind ‘chemical imbalance’ came ‘mood disorder,’ a special type of depression, also called bipolar disorder. There are people who actually have a bipolar disorder and require numerous special medications for treatment. These medications, mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and second generation antipsychotics are far more dangerous medications than Prozac and tranquilizers. Further, there are also many people who are said to have ‘bipolar disorder’ who don’t. Often these patients are those who were said to be depressed yet don’t get better with standard antidepressants. They get all the special and dangerous medications (the number of which is multiplying geometrically) and have the additional advantage of being able to excuse pretty much anything they do as a result of their ‘mood disorder.’

This pretty well takes us through the ’90s. But here come our children. How did our children get sucked into all this? Our pill craze was and is a huge part. Parents and physicians often subscribe to this theory, that there is a pill for everything. Mommy says Johnnie is depressed, doctor agrees, Johnnie doesn’t. Guess who wins? Certainly not Johnny. Guess what Johnnie gets? A pill, usually an SSRI, which he may end up taking for a long time. Assuming Johnnie takes three years of SSRI therapy, his diagnosis is changed 25 percent of the time, usually to the much more serious diagnosis, bipolar disorder. His medications are changed to a much more serious and dangerous types. If Johnny takes an SSRI for six years the chances of his diagnosis changing to bipolar increases to 50 percent. So do his meds.

There’s yet another and newer mine field for Johnnie to negotiate, new in the last two decades. Let’s say Johnnie fidgets in his seat, doesn’t listen to the teacher, hates to read, and talks to his neighbor all the time. Guess what. Johnnie is diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and given another serious type of drug, a stimulant–usually Ritalin or a form of speed (one example being Adderall). Did you know that Adderall is 100 percent speed? We know speed kills but give it to our children. Think about that. Speed kills and we give speed to our children, masked as Adderall.  Astounding.

Read entire article here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-ronald-ricker-and-dr-venus-nicolino/psychotropic-drugs-our-ch_b_680488.html

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