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How kids are getting hooked on pills for life

Monday, October 22nd, 2012

Young children were once expected to outgrow their issues; now they’re diagnosed with lifelong psychiatric problems.

Evelyn Pringle & Martha Rosenberg
Alternet – October 2012

© Zurijeta/Shutterstock.com

Where do parents and teachers get the idea there’s something wrong with kids that only an expensive drug can fix? From Big Pharma’s seamless web of ads, subsidized doctors, journals, medical courses and conferences, paid “patient” groups, phony public services messages and reporters willing to serve as stenographers.

Free stenography for Pharma from sympathetic media includes articles like “One in 40 Infants Experience Baby Blues, Doctors Say,” on ABC News and “Preschool Depression: The Importance of Early Detection of Depression in Young Children,” on Science Daily.

For many, the face of the drugs-not-hugs message is Harold Koplewicz, author of the pop bestseller It’s Nobody’s Fault, and former head of NYU’s prestigious Child Study Center. In a 1999 Salon article, Koplewicz reiterated his “no-fault” statement, assuring parents that psychiatric illness is not caused by bad parenting. “It is not that your mother got divorced, or that your father didn’t wipe you the right way,” he said. “It really is DNA roulette: You got blue eyes, blond hair, sometimes a musical ear, but sometimes you get the predisposition for depression.”

Many regard the NYU Child Study Center, which Koplewicz founded and led before leaving in 2009 to start his own facility, as helping to usher in the world of brave new pediatric medicine in which children, toddlers and infants, once expected to outgrow their problems, are now diagnosed with lifelong psychiatric problems. The Child Study Center is “a threat to the health and welfare of children,” and its doctors are “hustlers working to increase their ‘client’ population and their commercial value to psychotropic drug manufacturers,” charged Vera Sharav, president of the watchdog group, Alliance for Human Research Protection.

A look at the center’s stated mission provides no reassurance. Its goal of “eliminating the stigma of being or having a child with a psychiatric disorder,” and “influencing child-related public policy,” sounds a lot like a Pharma sales plan. And its boast about having “a structure that allows recruitment of patients for research studies and then provides ‘real-world’ testing for successful controlled-environment findings,” could send chills down the backs of parents afraid their kids will be guinea pigs or money-making subjects.

In 2007, the fears of the Child Study Center’s skeptics were confirmed when it launched an aggressive, scare tactic marketing campaign called Ransom Notes in 2007. “We have your son,” said one ad, created with bits of disparate type like a ransom note from a kidnapper. “We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning…Autism.”

“We have your daughter. We are forcing her to throw up after every meal she eats. It’s only going to get worse,” said another ad signed “Bulimia.”

“We are in possession of your son. We are making him squirm and fidget until he is a detriment to himself and those around him. Ignore this and your kid will pay,” said another add from “ADHD.” Other ransom ads came from kidnappers named Depression, Asperger’s Syndrome and OCD.

Created pro bono by advertising giant BBDO, the ads were planned to run in New York magazine, Newsweek, Parents, Education Update, Mental Health News and other publications and on 11 billboards and 200 kiosks, according to the press release.

Immediate Outrage

The hostage campaign drew immediate public outrage and more than a dozen advocacy groups joined together in an online petition calling for an end to it. “This is a demonstration of the assaultive tactics used by psychiatry today – in particular, academic psychiatrists and university-based medical centers that are under the influence of their pharmaceutical partners,” Vera Sharav wrote in alerts to AHRP’s mailing list. “If Dr. Koplewicz et al. are not stopped, the campaign will be hitting the rest of the country,” she warned, and informed readers that the campaign was formulated by BBDO, “a major direct to consumer prescription drug advertising firm,” asking the New York State Attorney General’s office to investigate.

Days after the backlash, the center revoked the advertising campaign “after the effort drew a strongly negative reaction,” reported the New York Times. Koplewicz told the Times the decision was made by the center with no pressure from New York University and they planned to introduce a new campaign in the next three months. However, he left the Child Study Center at NYU in 2009 to start his own facility, initially called the Child Study Center Foundation, but changed to the Child Mind Institute, in 2010.

There was more controversy when Koplewicz left the center. When he announced his resignation, New York University “forbade him from entering his office and it pushed out professors who had said they wanted to join him at Child Mind Institute,” reported the New York Times. Twelve NYU professors nevertheless followed Koplewicz to the Child Mind Institute as well as most of the Child Study Center’s influential board of directors, which included Garber Neidich, a chairwoman at the Whitney Museum, the founders of the Tribeca Film Festival founders and some well known financiers. The toxic send-off was followed by the New York State Office of Mental Health firing Koplewicz from his job of nearly four years as director of the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, an affiliate of NYU School of Medicine.

Though Koplewicz’ Child Mind Institute is supposedly a non-profit, it is ensconced on Park Avenue in Manhattan and Koplewicz’ hourly rate “can be as high as $1,000 (three to four times that of the average Manhattan therapist),” says the Times. In a chilling interview on Education Update Online, Koplewicz says the reason his institute works closely with schools “is simply that’s where the kids are” (bringing to mind Willy Sutton, who robbed banks because “that’s where the money is”).

Last month in the Wall Street Journal, Koplewicz wrote that “no studies have examined the effect of long-term use” of ADHD meds, but they “have been in use for 70 years, and there is no evidence that suggests any adverse effects.” But there has been a large federal study of the long-term effects of the drugs and it shows they are “ineffective over longer periods,” and “that long-term use of the drugs can stunt children’s growth,” reported the Washington Post. Oops.

Read the rest of the article here http://www.sott.net/article/252567-How-kids-are-getting-hooked-on-pills-for-life

 

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The Huffington Post—Drug Companies Drive the Psychiatric Drugging of Children

Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
The Huffington Post—July 24, 2012
by Dr. Peter Breggin, Reform Psychiatrist

(click image to visit the psychiatric drug database) “The health professions would do far more good stopping the drugging of children than continuing or increasing it. Ethical professionals need to work toward removing children from psychiatric drugs.” – Dr. Peter Breggin

July 24, 2012 – Johnson & Johnson, the company that makes the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, has tentatively agreed to a settlement of $2.2 billion to resolve a federal investigation into the company’s marketing practices. Although details are not fully finalized, this includes “a roughly $400 million criminal fine for the illegal promotion of the antipsychotic Risperdal,” according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s been well documented that Johnson & Johnson confidentially paid psychiatrists such as Harvard’s Joseph Biederman to promote adult drugs such as the powerful antipsychotic drug Risperdal for children. The company has even ghost-written at least one of the Harvard professor’s “scientific” articles.

Another recent DOJ settlement with drug company GlaxoSmithKline resulted in Glaxo’s agreement to pay $3 billion in criminal and civil fines. As I wrote in an earlier Huffington Post blog:

In one of the most egregious examples of fraudulent marketing, “In the case of Paxil, prosecutors claim GlaxoSmithKline employed several tactics aimed at promoting the use of the drug in children, including helping to publish a medical journal article that misreported data from a clinical trial,” [according to the New York Times].

Glaxo manipulated and rewrote this study, which was rejected by the FDA for failing to show efficacy. The Glaxo rewrite made it appear as though the drug was useful for adolescent depression even though the FDA had not approved Paxil for adolescents. The company then got almost two dozen well-known researchers and “experts” to put their names on the article as if they had written it.

GlaxoSmithKline also secretly paid about $500,000 to psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff, while he was a professor at Emory University, to promote Paxil

GlaxoSmithKline also secretly paid about $500,000 to psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff, while he was a professor at Emory University, to promote Paxil. Glaxo even ghostwrote a psychopharmacology textbook for family doctors, who write many prescriptions for children, which was “coauthored” by Nemeroff and psychiatrist Alan Schatzberg. Nemeroff was sanctioned for failing to report the Glaxo payments he received while at Emory. But he’s landed on his feet running, now chairing the psychiatry department at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami.

None of these drug-company-bought psychiatrists has suffered serious consequences. Biederman remains a star at Harvard and Nemeroff recently received a new $2 million federal grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. These influential psychiatrists are just two out of many doctors who have been investigated for extensive financial relationships with drug companies.

Meanwhile, the DOJ has now enforced a total of $8.9 billion in criminal and civil fines against GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson.

Drug-company marketing has bought rich rewards, as reflected in the increasing numbers of children and youth diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other psychiatric problems. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 12.3 percent of boys and 5.5 percent of girls age 5-17 were diagnosed with the disorder in 2009. With the rates growing especially rapidly in the older children, considerably more than 12.3 percent of older boys are given this diagnosis, which almost inevitably leads to treatment with stimulant drugs such as Ritalin, Concerta, Focalin, Dexedrine and Adderall. Given estimates of 2.8 million children taking stimulants for ADHD in 2008, the number is now well over three million and rising.

“Drug-company marketing has bought rich rewards, as reflected in the increasing numbers of children and youth diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other psychiatric problems.” – Dr. Peter Breggin

Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics overrode FDA drug guidelines and advised that children as young as 4 could be diagnosed with ADHD and treated with stimulants. This will surely increase the numbers of younger children psychiatrically diagnosed and medicated with other drugs as well. In our professional experience, children given stimulants may become the targets of additional drugs as their conditions worsen due to the stimulants. Stimulants have been the entering wedge into the widespread psychiatric drugging of America’s children. Once the door was opened, nearly all the other psychiatric drugs came rushing in.

Keep in mind that the more than three million children on psychiatric drugs are for only one class of medication — stimulants for ADHD. Large numbers of other children are being put on highly dangerous adult antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants, and mood stabilizers, often to treat so-called “childhood bipolar disorder.” Psychiatrist Biederman’s work “helped to fuel a controversial 40-fold increase from 1994 to 2003 in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder … and a rapid rise in the use of antipsychotic medicines in children,” according to the New York Times. Bipolar disorder, like most other psychiatric diagnoses for children, is linked to the greater use of various psychiatric drugs. No surprise that this is so, since as in the case of Joseph Biederman, the “top” researchers in child psychiatry are heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies.

It is our personal and professional opinion that most childhood psychiatric diagnoses have no scientific validity. ADHD, for example, is described and diagnosed by a collection of behaviors – inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity — that can be caused by innumerable factors including too high expectations for a child, confused parenting, family disintegration, racism and poverty, inadequate teaching, poor nutrition, bullying, and head injury. The diagnosis literally shuts down the search for the real causes, undermines effective parenting and teaching approaches, and guarantees that the child will be medicated.

As another example, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) merely describes a child who displays anger. In the words of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, ODD involves “A pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior lasting at least six months.” The top three “symptoms” are “(1) often loses temper, (2) often argues with adults, and (3) often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules.” That’s not a disease in a child, it’s a sign that something has gone haywire in the child’s life and is not being remedied.

My most recent review of the scientific literature in Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal concludes that stimulants, antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs are very harmful to the brain. With increasing millions of children being placed on drugs that can harm normal development of the child’s brain and mind, and substitute for proper teaching and parenting, it’s time to change emphasis. As a society, we need to resist the quick fix that does more harm than good, and to stand up against the massive drugging of children.

The health professions would do far more good stopping the drugging of children than continuing or increasing it. Ethical professionals need to work toward removing children from psychiatric drugs.

The health professions would make a major contribution to the wide-scale health of children not only by curtailing psychiatric drugging, but also by offering the opportunity for parents to withdraw their children from these psychoactive substances.

Peter R. Breggin, MD is a psychiatrist in private practice in Ithaca, New York, and the cofounder with his wife Ginger Breggin of the Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy. He is the author of dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty books. His latest book is Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Their Families. It is based on a Person-Centered Collaborative Approach to psychiatric treatment with the focus on psychiatric drug withdrawal. It also describes many of the most severe adverse effects of psychiatric drugs that require drug withdrawal.

Ginger Breggin, in addition to cofounding and managing the Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, has coauthored books with her husband, contributes to their mutual research projects, and blogs independently on The Huffington Post.

Disclosure: Peter Breggin, M.D. has been a plaintiffs’ medical expert in product liability suits against the mentioned drug companies including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/psychiatric-drugs_b_1693649.html

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American Psychiatric Association Protest—This Weekend, Philadelphians Can Say “Screw You” to Normal

Friday, May 4th, 2012

PhillyMag.com—May 4, 2012

by Liz Spikol

This weekend, there’s going to be an Occupy day of protest and rallies in Philadelphia—but not by Occupy Philly. On Saturday, activists will come from all over the country for Occupy the APA, a peaceful day of action to protest the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which is being rolled out at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) at the Convention Center. Unlike other protests that sometimes divide the mental health advocacy community, this protest will include people from diverse constituencies—from psychiatrists and those who take medications to psychiatric “survivors” who believe psychiatry is dangerously abusive.

The DSM, as it’s familiarly known, is often called the bible of mental illness because it’s how, for all intents and purposes, a person’s constellation of symptoms is solidified into a firm diagnosis, a billable diagnosis code, and an acceptable FDA-approved category for certain pharmaceuticals. The DSM has always been controversial; it classified homosexuality as a mental disease until 1974. And many psychiatrists confess to frustration when they’re forced to pick a diagnosis for patients whose mix of complaints is too vague to identify.

The DSM has the power to change perception. It can give and take away. For instance, the new DSM refines the criteria for Premenstrual Dysmorphic Disorder (PMDD), a severe form of PMS. Proponents argue that insurance companies will pay for more treatment options now that the DSM has given PMDD its blessing. Opponents say PMDD shouldn’t be in there to begin with because it stigmatizes normal female physiology. These are the kinds of arguments that bedevil the manual all the time.

The stakes are particularly high with children, whose bodies and brains are still developing when they’re prescribed drugs made for adults. In the last few years, there was an explosion of childhood bipolar diagnosis. It’s now generally acknowledged that scores of those diagnoses were incorrect, and that many children were medicated unnecessarily. Part of the blame has gone to pharmaceutical companies, for obvious reasons. But prescriptions were written based on criteria in the DSM-IV, which is why the DSM-V refines the criteria for childhood bipolar disorder. While the new definition may be a step forward, the culture of the DSM and its inclination to classify behavior is at the root of the problem. Some children are just … children.  Read the rest of the article here

Watch the video— Psychiatry Labeling Kids with Bogus Mental Disorders:

 

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Drugging our Kids on Antidepressants

Monday, May 30th, 2011

The Daily Telegraph- May 30, 2011

by Elissa Doherty and Marianne Betts

AUSTRALIA – The  number of children aged six and under being prescribed anti-depressants has soared by almost 50 per cent since the federal government pledged to investigate the issue, new figures show.

Federal health department data reveals prescribing rates of the controversial drugs have risen from 852 in 2007-08 to 1264 in 2009-10.

But despite Health Minister Nicola Roxon ordering an investigation three years ago, a Freedom of Information request shows the government held just two meetings.

Five deaths have also been linked to anti-depressants in children aged 10 to 19 since 2009, Therapeutic Goods Administration figures show. In children aged nine and under, 89 adverse reactions were linked to anti-depressants over the same period.

The figures show Zoloft and Prozac were among the most prescribed in the youngest age group, as well as another used for chronic bed-wetting.

Anti-depressants

Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive Dr Joe Tucci said he would have expected the government to act by now.

“I cannot think of a good reason why any six-year-old, or younger, should be treated with antidepressants,” he said. “I think it’s gone up because medication is being used to treat the symptoms and not the cause.”

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said it was alarming any anti-depressants were being prescribed for children and demanded answers.

“I would be very alarmed if these figures were true as there is no indication for an anti-depressant medication given to any child under the age of six,” Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Faculty chair Dr Phillip Brock said.

“I have written to the government before asking if figures in this age group are valid. The fact we are still seeing this kind of data demands an answer.”

Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Steve Hambleton said doctors were concerned about prescribing medication for young people but were having more success with certain anti-depressants.

He had personally written scripts for two six-year-olds – and they had benefited.

A Health Department spokeswoman said: “The management of a patient’s medical condition, including the prescription of medicines, is a clinical decision between the clinician and patient or carer, taking regard of the patient’s circumstances.”

Black Dog Institute director Professor Gordon Parker said investigation was needed.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/drugging-our-kids-on-anti-depressants/story-e6freuy9-1226065161126

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Mother battles Michigan over daughter’s medication

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Centre Daily Times
By Corey Williams
May 22, 2011

This May 12, 2011 photo shows Maryanne Godboldo in Detroit. Godboldo is locked in a battle with Michigan's Department of Human Services over her right to determine whether her physically impaired daughter should continue taking the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, since she claims the girl has responded better to holistic treatment. AP Photo

DETROIT — Frustration over her physically impaired daughter’s medical care led Maryanne Godboldo to lash out at what she considered state interference and into a 12-hour standoff when Detroit police came to take the girl away.

When it ended, the unemployed mother was in handcuffs; her daughter placed in a psychiatric hospital for children.

Godboldo now is locked in a bitter battle with Michigan’s Department of Human Services over her right to determine whether the girl should continue taking the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal and the government’s responsibility to look after the child’s welfare.

Godboldo doesn’t trust doctors much – she blames some of the girl’s past medical problems on possible physician negligence and complications from childhood immunizations, but did not name the doctors or release her daughter’s medical records to The Associated Press. She claims the girl has responded better to holistic treatment that does not include Risperdal.

But the state is not budging on its assertion that without the proper medication, Ariana is at risk.

“Our mandate is to go into court and prove there is medical neglect,” said Human Services Director Maura Corrigan, who declined to speak directly about Godboldo’s case due to the ongoing court proceedings.

“Is there harm to the child? That’s what we are trying to assess,” Corrigan told the AP in a recent interview.

A defiant Godboldo still believes she was right to defy police, despite five days in jail and criminal charges, including discharge of a firearm, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and resisting officers.

“I was in my home. Why should I come out? They were invading my home,” Godboldo said.

Citing the charges, Godboldo declined to say if she fired a gun when police arrived at her home March 24. But officers said a gun and about 43 rounds of live ammunition were in the house, and a spent shell casing was found after the standoff, according to court records. Ariana also was in the house.

“I would always be concerned with a parent who has a gun and is using it when a child is present because accidents happen,” said Oakland County Probate Court Judge Linda Hallmark, who isn’t connected to the case but handles child custody issues. “If a parent feels the child is going to be removed and there isn’t a basis for it, there are legal avenues that the parent needs to follow.”

Ariana already had her share of medical troubles when Godboldo started giving her Risperdal more than a year ago at a doctor’s suggestion. She had lost her right leg below the knee as an infant and wears a prosthesis. Godboldo claims she also developed encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, before entering 6th grade.

She said her daughter complained often of being dizzy and had a hoarse voice, became more clingy and fearful, and avoided playing outside.

“It happened slowly at first, but it was enough to know when your child makes a change,” Godboldo said.

She sought help at a Detroit area center. Staff there put Ariana on a treatment plan that included Risperdal, said Allison Folmar, one of Godboldo’s attorneys.

Child Protective Services in its petition wrote that Ariana was diagnosed with “psychosis NOS,” or “not otherwise specified,” Folmar said.

“They are saying ‘it’s something going on in her head, but we don’t know what it is,’” the attorney added.

But Godboldo balked at a suggestion that her daughter be placed in a mental hospital. She took the girl’s treatment to another center. She also decided to wean her from Risperdal, which sometimes is used to treat schizophrenia.

“Ariana has some issues. She requires one-on-one attention,” said Folmar, describing how the girl at times appears unresponsive. But “she writes. She reads.”

Risperdal often is used to contain behaviors like aggression and even treat autism, said Derek H. Suite, a board certified psychiatrist and president and chief executive of Full Circle Health in the Bronx, N.Y. Risperdal use has shown dramatic reductions in psychotic symptoms, but there can be side-effects, he added.

“Sometimes kids can have neurological problems … muscular tics,” Suite said. “These drugs can slow you down.”

After Godboldo’s confrontation with police, Ariana spent about a month in a children’s psychiatric facility. She now is living with Godboldo’s sister, Penny. A judge has ordered that other adult relatives be present when Godboldo visits with her daughter.

But “to this day, there is not one court order saying give her the medication,” Folmar said. “No one has recommended giving the child the medication.”

It’s not unusual for parents and the state to be at odds over what’s best.

Two Idaho parents lost a civil lawsuit last year when a judge ruled their rights were not violated by an officer who took custody of their infant daughter so a doctor could check for signs of meningitis. Dale and Leilani Neumann of Wisconsin were convicted of reckless homicide following the 2008 death of their 11-year-old daughter, whose undiagnosed diabetes was treated with prayer instead of conventional medicine.

Godboldo said the state was not involved in the care of her daughter until she pursued a more holistic treatment. When asked by the AP what that entailed, she replied: “God’s medication.”

After Godboldo refused to attend a meeting with Child Protective Services, officers arrived at her home to remove Ariana. Godboldo claimed they never showed her a court order.

Detroit police declined to comment about the case “because of the litigation involved,” Sgt. Eren Stephens said in an email.

When Godboldo refused to allow police in, the officers tried to force their way through a side door but backed off after hearing a gun shot, court documents said.

“Maryann did not shoot at police and she did not fire a gun with any intention of scaring the police,” Folmar said. “But even if she did fire a so-called warning shot, right now the question is of self-defense.”

Read article here:  http://www.centredaily.com/2011/05/22/2728095/mother-battles-michigan-over-daughters.html

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Maryanne Godboldo’s daughter released as parents, state wrangle over her medical care

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Livingston Daily
By Gina Damron
May 8, 2011

Maryanne Godboldo’s supporters will gather today for a reunion party at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit.

They’re celebrating the fact that Godboldo’s 13-year-old daughter — at the center of a struggle between her parents and the state over her medical care — was released Friday from a medical facility in Northville into her aunt’s care.

Godboldo, who has garnered significant community support, says she has the right to determine her daughter’s care and had been weaning her off a prescribed psychotropic drug in favor of holistic treatments.

But in an order to take the child into protective custody in March, Child Protective Services accused Godboldo of being in denial about her daughter’s mental health.

The state also accused her of neglecting the girl by not giving her the psychotropic drug.

With police assistance, state workers came to take the girl, but Godboldo has said she wasn’t going to allow that.

She is accused of firing a gun, triggering an hours-long standoff, and is facing criminal charges.

Last month, authorities determined there was no emergency need for the girl to be medicated.

On the order of a Wayne County juvenile court judge, doctors for the family and of a facility where the girl was taken after the standoff have come up with a treatment plan that can be implemented now that the girl is in family custody.

The trial in the case is set to begin in June.

“We still have a long way to go,” read an e-mail Saturday from the Justice 4 Maryanne Action Committee. But now that the girl is back with family, “we have much cause to celebrate.”

A love of dance

Godboldo, 56, said she and the girl’s father, Mubarak Hakim, met at a Detroit restaurant in the 1990s. Hakim, she said, was a jazz musician.

The two began to date and, in 1998, they had a baby girl.

“It was wonderful,” Godboldo said. “It was absolutely delightful.”

The girl’s right leg had to be amputated below the knee when she was 3 days old, but Godboldo said her daughter became athletic, frequented social occasions with her aunt and loved to dance.

She got that from her mom.

Godboldo was a young girl when she and her sister, Penny, started taking dance classes on Saturdays. They learned ballet, modern dance and tap.

Godboldo said she grew up on the city’s west side, born to parents who moved to Detroit from the South. She was the youngest girl and 11th in a line of 12 children.

In the early 1980s, Godboldo and her sister went to New York to study dance. Godboldo later went back to pursue dance and landed with a jazz dance company. Her father died in the late ’80s and, in 1993, she came home to take care of her mother. But dance was always within reach, and her sister hooked her back in. The art has been a release for Godboldo.

“It’s relaxing,” she said. “It rejuvenates you.”

A treatment plan

Dr. Margaret Betts, the family’s physician and friend, said Godboldo’s daughter used to be active — she danced, was in choir, took horseback riding lessons.

But a series of immunizations in 2009, Godboldo has said, changed her.

Now she seems shy, Betts said.

According to the order to take the girl, she was diagnosed with an unspecified psychosis and was placed on medication.

In a petition filed by CPS, allegations were made that the girl became aggressive after Godboldo stopped the medication, and her behavior was unpredictable.

Betts, who believes in alternative medicine, questioned the original diagnosis and said more tests will be done.

The new treatment plan includes resuming an alternative regimen, while consulting with a psychiatrist, neurologist and other medical specialists.

Betts said alternative medicine may not work for everyone, but “it should be the starting point for most.”

According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a 2008 survey of Americans showed that in 2007, more than 38% of adults and nearly 12% of children were using some form of complementary and alternative medicine.

The organization is a federal government agency for scientific research on complementary and alternative medicine, which the agency defines as “a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine.”

According to the survey, some diseases or conditions for which complementary or alternative medicine were used most frequently included back or neck pain, colds, anxiety or stress, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and insomnia.

Betts said parents have the right to determine what is best for their children.

“As guardian and parent, that is our responsibility,” she said. “No one knows you better.”

Read article here: http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/C4/20110508/NEWS01/105080569/Maryanne-Godboldo-s-daughter-released-parents-state-wrangle-over-her-medical-care?odyssey=nav|head

For more information on alternatives, click here: http://www.cchrint.org/alternatives/

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Detroit mother’s heroism sends message to all parents: Say “no” to child drugging

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

NaturalNews.com

by Monica G. Young

Click image to watch video: Drugging our Children—Side Effects

The story of the Detroit mother, Maryanne Godboldo, undergoing a police siege on her home after refusing to give her daughter a psychotropic drug has set off a national outcry. Many facts not only vindicate her defiance but point the finger squarely at the correct villains: the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries.

As a recap, on March 24 a Children’s Protective Services (CPS) case worker petitioned to remove Maryanne Godboldo’s 13-year-old daughter from her care and place her in state custody. Only two weeks on the assignment (scarcely knowing the girl), the case worker claimed the mother was medically neglecting her child by taking her off Risperdal – a highly toxic antipsychotic drug.

A police SWAT team, accompanied by the case worker, was promptly dispatched to the home – complete with assault weapons, an armored carrier and helicopter. Despite police breaking down her door, the mother refused to give up her daughter and allegedly fired a warning shot. After a 12-hour standoff, the woman surrendered.

This mother – a teacher, dancer and respected figure in Detroit’s art circles – was then jailed and arraigned on multiple felony charges. Maryanne was since released from jail but faces criminal charges. The child was essentially kidnapped by the police and CPS and placed in a juvenile psychiatric facility.

State officials since confirmed there was no need for her to take the drug and a judge has announced a plan to get the teen out of the facility and into her aunt’s home.

The mother says her daughter’s troubles began in September 2009 with a bad reaction to immunizations. Upon seeking help for the girl at a Detroit Children’s Center, a psychiatrist prescribed the antipsychotic drug Risperdal – without any diagnosis and despite no history of mental problems.

Maryanne at first complied, but after months of worsening symptoms and severe side effects she consulted with a holistic doctor who advised weaning her daughter off the drug. The child’s aunt confirms, “There were absolutely no mental issues with her until she had the immunizations and even more with the Risperdal. It’s been hell ever since.” The girl’s father, Mubuarak Hakim, reports, “Maryanne’s decision to wean her from that was making a difference, making her better, helping her to be a happy kid again.”

Court documents show Maryanne was within her legal rights in halting the drug. On June 3, 2010 she signed an informed consent on behalf of her child, stating, “It has been explained to me that I have the right to withdraw this consent at any time and can stop taking the medication at any time.” The document was also signed by the psychiatrist who prescribed the drug – reportedly the same one who later complained to child welfare workers when she stopped administering the drug.

It’s no wonder a mom would go to such lengths to protect her child from psychotropic drugs. Reported Risperdal “side” effects include abdominl pain, vomiting, sore throat, agitation, aggression, anxiety, chest pain, nasal inflammation, dizziness, drowsiness, insomnia, dry skin, difficulty urinating, heavy menstruation, tremor, weight gain, lethargic feelings, joint pain, respiratory infection, tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements of face and limbs), liver failure, stroke, blood clots, hemorrhaging and suicidal thoughts.

Follow the money

It is not uncommon for Children’s Protective Services – an agency ostensibly dedicated to protecting children – to coerce parents to give their kids dangerous psychiatric drugs, often three or four drugs at a time.

CPS’s funding comes from the state and federal grants (as is the case with the Children’s Center which originally put Maryanne’s daughter on the drug). And one of the most powerful and high-rolling government lobbying forces in the U.S. is the pharmaceutical industry.

In reporting on the Godboldo story, the Voice of Detroit talked to Starletta Banks who filed suit in 2005 when her three children were snatched by CPS. Banks says, “The sole reasons that children are being stolen from their families and homes are the financial incentives associated with each child and circumstance. There is federal grant money given to states and child placement agencies to create situations that do not exist to generate these funds. The state of Michigan is financially broke, thus surviving on the backs of our children.”

Big Pharma’s stronghold over Michigan is evidenced by it being the only state with an immunity law for drug makers. Per Michigan State Representative, Vicki Barnett, “Michigan is the only state in the nation that gives drug companies total immunity when their products harm or kill consumers.”

Ironically, the same week Michigan officials busted a mother’s door down for taking her child off Risperdal, a South Carolina jury found the drug’s manufacturer (Johnson & Johnson) guilty of deceiving doctors about its side effects and effectiveness. “It was all about the money,” says the South Carolina state attorney. At least ten other states have similar Risperdal lawsuits pending trial in federal courts.

But it is not only Michigan parents or those involved with child protection who have been marginalized by psychiatric influence. Millions of parents across the country, in every economic strata and race, have been misled into believing that they must defer to mental health “experts”. Yet these psychiatric drug pushers sacrifice children’s health and futures for the sake of profit.

About the author:
Monica G. Young is a human rights investigator and educational writer with a purpose to expose the truth about the pharmaceutical and psychiatric industries and safeguard human liberty. She encourages non-drug alternative approaches based on healthy lifestyles and human decency.   She supports the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and like-minded groups.

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Children Exploited for Profit Using Fictitious Mental Disorders

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

"For over two decades drug and psychiatric industries have bombarded schools, parents, doctors, the media and government with propaganda that ADHD is a medical condition that must be managed with drugs."

NaturalNews.com— April 7, 2011

By Monica G. Young

We’re ashamed that exploitation of children for profit was once tolerated in America: such as children as young as five shackled to machines while working 16-hour days in factories, or black children auctioned and sold as slaves. Yet future generations will look back on our era too with shame: a time when labeling kids with fictitious mental disorders and hooking them on drugs was a multi-billion dollar business.

About 10 percent of U.S children – over five million – are said to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a mental illness treated with drugs. A recent study blows a wide hole in that myth.

A team of Dutch researchers took 100 unmedicated children diagnosed with ADHD and fed half of them a diet free of processed foods and allergens. The other half served as a control group. Within five weeks, 64 percent of those in the test group saw remarkable changes. “After the diet, they were just normal children with normal behavior,” lead researcher Dr. Lidy Pelsser tells NPR. “They were no longer more easily distracted, they were no more forgetful, there were no more temper-tantrums.”

Dr. Pelsser explains, “ADHD, it’s just a couple of symptoms — it’s not a disease. There is a paradigm shift needed. If a child is diagnosed ADHD, we should say, ‘OK, we have got those symptoms, now let’s start looking for a cause.’… With all children, we should start with diet research. But now we are giving them all drugs, and I think that’s a huge mistake.”

Most ADHD-diagnosed kids are prescribed powerful stimulants which can cause nausea, insomnia, liver damage, heart failure, hallucinations, convulsions, violent behavior, suicidal thoughts and sudden death. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration categorizes these as Schedule II drugs – the same class as cocaine and opium.

For over two decades drug and psychiatric industries have bombarded schools, parents, doctors, the media and government with propaganda that ADHD is a medical condition that must be managed with drugs. But let’s dissect this:

* Pharmaceutical and psychiatric literature, ads and advocates typically claim ADHD kids have brain dysfunctions or brain chemical imbalances and that it’s genetically based, while also stating the cause is unknown and no lab tests can detect it.

Huh? As no lab tests can detect it and its cause is unknown, how can they scientifically link it to brain malfunction, chemical imbalances or genetic influence? They can’t.

* They say a doctor’s diagnosis relies on the child’s response to questions, the family’s description of behavior problems and a school assessment.

Hello? Can you imagine a doctor diagnosing cancer without lab tests? Or diagnosing diabetes and prescribing insulin injections based on a family member’s report? Or putting a boy’s leg in a cast due to a teacher’s assessment? We would call such a doctor a fraud.

* They say symptoms include impulsivity, dashing around, difficulty focusing on one thing, avoiding activities that are boring, squirming and bouncing a lot, talking excessively and finding it difficult to play quietly. And these symptoms must have been present before the age of seven.

Wait a second. When are kids generally the most spontaneous, energetic, rambunctious and have the lowest attention span? Before the age of seven!

* They say that in a child with ADHD, the above symptoms are more pronounced than in other kids the same age. In other words, this isn’t medical science – it’s OPINION. Plus they omit or enormously downplay the factor of diet.

*And here’s the clincher. They say ADHD cannot be cured but its symptoms can be managed with medication.

So there you have it – it’s clearly a marketing scheme to target children and create lifelong customers for the psychiatric drug industry.

Dr. Fred Baughman, neurologist and author who has testified before Congress, says it like this, “They made a list of the most common symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children; those which bother teachers and parents most, and in a stroke that could not be more devoid of science or Hippocratic motive — termed them a ‘disease.’ Twenty five years of research, not deserving of the term ‘research,’ has failed to validate ADD/ADHD as a disease. Tragically – the ‘epidemic’ having grown from 500 thousand in 1985 to between five and seven million today – this remains the state of the ‘science’ of ADHD.”

One of the world’s most influential child psychiatrists and “expert” proponents of ADHD for years has been Harvard’s Dr. Joseph Biederman. He has published hundreds of papers on ADHD and ADHD drug treatment, and is one of the most-cited researchers on the subject. In 2009 a Congressional inquiry revealed that between 2000-2007, Biederman earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers. It appears Dr. Biederman has an acute case of Greed Disorder.

Just as our country has defeated and outlawed child exploitation in the past, psychiatric labeling and drugging of children must too be abolished.

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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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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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