Are Independent Thinkers Mentally Ill?

Do you question authority? Fail to accept conventional wisdom? Lose your temper when you hear a politician make a promise that you know he or she can’t keep?
If so, you may be mentally ill, according to the most recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In this revision, psychiatrists hope to add dozens of new mental disorders. Unfortunately, many of these so-called illnesses target people who merely think or behave differently from the majority population.

$1,000 a Pop: How Forest Labs Bribed Doctors to Prescribe Antidepressants to Kids

Forest Labs (FRX) appears to have initially underestimated how much it needed to pay the feds to go away: In 2009, the company said it had set aside $170 million in case it needed to settle a Department of Justice investigation of the kickbacks it paid in its marketing of Celexa and Lexapro, two antidepressants. Today, the company paid $313 million to wrap up the probes. Forest’s management is used to lavish spending, however, as the whistleblower complaints behind the settlement allege. The meat of Forest’s wrongdoing is that the company promoted Celexa for children even though the FDA had specifically rejected the drug for kids, and even though European data showed it was not useful in youths. The company did something similar with Lexapro — one pharmaceutical sales rep recommended crushing up Lexapro into apple sauce in order to make it more palatable to children.

Forest Labs will pay $313 mil to settle criminal &civil charges that it improperly marketed antidepressants for use in children & distributed unapproved thyroid drug

Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) will pay $313 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it improperly marketed antidepressants for use in children and distributed an unapproved thyroid drug, the Justice Department announced Wednesday….The settlement also covers civil charges that Forest improperly promoted Celexa and another antidepressant, Lexapro, for pediatric use, which had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Forest’s improper promotion campaign took place from 1998 until at least 2005, the department alleged.

Prescription drug use widespread, dangerous

The abuse of prescription drugs is one of college campuses’ best kept secrets. Pharmaceutical pills don’t require a wet towel under a door, open windows or even mellow neighbors. A single pop and it’s as if that pill had never existed. With more than 50 million teenagers diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, it’s a painless effort to find a friend who can supply.