On January 29, 2010, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) issued a formal statement that it is “seriously concerned about studies that indicate the rapid increase within a short period of time the prescription of psycho-stimulants such as Ritalin and Concerta to children diagnosed with ADHD.”
An Alaska attorney who has gone up against a drug giant and won has a new target. Jim Gottstein is taking on psychiatry in Alaska for over-prescribing medicine to children. Gottstein was the attorney who forced Eli Lilly to pay more than $1 billion in settlements over the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa. He also heads up a group called the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, which filed the lawsuit. The group claims over-prescribing is disabling children for life.
Critics say there’s a damaging conflict of interest with the financial ties between drug companies and experts who are revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), as well as guidelines on the best treatments. This question has been a big topic of debate not just in scientific and academic journals it also concerns the public welfare.
The American Psychiatric Association’s release of the proposed fifth revision of its billing bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) fuels University of California’s Dr. Irwin Savodnik’s statement, “The very vocabulary of psychiatry is now defined at all levels by the pharmaceutical industry.”
Psychiatry’s Billing Bible: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is…