Tag Archives: American Academy of Pediatrics

Instead of drugs, children need a good dose of parenting

The targeting of preschoolers by the academy is an integral part of a disturbing tendency to advocate medical and pharmaceutical intervention as a legitimate option for the management of childhood behaviour. The campaign, which has as its premise the conviction that children’s behavioural problems represent a marker for mental illness, implicitly assumed a coercive and intrusive form. In Australia, draft guidelines being considered by the National Health and Medical Research Council threaten parents who refuse to medicate children diagnosed with ADHD with being referred to child protection authorities. The proposed guidelines assert that “as with any medical intervention” the “inability of parents to implement strategies may raise child protection issues”.

American Academy of Pediatrics Promotes Big Pharma Agenda—Labeling and drugging 4-year-olds

4-year-olds on drugs? You betcha. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued new treatment guidelines for “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” that say ADHD can be diagnosed in kids as early as age four, and that Ritalin and similar drugs are an appropriate treatment even for children this young. Apparently the “Academy” has no problem with the fact that the US FDA warns drugs like Ritalin can cause hallucinations, mania, heart attack, stroke and sudden death, for a mental ‘disorder’ (ADHD) that is simply based on a checklist of behaviors such as “loses pencils or toys,” “often does not seem to listen,” “is easily distracted by extraneous stimuli,” “fidgets” or “runs about or climbs excessively in situations when it is not appropriate.” And for this, children as young as four should be placed on drugs that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration categorizes in the same class of highly addictive drugs as cocaine, morphine and opium.

Right. It should come as no surprise that the chairman of the new ADHD guidelines, Mark Wolraich, MD, is a periodic consultant to Shire Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Shinogi, and Next Wave Pharmaceuticals, or that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has receives millions in pharmaceutical funding…

The malicious use of pharmaceuticals: An under-recognized form of child abuse

Child abuse is a serious problem that affects nearly one million children a year in the United States alone. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Department of Health and Human Services classify child abuse into four categories including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. None of these categories, however, clearly includes the abusive use of drugs on children. A study soon to be published in the Journal of Pediatrics investigates the malicious use of pharmaceuticals and attempts to shed light on this under-recognized problem.