Shadow Health Minister Anne Milton said doctors should be opting for non-drug treatments rather than reaching for the prescription pad. ‘This data shows that increasingly health professionals are prescribing drugs to treat child mental health problems, when evidence suggests that talking therapies can have an equal, if not better effect.
A review of the scientific literature reveals that it is our drug-based paradigm of care that is fueling this epidemic. The drugs increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill, and induce new and more severe psychiatric symptoms in a significant percentage of patients.
The Chicago Tribune’s unprecedented review of more than 40,000 state and federal inspection reports found that all types of nursing homes have been cited for improperly administering psychotropic drugs. The reports show thousands of elderly and disabled people have been affected, many of them drugged without their consent or without a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis that would justify treatment.
The Illinois Dept. of Public Health states that consent forms for administering psychotropics must be signed by patients or someone with power of attorney. In general, consents must say what drug will be given, how much and how often. If a doctor wants to add a drug, the consent must be re-signed. The patient must be fully informed of risks.
Researchers reported on Monday that antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, which affect a message-carrying brain chemical called serotonin, may raise the risk of pre-term delivery and affect a baby’s health at birth. In fact, women who took antidepressants during pregnancy in the study had twice the risk of pre-term delivery as other women.