ADHD diagnoses soared amid 20-year drug marketing campaign

After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating.

Read More: ADHD diagnoses soared amid 20-year drug marketing campaign

Rep. Tim Murphy Introduces Mental-Health Legislation

Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, introduced a wide-ranging mental health care bill that would change the way mental illness is treated.

Rep. Tim Murphy Introduces Mental-Health Legislation

‘Daily Show’ Takes on Johnson & Johnson’s Criminal Allegations

Jon Stewart takes on pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, saying the criminal allegations against the company are far worse than the shootings, decapitations and massacres encountered in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto.

‘Daily Show’ Takes on Johnson & Johnson’s Criminal Allegations

Drug Firm Pays Billions for Misbranding Antipsychotics

Johnson & Johnson was sued for failing to report data suggesting increased risks for stroke and diabetes associated with the antipsychotic Risperdal.

Read More >> Drug Firm Pays Billions for Misbranding Antipsychotics

CCHR hits psychiatrists for turning classrooms into ADHD labs

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is working diligently to eradicate mental health abuses
while enacting patient and consumer protections from what psychiatrists push on people. Mental health abuses are an international problem. Brian Daniels, who is the National Spokesperson for the CCHR in the United Kingdom, has written for CCHR International on Dec. 2, 2013, that school classrooms are being turned into labs for ADHD diagnoses and the drugging of kids.

Read More >> CCHR hits psychiatrists for turning classrooms into ADHD labs

Psychiatric Drug Therapy Among U.S. Teenagers Levels Off at 6%

About 6 percent of U.S. teenagers report using a psychiatric medicine, such as an antidepressant or attention-deficit treatment, as drug therapy for the conditions remains steady, a government survey found.


Read more >> Psychiatric Drug Therapy Among U.S. Teenagers Levels Off at 6%

Psychostimulant and non-stimulant agents address the symptoms of ADHD, substantial evidence shows.

ADHD, the most common childhood neurobehavioral disorder, is characterized by difficulties with attention, impulse control, and modulating activity level. The pathophysiology of ADHD is thought to involve dysregulation of brain dopamine and norepinephrine systems.1 Managing ADHD includes pharmacotherapeutic and nonpharmacotherapeutic—ie, behavioral and psychoeducational—interventions.2,3

Psychostimulant and non-stimulant agents address the symptoms of ADHD, substantial evidence shows.

They act as if that is a good thing.

Unscientific ADHD Diagnosis, Drugging Causing Severe Harm to Children

The diagnosis of ADHD may have become too broad, leading to needless and potentially harmful treatment for some children, researchers warn.

Unscientific ADHD Diagnosis, Drugging Causing Severe Harm to Children

Report says foster children receive too many medications

One kid called it "the brainwash pill." Some said it made them put on weight or provoked teasing from schoolmates when they were called to the nurse's office.

Report says foster children receive too many medications

Should children be on Ritalin?

How bad can our children be that we have to drug them to send them to school? This letter has been waiting to be written since 1985. That was the first year I entered a state school classroom and found that a couple of kids in my class were taking a drug called Ritalin. I knew absolutely nothing about Ritalin at that time. I did get an uneasy feeling in my gut and asked the parents to take their children off the drug, if, the only reason they were on it was for my benefit. The two children that were taking Ritalin were taken off immediately and I had no problem with the boys academically or behaviorally.

Read more >> Should children be on Ritalin?

Are We Overmedicating Foster Care Children?

Mental health issues are front and center in human services. Every day, caseworkers work in an environment where mental health services aren't as robust as they should be and where medication for kids in custody sometimes serves as a substitute for more appropriate care.

Are We Overmedicating Foster Care Children?

Psychiatric Drug Use Among Preschoolers Leveling Off, Study Shows

Doctors are slower to prescribe medication for children when it comes to treating mental health disorders, a new study shows.

More >> Psychiatric Drug Use Among Preschoolers Leveling Off, Study Shows

Parents Not Vaccinating Kids Contributed to Whooping Cough Outbreaks

California’s worst episode of whooping cough, or pertussis, in 2010, likely spread among unvaccinated children to infect 9,210 youngsters.

Read more >> Parents Not Vaccinating Kids Contributed to Whooping Cough Outbreaks

More women prescribed psychiatric drugs and left at risk of birth defects

Women of child-bearing age are increasingly being prescribed psychiatric medications that can cause pregnancy complications and birth defects, doctors fear.

Read More >> More women prescribed psychiatric drugs and left at risk of birth defects

New Warning Against Anti-Psychotic Medication Use Among Children

The American Psychiatric Association's (APA) new warning of the disputed uses of anti-psychotic medications is part of a broader campaign to educate patients and doctors about unneeded and possibly harmful medical treatments and tests.

New Warning Against Anti-Psychotic Medication Use Among Children

A Toddler on 3 Different Psychiatric Meds? How Drugging Kids Became Big Business

On December 13, 2006, paramedics arrived at the Plymouth County, Massachusetts, home of four-year-old Rebecca Riley only to find her slumped over on her parents' bed, dead. The medical examiner on hand identified the cause of death as heart and lung failure brought about by the medications she was on. Rebecca was being prescribed Depakote, Seroquel, and Clonidine by Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, a Tufts-New England Medical Center child psychiatrist. She had diagnosed Rebecca with ADHD and bipolar disorder when she was two years old. Rebecca's death provoked a national debate on how a child as young as two could ever be diagnosed with major mental illnesses and be put on powerful tranquilizers. Katie Couric eventually covered the story in a CBS 60 Minutes segment.

Read more >> A Toddler on 3 Different Psychiatric Meds? How Drugging Kids Became Big Business

New Study Links Antipsychotic Risperdal to Increased Diabetes Risk

A new study reveals that antipsychotic medications, such as Risperdal (risperidone), which are being prescribed to a growing number of children, have been tied to serious side effects including increased risks for diabetes. This is not the first time that Risperdal side effects have been the focus of medical research, including ties between Risperdal and diabetes.

New Study Links Antipsychotic Risperdal to Increased Diabetes Risk

Over-Medicating Our Children…Abuse By the Pharmaceutical Industry?

This school year, beware of those who try to influence you to put your children on drugs.

Over-Medicating Our Children…Abuse By the Pharmaceutical Industry?

American Schools Are Failing Nonconformist Kids. Here’s How

Of the possible child heroes for our times, young people with epic levels of the traits we valorize, the strongest contender has got to be the kid in the marshmallow study. Social scientists are so sick of the story that some threaten suicide if forced to read about him one more time. But to review: The child—or really, nearly one-third of the more than 600 children tested in the late ’60s at Bing Nursery School on the Stanford University campus—sits in a room with a marshmallow. Having been told that if he abstains for 15 minutes he’ll get two marshmallows later, he doesn’t eat it. This kid is a paragon of self-restraint, a savant of delayed gratification. He’ll go on, or so the psychologists say, to show the straight-and-narrow qualities required to secure life’s sweeter and more elusive prizes: high SAT scores, money, health.

American Schools Are Failing Nonconformist Kids. Here’s How

Forced chemo: Should court overrule Amish parents?

A legal fight between a hospital and an Amish family in Ohio over whether doctors can force their 10-year-old daughter to resume chemotherapy after her parents stopped treatment is again raising questions about what rights parents have in making medical decisions for their children.

Forced chemo: Should court overrule Amish parents?

Parents' Belief In Conspiracy Theories May Affect Children's Healthcare

A new study presented August 28, 2013 at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society's Social Psychology Section in Exeter stated that parent's belief in conspiracy theories may influence their decision to get their children vaccinated against diseases like measles.

Parents' Belief In Conspiracy Theories May Affect Children's Healthcare

Shaken Baby Syndrome often caused by vaccines, not parents

It is increasingly common for parents of children with one or more of the triad of symptoms associated with so-called "Shaken Baby Syndrome" (SBS) to be automatically accused of committing child abuse. But often missing from this causal equation is any investigation into the vaccinations that children diagnosed with SBS received prior to developing this very serious condition, a condition that copious scientific research has shown can, indeed, be caused by vaccines.

Shaken Baby Syndrome often caused by vaccines, not parents

Family: Teen who shot foster parent was not on medication

A Mid-South teen will be charged as an adult for shooting his foster father in Earle, Arkansas.

Family: Teen who shot foster parent was not on medication

ER Visits and ADHD Meds: Teaching Our Kids Not to Share

The number of emergency room visits related to stimulant medications like Adderall and Ritalin quadrupled among young adults from 2005 to 2011, says a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The data looked at ER visits that resulted from abuse or misuse of the medications, such as taking medication that wasn’t prescribed for the patient, taking larger-than-prescribed doses, and taking stimulants in combination with alcohol.

ER Visits and ADHD Meds: Teaching Our Kids Not to Share

Foster Children Put on Psychotropic Medication, Big Money for Foster Parents

Mint Press News explores the use of psychotropic medication in the foster care system, and specifically in Texas, starting with an example:

Foster Children Put on Psychotropic Medication, Big Money for Foster Parents

Chill E.B. - Prove It (official video)

ADHD Symptoms, Test: 'Cap' Accurately Diagnoses Children By Brainwave Evaluation

The FDA approved a brainwave-measuring cap that helps accurately diagnose children with ADHD.

ADHD Symptoms, Test: 'Cap' Accurately Diagnoses Children By Brainwave Evaluation

Children who are wrongly labelled mentally ill are making billions for drug firms

For any parent, having to accept your child needs psychiatric drugs must be agonising. But when Susan Bevis's 13-year-old daughter Amy suffered a breakdown after a vicious campaign of school bullying, it seemed the only option - as instructed by NHS psychiatrists.

Children who are wrongly labelled mentally ill are making billions for drug firms

A Nation of Kids on Speed

Walk into any American high school and nearly one in five boys in the hallways will have a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 11% of all American children ages 4 to 17—over six million—have ADHD, a 16% increase since 2007. When you consider that in Britain roughly 3% of children have been similarly diagnosed, the figure is even more startling. Now comes worse news: In the U.S., being told that you have ADHD—and thus receiving some variety of amphetamine to treat it—has become more likely.

A Nation of Kids on Speed

ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades

It's no longer shocking to hear of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—and others simply facing a big test—taking ADHD medicine to boost their performance in school. But new studies point to a problem: There's little evidence that the drugs actually improve academic outcomes.


ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades

Autistic Boy With Higher IQ Than Einstein Discovers His Gift After Removal From State-Run Therapy

In yet another example of how an out-of-control Goliath state system can cause more harm than good, a teenage boy who was diagnosed with autism at a young age has risen to stellar heights after quitting the special ed system with the help of his concerned mother.

Autistic Boy With Higher IQ Than Einstein Discovers His Gift After Removal From State-Run Therapy

Did Ritalin Make Kids in Quebec Dumber?

Did Ritalin Make Kids in Quebec Dumber?

Yeah...

Number of children given drugs for ADHD up ninefold with patients as young as THREE being prescribed Ritalin

Prescriptions for ‘chemical cosh’ drugs to treat hyperactivity have risen almost nine-fold, with claims that children as young as three are taking them.

Number of children given drugs for ADHD up ninefold with patients as young as THREE being prescribed Ritalin

Study: One in five U.S. children have mental disorder

As many as one in five children in the United States suffer from a mental disorder in a given year, according to national data recently compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Study: One in five U.S. children have mental disorder

As a child in orthopedic schools in the 1950s, I clearly remember other disabled children being tackled or held down by teachers.

Voices of disability: Ignorance not an excuse for physically restraining disabled students

America’s Epidemic of Psychiatric Over-Diagnosis

More and more people around you are being diagnosed with depression or ADHD, but is that an illusion? There is an epidemic in America, but it’s not an epidemic of psychiatric disorders—it’s an epidemic of over-diagnosis that’s making billions for pharmaceutical companies and the doctors prescribing these drugs.

America’s Epidemic of Psychiatric Over-Diagnosis

Euthanasia for children nears approval by Belgian Parliament; doctors to mass-euthanize children and Alzheimer's patients

A proposed law on the verge of approval by the Belgium parliament would allow children to decide for themselves whether they should be euthanized ("killed") by medical personnel. Currently, Belgian law limits euthanasia to persons 18 and older, but with the rise of autistic children thanks to biopesticides, GMOs and vaccines, nations are increasingly trying to figure out what to do with all these children who have been permanently damaged by the medical and biotech industries.

Euthanasia for children nears approval by Belgian Parliament; doctors to mass-euthanize children and Alzheimer's patients

Dan Olmsted: The Amish All Over Again

I’m about at that point when it comes to the Amish and their amazingly good health. There’s been story after story reporting the relative absence of Alzheimer’s, allergies, asthma – you know, the big chronic disorders that plague the people who live around them, namely the rest of us. Not to mention -- not ever -- the lack of autism.
Dan Olmsted: The Amish All Over Again

Too many psychiatric diagnoses for children: an epidemic of labels

Allen Frances, professor of child psychiatry at Duke University and chair of the DSM IV(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) task force hit the nail on the head in a recent commentary "Why So Many Epidemics of Childhood Mental Disorders?" in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Because he makes his argument so clearly and persuasively (and the full article is only available to those who subscribe to the journal) I will quote it at length.

Too many psychiatric diagnoses for children: an epidemic of labels

Leading Experts to Speak at Vatican about the Controversy of Children and Psychotropics

Psychiatric medications have emerged as a first line of treatment for youth emotional and behavioral problems. Concurrently, the use of psychosocial intervention has fallen. An upcoming June 14-15 conference at the Vatican examines this trend—making accurate information available in an area typically shrouded in industry marketing—and asks, “Are the rising global prescription rates justified by the clinical trial evidence?” An interdisciplinary team of the world’s leading authorities, including award winning journalist Robert Whitaker (Anatomy of an Epidemic), acclaimed Harvard psychologist Irving Kirsch (The Emperor’s New Drugs), and renowned psychiatrists Sami Timimi, Giovanni Fava, Joanna Moncrieff, and Pat Bracken will examine and debate the controversy about the safety and effectiveness of psychotropics and other treatments, and conclude that based on the evidence, psychosocial options should be the first choice.

Leading Experts to Speak at Vatican about the Controversy of Children and Psychotropics

Psychiatric drugging of kids investigation opened up by the Vatican

There has been a growing awareness of the completely fraudulent and dangerous nature of psychiatry. There are no biological markers for the myriad of what are actually mythical diagnoses of the psychiatrists. And the psychiatric drugs are all highly toxic poisons which consistently cause far more harm than good with the mental hospitals serving as no more than concentration camps where people are drugged, beaten, shocked, isolated, raped and left to die. To makes matters worse in the United States this tyranny is often legalized by the psychiatrists, in their own hidden court rooms with their own personal judges, against perfectly sane and law abiding activists in swift, fixed kangaroo civil court proceedings with no juries and no sworn in testimony. The targets of this tyranny are generally, but not always, poor.

Psychiatric drugging of kids investigation opened up by the Vatican

Study finds high rates of attention deficit disorder in Maine

Children and adults in Maine are being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder at rates far exceeding the national average, fueling higher spending on treatment and medication, according to a national study by Express Scripts, one of the country’s largest pharmacy benefit management companies.

Study finds high rates of attention deficit disorder in Maine

Drugging the kids

People have strong opinions about medicating children.

In my experience, those with the loudest complaints haven’t themselves been in a position to need to medicate their child. It is easy to judge when you haven’t walked the road yourself.

Drugging the kids

Guidelines target kids' psychotropic drug usage

New best-practice guidelines should help reduce the prescription of psychotropic medications to children, especially those in foster care who receive anti-psychotic medications at nearly nine times the rate of other children receiving Medicaid.

Guidelines target kids' psychotropic drug usage

Channing Tatum talks parenting, fame, and Justin Bieber in the cover story for July’s Vanity Fair.

Channing Tatum: I Won’t Medicate Kid For Learning Disabilities, “Worry” About Justin Bieber

Prescription Drugs Now Kill More People In The US Than Heroin And Cocaine Combined

Prescription opioid painkillers are responsible for more fatal overdoses in the U.S. than heroin and cocaine combined, according to a new study out of Brandeis University.

Prescription Drugs Now Kill More People In The US Than Heroin And Cocaine Combined