Feds Pay for Drug Fraud: 92 Percent of Foster Care, Poor Kids Prescribed Antipsychotics Get Them for Unaccepted Uses

The release in late March of an alarming new report by federal investigators has confirmed in shocking new detail what has been known for years: Poor and foster care kids covered by Medicaid are being prescribed too many dangerous antipsychotic drugs at young ages for far too long -- mostly without any medical justification at all. The report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General examined in depth nearly 700 claims filed in 2011 in five of the biggest prescribing states -- California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and New York -- and discovered that two thirds of all the prescribing with these popular and costly "second generation antipsychotics" (SGAs) raised high-risk "quality of care" concerns.


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The ADHD Fallacy: It’s Time To Stop Treating Childhood as a Disease

I met Aiden in 2008 when he was seven years old. The previous year, he had moved with his family from New York to California, and the transition had been difficult. He missed his friends in his old neighborhood and his cousins who had lived nearby. When I met with Aiden’s parents, Scott and Ava, they told me Aiden had always been a handful. Even as a baby Aiden was colicky and fussy, and difficult to put down to sleep. At two years old, he was more active than most of their friends’ children. Aiden’s preschool teachers had been concerned about his disruptive, impulsive behavior.

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Thousands Of Families Demand Legal Medical Marijuana For Their Critically Ill Kids

Thousands of families of critically ill children and advocates for marijuana reform launched a national campaign Wednesday supporting the legalization of certain strains of cannabis oil that have shown therapeutic benefits.

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California lawmaker plans to revive bill tightening vaccination rules

The author of a California bill to require school children to be vaccinated for such diseases as polio and measles regardless of their parents' personal beliefs said he would revive the measure, which stalled in the legislature last week.

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More Than 1% of Preschoolers Given Psychiatric Medication

A surprisingly large number of preschool age children on Medicaid — more than 1% — are taking a psychiatric medication, a worrying finding given the lack of clinical trials on the effectiveness and side effects of the drugs in children this young.

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Kids with ADHD must squirm to learn, study says

For decades, frustrated parents and teachers have barked at fidgety children with ADHD to "Sit still and concentrate!"

 But new research shows that if you want ADHD kids to learn, you have to let them squirm. The foot-tapping, leg-swinging and chair-scooting movements of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are actually vital to how they remember information and work out complex cognitive tasks, according to a study published in an early online release of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

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Australia to Cut Benefits for Parents Who Don’t Vaccinate Kids

"The choice made by families not to immunize their children is not supported by public policy or medical research," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said

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California creates first guidelines for prescribing psych meds to foster youth

Three years after joining forces to address the alarming use of psychotropic medications in California's foster care system, a high-level group of health care officials, attorneys and public policy leaders on Friday unveiled a sweeping set of guidelines for doctors who prescribe the powerful drugs to some of the state's most traumatized children.

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Family court gives pro-vaccination father decisionmaking authority over children’s medical care

ATTN: Religious People, do you think it's possible that God gave us these vaccines?

The case is a Connecticut trial court case, Archer v. Cassel (2015 WL 1500447), decided March 10; the court views the mother’s refusal to vaccinate as a strike against her, though it also seems to view it as part of broader evidence that the mother would use any tool to spite the father:

Note >> Family court gives pro-vaccination father decisionmaking authority over children’s medical care

Too Many Preschoolers Getting Medications for ADHD

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just published its first national study on the various forms of treatment used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. The study examined the use of medication, behavioral therapy, and dietary supplements — and its results were eye-opening.

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