Traumatized Kids Who Were Drugged Offer Lessons for Mental Health Care

Extensive use of psychiatric medication for children in foster care offers a striking example of childism,  or societal prejudice against children.  A powerful five part film “Drugging Our Kids”   by Dai Sugano and Karen De Sa documents this issue in a thorough and dramatic way, using interviews with young adults who were in the foster care system, some from as early as 2 years of age. They were  labeled with every psychiatric diagnosis under the sun, when really what they were suffering from was trauma and loss. After experiencing physical, sexual and emotional abuse, they were on multiple psychiatric medications for many years. With the help of a range of individuals who saw through the haze of drug effects to who they really were, those interviewed for the documentary were able to get off all medications.   In a segment entitled “Treatment for a Broken Heart is Not Another Medication,” child psychiatrist David Arendondo says, “The first line treatment not another medication. It is to understand, to listen to the child, to ask, ‘what’s going on, why are you sad in this way?’”

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Mom Breaks Law to Treat Sick Toddler With Cannabis Oil

Single mom Sarah Ellett knows she’s breaking the law every day when she gives her chronically ill daughter Remie, 3, two tiny drops of cannabis oil. She’s determined to continue, as the treatment has brought her child a quality of life that’s not only tolerable but also often joyful. But now child caseworkers have gotten involved, and Ellett is scared.

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Does Prescribing Anti-psychotic Drugs to Infants, Toddlers and Young Children Meet the Definition of Reckless Endangerment?

When physicians (or medical paraprofessionals) prescribe psychiatric drugs to children without the parent or legal guardian’s fully informed consent, the prescribers could reasonably be charged with reckless endangerment and/or child endangerment because such drugs commonly cause a multitude of well-known adverse effects, including the following short list: worsening depression, worsening anxiety, sleep disturbances, suicidality, homicidality, mania, psychoses, heart problems, growth disturbances, malnutrition, cognitive disabilities, dementia, microbiome disorders, stroke, diabetes, serious withdrawal effects, death, sudden death, etc. We physicians (not only psychiatrists) normally only spend a small amount of our scarce time warning about a few of the dozens of potential adverse effects when we recommend drug treatment – and apparently most American courts uphold this questionable action when the rare malpractice case manages to be heard in the legal system.


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Pediatrician Mike Ginsberg's Facebook Vaccine Rant

On 2 February 2015, the Facebook page The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe published a picture of a Facebook comment attributed to a doctor identifying himself as Mike Ginsberg. The comment was offered during a then-current outbreak of measles that had been traced back to the Disney theme parks in California which had intensified an ongoing debate over vaccinations and the effects of a decline in vaccination rates:

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Author tells Kansas senators psychiatric overdiagnosis damaging Americans

The Senate’s health committee toured the dizzying world of psychiatric diagnosis Wednesday under guidance of a former Duke University professor revolting against exaggeration of mental health disorders and the prescribing of too much medicine for those conditions.


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Kids with ADHD more likely to be in bike crashes: study

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder exhibit “impulsivity” and attention issues that put them at risk when crossing streets on their bikes, according to a study from the University of Iowa.

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Children ‘most worried’ as they finish primary school, research finds

According to an article in the British Journal of Health Psychology, mothers reported that their children are at their most worried age 10 – when they will be coming to the end of primary school.

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A Child's Right to Be Vaccinated

Hi. My name is Paul Offit. I'm talking to you today from the Vaccine Education Center here at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

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Psychotic Symptoms in Children on Stimulants. What are the Implications for the Clinician?

Stimulant medications have been previously reported as the cause of adverse psychiatric symptoms in children, including mania and psychosis. 1 New work by MacKenzie et al. in this month’s Pediatrics ( 10.1542/peds.2015-2486) provides new insight into a subpopulation apparently at very high risk for this concerning side effect. Children diagnosed with ADHD and treated with stimulants, whose parent or parents have major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, have a significantly greater risk of psychotic symptoms than their peers.

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6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Putting Your Kid on ADHD Medication

American kids are now much more likely to be diagnosed and treated for ADHD than kids in any other country. For example, a teenager in the United States is now nearly 14 times more likely to be on medication for ADHD than a teenager in the United Kingdom. In my book The Collapse of Parenting, I explore some of the reasons why. One is that in the U.S., medication has become the first resort for almost any child who is struggling in school. Outside of North America, medication is usually a last resort. That’s especially of concern because of research showing that these medications for ADHD may affect the developing brain in significant ways.

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How Children Bickering Inspired a Business

Laurie Canata was at her wits’ end. While she was there, she found an idea for a business.

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Social Services Minister Christian Porter slaps down anti-vaccination campaigners

SOCIAL Services Minister Christian Porter has slapped down anti-vaxxers claiming to have found a loophole in the tough “no jab, no pay” laws.

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Spotlight on ‘Drugging Our Kids’ pays off

It’s often wishful thinking that shining a light on something that’s wrong will be enough to make it stop.  t sometimes, if the problem is bad enough and the evidence is clearly presented, it actually happens.

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Kids from big families may be less likely to succeed

A study by researchers Chinhui Juhn and C. Andrew Zuppann of the University of Houston, along with Yona Rubinstein of the London School of Economics, suggests that the more children a family has, the less likely those children will have a good life.

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