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