Medication // Current

The Medicated Child and the Compliant Parent

"...Everywhere we looked it was, ‘Take meds, take meds, take meds.'"

Friday, 06 November 2009 01:23
pharmacyOn November 3rd, 2009 Frontline aired a program on the subject of a dramatic increase in the number of children being diagnosed with serious psychiatric disorders.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/medicatedchild/view/
These overly prescribed and strong behavior modifying medications are now just beginning to be tested in children. In recent years, the number of children being diagnosed with bipolar, which is considered a mental illness, and ADHD is not only shocking, but very disturbing.

The program opens with a video clip of an activist protesting on behalf of children's rights and bringing light to this epidemic sweeping across the nation.

A lot of the credit for lighting a fire under the FDA goes to the much-maligned anti psychiatry movement and its most prominent spokesperson, Peter R. Breggin, MD. Dr. Breggin the author of many scientific articles and books which includes Toxic Psychiatry, and Medication Madness: A psychiatrist exposes the dangers of mood- altering medications (2008), for years along with a few others have been the lone voices in pointing out how drug companies have essentially bought and paid for the psychiatric establishment. This includes lead academic researchers who have been paid to lend credibility to questionable industry research. According to Dr Breggin, this research, most of which is done on adults, has been used to "justify coercing unsuspecting kids into submission".
"The rates of bipolar diagnoses in children have increased markedly in many communities over the last five to seven years," says Dr. Steven Hyman, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "I think the real question is, are those diagnoses right? And in truth, I don't think we yet know the answer."

The drugs can cause serious side effects, and virtually nothing is known about their long-term impact. "It's really to some extent an experiment, trying medications in these children of this age," child psychiatrist Dr. Patrick Bacon tells Frontline. "It's a gamble. And I tell parents there's no way to know what's going to work."

I was riveted to my seat watching in horror as a father made a desperate call to 911 stating "my daughter passed away in the night." A picture of a beautiful 4 year old girl staring back at me made me wonder, how could something like this even happen?

Jacob Solomon, a young boy of five, was initially believed to suffer from an attention deficit disorder. With over one million children diagnosed with either ADHD or bi-polar, his parents followed doctor's orders and reluctantly started him on Ritalin. Over the next five years, he would be prescribed one drug after another. "It all started to feel out of control," Jacob's father, Ron, told Frontline. "Nobody ever said we can work with this through therapy and things like that. Everywhere we looked it was, ‘Take meds, take meds, take meds.'"

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http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2642:commentary-the-medicated-child-and-the-compliant-parent&catid=5:original&Itemid=24"...Everywhere we looked it was, ‘Take meds, take meds, take meds.'" Friday, 06... more

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I’ve always had super ventricular tachycardia. I recently started taking the meds to slow my heart down. The side effects aren’t worth it. Medication doesn’t work anymore. They are talking about a very simple procedure to cut a piece of my heart out. Get it out of the way.

I’ve always been aware of the sacrifices that must be made to be an artist. Secrets on napkins and sticky notes crammed in suitcases; knowledge that everything is beautiful. Doctors have a name and cure for it. Certain criteria we all carry as prior experience, chronologically chronic. Depression, insomnia, emotional suffering, ect. Cant stop the thoughts, they have to get out and you are just a body getting in the way of their intentions. They have drugs to treat that too. And more drugs to treat the side effects. Whatever mental disorder you didn’t have before, you just swallowed. We are addicted to the misery because we know we can turn the subjective into objective, with pen and paper. Have to meet our quotas and scribble on whatever obstacle finds us in our neighborhood, our cul-de-sac of writers block. All the electricity cut, shades drawn, doors locked, motionless “do not disturb” doorknobs. All of us; deadbolts waiting for light to overcome Dead dark that keeps us meandering within the posts of our beds. Waiting for some beam of fluorescence to turn us on.

We feed our pets the table scraps of whatever we picked apart at supper. Humble dogs that accompany our manic pacing. Wish I could say “you dog, you,” and dump you at some shelter, but I know I would miss the frustration, your shattering bark, dripping fangs waiting to sink deep. Miss the fleabites, the itching and the passion of scratching, the smell of your flea powder.

Never could write about it. Not even read about it. It all sounded the same, looked the same, layers of repetition. Just like this. Just another account. Nothing special, out of the ordinary. What a bored reader you must be. How out of place I must be, to even illustrate ‘’me” into my own story, non-poetically like this; stark raving mad in…?

When a single word is read over and over again, examined, it loses its meaning. Exceeds its purpose to relate to its origin in the dictionary. Then here this word lands on my bleached lap and im trying to understand it, but I can’t scoop it up without the letters slipping through my fingers. Turns out they aren’t connected; strung together. There is no order to the alphabet. No boundaries for these uncontrollable regurgitations.

I’ve always had supraventricular tachycardia. Not like this. Thoughts could never trigger the attacks. Never had a heart attack simply from human contact. The blackouts weren’t as frequent, and the strobing lights never overcame my vision quite so sporadically. Have to pull over on the highway. Burdening EKG’s, echocardiograms, take home heart monitors strapped to my chest. Stop what im doing to catch a breath. Avoid stairs. Avoid thought, emotion. Quit coffee. Trying to silence this weakened muscle, kill it off completely.

Never believed in depression. Now I’ve been upped to 350 mg. Extended release. Deep red, the internal white beads rattle the cage of the capsule like maracas. I shake them close to my ear every morning before choking them down. Can’t help but occasionally pry off the shell and roll the active ingredient between my fingertips. Separate thumb from forefinger so that some of the beads rain over the wastebasket, and a select few stick to my skin.

Never been so direct. A big turning point in psychology grew from the idea that physical conditions can arise from psychological conditions, unresolved conflict, and things of that matter.

Simplicity has been here all along. Yet it’s something without a cure.I’ve always had super ventricular tachycardia. I recently started taking the meds to... more

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Michael Jackson death, the mother of all lawsuits?

With Michael Jackson’s sudden death yesterday at 50 have come swirls of rumors about prescription medications he was taking for dancing related injuries. And if toxicology tests show over-medication being a substantial cause of death, that leads to the inevitable questions regarding potential medical malpractice as well as potential criminal liability.

So these are the issues and questions that would/should float about if those rumors prove accurate:

1. Were the medications all provided by a single doctor? If the self-proclaimed King of Pop was getting all the medication from one place, then the prescribing doctor ought to have a good lawyer due to issues of criminal prosecution (possible but unlikely), action against the medical license (much higher probability) and civil suit (discussed below).

2. If there was more than one doctor, did they know about each other and what the other was prescribing?

3. Did all the drugs all come from one pharmacy? Did that pharmacy have an internal system to tickle the pharmacist if there is an inordinate amount of medication going to one person or that some of the drugs are contraindicated given the other meds? If so, did that pharmacist make a call to the doctor(s) issuing the prescriptions?

4. Where were the prescriptions written and filled? This would be a jurisdictional issue that could be particularly important for a pharmacist, who may have immunity if s/he simply followed the doctor’s orders. There is no way to know at the moment if the drugs were prescribed, or even filled, in the U.S. given that Jackson spent a substantial amount of time overseas.

5. Who has standing to bring such a suit? That is a two-part question, as his personal property may be governed by an executor or administrator. But he also has three kids that are all minors and need a legal guardian. Will the mother of two of them, who reportedly gave up legal rights to the kids, be seeking that position in a fight with family members? (This also assumes proper paternity.)

6. From the point of a medical malpractice suit, does it even matter? Jackson was allegedly in debt to the tune of over $300 million, though I suspect a forensic accounting may take some time. But if this was the case of one or two doctors/pharmacists, then there would likely not be much more than a million dollar (or two) insurance policy. When you are that steeply in hock, a malpractice suit may be too insignificant to matter (assuming a limited insurance policy). The estate’s executor and creditors may be unlikely to have an interest, concentrating on the big picture.

7. You can toss out #6 above if the investigating authorities make a slam-dunk decision on liability. That makes a lawsuit easy, and no one would give up an easy million if it were there.

8. In a wrongful death suit, by contrast, the losses suffered by the children would likely go directly to them, bypassing the estate. And if the estate itself is bankrupt, then the kids might actually need the money depending on how Jackson managed his affairs and the nature of any trusts he did (or did not) set up for his children. You’d like to think he was a savvy music mogul, but if he also saw himself as a forever young child, then estate planning could well be something he put off for the future. No one really likes to make decisions about their death, least of all someone with a child’s view of the world.

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Programs for disposing unused medication lag behind 'don't flush' advice

At the Leesburg Pharmacy, located in a Loudoun County strip mall, a big, round fish tank sits atop the prescription counter. There are no fish inside, not even any water: The tank is a repository for unused medications. People can drop off the Vicodin that didn't get used once the pain of a root canal subsided. Or the heart pills remaining after a grandmother's death. Or an asthma inhaler that had passed its expiration date. Or an antidepressant that turned out to have unpleasant side effects.

Once a week, the tank is emptied; the drugs are packed in cartons by pharmacy personnel and ultimately incinerated by a commercial waste firm.

"Our customers are thrilled because they had no idea what else to do with this stuff," said Cheri Garvin, chief executive of the employee-owned pharmacy.

These are customers who are trying to do the responsible thing. Over the years, Americans have been alerted to the dangers of a lot of problematic waste materials -- paint thinner, batteries, air conditioners. But leftover pills can seem so small, so easily disposable, that many people routinely flush them down toilets, wash them down sinks or throw them in trash that goes to a landfill.

And then they often end up in places where they shouldn't be, like the public water supply.

The average American takes more than 12 prescription drugs annually, with more than 3.8 billion prescriptions purchased each year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The most commonly cited estimates from Environmental Protection Agency researchers say that about 19 million tons of active pharmaceutical ingredients are dumped into the nation's waste stream every year.

The EPA has identified small quantities of more than 100 pharmaceuticals and personal-care products in samples of the nation's drinking water. Among the drugs detected are antibiotics, steroids, hormones and antidepressants. Last year, the Associated Press reported that trace amounts of drugs had been found in the water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas; water piped to more than a milllion people in the Washington area had tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

The EPA does not require testing for drugs in drinking water and has not set safety limits on allowable levels. While the minute quantities now being detected appear not to pose an immediate health risk, according to federal authorities, "there is still uncertainty about their potential effects on public health and aquatic life" over the long term, the EPA's water chief, Benjamin Grumbles, told a Senate committee last year. But the impact of long-term exposure of drugs on humans as well as on other species is less clear. Hormone-disrupting pharmaceuticals, for example, are one possible cause of a high incidence of "intersex" fish in the Potomac River basin: male smallmouth bass producing eggs, females exhibiting male characteristics.

Until recently, federal guidelines recommended that surpluses of highly toxic medications be flushed down the toilet; the same advice applied to drugs with a high potential for abuse or "diversion" -- the industry's word for what happens, for example, when kids help themselves to the OxyContin or Percocet in their parents' medicine cabinet. For other drugs, consumers have been directed to adulterate the medication by mixing it with an unpalatable substance -- such as cat litter or coffee grounds -- and put it out with the household trash.

But this spring, concerns about pharmaceuticals in the water supply led the Office of National Drug Control Policy to amend its advisory, telling consumers to avoid flushing unless the label or patient information specifies that method of disposal. The new guidelines still describe the cat-litter method of putting drugs in the trash, but they also encourage consumers to make use of community drug take-back programs.

Article Continued at: http://climate.weather.com/articles/wpolddrugs_newtricks.html?page=2At the Leesburg Pharmacy, located in a Loudoun County strip mall, a big, round fish... more

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More Americans reach for psychiatric medications

The number of seniors getting "psychotropic" medications, including antipsychotic and dementia drugs, doubled between 1996 and 2006, a new study found.

Mental-health drug prescriptions for U.S. adults increased 73% and those for children rose 50% over the 10-year period, according to the new data. In 2006, one in 10 adults and one in 20 children reported having a prescription for a mental-health drug, the research said.

A separate study found per-capital spending for mental-health care has grown more than 30% over the 10 years ended in 2006, with almost all the increase due to psychiatric drug costs. Both studies were being published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs.

The increase in mental-health spending and the number of patients using these drugs largely indicate better access to care but "we've seen some stalling in recent years" in that trend, according to Richard Frank, an author on both studies and a health economist at Harvard Medical School.

One reason could be that mental-health care has tipped toward the use of the psychiatric drugs while there hasn't been the same growth in the use of so-called psychosocial therapies, such as seeing a therapist.

"What that says to me is the increase in drugs by itself -- just expanding the number of people who appropriately get drugs -- can get you improvement," said Dr. Frank. But, without adequate psychosocial support, simply prescribing more drugs "may not be enough," especially with people with severe disorders, he said.

For about 30 years ending in 2000, the growth of mental-health costs remained relatively flat, consistently staying at around 1% of the gross domestic product, and growing at about half the rate of all other health-care spending.

But starting around 2000, mental-health-care costs began to climb more sharply. Cost growth in general health care is related to a variety of factors, such as spending for diagnostic imaging and hospital care, according to Dr. Frank. "In mental health, it's all drugs," he said of the added spending.The number of seniors getting "psychotropic" medications, including antipsychotic and... more

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In February the Justice Department charged Forest Laboratories with illegally marketing antidepressants Celexa and Lexapro to younger patients and burying a study that showed suicidal side effects in children. But the very next month the FDA approved Lexapro for depression in adolescents 12 to 17.

In March the Justice Department charged AstraZeneca with knowing and hiding the diabetes side effects of Seroquel. But this month the FDA considers expanding the antipsychotic's approvals to depression and anxiety.

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"TRD" is such a new pharma invention that Googling it brings up Toyota Racing Development and Teacher Recruitment Days. But it will soon move prescriptions like GAD (general anxiety disorder), MDD (major depressive disorder) ADD (attention deficit disorder) RLS (restless legs syndrome) GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and PMDD (Premenstrual dysphoric disorder) -- and for the same reasons.

How do dangerous drugs keep getting approved? Through the best articles and spokesmen money can buy.

Forest paid Massachusetts General Hospital researcher Jeffrey Bostic $750,000 to chat up Celexa and Lexapro, according to US District Court in Boston filings. AstraZeneca paid University of Minnesota researcher Charles Schulz $112,000 to push Seroquel, according to US District Court in Orlando filings. And a decade of pain "studies" conducted by Baystate Medical Center's Scott S. Reuben on Vioxx, Lyrica, Celebrex and Effexor were completely fabricated--including the patients say published reports.

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