By Gardiner Harris
GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 9 — Stimulants like Ritalin could have dangerous effects on the heart, and federal regulators should require manufacturers to provide written guides to patients and place prominent warnings on drug labels describing these risks, a federal advisory panel voted on Thursday.
The panel’s recommendation promises to intensify a long-running debate about [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Ablechild’
Warning Urged on Stimulants Like Ritalin
Friday, February 10th, 2006
FDA Reports 51 Deaths of Attention Drug Patients
Thursday, February 9th, 2006(Reuters) WASHINGTON – Deaths of 51 U.S. patients who took widely prescribed drugs to treat attention deficit disorder prompted regulators to start watching for heart attacks, high blood pressure and other problems in 2004, a report released on Wednesday said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff did not say the drugs were responsible for the [...]
Prozac Backlash: Trouble in Prozac
Monday, November 28th, 2005Fortune Magazine, by David Stipp
Can Prozac make you want to die? The idea seems strange, given that the drug and similar antidepressants are supposed to do just the opposite. Yet that is what Kimberly Witczak believes happened to her husband. Two years ago Tim “Woody” Witczak killed himself at age 37, soon after going on [...]
Third Grader Is Handcuffed, Medicated At School
Friday, November 18th, 2005School officials in Phoenix are in trouble and parents are seething after a third-grade girl was reportedly brought to school by police in handcuffs, and then forced to take pills.
“This never should have happened. This child never should have been brought into a classroom full of kids,” said one parent at a PTA meeting.
Parents at [...]
Television Adverts for Antidepressants Cause Anxiety
Saturday, November 12th, 2005From New Scientist Print Edition
ADVERTS that claim depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, and that antidepressants correct it, are false and should be banned, say two mental health specialists.
Popular antidepressants such as Prozac and Celexa block the uptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin and have been shown to be slightly better than placebo in treating [...]
Drug Industry Human Testing Masks Death, Injury, Compliant FDA
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) — Oscar Cabanerio has been waiting in an experimental drug testing center in Miami since 7:30 a.m. The 41- year-old undocumented immigrant says he’s desperate for cash to send his wife and four children in Venezuela.
More than 70 people have crowded into reception rooms furnished with rows of attached blue plastic seats. [...]
A Pragmatic Approach for Troubled Kids
Tuesday, November 1st, 2005By Leila Abboud, The Wall Street Journal
With persistent concerns about using powerful psychiatric drugs on children, there is growing interest in counseling techniques for troubled kids that aim to change destructive behavior.
These therapies are getting a push because they have been shown in numerous clinical trials over the past decade to be effective on kids [...]
Report: Teen Left Suicidal Messages on Website Before Rampage
Tuesday, November 1st, 2005‘19-year-old vowed ‘to hurt those that have hurt me’
CNN.com
ALISO VIEJO, California (AP) — A 19-year-old man who authorities say killed two neighbors then himself posted suicidal messages on a Web site before the rampage, according to a report published Tuesday.
William Freund posted an Internet message October 16 that threatened a “Terror Campaign to hurt those [...]
Computer: Your Kid Has “Disorders”
Saturday, October 8th, 2005Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning:
Imagine your teenager comes home from school looking depressed. You ask what’s wrong. She says, “Oh, it’s just my social anxiety disorder.”
What?
Yes, she tells you, she has social anxiety disorder. And also obsessive compulsive disorder.
What are you talking about, you ask? Who [...]
Generation Ritalin
Monday, September 19th, 2005Doctors are at odds over the treatment of children affected by ADHD … to drug them or not to drug them?
Michelle Wiese Bockmann reports.
At the age of 10, Brandon Frances screamed for hours on end, suffered psychotic episodes and daily beat his mother.
A pediatrician in Perth diagnosed Brandon with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when he [...]
Rutherford Institute Attorneys Sue Indiana School for Conducting Mental Health Screening Exam on Teenager Without Parental Consent
Monday, September 19th, 2005South Bend, IN—Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana on behalf of an Indiana family whose 15-year-old daughter, Chelsea Rhoades, was subjected to a mental health screening examination at school without her parents’ knowledge or consent.
Fierce Opposition Arises to Mental Health Screening in Schools
Sunday, September 18th, 2005By Karen MacPherson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WASHINGTON — Back in 2003, a federal commission created by President Bush recommended improving and expanding mental health programs in schools to provide help as early as possible to students with learning problems or those who might turn violent or disruptive.
The commission highlighted one means of early diagnosis, the Columbia University [...]
Are ADHD Drugs Safe? Report Finds Little Proof
Tuesday, September 13th, 2005M. ALEXANDER OTTO; The News Tribune
At a time when millions of children and adults are taking drugs for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the most comprehensive scientific analysis of the drugs to date has found little evidence that they are safe, that one drug is more effective than another or that they help school performance. The [...]
Antidepressant Protest in Front of White House
Sunday, September 4th, 2005by James Torlakson
I flew back to Washington, DC to participate in a protest focused on the often-lethal nature of SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) and other atypical antidepressants, which took place in front of the White House on August 24th, 25th, and 26th. My twenty-one year old daughter, Elizabeth, committed “suicide” as a direct result [...]
In Over-drugging Kids, ‘Cure’ Is Worse Than Disease
Sunday, August 7th, 2005By Noelle Talevi
There is a deadly connection between mind-altering, psychiatric drugs and violent, suicidal behavior.
David Burgos, the young man who recently committed suicide in a Connecticut correctional facility, had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder. What mind-altering drugs was he on, and how long was he on them? David was in the [...]
Mental Health, Education and Social Control, Part 17
Monday, July 25th, 2005By Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D., NewsWithViews.com
Ablechild is an organization of parents for label and drug free education. And in their press release of July 19, 2005, one learns that according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, “Every indicator available, including scientific abuse liability studies, actual abuse, paucity of scientific studies on possible adverse effects associated with [...]
Dr. Peter Breggin: Thanks Tom Cruise
Sunday, July 17th, 2005Dr. Peter Breggin, Huffington Post
On June 25, 2005 Tom Cruise did the unthinkable on TV. Actually, he did several “unthinkables” in a filmed interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer for the Today Show.
First, Tom stopped smiling. He deprived us of that multi-million dollar grin and got serious. For a star to do this to the American [...]
TeenScreen: Gateway to Labeling and Drugging Your Children in the Name of Education
Sunday, July 17th, 2005TeenScreen uses craftily designed questionnaires to label normal children with mental illnesses, and then prescribe them dangerous psychiatric medications. TeenScreen personnel only refer children to psychiatrists or mental hospitals for treatment, but a 2002 survey found that child psychiatrists treat 9 out of 10 children by drugging them (Journal of the American Academy of Child [...]
Antidepressant Efficacy May Be Overblown – Experts
Saturday, July 16th, 2005By Karla GaleFri, NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Antidepressants, for the most part, do not provide meaningful benefit, two investigators in the UK argue in a report in the British Medical Journal this week, having reviewed published medical evidence on antidepressant efficacy.
Most people with depression are often initially prescribed an antidepressant by their doctor. Prescriptions [...]
Inquest hears of teenager’s SSRI use
Friday, July 15th, 2005CBC News
A coroner’s inquest in Fredericton was told Tuesday that a 16-year-old foster child may have stopped taking an anti-depressant medication just weeks before she killed herself in November 2003. The year after Heather White’s death, Health Canada issued a warning about the class of drug Heather’s family doctor had been prescribed to deal with [...]