Hyperactive disorder drug 'raises risk of suicidal thoughts in children' /Is Normal Now A Mental Illness?

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Hyperactive disorder drug 'raises risk of suicidal thoughts in children'

 

London Independent | September 30 2005

By Jeremy Laurance

 

A drug taken by 15,000 children in the UK has been found to increase the

risk of suicidal thoughts, the Government's medicines safety watchdog says.

 

Strattera, which is manufactured by Lilly and is used to treat attention

deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD), was licensed in the UK in July

2004.

 

Yesterday's warning was issued by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory

Agency (MHRA), which said it would re-examine the risks and benefits of the

drug. It follows the finding of an increased risk of suicide in children and

young people taking antidepressants called Selective Serotonin Re-uptake

Inhibitors (SSRIs). All SSRIs except Prozac were banned in children by the

MHRA in December 2003.

 

June Raine, the director of medicines post-licensing at the MHRA, said: " We

are advising healthcare professionals that patients should be carefully

monitored for signs of depression, suicidal thoughts or suicidal behaviour

and referred for alternative treatment if necessary.

 

" Children who are doing well on the medication should continue their

treatment. Those who experience any unusual symptoms, or are concerned,

should speak to their doctor to discuss the best course of action. "

 

Strattera is approved for use in children aged six and over. The heightened

suicide risk emerged following a review of all clinical trial data in the

US.

 

In a statement, Lilly said there had been six reports of suicidal thoughts

and behaviour out of 1,357 patients - a rate of 0.44 per cent. There had

been no suicides, the company said.

 

Strattera was the most extensively studied of all ADHD medicines with 5,000

patients in clinical trials and more than 3.5 million patients since its

launch, the statement said

 

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Is Normal Now A Mental Illness?

 

http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/normal_now_mental_illness.htm

 

Pressbox | September 29 2005

 

Is your child easily distracted? Or perhaps he talks excessively, or can

become impatient?

 

Most, if not all, parents would perhaps answer yes to these questions, as

they are, what many of us believe to be, normal expressions of child

behaviour.

 

Not so, according to Psychiatry. It could be that your child has " Attention

Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder " , a " disease " of the mind that could require

medical treatment.

 

The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistics Manual

(DSM, version IV), the psychiatrist's handbook, lists a number of

behavioural traits, such as these, that it considers abnormal in children.

Others include: " often has difficulty awaiting turn " , " often does not seem

to listen when spoken to directly " , and " often has difficulty playing or

engaging in leisure activities quietly " .

 

'It's total fraud', says Michael Westen, editor of Psychbusters

(groups.msn.com/psychbusters), an online activist group that was set up in

2000 to 'decode Psychiatric propaganda'. 'This is not a disease and these

are not " diagnostic criteria. " These are subjective judgments aimed at

coercing a person to follow rules of " proper conduct " made by others with

power. The list could just as easily contain: fails to be white, often does

not attend a Christian church, tends to be smaller, younger, and unable to

do adult tasks.'

 

'For a disease to exist there must be a tangible, objective physical

abnormality that can be determined by a test,' says neurologist Dr. Fred

Baughman. 'Such as, but not limited to, a blood or urine test, X-Ray, brain

scan or biopsy. All reputable doctors would agree: No physical abnormality,

no disease. In psychiatry, no test or brain scan exists to prove that a

'mental disorder' is a physical disease.'

 

Baughman, from California, and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology,

is one of an ever-growing number of campaigners fighting to expose the lies

within the psychiatric industry. An adult & child neurologist of some 35

years, Dr. Baughman is vocal when coming up against misleading research or

downright fraud palmed off as " science " . 'They made a list of the most

common symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children, those which bother

teachers and parents most, and in a stroke that could not be more devoid of

science or Hippocratic motive--termed them a " disease " . Twenty five years of

research, not deserving of the term " research " , has failed to validate

ADD/ADHD as a disease. Tragically--the " epidemic " having grown from 500

thousand in 1985 to between 5 and 7 million today--this remains the state of

the " science " of ADHD.'

 

Despite there being no scientific basis for ADHD, prescriptions of

Methylphenidate - most commonly sold as Ritalin - rose to 359,100 last year,

a rise of 344,400 since 1995. Figures from the Prescriptions Pricing

Authority reveal that there has been a 180-fold increase in prescriptions

since 1991 when only 2,000 were issued in England.

 

Ritalin, which is pharmacologically similar to Cocaine, is a favoured

treatment option for those labelled with ADHD, yet critics claim it is a

harmful drug that can cause neurological defects and further behavioural

difficulties. Earlier this year, researchers in Texas found a link between

Ritalin use and chromosome abnormalities - occurrences associated with

increased risks of cancer and other adverse health effects.

 

'The simple fact is that there is absolutely no reliable test that

accurately distinguishes between children that are supposed to have " ADHD "

and those that are not', says Dr. John Breeding, author of " The Wildest

Colts Make The Best Horses " . To counter the claim that ADHD is a valid

medical condition that requires medical treatment, Breeding encourages

parents to demand conclusive scientific evidence. For there simply isn't

any.

 

Elliot S. Valenstien, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and

Neuroscience at the University of Michigan also agrees. 'Contrary to what is

often claimed, no biochemical, anatomical, or functional signs have been

found that reliably distinguish the brains of mental patients.'

 

'I am constantly amazed by how many patients who come to see me believe or

want to believe that their difficulties are biologic and can be relieved by

a pill,' says psychiatrist Dr. David Kaiser. 'This is despite the fact that

modern psychiatry has yet to convincingly prove the genetic/biologic cause

of any single mental illness. However, this does not stop psychiatry from

making essentially unproven claims that depression, bipolar illness, anxiety

disorders, alcoholism and a host of other disorders are in fact primarily

biologic and probably genetic in origin, and that it is only a matter of

time until all this is proven. This kind of faith in science and progress is

staggering, not to mention naive and perhaps delusional.'

 

'There are many reasons why a child can become inattentive or hyperactive, "

says Michael Westen. 'Nutritional deficiencies or a poor diet are often

underlying problems. There can be difficulties in the home, vision problems,

even a lack of sleep. There can be many others. Yet instead of looking at

all these issues, Psychiatry ignores them, inventing a one-size-fits-all

" disease " that requires " medication " .'

 

'Disingenuous comparisons between physical and mental illness and medicine

are simply part of psychiatry's orchestrated but fraudulent public relations

and marketing campaign,' says Dr. Baughman.

 

Many seem to share these views including the late Dr. Loren Mosher, a noted

psychiatrist and clinical professor of Psychiatry at the University of

California, San Diego, and former Chief of the Center for Studies of

Schizophrenia at the National Institute of Mental Health. Mosher famously

resigned from the American Psychiatric Association in 1998 due to

Psychiatry's growing " unholy alliance " with the multi-billion dollar

pharmaceutical industry.

 

'Psychiatry has become drug dependent (that is, devoted to pill pushing) at

all levels - private practitioners, public system psychiatrists, university

faculty and organizationally,' Mosher wrote before attacking the field as

being mechanistic, reductionistic, tunnel-visioned and dehumanising.

 

'Modern psychiatry has forgotten the Hippocratic principle,' Mosher once

wrote. 'Above all, do no harm.