[SSRI-Research] A Front Group for the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex

[Guest guest]

SSRI-Research@

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:14:16 -0500

 

 

[sSRI-Research] A Front Group for the Psycho-Pharmaceutical

Industrial Complex

 

http://www.psychsearch.net/teenscreen.html

 

 

 

Updated: 1/22/2005, 11:14 PM EST

 

TEENSCREEN

 

A Front Group for the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex

 

TeenScreen is a so-called " diagnostic psychiatric service " aka a " suicide

survey " done on children who are then referred to psychiatric

treatment. The

evidence suggests that the objective of the psychiatrists who designed

TeenScreen is to place children so selected on psychotropic medication.

 

" It's just a way to put more people on prescription drugs, " said Marcia

Angell, a medical ethics lecturer at Harvard Medical School and author of

" The Truth About Drug Companies. " She said such programs will boost

the sale

of antidepressants like Paxil, Zoloft and Prozac even after the FDA in

September ordered a " black box " label warning that the pills might spur

suicidal thoughts or actions in minors. (The New York Post, December 5,

2004)

 

TeenScreen attempts to create in the media, a suicide hysteria, when

in fact

suicides are on the decline. The suicide rate for ages 10 to 19 fell from

6.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 1992 to 4.6 per 100,000 in 2001,

according

to the Center for Disease Control. In 1991, 10 of 100,000 people in

Florida

ages 10-24 committed suicide. By 1999, that number had dropped to six

out of

100,000.

 

TeenScreen was developed by psychiatrist David Shaffer of Columbia

University and New York State Psychiatric Institute's Division of Child &

Adolescent Psychiatry. Shaffer is a consultant (see page 21) and apologist

of pharmaceutical companies. As a consultant, Shaffer has served as an

expert witness for Hoffman la Roche and Wyeth. He is also a consultant to

GlaxoSmithKline on paroxetine (Paxil or Seroxat) and adolescent suicide.

 

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention sent out a press release on

May 8, 2000, that said Shaffer was their president and they had just

released a national survey they had done on suicide. The funder of the

survey? Pfizer

 

In December of 2003 British drug regulators recommended against the use of

antidepressants in the treatment of depressed children under 18

because some

of the drugs had been linked to suicidal thoughts and self-harm. According

to a December 11, 2003, New York Times article, Shaffer at the request of

Pfizer, (the maker of Zoloft) attempted to block the British findings,

sending a letter to the British drug agency saying that there was

insufficient data to restrict the use of the drugs in adolescents.

 

On Feb 2, 2004, a scientific advisory panel urged the Food and Drug

Administration to issue stronger warnings to doctors about the possible

risks to children because of antidepressant drugs. Shaffer told the

advisory

committee (see page 76) that he doesn't have a better explanantion for the

drop in suicides than the growing use of antidepressants! But he said, " we

don't know if they are related " .

 

Just this last October, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, announced

that all medications used to treat depression must carry a black box

warning

label, advising that children and teens may become suicidal when

taking the

drugs.

 

On January 1, 2005, the British Medical Journal, on the heels of the FDA

black box warning, reported that the FDA has agreed to review confidential

drug company documents that went missing during a controversial product

liability suit more than 10 years ago. The documents indicate a link

between

the drug fluoxetine (Prozac), made by Eli Lilly, and suicide attempts and

violence.

 

In Pinellas County, Florida, an ongoing research project has already

established that a large majority of teens who committed suicide were on

psychotropic drugs or had received psychiatric treatment. In the years

2002

and 2003, 81% of the suicides were either on psychotropic drugs or had

received psychiatric treatment. This percentage may rise as the research

continues.

 

Since this webpage you are reading: " TeenScreen: A Front Group for the

Psycho-Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex " has gone online, TeenScreen has

decided to revise it's history. They sent out a press release May 13, 2003

which was included here on this web page. On January 14, 2005 it was

discovered that they revised that old press release by deleting one

sentence. This is the sentence they deleted:

 

" Since 1991, the Columbia University Division of Child and Adolescent

Psychiatry has invested nearly $19 million in the research and development

of the Columbia TeenScreen program. "

 

Proof that TeenScreen recently revised the old press release: Press

release

dated May 13, 2003 which was found as an archived webpage on and the

recently revised press release dated May 13, 2003 that shows TeenScreen

deleted the first sentence of the 2nd last paragraph which contained

the $19

million quote.

 

TeenScreen no longer has any reference to this $19 million dollars on

their

website.

The $19 million dollar reference can still be found elsewhere on the

websites of organizations TeenScreen does not control, here and here for

example.

 

Needless to say, all references are being saved before TeenScreen does

anymore of their " disappearing acts " .

 

TeenScreen and Columbia University refuse to divulge the source of this

funding. One corner of the Internet did give a clue to the funding: Eli

Lilly, (the pharmaceutical company) funded the TeenScreen program in

Tennessee. (See page 4, left, mid-page).

 

Although the name TeenScreen was not mentioned, the New York Times,

reported, on December 17, 1998 that William J. Ruane, an investment

advisor

put $8 million into the screening research of Shaffer, the TeenScreen

psychiatrist.

 

As far back as 1995, Ruane already had a " longstanding relationship " (see

bottom of reference) with Shaffer. In June of 1995 the Ruanes funded a

professorship of Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Columbia University which

" supported training and research into the effectiveness of

psychopharmacological agents in treating childhood psychiatric disorders " .

 

The Psychiatric Times reported in March of 1998 that Ruane and wife Joy,

gave 1.5 million to study the effects of psychiatric medication in

children

to the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Shaffer's home base.

 

According to a New York Post article in 1999, the New York State

Psychiatric

Institute conducted experiments on kids, some as young as 6, with the

powerful mood-altering drug Prozac and failed to tell the children or

their

parents about the most serious risks. While testing Prozac on 30 severely

depressed patients ages 12 to 18, researcher's notes indicated " Some

patients have been reported to have an increase in suicidal thoughts

and/or

violent behavior " . Records showed that at least four experiments used

Prozac

on young children including one funded by Prozac's manufacturer, Eli Lilly

Co.

 

Laurie Flynn, TeenScreen's director, searches out teens who have committed

suicide and then writes letters to the editors throughout the country,

promoting TeenScreen as the " solution " . Flynn is no stranger to the

pharmaceutical industry. She formally served as the head of the National

Alliance for the Mentally Ill which received millions of dollars from

pharmaceutical companies. Flynn has a tough time selling TeenScreen.

TeenScreen has resorted to luring kids with movie rental coupons and food

and drink coupons, simply for the return of a release form, whether or not

the student agrees to be screened.

 

Flynn perjured herself in a Capitol Hill Hearing on March 2, 2004, in

front

of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Bill H.R.

3063, when she testified: " In partnership with the University of South

Florida we are piloting district wide mental health screening of 9th

graders

in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties " . But in fact, the day before

Flynn's

testimony, the Hillsborough County School District said they were not

partnering with TeenScreen, did not feel comfortable with the information

provided by TeenScreen and had serious concerns about TeenScreen including

liability and risk issues. In Pinellas County, TeenScreen is presently

prohibited from doing their suicide survey because Board policy

protects the

identity of students when surveys are done. In addition, the Pinellas

County

School Board Superintendent has serious reservations about partnering with

such an organization.

 

In Florida, David Shern and his sidekick, Justin Doan, both of the Florida

Mental Health Institute are attempting to lobby the Pinellas County School

Board to change it's policy on anonymous surveys of children. He wants the

school board policy changed so that he can obtain the child's name

after he

does his version of the " suicide " survey. He does not want student surveys

to be anonymous, as they are now under existing regulations.

 

Even U.S. law governing the Census Bureau requires that any information

collected from the public be maintained as confidential. There are

penalties

of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines for wrongful

disclosure of confidential census information.

 

Several professional organizations dealing with survey methods have

codes of

ethics (including the American Statistical Association) that prescribe

rules

for keeping survey responses confidential. The recommended policy for

survey

organizations to safeguard such confidentiality includes presenting

statistical tabulations by broad enough categories so that individual

respondents cannot be singled out.

 

Yet, Shern wants to get at the names of individual students so they can be

targeted for " treatment " .

 

What treatment? Psychotropic Drugging, of course.

 

A report entitled " Psychotropic Drug Use in Foster Care " , by the Florida

Statewide Advocacy Council, discovered that of the 1,180 children reviewed

652 were on one or more psychotropic medications. The report warned of the

side effects of these drugs including suicidal tendencies. The report

concluded that unnecessary dispensing of psychotropic medication remains a

threat to the children. They recommended that their findings be

incorporated

into an agenda in order to preserve and protect the health, safety,

welfare

and rights of children.

 

The Florida Mental Health Institute under Shern's direction received

$180,000 from Columbia's TeenScreen. The Florida Mental Health Institute

says it has no financial records on how that money was spent. Mr.

Shern and

his FMHI have also raked in cash from pharmaceutical companies to study

anti-psychotic drugs: $381,664 from Eli Lilly and $130,416 from

AstraZeneca

Ltd.

 

The Tampa Tribune posed some good questions on March 7, 2004: " What if

someone at risk is identified, but there's no one who can help? What

if the

test misses someone at risk? What if the test falsely identifies

someone who

isn't at risk? "

 

" Liability comes up immediately, " Shern said.

 

As to studies on TeenScreen itself, the U.S. Preventive Services Task

Force

(top U.S. Government Research outfit) report of May of 2004 states:

 

A. There is no evidence that screening for suicide risk reduces suicide

attempts or mortality.

B. There is limited evidence on the accuracy of screening tools to

identify

suicide risk.

C. There is insufficient evidence that treatment of those at high risk

reduces suicide attempts or mortality.

D. No studies were found that directly address the harms of screening and

treatment for suicide risk.

TeenScreen has no proof that their survey reduces suicide rates. The

co-director of TeenScreen Rob Caruano, says that suicides are so rare that

you'd have to screen the whole country to see a difference in mortality

between screened and unscreened students.

TeenScreen was established in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1997 . According to a

2003

Tulsa World newspaper article, Mike Brose, executive director of the

Mental

Health Association in Tulsa, stated: " To the best of my knowledge, this is

the highest number of youth suicides we've ever had during the school year

-- a number we find very frightening. "

 

So much for the workability of TeenScreen.

 

In Colorado (3rd section from the bottom) over 350 youths were suicide

screened using TeenScreen's survey. They found that over 50% were at

risk of

suicide. That's not science! That's a dream come true for pharmaceutical

company marketing types and bean counters.

 

TeenScreen blatantly hails antidepressants as the " cure " (see slide

11) for

suicide.

 

Mark Taylor, who was shot several times during the April 1999 massacre at

Columbine high schools says that programs like TeenScreen experiment on

kids, who will eventually end up on psychotropic drugs, according to an

August 16, 2002 Arizona Republic article. He attributes the Columbine

incident to the fact that the shooters were on antidepressants. He

pleads to

stop the drugging of students.

 

TeenScreen is purely and simply a marketing scam to sell psychotropic

drugs.

When they use " even if we save one life " as an argument to arouse emotions

in parents that truly care, they are lying. They are not saving lives.

TeenScreen is the marketing entrance point for the real killers -

psychotropic drugs and the psychotherapists who prescribe them.

 

TeenScreen, leave the kids alone!

 

Parents and Teens, remember Columbine!

 

Click here to send an e-mail to the Pinellas County School Board. Tell

them

student surveys must remain anonymous. Names of students must not be given

to the drug pushers!