CancerCoverUp.com Monthly Newsletter BRAVE NEW WORLD? Part One By Kathleen Deoul

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The CancerCoverUp.com Monthly Newsletter | MARCH 2005 |

Volume 4, Issue 3

 

 

Thu, 3 Mar 2005 20:29:13 -0800

 

http://www.cancercoverup.com/newsletter/03-2005/

 

BRAVE NEW WORLD?

Part One

By Kathleen Deoul

 

Aldous Huxley's classic 1932 novel, " Brave New World, " depicted a

world where the population was drugged - by the government - drugged

to keep it happy and docile. Children were subjected to Pavlovian

conditioning from birth to ensure that they conformed to societal

norms dictated by 10 " Controllers. "

 

Huxley's novel was a work of fiction, but if some people in Washington

have their way, life will soon follow art.

 

The President's " New Freedom Commission on Mental Health " has issued

its final report, and it's a bombshell! If the nation's mental health

mavens have their way, every living American from infants in the crib

to the elderly will be screened for mental disease, and if they have

their way, have a treatment regimen prescribed. As disturbing as the

general concept is, its emphasis on children is frightening.

 

There is already an epidemic of over-diagnosing mental problems such

as ADHD among children. Most often, these diagnoses are made by

untrained teachers using a checklist that includes such signs of deep

mental disturbance as failing to sit still, not completing work on

time and forgetting their homework - these mind you for five year-olds!

 

One consequence of the rush to label our children as mentally

disturbed is that the number on psychotropic drugs tripled between

1987 and 1996 with at least 6.2% of all children and adolescents

taking at least one psychiatric drug. Since the period covered by the

study, the numbers have gotten even larger. In some high schools as

much as 20% of the student population is taking a psychiatric drug!

 

But if the mental health mavens have their way it's going to get worse

- much worse.

 

Their intentions were made clear by one brief paragraph in the

Commission's final report.

 

" Schools are in a key position to identify mental health problems

early and to provide a link to appropriate services. Every day more

than 52 million students attend over 114,000 schools in the U.S. When

combined with the six million adults working at those schools, almost

one-fifth of the population passes through the Nation's schools on any

given weekday. Clearly, strong school mental health programs can

attend to the health and behavioral concerns of students, reduce

unnecessary pain and suffering, and help ensure academic achievement. "

 

In plan English, what they are recommending is that every child in the

nation's schools be screened by their teachers for mental health

problems. Never mind that the teachers have no medical credentials.

Never mind that they may have ulterior motives, such as wanting to

keep children docile so that they don't have to work to hard. Never

mind that their unqualified diagnoses could follow a child for the

rest of their lives. To the mental health mavens, their advocacy of

intervention is more than justified:

 

" Without intervention, child and adolescent disorders frequently

continue into adulthood. … If the system does not appropriately screen

and treat them early, these childhood disorders may persist and lead

to a downward spiral of school failure, poor employment opportunities

and poverty in adulthood. No other illnesses damage so many children

so seriously. "

 

In fact, the mental health mavens think that it's so important that

they don't even want to wait until a child enters school. They

advocate a program (which has been adopted in Illinois) that has

nurses make home visits to pregnant women and then monitors the

child's mental health during its first year of life - no I'm not

kidding, the first year of life.

 

As outrageous as this may sound, it actually is merely an indication

of the growing trend toward diagnosing children as having mental

health problems at ever-younger ages.

 

One of the latest examples of this is the latest fad in psychiatry -

diagnosing preschoolers as bipolar.

 

A fundamental problem with such diagnoses is that there is no accepted

test for bipolar disorder - in children or adults. Instead, as with

ADHD, psychiatrists use a " checklist " of more than three dozen

behaviors to diagnose juvenile bipolar disorder

 

And what are these behaviors?

 

Well, they include such things as silliness, night terrors,

carbohydrate cravings, fidgetiness, bed-wetting, lying, social anxiety

and difficulty getting up in the morning.

 

So if your five-year old sticks a French fry up his nose, call a

shrink! If the child asks for a second cookie get a straight-jacket!

And, heaven forbid, the child says they really didn't break Grandma's

vase, get out the commitment papers!

 

If all this seems extreme to you, you're in good company. In Houston,

Texas, Dr. Laurel L. Williams estimates that she has " un-diagnosed "

between 50 and 75 cases of bipolar disorder in young children.

 

But the problem is far more than just mistaken diagnoses - it's what

happens when children are misdiagnosed. Whether the diagnosis is ADHD,

bipolar disorder, or some other psychiatric ill, the automatic

response from most practitioners is to medicate. And remember, these

are not benign drugs being prescribed to our children - they can cause

serious side effects ranging from diabetes to sterility. Yet, the

mental health mavens think nothing of having our kids pop a pill at

the drop of a hat.

 

Worse, in most instances, the drugs they're dispensing so casually

haven't been tested on children, and often are being given

" off-label. " This refers to prescribing a medication for some purposes

other than the one it was approved for. Moreover, in many if not most

cases, it is not just one drug that the children are getting, it is

several. In fact, the average number of drugs given to these children

is THREE!

 

A survey by Express Scripts Inc., a private pharmacy benefit manager,

titled " Trends in the Use of Antidepressants in a National Sample of

Commercially Insured Pediatric Patients, 1998-2002, " revealed just how

strong, and frightening the trend towards medicating younger and

younger children is:

 

" … the overall prevalence of antidepressant use among children

increased from 160 per 10,000 (1.6 percent) in 1998 to 240 per 10,000

(2.4 percent) in 2003, for an adjusted annual increase of 9.2 percent.

The growth in the overall prevalence of antidepressants was greater

among girls (a 68 percent increase) than boys (a 34 percent increase).

In 2002 antidepressant use was highest among girls aged 15 to 18 years

at 640 per 10,000 (6.4 percent). The trend of increasing overall use

of antidepressants among children and adolescents appears to have been

driven primarily by greater use of selective serotonin reuptake

inhibitors. "

 

Perhaps the single most disturbing data included in the Express

Scripts survey was the finding that the largest proportional increase

in antidepressant use was among children in the age group of 5 years

old and younger!

 

What makes the trend particularly disturbing is that it comes at a

time when there is increasing evidence that selective serotonin

reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may cause some young people to commit

suicide. In fact, on October 15, 2004 the FDA recommended that

pharmaceutical companies put " black box " warnings on the package

insert about the potential for these drugs to cause suicidal thoughts

and suicide in adolescents.

 

Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist who authored the " Antidepressant

Fact Book " is outraged:

 

" To inflict these drugs on the growing brains of infants and

children is wrong and abusive. We're in an era of technological child

abuse in which physicians routinely, whether they know it or not, are

actually abusing infants and children with toxic substances, rather

than addressing their real needs. "

 

What makes what Breggin terms " technological child abuse " even more

outrageous is that there is no evidence to suggest that the drugs

work! According to Breggin:

 

" These drugs have not even been proved useful in adults, where the

studies are marginal at best, and we now have the FDA acknowledging

that in both children and adults the drugs produce a wide variety of

behavioral and mental abnormalities. Antidepressants drastically

change the functioning of widespread neurotransmitters in the brain,

and there is no way to interfere at a stage of rapid growth without

disturbing the function of the brain. "

 

But could the problem really be that widespread?

 

The short answer is yes - and it's not limited to the United States!

 

The short answer is yes - and it's not limited to the United States!

Studies in Canada, England, France and Germany show that these

countries, too, are medicating their children. For example, a survey

of 609 primary schools in Strasbourg, France revealed that 12.1% were

taking at least one psychotropic drug when they entered school, and of

these, 36% had been started on the drug at the age of one or younger!

 

In this country, last year 20 MILLION PRESCRIPTIONS were written to

treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) alone!

 

And if the mental health mavens have their way, the number is going to

get a lot bigger! For example, psychiatrists estimate that 1.1% of the

population suffers from bipolar disorder. That translates into 572,000

children with the problem - 572,000 children they want to medicate

with powerful drugs like lithium!

 

And, mind you, they would be medicated on the basis of a checklist -

not empirical evidence from testing, BECAUSE THERE IS NO VALID TEST

FOR BIPOLAR DISORDER!

 

But what it they're wrong?

 

Lisa Van Syckel could tell you.

 

Her daughter Michelle had started life as a normal child. She had

encountered some adjustment problems as her family moved frequently

due to her father's job, but they were always transitory.

 

Then, in 2000, her father was transferred to New Jersey.

 

Soon after the move, Michelle began to have problems. She complained

about a number of physical symptoms including dizziness, chest pain

and shortness of breath. Although previously a good student, her

schoolwork began to decline and she began to lose weight. Her doctors

decided she was anorexic and admitted her to an eating disorder unit

at the Somerset Medical Center in Sommerville, New Jersey.

 

While a patient there, the doctors put her on the antidepressant

Zoloft. Shortly after being put on the drug Michelle developed a slow

heartbeat and erratic blood pressure readings.

 

So what did the doctor do?

 

He increased the dose.

 

After two weeks, Michelle was released, with a diagnosis of

" personality disorder, unspecified. "

 

Three weeks after going home, Michelle was back in the hospital's

eating disorder unit again. The doctors decided they knew what the

problem was: the wrong medication, so they switched her from Zoloft to

Paxil.

 

Although Lisa didn't realize it, this was the beginning of the

nightmare she thought might never end.

 

Over the next several months, Michelle's mental health continued to

deteriorate. Then, one day, when Michelle was particularly agitated,

her mother searched her room. She was shocked to discover that Lisa

had hidden knives in her dresser. She was cutting and scratching herself.

 

Lisa hid all of the knives and other sharp implements and began

sleeping outside her daughter's room at night.

 

In despair, Lisa and her husband told her doctor about the problem.

His answer: increase the dosage of her Paxil.

 

Meanwhile, Michelle's self-mutilation got progressively worse.

 

On September 28, 2000 she slashed herself 25 times and carved the word

DIE into her belly. She was admitted to the hospital.

 

Eight days later, on October 6, Michelle tried to commit suicide.

 

Lisa had gone out to run an errand when Michelle's 12 year-old brother

heard his sister scream. Running to see what had happened he

discovered her trying to take a handful of pills. After wrestling the

pills away, he called 911, but Michelle banged his head into a wall

and ran out of the house.

 

When Lisa got home moments later, there were four police cars in the

driveway and her husband was giving the police gathered there a

description of his daughter.

 

Panicked, Lisa was terrified that if the police were able to locate

Michelle it would be too late.

 

Then the phone rang. Michelle had called one of her friends from a

nearby restaurant. They rushed there. Lisa was curled up next to a

phone booth. But as her parents and the police approached, she jumped

up running across some nearby railroad tracks.

 

When the police finally caught her, it took three of them to get her

under control. When they were able to catch her, she was like a tiger,

biting, spitting and even breaking out of her handcuffs twice.

Shrieking obscenities and attempting to kick out the squad car's

windows, she was transported to the local hospital.

 

In the emergency room, her violent struggles continued as the doctors

and nurses attempted to place her in restraints. Eventually they were

able to do so and then sedated her and sent her home.

 

Two days later she was admitted to the adolescent psychiatric ward of

University Behavioral HealthCare in Piscataway, New Jersey, an

affiliate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

 

One of the first things the doctors did was to abruptly take her off

Paxil - even though the package label warns that this could be dangerous.

 

Still, the doctors could not agree on a single diagnosis. Over her

ordeal, she had been diagnosed as suffering from anorexia, severe

depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and borderline personality

features. This last diagnosis was a serious mental illness that causes

suicidal gestures and self-injury among other symptoms. Michelle had

also been treated with a host of drugs including Celexa, a powerful

SSRI, Risperdal, a drug normally given to schizophrenics, Depakote, a

drug used to treat epilepsy that is sometimes given to people with

bipolar disorder, and, of course, Zoloft and Paxil.

 

Despite their inability to come up with a consistent diagnosis, there

was one thing the doctors did agree on: that Michelle's parents were

to blame!

 

They accused Lisa of being overbearing and suggested that her father

was abusing her!

 

This, despite the fact that there wasn't a hint of evidence to suggest

such a serious charge was true!

 

 

Lisa and her husband were furious, but they were also desperate to

find a way to help their daughter. Then, a casual conversation with an

old friend gave them a ray of hope. Their friend was extremely ill due

to a recurrence of Lyme disease. When he initially got infected, he

suffered from the sorts of symptoms most people know about: rash,

fever and aching muscles. But after being treated with antibiotics, he

thought he was cured. But some time later it came back, this time

causing severe fatigue, depression and a loss of appetite.

 

His description struck Michelle's parents like a thunderbolt. She had

contracted Lyme disease in 1993, treated with antibiotics and

pronounced cured. Could her problems be caused by a recurrence of the

disease? Lisa and her husband had mentioned Michelle's bout of Lyme

disease to all of her doctors, but none had given it much notice. When

they raised the issue again following their friend's revelations, the

notion was dismissed out of hand. Their daughter was deeply disturbed

the mental health mavens insisted.

 

By this time, however, Lisa had lost faith in the doctors and began to

do research on her own. She eventually found a specialist, Dr. Andrea

Gaito, who had actually published work on the subject of psychiatric

and neurological symptoms caused by Lyme disease. Fortunately, Dr.

Gaito lived in New Jersey, so they took Michelle to see her.

 

After a series of blood tests, the diagnosis was confirmed: Michelle

not only had Lyme disease, but also had another tick-related

infection, Bartonella, that could cause brain infection and impaired

thinking!

 

Their daughter wasn't crazy, she was sick!

 

According to Dr. Gaito, Michelle's situation was not all that

uncommon. She explained to Lisa and her husband that she often saw

teenaged patients with apparent psychiatric conditions ranging from

panic attacks to severe depression that had Lyme disease but had

initially been misdiagnosed.

 

Dr. Gaito took Michelle off all of the psychiatric drugs she was

taking and began a course of intravenous antibiotics. Over time, her

condition improved.

 

Eventually, Michelle recovered, but she will always carry with her the

scars on her arms and abdomen that are a reminder of how a

misdiagnosis very nearly killed her. For her mother, the experience

was transforming: it gave her a cause, protecting our children from a

medical community too quick to give them dangerous, mind-altering

drugs. In a letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor

and Pensions, she gave examples that illustrate just how pervasive the

problem is:

 

*

 

Cory Baadsgard from Washington State was the starting center on

his school basketball team. He served 14 months in a juvenile

detention facility after holding 23 classmates and a teacher hostage

at gunpoint. It was later determined that his actions were caused by

withdrawal symptoms from Paxil and high-dose Effexor.

*

 

In 1997, A 15 year-old New Jersey teen, Nick Mansie raped and

killed his 11 year-old neighbor when she came to his door to sell

cookies. Mansie was on Paxil.

*

 

Another 15 year-old, Elizabeth Bush of Warrensport, Pennsylvania

shot a classmate while on Paxil.

*

 

A third 15 year-old, Camaren Carr of Denton, Texas slit her 6

year-old brother's throat and buried him in the back yard while on Paxil.

*

 

13 year-old Kansas teen Matt Miller hanged himself while on Zoloft.

*

 

15 year-old Florida teen Daniel Carter stabbed his uncle ten

times while on Zoloft. His uncle later died from the wounds.

*

 

Elizabeth Shinn a teenager on Celexa mutilated herself and then

set herself on fire and later died.

*

 

13 year-old Elizabeth Rengel mutilated herself and then went to

her school and committed suicide by shooting herself with a 9 MM

handgun in front of her classmates.

*

 

It should be noted that Celexa lists apathy, aggravated

depression and suicide as " frequent " side effects.

 

What is perhaps most outrageous about all of the examples listed above

is that NONE of the drugs these children were taking were approved for

pediatric use!

 

Doctors know, or should know that the developing brain is different

from the mature organ. They should also know that there have been NO

clinical studies to determine how the effects of these powerful

psychotropic medications on children might differ from the affects on

adults. Yet despite the dangers, they give them to our children

without consideration of what damage they might be causing.

 

Of course, as a parent you can always refuse to allow the doctor to

give your child these powerful mind-altering drugs - or at least

that's what you might believe.

 

But you couldn't be more wrong!

 

Not only can you be told that your child has to take these dangerous

drugs, but if you refuse, your can have your child taken away and even

be sent to jail!

 

If you find this hard to believe, read next month's installment " Brave

New World? " Part Two.