Kids controlled with drugs

[Guest guest]

Sheri Nakken

http://seven.com.au/todaytonight/story/?id=20480

 

 

Kids controlled with drugs

REPORTER: Glenn Connley

BROADCAST DATE: May 4, 2005

 

Rebel doctors and a grief counsellor say too many children are on

anti-depressants and ADHD drugs. Some think it could damage a

generation of

kids.

 

Australia's kids are on a drug binge. The evidence can be seen in most

school playgrounds and the pushers are desperate parents, troubled

teachers

and doctors.

 

Grief counsellor Mal McKissock has seen children at their lowest ebb. He

compared the use of prescription drugs to legalised child abuse.

 

" Prescribing anti-depressants to bereaved kids with no history of

depression is actually abuse, it's doing harm, " Mr McKissock said.

 

Mr McKissock found that by the time some children reached him they had

been

drugged to the eyeballs with anti depressants, by doctors treating grief

like clinical depression.

 

[information: Teenage depression]

 

" If you put the developing brain on anti-depressants, then when you

withdraw them, as an adult they develop actual depression, social

withdrawal behaviours, " Mr McKissock said.

 

" So we're actually changing the brain structure by using those with kids. "

 

In the US, some drugs have even been labelled with youth suicide warnings.

But it's not just anti-depressants that have child health experts like Dr

George Halasz worried.

 

Desperate to calm supposedly out-of-control kids, some doctors have

prescribed dexamphetamines such as Ritalin in huge numbers, with seemingly

little concern that these drugs only treat the symptoms while ignoring the

cause.

 

" Australia are the gold, silver and bronze medal holders in the number of

scripts for Ritalin, a drug for ADHD, " Dr Halasz explained.

 

" Many of these drugs are in fact given almost as a first option rather

than

they should be, as a last option. "

 

Ten years ago, 46,000 Australian children were on dexamphetamines such as

Ritalin. The number has risen to a staggering 246,000 and there has been a

similar rise in the use of anti-depressants.

 

[information: ADHD explained]

 

The latest figures showed that in 2002, doctors issued 220,000

prescriptions for children. One year later that had jumped to a quarter of

a million. Drugs which were once a last-resort are being handed out like

lollies.

 

" In the last 10-15 years this sequence or cycle has been virtually turned

on its head and the catchphrase of a 'quick fix' is much more the attitude

in most western countries, " Dr Halasz said.

 

When he was just seven years old, Joshua Head was prescribed Ritalin

on the

advice of his school and doctor. His mum Therese said that against her

better judgment, she agreed to try treating him with the pill.

 

The drug was meant to suppress symptoms such as explosive, violent or

defiant behaviour. Instead, it had the opposite effect.

 

" [He was] disruptive, like if you said black he'd say white, " Therese

said.

" If he didn't want to do something he'd dig the heels in: 'No, I'm not

doing it'. "

 

The two even had physical struggles.

 

" [He was] abusive, like very colourful language, almost tendencies to be

violent at some point as well, " Therese said.

 

It was an easy decision to take her son off the drug, she said.

 

Dr Jacques Duff has begun a search for new treatments for ADHD, favouring

neurotherapy and dietary alternatives to drugs.

 

" If our first line of treatment is to give the kids medication, that is

probably in many cases unnecessary, " Dr Duff said. " Then what you're

saying

is quite right - we are overmedicating. "

 

Some children have even been force-fed drugs because parents and teachers

can't cope. Rebel doctors say drugs are not only being misused, they are

being given to children who need little more than a bit of discipline or

understanding from parents or teachers.

 

" Many families are not prepared to look at their own dynamics and how they

interact with the child for the benefit of the child, " Dr Duff said.

 

" Instead, it's easier to blame it on the child and go to the doctor

and get

some medication for it. "

 

Dr Halasz suggested an alternative way to tackle behavioural problems.

 

" They should look at their family situation, look at their child and the

development of the child, look at themselves and the daily wear and tear,

the stresses, " Dr Halasz said. " And then they should listen to the child. "

 

" Maybe the child's communicating something about what is actually

going on,

that mums and dads might be too busy to notice. "

 

The other, more cynical fear is that the global business of medicine is

controlled by the big drug companies, who profit from every pill swallowed

by our kids.

 

" The mainstream pharmaceutical model is so heavily driven by

pharmaceutical

interests, " Dr Duff said. " So a lot of the training is, and a lot of the

research is sponsored by pharmaceutical interests. "

 

Mr McKissock said drug companies spent $5 billion annually advertising

their products and were determined to get their drugs into use.

 

" The money we could save in Pharmaceutical Benefits by not prescribing a

lot of this stuff, we could actually [use to] improve our health care

dramatically, " he said.

 

The experts said they were taking a risk by speaking out, but had done so

because they believed the culture of solving everything with a pill had to

change, before we permanently damaged a generation of children.

 

" Once we look at the seriousness of the generational effects of

prescribing

drugs - mind-altering, mood-altering drugs - to ever-younger children and

see the consequences . the first issue is to recognise that this is a

problem, " Dr Halasz said.

 

" This is not normal, this is a historical fashion statement. Fashion

statements fortunately eventually change. Unfortunately perhaps, not

before

a lot of damage is done on the way. "

 

Victoria's health department has compiled information on ADHD and

therapies: www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au

 

Australian Psychological Society information sheet on ADHD:

www.psychology.org.au/psych/consult/2.10_2.asp

 

The national depression initiative Beyond Blue at www.beyondblue.org.au

offers resources on depression and its treatment for people of all ages.

More on anti-depressants can be found at www.depressionet.com.au

 

The Therapeutic Goods Administration controls the approval of drugs

sold in

Australia: www.tga.gov.au

 

Drug companies are represented by Medicines Australia:

www.medicinesaustralia.com.au

 

Research on ADHD, depression and treatment is published in the Medical

Journal of Australia: www.mja.com.au

 

 

-----------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm