[drugawareness] Our NJ Director Testifying at the President's Conference on Scho

[Guest guest]

atracyphd2

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 10:55:54 EDT

[drugawareness] Our NJ Director Testifying at the President's

Conference on School Violence

 

 

The following link will take you to the CSPAN site where you can hear the

full testimony of Lisa VanSyckle, our New Jersey director for the

International

Coalition for Drug Awareness www.drugawareness.org

(http://www.drugawareness.org) ). This is her testimony of Tuesday,

October 10, 2006, to the

President's conference on school violence headed by US Attorney

General Gonzales. A

transcript is included for those who are unable to access the video.

 

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,

International Coalition for Drug Awareness

www.drugawareness.org (http://www.drugawareness.org) and author of

Prozac:

Panacea or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare

and audio Help! I Can't Get Off My Antidepressant!

(Order Number: 800-280-0730)

 

http://mms.tveyes.com/ExpandGuest.asp?ln=141800

(http://mms.tveyes.com/ExpandGuest.asp?ln=141800)

 

CSPAN -- House of Representatives

CSPAN 10/11/06 13:34:43: .... The neighborhoods, if you consider

what's out

there in terms of the most violent people versus the masses of folks that

live even in, obviously, in the neighborhoods where you teach, are law

abiding.

And they want their children to go to school and they want to be safe.

There's an element that you can work with, and there's an element that

needs to be

dealt with sternly by law enforcement. So there's a law enforcement

piece and

a prevention fees and we need to work together to advance that cause

that I

know that you believe in so firmly.

 

Attorney General Gonzales: Thank you. Next question?

 

Lisa VanSyckle: Good morning. I am Lisa Van Syckle with the International

Coalition for Drug Awareness and I'm from the state of New Jersey. I

have or

had a child who was violent and suicidal. She was violent and suicidal

due to

the antidepressant Paxil. I took my crusade to the white house, the

president

responded and it went to HHS and we've had congressional hearings, and the

FDA is now under deep scrutiny. I want to know when are we going to

hold the

pharmaceutical industry responsible for putting antidepressant

medications on

the market that cause our children to become violent, suicidal and the

majority of the cases of homicide.

 

And I hear about Columbine all the time. What is not known to the

public is

that Eric Harris over the course of a year was on the drug Luvox and

it was

increased four times.

 

We know that these drugs cause violence, we know that they cause homicide.

What are you going to do about it? We have medication guides that are not

being distributed to the classroom, to physicians and to parents, how

can we

properly monitor our children without a defined regulation on how

these med --

defined regulation on how these medications will be distributed?

 

Thank you.

 

Delbert Elliott - Univ. of CO Center for Study and Prevention of

Violence -: I cannot answer your question when that will happen. I guess

that I

do want to comment that what the evidence suggests that those

antidepressant

drugs increased risk for violence and for suicide. So when you talk about

causes, I want to be sure that we understand what we mean by that, and

that

is, that it increases the risk. It is true that Eric Harris was using

Luvox but

it is also true that Dylan was not. [This statement is not true. More

correct would be to say that Dylan's toxicology report was never

disclosed as all

his records were sealed early in the case. Why still remains to be

answered

when this was a case involving homicides.]

 

Lisa VanSyckle: But if you look at the medication guide and I will be more

than happy to provide a copy to you. The FDA says to monitor a child for

agitation, aggression, violent behavior, changes in mood and behavior.

Agitation

and aggression - that is bringing a knife to school. Agitation and

aggression

- is beating up another child. I lived the nightmare. I know how violent

and suicidal a child can become due to the side effect of a medication. My

daughter did not have depression, she had Lyme's Disease. You need to

look at

the issue. With 11 million children prescriptions being prescribed and

if one

out of 50 children will become violent and suicidal on these

medications, we

need to take a more serious look at the issue.

 

Attorney General Gonzales: What I would like to do I know that the

Secretary

of Health and Human Services would be very interested in this issue if

he is

not looking at it already.

 

Lisa VanSyckle: I would love that because I brought some more information

for you and Mr. Gonzales thank you for your time.

 

 

I know how violent and suicidal patients will become We need to take a

more

serious look at this issue.