Calls to Prohibit Mental Health Screening in Schools
On the eve of Mental Health Day (October 10, 2008), a candlelight vigil was held in the University City Loop in St. Louis in memory of the thousands of children that have died from psychiatric drugs. An estimated 1,340 under-18-year-olds die each year in the United States from psychiatric drug use. Large photos of children at the Vigil were testimony to the many tragic deaths. In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration has increased its warnings about these drugs causing psychosis, suicide, stroke, heart attacks, life threatening diabetes and death.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a psychiatric watchdog and human rights advocacy group that organized the vigil, says that mental health screening of students has exacerbated the problem, often wrongly identifying children as “mentally ill,†resulting in their being prescribed these drugs. Currently, there is a federal initiative to screen all 52 million American schoolchildren for mental disorders that could dramatically increase the number of children placed at risk with psychotropics.
People viewing the Vigil signed a Proclamation that calls on the State Department of Education to jettison psychological and psychiatric screening from their schools and for the state government to reallocate funding for such screening to educational, non-drug programs and additional teachers or tutors.
One screening program, TeenScreen, has an admitted 84 percent failure rate by wrongly identifying children as depressed or potentially suicidal that can lead to their being prescribed antidepressants that can induce suicidal thoughts and actions.
CCHR spokesperson Teresa Hassler said, “All the symptoms listed in the ‘Screen Information Form’ are extracted from those listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a manual criticized for its lack of reliability and conflict of interest with the pharmaceutical industry.â€Â
A 2006 study published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics determined that psychiatric drug makers funded 100% of the DSM Task Force members that decided what “mood†and “psychotic†disorders were included in the DSM. This year, the Senate Select Finance Committee called on the APA to hand over its financial records relating to pharmaceutical companies. At least 30% of the APA’s income derives from drug makers.
Ms. Hassler said, “Around the world we are holding vigils as a reminder and warning that children are dying from psychotropic drugs that are often pushed through schools. The heavy reliance upon screening here is likely a major factor.†According to a study published in the September issue of the British-based journal BioMed Central, youngsters in the U.S. are three times likelier to be prescribed antidepressants and stimulants and twice as likely to be prescribed antipsychotic drugs, than counterparts in European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.
Between 1995 and 2002, prescriptions of antipsychotics for children aged 2 to 18 leaped fivefoldâ€â€from just under half a million to about 2.5 million. In 2003, the FDA warned that antipsychotic drugs could cause diabetes and blood-sugar abnormalities, after 45 child deaths had been reported.
Last year, The New York Times also pointed to the fact that psychiatrists top the list in drug maker gifts that influences drug prescription trends. In Minnesota it was determined that psychiatrists who received at least $5,000 from makers of newer-generation antipsychotic drugs wrote, on average, three times as many prescriptions to children for these than psychiatrist who received less money or none.
In Vermont, drug-company payments to psychiatrists more than doubled from $20,835 in 2005 to an average of $45,692 in 2006. State Attorney General Bill Sorrell stated, “It is particularly troubling that the industry is paying large sums of money to influence prescribing practices involving psychiatric drugs.â€Â
Unlike for most medical conditions, psychiatrists admit they do not know the cause of or cure for any mental disorder for which they prescribe mind-altering drugs. Dr. Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York, Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York, says, “There is no blood or other biological test to ascertain the presence or absence of a mental illness, as there is for most bodily diseases.â€Â
Proponents of TeenScreen claim that screening can prevent suicides. However, Robert Whitaker, science writer and author of Mad in America, says, “They’re pulling numbers out of thin airâ€â€falsely presuming that this crisis is about lack of access to drugs and calling for government to provide more and more of what many of us believe is the wrong kind of treatment.â€Â
A 2005 study by Dr. David Healy and Graham Aldred from the North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University, Wales, reported that the studies of the newer antidepressants (Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor etc.) show that they increase the risk of suicide. The FDA has a “black box†on antidepressant packaging warning that the drugs can cause suicidal thoughts and actions in those 24 years of age and under.
Dr. Julian Whitaker, director of the renowned Whitaker Wellness Center in California, advises parents: “First of all, refuse to sign those [screening] consent forms when they come home from your child’s schoolâ€â€if they can’t test them, they can’t drug them.â€Â
CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the eminent Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. It has helped obtain legislation protecting children from potentially lethal psychiatric drugs for 40 years.
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