Fwd: [SSRI-Research] Ritalin doesn't solve every child's problem

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JustSayNo

Tue, 2 Mar 2004 08:58:01 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Ritalin doesn't solve every child's problem

 

Ritalin doesn't solve every child's problem

 

Sharon S. Kientz, of Auberry is a retired teacher and a member of the school

board for Sierra Unified School District.

 

Published 02/28/04 05:05:14

 

 

The public will little note a decision made in Sacramento on Jan. 14, but

families will remain victims unaware.

 

AB 1424, defeated in committee, would have provided that parents cannot be

charged with abuse or neglect of their children if they refuse the

administration of psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs, including Ritalin, to

their children. While AB 1424 was but a small step, it would have represented a

break in the stranglehold that the psychiatric/ pharmaceutical industry has on

the treatment of so-called attention-deficit disorders.

 

The diagnostic process often begins in the schools because teachers,

administrators and psychologists have been seduced by the industry's propaganda,

legitimized by the media, that ADD/ADHD is a biological disease. Too often the

first identification of an ADD/ADHD child comes from a classroom teacher.

Finding a doctor who will prescribe Ritalin is easy since most have bought into

the neurobiological lie.

 

There is a movement among state legislatures to enact laws that prevent public

school personnel from pressuring parents to medicate their children with Ritalin

or other psychotropic drugs and protect parents from criminal charges if they

refuse to drug their children. In 1999, the Colorado Legislature was the first

in the nation to address this problem when it passed a resolution warning of the

possible negative effects of psychotropic drugs on schoolchildren. Colorado

passed HB 1172 in 2003 which requires each school board to adopt a policy

prohibiting school personnel from recommending or requiring the use of a

psychotropic drug by any student. Many states have followed suit, but not

California.

 

 

Basis for diagnosis

 

Nothing but a set of behaviors described in the American Psychiatric

Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) is

the basis for a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD. It is not a biological test, but simply a

behavioral one.

 

The psychiatric association has forgotten what is normal for children and has

pathologized behavior that all children engage in. Frequently claims of a

" chemical imbalance " are cited by the APA as justification for the diagnosis,

but it confesses that it does " not have an independent, valid test for ADHD and

there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to brain malfunction. "

 

Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist who is the International Director of the

Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, is one of the few heroes

within the profession. He is the author of several books including " Talking Back

to Ritalin. " Dr. Fred Baughman, a pediatric neurologist for 35 years, is another

authority on the misdiagnosis of ADD/ADHD. Both men have testified before

Congress on this issue.

 

A collusion exists between the APA, the pharmaceutical companies and the

support group CHAAD (Children and Adults with ADD). The APA would be a dead

organization but for psychiatrists' power to prescribe drugs, so there is a

reciprocity of financial gain to themselves and the drug companies when

mental/emotional illnesses are identified as biological and treatable with

drugs. CHAAD's primary recommendation to parents is Ritalin, while it has

received over a million dollars from Novartis, the company that produces

Ritalin.

 

Parents are not told that the Drug Enforcement Administration classifies

Ritalin as a Schedule II drug in the same category as cocaine. Nor are parents

informed of the side effects of Ritalin, including loss of appetite,

sleeplessness, tics, growth inhibition, brain shrinkage and depression.

 

In 1997, I retired after a 23-year kindergarten teaching career where I saw

the haste with which some teachers were wont to identify children as ADD. At

staff meetings, not only were children, mostly boys, identified, but strategies

for convincing parents of the need for medication were proposed.

 

Learning disability

 

In 1991, the U.S. Department of Education added a financial incentive by

classifying ADD/ADHD as a learning disability for which schools could receive

reimbursement under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. Between

1991 and 2000, Ritalin sales increased 500%. Over 5 million children now take

Ritalin or similar drugs.

 

In 1996, PBS broadcast a program hosted by John Merrow entitled " ADD: A

Dubious Diagnosis. " The saddest part of this program was listening to young boys

tell of their pleas to parents to stop the Ritalin. One boy described himself as

" not the real me, a fake person. "

 

Even sadder is a young relative, who after six years on Ritalin, now takes a

cocktail of drugs, including Lithium, Serzone, Wellbutrin and Risperdal for

bipolar disorder. He believes that he is a flawed human being and is unable to

" be good " without his drugs. A dubious diagnosis, indeed.