Big Pharma: 7–12 million new customers. TeenScreen—another gross distortion

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Mon, 05 Sep 2005 14:35:11 -0000

[sSRI-Research] TeenScreen, pharma has hopes of roping in

 

 

 

7–12 million new customers. TeenScreen—another gross distortion

 

By Evelyn Pringle

Online Journal Contributing Writer

 

http://www.onlinejournal.com/health/080605Pringle/080605pringle.html

 

August 6, 2005—Here's another gross distortion of the truth by

TeenScreen. On its website, in response to the question is TeenScreen

related to TMAP, the Texas Medication Algorithm Project? It

says: " No. . . . Some Web postings inappropriately and inaccurately

claim that TeenScreen is a bridge to medication and hence the TMAP

program. This is entirely false. "

 

" There is absolutely no relationship between TeenScreen and

TMAP. . . . TeenScreen does not endorse any particularly mental

health treatment or medication. "

 

" TMAP . . . is a medication formulary for seriously mentally ill

adults in Texas. The adults served by this program are cared for in

public programs. TeenScreen and TMAP have nothing to do with one

another. "

 

That's what TeenScreen says. Now lets look at the truth.

 

Simply put, a TMAP (a.k.a. algorithm) is a list of drugs that doctors

are required to use in treating persons with specific illnesses who

receive medication funded by the government with tax dollars.

 

Contrary to what TeenScreen claims, this list is not limited to

mentally ill adults in Texas. In fact, Texas has a children's version

that apes the adult version and is used for kids in hospitals, foster

care institutions, prisons, juvenile programs and every other public

program that is funded with tax dollars in Texas.

 

It all started in the mid-90s while George W. Bush was governor. TMAP

was developed by what's referred to as an " expert consensus " made up

of a group of " experts " already known to have favorable opinions of

certain drugs, chosen by drug company sponsors, Janssen

Pharmaceutica, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Astrazeneca, Pfizer,

Novartis, Janssen-Ortho-McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, Bristol-

Myers-Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst and Forrest Laboratories.

 

In 1997–98, with pharma funding, a panel was assembled to determine

which drugs would be used in treating children and decided that the

same drugs used on adults could be used on kids. There were no

studies conducted to test the safety of giving the TMAP drugs to kids

and most had never been FDA approved for use by children.

 

Experts are speaking out against these lists. According Dr Grace

Jackson, author of the new book, Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A

Guide for Informed Consent, " Outside of emergency and trauma

medicine, where algorithms can and do save lives, the use of medical

flowcharts and guidelines must be evaluated carefully and critically.

This is because the algorithms have arisen from 'Evidence Based

Medicine'—a statistically based approach to studying treatment

effects in populations, rather than a reality based approach to

discerning treatment effectiveness in each unique individual. "

 

The TMAP is still being used to push drugs on kids in Texas,

according to an article by the Associated Press on February 09,

2005, " As lawmakers work to revamp Texas' foster care system, they

also are reviewing the use of mind-altering drugs by foster children. "

 

In October 2004, the Texas inspector general for the Health and Human

Services Commission said his office interviewed staff at three state

licensed wilderness camps, which provide care for foster children,

and found that the average child who arrives is on four or five

psychotropic drugs.

 

After investigating the issue of drug use with foster kids, in an

April 2004 report, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, blasted

the agency for giving children drugs so ``doctors and drug companies

can make a buck. "

 

An update on Texas comes from noted author Dr John Breeding who

reports, " We are fighting off a swarm of efforts to codify New

Freedom language into Texas law. Driven by Big Pharma and psychiatry,

Texas is a focal point as the Texas Medication Algorithm Project

started it all, the same folks were behind the New Freedom

Commission, and the end result is more and more folks on drugs. "

 

TeenScreen's underlying motive is to recruit customers to funnel

money to pharma by drugging kids and a TMAP model, under whatever

name it goes by in each state, is the list of the drugs that the new

customers will be given. In fact to push the overall scheme along,

the Bush appointed New Freedom Commission (NFC) has recommended that

TMAP be used in all 50 states.

 

And it is spreading to other states. In Ohio, the list is

called " OMAP " and includes all the high-priced psychotropics such as

Paxil, Zyprexa, Adderall, Zoloft, Risperdal, Seroqual, Depakote,

Prozac, Wellbutron, Zyban, Remeron, Serzone, and Effexor.

 

But first things first, they have to get TeenScreen in schools and

this is where the NFC comes in. Its recommendations include, " Early

detection of mental health problems in children and adults—through

routine and comprehensive testing and screening—will be an expected

and typical occurrence. Both children and adults will be screened for

mental illnesses during their routine physical exams. "

 

Citing recommendations by the NFC, TeenScreen Executive Director

Laurie Flynn reports the Bush plan is " to launch a nationwide mental

illness screening program in government institutions, including the

public school system, for all students from kindergarten up to the

12th grade. "

 

While testifying before the committee on March 2, 2004, Flynn praised

the NFC for recommending TeenScreen. " I am especially pleased to

report that the commission named the . . . TeenScreen Program a model

program for early intervention. "

 

Flynn's testimony discussed TeenScreen's goal of finding students

to " link them with treatment: "

 

" In 2003, we were able to screen approximately 14,200 teens at these

sites; among those students, we were able to identify approximately

3,500 youth with mental health problems and link them with treatment.

This year, we believe we will be able to identify close to 10,000

teens in need, a 300 percent increase over last year. "

 

Make no mistake, the lists are being used to drug children and any

new recruits will end up on drugs.

 

For instance, according to a report in the April 25 Columbus

Dispatch, as of July 2004, nearly 40,000 Ohio children on Medicaid

were already on psychiatric drugs. After concerns were raised

nationally about the number of kids being medicated, a reporter for

the Dispatch investigated prescriptions records paid for by the Ohio

Medicaid program and discovered that 31 percent of children ages 6 to

18 in foster and group homes were on mental health drugs. And 22

percent of kids in detention were on psychiatric drugs as of January

2005, with many on five or more.

 

These drugs have never been approved for kids and they have been

found to cause suicide and violence. Nearly all the children involved

in violent rampages in recent years have been on the antidepressants

known as SSRIs.

 

Christopher Pittman, the 12-year-old who shot and killed his

grandparents while they slept, and then burned down the house, was on

Zoloft. In describing the event, Christopher said it was like he was

watching a show on television and that he could see everything

happening but there was no way to stop it.

 

One of the country's leading experts on SSRIs, Dr Ann Tracey,

explains that people on these drugs, like Christopher, will appear as

if they are wide awake, when in fact they are half asleep walking

around in a dream-like state.

 

Despite the testimony of two highly qualified psychiatrists that

Christopher was " involuntarily intoxicated " on Zoloft that night, the

jury found him guilty, and barring a miracle, this poor child will

sit in prison for the next 30 years because a negligent doctor placed

him on a lethal medication.

 

Dr Grace Jackson is against giving kids drugs. " It would be difficult

to engage in a form of medical experimentation more potentially

hazardous than child psychopharmacology. With increasing frequency,

researchers have demonstrated how and why the psychiatric drugs are

powerful neuroendocrine disruptors which exert negative effects upon

cognition, growth, metabolism, and reproductive functioning, " she

explained.

 

According to Jackson, " The question should not be whether or not

American children are being 'overdrugged'—rather, the question should

be: what evidence justifies the drugging of even one child? "

 

State Officials Compromised by TMAP

 

Allan Jones was an Investigator in the Pennsylvania Office of

Inspector General, when the PennMap scheme was set up in

Pennsylvania. According to Jones, " TMAP and the NFC represent the

deceptive marketing of fraudulent science through the corruption of

our governmental safeguards at all levels. "

 

When charged with examining the receipt of drug company funds by

state employees, Jones said, " I began to look at the overall issue of

Pharma marketing and immediately became alarmed that the tactics used

in marketing to the private sector were being replicated with public

employees. Trips, perks, travel, honorariums, consultant fees etc. "

 

" The most shady aspects of the program emerged quickly, " he

said, " the recommended drugs were exclusively new, patented and

expensive and were selected by persons with financial ties to Pharma;

and the claims of increased efficacy and safety made by the drug

companies and state employees, were contradicted by the available

science, " Jones discovered.

 

" The pharmaceutical industry purchased the 'opinions' of a few key

doctors and the endorsement of a few key state administrators, and in

exchange they illicitly opened the market for billions of tax dollars

spent on dubious and dangerous drugs, " Jones said.

 

Pharma giant, Janssen, took the lead in exerting influence over state

officials by creating " advisory boards " made up of state mental

health directors who were regularly treated to all expense paid trips

and conferences. By influencing 50 key officials, the company knew

that it would have a good shot at getting a TMAP list adopted in

every state.

 

For example, Ohio Mental Health Director Michael Hogan, and

California Director Stephen Mayberg, are New Freedom Commission

members who control mental health services in their respective

states, and both are members of a Janssen advisory board.

 

Hogan has proven to be so useful that Eli Lilly has given him

a " Lifetime Achievement Award. " In granting the award it was noted

that Hogan had given over 75 presentations at conferences since he

accepted the position on Bush's New Freedom Commission.

 

According to my ace records researcher, Sue Weibert, every conference

that she was able to track down that featured Hogan was sponsored by

drug companies, and the group that organized the conference solicited

money from pharma to pay the key note speaker.

 

Hogan is also on TeenScreen's Advisory Board.

 

In Florida, Flynn has Jim McDonough, the director of the Florida

Office of Drug Control, in her back pocket.

 

In a March 22, 2004, email to McDonough she griped about paying the

Florida gang $120,000 a year and not getting enough in return. " We've

been working with David Shern and USF for 18 months or so and still

haven't got a program going, " she said, " At this point I'm inclined

to re-think the use of our resources. We're sending about $120k to

USF annually. . . . but ultimately we're not achieving our goals in

the community, " she wrote.

 

Flynn went on to tell McDonough that she had to find kids to screen

and said, " I'm looking for a horse to ride here! "

 

At this point, the NFC, TMAP and TeenScreen, working together, have

managed to weave together a web of key government officials who

control funding for the nation's mental health services in states all

across the country.

 

By using TeenScreen, pharma has hopes of roping in 7–12 million new

customers, according to Flynn's March 2002 testimony:

 

" The need for increased . . . screening is evidenced by the fact that

close to 750,000 teens are depressed at any one time, and an

estimated 7–12 million youth suffer from mental illness. While

treatments are available for these severely disabling disorders,

sadly, most children do not receive the treatment they need. Among

teens that are depressed, 60–80 percent go untreated. "

 

State Officials Starting To Get Busted

 

As it turns out, bribing state officials is really not uncommon. In

Pennsylvania, Allen Jones discovered that Janssen and Pfizer had both

been courting the same guy, Steve Fiorello, the state pharmacist.

Each company had paid Fiorello as a consultant, treated him to travel

accommodations, and provided him with educational grants to promote

PennMap.

 

Fiorello was in a unique position. He was paid about $82,000 to

oversee pharmacy operations at Pennsylvania's mental health

hospitals, and he was also a member of the committee that determined

which drugs would be on the PennMap list for doctors to prescribe at

those hospitals.

 

When finally busted, the ethics commission charged that he " played

both sides; he participated with Pfizer . . . as to its drug-selling

strategies, and he participated on the committee as to selecting

drugs for the state formulary. "

 

A 101-page report said Fiorello had earned money from Pfizer while

serving on a panel that chose what drugs would be used and that he

improperly took money from Janssen and Duquesne University. The

commission fined him $27,000.

 

An April 2002 company publication showed that Janssen knew exactly

what it was paying for. Under Faculty Bio, Janssen described Fiorello

as being " responsible for the formulation of policies and procedures

for drug use for ten state hospitals and facilities including the

development and implementation of the PENNMAP project. "

 

Flynn & Hogan—Expert Consensus

 

So where does TeenScreen fit in here? After all, it insists on its

website that it is absolutely not involved with this list business.

 

Well lo and behold, that's not quite true. Just look what my talented

records researcher, Sue Weibert, discovered in " The Journal of

Clinical Psychiatry, " Vol 60, 1999 Supplement 11: under Expert

Consensus Guideline Series: Treatment of Schizophrenia 1999.

 

Here we have none other than Laurie Flynn listed as an " expert " who

took part in creating the list. She surely must have forgotten about

this.

 

Flynn and her band of pushers from the National Alliance for the

Mentally Ill (NAMI) must be geniuses when it comes to picking drugs

because 39 members of NAMI got to cast votes in determining which

drugs could be on this list. The only group with more votes than NAMI

was academic experts with 42 votes.

 

Another " expert " who took part in this " expert consensus " process was

Flynn's good buddy, Mike Hogan.

 

On its website, TeenScreen claims that it does not endorse any

specific drugs. Well the author obviously did not check with its

executive director because she sure does.

 

Surprise, surprise! " Experts " Flynn and Hogan recommended the most

expensive drugs on the market for the treatment of schizophrenia:

Risperdal, Seroquel, and Zyprexa.

 

No affiliation with drug companies either, huh? According to the

report, " This project was supported by unrestricted educational

grants from Eli Lilly and Co; Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc; Novartis

Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical; Pfizer,

Inc; Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. "

 

The truth is NAMI is pharma's main front group and is used to

implement every marketing scheme the industry dreams up. As its

former executive director, Flynn was its top pusher for 16 years. The

group even admits that its goal is to help pharma " grow the market, "

in an excerpt from the its 2000 Form 990, entitled " Guidelines for

the Relationship between NAMI and the Campaign's Founding Sponsors. "

 

Providers, health plans, and pharmaceutical companies want to

increase their share of the market. " NAMI will cooperate with these

entities to grow the market by making persons aware of the issues

involving severe brain disorders, by giving professionals and

providers the NAMI perspective, by bringing into treatment persons

who are not being served, and by helping persons to adhere to their

treatment plans. " (2000 990 is available at Guidestar.com).

 

On March 2, 2004, Flynn testified at a congressional hearing that in

the screening process, " youth complete a 10-minute self-administered

questionnaire that screens for social phobia, panic disorder,

generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, alcohol and substance

abuse.

 

This is amazing, if Flynn is right, all it takes is 10 minutes and a

paper and pencil to unearth any one of 30 deep-seated mental

illnesses. I'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to cut out

the middleman doctor and set up a drive through for kids to go pick

up their pills at Walgreens without a prescription. That's probably

in the works.

 

Experts warn that TeenScreen will do more harm than good. " It is

impossible, on cursory examination, or on the basis of the program's

brief written screening test, to detect suicidality or 'mental

illness,' however we define it. Indeed, the fears evoked by the

process of seeking out mental illness can create psychiatric

symptoms, " according to Nathaniel Lehrman, MD, former Clinical, Kingsboro Psychiatric Center, Brooklyn NY; former Assistant

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein and SUNY Downstate

Colleges of Medicine.

 

" Searching out those 'illnesses,' rather than relying on the troubled

to seek help for themselves, violates the privacy of those in whom

these 'illnesses' are sought, " Lehrman warns. " For those youngsters

whose screenings supposedly reveal such 'mental illness,' the major

treatment will then be drugs. "

 

" Aren't eight million kids on Ritalin enough? " Dr Lehrman wants to

know.

 

TeenScreen is always bragging that its screening tools are free.

Apparently that was also a scam to convince schools to adopt the

program. According to a September 27, 2004, email to Jim McDonough,

schools will have to pay a fee beginning in 2006:

 

" The DPS (the 19 minute computer administered screening tool) that

TeenScreen offers has been sold to Mental Health Systems . . . Sites

can continue using the DPS, but starting Jan. 2006, they will have to

pay a few hundred dollars. (The exact prices is yet to be

decided) . . . The DPS will still be offered by TeenScreen, it will

just not be free anymore. "

 

On December 4, 2002, Flynn spoke to the NFC, and explained the cost

of setting up one TeenScreen program: " Implementation in just one

school district often requires piecing together over a dozen funding

streams from the education and mental health fields. "

 

Think about that for a minute, " piecing together over a dozen funding

streams. " So how much are local taxpayers going to end up paying for

school employees to set up a TeenScreen program in every school?

 

Something is very wrong here. This is pharma's marketing scheme, yet

taxpayers are paying to set it up, paying school employees to

administer the survey, paying for clinicians and case managers, and,

in 2006, the use of the survey itself will cost money.

 

On top of all that, mark my word, taxpayers are going end up paying

for shrinks for students without insurance, and Medicaid programs

will end up funding at least three-fourths of the drugs prescribed.

 

As I've said before, this has got to be the most brilliant scheme

that I have come across in my two years of investigating the

pharmaceutical industry. It's all profit—tax dollars funneled through

kids directly

 

into pharma coffers. Brilliant.

 

No Laughing Matter

 

The pharmaceutical industry is taking over the world right before our

very eyes. The harmful effects of the drug makers' take-over is well-

documented in Bob Whitaker's book, " Mad In America. "

 

Right now pharma has over a hundred NAMI-type marketing front groups

in place all over the globe. It has succeeded in greasing enough

palms to compromise the few government officials necessary to control

the federal and state funding allocated for prescription drug

programs, and it has doctors in every field of medicine writing out

prescriptions for expensive psychiatric drugs as if they were the

cure-all for everything under the sun.

 

Its gotten so bad, that Dr Lehrman notes a need for public awareness

of the extent to which the American medical profession is being

prostituted by the drug companies, " In no other medical specialty has

that prostitution reached the depths it has in my specialty,

psychiatry, " he added.

 

Pharma has infiltrated the staff responsible for prescribing drugs in

the country's health care facilities, to boost profits by

overmedicating patients, with most of the funding coming from tax

dollars, causing state Medicaid programs to go broke.

 

In addition, it controls the media with billions of advertising

dollars, so that when it does get busted for hiding harmful effects

of drugs that kill people or paying doctors to push drugs for

ailments they were never approved for, or shooting poisonous vaccines

into infants for profit, or any of the other thousand money-making

schemes that it has going on any given day, the story might make

front page headlines for a day or two at most.

 

It took hold of the nation's regulatory agencies by making sure to

get the majority of government researchers and scientists on their

payrolls, so that they will readily approve new drugs and then allow

companies to make a killing off selling new drugs by hiding their

adverse effects until people start dropping dead.

 

But most importantly, Pharma has gained a stranglehold on every

branch of government by funneling a steady stream of campaign cash to

politicians to make sure that favorable legislation is passed and

investigations of industry crimes are shut down.

 

Last, but certainly not least, it now appears more and more likely

every day that pharma is going to have its way with the nation's

children via the public school system. God help us.

 

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

 

Records researchers, Sue Weibert and Ken Kramer contributed to this

report.

 

Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an

investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption.

 

 

The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not

necessarily reflect those of Online Journal. Email

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