Hyper-Drugging of Active Kids

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Hyper-Drugging of Active Kids

By O'Meara

komeara@...

InsightMag.com

8-8-1

State legislatures are beginning to take action to rein in the widespread

practice of drugging hyperactive children to control their undesirable

behavior in the classroom.

As the nation's schoolchildren frolicked in the summer sun, lawmakers in the

Nutmeg State spent the break tackling educational reform. The Connecticut

General Assembly unanimously voted to prohibit teachers and other school

officials, including counselors and psychologists, from recommending

psychotropic drugs for any child.

Chief sponsor of this reform, state Rep. Lenny Winkler, tells Insight, " I

value the teachers in Connecticut and I think they do a wonderful job, but

medical diagnoses should not be in the hands of teachers. " Specifically, the

new law calls for local and regional school boards to adopt and implement

policies " prohibiting any school personnel from recommending the use of

psychotropic drugs, " and it also requires that " if school personnel perceive

that a child may have a behavioral or psychological problem, a letter shall

be sent to the parent or person having control of the child recommending

that an appropriate medical or behavioral evaluation be conducted by a

licensed physician. "

As Winkler sees it, " We're trying to do what is best for our kids. There are

just too many far-reaching effects of these drugs, and we really need to do

something about them. " When not serving in the General Assembly, Winkler is

an emergency-room nurse and personally has seen consequences of the

increased prescription of psychotropic drugs. " When the kids come into the

emergency room, we have to ask the parents if their children are on any of

these drugs. I've seen more and more kids on them, and it bothers me to no

end. I didn't know what was going on. "

It is estimated that between 6 million and 8 million children have been

prescribed Ritalin to treat the still scientifically unproved " mental

illness " called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This

widespread doping in turn has increased concern that school-age children are

being drugged to control their behavior.

Fred Baughman, a child neurologist, researcher and staunch critic of the

ADHD diagnosis, tells Insight, " It is my duty as a doctor to know whether

patients have a disease and whether previously rendered diagnoses, such as

ADHD, are proven diseases. I have been unable to validate or demonstrate a

disease or objective physical abnormality in children said to have ADHD.

Finding no objective physical abnormality, including a chemical one, means

they have no disease; they are physically, medically and neurologically

normal. "

While Baughman applauds the steps that lawmakers are beginning to take to

rein in prescription of psychotropic drugs to control schoolchildren, he is

not leaving it at that. " It would be a simple affair, " explains Baughman,

" to subpoena and swear in the experts, such as the surgeon general and the

heads of the National Institute of Mental Health and the American

Psychiatric Association, and put the 'disease' versus 'no disease' question

to them regarding ADHD, or any or all of 'biological' psychiatry's alleged

diseases. "

" The question, " concludes Baughman, " is simple: What and where is the

confirming, objective, demonstrable, diagnosable abnormality in ADHD or any

psychiatric disorder? Given that there is no confirmatory, diagnosable,

objective, physical abnormality, individuals said to have it are normal and

cannot legally be put on Schedule II controlled psychostimulants. In fact,

there is no physical or chemical abnormality to be found in life, or at

autopsy, in depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD or any other 'mental

illnesses,' " this neurologist alleges.

Connecticut mother Sheila s stepped into what she called the " ADHD

nightmare " when her first-grade son was put on a " behavioral chart " for

being too verbal and excitedly calling out answers in class. When the child

complained of feeling different because of being cited on the chart,

s took it up with the school. " The next day, " she says, " I went to

the school psychologist to get him off the chart and she spent 45 minutes

trying to convince me that he needed to be on it. In the meantime, the chart

was destroying my son's self-esteem; he felt like he was being singled out ó

that he was a problem. When he started school he was really eager; then he

was put on this chart and he started to hate school. "

s bucked the system, and the boy was given a battery of tests. One of

these was the ADHD Rating Scale-IV, a checklist based on criteria from the

Diagnostic Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association that

is used to diagnose a child as having ADHD. s tells Insight that she

" wasn't aware that the test wasn't approved " by the board of education or

the state and federal governments. Indeed, she explains, " No one was willing

to take responsibility for this test. " But when her son was diagnosed with

ADHD on the basis of the test the school psychologist said the only thing

that would benefit him was " behavioral modification and medication. "

" Parents, " says s, " are being given selective pro-drug material, and

they're not being told about dangerous side effects ó or that the drugs are

addictive. I had to do the research on my own. Basically it was a case of

patient beware, and it shouldn't be that way. When you give a parent

selective research and tell them how great a drug is and tell them their kid

will benefit from it, then you're heading into real danger. No other

industry has total access to our children the way the psychiatric community

does, and I think this new law is just the beginning of changes to come.

Today parents have to be educated consumers, but kids should be off-limits

as targets of convenience for the drug industry. "

s concludes: " I respect President [ W.] Bush, and my message to

him would be that there can be no education reform until you get this

disorder out of the schools. When you have to use mind-altering drugs to

teach in the classroom, then you've gone down a path of no return. I'm

looking for education and I want the mental-health industry out of our

schools. A parent who feels the need to take a child to a psychiatrist can

decide if and when, but it shouldn't come from the school. " The Connecticut

General Assembly is just the most recent in a growing number to agree.

http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200108275.shtml

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