Louis Theroux's BBC2 programme: America's Medicated Kids

I watched Louis Theroux's BBC2 programme about "America's Medicated Kids" on the i-Player last night. You too could watch it here: iplayer: America's Medicated Kids.

I was shocked by it. Shocked at the insouciance with which the parents in the film sought prescription drug solutions to what appeared to be mildly problematic or really pretty normal behaviour in their children. I believe children should be protected from drugs, especially psychotropic drugs. As Professor Eric Wilkes said to me years ago, "The brain is not infinitely elastic." To interfere with the workings of a young child's brain before it has even reached maturity seems to me the height of folly and full of danger.

ADHD is one of a type of illness invented by drug companies in order to sell their drugs to treat the invented illnesses. Two of the drugs mentioned in the programme were Ritalin and Concerta. Neither of these drugs is of benefit to hyperactive children. See Drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta are of no benefit.

On the other hand we constantly hear of food additives causing behaviour problems and hyperactivity in children and, happily, hear also of great improvements in behaviour and attention span when such children change to additive-free and more nutritious food. Protecting children from the physical, mental and spiritual harms that psychiatric drugs cause, and protecting them from entering the dystopian world of psychobabble and self-analysis, and wasting their precious childhood with all this nonsense instead of living the normal, carefree life of a child, is what loving parents should be doing, in my opinion.

Some doctors are making the absurd claim that Ritalin could help with Britain's obesity crisis.

In this Telegraph article we read that doctors are making the absurd claim that Ritalin could help with Britain's obesity crisis. - Ritalin is one of the controversial psychotropic drugs that have harmed so many children unfortunate enough to have had them prescribed as treatment for ADHD, a putative illness used as a 'diagnosis' by some psychiatrists with strong connections with the drug industry and the drug industry's money. See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2008/06/for-years-harvard-child-psychiatrist.html and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2009/03/read-about-senator-chuck-grassley-of.html

The Telegraph article says: "Doctors behind the latest findings claim a chemical imbalance in the brain caused by undiagnosed ADHD prevents severely obese patients from having the willpower to lose weight."

This is a nonsensical, completely false claim. - Obesity is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain; it is caused by fluid retention, in turn caused by sodium retention, frequently itself caused as a side-effect of some other powerful prescription drug! - Obese people have more than enough health problems to cope with, without foolish doctors prescribing them pharmaceutical junk that will harm them further.

Obesity is easily, safely and swiftly reduced by giving up dieting completely, since it is harmful and does not work, and instead concentrating on cutting down on salt/sodium and salty food in order to reduce the fluid retention.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Strattera adverse effects: UK Medicines Agency refuses to act

Janne Larsson, an investigator and reporter in Sweden, has obtained information about adverse event reports on Eli Lilly's ADHD drug Strattera, using the Swedish freedom of information laws. The data, coming from both the FDA's adverse reaction database and from reports to the UK's Medicines agency, shows numerous adverse effects and scores of deaths by suicide. Yet the agency, even after repeated prodding by Larsson to initiate action, has refused to budge or even acknowledge that there is a problem. MHRA apparently accepts the drug's producer Eli Lilly's data rather than its own and the FDA's adverse event reports.
Read article on Sepp Hasslberger's Health Supreme website

FDA Warns Five Drugmakers Over ADHD Ads

Five warning letters were sent by the FDA to different drugmakers for incomplete, false or misleading promotional materials for ADHD meds. Among the ads cited - a YouTube video for Shire Pharmaceutical’s Adderall XR with Ty Pennington that was featured on the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” television show. The charges would appear serious - the FDA says the drugmakers variously omitted material facts; minimized important risks; overstated efficacy or made unsubstantiated claims.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Up to one in 11 children in Britain may suffer from an attention deficit disorder, government advisers will claim this week.

One in 11 children may have ADHD
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"The guidance by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is expected to say that up to 9 per cent of children and 2 per cent of adults fall within broad definitions of ADHD. It will recommend that the stimulant Ritalin be prescribed to all children and adults with a severe form of the condition and to all moderate cases which do not respond to talking therapies or parenting classes.

Prof Philip Asherson, one of the experts who produced the guidance, due out on Wednesday, said they tried to avoid following the model of ADHD care in the United States, where medication is the norm and routinely used to tackle minor behavioural and educational problems.

He said: "We worked very hard to avoid the approach in the US, where one in 10 children are being treated with stimulants. The guidance makes it clear that medication is the right approach in some cases but that it should not be used for everyone and certainly not to tackle minor educational problems."

"Dr Sami Timimi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Lincolnshire, who does not believe ADHD is a valid diagnosis, said Nice had produced no evidence that the condition existed, or that medication worked, despite coming to conclusions supporting its use."

The psychologist Oliver James accused psychiatrists of medicalising a problem that was caused by upbringing. He said: "Psychiatrists invented this category to medicalise when in fact it is a social problem linked to low incomes and parenting difficulties." He said the best approach to children with ADHD-like symptoms was to give them more attention and affection."

"Latest figures show almost 500,000 prescriptions for stimulants for under-16s last year, more than double the 200,000 issued in 2003. The Department of Health said the figures reflected the number of prescriptions, which could include repeat orders for the same child."

I consider it irresponsible, reprehensible, unscientific and downright dangerous to be prescribing psychotropic drugs to children. If indeed it is reasonably considered that intervention is necessary to improve children's behaviour I would favour improving a child's nutrition, especially by the avoidance of fast food, ready meals, salty junk snacks and diet pretend 'food', and also Oliver James's suggestion of more attention and affection. - And I don't mean attention from medics! - Behaviour problems are categorically not caused by the brain being short of Ritalin!

Strattera Adverse Events: Deaths Mount - Will EU Health Authorities Intervene?

Will European Health Authorities act on reports of serious side-effects and deaths connected with the ADHD drug Strattera? Are 95 deaths, 965 reports of suicidal behaviour and some 60,000 reported adverse events enough to take action, asks Swedish researcher Janne Larsson in a letter to the UK's Medicines Agency.
Read article on Sepp Hasslberger's Health Supreme website

Psychotropic drug prescriptions for children who have been labelled as having ADHD have tripled in seven years. - Why is this GP drug-pushing allowed?

Hyperactivity prescriptions triple in seven years

Extract from Telegraph:

"Figures show that GPs wrote nearly 406,000 prescriptions for such drugs last year, compared with 135,000 in 1999. Last night, politicians and children's groups branded the rise "astonishing".

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat children's spokesman, said: "We need a fundamental review of whether we are right to be pouring chemicals into our children in this way. Perhaps we should instead be looking at issues such as food, sleeping patterns, family upheaval, and general environment."

Mr Laws, who obtained the figures in a Parliamentary question, said some families may be pressuring GPs to prescribe drugs to allow them to claim child disability allowances.

Parents who have a child diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are entitled to benefits of up to £10,000 a year. According to the latest figures, more than £17 million was spent last year on drugs to treat ADHD."

In my opinion, there should be a legal ban on prescribing these psychotropic drugs to children. - And rewarding parents whose children take these drugs with £200 a week is criminally insane!!

Drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta are 'of no benefit' to hyperactive children. Big Pharma has conned doctors and the NHS yet again...)o:

Drugs 'of no benefit' to hyperactive children

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Drugs given to thousands of hyperactive children have no long-term benefits and could in fact be stunting their development, a major study has said.

The study of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) found that, while powerful drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta resulted in short-term behavioural improvements, after three years those benefits had disappeared.

Children who took the drugs for the full three years were also found to have stunted growth, according to the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA).

The MTA has followed 600 children in the United States with ADHD since the 1990s and has just published its latest findings. Prof William Pelham, co-author, from the University of Buffalo, said: "They weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and their weight.

"There were no beneficial effects - none. In the short run medication will help the child behave better, in the long run it won't.

"That information should be made very clear to parents.""

I believe children need to be protected from drugs which act on the brain/mind. I believe that optimising their nutrition with good healthy meals low in salt/sodium and avoiding dodgy, unnatural food additives would help children to become more attentive.

More and more children are being harmed by the reckless and ever-increasing prescribing of anti-depressants to children

How do we tackle the rise in the number of children on anti-depressants? - Independent

Personally, I'd make it illegal for doctors to prescribe antidepressants or any other psychotropic junk (like ritalin, say) to children, and impose severe sanctions on any who then issued such prescriptions to children, including having the doctor automatically and permanently barred from dealing with children in any capacity as a doctor.

I don't buy the claim that doctors are merely responding to pressure from parents. - Nonsense! - Too many doctors have become drug-pushers for BigPharma, to the great detriment of the nation's health and happiness.

Research commissioned by MIND, the mental health charity, indicates that a walk in the country is more effective at reducing depression than antidepressants are; their benefit is small if any, their adverse effects are many, and very serious, and very common. - It is a pity they are prescribed at all; and patients are rarely warned about them. - And as you will see in the extract below, the drug companies cannot be trusted to tell the truth about their damaging products, which ruin so many lives.

Extract from the article:

"When Stephen Bailey was eight years old, he was prescribed Librium by his doctor. That was the beginning of a 24-year addiction to mind-altering drugs which, Bailey says, changed the course of his life and saw him descend into a world of fits, screaming and violence whenever he tried to withdraw. A commonly-used tranquilliser, Librium is one of the benzodiazepine family, and was prescribed to calm Bailey after he suffered from migraines and flashing lights in response to a routine set of vaccinations.

"I became absolutely petrified of the world, full of terror, in particular that I would swallow my tongue," says Bailey. "It felt like my mind was controlled by something else and I retreated into my own world. They affected my thinking in every way. I felt like I was chemically lobotomised."

Because of stories such as this, Librium, Valium and other member of the benzodiazepine family, are now not routinely prescribed to children. But that doesn't mean we have stopped medicating our children – far from it. New figures released last month show that in the past decade the number of prescriptions for mind-altering drugs, including anti-depressants such as Prozac, given to children under the age of 16 has more than quadrupled. Last year, there were more than 631,000 cases of drugs such as these given for mental health problems. In the mid 1990s, this figure was 146,000.

This increase is in spite of guidelines from Nice (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) that GPs should offer three months of " talking therapy" before reaching for the prescription pad.

The issue was highlighted by the case of Mollie Murphy, who last year was prescribed a course of anti-depressants at the age of four after she became distraught at being separated from her friends when she failed to get a place at her local school. "We are in danger of not having learnt from the benzodiazepine story," says child psychiatrist Dr Mike Shooter, chairman of the children's mental health charity Young Minds. "People saying we're going through the same cycle with anti-depressants. The prescription rate is rising fast, and it worries me."

According to Dr Shooter, the reasons for the dramatic increase in prescriptions are complex. "One factor is the pharmaceutical companies marketing these drugs as happiness in the form of a pill," he says. " In the process they have concealed the fact that they don't actually bring happiness. There is also controversy at the moment about drug companies concealing lack of effectiveness." Dr Shooter believes that young people are increasingly turning to doctors with problems of life rather than actual depression. "The demand for a diagnosis is great," he says. "The greater the pressure the GP is under, the greater the temptation to reach for the prescription pad."

According to a Unicef report published earlier this year, the UK is now one of the least happy places for a young person to be brought up in the whole of western Europe. "There are more socio-economic problems facing children these days than there have ever been," says Dr Shooter. " I've worked in areas where there's a lot of family breakdown, alcohol abuse, violence and so on. It's pretty desperate, and young people living in these situations can be miserable. Half the kids I saw would satisfy the criteria of ADHD or depression – but they were just reacting behaviourally to the mess they lived in. The answer is not a pill." "