Posts Tagged ‘ psychiatric drugs ’

Generation of Kids Hooked on Psych Drugs

June 23rd, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

Campbell Brown anchors a daily prime-time news program on CNN. On June 17, 2009, in a segment of the program called the “Great Debate,” the question was, Ritalin, Prozac, Adderall, are we “pushing pills on our kids and raising a generation hooked on meds.”

Featured in the debate were, Kelly O’Meara, author of the book, “Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills that Kill,” and Dr Charles Sophy, a psychiatrist in private practice in Los Angeles, who serves as medical director of the LA County Department of Children and Family Services. They were each given 30 seconds for an opening statement.

“It’s a two-part problem,” O’Meara explained.

“It’s the diagnosis itself that’s not based in science or medicine,” she pointed out. “There is no objective test that you can give children or adults to prove that you actually have some sort of psychiatric abnormality.”

“And the second part, of course, is the drugging,” she said, “the prescription drugs that are doled out to treat these so-called disorders.”

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Tags: psychiatric drugs
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Throwing Billions Down a Psych Drug Rat Hole

May 18th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

From 1996 to 2006, prescriptions for psychiatric drugs increased by 73% among adults and 50% with children in the US, according to a new study in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal “Health Affairs.”

Another study in the same issue, found spending for mental health care grew more than 30% over the same 10-year period, with almost all of the increase due to psychiatric drug costs.

On April 22, 2009, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, reported that in 2006, more money was spent on treating mental disorders in children aged 0 to 17 than for any other medical condition, with a total of $8.9 billion.

By comparison, the cost of treating trauma-related disorders, including fractures, sprains, burns, and other physical injuries from accidents or violence was only $6.1 billion.

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Tags: Prozac, psychiatric drugs, suicide
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