Have The American Academy of Pediatrics Gone Stark Raving Bonkers?

Image: seattleweekly.com

With so many people fast becoming aware about the dangers of prescribing children psychiatric drugs one is bound to face opposition, you know, those that say, "but children need these drugs, ADHD is a mental disorder", and all that other psycho-babble clap-trap.

Please give it up for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

[Insert golf like applause here]

Yes folks, they have damned everyone and are pushing ahead with utter lunacy by claiming that Primary care physicians should begin evaluating children for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age 4 and continue through age 18.

[Insert laughter here]


The new guideline, from the wacky mob of the AAP, will appear in next month's issue of Pediatrics, so everyone who reads it can be duped by the following:

1. Primary care physicians should initiate an ADHD evaluation for any child 4 through 18 who has school or behavioral problems and symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity.

2. As a prerequisite for diagnosis of ADHD, a patient's symptoms and behavior must meet the criteria set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Physicians should rely primarily on information from parents, guardians, school, and mental health specialists involved in the child's care. Additionally, physicians should rule out any alternative causes for the child's behavior and symptoms.

3. The clinical evaluation should include assessment of conditions that might coexist with ADHD, including emotional or behavioral, developmental, and physical conditions.

4. ADHD should be viewed as a chronic condition and patients with the condition should be considered special needs children and adolescents.

5. The approach to treatment of ADHD varies according to patient age. For preschool-age children, behavioral interventions should be considered first-line therapy. If resources to provide such interventions are not available, the physician should carefully weigh the risks of drug therapy at an early age with those associated with delayed diagnosis and treatment. For children 6 to 11, the AAP recommends combination treatment with medication and behavioral therapy if feasible. Evidence for use of stimulants in this age group is particularly strong. Older children should begin treatment with medication, and physicians might also prescribe behavioral therapy, although the evidence in this age group is not as strong as in the younger patients.

6. Medication for ADHD should be titrated so as to achieve maximum benefit with a minimum of adverse events.

Gone are the days when it was justifiable to fall asleep in the back of the classroom without waking up and finding a nurse standing there with a cup of water in one hand and a bottle of pills in the other.

Back in my day, it was far more less of a crime to fall asleep or to drop a pencil, fart, belch or stare out of the window. I was either given detention or 2 or 3 strokes of the cane [God bless those Catholic schools]

To be honest, six of the best is far more appealing than a childhood on mind altering drugs that would make one appear as if they had just been to an all night rave and popped numerous ecstasy tabs.

It makes me wonder if those at The American Academy of Pediatrics actually bark at the moon and still believe that people who are left-handed are evil.

I'm thinking of billing the The American Academy of Pediatrics for a new pair of underpants. Their six-point guidelines have just had me in a complete state of apoplexy, so much so that I have pissed myself laughing.

Full story HERE

Fid

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Patrick McGorry: "Hey... Paddy... Leave Those Kids Alone"

"We don't need no education,
We don't need no thought control."
Pink Floyd - Another brick in the wall.


Former Australian of the year Patrick "DeLorean" McGorry has come back in time - to next week as it happens.

While he's speaking at the American Psychiatric Association annual conference blowing smoke about early psychosis, his British cohort British psychiatrist, Prof. Robin "Marty McFly" Murray, will be attending an "Infant Mental Health" Conference in Perth, W. Australia.

The infant mental health conference is part of the World Infant Mental Health Association whereby guest speakers talk about psychosis and things like cannabis increasing the risk of schizophrenia.

Murray and McGorry were co-authors of a psychosis study published last month. They claimed there are "brain structural abnormalities" in schizophrenics! They studied 102 people "at high risk of developing schizophrenia" (The DeLorean theory again) who were from the Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation Clinic [PACEC] in Melbourne, Australia. The clinic is operated from the Orygen Youth mental health centre... which just happens to be run by McGorry, in fact he is the Director of the centre.

Murray [Marty McFly] has received honorariums for speaking at meetings organised by most major producers of antipsychotic drugs, and his research group has received funding from Eli Lilly and Astra Zeneca.

So, what is the infant mental health conference all about? Well, according to the conference organizers, Sapmea, it's this:

The theme of the conference ‘Growing up solid: Integrating emotional and mental health throughout infancy, childhood and adolescence’ has never been more relevant. Mental health disorders cause the highest burden of disease in the 0-18 years age group, yet services to this group remain underfunded, fractured and piecemeal. The AAIMHI and RANZCP Faculty of Child Psychiatry are delighted to host a joint conference, reflecting our commitment to the integration of understanding and treatment of mental illness from infancy to adulthood.

This event is being promoted with artwork of the aboriginal type, it depicts a baby dreaming. Nice touch you guys.

The conference program sees an array of sessions that will take place, they range from eating disorders in infancy to Cannabis and Schizophrenia and management of psychosis. The AAIMHI & FCAP Conference – Preliminary Program can be downloaded HERE.

I've written about Paddy 'DeLorean' McGorry and his early intervention program numerous times on this blog, a program that he wants to go global. So, why is a British Professor [Sir Robin Murray] attending the event? Well he is a firm believer that cannabis can cause the onset of schizophrenia:

"It is one of ten prospective studies all pointing in this same direction. In short, it adds a further brick to the wall of evidence showing that use of traditional cannabis is a contributory cause of psychoses like schizophrenia."

[SOURCE]

So, why attend an event in Western Australia? Well, the event, it could be said, is going to target the indigenous population, known to enjoy a reefer or two. Hey, first let's rape their land, second we will tell them that what they have been doing for thousands of years can give them a mental disorder!

I am particularly stupefied with the following quote from Murray, taken from the BBC news on April 30 2007. Here he was speaking of cannabis use:

"Proving a long-term effect was extremely difficult, as it was not ethical or feasible to stimulate long-term psychosis in volunteers. If something has an active effect in inducing the symptoms of psychosis after one dose, then it would not be at all surprising if repeated use induced the chronic condition."

"HELLO, MCFLY... ANYBODY AT HOME?"

So, cannabis can cause psychosis but don't worry it can be treated with anti-psychotic medication - no problem with meds of that nature causing psychosis, right?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of cannabis, the UK has a huge problem, many teenagers can't seem to get enough of the bud and regular morning trips on public transport sees school kids puffing away whilst talking like a gangster from a hip hop music video...and that's just the white British kids!

You cannot treat one brain fuck up chemical with another brain fuck up chemical. Hey, let's treat alcoholism with...ummmm... alcohol, while we're at it.

PATIENT: "Doctor, I am drinking a bottle of Vodka a night"

DOCTOR: "Here, take this" [Doctor hands patient bottle of Whiskey]

Yes, there is a huge cannabis problem here in Blighty but there is an even bigger problem in binge drinking and sniffing of powder [of the white variety] We also have a problem much bigger than booze and cocaine, we have doctors prescribing brain altering chemicals to children, a regulator [MHRA] who bury their heads in the sand citing "We told doctor's it's not recommended for children." Oh, thank you MHRA, thank you so much for sending out letters. You really do care doncha!

As comedian Chris Rock once said, the government don't want you to take YOUR drugs, they want you to take THEIR drugs.

So, while editor in chief of The official journal of the International Early Psychosis Association (IEPA) [Patrick McGorry] is giving it some in the US at the American Psychiatric Association annual conference, Prof Robin Murray, who just happens to be on the editorial board of the "official journal of IEPA", will be 'giving it large' in Perth from May 12 to 14th 2011.

These people see a social problem and they pounce on it. Before you know it there will be drugs given to football hooligans or people who express their freedom by protesting.

McGorry was voted Australian of the year in 2010.

Murray was knighted in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to medicine.

Thank you Maam.

Fid


Jimmy Barnes - We Could Be Gone (F and W)


You and me are from different tribes
Never learned to talk, so we learned to fight
Communication like water spilled
What we can't take in was lost or killed

We learned to live where we bore each child
Every step we took lost another mile
Came the day we were face to face
Didn't understand so our instincts raced

If we don't get together at all, we lose it
Get to the table and talk, we'll choose it
Forget what's been said before, confusing
Out of the heart of it all our future's born
If we don't look inside our souls, we could be gone

Forty thousand years underneath your belt
Now you have to pray where the white man knelt
You've been ridiculed because of what you felt
Tried to crucify you, but you fought like hell

The dreams that lead your every move
Full of stories you could never prove
If god is part of the written word
There are stories that your god ain't heard

If we don't get together at all, we lose it
Get to the table and talk, we'll choose it
Forget what's been said before, confusing
Out of the heart of it all our future's born
If we don't look inside our souls, we could be gone

J.Barnes/J.Neill/T.Brock

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Patrick McGorry - Torn Asunder Down Under

Is time catching up with Australian psychiatrist Patrick McGorry?

Talk about timing. No sooner had I blogged about Australian psychiatrist Patrick "DeLorean" McGorry, another gem of an article pops up on the Internet.

Meet Martin Whitely, a former school teacher turned politician, who, it seems, is not quite happy with the way Patrick McGorry seems to be running the whole mental health system in Australia.

Whitely, unlike Halifax, Nova Scotia politician Stan Kutcher, is opposed to McGorry's early intervention program and pre-drugging children so this blog post is not about another politician in cahoots with McGorry, in fact it's quite the opposite.

Whitely is the author of, 'Speed Up and Sit Still', a book that challenges the science, marketing and politics of Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. [ADHD] He first became concerned about ADHD child drugging in the mid 1990s. His job back then as a teacher gave him the opportunity to witness the alarming number of boys in his class who were medicated for ADHD but were unnaturally quiet and compliant.

His campaigning started before he became a politician and more recently he has been questioning the ethics of former Australian of the year Patrick McGorry.

On May 4 Whitely posed the question on his website, "Is Patrick McGorry’s and the Independent Mental Health Reform Group’s $3.5b blueprint for Australian mental health the way forward, or a prescription for more ‘psychiatric disorders’, ‘off label’ prescribing and youth suicide?"

The article was sent to McGorry for his response, that response is now up on Whitely's page. It's interesting reading, particularly as McGorry has failed to answer some important questions put to him by Whitely.

In McGorry we have a believer in pre-drugging children before they fall ill, that's pretty much the nuts & bolts of it. The Aussie government are, it appears, in agreement with McGorry's time travelling program and earlier this month McGorry's HEADSPACE was given a pledge of $3AUS MILLION from the Australian government. The money will go toward 10 new sites for the Headspace youth mental health service, each receiving $AUS 300,00.

This is practically peanuts compared to what McGorry has asked for.

In December 2010 Australian Minister for Mental Health, Mark Butler, appointed Professors McGorry and Hickie as members of a Mental Health Expert Working Group. Shortly after being appointed McGorry and co established the Independent Mental Health Reform Group. Last month [March 2011] the same Independent Mental Health Reform Group released its blueprint for mental health.

The figure? A staggering $3.5 Billion Australian dollars!

With this in mind, Whitely posed some questions for McGorry to answer. To be honest I was surprised that McGorry even responded but fair dinkum, he did.

Whitely's questions, McGorry's right of reply and Whitely's last word can be read here. The correspondence is long so grab yourself a cup of tea, sit comfortable and don't touch that flux capacitor!

On a footnote, Whitely's article coincides with a paper published in the British Medical Journal [BMJ] yesterday. The author, Ray Moynihan, writes about the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM], in particular its conflict of interests and the way it defines "disease." You can read it here.

It's a cracking read and both Whitely's and Moynihan's work marry well. You should read them both.

For a concise background on Patrick McGorry read the following articles from CCHR:

The Brave New World of Pre-Drugging Kids: Patrick McGorry & Psychosis Risk Syndrome

Australian Psychiatrist Patrick McGorry Wants His Pre-Drugging Agenda to Go Global

If that isn't enough for you to digest, you can read this, "Psychiatrist Patrick McGorry Slams His Critics [Diddums]" - written by yours truly.

Fid






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'THE EVIDENCE, HOWEVER, IS CLEAR...THE SEROXAT SCANDAL' By Bob Fiddaman
US & CANADA HERE OR UK FROM CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING

AUSTRALIAN ORDERS HERE