Another irate parent, Shelley Abate, calls TeenScreen an "absolute outrage."
"Who doesn't go through a day on this crazy planet and have some of the same thoughts that these teenagers are being told are mental disorders," she points out.
Carole Osgood, a retired daycare provider of 30 years says TeenScreen, "is the ultimate insult to anyone's intelligence."
"Kids did not suddenly change into a strange breed of humans" she notes, "with tons of mental illness over the last 30 years."
Ms Osgood says "common sense needs to be revived as a guide," and tells parents "if it doesn't make sense to you, do not accept it."
Irate parent, Ron Meyerson, says: "What gets me is that this issue is so blatantly obvious and so overtly Orwellian that the public, the politicians, and the media should be all over this thing."
"The fact that it has any credibility at all," he states, "is a sad testament to just how far this country has sunk."
Experts say there is no evidence to support that TeenScreen does anything other than guarantee that a large number of children will end up on drugs. In May 2004, after an indepth investigation, the United States Preventive Services Task Force issued a report with findings that:
(1) There is no evidence that screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality; (2) There is limited evidence on the accuracy of screening tools to identify suicide risk; and (3) There is insufficient evidence that treatment of those at high risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality.
Two years later, on June 16, 2006, Ned Calonge, the chairman of the Task Force, and the chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, spoke to the Washington Post and said the same findings apply to screening today:
"The panel would reach the same conclusion today... Whether or not we like to admit it, there are no interventions that have no harms... There is weak evidence that screening can distinguish people who will commit suicide from those who will not... And screening inevitably leads to treating some people who do not need it.
"Such interventions have consequences beyond side effects from drugs or other treatments... Unnecessary care drives up the cost of insurance, causing some people to lose coverage altogether."
According to Ken Kramer, who succeeded in leading the crusade to keep TeenScreen out of several school districts in Florida, most people do not realize half of the consequences that come with a diagnosis of a mental illness. For instance, he says many states have laws restricting the purchase of firearms based on an adjudication of mental illnesses and kids labeled mentally ill who are placed on drugs become ineligible to serve in the military.
TeenScreen claims it can diagnose mental disorders in 10 minutes. In March 2004, the program's Executive Director, Laurie Flynn, testified at a Congressional hearing and said 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 drug abuse, and suicidality."
Back in 1999 the US Surgeon General noted why children can not be diagnosed with a mental illness and said: "The normally developing child hardly stays the same long enough to make stable measurements ... the signs and symptoms of mental disorders are often also the characteristics of normal development."
I took zyprexa starting in 1996 the year the FDA approved it, which was ineffective for my condition and gave me diabetes.
Zyprexa is the product name for Olanzapine,it is Lilly's top selling drug.It was approved by the FDA in 1996 ,an 'atypical' antipsychotic a newer class of drugs without the motor side effects of the older Thorazine.Zyprexa has been linked to causing diabetes and pancreatitis.
Zyprexa, which is used for the treatment of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, accounted for 32% of Eli Lilly's $14.6 billion revenue last year.
Did you know that Lilly made nearly $3 billion last year on diabetic meds, Actos,Humulin and Byetta?
Yes! They sell a drug that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place!
I was prescribed Zyprexa from 1996 until 2000.
In early 2000 i was shocked to have an A1C test result of 13.9 (normal is 4-6) I have no history of diabetes in my family.
All the psychiatrist I've interviewed and the information on line presents zyprexa as a worse offender than the other Atypicals such as seroquel.My doctor has stopped prescribing zyprexa altogether.
The PDR classifies zyprexa as 'severe' for causing weight gain and diabetes and seroquel as 'moderate'.
Of course the 50 year old Thorazine didn't cause diabetes and is many times cheaper but it could cause tardive dyskinesia.
Where Eli Lilly's negligence comes in,is their KNOWING and not informing consumers (black box warning) until the FDA demanded it.
Lilly's incentive not to readily disclose is they had billions coming in from state medicaid scripts.
----
Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com
by
Danny Haszard (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 50 comments)
on Friday, July 21, 2006 at 2:48:03 PM
It is sad that there is NO grassroots movement to get these drugs recalled.
Even though Zyprexa's makers claimed zyprexa was superior, and was PROVEN wrong -- and assessed with a 690 million dollar to those who gained weight, got diabetes or pancreatitis, Eli Lilly continues on its merry HUGE profits way.
Some states have passed laws that doctors must show a specific reason for the new atypical antipsychotics to be prescibed - yet the government continues to allow zyprexa to be on the market. There is no proof that the drug makes any difference to achieving health -- or even alleviating symptoms. The toll continues to mount with "side effects" -- and even death -- resulting from taking these so-called medications.
While those prescibed these drugs can use the courts to get minimal satisfaction in financial terms, a movement to recall the drugs requires political ACTION. It must be done with a campaign to alert the FDA and the heads of health committees of each state or province.
My son has been prescribed zyprexa .. and I am an ACTIVIST against these drugs. I have brought it to the attention of medical schools and a provincial hospital facility. This was no easy task. But at least some of the medical professionals and hospital adminstrators are on alert now.
However, the professionals continue in the main to close ranks and protect each other. In the case of Ontario's largest mental hospital, I had to threaten to sue them if they did not see me before the doctor would even meet with me!! Later a consultant was brought in who agreed with me in toto. The doctor was just plain wrong. No questions were asked about my son's family medical history regarding diabetes. No blood sugara level test was administered before dosage was begun. The hospital couldn't even be bothered to read the magazines about the zyprexa lawsuit. (The case is still pending here in Canada.)
Meanwhile, those who have been victimized by taking zyprexa languish in pain without seeing their payout in the US!!
The onset of diabetes and pancreatitis is swift and not many signs show up right away as the pancreas is falling apart. And this leads to death ...
I have fought long and hard to keep my son off perscription drugs. He went through special ed as the ONLY child not on ridilin and other ADD drugs in his classes. These drugs are a set up for lifelong addiction as they get used to having the feeling of "rushing". Now I am told to stay quiet while zyprexa eats away at his body. Not bloody likely. This prescribing of very dangerous drugs affects the families, too!! The anxiety and the price one pays to fight back sometimes seem hardly worth the effort it takes.
Drug professionals in addiction centres do not have the education to fight these prescription drug dependencies and addictions. Plus most addiction centres are for PROFIT. Their boards of directors are driven by the need for PROFIT. So don't count on them for ADVOCACY for those damaged by ridiculous labels or whose bodies give out. Since the government and corporations are refusing to deal with this severe societal problem, we are all going to have to do our job to fight the trend to "somatize" everyone.
What is particularly abhorrant is the need to give these drugs to youth who cannot advocate for themselves.
I post Evelyn's articles and everything I can find related to this issue on my blog. It's become a "mission" for me. I called up every lawyer involved in the zyprexa lawsuit I could find .. and got told by them all .. they cannot get this drug (and others like it) recalled. WE MUST DO THAT.
Please, if you have five minutes write a letter to someone involved in this issue .. like the FDA or your state's health authority. Let them know, we are onto this sick, sick overdispensing racket and that it's time for these drugs to be RECALLED.
If the drug companies (and there are precious few of those) don't make the billions per year off these drugs, they might actually do the research to find compounds that don't damage the human body!! They might invest in real therapy for damaged children. In a six month hospital stay for paranoid schizophrenia, my son saw his psychiatrist a grand total of none for therapy -- his only visits with his psychiatrist were directly related to re-prescribing. They had him on 3 antipsychotics in 9 weeks!!Yet it was costing the Province over $1,000 a day for his bed. He left with no discharge plan, no real psychiatric testing (he also has post traumatic stress disorder) and no help with his drug problem. What are the taxpayers getting for their money for these treatments? Nothing at all.
The NYT's continues to post articles about diabetes among mentally ill populations, but says nothing about the direct connection to antipsychotics -- or that the medications to treat it are made by the same drug companies. They give no hint on how to fight back. They instead demonize the victims of a huge conspiracy, as if they were to blame for their poor health care and their feelings of being defeated.
It is a welcome relief to see the TRUTH printed here and in the other venues that publish Evelyn's fine work.
by
ladybroadoak (37 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 390 comments)
on Sunday, July 23, 2006 at 6:35:52 PM
