According to concerned parent, Diann Van Deusen, "this and every generation has a hard enough time growing up and finding their way into adulthood without some quack telling them they have a mental disorder when all they have is the normal teenage angst."
"Everybody else went through it too," she notes, "and survived to come out the other end into adulthood."
"But we did have it easier," she points out, "in the sense that we went through it without the added anxiety and confusion of being told that every little behavior we exhibited was in some way abnormal and a sign of a mental disease."
"We weren't put into victim status or mental health patient status and told to take a pill to handle it," she says.
"We were encouraged to do the best we could and handle our problems in a sensible way, governed by our family's value system," Ms Van Deusen notes. "Not by some drug company waiting like a beast to devour us for just being a kid."
TeenScreen's goal is to recruit customers but as part of the overall marketing scheme, Bush recommends that the "Texas Medication Algorithm Project" (TMAP), be used as a model program in all 50 states. In the most simple terms, TMAP is a list of drugs that doctors are required to prescribe when treating persons with specific mental illnesses who receive drugs paid for by government programs such as Medicaid.
The list contains the most high-priced psychotropic drugs on the market, including selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor antidepressants (SSRIs), like Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, and Effexor, and atypical antipsychotics, such as Zyprexa, Risperdal, Geodon, Seroquel, Clozaril, and Abilify.
This component of the scheme was created in Texas, while Bush was governor, in the 1990s, when these new drugs flooded the market, and drug makers realized they had a major problem because there was no way to promote the sale of psychiatric drugs, so they put their heads together and came up with the idea for TMAP.
The development of TMAP, and its guidelines for use, took place in Texas, while Bush was governor, and was funded by all the major drug companies who succeeded in having their drugs chosen to be on the list.
Texans are still paying a heavy price for being the first to allow the list to be used according to child psychologist and author, Dr John Breeding. "We are fighting off a swarm of efforts to codify New Freedom language into Texas law," he says.
"Driven by Big Pharma and psychiatry," he explains, "Texas is a focal point as the Texas Medication Algorithm Project started it all, the same folks were behind the New Freedom Commission, and the end result is more and more folks on drugs."
Psychiatrist, Dr Peter Breggin, a court-qualified medical expert, and author of the books, Talking Back to Prozac and The Anti-Depressant Fact Book, warns of the life-long harm that psychiatric drugs and a label of mentally illness can inflict.
"There is nothing worse that you can do to a human being in America today than give them a mental illness kind of label and tell them they need drugs," Dr Breggin advises.
The SSRIs these people are pushing with TeenScreen have been known to cause users to commit suicide, and they all carry black box warning labels to that affect. Furthermore, they are not even FDA approved for use with children.
A study conducted at the Ottawa Health Research Institute in Canada, published in the February 2005, British Medical Journal, reviewed over 700 clinical trials involving 87,650 patients, and assessed the suicide risks with SSRIs, by counting suicide attempts by patients who were treated with the drugs for conditions other than depression such as panic disorder, bulimia, and sexual dysfunction.
The study determined that even patients who were not depressed to begin with, and were taking SSRIs for other reasons, were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as patients given placebos.
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.
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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, 379 comments)
on Sunday, July 23, 2006 at 6:35:52 PM
