
I see stats like this and my stomach turns.
The New York Times Reported here that children being diagnosed with Bi-Polar disorder has sky rocketed since 1994. Of course the cover story is that they say experts are more aggressively applying the diagnosis to children, and not that the incidence of the disorder has increased.
Well excuse me for not believing you, that’s the same line they feed us about the rise in autism.
But once they get a diagnosis they treat these kids with
powerful psychiatric drugs that have few proven benefits in children and potentially serious side effects like rapid weight gain. -New York Times // September 4, 2007
Treatments typically include medications that can be three to five times more expensive than those for other disorders like depression or anxiety. Which if you recall that was all the rave in the 80′s and early 90′s.
Treatments almost always included medication. About half received antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal from Janssen or Seroquel from Astrazeneca, both developed to treat schizophrenia.
I find it hard not to feel like the drug companies are just trying to maximize their profits and the only way to do that is to get more customers fixed on more expensive drugs. So they constantly have to get a younger and younger customer base. Treating 5 and 6 year olds for Bi-Polar seems very extreme to me.
And heres a little about about Risperdal, the only FDA approved medication for pediatric bipolar disorder. From their own website.
- Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) is a serious, sometimes permanent side effect reported with RISPERDAL and similar medications. TD includes uncontrollable movements of the face, tongue, and other parts of the body. The risk of developing TD and the chance that it will become permanent is thought to increase with the length of therapy and the overall dose taken by the patient. This condition can develop after a brief period of therapy at low doses, although this is much less common. There is no known treatment for TD, but it may go away partially or completely if therapy is stopped.
- High blood sugar and diabetes have been reported with RISPERDAL and similar medications.
And From Drugs.com
- It works by changing the effects of chemicals in the brain.
- Risperdal can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions.Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake
Heres the worst part about all of this
The New York Times then published This on June 8, 2008. A highly-influential researcher at Harvard University, Dr. Biederman spearheaded a 4000% increase in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder from 1994 to 2003. The only problem is he was being paid by the drug companies and never felt the need to report it. In doing so he has violated Federal Law that was put in place to protect “conflict of interest”.
It makes me sick, we are drugging our kids to death, and this guy is becoming a millionaire!!! These kids are taking drugs they don’t need, and it turns around to cause more problems. Like taking the Risperdal that causes high blood sugar, so now pediatric diabetes is going to be their next problem.