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CCHR Responds to White House Recognition: 'NIMH Shouldn't Fund Morally Reprehensible Toddler Drug Pushing'

LOS ANGELES: The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) applauds the long overdue recognition by the White House that the legal drugging of pre-schoolers and school-age children has reached a crisis situation. "This is something that CCHR has been demanding an investigation into for years. However, for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to now indulge psychiatry with another $6 million over the next 5 years to study whether Ritalin is safe and effective in treatment of pre-schoolers is morally reprehensible. To allow hundreds of children to be Ritalin guinea pigs borders on criminal neglect," Ms. Jan Eastgate, International President of CCHR stated.

Three weeks ago CCHR predicted in its Website that following the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) study finding that soaring numbers of toddlers are being doped with psychiatric drugs, psychiatrists would demand more research funds to test their drugs on babies and toddlers in an effort to prove drug "safety and efficacy." This is exactly what has occurred. Eastgate added, "While we welcome the government's concern, the White House shouldn't allow NIMH to fund psychiatrists to solve the problem of toddler drugging when psychiatry's stigmatizing diagnoses and drugs created the problem in the first place.

"Psychiatrists notoriously do not test for underlying physical problems or allergies which may be causing or manifesting as a 'psychiatric' symptom, especially 'hyperactivity.' The $6 million NIMH plans to spend on more biased drug research would be better spent on full allergy and diagnostic testing which could literally save the lives of at least 5,000 children from a life of debilitating psychiatric drugs," Eastgate stated.

For years NIMH has been researching the so-called efficacy of Ritalin. Between 1990 and 1996, it awarded $21,101,752 in grants for studies involving psychostimulants, antidepressants, amphetamines and other drugs for children. In 1996, it provided $402,583 to a New York State Psychiatric Institute researcher for a post-mortem study of 400 "unexplained deaths" among children and adolescents (ages 7 through 19) to determine the relationship between sudden death in children and adolescents and the use of tricyclic antidepressants, or the use of Ritalin and clonidine together.

Between 1995 and 1996, $7,558,091 was awarded to key Ritalin researchers to study a "Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)," which was to screen 2,800 children in 6 different cities across the U.S. One researcher stated that "no (treatment) intervention has documented long-term effectiveness. As a result, there is no clear answer to the question, 'What constitutes the best treatment for ADHD?'" (This referred to psychostimulant medication, behavior modification and combined pharmacologic and behavioral treatments.)

In 1998, a National Institutes of Health "Consensus Conference on the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD" concluded: "We don't have an independent, valid test for ADHD; there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction... and finally, after years of clinical research and experience with ADHD, our knowledge about the cause or causes of ADHD remains speculative."

Yet despite no scientific proof, more than 4 million American children are stigmatized with this fraudulent label. And it's about to get worse. America already has the dubious distinction of consuming 90% of the world's Ritalin market, which for years has drawn damning criticism from the International Narcotics Control Board. The White House's ill-advised response to toddler drug abuse will merely open the door for more stigmatizing labels, more mis-diagnosis by psychiatrists and more production of Ritalin and other debilitating psychiatric drugs.

CCHR has waged a vigilant campaign also exposing how psychiatric drugs have caused a wave of school-yard violence. "Psychiatry's drugs create killer kids," Eastgate states. "Since 1997 alone, there have been 10 highly publicized killings or attempted murders by teenagers taking psychiatric drugs, resulting in 55 wounded and 25 dead. The drugs involved can cause violent and suicidal reactions."

Concerned, yet uninformed, government officials have unwittingly contributed to the nation's drug abuse and violence by passing legislation, mental health parity laws and offering financial incentives to schools and parents for children to be diagnosed with ADHD or learning disorders. These have given license to an already profit-driven mental health industry.

"With this latest government effort, we can expect an upsurge in the numbers of children being labeled and drugged, adding to the crippling abuse of youngsters across the nation," Eastgate stated.

CCHR was established by the Church of Scientology and has been investigating child abuse in the psychiatric industry since 1969.


Published: March 21, 2000
Author: Marla Filidei

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