Letter To The Editor In Fort Madison, Iowa

Daily Democrat

Fort Madison, Iowa

November 10, 2006

Parents need to check out this TeenScreen program

To the parents of students at Ft. Madison & Central Lee Schools:

I discovered recently that both of these schools participate in the TeenScreen program. It's a psychological evaluation given to middle school and high school students. Central Lee sends home a permission slip, but the permission slip gives the parent no idea of the content of the test or the repercussions. Below is an idea of some of the questions on the test.

Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you just weren't interested in anything?

Has there been a time when you felt you couldn't do anything well or that you weren't as good-looking or as smart as other people?

How often did your parents get annoyed or upset with you because of the way you were feeling or acting?

Have you often felt very nervous when you've had to do things in front of people?

Have you often worried a lot before you were going to play a sport or game or do some other activity?

Have you tried to kill yourself in the last year?

Are you still thinking of killing yourself?

Have you thought seriously about killing yourself?

I can't imagine any normal teenager that hasn't experienced the first five of these questions. This test is billed as a suicide prevention test. However, it goes much further than that. From the results of this test students are labeled with:

Social Phobia

Panic Disorder

Anxiety

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Active Suicide Ideation

Passive Suicide Ideation

Along with these so-called disorders goes the desire to put the teen on psychotropic drugs. According to the web sites I checked there is a 84-94% misdiagnosis rate with this test. I suggest all parents go to Google and type in ‘Teen Screen' and read through the various web sites. By typing in this web site, you can read the test in its entirety: http://www.psychsearch.net/teenscreen_lawsuit/31_4.pdf As you can see, you have to have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this site. If I had known what was in these tests I would never have allowed my children to take them.

I am blessed with children who have a lot of common sense and a healthy sense of self-esteem. My daughter said a teacher stopped her in the hall and wanted to discuss the results of her test. My daughter told her the test was stupid and she wasn't interested in discussing it: end of discussion. Her comment to me was that “the guy who designed this test must have been high.” My son said the test was ridiculously long and he didn't read it, just randomly answered the questions. His was kicked out by the computer as unreliable. He was quite pleased with himself.

In the interests of your children, please check it out.

Jeannie Hetzer

Ft. Madison

Mom Wallops Teenscreen Right Between The Eyes

Now Playing: Teresa Rhoades, a mother from Indiana, wallops TeenScreen right between the eyes. Teresa and her husband, Michael, sued in federal court because their daughter Chelsea was screened by TeenScreen and diagnosed with two mental disorders - all without her parent's knowledge.

You can see the video here: www.psychsearch.net/teenscreen.html

We should give thanks to Teresa and others like her who have stood up against TeenScreen from the start - initially as lone voices that have grown into a giant rebellious chorus!

Teresa has one Thanksgiving request to ask of you:

From: IndianaPatMom@comcast.net
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 11:31 AM
To: IndianaPatMom@comcast.net
Subject: Thanksgiving Request

Dear Friends,

While you're visiting friends and family Thursday, please sit everyone down at a computer and show them the online TeenScreen petition and have them sign it and forward it to everyone they know: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html The only way to win this war is to inform enough people fast enough. Please do this as you are giving thank s for your freedom, your family, your friends but remember the children need us to stand up and protect their rights.

Please do this before you eat all the turkey and take a nap!

With much love,

Teresa Rhoades

Indiana Parents Against TeenScreen Mom

Indiana Politician on TeenScreen

Check out the video here. Just click on start to hear Eric Miller, the founder of Advance America, the largest pro-family organization in Indiana, talk about why we need to deep six TeenScreen.

Texas Hate-Crimer Was On Xanax

Texas teenager David Henry Tuck was sentenced to life in prison after an assault on a Hispanic teenager during which he sodomized the boy with an umbrella, yelling "White Power". The event occurred at a drug party where the main course included Xanax, a Prozac-style "anti-depression" drug.

Tuck has a history of this kind of behavior and was considered by the judge to be beyond rehabilitation. That's fine, but what about the Xanax? We've seen WAY too many violent crimes under the influence of this family of drugs to simply dismiss it. Would he have gone so crazy without the drug? His home town of Houston is where the mother drowned her four kids in a bathtub while she was on Prozac.

These drugs kill and should be outlawed.

Read the story at this link.

TeenScreen Hit Again

Enraged parents' groups around the country are continuing to explode in the face of the TeenScreen program. Seen as an attempt to hijack the school system as a feeder source for down-trending psychiatric funding and drug sales, TeenScreen is a sham program that asks a few questions of school children, then on the basis of these few answers pretends to predict whether these children are prone to suicide or exhibiting other signs of psychosis.

The answers to inane questions like, "Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you just weren't interested in anything?" and "Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you just weren't interested in anything?" children are being hung with psychiatric labels and encouraged or even coerced into taking drugs.

The latest shot across the bow is in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In an article in the Kenosha News (requires subscription) reporter Chris Barncard describes the outraged reaction of the Kenosha Parents Union which has "spoken out against school boundary changes and Columbia University TeenScreen, a suicide risk screening program being considered for Unified eighth-graders."

This is a reaction that is occuring across the United States, as TeenScreen continues to try to circumvent federal law that requires parental permission for children to participate in the program. TeenScreen spokesmen complain that requests for permission from parents have a low return rate, so they try to use "opt out" forms or give prizes to students who can bring back a signed form. But trickery like this only outrages parents' groups more. It's hard to tell Big Pharma and the psychiatry industry they have to go away, but they do. They have no place nosing around our children in the school system.

Looks Like TeenScreen's Out In Kenosha

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, the school board took a look at Teenscreen and isn't buying it. Citing the fact that it is funded by big pharmaceutical companies that benefit from the sharp increase of kids on psychiatric drugs. Another factor is the ridiculous idea that answering a few questions can tell you a kid is "suicidal". Especially since it identifies a large percentage of the people who answer the quiz as suicidal -- a much larger percentage than actually commit suicide or even try.

Read this story. It's "fair and balanced", quotes people who are in favor of the program, but points up the objections and concludes it's never going to happen.

Why Ritalin is a Scam

Now, how are you going to tell your kid not to take a class 2 drug from his friends when you are giving a class 2 drug made out of the same things to his kid sister? If you don’t make sense to your kids they’re not going to listen. Your kids have also checked out the web to see who is paying the school districts to put kids on drugs. In 1985 Congress passed the Individual Development Education Assistance Act (I.D.E.A.), giving funds in the billions to subsidize schools with kids who have learning disabilities.

Here’s the way it works: the US Government will give up to $450 and the state will give up to $160 to a school for each student who is labeled with a learning disability. Let’s do some math. At my old high school we had 2000 kids. The school figures about 10% have ADD, which is about 200 kids. You multiply 200 x $600 and that school gets over $120,000 per year for putting kids on drugs that are in the same FDA schedule classification as cocaine. Now how are you going to tell them not to take drugs?

-From an article by Steve Plog of the Results Project

Ritalin stunts growth of preschoolers; 40 percent develop side effects

A newstarget.com article cites a 70-week government study published in the November edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which states that stunted growth and other side effects can follow treatment with Ritalin.

"The side effects reported on Ritalin's label include stomachaches, headaches and hallucinations, but reports have suggested it also causes more severe reactions such as liver problems and even death," says the article.

Children given the drugs grew about a half inch less than expected during the period of the study, and gained about 2 lbs. less than expected.

Another side effect? Aberrated behavior. "Some children even reacted with severe behaviors including hanging from ceiling fans and playing with fire," says the study.

How long before everyone realizes the emperor has no clothes?

Mental Health "200 to 300 years behind other branches of medicine"

A recent article in the NY Times illustrates the confusion in mental health. A Duke University professor of psychiatry says, "...the system of diagnosis is still 200 to 300 years behind other branches of medicine".

The article appears to be written by someone who is not really anti-psychiatry, but who is trying to make sense of the field. The result is journalistic anguish. One wants to take the writer by the shoulders, shake him and say, "Open your eyes! The field is completely destructive and insane!"

Psychiatry and psychology have been so ineffective for so long that people in the field have "adjusted" to it (to use their own term) and like the murderer who laughingly confesses to his crimes, they now freely admit their impotence, not realizing that such admissions are tantamount to a confession of guilt, in a field where innocence was lost long ago. If a family can find some combination of treatments that help a child improve, “then the diagnosis may not matter much at all," says one psychiatrist, apparently blind to the real implication of such a statement.

The article also exposes the lack of technology in the field, anecdotally relating the story of a family who tried to solve their child's so-called "mental problem" by going from psych to psych and getting different diagnoses and different treatments each time. Psychiatric terms like "ADHD" and "bipolar" are bandied about as if they meant something specific, but the article admits "Children can develop so fast that what looks like attention deficit disorder in the fall may look like anxiety or nothing at all in the summer."

Read the article at this link.

Psychsearch.net/Teenscreen

We've often recommended the Psychsearch.net site, but if you haven't been there recently, check it out again -- especially the Teenscreen page. It's hard to find another central repository of data that more exhaustively and accurately chronicles the ongoing fight against psychiatry as it tries to create a Big Brother atmosphere that is above the law.

In this world where a man can go to prison without committing a crime, and without a trial, ONLY because some "expert" can get a judge to agree that the man is insane, it is important to follow the progress of this fight and keep informed.

Read the quotes from newspapers in the right-hand column on the Teenscreen page.

Ritalin is Poison

"What’s wrong with the children? Basically the children have started to show signs of insanity because the system that is raising them is nuts," says Tom DeWeese. He then proceeds to surgically take apart the current system of diagnosing "ADHD" then prescribing drugs as a solution.

"Schools need answers. Parents need answers. Psychologists need to prove their credentials. So, in the dark, blind as bats, action has been taken." DeWeese discusses the origin of so-called "ADHD" and the way it came out of nowhere to create a multi-billion dollar industry for Big Pharma.

DeWeese says it like it is: "To date, there has never been issued a single peer-reviewed scientific paper officially claiming to prove ADD/ADHD exists. Nor has there ever been a single bit of physical evidence to confirm the disease exists. So-called experts on the subject have refused to answer the simple question, “is ADD/ADHD a real disease?” Medical researchers charge that ADHD does not meet the medical definition of a disease or syndrome or anything organic or biologic."

But delighted with the sales of Ritalin and other drugs, Big Pharma has been laying awake night trying to figure out ways to justify the existence of ADHD and pushing their poisons.

Read the entire article here.

Tell Them The Truth

This great article is from the L.A. Times. Read it in its entirety here. The Times requires a log-in but you can get one for free and it's easy to do.

Truth is, it's best if they know

Depression is less likely in children who are hip to what peers think of them -- good or bad.

By Melissa Healy, Times Staff Writer

Some politicians, public health officials, mental health activists and pharmaceutical companies have worked to establish mental-health screening programs in schools and the community. Those initiatives, including a model program designed at Columbia University called TeenScreen, aim to steer kids who are more likely to develop depression toward help before their emotional difficulties lead them to risky behaviors, academic failure or suicide attempts. In recent years, six states — Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Iowa and New Mexico — have moved to adopt programs that screen schoolchildren for warning signs of mental illness, including depression. Elsewhere, individual school districts have followed suit.

Those efforts have proven controversial. Many parents fear their children will be labeled as mentally ill and marked for special attention because they have expressed sentiments typical of adolescents. Others caution that there are few services and scant psychiatric help available for the millions of children that could be identified. And many suspect such screens are drug company-sponsored efforts to build the market for antidepressants.

Researchers and clinicians, meanwhile, say they are far from having developed accurate predictors of a child developing depression. The younger the child, the murkier the crystal ball.

An Editorial Re Teenscreen From Indiana

The Indiana legislature passed a draconian (severe) law requiring screening of all children from birth to 22 years of age for mental health. Now that this has occurred many legislators are on the warpath. It appears that many of them didn't really read the small print and now see the law as an attack on children. The developments are going to be interesting. Is it any coincidence this law was passed in the home state of Eli Lilly, one of the largest Big Pharma drug companies in the world, and the maker of Prozac?

Here is the content of an editorial in the Fort Wayne Daily News:

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Our View

Yet another study warns of risks of behavior drugs

The first long-term government study on Ritalin and its effect on preschoolers shows that preschoolers are more likely than older children to develop side effects.

The soaring number of preschoolers with severe behaviors being given psychiatric drugs prompted the research.

The study in the November edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry said the benefits of low-dose treatment for preschoolers outweigh the risks.

However, about 40 percent of the preschoolers developed side effects such as irritability, weight loss, insomnia and slowed growth.

We believe there needs to be more research to see if there are links between pollutants, diet and troubled home environments and the surge in childhood depression and behavior problems.

Our children deserve to grow up - if at all possible - without the possible side-effects of short-term and long-term psychiatric drug use. A “drugged up” generation is more likely to end up in a lifelong cycle of prescription drug taking.

We need more information about why attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) seems to be spiraling and how best to meet children's physical and emotional needs.

That about spells it out, doesn't it?

Foster Kids In Chemical Straitjackets

Historically, the handling of underprivileged children, such as orphans and foster children who have been taken away from their natural parents for some reason, has been abysmal. But today people point to the fact that we feed them and clothe them and house them and no longer force them to work long hours for no pay in factories, and say that we now treat them humanely. Think again.

Read this story from CBS on the use of drugs as a control mechanism for foster kids. The bottom line is that if you are taken away from your parents you're destined to be forced to take heavy mind-altering psychiatric drugs on a daily basis. There's just no alternative. You don't get to say, "No today thank you, I feel fine." If I were in that position, I think I might prefer the 12-hour per day job on the factory assembly line, a bowl of gruel for supper, and a clear head. It is criminal to use these drugs as a form of chemical incarceration.

A Rush To Medicate Young Minds

A psychiatrist speaks on the subject of using medication as a solution to supposed "mental illnesses" such as ADHD, bi-polar, etc., with the result of doing serious damage, sometimes even causing death to the patient. This is an illuminating article. Read the original by clicking here.

More and more, concerned and ethical people in the psychiatry and psychology communities are coming forward in objection to Big Pharma's drug-pushing agenda.

Antipsychotics not good for Alzheimer's

Big Pharma (the pharmaceutical industry) is always trying to figure out ways to sell their most expensive drugs, whether they work or not. One of their scams has been the idea of using antipsychotics for Alzheimer's victims. Does that sound crazy? It is. Here's what the Washington Post has to say about it. Read the full article at this link.

Antipsychotic drugs that are widely used to calm agitated patients with Alzheimer's disease help very few of them, and those modest benefits are canceled out by the frequent side effects, a comprehensive government-funded study has found.

The surprising finding is expected to trigger a broad reevaluation of the widespread use of the drugs in patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. As many as a quarter of the Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes are prescribed the powerful drugs, even though they have never been formally approved for this purpose.

"I wish I could say the odds are better," said Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the $17 million study. "This paper says most people are not going to be any different on these drugs than they would on placebo."

The researchers did not conclude that the drugs should never be used, and a minority of patients do benefit. But the study suggests that doctors would be well advised to prescribe the drugs sparingly and as a last resort, experts said.

The study is the latest to produce sobering data on the newer, expensive antipsychotics such as Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel, which are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States at an annual cost of about $10 billion. Another government-funded study recently showed that the drugs were no better than an older and much cheaper drug called perphenazine in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Taken together, the government-sponsored clinical trials have highlighted two troublesome issues in the regulation and use of psychiatric medications in the United States.

The schizophrenia study showed that the short-term trials that pharmaceutical companies sponsor to gain Food and Drug Administration approval have limited value in telling doctors how patients will fare overall, or whether newer drugs are worth their higher cost.

The Alzheimer's study has revealed a different problem -- the extent to which physicians are prescribing and using medications in the absence of empirical data to guide them. None of the antipsychotic drugs is currently approved for Alzheimer's disease, and several short-term industry-sponsored clinical trials have failed to show a benefit. The FDA has required prominent "black box" warnings on the drugs' labels about side effects in elderly people following cases where the drugs were associated with strokes and death.

The article continues debunking this area. How much longer before the world realizes that the antidepressant emperor has not clothes?

In an article in Britains The Independent, a clinical psychologist seriously questions the role of drugs and big pharma in solving brain "chemical imbalances" and handling depression. Dr. Rufus May has a different view. Note that when he refers to Arsenal and Tottenham, he is referring to British soccer teams. From the article:

I work as a clinical psychologist in Bradford. Depression, or should I say pain and sadness, are part of life. Yesterday I counselled Celine, an asylum seeker who has been refused asylum despite strong evidence that she is a survivor of political torture. She is demoralised and her spirit is broken. She has no family here and no contact with her family in the Congo. Her problems are not due to a faulty brain, but oppression and isolation. Celine needs both individual support and to find a sense of community and belonging for as long as she is here. After seeing Celine, I felt tremendous shame at what human beings are capable of doing to each other for money and power. But I recovered quickly because I, unlike Celine, have a family and extended network of friends and colleagues who care about me.

I believe it's a myth that there is a worldwide epidemic of clinical depression that needs identifying and treating. The pharmaceutical companies have systematically promoted this myth. In the 10 years up to 2002 the use of antidepressants increased by 234 per cent. Yet still we are told we are more depressed than ever before. The World Health Organisation has a tendency to talk about the widespread and undiagnosed levels of depression internationally, but it also has close links with the pharmaceutical industry.

Yes, it's true that there's a lot of unhappiness in our society, but convincing people it is a medical condition does not help. I meet people who've bought into the idea that their sadness is caused by a chemical imbalance. Many of them have resigned themselves to one cocktail of medication after another. They have given up on their own ability to find a solution. After all, what can they do about their faulty brain-wiring? In fact, the chemical-imbalance theory is extremely dodgy. Joanna Moncrieff, from University College London, is a consultant psychiatrist who has taken a close look at the scientific evidence. She has argued that there is more evidence for psychiatric medication creating a chemical imbalance rather than correcting one. For example, despite it being commonly believed that depression is caused by a serotonin shortage, this relationship is unproven. Research on the serotonin theory is inconclusive, but such is the power of drug company propaganda that most of us accept it as fact.

We also need to question the idea that chemical changes are the main cause of emotional changes. If Arsenal lose to Tottenham I will experience a deep sinking feeling. This will probably be reflected by chemical changes in my brain but they did not cause this; football players did, combined with my attachment to Arsenal. Yet this logic is neatly overlooked by the "blame the brain" explanation for sadness. What we are distracted from is the fact that unhappiness is a social condition. It tells us about our relationships to others, both in the here and now and in the past.

Mother Teresa once observed that in the developing world there is an epidemic of poverty, while in the West there is an epidemic of loneliness. Similarly, the exiled Brazilian drama teacher Augustus Boal was surprised when he discovered that affluent Westerners were considerably unhappier than the deprived and disenfranchised Brazilian peasants he had worked with. His opinion was that the Brazilian peasants were happier because they knew who the enemy was and they had a collective sense of togetherness. In the West people seemed more isolated and unaware of who was oppressing them. He theorised that what had happened to Westerners was that they had internalised the bully - they had developed an inner critic, which he called a "cop in the head".

If you seek psychological help for inner critical thoughts you may well be offered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT tries to address the negative thoughts by training people to argue in their mind with their inner critic and substitute it with a rational, calm, optimistic personality. However, I, and many colleagues, have found that deep-seated emotional pain does not often respond to such tinkering. Perhaps, rather than trying to magic away pain with pills or positive thinking strategies, we should accept it, understand it and thereby start to transform it. For example, a friend of mine experiences periods of low mood episodically. Her mother died when she was young. Her problem is grief; fighting it won't make it go away. Some sadness will always be with her but understanding it and learning ways to not fear it will help.

Many psychologists want more resources so they can build an army of cognitive behaviour therapists to battle the beast of depression. In Bradford we are trying a different approach: community development through supporting the growth of self-help groups. I first became aware of the power of self-help groups eight years ago in east London. Dawn was adopted as a child. Now, in her thirties, she was low in mood and had episodes of self-destructiveness. Antidepressants had not helped and my psychological support was limited. Meeting her for limited periods every fortnight, I felt like a poor substitute for a friend. We decided to set up a self-help group called Helping Hands. At the group Dawn met Jean, an older woman who remembered Dawn as a baby. The stories she told Dawn about her early childhood encouraged Dawn to seek out her biological mother. This she did successfully, which led to a significant breakthrough in her sense of who she was.

In Bradford we have about 12 self-help groups, many of which are now jointly staffed by mental health workers and volunteers from the groups. Group members are gaining the confidence to go on to vocational training. We have also set up a network of public meetings that explore different approaches to mental well-being. What we have discovered is that people find a vast range of things helpful in dealing with distress, from diet and herbal medicine, through meditation and spiritual healing, to dance and artistic expression. As a result we have tried to make the mental health service more holistic, introducing t'ai chi and spiritual healing into the local psychiatric hospital.

But we also need to think about prevention. In the 1950s, '60s and '70s it was recognised both here and in the US that the root causes of mental illness were in social conditions. Initiatives focused on narrowing the gap between rich and poor and creating opportunities through education and community groups for self-expression and community regeneration. But with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher came the denial of society and funding for these projects was pulled. Distress and confusion was due to faulty brains and the market opened up for the drug companies. We now need to reverse this trend. Numbing our minds is not the answer.

Are we more depressed than before? Its difficult to say - there is clearly a lot of loneliness, grief, despair and feelings of inadequacy out there. Modern lifestyles encourage levels of competitiveness that can make us feel very lonely. Advertisers aim to make us dissatisfied with our lives. I would argue that medicalising and numbing our pain does not help; it mystifies its meaning in our lives and ignores the social and psychological avenues to making our lives more fulfilling.

Pro-Drugging Principal Arrested For Assault

"An alert Montana citizen notified us that the high school principal who allowed TeenScreen into his school has been arrested for 'partner or family member assault'. The citizen asked: 'Do you think Principal Kloppel was screened? TeenScreen.com responded: 'Given the FDA warnings of violence associated with psychotropic drugs your speculation may be valid one.' "

New Trial For Zoloft User Pittman?

Christopher Pittman was only 12 years old when he killed his grandparents, set their house on fire and drove away in their stolen car. Today at the age of 17, he is asking for a new trial.

The first kneejerk reaction is to say, "This is one crazy kid." But when all the facts are in, one wonders whether in fact he might deserve a new trial.

There doesn't seem to be any disagreement regarding the facts of the situation. But one fact that was overlooked or insufficiently investigated was the fact that Pittman was on Zoloft. This SSRI anti-depressant is in the same family with Prozac, Paxil and other similar anti-depressants that have been proven to actually cause suicidal and homicidal impulses in children AND adults.

In 2004, years after Pittman's crime, The FDA required Zoloft and other anti-depressants in this family to carry a black box warning (so-called because the warning goes in a black box on the packaging) of an increased suicidal risk in children. More recently they have recommended expanding the warning to include homicidal risk as well. A high percentage of the "school shooters" in the last decade have been on anti-depressants in this class.

The black box warning is the last gradient below banning the drug.

Read the story here.

Try Limiting Sugar Before Using Prozac

Oslo teens who drank the most sugary soft drinks also had more mental health problems such as hyperactivity and distress, Norwegian researchers reported on Thursday.

Their study of more than 5,000 Norwegian 15- and 16-year-olds showed a clear and direct association between soft drink intake and hyperactivity, and a more complex link with other mental and behavioral disorders.

This story is from a Reuters article.

It's remarkable that at this late date, some researchers finally publish what most mothers know: If you give Junior a lot of sugar you're going to be scraping him off the ceiling with a spatula. I remember my own son's reaction to donuts when he was six years old. We traditionally had donuts for breakfast on Saturdays and after several weeks of complete Saturday insanity we finally realized what it was. We dumped the donuts, and the problem went away.

But apparently many are still not acting on this data. So Junior, who regularly ingests several tablespoons of sugar in soft drinks, is acting up in school. Give him a psych drug. Right?

Suicide-risk Screening Effort Blasted

The Fresno Bee

Suicide-risk screening effort blasted
By Anne Dudley Ellis

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Critics, including a Fresno doctor, blasted the Fresno Unified School District on Wednesday for a suicide-risk screening program the district tried out at Hoover High School the past two years.

Concerns were raised during the public comment period at a meeting of the governing board.

The district is not using the TeenScreen Program currently but is working with Fresno County officials and other agencies on possible implementation at high schools, said Pete Summers, executive director of prevention and intervention for the district.

The program includes a 10-minute computer survey that asks students a variety of questions, including whether the teens have considered suicide.

About 400 10th-graders at Hoover High took the survey last year and the year before as part of a pilot program, Summers said.
Critics said students who answered "yes" to many of the questions could be unfairly categorized as suicidal and the program could lead students to take unnecessary psychiatric drugs.

Fresno physician Larry Scortt called TeenScreen "bogus." One of his criticisms was that the program seemed slanted toward psychiatric treatment, when some emotional troubles could be caused by allergies or poor nutrition.

Retired teacher Sharon Kientz said the questionnaire was "loaded for positive responses."

"How many [students] have been sucked into the psychiatric drug market?" Kientz asked the governing board.

Critics' harsh comments prompted alarmed murmuring through the board-meeting audience.

Board President Luisa Medina said Summers and John Marinovich, in charge of high schools for the district, would examine the concerns.

In responding to questions from the media outside the board room, Summers disputed the characterization of TeenScreen as a dangerous program that usurped parents' authority over their children. Summers said students must have their parents' permission to complete the survey, and subsequent counseling sessions with mental health professionals also required permission.

Summers said teen suicide is a significant problem and the questionnaire could help students in distress get help. He did not have statistics on students who have been helped because of the questionnaire.

The TeenScreen Web site says the program is overseen by the Carmel Hill Center at Columbia University in New York.

Media accounts indicate the program has attracted controversy nationwide.

Anna Nicole Smith's Son Killed By Antidepressants?

Anna Nicole Smith's Son on Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs at Time of Death

Antidepressants suspected as possible cause

Forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who performed the second autopsy on Daniel Smith, has announced that Daniel had been on antidepressants at the time of his death. Answers are being avidly sought by the media and the public for the unexpected death of the 20-year-old son of model/actress, Anna Nicole Smith. The recent revelation of his antidepressant use could likely lead to the answer.

Newer antidepressants, called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) have been connected with a life-threatening condition called "serotonin syndrome," caused by an excess of serotonin in the brain due to the drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned on July 19, 2006, that SSRIs, when combined with certain migraine drugs, can cause "serotonin syndrome," which may result in headaches, dizziness, vomiting, coma and death. The New York Post and other papers report that Daniel Smith was vomiting uncontrollably before his death.

Antidepressants can also cause cardiac complications, including heart attack and stroke, as well as headaches, nausea, internal bleeding and seizures. Read the Report on the Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs, published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, to find out other dangers of psychiatric drugs.

INHUMAN BEINGS - The Chemicalized Personality

A mother murders her five children. High school students massacre their classmates. An Iraq vet stabs his wife 71 times. How can this happen?

A common thread in these occurrences is the fact that the killers have been taking psychiatric medications.

But that is too simple. So we hear about “post-partum depression” and “combat stress.” In the case of the teens, it's “the breakdown of the family" or it’s the music, the movies, the video games.

The real answer is the dehumanizing effect of drugs.

A human being has more than one aspect. There is a definite electro-chemical component. The body physically functions via electro-chemical processes.

Then there is that aspect which perceives and reasons and creates. This is not electro-chemical. When people communicate with each other, it is not chemical molecules that are exchanging ideas. This is the spiritual aspect; the conscious, aware individual.

There is also a mental component—a mind—which is an interactive link between the reasoning factor and the physical.

A healthy mind (motivated by the spirit) is analytical.

A less healthy mind is less analytical and more and more reactive. It operates on a stimulus/response basis, motivated by random factors. A troubled, unhealthy mind doesn't reason. It doesn't perceive well. It reacts to stimuli.

For a long time now, the mental health establishment has been telling us that we are chemical in nature. They would have us believe that they can solve our problems with mood-altering drugs—a little dash of this and a little dash of that.

That approach may work at the purely physical level, as in taking antibiotics to handle infection, but it is not the physical component that gives us our rationality, our humanity. It is not the molecules in the brain that are thinking and perceiving, loving and caring, creating great music and poetry.

No, the physical component is comprised of cells and electrical impulses, which are as reasoning and creative as an avocado or the electric current that powers your toaster.

When a person is troubled, he is already sliding in the direction of the reactive, unthinking, physical impulse side of his nature. To then give him chemical, mood-altering drugs, pushes him further in that direction. While the sedative effect may appear to calm him down, he is becoming, more and more chemicalized.

So is it any wonder that these killers seem less than human? They ARE less than human. Though they can appear bright and calculating at times, real judgment is gone. They are completely reactive; alienated.

Their minds bubble and boil like the mass of chemicals they have become. The analytical capacity is gone. The spirit is gone. Their humanity is gone. They respond randomly and literally to stimuli (enter music, movies and video games).

Then, in the extreme, they lash out with violence at the imagined demons and enemies in their own unreal world. They have been mentally short-circuited by the drugs that are supposed to be helping them. It is the ultimate betrayal.

And when their bizarre, chemically induced, nightmare world collides with the world of OUR reality—which consists of living people, loving families, children, teachers, learning, accomplishment—a slaughter ensues and we are left to wonder "WHY?" "WHAT HAPPENED?"

The answer: psychiatry happened. And why would anyone perpetrate such a crime as to drug children and adults, driving them insane, all in the name of help? It's too horribly simple. It’s a multi-billion dollar business. They do it for money.

The good news is that when society wakes up to these facts, we will cease to allow these evils to occur.

It's time.

Tom Solari
tom@tomsolari.com

Tom Solari is a professional writer and video producer, living and working in Los Angeles. He is concerned about a culture that promotes chemical dependency as a solution to problems, when logic and the evidence shows that this approach deepens the problem by numbing the brain, muddling the mind and undermining the human spirit.

FDA Puts New Warning On Prozac And Other SSRIs

According to an article in Web MD, the FDA is warning us that taking certain migraine drugs with some types of antidepressants may create a life-threatening condition. The FDA's warning focuses on migraine medications called triptans when taken together with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), or with serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).

SSRIs and SNRIs are used to treat depression and mood disorders. SSRIs include Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Prozac. SNRIs include Cymbalta and Effexor.

"A life-threatening condition called serotonin syndrome may occur when triptans are used together with an SSRI or a SNRI," states an FDA news release.

An interesting side-issue here is that the triptan drugs are related to the natural remedy once available at health food stores, tryptophan. The FDA seized upon a contaminated batch of tryptophan to ban it from the market. But the back story seems to be that tryptophan was hysterically opposed by Big Pharma, because of its reaction when used with Prozac and the other SSRIs. It is more than interesting to note that the cheap health food product was simply banned, while the proven incompatibility with the profitable triptan drugs was solved with warning labels. In the meantime, there have been many more deaths from suicide attributable to SSRIs than ever occurred from sickness caused by the batch of contaminated tryptophan.

The question I've always pondered is; why did they ban the trytophan instead of banning the SSRIs? That question is more-or-less rhetorical, but the injustice is nevertheless manifest. I support the free market economy and I don't like bashing big corporations just because they are successful and doing well. But in the case of the Big Pharma drug companies, there is a constant undertow of amoral and corrupt manipulation, as well as distribution of drugs that cause harm rather than help. Without batting an eye, Big Pharma seems to be focused primarily on its profits, and the welfare of the public be damned.

Serotonin syndrome occurs when the body has too much serotonin, a chemical found in the nervous system. Triptans, SSRIs, and SNRIs all raise serotonin levels. As with tryptophan, the higher seratonin levels caused by triptans are an aid to helping with migraine headaches, as well as insomnia.

Big Pharma (Drug Companies) Control Psychiatry

Ever wonder how much control the drug industry exerts on psychiatry? Here's a good one:

As reported in the San Jose Mercury News, Juy 10, 2006:

Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg, Stanford's long-time chair of the department of psychiatry, has reported financial interests with a number of companies that make psychiatric pills and devices, including:

Abbott Laboratories Inc.: consultant or scientific advisory board
Bristol-Myers Squibb: consultant or scientific advisory board; grant support
Corcept Therapeutics: scientific advisory board chairman; board of directors; stock
Elan Pharmaceuticals: stock or options
Eli Lilly and Co.: consultant or scientific advisory board; grant support
Forest Laboratories: consultant or scientific advisory board
GlaxoSmithKline: consultant or scientific advisory board; grant support
Janssen Pharmaceutica Products: consultant or scientific advisory board
Merck: stock or options
Neuronetics: consultant or scientific advisory board
Organon Pharmaceuticals: consultant or scientific advisory board
Pathway Diagnostics: stock or options
Pfizer: consultant or scientific advisory board; stock or options
Sanofi-Aventis: consultant or scientific advisory board
Somaxon Pharmaceuticals: consultant or scientific advisory board; stock or options
Somerset Pharmaceuticals: consultant or scientific advisory board; grant support
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals: consultant or scientific advisory board; grant support

Source: American Psychiatric Association; Corcept Therapeutics

Ethics Are Put In On Another Psych School Counselor

This article is from the Patriot Ledger, a Boston area newspaper:

Read it at http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2006/07/08/news/news10.txt

State reprimands counselor; School worker pressured parent, allowed ADHD evaluation of student without parental consent

By JACK ENCARNACAO
The Patriot Ledger

WEYMOUTH - A state department of education investigation concluded that a veteran adjustment counselor at the Thomas Hamilton Primary School violated federal law when she allowed a special education evaluation of a student without parental consent.

The mother pulled her children out of the school over the incident, said Andre Afonso, deputy director of the Massachusetts Citizens Commission on Human Rights, where the mother initially brought her complaints.

The commission on Human Rights was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology to investigate psychiatric violations of human rights.

‘‘This is a big issue right now with us,’’ Afonoso said. ‘‘Bypassing the written consent law ... it can lead to (unnecessary) drugging in the schools.’’

Under a law enacted in 1998 called the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, a student can not be required to submit to an evaluation of mental or psychological problems without prior written consent of a parent.

The state board of education also has a similar regulation about parental consent.

The state’s investigation followed complaints from the student’s mother that for three years the adjustment counselor pressured her to medicate her daughter for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

The student’s mother, who was not named in documents about the case and did not respond to a call for comment, did not give verbal or written permission for a mental evaluation, only for an academic evaluation.

‘‘The district acknowledged parental consent was not obtained for the administration of this test,’’ reads a letter from the department of education to the Weymouth school district.

In an affidavit filed with the commission, the mother said the counselor, Cora Hall, acted ‘‘outside of the scope of her job description and her unrelenting harassment over these past three years (have been) outside the legal barrier.’’

The mother was studying to become a nurse, and sensed something was wrong with the way her daughter was evaluated.

‘‘She knew her rights,’’ Afonso said of the mother.

The state investigation concluded that Hall, a 30-year veteran of school counseling, administered a test called the Connors’ Teacher Rating Scale in April 2005 to detect signs of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the student, a first grader who was enrolled in a special education class due to a speech delay.

‘‘I do think I rushed,’’ Hall said. ‘‘I regret that because we don’t want to alienate parents, we don't want to upset anybody.’’

Hall said a teacher, not her, conducted the evaluation with her direction.

The state concluded that no punishment is necessary. But officials did require the school district to hold review and training sessions on the issue, which were held in March.

‘‘The penalty is more corrective action to address whatever violations were in place,’’ said Nate Mackinnon, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. ‘‘If a district were to decide not to comply (with corrective action), then we'd take additional steps. But typically with situations like this, the law tends to be rather complex, and it’s more about ensuring that it doesn't happen in the future.’’

Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger

The Fraud Of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

A letter from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights:

Last week, major international news outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal ran articles exposing that the psychiatrists who vote “disorders” into existence have ties to pharmaceutical companies who then sell drugs to “treat” those disorders!

American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the DSM, lists the “mental illnesses” recognized by psychiatry. This “bible” of psychiatry has grown from mere 119 pages in 1968 to 886 in the latest edition, and includes categories sufficiently broad as to label anyone as “mentally ill.”

Addicted to coffee? See “Caffeine-Related Disorders.” Have problem with math? See “Mathematics Disorders.” Have a child in their “terrible twos”? The DSM has a whole section on childhood disorders including “Conduct Disorder” and “Oppositional Defiant Disorder."

Yet despite there being no objective medical test to prove any chemical cause for any disorder in the DSM, billions of dollars of psychiatric drugs are prescribed each year to “treat” these conditions.

One might question how so many psychotropic drugs could be prescribed each year to treat conditions that don’t really exist—until you see that same people who create the arbitrary list of “disorders” have financial relationships with drug companies that “treat” them.

A report published last month found that 56 percent of 170 panel members responsible for overseeing the DSM had some type of financial tie to the drug industry. What’s even more alarming is that 100 percent of the “experts” on DSM panels overseeing mood disorders were financially involved with the drug industry. (“Mood disorders” are psychiatry’s cash cow and result in billions of dollars a year in revenue.)

The study is the first to document extensive monetary connections between drug companies, psychiatrists and other people responsible for the list of “disorders” in the DSM — an event or major importance given that the and Drug Administration will not approve a drug to treat a mental illness unless the condition is in the DSM.

With your support CCHR has been working to raise the public awareness in the fight for human rights. Witness the fruits of our labor as story after story in the international media are expositing the fraud being perpetrated by psychiatry their partners in crime, the psychotropic drug industry.

CCHR is on a full-out campaign to rid the planet of the dangers of psychiatry. We are winning, but we have much more to do.

Please give generously and give now to keep the momentum rolling.

All donations are welcome. Please donate to CCHR International at 6616 Sunset Blvd., LA, CA 90028 or call me at 800-869-2247 today. Your donations are tax deductible and you will receive the satisfaction of knowing you helped fund this crucial campaign.

Thanks for your help,


Yours truly,
John B. Fleming
Senior Director of Development

Email john@protectinghumanrights.org
CCHR OFFICE 800 869-2247
LOCAL 323 467-4242
FAX 323 467-7526
CELL 727 647-2692

www.cchr.org

Since 1969, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has worked to safeguard the public from psychiatric violations of human rights.
CCHR is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation that relies on public donations to carry out its humanitarian objectives.

On Medication, Killed by Alligator

She was on medication, and her mother said she was "out of it" when she went for a jog. She was a drop-dead gorgeous model. The alligator must have found her attractive. They found part of her body in the water, and part in the stomach of the alligator.

The examiner said she was attacked on land, not in the water.

How much would the effect of being "out of it" on psych drugs contribute to the vulnerability of being successfully attacked on land by an alligator?

Read the story here.

State Sponsored Child Abuse

“State Sponsored Child Abuse” trumpets the subhead in the influential e-mail e-zine What We Now Know (subscribe by clicking on this link).

The story recounts a grizzly story about the severe psychiatric misuse of children in the Montreal foster child system. It would be shocking if it was the first time we heard about such shenanigans in the world of psychiatry.

“Of course you have heard of the Nazi Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele, who became infamous for conducting grueling medical experiments on concentration camp inmates during WWII. Some of his victims were children. He tested unsafe drugs on them, injected them with lethal germs, removed their organs and limbs and performed sex change operations on them. His primary interest were identical twins,” says WWKN. It goes on:

“Thank goodness something like that could never happen here. Or could it?”

The children in this story are now called the “Duplessis Orphans”, in a dubious reference to Duplessis, the hard-nosed and seemingly heartless Premier of Quebec during the time the incident occurred.

In the 1940s and '50s, between 1,500 and 20,000 (some say up to 50,000) children living in Catholic orphanages in Quebec were subject to severe abuse. Practically overnight and without good reason, perfectly healthy children were declared mentally ill or retarded and entire orphanages were converted into psychiatric wards.

Why? Because psych hospitals were paid more than three times as much per “inmate” than orphanages. It became an obvious economic benefit to define an orphan as “insane”.

According to the article, Hervé Bertrand, one of the victims, remembers how a doctor visited his third-grade class and asked him what the word "compare" meant. "I didn't know," remembers Bertrand. "We hadn't studied it yet. That's how it was decided that I was retarded."

Surviving victims allege that some of the children underwent painful experiments, electroshock treatments, even lobotomies. Most were pulled from their schools and forced into farm labor or hospital maintenance and brutally beaten for non-compliance. Many were physically and sexually abused by the Catholic priests, nuns and administrators. Some died of their injuries. (According to unconfirmed news, a mass grave with the bones of hundreds of children was recently discovered just outside of Montreal.)

The Duplessis scandal was revealed when a 1961 commission on Quebec's psychiatric hospitals found that more than 30% of the 22,000 patients didn't belong there, most of the falsely diagnosed being illegitimate children. (Not all of the children were actual orphans; many were born out of wedlock.)

The Canadian Broadcasting Story on the subject is told at this link.

You Gotta Ask First!

The outcry over the Teenscreen program and its attempts to sneak past parents to test and label their kids without notice has reached a fever pitch. Check out the laws in progress at this site. In Tennessee, there are 71 legislators co-sponsoring the legislation!

ADHD Fraud

There is a new book out by Fred Baughman, Jr. MD, called ADHD Fraud. It's subtitled "How Psychiatry Makes 'Patients' of Normal Children". This data is critical, and we need to stop feeding out children as sacrifices to the Great God Big Pharma, whose attitude seems to be, "There are plenty of children in the world, more than enough to go around. What is one child more or less compared with the kinds of profits we can make by pushing a drug that makes you crazy as a solution to a problem that doesn't exist?"

A Message From Citizens Commission on Human Rights

Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a watchdog group that is exposing Psychiatry and its crimes. This is their latest newsletter:

On May 26, Health Canada (equivalent to the U.S. FDA) issued new warnings that stimulants prescribed for so-called “ADHD” can cause a risk of sudden death. The drugs, it said, increase heart rate and blood pressure which can lead to cardiac arrests and strokes.

Meanwhile, the FDA drags its heels while it considers whether or not its strongest “black box” warning is needed for these drugs in the U.S. And while the clock ticks away, so do the lives of innocent American children. There’s already been more than 200 child deaths from these drugs. In fact, every month a child could be potentially killed by a psychiatric drug prescribed for a “disease” that doesn’t even exist.

Yet Dr. Gerald Dal Pan, a division director in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said current warnings were “appropriate” given the agency's “current knowledge of the drugs.”

I don’t know about you, but such a complacent attitude toward drugs that can kill a child makes me angry. I can’t sit by while another parent loses a child to them. Years of exposing psychiatry’s dangerous “treatments” has taught us that the only way to turn this irresponsible attitude of FDA officials around is a massive public information campaign and pressure from those that oversee FDA operations.

If your response to this child drugging is also outrage, then you can help us do something about it. First, CCHR is producing a report that spells out very simply—with medical terms defined—the dangerous and potentially lethal side effects of all psychiatric drugs and providing a chronology of official drug warnings. This needs to be broadly distributed to all legislators and policy makers so that we are informing them about drug risks that the FDA and psychiatrists are failing to tell them about.

We also have to reach more parents with the truth about these drugs because every parent reached could be activated. They are the most powerful voice. When CCHR can headline a campaign about coercive psychiatric drugging of children and, along with parents and other concerned individuals, help secure protections such as the federal law that now prohibits schools forcing kids on to psychotropic drugs and ensure FDA “black box” warnings alert that antidepressants cause suicide in our youth, you know that we are no lightweight group.

Every CCHR membership provides the means to reach those still trapped in the web of lies and deceit spun for them by psychiatry. They are not bad parents; they are simply betrayed and desperate for the truth denied them. This is what CCHR brings.

That’s where you come in. The more than 20 international drug regulatory agency warnings last year against psychiatric drugs didn’t “just happen.” It took a combined effort and campaign, with CCHR backed up by the aligned power of its membership. An Advocate Member of CCHR International represents $2,000 and with this membership, you could help to secure the safety and survival of thousands of children by getting the truth to the parents and policy makers of America.

Recently, psychiatrists in the American Psychiatric Association’s Psychiatric News, admitted that they feel they are “fighting an uphill battle.” Bemoaned one psychiatrist, Carl Bell: "Parents tell me that putting their kids on Ritalin is a genocidal plot.”

Good! We are impinging! So, before another child is placed at risk, I am asking for your help TODAY by becoming an Advocate—a tax-deductible membership of $2,000 that will step up this campaign. If you are already an Advocate, then make a membership contribution for a loved one, family member or friend. Of course, any membership gift is welcome.

Help put the FDA on notice that it has all the evidence that it needs to not only issue “black box warnings” on stimulants but to also ban them! They must be told that enough is enough—NO parent should be visiting the grave of their child killed by a drug they were deceived into believing was “safe and effective.” There is urgency in this. This is a call to action.

Click here to make your donation.

ifeminists.com and Teenscreen

Tony Zizza's article in ifeminists.com is incredible.




The Trouble With TeenScreen
May 24, 2006
by Tony Zizza

"It has ruined the taste of the sweetest lies. Burned through my best alibis. Every sin that I deny keeps hanging 'round my door. Oh, the trouble with the truth is it always begs for more."
—Patty Loveless, "The Trouble With The Truth"

I guess you know you are recently divorced when you start quoting lyrics from country singers. I suppose I've taken it a step further by weaving the lyrics from one of my favorite country singers into perhaps the most controversial subject matter facing our culture today.

And that is the screening of our school children FOR mental illness.

Advocates for mental health screening will tell us the truth is screening prevents suicide among our young people. There is no evidence that supports this at all. From what I understand, suicide among young people is actually declining. I believe I read something from the Centers For Disease Control, (CDC) that showed suicide among young people has declined over the last two decades. If this is the case, why is teen suicide and the obsession with alleged teen depression all the rage?

One of the reasons is that thankfully, subjective mental disorders like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its objectively dangerous drugs have come under fire. Critics from the left and right now have no fear in even questioning the existence of ADHD. Years ago, this would have never happened. Black box warnings on stimulants and psychotropic drugs are opening the eyes and ears of many parents and lawmakers. While we all dwell over Tom Cruise calling psychiatry into question, there is little doubt scientologists aren't the only ones fuming mad over the myth there is good work tied to what TeenScreen is doing.

So, what's the trouble with TeenScreen? TeenScreen is a subjective questionnaire that was developed by Columbia University to hopefully identify young people who allegedly have "undiagnosed" mental health issues. Students have been lured into taking the "test" by being given free movie tickets and food. From what I understand, TeenScreen is now in place in over 12 states, and in over 450 schools. To see if your state is supporting TeenScreen, check out this web site.

The screening is essentially a round of self-administered questions. Students who are screened and appear to have finally been diagnosed, are "in line" for treatment. Students have come home crying believing that they are now considered mentally ill because they have been labeled with subjective mental health disorders like OCD and ADD. Again, everything is shrouded in the alleged epidemic of suicide among young people. Both democratic and conservative members and officers of school boards accross the country are letting TeenScreen in, shutting out the trouble with it because these days anyone who speaks out against the false labeling and drugging of children must be a scientologist.

Imagine you are a parent of any race or political bent, and your child comes home believing they are mentally ill. How are they being stigmatized against seeking mental health treatment? Mental health advocates who think there is nothing wrong with America becoming one nation under medication have it backwards. A stigma of having a subjective mental disorder results when programs like TeenScreen label our young people in the first place! Our young people are being labeled mentally ill when they answer questions like these in the wrong light turned on by TeenScreen:

* Have you often felt nervous when you've had to do things in front of people?
* Has there been a time when you felt you couldn't do anything well or that you weren't as goodlooking or smart as other people?
* Have you often felt grouchy or irritable and often in a bad mood, when even little things would make you mad?

In regard to the first question, how much more subjective can you get? I mean, it sounds like TeenScreen is not acknowledging that people, young or old, are nervous when they have to do things in front of people such as what, give a speech? What's the big deal? I wonder why even "nerves" these days are associated with mental illness. What good does this kind of thinking do to our young people?

Looking at this second question, and remember, TeenScreen is comprised of 14-52 similar and equally asinine questions, I can't help but conclude TeenScreen denies the very existence of reality. The trouble with the truth is this, and get used to it: there will always be some people who are smarter than you, and more goodlooking than you. If you have trouble with that, it's not a mental health issue, it's an issue of being stubborn.

The third question must go over real well with young females who are suffering around that period of time in any given month. Being a teen and younger is a consistent exercise in being moody and mad. Again, when it comes to young people, it's not a question of mental illness, but one of what to do with stubborness and a self defeating attitude that is sometimes not helped with peer pressure. On the other hand, sometimes it is. Sometimes young people need to be instructed to suck it up. The world does exist outside of their subjective issues.

Again, you will hear people tell you TeenScreen is needed because of the epidemic of suicide among young people. Politicians are coming out in droves now because a young family member at one time commited suicide. Sure, all this is tragic. Terribly so. It is, however, incorrect to believe programs like TeenScreen can do anything about suicide or depression. Or the fact that a young person has to get through life to become what else, but older. What worries me most about TeenScreen is the obsession with the subjective, and the ties that ultimately bind to Big Pharma.

Mental health screening does not belong in any shape or fashion in our schools. There is nothing wrong with a student talking to a guidance counselor. Young people have a plethora of feelings to get through, and sometimes things do not go as planned. Talk therapy can be a good thing. A way of getting things off one's chest by talking and keeping a journal. Setting an action plan to feel better and forget about it over time.

Unfortunately, TeenScreen is quite frankly an exercise in promoting mental health in absolutely the wrong way. As our culture becomes more advanced and dynamic, should there not be a reduction of alleged mental health disorders among young people? If I was back in grade school or high school and someone from TeenScreen or the National Alliance For The Mentally Ill, (NAMI) told me that based on some slippery questions, I had a mental disorder, I would be insulted, and say: prove it! Problem is, and the trouble with the truth is - it's young people we are talking about. While some of our young people may properly rebel against TeenScreen and other dangerous mental health propoganda that helps Big Pharma in the short and long run, what about all the young people who come running home convinced they are - mentally ill?

Whether are not you sit on the left or right end of the political spectrum, TeenScreen is something we need to come together on and bounce out of our schools. It's an assault on the growing minds of young people. It's a slap in the face to all the hard working parents in this country. Bring the subject up at your next school board meeting, and watch the sparks fly. You'll see for yourself who truly wants young people in our schools to believe they are mentally ill. You can find out more about TeenScreen by visiting http://www.teenscreentruth.com.


Zizza is a freelance writer who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He serves as Vice President for the State of Georgia for the non-profit organization, Parents For Label and Drug Free Education.

Another Antidepressant Attack

In another act of seemingly senseless and unexplainable violence, Larry Barnes, a 36-year-old Georgia man, jumped the curb, ran down a family of 5, including three small children. He smashed them against the building, then backed up and rammed them again, "smiling the whole time" according to an onlooking McDonalds employee.

Senseless it is. But is it unexplainable? No it's not. According to the man's mother, "He's been suffering with depression for years," she said, her voice shaking after learning what happened.

We know what that means, don't we? It's another antidepressant homicide.

A Pharmacist Speaks Out

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
May 18, 2006 Thursday
DEAR PHARMACIST SUZY COHEN
ADHD DRUGS NOT A CURE
By: Suzy Cohen, a registered pharmacist, syndicated writer for the Tribune Media Services

Dear Pharmacist: My 8-year-old son just started medicine for ADHD. My husband disagrees with his taking the medicine; he says our son is "all boy" and that I can't handle him. But the doctor prescribed the medicine, I didn't force it. His teachers recommended it. Do you think I should continue? --
L.D., Fort Lauderdale

Dear L.D.: As a mother myself, I understand the emotional pain you must feel about a child who isn't faring well. The controversy surrounding ADHD and its treatments creates agony for many families.

You husband sees his rambunctious son as "all boy" and his concern has merit -- you shouldn't medicate a child who is merely distracted or fidgety. Impulsive dispositions need to be differentiated from human tornadoes who recklessly run into streets.

ADHD isn't completely understood, so it can't be cured, just treated. Parents struggle because diagnosis is subjective; there are no blood tests or MRIs to make a diagnosis conclusive. Controversy shrouds ADHD and its possible connection to everyday toxins, lead paint, food allergies, immunizations containing mercury, genetics and chemical imbalances.

Most prescribed medications for ADHD are amphetamine stimulants. In normal adults, they act like uppers, but in kids with ADHD, they slow the brain down. Popular ones include Ritalin (methylphenidate), Adderall, Dextroamphetamine and Concerta.

Amphetamines can speed heart rate, raise blood pressure, cause stomach aches, dizziness, insomnia and eye wiggling. Long-term use may cause agitation and hostility. ADHD drugs reduce appetite, which, by the way, can stunt growth, according to a new study presented at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies meeting.

Toxic side effects occur more often in kids than adults. The question isn't: Should I treat my child? Rather, it is: What natural or pharmaceutical
options should I use to help my child feel better with little or no risk?

Generally speaking, Americans have been indoctrinated into taking heavily advertised drugs dispensed like candy, deemed by the FDA as "safe and effective" until one day ... guess what? They are no longer deemed safe and effective. I fear this will happen with some ADHD drugs.

This information is not intended to treat, cure or diagnose your condition. Always consult your physician. Suzy Cohen is a registered
pharmacist. For more information or to contact her, visit www.dearpharmacist.com

(Note: The above advice also appeared in Newsday (New York), May 16, 2006, The Times Union (Albany, New York), May 16, 2006,
Tulsa World (Oklahoma), May 13, 2006).

The Army Knows Better Than To Use Psych Drugs

It has long been a fact that the use of psych drugs can disqualify you for military service. One of the shooters in the Columbine Massacre school disaster had tried to get into the Army and had been turned down because he was on Luvox. But apparently once you're in, the Army has a different attitude. The current controversy is based on the Army taking psychotic soldiers, giving them psych drugs, and putting them back on the front line, where they become dangerous "loose cannons" (almost literally).

The following two quotes are from a Los Angeles Times article, "U.S. Redeploying Troops with Mental Health Issues":

"I can't imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on [antidepressants], when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal," said Vera Sharav, president of the watchdog Alliance for Human Research Protection. "You're creating chemically activated time bombs."

Sgt. Syverson, back in Kuwait after a breakdown, in an e-mail to his family: "Nearly died...out here on a nice and really mild night because of the medication that I am taking. Head about to explode from the blood swelling inside, the lightning storm that happened in my head, the blurred vision, confusion, dizziness and a whole lot more."

A Little Paxil Story...

Maybe it isn't so hard to understand why GlaxoSmithKline is bending over backwards to work with the FDA on warning the public about Paxil. Amongst the group of psych drugs known as SSRIs (like Prozac, Zoloft etc.) Paxil is definitely the baddest bad boy of them all. Web sites supporting Paxil victims are rife with horror stories. Click here to hear one of them in the form of a video -- it's a news article by a Texas news station.

In a sharp turnabout from the usual behavior of Big Pharma companies, GlaxoSmithKline is participating with the FDA to disseminate the data that their version of the Prozac prototype, Paxil, may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults. This is commendable, at least on the surface, because Big Pharma has been stiff-arming any attempt to get them to admit their putting out drugs that kill rather than cure.

It smells a lot like the period when the tobacco companies realized they were going to go down. They began to promote themselves as concerned about young people taking up smoking and so forth.

I don't think this is going to start a stampede this week amongst Big Pharma robber barons to step up to the responsibility of admitting their crimes, but sooner or later there will be just such a rush to appear to be concerned and responsible. It will happen when they realize that the public has discovered that the emperor has no clothers and that they are navigating the fine line between mere fiscal responsibility on one hand, and criminal responsibility on the other.

Psychology Goes To The Dogs

Not content with imposing their failed methods on mankind, psychologists have begun extending their travesties to the animal world, with the advent of "psychology" for animals.

Perhaps we should applaud this. It is a step up from abusing animals in their ghoulish experiments (ala Pavlov et al) but the latest report in this dark carnival is worthy of note:

According to CNN, California man Flody Suarez is suing the owner of the "Dog Psychology Center", to whom he took his 5-year-old Labrador. The dog apparently suffered from fears of other dogs and strangers.

Apparently the techniques of the dog psychologist, who appears on a regular TV show and calls himself the "Dog Whisperer", left Suarez' lab in intensive care at the veterinarian, "bleeding from his mouth and nose, in an oxygen tent gasping for breath and with severe bruising to his back inner thighs,"

According to the article, "The facility's workers allegedly placed a choke collar on the dog, pulled him onto a treadmill and forced him to "overwork." Suarez says he spent at least $25,000 on medical bills and the dog must undergo more surgeries for damage to his esophagus."

It's too bad Suarez wasn't aware of what psychology does to its human victims. He might have been more chary of trusting his beloved dog to such a charletan. The best expose of psychology and psychiatry is at the CCHR Exhibit "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" in Hollywood.

Kevin Trudeau's "Natural Cures"

One of the most popular and influential authors in the world of alternative solutions to medical problems is Kevin Trudeau, author of the best seller Natural Cures.

One of the points Trudeau makes in his book is the importance of avoiding psychiatric solutions. This is a quote from the book, available at amazon.com:

"Stay away from psychiatrists and psychologists.""Psychiatrists and psychologists do not help the people they treat. Statistics show that the majority of people who are treated by psychiatrists and psychologists actually get worse. Psychiatrists almost always prescribe drugs to their petients. These drugs are some of the most dangerous and deadly pharmaceuticals available today. Did you know that in the last ten years, virtually every violent act committed in schools was perpetrated by a person who either had taken or was currently taking a psychiatric drug? Finally, the research has become so compelling that there are warnings saying that certain psychiatric drugs actually increase the propensity to commit suicide. This is such an important issue that I encourage you to read PSYCHIATRY: THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL [Note: Also available on amazon.com] and if you are still not convinced that psychiatrists and psychologists should be avoided at all costs, I will personally make a donation to the charity of your choice."

Who's Behind It?

We are now experiencing a huge push for psychiatric evaluation in the school systems. They hope to find, through their minimal little tests, that your child needs some expensive drug like Prozac or Ritalin or Adderal.

No parent really wants their child "evaluated" and possibly labeled for life with a mental health issue, nor do they want to wrestle with this bureaucracy to keep from giving their kids drugs. No politician seems to really be behind it, except for a few rabid pro-pharmaceutical regulars. But it keeps moving forward. What is up with that?

Here's where you can see who's really behind it. Go to http://www.signsofsuicide.org/. The pharmaceutical companies that will benefit from this, known collectively as "Big Pharma" are funding it with millions of dollars. The page has actual documents to prove it.

New Wonder Drug

On the lighter side, you'll love this article about a new wonder drug in The Onion.

Side Effect Blindness In Big Pharma

Aggressive marketing without regard for the safety of the public is a hallmark of the pharmaceutical drug industry. This poignant article by a former drug company rep illustrates the phenomenon.

After talking one doctor into prescribing a new drug against his better judgment, the rep wound up back in his office bringing a form for him to fill out regarding the life-threatening complications that occurred when he prescribed the drug for one of his patients. "Apparently the company's marketing strategy has been more thoroughly tested than the drug," he told her.

The rest of the site is also interesting.

Jeffrey Schaler

At the annual awards dinner of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the Thomas Szasz (named after the famous critic of psychiatry) was given to Dr. Jeffrey Schaler. You must, must, must listen to his acceptance speech. It is at http://www.cchr.org/uploads/video/dinnerSchaler.wmv

Demand the FDA Fulfill Its Obligation To Public Safety

I am sending this request to get your assistance on a very vital action that will only take a few minutes of your time. The issue is ADHD drugs. We have received confirmation that many of you have written your letters and THANK YOU. If you haven't yet done it, please write your letter immediately and email me confirmation that you've done it.

Recently, the FDA held hearings on “ADHD” drugs due to numerous reports of hallucinations and psychosis attributed to them. And while the FDA panel did recommend new warning language for these drugs, the panel refused to issue “black box” warnings – the agency’s most severe warning label.

Why? Consider this: There has been a lot of public outcry about millions of children being prescribed ADHD drugs with increasing reports of the drugs causing suicide, psychosis and hallucinations. A few months ago, a leading cardiologist recommended the FDA issue black box warnings due to reports of heart attack, stroke and sudden death from ADHD drugs. So this latest FDA panel --which included psychiatrists with ties to the pharmaceutical industry – had to take some action – so issued increased warning language about the drugs. But why not the black box? Because the FDA appears to be more interested in protecting psychiatric/pharmaceutical interests, than in the public’s interest. When black box warnings are issued, drug manufacturers have to disclose the risks in all advertising.

This is why many of the experts and medical doctors attending the FDA hearing on ADHD drugs called it a sham and said that the FDA yielded to the profit-driven psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry.

The Deputy Director of the Office of Drug Safety himself has stated, “…. products that carry box warnings also have to carry that in their advertising and quite frequently that makes it quite difficult to explicitly advertise that product in direct-to-consumer advertising."

So the issue is simple. Black box warnings mean drug sales go down. The FDA’s own mission statement says it is responsible for “protecting the public health and ensuring the safety, efficacy and security of human and veterinary drugs.” So CCHR is asking everyone to fax letters to the FDA demanding black box warnings on these drugs – and reminding the FDA that they are there to protect the public’s safety and interests–- not psychiatric pharmaceutical interests.


Emails or letters should be sent to the Acting Commissioner of the FDA at:


Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.,
Acting Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857-0001
Email: andrew.voneschenbach@fda.hhs.gov

(please blind copy your emails to CCHR at fieldactivities@cchr.org

We want to send copies of all these emails to Senator Charles Grassley, the member of Congress who has been addressing the need for oversight of the FDA.

Or you can fax him yourself at 202-224-6020

Senator Charles Grassley
135 Hart Senate Bldg.
Washington, D.C., 20510-1501

Your help is needed on this. So thanks in advance for your assistance.

Legal Help For Psych Victims

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International has a new feature on their www.psychcrime.org website – a section for referral to attorneys.

CCHR is affiliated with the Church of Scientology. To learn more about the church and its social betterment programs, check out the site at Center for Studies on New Religions.

CCHR is contacted regularly by individuals who have been harmed or violated by psychiatry, or whose loved ones have been harmed, damaged or even killed.

For instance, psychiatric drugs are notorious for causing suicidal thoughts and actions. Indeed, thousands of such cases have resulted in compensation to victims. Psychiatrists often take sexual liberties with the patients, even calling it "therapy", causing substantial and indefensible harm.

These victims often seek attorneys and need attorneys to preserve their rights and to seek compensation for damages caused by psychiatric abuses and pharmaceutical injuries. CCHR therefore endeavors to get victims in contact with attorneys who are potentially interested in helping these individuals protect their rights and receive proper restitution for wrongdoing.

Therefore, as a non-profit, public benefit organization, CCHR has developed a section of our website, www.psychcrime.org where abused individuals can post information about the abuse they have been subjected to, sorted by state and type of abuse. Then attorneys can view these files to see if there is someone they feel they could assist. In addition to the cases posted at the time of the section's launch, new cases will be added regularly as we prepare the information from complaints received in recent months, as well as new ones coming in.

If you know individuals who have been abused by psychiatric treatments and are seeking counsel, have them fill out the Abuse Case Form on the website. If you know attorneys who want to assist such abused individuals, please have them fill out the Attorney Form on the site. The attorney's name will then be provided to the potential client.

This service is being offered as a public service and there is no charge for it.

Quest for Profit Yields New ADHD Patch

"Main ADHD stimulant more potent than cocaine", says D.E.A.

While billions in tax dollars are paid each year to fight the “War on Drugs,” psychiatrists continue to promote and prescribe addictive mind-altering ADHD drugs to children -- evidenced by the latest "ADHD patch". While two separate FDA panels have warned of ADHD drugs' lethal effects, Australia reported nearly 400 adverse reactions with children as young as 5 suddenly dropping dead and children as young as 7 having heart attacks or strokes caused by ADHD drugs. Many others worldwide suffer induced hallucinations, psychosis, mania or suicidal ideation.

Even the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says Ritalin is more potent than cocaine.

It is appalling that the FDA would allow a new ADHD patch when they should be issuing black box warnings on these addictive life-threatening narcotics known as ADHD drugs.