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Psychotropic Drug Prescriptions For Teens Surge 250% Over 7 Year Period
Brandeis University via sciencedaily.com ^ | 2006-01-04 | NA

Posted on 01/04/2006 10:39:59 PM PST by neverdem

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To: GovernmentShrinker

As an adult who struggles daily with the very real, and often extremely frustrating, effects of ADD, I do not diminish the legitimacy of the diagnosis...only the frequency of its convenient MISdiagnosis. I have dealt with it both with and without medication, with varying degrees of success, or lack thereof. I also work with a lot of troubled kids, more troubled than would be expected in a random sample, so there is to be expected a somewhat higher percentage among that population of what might logically be considered psychological pathology, than that among the general population. Still, even among those kids, drugs are all too often the first line of defense when what the kid really needs is boundaries, consistency and discipline, as well as positive feedback for good behavior. These kids also learn from an early age to use their "conditions" as an excuse.


61 posted on 01/05/2006 5:30:39 PM PST by sweetliberty (Stupidity should make you sterile.)
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To: sweetliberty; All
Still, even among those kids, drugs are all too often the first line of defense when what the kid really needs is boundaries, consistency and discipline, as well as positive feedback for good behavior. These kids also learn from an early age to use their "conditions" as an excuse.

In the late 1960's early 70's I didn't even know what my condition was LOL. When I was 36 and the the condition had gotten to a point I couldn't function in a work enviroment I still didn't know. Nor when the shrinks half kiled me with SSRI's either. I posted this is another thread but a book linking what was ADD ADHD, certain Dyslexic symptoms, visual and auditory processing troubles, and even TMJ {a jaw disorder which I don't have} to my medical history I learned enough to take charge of how my doctors were treating it.

I had learned somewhere in my early adult life from my parents I was thought to have had ADD ADHD. I do believe in discipline and I got my share of it :>} even at a rehabilitation school for learning and physical impairments.

You've probably seen kids I'm about to describe. This is some tell tale signs. Playing baseball they have a delayed swing or will simply dodge the ball. The brain doesn't see a baseball it see's an object a danger and responds to it. Kids that when you call their name and talk to them they seem not to hear you or say huh. You tell them something an oral instruction and they ask you to repeat it then half way through the second or even third time they suddenly understand. Have them look straight at you when you give instructions as they likely are reading your lips while listening. Look at the gait & how they walk. Look at their shoes. See if they break the sides over. That means not walking balanced. Give them 3 words to remember. Have them to start another task after that. In a couple of minutes while they are doing something else ask them to say the three words. You will likely see some frustration come from it as this effects memory retrieving capabilities.

They can pass with flying colors a standard hearing range test. They aren't deaf they can't process like others.

On a acedemic level it can vary. Look at reading capabilities first. Note if they skip lines reading. If they copy something that can be a real problem trying to trasnpose. If they try to correct mistakes it can take several times because the brain will make the same mistake again. Their concentration and learning window per day may be as short as 15 minutes or up to 4 hours likely tops. Schedule hard classes first. No scolding will change that it is a neurological limitation.

Now look at what I wrote. I did not use spell check. I proof read it once. Note the mistakes. All my other post in this thread I did spell check and proof read several times note the mistakes there as well. This is what C.A.P.D. is and it's many symptoms.

62 posted on 01/05/2006 7:39:39 PM PST by cva66snipe
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To: neverdem

The liberal form of chemical castration to permit indoctrination into their blissful world.


63 posted on 01/05/2006 7:41:48 PM PST by Modok
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To: cva66snipe

Thanks for the links. I'm a family practice doc. I don't recall hearing about CAPD before. My sister is a teacher, who has taught Special Ed. Bookmarked and emailed.


64 posted on 01/05/2006 8:50:54 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: american spirit
Just curious if it is true that schools get a financial type kickback from drug co's for every child placed into a drug program........I've heard there is but have yet to confirm.

I don't know.

65 posted on 01/05/2006 9:40:30 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem
Thanks for the links. I'm a family practice doc. I don't recall hearing about CAPD before. My sister is a teacher, who has taught Special Ed. Bookmarked and emailed.

Anytime. This subject is near and dear to my heart. I sent you an e-mail to explain it all. C.A.P.D. is newer Vestibular Research and the Vestibular/Behavior link is very strong both in C.A.P.D. and as well in Anxiety Disorders. That is why persons with Panic Attacks need a good Vestibular History work up especially before SSRI's are considered.

66 posted on 01/05/2006 9:51:01 PM PST by cva66snipe
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To: american spirit
Just curious if it is true that schools get a financial type kickback from drug co's for every child placed into a drug program........I've heard there is but have yet to confirm.

I give the question a shot. I think they get extra funds for students classified with learning disabilities. Medication would not determine such. Basically schools have been forced to mainstream kids with learning disabilities into the regular class room.

During the Polio epidemic schools which also served as area physical rehabilitation centers were common even up into the mid 1980's. The kids got Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy while at the same time attending school. The schools were the forerunners to todays Special Education classes.

One kid would have Polio, another one MD, another one autism, deaf & deaf mute, even legally blind. Most kids ADD ADHD which was rare then were also there. The classes were small and school hours averaged 5 hours including therapy. The state and local school boards picked up the cost along with some federal dollars to treat Polio victims etc.

It actually was a great system that worked & didn't need fixing. It wasn't by any means a day care program either as the kids learned and got much needed help. I attended such a school myself for two years. It helped me to learn some coping or compensation skills I needed that later got me into the Navy and then the National Guards. Without it I would have flunked the physicals. Up till that point I had trouble walking a straight line without looking down. When I left it was a breeze forwards backwards sideways. But today I would not pass such a test if a police officer used it on me.

When the school systems sometime in the 1980's were taken to court by a small group of parents who wanted their kid mainstreamed, the schools became history as did much of the help that went with it. To compensate for the added students special needs the schools are given extra funding. ADD ADHD is considered a learning disability & the Ritalin has nothing to do with it actually.

67 posted on 01/06/2006 12:36:07 AM PST by cva66snipe
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To: sweetliberty

I quite agree, but the fundamental reality is that the human resources to provide "boundaries, consistency and discipline, as well as positive feedback for good behavior" for all these kids just don't exist. These are very labor-intensive remedies, and most of these kids have parents who either don't really want them or are pretty messed up themselves. It would be helpful if the public (and private) schools in this country provided these things), though it's of limited use if the kid is going home to a chaotic situation every day. Plenty of kids from lousy homes aren't functioning well in school -- academically or behaviorally -- because they rarely get enough sleep at home. Neighbors in apartment buildings or closely packed rowhouses, and often the kid's parents or mom & boyfriend are blasting stereos at all hours, and having raucous drug and alcohol fueled social gatherings, not to mention putting no time restrictions on the kid's activities or bedtime.

Unless we start confiscating all these kids from their parents, and putting them all in military-style boarding schools (and who would staff such schools? look at the hellholes that foster kids often end up in for "homes"), often a pharmaceutical measure is the best available option. Certainly for a doctor or counselor, who are no position to reform the school system much less the home, the best they can do is to recommend/prescribe drugs. For a kid who doesn't have ADD, but has no way of getting enough sleep, Ritalin will indeed provide a boost and enable more academic achievement than would otherwise occur, improving the chances that the kid can set up and maintain a civilzed home when s/he grows up.


68 posted on 01/06/2006 8:28:23 AM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GovernmentShrinker
For a kid who doesn't have ADD, but has no way of getting enough sleep, Ritalin will indeed provide a boost and enable more academic achievement than would otherwise occur, improving the chances that the kid can set up and maintain a civilzed home when s/he grows up.

Ritalin will burn such a kid out real fast the same as if you gave them speed every morning. Do it and eventually they will crash mentally and quite possibly physically as well. That is not the intended use for the drug. Besides think for just a moment here. If these kids are in such homes where mom & pop are users etc then who do you think will get the Ritalin?

Also if the kid does have other neurological oriented learning problems like the ones I described in here and you go giving them Ritalin you will only do more damage to them as their sensory processing system is already over taxed {resulting in behavioral problems } and the kid definitely does not need enhanced impulses flooding the damaged or limited in processing capacity sensory receptors as Ritalin and SSRI's would do.

If a kid has a behavioral problem that is not a mental illness or learning disabling disorder then use a counselor {LCSW or Psychologist} and not medications to help them.

69 posted on 01/06/2006 12:50:51 PM PST by cva66snipe
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To: cva66snipe

Thanks for your input.......it makes a lot of sense the way you've outlined the situation. My concerns centered around the fact that so many of these schools systems seem to have such an unending lust for funds that it wouldn't have surprised me if there were cash incentives to unnecessarily classify kids as learning disabled.


70 posted on 01/06/2006 4:19:11 PM PST by american spirit (Can you handle the truth? - www.rbnlive.com ( 4-6 CST M-F)) / click "listen live")
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To: GovernmentShrinker

I can't disagree with your fundamental premise, but that is treating the symptom, not the illness. You can prescribe pain medication to temporarily relieve the pain caused by cancer, but unless the disease itself is aggressively attacked and rooted out, it will kill you. It's the same thing here, only on a societal level.


71 posted on 01/06/2006 5:45:14 PM PST by sweetliberty (Stupidity should make you sterile.)
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