11:35 a.m.: Foster mother sentenced
POSTED: December 17, 2009
Tribune Chronicle
WARREN -- The foster parent of a 21-month-old child who died in her care earlier this year was sentenced to nine years behind bars Thursday morning.
Bonnie Pattinson, 31, of Newton Falls, pleaded guilty in October to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Pattinson was originally charged with murder in the April death of Tiffany Sue Banks.
Natural family members of the infant spoke against the plea agreement, asking Judge John M. Stuard to sentence Pattinson to more time, including life without parole.
Stuard said he couldnt give more than 10 years under the law.
And assistant Prosecutor Diane Barber said murder would have been tough to prove had it gone to trial. She explained that the case consisted of only circumstantial evidence.
Children Services officials also said they approved of the plea deal.
http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/531155.html?nav=5021
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Thursday, December 17, 2009
San Diego Court Whistleblower Says She Will Lose Her Job If She Tells The Truth!
Examiner Bio San Diego Court Whistleblower Says She Will Lose Her Job If She Tells The Truth!
December 16, 10:28 PMSan Diego Courts ExaminerGregory Smart
Sylvia Bareno, a resident of Otay Ranch, a sub-division in Chula Vista claims she is employed by the San Diego Court in South Bay for about 20 years. She claims to work as a social worker in Family Court Services (FCS). Sylvia is very frustrated with a broken court system that claims to be looking out for the “best interests of children” is only looking to place the children with the least unstable parent when there is a custody dispute making it more likely the “parents will have to go back to court multiple times and spend thousands in courts fees and attorney’s fees and all in the name of bringing revenue into the courts and justifying extraordinary bloated court budgets.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-27585-San-Diego-Courts-Examiner~y2009m12d16-San-Diego-Court-Whistleblower-Says-She-Will-Lose-Her-Job-If-She-Tells-The-Truth
December 16, 10:28 PMSan Diego Courts ExaminerGregory Smart
Sylvia Bareno, a resident of Otay Ranch, a sub-division in Chula Vista claims she is employed by the San Diego Court in South Bay for about 20 years. She claims to work as a social worker in Family Court Services (FCS). Sylvia is very frustrated with a broken court system that claims to be looking out for the “best interests of children” is only looking to place the children with the least unstable parent when there is a custody dispute making it more likely the “parents will have to go back to court multiple times and spend thousands in courts fees and attorney’s fees and all in the name of bringing revenue into the courts and justifying extraordinary bloated court budgets.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-27585-San-Diego-Courts-Examiner~y2009m12d16-San-Diego-Court-Whistleblower-Says-She-Will-Lose-Her-Job-If-She-Tells-The-Truth
Why Are We Drugging Our Kids
Why Are We Drugging Our Kids?
By Evelyn Pringle, TruthOut.org. Posted December 14, 2009.
Psychiatric drugs are overprescribed and can even make mental symptoms worse in kids. They're also a goldmine for drug companies.
Prescriptions for psychiatric drugs increased 50 percent with children in the US, and 73 percent among adults, from 1996 to 2006, according to a study in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Health Affairs. Another study in the same issue of Health Affairs found spending for mental health care grew more than 30 percent over the same ten-year period, with almost all of the increase due to psychiatric drug costs.
On April 22, 2009, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported that in 2006 more money was spent on treating mental disorders in children aged 0 to 17 than for any other medical condition, with a total of $8.9 billion. By comparison, the cost of treating trauma-related disorders, including fractures, sprains, burns, and other physical injuries, was only $6.1 billion.
In 2008, psychiatric drug makers had overall sales in the US of $14.6 billion from antipsychotics, $9.6 billion off antidepressants, $11.3 billion from antiseizure drugs and $4.8 billion in sales of ADHD drugs, for a grand total of $40.3 billion.
The path to child drugging in the US started with providing adolescents with stimulants for ADHD in the early 80s. That was followed by Prozac in the late 80s, and in the mid-90s drug companies started claiming that ADHD kids really had bipolar disorder, coinciding with the marketing of epilepsy drugs as "mood stablizers" and the arrival of the new atypical antipsychotics.
Parents can now have their kids declared disabled due to mental illness and receive Social Security disability payments and free medical care, and schools can get more money for disabled kids. The bounty for the prescribing doctors and pharmacies is enormous and the CEOs of the drug companies are laughing all the way into early retirement.
Psychiatric Drugs Explained
During an interview with Street Spirit in August 2005, investigative journalist and author of "Mad in America," Robert Whitaker, described the dangers of psychiatric drugs. "When you look at the research literature, you find a clear pattern of outcomes with all these drugs," he said, "you see it with the antipsychotics, the antidepressants, the anti-anxiety drugs and the stimulants like Ritalin used to treat ADHD."
"All these drugs may curb a target symptom slightly more effectively than a placebo does for a short period of time, say six weeks," Whitaker said. However, what "you find with every class of these psychiatric drugs is a worsening of the target symptom of depression or psychosis or anxiety, over the long term, compared to placebo-treated patients."
"So even on the target symptoms, there's greater chronicity and greater severity of symptoms," he reports, "And you see a fairly significant percentage of patients where new and more severe psychiatric symptoms are triggered by the drug itself."
Whitaker told Street Spirit that the rate of Americans disabled by mental illness has skyrocketed since Prozac came on the market in 1987, and reports: (1) the number of mentally disabled people in the US has been increasing at a rate of 150,000 people per year since 1987, (2) that represents an increase of 410 new people per day and (3) the disability rate has continued to increase and one in every 50 Americans is disabled by mental illness.
The statistics above beg the question of how could this happen when the so-called new generation of "wonder drugs" arrived on the market during the exact same time period. The truth is, the "wonder drugs" cause most of the bizarre behaviors listed by doctors to warrant a mental illness disability.
Psychiatric Drug Goldmine
The CIA "World Factbook" estimate the world population to be about 6.8 billion and the US population to be a mere 307 million. In an April 2008 report, the market research firm Datamonitor reported that the "US dominates the ADHD market with a 94 percent market share."
ADHD drug prices at a middle dose for 90 pills at DrugStore.com, are: Adderall $278, Concerta $412, Desoxyn $366, Strattera $464 and Vyvanse $385. Daytrana costs $437 for three boxes of 30 nine-hour patches.
The SSRI and SNRI antidepressants include GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil and Wellbutrin, Pfizer's Zoloft, Celexa and Lexapro from Forest Labs, Luvox by Solvay, Wyeth's Effexor and Pristiq and Lilly's Prozac and Cymbalta. The average price of these drugs is about $300 for 90 pills at DrugStore.com.
The prices for anticonvulsants can run as high as $929 for 180 tablets of Glaxo's Lamictal, and $1170 for 180 tablets of Johnson & Johnson's Topamax.
In 2008, the atypical antipsychotics took over the slot as the top revenue earners in the US, and include Seroquel by AstraZeneca; Risperdal and Invega marketed by Janssen, a division of J&J; Geodon by Pfizer; Abilify from Bristol-Myers Squibb; Novartis' Clozaril and Eli Lilly's Zyprexa. The average price on these drugs for 100 pills at DrugStore.com is about $1,000. Lilly also sells Symbyax, a drug with Zyprexa and Prozac combined, at a cost $1,564 for 90 capsules at DrugStore.com in May 2009.
The briefing material submitted to an FDA advisory panel in April 2009 reported that an estimated 25.9 million patients worldwide had been exposed to Seroquel since its launch in 1997 through July 31, 2007, in the US, and the second quarter of 2007 for countries outside the US. Of that number, an estimated nearly 15.9 million took Seroquel in the US, compared to only ten million patients in the rest of the world. In 2008, the US accounted for roughly $3 billion of Seroquel's $4.5 billion in worldwide sales.
For the full-year of 2008, Eli Lilly reported worldwide Zyprexa sales of about $4.7 billion, with US sales of $2.2 billion and only $2.5 billion for the rest of the world.
FDA as Promotional Tool
On June 12, 2009, an FDA advisory panel gave the green light to expand the marketing of Zyprexa, Seroquel and Geodon for use with 13 to 17 year-olds diagnosed with schizophrenia and 10 to 17 year-olds diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The FDA usually follows its advisers' recommendations.
"Such approval gives manufacturers a shield from liability - for illegally promoting the drugs for off-label use," said Vera Hassner Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection.
"And such approval ensures increased use of these drugs," she warned. "Manufacturers and mental health providers will profit while children's physical and mental health will be sacrificed."
"The body of evidence showing these drugs to be harmful is irrefutable," she said, "it is documented in FDA's postmarketing database, and in secret internal company documents uncovered during litigation."
According to Dr. Stefan Kruszewski, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the atypicals increase the risk of obesity, type II diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks and stroke.
He said the drugs were marketed as safer and easier to tolerate than the older, cheaper antipsychotics because they would cause fewer neurological injuries like tardive dyskinesia and akathisia.
Those claims turned out to be totally false, he said, and "they continue to cause same neurological side-effects as the older antipsychotics."
"Children are known to be compliant patients and that makes them a highly desirable market for drugs, especially when it pertains to large-profit-margin psychiatric drugs, which can be wrought with issues of non-compliance because of their horrendous side effect profiles," according to a June 29, 2009 paper titled, "Drugging Our Children to Death," in Health News Digest.com, by Gwen Olsen, who spent over a decade as a pharmaceutical sales rep, and authored the book, "Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher."
Children are forced to take their drugs by doctors, parents and school personnel, she said. "So, children are the ideal patient-type because they represent refilled prescription compliance and 'longevity.'"
"In other words," Olsen noted, "they will be lifelong patients and repeat customers for Pharma!"
"The initiative to drug our children for profit has exceeded all common sense boundaries and is threatening the welfare of every American child," she stated, and it "is up to each and every one of us to stop this madness!"
Drug Makers Busted
Most all of the psychiatric drug companies have come under investigation over the past several years for promoting their drugs for off-label use, especially with children. However, the fines they end up paying are trivial compared to the profits earned through the illegal marketing campaigns.
In September 2007, Bristol-Myers Squibb entered into a $515 million civil settlement with the US Department of Justice for illegally marketing drugs, including Abilify, for off-label uses. In the first six months of 2009, Abilify had sales of $1.9 billion. In 2008, the salary and compensation package of Bristol-Myers' CEO, James Cornelius, was $23,150,236, according to the AFL-CIO's Executive PayWatch Database.
On January 29, 2009, Paxil and Wellbutrin maker, GlaxoSmithKline, announced that it would record a legal charge in the fourth quarter of 2008 of $400 million relating to an ongoing investigation initiated by the US attorney's office in Colorado into the US marketing and promotional practices for several products for the period 1997 to 2004. The government inquired about alleged off-label marketing as well as medical education programs for doctors, "other speaker events, special issue boards, advisory boards, speaker training programmes, clinical studies, and related grants, fees, travel and entertainment," according to a Glaxo annual report.
In January 2009, Eli Lilly settled with the DOJ and more than 30 states for $1.4 billion over the off-label marketing of Zyprexa. The agreement included a $615 million fine for a federal criminal charge. But $1.4 billion was chump change considering that Zyprexa was still Lilly's best seller in 2008, with sales of $4.69 billion. Lilly also has paid over $1 billion to settle lawsuits filed by Zyprexa patients. In the first six months of 2009, Zyprexa sales were $1.5 billion. In 2008, Lilly's CEO, John Lechleiter, had a pay package worth $12,856,882
In September 2009, the DOJ reached a $2.3 billion settlement with Pfizer related to the off-label promotion of several drugs, including the psychiatric drugs, Geodon, Zoloft and Lyrica, in the largest health-care fraud settlement in history. But even though Pfizer took the entire $2.3 billion as an earnings charge for the fourth quarter of 2008, the drug maker was still able to post a fourth quarter profit of $268 million. Pfizer's CEO in 2008, Jeffrey Kindler, had a salary and pay package of $15,547,600.
Johnson & Johnson is also dealing with the DOJ and state-level investigations into the off-label marketing of Risperdal. The company's latest SEC filing lists nine subpoenas received by the company involving promotions of Risperdal, including one "seeking information regarding the Company's financial relationship with several psychiatrists." In the first six months of 2009, Risperdal earned $660 million. J&J's CEO, William Weldon, had a pay package worth $29,127,432 in 2008.
AstraZeneca's third quarter SEC filing lists a $520 million tentative settlement agreement with the US attorney's office in Philadelphia to resolve allegations related to the off-label marketing of Seroquel. At "least 34 states are pursuing separate investigations of AstraZeneca's marketing practices as part of a joint investigation and others may be conducting their own probes," according to Ed Silverman on Pharmalot.
"A half a billion dollar one-time settlement is just a small cost of doing business for a company that sold $17 billion worth of the offending drug in the last five years," Dr. Roy Poses points out on the Health Care Renewal web site. In 2008 alone, Seroquel had world-wide sales of more than $4.4 billion.
As of July 13, 2009, AstraZeneca was also defending approximately 10,381 served or answered personal injury lawsuits and approximately 19,391 plaintiff groups involving Seroquel, according to SEC filings. Some of the cases also include claims against other drug makers such as Eli Lilly, Janssen Pharmaceutica and/or Bristol-Myers Squibb, the filing notes.
On September 23, 2009, Shire Pharmaceuticals received a subpoena from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in coordination with the US attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking production of documents related to the sales and marketing of Adderall XR, Daytrana and Vyvanse, according to Shire's third quarter report for 2009.
In a November 6, 2009, SEC filing, Abbott Labs said the federal prosecutor for the Western District of Virginia was conducting an investigation for the US Justice Department of whether the company's sales and marketing of Depakote violated civil or criminal laws, including the Federal False Claims Act and an anti-kickback statute related to reimbursement by Medicare and Medicaid programs to third parties.
In 2008, Depakote had sales of $1.36 billion and Abbott CEO, Miles White, had a salary and compensation package of $28,253,387.
In February 2009, the DOJ unsealed a lawsuit alleging that Forest Laboratories marketed the antidepressants Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved uses in children, and paid kickbacks to induce doctors to promote the drugs, including Dr. Jeffrey Bostic at Harvard University. In its latest SEC filing, Forest disclosed that it reached an agreement in principle in May 2009 to settle the civil aspects of US federal and state probes. "Penalties in the civil settlement are covered by a $170 million reserve Forest created in April," according to a November 9 report by Dow Jones.
Forest also disclosed that the agreement "does not resolve the government's ongoing investigation into potential criminal law violations" related to Celexa and Lexapro, and thyroid drug Levothroid, Dow Jones notes. In 2008, the salary and compensation for Forest CEO, Howard Solomon, was $6,565,324.
Over the past year and a half, a large number of so-called "Key Opinion Leaders" in the field of psychiatry have been exposed for not fully disclosing money received from many of the drug companies above through an investigation by the US Senate Finance Committee under the leadership of Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
The list so far includes Harvard University's Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens; Charles Nemeroff and Zackery Stowe from Emory; Melissa DelBello at the University of Cincinnati; Alan Schatzberg, president of the American Psychiatric Association from Stanford; Martin Keller at Brown University; Karen Wagner and Augustus John Rush from the University of Texas and Fred Goodwin, the former host of a radio show called "Infinite Minds," broadcast by National Pubic Radio.
Fines as a Business Expense
The fraud settlements are "merely a cost of doing business to these pharmaceutical Goliaths and, in fact, caps their liability for these crimes," said Alaskan attorney Jim Gottstein, the leader of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights), a public interest law firm.
"Most importantly," he noted, "these settlements have not stopped the practice of psychiatrists and other prescribers giving these drugs to children and youth and Medicaid continuing to pay for these fraudulent claims."
"Because of the massive, harmful, increase in the psychiatric drugging of America's children and youth, who are inherently forced, PsychRights has made addressing the problem a priority," he said.
Gottstein conducted an investigation and determined that the vast majority of off-label psychotropic drug prescriptions for children and youth that are paid for by Medicaid constitute Medicaid fraud.
PsychRights now has a national "Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children & Youth," designed to address this problem by "having lawsuits brought against the doctors prescribing these harmful, ineffective drugs, their employers, and the pharmacies filling these prescriptions and submitting them to Medicaid for reimbursement," according to its web site.
"Anyone who submits or causes claims to be submitted to Medicaid for drugs that are not for a 'medically accepted indication' is committing Medicaid Fraud," said Gottstein, in a July 27, 2009 press release announcing the launch of the national campaign.
"Those guilty of this Medicaid Fraud include psychiatrists and other physicians prescribing these drugs, their employers, and pharmacies submitting the false claims to Medicaid," he pointed out.
PsychRights estimates that over $2 billion in such fraudulent Medicaid claims are being paid by the government each year.
"Once one sues over specific offending prescriptions, all of such prescriptions can be brought in, which means that any psychiatrist on the losing end of such a lawsuit will almost certainly be bankrupted, because each offending prescription carries a penalty of between $5,500 and $11,000," PsychRights explained.
It is hoped that once the doctors and pharmacies realize they are subject to financially ruinous Medicaid fraud judgments, the practice will be stopped or substantially reduced.
"Each prescriber may have a million dollars or few, at most, to lose, but the pharmacies' financial exposure can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars and it is hoped this will attract attorneys to take these cases," the web site noted.
In September and October 2009, Gottstein gave presentations on the initiative at the annual conferences of the National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy and the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology in order to find people who are potentially interested and willing to pursue such cases.
"This was successful and we have at least a few such cases cooking," he reported. "PsychRights stands ready to help people interested in bringing such suits."
In late 2006, Gottstein won international fame by subpoenaing and releasing thousands of documents involving Eli Lilly's illegal marketing of Zyprexa, which resulted in front page stories in The New York Times.
PsychRights also has an appeal pending on a lawsuit filed against the state of Alaska and responsible state officials seeking declaratory and injunctive relief that Alaskan children and youth on Medicaid have the right not to be administered psychotropic drugs unless and until a number of specific conditions are met. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the state from paying for psychiatric drugs prescribed off-label to children and youth.
In responding to the lawsuit, the state claimed that they do have any control over or responsibility for the psychiatric drugging of children in their custody, or any responsibility under Medicaid, and moved for dismissal on the grounds that PsychRights does not have standing, or the right to bring the suit, because it was not harmed by the state's actions.
The court agreed and dismissed the case. "We think the judge is wrong and have filed an appeal," said Gottstein.
In May 2009, Gottstein sent letters to Sens. Charles Grassley and Herb Kohl and Reps. Henry Waxman, Bart Stupak, John Dingell and Barney Frank, describing the massive Medicaid fraud involved in the prescribing of psychiatric drugs to children in the US and asked for "assistance in stopping these illegal reimbursements."
As of November 8, 2009, Gottstein reported, "I haven't gotten as much as an acknowledgment of receipt from any of the members of Congress to whom I wrote."
While pursuing causes on behalf of PsychRights, Gottstein donates all of his time on a pro bono basis.
Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government.
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/144538/why_are_we_drugging_our_kids?page=entire
By Evelyn Pringle, TruthOut.org. Posted December 14, 2009.
Psychiatric drugs are overprescribed and can even make mental symptoms worse in kids. They're also a goldmine for drug companies.
Prescriptions for psychiatric drugs increased 50 percent with children in the US, and 73 percent among adults, from 1996 to 2006, according to a study in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Health Affairs. Another study in the same issue of Health Affairs found spending for mental health care grew more than 30 percent over the same ten-year period, with almost all of the increase due to psychiatric drug costs.
On April 22, 2009, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported that in 2006 more money was spent on treating mental disorders in children aged 0 to 17 than for any other medical condition, with a total of $8.9 billion. By comparison, the cost of treating trauma-related disorders, including fractures, sprains, burns, and other physical injuries, was only $6.1 billion.
In 2008, psychiatric drug makers had overall sales in the US of $14.6 billion from antipsychotics, $9.6 billion off antidepressants, $11.3 billion from antiseizure drugs and $4.8 billion in sales of ADHD drugs, for a grand total of $40.3 billion.
The path to child drugging in the US started with providing adolescents with stimulants for ADHD in the early 80s. That was followed by Prozac in the late 80s, and in the mid-90s drug companies started claiming that ADHD kids really had bipolar disorder, coinciding with the marketing of epilepsy drugs as "mood stablizers" and the arrival of the new atypical antipsychotics.
Parents can now have their kids declared disabled due to mental illness and receive Social Security disability payments and free medical care, and schools can get more money for disabled kids. The bounty for the prescribing doctors and pharmacies is enormous and the CEOs of the drug companies are laughing all the way into early retirement.
Psychiatric Drugs Explained
During an interview with Street Spirit in August 2005, investigative journalist and author of "Mad in America," Robert Whitaker, described the dangers of psychiatric drugs. "When you look at the research literature, you find a clear pattern of outcomes with all these drugs," he said, "you see it with the antipsychotics, the antidepressants, the anti-anxiety drugs and the stimulants like Ritalin used to treat ADHD."
"All these drugs may curb a target symptom slightly more effectively than a placebo does for a short period of time, say six weeks," Whitaker said. However, what "you find with every class of these psychiatric drugs is a worsening of the target symptom of depression or psychosis or anxiety, over the long term, compared to placebo-treated patients."
"So even on the target symptoms, there's greater chronicity and greater severity of symptoms," he reports, "And you see a fairly significant percentage of patients where new and more severe psychiatric symptoms are triggered by the drug itself."
Whitaker told Street Spirit that the rate of Americans disabled by mental illness has skyrocketed since Prozac came on the market in 1987, and reports: (1) the number of mentally disabled people in the US has been increasing at a rate of 150,000 people per year since 1987, (2) that represents an increase of 410 new people per day and (3) the disability rate has continued to increase and one in every 50 Americans is disabled by mental illness.
The statistics above beg the question of how could this happen when the so-called new generation of "wonder drugs" arrived on the market during the exact same time period. The truth is, the "wonder drugs" cause most of the bizarre behaviors listed by doctors to warrant a mental illness disability.
Psychiatric Drug Goldmine
The CIA "World Factbook" estimate the world population to be about 6.8 billion and the US population to be a mere 307 million. In an April 2008 report, the market research firm Datamonitor reported that the "US dominates the ADHD market with a 94 percent market share."
ADHD drug prices at a middle dose for 90 pills at DrugStore.com, are: Adderall $278, Concerta $412, Desoxyn $366, Strattera $464 and Vyvanse $385. Daytrana costs $437 for three boxes of 30 nine-hour patches.
The SSRI and SNRI antidepressants include GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil and Wellbutrin, Pfizer's Zoloft, Celexa and Lexapro from Forest Labs, Luvox by Solvay, Wyeth's Effexor and Pristiq and Lilly's Prozac and Cymbalta. The average price of these drugs is about $300 for 90 pills at DrugStore.com.
The prices for anticonvulsants can run as high as $929 for 180 tablets of Glaxo's Lamictal, and $1170 for 180 tablets of Johnson & Johnson's Topamax.
In 2008, the atypical antipsychotics took over the slot as the top revenue earners in the US, and include Seroquel by AstraZeneca; Risperdal and Invega marketed by Janssen, a division of J&J; Geodon by Pfizer; Abilify from Bristol-Myers Squibb; Novartis' Clozaril and Eli Lilly's Zyprexa. The average price on these drugs for 100 pills at DrugStore.com is about $1,000. Lilly also sells Symbyax, a drug with Zyprexa and Prozac combined, at a cost $1,564 for 90 capsules at DrugStore.com in May 2009.
The briefing material submitted to an FDA advisory panel in April 2009 reported that an estimated 25.9 million patients worldwide had been exposed to Seroquel since its launch in 1997 through July 31, 2007, in the US, and the second quarter of 2007 for countries outside the US. Of that number, an estimated nearly 15.9 million took Seroquel in the US, compared to only ten million patients in the rest of the world. In 2008, the US accounted for roughly $3 billion of Seroquel's $4.5 billion in worldwide sales.
For the full-year of 2008, Eli Lilly reported worldwide Zyprexa sales of about $4.7 billion, with US sales of $2.2 billion and only $2.5 billion for the rest of the world.
FDA as Promotional Tool
On June 12, 2009, an FDA advisory panel gave the green light to expand the marketing of Zyprexa, Seroquel and Geodon for use with 13 to 17 year-olds diagnosed with schizophrenia and 10 to 17 year-olds diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The FDA usually follows its advisers' recommendations.
"Such approval gives manufacturers a shield from liability - for illegally promoting the drugs for off-label use," said Vera Hassner Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection.
"And such approval ensures increased use of these drugs," she warned. "Manufacturers and mental health providers will profit while children's physical and mental health will be sacrificed."
"The body of evidence showing these drugs to be harmful is irrefutable," she said, "it is documented in FDA's postmarketing database, and in secret internal company documents uncovered during litigation."
According to Dr. Stefan Kruszewski, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the atypicals increase the risk of obesity, type II diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks and stroke.
He said the drugs were marketed as safer and easier to tolerate than the older, cheaper antipsychotics because they would cause fewer neurological injuries like tardive dyskinesia and akathisia.
Those claims turned out to be totally false, he said, and "they continue to cause same neurological side-effects as the older antipsychotics."
"Children are known to be compliant patients and that makes them a highly desirable market for drugs, especially when it pertains to large-profit-margin psychiatric drugs, which can be wrought with issues of non-compliance because of their horrendous side effect profiles," according to a June 29, 2009 paper titled, "Drugging Our Children to Death," in Health News Digest.com, by Gwen Olsen, who spent over a decade as a pharmaceutical sales rep, and authored the book, "Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher."
Children are forced to take their drugs by doctors, parents and school personnel, she said. "So, children are the ideal patient-type because they represent refilled prescription compliance and 'longevity.'"
"In other words," Olsen noted, "they will be lifelong patients and repeat customers for Pharma!"
"The initiative to drug our children for profit has exceeded all common sense boundaries and is threatening the welfare of every American child," she stated, and it "is up to each and every one of us to stop this madness!"
Drug Makers Busted
Most all of the psychiatric drug companies have come under investigation over the past several years for promoting their drugs for off-label use, especially with children. However, the fines they end up paying are trivial compared to the profits earned through the illegal marketing campaigns.
In September 2007, Bristol-Myers Squibb entered into a $515 million civil settlement with the US Department of Justice for illegally marketing drugs, including Abilify, for off-label uses. In the first six months of 2009, Abilify had sales of $1.9 billion. In 2008, the salary and compensation package of Bristol-Myers' CEO, James Cornelius, was $23,150,236, according to the AFL-CIO's Executive PayWatch Database.
On January 29, 2009, Paxil and Wellbutrin maker, GlaxoSmithKline, announced that it would record a legal charge in the fourth quarter of 2008 of $400 million relating to an ongoing investigation initiated by the US attorney's office in Colorado into the US marketing and promotional practices for several products for the period 1997 to 2004. The government inquired about alleged off-label marketing as well as medical education programs for doctors, "other speaker events, special issue boards, advisory boards, speaker training programmes, clinical studies, and related grants, fees, travel and entertainment," according to a Glaxo annual report.
In January 2009, Eli Lilly settled with the DOJ and more than 30 states for $1.4 billion over the off-label marketing of Zyprexa. The agreement included a $615 million fine for a federal criminal charge. But $1.4 billion was chump change considering that Zyprexa was still Lilly's best seller in 2008, with sales of $4.69 billion. Lilly also has paid over $1 billion to settle lawsuits filed by Zyprexa patients. In the first six months of 2009, Zyprexa sales were $1.5 billion. In 2008, Lilly's CEO, John Lechleiter, had a pay package worth $12,856,882
In September 2009, the DOJ reached a $2.3 billion settlement with Pfizer related to the off-label promotion of several drugs, including the psychiatric drugs, Geodon, Zoloft and Lyrica, in the largest health-care fraud settlement in history. But even though Pfizer took the entire $2.3 billion as an earnings charge for the fourth quarter of 2008, the drug maker was still able to post a fourth quarter profit of $268 million. Pfizer's CEO in 2008, Jeffrey Kindler, had a salary and pay package of $15,547,600.
Johnson & Johnson is also dealing with the DOJ and state-level investigations into the off-label marketing of Risperdal. The company's latest SEC filing lists nine subpoenas received by the company involving promotions of Risperdal, including one "seeking information regarding the Company's financial relationship with several psychiatrists." In the first six months of 2009, Risperdal earned $660 million. J&J's CEO, William Weldon, had a pay package worth $29,127,432 in 2008.
AstraZeneca's third quarter SEC filing lists a $520 million tentative settlement agreement with the US attorney's office in Philadelphia to resolve allegations related to the off-label marketing of Seroquel. At "least 34 states are pursuing separate investigations of AstraZeneca's marketing practices as part of a joint investigation and others may be conducting their own probes," according to Ed Silverman on Pharmalot.
"A half a billion dollar one-time settlement is just a small cost of doing business for a company that sold $17 billion worth of the offending drug in the last five years," Dr. Roy Poses points out on the Health Care Renewal web site. In 2008 alone, Seroquel had world-wide sales of more than $4.4 billion.
As of July 13, 2009, AstraZeneca was also defending approximately 10,381 served or answered personal injury lawsuits and approximately 19,391 plaintiff groups involving Seroquel, according to SEC filings. Some of the cases also include claims against other drug makers such as Eli Lilly, Janssen Pharmaceutica and/or Bristol-Myers Squibb, the filing notes.
On September 23, 2009, Shire Pharmaceuticals received a subpoena from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in coordination with the US attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking production of documents related to the sales and marketing of Adderall XR, Daytrana and Vyvanse, according to Shire's third quarter report for 2009.
In a November 6, 2009, SEC filing, Abbott Labs said the federal prosecutor for the Western District of Virginia was conducting an investigation for the US Justice Department of whether the company's sales and marketing of Depakote violated civil or criminal laws, including the Federal False Claims Act and an anti-kickback statute related to reimbursement by Medicare and Medicaid programs to third parties.
In 2008, Depakote had sales of $1.36 billion and Abbott CEO, Miles White, had a salary and compensation package of $28,253,387.
In February 2009, the DOJ unsealed a lawsuit alleging that Forest Laboratories marketed the antidepressants Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved uses in children, and paid kickbacks to induce doctors to promote the drugs, including Dr. Jeffrey Bostic at Harvard University. In its latest SEC filing, Forest disclosed that it reached an agreement in principle in May 2009 to settle the civil aspects of US federal and state probes. "Penalties in the civil settlement are covered by a $170 million reserve Forest created in April," according to a November 9 report by Dow Jones.
Forest also disclosed that the agreement "does not resolve the government's ongoing investigation into potential criminal law violations" related to Celexa and Lexapro, and thyroid drug Levothroid, Dow Jones notes. In 2008, the salary and compensation for Forest CEO, Howard Solomon, was $6,565,324.
Over the past year and a half, a large number of so-called "Key Opinion Leaders" in the field of psychiatry have been exposed for not fully disclosing money received from many of the drug companies above through an investigation by the US Senate Finance Committee under the leadership of Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
The list so far includes Harvard University's Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens; Charles Nemeroff and Zackery Stowe from Emory; Melissa DelBello at the University of Cincinnati; Alan Schatzberg, president of the American Psychiatric Association from Stanford; Martin Keller at Brown University; Karen Wagner and Augustus John Rush from the University of Texas and Fred Goodwin, the former host of a radio show called "Infinite Minds," broadcast by National Pubic Radio.
Fines as a Business Expense
The fraud settlements are "merely a cost of doing business to these pharmaceutical Goliaths and, in fact, caps their liability for these crimes," said Alaskan attorney Jim Gottstein, the leader of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights), a public interest law firm.
"Most importantly," he noted, "these settlements have not stopped the practice of psychiatrists and other prescribers giving these drugs to children and youth and Medicaid continuing to pay for these fraudulent claims."
"Because of the massive, harmful, increase in the psychiatric drugging of America's children and youth, who are inherently forced, PsychRights has made addressing the problem a priority," he said.
Gottstein conducted an investigation and determined that the vast majority of off-label psychotropic drug prescriptions for children and youth that are paid for by Medicaid constitute Medicaid fraud.
PsychRights now has a national "Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children & Youth," designed to address this problem by "having lawsuits brought against the doctors prescribing these harmful, ineffective drugs, their employers, and the pharmacies filling these prescriptions and submitting them to Medicaid for reimbursement," according to its web site.
"Anyone who submits or causes claims to be submitted to Medicaid for drugs that are not for a 'medically accepted indication' is committing Medicaid Fraud," said Gottstein, in a July 27, 2009 press release announcing the launch of the national campaign.
"Those guilty of this Medicaid Fraud include psychiatrists and other physicians prescribing these drugs, their employers, and pharmacies submitting the false claims to Medicaid," he pointed out.
PsychRights estimates that over $2 billion in such fraudulent Medicaid claims are being paid by the government each year.
"Once one sues over specific offending prescriptions, all of such prescriptions can be brought in, which means that any psychiatrist on the losing end of such a lawsuit will almost certainly be bankrupted, because each offending prescription carries a penalty of between $5,500 and $11,000," PsychRights explained.
It is hoped that once the doctors and pharmacies realize they are subject to financially ruinous Medicaid fraud judgments, the practice will be stopped or substantially reduced.
"Each prescriber may have a million dollars or few, at most, to lose, but the pharmacies' financial exposure can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars and it is hoped this will attract attorneys to take these cases," the web site noted.
In September and October 2009, Gottstein gave presentations on the initiative at the annual conferences of the National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy and the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology in order to find people who are potentially interested and willing to pursue such cases.
"This was successful and we have at least a few such cases cooking," he reported. "PsychRights stands ready to help people interested in bringing such suits."
In late 2006, Gottstein won international fame by subpoenaing and releasing thousands of documents involving Eli Lilly's illegal marketing of Zyprexa, which resulted in front page stories in The New York Times.
PsychRights also has an appeal pending on a lawsuit filed against the state of Alaska and responsible state officials seeking declaratory and injunctive relief that Alaskan children and youth on Medicaid have the right not to be administered psychotropic drugs unless and until a number of specific conditions are met. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the state from paying for psychiatric drugs prescribed off-label to children and youth.
In responding to the lawsuit, the state claimed that they do have any control over or responsibility for the psychiatric drugging of children in their custody, or any responsibility under Medicaid, and moved for dismissal on the grounds that PsychRights does not have standing, or the right to bring the suit, because it was not harmed by the state's actions.
The court agreed and dismissed the case. "We think the judge is wrong and have filed an appeal," said Gottstein.
In May 2009, Gottstein sent letters to Sens. Charles Grassley and Herb Kohl and Reps. Henry Waxman, Bart Stupak, John Dingell and Barney Frank, describing the massive Medicaid fraud involved in the prescribing of psychiatric drugs to children in the US and asked for "assistance in stopping these illegal reimbursements."
As of November 8, 2009, Gottstein reported, "I haven't gotten as much as an acknowledgment of receipt from any of the members of Congress to whom I wrote."
While pursuing causes on behalf of PsychRights, Gottstein donates all of his time on a pro bono basis.
Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government.
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/144538/why_are_we_drugging_our_kids?page=entire
Antipsychotic Prescribing in Children: What We Know—What We Need to Know
December 16, 2009
Psychiatric Times.
Antipsychotic Prescribing in Children: What We Know—What We Need to Know
Mark Olfson, MD, MPH
Columbia University
New York, New York
A pair of recent research articles has cast the public spotlight on treating children and adolescents with antipsychotic medications.1,2 In the first report, a large and broadly representative group of child and adolescent patients, all naive to antipsychotic medications, was followed for approximately 10 weeks after initiating treatment with olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, or aripiprazole. The average weight increase ranged from 18.7 pounds (olanzapine) to 9.7 pounds (aripiprazole).3 In the second report, Medicaid-insured youth were found to be approximately 4 times as likely as privately insured youth to fill prescriptions for antipsychotic medications. Only a minority of the privately-insured (32.6%) and Medicaid-insured (26.9%) youth had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or a pervasive developmental disorder.4
The prospect of large numbers of youth receiving potentially weight-inducing antipsychotic medications for clinical diagnoses that have only scant empirical support of clinical efficacy understandably raises critical concern. How often do the known cardiometabolic risks outweigh uncertain clinical benefits? This question becomes especially pointed when it involves low income and minority children—vulnerable groups already at high risk for obesity and its metabolic complications. The new findings are likely to fuel fresh concerns over drug safety and raise new worries over indiscriminate antipsychotic medication use in young people. If taken out of context, the findings could tarnish the image of child psychiatric services and further restrict appropriate mental health seeking behavior by concerned parents for their children. Before jumping to conclusions, however, it is important to consider what we know and what we do not know about antipsychotic prescribing to young people.
Over the last decade, the clinical targets of antipsychotic medications for children and adolescents have broadened. What had been a relatively narrow focus on psychotic symptoms in rare early onset psychotic disorders and irritability in pervasive developmental disorders has grown to include aggressive behaviors and mood dysregulation that occurs in a wide range of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders and sometimes in otherwise normal youth. Aggressive behavior, in particular, is a common and clinically heterogeneous feature of the disorders that have seen the largest increases in antipsychotic medication treatment of children, including bipolar disorder and disruptive behavior disorders. Yet the potential dangers of not treating these symptoms, especially when they occur in more severe forms, have not been well quantified.
A consideration of antipsychotic treatment of young people inevitably leads to a consideration of treatment alternatives. Unfortunately, we know little about the availability of evidence-based psychosocial treatments5 such as cognitive behavioral therapy with a focus on anger management or mood regulation. If, as I suspect, these psychosocial interventions are rarely accessible to children and adolescents in need, then strong policy and educational reforms are required to help make these treatments more widely available.
The public too often tends to link all psychotropic medication prescribing with the practice of psychiatry. The reality, of course, is that non-psychiatrist physicians prescribe most of the psychotropic medication treatment in the United States. For antidepressants—the most common class of psychotropic medication—only about 20% of treated patients are cared for psychiatrists.6 We lack an understanding of the respective roles of psychiatrists and other physicians in the antipsychotic treatment of children and adolescents. More specifically, little is known about how the clinical characteristics of young people treated with antipsychotic medications vary by the specialty of their treating physician. In addition to learning more about the clinical symptom targets of antipsychotic use in clinical practice, attention should be devoted to describing and improving routine clinical assessments. To what extent do children and adolescents who are prescribed antipsychotic medications receive thorough and developmentally-sensitive mental health assessments and evaluations of their home environments?
Strong evidence that several widely prescribed antipsychotic medications result in rapid and substantial weight gain in young people should increase attention devoted to clinical assessment, patient selection, and metabolic status monitoring. It is hoped that the public interest that has been raised by the recent reports will invigorate efforts to improve our understanding of the appropriate role of antipsychotic medications in treating childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders while spurring efforts to increase access to evidence-based psychosocial treatments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
1. Wilson D, Weight gain associated with antipsychotic drugs. New York Times. October 28, 2009.
2. Wilson D, Poor children likelier to get antipsychotics. New York Times. December 11, 2009.
3. Correll CU, Manu P, Olshanskiy V, et al. Cardiometabolic risk of second-generation antipsychotic medications during first-time use in children and adolescents. JAMA. 2009;302:1765-73.
4. Crystal SC, Olfson M, Huang C, et al. Broadened use of atypical antipsychotic drugs: safety, effectiveness, and policy challenges. Health Affairs. 2009;28:770-81.
5. Weissman MM, Verdili H, Gameroff MJ, et al. National survey of psychotherapy training in psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:925-934.
6. Olfson M, Marcus SC. National patterns in antidepressant medication treatment. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66:848-856.
2. Wilson D, Poor children likelier to get antipsychotics. New York Times. December 11, 2009. 3. Correll CU, Manu P, Olshanskiy V, et al. Cardiometabolic risk of second-generation antipsychotic medications during first-time use in children and adolescents. JAMA. 2009;302:1765-73. 4. Crystal SC, Olfson M, Huang C, et al. Broadened use of atypical antipsychotic drugs: safety, effectiveness, and policy challenges. Health Affairs. 2009;28:770-81. 5. Weissman MM, Verdili H, Gameroff MJ, et al. National survey of psychotherapy training in psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:925-934. 6. Olfson M, Marcus SC. National patterns in antidepressant medication treatment. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66:848-856
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1499811?verify=0
Psychiatric Times.
Antipsychotic Prescribing in Children: What We Know—What We Need to Know
Mark Olfson, MD, MPH
Columbia University
New York, New York
A pair of recent research articles has cast the public spotlight on treating children and adolescents with antipsychotic medications.1,2 In the first report, a large and broadly representative group of child and adolescent patients, all naive to antipsychotic medications, was followed for approximately 10 weeks after initiating treatment with olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, or aripiprazole. The average weight increase ranged from 18.7 pounds (olanzapine) to 9.7 pounds (aripiprazole).3 In the second report, Medicaid-insured youth were found to be approximately 4 times as likely as privately insured youth to fill prescriptions for antipsychotic medications. Only a minority of the privately-insured (32.6%) and Medicaid-insured (26.9%) youth had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or a pervasive developmental disorder.4
The prospect of large numbers of youth receiving potentially weight-inducing antipsychotic medications for clinical diagnoses that have only scant empirical support of clinical efficacy understandably raises critical concern. How often do the known cardiometabolic risks outweigh uncertain clinical benefits? This question becomes especially pointed when it involves low income and minority children—vulnerable groups already at high risk for obesity and its metabolic complications. The new findings are likely to fuel fresh concerns over drug safety and raise new worries over indiscriminate antipsychotic medication use in young people. If taken out of context, the findings could tarnish the image of child psychiatric services and further restrict appropriate mental health seeking behavior by concerned parents for their children. Before jumping to conclusions, however, it is important to consider what we know and what we do not know about antipsychotic prescribing to young people.
Over the last decade, the clinical targets of antipsychotic medications for children and adolescents have broadened. What had been a relatively narrow focus on psychotic symptoms in rare early onset psychotic disorders and irritability in pervasive developmental disorders has grown to include aggressive behaviors and mood dysregulation that occurs in a wide range of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders and sometimes in otherwise normal youth. Aggressive behavior, in particular, is a common and clinically heterogeneous feature of the disorders that have seen the largest increases in antipsychotic medication treatment of children, including bipolar disorder and disruptive behavior disorders. Yet the potential dangers of not treating these symptoms, especially when they occur in more severe forms, have not been well quantified.
A consideration of antipsychotic treatment of young people inevitably leads to a consideration of treatment alternatives. Unfortunately, we know little about the availability of evidence-based psychosocial treatments5 such as cognitive behavioral therapy with a focus on anger management or mood regulation. If, as I suspect, these psychosocial interventions are rarely accessible to children and adolescents in need, then strong policy and educational reforms are required to help make these treatments more widely available.
The public too often tends to link all psychotropic medication prescribing with the practice of psychiatry. The reality, of course, is that non-psychiatrist physicians prescribe most of the psychotropic medication treatment in the United States. For antidepressants—the most common class of psychotropic medication—only about 20% of treated patients are cared for psychiatrists.6 We lack an understanding of the respective roles of psychiatrists and other physicians in the antipsychotic treatment of children and adolescents. More specifically, little is known about how the clinical characteristics of young people treated with antipsychotic medications vary by the specialty of their treating physician. In addition to learning more about the clinical symptom targets of antipsychotic use in clinical practice, attention should be devoted to describing and improving routine clinical assessments. To what extent do children and adolescents who are prescribed antipsychotic medications receive thorough and developmentally-sensitive mental health assessments and evaluations of their home environments?
Strong evidence that several widely prescribed antipsychotic medications result in rapid and substantial weight gain in young people should increase attention devoted to clinical assessment, patient selection, and metabolic status monitoring. It is hoped that the public interest that has been raised by the recent reports will invigorate efforts to improve our understanding of the appropriate role of antipsychotic medications in treating childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders while spurring efforts to increase access to evidence-based psychosocial treatments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
1. Wilson D, Weight gain associated with antipsychotic drugs. New York Times. October 28, 2009.
2. Wilson D, Poor children likelier to get antipsychotics. New York Times. December 11, 2009.
3. Correll CU, Manu P, Olshanskiy V, et al. Cardiometabolic risk of second-generation antipsychotic medications during first-time use in children and adolescents. JAMA. 2009;302:1765-73.
4. Crystal SC, Olfson M, Huang C, et al. Broadened use of atypical antipsychotic drugs: safety, effectiveness, and policy challenges. Health Affairs. 2009;28:770-81.
5. Weissman MM, Verdili H, Gameroff MJ, et al. National survey of psychotherapy training in psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:925-934.
6. Olfson M, Marcus SC. National patterns in antidepressant medication treatment. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66:848-856.
2. Wilson D, Poor children likelier to get antipsychotics. New York Times. December 11, 2009. 3. Correll CU, Manu P, Olshanskiy V, et al. Cardiometabolic risk of second-generation antipsychotic medications during first-time use in children and adolescents. JAMA. 2009;302:1765-73. 4. Crystal SC, Olfson M, Huang C, et al. Broadened use of atypical antipsychotic drugs: safety, effectiveness, and policy challenges. Health Affairs. 2009;28:770-81. 5. Weissman MM, Verdili H, Gameroff MJ, et al. National survey of psychotherapy training in psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:925-934. 6. Olfson M, Marcus SC. National patterns in antidepressant medication treatment. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66:848-856
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1499811?verify=0
Drug charge against pregnant woman is unusual in NH
Published: November 15, 2007 11:55 am
(It's quite odd for this woman to be arrested and charged, whereas in the State of NH, a woman Can Not be charged with abuse and neglect for pre-natal drug use. In which case, DCYF then covers their behinds by charging the mother with "anticipated neglect in the future". Also, in the State of NH, an unborn fetus is NOT considered a human being!)
Drug charge against pregnant woman is unusual
By James A. Kimble , Staff writer
Eagle-Tribune
A Hampstead woman may be the first in Rockingham County to be arrested on charges of shooting heroin while being pregnant.
But state officials said it isn't uncommon for parents to have some form of substance abuse - from alcohol to hardcore narcotics.
"Typically, we would find out if a baby is addicted to a substance after the child is born," said Maggie Bishop, an administrator with the Department of Health and Human Services.
When there's enough evidence to support it, police can file criminal charges.
Hampstead police charged Nina Doane, 22, with a misdemeanor child endangerment charge on Oct. 26. Doane is about five months pregnant, according to a complaint filed in Plaistow District Court.
Police did not say how they came to arrest Doane. If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail, with court-ordered counseling and up to a $2,000 fine. Health and Human Services could step in and file court action to take custody away from Doane.
Investigators with the state's Child Protection Bureau, a branch of Health and Human Services, found 33 percent of the neglect cases in Southern New Hampshire last year involved substance abuse issues that impacted children. Those cases included parents addicted to alcohol, and a variety of illegal or over-the-counter drugs.
The bureau's Salem-based office conducted 477 new neglect investigations in 2006 in Salem, Atkinson, Chester, Danville, Derry, Hampstead, Kingston, Sandown, Windham, Londonderry, Newton and Plaistow.
Statewide, the agency conducted 6,929 investigations, with 34 percent, or 2,379 cases, involving substance abuse that affected a child. The agency does not track how many children are born addicted to a substance or the types of substances, Bishop said.
Melissa Correia, an administrator with Health and Human Services Bureau of Quality Improvement, said the number of neglect cases involving substance abuse has remained fairly static over the last five years.
County Attorney James Reams said Doane's case may be a first for Rockingham County, but such charges are being tried more and more around the country.
"It's not done here very often," Reams said. "I'd characterize it here as something that's very rare."
Prosecutors must prove that Doane knew heroin would be harmful to her baby. They could use expert witnesses to explain to a judge or jury how drugs can affect the development of an unborn child, Reams said.
Doane is due for her first court appearance on Dec. 17, 2007
http://www.eagletribune.com/punewsnh/local_story_319115647
(It's quite odd for this woman to be arrested and charged, whereas in the State of NH, a woman Can Not be charged with abuse and neglect for pre-natal drug use. In which case, DCYF then covers their behinds by charging the mother with "anticipated neglect in the future". Also, in the State of NH, an unborn fetus is NOT considered a human being!)
Drug charge against pregnant woman is unusual
By James A. Kimble , Staff writer
Eagle-Tribune
A Hampstead woman may be the first in Rockingham County to be arrested on charges of shooting heroin while being pregnant.
But state officials said it isn't uncommon for parents to have some form of substance abuse - from alcohol to hardcore narcotics.
"Typically, we would find out if a baby is addicted to a substance after the child is born," said Maggie Bishop, an administrator with the Department of Health and Human Services.
When there's enough evidence to support it, police can file criminal charges.
Hampstead police charged Nina Doane, 22, with a misdemeanor child endangerment charge on Oct. 26. Doane is about five months pregnant, according to a complaint filed in Plaistow District Court.
Police did not say how they came to arrest Doane. If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail, with court-ordered counseling and up to a $2,000 fine. Health and Human Services could step in and file court action to take custody away from Doane.
Investigators with the state's Child Protection Bureau, a branch of Health and Human Services, found 33 percent of the neglect cases in Southern New Hampshire last year involved substance abuse issues that impacted children. Those cases included parents addicted to alcohol, and a variety of illegal or over-the-counter drugs.
The bureau's Salem-based office conducted 477 new neglect investigations in 2006 in Salem, Atkinson, Chester, Danville, Derry, Hampstead, Kingston, Sandown, Windham, Londonderry, Newton and Plaistow.
Statewide, the agency conducted 6,929 investigations, with 34 percent, or 2,379 cases, involving substance abuse that affected a child. The agency does not track how many children are born addicted to a substance or the types of substances, Bishop said.
Melissa Correia, an administrator with Health and Human Services Bureau of Quality Improvement, said the number of neglect cases involving substance abuse has remained fairly static over the last five years.
County Attorney James Reams said Doane's case may be a first for Rockingham County, but such charges are being tried more and more around the country.
"It's not done here very often," Reams said. "I'd characterize it here as something that's very rare."
Prosecutors must prove that Doane knew heroin would be harmful to her baby. They could use expert witnesses to explain to a judge or jury how drugs can affect the development of an unborn child, Reams said.
Doane is due for her first court appearance on Dec. 17, 2007
http://www.eagletribune.com/punewsnh/local_story_319115647
State faces suit over foster family placement
State faces suit over foster family placement
on Nashuatelegraph.com DHHS Releases Study of Children in Out of Home Placement in the Medicaid Program
Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 07:18AM
Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Medicaid and Business Policy (OMBP) announce results from a study of the health and health care use of children in out-of-home placement (i.e., residential placement and family foster care) in the New Hampshire Medicaid program. The report is part of OMBP’s Comprehensive Healthcare Information System (CHIS) project. The study evaluated various health care measures to compare children in out-of-home placement to other low-income children enrolled in New Hampshire Medicaid during State Fiscal Year 2007.
“The study of the medical and mental health services used by the out-of-home placement population,” said DHHS Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas, “is an important cross-departmental effort to learn more about this vulnerable population the Department serves.”
The study revealed that NH children in both kinds of out-of-home placement had higher rates of disease, mental health disorders, utilization, and payment rates compared with other low-income children covered by Medicaid. The study also showed that children in out-of-home placement had higher rates of well-child preventive visits than the comparison low-income group and national managed care rates.
"The Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has a strong foster care health program that has been recognized nationally as a promising practice,” said DCYF Director Maggie Bishop, “this research contributes to our model of continuous quality improvement and the results will have a direct impact on practice and policy decisions."
After removing services unique to special Medicaid populations (including placement services), the Medicaid payments for children in out-of-home placement were on average three times the rate of the low-income comparison group (per member, per month costs for children in residential placement were $807, in family foster care were $369, and in the low-income comparison group were $142).
To see the study visit the DHHS website:
http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us/DHHS/OMBP/LIBRARY
http://www.backtype.com/anonymous/comment/000027d7e24e49ae000000009f15c26d
on Nashuatelegraph.com DHHS Releases Study of Children in Out of Home Placement in the Medicaid Program
Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 07:18AM
Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Medicaid and Business Policy (OMBP) announce results from a study of the health and health care use of children in out-of-home placement (i.e., residential placement and family foster care) in the New Hampshire Medicaid program. The report is part of OMBP’s Comprehensive Healthcare Information System (CHIS) project. The study evaluated various health care measures to compare children in out-of-home placement to other low-income children enrolled in New Hampshire Medicaid during State Fiscal Year 2007.
“The study of the medical and mental health services used by the out-of-home placement population,” said DHHS Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas, “is an important cross-departmental effort to learn more about this vulnerable population the Department serves.”
The study revealed that NH children in both kinds of out-of-home placement had higher rates of disease, mental health disorders, utilization, and payment rates compared with other low-income children covered by Medicaid. The study also showed that children in out-of-home placement had higher rates of well-child preventive visits than the comparison low-income group and national managed care rates.
"The Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has a strong foster care health program that has been recognized nationally as a promising practice,” said DCYF Director Maggie Bishop, “this research contributes to our model of continuous quality improvement and the results will have a direct impact on practice and policy decisions."
After removing services unique to special Medicaid populations (including placement services), the Medicaid payments for children in out-of-home placement were on average three times the rate of the low-income comparison group (per member, per month costs for children in residential placement were $807, in family foster care were $369, and in the low-income comparison group were $142).
To see the study visit the DHHS website:
http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us/DHHS/OMBP/LIBRARY
http://www.backtype.com/anonymous/comment/000027d7e24e49ae000000009f15c26d
Maine and N.H. abuse figures not easily compared
Maine and N.H. abuse figures not easily compared (how could they even be considered accurate when children are stolen from their families due to false allegations?)
June 24, 2007 — Lisa
Article
By VICTORIA GUAY
Staff Writer
vguay@citizen.com
There were an estimated 899,000 victims of abuse and neglect in 2005, according to the 16th annual Child Maltreatment Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published in April.
More than half of the victims (54.5 percent) were 7 years old or younger.
In New Hampshire, there were 941 victims of abuse and neglect in fiscal year 2005. This compares to 2001, when there were 1,102 victims.
Approximately 192 of New Hampshire’s 941 victims in 2005 (or 20.4 percent) were victims of physical abuse, and 185 (or 19.7 percent) were victims of sexual abuse.
In Maine, the federal report indicated there were 3,349 victims of abuse and neglect in fiscal year 2005. Of those children, 751 (or 22.4 percent) were victims of physical abuse and 426 (or 12.7 percent) were victims of sexual abuse.
Maine’s number of child victims was more than three times New Hampshire’s, despite both states having similar populations, New Hampshire at 1.31 million and Maine at 1.32 million.
Maggie Bishop, director of the New Hampshire Division of Children Youth and Families, said the disparity may be due to several possibilities.
First, each state has a different definition of what constitutes child abuse and neglect, usually set forth in a state statute. Second, many states have different data collection systems, Bishop said.
For example, one state may assign each child who may have been abused or neglected a separate case number while another state may assign one case number to a whole family. So an allegation of abuse by a mother of her four children may count as one case in one state and four cases in another.
Also, some states may count an allegation of both abuse and neglect against one child to be two cases, while another state would count it as one case.
“It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” Bishop said.
Dan Despard, director of Child Welfare Services in Maine, said that in addition to each state having different definitions of abuse, they also have different standards for how a finding should be made and the appeal process.
Despard said that Maine is a state that would consider an allegation of abuse and neglect against one child as one abuse victim and one neglect victim, which could account in part for why Maine’s number is so much higher in the federal report.
Despard said during fiscal year 2005, Maine had 17,681 reports made to the department.
Of those reports, 9,731 did not contain specific allegations of abuse or neglect, and were not investigated.
There were approximately 7,950 cases that were investigated and of those, 2,052 were confirmed cases. Of the 2,052 confirmed cases, Despard said there were 380 child victims of sexual abuse and 648 victims of physical abuse.
Despard said that Maine’s substantiation rate is 36.6 percent compared to New Hampshire’s 12 percent, which also helps account for the disparity in the number of victims listed in the federal report.
Bishop said in 2005 in New Hampshire, more than 16,000 alleged abuse and neglect incidents were reported. Of those, approximately 6,000 cases were investigated. There were 182 complete and substantiated investigations of physical child abuse, and 184 cases of sexual assault. (Ms. Bishop fails to report how many children were stolen and kept from their families due to allegations of "Anticipated Neglect in the Future.")(She also failed to report how many children were stolen in NH due to false allegations.)
Comparatively, there were 608 completed investigations of neglect allegations conducted by the division.
The states with the highest percentages of reported physical abuse victims include Alabama, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Vermont had 48.4 percent of its 1,080 confirmed victims suffering from physical abuse, Alabama’s percentage was 40.5 percent of 9,028 victims, and Pennsylvania’s rate was 32.4 percent out of 4,353 victims.
The states with the highest percent of sexual abuse victims during fiscal year 2005 include Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania reported that 62.5 percent of their total 4,353 confirmed child victims suffered sexual abuse. In Vermont, 46.5 percent of 1,080 confirmed child victims suffered sexual abuse, and in Wisconsin it was 37.8 percent of 9,686 total victims.
Nationally, of all the reported child victims during fiscal year 2005, 16.6 percent were physically abused and 9.3 percent were sexually abused. Neglect is by far the most reported crime, having affected 62.8 percent of child victims.
During fiscal year 2005, an estimated 1,460 children died due to abuse or neglect, at a rate of nearly two (1.96) children per every 100,000. In 2004, 1,490 children lost their lives, or slightly over two (2.3) children per 100,000.
More than three-quarters (76.6 percent) of children who died were younger than 4 years of age, 13.4 percent were 4 to 7 years of age, 4 percent were 8 to 11 years of age, and 6.1 percent were 12 to 17 years of age.
Infant boys (younger than 1 year old) had the highest fatality rate in 2005.
Below half (44.3 percent) of all fatalities were white children, 26 percent were African-American and 19.3 percent were Hispanic. American Indian, other minority groups and multiple race categories accounted for 4.5 percent of the fatalities.
Three-quarters (76.6 percent) of deaths due to abuse and neglect in 2005 were caused by a parent. Nonparental perpetrators accounted for 13 percent of the deaths.
In New Hampshire, out of a total child population of 303,151, there were 2 deaths attributed to abuse or neglect, for a rate of .66 per 100,000 children. In Maine, out of the total child population of 277,336, there was one fatality, resulting in a rate of .36 per 100,000.
The states that had the highest child death rates due to abuse and neglect were Oklahoma, with nearly 5 (4.8) deaths per 100,000 children; West Virginia, with 4.2 deaths per 100,000 children; Georgia at 3.2 deaths per 100,000 children; Texas with 3.1 deaths per 100,000 children; and Missouri, with 3.05 deaths per 100,000 children.
Several states reported no child deaths due to abuse or neglect in 2005, including Delaware, Idaho, North Carolina and Vermont.
In fiscal year 2005, an estimated 3.3 million referrals, involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 6 million children, were made to child protection agencies in the United States. This is an increase of approximately 73,000 children from 2004.
According to the U.S. DHHS maltreatment report, in fiscal year 2005 more than three-quarters (79.4 percent) of perpetrators of abuse and neglect were parents of their victim (s) and another 6.8 percent were other relatives. Unrelated caregivers — including foster parents, residential facility staff, child care providers and legal guardians — made up less than 10 percent of perpetrators.
Women comprised a larger percentage of all perpetrators than men — 57.8 percent compared to 42.2 percent. This includes all maltreatment crimes, including neglect.
Also according to the U.S. DHHS report, 7.7 percent of all perpetrators committed sexual abuse while 61 percent committed neglect.
Posted in Maine, New Hampshire, Studies, US NEWS.
http://sadlynormal.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/maine-and-nh-abuse-figures-not-easily-compared/
June 24, 2007 — Lisa
Article
By VICTORIA GUAY
Staff Writer
vguay@citizen.com
There were an estimated 899,000 victims of abuse and neglect in 2005, according to the 16th annual Child Maltreatment Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published in April.
More than half of the victims (54.5 percent) were 7 years old or younger.
In New Hampshire, there were 941 victims of abuse and neglect in fiscal year 2005. This compares to 2001, when there were 1,102 victims.
Approximately 192 of New Hampshire’s 941 victims in 2005 (or 20.4 percent) were victims of physical abuse, and 185 (or 19.7 percent) were victims of sexual abuse.
In Maine, the federal report indicated there were 3,349 victims of abuse and neglect in fiscal year 2005. Of those children, 751 (or 22.4 percent) were victims of physical abuse and 426 (or 12.7 percent) were victims of sexual abuse.
Maine’s number of child victims was more than three times New Hampshire’s, despite both states having similar populations, New Hampshire at 1.31 million and Maine at 1.32 million.
Maggie Bishop, director of the New Hampshire Division of Children Youth and Families, said the disparity may be due to several possibilities.
First, each state has a different definition of what constitutes child abuse and neglect, usually set forth in a state statute. Second, many states have different data collection systems, Bishop said.
For example, one state may assign each child who may have been abused or neglected a separate case number while another state may assign one case number to a whole family. So an allegation of abuse by a mother of her four children may count as one case in one state and four cases in another.
Also, some states may count an allegation of both abuse and neglect against one child to be two cases, while another state would count it as one case.
“It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” Bishop said.
Dan Despard, director of Child Welfare Services in Maine, said that in addition to each state having different definitions of abuse, they also have different standards for how a finding should be made and the appeal process.
Despard said that Maine is a state that would consider an allegation of abuse and neglect against one child as one abuse victim and one neglect victim, which could account in part for why Maine’s number is so much higher in the federal report.
Despard said during fiscal year 2005, Maine had 17,681 reports made to the department.
Of those reports, 9,731 did not contain specific allegations of abuse or neglect, and were not investigated.
There were approximately 7,950 cases that were investigated and of those, 2,052 were confirmed cases. Of the 2,052 confirmed cases, Despard said there were 380 child victims of sexual abuse and 648 victims of physical abuse.
Despard said that Maine’s substantiation rate is 36.6 percent compared to New Hampshire’s 12 percent, which also helps account for the disparity in the number of victims listed in the federal report.
Bishop said in 2005 in New Hampshire, more than 16,000 alleged abuse and neglect incidents were reported. Of those, approximately 6,000 cases were investigated. There were 182 complete and substantiated investigations of physical child abuse, and 184 cases of sexual assault. (Ms. Bishop fails to report how many children were stolen and kept from their families due to allegations of "Anticipated Neglect in the Future.")(She also failed to report how many children were stolen in NH due to false allegations.)
Comparatively, there were 608 completed investigations of neglect allegations conducted by the division.
The states with the highest percentages of reported physical abuse victims include Alabama, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Vermont had 48.4 percent of its 1,080 confirmed victims suffering from physical abuse, Alabama’s percentage was 40.5 percent of 9,028 victims, and Pennsylvania’s rate was 32.4 percent out of 4,353 victims.
The states with the highest percent of sexual abuse victims during fiscal year 2005 include Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania reported that 62.5 percent of their total 4,353 confirmed child victims suffered sexual abuse. In Vermont, 46.5 percent of 1,080 confirmed child victims suffered sexual abuse, and in Wisconsin it was 37.8 percent of 9,686 total victims.
Nationally, of all the reported child victims during fiscal year 2005, 16.6 percent were physically abused and 9.3 percent were sexually abused. Neglect is by far the most reported crime, having affected 62.8 percent of child victims.
During fiscal year 2005, an estimated 1,460 children died due to abuse or neglect, at a rate of nearly two (1.96) children per every 100,000. In 2004, 1,490 children lost their lives, or slightly over two (2.3) children per 100,000.
More than three-quarters (76.6 percent) of children who died were younger than 4 years of age, 13.4 percent were 4 to 7 years of age, 4 percent were 8 to 11 years of age, and 6.1 percent were 12 to 17 years of age.
Infant boys (younger than 1 year old) had the highest fatality rate in 2005.
Below half (44.3 percent) of all fatalities were white children, 26 percent were African-American and 19.3 percent were Hispanic. American Indian, other minority groups and multiple race categories accounted for 4.5 percent of the fatalities.
Three-quarters (76.6 percent) of deaths due to abuse and neglect in 2005 were caused by a parent. Nonparental perpetrators accounted for 13 percent of the deaths.
In New Hampshire, out of a total child population of 303,151, there were 2 deaths attributed to abuse or neglect, for a rate of .66 per 100,000 children. In Maine, out of the total child population of 277,336, there was one fatality, resulting in a rate of .36 per 100,000.
The states that had the highest child death rates due to abuse and neglect were Oklahoma, with nearly 5 (4.8) deaths per 100,000 children; West Virginia, with 4.2 deaths per 100,000 children; Georgia at 3.2 deaths per 100,000 children; Texas with 3.1 deaths per 100,000 children; and Missouri, with 3.05 deaths per 100,000 children.
Several states reported no child deaths due to abuse or neglect in 2005, including Delaware, Idaho, North Carolina and Vermont.
In fiscal year 2005, an estimated 3.3 million referrals, involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 6 million children, were made to child protection agencies in the United States. This is an increase of approximately 73,000 children from 2004.
According to the U.S. DHHS maltreatment report, in fiscal year 2005 more than three-quarters (79.4 percent) of perpetrators of abuse and neglect were parents of their victim (s) and another 6.8 percent were other relatives. Unrelated caregivers — including foster parents, residential facility staff, child care providers and legal guardians — made up less than 10 percent of perpetrators.
Women comprised a larger percentage of all perpetrators than men — 57.8 percent compared to 42.2 percent. This includes all maltreatment crimes, including neglect.
Also according to the U.S. DHHS report, 7.7 percent of all perpetrators committed sexual abuse while 61 percent committed neglect.
Posted in Maine, New Hampshire, Studies, US NEWS.
http://sadlynormal.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/maine-and-nh-abuse-figures-not-easily-compared/
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