Congressional hearing held on psychiatric drugging of USA foster care kids

Congressional hearing held on psychiatric drugging of USA foster care kids
by David W. Oaks — last modified 2008-05-15 12:27

The US Congress held a public hearing about the way youth in foster care are often given large amounts of powerful psychiatric drugs, without adequate oversight, accountability, information, alternatives and advocacy. Vera Sharav of Alliance for Human Research Protection issued this report.

Rep. McDermott announced the US congressional hearing on foster care psychiatric drugging.
May 15, 2008
Hearing: Drugging of Foster Children

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION:

http://www.ahrp.org

A hearing held by The House Ways and Means Committee, May 8, focused on the use of psychotropic drugs for children in foster care.


Report by Vera Sharav

A riveting testimony was delivered by Misty Stenslie, Deputy Director, Foster Care Alumni of America (below).

She represents one of 12 million adults in this country who grew up in foster care, the government served as my parents. She spent 12 years in approximately 30 placements.

"My time in care resulted in a long list of diagnoses, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Depression, and a sleep disorder. Because of the instability in my living situation, it seemed that the only option the professionals in my life were able to take for treating all of the diagnosed conditions was prescribing medication. Over the years I was on more medications than I can count--usually without my knowing what the meds were for, how I should expect to feel, side effects to watch out for, or any plan for follow up."

"The rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among foster care alumni are about twice as high as PTSD rates in war veterans and nearly 5 times the rates of the general public. Alumni experience panic disorder at rates more than three times that of the general population. People in and from foster care have particularly high rates of ADHD, chemical dependency, conduct disorder and depression and other mood disorders."

"Because of the insight and creativity of [my last] foster parents, I was able to see my world in a brand new way. I was able to ask that my medications be decreased and eventually discontinued, and they supported me in getting the kind of treatment that would make a sustainable difference in my life--learning new ways to cope, recognizing what is good and right in myself so that I could do more of it, identifying ways to keep myself safe without having to hide or fight. By the time I went off to college, I was no longer on any medications and I actually had the skills and knowledge I needed to take the place of the medications."

Not all children misprescribed psychotropic drugs, in and out of foster care, are as lucky as Misty Stenslie.

She offered some recommendations from the foster care alumni community.

Expert testimony by Dr. Julie Zito, professor of Pharmacy and Psychiatry at the University of Maryland, testified about the what the Medicaid data shows about psychotropic drug prescriptions for under 18 year olds. Dr. Zito has done numerous state Medicaid data analyses. Here is a snippet of her testimony:


High Foster Care-specific Prevalence of Psychotropic Medication Use.

Among community-based populations, foster care youth tend to receive psychotropic medication as much as or more than disabled youth and 3-4 times the rate among children with Medicaid coverage based on family income [temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) or state-Children's Health Insurance Program, (s-CHIP)]. For example, in 2004, 38% of the 32,000+ Texas foster care youth less than 19 years of age received a psychotropic prescription (Zito et al., 2008). When 2005 data were disaggregated by age group the 2005 annual prevalence of psychotropic medication was: 12.4% in 0-5 year olds; 55% in 6-12 year olds; and 66.5% in 13-17 year olds. When two-thirds of foster care adolescents receive treatment for emotional and behavioral problems, far in excess of the proportion in non-foster care population, we should have assurances that the youth are benefiting from such treatment.

. Poverty, social deprivation, and unsafe living environments do not necessarily justify complex, poorly evidenced psychopharmacologic drug regimens.

. Concomitant Psychotropic Medication Patterns in Foster Care with Little Evidence of Effectiveness or Safety.


Combinations of medication are prescribed in order to address multiple symptoms. The sparse data on such practice patterns suggest that it is increasing (Safer, Zito, & dosReis, 2003). To assess concomitant psychotropic classes in the Texas foster care data, we selected a one month cohort of youth in July 2004 and found 29% (n=429) received one or more classes of these medications.


Of these psychotropic-medicated youth, 72.5% received two or more psychotropic medication classes and 41.3% received 3 or more such classes. In such combinations, more than half the medicated youth had an antidepressant (56.8%); a similar proportion (55.6%) had an ADHD medication (a stimulant or atomoxetine) dispensed, and 53.2% had an antipsychotic dispensed. Most psychotropic combinations lack adequate evidence of effectiveness or safety in youth.

Typically, they are adopted based on knowledge generalized from adult studies or assume that the combination is as safe and effective as each component of the regimen. Such assumptions, however, are not warranted because data reveal that children and adolescents differ from adults in adverse drug reactions to psychotropic medications (Safer, 2004; Safer & Zito, 2006).

In addition, pediatric research shows that increasing the number of concomitant medications increases the likelihood of adverse drug reactions (Turner, Nunn, Fielding, & Choonara, 1999; Martinez-Mir et al., 1999). Long-term safety and drug-drug interactions are also more problematic. Data show that poorly evidenced regimens tend to increase in complexity over the age span suggesting that polypharmacy is not effective in managing the multiplicity of problems of foster care youth and others with serious social, behavioral and mental health problems who are often referred to as treatment-resistant or difficult to treat (Lader & Naber, 1999). This is particularly true when observing youth with repeated hospitalizations.

In the Texas cohort, 13% had a psychiatric hospitalization in the study year and 42% of these had a psychiatric hospital diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As younger age youth receive psychotropic medications, the early introduction of medications to the developing youth (12% of preschoolers in these data from Texas), suggests the need for drug safety studies. Drug safety studies require access to large community-based data sets, formation of cohorts for longitudinal assessment over successive years and epidemiologic methods for conducting observational safety studies. Yet, funding and training of clinical scientists for this type of research is quite modest (Klein, 1993; Klein, 2006) while the FDA is largely focused on the pre-marketing assessment of new drugs (APHA Joint Policy Committee, 2006).


Concomitant medication with antipsychotics and anticonvulsant-mood stabilizers is referred to as "off-label' usage, i.e., lacking FDA approved labeling for either the age group or the indication for treatment, e.g. an antipsychotic for ADHD or disruptive disorders. In the Texas foster care data, most antidepressant use was also off-label. Moreover, when the drug class use was compared among the leading diagnostic groups, there was little evidence of specificity. In youth with 3 or more medication classes, antipsychotic medications were used in 76.1% of those with an ADHD diagnosis; 75.8% of those with adjustment or anxiety diagnoses; and 84.1% of those with a depression diagnosis.


***If medication regimens increase the risk of adverse events without robust evidence of benefits (outcomes), prudence suggests that oversight programs monitor and review therapeutic interventions in professionally competent, individualized, and caring assessments.

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

212-595-8974


Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support Hearing on the Utilization of Psychotropic Medication for Children in Foster Care Thursday, May 08, 2008

Hearing Advisory

McDermott Announces Hearing on the Utilization of Psychotropic Medication for Children in Foster Care Witness List

Julie M. Zito, Ph. D., Professor of Pharmacy and Psychiatry, Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Jeffrey Thompson, M.D., Medical Director, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, Olympia, Washington

Tricia Lea, Ph.D., Director of Medical and Behavioral Services, Department of Children's Services, State of Tennessee

Misty Stenslie, Deputy Director, Foster Care Alumni of America

Laurel K. Leslie, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician, Center on Child and Family Outcomes, Tufts-New England Medical Center Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies

Christopher Bellonci, M.D., Medical Director, The Walker School, Needham, Massachusetts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Public Hearing on Prescription Psychotropic Drug Use Among Children in Foster Care Response by Misty Stenslie, MSW Foster Care Alumni of America Deputy Director May 8, 2008

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

Thank you, Chairman McDermott and members of the sub-committee for holding this important hearing today. As one of 12 million adults in this country who grew up in foster care, the government served as my parents. This committee and your colleagues in congress have stood in the places where our mothers and fathers belong for generations of foster youth, including the more than 500,000 children who live in care right now.

I am the Deputy Director of Foster Care Alumni of America. We are a national non-profit association that brings together those of us who share that foster care experience in order to be the permanent extended-family community for each other, something that many of us growing up never had. We also work with others-foster parents, social workers, policy makers, community members-to influence foster care practice and policy. Our goal is to erase the differences, the stigmas, the disparate outcomes that are faced by our brothers and sisters from care compared to the general public.

In addition to having grown up in foster care, I am a master's level social worker and have spent the last 19 years working in the child welfare system. I have worked in group home facilities, as a child protection worker, as a clinical social worker for young people in treatment foster care and their families. I now live in Minnesota and work around the country to improve the lives of those who come after me in foster care.

I am also proud to have been the licensed foster mother for three young people-Chris, Sean, and Tomikia. They came to me in their teen age years and are now 23, 24 and 26 years old.

The thing I know the most about in this world is foster care, having experienced it from so many different sides. On the topic of the use of prescription psychotropic medications with youth in foster care-and nearly any other topic related to child welfare-I have to start by acknowledging that there is simply no one right answer. But I do want to make sure that you hear from many different perspectives about what we, as the community of alumni, ask you to consider on this topic. Remember, you have taken on the very real role of parents for people in and from foster care and your careful deliberations-both as law makers and as mothers and fathers-is what we need.

In my childhood, I spent 12 years in approximately 30 placements. I lived in placement in MN, ND, SD, ID, UT, MT, WY, and NE. I experienced foster homes, group homes, shelter facilities, detention and correctional institutions, kinship care, and psychiatric/residential treatment. Through those unstable years, I probably had a couple hundred people who were responsible for me-yet no family. I emancipated with no permanent connections and very few resources. My time in care resulted in a long list of diagnoses, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Depression, and a sleep disorder. Because of the instability in my living situation, it seemed that the only option the professionals in my life were able to take for treating all of the diagnosed conditions was prescribing medication. Over the years I was on more medications than I can count--usually without my knowing what the meds were for, how I should expect to feel, side effects to watch out for, or any plan for follow up.


It was not until I was a senior in high school and in my last foster home that I even knew that I could question the medications or challenge the diagnoses. In that home, the foster parents dutifully gave me my handful of pills each night for the first week or two and finally asked what they were for. I said I didn't really know, other than that they were supposed to help me sleep. My foster father asked me why I don't sleep well without them and I told him that I get so anxious at night when I hear noises that I can't get any rest. These foster parents did something incredible.

They skipped the medication one night, made cocoa, and sat around playing cards with me late into the evening. As we got into the deepest part of the night, we sat together and listened to all of the noises in the house. I could feel the familiar anxiety--but my foster dad patiently helped me figure out what all those noises were. It was the dog getting a drink of water upstairs. It was the furnace turning on. It was the water softener regenerating. My foster parents reassured me of my safety. They listened to my stories about how unsafe I had been in the home I came from. They acknowledged that I was actually very smart to be so vigilant and protective of myself that I didn't fall into such deep sleep that I could be hurt at my home. They helped me make sense of my reaction--which on paper looked like a disorder, but in the reality of my life had been the very best thing I could do for myself. They helped me to learn and believe that I didn't have the same reality anymore and I could let go of some of that vigilance. Because of the insight and creativity of those foster parents, I was able to see my world in a brand new way. I was able to ask that my medications be decreased and eventually discontinued, and they supported me in getting the kind of treatment that would make a sustainable difference in my life--learning new ways to cope, recognizing what is good and right in myself so that I could do more of it, identifying ways to keep myself safe without having to hide or fight.

By the time I went off to college, I was no longer on any medications and I actually had the skills and knowledge I needed to take the place of the medications. As you'll see in my testimony, we know from alumni that it is a common occurrence for youth in care to have an experience like this--receiving diagnoses and medications in response to their disordered lives. We know that sometimes that medication serves as a lifeline--it makes it possible for the young person to get through a particular crisis. They then have the opportunity to come out on the other side of the crisis to develop healthy strategies for coping. We also know that medications often are given as a substitute for what young people really need--stability, love, power, hope, and someone who sees them and hears them.


What is known about the mental health of people in and from foster care is that many of us have psychiatric needs due to the trauma of abuse and neglect. It is also true that youth in care face the additional trauma of removal from their homes and all of the people and places that are familiar and placement in the system. When youth experience placement instability, these traumas are compounded. The best treatment for this trauma is stability, patience, compassion, and safety.


We also know that young people in foster care are often coming from families of origin that are facing significant mental health issues. Whether as a result of trauma, a matter of genetic predisposition or a collision of those factors, many youth in care do have valid mental health disorders and do require treatment, sometimes including medication. Research conducted by Casey Family Programs1 has shown that mental health outcomes for adult alumni of foster care are disproportionately poor compared to the general population. Among the findings:

The rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among foster care alumni are about twice as high as PTSD rates in war veterans and nearly 5 times the rates of the general public.

Alumni experience panic disorder at rates more than three times that of the general population.

People in and from foster care have particularly high rates of ADHD, chemical dependency, conduct disorder and depression and other mood disorders.

There are no easy answers, but there are some recommendations we'd like to share as a community of alumni.

Pecora, P. J., Williams, J., Kessler, R. C., Downs, A. C., O'Brien, K., Hiripi, E., & Morello, S. (2003).

Assessing the effects of foster care: Early results from the Casey National Alumni Study. Seattle, WA: Casey Family Programs. Available at http://www.casey.org. Revised January 20, 2004.

Recommendations from alumni of foster care about the use of psychotropic medications:

1. Consistency is the key to adequate and appropriate mental health care. We need stable placements, we need a 'medical home', and we need professionals who know us and our circumstances-and who care about us enough to be effective advocates.

2. Medication should not be the first option considered and should never be the only mode of support we receive. Pills cannot change the experiences we've faced or the life situations we've been put into.

3. We need access to well-trained and supported professionals who can provide culturally competent services. The culture of foster care includes both challenges and victories that need to be recognized and supported by the people responsible for our care.

4. We need ongoing access to health care even after we've been adopted, reunified, or emancipated. Our needs don't change just because the court order or case plan does.

5. We need to know about our own lives, and need to be the primary voice in planning and decision-making. We need access to our records, information about our diagnoses and medications, and the power to seek or refuse treatment based on an educated and supported knowledge about our own lives. What alumni of foster care want you to know:

Foster Care Alumni of America is proud to be a member of the national Task Force on Foster Care through the American Academy of Pediatrics. As part of our work with the AAP, we've been conducting a survey of our members about their experiences and recommendations regarding health and mental health care access and services. In addition, we have a national community art project where people in and from foster care have submitted postcard art about what they've learned, what they want to share in connection to their foster care experiences. Here are some of the insights we've gathered.

"I was over-diagnosed and over-medicated. I was depressed and emotional when I first entered care and I did not respond to antidepressants. So they thought I had something more serious, but what I had was a life problem." --Alumna of care, mid-20s, Ohio

"Don't assume that foster children are "damaged" and need to be "fixed". Do your homework and learn as much as you can about the culture of foster care. Often individuals who are privileged in our society overlook even the simplest of things that foster children must deal with every day (e.g., who loves me? where do I belong?). Society continues to send messages to foster children about the value of family (e.g., home is where the heart is - family is the key to happiness) however, those who live outside of secure committed families feel marginalized and disempowered." --Alumnus of foster care

"Scary things in my case file made people assume that there were scary things inside my head. I really was struggling, but I needed time with people, attention, someone who loved me, somebody to talk with who wasn't there for a paycheck."

--Alumna of care, late 30s, Virginia

"I was put on medication as soon as I entered the system. Did they understand I was grieving, scared, confused about my life? No, they figured let's give her a pill. All I ever wanted was for someone to listen." --Alumna of care, California

"Once I left the system I became homeless and without money to afford medication I was left to my own devices: self-medicating with drugs. Luckily, the law "helped" me to learn my lesson. As an adult, my own children are in foster care. I don't think this would have happened if I'd gotten what I needed as a child and I'm working so hard to make it different"

--Alumnus of care

"Pills can't take away what happened to me." --Alumna of care

"The system enabled me to become chemically dependant to my meds. I sought out ways to feel numb once the system was gone, once my medical was cut off ---- alcohol and drugs."

--Alumnus of care

"The best care I got was people accepting me where I was at...not trying to change me as though I was broken/damaged, but being allowing me the room to express my experiences without judgment from the doctor or counselor. The most helpful experience was one in which the counselor or doctor did not assume they knew me based on a file."

--Alumnus of care

"My case file made me look very oppositional--I had a long criminal history as well as chemical abuse issues. What seemed to escape the notice of the system was the fact that any criminal or using behaviors were all connected to my biological family--either activities done WITH them or as a method of coping with them. I think because of that, I wasn't taken seriously. I wasn't respected or heard."

--Alumnus of care

"I had 8 diagnoses. I wish they would have had compassion and realized group homes were tough...and so was my childhood...and just given it time....or provided me with an adjustment disorder diagnosis." --Alumnus of care

On behalf of all of us in and from foster care, thank you for standing in the place where our parents belong. Thank you for considering the expertise we have to offer as people who have learned about foster care from the inside. Know that our organization, Foster Care Alumni of America, is available any time policy related to foster care is being considered. We have members from all 50 states, with our youngest members being 18 and our eldest in their 80s. It matters to us that the youth who come after us in foster care have the best that the system has to offer-stability, love, safety, and peace-and we want to help you make that happen.

Hugh Massengill, psychiatric survivor and MFI member, addresses opening session of City of Eugene, Oregon, USA conference on Choice in Mental Health Care as a Human Right at the University of Oregon.

MindFreedom International - 454 Willamette, Suite 216 - PO Box 11284 - Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA
phone: 541-345-9106 USA toll free 1-877-MAD-PRID[e] fax: 480-287-8833

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/youth-mental-health/foster-care-psychiatric-drugs/psychotropic-medication-hearing/

As bipolar diagnoses in foster children rise, informed consent becomes a bygone

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG

As bipolar diagnoses in foster children rise, informed consent becomes a bygone
Psychotropics given to wards without state's OK, Tribune analysis finds

Bipolar Disorder By David Jackson

Tribune Reporter

December 10, 2009


Powerful mood-altering drugs were prescribed to hundreds of Illinois foster children without the required consent of state child welfare officials, a Tribune analysis of government data has found.

And increasing numbers of young wards were diagnosed with bipolar disorder and given a class of anti-psychotic medicines that some physicians consider risky for youths because they can cause such side effects as metabolic abnormalities and pronounced weight gain.

The number of Illinois wards diagnosed with bipolar disorder nearly doubled between 2000 and 2007, when roughly 9 percent of the state's nearly 16,000 wards were diagnosed as bipolar, the Tribune found.

"This is a really concerning statistic," said Dr. Michael Naylor, a University of Illinois at Chicago psychiatrist who reviews psychotropic medicine regimens for the state Department of Children and Family Services. Naylor said he worries that drug firms' marketing efforts are driving the diagnoses.

Many doctors say psychotropic medicines give troubled youths a precious chance at normalcy. But the drugs can pose special risks for foster children, who often lack a consistent adult to monitor treatment over time.

Illinois has seen a steady increase in the number of state wards simultaneously prescribed four or more of the psychotropic medications. During 2007, the most recent year when complete data were immediately available, more than 10 percent of Illinois wards given any psychotropic drug were taking four or more simultaneously, the Tribune found.

The danger, said University of Maryland professor Julie Zito, is that youths are being given multiple medications because existing regimens prove fruitless, or because new medications must be added to counteract side effects from other drugs.

Illinois' system of providing informed consent for psychotropic medications to foster children and of oversight of prescribing is considered the gold standard for state child welfare agencies. But during 2007, psychotropic medicines were administered to some 240 foster children without the state's consent, the Tribune found. That year, DCFS consented to the psychotropic medication of 3,320 wards, while separate Medicaid prescription records show the drugs were administered to 3,564 wards.

Some doctors may be unaware that their patients are foster children, but other
physicians are skirting the consent laws, Naylor said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-psychotropic-sidedec10,0,7039032.story
dyjackson@tribune.com

Psychotropic Medications Overused Among Foster Children

Home » News » Psychotherapy News » Psychotropic Medications Overused Among Foster Children


Psychotropic Medications Overused Among Foster Children
By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 4, 2008 0


New research finds that psychotropic medications are frequently used to treat youth in foster care. The pattern is disturbing because effectiveness and safety of the pharmaceuticals has not been established.

Psychotropic medication act on the central nervous system to alter emotion or behavior temporarily.

In a study of Texas children with Medicaid coverage, the latest in a series of analyses of state Medicaid records, foster care youth received at least three times more psychotropic drugs than comparable children in poor families.

But there is no clear treatment advantage to the foster children, according to Julie Zito PhD, professor of pharmacy and psychiatry at the says a University of Maryland, Baltimore researcher.

Of 32,135 Texas foster care children enrolled in Medicaid from September 2003 to August 2004, 12,189 (38 percent) were dispensed one or more psychotropic medications. Among those receiving psychotropic medications, 41.3 percent of a random sample of 472 youths received three or more psychotropic drugs daily.

The medicated children were most likely to be Caucasian males, and 10 to 14 years of age. This sizable proportion of youth receiving drug combinations poses questions about appropriateness, benefits and risks, says Zito.

The Texas study also indicated that decisions to give some children three or more psychotropic drugs may be largely based on behavioral and emotional symptoms rather than conclusive diagnosis of a specific mental condition.

“These data do not provide sufficient information to address questions of severity and impairment that might explain such complex drug regimens,” Zito suggests.

Emphasizing symptoms can lead to the diagnosis of more than one mental disorder in a patient, leading to greater use of combinations of drugs, said the study, which was published earlier this year in the journal Pediatrics.

Zito says, “There are serious behavioral and emotional problems with many foster children and we want to make sure they are medicated appropriately. These are our troubled children.”

Many foster children experience multiple family placements and such disruption poses real challenges for the developing child, caregivers, and treating clinicians.

She says the extensive use of such drugs in foster care youth is an indication of a trend of expanding use “in U.S. youth across the country. This [increase in psychotropic drug use] represents a sea change in the practice of child mental health treatment since 1990. Such trends in community treatment deserve further investigation. Let’s learn more about the medications being taken by children, the reasons for use, who benefits and who doesn’t.”

More than 75 percent of the psychotropic medication use for children is off-label, a practice of prescribing drugs for a purpose other than the approved use on its label.

“So we are generalizing our [knowledge] from adults to children without knowing enough about pharmacokinetics, dosing, or long-term safety in the pediatric population,” said Zito.

Zito has been leading studies of children’s use of medication in the Medicaid population for more than a decade, with funding for the past five years from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

To enhance the work, the Maryland School of Pharmacy’s Pharmaceutical Research Computing (PRC) center has established state-of-the-science computing resources to analyze very large data sets.

As one of a new breed researchers called pharmacoepidemiologists, Zito studies community populations for the use and safety of medications already on the market. She says her work may be thought of as phase IV drug analysis, a logical continuation of the common three-phase clinical trials that a drug maker needs to complete before seeking federal approval to market the drug.

“This is a ‘post-marketing’ view of how a drug is doing,” she says.

Source: University of Maryland

http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/08/04/psychotropic-medications-overused-among-foster-children/2688.html

How Do Children Get ADHD?

How Do Children Get ADHD?
December 26, 2009 · Category : Education

There is a lot of misunderstanding about ADHD which is basically a neurological condition in which the child has a certain chemical imbalance which means that he or she has difficulty in concentrating and may be hyperactive and impulsive. How do children get ADHD? It is not a disease in that it is contagious like a cold or measles but it is a mental disorder or condition

How do children get ADHD? Many parents are convinced it is hereditary and that it can be quickly diagnosed. First, there is a genetic tendency but it is low at 25%. Diagnosis is not that simple and in fact, the disorder may be mistaken for food allergies, thyroid problems, poor eyesight or parasites. It could even be a structural problem which is affecting the child's behavior and everybody thinks it is ADHD.

How do children get ADHD? There are loads of people who think that a sugary diet full of processed foods can actually cause ADHD. This is not true. It is true however, that a poor diet like the one above can impact on the child's behavior. Let me give you an example. Did you know that if a child's diet is lacking in protein (fish, beans, eggs, nuts and so on), some symptoms of ADHD may worsen. Why? Because proteins can help to build healthier neurotransmitters in the brain and these control impulsivity and levels of concentration.

Look at sugar and food colourings for example. They tend to cause a surge in blood sugar and that can cause more hyperactivity and restlessness. The answer is simply to favour proteins instead of carbohydrates and that will prevent sugar crashes. At breakfast, protein should be given to the child and complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruit and vegetables are the best thing you can give your child to start the day. Some parents favour coffee and or a caffeine drink but this is not recommended as it is a stimulant and is acting in a similar way to the psychostimulant drugs (Concerta, Adderall and Vyvanse) which increase the heart rate, so it is better to avoid caffeine drinks.

There is a much more important question than how children get ADHD which is that concerning the treatment. Treating a chemical imbalance in the brain with psychostimulant drugs which are very similar to 'uppers' and cocaine, is hardly the way to begin a serene and happy childhood. Parents are now turning in droves to ADHD homeopathic remedies which have no side effects and will not lead to drug dependency. No risk of heart disease, depression or even suicide. These are gentle remedies which can restore calmness and help a distracted child to stay focused.

Discover more about how children get ADHD . Experts now tell us that child behavior programs combined with a natural treatment for ADHD is by far the most effective ADHD treatment. Robert Locke is a Health enthusiast who specializes in Children's Health. He has written extensively on ADHD.

http://articlesmix.com/how-do-children-get-adhd/

The Controversy About The Best Treatments for ADHD

The Controversy About The Best Treatments for ADHD
January 4, 2010 · Category : Education

What are the best treatments for ADHD? The controversy rages on and there are advocates of ADHD meds who say that the side effects and the risks are minimal while there are other advocates of homeopathy, meditation, yoga, deep breathing, behavior modification, dietary changes and even equine therapy! There seems to be little agreement and the drug companies ware insistent that their psychostimulants are the best treatments for ADHD and this is regarded as the first option by many doctors, parents and paediatricians. It should, in my opinion, be the last option.

Did you know that William Pelham (University of Buffalo) has been given a grant of almost $6 million to carry out a three year project to determine what indeed are the best treatments for ADHD? Basically his work (yet to be published) will determine the effectiveness of a treatment which favours ADHD medications or behavior modification techniques such as parenting skills sessions and social skills training for children. He has quoted the growing concerns about the long term effects and safety of the ADHD medications.

However, other short term studies show that behavior modification is probably best and that the effects of medication are rather short term and riskier. It also seems that the beneficial effects of ADHD drugs last no more than three years! This does not seem to be one of the best treatments for ADHD.

A very interesting experiment carried out at the Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia shows how parents' and children's perceptions of the effects of ADHD meds can differ. Not surprising in that each party is looking at it from a different angle and children are hardly mature enough to realize what they are taking. It was a small group of about 100 children who were taking these ADHD meds. About 18% of the kids reported feeling worse while most of the parents reported favourably on the ADHD drugs. The main problems for the kids were the unpleasant side effects which ranged from dizziness, loss of appetite and problems in getting to sleep. The report concluded that there was a substantial proportion of the children who viewed the ADHD drugs rather unfavourably.

Parents are now looking more and more favourably at ADHD homeopathic remedies as probably one of the best treatments for ADHD as there are no side effects and the gentler effects of these medicines are now well documented , although scorned by the medical community. But there are thousands and thousands of children who have had great relief of symptoms when they have used these cures. Let us not forget the ADHD behavioural therapy which in combination with a homeopathic remedy,is the treatment which will really help ADHD children grow up to be mature responsible adults.

Discover what are the best treatments for ADHD . Experts now tell us that child behavior programs combined with a natural treatment for ADHD is by far the most effective ADHD treatment. Robert Locke is a Health enthusiast who specializes in Children's Health. He has written extensively on ADHD
http://articlesmix.com/the-controversy-about-the-best-treatments-for-adhd/

More Toddlers, Young Children Given Antipsychotics

More Toddlers, Young Children Given Antipsychotics
HealthDay Reporter by Jennifer Thomas
– Mon Jan 4, 11:49 pm ET
MONDAY, Jan. 4 (HealthDay News) -- The rate of children aged 2 to 5 who are given antipsychotic medications has doubled in recent years, a new study has found.


Yet little is known about either the effectiveness or the safety of these powerful psychiatric medications in children this age, said researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University, who looked at data on more than 1 million children with private health insurance.


"It is a worrisome trend, partly because very little is known about the short-term, let alone the long-term, safety of these drugs in this age group," said study author Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City.


Prescribing antipsychotics to children in the upper range of that age span -- ages 4 and 5 -- is justifiable only in rare, intractable situations in which all other treatments, including family and psychological therapy, have been tried and are not working, Olfson said.


And it's questionable whether 2- and 3-year-olds should ever be prescribed antipsychotics, Olfson said.


The study is published in the January issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.


Presumably, only children with the most severe mental problems would be given the potent drugs. Yet, less than half of children on antipsychotics had received any mental health services, including a mental health assessment or treatment from a psychotherapist or psychiatrist, the study authors noted.


"You don't see the kinds of mental health services you would expect to see if we were dealing with the most profoundly disturbed toddlers," Olfson said, raising the question of whether doctors had done everything they could to help the child before turning to medications.


The overall numbers of children prescribed antipsychotics remains small, at less than one half of one percent of the national sample. But the numbers are rising. In 1999-2001, about one in 1,300 were being treated with antipsychotics. By 2007, that had risen to one in 630, according to Olfson.


For 5-year-olds, about one in 650 were being treated in 1999-2001. That doubled, to one in 329, in 2007, he noted.


Research published online in December in the journal Health Affairs by the same research team suggested children on Medicaid are even more likely than children with private insurance to be prescribed antipsychotics.


The most common antipsychotic drug prescribed to children was risperidone (Risperdal), which accounted for nearly three-quarters of antipsychotic prescriptions. In adults and teens, risperidone is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Risperidone is also approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat unstable mood or irritability in children with autism aged 5 and up.


Children who were most likely to receive risperidone were male and aged 4 or 5, according to the report. The most common diagnosis was pervasive developmental disorder or mental retardation, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder or disruptive behavior disorder.


Previous research has shown children on the drugs may experience metabolic and endocrine abnormalities. Little is known about their impact on the developing brain, Olfson added.


"I don't want to minimize the problems children can have at this age, but there are psychological treatments that have been proven to help parents and the kids that emphasize the quality of the parent-child relationship," Olfson said.


One reason for the uptick may be increasing numbers of children diagnosed with autism and some research showing risperidone may help with autism-related irritability, the researchers noted.


Dr. Peter Jensen, co-director of the division of child psychiatry and psychology at the Mayo Clinic, agreed that the trend is concerning. "We have no doubt there are prescribing practices out there that are very, very worrisome," Jensen said.


It's imperative that children receive a full mental health assessment before getting these drugs, to understand the family situation and school environment and if there is a family history of psychiatric problems, as well as undergoing a physical exam to rule out other medical problems.

"These agents should not be used as an adjunct to a family stressed to the max," Jensen said. "With kids who are 2 to 5, most can be managed without these medicines. Rarely a 5-year-old goes on them. But a child of 2 or 3, in my experience, I have never had to put them on [an antipsychotic]. There is so much else that can be done."

The stress and difficulty of coping with a child who has significant mental health issues, the need to have a child behave well enough to be permitted to attend school, as well as lack of adequate coverage for family therapy and mental health services, may push doctors and parents into believing they have little choice other than medicating the child, Jensen said.

More information

The U.S. National Mental Health Information Center has more on children and mental health issues.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100105/hl_hsn/moretoddlersyoungchildrengivenantipsychotics
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Big Government, Promises, Accountability , Priorities, Real and Fake Benefits, the Propaganda Mill and Social Service Programs like Health Care

Big Government, Promises, Accountability , Priorities, Real and Fake Benefits, the Propaganda Mill and Social Service Programs like Health Care
December 13, 2009 by Lex Loeb

Lex Loeb Published Content: 824Total Views: 89,738Fans: 7View Profile | Follow | Add to Favorites Single pageFont SizePost a comment Share More topicsHuman Services | Big Family Oregon Department of Human Services Gets Hit with a 32 Million Dollar Lawsuit for Two Children Horribly Abused in a Foster Family Favored by the Agency
1234 X 2009 Credit: Stop Historic Health Care Reform! | © Lex Loeb
Got the dream of free health care for everyone with a big government take over? Government is going to take care of you. Right? In Oregon and across the nation it was not very long away when the US Congress and the state Capitol
in Oregon decided that Government had the duty to go out and protect children from abuse and neglect as a major national and state priority. The money spent already is an enormous sum. In Oregon it is an annual sum in the billions of dollars most of it imported grant funding from Washington, DC. This is multiplied across the country by the number of states. The money is so good that is all that seems to mater to the state social service agencies. The whole system instantly became a racket where children get sucked into the system whether they are abused or not and held as long as possible on some social security funded bounty system that encourages the state child saving protection service agencies to hold children as long as possible or just the number of days required for the funding to application to kick the funds in the state from Washington. In Oregon the social services intentionally extend "investigations" until they get their funding grant money and in the mean time will keep children locked away in "safe" and wholesome foster family farms rather than return them to innocent parents. No mater how abusive or neglectful the State of Oregon gets the more positive glowing reviews they get from the local media. The local media reporter just read the propaganda the agency pumps out on a regular basis. The Department of Human services and local child protection offices have hundreds of people employed just to invent positive looking statistics to justify their existence and the huge sums of money consumed with the employment of social workers, psychologists, medical services, attorneys and judges. Everything is for the benefit of children. 5000 were in custody for a period of time in government custody less than 1000 of them were actually abused or neglected. Annually there are 50,000 reports of abuse and neglect and the agency is too under staffed to take care of all of the report abut all are well trained professionals the need more money and more staff for what they are doing. That is the normal propaganda that comes out and then out of the blue you find out that children are being raped and murdered by a state appointed mentor in a foster family and the local media goes on with the charade. No one is at fault. The agency social workers were not required by law back then to do a background check on people hired by or working for the system and the murder has a long criminal history of dangerous behavior. The knee jerk reaction of the legislators in Salem, the capitol of Oregon is to pass a new law to make background checks required for everyone even. Later on it takes a special law to make it possible for union member teachers in public schools to be accused and investigated of child abuse including sex abuse. Yes it took a special law in Oregon! After that the media goes on with its glowing positive reviews again.

It is the big media that is pushing their progressive addenda to take over health care in the USA. These are the same people that gave us such great government controlled child care. Then the shit hits the fan again. Two children are discovered nearly starved to death in a foster home favored by Oregon state child protection services. The Children are half their normal weight , skin and bones and the immediate reaction of the child care works is to own up and say they made a huge mistake? No, they go on the defensive and they start yet a new cover up. No public employee at the union level, can ever be fired in Oregon and it is not very nice to try to hold them accountable for criminal activity either. Remember in Oregon Child neglect is a crime. Not for the state of Oregon. Not for the federal government.

A few days ago a lawsuit was filed asking for 32 million dollars for the abuse of these children nearly starved to death by the state of Oregon. The state is responsible for having the duty to check up foster families and they did and they did not. The poor
parents of these children may have been non abusers the way the system works. There have been cases where the parents the agency takes the children to complain to the agency that their children are being abused and neglected and the agency threatens them. Oregonians are not aware of just how bad the system is. It is and has been run by goons for years and years and they don't give a damn about child Welfare. The parents are assumed guilty before proven innocent in every case thanks to absurd federal and state law making. But the agency refused to do background checks on employees for years and years because it would harm worker's rights. Parents are not even allowed to get a second medical opinion for their children in custody. A local radio talk show host had his child taken because she had a bruise on her face from an accident. The agency was falsely accusing him of hitting her face with a frying pan which the child consistently denied. The money is good once they get a child into state custody or start an "investigation." Each investigation and custody situation employs hundreds of people directly and indirectly. The money is very good. The state of Oregon looks at the system as a big free cash cow coming from Washington dc where they have to snag as many children in the system as possible even when they are not abused nor neglected. When a 32 million dollar lawsuit comes up they hire a very expensive lawyer to defend the state and its fat purse from those evil lying children who were unfortunately abused and neglected by accident. No parent in Oregon gets the accidental is OK treatment! No way.

What does this have to do with the push for national health care? Everything. These social workers , lawyers, judges, psychologist and unions are the exact same people who want to take over your health care. They say they are doing it for your welfare. NOT! Congress is talking about the national priorities for this and that. Low cost health care , Universal access, benefits for all. Then you read the legislation and their plans don't cover everyone, fine you for not having health care insurance, raise taxes on your pace maker and eye glasses. The progressive media propaganda mill keeps talking about how historic everything is with congress passing various national health care bills. The word "historic" means they favor what congress is doing and is an endorsement. When ever you hear some one of PBS or ABC talking about the health care bill being "historic" it means that health care is really one of your national rights of citizenship just like child welfare was supposed to be. When they use the word "historic" it plainly means they have a progressive socialist bias. They don't use the word historic to describe the stimulus spending bill or TARP funding because they are not sure that is as positive. These are the same people that let give the child saving industry a pass from investigative journalism. Big government promises accountability, priorities and Real Benefits and when it comes to putting children first which we believe is more important than health care since we passed that historic legislation first, we get nothing but false promises and a big fat propaganda mill that keeps the abuses and neglect going.

Can you imagine what long term care will be like for you when the government takes over the health care system? You won't be treated any better than those two children who have to file a 32 million dollar lawsuit against the state of Oregon because the State
of Oregon will not just publicly come clean, fire the worthless public employees who cause this harm and compensate the children directly for the harm done to them with all the unlimited access to federal funding they are gleefully funding. No. They want to pay a fancy lawyer first rather than just settling with the abused children they almost killed. I don't want my doctor as a member of a union. And I don't want to see a wellness social worker before waiting in line for 6 months to see a doctor. It is hard to imagine government being more efficient or cheaper than a completive open market system of health care. If i have to wait six months to see a doctor for a complaint that is an added cost and a big cost. That is what happens in Canada and Britain. The costs are hidden. Time is money or loss of life. After seeing how legislation designed to protect and save neglected and abused children went so bad and became a complete racket in spite of the best original intentions. I can say I don't want anyone's good intentions legislation to take over my health care options. You can't sue the federal government the way you can the the states so they will act with impunity because they have almost absolute immunity. If you have a problem with the federal government you have to go to your senator's office and talk to them but that won't do any good. You can go to a senator like Ron Wyden of Oregon over and over again and they will call the police on you to get you away from them because the big government program that is supposed to be protecting and saving is Saving children by definition no matter how bad it gets! These Senators must be in on getting kick backs in campaign funding from the same people cashing in on the racket. Private lawyers and psychologist are on the payola May be sending Ron Wyden and our other senators a check to keep the system working the way it is. The same thing happened the last time the congress considered going to a flat rate tax system , the accountant lobby started funding senators and congressmen to make sure you still need to file complicated tax forms every year.

Already in the US Senate the money form big health care interests is flooding in and everyday you read in the newspaper that the Senators keep changing their minds on the role of pharmaceutical companies , lawyers and this and that. The whole thing is a scam and a racket and everyone of the well meaning senators that want national health care must necessarily know that the heart felt feeling of just doing the best thing for the American people is a big crock of nonsense with the real benefits going to special interests and not to patients except for show propaganda example patients. In oregon over 70 percent of the run away street kids come out of the state's glorious foster families that only take children "not for the money". Some percentage of these run away children are not even known by the agency to be run aways and they may still be paying the foster family money when the kid is no longer there nor even reported lost or missing.

Wait till you go to the hospital after congress fixes that. You maybe left to die and you wont be reported as lost in the system somewhere because the bureaucrats will have to be making things look better than they are with constant requests for more money and man power and then going on strike if they don't get it. If they accidental cut off the wrong foot of your grandmother, they will lie about it . It never happened. You can't sue the doctor , the hospital and they certainly won't make any immediate compensation available to your grandmother. She is probably at fault. After two years of government cover ups about what really happened your grandmother will have to find a lawyer to sue the state of Oregon for 32 million dollars and they will punish her for doing so by putting her in a long term care foster family from hell where they starve her to death. So you really want to turn your health care into a government service?

Oregon Department of Human Services Gets Hit with a 32 Million Dollar Lawsuit for Two Children Horribly Abused in a Foster Family Favored by the Agency
1234 X 2009 Credit: Stop Historic Health Care Reform! | © Lex Loeb
The State of Oregon should be liable for billions already for the harm they have done to children thanks to BS good intentions. Already the state of Oregon has a public health care plan that has proved to be BS. The state talks about changing the health care cost curve and other
nonsense like that but they exclude a number of expensive medical treatments from patients getting any access to them where the state is taking a state waiver of federal funding rules to redirect limited money to wellness social workers. We are all in for health care hell once the federal government comes up with it's new plan and the state of Oregon uses it as a money machine racket just like they have with child protection care.

Oh, and no mater how bad it gets the media will continue talking about how historic and wonderful and perfect the system is. No wonder Cuba has the best health care on earth!


Written by Lex Loeb


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2487228/big_government_promises_accountability.html