National Plan for Universal Mental Health Screening:A Pharma Friendly Remedy for Societal Problems

Download the complete powerpoint presentation

Text of power point presentation:

Slide 2: I’ll begin with the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health[1] recommendation to screen the US population for mental illness – 52 million children first. In no other democratic country has the government adopted a policy to screen the population for presumed, undetected, mental illness. The rationale behind this mind-boggling Orwellian nightmare is not improving mental health, but rather increasing life-long consumers of psychoactive drugs and to control behavior. Two NFC recommendations are designed to do just that. TeenScreen is promoted as a suicide prevention model when it in fact, increases the number of children labeled suicidal and depressed.

Depression-Serotonin: How Did So Many Smart People Get it So Wrong?_WSJ

"Serotonin and depression: A disconnect between the advertisements and the scientific literature."
"Some 19 million people in the U.S. suffer from depression in any given year. For many, SSRIs help little, if at all. To do better, we have to get the science right." Sharon Begley, Wall Street Journal
 

Loss of Trust: Big Drug Makers See Sales Decline With Their Image – NYT

Loss of Trust: Big Drug Makers See Sales Decline With Their Image – NYT Mon, 14 Nov 2005 The lead front page article in today’s New York Times reports: “A poll last month showed that only 9 percent of Americans believed drug companies were generally honest, down from 14 percent…

New Diabetes Drug Increases Mortality / Morbidity – FDA "approvable" letter Challenged

New Diabetes Drug Increases Mortality / Morbidity – FDA “approvable” letter Challenged Fri, 21 Oct 2005 Today’s newspaper reports about a lethal new diabetes drug that the FDA was poised to approve makes abundantly clear that The New York Times got it wrong when it gave the FDA high marks…

Russian Roulette Medicine: More kids get multiple psychiatric drugs

Russian Roulette Medicine: More kids get multiple psychiatric drugs Wed, 3 Aug 2005 Stop the madness! Child psychiatrist, Joseph Penn, advises: “Parents shouldn’t passively accept whatever doctors recommend for children with behavior or psychiatric problems.” “We just don’t have the efficacy or safety data to back up what is common…

2005: “Cheaper than Chimpanzees” by Vera Sharav

On behalf of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, or AHRP, I want to thank the members of the Committee, for this opportunity to share with you our understanding of the complex problems presented by medical research involving vulnerable populations, such as prisoners and children. We appreciate your difficult job, and recognize that you will need to exercise courage in your assigned mission, which is to protect prisoners from research abuse and exploitation.

“Courage,” in this context, means the courage to acknowledge uncomfortable facts about current practice and to speak truth to power,

| |

Mental Health Tests For Kids Spark Debate – Chicago Tribune

Mental Health Tests For Kids Spark Debate – Chicago Tribune Sun, 5 Jun 2005 The Chicago Tribune has woken to the major debate which is underway about a government-sponsored initiative to increase profits for the psychotropic drug industry and its beneficiaries in the mental health provider industry: “The furor started…

| | | | | | |

America’s Overmedicated Children – Vera Sherav

AMERICA’S OVERMEDICATED CHILDREN By Vera Sharav YOUTH and MEDICINES in June 1-3, 2005 KILEN: Consumers Institute for Medicines and Health SWEDEN “Forgotten Children” is an investigative report by Carole Keeton Strayhorn,[1] the Texas Comptroller (2004) who uncovered evidence that 60% of children in the Texas foster care system are being…

AHRP Speaks Out

AHRP Speaks Out Dec 12, 2005: Mental Health Screening: A PhRMA Friendly Remedy for Societal Problems. Presentation by Vera Sharav, American Public Health Association Nov 2005: Analysis of S. 1873 – The Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005 – Karen R. Effrem, MD June 1-3, 2005:…

"Lilly is Hiding Negative Information About Zyprexa" – SAPS

“Lilly is Hiding Negative Information About Zyprexa” – SAPS Wed, 2 Nov 2005 From our colleague in Sweden: A published interview with Dr. Curt Furberg, Professor of Public Health Sciences Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and Chair, Steering Committee, and Principal Investigator, of one of the most important studies…

America’s Overmedicated Children, Presentation by Vera Sharav, Sweden

“Forgotten Children” is an investigative report by Carole Keeton Strayhorn,[1] the Texas Comptroller (2004) who uncovered evidence that 60% of children in the Texas foster care system are being drugged with powerful psychotropic drugs, most of which have not been tested in or approved for use by children. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledges that many of these drugs have serious adverse side effects, both physical and psychological. The Comptroller said she was alarmed that in her review of a single month (November 2003), two powerful antipsychotic drugs — Risperdal and Zyprexa — made up half of the drugs prescribed to foster children in Texas. These two drugs have been approved only for adults for the treatment of psychosis – primarily schizophrenia – yet, she found that children as young as four, were receiving these powerful, mind-altering drugs.