Hospitals Closing Psychiatric Departments

News out of Boston Massachusetts is that hospitals are closing down their psychiatric departments because they are not profitable. Translation: people are not prepared to pay for psychiatric services.
One of the side benefits of the generally rather grim economic times (that are about to become much worse) is that quasi professions such as psychiatry will very quickly be consigned to history’s dustbin along with other junk ‘sciences’.
Psychiatrists are claiming that it is all as a result of a bias against mental health care. Quite the opposite is true. It is a bias against psychiatry.
I assume that this cleansing of the public health system will be replicated across the US, and indeed the world.
If it takes a depression to get rid of the psychiatric pushers for Big Pharma then a depression is not all bad.

Possible Addition to DSM

It was reported today that a Chinese woman boiled a man’s head in duck soup to cure her daughter’s psychiatric problems.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5617094/Chinese-woman-boiled-mans-head-to-cure-daugthers-psychiatric-problems.html

Psychiatrists are awaiting clinical results for the treatment before updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

Drug Company Guinea Pigs?

And now from Mr. Rich Coleman the Housing Minister in B.C., Canada we have an unusual solution being proposed to handle the financial and personal devastation caused by the housing crisis.
Mr. Coleman proposes reclassifying homeless people as ‘mentally ill’ so that they can be forcibly removed from the street and placed in institutions.
“There are provisions under the Mental Health Act for a committal and that sort of thing. I think we need to have some stronger provisions for this sort of situation.”
Rich Coleman-December 2008.

Mug shot of Mr Rich Coleman along with the Premier of B.C. Mr. Gordon Campbell

‘Mein Kampf’ by the distinguished 20th century humanitarian Adolf Hitler lends support to the Mr. Coleman’s theory.

It crosses my mind that possibly the politicians and bankers who are the most responsible for people being homeless in the first place would be more ideal candidates for psychiatric torture.
One has to assume that the drug companies need some cheap guinea pigs for this proposal to be seriously aired. Cui bono?
My thanks to Karol Karolak for bringing the weird and somewhat scary Mr. Coleman to my attention.

Psychiatric Misdeeds Exposed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyVrPslqe3M
http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/dcf-videos/

Child Drugging in Florida

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-psychotropic-drugs-editorialsbjun08,0,2212606.story

Sun Sentinel
Death raises concern about psychotropic drugs.
Editorial Board
June 8, 2009
In 2005, the Legislature approved SB 1090, a bill that tightened state procedures to make sure that psychotropic drugs weren’t prescribed to minors without proper oversight. The law stressed physicians’ need to get consent or a court order before dispensing the drugs…

The investigation continues, and child welfare officials are, again, fending off allegations they use drugs designed for serious mental disorders to subdue behavior. Lawmakers undoubtedly will propose new bills to strengthen laws already on the books.

New legislation is fine. The trick now is to make sure all the rules are being followed.

BOTTOM LINE: Rules must be followed.


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/SharpSticks/UPDATE-Doped-up-foster-child-in-Florida-hangs-himself-He-was-seven-46822507.html

Washington Examiner
Doped up foster child in Florida hangs himself. He was seven.
Local Opinion Editor
June 4, 2009
Sheldon’s subsequent investigation revealed that more than 2,600 foster children in Florida are being doped up – with one in six lacking the legally required consent forms. Children trapped in these state-run “child welfare” programs are being doped up to keep them docile and easy to manage while the adults in charge thumb their noses at the law and cash the checks.

This is beyond disgusting. It’s criminal.


http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1007779.ece

St. Petersburg Times
Foster care failures
A Times Editorial
June 7, 2009
Two disturbing facts about the Florida foster care system have emerged following the suicide of a 7-year-old boy on psychiatric drugs. First is the extraordinary prescription rate for children under the supervision of the Department of Children and Families. Second is the alarming revelation that a 2005 law aimed at tackling that problem has been repeatedly and systemically ignored…

Such changes will only work if Sheldon succeeds in changing a culture that ignored such safeguards. DCF relies heavily on nonprofit local providers to do its work. Those providers need to fully understand what is at stake, as do their employees. Four years after the Legislature thought it had addressed this problem, a 7-year-old’s suicide is a stark reminder that the system is still terribly flawed. How long will it take to get it right?


http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/opinionzone/2009/06/05/kids-and-drugs-too-much-too-little/

Palm Beach Post
Kids and drugs. Too much, too little?
by Opinion Staff
June 6, 2009

Frighteningly, 16 percent of the Florida foster kids given such drugs are taking them without permission from a parent or judge. One such child, 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, who was taking a combination antipsychotic and antidepressant, hanged himself in April in his Broward County foster home….doctors have said that such mind-altering drugs, including many common antidepressants, can lead to thoughts of suicide in children and have put special warnings on the medications.


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090607/OPINION/906071021/-1/NEWSSITEMAP #

Sarasota Herald Tribune
Drugs carried warnings
Opinion
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Symbyax carries a warning that “antidepressants may increase suicidal thoughts or behaviors in some children… especially within the first few months of treatment or when changing the dose.”

Vyvanse is approved for use in children 6 and over, but the manufacturer notes that the drug should not be taken by those in “agitated states.” Aggression and abnormal behaviors are sometimes associated with its use.

These risks are among the reasons why Florida law requires informed parental consent or judicial order before administering psychiatric medications to foster children. Paperwork in Gabriel’s case indicated consent had been given, but that was erroneous, DCF officials say. A statewide review of psychiatrically medicated foster children found consent documentation lacking in 16 percent of such cases — a potentially serious gap in the safety net.


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/06/05/a14a_dcf_edit_0606.html

Palm Beach Post
Owning up, cleaning up
Editorial
June 05, 2009

The review also found that 16 percent of the children in foster care taking these drugs do not have parental consent or a court order. “That is unacceptable,” said Mr. Sheldon. “Gabriel Myers and all of Florida’s children deserve better.”

Those children who have been prescribed psychotropic drugs must get informed parental consent or a court order before resuming the medication… .This report is an important first step in closely examining not only this case, said Mr. Sheldon, “but in helping to assure that this kind of tragedy never happens again.”


http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1000069.ece

DCF must do better
A Times Editorial
May 12, 2009

It has been a common practice for DCF workers and physicians to fail to obtain parental consent when a psychotropic drug is for a nonpsychotherapeutic use, under the mistaken impression that the law didn’t require it…

Sheldon has it right when he says that Gabriel’s death “ought to mean something.” State law needs to be followed when prescribing medication for children in foster care. And particularly when it comes to damaged children, there has to be a recognition that drugs are no substitute for basic human care and attention.


http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1015130.html

Miami Herald
Answers needed in case of child’s suicide
April 24, 2009
OUR OPINION: Mistakes apparent in death of seven-year-old Gabriel Myers

A good place to begin the examination is with the menu of potent, mind-altering drugs that Gabriel was taking under a doctor’s prescription. The boy was being treated by a Broward psychiatrist who had been red-flagged by a state agency as having ”problematic” prescribing habits, according to a state Medicaid drug-therapy expert. The term applies to doctors with a high volume of prescriptions of mental-health drugs or who prescribe potentially risky drug combinations.

DCF has of history of relying too heavily on psychotropic drugs to manage children in its care. After a series of Miami Herald stories describing the problems, the Florida Legislature passed a law that attempted to control and limit the use of psychotropic drugs on children. The legislation cited a DCF study in 2004 showing that 13 percent of all children in state custody were receiving and least one psychotropic drug. The study also showed that 25 percent of the children living in foster care were being treated with psychotropic drugs, a rate five times higher than in the general population of Medicaid-eligible children.

Family Sues Psychiatrist Over Son’s Death

VIDEO here: http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/south-florida-family-sues-psychiatrist-for-sons-death/

CBS 4 (Miami)
South Florida Family Sues Psychiatrist for Son’s Death
Jun 4, 2009

A South Florida family has filed suit against a Fort Lauderdale doctor claiming he is responsible for their child’s death and this is not the first time the doctor has been the center of controversy.

                                                    Shrink Sohail Punjwani

Dr. Sohail Punjwani who gave mind altering drugs to South Florida children could soon be going to court to defend his reasoning for prescribing the drugs. The mother of one of the boys spoke out about her son on Thursday.

“He was like a zombie, my son was like a zombie all the time,” said Norma Tringali as she described the final days of her teen aged son Emilio Villamar.

Tringali told CBS4’s Ted Scouten that her son was diagnosed as bi-polar and was treated by Dr. Sohail Punjwani. She claims her son was given a cocktail of drugs and that some that were not approved for children.

Villamar died of a heart attack at 16. Tringali said she was shocked when she heard the same doctor was treating 7-year old Gabriel Myers, who hanged himself April 16th in the bathroom of his Margate foster home.

Investigators are checking claims that he hanged himself, while also on a cocktail of drugs, some not approved for kids.

“When I learned that he was under the care of Dr. Punjwani, I say to myself, I will go forward and talk about it because maybe somebody else can learn from my tragedy,” said Tringali, who actually filed the lawsuit four years ago.

Gabriel Myer’s death spurred DCF Secretary George Sheldon to appoint a work group to study the agency’s use of psychiatric drugs, and its compliance with a 2005 reform law on the use of such medications on children in state care.

Under the 2005 law, the Agency for Health Care Administration oversees a state program that monitors the prescribing of mental-health drugs to children under Medicaid, the state insurance program for the needy.

The program, called the Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program, tracks the prescribing of mental-health drugs to children, and flags psychiatrists whose practices veer outside generally accepted protocols.

Among the practices that might draw attention: doctors with a high volume of prescriptions of mental-health drugs or potentially dangerous combinations of the medications. The program looks at the practices of about 17,000 doctors who prescribe medications to children on Medicaid, and about 300 to 450 end up red-flagged.

Dr. Sohail Punjwani, who was treating Gabriel and Emilio, had been red-flagged by the medication program every quarter that the list was kept, one of the administrators told CBS4 News partner The Miami Herald.

Source: http://cbs4.com/local/Emilio.Villamar.Norma.2.1031566.html

Psychiatric Drugs – Killing Children

http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/

St. Petersburg Times

Florida Department of Children and Families review finds shortfalls in monitoring of foster children on psychiatric drugs
By Kris Hundley, Times Staff Writer
In Print: May 29, 2008

Spurred by the shocking suicide of a 7-year-old on psychiatric drugs, the agency in charge of Florida’s foster children has discovered serious shortcomings in its monitoring of kids on such powerful prescriptions.


Gabriel Myers
After reviewing its files, the Department of Children and Families determined it had under-counted the number of foster kids on such medications as Risperdal and Adderall, overlooking hundreds of cases.

It also has failed to meet its legal requirement that such prescriptions be given only after parental consent or court order.

On Thursday, DCF said a review of the files of more than 20,000 children currently in the state’s foster care showed 2,669, or 13.19 percent, are taking one or more psychotropic medications.

That compares to about 4 or 5 percent of children in the general population who are on such prescriptions.

Of those foster children taking drugs, DCF discovered 16 percent had no proof either a parent or judge had signed off on the prescription, as required by a 2005 Florida law.

“That is unacceptable,” said DCF’s secretary George Sheldon. “We’re going to bring every single case of a foster child on drugs into compliance with the law.”

Concerns about pediatric use of anti-psychotic and anti-depressants have been growing along with increased warnings of such side effects as suicide, diabetes and weight gain. Few of the drugs have been tested or approved by the FDA for children, though physicians can prescribe them for this age group.

Robin Rosenberg, a Tampa lawyer and deputy director of Florida’s Children First, said advocacy groups like hers have been fighting for oversight of psychotropic drugs for years. “We’re not as far along as we should have been if the state had followed up on serious concerns starting in the late 1990s,” she said. “It’s a shame we’re in this place today.”

Sheldon, who was named to the top job at DCF in October, left no doubt that he had been deeply affected by Gabriel Myers, the 7-year-old who hanged himself on a shower hose in south Florida in mid-April. The boy was in his third foster home and on Vyvanse, a medication for ADHD, as well as Symbyax, a combination of anti-psychotic and anti-depressant.

Though his caseworker repeatedly said Gabriel’s mother had agreed to the medications, that was not true. The boy’s psychotropic medications also had not been entered in the state’s tracking system.

To correct ongoing problems, Sheldon set a deadline of June 5 for action on cases without consent. This could include scheduling new doctors’ appointments, gaining informed consent from parents or expediting a judge’s review of the prescription.

Sheldon said he also was going to focus on the cases of 73 children under age 6 found to be on psychotropic drugs.

“I want a sense of urgency, but I also want to get it right,” he said. “I want to move forward, but I think it’s important for the agency to apologize for misinformation it may have put out in the past.”

Flaws in DCF’s record-keeping became clear in the immediate aftermath of Gabriel’s death. An initial review of the state’s database showed only 1,950 kids on psychotropic prescriptions. After a thorough review of individual records, however, that number grew by more than 700.

Preliminary data released in mid-May also showed some questionable dates on judicial consent. Though it’s not inconceivable a judge might sign an order on a Saturday or Sunday, early returns showed weekend consent orders on 129 occasions.

The final database, including information on types of drugs and diagnoses, was not available Thursday. Sheldon said a summary of the drug data would be posted on the DCF Web site and updated weekly.

“I’ve got a lot more confidence in these numbers than I had two weeks ago,” he said. “But any database is only as good as the quality of the information being put into it.”

One ongoing area of concern, Sheldon said, is the validity of any consent given by parents whose kids are in the state’s custody.

“A parent whose child is taken into our care is going to sign virtually anything and that’s not informed consent,” he said. “My preference is that the biological parent have a dialog with the psychiatrist.”

Now that DCF has a handle on the number of foster children on psychotropic drugs, Sheldon said the department can begin to address the bigger issue of the efficacy of such drugs.

He has asked an independent panel investigating Gabriel Myers’ death to make recommendations on improving DCF’s oversight of these medications. Sheldon said a second-party review of all such prescriptions might be necessary; currently, only prescriptions for kids under age 6 require such review.

DCF has set up a page on its web site that tracks the progress of the panel investigation into the boy’s suicide. The page includes a photo of the smiling boy.

“We have his face on the screen watching us to see how well we learned from his life and death,” Sheldon said. “We cannot let him down.”

Source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicine/article1005344.ece

Risperdal-Caution, Graphic Content

Internal AstraZeneca reports and e-mails written by company officials show they knew a decade ago that their psychiatric drug Seroquel caused diabetes and major weight gain, plaintiffs’ lawyers said Friday after releasing dozens of the previously sealed documents.

“They not only failed to warn about the risk of diabetes, but they marketed it as not having that risk,” said Houston attorney Ed Blizzard, one of the lead attorneys representing roughly 15,000 plaintiffs suing the British drugmaker.
see the rest of the article and the video at:
http://tmap.wordpress.com/

Disabled Boy Killed by Psychiatric Drugs

Miami Herald
PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS
Lawsuit says too many psychiatric drugs killed boy
A disabled boy was lethally overmedicated, a lawsuit contends, as outrage continues over a child’s suicide while on several drugs last month.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Amid a wide-ranging debate over the proper use of mental health drugs on troubled children, the mother of a disabled boy who died in 2007 is claiming in a lawsuit the boy was overdosed by a cocktail of psychiatric drugs, including two powerful anti-psychotics.

Martha Quesada, the mother of 12-year-old Denis Maltez, filed a wrongful death and medical malpractice lawsuit Monday in Miami-Dade circuit court, claiming Denis’ psychiatrist, Dr. Steven L. Kaplan, and the now-shuttered Rainbow Ranch group home overmedicated Denis and failed to properly monitor his condition …

Quesada’s lawsuit was filed amid a high-profile investigation by the Department of Children & Families into the death last month of Gabriel Myers, a 7-year-old foster child who had been taking a cocktail of mental health drugs. DCF Secretary George Sheldon appointed a task force to study Gabriel’s case, and the use of psychiatric drugs on foster kids.

‘TOUGH’ TO HANDLE

Kaplan did not return calls for comment. In a June 2007 article in The Miami Herald, Kaplan said ”it’s possible” Denis would have been sleepy at school if he had not been given his medications at the right times. But, Kaplan added, “I never saw him dopey or sleepy.”…

According to the 28-page lawsuit, Glatt stopped taking Denis to doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital after he arrived at the group home in May 2006, and substituted Kaplan ”without the consent of [Denis's] mother.” Kaplan was treating several group home clients, the suit claims.

Kaplan prescribed and refilled four mental health drugs: Seroquel and Zyprexa, both anti-psychotic medications; Depakote, an anti-seizure drug sometimes used to stabilize moods; and Clonazepam, a tranquilizer. The lawsuit says the drugs were used “as chemical restraints to control Denis’s behavior.”

Though some of the medications are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on children and carry strong warnings about possible side-effects, Kaplan ”took no steps to ensure that Denis was not suffering any adverse effects from these medications,” the suit claims.

In fact, the suit claims, Kaplan examined the boy only once between between May 26, 2006 and May 23, 2007, the day Denis died.
There were warning signs that the drugs may have been harming the boy, according to the suit, filed by by Fort Lauderdale attorneys Maria Elena Abate and Howard Talenfeld.
In June 2006, teachers at Denis’s school, Ruth Owens Kruse Educational Center, reported the boy was sleeping through class. …

DCF would not discuss the investigation with a reporter Tuesday.

28,574 Signatures Against TeenScreen. Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY

More on Gabriel Myers

St. Petersburg Times
DCF must do better
A Times Editorial
May 12, 2009
A little boy in foster care is dead by his own hand, but a poorly functioning child welfare system also is responsible. Last month, 7-year-old Gabriel Myers hanged himself on an extendable shower hose while in a South Florida foster home. At the time he was taking a combination of psychotropic medications, one of which carries a warning that it might lead to suicidal behavior in children. State law was ignored in giving the child the medicines without consent from his mother or a judge. In the final outrage, this child was given risky drugs but not the intense attention he so obviously needed.
St. Petersburg Times staff writer Kris Hundley reported that at the time of his death, Gabriel was taking Vyvanse, an ADHD drug, and Symbyax, a combination antipsychotic and antidepressant, which warns of heightened suicide risk in children particularly when first prescribed.

Six times, Gabriel’s caseworker had documented that the Department of Children and Families had parental consent for the medication. But there was no such consent. Gabriel’s mother signed a general medical authorization on the same day she was found unconscious in her car with powder cocaine, crack and oxycodone in her possession. But when a child is in state custody, a parent must give explicit consent after being “expressly informed” about changes in a child’s medication, including being told of medications’ benefits and risks and about alternative treatments.
That never happened in Gabriel’s case, and it appears this case is not unique. It has been a common practice for DCF workers and physicians to fail to obtain parental consent when a psychotropic drug is for a nonpsychotherapeutic use, under the mistaken impression that the law didn’t require it.
And foster care advocates say that DCF’s internal records are abysmal in tracking children taking psychotropic medications. This also suggests that proper consents are not being obtained.
DCF Secretary George Sheldon is responding appropriately to Gabriel’s tragic death. He is closing the loophole that allowed the prescribing of mood-altering drugs without parental consent. He has named an impressive committee to investigate Gabriel’s death and make recommendations. Sheldon also made public the details of Gabriel’s situation rather than try to cover up DCF’s failings. That alone bodes well for an honest accounting and a sincere desire to reform.
But to prevent a similar situation, Sheldon will have to look beyond a caseworker’s failure to inform a parent and address a system’s failure to adequately meet Gabriel’s needs.
Gabriel said he had been a victim of sexual abuse before moving to Florida, which means he should not have been placed in any foster home where there were small children present. As Gabriel started engaging in inappropriate touching, he was bounced from one foster placement to another to protect other children. This kind of shuffling can add trauma to a child who is already at risk.
Gabriel also didn’t receive all the behavioral therapy he needed, and he lost the therapist with whom he had established a relationship. Sheldon noted that in the days before his suicide Gabriel changed medications, moved to a new foster home and received a new therapist.
Sheldon has it right when he says that Gabriel’s death “ought to mean something.” State law needs to be followed when prescribing medication for children in foster care. And particularly when it comes to damaged children, there has to be a recognition that drugs are no substitute for basic human care and attention.

28,555 Signatures Against TeenScreen. Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY