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