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MindFreedom International News - 24 Oct. 2005
http://www.MindFreedom.org - please forward
Exposing President Bush's Plans
for Massive Psychiatric Screening of
the USA Wins a "Project Censored"
Alternative Media Award
Project Censored is considered the
"alternative Pulitzer Prize" by some
journalists. This Saturday, 22 Oct.,
Project Censored awarded the "Top 25
Censored Stories of 2006" -- important
news that mainstream media covers up.
Number 11 in the Top 25 is journalist
Jeanne Lenzer whose series of articles
in the _British Medical Journal_ showed
how President Bush is calling for "mental
health screening" for children and adults
in the USA in a plan that could result
in hundreds of thousands of more citizens
being placed on psychiatric drugs without
adequate protection of human rights.
Even though President Bush calls for
making this psychiatric screening "common
practice" throughout the USA the
corporate mainstream media has largely
refused to inform their readers.
BELOW is the forwarded announcement
from Project Censored including an
UPDATE from Jeanne Lenzer:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
#11 Universal Mental Screening Program
Usurps Parental Rights
Sources:
Asheville Global Report (British Medical
Journal), No. 284, June 24-30, 2004
Title: "Bush Plans To Screen Whole U.S.
Population For Mental Illness"
Author: Jeanne Lenzer
http://www.agrnews.org/issues/284/#2
Truth News, September 13,2004
Title: "Forcing Kids Into a Mental Health
Ghetto"
Congressman Ron Paul
http://www.truthnews.net/world/2004090078.htm
In April of 2002, President Bush
appointed a 22 member commission called
the President's New Freedom Commission on
Mental Health in order to "identify
policies that could be implemented by
Federal, State and local governments to
maximize the utility of existing
resources, improve coordination of
treatments and services, and promote
successful community integration for
adults with a serious mental illness and
children with a serious emotional
disturbance."1 Members of this commission
include physicians in the mental health
field and at least one (Robert N.
Postlethwait) former employee of
pharmaceutical giant Ely Lilly and Co.
In July of 2003 the commission published
the results of their study. They found
that mental health disorders often go
undiagnosed and recommended to the
President that there should be more
comprehensive screening for mental
illnesses for people of all ages,
including pre-school age children. In
accordance with their findings, the
commission recommended that schools were
in a "key position" to screen the 52
million students and 6 million adult
employees of our nation's schools.2
The commission also recommended linking
the screenings with treatment and
support. They recommended using the Texas
Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a
model treatment system.3 TMAP, which was
implemented in Texas' publicly funded
mental health care system while George W.
Bush was governor of Texas,4 is a disease
management program that aids physicians
in prescribing drugs to patients based on
clinical history, background, symptoms,
and previous results. It was the first
program in the United States aimed at
establishing medication guidelines for
treating mental health illnesses.5
Basically, it is an algorithm that
recommends specific drugs which should be
used to treat specific diseases. Funding
for TMAP was provided by a Robert
Wood-Johnson Grant as well as several
major drug companies. The project began
in 1995 as an alliance of individuals
from pharmaceutical companies, the
University of Texas, and the mental
health and corrections systems of Texas.6
Critics of mental health screening and
TMAP claim that it is a payoff to
Pharmaceutical companies. Many cite Allen
Jones, a former employee of the
Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector
General. He was fired when he revealed
that many key officials who have
influence over the medication plan in his
state received monetary perks and benefits
from pharmaceutical companies, which
benefited from their drugs being in the
medication algorithm. TMAP also promotes
the use of newer, more expensive
anti-psychotic drugs. Results of studies
conducted in the United States and Great
Britain found that using the older, more
established anti-psychotic drugs as a
front line treatment rather than the
newer experimental drugs makes more
sense. Under TMAP, the Ely Lilly drug
olanzapine, a new atypical antipsychotic
drug, is used as a first line treatment
rather than a more typical anti-psychotic
medication. Perhaps it is because Ely
Lilly has several ties to the Bush
family, where George Bush Sr. was a
member of the board of directors. George
W. Bush also appointed Ely Lilly C.E.O.
Sidney Taurel to a seat on the Homeland
Security Council. Of Ely Lilly's $1.6
million political contributions in 2000,
82 percent went to Republicans and George
W. Bush.7
In November of 2004, Congress
appropriated $20 million8 to implement
the findings of the New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health. This would
include mandatory screening by schools
for mental health illnesses. Congressman
Ron Paul, R-Texas introduced an amendment
to the appropriations bills which would
withhold funding for mandatory mental
health screenings and require parental
consent and notification. His amendment,
however, was voted down by a wide margin
(95-315 in the House of
Representatives).9 Paul, a doctor and
long-time member of the American
Association of Physicians and Surgeons
(AAPS) states, "At issue is the
fundamental right of parents to decide
what medical treatment is appropriate for
their children. The notion of federal
bureaucrats ordering potentially millions
of youngsters to take psychotropic drugs
like Ritalin strikes an emotional chord
with American parents." Paul says the
allegation "that we have a nation of
children with undiagnosed mental
disorders crying out for treatment is
patently false," and warns that mental
health screening could be used to label
children whose attitudes, religious
beliefs, and political views conflict
with established doctrine. Paul further
warns that an obvious major beneficiary
of this legislation is the pharmaceutical
industry. The AAPS has decried this
legislation, which they say will lead to
mandatory psychological testing of every
child in America without parental
consent, and "heap even more coercive
pressure on parents to medicate children
with potentially dangerous side effects."
Update by Jeanne Lenzer:
Whether it's the pills we take or the oil
we use, it would be reassuring to know
that the information used to develop new
medicines or to utilize natural resources
wisely is based on science--not corporate
spin.
But blandishments from Big Pharma to
politicians and doctors have a profound
effect on health care in the U.S., making
medical research closer to propaganda than
science at times.
One way drug companies, in collusion with
doctors, increase their market share is to
expand the definition of diseases. When
diagnostic criteria were liberalized for
attention deficit disorder in 1991, the
number of children diagnosed jumped by
about 60 percent.
The American Psychiatric Association
(APA) acknowledged in the July 2004 issue
of Advocacy News that, "The BMJ story has
gained some traction in derivative
reports on the Internet." But, they
boasted, "mainstream media have not
touched the story, in part thanks to
APA's work, for which the [Bush]
Administration is appreciative."10
The APA's boast is curious. The article
was the most downloaded article in the
history of the BMJ. It clearly struck a
nerve with a public wary of doctors and
politicians whose pockets are lined with
drug company money.
Given the interest in the BMJ story, it
would seem that the APA, instead of
attempting to keep the story out of the
mainstream media, would be anxious to
counter the widely circulated statements
in the article. It would also seem that
the mainstream press could provide the
Administration and the APA the best
possible vehicle to counter these
supposed factual errors in the BMJ
article.
But, the facts might prove difficult to
square with the public. More than one in
every 100 toddlers and preschoolers in
the United States are on powerful
psychiatric drugs, such as Ritalin and
Prozac, according to a study published in
the February 2000 issue of the Journal of
the American Medical Association.
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D., wrote in an
accompanying editorial, "It appears that
behaviorally disturbed children are now
increasingly subjected to quick and
inexpensive pharmacologic fixes, as
opposed to informed mutimodal therapy."
He concluded, "These disturbing
prescription practices suggest a growing
crisis in mental health services to
children and demand more thorough
investigation."
But instead of issuing warnings about
overmedication or inappropriate
prescribing, the experts on the New
Freedom Commission warn ominously that
too few children are receiving treatment
for mental illness. They cite escalating
numbers of toddlers expelled from daycare
as evidence of potentially serious
psychological problems--problems to be
diagnosed and cured with mental health
screening and pills. Social and economic
reasons for the rise in kiddie expulsions
are left unexamined.
As bad as this is for those put on drugs
and labeled "mentally ill," the far
bigger concern is the creation of a
disease for every drug, a situation made
possible by the hand-in-glove
relationship between industry and the
government.
NOTES
1. http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/.
2. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078.
3. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078.
4. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078.
5. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=3084.
6. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078.
7. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078.
8. http://www.truthnews.net/world/2004090078.htm.
9. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41606.
10. See Medicating Aliah:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/medicating_ aliah.html.
- end of announcement -
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please feel free to forward.
Above announcement is from
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2006/index.htm#11
Forwarded as a free public service
by MindFreedom International
http://wwww.MindFreedom.org.
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for human rights in the mental health
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