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Psychiatric drugs create suicide and violence: system needs an overhaul to protect children…
Greater than eight million American children and adolescents are prescribed psychoactive drugs, with more than two million on antidepressants, that are documented to be linked to violent and suicidal behavior[1], warns Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a US-based mental health watchdog group. CCHR is raising awareness among parents and policy-makers about the need to overhaul America’s mental health system to protect children.
According to information from IMS Health’s Vector One: National and Total Patient Tracker Database, in a single year, more than one million 0-5 year olds are prescribed psychiatric drugs, of which 274,804 are aged one or younger. Some 46,000 two- to three-year-olds are on antidepressants.[2] Add to that the dozens of children aged five or younger being given electroshock treatment — the passage of up to 460 volts of electricity through their developing brains — and CCHR says the pediatric mental health system across America is a national disaster, needing an overhaul.
CCHR announced it will shortly launch an online resource for parents and others concerned about the direction in which the drugging of children is taking, especially when it can lead to youngsters harming themselves. The site will provide not only facts about drug risks but also information about alternative approaches to pediatric behavioral issues, as recommended by doctors and educators. CCHR’s numerous online videos have addressed this issue starting with not labeling and stigmatizing childhood behavior.
In relating the potential dangers of a drug approach, CCHR points to the highly publicized suicide committed by a 14-year-old live on Facebook on January 22 this year.[3] A Miami Herald investigation found that the teen had her antidepressant dose doubled only 45 days prior to her hanging herself. A psychologist who treated the girl when she was 12 had warned against “filling the 12-year-old with pills, because the medication she was taking ‘sometimes can cause the side-effect of depression,’” according to the Miami Herald.[4]
View full article originally published at cchrint.