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OPINION
Screening and drugging children
will not prevent social ills
Last week the state of Illinois launched a series of
public meetings to implement the Children’s Mental Health Act of 2003.
This legislation requires mental health screening for all children and
pregnant women. On the surface, this sounds wonderful, especially when
dealing with the difficult problems like post-partum and youth
depression and suicide and school shootings. However, several questions
must be asked.
What are the rights of youth and their parents to
refuse or opt out of this screening? Will they face coercion and threats
of removal from school or child abuse/neglect charges if they refuse?
How reliable are the screening instruments? What if
the diagnosis is wrong? How will a child or adolescent remove a
stigmatizing label from their records that could follow them the rest of
their lives?
Will parents and pregnant women be honestly told about
the potentially severe side effects of the medications used in
treatment?
In the midst of this effort to do good, the
following facts are being overlooked:
1) Screening does not prevent suicide — The U.S. Preventive Services
Task Force (USPSTF) issued its findings and recommendation against
screening for suicide that corroborate those of the Canadian PSTF.
"USPSTF found no evidence that screening for suicide
risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality. There is limited evidence on
the accuracy of screening tools to identify suicide risk in the primary
care setting, including tools to identify those at high risk."
(See
http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/05/21.html)
2) Mental health diagnoses are “subjective” and
“social constructions” as admitted by the authors of the diagnostic
manuals themselves.
3) Parents are already being coerced to put their
children on psychiatric medications and some children are dying because
of it. This law will only increase that problem.
Across the country, Patricia Weathers, the Carroll
Family, the Johnston Family, and the Salazar Family were all charged or
threatened with child abuse charges for refusing or taking their
children off of psychiatric medications. Both Matthew Smith and Shaina
Dunkle died of medication toxicity after their parents were coerced to
place their children on drugs by the schools.
4) Most psychiatric medications do not work in
children — Medical textbooks, published and unpublished research, and
government reports consistently state that the long term safety and
effectiveness of antidepressants like Prozac and stimulants like Ritalin
have yet to be proven.
5) The side effects of these medications in children
are severe. They include suicide and violence from the new
antidepressants; cardiac (heart) toxicity from the older
antidepressants; growth suppression, psychosis, and violence from
stimulants; and diabetes from the newer anti-psychotic medications.
Several school shooters, like Eric Harris, Kip Kinkel,
and Jason Hoffman were on antidepressants or stimulants or both at the
time of their crimes. Parents need to say no to this intrusive and
ineffective plan.
Implementation at least should be delayed until
parents and pregnant women can refuse assessment and/or treatment
without coercion. Sensitive data must be protected and informed consent
about the lack of safety and effectiveness of psychiatric medication in
children should be added.
(For detailed references, see
http://www.edaction.org/2003/030827.htm)
Karen Effrem
28 July 2004
http://www.illinoisleader.com/opinion/opinionview.asp?c=17952
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