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London, United Kingdom, July 04,
2006 --(PR.COM)-- Last month, Canada's health ministry issued a
new warning concerning the controversial drugs used to treat
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The drug warning stated that people with high blood pressure,
heart disease or other related medical ailments are at risk from
the "heart-related side-effects" such as "cardiac arrests, strokes
or death,". The ADHD drugs named and shamed include Ritalin,
Adderall XR, Concerta, Dexedrine and Strattera.
"This is another nail in the coffin for psychiatric drugs," says
Michael Westen, editor of the online MSN activist group
Psychbusters, set up in 2000 to 'decode psychiatric propaganda'.
"These drugs, drugs which we are even giving our children, are
dangerous and should be banned. The number of suicides and deaths
related to psychiatric drug use is heart-breaking, and yet
governments are still unwilling to step up and make real decisions
to protect public health. Other drugs, such as Ephedra, have been
banned for far less."
It's an opinion that seems to be shared by many, including the
late Dr. Loren Mosher, a noted psychiatrist and clinical professor
of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and
former Chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia at the
National Institute of Mental Health. Mosher famously resigned from
the American Psychiatric Association in 1998 due to Psychiatry's
growing "unholy alliance" with the multi-billion dollar
pharmaceutical industry.
"Psychiatry has become drug dependent (that is, devoted to pill
pushing) at all levels - private practitioners, public system
psychiatrists, university faculty and organizationally," Mosher
once wrote, before attacking the field as being mechanistic,
reductionistic, tunnel-visioned and dehumanising. "'Modern
psychiatry has forgotten the Hippocratic principle. Above all, do
no harm."
Despite the controversy that surrounds the use of psychiatric
drugs, there is growing concern over whether ADHD is even valid as
a mental illness.
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistics
Manual (DSM, Version IV), the psychiatrist's handbook, lists a
number of behavioural traits that it considers abnormal in
children, including "often has difficulty awaiting turn", "often
does not seem to listen when spoken to directly", and "often has
difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly".
Diagnosis is primarily based on results from rating scales,
surveys, questionnaires, and checklists.
"It is total fraud," claims Michael Westen. "Many psychiatric and
pharmaceutical groups claim mental illnesses such as ADHD are
biological in nature, are 'brain disorders', physical diseases,
yet diagnoses are entirely subjective. There is no scientific test
or brain scan that can show ANY mental disorder, let alone ADHD,
exists as a medical condition."
"For a disease to exist there must be a tangible, objective
physical abnormality that can be determined by a test,' says
neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman. "Such as, but not limited to, a
blood or urine test, X-Ray, brain scan or biopsy. All reputable
doctors would agree: No physical abnormality, no disease. In
psychiatry, no test or brain scan exists to prove that a 'mental
disorder' is a physical disease."
Baughman, from California, and Fellow of the American Academy of
Neurology, is one of an ever-growing number of campaigners
fighting to expose the lies within the psychiatric industry. An
adult & child neurologist of some 35 years, Dr. Baughman is vocal
when coming up against misleading research or downright fraud
palmed off as 'science'. "They made a list of the most common
symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children, those which bother
teachers and parents most, and in a stroke that could not be more
devoid of science or Hippocratic motive - termed them a 'disease'.
Twenty five years of research, not deserving of the term
'research', has failed to validate ADD/ADHD as a disease."
Despite there being no scientific basis for ADHD, prescriptions of
Methylphenidate - most commonly sold as Ritalin - rose to 359,100
in the UK last year, a rise of 344,400 since 1995. Figures from
the Prescriptions Pricing Authority reveal that there has been a
180-fold increase in prescriptions since 1991 when only 2,000 were
issued in England.
Ritalin, which is pharmacologically similar to Cocaine, is a
favoured treatment option for those labelled with ADHD, yet
critics claim it is a harmful drug that can cause neurological
defects and further behavioural difficulties. Earlier this year,
researchers in Texas found a link between Ritalin use and
chromosome abnormalities - occurrences associated with increased
risks of cancer and other adverse health effects.
"The simple fact is that there is absolutely no reliable test that
accurately distinguishes between children that are supposed to
have 'ADHD' and those that are not", says Dr. John Breeding,
author of The Wildest Colts Make The Best Horses. To counter the
claim that ADHD is a valid medical condition that requires medical
treatment, Breeding encourages parents to demand conclusive
scientific evidence. For there simply isn't any.
Elliot S. Valenstien, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and
Neuroscience at the University of Michigan also agrees. "Contrary
to what is often claimed, no biochemical, anatomical, or
functional signs have been found that reliably distinguish the
brains of mental patients."
"I am constantly amazed by how many patients who come to see me
believe or want to believe that their difficulties are biologic
and can be relieved by a pill," says psychiatrist Dr. David
Kaiser. "This is despite the fact that modern psychiatry has yet
to convincingly prove the genetic/biologic cause of any single
mental illness. However, this does not stop psychiatry from making
essentially unproven claims that depression, bipolar illness,
anxiety disorders, alcoholism and a host of other disorders are in
fact primarily biologic and probably genetic in origin, and that
it is only a matter of time until all this is proven. This kind of
faith in science and progress is staggering, not to mention naive
and perhaps delusional."
But if ADHD does not exist as a disease, what explains the
inattentiveness and hyperactivity in so many of our children?
"There are people out there who believe that those who question
the existence of "ADHD" must also question the existence of
hyperactivity or attention difficulties, but that's totally
untrue," says Michael Westen. "There are many reasons why a child
can become inattentive or hyperactive. Nutritional deficiencies or
a poor diet are often underlying problems. There can be
difficulties in the home, disciplinary issues, vision problems,
even a lack of sleep. And there can be many others. Yet instead of
looking at all these issues Psychiatry ignores them, inventing a
one-size-fits-all 'disease' that requires 'medication'. It's
junkscience."
"The lives of millions of children are being put at risk," says
Lawrence Smith, creator of the website RitalinDeath.com, "with
dangerous, addictive drugs that have been publicly known to cause
death, suicide, cardio vascular damage, chemical dependency,
depression, tics, weight loss, appetite loss, school shootings and
many other things for something that can't even be proven." Smith,
from Michigan, lost his fourteen year old son Matthew to long-term
Ritalin use, in 2000. According to Dr. Ljuba Dragovic, the Chief
Pathologist of Oakland County, upon autopsy, Matthew's heart
showed clear signs of small vessel damage caused from the use of
Ritalin. Matthew had had no pre-existing heart condition or
defect.
Between the years of 1990-2000, over 569 children were
hospitalized in the USA due to the effects of ADHD 'medication',
according to the FDA MedWatch program. 186 deaths were also
reported, yet critics point out that MedWatch is a voluntary
reporting scheme and that these numbers represent no more than 10
to 20% of the actual incidence.
According to the Public Citizen's Health Research Group in
Washington, D.C, 155 deaths have been linked to Ephedra, a natural
stimulant used in dietary supplements, which the FDA banned in
2003.
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