FDA Soft-pedals Study Linking Child Deaths To ADHD Meds « Medical Detox Programs in a stress-free environment

June 19, 2009

FDA Soft-pedals Study Linking Child Deaths To ADHD Meds

Filed under: Big Pharma, FDA, pharmaceutical giants, pharmaceutical sales, pharmaceuticals — Rod Malcolm @ 11:00 am

Kids haven’t been beaten down into ant-like goody-goody social behavior. They aren’t adults, shouldn’t be expected to behave like adults, and don’t deserve to risk death because of the irrational expectations of lazy parents and educators.

The FDA issued a “safety communication” this week admitting there “may be an association” between the use of ADHD amphetamine meds, like Adderall, Concerta, Vyvanse and Ritalin, and sudden death in healthy children.

The agency’s statement follows publication in the American Journal of Psychiatry the findings of a study funded by the FDA and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that compared sudden death among 564 previously healthy kids on the meds, and 564 kids, also on the ADHD meds, dying in car accidents.

Results: Drug-only unexpected deaths, 10; car accident deaths, 2.

In spite of frequent case reports raising concerns since the early 1990s that stimulants increase the risk for sudden unexplained childhood death, the FDA minimizes the study, and says more comprehensive studies are forthcoming.

Said the FDA: “Given the limitations of this study’s methodology, the FDA is unable to conclude that these data affect the overall risk and benefit profile of stimulant medications used to treat ADHD in children. FDA believes that this study should not serve as a basis for parents to stop a child’s stimulant medication.”

In spite of their findings associating the meds with sudden childhood death, the study’s authors also downplayed the risk, using mushy statements such as: “Stimulants are not innocuous….However, it is equally clear that…it is not possible to quantify the risk beyond estimating that it is very small.”

Let’s say it again: The risk of sudden unexplained death of children is “very small”, and shouldn’t serve as a basis to stop a child’s stimulant medication.

Sorry, but the risk of sudden death is never too small to ignore, especially in kids who are given no choice in the decision. And the risk is off the charts considering many studies, both here and abroad, that have debunked ADHD as a valid condition, and one only treatable with powerful and dangerous drugs.

For example, the Netherlands has already denied the validity of America’s ADHD diagnoses, and other countries including the UK are at least in partial disagreement. ADHD is primarily an American social-cultural phenomenon, jumped on years ago by the profiteering, drug-pushing Big Pharma-psychiatric consortium, much to the detriment of American children, families and American society in general.

Of course, the authors of the current study, being American psychiatrists, are fully sold on the validity of ADHD, and ipso facto, the validity of treating kids with dangerous amphetamines. They blandly estimate that 2.5 million kids are now on ADHD meds in America — a low-ball figure according to some estimates.

And they quote that figure as some sort of proof of validity for ADHD and the drugging of an entire generation of children, rather than for what it really is — a horrifying statistic showing how far the psychs and Big Pharma are taking the hellacious idea to drug America’s population from the cradle to the grave.

Adding to the ADHD $billions rolling into Big Pharma’s coffers are the tens of thousands of adults now being encouraged to leap onto the “I’ve-got-ADHD-too-please-pass-the-amphetamines” bandwagon. Which, by the way, only further legitimizes the drug-our-kids movement.

It’s pathetic, really. I wouldn’t put any child on amphetamines for any reason short of an emergency life-saving treatment, if any condition might require it.

The millions of American parents whose kids already have been targeted by school officials, nurses and physicians for an ADHD prescription should insist on the full battery of heart and blood tests before agreeing to it.

Wait, no, they should just disagree to it, period. Instead, they should research the validity of ADHD itself, without listening to the psychs, Big Pharma, and their official spokespeople on this subject, the FDA.

Kids are kids — people who haven’t been beaten down yet into ant-like goody-goody social behavior. They aren’t adults, and shouldn’t be expected to behave like adults. And they don’t deserve to be forced to risk death from dangerous drugs for any kind of behavior.

Medical Detox Programs in a stress-free environment

June 19, 2009

FDA Soft-pedals Study Linking Child Deaths To ADHD Meds

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