The condition of Bipolar in Children and teenagers has seen a huge diagnosis increase in the past decade. In fact, it has increased by 40 times. During this same time, the diagnosis of adult bipolar disorder doubled.

This is a dangerous trend. Very young children, barely out of infancy are given powerful antipsychotic drugs to control this supposed condition.

This sometimes chaotic and frustrating time in a child’s life used to be called “the terrible twos.” But the early assertion of independence has a new name; bipolar in children.

Six years ago, a little girl died from a cocktail of medications being given to her, allegedly to control a condition of bipolar in children. Rebecca Riley had been diagnosed with bipolar at the age of 2 ½.

This toddler was prescribed 3 separate powerful pharmaceuticals; Clonidine, a blood pressure medication, Seroquel, an anti psychotic and Depakote which is used to control seizures. On December 13^th her small body was killed by this onslaught of drugs;
including at least one (Seroquel) that had never been tested on children.

Almost one million children have been diagnosed with bipolar in children. This makes this condition suddenly more prevalent than diabetes and autism combined.

By their own admission, the field of psychiatry has no lab test for their principle diagnosis. And the criteria for the conditions they diagnose are not even constant.

While psychiatrists debate the validity of their diagnosis and tests for bipolar, depression, ADD and ADHD and other mental afflictions, lives are being lost.

Reports of deaths and extremely dangerous side effects linked to the use of antipsychotics in the young are mounting. FDA data collected between the years of 2000 to 2004 found no fewer than 45 deaths of children, most likely due to the use of these drugs. In
addition, 1,328 bad side effects were recorded. Some of the side effects were
referred to as “life-threatening.”

Although drug companies are required to file reports to the Federal Drug Administration’s Adverse Events Reporting System, this database has only 1% to 10% of these deaths and side effects recorded. This is according to clinical pharmacologist Alastair J.J.
Wood, who is an associate dean at Nasheville’s Vanderbilt Medical School.

Chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine John March admits “We’re conducting a very large experiment on our children.”

Even if a child survives the use of antipsychotic drugs, the effects of their use can linger, incapacitating that child for life.

Teenager old Rex Evans took one of the atypical antipsychotic drugs several years ago, but he still suffers from tardive dyskinesia (TD) which results in involuntary jerking movements and facial grimacing. There is no known cure for TD.

Deaths and permanent side effects have done nothing to halt the prescription of these powerful drugs to the young. In fact, prescriptions of psychiatric drugs increased fivefold from 1995 to 2002. These numbers do not even include prescriptions at residential
treatment centers and psychiatric hospitals.

As frightening as these figures are, it is not too late to protect the youngest and most vulnerable among us. With the knowledge of their destructive side effects, parents can do their own research and decide how best to treat their children.

Medical professionals (not psychiatrists or psychologists) can perform proper medical tests to detect any underlying physical causes of mental health symptoms. We have a right to choose such tests and treatment.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-3308525.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-01-atypical-drugs_x.htm

If you found out that someone was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, you might assume the person must have some serious mental health problems and needs to be removed from
society to get some help.  This is not the typical case.  In fact, every 1 ¼ minutes, someone is involuntarily committed so it is not logical that there are that many people out there that
need to be committed, or “Baker Acted,” as it is known in the state of  Florida.   Instead of this law protecting individuals, it poses a dangerous threat to anyone.

The Baker Act dictates that a person must have a mental illness and would not get treatment on his own.  Further, without any treatment that person could cause bodily harm to himself and others based on his recent behavior, so that he needs to be forced into getting treatment.  That
is the logic behind involuntary commitment.  It sounds innocent enough, but in
reality it doesn’t work.  

The problem is who decides whether you are a danger to yourself or others?

Imagine having a fight with your neighbor who then calls the police and says you are dangerous and you are then picked up and put in a psychiatric facility.  Imagine answering an ad because you feel depressed over the death of a loved one and someone shows up at your door telling you that you must go to a psychiatric hospital at once to get treatment.  Imagine going to a psychiatrist for help with the stress of everyday life only to be committed because he has deemed it necessary.  These are all instances of using the Baker Act in the name of “public safety.”

You may logically think these are examples of misunderstandings that could be sorted out easily.  Not necessarily.  A seventy-four year old man was asked if he was depressed by his home care nurse. 

Things weren’t looking particularly upbeat at the moment so he answered yes.  He
was forced to go to a psychiatric hospital and he tried to explain it was a
misunderstanding, but he was admitted as being suicidal without so much as a
chance to make a phone call to someone who would really help him.  When one and
a half to two million people are involuntarily committed each year in the United
States, one can only think there are many instances where someone is committed
unnecessarily.

Whether in error or not, under the Baker Act or other involuntary commitment laws, you can be detained for seventy-two hours for observation.  A lot can happen in those seventy-two hours.  Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, states, “it [involuntary commitment]
entails far greater deprivation of rights than does incarceration in prison.”

Once admitted, despite having legal rights, you may not have the opportunity to exercise them before treatment is begun.  You may be forced to take psychotropic drugs with horrendous side
effects within that seventy-two hour period.  Perhaps electro-shock is deemed
necessary to change that undesirable behavior.  Whatever the case, it is more
than likely legal as  accountability isn’t clearly defined.  

Criminals must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but that is not the case when dealing with involuntary commitment.  For example, if you experience brain damage or if you were
committed based on false information, the psychiatrist is not liable.  The only
proof needed is that statutory procedure was followed which favors the psychiatrist.

When one is Baker Acted in Florida, one has the right to informed consent which means you should be given a reason you are being admitted, what the treatment will be, its purpose, its benefits and
side effects and what are the alternatives.  You have the right to contact an
attorney and you should be given a copy of these rights upon being admitted.
That doesn’t mean it will happen.  

If a person is arrested by the police, the person is informed of his Miranda rights.   If a person is Baker Acted, he isn’t necessarily told of his rights.  Mental health personnel ignore the laws as a
formality getting in the way of getting treatment for the patient. The problem is, if you don’t know you have these rights and no one tells you about them, then the invitation for them to be ignored is there and so is the opportunity for abuse.

One should also consider that a psychiatrist only treats symptoms and does not cure anything.  There is no medical test such as an x-ray, blood test, MRI or anything else to prove that a
“mental illness” or “mental disorder” exists in the body.  It is ironic that a
psychiatrist has the legal power to force you to receive treatment that could
incapacitate you, yet his actions are not based on science.  Yet this “expert”
is the one that can judge you to be a danger to yourself or others in the name
of “mental health care.”

It would be wise to get informed and know your rights so you don’t become one of the innocent people Baker Acted and mentally crippled.

http://www.cchrstl.org/documents/involuntary_commitment.pdf

http://www.cchrflorida.org/baker-act-q-and-a.html

“One of the great errors of the 20th century was this: we accepted the spurious notion that
a wide range of life’s problems were in fact illnesses.”

These are the words of Dr. Phil Hickey, a retired psychologist. Dr. Hickey writes
articles for his own blog that point out the faults in the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders.

In life, we experience a wide range of feelings – grief, boredom, happiness, anger and
hopelessness, to name a few. These are all normal emotions that people feel
depending on the situations they are faced with each day.

After being given a heavy workload, you’re likely to feel stressed. When you can’t find
something to do, you may feel bored. When a loved one dies, you will probably
feel grief. When you’ve had a productive day full of accomplishments, you will
probably feel happy, and maybe even proud.

A recent article published in an Indian newspaper stated that, according to “mental
health experts,” 98% of people in India suffer from “lifestyle anxiety.” This
statement labels a huge percentage of people as having a mental disorder.

It is important to understand the difference between a medical disease and a
psychiatric disorder. In the medical field, scientific tests are used to prove
the existence of a medical condition. Blood tests, for example, can be used to
diagnose a disease. However, in the field of psychiatry, no such tests exist.

Psychiatric disorders are diagnosed based on a list of symptoms. These symptoms are simply voted on by the American Psychiatric Association, and the symptoms that win the vote are included in the Diagnostic Statistic Manual (DSM), the diagnostic textbook
for psychiatry.

“No biochemical, neurological, or genetic markers have been found for Attention
Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Depression, Schizophrenia,
anxiety, compulsive alcohol and drug abuse, overeating, gambling or any other
so-called mental illness, disease, or disorder,” says Bruce Levine, Ph.D.

How does this unscientific diagnosis affect children? Children can feel content,
happy and joyous. They can also feel upset, bored or wild. These feelings are
part of normal childhood behavior, but can easily be misdiagnosed as mental
disorders. Until recently, giving kids a cocktail regimen of psychiatric drugs
was unheard of. Nowadays, it is practically the norm.

Take the example of Rebecca Riley. She was diagnosed with ADHD and Bipolar Disorder at the age of 2 ½ years old. She was prescribed three psychiatric medications: an
anti-hypertensive (Clonidine), an anti-seizure drug (Depakote), and an
antipsychotic (Seroquel). At the age of 4, she died of a prescription drug
overdose. All three drugs were found in her system when she died.

The diagnosis of psychiatric disorders is on the rise. Do a little digging for
yourself, and you’ll find that several mental disorders have a higher diagnosis
rate than ever before, even among young children.

Even though tests do not exist to diagnose mental illnesses, the diagnosis of Pediatric
Bipolar Disorder rose 4000% from 1994 to 2003. There is no proven test for ADHD
either, but according to the CDC, the diagnosis rates for ADHD increased 5.5%
per year between 2003 and 2007. That is over a 20% increase between those years
alone.

Dr. Michael Lesser, a psychiatrist, says, “It’s not like you can find a cell in a person
that shows that they have bipolar disorder. It’s not like they have a fever or
run a temperature. Like if they had a physical illness. This is a behavioral
definition only.”

When you were a child, did you ever feel bored in school? Did your youthful energy ever
get you into trouble? How can we be sure that these “mental health” symptoms
aren’t actually just symptoms of childhood?

“Perhaps worst of all, these diagnoses almost inevitably lead to the prescription of
psychiatric medication to you or your child. Psychiatric drugs are toxins to
the brain; they work by disabling the brain,” says psychiatrist Peter Breggin.

Psychiatrists claim that mental disorders come from a chemical imbalance in the brain. However, there are no tests to analyze the chemical status of a living person’s brain,
or to determine what a correct chemical balance looks like. The chemical
imbalance theory has never been proven true.

Meanwhile, many experts agree that diet and nutrition can play a role in behavior. For example, a diet loaded with sugar can make a child seem hyperactive and create symptoms
normally associated with ADHD. What American child’s diet isn’t full of sugar?

There is also the possibility that an undiagnosed physical problem exists, rather than a
mental one. You can read more about the physical illness factor here: http://cchrflorida.org/physicalormental.html.

Life is comprised of sorrows and joys, good times and bad. Whether you’re talking about
adults or children, surely our lives were meant to be more than just a handful
of pills.

If you found out that someone was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, you might assume the person must have some serious mental health problems and needs to be removed from society to get some help.  This is not the typical case.  In fact, every 1 ¼ minutes, someone is
involuntarily committed so it is not logical that there are that many people out there that need to be
committed, or “Baker Acted,” as it is known in the state of Florida.   Instead of this law protecting individuals, it poses a dangerous threat to anyone.

The Baker Act dictates that a person must have a mental illness and would not get treatment on his own.  Further, without any treatment that person could cause bodily harm to himself and others based on his recent behavior, so that he needs to be forced into getting treatment.  That is the
logic behind involuntary commitment.  It sounds innocent enough, but in reality it doesn’t work.  

The problem is who decides whether you are a danger to yourself or others?

Imagine having a fight with your neighbor who then calls the police and says you are dangerous and you are then picked up and put in a psychiatric facility.  Imagine answering an ad because you feel depressed over the death of a loved one and someone shows up at your door telling you that you must go to a psychiatric hospital at once to get treatment.  Imagine going to a psychiatrist for help with the stress of everyday life only to be committed because he has deemed it necessary.  These are all instances of using the Baker Act in the name of “public safety.”

You may logically think these are examples of misunderstandings that could be sorted out easily.  Not necessarily.  A seventy-four year old man was asked if he was depressed by his home care nurse.  Things weren’t looking particularly upbeat at the moment so he answered yes.  He
was forced to go to a psychiatric hospital and he tried to explain it was a misunderstanding, but he was admitted as being suicidal without so much as a chance to make a phone call to someone who would really help him.  When one and a half to two million people are involuntarily committed each year in the United States, one can only think there are many instances where someone is committed unnecessarily.

Whether in error or not, under the Baker Act or other involuntary commitment laws, you can be detained for seventy-two hours for observation.  A lot can happen in those seventy-two hours.  Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, states, “it [involuntary commitment] entails
far greater deprivation of rights than does incarceration in prison.”

Once admitted, despite having legal rights, you may not have the opportunity to exercise them before treatment is begun.  You may be forced to take psychotropic drugs with horrendous side effects within that seventy-two hour period.  Perhaps electro-shock is deemed necessary to change
that undesirable behavior.  Whatever the case, it is more than likely legal as  accountability isn’t clearly defined.  

Criminals must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but that is not the case when dealing with involuntary commitment.  For example, if you experience brain damage or if you were committed based on false information, the psychiatrist is not liable.  The only proof needed is that
statutory procedure was followed which favors the psychiatrist.

When one is Baker Acted in Florida, one has the right to informed consent which means you should be given a reason you are being admitted, what the treatment will be, its purpose, its benefits and side effects and what are the alternatives.  You have the right to contact an attorney and
you should be given a copy of these rights upon being admitted.  That doesn’t mean it will happen.

If a person is arrested by the police, the person is informed of his Miranda rights.   If a person is aker Acted, he isn’t necessarily told of his rights.  Mental health personnel ignore the laws as a
formality getting in the way of getting treatment for the patient. The problem is, if you don’t know you have these rights and no one tells you about them, then the invitation for them to be ignored is there and so is the opportunity for abuse.

One should also consider that a psychiatrist only treats symptoms and does not cure anything.  There is no medical test such as an x-ray, blood test, MRI or anything else to prove that a “mental illness” or “mental disorder” exists in the body.  It is ironic that a psychiatrist has the legal power to force you to receive treatment that could incapacitate you, yet his actions are not based on science.  Yet this “expert” is the one that can judge you to be a danger to yourself or others in the name of “mental health care.”

It would be wise to get informed and know your rights so you don’t become one of the innocent people Baker Acted and mentally crippled.

http://www.cchrstl.org/documents/involuntary_commitment.pdf

http://www.cchrflorida.org/baker-act-q-and-a.html

The number of children being diagnosed with autism is ever increasingly on the rise.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently reported that autism is almost twice as common as it was five years ago.  About twenty years ago, only a few per ten thousand children were diagnosed with autism.  Currently, one in eighty-eight children are diagnosed
according to the latest figures.  Autism has changed from a condition practically unheard of to something we hear about quite often.  Why did this dramatic increase occur?

The CDC is not sure why there is such an increase.  It could be that the definition of autism has broadened which actually could lead to misdiagnosis.  Forty years ago, only kids with severe language and social impairments or unusual repetitive behaviors, were diagnosed with autism.  Today the criteria has been changed to include milder symptoms and it is all under the
umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).   This means that a wide variety of
symptoms could be called ASD. 

There is definitely a non-optimum condition present that parents need help with, but autism is diagnosed purely on judgments regarding behavior and not on biological tests or blood tests.  This opens the door for autism misdiagnosis.  No exact science exists to diagnose the lack of
sociability, interaction, tantrums or repetitiveness.  As a result, psychiatrists only treat  these symptoms because they have no medical or scientific proof that any disorder exists in the body. 

With a variety of symptoms to treat, psychiatrists can prescribe dangerous mind-altering psychiatric drugs with serious adverse side effects.   Behavior therapy can cost up to forty-thousand dollars for just one child.  Needless to say, autism is big business with the potential for big profits from sales of drugs and therapy.  Autism misdiagnosis just adds to those profits.   

There is an abundance of state-financed support services which also could be a reason for the increase in diagnoses. 

It also should be noted that an increase in research on autism took place after the year 2000 and coinciding with that was an increase in autism diagnoses.  Initially the research was mandated by the government, but when one considers that pharmaceutical companies very often fund research
studies, it makes one wonder who really is to benefit by the research?  Research usually results in new drugs which support pharmaceutical companies’ big interest in profits.

There is no doubt that autism cases are on the rise and the possibilities for misdiagnosis are ample.  However, with no precise pathological tools to diagnose autism and a wide spectrum of symptoms to treat, it would be wise to get as much information as possible about autism so that one
can make informed decisions regarding treatment.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/health/rate-of-autism-diagnoses-has-climbed-study-finds.html?_r=1

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/therapy-for-autistic-children-is-intensive-expensive/1223557

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46892046/ns/health-childrens_health/t/better-diagnosis-screening-behind-rise-autism/

Can food dye be a risk factor for ADHD? Research points in that direction. Studies show that food dye and preservatives can affect the behavior of some children.

For example, food which contains Yellow 5 causes human beings to excrete zinc through saliva and urine. If a person is already diagnosed with ADHD, it seems the speed with which zinc is lost actually increases.

According to experts, this is why zinc is important:

• Hundreds of enzymes that affect metabolism of protein, carbohydrate, alcohol and fat depend on zinc
• It is critical for the healing of wounds
• It is critical for bone strength and many other crucial physical
  functions
• It is needed for healthy cognitive functions

Even a minor deficiency can cause mental and physical problems.

It isn’t only Yellow 5 that creates problems. All the man-made dyes are loaded with dangerous contaminants. Included in this list are arsenic, lead, mercury and benzidine,
which is carcinogenic.

Taken individually, they are dangerous enough. But a cocktail of such ingredients could be harmful to a child with a developing brain and nervous system.

Since lead targets the oxygen carrying protein in red blood cells, it can, over time, attack one’s nervous system.

Mercury can negatively impact the neurological development of infants as well as
children.

Arsenic is responsible for causing cancer, headaches and confusion.

Food dye may not contain large amounts of any of these, but in a small child’s body, the effects might be cumulative.

A study was conducted in Great Britain in 2007 by their Food Standards Agency. The study involved giving 3, 8 and 9 year olds three different types of drinks, using
various artificial colorings. There was also a control group given a placebo,
which had no additives. Afterwards, the children’s behavior was observed and
evaluated by parents and teachers.

Researchers discovered that the children given the drinks with artificial coloring additives
displayed hyperactive behavior, and the conclusion was reached that food dyes do
show an adverse effect on behavior.

The FDA is now investigating the connection between ADHD and food dyes.

The main dyes they are concerned with are Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. Not surprisingly, they are found in many of the foods marketed towards consumption by children.

What has research shown? Once again, that the zinc levels in some children are depleted enough to cause hyperactive behavior.

Red 40 alone can cause:

• aggressive behavior
•  temper tantrums
•  anxiety
• inability to concentrate and fidgeting.

Interestingly, here are some common symptoms of what mental health practioners refer to as ADHD:

• Difficulty paying attention, makes careless mistakes in school
• Temper tantrums
• Anxiety (although this is sometimes diagnosed as “anxiety disorder” but the result is the often the same – placing the child on psychiatric
  drugs)

This is a familiar list of symptoms, too often treated with dangerous psychotropic drugs instead of researching natural means to eliminate such behavior. It has been said that
eliminating food dyes from the diet of a child can make a definite difference.

While there may be natural ways to deal with behavior problems, we as parents and grandparents are faced with the ethical misconduct of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical
companies. Their brutal use of our children as personal moneymakers must be
dealt with before another generation is irreversibly damaged.

http://www.feingold.org/yellow5.php

Being depressed can be dangerous. Far beyond the upset caused by being down in the dumps, being depressed can make a person subject to intense scrutiny by not only the
psychiatric profession at large, but also the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS).

A new preventive screening is being touted by CMS through the use of a mobile app. It is claimed that this will help primary care physicians locate signs that a person could become
depressed, bipolar, or subject to any of popularly diagnosed mental illnesses,
including alcohol abuse.

But isn’t this a good thing?

In a perfect world perhaps it would be. But in the real world, where being depressed is a precursor to addiction or damage by a psychotropic drug, where advertising for these
pharmaceuticals has reached a fever pitch motivated by billions of dollars
profit and where proof of most mental afflictions is nonexistent, it is
disturbing.

Putting one’s health care (of any kind) in the hands of those who profit from illness or misfortune is naïve. Depending on a 27 item questionnaire, filled out in three minutes to diagnose one’s mental state may be the height of gullibility, and is certainly a sign of
how far we have fallen in responsibility for our own health.

Certainly we have become gadget happy, dependant on mobile devices for everything from discovering our soul mate to gambling away our savings.

A case in point is psychiatrist Steve Davis who happily proclaims the app is “unique because it screens for four different disorders at once.” Perhaps psychiatrists can be replaced by a mobile device, but his free admission of the fact is rather
surprising.

With the psychiatric insistence that mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, shouldn’t there be a test to determine this, rather than a subjective questionnaire on a mobile app?

Here is what The Mayo Clinic offers in the way of testing for mental disorders:

• A physical
  exam to check vital signs. This includes checking blood pressure, heart rate,
  examining your abdomen and taking your temperature.
• Psychological exam. This includes discussing your thoughts and behavior by a mental health provider. You also might be asked to fill out a questionnaire. (this is not at all scientific and opens the door to subjective interpretation by the person reviewing the questionnaire)
• Laboratory Tests. Checking your thyroid function or screening for drugs and
  alcohol. This Mayo Clinic advice also  remarks that “lab tests aren’t necessary to diagnose a mental illness.”

Why are psychiatrists allowed to omit basic medical tests and with no evidence, administer psychiatric drugs?

Other medical professions use science to reach conclusions based on facts which have been tested and proven. But psychiatry and psychology have their DMV, which is appropriately referred to as a “Bible.” It does indeed seem to be based on a belief system, one which not even differing factions of psychiatrists can agree upon.

For the safety of you and those you love, it may be wiser to depend on common sense and natural treatments, including a change of environment and education which can significantly improve a depressed person’s mood. It has also been wisely stated that when a person helps another, he himself will feel less depressed.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mental-illness/DS01104/DSECTION=tests-and-diagnosis

http://mobihealthnews.com/16758/mental-health-screening-app-benefits-from-cms-payment-decision/

The “theory” is that people who are continually depressed have low serotonin levels in their brain. By boosting those levels with the antidepressant, their mood is elevated to “normal” levels. To someone that isn’t an expert on brain chemistry, this sounds reasonable and like an easy fix. Forest Labs, the manufacturer of Celexa, is counting on you to believe that, but it is not true.

Serotonin is a natural substance in the brain. What really happens is that the drug inhibits the serotonin from being absorbed like it normally would, so that it is not metabolized and as a result, it builds up in the body. This can cause changes in the brain’s chemistry which basically means damage to the brain.

Instead of producing that elevated mood, SSRI antidepressants can do just the opposite and can cause even more very undesirable conditions. As the Black Box Warning indicates, they can increase suicidal thoughts and behavior. They can actually make the depression or anxiety worse. Those feelings acted upon mean murder and suicide. Convulsions, hallucinations and severe allergic reactions are also possible. Cardiac arrhythmia, blood pressure changes, mood swings and dizziness are not unheard of. Do these antidepressants sound like something that would really help you.

The manufacturer of Celexa in particular doesn’t appear to be looking to improve your mental health either as they have pleaded guilty to criminal charges regarding marketing of Celexa to children. Celexa is not approved by the FDA for use by children. Many parents of teens who committed suicide or attempted suicide while on the drug, have sued Forest Labs for fraud and negligence. They contend that Forest Labs did not warn the doctors or public about the known dangers of Celexa. Instead, they paid doctors to promote the drug and aggressively marketed the antidepressant for use by children and teenagers. This cost them over three hundred million dollars to settle but this is a nominal fee for a pharmaceutical company that makes billions of dollars a year from one drug.

More recently, Celexa now has another thorn in its side to its unsafe and dangerous reputation. It has been found that high doses can cause abnormal heart rhythms which can result in death. This is serious enough that the FDA has given new dosage and usage recommendations. Some patients were taking sixty milligrams a day of this antidepressant, but it has been found that more than forty milligrams could be fatal. Studies have shown that usage of over forty milligrams of Celexa can change the electrical activity in the heart resulting in a potentially fatal arrhythmia.

What comes to mind as a serious concern is what about pregnant women taking Celexa? Since whatever the future mom ingests goes into the baby’s bloodstream, how would any dosage of this antidepressant affect the baby’s heart? It wouldn’t be logical not to affect it. In fact, in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, it is sixty percent more likely that a baby will be born with heart defects if the mother is taking Celexa. There is also a forty percent chance that birth defects in general will occur, just from the fact that the mother is taking an SSRI.

Drug companies and psychiatric “experts” keep telling us that Celexa and other SSRI antidepressants are safe, but since when do potential violence and suicide, heart arrhythmias and baby heart defects come under the heading of safe? It would be wise to get yourself informed regarding the harms of psychiatric drugs so that you know the truth and don’t fall victim to this false declaration of “safety.”

http://www.drugs.com/news/fda-adds-more-warnings-antidepressant-s-label-37259.html

http://www.health-essentials.info/science/health-issues/ssri01.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citalopram

http://www.carrcarr.com/celexa-and-lexapro-manufacturer-settles-cases-in-teen-deaths

http://www.celexabirthdefects.net/

By Kenneth W. Thomas, RN

In an article on March 13, 2012 by Melody Mendez, I read with amazement how technology claims to help diagnose serious mental illnesses such as Depression, ADHD and “other disorders”. In this article quoting information from the Neuro-Therapy Clinic in Greenwood Village, Colorado, the suffering person comes to them for an EEG, an electronic mapping of the surface of the head of the electrical activity coming from the brain, and allows them to see into the workings of the brain and define the diagnosis of depression or ADHD. This is completely a false assertion by the Neuro Therapy Clinic.

ADHD symptoms and feelings of depression, or just that, there is an abundance of evidence by the medical (non-psychiatric) community, that there are potential physical causes of these symptoms and many other symptoms that all-too-often are diagnosed as mental health disorders.  There are no medical test to evidence a psychiatric disorder, only medical tests that help the non-psychiatric physician find the actual medical illness.

Furthermore, while EEG testing can be helpful in conditions, such as seizure activity and physical abnormalities such as brain injuries, the presence of an abnormal wave form cannot diagnose anything.

These wave patterns are indicators of altered or hyperactive electrical patterns and can only at best diagnose abnormality. Furthermore, knowing that there is an abnormal pattern coming from an area, does not tell one the causation of that activity. Even ingesting caffeine can cause increased activity not to mention many other causative agents in the environment and food.

The article continues describing the method of sending the tracings to a “peer online” viewing system whereby other physicians review the scan and compile “evidence” of similar patterns in EEGs for people who have later been or came into the database with the diagnosis of depression or ADHD.

Here we have the insertion of a subjective viewpoint on the interpretation of
the wave-forms. This is an inexact science at best.  Even computers can take tracings and measure them against previous waveforms collected on that same patient (a baseline
reading) or against another person’s waveforms. We do this type of comparisons
in EKG readings as well. Our current EKG machines have thousands of read and interpreted EKGs in their database and recorded wave forms against a grid. Elevations in
certain segments of the waveform can tell of impending problems for the
patient. But in all cases of EKG, the presence of symptoms must be matched with
the wave forms for an indicator of trouble. And once more, lab tests and other
tests are used to confirm the indicator from the EKG. Unless the patient is
presenting with chest pain, diaphoresis, arm or jaw pain, and an altered EKG, a
diagnosis of a heart attack is mostly by direct observation and patient report.

In the scenario from the article, the patient is supposed to “not-know” what’s wrong with them. They come for an answer via an EEG to get a real diagnosis. This is startling, considering the EEG cannot diagnose anything. In this scenario, the subjective analysis is still being done by another human being, even if not present with the patient. If the peer group viewing the EEG sees evidence of Depression in the waveforms, they report back to the ordering physician the findings, and the physician then makes the case to the patient that these are the findings. Now with a defining diagnosis, the physician orders a psychotropic drug?

This article is misleading and presenting a false premise that suddenly science has now advanced into the ability of reading a patient’s brain and can “see” inside the brain at what is going on. This is not only absurd at best, but gives patients false hope that they can be helped with bettered science. It’s just not the case. In fact, to date not one scientific
proof of any mental illness can be found in blood tests, MRI’s, CAT Scans, or
EEGs. The evidence is theoretical and “sold” to the public as if it were true.
Patients who are suffering for any kind of help get duped into believing they
are wisely spending their money on a diagnostic test when in fact they are
being robbed. But then again, who really is paying for these tests?

http://kdvr.com/2012/03/13/new-technology-helps-diagnose-depression-adhd-other-disorders/

Ingesting dangerous, synthetic marijuana may well result in a trip to the hospital. Some
young people have even been brought to the psychiatric ward under the state’s involuntary
commitment law. Drugs with names like “Mr. Smiley,”, “Red X Dawn” and “Spice”
were, until recently, available in convenience stores and gas stations. Since
the Drug Enforcement Administration banned five of the compounds found in some
of these drugs, they are less readily available. But synthetic marijuana
remains a dangerous presence and a worry for parents and guardians of at-risk
youth.

Three otherwise healthy teenagers had heart attacks just a few days after smoking K2,
one brand of synthetic weed. Doctors have theorized that the chemical caused
spasms in the coronary arteries. This may have cut off the heart’s blood supply
and killed part of the muscle. Amazingly, all three of these young people have
regained their health. They were incredibly lucky.

Others have not dodged the deadly effect these drugs are capable of.

Synthetic marijuana is 20 times as potent, therefore 20 times more toxic, as normal
marijuana. And although paranoia can be associated with “natural” pot smoking,
those taking fake pot may experience more agitation and psychosis under the
influence.

Even after the drugs have left the system, according to reports, many tell of a
behavior change and thought processing change that does not go away and leaves
them open for “psychiatric treatment”. The first line of treatment is most
often psychotropic drugs.

There are extremely dangerous long-term physical effects associated with synthetic
marijuana. There have been reports of kidney failure, anxiety, muscle cell
breakdown, convulsions, hallucinations, tremors and heart palpitations. Some
experience seizures long after the drug had been ingested. This is according to
literature from The Poison Control Center.

The medical examiner in an Upstate New York County reported the deaths of two young
men who had used so-called legal marijuana.

What are these drugs made from?

They are a blend of herbs and spices which have been treated with synthetic
chemicals meant to mimic the highs produced by marijuana.

One hopes that this Pittsburgh father’s heart-breaking story may save the lives of
other children enticed by these potentially deadly compounds. Raymond Rice’s 13
year old son Brandon smoked K2 (also known as Spice) in June of 2011. Brandon
was a happy-go-lucky kid, who loved baseball and roller coasters. But after
smoking what he thought was pot, he developed a full body rash, nausea and a
dangerously high fever.

His parents placed him in cold water to bring down the fever, but it actually
increased from 103.7 to 104.2 degrees. His father said that the chemical burn
from Spice was “eating his lung away.”

The young man lay near death for 6 weeks in the hospital, on life support, his
lungs irreversibly damaged.

On September 28^th Brandon had a double lung transplant. He seemed to be
recovering well when he took a turn for the worse and tragically passed away
from an infection in October of last year.

Brandon’s story illustrates the dangers of synthetic marijuana in a gut-wrenching way. It
is a tragic reminder to communicate with our youth, and is a warning that
recreational drug use can be a dangerous game of Russian Roulette.

http://teens.webmd.com/news/20120317/spice-k2-sending-teens-emergency-room

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/08/synthetic-drugs-show-deadly-side-effects/

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/officials_say_three_upstate_de.html

http://www.wtae.com/r/28732032/detail.html

http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/11302/1186001-59.stm