Eight million U.S. schoolchildren--15% of of the total--are taking psychiatric drugs on a regular basis to control their alleged emotional or intellectual disorders.This is 7 times more than just 10 years ago and 40 times more than in 1970.
Six million children are classified as suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Before the mid-1960s there were virtually no children with this disorder. Many other childhood disorders have also skyrocketed over the same period. Clearly something is wrong. But what? Is there something wrong with the brains of America's children? If so, why are there so many more children afflicted with brain disorders today than there were in the past? Many psychiatrists and other spokespersons for the mega-million dollar psychopharmecutical lobby have a simple explanation: Psychiatric advances have enabled professionals to discover brain disorders that had previously escaped their notice.
One problem with this explanation is that there is no genuine evidence that these children suffer from brain abnormalities in the first place. In fact the National Institute of Health on November 1998 at the Consensus Conference on ADHD itself concluded "...we do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction." Furthermore there is no evidence--even according to the pro-psych-drug National Institute of Mental Health-- that Ritalin, the most widely prescribed drug for school children, has any long term positive effects on academic performance, and copious evidence that it has emotionally (and probably physically) detrimental effects upon children and adolescents. Furthermore, evidence had emerged that CHILDREN ON PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS ARE MORE LIKELY THAN THEIR PEERS TO BE ADDICTED TO DRUGS AS ADULTS.
The diagnosis of ADHD is based upon behaviors that are problematic for adults, particularly teachers (e.g "often leaves seat in classroom" or "often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly"). Research corroborates that this diagnosis proves only that the child is restless and not motivated by the school curriculum--not that he/she is incapable of sustaining attention when challenged by cognitive tasks. The increase in the incidence of ADHD is at least partially a result of the new fashion of labeling unmotivated children as mentally disordered. The schools profit directly from this practice as they get increased funds for learning disabilities; the pharmeceutical companies profit, as they expand their markets; and the new learning disabilities industry (comprised of psychiatrists, psychologists and a variety of specialists ) becomes stronger and more extensive. The only people who suffer are the children (and sometimes their parents)--they are the scapegoats for social dysfunctionality, forced to grow up burdened with the shameful stigma of a psychiatric label, forced to take mind-altering drugs that they generally find anxiety- producing, uncomfortable and/or dispiriting.
Across the country concerned parents have been initiating and lobbying for legislation makes it more difficult for the psychopharm-educational complex to cajole or force (under threat of being reported to Child Welfare as negligent parents) parents to put their children on psychiatric drugs.Such legislation has passed in a number of states, including Connecticut
Stanley Aronowitz supports the following measures:
1. Each local school board of education shall implement policies prohibiting any school personnel from recommending the use of psychotropic drugs for any child, or intimidating parents or guardians into seeking medication or pursuing specific psychological or psychiatric diagnoses or psychotherapies for their child.
2. The Administration of Children and Family Services (ASC) shall be prohibited from finding that the refusal of a parent or guardian of a child to administer or consent to the administration of any psychotropic drug to the child or to any other specific psychodiagnostic procedure or psychotherapy, as grounds for a finding of educational neglect or medical neglect and thus for intervention by ACS.
These are but a few of the Popular Democracy agendas, often opposed or neglected by the Democratic and Republican Parties, that Stanley Aronowitz and the Green Party will bring to the political front stage in 2002. We need your input and support.
