About ADHD & Child Mental Disorders:
“Virtually anyone at any given time can meet the criteria for bipolar disorder or ADHD. Anyone. And the problem is everyone diagnosed with even one of these ‘illnesses’ triggers the pill dispenser.” — Dr. Stefan Kruszewski, Psychiatrist
“‘Mental illness’ is terribly misleading because the ‘mental disorders’ we diagnose are no more than descriptions of what clinicians observe people do or say, not at all well established diseases” — Allen Frances, Psychiatrist and former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman
There’s no doubt that many parents need help. Whether it is the school complaining about their child’s behavior, or the parent observing emotional or educational problems. The problem is parents are being told their child has a “mental disorder” and needs “medication” but are not being given all the facts about these psychiatric labels (mental disorders) or the drugs being prescribed to ‘treat’ their children. In the U.S. alone, 8.4 million children are currently being prescribed psychiatric drugs—more than 1 million are under the age of five (source: IMS health.)
These are the actual figures taken from IMS Health Vector One National database, the most credited source of pharmaceutical prescribing information available in the United States. To see the breakdown of what drugs these children were prescribed click here.
Number of Children on psychiatric drugs in the United States
0-1 Years 274,804
2-3 Years 370,778
4-5 Years 500,948
6-12 Years 4,130,340
13-17 Years 3,617,593
The American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association and the National Institute of Mental Health all admit that there are medical tests to confirm mental disorders as “disease,” but do nothing to counter the false idea that these are biological/medical conditions when in fact, diagnosis is simply done by a checklist of behaviors.
This is not to say that children cannot experience emotional or behavioral difficulties (scroll down to the page to see alternative non-drug solutions), but these diagnosis of mental disorder are not the same as diagnosis of verifiable diseases or medical conditions. There are no genetic tests, brain scans, X-Ray or any scientifically proven test to verify mental disorders as disease. Claims of “new research suggests” or “psychiatrists now believe” continually running in the press, are simply claims, not scientific evidence, and quickly fade to be replaced by new claims. Yet none have proven workable or verifiable. If there were a proven test or genetic marker, X-Ray, brain scan, or blood test…. each and every person diagnosed would have the lab results before being “diagnosed.” They don’t because none exist. And while psychiatrists and federal mental health agencies are well aware of this fact, the public is not.
“There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.” — Allen Frances, Psychiatrist and former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman
Read the full article here:
Best Start For Kids 