OVER 1000 CHILDREN IN WEST MIDLANDS FALSELY LABELLED AND DRUGGED BY PSYCHIATRISTS

September 15, 2005 (PRLEAP.COM) Education News
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) Birmingham has released figures today collected under the Freedom of Information Act highlighting the psychiatric infiltration into the education system and subsequent damaging of young children’s minds in the West Midlands and Birmingham.
Methylphenidate Hydrochloride, more commonly known as Ritalin or Conerta XL, is being falsely presented to parents as a “treatment” for the spurious Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), despite much condemnation in the medical field as well as official health warnings from recognised institutions such as the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, Dr Sami Timimi, who works full time in the NHS in Lincolnshire, is highly critical of the ADHD diagnosis. He says, "The idea that there is such a thing as a test for ADHD is nonsense. There is no such thing.
"Despite the lack of evidence to support the theory that ADHD is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that we as doctors know how to work out which children have that chemical imbalance, despite this just being a theory, it’s entered into popular mythology within the profession and accepted as a truth because it’s the theory that’s needed to justify the prescribing of stimulants."
The Birmingham based group has found that over 1100 children in the West Midlands are being prescribed mind altering psychiatric drugs for an alleged condition the existence of which is based solely on opinion, unsupported by any proper scientific evidence.
Chris Wrapson spokesperson for the group, stated: “Psychiatrists are irresponsible. They prescribe mind altering psychotropic drugs in the same classification as cocaine to young children and then claim they have ”cured” an unruly child of his “condition”. If you were to find a child who is perhaps a little boisterous towards his classmates or has “ants in his pants”, or sometimes doesn’t pay attention in class, you would say he is merely being a normal healthy energetic child.
To say that this constitutes a mental illness, and that he has a chemical imbalance of the brain is dishonest. Psychiatry is a pseudoscience, dishing out labels for children based on no scientific evidence, mere opinion, and then giving them mind altering drugs. If a child were given a shot of cocaine, you would probably find them curled up in a ball in the corner, withdrawn, and very quiet, Ritalin is in the same class, and its effects can be devastating”.
Local families and education services are affected by the “expert” opinion of the psychiatrist, often to the detriment of the child himself. Parents of course have only their child’s best interests at heart and may not want to see their child drugged into submission (and worse). However if school denies their child his education unless they consent to this so called “treatment” they can be pressured into giving their consent albeit unwillingly.
The effects are devastating, a once happy adventurous and inquisitive child, can be subverted through the use of mind altering psychotropic drugs and can be found very often, collapsed asleep, fully clothed, sprawled across the landing, in doorways, out like a light.
And what of the costs involved with this mass drugging? The average tax payer through his contributions, will be unwittingly financing the 5900 plus items prescribed by local Primary Care Trusts (costing somewhere in the region of £143,000 based on a positive response of only 23% of the trusts contacted who provided this information).
CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus and internationally acclaimed author, Dr Thomas Szasz, when the need for intensive reform of psychiatry became apparent. CCHR has exposed hundreds of unexplained or improper deaths in psychiatric institutions, the psychiatric rape of patients, child deaths from exposure to life threatening stimulants and many other human rights abuses.
Anyone with information on adverse reactions to psychiatric drugs (especially from children), or whose children have been diagnosed with ADHD and are concerned, can contact CCHR’s Abuse Line on 0121-523 8185. All confidence will be protected.
Chris Wrapson (Volunteer)
Media Relations Officer
Citizens Commission on Human Rights Birmingham
chris@cchr.org.uk or info@cchr.org.uk
07793 285 784 or 0121 523 8185