More about Bush to screen US population - TeenScreen Program

July 3, 2004

http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2004-06-25-Bush-Teen-Screen-Program.htm

Bush, Columbia University & " Teen Screen Program "

The " Teen Screen Program " is a Mental Illness Screening Program put

out by Columbia University, the same group that has been designated

by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to review the studies on SSRI-

antidepressants inducing self-harm & suicide in children...

A recent WorldNetDaily article " BUSH TO SCREEN POPULATION FOR MENTAL

ILLNESS "

June, 21 2004 following an article in the British Medical Journal

" BUSH PLANS TO SCREEN WHOLE US POPULATION FOR MENTAL ILLNESS " June, 19

2004,

announces a President Bush initiative that recommends screening for every

US

citizen and promotes the use of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs.

The Bush administration initiative began with the launch of the

" New Freedom Commission on Mental Health " in April 2002, resulting in the

TeenScreen® Program for screening of children for mental illness,

developed by

Columbia University physicians, the same group that has been designated by

the

Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to review the studies on

SSRI-antidepressants

inducing self-harm & suicide in children.

The " New Freedom Commission on Mental Health " recommended that the

screening be

linked with " treatment and supports, " including " state-of-the-art

treatments "

using " specific medications for specific conditions. " Eli Lilly & Company,

manufacturer of Prozac, Zyprexa & Olanzapine, one of the drugs recommended

in the

plan, has multiple ties to the Bush administration.

Corrupt connections between the Bush family, Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and

the CIA

were recently brought to public attention again.

A response by Dr. Ann Blake (www.drugawareness.org) & Vera Hassner

Sharav

(www.ahrp.org) follows.

Response from Dr. Ann Blake :

JUNE, 23 2004

Several of you have sent this article to me to make sure I saw it. I had.

But what

far too many in our society need to know is that this program has been in

place for

some time already.

It is called the " Teen Screen Program " and is in 168 schools at this

point. It is a

program put out by Columbia University. Yes, this is the same group that

has been

designated by the FDA to review the studies on SSRI's. So with their Teen

Screen

Program at risk if these drugs are pulled for children, I do not expect an

unbiased

report out of Columbia University.

Two summers ago this coming August, Mark , the first boy shot at

Columbine,

and I, along with Pepper Draper, our Arizona Director, testified in Tempe,

AZ against

the implementation of the Teen Screen Program there. At that point there

were only 60

some odd schools involved. So it is growing rapidly.

Now the suggestion that all school employees be tested is new. It is a

very interesting

proposal in light of the fact that in 1992 in my own school district here

in Utah, $1.2

Million was spent on Prozac prescriptions and $5 Million in psychiatric

care for district

employees. Clearly this suggestion to include school personel is only a

beginning for those

who smell the scent of even larger profits coming in on these serotonergic

antidepressants

and atypical antipsychotics.

For Dr. Graham Emslie to be for the program is hardly a shock either. He

has made lots

of $$$$$ doing studies on children for the drug companies. He is one of

the two who never

should have been involved, but is one of the leading researchers in the

Prozac study we

just heard preliminary reports on our national news this past month. (Why

would anyone be

surprised that these two researchers, imbedded in the pockets of the

pharmaceutical companies,

would make a statement that the study is currently showing improvement in

children on Prozac

when their own study showed a doubling of the suicide rate and a suicide

attempt rate that

jumped by five times?)

Anyway in light of this article coming out I am next going to send you two

more very

enlightening articles that will shed more light on what is happening in

the Pharma/Politics

department.

Ann Blake , Ph.D.

Executive Director, International Coalition For Drug Awareness

Author: Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare

& audio tape on safe withdrawal: " Help! I Can't Get Off My

Antidepressant! "

Order Number: 800-280-0730; Website: www.drugawareness.org

Response from Vera Hassner Sharav:

JUNE, 25 2004

A second article in the British Medical Journal discloses additional

evidence uncovered by , the whistle blower from the

Pennsylvania Inspector General's Office.

The first BMJ article focused on the Texas Medication Algorithm

Project (TMAP)-- which was developed by University of Texas

psychiatrists, paid for by Big Pharma, and adopted during the Bush

governorship.

See:Whistleblower removed from job for talking to the press by Jeanne

Lenzer

BMJ 2004;328:1153 (15 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1153

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/bmj;328/7449/1153

The documents uncovered by show that TMAP is the biggest

pharmaceutical / state mental health marketing rip off scheme

masquerading as " evidence-based " treatment guidelines.

See report:

http://psychrights.org/Drugs/TMAPJanuary20.pdf

The current BMJ article focuses on documents that expose an even more

ambitious " mental health " initiative--a nationwide screening

for " mental illness " campaign that is about to be unleashed on the

American public in July. This dubious, government sponsored

initiative, will implement the TMAP formula nationally. The first

target population for this massive screening for mental illness

initiative is in America's schools: 52 million American school

children and 6 million school personnel are about to be ordered to

undergo screening tests for hidden mental illnesses-- as if mental

illness needs to be ferreted out and captured like a rabid animal.

This massive screening initiative was formulated by President Bush's

New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2002). It is the culmination

of a series of dubious federally sponsored, " mental health "

initiatives--begun during the Clinton Administration-- that focus

especially on children.

See: U.S. Surgeon General. Report of the Surgeon General's Conference

on Children's Mental Health:

National Action Agenda. January 3, 2001.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/cmh/childreport.htm.

These " mental health " initiatives have methodically inflated the

number of American children (and adults) being labeled with a mental

illness; they have inflated the number of dependents with " mental

illness " on social security disability (SSDI & SSI); and they have

led to the depletion of public and private health insurance budgets

because of disproportionate skyrocketing expenditure for the most

expensive psychotropic drugs-- even as scientific evidence is lacking

to demonstrate the benefit of these drugs.

Whitaker, author of the prize winning book, Mad in America,

that laid bare the mistreatment of patients with schizophrenia and

the unprecedented profitable marketing of the atypical anti-psychotic

drugs, has recently gathered the following data from government

sources about the extraordinary increase in use of these drugs and

the cost to taxpayers. He chose 1987 as the benchmark date because

the following year Prozac-the first of the new generation of " wonder

drugs " --was introduced.

Social Security Disability Payments (SSDI)

In 1987, 875,000 people received SSDI payments because of mental

illness. By 2002, that number had grown to 1.7 million people who

received SSDI because of mental illness. That an increase of 825,000

people over 15 years, or about 55,000 people per year.

SSI -- PAYMENTS

In 1987, 2.63 million people received SSI payments because of a

mental disorder. In 2002, 4.07 million received SSI because they had

a diagnosable mental disorder. Thus, the number of people with a

mental disorder receiving SSI grew 1.44 million people over this 15-

year period, or about 95,000 people per year.

TOTAL DISABILITY

In 1987 the number of people receiving SSI or SSDI payments because

of mental disorders was 3.505 million. In 2002, the number receiving

SSI or SSDI payments was 5.77 million. That's an increase of 2.265

million people in the past 15 years, or about 150,000 people per

year.

$$ EXPENDITURE

In 1987, psychotropic drug expenditure was $1 billion. By 2002, it

was $23 billion--23 times the amount spent 15 years earlier.

Screening for mental illness serves no useful medical or societal

purpose inasmuch as there are no reliable diagnostic tools for mental

illness and no proven safe and effective treatments. Clinical trial

data from SSRI antidepressants and so-called atypical anti-psychotics

failed to demonstrate either these drugs' safety or a benefit greater

than placebo. But, as ' documents make clear, the TMAP

practice guidelines designate these very drugs as the treatment of

choice--not on the basis of evidence, but on the basis of a consensus

panel. A panel under the direct influence of Big Pharma.

Indeed, as the BMJ reports, " Dr J Weiden, who was a member of

the [TMAP] project's expert consensus panel, charges that the

guidelines are based on " opinions, not data " and that bias due to

funding sources undermines the credibility of the guidelines

since " most of the guideline's authors have received support from the

pharmaceutical industry. " ( BMJ 2004;328:1153 )

COERCIVE NATURE OF SCREENING FOR MENTAL ILLNESS:

If implemented, this " new freedom " initiative establishes a coercive

selection policy that opens the door to discrimination and forced

treatment with powerful, psychotropic drugs that have caused more

harm to children (and adults) than the conditions for which they were

prescribed. Children and adults who will be labeled mentally ill on

the basis of unreliable, subjective tests (essentially

questionnaires), can expect to lose their autonomy as a brigade of

mental health providers intrudes on their lives and takes over their

decision-making authority. Those labeled mentally ill can expect to

be stripped of their civil and human rights.

Already, a surgically implanted psychotropic drug dispenser--to

assure compliance with prescribed drug regimens--is under development

in clinical trials at the University of Pennsylvania.

See: http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/03/10/07.html and ethics debate at:

http://www.ahrp.org/ethical/WolpeSharav.html

We don't have policies to screen innocent people for crimes they have

not committed on the theory that early intervention is a justifiable

crime prevention measure. We don't have screening policies to ferret

out would-be terrorists. What possible justification does the

government have to put children through a dubious screening process

for suspected mental illness?

This involuntary, pseudo-medical government sponsored selection

policy is a chilling example of the illegitimate intrusion by

government into personal and confidential healthcare decisions.

The public needs to be ever vigilant against such overreaching

government policies which have historically proven harmful. Being

labeled " mentally ill " and being forced to ingest psychotropic drugs

whose harmful effects are only beginning to be disclosed--is not in

the best interest of children.

An examination of Germany's mental and racial " hygiene " policies and

the implementation of those policies, before the Holocaust, is a

sobering awakening. German children were screened and tested for

disabilities ( " deformities " ), then removed from their families,

institutionalized, and eventually gassed by Nazi doctors--many of

whom were prominent psychiatrists.

See, Hitler's Unwanted Children: Children with Disabilities, Orphans,

Juvenile Delinquents and Non-Conformist Young People In Nazi Germany

(1998), by AHRP board member, Dr. Sally Rogow.

http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/r/rogow.sally/hitlers-unwanted-

children

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

Tel: 212-595-8974

e-mail: veracare@...

July 3, 2004