Amazing Video - No Psychiatric Drugs for this Pet

[Guest guest]

Heard the news where drug companies are trying to sell psychiatric drugs

to pet owners for their dogs? It's true - see here:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/18463/

Well, the pet owner in this video

said " NO " to that baloney:

And here's some not so fun news:

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The Guardian

2.5m children on drugs in US

April 07 2008

Antipsychotic drugs for children have taken off in the US on the back of

a willingness to diagnose those with behavioural problems as having

manic depression. Even children barely out of babyhood are getting a

diagnosis of bipolar disorder, the modern term for the condition.

The chief symptoms are mood swings, which, however, are common in

children of any age.

Healy, an expert on bipolar disorder, said there were now 2.5

million American children on antipsychotics. However, the UK guidelines

on the disorder, from the National Institute for Health and Clinical

Excellence, urge caution.

One drug which prompted concern was Risperdal, originally to be sold for

children with " irritability " or difficult behaviour in autism. It was

reviewed by experts for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory

Agency because of " concern about the potential misuse of [it] as ...

long-term chemical control " . The drug's maker, Janssen-Cilag, though it

won a licence for it, withdrew its application, citing differences with

the authority.

Sami Timimi, a child psychiatrist, criticises the " social trend of using

powerful, largely ineffective medicines to control the behaviour of

[children] who have never had a say in what is imposed on them " .

More here:

http://tmap.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/25m-children-on-drugs-in-us/

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The Guardian

Tranquillisers putting children's lives at risk. Anti-psychotics may

cause long-term harm, say critics

Youngsters under 6 being given unlicensed drugs

By Boseley

April 7 2008

New evidence has shown children's lives are being put at risk by a surge

in the use of controversial tranquillising drugs which are being

prescribed to control their behaviour, the Guardian has learned.

The anti-psychotic drugs are being given to youngsters under the age of

six even though the drugs have no licence for use in children except in

certain schizophrenia cases, the report says.

The number of children on the drugs has doubled since the early 1990s as

the UK begins to follow a trend started in the US, but critics say they

are a " chemical cosh " that could cause premature death.

The first comprehensive analysis, carried out by Ian Wong, professor of

paediatric medicines research at the London School of Pharmacy, suggests

the number of children on the drugs has surged sharply.

His analysis, to be published next month in the US journal Pediatrics,

shows that between 1992 and 2005, 3,000 UK children were given

anti-psychotics.

Twice as many prescriptions were given to children for the drugs in 2005

as in 1992, with the biggest increase in the seven to 12 age group,

where the number of anti-psychotics prescribed trebled. The largest

category of use by far is in cases of behavioural disorders and

personality disorders, including bipolar disorder (manic depression),

autism and hyperactivity.

The increase follows a huge rise in the use of the drugs in children in

the US. Yet nobody knows how the drugs affect a growing child's body or

what may happen in the long term. The increase has come at a time when

former psychiatric best-sellers Prozac and its class of anti-depressants

have gone out of patent. Wong says children on anti-psychotic medication

are more likely to die earlier - something which may not be caused by

the drug but which gives cause for concern. " The mortality rate is much

higher. It could be some underlying problem of the brain. It doesn't

show the drug is causing any deaths, but there is this inequality. "

More here: http://tinyurl.com/6f694o

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26,466 Signatures Against TeenScreen:

http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html, Video: