Inside TeenScreen - The Making of Mental Patients

December 31, 2005

http://www.counterpunch.org/lucas12302005.html

December 30, 2005

The Making of Mental Patients

Inside TeenScreen

By SANDRA LUCAS

In October, 2004, after taking TeenScreen, a 10-minute computer test

developed in the psychiatric department of Columbia University, 16-year-old

Chelsea Rhoades of Indiana was told she had two mental health problems,

obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder. The

diagnoses were based upon Chelsea's responses that she liked to help clean

the house and didn't " party " much.

Chelsea is one of countless children who get labeled with fraudulent

diagnoses every day. The difference in her case is that her parents, who

were unaware that TeenScreen had infiltrated their daughter's school and

had not given permission for the screening, reacted quickly. They filed a

lawsuit against the officials of the high school who allowed the test to be

administered and the TeenScreen program. In doing so, the Rhoades took a

stand for all parents across the nation.

The unscientific nature of psychiatric labeling was admitted to by the

American Psychiatric Association's own president, Sharfstein, when

he stated on June 27, 2005, during an interview on the Today Show, " We do

not have a clean cut lab test [for diagnosing mental illness or chemical

imbalance of the brain.] "

His admission was quickly followed by another similar statement from

psychiatrist Mark Graff, Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association

Committee of Public Affairs, " Chemical imbalance: it's a shorthand term

really, it's probably drug industry derived. We don't have tests because to

do it, you'd probably have to take a chunk of brain out of someone - not a

good idea. " Graff did more than admit to there being no science behind the

chemical imbalance theory. He also pointed out the incestuous relationship

between the drug industries and psychiatry.

TeenScreen is definitely a child born of that union, nothing more than an

unscientific written mental health survey which professes to discover

" mental illnesses " , but in fact trolls for lifelong psychiatric patients in

our schools.

TeenScreen has been cleverly sold to numerous schools across the country as

a suicide prevention program with no scientific evidence backing up the

claim. The 1996 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force found no evidence that

screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality.

The individuals pushing TeenScreen make every effort to hide evidence that

mental health screening is of no use in combating teen suicide. In order to

gain wide acceptance in our nation's schools they paint youth suicide as an

epidemic and their program as the cure-all.

According to the latest Census Bureau information, gathered in 2000, the

U.S. population of 14-19 year olds was around 19,800,000 and suicide for

that year accounted for 0.0008% of the total teen population. Each teen

suicide is an unfathomable tragedy, yet the actual numbers prove that

suicide is not an epidemic. In fact, suicide among American youth fell 25

percent in the last decade.

TeenScreen's executives are well aware of the actual situation. Rob

Caruano, former TeenScreen director, was quoted in the South Bend Tribune

on December 22, 2004, " Teen Suicides, while tragic, are so rare that [any]

study would have to be impossibly huge to show a meaningful difference in

mortality between screened and unscreened students. You'd have to be

screening almost the whole country to reach statistical significance. "

TeenScreen is far from being the solution. In fact, some experts agree that

widespread screening will increase the number of teen suicides. Jane

Pearson, PhD. who chairs the National Institute of Mental Health Suicide

Research Consortium said, " ... a prevention program designed for

high-school aged youth found that participants were more likely to consider

suicide a solution to a problem after the program than prior to the

program... " She also stated, " ... suicide is a very rare occurrence

compared to other causes of deaths. ... when researchers have tried to

predict suicide using as many known risk factors as possible, they are

still unable to predict who will and who will not commit this act. "

The TeenScreen test is a 14-item, self-completion questionnaire. It usually

takes 10 minutes to complete and is used to screen youths from ages 11 to

18 who read at a 6th grade level. It asks questions such as " have you often

felt very nervous when you've had to do things in front of people? " , or,

" Are you the kind of person who is often very tense, and finds it very hard

to relax? " , or, " Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you

just weren't interested in anything? "

One would be hard pressed to find a teenager who wouldn't at one time or

another answer yes to those sorts of questions. TeenScreen refuses to

release copies of the questionnaire, even to parents and elected officials

who have requested to see the test.

TeenScreen, in an effort to make the program appear innocuous, claims that

it does not recommend or endorse any particular kind of treatment for the

youth who are identified by the screening. But, in one of many conflicting

statements Laurie Flynn, TeenScreen's director, reveals that the long-term

goal of TeenScreen is not just identification, but treatment for those in

need, and that parents of youths found to be at possible risk a re notified

and helped in identifying and connecting to local mental health services.

Particularly distressing is the data released by a recent survey, printed

in JAM Academy Adolescent Psychiatry 2002, showing that nine out of ten

children who see a psychiatrist are given psychiatric drugs.

A recent survey showed that between 1995 and 1999, the use of

antidepressants increased 151% for 7 to 12 year olds and 580% for children

under six. Between 1998 and 2003, there was another 49% increase in

children taking antidepressants. Sales of the drugs have now reached more

than $13 billion a year.

To make matters worse, on September 15, 2004, the FDA stated that a causal

role for antidepressants in inducing suicidality had been established in

pediatric patients, and that children given psychiatric dru gs were twice

as likely to commit suicide as those given a placebo. As a result of this

finding, the FDA ordered drug manufacturers to place a Black-Box warning on

all antidepressant labels. The Black-Box warning is the most serious

measure that the FDA can take regarding a prescription medication, short of

an outright ban. That initial Black-Box warning label requirement has since

been followed by 15 more official warnings on psychiatric drugs.

Eileen Dannemann of the National Coalition of Organized Women describes the

TeenScreen approach as a telling omission. " We've got eight million

American kids on psychiatric drugs, " she said. " While TeenScreen asks the

kids if they are usin g street drugs, they omit to find out about the use

of psych drugs. Antidepressants play a major role in youth suicide. If

[TeenScreen] really wanted to help they would worry about that. The fact

that they don't shows their real intention. "

It becomes obvious that teens will not benefit from TeenScreen. The

question that begs to be asked is " Who will benefit? "

Psychologist, author and director of Texans for Safe Education,

Breeding, doesn't mince words, " TeenScreen is nothing more than a

government sponsored marketing tool created to serve the interests of the

corporate pharmaceutical industry and psychiatrists. It is a shame and a

disgrace that the United States is putting millions of children on

psychiatric drugs today. This is obviously not enough to satisfy the

insatiable greed of big pharma. We must stop TeenScreen and protect our

children from more deadly poisoning. "

TeenScreen is the brainchild of psychiatrist Shaffer of Columbia

University. Shaffer is a paid consultant for pharmaceutical companies

Hoffman la Roche, Wyeth, and GlaxoKline. Shaffer is also the director

of the Division of Child Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric

Institute. A New York Post article dated January 31, 1999, State Testing

Prozac on 6-Year olds; Parents Not Told About Risks Including Suicide and

Mania, read, " The New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan is

performing little-known but extensive Prozac experimentation on troubled

kids as young as 6 years old, according to internal records. While the

potentially deadly danger was cited in the researchers' documents, it was

not included in the consent forms given to children and their parents to

read and sign. "

Laurie Flynn, the current director of TeenScreen is also the former

director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). While Flynn

was the director of NAMI, a group that bills itself as " a grassroots

organization of individuals with brain disorders and their family members " ,

NAMI received $11.72 million from various drug companies between 1996 and

mid-1999. One drug company went as far as " loaning " one of its executives

to NAMI, still paying for his salary while he worked at NAMI's headquarters.

In view of Flynn's cozy relationships with drug companies, officials of the

program are working hard at minimizing any link to the drug companies by

saying that they are not funded by drug money. Yet, the Tennessee

Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities newsletter,

Update - May/June 2002, revealed that a recent local TeenScreen survey was

partly funded by pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly.

The goal of TeenScreen is one item they are not afraid to reveal: to

provide mental health screening for every single American teen. If

TeenScreen' s goal is achieved, all 19,800,000 youths will receive a

" mental health checkup " . Considering that 71% of teens who were screened in

Colorado were labeled with a mental disorder, should TeenScreen succeed in

its goal, it is possible that 71% of our teens would end up being labeled.

This means that no less than 14,058,000 American youth would end up labeled

mentally ill. Since nine out of ten children who receive " treatment " are

given mind-altering psychiatric drugs, the inevitable conclusion is that

12,652,200 would be drugged.

The average price of a prescription for psychiatric drugs is $102 per

month. TeenScreen's endeavors would increase the pharmaceutical companies'

monthly revenues by $1,290,524,400.

To ensure success, TeenScreen officials prefer the Passive Consent form

which requires parents to return a form to the school only if they do not

want their child to participate in the screening. Flynn is quick to deny

promoting the use of Passive Consent to schools. However, Flynn's

statement, like many others, is far removed from the truth. Numerous high

schools only use Passive Consent forms and, as in the case of Flager Palm

Coast High School in Florida, the passive acceptance style was discussed by

school officials to increase the numbers of participants from 50% for

Active Consent to near 95% for Passive.

Incentives such as pizza or movie coupons are distributed to the kids

because, as TeenScreen co-director, McGuire, said during a national

conference, " Getting the kids to buy-in is such an essential thing because

for the most part, you're distributing the consent forms to the kids to

bring home to their parents and bring them back. So you have to get their

buy-in, you have to get them interested. "

TeenScreen goes as far as to advise local schools on how to circumvent

federal law. The Protection of Pupil Rights Act (PPRA) protects the rights

of parents by making instructional materials available for their inspection

if the materials are to be used in connection with a survey, analysis, or

evaluation in which their child is participating. It also requires written

parental consent before minors are required to take part in such a survey,

analysis, or evaluation.

The TeenScreen News (Fall 2003, Vol. 2, Issue 2) instructs schools that

making the TeenScreen survey a part of the curriculum will help them get

around the PPRA, " ... if the screening will be given to all students, as

opposed to some, it becomes part of the curriculum and no longer requires

active parental consent. "

But even if active consent forms were used for all children being tested by

TeenScreen, it still would provide no protection for unsuspecting parents.

Before parents can make a truly educated decision they must be told all the

facts. Then, and only then, can they provide informed consent.

A true informed consent form would tell parents the following:

* Chemical imbalance of the brain is only a theory with no science of

proof to back it up

* While screening is not a scientific and medical test it might still

result in the child being labeled depressed or mentally ill

* Should the child be labeled, the likely recommended course of

treatment will be psychiatric drugs

* Psychiatric drugs are known to cause children to commit sui cide

* Should parents refuse the recommended course of treatment, a referral

to the local child welfare agency might be made, which could result in the

child being taken away from home and forcibly drugged

Flynn has made it clear that she will go to any length in getting

acceptance for TeenScreen. While testifying in front of a Senate Committee

in Washington, she claimed to be in partnership with the University of

South Florida in piloting district wide mental Health screenings of 9th

graders in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, Florida.

Wilcox Clayton, Pinellas County School Board Superintendent, was quick to

set the record straight. He emphatically stated that no such screening was

taking place and added, " If this person [Laurie Flynn] said what they

allegedly said, I would have serious reservations about partnering with

such an organization. "

TeenScreen is designed only to increase psychiatric and drug company

revenues by turning normal ch ildren into lifelong mental patients. Now is

the time for anyone who cares about children and the future to step up and

demand that mental health screening not be allowed in any schools at any time.

Lucas is the Executive Director of the Utah Chapter of the Citizens

Commission on Human Rights, a mental health watchdog group. She was born in

Sydney, Australia, raised on the French South Pacific island of New

Caledonia. She moved to the United States at the age of 15 and has lived in

Salt Lake City with her family since 1992. She can be reached at

lucsan@...

Sign In

Inside TeenScreen - The Making of Mental Patients

Recommended Posts

Guest guest

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Join the conversation

Activity