Suicide Rate of Girls UP BY 76 Percent

What needs to be done?

Im MY opinion..

Get Title IV Federal Funding/incentices out of the way of parents raising/being there for our children!

Get the Drug Co's OUT, of our children's lives!

Let BOTH parents raise healthy happy children- short of PROVEN by a jury abuse of a child!

As usual in my Blogs, anything in RED within the story is MY personal opinion!

Suicide rate of girls up by 76%

Suicide rate of girls up by 76% www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

ATLANTA - The suicide rate for preteen and young teen girls has jumped 76 percent, a disturbing sign that federal health officials say they can't fully explain.
Or they don't want to admit?

For all people between ages 10 and 24, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004, the biggest single-year bump in 15 years.

A report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests a troubling reversal in recent trends. Suicide rates had fallen by 28.5 percent since 1990 among young people.

"In surveillance speak, this is a dramatic and huge increase," Dr. Ileana Arias said of the overall picture. She is director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

More research is needed to determine whether this is a trend or just a blip, said one child psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Cummins of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "We all need to keep our eye on this over time to see if this is a continuing trend."
Sure lets let the stats rise again this year, that'll do a whole lotta good! (shaking my head)

The study also noted a change in suicide method. In 1990, guns accounted for more than half of all suicides among young females. By 2004, though, death by hanging and suffocation became the most common suicide method.

Four years ago, regulators warned that antidepressants seemed to raise the risk of suicide among young people, so stern warnings were put on the drugs' packaging. Now there is concern that some youths who need the medication aren't getting it.

(Wait wait wait hold up a minute here- how many of these children WERE on Psychotrpoic drugs- all? No no no let's NOT make this WORK FOR the pharma Co's people PLEASE!)
This reminds me of CPS saying it does not have enough workers to keep children alive- which is IMO a crock of *&% those workers are to busy taking children from homes where there is no abuse they can't possible focus on the truly abused child!)


Three comments so far -

2. Comment by Clouds 4. (customcloud) —

September 7,2007 @ 11:03AM

And now for the rest of the story...

Dr. Olfson acknowledged the potential harm for children in the Los Angeles Times:

"the mislabeling of children and adolescents with aggressive or irritable behaviors as bipolar, an illness that is treated with powerful psychotropic medications, many of which have not been tested in children."

He also acknowledged that the gender difference between the groups suggested that some boys with behavior problems or conduct disorders were being misdiagnosed as bipolar.

He noted that "irritability is a characteristic of bipolar disorder, but it is also a normal part of adolescence."

Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study, called the increase in bipolar diagnoses worrisome.

Manufacturers are not the only beneficiaries of the expanded antipsychotic drug market. Prominent child psychiatrists, such as Dr. Joseph Biederman and his disciples at Harvard and elsewhere, have extensive financial ties to drug manufacturers.

Harvard's child psychiatrists have been among the most ardent promoters of aggressive psychopharmacological intervention for children as young as two.

Already in 1998 the misdiagnosing of children as manic was a concern within psychiatry leading to a debate between Dr. Biederman and Columbia University psychiatrists, Drs. Don Klein, his wife, Dr. Rachel Klein, and Dr. Daniel Pine in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

http://www.bpso.org/debate.htm

Dr. Carlson said some parents seemed to prefer a diagnosis of the disorder because the illness, which is thought to be largely genetic, absolves them of blame. But she also acknowledged that "in some cases, providers would diagnose psychological problems in children as bipolar disorder to obtain insurance reimbursement for hospitalizations, a practice called upcoding.

"Even the director of the bipolar and mood disorders program at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, acknowledges "There's no question that there is misdiagnosis going on."

To gain insight into what propels this preventable potentially catastrophic phenomenon, one must examine the financial stakes and who the stakeholders are.

Bloomberg News reports, "The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs."

And documents obtained from the Minnesota Attorney General reveal that psychiatrists have been greatly enriched by aggressive prescribing.

This report is on the link http://ahrp.blogspot.com/2007/03/minnesota-is-first-of-handful-of-states.html

3. Comment by Clouds 4. (customcloud)

September 7,2007 @ 11:04AM

The astounding 40-fold increase in bipolar diagnosis demonstrates that Dr. Biederman's view prevailed among US child psychiatrists. Some clinicians have laid moral responsibility for the psychiatry's loose diagnostic standards and irresponsible prescribing practices--such as prescribing lethal drug cocktails to two year olds-as was reported to have been the case of Rebecca Riley who died of a toxic reaction at age four - on the shoulders of Dr. Biederman