Spending Soars for Kids' Behavior Drugs

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040517/ap_on_he_me/kids_behavior_drugs_3

Spending Soars for Kids' Behavior Drugs

52 minutes ago Add Health - AP to My Yahoo!

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer

TRENTON, N.J. - As more children pop pills for attention deficit and other behavior disorders, new figures show spending on those drugs has for the first time edged out the cost of antibiotics and asthma medications for kids.

A 49 percent rise in the use of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs by children under 5 in the last three years contributed to a 23 percent increase in usage for all children, according to an annual analysis of drug use trends by Medco Health Solutions Inc.

"Behavioral medicines have eclipsed the other categories this year," said Dr. Robert Epstein, Medco's chief medical officer. "It certainly reflects the concern of parents that their children do as well as they can."

Antibiotics still top the list of the most commonly used children's drugs, but parents are paying more for behavioral drugs, such as stimulants or antidepressants, according to the analysis of drug use among 300,000 children under 19.

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"Behavioral medicines have eclipsed the other categories this year," said Dr. Robert Epstein, Medco's chief medical officer. "It certainly reflects the concern of parents that their children do as well as they can."

Parents, your kids are biologically hyper when young...stop feeding them processed sugar, and PAY SOME FREAKING ATTENTION TO YOUR CHILD, and stop drugging them!!!!

Sorry, but my son was very hyper when younger...the school shrink suggested Ritalin, but instead, we changed his diet so that he ate barely any processed sugar, and lo and behold, my son pays fine attention in school now...

I truly believe 90% of the prescriptions for these drugs are unnecessary, and simply lazy parenting (not all...some kids do have problems, but most). Parents need to be there for their kids, not drugging them out and sitting them in front of the TV & video games all day long.

Rant over :)

why can't people look at what crap we are feeding kids?? antibiotic laden, overprocessed shit food loaded with preservatives, etc.? no its easier to just give them a pill to keep them quiet.

my girls ate 3 square everyday, complete with vegetables and vitamins, and I did not have such problems. we limited TV, and encouraged reading, no video games. Plus I spent alot of time talking with them. I just don't get it...

but parenting sure pays off, doesn't it?

Your 'rant' is right on. PAY SOME FREAKING ATTENTION TO YOUR CHILD !
TV has become Mom and Dad and Teacher for many children. Many parents are sinking into depression and letting their self interest over-ride the responsibility of caring for their children. Materialism and image gratification has become the prime obsession in this Country of the Sad. My daughter-in-law says life is much sweeter for their little family since they dropped cable TV. Television is now only an invited guest instead a member of the family. All the ice cream cones one can eat will not satisfy that deep down longing for happiness and peace of mind.

Childhood is the time when eating habits are formed... and my own personal experience is diet modification can get our bodies and minds back into balance/health.

And by diet, I refer to the Food we take into our bodies AND the Information we take into our minds/hearts.

IMO, limiting television to a few hours a WEEK would do wonders.

Aren't ALL four year olds, by definition, hyperactive?

DRUGS are the ultimate answer to everything! Something wrong? Take a pill. Take a pill everyday for the next X years. Long term "treatment" is better than a "cure."

Oh, did I mention that you may not take a pill or a DRUG unless "we," the authorities, tell you it's okay?

Seriously, what are we teaching our children when we tell them a pill is the literal answer to so many "abnormal" things?

TV,'education,' and drugs have been used to control large populations.

No wonder Americans can't think rationally and are glued to the screen.

1984 was the warning for where we are today.

This article explains the power of repetition as mind programming and the tactics of disinformation and segregation of 'conspiracy' ideas to hide knowledge of government manipulation through the use of television and other ubiquitous media. The 1938 radio broadcast of 'The War of the Worlds' confirmed the power of mass deception that has been exploited for decades
The TV Hive Mind
http://www.mackwhite.com/tv.html

Conversion and Brainwashing in New Religious Groups
http://www.cesnur.org/2003/brain_conv.htm

Brainwashing America
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm

Modern Education...Betrayal of Students
http://www.sntp.net/education/education.htm

Say No to Psychiatry
http://www.sntp.net/main.htm

A famous British psychologist did an analysis of Bush*'s family history and personality. Little Georgie was abused, belittled, and overshadowed by his parents so he became an alcoholic, self-destructive, anti-intellectual, and cruel 'authoritarian personality.' His rebellion against his parents is killing many innocents.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html
(So George, How Do You Feel About Your Mom and Dad?

This 'authoritarian' personality is the precursor to Fascism Receptivity as defined by researchers in 1950 who tried to understand how large populations could embrace dictators like Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler. Many Americans match the profile, especially religious fundamentalists. Surprised? I didn't think so. But no comparisons with Hitler, OK? 'Chosen Few' doesn't mean 'Master Race'...does it?
http://www.anesi.com/fscale.htm
(The F Scale Questionnaire to Determine Fascist Receptivity)

Another indictment of cruelty comes from this study on the components of conservatism studied in an academic model. It confirms differences we have noticed as liberals: fear of change, acceptance of inequality, black and white thinking, targeting of 'others.'
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics.shtml
(What Makes a Political Conservative)

Now, the 14 scary symptoms of Fascism as a social phenomenon to tie it all together even...worse.
http://empirewatch.org/pages/_archives/fascism/pages/14_symptoms.html
(The Fourteen Symptoms of Fascism)

And now, an analysis of a Bush* State of the Union speech that illustrates the linguistic science of abusive speech used to psychologically manipulate and deceive the listener, something White House speech writers have mastered to diminish the power of the listener. Yes, the counterrevolution has been televised.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/130534_focusecond13.html
(The Power of the Presidency Resides in Language as Well as Law)


Here is an article that explores the marketing power of fear used by Detroit to sell Americans SUVs, along with help from Arnold Schwarzenegger and the first Bush Gulf war. The same methods were used to link these previous sales to the gutting of the Bill of Rights and an unjustified pre-emptive war all at the same time. What a campaign!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,995252,00.html
Trading On Fear

10-20 years from now we will learn the truth, how these things have permanently damaged young minds. this is frightening...

First, they put it in your head that what they used to refer toi as being "all Boy", or having a lot of "joy of Life" is now Hyper-Activity, and is a condition requiring treatment.

Ask your Doctor, and they will agree, your kid needs drugs, and why, the Drug Rep just dropped these new pills by yesterday. Let's try them and see what they'll do....

Yesterday? Gee, Doc, have you had time to even read the insert circular, much less the PDR-Online information on this new wonder pill? No? But the Salesman told you the rough guidelines for dosage and everything, right? So why am I paying YOU for my family's health care when it'd be cheaper to just have the Pfizer and Lilly's salesmen drop by once a week?


Cut the sugar and realize that your kids haven't been beaten down into exhausted cogs in the WalMart money machine like most adults....

so they can have classes of good little robots who sit nice and still all day.

Silly people.

Sitting still is bad for you. People have died from sitting still too long (usually on very long airline flights).

Our bodies need to move.

Perhaps hyperactivity is nature's way of telling us that.


Hyperactivity is certainly exacerbated by lack of exercise.
This is often attributed to mere laziness, but it can be
remarkably difficult for kids to get enough exercise unless
they are naturally good at sports.

I had a teacher trying to tell me my 6 year old was ADD just this year.

Her first mistake was in saying that to me in the first place because I have a dislike of drugging kids at all. Her second mistake was in assuming that I don't know anything about ADD. I do--and I cite research to back up my beliefs. Her worst mistake was in thinking that I would just meekly take my kid to a Doc and DEMAND a drug for her with no third party screening to be certain it was needed.

I've never seen a teacher back pedal as fast as this one did when I told her that statistically ADD/HD is 80% more likely to manifest in males than females (my kid is a girl) that my daughter had shown none of the behaviors typically associated with ADD/HD in girls in that age group, and that if she felt it was a pressing issue maybe we should take it to the Administrator and request the school pay for a social worker's eval of the child to be sure of the diagnosis...

The issue my kid was having was with this older teacher who screams at the classroom. WE have since corrected the situation without drugs.

I tell this story because I know a lot of parents who take the teachers' word for everything and they DO run to the family Doc and demand pills for the kid. Docs are used to it, and many will just reach for a prescription pad without argument. It is a shame.


Laura



Laura

... in the poppy fields back home. :eyes:


Ever wonder why the VFW doesn't sell paper poppies anymore? :shrug:

My son was about 3 years old and had been experiencing bouts of nausea and really bad coughing for a couple of months. The doctor didn't 'see' anything wrong and began asking me about his environment. I told him we were concerned that he didn't really have any other children to play with. We had no relatives with small children and where we lived at the time there were no kids and it did leave him feeling blue sometimes. However, I was a stay at home mom then and for the most part he didn't seem to mind having me be a substitute for another child.

Well, this wack-job doctor immediately suggests we put him on Rytalin (don't know if that's spelled right) and he was actually ignorant with me because I told him that I thought it was absurd that he'd suggest such a thing. Our son was NOT the least bit hyper active.

Needless to say, we quickly found a new doctor who really cared about our son and one, two, three he sends us to an allergist who determines that my son's problem was simply an allergy and was treatable. The 2nd doctor said that the 1st doctor was like a lot of physicians today -- in too much of a hurry, unconcerned and lazy.