Bush proposes MANDATORY Mental-health screening of children
I kid you not, it's already going into LAW
President Bush Proposes Screening the U.S. Population for Mental Illness
In an innocent looking attempt to help the poor, whose childrens' problems with ADD and such often go undiagnosed, Bush finds a boondago for his corporate donnors such as Eli Lilly (Prozac)
He proceeds to make it into law, despite misgivings by his own FDA that prescribing anti-depressants for kids may INDUCE suicide
FDA panel seeks strong warning on antidepressants for minors- September 15, 2004
Despite attempts by Ron Paul and other Senators, opposers were unable to stop the bill
WorldNetDaily: Attempt to dump mental screening fails
The Paul amendment [AGAINST SCREENING] failed by recorded vote of 95 to 315. Final Vote Results for Roll Call 438
More below the fold
"New Freedom" to be called a nutcase
Update [2004-12-8 12:11:34 by lawnorder]: LITERALLY - Army Torture Whistleblower declared delusional
His commander tried to have Ford declared delusional due to combat stress to cover up the allegations of prisoner abuse.
Bush's Brave New World
Forum: Bush's Brave New World
President Bush's little-publicized New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has proposed comprehensive mental-illness screening for all Americans. If this proposal is carried out, no adult or child will be safe from intrusive probing by 'experts,' backed by drug companies, who believe mental illness is woefully underdiagnosed and many millions of people should be taking powerful and expensive psychiatric drugs. Schools and doctors' offices will become quasi-psychiatric monitoring stations.
Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican, tried to stop the federal funding of mental-health screening, but the House turned down his amendment to the appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Paul, a physician, said the program usurps parental rights, noting parents can already be charged with child abuse for refusing to give their children Ritalin for alleged attention deficit hyperactivity disorder He said, 'Psychotropic drugs are increasingly prescribed for children who show nothing more than children's typical rambunctious behavior. Many children have suffered harmful effects from these drugs.
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Recent news
Mental-health screening of children
"Doctors Group Opposes Mandatory Mental Health Tests for Kids Nov. 11
"Foster Kids on Mind-Altering Drugs?" Nov. 11
"Mandatory Mental Health Screening Threatens Privacy, Parental Rights Sept. 17
Where it started
Bush To Impose Psychiatric Drug Regime
Plans to screen whole US population for mental illness
According to a recent article in the British Medical Journal, US president George Bush is to announce a major "mental health" initiative in this coming month of July. The proposal will extend screening and psychiatric medication to kids and grown-ups all over the US, following a pilot scheme of recommended medication practice developed in Texas and already exported to several other states.
The Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) will serve, according to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, as a model for the upcoming initiative. The TMAP medication guidelines were established in 1995 as an "expert consensus" based on the opinions of prescribers, rather than an analysis of scientific studies. The pharmaceutical companies who funded the scheme include Janssen Pharmaceutica, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Novartis, Janssen-Ortho-McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, Bristol Myers Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst and Forrest Laboratories. The drugs recommended as "first line treatment", many of them with potentially deadly side effects, are patented expensive drugs produced by the sponsors of the guidelines: Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroqual, Geodone, Depakote, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutron, Zyban, Remeron, Serzone, Effexor, Buspar, Adderall and Prozac.
TMAP was extended to cover children, again by "expert consensus", and no doubt the Bush program for widespread testing in schools all over the US will find hundreds of thousands if not millions of new "customers" for the dangerous psychiatric drugs the scheme promotes. A recent article in the New York Times about "the use of juvenile detention facilities to warehouse children with mental disorders" might give us an idea of how many future patients are already waiting in the sidelines. But more importantly it shows that the problem that fits the TMAP solution is now being promoted by the media - go figure.
A similar "patient recruitment" move for psychiatry is the re-definition of environmental illness - a debilitating condition with varying symptoms due to environmental causes such as chemical poisons and electromagnetic pollution - as a purely psychological phenomenon. "It's all in your head, stupid!" seems to be the rationale.
Update [2004-12-8 12:7:45 by lawnorder]: Mandatory mental screening still on, no parental consent needed