Behavior Drugs Lead in Sales for Children (THE NEW YORK TIMES) May 17, 2004 - Commentary by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Compare the real "chemical imbalances" described herein to the "chemical imbalances" of psychiatry, all of them illusory-fraudulent. And yet it is the fraudulent illusory "chemical imbalances" of psychiatry which beget "treatment" with "chemical balancers" pills, that the House, Senate and President mandate screening for for wholly a profit motive. By contrast, the "chemical imbalances" spoken of in this article are real diseases, and yet we don't have money enough to screen for, diagnose and treat them while psychiatry and Big Pharma prevail upon the House, Senate and Presidency to "screen" for and diagnose psychiatric "diseases" in the normal schoolchildren of the country, needlessly, fraudulently diagnosing and treating them-actually poisoning them (since they have no real diseases).

Read on and understand why none of the psychiatric "chemical imbalances" are actual diseases, like these are.

"Inconsistencies in Screening Mean Rare Diseases Go Undetected and Untreated." The Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2004.

In April, 2003, in a hospital northeast of Oakland, Zachary Wyvill was born with a very rare enzyme deficiency that has left him unable to eat, walk or crawl. A month later, another child named Zachary was born with the same genetic disorder in a hospital 60 miles to the east. But today, this boy, Zachary Black is a healthy 1 year old. His disease is kept in check with a special diet and vitamins. His condition was diagnosed during a special newborn-screening project carried out in many, but not all, California hospitals. Zachary Wyville's conditions want detected because his blood wasn't screened. By the time doctors diagnosed his problem, he was already severely disabled.

All states require some such testing for newborns, but the policies are a hodgepodge. California, for example, requires that newborns be screened for only four treatable diseases. Other states, such as New Jersey and Mississippi, mandate screening at birth for 30 to 40 disorders. "By some government and medical estimates, the lack of standardized newborn screening is responsible for the illness and death of several thousand children every year. The cost of treating and caring for children who suffer from these rare diseases can range from $500,000 to $1 million according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "No child in America with one of these diseases should ever go undetected at birth" says Harry Hannon, director of newborn-screening services at the CDC. "That some infants aren't being caught and treated when ppossible is a national tragedy."

A machine first developed 15 years ago can now identify more than three dozen congenital diseases from a small spot of blood from the heel of a newborn. If detected by this test, which costs $50-$80-most of these conditions can be readily treated, even cured. But many states haven't expanded such newborn screening, citing costs. California's pilot program was shut down last July as "a direct result of the state's deep fiscal problems," says George Cunningham, who oversees the state pprogram.

The two Zachary's disease-glutaric academia type 1 (GA1) results from a gene glitch so uncommon it strikes just one per 75,000 newborns. If not diagnosed in the first 6-9 months of life, the GA1 gene mutation will kill brain cells and cripple muscles. Though Zachary Wyville is quick to smile, he can barely move his arms or legs or lift his head.

The new test required is tandem mass spectrometry that was first developed in 1990 and introduced for neonatal screening in a handful of states a few years later. It can detect 40 different genetic or metabolic anomalies from just a tiny spot of blood. The tandem mass machines cost about $300,000 apiece. As of two years ago, only 20 states offered tandem mass for newborn screening, according to a 2002 US GAO report and only 13 states require its use.

Go on to juxtapose the epidemics of real, diseases/chemical imbalances and those psychiatric-fraudulent, not diseases/chemical imbalances at all and expenditures for each: ]

>THE NEW YORK TIMES
> Behavior Drugs Lead in Sales for Children
> 
> May 17, 2004
>  By MILT FREUDENHEIM 
> 
> Spending on drugs to treat children and adolescents for behavior-related
> disorders rose 77 percent from 2000 to the end of 2003, according to a study
> of prescription purchases by Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefits
> management company. 
> 
> The increase, to $536 a patient a year on average, reflected rising prices
> as growing numbers of young people used newer and more expensive drugs, said
> Robert S.
> Epstein, chief medical officer of Medco. The report is to be released today.
> 
> 
> Sales of the behavioral drugs are growing faster than any other type of
> medicine taken by children, pulling ahead of the previous leaders,
> antibiotics and asthma treatments, he said. Most of the drugs were
> treatments for depression and attention deficit disorder, including
> prescriptions combining both treatments for the same patient. 
> 
> Use of attention disorder drugs by children under age 5 rose 49 percent from
> 2000 to 2003, to half of all children taking any behavior-related
> medication. Scientists who have studied the trend called for more research
> on side effects and benefits. 
> 
> "The benefits and risks of using these drugs in a preschool population
> should be studied systematically," said Dr.
> Julie Magno Zito, an associate professor of pharmacy and medicine at the
> University of Maryland who directs a long-running study of pediatric drugs. 
> 
> The number of children in the sample of 300,000 taking antidepressants rose
> 15 percent in the first three months of this year, compared with the first
> quarter of 2003, Medco said. Last year, 65 percent of all children and
> adolescents taking behavioral medicines were on antidepressants. 
> 
> Many of the children were taking both antidepressants and attention disorder
> drugs, or combinations of other behavioral medicines. Dr. Zito said there
> had been "a huge growth" in children taking combinations of these drugs
> although clinical studies of the risks have had little attention. 
> 
> In March, the federal Food and Drug Administration ordered manufacturers to
> include warnings of a risk of dangerous side effects, including suicide, on
> these products. The Medco study did not review prescribing patterns after
> the F.D.A. order, Dr. Epstein said. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Here we have monstrous and growing expenditures in the wholly fraudulent marketplace of psychiatric diseases/chemical imbalances and we see that these expenditures are outstripping costs for real diseases and, no doubt are a factor in our being unable to afford diagnostic screening, diagnosis and treatment for the real "chemical imbalances" inborn errors of metabolism in the two Zacharys, spoken of in the Wall Street Journal herein. ]