NAMI Condemns Congressional Hearing for Putting Children at Risk Hearing Held By Michigan & Colorado Congressmen Was Greatly Skewed, Inflammatory,' Contrasting with Recent, Bipartisan Congressional Actions on Mental Illness ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) is protesting a recent Congressional hearing held on "Behavioral Drug Use in Schools" for presenting a "skewed, inflammatory perspective" on issues surrounding the roles and responsibilities of parents, physicians and schools in screening children for mental illness and selecting treatment. U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) chaired the September 29th hearing of the oversight subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in which U.S. Rep. Bob Shaffer (R-CO) also participated. Witnesses included a member of the Colorado Board of Education. "The hearing offended me and thousands of other parents who conscientiously struggle to get diagnosis, treatment and support services for our children," said NAMI Executive Director Laurie Flynn in a letter sent today to Chairman Hoekstra
[Dr. Baughman:
Millions across the country have been deceived and lead to
believe that their children who seemed normal upon starting school have
psychiatric diseases, chemical imbalances of the brain and that they
must have chemical balancerspills. Believing thus, they are
offended, and, at the same time, as the true facts emerge, terribly
confused. The only question that must be answered, and it will need
answering by medical leadersthose of psychiatry, pediatrics, neurology
and family practice, is whether ADHD is a actual disease or not, that is
whether children thus labeled have a disease, or are normal. If they
are normal, none of them are patients and none of them need
treatment certainly not with drugs known to be addictive, dangerous
and sometimes death-dealing. The Committee cannot possibly offend
anyone by seeking to get straight answers from the medical profession to
the question: Is it a diseaseYes or No. And again, only leaders
from medicine (as above) can give you the scientific bottom line on
this. This is exactly what I call for in my appended testimony of
9/29/00: THE MILLIONS OF CHILDREN LABELED ADD/ADHD WERE NORMAL ALL ALONG
]
"Unfortunately, the largely one-sided rhetoric presented at the hearing serves primarily to scare or discourage parents who are seeking help for their kids. In that respect, it puts children at risk. "Our common goal should be to offer the highest standard of evaluation and appropriate treatment," Flynn said.
[Dr. Baughman:
This would entail competent diagnosis to determine whether or
not they have any disease. It would also entail relating to the parents
and the child that something they had been told was a diseasea disease
the child was said to have, has never been proven to be a disease, or
anything other than normal childhood behavior]
"Some children do not need to be on medication.
[Dr. Baughman:
no child needs to be on medication who is free of
diseasenormal.]
But many children are not being screened at all. Some children need treatment and are not getting it. Their entire lives will be affected by the failure to identify and treat their illnesses. "Some may even kill themselves," Flynn warned. Suicide today ranks as the third-leading cause of death for youth, ages 15 through 24. Two physicians who testified before the subcommittee "hardly represented the main body of scientific expertise and opinion," Flynn said. One called ADHD and other mental illnesses "a biological lie."
[Dr. Baughman:
I am happy to say that this was me and that their is no
science with which to refute my charge. Why else was Dr. Fassler
present, if not to present such proof, if he had it. Do they have some
other bearer of their science. It is nowhere to be found in the
legitimate scientific literature.]
Another attacked the use of medications approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and shown to be effective for ADHD, calling them, inaccurately, "the most addictive drugs known in medicine today." The Colorado School Board member raised "an inaccurate, stigmatizing allegation" that violence is a side effect of psychotropic medications, and attacked assistance to children challenged by what she termed "vague psychiatric disorders." What the hearing did not mention was the landmark 1999 Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, NAMI said, which provides the current national baseline for understanding mental illnesses and treatment options. Almost 21 percent of children, ages 9 to 17, today suffer from mental or addictive disorders. Scientific reviews also indicate strong support for the "safety and efficacy" of several classes of medication for specific disorders, including ADHD.
[Dr. Baughman:
All that Surgeon General Satcher did was review the
psychiatric literature, and finding no proof, claimed, nonetheless, on
December 13, 1999, that "Mental illness is no different than diabetes,
asthma or other physical ailments
Mental illnesses are physical
illnesses
We know the chemical disorders we are treating
" At no time
has he offered proof a confirmatory abnormality by which to diagnose a
single one. He should be asked if he knows of any such proof and should
be invited to testify as to the nature of the proof.]
The hearing also ignored two recent, major federal conferences on children, mental health, and psychopharmacology, which will provide the foundation for a Surgeon General's call to action later this year. "Neither the Surgeon General nor the National Institute of Mental Health testified at the hearing," said Flynn. "Not a single family with children who have been successfully screened, diagnosed and treated was heard."
[Dr. Baughman:
I agree, with Ms. Flynn, who, it appears, has no medical
credentials herself, with which to speak on what constitutes a disease
and what does notthe Surgeon General, and the Director of the NIMH,
Steven Hyman, and all of the NIMH, ADHD researchers necessary, should be
brought before the committee and should be asked to share with the
Committee, the Sub-committee, and the nation, the proof that ADHD is a
disease, proof that I have been unable to find in the usual places for
all of the 20 years since the invention of ADHD and the start of the
labeling/drugging epidemic. To hear parents and others, who believe
but have nothing to say of the science, would not serve the purpose of
getting, at long last to an answer to the question: Is ADHD a
diseaseyes or no. ]
NAMI said the hearing stands in ironic contrast to one recently conducted by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, which focused on the increasing, unfair burden that untreated mental illness imposes on individuals, communities, police officers, and the criminal justice system.
[Dr. Baughman:
Even here, it must be determined whether those things called
psychiatric diseases are diseases at all. The rates of psychiatric
drugging in both the child/adolescent and adult penal systems are in
dire need of scrutiny.]
Flynn emphasized the importance of the Education's Committee's role in supporting early screening, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness "as part of a greater continuum of social interests." Last week, Congress also approved several pro-science, pro-treatment measures as part of H.R. 4365, the Children's Health Act of 2000. "Please do not ignore the existing, bipartisan consensus that already exists on such issues," Flynn asked. "Please do not seek to undermine the progress that already is being made." With more than 210,000 members, NAMI is the nation's leading grassroots advocacy organization solely dedicated to improving the lives of persons with severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic depression), major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and severe anxiety disorders. SOURCE National Alliance for the Mentally Ill