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According to researchers the use of psychotropic drugs in children was significantly greater in the U.S. compared to the Netherlands and Germany. Use of antidepressants and stimulants was 3 or more times greater in the U.S. (6.7%) than in the Netherlands (2.9%) and Germany (2.0%). Even more alarming is that these researchers found that, “stimulants were used at rates 10-25 times higher in American children 0-4 years old compared to the two Western European countries.” [1]
In response, the Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a non-profit mental health watchdog dedicated to protection of children, is calling for an investigation into the heavy psychiatric drugging of children.
Currently more than 7 million U.S. children are being prescribed psychiatric drugs and hundreds of thousands of these children are between the ages of zero to five. [2] Children are being drugged simply because psychiatry has pathologized normal childhood behaviors, and repackaged them as “mental disorders.” The result is that millions of children are being drugged for behaviors reclassified by psychiatry as “disease.”
In 2015, the research arm of Florida’s child-protection system released a report revealing that foster children are being put on psychotropic medications without caregivers following proper procedures and that 11 percent of the children in foster care had active prescriptions for at least one psychotropic drug. While a review of 140 children’s files showed just 20 percent of these children met all the key requirements for administering such medication. [3]
Following the tragic death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers in 2009, who was found hanging from a shower fixture in his foster home after having been prescribed two “black box” drugs intended for adults – the Florida policies for using psychotropic drugs on foster kids were updated but this has not solved the problem.
The psychiatric drugging of children is not just confined to the foster care system. In 2011 a two-year investigation concluded that kids in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas were “prescribed psychotropic drugs at rates 2.7 to 4.5 times higher than other children in Medicaid in 2008.” [4]
CCHR hopes that the December 2019 “groundbreaking” settlement of a civil rights lawsuit filed in Missouri, which alleged “a longstanding failure by the state to provide adequate oversight in the administration of powerful psychotropic medications to children in foster care”, will also bring about much needed reform in Florida. [5] Individuals are invited to the center, located at 109 N. Fort Harrison Avenue in downtown Clearwater to learn more about the dangers associated with psychiatric drugs. To learn more, please call 727-442-8820 or visit www.cchrflorida.org.
About CCHR: Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, first brought psychiatric imprisonment to wide public notice: “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health,’” he wrote in March 1969.
Sources:
[1] Psychotropic drug use is much higher in American youth compared to other countries. https://rxbalance.org/bibliography/psychotropic-drug-use-is-much-higher-in-american-youth-compared-to-other-countries/
[2] Number of Children & Adolescents Taking Psychiatric Drugs in the U.S. https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/children-on-psychiatric-drugs/
[3] Report finds Florida foster kids put on psychotropic drugs without following proper procedures https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2015/09/22/report-finds-florida-foster-kids-put-on-psychotropic-drugs-without-following-proper-procedures
[4] Foster Kids Given Psychiatric Drugs At Higher Rates https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2011/12/01/143017520/foster-kids-even-infants-more-likely-to-be-given-psychotropic-drugs
[5] Settlement creates major reforms for use of psychotropic drugs in Missouri’s foster kids https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2019/12/11/missouri-foster-kids-settlement-psychotropic-medications-lawsuit/2632442001/
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