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By Tony B. Rich and Meg
Jordan, PhD, RN
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From 1935 when
Benzadrine Sulfate first
appeared to entice
doctors to prescribe
amphetamines to
housebound women tired
of their daily drudgery,
through chemical
manipulation and
rebranding into the
fastest selling drugs to
children and young
adults, the history,
evolution and morphology
of amphetamine usage in
America is eye-opening.
Find out how this
category of chemicals,
banned for sale to
adults due to its health
hazards and addictive
qualities for weight
loss and improved mood
in the '60s, is now the
leading prescription
medication for ADD and
ADHD in children and the
drug of choice for high
school and college
students across America.
The History Of Speed
Amphetamine, which was
the predecessor to
methamphetamine and
originally called
phenylisopropylamine,
was first synthesized in
1887 by the German
chemist L. Edeleano.
Originally used for
respiratory
complications such as
asthma and nasal
congestion, the
discovery of the
stimulant properties of
amphetamine led to
additional medical and
functional applications
in which more potent
forms of the drug were
developed.
In 1919, Japanese
chemist A. Ogata first
synthesized
methamphetamine via the
reduction of ephedrine
using red phosphorus and
iodine, and in 1929
methamphetamine was
synthesized by Smith,
Kline & French. The
company filed two
trademarks in 1932 on
the trade-name
“Benzedrine" and by
1935, Benzedrine was
available by
prescription in tablets
to stimulate the nervous
system, and as a
decongestant inhaler.
The American Medical
Association approved
amphetamine in 1937, and
available as tablets, it
was immediately used to
treat narcolepsy and the
behavioral syndrome
called minimal brain
dysfunction (MBD). It
was also recommended for
use by physicians to
treat their own
'fatigue' and in 1940
Burroughs Welcome
markets methamphetamine
for the first time under
the trade name "Methedrine".
Later, Glaxo, Smith
Kline enters the
lucrative new fray with
"Dextroamphetamine" for
use by the military,
which later becomes "Adderall",
today a major drug for
the military and the
most popular
prescription medicine
for Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD).
{In 1980 the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders III
(DSM-III), the American
Psychiatric
Association's diagnostic
manual, redefined
minimal brain
dysfunction as attention
deficit disorder (ADD)
and later (DSM-IV) to
what we know today as
Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD).}
World War II soldiers in
the Allied and Axis
forces were given
liberal amounts of
amphetamines. Pilots,
tank drivers and
infantry used
Benzedrine, Dexedrine
and Methedrine to stay
awake for long periods
of time and to 'enhance'
levels of courage and
bravado. Some records
indicate that from 1966
to 1969, the U.S. Army
dispensed more
amphetamine to its
troops than the combined
total of British and
American forces during
the entire Second World
War. As one veteran of
Vietnam put it on an
Internet citation, "Take
100 non-aggressive men
and give them all enough
speed and you end up
with the equivalent of
150 men that'll kill
anything that moves and
if they have to, they'll
kill it with their bare
hands." Biographers of
war crimes committed by
troops from various
nations throughout the
history of modern
warfare believe the most
heinous acts were the
result of the maniacal
effects of amphetamines.
Today amphetamine use in
the military continues
under the current market
name of Adderall.
Dextroamphetamine is
dispensed by the Air
Force to keep pilots
awake and alert on long
missions. Air Force
pilots must sign a form
called "Informed Consent
for Use of
Dextroamphetamine as a
'Go Pill' in Military
Operations." Although
taking the drug is not
technically mandatory,
as the form states, a
refusal to sign the form
could result in a
commander designating
them as 'unfit to fly a
given mission'.
During the 1950s and
1960s, amphetamine and
methamphetamine were
viewed as 'utilitarian
drugs' that working- and
upper middle-class
individuals would use to
increase their energy,
meet performance and
endurance goals, and as
a popular weight loss
and antidepressant
medication. Around 1955
college campuses became
known for their location
of ready availability of
the first 'lifts',
'nuggets' and 'pixies',
and by the early 1960s
various forms of speed
entered the mainstream
youth movements under
the names "Blackbombers",
"Black Beauties" and
"Bennies". By this time,
production of tablets
for civilian use was in
the billions per year.
Stories of amphetamine
use by high-profile
individuals in society
began to be covered in
the press — jazz
musician Charlie Parker,
British Prime Minister
Anthony Eden, popular
entertainers Judy
Garland and Lenny Bruce,
and author Jack Kerouac
(reported to have
written "On The Road"
under the influence of
amphetamines in
twenty-one days on a
single scroll of paper).
Political leaders Adolph
Hitler (said to have
received eight
injections of
amphetamines per day)
and John F. Kennedy
(received frequent
injections of Benzedrine
for his back pain) were
also among those who
regularly relied upon
amphetamines for
cognitive enhancement
and endurance.
Benny and the Jets
Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin
Hey kids, shake it loose
together
The spotlight's hitting
something
That's been known to
change the weather
We'll kill the fatted
calf tonight
So stick around
You're gonna hear
electric music
Solid walls of sound
Say, Candy and Ronnie,
have you seen them yet
But they're so spaced
out,
Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and
they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really
keen
She's got electric boots
a mohair suit
You know I read it in a
magazine
Bennie and the Jets
Hey kids, plug into the
faithless
Maybe they're blinded
But Bennie makes them
ageless
We shall survive, let us
take ourselves along
Where we fight our
parents out in the
streets
To find who's right and
who's wrong
On the album Goodbye
Yellow Brick Road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0WCQadt864&feature=related
When injectable forms of
amphetamines began to
reach abuse levels in
the general population,
manufacturers began
curtailing distribution,
setting off the start of
illicit production and
black markets. In 1970,
amphetamine use by
civilians became illegal
with the passage of the
U.S. Drug Abuse
Regulation and Control
Act of 1970.
With Americans now
hooked on accelerated
performance, fast weight
loss, and cognitive and
mood enhancement,
American pharmaceutical
giants lost huge revenue
streams as Mexico and
China quickly stepped in
to provide the
now-illegal, endless
supply of quality
amphetamines and
methamphetamines. Now
with street names such
as "crystal", "Tina" and
"ice", Texas and Hawai'i
became the thoroughfares
of importation to
satisfy America's
growing hunger.
With no way to stem the
tide of these now
illicit substances and
seeing profits plunge,
pharmaceutical companies
began laying out a
strategy to reclaim
market shares. A draft
proposal was prepared
wherein a new division
of the United States
Government would be
established, allowing
inter-agency development
of a worldwide network
to enforce the federal
drug laws and
consolidate and control
the government's drug
control activities.
On March 28, 1973,
President Richard Nixon
signed Reorganization
Plan No. 2 of 1973
proposing the creation
of the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA).
Congress accepted the
proposal on July 1,
1973, officially
establishing the DEA.
The war on drugs began.
As Steve McGarrett
battled the infamous,
Asian international drug
kingpin, Wo-Fat, on the
hugely-popular Hawai'i
Five-O series, senior
chemists and ad agency
creatives behind closed
doors for Big Pharma
were busy tinkering with
molecules and branding
to present a fresh face
to a familiar set of
compounds.
While methylphenidate
(generic name for
Ritalin) was patented in
1954 by the Ciba
pharmaceutical company
and sold to adults for
anti-depression, it
began to rise in
popularity among doctors
and their patients in
the mid-1960s, as a
treatment for
hyperactivity or minimal
brain dysfunction (MBD),
as ADHD was then known.
Today methylphenidate is
the medication most
commonly prescribed to
treat ADHD around the
world.
Production and
prescription of
methylphenidate and
amphetamine has risen
significantly since ADD
and ADHD have received
more attention and much
broader definitions by
the DSM-IV (Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders
{DSM}), the American
Psychiatric
Association's diagnostic
manual), thereby
allowing these 'terms of
dysfunction' to apply to
an ever-increasing
customer base.
Another medicine is
Concerta, a once-daily
extended release form of
methylphenidate, which
was approved in April
2000. Studies have
demonstrated that
long-acting
methylphenidate
preparations such as
Concerta are just as
effective, if not more
effective, than instant
release formulas.
Time-release medications
are also harder to
misuse. Additionally, in
April 2006, the FDA
approved a transdermal
patch for the treatment
of ADHD, called Daytrana.
The once-daily patch
administers
methylphenidate in doses
of 10, 15, 20, or 30 mg.
and, upon removal, the
drug does not continue
to have an effect,
allowing the user to
come off the drug
sooner.
Although chemically
unrelated to
amphetamine, the
isomeric profiles, or
physiological
consequences, and
relative usefulness of
dextro- and levo-methylphenidate
is analogous to what is
found in amphetamine.
The means by which
methylphenidate affects
people diagnosed with
ADHD are not well
understood. Some
researchers have
theorized that ADHD is
caused by a dopamine
imbalance in the brains
of those affected.
Methylphenidate is a
dopamine reuptake
inhibitor, which means
that it increases the
level of the dopamine
neurotransmitter in the
brain by partially
blocking the
transporters that remove
it from the synapses. An
alternate explanation
which has been explored
is that the
methylphenidate affects
the action of serotonin
in the brain.
While both amphetamine
and methylphenidate
share similar isomeric
profiles, and both
compounds carry risks of
heart failure, seizures,
nervousness, insomnia,
psychosis,
hallucinations and
long-term memory
disability, it now
appears methylphenidate
may carry another,
substantial health and
reproductive risk.
In February 2005, a team
of researchers from The
University of Texas M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center
led by R.A. El-Zein
announced that a study
of 12 children indicated
that methylphenidate may
be carcinogenic. In the
study, 12 children were
given standard
therapeutic doses of
methylphenidate. At the
conclusion of the
3-month study, all 12
children displayed
significant
treatment-induced
chromosomal aberrations.
Anxiety and Depression —
Today's Pulse In America
In 1998, Martin
Seligman, eminent
psychologist and then
president of the
American Psychological
Association, told the
National Press Club that
there had been more than
a tenfold increase in
the rate of depression
in the USA in the past
50 years. It was, he
said, an epidemic. A
generation ago, the
average age for the
first episode of
depression was
approximately thirty,
today it is between
fourteen and fifteen.
Today the World Health
Organization (WHO) ranks
depression as the
world's fourth most
devastating illness (in
terms of total years of
healthy life stolen by
death or disability).
The WHO projects that by
2020, depression will be
second only to heart
disease as a global
contributor to early
death and disability.
Today, it is already
number two for one
subsection of the
population — people aged
between 14 and 44 years,
of both sexes.
I felt a funeral in my
brain,
And mourners, to and
fro,
Kept treading, treading,
till it seemed
That sense was breaking
through.
And when they all were
seated,
A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating,
till I thought
My mind was going numb.
And then I heard them
lift a box,
And creak across my soul
With those same boots of
lead,
Then space began to
toll.
As all the heavens were
a bell,
And Being but an ear,
And I, and silence, some
strange race,
Wrecked, solitary, here.
And then a plank in
reason, broke,
And I dropped down and
down
And hit a world at every
plunge,
And finished knowing —
then.
Emily Dickenson
• Currently the rate of
increase in depression
among the under-18 year
old group is
approximately 23% per
year. Pre-schoolers are
currently the
fastest-growing market
for antidepressants.
• Estimates now indicate
a similar incidence of
depression in both men
and women at
approximately 30% of the
population. While women
tend to withdraw and
repress emotions and
physical/sexual activity
during depression, men
are more likely to
engage in addictive
behaviors such as
promiscuous sexual
activity, drugs, alcohol
and work.
• 54% of individuals
believe depression is a
personal weakness.
• 80% of depressed
individuals currently do
not seek treatment of
any kind.
• 15% of depressed
individuals will commit
suicide.
• Estimates indicate
that depression will be
the third largest killer
after heart disease by
2020. Current studies
indicate that depression
is, in fact, a
contributory factor to
fatal coronary disease.
• Depression lowers
immunity. Studies are
increasingly linking
other serious illnesses
to depression, including
osteoporosis, diabetes,
some forms of cancer,
eye disease and back
pain.
• Depression results in
more work absenteeism
than almost any other
disorder.
• 33 million Americans
were prescribed at least
one psychiatric drug in
2004, up from 21 million
in 1997.
• Spending on
antidepressants rose
from $5.1 Billion in
1997 to $11.5 Billion in
2006.
• Nine percent of
American teenagers have
been prescribed drugs
for depression.
• In 2002, 11 million
antidepressant
prescriptions were
written for American
children and
adolescents. Before
1990, outside of the
occasional use of
Ritalin, medicating of
children was considered
taboo. Now, Proxac and
Paxil come in mint- and
orange-flavored liquids.
Clomicalm is
meat-flavored and a Los
Angeles veterinarian
estimates that five
percent of cats and dogs
in his practice are
taking psychotropic
agents for their
behavior.
• American sales of
Zoloft exceeded those of
Tide detergent in 2005,
namely $3.1 Billion.
"Americans have
swallowed it all," says
author Charles Barber.
"To say that we are the
most medicated nation on
earth is an absurd
understatement. To say
that we are the most
psychiatrically
medicated nation on
earth is a prodigiously
absurd understatement.
Americans have the most
luridly expensive urine
in the world."
Bruce E. Levine is a
practicing clinical
psychologist since 1985.
He believes a key to
understanding depression
is simple common sense —
something he feels is
often lost in
professional training.
"Depression is simply
one of many human
'strategies' to shut
down overwhelming pain,"
says Levine. "The price
paid for the long-term
reliance on depression
is that it also shuts
down energy, enthusiasm,
sexual desire,
concentration, memory
and other cognitive
skills, and can lead to
guilt, hopelessness,
problems in sleeping and
eating, immobilization
and thoughts of
suicide."
I take it that no man is
educated
who has never dallied
with the
thought of suicide.
William James
"When we habitually
employ a shutdown
strategy — rather than
healing and resolving
the source of pain — we
develop a tolerance to
that strategy, which
means that we need
increasingly larger
doses of it. Shutdown
strategies such as
depressions, alcohol, or
other psychotropic drugs
can create a vicious
cycle in which the very
strategy used to shut
down pain can create
more pain."
Many studies show a
variety of psychological
and interpersonal losses
and pains that can lead
to depression. In his
book, The Truth About
Depression, the
physician Charles
Whitfield reports on
more than 200 studies
which show that people
who have suffered
neglect, abuse and other
types of trauma have a
much greater risk of
becoming depressed.
The loss of affection in
a marriage is also
highly associated with
depression. In their
book, The Interactional
Nature of Depression,
psychologists Thomas
Joiner and James Coyne
report that in one study
of unhappily married
women who were diagnosed
with depression, 70 per
cent of these women
believed that the loss
of marital satisfaction
preceded their
depression and 60 per
cent believed that their
unhappy marriage was the
primary cause of their
depression.
There is considerable
evidence
that depressed people,
though sadder, are
wiser.
Martin Seligman
It is a similar story
with postpartum
depression, which occurs
in 10 to 20 percent of
women in the United
Kingdom and the United
States, but is
considered rare in
China, Fiji, and some
African populations. A
raft of studies has
found that lack of
social support after
giving birth — a
fundamental human need,
often unacknowledged and
unmet in Modern Western
society, with its
emphasis on
individualism rather
than family and
community — results in
emotional pain followed
by depression.
"Low levels of social
support directly predict
depression," states the
sociologist Robert
Putnam. In his book,
Bowling Alone, which
details the collapse of
community in the United
States, Putnam reports,
"Countless studies
document the link
between society and
psyche: people who have
close friends and
confidants, friendly
neighbors and supportive
co-workers, are less
likely to experience
sadness, loneliness, low
self-esteem and problems
with eating and
sleeping. The single
most common finding from
a half-century's
research on correlates
of life satisfaction,
not only in the United
States but around the
world, is that happiness
is best predicted by the
breadth and depth of
one's social
connections."
An illustration of this
can be seen in
Mexican-Americans born
in the United States,
who are almost three
times as likely to have
had a 'major depressive
episode' than recent
Mexican immigrants to
the United States or
Mexicans remaining in
Mexico, according to
researcher and professor
of public health William
Vega. Vega found that
Mexican immigrants' rate
of mental disorders grew
steadily after
immigration, so much so
that Mexican immigrants
who had been in the
United States for more
than 13 years had nearly
the same rate of mental
disorders as native-born
Americans.
"Mexicans tend to come
from a much more
integrated family system
and," Vega concludes,
"this translates into
tremendous benefits of
that in terms of
everyday psychological
resilience. They are
much more likely to be
in a situation where
people help each other
out — there is a cost
for this greater
personal and economic
freedom. The cost is
loss of reciprocal
support."
In 1957, economist
Leopold Kohr concluded
in his book, The
Breakdown of Nations,
that misery in society
could be explained by a
single theory of size.
"It suggests," says Kohr,
"that there seems only
one cause behind all
forms of social misery:
bigness."
In a society that has
become increasingly
institutionalized,
many people feel
isolated, small, angry
and scared.
"The faith of mass
society," continues
Levine, "that salvation
will come through
technology, compounds
the problem. Once one
accepts that our society
worships machines and
technology more than it
does life and
biodiversity, then it's
easy to understand that
the goal of society is
to become more
machine-like, more
standardized. As society
focuses on that goal,
more and more people
simply don't fit in.
Psychiatry can compound
this problem when,
instead of concluding
that there is a problem
with this
machine-worshipping
culture, it concludes
that there is a problem
with the individual who
does not fit in."
"Technology is also
about control, and the
more we singularly
worship technology, the
more we singularly
worship control. Human
beings pay a
psychological price for
any technology that
controls them more than
they control it — they
can actually feel more
powerless. Beyond its
attribute of control,
technology has no
meaning, and if people
singularly worship it,
they will have
meaningless lives."
The main emotion of the
adult American
who has had all the
advantages of wealth,
education and culture is
disappointment.
John Cheever
In the 1960s and 1970s,
the counter-culture's
message of 'Turn On,
Tune In, Drop Out', was
about a 'collective
consciousness', of
looking at the world's
sustainability
challenges with a
different type of
psychotropic. 'Dropping
acid' (LSD) and smoking
marijuana was usually
done in group settings,
and sharing insights and
deep Earth wisdom
together and talking
about alternatives and
action. These drugs were
not about 'action', they
were about stopping the
action, and having some
reflection on life's
problems and seeking a
counter-solution to
consumerism and rampant
devastation of the
environment.
The 1980s and 1990s
drugs, anti-depressants
and anxiety-lowering
pharmaceuticals, offered
the promise of
individualized solutions
to our problems, at a
time when Americans were
giving up on collective
solutions to social
difficulties and
environmental
devastation. The era of
governmental or societal
solutions to national
problems and challenges,
such as Social Security,
the GI Bill and the
Space Program,
effectively died with
Ronald Reagan's
presidency. The '80s
birthed a renewal of the
old American myth of
rugged individualism —
Reagan on his horse,
Oliver North running
rampant, and Rambo's
ridiculously successful
fantasy.
Today's anti-depressant
drugs offer an
individualized treatment
for one's problems. You
fill the prescription
alone, you take the
medications by yourself,
you deal with your
insurance plan alone,
and you monitor the
effects of the
medication, usually,
alone. As more and more
people take
anti-depressants, fewer
people choose therapy —
mental health treatment
in the company of
another person. The
collective consciousness
and community are
replaced by the
singular, isolating act
of taking a pill in a
private,
sheltered moment. The
paradigm has shifted
violently — no longer
are patients working
with a therapist to
address their real
problems; they are
working largely alone
and in relation only
with a pill.
The Lottery, with its
weekly pay-out
of enormous prizes, was
the one public
event to which the
proles [proletarians
or working class] paid
serious attention.
It was probably that
there were some millions
of proles for whom the
Lottery was the
principal
if not the only reason
for remaining alive.
George Orwell's 1984
{1949}
Consumer culture is, in
many ways, a culture of
extended childhood. The
child's fantasy is that
life is lived without
pain and that there are
no consequences for
fleeing from life's
difficulties. The faith
of consumer culture is
that all pain, tensions,
and discomfort can and
should be eliminated by
industrial products and
services.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD,
psychiatrist, Jungian
analyst and clinical
professor of psychiatry
at UCSF, writes that
illness and depression
are soul-shaping
encounters, and have
been perceived for
centuries that way. They
help us respond to a
wake-up call and offer
us turning points to
find meaning in our
lives.
Already concerned about
the movement toward
biological psychiatry,
eminent psychiatrist
Morton Resier published
an article in 1986
entitled, "Are
Psychiatric Educators
'Losing The Mind?". In
it he writes, "I talked
with some of the
[psychiatric] residents
and found that their
approach and mind set in
the interviews [were]
astoundingly
unpsychological. Once
they had done the DSM-IV
'inventory' and had
identified target
symptoms for
psychopharmacology, the
diagnostic workup and
meaningful communication
stopped. Worse than
that, to my mind, so did
the residents' curiosity
about the patient as a
person — even to the
point where often there
was no answer to such
basic questions as why
the patient came for
treatment at this time
and what seemed to be
worrying him or her."
Nearly ten years later
Steven Sharfstein, the
president of the
American Psychiatric
Association, echoed
Morton Resier's concerns
when he told his fellow
psychiatrists, "As we
address these Big Pharma
issues, we must examine
the fact that as a
profession, we have
allowed the
bio-psycho-social model
to become the
bio-bio-bio model."
Symptoms can be seen,
but a lack of emotional,
interpersonal,
existential, or
spiritual wholeness does
not show up in any lab
test or X-ray. What can
be intuited and known
often cannot be
quantified — and,
therefore, is not taken
seriously in Western
science. Healing the
source of despair
entails becoming whole,
and this too cannot be
scientifically measured.
Dr. Levine continues, "I
observed how the course
work of mental health
professionals fractured
the wholeness of their
knowledge. Future
psychiatrists narrowly
focus on brain chemistry
— the bio-bio-bio model.
And in the course work
of both psychiatrists
and psychologists, no
serious attention is
given to cultural,
economic, and political
issues. Academia can be
a place of narrow,
specialized turfs.
Instead of freely
exploring the entire
landscape, academicians
are often quite timid
about 'trespassing' onto
another's domain. Among
professors there are
certainly rebels against
this practice, and they
are fond of joking,
'Academia is a place
where you specialize
more and more about less
and less with this
logical endpoint:
knowing absolutely
everything about
absolutely nothing.'"
Bias In Medical
Literature
In a January 16, 2008
article entitled "Study
Says Patients, Doctors
Get Distorted View of
Antidepressants", The
Wall Street Journal's
David Armstrong reports
that researchers say
unpublished reports on
leading antidepressant
drugs have found many
drugs have little or no
effect on patients. As a
result, researches
asserted in the New
England Journal of
Medicine, that doctors
and patients are getting
a distorted view of the
effectiveness of
blockbuster
antidepressants like
Wyeth's Effexor, and
Zoloft by Pfizer.
Pharmaceutical companies
are under no obligation
to publish the studies
they sponsor and submit
to the FDA, nor are the
researchers they hire to
do the work. The
whistle-blowing
researchers publishing
in the New England
Journal of Medicine were
able to identify
unpublished studies by
obtaining and comparing
documents filed by the
companies with the FDA
against databases of
medical publications.
Since the overwhelming
amount of published data
on the drugs show they
are effective, doctors
unaware of the
unpublished data are
making inappropriate
prescribing decisions
that are not in the best
interest of their
patients, according to
researchers led by Erick
Turner, a psychiatrist
at Oregon Health and
Science University.
Sales of antidepressants
total about $21 billion
a year, according to IMS
Health. Pfizer and Wyeth
declined to comment on
the study results. Both
companies said they had
committed to disclose
all study results,
although not necessarily
in medical journals.
An FDA spokesperson
said, "There is no
effort on the part of
the FDA to withhold or
to not post drug review
documents." A total of
74 studies involving a
dozen anti-depressants
and 12,564 patients were
registered with the FDA
from 1987 through 2004.
The FDA deemed 38 of the
studies to be positive.
All but one of those
studies was published,
the researchers said.
The other 36 were found
to have negative or
questionable results by
the FDA. Most of those
studies — 22 out of 36 —
were not published. Of
the 14 that were
published, the
researchers said at
least 11 of those
studies mischaracterized
the results and
presented a negative
study as positive.
"One way of turning the
study results upside
down is to ignore a
negative finding for the
primary outcome being
measured and highlight a
positive secondary
outcome," says Dr.
Turner. "In nine of the
negative studies that
were published, the
authors simply omitted
any mention of the
primary outcome. Dr.
Turner, who once worked
at the FDA reviewing
data on psychotropic
drugs, said the idea for
the study was triggered
in part by colleagues
who questioned the need
for further clinical
drug trials looking at
the effectiveness of
antidepressants.
"There is a view that
these drugs are
effective all the time,"
he said. "I would say
they only work 40% to
50% of the time, and
they would say, 'What
are you talking about? I
have never seen a
negative study.'" Dr.
Turner, from his time
reviewing studies at the
FDA, said he knew there
were negative studies
that hadn't been
published.
The researchers found
that failing to publish
negative findings
inflated the reported
effectiveness of all of
the anti-depressant
drugs. The researchers
used a measurement
called effect size. The
larger the effect size,
the greater the impact
of a treatment.
The effect size of the
antidepressant Zoloft
was increased 64% by the
failure to publish
negative or questionable
data on the drug, the
researchers found.
Looking at it another
way, the researchers
found the drug was
closer to having a
"small" effect for
people taking it when
all of the data is
considered. When
primarily positive
results are all that is
published, the drug was
shown to have an
increased effect closer
to "medium."
Children and
Psychotropic Medication
Use
"Methylphenidate
(generic for Ritalin) is
a Schedule II
central nervous system
stimulant and shares
many of
the pharmacological
effects of amphetamines,
methamphetamine, and
cocaine."
— U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration
Overcrowded public
education routinely
struggles with quiet and
orderly classroom
behavior, and children
with behavioral
disturbances are
increasingly labeled
with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) if they create
'classroom-management'
problems for their
teachers (symptoms of
ADHD include a failure
to keep quiet and a
failure to sit still).
What was simply referred
to as 'acting up' or as
'having ants in his
pants' just a few years
ago, has now been
classified as an
official disorder and
disease, requiring
medication.
Ritalin and Ritalin-like
drugs can result in a
more subdued class, as
many medicated children
will talk less to
others. A 1998 study
showed that the majority
of medicated children
also become less
interested in others and
the U.S. Surgeon General
in 1999 reported that,
long term, ADHD
medications do not
benefit social skills
and peer relationships.
Where teachers were
previously trained and
required to arrange
students in the
classroom by learning
style and provide
different types of
materials and
interaction for each
group, in today's
budget-cut environment
with less and less
resources available,
educators are turning
toward a pharmaceutical
approach to sameness and
rapid turnover.
The fact that very
little testing of
psychotropic medication
has been done on
children makes this
trend even more
alarming. President
Clinton, when in office,
offered to extend patent
protection for mood
medications to the large
pharmaceutical companies
if they began testing
these products on
children. While there
was an initial flurry to
begin such testing and
studies, today most
advanced work is
languishing due to the
fact that initial
results found that
pharmaceuticals do no
more than a placebo for
actual mood alteration
in children.
{In April 2001, the PBS
award-winning
documentary program,
Frontline, broadcast the
first story on children
and amphetamine and
anti-depressant use,
entitled, Medicating
Kids: A report on
parents, educators and
doctors trying to make
sense of a mysterious
and controversial
medical diagnosis: ADHD.
In January 2008,
Frontline, broadcast the
second story, The
Medicated Child: Six
Million American
children are taking
psychiatric drugs, but
most have never been
tested on children. Is
this good medicine — or
an uncontrolled
experiment? If you have
not already seen these
programs, be certain to
watch these excellent
and well-researched and
documented presentations
by clicking through on
the cited references at
the end of this
article.}
Additionally, in a
recent New England
Journal of Medicine
article, the chief of
Mental Health Services
at Harvard University
said, "Increasing
numbers of students and
sometimes their
families, request
medication to provide an
'edge', even if the
students have no
clinically significant
impairment of
functioning. They think
of such drugs as safe
'brain steroids' that
help to maximize
performance with minimal
risk, and they know the
symptoms to describe in
order to persuade a
doctor to write a
prescription."
Cognitive enhancement
drugs are now estimated
to be consumed by nearly
80% of college students
nationwide — with only
20-25% actually
possessing a valid
prescription. "I don't
know of one of my
friends who isn't taking
Ritalin or Adderall
every single day, or at
least a few times a
week," says Christie, a
top student at Stanford
University. "Most of the
kids who have the
prescriptions don't have
ADD or ADHD, they just
tell their parents and
their doctors they're
having trouble
concentrating and are
feeling stressed out,
and they get it [a
prescription] on the
spot."
For those families who
have a child diagnosed
with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), they often watch
a child struggle and
fail in school or other
social settings. It
breaks their heart to
see how their child is
impulsive, easily
distracted and has a
very short attention
span. The problems that
arise in kindergarten,
often grow unmanageable
by middle school years.
The child always seems
to get in trouble. He
falls behind in school,
and grows painfully
frustrated because no
matter how hard he
tries, he can’t seem to
do better.
For these families, a
diagnosis of ADHD from a
caring pediatrician is
the first sign of
relief. Within a day or
two of taking the first
doses of Adderall XR or
Ritalin LA, the
difference in their
child’s behavior can be
stunning — providing
parents with a renewed
belief that their child
has a chance to succeed.
This child's brain, now
flooded with dopamine,
is like a new entity.
Reading a book for ten
minutes at a time or
more, sitting through a
dinner conversation at a
restaurant for the first
time without a tantrum,
and respectful play with
siblings are just some
of the newfound
behaviors allowing for
peace in the home.
Is there any wonder that
from 1987 to 1996, the
number of kids in the
United States given
prescriptions for
psychiatric medications
tripled? According to
Scott Shannon, MD
(Please Don't Label My
Child), within a
generation half of
American children will
be on some kind of
psychiatric drug if this
trend continues. But Dr.
Shannon, a child
psychiatrist and former
president of the
American Holistic
Medical Association,
also argues that
behavioral and emotional
problems are far too
often treated as medical
problems rather than
what they really are — a
response to various
kinds of stress, which
parents can learn to
identify and eliminate
from their children's
lives.
However, for the
families that opt for
the ADHD drugs, if they
can get through the
first few days of side
effects, which range
from chewing sensations,
tics, insomnia, stomach
aches, decreased
appetite, headaches or
emotional liability,
then they reach a
homeodynamic state as a
family. Junior takes his
drugs in order to focus
and be rewarded in
school, and his parents
continue to support and
praise his normalcy.
If this process starts
at seven years old, the
drug-taking affirmation
has set a precedent in
the child’s life that
will likely continue
through adolescence and
adulthood. The covert
message to the child:
you need drugs to behave
properly. And yet, the
positive effects of ADHD
drugs are so
overwhelming that
psychologists,
pediatricians, school
educators, juvenile
court administrators,
parents and counselors
are now seen as remiss
in their duties as
supervising adults, if
prescriptions are not
written when two or more
qualifying symptoms of
ADHD are noted.
The harmful effects of
long-term ADHD drug use
are just coming into
recognition. Adderall
abuse on college
campuses can not be
denied. The Adderral
crash is described as
"hitting a brick wall",
"utterly exhausting",
"worse than coming down
from multiple shots of
espresso". Eating
disorders are rampant on
Adderrall. "I find the
use of Adderall for
weight loss particularly
troubling," says June
Stevens, chair of the
department of nutrition
at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
Ritalin and Adderall are
the two most popularly
bartered items on
campuses nationwide.
There are university
blogs, forums and
discussions within
health programs on how
to stem the tide of
illegal and abusive use
of the drug. However, as
long as academic
pressure remains
overwhelming, the
demands are prevalent
for a substance that can
bring heightened
concentration and fuel
long hours of study.
Freeing our children and
society from the
escalating use of
psychiatric medications
will be one of the most
difficult public health
campaigns to date
because it requires
nothing short of a sea
change in parenting,
medical intervention,
and over-drugging of
today's children. Health
researcher Doris Rapp
(Is This is Your Child?)
notes that the
antisocial and
substance-related
disorders that can
follow early ADHD drug
use/abuse can be reduced
if overreliance on
amphetamines by the
medical community is
avoided, and
comprehensive approaches
such as dietary
management (eliminating
sugar, additives,
refined starches) are
introduced. Families can
learn to zero in on the
stressors that could be
at the root of their
child's problem,
exploring issues such as
nutrition, excessive
video game play, too
much screen time, poor
sleeping habits,
environmental toxins,
and even recognizing
when a school program
may be a poor fit for
the child's learning
style. This holistic
orientation toward
children's mental health
requires a new ecology
of modern psychiatry.
Children deserve nothing
less.
Just Say 'Know'
The history, use and
trends of psychotropic
medications in America
present a daunting
reality and beg answers
to the questions, "How
did we get to this point
of required acceleration
and mood alteration
through synthetic drug
usage?" and, perhaps
more importantly, "How
do we reverse this
trend?"
Root causes of ADD,
ADHD, depression and
mood disorders cover a
wide range of potential
flashpoints. Everything
in today's world that
plagues psycho-emotional
states of young adults,
from global climate
change and career
opportunities, to the
increasing numbers of
reports of contaminated
food sources and
drinking water supplies
containing untold
numbers of
pharmaceutical residues
may be to blame.
Likewise, our continued
reliance upon and
integration of new
technologies may clearly
be an additional
culprit. A growing
chorus of pre-school and
grade-school teachers
are making three,
inter-related
observations. Sitting
still in class,
successfully negotiating
space, interacting with
peers and taking an
active role in the
learning process is
extremely difficult when
a child has received
constant exposure to
always-affirming,
never-in-conflict gaming
devices that require
ever-increasing levels
of button-pushing skills
in a
massively-stimulating
audio-visual environment
within the home and
automobile. Chalkboards,
books, overhead
projectors and
teacher-student
interactivity simply
cannot compete with that
learned behavior and
over-stimulation common
in these hi-tech
environments. Children
who have been allowed to
concentrate their
energies on these
solitary activities are
having problems
adjusting to a
socially-dependent,
low-tech environment
within the classroom.
Additionally, European
safety studies
indicating that one
20-second cellphone call
can disrupt and
interfere with a child's
ability to learn for up
to two hours, to the
recent announcement by
Germany's government
that people should avoid
using Wi-Fi wherever
possible because of the
risks it may pose to
health and brain
function, certainly
represent 'cause for
pause'. And with the
ever-increasing
popularity of text
messaging among young
people, researchers are
now advising caution
from both a cognitive
impairment standpoint as
well as potential
reproductive damage as a
result of laptop usage.
In the final analysis,
does it simply become a
question of medication
or ethics, or is there a
connection between
behavior and mood
'disorders' and a piece
of the puzzle that we've
been missing?
The Sixth Intimacy
For a longer period of
time than there have
been definitions for
psychiatric 'disorders',
there has been a
humanistic behavioral
model and definition of
what defines a human
being, namely, the
ability to be
consciously aware of
intimacy.
Our conscious awareness
of intimacy allows us to
interact with one
another and with Self in
meaningful and
experiential ways which
define our very
existence. These five
forms of intimacy —
intellectual, spiritual,
emotional, physical and
sexual — can be used to
encapsulate each and
every social association
we have with others.
With some individuals,
we share one or two
forms of intimate
contact, and it has
often been said that
great friends or
long-term couples share
at least three of the
five forms of intimacy.
As we firmly enter the
21st century and we move
forward toward what many
foresee as the
'conscious evolution of
man', we are beginning
to realize that many of
our old models and
measurement standards
are no longer holding up
or ringing true as our
understanding of the
universe and our place
it in expands and
evolves.
The more we observe and
understand that we are
intimately connected and
inter-dependent upon our
environment, and that
our environment is
intimately connected and
inter-dependent upon us,
the clearer it is
becoming that our
previous model of what
defines a human being
must be expanded to
include these new
understandings.
Instead of our
environment being
exclusive of our
intimate involvement
with life itself, what
if, instead, our
environment is actually
the central hub of our
experience —
inter-connecting and
influencing every aspect
of human behavior and
life itself?
What if we were to look
at the behavior and mood
'disorders' we are
experiencing from this
new perspective? How
would 'environment'
influence the way we are
answering questions of
assessment and
treatment, and more
importantly, prevention
and cure?
Holistic Approaches to
Kickstart Your Brain
By Meg Jordan, PhD, RN
For millions of North
Americans and countless
others around the world,
the hunt is on for
natural remedies to
manage and resolve
common physical
complaints such as
heartburn or headaches.
But nagging mental
problems such as trouble
concentrating or not
being able to shake off
a case of the blues can
also benefit greatly
from natural remedies.
We don’t always hear
about these holistic
solutions, however,
because conventional
health care providers
aren’t as well versed in
them.
According to Marcia
Angell, MD, former
editor in chief of the
New England Journal of
Medicine, drug companies
spend more than twice as
much on marketing and
administration as they
do on research and
development. So don’t be
surprised if your
doctors, who are as
vulnerable to $3 billion
worth of drug marketing
as anybody, tend to
reach for the
prescription pad when
you complain of feeling
down or not being able
to focus. From 1997 to
2001, the number of
retail prescriptions
increased from 2.4
billion to 3.1 billion,
much of it the result of
direct-to-consumer
advertising.
Here is a checklist I
recommend for people who
want to tell their
doctors they’d rather
try a natural route
first.
Deep Breathing Exercises
Take a yoga class that
emphasizes belly
breathing, or listen to
one of the many
effective CD/DVDs
available that teach
diaphragmatic breathing.
This is a simple yet
profound method that can
soothe an
over-stimulated
sympathetic nervous
system, allowing for
greater relaxation and
increased alertness.
Fix Your “Leaky” Gut
Food sensitivities can
play with your mind.
Clinical nutritionist
Elizabeth Lipski, PhD,
CNN, (Digestive
Wellness) points out
that poor quality diet,
additives, and ingestion
of heavy metals such as
mercury, sort of punch
holes in your gut. They
create an intestinal
lining that is more
permeable, allowing the
passage of larger
molecules. As longer
chains of proteins or
amino acids pass through
the gut wall into the
circulation, they are
viewed as invaders (food
antigens) by regulatory
T-type immune cells,
triggering an
allergic-like response
with more inflammation
and deterioration of the
intestinal wall. In
addition to the
digestive upset, people
who develop
sensitivities to certain
foods such as wheat,
peanuts or milk, can
also suffer from
behavioral problems.
Eventually, sensitivity
gives way to chronic
inflammatory states and
neurodegeneration can
occur, or the integrity
of brain cells, nerve
system cells and neural
networks can begin to
break down.
In The Gluten
Connection, nutritionist
Shari Leiberman, PhD,
CCN, reported how people
with celiac disease, an
extreme form of gluten
sensitivity, were more
prone to develop
neurologic disorders
(51.4 percent) compared
with control subjects
(19.9 percent). (2,3) A
study reported in
Pediatrics found that
people with celiac
disease displayed
learning disorders and
ADHD.(3)
Ask your doctor to test
you for gluten
sensitivity, and if you
are sensitive, eliminate
gluten from your diet.
Gluten is the protein
found in wheat, barley,
rye, but not usually in
wild grains such as
aramanth and quinoa.
Cut back on foods that
are high in refined
starches, and sugars.
Overconsumption of the
refined starches — white
pasta, white bread,
white rice — has set the
stage for some of the
highest rates of
prediabetes, obesity and
metabolic syndrome in
the United States.
Shore Up on Healthy Fats
Your body needs
essential fatty acids (DHA,
EPA) to maintain more
than a trillion
functions, but your mind
and nervous system are
most thankful for these
building blocks of
neural cells. The right
balance of omega-3 to
omega-6 fatty acids in
our ancestors’ diets was
approximately 1:1 or
2:1, but in modern
diets, we are consuming
more than 30 times the
amount of omega-6’s to
omega-3s. (3) This leads
to an overabundance of
arachidonic acid (from
omega-6) which can lead
to chronic inflammation,
the foundational culprit
in heart disease,
certain cancers, stroke,
high blood pressure and
asthma.
Omega-6s are in
vegetable oils such as
safflower, sunflower,
sesame and corn. Omega-3
fats are found in cold
water fish oil,
flaxseed, and some nuts.
Supplementation with a
high quality EPA, DHA
content is recommended.
Nutritional Support
Adaptogens such as
ashwagandha, rhodiola,
and red reishi help
balance the body’s
stress hormones,
modulating them for more
harmonious functioning.
Chlorella and other
natural chelating and
detoxifying agents can
help remove the build-up
of toxic metals that
cause free radical
damage and decrease
mental alertness.
Vitamin B complex is a
known support for brain
and nervous system
function.
Other brain nutrients
include:
Amino Acids
Phosphatidylserine
Bacopa monniera Choline
Folic Acid Vitamin C
Ginkgo biloba Vitamin
B12
Chinese Club moss
Essential fatty acids
Acetyl-L-carnitine
Several new products are
on the market that can
give professionals and
consumers a natural
alternative. One of my
favorites is PERSPECTIVE
from Wellcorps
International (www.wellcorps.com).
Providing unique
botanical ingredients
such as Chinese club
moss, along with some
very unique and patented
extracts found only in
this
scientifically-formulated
combination, PERSPECTIVE
has provided college
students in field trials
a healthier method of
staying alert, focused,
gaining a mental edge,
and improving
productivity without the
harmful side effects of
psychotropic drugs.
Put Life in Balance
Are your actions
consistent with your
values? Do you make time
for nurturing yourself
and those you care
about? Healing your mind
and lifting your spirits
requires a potent
antidote for social
isolation. You need
daily connection with
your confidantes,
friends, spouses,
lovers, favorite
characters or simply one
good animal companion,
if that’s all you’ve got
at the present. Over 300
studies have been cited
in the positive
psychology field, a new
branch of social science
that deals with
optimism, social
intelligence, mental
hardiness and positive
relations.
Positive psychology
literature is replete
with conclusions that
treating each other with
genuine care and
affection is required to
stave off serious
depression, illness and
premature death.
One good way of
assessing your life
balance is through a
wellness wheel. Bill
Hettler, MD, co-founder
of the National Wellness
Institute, put forth the
Six Dimensional Model of
Wellness, a tool to help
people prioritize which
areas of their lives
need development or
change. The areas
include physical,
intellectual, spiritual,
social, occupational,
and emotional. Recently,
Dr. Hettler noted that
environmental should be
a new facet, sitting at
the center of the wheel.
"Without environmental
health, we really don’t
have any personal
health," he explained.
Another wellness wheel
developed by John
Travis, MD, MPH, is
available online at
http://www.thewellspring.com.
Limit Cell Phone Usage
If you’re unconvinced
that chronic cell phone
transmission next to the
sensitive tissues of the
brain is anything but
healthy, then read the
latest research on
long-term cancer risk
and serious dangers to
children under seven in
the Wellcorps Coffee
Talk News To Use
article, "WIFI and
Mobile Phone Use."
Exercise Your Mind
Multiple patent holder
Ray Kurzweil (Fantastic
Voyage) says, "The most
important thing I do to
keep my brain healthy is
to use it. We know from
brain-scanning studies
that our thoughts
literally create our
brains, so challenging
ourselves intellectually
and artistically is a
vital anti-aging
activity." Whether it is
cross-word puzzles or
learning a new language,
you can stretch your
neural network in two
ways. University of
California, San Diego
researchers discovered
that brain cells
continue to undergo
neurogenesis (the making
of new cells) and
neuroplasticity
(flexible rerouting)
throughout the length of
life. Essentially, we
can always teach "old
dogs new tricks," and
should try everyday.
Get Adequate Sleep
Nothing can dull the
mind more than a lack of
sufficient sleep. At
least six to eight hours
is vital for most people
to maintain healthy
outlooks. Develop good
sleep hygiene habits
such as adopting some
comforting bedtime
rituals, avoiding
rigorous exercise late
in the evening,
refraining from
utilizing the computer
at least two hours
before bedtime, and
removing the TV from the
bedroom.
Healthful Nutrition
Your diet should consist
of wholesome,
unprocessed foods. Drink
a glass of clean,
filtered water every two
hours while waking. Eat
plenty of fiber to keep
any contaminants or
toxins from residing in
your body. Consume lean
proteins such as fish or
organic poultry, along
with fresh, seasonal,
organic fruits and
vegetables.
Absolutely, without
compromise, starting
today, decrease your
sugar intake. Too much
sugar triggers
abnormally high insulin
levels, to the point of
developing resistance
within the body’s cells,
or having inadequate
output of insulin. In
either case, the next
step in a series of
unfortunate biochemical
mishaps is chronic
inflammation which is
linked with
neurodegenerative
changes. It is no
coincidence that the
presence of vending
machines in schools
coincided with the
burgeoning rates of
ADHD.
Avoid Additives
In the largest study of
the effects of additives
on children’s behavior,
almost 300 British
three- and eight-year
olds were monitored
after the ingestion of
commonly-ingested
additives, (preservative
sodium benzoate and
others). After consuming
the products, children
were boisterous and lost
concentration. They were
engaged in impulsive
behavior and couldn’t
focus well. Even
children with no history
of hyperactivity had
distinct behavioral
changes. The study has
influenced the
regulation of food
additives in the UK, but
has yet to make an
impact on FDA
regulations.
But you can make a
difference in the diet
of your family right
now. An excellent place
to start is with the
famous Fiengold Program
diet. (http://www.feingold.org/grocery.html)
Stage one of this
program eliminates:
∙ Artificial (synthetic)
coloring
∙ Artificial (synthetic)
flavoring
∙ Artificial (synthetic)
preservatives BHA, BHT,
TBHQ.
∙ Aspartame (Nutrasweet®,
an artificial sweetener)
Having assisted
thousands of successful
turnarounds through
dietary change, Joel
Fuhrman, MD, lays down
the basic anti-ADHD
nutritional plan in his
book Disease-Proof Your
Child: Feeding Kids
Right. At the core of
his clinical experience
is the removal of
additives from the diet.
These chemicals found in
packaged and processed
foods, easily identified
on nutrition labels,
have been linked with
behavioral changes such
as restlessness and
agitation. He describes
the essential elements
of his dietary approach
as:
∙ A high-nutrient,
vegetable-nut-fruit-based
diet.
∙ One tablespoon of
ground flax seeds daily,
easily added to oatmeal,
shakes, and desserts.
∙ At least one ounce of
raw walnuts daily, with
the addition of other
raw nuts.
∙ DHA supplement of
100-600 mg daily.
∙ No processed foods, no
dairy fat, no trans fat.
∙ Little or no oils;
essential fats are
supplied from raw nuts
and seeds and DHA
supplementation.
∙ As mentioned above,
some children also must
avoid gluten (from wheat
products) and/or casein
(from dairy products),
as they appear to be
bothered by these
frequently
difficult-to-handle
dietary proteins.
Get Off The Night Shift
Circadian rhythm
researchers found that
night shift workers were
more susceptible to
serotonin deficit, and
had more bouts of
depression. Human
physiology evolved in
synch with cycles of
light and dark. Our
entire biochemistry
functions optimally if
we sleep in complete
darkness and awaken to
sunlight. Another study
found that exposure to
bright morning light can
help lift depression.
Behavior Modification
Programs
One of the major
advocates for addressing
the social, emotional
and educational
influences in a child’s
life is educator and
author Thomas Armstrong,
PhD, author of The Myth
of the ADD Child: 50
Ways to Improve Your
Child’s Behavior and
Attention Span Without
Drugs, Labels or
Coercion. Dr. Armstrong
advises parents and
professionals on
activities that make the
most of the vitality and
creativity that are
hallmarks of
ADD/ADHD-labeled
children.
Avoid Tobacco
If you pollute your body
with noxious gases and
carbon monoxide,
clogging your arteries,
and damaging your
airways with tar and
nicotine, you can’t
expect your brain to
perform optimally. Don’t
smoke and quit if you do
smoke.
Lose Excess Body Weight
Some research linked
excessive body fat with
impaired circulation and
lowered mental alertness
for patients. The
journal Neurology
reported that people
with excess belly fat in
their forties are almost
90% more likely to
develop dementia later
in life. Take a
waist-to-hip ratio
measurement, and compare
your own to these
standards. Measure your
waist and hips in
inches. Divide the waist
measurement by the hip
measurement. Anything
1.0 or higher is at
risk. For men, the ratio
should be .9 or less.
For women, .8 or less.
The good news is that
belly fat is the easiest
to lose if you restrict
calories and exercise
more.
Manage Your Stress Loads
Confusion, poor
concentration, lack of
focus and memory
impairment can all
result from inordinate
amounts of stress on a
daily basis. We used to
think that major life
events took the highest
stress toll, but new
evidence points to the
daily barrage of
unresolved, nagging
problems — the kind that
dog you from day to day.
Practice meditation,
visualization, guided
imagery or deep
breathwork and learn to
put the “to do” list
aside for at least 20
minutes once or twice a
day.
Massage and Bodywork
Promoting circulation to
the brain is effective
in increasing focus and
clarity. Experiment with
cranio-sacral massage,
aromatherapy massage,
hydrotherapy or
reflexology. Each of
these holistic therapies
can also help assist the
body in detoxification
besides clearing away
the mental and emotional
blocks to contentment.
Find Meaning and Purpose
Neurological and
behavioral problems in
children are absolutely
on the rise. Experts now
view a continuum — from
mild attention deficit
through an autistic
spectrum disorder to
severe autism — as part
of a profound
sensitivity to the
mysterious bombardment
of modern life. Lessons
abound for people coping
with any kind of
behavioral or
neurological disorder.
For all we know, the
mind with ADHD may be
simply an evolutionary
extension, an
early-stage coping
mechanism for a
multilayered,
multitasking, hyper-text
world. Find the gifts
that reside within, and
uncover new meaning and
purpose for yourself.
References:
1. Lipski, Elizabeth.
Digestive Wellness: New
York: McGraw-Hill. 2004.
2. Lieberman, Shari. The
Gluten Connection.
Emmaus, PA: Rodale.
2007.
3. N. Zelnik, et al.,
“Range of Neurologic
Disorders in Patients
with Celiac Disease,”
Pediatrics
113(2004):1672-6.
Wellcorps International
would like to thank the
many fine healthcare
professionals and
leading psychologists
and psychiatrists who
contributed to the
research and preparation
of this research
article. Additionally,
we would like to extend
our most gracious thanks
to the authors of the
published works from
which we have cited
valuable passages and
datasets within this
piece. We have listed
these works in the
following bibliographies
and have provided an
additional list of
further reading and
research materials and
encourage you to
investigate further
these very important
issues.
Recommended Further
Research
PDF's:
Vintage Drug Ads
Nicolas Rasmussen,
"Making the First
Anti-Depressant:
Amphetamine in American
Medicine — 1929–1950,"
Journal of the History
of Medicine and Allied
Sciences (February
2006): 288-323.
Edward C. Reifenstein,
Jr. and Eugene Davidoff,
"The Psychological
Effects of Benzedrine
Sulfate," The American
Journal of Psychology,
Vol. 52, No. 1. (January
1939), pp. 56-64.
Ilina Singh, "Bad Boys,
Good Mothers, and the
“Miracle” of Ritalin,"
Science in Context
(September 2002): 15(4),
577–603.
Irving Kirsch, Thomas J.
Moore, Alan Scoboria and
Sarah S. Nicholls, "The
Emperor's New Drugs: An
Analysis of
Antidepressant
Medication Data
Submitted
to the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration,"
Prevention & Treatment,
(July 15, 2002): Volume
5, Article 23.
Bruce E. Levine, Ph.D.,
"Mass Society and Mass
Depression," The
Ecologist (August 2007):
48-51.
Barbara Sahakian and
Sharon Morein-Zamir,
"Professor's Little
Helper", Nature 450
(December 20-27, 2007):
1157-1159.
Richard Kadison,
"Getting an Edge — Use
of Stimulants and
Antidepressants in
College," New England
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Vol. 353, No. 11,
September 15, 2005,
1089-91.
Sean Esteban McCabe,
John R. Knight,
Christian J. Teter, and
Henry Wechsler,
"Non-Medical Use Of
Prescription Stimulants
Among US College
Students: Prevalence And
Correlates From A
National Survey,"
Addiction, 99, 96–106.
Donald E. Greydanus, MD,
"Stimulant Misuse:
Strategies to Manage A
Growing Problem,"
Professor Pediatrics and
Human Development,
Michigan State
University College of
Human Medicine,
Kalamazoo Center for
Medical Studies,
Sindecuse Health Center,
Western Michigan
University.
Morton F. Reiser, MD,
"Are Psychiatric
Educators Losing The
Mind?," American Journal
of Psychiatry 145:2
(February 1988):
148-153.
Psychiatric Hoax: The
Subversion Of Medicine —
Report and
Recommendations on
Psychiatry's Destructive
Impact On Healthcare;
Citizens Commission on
Human Rights.
Karen L. Harding, PhD,
Richard D. Judah,
PhD,and Charles E. Gant,
MD, PhD,
"Outcome-Based
Comparison of Ritalin®
versus Food-Supplement
Treated
Children with AD/HD,"
Alternative Medicine
Review, (January 2003):
319-330.
Children, Adolescents
and Psychotropic
Medications; Arizona
Health Futures, St.
Lukes' Health
Initiatives, August
2006.
Clint Carter, Agnes Fogo,
Craig Anne Heflinger,
Cathy Reisenberg, "2006
Behavioral Health and
Vanderbilt Students:
Need and Resources,"
Vanderbuilt University,
Faculty Senate Student
Life Committee Mental
Health Subcommittee,
August 17, 2006.
Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.,
"Mind, Brain, and
Personality Disorders,"
American Journal of
Psychiatry (April 2005):
648-655.
Common Psychiatric Drugs
And Their Effects;
Citizens Commission On
Human Rights.
Health Education and
Health Promotion:
Primary Prevention and
Student Health; The
Chickering Group,
November 2005.
STAR*D Depression Study
Offers “Sobering”
Third-Round Results;
American Psychiatric
Association, July 01,
2006.
The STAR*D Study:
Treating Depression In
The Real World;
Cleveland Clinic Journal
Of Medicine, Volume 75,
No. 1, January 2008.
Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder;
National Institute of
Mental Health; February
24, 2004.
George Lynn, M.A., M.P.A.,
L.M.H.C., "Identifying
And Helping The Child
With AD/HD Plus Bipolar
Disorder At Home And At
School," Positive
Behavior Support
Symposium, Colorado
Department of Education,
July 23, 2007.
Pharming On College
Campuses, The Peer
Education (December
2006/January 2007):
14-15.
International Warnings
on Psychiatric and Other
Drugs Causing Hostility,
Aggression, Homicidal
and Suicidal
Behavior/Ideation
School Shooters Under
Influence Of Psychiatric
Drugs
Articles and Books:
Armstrong, Thomas; The
Myth of the A.D.D Child:
50 Ways to Improve Your
Child's Behavior and
Attention Span Without
Drugs, Labels, or
Coercion; Plume, New
York, NY; 1997.
http://www.amazon.com/Myth-D-D-Child-Behavior-Attention/dp/0452275474/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207440945&sr=1-1
Barber, Charles;
Comfortably Numb — How
Psychiatry Is Medicating
A Nation; Pantheon
Books, New York, NY;
2008.
http://www.amazon.com/Comfortably-Numb-Psychiatry-Medicating-Nation/dp/0375423990/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207168313&sr=1-1
Baughman, Fred A., Jr.,
MD; The ADHD Fraud: How
Psychiatry Makes
"Patients" of Normal
Children; Trafford
Publishing (UK) Limited,
Oxford, United Kingdom;
2006.
http://www.amazon.com/ADHD-Fraud-Psychiatry-Patients-Children/dp/1412064589/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207168359&sr=1-1
Bolen, Jean Shinoda, MD;
Close to the Bone:
Life-Threatening Illness
as a Soul Journey;
Conari Press, San
Francisco, CA; 2007.
http://www.amazon.com/Close-Bone-Life-Threatening-Illness-Journey/dp/1573243035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207167913&sr=1-1
Fuhrman, Joel;
Disease-Proof Your
Child: Feeding Kids
Right; St. Martins
Griffin, New York, NY;
2006.
http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338082/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207440660&sr=1-1
Healy, David; The
Creation of
Psychopharmacology;
Harvard University
Press, Cambridge, MA;
2004.
http://www.amazon.com/Creation-Psychopharmacology-David-Healy/dp/0674015991/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207168036&sr=1-1
Joiner, Thoma |
