Comments on: What Killed Rebecca Riley?

Katie Couric Reports On The Diagnosis Of Bipolar Disorder In Kids

[nlyles77-2009]

Because we live in a fallible society, this adds even more to the burden that parents bear when dealing with a child with mental illness. The parents are expected to learn to be health experts, education experts, and an overall super parent. Due to the reports of skepticism in the diagnosis of bipolar and the clearly divided medical community parents of bipolar children feel even more turmoil and isolation.

For more on this topic I suggest reading Tracy Angalda%u2019s: Making Sense out of the Tragic Death of Rebecca Riley: How to Help Children and Families Living with Bipolar Disorder.

http://www.bpchildren.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=66

[nlyles77-2009]

Most parents do not enter lightly into the decision to use medication. In many cases, it is the last resort. Parents must weigh the benefits of the medication against the fear of the side effects. For many children, they could not function day to day without the medications they take. The right medication combination can make the difference between functioning or not, and in some cases life or death. However, the thing I urge parents to remember is that medication alone is not the total treatment plan for a bipolar child or any child with a mental illness. It requires therapy, and the right accommodations.

Cont.

[nlyles77-2009]

As a mother of a bipolar child, I can honestly tell you I do not care what name you call it. The fact is, there is a real medical condition here that needs to be treated. Medicaiton is only one part of it.

Cont.

[mike-dallas]

Congress needs to set up a task force, not influenced by the pharmaceutical companies, to determine the meteoric rise in Bi-Polar, Austism, and other neurological conditions. In the 70''s the rate of autism was one in 10,000. Now, today for boys it is about one in 93.
The drug companies answer is to find something that subdues the symptoms, but doesn''t address the root cause.
If your child was being kept up at night due to the upstairs apartment neighbor practicing his drums what would you do?
1. The police would tell him to stop.
2. Dr. Phil would suggest you talk to the neighbor.
3. The drug companies would develop a drug to reduce hearing in your child, so he or she couldn''t hear the drums.

Am I too harsh? Only one obscure drug company - Cubist Pharmaceuticals - is working to develop new antibiotics to treat the new drug resistant pathogens. Why don''t the others such as Lilly do the same? The answer is simple - the money is not in it. You take antibiotics for two weeks and you are done. They prefer to work on the drugs that you take for years or life. The younger the patient, the more money that comes in.
George H Bush is on Lilly''s Board of Directors. Is it because of outstanding scientific credentials or his political connections? I like Bush, but he shouldn''t be on WeLie Lilly''s board.

[mitch0927]

The doctor should be jailed. Who in their right mind would prescribe such a powerful drug to a baby? This country has turned into a drugged up society. Lord forbid someone get caught smoking a joint, but its okay for someone to carry several prescriptions in their purse that would knock an elephant on their butt. OH, BUT IT''S A PRESCRIPTION, I HAVE THE PAPER WORK RIGHT HERE......come on people, wake up and smell the coffee....Now we have kids taking mind altering drugs, driving and talking on the cell phone all at once, the medication probably states, "do not operate heavy machinery while taking this"...guess what? A car is heavy machinery. It just pi$$es me off to see our society going down the drain and all the pharmaceutical companies getting fat because of the "self medication" going on with all the commercials..... How about we take back our lives and think of what we can do naturally instead of some QUACK prescribing this junk?

[davidwoaks]

I mentioned "neuroleptic" or "antipsychotic" drugs on another post. I should explain a bit.

When I began human rights in mental health work in the 1970''s, these super-powerful neuroleptics were usually given in the back wards. Now they are commonly given to four year olds in your local school. These are drugs like Thorazine, Haldol, Prolixin, and now newer drugs like Clozapine, Rispederal, Abilify, etc.

Mainstream media is not reporting a huge scandal: Over in the medical world, it''s now common knowledge that long-term high-dose use of these drugs can cause brain SHRINKAGE. I''m not exaggerating. Brain scans, autopsy tests, all confirmed with animal studies show that long-term use of neuroleptics causes significant brain shrinkage, of the size and weight of the brain, including the higher-level part of the brain.

Let me say I''m pro-choice on your personal decision to take a psychiatric drug. But don''t you have the right to know? We have info in our web site at www.mindfreedom.org in the ''knowledge base'' (go to psychiatric drugs, neuroleptics).

Especially see the monkey study, a very easy to read study that shows that use of neuroleptics for about two years may shrink the brain 8 to 11 percent. Ask CBS and mainstream media, "Why have you never told us about this?" Instead, we see mainstream media trumpet each new ''miracle pill'' as it comes along. Mainstream corporate media share the responsibility for the massive over-drugging of USA kids.

- David Oaks, Director, MindFreedom

[davidwoaks]

I''ve read several of comments here and one thing I see, is something I''ve seen many times in the mental health field: segregation.

I appreciate the despair parents have faced when confronted with incomprehensibly bizarre and dangerous behavior by young children.

That said: We as a society often treat those with super-extreme, overwhelming, catastrophic behavior as people in an entirely different world, as somehow different to their very essence.

Two of my favorite television shows are SuperNanny and Nanny-911. Why? Because after working in the field of mental health I can tell you without any doubt at all, that many of those young kids would INSTANTLY -- within a matter of MINUTES -- be prescribed super-powerful psychiatric drugs by many of those running the current mental health system. And I''m not talking light-weight drugs. I''m talking the so-called ''anti-psychotics'' or neuroleptic.

Yet, somehow these nannies help. Question: How often does the mental health system provide a caring, experienced family helper to a family, to live with the family for days and really see about how to help?

My point is that some on this discussion say ''well, I''m talking about super-extreme behavior." Fact is kids in trouble in our society are in the same boat. On Super-Nanny I''ve seen kids hit parents, kick and scream... Some here may say, "But my kids were way more extreme." But the fact is, the kids seen on Super-Nanny would be INSTANTLY drugged by many practitioners. Something is wrong.

[doylemills-2009]

I will say one thing, in defense of parents, even you, JSC. I have the greatest faith in parents, an unshakable faith and certainty that parents, all parents do exactly what they believe is right for their children. If they err, they do it because of mis-information. Given the correct information they will do the right thing, always, always. This even extends to parents like Andrea Yates, who murdered her children. She did not want to hurt them; she was doing what she believed was best based on the information she had. Now the information she had may have been coming from voices in her head but I''m still certain she did what she believed best at that moment. I hesitate to blame a drug for a person''s actions because ultimately we are all responsible for our own condition but I would like to point out that years of psychiatric treatment and many different powerful, mind-altering drugs didn''t do her much good. Try and find a mother who killed her children who had not been on psychiatric drugs. I don''t believe there has ever been one.

[doylemills-2009]

-AND THIS IS A MAJOR, MAJOR BIGGIE - undetected physical illness. The most tragic story I know is a man in my town who had a history of "mental illness". For years and years he was in and out of mental hospitals. Then he went into Helen Ellis memorial hospital in a psychotic break and was put into the mental ward, drugged into a stupor. He shuffled around for about three weeks and died, graveyard dead, from the brain tumor that had grown, undetected for many years and caused his "mental illness". And his still had to pay the bill for his "mental" treatment.

CONTINUED...

[doylemills-2009]

This has turned into a heated discussion. Maybe it needs to be because this is a deadly serious matter. JSC, I''m sorry if people are stepping on your toes because of your decision to medicate your child but it is a true statement that there is no scientific, objective test for mental illness. I''m not attacking you. I''m sure you''re doing what you believe is best and I will defend your parental rights to the end.

I do have to take issue with one thing in your post. And please don''t think I''m attacking you personally. It''s not meant to be that, only pointing out something that you need to know and others need to know. The statement was "all other therapies have not helped". Well, the first thing to know is that if you had tried every therapy and given each a proper time to work, your child would be at least 35 years old by now. I''m guessing that''s not the case.

There is some scientific evidence for any of the following being at the root cause of what''s referred to a psychiatric "disorders" these days:
-diet
-lack of specific nutrients
-allergy (in fact there was a doctor here in Florida who could turn on/off mental illness symptoms with food, wildest thing I ever saw)
-toxins
-bad education
-lack of physical exercise
-parasites
-yeast
-personal relationships, including undisclosed abuse by family members or strangers. Beyond that though, and more common is just somebody who annoys or invalidates the person, won''t listen to him, etc.
CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

[jsc5610]

Where to begin. Using these parents as a starting off point to discuss bipolar and medication in children was a very poor choice. I''m sorry, but any parent worth a flip is not going to give their child "extra" pills to help them sleep, or give ANY over-the-counter meds to a child on prescription drugs without checking for the possibility for a reaction. They are also going to know EXACTLY what the safe dosage is for their child and they are going to read about side-effects.
Bipolar in children, despite what Katie is insinuating, is a very real condition. While there may be some doctors who are mis-diagnosing children, it should not be assumed that this is just some "made-up" condition. Nor should it be assumed that every parent who medicates their child is doing so because they "can''t handle him" or because they are "annoyed". Some parents actually anguish over the decision to medicate, but do so because it is their last hope (i.e., all other therapies have not helped). My son, since beginning medication, is smiling now for the first time in years and instead of speaking of suicide, he is riding his bike. I made the decision to medicate to improve HIS quality of life, NOT MINE.
I resent that after this piece aired on TV, I have people e-mailing me telling me that my son may not have bipolar and also questioning my decision to medicate my son....

[alicemcd]

I think it is outrageous the way we are treating our children! We feed them artificial colors and flavors which give them ADHD. Then we give them powerful drugs (often artificially colored, which causes a rebound effect) to "fix" their behavior. Now we have a new diagnosis, "bipolar disorder" to treat mood swings also caused by these same chemicals in our food. New and different drugs are prescribed. A proper diet has not caught on because there is no money to be made by prescribing it, and therefore little money to advertise it.

The British publication "Lancet" recently published the following study: A team of researchers at Southampton University in the UK has found that not only do hyperactive children react to artificial coloring, but ALL children do. Ordinary children from the general population are "pushed" toward the hyperactive end of the spectrum by these chemicals.

Parents in Great Britian are pushing to have artificial coloring removed from candy sold there, and manufacturers are responding. Why can''t we do that here? Colors are added to food to make it more attractive to children and to sell more of the food. If we didn''t buy it, manufacturers would stop selling it.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the diet should visit the web site www.ADHDdiet.com . More about the Lancet study may be found at http://www.feingold.org/pg-study.html .

Tink, It''s not that I doubt your pain, it''s just important in my opinion that you state that you have a belief and not knowledge. I believe differently from you and I believe that the idea that bipolar disorder is genetic causes extreme harm to lots of people like little Rebbecca Riley as evidence seems to point towards her and her siblings having been abused children misdiagnosed as bipolar, considered that the parents had at times filed police reports against each other for violent child abuse. I agree with you that the psychiatrist is also in the wrong here, for many reasons, one of which is failing to recognize that when all of the children in a family exhibit a particular behavior, it may not be because of some unproven genetic theory but because of the well proven idea that humans respond to the treatment they receive from other humans.

[kirwin12]

While I agree that medications are not the answer for everyone, I believe there is a time and place for them. How do you turn your back on a child who self mutilates, hits siblings AND parents, and expresses that she wishes she were happy like other children her age - all at the ripe old age of 9 AND while in psychotherpay? Or what treatment do you provide for a 2 year old who is thrown out of daycare because he is violent towards other children and grows up to a ripe of age of 7 where he is clearly depressed (introverted and agressive - attacking his mother)? Psychiatric disorders do exist - just read the news? Like the rapid increase in autism - it just hasn''t appeared - it has just been uncovered. The mind is more complicated than the body and medicine is NOT an exact science - it all stems from an accurate diagnosis and IF NECESSARY - medication.

Just read the news about the youth of today and the anger, violence, promescuity, etc. In my opinion, it didn''t just develop overnight.

[tink517]

Sally, The existence of God is also an unproven fact, but I believe in him. I trust in him and believe that he has not given me more than I can handle. I trust in him and in the knowledge that he has endowed my treating physicians with. My knowledge comes from my personal experiences with this DISEASE, my own, members or my family, my husband''s family, various life accoutings of people with the DISEASE. I have lost family members to this, in your opinion, nonexistant disease. One book does not a scholar make.

[Aegyptologist]

Uhmmm Sorry? God is an unproven fact? How do you figure it is a fact if it is unproven?

As it lacks all physical evidence which science would measure, we can not call God a fact. However, we CAN call Oooh evolution a fact by the standard of PROOF which is the standard by which one can declare something a fact. Without proof, it is not a fact it is a belief. It is faith. For example, we have physical evidence of oh the existence of Cancer, or diabetes. But we do not have the physical evidence for ADHD for example and i believe if i am not mistaken that bi polar is listed in the DSM (Along with ADHD) as a disorder. The reason being, because of the lack of physical evidence of an organic nature to qualify it as a fact and a legitimate disease.

Please, don't confuse your kids with your faith is fact crap because we need more intelligent people in this world and not fewer. Fact is what can be physically measured. Anything that can't be physically measured is subjective at best and fictious entirely at worst.

Until science intervense and declares these things legitimate, i have to say that as a student of archaeology evolution being a pet theory of mine, that the brain would show evidence of such serious problems if they existed. And if they could be found we would be being shown them. We are not being shown physical organic evidence of disorders because none exists. So the reality is for anyone who says it is like treating a child with cancer for said cancer and a child with Oh, hmmm maybe strep throat with the proper antibiotic for that would be lieing. It is not the same at all! You are altering brain chemistry to deal with behavior issues that some feel others exhibite with absolutely no organic evidence that something is even wrong! I could go on and on about this but i won't. I am offended though that someone would declare god a fact when there is no evidence. Just as i am offended by any parent that would medicate a child for a mental defect for which there is no physical proof. Sorry. The real world is what is real.

Find me the proof of these mental defects on a tangible level and i will look at them with scientific scrutiny without biast and i will let the evidence decide for me. My husband is a PHD in theoretical physics from Helsinki university, i am an archaeologist Science reigns supreme in this house. My husband also has stated that the diagnosis methodology involved with the diagnosis of these disorders, is NOT in any way legitimately based in science as it is based entirely on subjective opinion lacking in organic material to be measured. You can not call such a diagnosis method science as it is not. I don't need to say anything to this because i studied humanities. Not science. However, science is a massive piece of what i rely on for answers to the questions that i look for in the past. So it is a huge piece of my life. I think science is a gift and so are our children. God, may or may not exist but fossils are real. Until we have that same proof of God declaring him a fact or declaring a child to be medicated should not happen.

Tink, The idea that there is some proof that there is a specific distinct medical illness called bipolar disorder is an unproven theory that some people such as yourself believe. In addition, the idea that this purported disease is genetic is also completely unproven.

To date, in spite of all of their research, no scientist has found in basis for this belief in fact, still many people believe it and you are free to continue in your belief and to continue to take lithium. I''m not disputing your experience, I''m disputing your incorrect notions of what is established fact on the matter.

To compare the group of variable and loosely defined symptoms known collectively as bipolar disorder with cancer, I might add that to say that someone got lung cancer from smoking and not from their genes, is not to say they don''t have lung cancer.

[tink517]

This discussion has gotten offtrack. This is about a little girl who lost her life and the parents who may in effect lose theirs. This is a little girl who lost her life due to the ignorance (unknowing) of her parents and what I believe is the malpractice of the doctor involved and the uncaring of the pharmacy (ies) involved. Today on the news there is talk of them banning the type of over-the-counter medicine that this child was given for children under six. Also, I''ve seen where people have written about the lack of "proper" response from the mother. It was stated at the beginning of the program that she is being medicated with antidepressants.

[tink517]

Tink517, No one is denying that you have had the terrible experiences you describe, what I''''m saying is that they are not caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, but instead by a combination of past trauma and current dangerous drugs. That''''s where research has lead, but that''''s just for most people given the label bipolar and maybe not for you. Here''''s a good book on the topic: "The Truth About Mental Illness: Choices for Healing," by Charles Whitfield, MD.


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Posted by sallyfr at 06:38 AM : Oct 02, 2007
+ report abuse
You don''t know the story of my life and you do not know what medications I am on. But for your information, my GENETIC DISEASE is controlled by Lithium, which is a naturally occurring element on the periodic charts of elements. Telling someone to control their mental illness by will power and blaming others is like trying to tell a ms, lupus, parkinsin''s disease, dementia, diabetes, stroke victim, heart attack survisor, epileptic, or cancer patient that''s it''s all in their head.

Tink517 wrote: "That bubble you live in must be a nice place. You only have to look at the news, the athletes, other prominent people and your regular person like me who happens to be someone''''s child, to hear about the havoc that not taking your medication can bring or on the flip side as in my case the psychotic interactions that can be brought about by both prescription and nonprescription drugs. I''''ve been dealing with this disease, and yes it''''s a disease, for 8 years now. The drepressions, caused by no one, have nearly taken my life several times. Also, I had one hypermanic caused by a new antibiotic that did cost me my life. I was in a terrible car accident that thankfully I was the only one hurt, but I was brought into the hospital dead. I am only here because of the brilliant care I was given in the emergency room of Fairfax Hospital, VA. The scars on my body should be proof enough to anyone that this disease does exisit."

Tink517, No one is denying that you have had the terrible experiences you describe, what I''m saying is that they are not caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, but instead by a combination of past trauma and current dangerous drugs. That''s where research has lead, but that''s just for most people given the label bipolar and maybe not for you. Here''s a good book on the topic: "The Truth About Mental Illness: Choices for Healing," by Charles Whitfield, MD.

[lwilliams337]

I must agree with the previous comments, regarding responsibilities and care. I also know that some conditions can only be delivered through God. Medicine is to be used and not abused. These precious children are loaned to us for a season. Doctors are in the business of a practice - and that is what they are doing - PRACTICING. That is why it is so important to know a Greater physician on a personal level, who holds the Truth for your life, if you ask Him. (Keep an open mind here)