Children With Neuroleptic Induced Tardive Dyskenisia

Neuroleptic drugs are called "antipsychotics" and are now used for everything but hangnails, it seems.  These drugs are now approved for use in children for behavioral symptoms like aggression,who have a diagnosis of Autism---although there is no evidence these drugs "treat" behavioral problems.  There is however evidence that they shrink brains, and cause  Diabetes, Tardive Dyskenisia, brain damage and alter how the parasympathetic nervous system functions. The alterations of multiple physiological processes are not corrections of dysfunctions, but are evidence of drug induced, iatrogenic illness.  The eyes, the entire digestive tract from the esophagus to the rectum, the cardio-vascular, the metabolic and the endocrine systems all rely on the parasympathetic nervous system to function properly...

Tardive Dyskinisia, Akasthisia and Increased Mortality: The New "Safe and Effective" Psychiatric Treatment Standard

Neuroleptics, referred to as "antipsychotics", are drugs that at one time, were theoretically only prescribed to people (adults) who were diagnosed with schizophrenia, or another diagnosis for which psychosis is a symptom. These drugs are now the most frequently prescribed psychiatric drugs--and are even being prescribed to children for behavioral issues, ADHD, and the current diagnosis de jour, "bipolar disorder" in spite of the lack of validated research justifying the drugs' safety or effectiveness for treating any psychiatric diagnosis in children. At the very least, the wisdom of "treating" all these diagnoses with such dangerous drugs is suspect; neuroleptic drugs alter the functioning of the entire parasympathetic nervous system and none of the conditions being "treated" result from a dysfunction in the parasympathetic nervous system! The function of the eyes, the entire digestive tract from the throat to the rectum, the brain, the heart and the lungs; the metabolic, endocrine and hormonal systems and all rely on the parasympathetic nervous system to function properly. 

Why are these drugs being given to children? They can and do cause dysfunction where none previously existed; whatever a child's diagnoses, it seems an odd "treatment" strategy to give them drugs that can and do cause dysfunction. According to Jon McClellan in the "Practice Parameters" he wrote for using these drugs to treat schizophrenia in children and adolescents: 50% are expected to develop Tardive Dyskinisia; a potentially permanent and disabling "side-effect," which is not always alleviated by withdrawal from the drug that caused it!

In discussing "evidenced based" drugs used in mental health treatment for this population, I find it more than a little strange Quack Master Jack did not even mention this class of drug AT ALL. The article is from the year 2005, and by then, it was nine years since my son had first been given the antipsychotic, Risperdal, a full decade before it was approved for pediatric use. Dr. Jackass, as "the lead researcher for childhood onset schizophrenia" had prescribed this type of drug himself for at least that long---why is there no data to cite in 2005 or to share in his article, on evidence based treatments? Is there no data to support and justify the prescribing of neuroleptics in real world practice to children for any diagnosis? Why else would this expert on childhood schizophrenia fail to cite any evidence for the supposedly "evidence-based" prescription of neuroleptics to children, not even for childhood or "early-onset" schizophrenia?

How did neuroleptics become so frequently prescribed "off-label" with no clinical trials recommending this practice? What I find incredible is how in the hell can the psychiatrists in this Country have recommended using this class of drugs on children "off-label" for so long, and there is still a supposed paucity of research to validate their use; nonetheless, neuroleptics are prescribed to children. It is now a "standard practice"?!

Why did the FDA approve more of these poisons for use in children after the TEOSS trials were completed? What exactly were the basis for the approval? 12% of the kids enrolled in the TEOSS trials were 'effectively treated,' the drugs are not 'safe' and obviously, not very effective. Now these drugs are used casually "Off-label," when they are minimally effective for the condition they were developed to treat. The prescription of drug needs to be based on something more that a consensus of opinions for God's sake! FDA approval needs to be based on higher standards of safety and effectiveness than the neuroleptic drugs have demonstrated. Using these dangerous drugs so casually off-label for symptoms caused by environmental conditions is morally reprehensible and is certainly not ethical medical practice! Drugs prescribed to children should be based on being safe and effective and should be prescribed only for treating actual medical conditions; this is not the case with psychotropic drugs in standard clinical practice. Neuroleptics are not safe and effective for their original use as "antipsychotics" to treat schizophrenia, since about 74% of those diagnosed with schizophrenia do not benefit from an appreciable reduction of symptoms with them. Neuroleptics also have some very serious risks which is why their use was so limited. They are not any more safe or effective, more than 60 years after they were first used, yet these harmful teratogenic drugs are now used for a variety of conditions in spite of the risks.

The newer more expensive atypicals are NOT MORE EFFECTIVE OR SAFER, according to numerous studies, yet are prescribed more often; the vast majority for conditions or symptoms the drugs are not known to actually treat. This questionable practice is mostly paid for by the Federal Medicaid and Medicare programs, and is responsible for a great deal of the fraudulent claims being submitted which puts States at risk for being held liable for the fraudulent claims submitted. I am disgusted with psychiatry and it's unethical "medical model" which leaves people sicker and disabled far too often. It's unholy alliance with the pharmaceutical industry coupled with a failure to gain any true insight into a how to help, not harm, a significant percentage of the people who seek psychiatric care, begs the question, how do they continue to get away with this fraud? Why are these drugs now used on children with a myriad of diagnoses and for behavioral problems? If the prescription choice is not made based on an the evidence base, how can it be ethical to prescribe neuroleptics to children? They are not strictly speaking, safe or effective when used for adults with scizophrenia and even less effective and more dangerous for children with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. They cause illness and early death, always have. They cause permanent neurological and metabolic damage, sudden death, and early (25-30 years early) death, always have.

Ultimately, the psychiatric profession failing to show compassion or responsibility for those who have been harmed and disabled by the "safe and effective" drugs psychiatry has, at times, forced upon them by Court Order; is very telling. In failing to even acknowledge the existence of these people; in the present or historically, it is evident that psychiatry as it is practiced in the mainstream, is not at heart, a "medical" or "healing" profession. No individual or profession can claim victory without owning the failures along the way...

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Practice Parameter FOR THE ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Kids Dying From Off-label Use of Antipsychotics  Evelyn Pringle 2006

n McClellan  Psychiatric Times: Evidenced Based Therapies in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Summing Up the NIMH Trials: Evidence of Effective Paradigm of Care?  2010 Robert Whitaker