U.S. Infants Prescribed Antipsychotics; Drugsters Fined Billions

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012

U.S. Infants Prescribed Antipsychotics; Drugsters Fined Billions

The doctors—WHAT were they thinking? And the parents? They weren’t. Was it a case of, “please make my baby stop crying so I can sleep?” I guess the marketing works.

Why have Antipsychotic Prescriptions in Children Skyrocketed?
By Dr. Mercola
Thanks to aggressive marketing techniques, pharmaceutical companies are raking in profits from atypical antipsychotic medications – drugs originally approved for mental illnesses that are as serious as they are rare.
It’s no surprise then that a major portion of the sales of these types of “hard-core” psychiatric drugs come from off-label uses. Drugs such as Seroquel, Zyprexa, Risperdal and Abilify are now increasingly prescribed by psychiatrists and primary-care doctors to treat conditions they were never intended or approved for, such as:

•  
• Anxiety
• Attention-deficit disorder (ADD)
• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Behavioral problems, and
• Insomnia
•  

Illegal Marketing Largely Responsible for Skyrocketing Misuse of Dangerous Antipsychotics in Children
Most of the atypical antipsychotics were approved in the 1990′s, at which time they were reserved for a very small minority of serious mental illnesses; primarily schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – diseases afflicting an estimated three percent of Americans. More recently, some atypical antipsychotics have also been approved for the treatment of severe depression. Shockingly, children as young as 18 months are now receiving antipsychotic drugs, despite the fact that the diseases they’re designed to treat rarely develop before adolescence.

Drug makers are increasingly getting caught in the act of illegal marketing of this class of drugs:

• In July, GlaxoSmithKline was found guilty of the largest health fraud in US history, and was fined $3 billion after pleading guilty to three counts of criminal misdemeanor and other civil liabilities relating to a number of different drugs, including Paxil and Wellbutrin
• In June, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $2.2 billion for illegally marketing its drug Risperdal
• In 2009 Eli Lilly was fined $1.4 billion for the illegal marketing of its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa
• Bristol Myers Squibb was fined $515 million in 2007 to settle charges of illegal marketing of Abilify to child psychiatrists
• Pfizer paid $301 million for illegal marketing of its drug Geodon, and
• AstraZeneca has paid out $520 million to settle illegal marketing charges of Seroquel

In each of these cases, the drug manufacturers were targeting children, despite the fact that none of the drugs in question were approved for use in that age group. To understand how effective these illegal marketing schemes are, consider that sales of antipsychotic drugs to children have increased eight-fold since 1993. Sales to teens have quintupled, while adult sales doubled in the same time frame. In 2008 alone, an estimated $6 billion was spent on off-label antipsychotics in the US, of which $5.4 billion was for uses based on uncertain evidence!
According to the featured article in Time:
“There is much evidence that the vast increases in atypical antipsychotic prescribing in recent decades were fueled by the aggressive marketing tactics of drug companies. In recent years, every major manufacturer of atypical antipsychotics has been involved in the illegal marketing of the drugs (while doctors can prescribe drugs off label, it is against the law for drug makers to market them for off-label uses), each ultimately paying hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in fines for their sales and marketing tactics. The settlements with the U.S. government were among the largest in history.”
“Trends Signal Need to Re-Evaluate Clinical Practice Patterns”
A recently published study found that nearly two-thirds of all antipsychotic drugs prescribed to children between 2005 and 2009 were for the treatment of ADHD and other disruptive behavior disorders. In teens, 34 percent of all antipsychotic prescriptions were for these conditions. These are astounding statistics when you consider the fact that there’s virtually no data supporting the use of these kinds of drugs in children, or for those conditions. The authors seem to agree, concluding:
“In light of known safety concerns and uncertainty over long term risks and benefits, these trends may signal a need to re-evaluate clinical practice patterns.”
According to Time:
“‘As the actual evidence base that would support [such off-label prescriptions of antipsychotics] is scant to non-existent, and the evidence of permeating undue influence of pharma on prescribing practices in psychiatry is abundant, one is led to the conclusion that this is another example of irrational prescribing that can be traced to both the overt and tacit influence of [drug companies] on practitioners,’ says Dr. Bruce Perry, a senior fellow at the ChildTrauma Academy…
Perry testified for the state of Texas in a case that resulted in a $158 million settlement with Johnson and Johnson in January to resolve claims that it fraudulently marketed Risperdal and swindled the state’s Medicaid program. One aspect of the case involved misleading claims about the drug’s effectiveness for behavior disorders in children.”
The Hidden Cause of Psychiatric Disorders Almost No One Considers
American children are the most medicated children in the world. For example, they get three times more prescriptions for antidepressants and stimulants, and up to double the amount of antipsychotic drugs than kids from Germany and the Netherlands.
How can we, as a society, continue to allow corporate profits to come before lives, and even before children’s lives?
It’s just not right. I don’t even advocate giving children cough syrup, Tylenol or antibiotics, as these alone can be harmful. But when you’re talking about powerful psychotropic, mind-altering drugs that in no way shape or form even begin to address the underlying cause of the disease. You’re entering an entirely different ballgame with these dangerous drugs. Unfortunately, psychiatric conditions are primarily believed to be the result of chemical dysfunction in your brain, or in some cases hereditary and therefore out of your control. Many fail to realize that:

1. Your lifestyle can override genetic predispositions, and
2. Your lifestyle can be a major underlying cause of that chemical imbalance or dysfunction.

If you or your child is suffering from an emotional or mental challenge, please seek help, but do so from someone who does not regard psychotropic drugs as a first line of defense. It will be very helpful if you first optimize your or your child’s diet and lifestyle as this will significantly improve the likelihood of any successful natural intervention.
Read the rest…
http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/us-infants-prescribed-antipsychotics-drugsters-fined-billions