Dr Abraham points out that there has been a progressive medicalization of
other than desirable behaviors in children. "We have seen this in the
enormous proliferation of stimulant medication use," he notes, "far out of
proportion to use in other countries."
Now, he says, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children is rising in
parallel, and clearly, it is the drug industry driving this medicalization
to sell more products.
In what can only be described as assembly-line customer recruitment,
Rebecca's psychiatrist, Dr Kifuji, also prescribed the same powerful drug
cocktail to Rebecca's older brother and sister when they were diagnosed with
the same illnesses several years earlier.
The Rileys' attorneys say the parents are unsophisticated people who did not
question the doctor. Michael Riley's lawyer, John Darrell, told the Boston
Globe on
February 7, 2007,
that neither parent knew enough treatment to have challenged Kifuji. "You've
got two poor parents here of minor means financially, of minor education,"
he said.
A reading of all the official reports and court documents in this case
definitely indicate that be true.
As so often happens with families like the Riley's, who are covered by
public health care programs, and with the great assistance of Dr Kifuji, the
entire Riley family become a cash cow for the psychiatric-pharmaceutical
industry, including the mother and father.
Another incentive certainly worth noting is the potential monthly income
Dr Kifuji generated for herself by the legal pill-pushing to the Riley
family. A 2003 study by the American Psychiatric Association found doctors
could earn about $263 an hour for holding three 15-minute medication
management sessions per hour, compared to about $156 for a single therapy
session. That represents an hourly pay cut of 41% for doctors doing therapy
only, the APA study said.
Critics say more blame should be focused on the prescribing doctors. "While
the pharmaceutical companies certainly are getting rich providing
mind-altering drugs for psychiatry's made-up mental disorders, the fault
lies with the psychiatric community," says Kelly Patricia O'Meara, author of
"PSYCHED OUT: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That
Kill".
"Until the fraud of psychiatric diagnosing is exposed," Ms O'Meara warns,
"the American people will continue to hear about more and more of these
tragic outcomes."
And it always goes back to the chicken and the egg theory. Was there an
epidemic in this family where all 5 family members were so severely mentally
ill? Or did the psychiatric-pharmaceutical industry convert them into
life-long disabled customers through the administration of a powerful drug
cocktail for years on end?
According to Dr Ann Blake Tracy, Director of International Coalition for
Drug Awareness, and author of "Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?", she expects a
person placed on one of these drug cocktails to be on disability within a 3-
to 5-year window of time.
"And for a decade and a half," she says, "she has been trying to figure out
how our economy will survive the skyrocketing disability rates."
The chicken and the egg theory arises a second time in this case when
reviewing the allegations lodged against the parents. Were the bizarre
behaviors of the parents cited in official reports and the media the result
of ignorance, bad parenting or a wish to harm Rebecca? Or were the behaviors
in fact brought on by the combination of drugs the parents were ingesting?
"Naturally," Ms O'Meara notes, "one has to wonder that if the entire family
was being 'treated' for their alleged mental illnesses, why then didn't the
drugs work?"
Dr Tracy says, "Is it absolutely possible that some of the alleged behaviors
of the parents in this family could have been caused by the prescribed drugs
they were taking."
She explains that the hypothesis behind these psychiatric drugs is
backwards, meaning they often end up causing the conditions that they were
prescribed to treat.
Leonard Frank, author of "Zyprexa: A Prescription for Diabetes, Disease and
Early Death", concurs. "Psychiatrists and other physicians," he explains,
"prescribe drugs in attempt to suppress objectionable conduct but the drugs
often make the conduct even more objectionable, in which event the
prescription is changed."
Then he explains, one drug may be substituted for another, or one or more
drugs may be added to the mix, or the dosage may be decreased, or more
likely increased, and this process may go on endlessly, he says.
Following Rebecca's death, the Department of Social Services placed the
other two Riley children, Kaitlynne 6, and Gerald 11, in foster care and
sought an independent opinion on their medical care, and doctors determined
that their medication needed to be changed.
Persons injured by Serotonin Syndrome and seeking legal advice can contact
the Robert Kwok & Associates Law Firm, at (713) 773-3380;
http://www.kwoklaw.com/about.php
Evelyn Pringle
Evelyn-pringle@sbcglobal.net
(This article is written as part of a series on emerging issues involving
the pharmaceutical industry and is sponsored by Robert Kwok & Associated,
LLP)
Evelyn Pringle is a
columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing
corruption in government and corporate America.
bravenet.com
