Medication madness (Dallas Morning News)

[LiberalUprising]

Aliah's case raises troubling questions about the coercive uses of psychiatric medications. But because Aliah lives in Texas, and because her commitment was involuntary, she became vulnerable to an even further hazard: aggressive drug regimens that feature new and controversial drugs – regimens that are promoted by drug companies, mandated by state governments and imposed on captive patients with no say over what's prescribed.

School officials considered Aliah disruptive and placed her in a special education track. Her parents, Calvin and Anaka Gleason, viewed her as a spirited child who was bright but had a tendency to argue and clown. Then one day, psychologists from the University of Texas visited the school to conduct a mental health screening for girls, and Aliah's life took a dramatic turn.

A few weeks later, a UT psychologist told the Gleasons their daughter had scored high on a suicide rating and needed further evaluation.

The Gleasons reluctantly agreed to have Aliah see a UT consulting psychiatrist. She concluded that Aliah was suicidal but did not hospitalize her. Six weeks later, in January 2004, a child-protection worker went to Aliah's school, interviewed her, then summoned Mr. Gleason to the school and told him to take Aliah to Austin State Hospital, a state mental facility. He refused, and after a heated conversation, she placed Aliah in emergency custody and had a police officer drive her to the hospital.

The Gleasons would not be allowed to see or even speak to their daughter for the next five months, and Aliah would spend a total of nine months in a state psychiatric hospital and residential treatment facilities. While hospitalized, she was placed in restraints more than 26 times and medicated – without her parents' consent – with at least 12 different psychiatric drugs, many of them simultaneously.

http://sensiblyeclectic.com/b2evolution/blogs/index.php/mainsite/2005/06/21/medication_madness

[Melodybe]

1. New Freedom Commission doing what it does

This is so wrong, please write to your local papers.

Since the corporate whores won't do a damn thing about it.

Thanks for posting this.

[ngGale]

2. You just can't stress this enough...

my 8 year old grand-daughter. They thought she was high strung in kinder garden. Probably because she could read 3rd grade level.
If she didn't have a mom and grandmom who were clued into the system, this could have happened. They stifle creativity, she was bored! :mad:

[Melodybe]

3. kick!

[EFerrari]

4. I distrust NF totally but there is something wrong with the

reporting here.

Why was this little girl considered "disruptive"?

Why was she put on an antipsychotic if she was suicidal? That's not a typical first move.

There's something that sort of stinks about this story. Anyone know something about this paper?

[LiberalUprising]

5. The Dallas Morning News

is the only major newspaper in Dallas, they are pretty much a right wing rag but it's all we got. It looks as if the story was taken from Mother Jones's ROB WATERS.

The more liberal Dallas Times Herald has been gone for many years.

[NMMNG]

6. Answers

Why was this little girl considered "disruptive"?

In the early part of seventh grade, Aliah was a B and C student who "got in trouble for running my mouth." Sometimes her antics went overboard-like the time she barked at a teacher she thought was ugly. "I was calling this teacher a man because she had a mustache," Aliah recalled over breakfast with her parents at an Austin restaurant.

Why was she put on an antipsychotic if she was suicidal? That's not a typical first move.

Her clinical diagnosis was just as changeable. During two months at Austin State Hospital, Aliah was diagnosed with "depressive disorder not otherwise specified," "mood disorder not otherwise specified with psychotic features," and "major depression with psychotic features." In addition to the antidepressants Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, and Desyrel, as well as Ativan, an antianxiety drug, Aliah was given two newer drugs known as "atypical antipsychotics"-Geodon and Abilify-plus an older antipsychotic, Haldol. She was also given the anticonvulsants Trileptal and Depakote-though she was not suffering from a seizure disorder-and Cogentin, an anti-Parkinson's drug also used to control the side effects of antipsychotic drugs. At the time of her transfer to a residential facility, she was on five different medications, and once there, she was put on still another atypical-Risperdal.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/medicating_aliah.html

[noonwitch]

10. That's a hell of a lot of medication for a 12 or 13 year old

Haldol should never be given to anyone under the age of 21, and only to people with active psychosis for whom nothing else works. It is a powerful drug that has some really nasty side effects.

I've seen Zoloft work with older teens, in very low doses. They always give suicidal people Ativan, at least for short times. I don't have a problem with that if the person has tried to kill himself.

Risperdal has it's uses, too. It's a good drug when prescribed for the right condition. It's very effective in working with brain-damaged people who are having psychiatric problems as a result.

With this kid, it sounds as if the school/hospital/CPS decided that a mouthy, sarcastic kid was actually psychotic. Unless there's more to the story.

[Horse with no Name]

11. This is the entire story

I read about it when it happened.
Scary huh?

[NMMNG]

19. It is a lot of medication for anyone really

But particularly for a child. Haldol really should not be used any more unless newer antipsychotics have been tried and found ineffective--the side effects and potential for Tardive Dyskenisia are just too significant.

Frankly I think they used the antipsychotics as a behavior control device. They are sedating and make the patient more compliant. The Ativan can have the same effect.

The antidepressants and mood stabilizers (the anticonvulsant meds) were likely the only potentially therapeutic medications given to Aliah. However treating a child for "being mouthy" is not proper psychiatric practice--otherwise 99% of the world's children would be on drugs.

[LiberalUprising]

12. Thanks Buffy

[NMMNG]

7. To all those who say...

that people who fear wide scale testing of kids for MI need tinfoil hats, claiming "it can't be done" and "how would it be enforced"?


Here's your answer!

[cthrumatrix]

8. Big Pharma....Big Govt....Big $$$$$.......Big Problems !

[holboz]

9. Jesus Christ - this is insane and frightening n/t

[Melodybe]

13. kick

[LisaL]

14. It's pretty bizarre. Usually you hear about seriously mentally

ill people not being able to get any help.

[jeanarrett]

15. Gee, if she didn't want to commit suicide before

after what they've done to her, who could blame her!

[FrannyD]

16. Very scary

I read this in MJ when it came out. There was nothing wrong with this girl. They just needed someone to experiment on. I worry because I have a niece, who gets in trouble. Talks back to the teachers and so forth. She's on meds, but still gets in trouble. I warn my brother, "You don't want in state custody" He's in NJ, and of course this happened in Texas. Big surprise.

[NMMNG]

18. It is scary

We have kids who are getting diagnoses instead of discipline, drugs instead of counseling and custodial care instead of in-home supports. This is not to say that no kids need diagnoses, drugs or custodial care, but all to often the ones who get them need something else entirely. Our systems are failing children, and the children are suffering greatly as a result.

[LiberalUprising]

17. kick

[anarchy1999]

20. I've never been so sick in all my life. Oh dear god, what have we done?!

Oh no!