Infectious Myth - Drug and Label Free Schoolchildren - 07/08/14

In Episode 20 David talks with Sheila Matthews, co-founder of http://ablechild.org, an organization dedicated ensuring that American children can go to school free of coercion to take psychotropic drugs, and free of mental illness labels, such as ADHD. Sheila has lobbied against the increasing tendency of schools to try to diagnose children within a model that ensures that the large number diagnosed will be routed to psychiatrists and put on drugs. She had success with a Connecticut law that prohibited school officials from recommending drugs and with an FDA decision to put black box labels on anti-depressants warning of violent and suicidal behavior.

 

The massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school, in Sheila’s home state of Connecticut, is one example of the association between a tragic event and a young man on psychiatric drugs. Sheila has investigated and is troubled by some missing information. Why are Adam Lanza’s medical records not available. Why are the contents of an envelope addressed to the school children not public? Why is the DNA on that envelope not of Adam Lanza but of an unidentified convicted criminal? Why has the information on two GPS devices found in his car and home not been made public? Did Lanza go anywhere else, such as a mental health clinic, around that time?

 

This is a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion.