Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

Oh my:

[T]he intersection of money and medicine, and its effect on the well-being of patients, has become one of the most contentious issues in health care. Nowhere is that more true than in psychiatry, where increasing payments to doctors have coincided with the growing use in children of a relatively new class of drugs known as atypical antipsychotics.

These best-selling drugs, including Risperdal, Seroquel, Zyprexa, Abilify and Geodon, are now being prescribed to more than half a million children in the United States to help parents deal with behavior problems despite profound risks and almost no approved uses for minors.

A New York Times analysis of records in Minnesota, the only state that requires public reports of all drug company marketing payments to doctors, provides rare documentation of how financial relationships between doctors and drug makers correspond to the growing use of atypicals in children.

From 2000 to 2005, drug maker payments to Minnesota psychiatrists rose more than sixfold, to $1.6 million. During those same years, prescriptions of antipsychotics for children in Minnesota’s Medicaid program rose more than ninefold.

Those who took the most money from makers of atypicals tended to prescribe the drugs to children the most often, the data suggest. On average, Minnesota psychiatrists who received at least $5,000 from atypical makers from 2000 to 2005 appear to have written three times as many atypical prescriptions for children as psychiatrists who received less or no money.

The excerpt above is from a recent NY Times article that provides an excellent “behind-the-scenes” look at the use and marketing of prescription antipsychotic drugs for children. It’s truly eye-opening. Read the whole thing.

Unfortunately, Minnesota is the only state that requires disclosure of drug company marketing payments to doctors. It would be great to see the entire industry-wide picture — and not just for psychiatric drugs.

Increasing Number of Diagnoses

Another question worth answering is why has there been such an increase in the perceived need for using these drugs with children?

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If this excellent 60 Minutes segment (Under the Influence) discussing the shenanigans surrounding the passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill doesn’t make your blood boil, check for a pulse:

If you have ever wondered why the cost of prescription drugs in the United States are the highest in the world or why it’s illegal to import cheaper drugs from Canada or Mexico, you need look no further than the pharmaceutical lobby and its influence in Washington, D.C.

According to a new report by the Center for Public Integrity, congressmen are outnumbered two to one by lobbyists for an industry that spends roughly a $100 million a year in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses to protect its profits.

One reason those profits have exceeded Wall Street expectations is the Medicare prescription drug bill. It was passed three-and-a-half years ago, but as 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft reports, its effects are still reverberating through the halls of Congress, providing a window into how the lobby works.

Watch the entire video.

The only thing wrong with the segment is that it came out three-and-a-half years after the bill was passed.

Realize that this single piece of legislation added $8 trillion to America’s future financial obligations. That’s more than all the money borrowed by the United States since it was founded 230 years ago. It’s like a gigantic credit card charge put on the backs of future generations.

Financially irresponsible? Clearly. Immoral? One could certainly make that case.

If you’re not aware of the upcoming Medicare crisis and what it may mean for you, check out this earlier post:

Why Everyone - Both Young and Old - Should Care Now About the Big Changes Coming to Medicare

One thing’s for certain: The people who take preventive steps now (e.g., through nutrition and lifestyle changes) are going to be much better positioned both financially and health-wise as the health care system changes.

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

A recent New York Times article highlighted what has become a growing trend over the last few years: giving multiple psychiatric medications to children:

[A] growing number of children and teenagers in the United States are taking not just a single drug for discrete psychiatric difficulties but combinations of powerful and even life-threatening medications to treat a dizzying array of problems.

Last year in the United States, about 1.6 million children and teenagers — 280,000 of them under age 10 — were given at least two psychiatric drugs in combination, according to an analysis performed by Medco Health Solutions at the request of The New York Times. More than 500,000 were prescribed at least three psychiatric drugs. More than 160,000 got at least four medications together, the analysis found.

The numbers are amazing, aren’t they?

The article notes that there is evidence that suggests individual medications may be useful for certain conditions, but that there is “virtually no scientific evidence to justify this multiplication of pills.”

The majority of the child prescriptions are for ADD/ADHD and depression (click image to expand):

What’s going on here? Stimulants, antidepressants, antipsychotics and anticonvulsants in young children? Why the greater use of these serious drugs (many with significant risk for side effects)? Most importantly, why the increasing prevalence of conditions in children requiring their use?

I think dietary factors and toxin exposure likely play significant roles in the greater prevalence of these conditions and the use of these drugs in children. Taking multiple prescription drugs without a closer look at potential root causes doesn’t seem to make much sense.

The behavior of many children (and adults) with attention deficit disorders often significantly improves with a shift to a whole foods diet that eliminates chemical additives. For others, exposure to toxins, such as those found in some vaccines and in the environment at large, may be an underlying cause. Safely reducing a child’s toxic body burden may help to improve the situation.

You can read more about a better approach to ADD/ADHD that attempts to identify and address underlying root causes here.

Disturbing post on Huffington Post by author David Kirby (Evidence of Harm) regarding the federal government efforts to seal the courtroom proceedings for next year’s autism vaccine trial:

You may not know it, but there is an official federal “vaccine court,” where some 4,750 autism-related cases have been pending for years. Claimants believe the mercury-based vaccine preservative, thimerosal, and/or the MMR vaccine, contributed to their children’s autism, and they are seeking compensation from a special vaccine injury fund administered by the federal government.

The long-awaited autism vaccine trial will commence on June 11 in the courtroom of Special Master George Hastings. The plaintiffs and their attorneys have asked for complete transparency in every aspect of the tribunal, including public disclosure of all evidence and unhindered media access to the hearings. The few autism families whose medical records will be scrutinized as legal examples are waiving their right to privacy and confidentiality, so that their stories may finally be told in an open court of law.

But the DOJ (technically, the “defense”) has other plans. On November 3rd, the Department wrote to Hastings saying it “would oppose public access to the courtroom and public broadcast of the trial,” because such an arrangement. “would pose security and privacy concerns” for those in attendance.

Can you smell something rotten? Kirby (and I’m sure many others can):

Exactly whose privacy are they trying to protect? It can’t be the parents, because they don’t want privacy. The only party fretting about privacy is the DOJ itself, and presumably, the vaccine makers. (As for “security” concerns, isn’t that why we have court officers?).

The government may call this privacy, but I call it secrecy. In fact, there has been a long and unseemly history of secrecy when it comes to federal data on thimerosal and autism.

And let’s face it: People don’t hide something unless they have something to hide. (emphasis added)

Check out the entire post, as well as the many comments of parents who are on top of the issue.

It’s pretty clear that heavy metal toxicity plays a key role in many, if not most, autism cases. The site Put Children First provides good background on the connection.

Hopefully public outcry will help to ensure the court proceedings are public. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

(For those people who think environmental toxins such as mercury may have played a role in a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting themselves or people they know, there are effective biomedical approaches to healing and recovering.)