Posted on 04/22/2009 11:37:45 AM PDT by Wolfie
7-year-old boy prescribed powerful drug before suicide
Troubled boy was being treated by a Broward psychiatrist who is on a list of Florida doctors red-flagged as having ''problematic'' prescribing practices
MARGATE - Weeks before his death, Gabriel Myers, the 7-year-old Broward boy who hanged himself in the shower of his foster home, had been prescribed a powerful mind-altering drug linked by federal regulators to an increased risk of suicide in children.
In all, Gabriel had been prescribed four psychiatric drugs, two or three of which he was taking at the time of his death, said Jack Moss, Broward chief of the state Department of Children & Families.
Moss said he is not sure which medications the boy was taking because Margate police took the foster home's medication log as part of an investigation into Gabriel's death last week.
Three of the psychotropic drugs carry U.S. Food and Drug Administration ''black box'' label warnings for children's safety, the strongest advisory the federal agency issues.
Three of the medications are not approved for use with young children, though they are widely prescribed to youngsters ''off label'' -- meaning doctors can prescribe the drug even if not formally approved for that use.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
good grief. I’m having a hard time understanding how a 7 year old could even grasp the concept of suicide. :( I can only imagine what those 7 short years held for him.
...Broward
Vyvanse
Lexapro
Zyprexa
Crappy reporting.
will almost guarantee it has nothing to do with the Vyvanse...that particular ADHD med is a huge step forward in the evolution of ADHD drugs..its a much greater treatment than Adderall and/or Ritalin. However the cocktail of assorted mind altering drugs that was prescribed to a 7 year old is WAY uncalled for
Another pill pusher who belongs buried below the jail.
Symbyax
These happy pills are very dangerous.
Sounds like this kid had a tough life. Victim of homosexual rape at an earlier age. That couldn’t have done him a lot of good.
Gross and deadly physician malpractice.
Plus, kids put on these medications have a reason for it. They are already disposed toward negative behavior of some type. That makes it harder to know how to judge the reasons for the outcome.
I remember a few years back and my daughter’s pediatrian said, after a recommendation by the public school, that she had a “touch” of ADHD at the age of 13 or so. At the time, almost my entire family including my wife thought that the ritalin and aderal she was perscribed would be great for her.
I said no. Not going to happen, ever. She’s 20 and in college now, but that’s a whole other story.
Sad, sad story.
This is incredibly sad to hear. We watched a Frontline a couple of years back where it featured parents that had their kids on not just one drug but many drugs. They all did just what the doctors/psychiatrists told them. One poor boy started out being drugged heavily when he was just starting school. They said he was hyperactive. At one time he was on 8 different meds. They showed him as a teenager and he had a permanent uncontrollable head roll. The parents were still drugging him as a teen too.
Here’s part of that show featuring another 4 year old boy being drugged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSkwp-tDCWg
Why always Florida?
SSRIs kill or mass murder our children.
Here’s another one I just found on YouTube—looks like it’s 13 parts:
Drugging our Children(1 of 13):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd51-ArqJgw&feature=related
Also, the one I posted above from the Frontline show:
The Wholesale Drugging of Children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSkwp-tDCWg
I’ve heard that about some of these drugs. And apparently, it’s especially true in young people. They strip away the lack of initiative to act before they act on the underlying problem many times. A psychiatric nurse friend of mine explained to me that it’s rarely the drug that causes these tragic suicides; it’s the underlying problem. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we neglect negative effects from the drugs.
“I said no. “
Protector Dad kudos!!!
Myers said the boy's pediatrician had discontinued all psychotropic drugs while Gabriel lived with him, and the boy did well, earning A's and B's at the Hollywood Christian Academy.
''We did not have any issues with him having tantrums,'' Myers said. ``He would get upset, like little boys do.''
I have to wonder why the boy did not stay with the Uncle. At least after the fact of the boy’s death he seems to care for the boy.
After the time with the Uncle the boy goes to Ohio and stays with the grandfather who seems to think that he is over medicated. How does this happen in Ohio? He can’t be under the care of the Florida quack in Ohio can he?
All of these Child Protective Services horror stories always seem to have the child being shuffled from home to home with little regard for the welfare of the child. (I wonder hoe this government agency ever got that name).
I’ll go back and re-read, but I believe it said the grandfather talked to him on the phone and thought he was all doped up.
But that 7 year was on a whole cocktail of drugs! Maybe one more for mood support, but I sure don't get all the rest
I just wonder who was monitoring all his drug interactions
My experience with psychiatrists is very dim- they all push pills, talking therapy takes too much time
That poor little boy may have been acting out something he saw on TV, spending too many hours alone in a stupor. not really intending to die or understanding the finality
I also wonder whether he EVER had a complete neurospsych evaluation to determine his whole brain makeup......to see if the root of his problem wasn't attachment disorder from his abandonment and emotional neglect - only intense parenting therapy can help that, drugs cannot mask that pain and the behaviors that result
Ping since Savage talks about this kind of thing quite a bit. Do any of you know the name of the psychologist Savage has on the show fairly often?
One of my daughters was acting up in first grade, and the school wanted to medicate her. I pulled her out the next day and home schooled her from that point. She's doing well now.
After keeping a close eye on her, we found out that she was hypoglycemic (diabetes run in my wife's family). My wife was feeding her a high-carb breakfast which was causing her blood sugar to spike and then crash. When her blood-sugar crashed, she behaved psychotically until I got her blood sugar back up.
Can you answer me a question, if possible?
I went to school from 1948 through 1960 (Grammar/HS) and in all those years cannot remember ONE instance of a kid misbehaving that wasn’t stopped by a strong warning from then teacher and on occasion forceful putting down of the student by either putting him in his seat or grabbing ho;d of his arm to make the point. never have I seen in those days a student struck by a teacher or a teacher threatened by a student. Why, all of a sudden are all these kids “sick” and in need of drugs to keep them quiet.
What has changed to make them “sick” where they weren’t before?
Sorry that was my ADD kicking in. It didn’t mention phone. I just assumed phone because the grandfather is saying he “sounded” drugged up not that he “looked” drugged up.
Yep, you are correct.
There were plenty of hyperacive kids back when
There have always been troublemakers, clowns, and underachievers- in my day a lot of them dropped out or flunked out before finishing high school. Durng commencement I accidentally got the “diploma” of one from my HS class. It was blank.
By the time they were teenagers nicotine and alcohol helped them self medicate - the constellation of self-medicating drup option greatly expanded after the 1960’s
I do believe what we are seeing now in increased brain chemistry disorders has an environmental component. We are all carrying toxins in our bodies that have accumulated all our lifetimes.
However the real point I was making is that if the CPS forcibly removed the boy from the Uncle’s care it is criminal (Probably because he was not in the Forster care program).
If the Uncle decided to give the boy up then he will probably blame himself for the rest of his life.
Careful, that kind of thinking is going to tank a lot of Pharma stocks.
I’ll parrot what others have said here. You don’t take meds like this without a reason. I was taking a similar medication for chronic moderate to severe pain for seven years. I wasn’t depressed or suicidal to start with. That made all the difference when I weaned myself off the stuff with a change in therapy. Guess what. I didn’t get suicidal when I came off of it. Do you suppose it was because I wasn’t suicidal when I went on it?
Yes, you grasp the difference. The kid was screwed up before he went on the meds. The drugs didn’t cure him, but I’d have to be convinced that they caused his problem. He died. Poor kid. God rest him.
chemicals ingested by their parents pre and during pregnancy..i.e. drugs used in the 60’s 70’s etc...I am the product of a former coke user and numerous other things in the 60’s-80’s ....and I have severe ADHD that no amount of punishment or restriction would cure when it came to studying and retaining knowledge...ADHD meds were finally tried and as a result I finished with a 3.6 GPA and a bachelors in Communications..when prior to the meds I was stuck as a “freshman” for 3 years..unable to pass anything...call it what you will..but I DO know what helped me...and it had nothing to do with “self restraint”..”punishment”...”diet”...etc....is there an overabundance of medicated children? You betcher ass!...are there those that absolutely need it? You betcher other ass!... just my 2 cents worth
haven’ figured out how to edit my posts yet..I forgot to add that children prescribed these meds that actually DONT need it tend to have adverse and opposite reactions..i.e. being MORE impulsive and more likely to do something without thinking..such as in the case of this poor child
Lawyers and wimpy school administrations.
A teacher can no longer touch a child no matter what the child does. (Other than physical abuse of another child or the teacher)
This leaves the teacher with no means to control the child if the child fails to control him/her self.
So if a teacher has a habitually unruly student naturally the teacher wants relief. Every teacher wants an orderly classroom.
How can a teacher achieve an orderly classroom full of children with pent up energy with out the use of physical discipline.
The pharmaceutical companies supplied the answer. Isn’t capitalism wonderful? Someone saw a need and filled it.
Of coarse teachers have become the best imaginable sales force the drug companies could ever hope for.
It really has made a difference for our son.
Fantastic. It’s doctors like I ran into that give your apparently competent MD a bad name. Glad it’s working out for your son.
I don’t know where you went to school. I went to a HS in northern NJ in the late 50’s. In 1954 and again in 1955 we had upwards of 40, that;s FORTY students oer class and we had double sessions before a new school (two actually) was built to send 7-9 grades to. Sure there were trouble makers but NOTHING like we are seeing today, not even close. The kids, even those considered real troublemakers were scared spit less of the teachers and 99% of them never said boo when told to sit sown and shut up I know, I was there
I have no clue if the availability of drugs was the cause of defective births, have you any links i can go to that have done studies on this?
My guess is that the failure of the parents to properly discipline their children and then to back up the teachers when a problem arises rather then call a lawyer and sue the school, is more the cause of the problem. The use of drugs on these kids IMO is keep quiet children who the teachers cannot discipline because the the parents totally abrogated their responsibility in raising them.
A lot of people who don’t personally parent or try to teach brain damaged kids guess that stricter parenting is the solution
What worries me is the amount of young women of child bearing age that are prescribed these drugs without a flick of an eyelash. I wonder what will happen to these women’s babies if these women get pregnant while taking the drugs? Are we going to have a generation of psychotics walking around in a few years, products of mind altering drugs in the womb?
WHY are there so many MORE “brain damaged” kids today then all the years up through the middle 1960’s?
Yes, I meant to respond to your second point. If he was doing well in the Uncle’s care as the Uncle says, why wasn’t he still with the Uncle. Sad, sad case.
I can’t imagine a 7 yr. old having the idea of hanging himself with a shower hose. I hope someone looks at the 19 yr. old who he was having an “argument” with directly prior to his demise. This whole situation sounds fishy.
The thought of a 7 yr old being on so many meds makes me heartsick. Who in the world advocates for these kids once they’re in the maw of the State?
Maranatha Lord Jesus.
Mrs. AV
pot, lsd, other drugs, hair dyes, valium, birth control pills, other hormones, artificial sweeteners, and foods became ever more loaded with chemical “preservatives”
trace elements of some chemicals and other byproducts build up in the fatty and other tissues of your body - I believe this can affect the reproductive process an other processes (ergo, so many many women getting breast cancer these days)
When you conceive a baby, the human brain is a tough but sensitive organ- a tiny chemical interaction on even a one-2 day window of fetal development, can have a devastating effect. Women stop drinking smoking and using hair dye when they know they're pregnant- sometimes 2-3 weeks or more after conceiving. Others may just have little chemical byproduct time bombs in their body tissues, that affect the baby.
My child (adopted) has a brain pickled and pitted (my description) due to his birth mother's drinking, it manifests as severe hyperactivity and deficits in self-regulatory behavior - an inability to willfully control himself.
No you cannot beat or otherwise punish or even sometimes "discipline" someone with brain chemistry disorder into submission, only into hatred of you and themselves. If they are lucky they might develop emotional health and patterned behaviors that help their own brain to normalize. If not, ADHD meds are wonder drugs.
This poor little 7 yr old had inability to control his rage-if he was abandoned and raped - no wonder. Lexapro and Vyvanse couldn't take away all that hurt and anger and inattention and mistrust of casual people trying to control him. All those bio relatives and he was in foster care...
Why that child was not in intensive psychotherapy.... question to be answered.
Foster children have a notoriously bad success rate.
I think only something like 14% manage to graduate from high school. Many suffer from mental illness, and severe learning deficits, due to neglect, drug related pregnancy complications, or physical abuse. My wife grew up in foster care and she does a lot of work with foster care. Even the ones that survive, have many problems to work through.
This boy didn’t really get much of a chance at life. He probably experience as much trauma in seven years as most people experience in a lifetime.
Big pharma. Do you watch TV or read magazines? Do you see those ads from big pharma entreating you to ask your doctor to prescribe a certain drug to you that may or may not cure a disease that you may or may not have? By the way, have you ever listened to a motormouth spokesperson for big pharma describe the side effects of such drugs on TV or flipped many magazine pages in a print drug ad which detail all the horrible side effects of these drugs, which in the majority of cases sounds a lot worse than the disease itself. Have you ever noticed your newspaper or news channel pushing stories about new physical or mental problems, or new medical studies (reported by people like Dr. Sanjay Gupta perhaps?) and then, Voila!, a few weeks later, new stories about new and improved drugs that can ameliorate these afflictions. That’s big pharma and that’s how new “diseases” and afflictions become new diseases and afflictions .
This is so horrible. I am so against children being given ANY psychoactive meds. They aren’t very good for anyone else, either.
Lack of exercise.
I've become totally convinced that that is the number one reason that kids act up. They don't get a chance to burn it out of them.
Parental discipline is a very close second.
I know I'll probably hear about it for not putting discipline first, but after watching my kids and how they behaved when they were on the swim team and when the season was over, I'd say the activity was more critical to their behavior than my discipline.
When they got enough exercise, discipline was not an issue. It took way less to control them because they didn't act up as much. It was a much more pleasant atmosphere around the house.
There is no *edit post* feature on FR, so don’t bother looking for it. What you just did is the best you can do; ping yourself with the correction.
“good grief. I’m having a hard time understanding how a 7 year old could even grasp the concept of suicide. :( I can only imagine what those 7 short years held for him.”
sadly - the events leading to placement in foster care - or even what may have happened while in foster care probably made him a less-than-typical 7 year old.
It is frightening what poor little kids deal with these days.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.