Posted on 08/02/2007 7:05:34 AM PDT by Lennyq
For Immediate Release
Media review copies and interviews available on request
Contact: Fred Baughman, MD fredbaughmanmd@cox.net Author: The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/view-item?item=9628
Is your child taking Ritalin? Is there a plague of psychiatric diseases in children?
This is a true story.
On March 21, 2000, fourteen-year old Matthew Smith was having a good time skateboarding with two of his cousins. Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor and started turning blue. His cousins called 911 but the paramedics couldn’t revive him. At the hospital he was pronounced dead from a heart attack – a heart attack caused by Ritalin.
Matthews parents had been giving him Ritalin since he was six years old. Ritalin is classified as a Schedule II drug, which the DEA reserves for the most dangerous and addictive drugs that can be prescribed legally.
But to the educators at Matthew’s school, Ritalin was simply a magic pill that made troublesome students easier to manage.
Prior to being diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Matthew was an energetic, boisterous highly social child who did not focus on his school work quite the way his teachers wanted him to.
Was he in dire need of medication?
The push to label Matthew occurred when he was in the first grade. School officials said that he was fidgety in his seat and would sometimes disrupt the class, and that he often had trouble staying focused on his work.
The school social worker called Matthews parents and said that Matthew needed to take medication saying, “He’s got ants in his pants”.
This unqualified social worker made the diagnosis and recommendation for medication and handed them a list of physicians who would provide them with a prescription.
Even though this constitutes the practice of medicine without a license, this same process is applied in school districts across the nation by teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists and social workers.
According to Dr. Fred Baughman, there is an epidemic taking place all across America.
Parents are told to place their children on Ritalin or Adderall or their child will be refused attendance at school and they will be charged with “medical neglect.”
“Parents are succumbing to the threats from school officials without any idea of the possible side effects of these addictive, dangerous drugs.
In San Diego at just one school, 65 percent of the fifth graders had been diagnosed with ADD and were on medication.
There are over 6 million children in the United States who have been diagnosed with ADHD and drugged for ADHD.
“We are drugging normal children so that they act less like normal children and forcing them to act like the docile adults who are supposed to be teaching them”.
Dr. Baughman is one of numerous medical professionals who recently testified in front of the FDA and Congress.
“ADHD is not a disorder, disease, syndrome or chemical imbalance of the brain. It is not over-diagnosed, under-diagnosed, or mis-diagnosed. It doesn’t exist. It is a total, 100%, Fraud.”
Nowhere in world’s literature is there proof that a single psychiatric diagnosis is an actual disease.
“ADHD and all of psychiatry’s “chemical imbalances” are manufactured diseases- invented diseases that results in huge profits for psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies.”
We have allowed school and health care professionals to blanket classify behavior and establish bounds for student conduct in the school environment. We hand out drugs to kids as freely as we give them Flintstone vitamins.
In spite of schools with posted signs everywhere that say “drug free zones” it turns out that nearly everywhere, the most effective drug pushers are the legal ones.
Dr. Baughman, author of the new book, The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” Out of Normal Children says that parents and educators have to stop thinking that the use of drugs is safe or necessary.
“We’ve gone on a diagnostic frenzy and sought out a chemical means for achieving peace and quiet in the classroom. Ritalin may solve problems for teachers but it’s not helping the children.”
Once children are labeled as ADHD they are no longer treated as normal. The first drug they ingest is an intoxication, a poisoning, their first and only disease. ADD and ADHD simply do not exist.
“The real question is how we go about destroying the monster we’ve created. We’ve been conned into believing that our normal children are abnormal--diseased. We’ve been lulled into believing there is a collective madness.
The real evil forces reside in our schools and physicians offices.
Our children act in ways that bother adults. We’ve got to now teach the adults that the solution is up to them. We know that there are sane people who are horrified at the thought of participating in a massive abuse of children.
It’s horrifying. There are over half a million children between the ages of 2 and 5 now being treated with powerful drugs for ADHD. Nobody has any idea of the effects these drugs will have on children so young.
We have got to stop putting children on drugs.
The ADHD Fraud How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” Out of Normal Children By Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD With Craig Hovey
ISBN 1-4120-6458-9
US$24.95, C$28.69, EUR20.49, £14.35 Published by Trafford Publishing Soon to be translated into Spanish
Dr. Baughman’s book is filled with real life case studies of children who have been harmed as a result of a diagnosis of ADHD. He also describes the evolution of the epidemic, and how Ritalin was created and it’s history as a drug in search of a disease.
Dr. Baughman presents the 14 symptoms that appear in the 1987 Diagnostic and Statistical manual that for the basis for most diagnosis of ADHD and shows that most of them really amount to a list of the things that normal children do that irritate adults who do not have the patience compassion or interest to tolerate them.
Dr. Baughman urges parents, teachers, and physicians to recognize the basic truth of the scientific literature; no proof exists. For a disease to be present there must be a macroscopic (visible to the naked eye, a palpable lump, an audible heart murmur), microscopic or chemical abnormality in life, or at autopsy.
With ADHD – there is NO abnormality at all. No psychiatric disorder/chemical imbalance/disease is an objective abnormality—a disease--not one.
These are normal child behaviors. That is all.
It is a problem of adults who cannot deal with these children.
The ADHD Fraud How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” Out of Normal Children is available in bookstores and online.
For more information visit www.adhdfraud.org or visit the website of the publisher www.trafford.com
Dr. Baughman can offer insights and comments and reports on the latest ADHD facts:
Where did ADHD come from?
"They made a list of the most common symptoms of emotional discomfiture of children and in a stroke that could not be more devoid of science or Hippocratic motive-termed them " diseases"/ "chemical imbalances" each needing/requiring a "chemical balancer"- a pill." Thirty-five years of research into "biological" psychiatry's "chemical imbalances"/"diseases.” In 1970, when "hyperactivity"/ ADHD was first represented to Congress to be a brain disease, only 150,000 had it. Today, not by science, but by the "big lie" -saying it is a disease often enough, 6-7 million have it! Nor is ADHD the only "chemical imbalance"/"disease" of the brain. They give us conduct disorder (CD), oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD), major depressive disorder (MDD), OCD, PTSD, GAD, SAD, etc., a total of 374 psychiatric disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA); “chemical imbalances” of the brain said to need "chemical balancers" –pills. How convenient.
How many people are affected?
In 2003 Congressional hearings it was said that 17% of the nation's school children, 8.8 million, were labeled and drugged by psychiatry. Toady it is 20%; one in five; 10.4 million! As if this were not enough the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health is set to foist upon us the compulsory, government-mandated mental health screening of all 52 million US schoolchildren. Clearly, it is a psycho-pharm-government cartel. When normal people are told they have a disease to make "patients" of them, we have a violation of informed consent which equals medical malpractice. When normals are lied to, to make "patients" of them, to drug, for-profit, we have a battery - poisoning. Undoubtedly, this is the greatest health care fraud in US history.
Media review copies and interviews available on request.
About the Authors
Fred A Baughman Jr., MD, is an adult and child neurologist certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a Fellow of the Academy of Neurology. He has discovered and described real diseases. He has testified before the US Congress, the European Union, and innumerable other national and international government bodies. He is an expert witness in lawsuits and legal cases regarding psychiatry and invented diseases.
Dr. Baughman is an experienced media guest and has appeared on many national radio and television shows. He has authored over a hundred articles in medical journals and the national press. He resides in San Diego with his wife Annette.
Craig Hovey teaches economics at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. He is a writer who’s interest in the book's subject was sparked when told by school personnel that his oldest son suffered from ADHD and had to take Ritalin.
Read about the March 22 Congressional Hearings:
ADHD EXPERTS HEAD TO WASHINGTON - IS THE FDA UP TO THE TASK? -- HTTP://WWW.OPEDNEWS.COM/ARTICLES/GENERA_EVELYN_P_060314_ADHD_EXPERTS_HEAD_TO.HTM
FEEL FREE TO REQUEST A COPY THE TESTIMONY OF FRED A. BAUGHMAN JR., MD, TO THE MARCH 22, 2006, MEETING OF THE FDA-PEDIATRIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
What People Are Saying
Read this book before someone you love is labeled and drugged.
Nicholas A. Cummings, Former President, American Psychiatric Association
All parents with a child in school need to read Fred Baughman’s book to learn the reasons to be skeptical when informed that their child has “Attention Deficit Disorder” and must be treated with psychotropic drugs.
Representative Ron Paul, 14th District (Texas), U.S. House of Representatives
This book documents (how) the charlatan psychiatric profession abuses normal, healthy children with brain destructive drugs for the unconscionable purpose of creating so-called ‘mental illnesses’ such as ADHD for financial gain.
Dr. Robert L. Simonds, Chair, National Association of Evangelicals
I wept as I read this book. As a retired teacher, school trustee, and grandmother of a Ritalin/SSRI/Risperdal damaged grandson, I know that Dr. Baughman speaks the truth.
Sharon Steele Kientz, 1995, National Right to Read Foundation, Teacher of the Year
Dr. Baughman has written a powerful expose of psychiatry and its hydra-headed influence with the FDA, drug companies, and public school personnel who pressure parents into unwittingly poisoning their children with dangerous drugs for the non-disease-ADHD. A must read for every parent of a school aged child.
Dr. Robert Sweet, Former President & Founder of the National Right to Read Foundation, Professional Staff, Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. Congress
The ADHD Fraud provides much needed, detailed, and practical advice as to how to prevent children from being earmarked as victims of ADHD. This book deserves the attention of every parent… all educators and policy makers.
Dr. Patrick Groff, Professor of Education Emeritus, San Diego State University
Media review copies and interviews available on request
Contact: "Fred Baughman, MD" at fredbaughmanmd@cox.net
Well, thank you. And she actually dealt with REAL ED, not just the latter-day dumbed-down ED! LOL
Of course, she started in regular school; even had to take a stint in regular school after quitting a few years for real estate before deciding to go back.
Mom taught all ages through the years, too. Her main stint was as a HS-level ED “teacher-in-charge” (sort of VP, of a small adjunct school), and she ended up before retiring some years at MS-level ED.
Mom is a wonderful lady who doesn’t take any garbage, either. She tried to follow the rules, but even though the kids threatened people knowing “you can’t touch me” - she made it clear she didn’t much care! LOL She let them know she wouldn’t hesitate to be physical if they were ridiculous.
But she was “fair”. And while believing standard old-fashioned education is perfectly good, she also spiced it up sometimes planning events such as history fairs where certain kids would play historical roles for a day, etc.
And guess what? She almost never had problems, and indeed, many adored her. She has a boy/man 5 years later from her last years in MS ED who still calls her and even meets her for lunch periodically.
It’s not about “beating”. It’s about not being afraid to apply physical discipline (NOT “abuse”). I knew my parents weren’t afraid of using it. But in fact, only 1 time do I remember them spanking me. The only other times I was physically smacked sometimes - because they tell me - were when I was younger than 5, when none of us really remember anything. And it’s not just physical. Today we’ve gotten so bad we can’t even look at the dog wrong, and it’s “animal abuse”. Using voice and visual is part of the discipline, all of which is being swept away as “abusive”.
As for difficult kids - yes, some do have excessive problems that are probably innate and no discipline really changes. My nephew is 1. Wonderful, kind, thoughtful kid all his life - young and now at 20 - and smart too. But just didn’t want to do anything at or for school. He was extremely difficult; even subjects he clearly picked up on our vacation trips with him he acted like he didn’t know in school. He ended up on Ritalin. Still difficult in school, but also a go-getter self-starter for making money; imagine that. He’s still a good kid, but definitely had problems with school.
You and I may agree somewhat then. My focus was not on “beating”. I’m certainly not opposed to physical discipline when it’s needed, and I’m not afraid to spank my children when they need it. My problem with a lot of posters is their belief that in the case of a child that truly has ADD or ADHD that if only the parents spanked, the attention problems would go away. It just isn’t so. One has nothing to do with the other.
No, I think most people just think so much is now excuse by ADD that they are just taking the tac on kids who DON’T really have it.
I do think some do have excessive problems, though, that are outside any kind of discipline. It’s just the way life is - some are more “extreme” than the majority.
It appears like you are facing a united front. I feel for you. I hope that other solutions can be found to help this young boy. There is always hope.
Well, thanks for the sympathy but as long as I feel I have pointed out the dangers of their continuing on this course I am able to be less affected as the situation unfolds. My getting myself sick over something my daughter will have to learn the hard way will do neither of us any good.
You are right. There is much in life that is out of our hands. Learning to let things be is hard for humans. But in this instance I completely understand.
You’ll be there when your daughter and grandson need you. That’s what counts.
no, Nasonex. Is there some kind of problem with Rhinocort?
I agree with you about diet and electronic stimulation...when my 4 year old granddaughter gets too hyper or fresh I put on some soothing music and take out clay or a puzzle and shut off the TV or the computer...sometimes she justs need a peqaceful environment and focused attention...I also teach special needs students in a public middle school in Brooklyn...many of out ADHD kids just need a quiet room and an engaging lesson/ activity to calm down...although I have met several kids over the years who benefited greatly from medication and went off it with the advent of puberty.
Not that I know of. I know it worked very well for me with sinuses (I’m non-stop all my life). But I did stop it because of GI issues - it says it metabolizes in the liver and I’m afraid I’m having problems there. But Rhinocort doesn’t mention any actual researched problems with liver or GI.
Some will tell you all the bad genetics have spread to critical mass, what with the Sexual Revolution and all.
What you say is true, but I’ve dealt with this and there’s another component - the teacher(s).
If a teacher decides they don’t like your kid, they will make your kid’s life miserable until you, the parent who is not in the classroom and can’t know the truth of the teacher said/student said argument, is literally caught in the middle. Short of attending class every day with the kid, the situation was out of my control
For instance, my kid had a teacher who humiliated, harassed and deliberately gave her bad grades, all because the teacher didn’t like whatever about my kid. Why do I know this was true and not just my kid making it up ? Besides the fact that my kid did not lie to me, other kids commented on how the teacher picked on my kid, always finding fault with anything she could, and doing it in the most public and negative way, and about how other kids did the same things but didn’t get in trouble. Then to cap it all off, the teacher gave the kid an F one quarter because she didn’t turn in the main project. My kid swore she did, other kids backed her up, but the teacher gave her the F anyhow. The project was found 3 weeks later by another teacher, and given to my kid. It had been shoved under the couch in the teacher’s lounge. I, and the kid, went to the teacher and asked her to change the grade. The teacher insisted my kid planted it there after the turn-in date, like kids were welcome in the teacher’s lounge, and refused to do anything about the grade. I took the situation to the principal, made an unholy stink, and the principal said if the teacher said that was the case, then there was nothing he was going to do, and no, she couldn’t be transferred to another teacher’s class. This teacher went on to make my kid’s life miserable for the rest of the year.
The victims of these types of situations are the kids, and many times parents can do very little once they get to school.
Oh please. Tell me - what physical tests do they give a person to determine ADHD ?
Blood test ? MRI ? PET scan ? Blood sugar test ? A brain fluid tap to test dopamine or seratonin levels ?
No ? None of those things ?
Hmmm -
How do they determine dosage levels ? By a measurement of “chemical imbalance”, or by OBSERVING BEHAVIOR and adjusting drug accordingly ?
ADHD is determined to “exist” by a BEHAVIORAL observation. It’s a list of BEHAVIORS determined by committee to be undesirable. The drugs used to control ADHD behaviors are a trial and error process that are adjusted over months.
If your doctor wanted to treat your diabetes this way, you’d be in court for malpractice. But, obviously, you and others like you think it’s OK to give powerful and life-altering drugs to kids on the basis of how often a kid taps their foot.
THAT’s BS.
So, your objection is what is BS.
So can high intelligence.
Epilepsy is a physical disease.
Bipolar is not, nor is schizophrenia.
Read what Baughmann says - he is a neurologist. There is no measurable physical test for bipolar, for example, like there is for epilepsy. What psychiatrists do to treat mental “illness” is the equivalent of throwing mud at the wall, hoping some of it will stick.
Have you read Peter Breggin’s book - Toxic Psychiatry ? And yes, he’s a licensed psychiatrist.
Again, there is no measurable physical test. It’s a behavioral observation.
And, it’s well documented that Ritalin and the like help anyone, not just those diagnosed ADHD, do better at repetitive tasks.
You have to notice - Ritalin et al are used to make a person conform to a specific environment, whether that’s sitting at a desk in school for 6 hours, or an assembly line, or the cubicle farm.
In prior years, we did other things that worked better without drugs. Schools didn’t push academics at age 4-5, we gave the kids more recess, kids had more physical play
at home and at school, there were shop classes, and there was more discipline of course, both at home and at school.
For my part, what you describe is a trained monkey.
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