7-year-old boy prescribed powerful drug before suicide

Florida Sun-Sentinel ^ | April 22, 2009

[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.

[sweet_diane]

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.

[americanophile]

...Broward

[Constitution Day]

I had to skim through the full article to find the names of the three drugs in question:

Vyvanse
Lexapro
Zyprexa

Crappy reporting.

[wheresmycheckbarry?]

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

[Seruzawa]

Another pill pusher who belongs buried below the jail.

[Constitution Day]

*And the fourth:

Symbyax

[pissant]

These happy pills are very dangerous.

[Cicero]

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.

[MHGinTN]

Gross and deadly physician malpractice.

[twigs]

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.

[subterfuge]

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.

[stainlessbanner]

Started with his mother who is currently sitting in jail.

Sad, sad story.

[beaversmom]

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

[Myrddin]

One of my co-workers committed suicide in 1993. Before he did that, he explained that the drugs don't make you suicidal. You're already that way. The missing ingredient is the initiative to act on the desire. Prozac took care of the initiative problem for him. Too bad. He was very gifted in the ability to create graphics manipulation algorithms. We chatted often. He committed suicide while I was on a 3 week business trip to Florida.

[darkangel82]

Why always Florida?

[Uri’el-2012]

SSRIs kill or mass murder our children.

[beaversmom]

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

[twigs]

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.

[Marie2]

“I said no. “

Protector Dad kudos!!!