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.

[Pontiac]

Jon Myers, the uncle who cared for Gabriel after abuse investigators found him in a car in a Denny's parking lot after his mother had passed out, questions whether Gabriel needed such potent medications to begin with.



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).

[beaversmom]

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.

[silverleaf]

Vyvnase seems to be working a miracle for our son

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

[beaversmom]

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?

[PapaBear3625]

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.

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.

[101voodoo]

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?

[beaversmom]

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.

[Pontiac]

Yep, you are correct.

[silverleaf]

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.

[Pontiac]

the article doesn’t mention the phone but it certainly does suggest a phone conversation.

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.

[Wolfie]

Careful, that kind of thinking is going to tank a lot of Pharma stocks.

[Habibi]

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.

[wheresmycheckbarry?]

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

[wheresmycheckbarry?]

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

[Pontiac]

What has changed to make them “sick” where they weren’t before?

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.

[Kimmers]

My son is your daughters age and he was just put on adderall.....he did great in school until he had numerous concussion in high school during wrestling.....he was able to get by in High School but in college he was saying he could not concentrate on even the easiest math problems.....soooo after a lot of testing by a neuorpsychologist and in working with an MD at school we were all comfortable with this decision and I have had to eat my words....whenever my son needs a refill he has to see the MD first and it sounds like they always have some great conversations so he is closely monitored.....

It really has made a difference for our son.

[subterfuge]

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.

[101voodoo]

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.

[silverleaf]

A lot of people who don’t personally parent or try to teach brain damaged kids guess that stricter parenting is the solution

[murron]

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?