AbleChild recently held their annual fundraiser featuring a night of music, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and an auction at the Venture Portraits studio in Greenwich, Conn. [...]
News Archive
Ablechild Mission Featured in Westchester Magazine
Friday, November 4th, 2011 
Ablechild Makes Page 6 in Feingold Association Newsletter
Friday, November 4th, 2011
This non-profit organization was formed by two mothers who had been told by their children’s
school that the youngsters had to be placed on drugs in order to be allowed to attend school.
Would you like statins with that?
A British doctor has recently raised howls of protest for suggesting that fast food restaurants should serve statin drugs [...]
Billion Dollar Drug Company Law Firm Restructures Connecticut Welfare System
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
For some time now, Sheila Matthews has been suspicious about her home state of Connecticut’s treatment of its most vulnerable children. As a mother of two children and co-founder of Ablechild, her instincts led her to scrutinize the dubious relationships among Connecticut’s Department of Children and Family Services [DCF], the pharmaceutical industry and a billion dollar law firm who has defended the likes of Pfizer Inc and Merck.
More Toddlers, Young Children Given Antipsychotics
Monday, January 4th, 2010Researchers question the ‘worrisome’ trend
By Jennifer Thomas, HealthDay Reporter
Source: BusinessWeek
MONDAY, Jan. 4 (HealthDay News) — The rate of children aged 2 to 5 who are given antipsychotic medications has doubled in recent years, a new study has found.
Yet little is known about either the effectiveness or the safety of these powerful psychiatric [...]
Drug Makers Are Advocacy Group’s Biggest Donors
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009By Gardiner Harris
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — A majority of the donations made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one of the nation’s most influential disease advocacy groups, have come from drug makers in recent years, according to Congressional investigators.
The alliance, known as NAMI, has long been criticized for coordinating [...]
Generation of Kids Hooked on Psych Drugs
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009By Evelyn Pringle
Source: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/blog/generation-of-kids-hooked-on-psych-drugs-0449.html
Campbell Brown anchors a daily prime-time news program on CNN. On June 17, 2009, in a segment of the program called the “Great Debate,” the question was, Ritalin, Prozac, Adderall, are we “pushing pills on our kids and raising a generation hooked on meds.”
Featured in the debate were, Kelly [...]
ADHD Drugs Linked to Sudden Death
Monday, June 15th, 2009Some Parents Believe New Study Reinforces Link Between Stimulants, Cardiac Death
Source: Article by Dan Childs and Todd Neale, ABC News
For Ann Hohmann, Oct. 21, 2004, began just about like any other day.
On that morning, the 54-year-old mother of two living in McAllen, Texas, was preparing to take her eldest son to school. [...]
Are We All Going Mad, Or Are The Experts Crazy?
Thursday, September 18th, 2008LA Times Opinion Page
By Stuart A. Kirk, STUART A. KIRK is a professor of social welfare at UCLA. He is the coauthor of “The Selling of DSM” and “Making Us Crazy.” His most recent book is “Mental Disorders in the Social Environment”.
PSYCHIATRIC researchers recently estimated that half of the American population has had or will [...]
Is Your ADHD Support Group a Front Organization for the Pharmaceutical Industry?
Monday, September 8th, 2008By Richard DeGrandpre, Ph.D.
On May 18, 1999, the New York Times reported that “social phobia ranks today as the third most prevalent psychiatric disorder in the United States……….affecting an estimated 19 million Americans, according to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. Many are to bashful even to talk to therapists.” In the same week, the [...]
‘Shut Up and Pass the Prozac’ – Top Psychiatrist, Pro-Family Advocates Left Out of National Debate on Mental Health
Friday, July 18th, 2008By Debbie Thurman, Christian Communication Network
MONROE, Va., July 18 /Christian Wire Service/– “Shut up and pass the Prozac.” That is the consensus of the media in the most volatile round of psycho trash talk in recent memory. Since Tom Cruise kicked it up a notch on the “Today” show with Matt Lauer, all manner of “experts” have [...]
Arianna’s Call For Drug-Violence Investigation Never More Timely
Monday, July 14th, 2008By Kelly Preston
Kirstie Alley and I recently supported 20 doctors from various health care fields, including family physicians, pediatricians, psychiatrists, researchers, nutritionists and surgeons in a letter to the FDA calling on it to strengthen its warnings on stimulants and antidepressants, especially when prescribed to children.
This was in response to the FDA’s recent warning that [...]
Lawmaker Calls for Registry of Drug Firms Paying Doctors
Saturday, August 4th, 2007New York Times, by Gardiner Harris
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — An influential Republican senator says he will propose legislation requiring drug makers to disclose the payments they make to doctors for services like consulting, lectures and attendance at seminars.
The lawmaker, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, cited as an [...]
St. Petersburg Times, Letters to the Editor
Saturday, August 4th, 2007
I am the mother of a 16-year-old autistic son. First, autism is not a mental illness. There are physical situations that precede the condition. The best definition I ever heard came from Bob Doman, the founder of the National Association for Child Development, when he told me he referred to autism as “brain toxicity.”
[...]
Skyrocketing Numbers of Kids Are Prescribed Powerful Antipsychotic Drugs. Is It Safe? Nobody Knows.
Sunday, July 29th, 2007The ‘atypical’ dilemma
By Robert Farley, Times Staff Writer
More and more, parents at wit’s end are begging doctors to help them calm their aggressive children or control their kids with ADHD. More and more, doctors are prescribing powerful antipsychotic drugs.
In the past seven years, the number of Florida children prescribed such drugs has increased some 250 [...]
The New Face Of Antidepressants?
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
By Ed Silverman
For the past three years, the controversy over antidepressants has largely centered on exploring links between the pills and suicidal behavior, particularly in youngsters. But there has also been considerable chatter about homicidal thoughts.
Several killings around the country have prompted defense lawyers to blame an antidepressant for a killing. Most famously, this occurred [...]
Grassley Seeks Marketing and Safety Documents From Major Drug Maker
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley is asking the drug maker, Eli Lilly and Company, for information related to the risks and marketing of the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa.
Grassley made this request in response to allegations that the company downplayed safety risks and engaged in other improper marketing practices that may be jeopardizing patients’ health. The text [...]
Showdown Looms in Congress Over Drug Advertising on TV
Monday, January 22nd, 2007By Milt Freudenheim, The New York Times.
Drug advertising aimed at consumers, a fast-growing category that reached $4.5 billion last year, will face hard scrutiny in the new Congress, according to industry critics in both the House and Senate.
The consumer ads will be on the griddle early in this session at hearings on the user fees [...]
Alaska Supreme Court Strikes Down Forced Psychiatric Drugging Procedures
Saturday, July 1st, 2006In a resounding affirmation of personal liberty and freedom, the Alaska Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Myers v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute today. The court found Alaska’s forced psychiatric drugging regime to be unconstitutional when the state forces someone to take psychiatric medications without proving it to be in their best interests or when [...]
Study: ADHD Drugs Send Thousands to ERs
Thursday, May 25th, 2006By LINDA A. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Accidental overdoses and side effects from attention deficit drugs likely send thousands of children and adults to emergency rooms, according to the first national estimates of the problem.
Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated problems with the stimulant drugs drive nearly 3,100 people to ERs [...]
Tots Used as Human Guinea Pigs?
Wednesday, May 17th, 2006Joseph Rhee Reports:
ABC News has learned that a Massachusetts hospital is currently recruiting pre-schoolers to test the safety and effectiveness of a powerful antipsychotic drug called Quetiapine. (SEROQUEL AstraZeneca – Vince)
The study, conducted by the Department of Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is testing subjects from four to six years of age with Bipolar [...]