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Tag: Adam Lanza

Let’s Look at Mental Health “Treatment” – Not Increase It

Written by Sheila Matthews on . Posted in Lawmaking.

 This is in response to the op-ed by Lloyd I. Sederer, Md. A Defining Moment for Mental Health in America.  Dr. Sederer begins his mental health cheerleading piece with the mention of the massacre in Newtown, Ct., stating that “…too little has been done so far to make a difference for those whose fates lies ahead.”

This statement couldn’t be more wrong.  Since the Sandy Hook shooting, thirty-seven states have instituted some form of increased mental health services and, in Connecticut, increased mental health legislation was passed without public input and without even having a completed investigative report of the incident.

Lawmakers in Connecticut, and throughout the U.S., acted in typical crisis management mode and instituted increased mental health services without even knowing if the evidence from the shooting called for such measures.

The fact is the “investigation” of the Sandy Hook shooting does not provide one detail about the medical or mental health records for the last five years of Adam Lanza’s life.  Adam Lanza’s mental health records end in 2007, (five years prior to the shooting incident) after he experienced serious adverse reactions to two antidepressants while being treated at the Yale Child Study Center.

Worse still, Nancy Lanza made mental health professionals aware of both of the drug adverse reaction events and was labeled, by those treating her son, to be “non-compliant” because she refused to continue to subject her son to the harmful psychiatric drug “treatment.”

Mental health’s continued use of the Sandy Hook incident is unacceptable and irrelevant because there is no evidence to support that Adam Lanza was not receiving the best mental health money could buy.  If one uses the available mental health data for Adam Lanza, they would find that Lanza had been receiving mental health services and treatment since the age of six.

Dr. Sederer uses this op-ed to beg support for Congressman Tim Murphy’s mental health legislation (H.R.3717) which for all practical purposes is all about “screening” the children of America for early identification of mental illness.  Ooohh paahlease!

Let’s look at the facts. Nearly 79 million Americans are taking at least one psychiatric drug, including 41 million people taking antidepressants, which includes 7.5 million children between the ages of 6-17.  One in five American adults take at least one psychiatric drug and, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the U.S., with 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants being written in 2010.

Despite the fact that there are 22 international regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs, citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) MedWatch system reveals that between 2004 and 2012, the federal drug agency received more than 14,000 reports on psychiatric drugs causing violent side effects.

The problem with Dr. Sederer’s support of Representative Murphy’s mental health legislation is that it continues to sell the myth that psychiatric disorders are based in science/medicine and, therefore, can be effectively treated.  It just isn’t true. Psychiatric diagnosing is not based in science or medicine and it is completely subjective.

Because there is no evidence that any psychiatric disorder has a biological cause, and the pharmaceutical companies admit that they do not understand how the drugs used as “treatment” actually work in the brain, it seems that there’s a whole lot of mental health guessing going on.

Rather than continue to legislate increased mental health services, isn’t it time to seriously look at the data and start asking tough questions about the “treatment” the mental health industry is peddling?  And rather than support Rep. Murphy’s legislation to increase mental health services that clearly are not working, there is another bill pending in Congress that actually protects children, H.R. 4518 the Parental Protection Act.

 

 

Sandy Hook Commission Whines About Lack of Funds and Information

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Lawmaking, Sandy Hook.

This week The Hartford Courant reported that the Sandy Hook Commission is “hampered by secrecy and lack of funds” and, as a result, there are “serious doubts” of producing a definitive exploration of what occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Oh, puh-leeze!  Say it isn’t so, Governor Malloy.  Isn’t the Governor the man who said “we don’t yet know the underlying cause behind this tragedy, and we probably never will.  But that can’t be an excuse for inaction. I want the commission to have the ability to study every detail, so they can help craft meaningful legislative and policy changes?”  “Every” detail?  That’s just sad. The Governor’s commission can’t get any details.

The Commission doesn’t have access to Adam Lanza’s records? The Commission has no budget?  Really? Is this just now, three months from its deadline, occurring to the Commission?

Psychiatrist and Commission member, Dr. Harold I Schwartz, reports that the Commission has been fortunate to have the law firm of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter catalog the State Police Report of the shooting incident, but it’s “laborious” to use.

Can’t argue with the good doctor on that point. Not only was going through that report “laborious,” it was downright irritating.  Ablechild spent three full days going through each and every document (if you can call the redacted pages “documents”), and could have saved the Commission a lot of time and frustration.

The fact is, for the last five years of Adam Lanza’s life, there are no medical/mental health records provided in the State Police Report and Ablechild gladly would have shared that information with the Commission months ago, saving it a great deal of time.

Without those mental health records, Dr. Schwartz is absolutely correct when he reported last year that “to write a report now, with what we have, would almost be embarrassing.”  Unbelievably, today, despite still having no records about the last five years of Lanza’s mental  health treatment, Schwartz says,  “I still think that we can issue a report with important recommendations about mental health services, gun safety and school safety. We have spent a lot of time assessing the current state of all three – hearing extensive testimony from officials and experts who have dealt with mass killings.”

Schwartz is admitting that the Commission is clueless about Adam Lanza’s mental health history but, because the Commission has heard from officials and experts about other mass killings, important recommendations still can be made.

This is utter nonsense.  The Commission has spoken with  Peter Lanza.  Did Lanza refuse to share information about Adam’s mental health?   This seems odd given the fact that Lanza obviously shared information with The New Yorker reporter, Andrew Solomon.  Solomon reported that in 2007 Adam had been prescribed the antidepressant, Lexapro. This information was NOT part of the State Police Report.

Additionally, the Commission might consider an interview with the honchos at The Courant, as it reported, based on information it had obtained, that Adam had been treated at the Danbury Hospital, which also was NOT part of the State Police Report.

Schwartz also may be enlightened if he were to understand the State’s absolute refusal to make public Lanza’s toxicology and medical/mental health records.  Ablechild sued the state for these records last year and the reason for the lock-down on the records was made clear by the State’s Assistant Attorney General, Patrick B. Kwanashie, explaining “it would cause a lot of people to stop taking their medications.”

Based on the information provided in the State Police Report, Adam had been prescribed the antidepressant, Celexa in 2007.  Add to that reporter Solomon’s new information that he was also prescribed Lexapro, and suddenly it becomes clear that Adam had been on multiple mind-altering drugs.

But that drug information ends five years before the shooting incident.  What is the big secret?  Was Adam prescribed so many psychiatric drugs that the information would be an embarrassment to his psychiatrist(s) and the pharmaceutical industry?

Obviously, it’s impossible to know without the mental health records. But the Commission’s final report is supposed to focus on recommendations into the mental health area.  Really? Based on what information?  If the Commission has no records on Adam Lanza’s mental health for the last five years of his life, what’s the point?

If the Commission intends to provide mental health recommendations, which are not the result of having reviewed the mental health records of the shooter, then don’t bother.  Stop now.   Accept that the Commission’s efforts were a complete waste of time and stick to the original opinion that “to write a report now, with what we have, would almost be embarrassing.”

Since Schwartz’s first admission nothing has changed. The fact that Lanza’s mental health records are shrouded in secrecy, and the state is instituting costly mental health changes merely based on the assumption that Lanza’s mental health played a role, isn’t “almost embarrassing.” It is embarrassing.

 

 

The New Yorker’s Andrew Solomon Fails to Disclose Family Connection to Drugs Prescribed to Adam Lanza.

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Sandy Hook.

BREAKING:

The New Yorker’s Andrew Solomon Fails to Disclose Family Connection to Drugs Prescribed to Adam Lanza.

It seems that the facts of the Sandy Hook shooting continue to be cloaked in secrecy, even by the journalists that cover the tragedy.

Earlier this week, The New Yorker magazine published “The Reckoning: The Father of the Sandy Hook killer searches for answers,” by Andrew Solomon.

The lengthy article was useful from the standpoint of revealing that Adam Lanza actually had been prescribed two – not one -psychiatric mind-altering drugs and had experienced serious adverse reactions to both drugs.

The fact that Adam Lanza had been prescribed the antidepressant CELEXA was made public in the State Police Report earlier this year, but it was Solomon who made pubic Adam’s use of a second antidepressant, LEXAPRO.

Despite revealing the use of Lexapro, nowhere in Solomon’s article does the writer disclose that his father, Howard Solomon, is the Chairman of pharmaceutical giant, Forest Laboratories, the makers of both antidepressants CELEXA and LEXAPRO.  This is bizarre.

Given that, to date, these are the only drugs known to have been prescribed to Adam Lanza, wouldn’t Solomon think it appropriate to disclose his family relationship to the pharmaceutical maker of both drugs?  From a journalistic standpoint it seems unconscionable that Solomon failed to disclose this information.  Did Solomon fail to disclose his relationship with the family’s pharmaceutical company because of the serious adverse reactions Adam experienced while taking both drugs?

Recall that Ablechild sued the State of Connecticut to obtain Adam Lanza’s toxicology report and mental health records. The result of Ablechild’s exhaustive efforts was the State’s Assistant Attorney General, Patrick B. Kwanashie, explaining that the reason for withholding Lanza’s medical records was because it “would cause a lot of people to stop taking their medications.”

What medications would people stop taking? One can only wonder, now, how many psychiatric drugs Adam Lanza had been prescribed and is there some pharmaceutical arm-twisting taking place prohibiting the release of this important information?

Due to a lack of transparency and disclosure in this case, one can only speculate. (see Ablechild Press Release of March 11, 2014)