Dr. Breggin continues to devote a considerable amount of time and energy to stopping the psychiatric drugging of children and to offering better alternatives through improved family life, education, and community. He critiques the medication and diagnosing of children (most especially the diagnosing of ADHD) and offers better approaches in many of his books, including Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry (2008), the Ritalin Fact Book (2002), Talking Back to Ritalin (revised, 2001), and the Antidepressant Fact Book (2000). Reclaiming Our Children starts with an analysis of what happened surrounding the mass murders at Columbine High School and then looks toward solutions within the family, schools and community.
Medication Madness (July 2008) tells the stories of several children Dr. Breggin helped rescue from medication toxicity by going to court on their behalf.
In The Heart of Being Helpful Dr. Breggin addresses therapy and counseling with children, and the importance of childhood in forming the grown adult's outlook on life.
In The War Against Children of Color he and Ginger Breggin criticise racist psychiatric programs aimed at the control of inner city children, as well as a psychosurgery project that mutliated the brains of children as young as five at a Mississippi medical center in the 1970s.
In the section titled "Stimulants and ADHD" are several of Dr. Breggin's articles critical of psychiatric medicating and diagnosing of children.
Dr. Breggin’s BLOG contains his most recent thoughts and observations on the psychiatric diagnosing and drugging of children in America.
A Misdiagnosis, Anywhere. The New York Times, Oct 13, 2011.
The drugging of children for A.D.H.D. has become an epidemic. More than 5
million U.S. children, or 9.5 percent, were diagnosed with A.D.H.D. as
of 2007. About 2.8 million had received a prescription for a stimulant
medication in 2008. ...
Risks and Mechanism of Action of Stimulants. NIH Consensus
Development Conference on Diagnosis and Treatment of Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder, November 16-18, 1998.
Ethical Human Sciences and Services Vol. 2 No. 2 (2000). Editorial.
Prescriptions of Ritalin and of various antidepressants for children as young as two is on the rise, even though the drugs are not FDA approved for use in children, and, indeed, have been shown to have particularly severe adverse reactions in children.
Most psychiatric drugs can cause withdrawal reactions, sometimes including life-threatening emotional and physical withdrawal problems. In short, it is not only dangerous to start taking psychiatric drugs, it can also be dangerous to stop them. Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs should be done carefully under experienced clinical supervision. Methods for safely withdrawing from psychiatric drugs are discussed in Dr. Breggin's new book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients, and Their Families.
Psychostimulants in the treatment of children diagnosed with ADHD: Risks and mechanism of action
05/15/2008
