Are Your Children Crazy?

http://www.healthsentinel.com/org_ne...st_item&id=101

Dr. Jane M. Orient, "Are Your Children Crazy?", Health Sentinel, July
27, 2006,

Congress and President Bush apparently think that a lot of children
have a "mental health" problem. Or that enough of them do to justify
taking millions of dollars from taxpayers to fund a universal "mental
health screening" for children, and eventually for everyone.

Personally, I think - from the perspective of a person who never had
any - that almost all children act crazy. Those who don't are, by
definition, abnormal, because they don't act like the others.

The main problem with about half of them is that they are boys. Such
children are obviously made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. On
the farm there is a solution for that: a procedure for turning boy
lambs into non-ram lambs. After a quick little operation, they act like
peaceful little lambs instead of aggressive, disruptive rams.

We don't do surgery like that on little boys, of course, but we do have
our methods: such as behavioral therapy and chemicals.

There are those who argue with some passion that society has to do
something. Bad, disruptive, antisocial or depressed little kids make
lots of trouble for parents and schoolteachers. Worse, they can grow up
into dysfunctional, unhappy or troublemaking adults. That snotty little
boy might become a dissenting nonconformist or even a rebellious man,
who could throw a monkey wrench into our smoothly functioning society.
We have to catch them early - for their own good.

Teams of experts are awaiting the infusion of cash. They'll be
ensconced in your child's school before you even know it. A bonus is
that your little darlings will probably give them quite a bit of
information about you also, and then you too can receive therapy you
didn't know you needed.

Do you sometimes raise your voice? Ever spank them? Hug them
inappropriately? Have politically incorrect attitudes? Use forbidden
words? Own a gun? Smoke cigarettes, especially indoors? Read extremist
literature? Refuse to recycle? Prepare for a knock on the door.

There are many tools at the disposal of the mental health squad.
Counseling sessions. Drugs (Ritalin, antidepressants, tranquilizers,
maybe some new ones that need to be tested on some experimental
subjects of your child's age). Group therapy. Removing the child from
the home. (This may be a "last resort," but often the mere threat can
accomplish wonders.)

If an interview with a child raises concerns, the next step might be a
home visit. This could discover poor parenting skills, inadequate
housekeeping, harmful literature, or a baby who is crying or has a
bruise (signs of abuse?).

It is true that some interventions have potential side effects, say
drug dependence or suicide, but to assure the health of the population
some shared sacrifice and risk are needed. We will have excellent means
of tracking outcomes to improve future therapies. The mental health
workers' impressions will all be recorded in the school records. An
added benefit could accrue to would-be employers or college recruiters.

Some cautions are in order. Democrats might think that potential future
Republicans are crazy. Republicans might think the opposite. Should an
extremist Christian be one of the screeners, he might think that
nonbelievers are possessed by the devil. And an extremist secular
humanist (if such exist) might think that an overly religious child is
at risk for mental illness if not already impaired.

In fact, parents ought to be asking some very serious questions before
the government experts interview the first child.

What are the credentials of the screeners? Most importantly, how many
children have they raised to adulthood, and with what outcome?

What are the criteria for possible abnormality? What is the scientific
validation? How often do different observers agree? Have any long-term
studies shown a solid correlation with adult performance in life? Do
today's oddball children fail, or might they turn into our greatest
achievers?

Will you be allowed to get a second opinion? Can you see the record and
enter corrections if indicated? Will the record at any point be
destroyed, or will the stigma of a diagnosis such as "personality
disorder" follow the child throughout life?

What will happen if your child fails the screen? What sort of treatment
will be given? Who will supervise it? What if you don't approve of it?

What's the very worst thing that the program will have the power to do
to you or your child, say if your worst enemy were to gain control of
it?

Who might profit from the program (perhaps discoverable by asking who
lobbied for it)? Do drug companies expect to have a large number of new
consumers of their psychoactive drugs?

What are the results of studies of long-term use of drugs like Ritalin,
which has effects on the brain similar to those of cocaine? Have there
even been any such studies?

Can you refuse to participate in the program? If you do refuse, what
are the repercussions?

What is the evidence that the program, at best, will be anything other
than a waste of millions of dollars? Miraculously, throughout human
history most of those crazy children have become stable, productive
adults without federally mandated psychiatric treatment. Still more
amazingly, their parents have managed also.

Psychiatry in the hands of government, instead of independent
physicians who are working for patients, reeks of Orwell's 1984 or the
Soviet era. The very need to ask the questions should tell us the right
answer for this program: It's crazy.

Dr. Jane M. Orient is an internist practicing in Tucson, AZ and
executive director of the Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons. Copyright 2004 United Press International. Reprinted with
permission.