Neurology Specialist: As ADHD 'Fraud' Harms Kids, FDA Protects Drug Companies
by Jim Brown
February 17, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A retired physician who specialized in child neurology says the Food and Drug Administration is more concerned about protecting attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs and their manufacturers than it is about protecting patients taking the so-called "chemical balancers." According to an FDA report, 51 people died after taking drugs to treat ADHD between 1999 and 2003. Nevertheless, the FDA claims "conclusions about the safety" of Ritalin and other methylphenidates and amphetamines such as Adderall "cannot be made on the basis of this analysis."
Retired pediatric neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman, who recently submitted testimony to an FDA advisory panel, says almost all psychiatric labeling of and prescribing of drugs to children begins with the ADHD label and drugs, even though this much-touted condition has never actually been proven to be a disease.
"In the instance of ADHD," Baughman contends, "all patients across the country, as is orchestrated by U.S. psychiatry, are told that they've got a chemical imbalance of the brain, a disease of the brain. This is a flat-out lie. So all patients in the U.S. today are deprived of their right to informed consent."
Last year Health Canada temporarily suspended sales of the drug Adderall after several reports of sudden death in people who took it, the retired physician points out. "So here we are giving highly addictive, dangerous and -- now we're finding out -- deadly drugs to children who have no detectable disease whatsoever. And that is flatly wrong," he says.
It is also fraudulent, Baughman asserts, especially "when one considers that parents and the public are told that this thing, ADHD, is a disease with no such proof." And yet, he says, children are becoming addicted, are having their brains and bodies damaged, and are dying, while the FDA continues to "study" these drugs' impact on young people.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
