Free drugs for all!

[andrewducker]

Bush apparently intends to have everyone in the US tested for mental health problems and then given anti-psychotic drugs made by his campaign contributors.

The president's commission found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children. According to the commission, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders." Schools, wrote the commission, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.

The commission also recommended "Linkage [of screening] with treatment and supports" including "state-of-the-art treatments" using "specific medications for specific conditions." The commission commended the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a "model" medication treatment plan that "illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes."

But the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, sparked off controversy when Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, revealed that key officials with influence over the medication plan in his state received money and perks from drug companies with a stake in the medication algorithm (15 May, p1153). He was sacked this week for speaking to the BMJ and the New York Times.

Eli Lilly, manufacturer of olanzapine, has multiple ties to the Bush administration. George Bush Sr was a member of Lilly's board of directors and Bush Jr appointed Lilly's chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, to a seat on the Homeland Security Council. Lilly made $1.6m in political contributions in 2000—82% of which went to Bush and the Republican Party.

Jones points out that the companies that helped to start up the Texas project have been, and still are, big contributors to the election funds of George W Bush. In addition, some members of the New Freedom Commission have served on advisory boards for these same companies, while others have direct ties to the Texas Medication Algorithm Project.

Comments

True......

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

F**K ME!

Seems like a major plank in Kerry's campaign. A drugged population is a compliant population. Wanna bet "Asking un-American questions" is symptomatic of mental disorder?

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

Well, I got to say for the Bush Administration, they sure dance with them that brung 'em.

Vitriol forthcoming.

[odheirre.livejournal.com]

Yes, having Bush and company using government rules to line the pockets of contributors is wrong. Yes, having forced medication is bad. Yes, using higher-priced medication when generics could do just as well is bad.

However, depression and other psychiatric ailments have been woefully underdiagnosed. People with no health care, and the children of said people, aren't going to go to the hospital because they're feeling under the weather.

So, the question in my mind is should this be entirely scrapped, or just reworked to show diagnosis and not treatment.

[andrewducker]

The basic idea "better diagnosis of mentally ill people followed by decent treatment." is a good one.

However, this seems to be an explicit attempt to get ill people out of hospitals and back onto the streets, albeit in a medicated state. I firmly believe that counselling and other kinds of psychiatric treatment are more suited to most mentally ill people (largely because the massive increases in recent years almost certainly stem from societal problems not brain-chemical ones). Medication can certainly help people in need of mood-stabilisation or anti-psychotics, but it should be a single part of (some) treatment, not the be and end all.

[whiterabbitt.livejournal.com]

I thought conservatives were against public health care and big government. Can they selectively embrace such a unilateral and clearly-defined platform?

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Maybe they're confusing "Democrat" with "Psychotic". Happens a lot with partisan politics.

[douglasbryant.livejournal.com]

It's getting to the point where Americans will start joining the taliban, in a religious effort to free the world from this evil....

It surprises me how consequently evil, this person is in all his doings, doesn't he ever get tired or bored it, you would think that sooner or later he would accidently do something good.

I have totally given up on America, I used to think it was a cool place with the best of everything, now it's the worlds toilet.