New Warnings on Fatal Side Effects of ADHD Drugs

After decades of psychiatrists championing ADHD stimulants as safe and effective, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced, in February this year, that all ADHD drug manufacturers must warn the public that the drugs can cause serious psychiatric and cardiovascular problems, including mania, heart attack, stroke and sudden death. Considering the fact that in the U.S., ADHD drugs raked in nearly $3 billion in profits in 2005 alone, it is no wonder that the American Psychiatric Association consistently criticizes anyone who dares expose the dangers of these drugs and regularly misrepresents their safety and efficacy:

• The APA has repeatedly said that ADHD drugs are "safe and effective" with only "minimal side effects," a claim found on the APA’s website.
• APA President Steven Sharfstein stated that cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen and public health sciences professor Dr. Curt Furberg’s concern about the cardiovascular adverse events connected with ADHD drugs were "unsupported by clear evidence."
• David Fassler, child and adolescent psychiatrist and trustee of the APA called ADHD drugs "safe and well-tolerated."

Similarly, the APA has heralded antidepressants, which reaped $12.5 billion in 2005, as safe and effective, despite the link between antidepressants and child and adolescent suicide, now established by the FDA. Contrary to these warnings, APA’s David Fassler stated "The SSRI antidepressants are generally well tolerated by children and adolescents…there is no scientific evidence to suggest that these medications increase the risk of suicide." Former APA president Rudrigo Munoz claimed, "…there is very little evidence to prove a causal relationship between the use of antidepressant medications and destructive behavior." The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a psychiatric watchdog group, has published a new report showing that psychiatrists spun data in an attempt to link black box warnings on antidepressants to increased suicide rates--an allegation which proves unfounded and faulty. This report further reveals that the psychiatrists making this claim have significant financial ties to antidepressant manufacturers.

Despite increasing international warnings on the risks of psychiatric drugs, they are prescribed to children without any objective, scientific tests done beforehand–such as blood tests, brain scans or X-rays–that would show there is anything physically wrong with a child that needs "medication." Read the Report on the Escalating International Warnings on Psychiatric Drugs by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights to learn more about the dangers of psychiatric drugs, or click here to discover more instances where the president of the APA and other psychiatrists lied about the effectiveness or scientific basis of psychiatric "treatment."

Brian Beaumont, President of the Vancouver chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights stated, "The fact is, there is nothing in the medical, scientific literature that confirms objective abnormality ('objective abnormality' equates to disease) in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Conduct Disorder (CD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Post-partum Depression, 'math disorder' or hundreds of other 'diseases' that psychiatrists swear up and down are 'biological.' If they were biological, scientists would be able to see evidence in blood workups, x-rays, urinalyses, taps of spinal fluid, or something. But they can’t."

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights, and to clean up the field of mental healing.