Hundreds of Thousands of Babies on Antidepressants & Psychotropic Drugs

Vic Bishop, Staff Writer
Waking Times

Parenting has never been easy, but parents certainly face some new challenges in the 21st century. Making medical choices for your children is one of many responsibilities, and in the era of mandatory vaccines and big-pharma influence over the medcial establishment, decisions which once may have been easy to make are now more complex than ever before.

Take mental health, for example. Never before in the history of human kind have we suffered from such dreadful mental health, and never before have human beings used chemicals like modern pharmaceuticals to regulate their emotional and spiritual well-being by tinkering with body chemistry. Psychotropics are chemical pharmaceuticals that change brain chemistry and create alterations in mood, consciousness and perception. Whatever your opinion of them is, they are a here to stay in our society, they can have extremely negative side effects, and they are even linked to some very shocking incidents of public violence. These drugs can be dangerous.

“As far as antipsychotics, antianxiety drugs and antidepressants, the FDA and international drug regulatory agencies cite side effects including, but not limited to, psychosis, mania, suicidal ideation, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and even sudden death.” [Source]

Numbers gathered in 2013 show that even the youngest members of our society are being drugged with psychotropic medications, begging the question of how we should responsibly and ethically address child behavior in our society. According to data in 2013, over half a million very young children are currently taking mind-altering medications, with over a quarter of a million infants (0-1 year olds) included on this list.

“An analysis of 2013 IMS Data, found that over 274,000 infants (0-1 year olds) and some 370,000 toddlers (1-3 years age) in the U.S. were on antianxiety (e.g. Xanax) and antidepressant (e.g. Prozac) drugs. This report also found over 1,400 infants were on ADHD drugs.” [Source]

The numbers in this survey suggest that around 10,000 infants are taking drugs for ADHD, but some say that these estimates are far too low, and that in reality, millions of children nationwide are taking the medications.

“…the actual numbers of infants and toddlers being prescribed psychiatric drugs dwarfs the 10,000 2-3 year olds being prescribed ADHD drugs.[1] The mental health watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says according to documents CCHR obtained from IMS Health, the world’s leading health information and analytics company, hundreds of thousands of toddlers are being prescribed far more powerful psychiatric drugs than just ADHD drugs, and most alarming of all is the more than 274,000 0-1 year olds prescribed psychiatric drugs.[2]” [Source]

In many cases, children are given these drugs ‘off-label,’ as it is euphamistically called, meaning that the drug is being used to treat something that is not indicated by the drug’s recomendations. This can have serious consequences, and additionally, we truly have no accurate understanding of what the long term effects of taking these drugs are, as many of these pharmaceuticals are relatively new to the market.

Closing

For an adult to choose to medicate themselves is a logical expression of freedom of choice, but minors do not have equal sovereignty when it comes to forced medication. Furthermore, how can we be certain that our evaluations of the mental health of children are in any way accurate? The drugging of children with mind-altering drugs is one of the greatest medical crimes and human rights violations of all time, and is going largely unprotested.

For a first hand view of what it’s like to be a kid on ADHD medications having a rough time in school, take a look at this kid’s life on meds, which he describes as ‘Mental Handcuffs.’ While not a toddler, Minimum Max, eloquently shares a kid’s perspective on this complex issue.

About the Author

Vic Bishop is a staff writer for Waking Times.

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