In April 2008, Patty, Amy Philo, Marla Fidili from CCHR, Mathy Downing, whose 12-year-old daughter committed suicide after being given Zoloft off-label for test anxiety, and about 40 more advocacy allies, went to Washington to lobby against the Mother's Act.
The latest evidence of infants being harmed by psychiatric drugs ingested by their mothers was reported on July 2, 2010, with a Medscape Today headline, "Psychotropic Medications Linked to Serious Adverse Drug Reactions in Children," for a study by Danish researchers of 4,500 adverse drug reactions (ADRs), in children younger than 17, listed in the national Danish ADR database between 1998 and 2007.
The results showed 429 reports were from psychotropic drugs, with the largest share from stimulants at 42%, followed by antidepressants with 31%, and antipsychotics at 24.5%.
Almost 19%, or 80 of the ADRs, were for children between the age of birth and 2. All but one was serious, with two deaths associated with the SSRIs Celexa and Prozac. These findings were "probably due to the mothers' intake of psychotropic medicine, primarily antidepressants and antipsychotics, during pregnancy," the study authors wrote.
Sheila and Patty, along with Amy Philo, Mathy Downing, and Vicky Dunkle, received an "Outstanding Achievement Award for Children's Rights," in February 2009, at CCHR's annual banquet, highlighted by a video tribute featuring much of their work.
In April 2009, Sheila drafted a petition in support of the "Parental Consent Act," and made it available on Ablechild's website for persons to sign and send to members of Congress. Introduced by Texas Congressman and physician, Ron Paul, the bill prohibits federal funds from being used to establish or implement any universal or mandatory mental health screening program for public school students and establishes a parent's right to refuse screening of a child without fear of being charged with child abuse or neglect. In an April 30, 2009 speech, Paul pointed out that "parents are already being threatened with child abuse charges if they resist efforts to drug their children."
"Imagine how much easier it will be to drug children against their parents' wishes if a federally-funded mental-health screener makes the recommendation," he said.
Million Kids Misdiagnosed With ADHD
After a decade of work by Sheila and Patty to expose the fraud behind labeling kids with ADHD, on August 17, 2010, USA Today reported that a new study from Michigan State University found n early 1 million children may have been misdiagnosed with ADHD, not because of any real behavioral problems, but because they were the youngest in the class.
Children who are the youngest in their grades are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than the oldest kids, according to the study published in the Journal of Health Economics. In fifth and eighth grade, the youngest children were more than two times as likely to be on Ritalin compared with the oldest students, the study found.
(This article is the first in an on-going series honoring the many "Unsung Heroes" in the two decade battle against the drugging of children by the Psychopharmaceutical industrial Complex).
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