(from left to right...Accusing prosecutors finger, a Stephen King impersonator and a chick goofed on qualuudes. )
Early on the morning of Dec. 13, police officers responding to a 911 call
arrived at a house in Hull, Mass., a seaside town near Boston, and
found a 4-year-old girl on the floor of her parents’ bedroom, dead.
She was lying on her side, in a pink diaper, the police said, sprawled across some discarded magazines and a stuffed brown bear.
Last week, prosecutors in Plymouth County charged the parents, Michael and
Carolyn Riley, with deliberately poisoning their daughterRebecca by giving her overdoses of prescription drugs to sedate her.
The police said the girl had been taking a potent cocktail of psychiatric
drugs since age 2, when she was given a diagnosis of attention deficit
disorder and bipolar disorder, which is characterized by mood
swings.
(Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 2??? TWO??? Un-FUCKING-believable.)
The parents have pleaded not guilty, with their lawyers questioning whether
the child should have been prescribed such powerful drugs.
( Now there's a suprise. )
The case has shaken a region known for the excellence of its social and
medical services. The director of the state’s Department of Social
Services has had to defend his agency, which had been investigating the
case before the girl’s death.
The girl’s treating psychiatrist has taken a voluntary, paid leave until the case is resolved. And New Englanders
are raising questions that are now hotly debated within psychiatry, and
which have broad implications for how young children likeRebecca Riley are cared for.
Tufts-New England Medical Center, where the child was treated, released a
statement supporting its doctor and calling the care “appropriate and
within responsible professional standards.”
( Sure it was, you fucking whores to the pharmaceutical companies. )
Indeed, the practice of aggressive drug treatment for young children labeled
bipolar has become common across the country. In just the last decade, the rate of bipolar diagnosis in children under 13 has increased almost sevenfold, according
to a study based on hospital discharge records. And a typical treatment
includes multiple medications.
( I remember "Conduct Disorder", and
"Borderline Personality Disorder", and "Multiple Personality Disorder"
diagnosis' rolling in on the waves of new drugs that were flooding the
market...here we go again. )
Rebecca was taking Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug; Depakote, an equally powerful mood medication; and Clonidine, a blood pressure drug often prescribed to calm children.
( Can you believe a 2 year old was taking
this shit?...The rest of the article continues below and when I calm
down enough to think it through I'll post a commentary. )
The rising rates of diagnosis and medication use strike some doctors and
advocates for patients as a dangerous fad that exposes ever-younger
children to powerful drugs.Antipsychotics like Seroquel or Risperdal ,
which are commonly prescribed for bipolar disorder, can cause weight
gain and changes in blood sugar — risk factors for diabetes.
Some child psychiatrists say bipolar disorder has become an all-purpose label for aggression.
“Bipolar is absolutely being overdiagnosed
in children, and the major downside is that people then think they have
a solution and are not amenable to listening to alternatives,” which
may not include drugs, said Dr. Gabrielle Carlson, a professor of
psychiatry and pediatrics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine
on Long Island.
Paraphrasing H. L. Mencken, Dr. Carlson added, “Every serious problem has an easy solution that is usually wrong.”
Others disagree, insisting that increased awareness of bipolar disorder and use of some medications has benefited many children.
“The first thing to say is that the world does not see the kids we see; these are very difficult patients,” said Dr. John T. Walkup, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. Walkup said that when drug treatment was done right, it could turn around the life of a child with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
Dr. Jean Frazier, director of child psychopharmacology
at Cambridge Health Alliance and an associate professor at Harvard,
said that up to three-quarters of children who exhibit bipolar symptoms
become suicidal, and that it is important to treat the problem as early
as possible.
“We’re talking about a serious illness with high
morbidity, and mortality,” Dr. Frazier said, “and for some of these
children the medications can be life-giving.”
Still, most child
psychiatrists agree that there are still questions about applying the
diagnosis to very young children. Recent research has found that most
children who receive the diagnosis are emotionally explosive but do not
go on to develop the classic features of the disorder, like euphoria.
They are far more likely to become depressed.
And many
therapists have found that some patients referred to them for bipolar
disorder are actually suffering from something else.
“Most of the patients I see who have been misdiagnosed have been told they have bipolar disorder,” said Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a professor of psychiatry at Boston University who runs a trauma clinic.
“The diagnosis is made with no understanding of the context of their life,” Dr. van der Kolk said. “Then they’re put on these devastating medications and condemned to a life as a psychiatry patient.”
Details about what happened to Rebecca are still emerging. A relative of her mother, Carolyn Riley, 32, told the police that Rebecca seemed “sleepy and drugged” most days, according to the charging documents.
One preschool teacher said that at about 2 p.m. every day the girl came to life, “as if the medication Rebecca was on was wearing off,” according to the documents.
Defense
lawyers are also focusing on the question of medication. “What I want
to know,” said John Darrell, a lawyer for Mr. Riley, “is how in the
world you diagnose a 2-year-old and give her these strong medicines
that are not approved for children.”
A lawyer for Rebecca’s psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts-New England Medical Center, did not return calls seeking comment.
Some experts say the temptation to medicate can be powerful.
“Parents
very often want a quick fix,” Dr. Carlson said, “and doctors rarely
have much time to spend with them, and the great appeal of prescribing
a medication is that it’s simple.
“To me one of the miracle of children’s brains is that we don’t see more harm from these treatments.”
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