Not long ago, while reading through the pages of the New York Times, I came upon an article that really grabbed me, not because it was about some new horror abroad or another political debacle at home, but rather because it limned so cleanly the way American lives are changing. It was a story in the paper’s “house and home” section about the rise in popularity of the “triple-wide” medicine cabinets.
As the Times put it,
“First there were French fries. Then there were sport utility vehicles. Now even the most private of domestic preserves, the medicine cabinet, has been supersized. With the sales of lotions, potions, ‘nutraceuticals’ and pharmaceuticals climbing to new heights, manufactures are responding with medicine cabinets that are taller, wider and deeper than ever before.”
The article included photographs of the classic bathroom cabinet – the tiny stained wall hanger that most ofus grew up with –and a slew of the new breed: the “floor-to-ceiling,” the “walk-in” the “super-deep and super wide.” There were cabinets with built-in defoggers andother hinged with fancy rubber gaskets so that they don’t go “click” when one doesn’t want them to go click. The designer’s ingenuity was stunning, the new owners’ justifications for their triple-wides quirky or peevish. “He’s obsessed with muscle power pills!” complained one woman of her husband’s quest for more medicine chest space.
Everybody wanted bigger ones, better ones.
Over the past decade the use of these drugs, almost all for chronic diseases, has soared. The average number of prescriptions per person, annually, in 1993 was seven. The average number of prescriptions per person, annually, in 2000 was eleven. In 2004, it was twelve. The total number of annual prescriptions in the United States now stands at about 3 billion. The cost per year? About 180 billion, headed to an estimated 414 billion next year, 2011.
There’s another number to consider: In 2004, almost half of all Americans used at least one prescription drug on a daily basis, amazingly, about 3 our of 6 are children.
Another documentary showing us how wonderful the world we live in, and how it’s run by a group of very powerful and rich people. It tells the story of the high risk of prescribed drugs, and more importantly, reveals the people who run these companies and how they are all entangled and conflicting directly with rules and ethics. Like I always say, do your research.
To counter their evil we need to get to the root of the evil first.
At the very least this movie raises a lot of good questions. The number of people on prescription meds in the world right now is astounding. How did we ever get by for the thousands of years of human history without these drugs when we are now finding as many as one in three school kids needing to be medicated. Is it depression or boredom? is it Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or an active child's mind not being challenged and engaged? Long term side-effects? Increased tendencies towards suicide.
For decades, scores of doctors, government officials, journalists, and others have extolled the benefits of psychiatric medicines for children. GenerationRx presents "the rest of the story" and unveils how this era of unprecedented change in Western culture really occurred - and what price has been paid by our society.
On the streets they’re pushed…but in thousands of schools for millions of kids – they’re prescribed.
The biggest shock for me came when I realized how deep and pervasive the conflicts-of-interest really are. There is one scene in the film that really underscores the depths of the problem. It involves a prominent FDA official who helped to cover-up the side effects of Prozac — a man who also approved SSRI drugs for kids — and how his actions directly effected a friend of his own family. That scene still gives me the chills each time I watch it.
I recently brought my dog to the vet for chewing of her paws, and immediately she was prescribed Prozac. After I researched the effficacy of Prozac, I quickly came to the understanding that this is a harmful drug and decided to make an intelligent decision to not put my dog on it. Today, she has overcome the chewing...all I did was give her a little more attention and love.
Definitely a film that every parent should see.
The film very clearly lays out that we have allowed psychiatry — the least scientific of all of medicine — to sidestep the bounds of what the FDA calls “safe and effective.” We have numbed too many of our young Galileo’s with these powerful drugs without concern for the long-term effects, and as a result, we’ve seen thousands of children committing violent acts and suicides, just for starters.
The worst part of this is that one of the side effects of Ritalin and the stimulant medicines, for example, is the very real possibility that a child or teen will have a psychotic reaction. If a kid gets a psychotic reaction, then doctors and psychiatrists often use this as an opportunity to label the kid as bipolar.
Once they’re labeled bipolar, they prescribed antipsychotics for life! These drugs are being used far too cavalierly. It is both unethical and immoral — and needs to be stopped.
Considering the trend, we are going to see our future leaders on these drugs if we don’t recognize the folly of our ways. The rampant overuse of these drugs must be reversed or we face a frightening prospect.
Definitely a film that every parent should see.
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