DAVE TRAXSON - 'The Psychologist' Periodical - May 2011 Issue - Letter from Dave Traxson,"DRUGGING SCHOOLCHILDREN AS SOCIAL CONTROL." - with views of a representative of The Royal College of Psychiatry on the dangers of DSM5.

THERE IS NO HIGHER FORM OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR THAN: TELLING THE TRUTH AND SHAMING  THE DEVIL.        WALT WHITMAN
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http://www.channel4.com/news/adhd-drugs-prescribed-to under-6s-against-guidelines

Following my keynote
address at the Association of
Educational Psychologists’
Annual Course in November
2010 and my seminars at the
BPS Division of Educational
Psychology (DECP)
conference in January,
there has been a lot of
media interest in my call
for a national review of
psychotropic drugs used to
control behaviours that are
sometimes within the normal
range. Also, I have highlighted
the concern about the
imminent arrival of DSM-5
from the US, with it’s more
inclusive spectral definitions
of mental health, such as ‘subclinical,
normal variation ASC,
ADHD, social anxiety
[shyness], and depression
[sadness]’. Dr Tim Kendall
(representing the Royal
College of Psychiatrists and
NICE) agreed with my level of
concern on a Radio 4 Woman’s
Hour programme on 11
February, stating that the
revised DSM-5 should not be
readily adopted by
psychiatrists, paediatricians
and psychologists alike in the
UK.

Dr Tim Kendall, representing the RCP on 'Womans Hour' - 11-1-11 said that introduction of the new DSM5 in 2013 should be resisted in the U.K., otherwise 'we' would all end up with a mental health category.

I was delighted when the
chairs of the BPS Division of
Clinical Psychology (DCP)
and DECP both lent their
support my call for a national
review of this strategy in their
statement of 9 February.
Peter Kinderman,
chair of DCP stated in
this press release, which
was published in the
March issue of The
Psychologist: ‘Clearly, it is
important to understand
children’s behavioural
and psychological
problems fully, and to
invest in proper, expert,
therapeutic approaches.

We would be very concerned
if children were being
  prescribed medication as a 'quick fix'rather than accessing the full psychological therapies which may take longer and cost more but ultimately are likely
to be better value in the long
run.’

I am naturally delighted
with the support for a national
review about the safeguarding
issues involved in
overmedicating school
children.

We must act quickly prior
to the release of DSM-5
produced by the American
Psychiatric Association.
A lot
of UK practitioners may use
this schedule unless there is
resistance from the
professional bodies such as the
BPS and the Royal College of
Psychiatrists in this country.
Within the BPS there is
close work with psychiatrists
to ensure better mental health
across the board. If there is
evidence of inappropriate use
of drugs or medication then
we’re sure that our psychiatry
colleagues would be equally
concerned.

Seminal book on the abuse of the DSM4-5's Systematisation of Mental Illness, Dorothy Rowe's introduction makes a clear statement that drugging children with dubious'diagnoses' is a systemic form of social control.

The time is right to extend
the debate amongst
practitioners of all disciplines
before it is too late and we
adopt by default the shocking
American practice of drugging
12 per cent of their whole
school population for attention
difficulties alone, and then
high percentages for other
conditions. Drug companies
would ideally like to medicate
20+ per cent of all children
who they claim have one
mental health diagnosis or
another. 

Do we want this to be the meaning that more and more children have about their lives in this society today and more so in the future?

The eminent
psychologist Dorothy Rowe
concludes in the foreword of
the new edition of Making Us
Crazy – DSM: The Psychiatric
Bible and the Creation of Mental
Disorders (2010) by Herb
Kutchins et al. that it is
reasonable to conclude that
this practice is a systemic form
of social control.
I urge psychologists,
medical practitioners and
teacher colleagues to
contemplate their own
response to this crucial
societal issue.
Dave Traxson