The Neuro-Biological Lie

FRED A. BAUGHMAN JR., M.D.

NEUROLOGY & CHILD NEUROLOGY (Board Certified)

1303 Hidden Mountain Drive

El Cajon, CA 92019

fredbaughmanmd@cox.net

Sandra F. Olson, MD, President                                                    June 5, 2003

American Academy of Neurology

1080 Montreal Ave.

St. Paul, MN

55116

Dear Dr. Olson,

As a Fellow of the American Academy Neurology I am shocked to find it’s leadership (and that of the Child Neurology Society—CNS, with over-lapping membership) colluding with organized psychiatry (American Psychiatric Association—APA, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry--AACAP), pediatrics (American Academy of Pediatrics--AAP), and family practice (American Academy of Family Practice--AAFP), toward the marketplace end of representing to the public-at-large, and to patients, that psychiatric conditions/diagnoses are brain/neurological, disorders/diseases/chemical imbalances, when none of them are, to make “patients” of normal individuals and to elicit and justify their treatment with drugs/ “chemical balancers.” 

Diagnosis is the first, most important, duty of every physician.  As all neurologists know, the first part of diagnosis (1) is to determine whether or not a physical abnormality/disease is present.  In persons in whom an abnormality/disease is found, the physician’s next duty (2) is to determine which abnormality/disease—what physicians know as differential diagnosis.  Neurology is the challenging science and art of diagnosis of abnormalities/diseases of the brain/nervous system. 

Lay persons/patients are easily confused and deceived when it comes to the language of medicine, and have no alternative but to trust us—their physicians.  And what I am speaking about here is a systematic, organized effort to deceive them regarding the fundamental issue of whether or not they are diseased/abnormal or disease-free/normal. 

I have no doubt that you, and all in leadership in the AAN (and CNS), are fully aware that neurology was established as a specialty, apart from psychiatry, in 1948, neurology to deal with physical/organic abnormalities of the brain/nervous system--diseases; psychiatry with emotional and behavioral problems in medically/neurologically normal individuals; in persons in whom physical/organic/neurological abnormalities had been excluded/ruled out.  All of us in neurology (both adult and child neurology) understand this and understand that our legitimate responsibility to psychiatric patients and to our psychiatrist colleagues is that of excluding the presence of organic disease--real disease.  Knowing all of this, it is a betrayal for any physician--neurologists, most of all, to represent to patients, and to the public, that wholly subjective, psychiatric, constructs/conditions, are actual diseases of the brain—neurological diseases--the purpose being to make “patients” of normals.  Nor can it be denied that this is what is going on, in the US, on a massive scale.   An ethical psychiatrist-friend recently observed that the “invented diseases” industry rakes in billions of dollars.

The Diagnosis and Drugging of ADHD

Picture of Ritalin

via The Huffington Post:

Dr. Peter Breggin, reform psychiatrist

The Diagnosing and Drugging of 'ADHD' Children -- An American Tragedy Worsens

The diagnosing of millions of children with ADHD in order to medicate them with stimulants and other psychoactive chemicals is an American tragedy, growing into a worldwide catastrophe. Never before in history has a society attempted to deal with its children by drugging a significant portion of them into conformity while failing to meet their needs in the home, school and society. The ethical scientist or physician, the concerned parent or teacher, must feel stricken with grief and dumbfounded that we have allowed the interests of powerful advocacy groups to completely override the interests of our children.

To make matters worse, on Oct. 16, 2011 the American Academy of Pediatrics overrode the FDA and recommended that children as young as age four be diagnosed with ADHD and given the stimulant methylphenidate (e.g., Ritalin, Metadate, Focalin, Daytrana and Concerta). 

The scientific literature actually shows that 50 percent or more of children this young when given Ritalin, Focalin, Dexedrine, Adderall and other stimulants will become obviously depressed, lethargic, weepy -- but more manageable. Moreover, it's been proven time and again that the stimulants stunt their growth. In addition, studies show that stimulants will permanently change their brain chemistry, cause shrinkage of brain tissue, predispose children to cocaine addiction in young adulthood, stigmatize them with a false diagnosis and push them toward becoming permanent consumers of psychiatric drugs.

This endorsement of drugging younger children by the American Academy of Pediatrics is an outrage. While focusing on ADHD and stimulants, the endorsement will open the door to every other psychiatric drug. Those weepy children who are having adverse reactions to stimulants will have an antidepressant added to their daily drug dose. When some of them become overstimulated, sedatives will be added to the regimen. When some of them develop drug-induced hallucinations and delusions, or mania, mood stabilizers and antipsychotics will be added.

These new guidelines will encourage prescribers to throw caution to the wind with toddlers, opening a Pandora's box of drug intervention for children. Many young children will have their brains bathed with powerful and often toxic chemicals in the early years of their central nervous system development.

read the entire article here.