Besides the tragedy of Rebecca Riley there have been other tragedies involving the experences of families across America with psychotropic drugs. You had mentioned that the parents should request a second opinion from another doctor when the parents are first approached to put their child on a psychotropic drug and that is good advice. The problem seems to be that it is apparently sometimes not that easy to get a second opinion. Here is a link to a trailer on a documentary concerning parents experience with this. A DVD of this documentary can either be purchased or arrangements can be made to show the documentary in your community.

There are parents who want to tell other parents what happened so that these tragedies can be prevented.

Here is the link:

http://www.prescriptionsuicide.com/inde.htm

Again, thanks for discussing this issue in your blog.

Best,

Larry Bone

Have you tried http://clinicaltrials.gov? For the past several years, all information related to clinical trials has been posted to that site.

I disagree with you about the guinea pig effect. Each person is different and will react differently to a medication. Trying one in a low dose is the only way to know whether it’s effectively treating the condition or not. Maybe someday there will be a way to simulate the effect, but for now, there’s just…trying it.

As a parent, I’m the last best stopping point for what will and won’t be given to my child. I think doctors have my child’s best interests at heart and have no reason to think they would prescribe something harmful. In fact, in every case where meds were prescribed for my kids, our doctors have been very forthright about what the possibilities for side effects and the like are.

The mistake comes when the parents assume that doctors and pharmas are gods who have endless knowledge about how a specific person will respond to a specific medication. That’s why I say that parents need to take ownership over what they do.

It’s unlikely that a low-dose trial of a medication will cause physical or mental damage. The harm is done when the parents don’t watch for side effects or other problems with the medication and report them, or mingle over the counter meds (which these parents did) with prescription meds without clearing it through the doc or the pharmacy.

The reason the parents are charged with a crime in this case is because the state views them as their child’s protector and the state feels they (with whatever intent they assign) recklessly medicated their daughter.

I think they stupidly medicated their daughter. They were ignorant, not well educated and didn’t ask questions, choosing instead to accept at face value and then carelessly dispense, powerful medications to their little daughter.

If the preschool was so concerned about her listlessness, why didn’t they report it? They only spoke up when it was too late. It’s that kind of hindsight reporting that does no one any good.