To pay due respects to the Child & Adolescent Psychopharmacology Convention occurring from March 15-17, 2019, led by Joseph Biederman, who popularized the use of antipsychotic drugs on young children, the following article is presented.
There was an example of generating multiple diseases in a young child through the use of a single drug portrayed in an article published in April, 2017, titled “Why Are Doctors Giving Anti-Psychotic Drugs to Toddlers?” by Dyan Neary. The article was published in The Cut.
The following is a summary of some of the diseases that were caused to the child by his psychiatric treatment as given in the news story:
In 2004, Lori Perry, a mother of three young boys, was having trouble with the rambunctiousness of her oldest son, Frankie. Consequently when he was just four years old, at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Frankie was diagnosed as having ADHD and Pervasive Developmental Disorder and prescribed the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.
Almost immediately after he was started on the drug Risperdal, Frankie began stumbling as he walked, moving very slowly and he started drooling. When Frankie’s mother told his psychiatrist, Sharon Hirsch, about Frankie’s new physical difficulties she doubled the dose of his prescription.
A few weeks later, Frankie’s father took him to see the psychiatrist again because he was gaining weight so fast. Psychiatrist Hirsch addressed this issue by again doubling Frankie’s dose of Risperdal. He was gaining weight so rapidly that after being on the drug for only 11 weeks his body weight had tripled. (That is not a typo.)
After Frankie had been on Risperdal for nine months his father brought him back to the hospital because Frankie had developed facial twitches and a grimace on his face resembling an upside down smile. He had also developed a neurological malady that made him hold one of his hands at an odd angle. All these symptoms showed he was developing tardive dyskinesia in various parts of his body, a common disease caused to people who are made to take antipsychotic drugs. Again his psychiatrist increased his dose of Risperdal.
In November, 2005, another psychiatrist at the hospital took over the management of Frankie’s “care.” His name was Poonam Jha. He noted on Frankie’s chart that he now had “poor coordination, left-sided weakness, no progress with physical skills/strength/balance.” Other signs at this time that the Risperdal was taking a toll were that Frankie’s “tongue continually drooped out of his mouth” and he had “developed breasts.” One of the common side effects of Risperdal is that it can cause boys to grow breasts, even breasts that are pendulous and lactating.
In April, 2006, Frankie fell down some stairs. He complained “that his ‘legs wouldn’t work.’” Frankie’s mother, Lori, then googled “Risperdal side effects” and soon realized that a lot of the physical damage to her son by the Risperdal could be permanent. Lori took her son to a pediatric neurologist named Peter Heydemann and he assigned the cause of Frankie’s physical disabilities to “Risperdal toxicity.” Lori weaned him off the toxin for a week and then stopped it altogether.
It turned out that Karen Pierce, the psychiatrist who initially prescribed Risperdal for Frankie when he was four years old and Sharon Hirsch, the psychiatrist who kept upping Frankie’s doses of the toxin even when it was evident it was causing him life-long diseases, were both paid public speakers for multiple psychiatric drug companies including Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries, including, in Hirsch’s case, the subsidiary that makes the toxic, disease-generating drug Risperdal.
Today, Frankie is in his late teens. He is highly intelligent and interested in political science. He is a blogger and maintains a website about human rights. However, despite being on the toxin Risperdal for only 20 months at the ages of 4 and 5, he remains obese, he still has clumsiness and weakness in his limbs and fingers, he still has “tremors in his hands, arms and legs,” he sometimes experiences painful muscle rigidity and he has trouble controlling his hands enough to tie his own shoes. Frankie still has breasts. His unusual characteristics as a result of taking Risperdal led to him being bullied in school and he feels uncomfortable about having breasts.
The article does not mention that Frankie probably suffered some diminishment in brain tissue during the 20 months he was taking Risperdal. This side effect was brought to light in an 18-year study of the brains of mental patients in which it was shown that tissue loss was occurring continually as long as the patients were taking antipsychotics and the amount of tissue loss was dose-related.
Another side effect of these toxins is shortened life span, which has been observed in both elderly and mental patients who have been put on antipsychotics. These drugs also cause reduced bone density leading to osteoporosis.
Frankie’s “medical” treatment was done without honest informed consent and essentially amounted to a betrayal by the psychiatrists who drugged him. Frankie’s mother, Lori, filed a lawsuit against Children’s Memorial Hospital and the psychiatrists Sharon Hirsch and Poonan Jha for medical negligence, lack of informed consent and not stopping the child’s poisoning after obvious signs of the harm it was causing. She won the suit.
This article (you are now reading) has concentrated mainly on the physical illnesses brought about by the psychiatric drugging of this young man. One can only imagine the stress and torment it has also caused the members of this family over the past 15 years, and what it will cause them in years to come.
Everyone who contributed to the writing and publishing of the article “Why Are Doctors Giving Anti-Psychotic Drugs to Toddlers?” should be commended, especially Lori and her son Frankie for their courage in speaking out and for helping Mankind to wake up.
