- Dear Member,
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- What are we doing to our kids?
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- That's the unspoken question that runs through an e-mail
I received last week from an HSI member named Carrie who began by saying:
"URGENT suggestion: Why don't you write about the drug Risperdal?"
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- Carrie did some research on her own, so she was able
to make a wise decision about Risperdal. In other words, she didn't have
to learn the hard way what a dangerous drug this is. Unfortunately, many
parents who trust their pediatricians' judgment may be in for a shock.
But just as unfortunate are the elderly Alzheimer's patients who are also
given Risperdal - with sometimes grave consequences.
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- Drug abuse
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- Risperdal (the brand name for risperidone) is the most
frequently prescribed antipsychotic medication in the U.S. The FDA has
approved Risperdal for the treatment of schizophrenia, but it is not approved
for children. Of course, that doesn't prohibit doctors from prescribing
the drug for a child - even if the young patient has been diagnosed with
a condition far less severe than schizophrenia.
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- Here's Carrie's experience, in her own words: "Doctors
are giving Risperdal to children in droves. However, I called the drug
company up and they do not recommend it for kids, nor has it been approved
by the FDA for children.
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- "A doctor prescribed it for my son who is 8. I dropped
the doctor like a hot potato. They are using Risperdal on children with
ADHD to help control them. It can cause incurable disease in children and
it is causing strokes and killing the elderly. I talked with a lawyer and
was told some parents are giving it to their children who are only 2 and
3 years old."
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- If you're a longtime HSI member and regular e-Alert reader,
then you're probably not wondering how a large group of doctors - independent
of one another - would decide to prescribe a potent schizophrenia drug
to young children. They do it because salespeople for the drug company
encourage them to prescribe "outside the box." Meanwhile, the
manufacturer's customer service representatives are telling people on the
phone that the drug is not recommended for kids.
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- Great system: Give the "insider" spin to doctors
to pump up sales; give the politically correct spin to consumers; everybody
wins. Except the kids.
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- Into the unknown...again
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- Risperdal is manufactured by a division of Johnson &
Johnson, called Jannsen Pharmaceuticals. Approved by the FDA almost 10
years ago, Risperdal was known at the outset to cause a number of possible
side effects, including anxiety, dizziness, nausea, rapid heartbeat, and
sleepiness. Some Risperdal users feel lightheaded when they stand up too
quickly. And in a few cases, patients experienced tremors, and even uncontrollable
facial twitches.
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- In recent years, however, this list of side effects has
come to include irregular blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and muscle
rigidity. These problems have led to 37 confirmed reports of stroke in
elderly patients, resulting in 16 deaths.
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- If these numbers were attached to ephedra instead of
Risperdal, the mainstream press would be howling for a ban. Instead, last
April Johnson & Johnson quietly distributed letters to U.S. doctors,
warning that Risperdal raises the risk of stroke among seniors.
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- What permanent damage this drug may be doing to kids,
however, is pure speculation, because no studies have been conducted to
determine the effects of Risperdal in very young subjects. And it's doubtful
that such studies could ever take place. Imagine how unethical it would
be to test a psychotropic drug on children and infants. There's no telling
what permanent damage such a potent drug would have on developing brains.
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- And yet doctors and psychiatrists are conducting that
very test every day by prescribing Risperdal to young people who are diagnosed
with "conduct disorders."
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- I think Carrie has the right idea: these doctors should
be dropped like hot potatoes.
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- Skin deep
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- One of the most unfortunate aspects of Alzheimer's is
when patients develop "conduct disorders." Needless to say, these
patients are sometimes inclined to forget or even reject their medication.
But Johnson & Johnson has a plan to take care of that problem.
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- Two years ago Johnson & Johnson acquired Alza Corporation
- one of the first developers of sustained-release medications. Alza invented
"the patch" for smokers. This is Alza's specialty: devising new
ways to conveniently deliver drugs. A recent Alza innovation is a device
called Duros - a rod about the size of a one inch pencil lead - that is
implanted just under the skin where it releases small amounts of a drug
for up to one year.
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- Risperdal is one of the J&J drugs that are currently
being developed for application with Duros. But if a Risperdal Duros reaches
the market, you can bet it won't be cheap. As it is, Risperdal costs more
than $7 per day. When the new delivery device is added, you have to imagine
that the cost will go up, and Jannsen salespeople will, in turn, step up
their sales efforts to make the new generation of Risperdal a success.
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- Suddenly the idea of kids being over-prescribed psychotropic
drugs seems almost tame compared to the idea of Risperdal or Ritalin implants.
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- No wonder Johnson & Johnson executives spent more
than $13 billion to purchase Alza. They saw the future of medication -
and its name is "Convenience."
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- Ka-boom
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- The information package that comes with Risperdal warns
that once a patient is feeling better they must continue to take their
dosage to prevent symptoms from returning. So what does this mean for a
patient who's 3 or 6 or 10? Are they embarking on a lifetime commitment
to a medication that they'll never remember not having?
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- Earlier this year a study in the Archives of Pediatrics
and Adolescent Medicine reported that the use of psychotropic drugs by
children in the U.S. more than doubled during the 1990s, and has almost
matched adult usage of the same drugs.
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- That's not growth - that's explosion.
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- In her e-mail, Carrie made this closing request: "Please
advise parents to search the web for every drug their children are prescribed
so they can make safe choices for them." If every parent were as diligent
in avoiding potent, untested drugs as Carrie has been, we could all feel
much better about the health of our children. And this is another place
the HSI network can work so well. If you know someone with young children
- or aging parents - please forward this e-mail to them. The risks of Risperdal
are too great to not spread the word.
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- Carrie didn't mention what sort of alternative to Risperdal
she finally settled on for her son. But if you have a child or grandchild
who has had one of these drugs recommended to address disorderly conduct
or ADHD, I urge you to read the e-Alert "How To Dismantle An '89 Ford"
(6/2/02), in which HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., outlines a nutritional
regimen that might make all the difference between a child with a clear
mind and a child with a mind clouded by pharmaceuticals.
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