Finale
Disclose.tv - Foster Kids Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs
Antipsychotics, a $14 billion per year industry for their manufacturers recently paid out the largest legal settlement of $5 billion, that has been only recently surpassed by BP, for illegally marketing their product. This does little to change the fact that children on Medicare and especially foster children are prescribed atypical antipsychotics off label. While extrapyramidal symptoms have been ironed out fairly well in the second generation of antipsychotic medication, the pills are now being linked to an increase in blood sugar, diabetes, a resistance to insulin, and a reduction in brain mass. This shrinkage of the brain was theorized to be a symptom of a schizophrenic stricken brain, but a study done by the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine found that the severity of illness had nominal effect on brain mass, it was patients receiving prolonged antipsychotic treatment that displayed the most profound reduction.
12/14/12
I'm nearly finished with Mike Earley's Crazy. I've been listening to it on disk, I take a break and the Newtown Connecticut shooting pops out at me. I see a shooting at an elementary school and my first though is mental illness. I've been digging around all day looking for more information on Adam Lanza but of course, not much is known as of yet. Examiner.com is reporting Lanza dealt with OCD and Asperger's syndrome http://www.examiner.com/article/gunman-adam-lanza-acted-alone-conn-shooting-26-dead-gunman-shot-himself.
In the news media, I'm reading two dominant naratives; we need to develop more sensible gun laws in this country and our mental health system is in shambles. Unfortunate that it requires this sort of event to prompt movement on either of these issues. In America, we have endured a gauntlet of these sorts of incidents certainly through the years, but lately it seems to be happening weekly. It is the horrendous circumstance of this instance in that 20 elementary school children died attending school that separates this incident. That is the nature of this inertial society as this point in history. The harsh reality is that I feel movement must take place on both fronts.
Another thing I've looked for is the conservative response to this incident. One never quite knows what to expect. Mike Huckabee blames the absense of god in schools. Aparently our separation of religion from our public schools has been binding enough to repell an omnipotent being who created the world. That's what I call effective government policy.
HUCKABEE: Well, you know, it’s an interesting thing. We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage because we’ve made it a palce where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability? That we’re not just going to have to be accountable to the police, if they catch us. But one day, we will stand before a Holy God in judgment. If we don’t believe that, then we don’t fear that.
It's interesting to note Newtown Connecticut is a community of means:
Estimated median household income in 2009: $109,767 (it was $86,553 in 2000)
| Newtown: |
$109,767 |
| Connecticut: |
$67,034 |
Estimated per capita income in 2009: $43,820
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Newtown-Connecticut.html#ixzz2F5dvOPxt
I think of Miami, the city Mike Earley did much of his research on mental illness. Miami maintains the highest metropolitan population suffering the ill effects of mental illness. This is thought to be the case because of the year round warm weather, but also due to the Wet Feet, Dry Feet policy on Cubans seeking political asylum. Castro used this policy to empty Cuban asylums.
To make the connection, our pitiful system of health care in the United States cannot be denied when the wealthy, the recipients of our privatized, for profit system of delivery are not receiving adaquate care. One may consider how many more individuals in urgent need of care may be walking the streets or waiting to be released from jail. This all make me curious as to what the Norwegian response to their mass shooting was. That shooter was found to be a paranoid schizophrenic actively psychotic during the shooting. Norway also has a gun culture which is part of the reason they don't belong to the EU.Nearing the end of Crazy, something that really struck me as vitally important is how every person Earley is talking to, I believe without exception, has discontinued their use of antipsychotics for one reason or another. These actions work to undermine our current system under deinstitutionalization at its core. These are the people that have entered into the system in one form or another. People that likely wouldn't exist in the system if not for an altercation with law enforcement. The argument against universal access to health care was gutted again today, reforming a system that has enriched a few to the point at which their lobbying arm is one of the strongest in Washington, well, I'm not so sure that is realistic, especially in post Citizens United America.

