A mother from Detroit was jailed this week for trying to protect herself and her daughter from the police and the CPS. Maryanne Godboldo’s problems began when her daughter aged 13 was given mandatory vaccinations. The shots were given to her daughter to enable her to begin public school. Shortly after the vaccines, Ms Godboldo noticed a sudden change in daughters behaviour. Her daughter became easily irritated, suffering severe mood swings with episodes of facial grimacing. Worried about her daughters strange and ‘uncharacteristic behaviour’ she asked the ‘The Children’s Centre’ for help. The centre recommended that her daughter took the controversial anti psychotic drug Risperdal. Instead of improving her daughters behaviour however, the drug made her aggressive and violent.
Unhappy with her daughters treatment, Godboldo decided to ask for a second opinion. She asked the advice of a holistic physician who recommended that she wean her daughter off the drug. Despite her daughters rapid improvement however, immediately she was weaned off the drug, the CPS arrived to remove the child.
Terrified that she was about to lose her child forever, Godboldo barricaded herself and her daughter inside the house. After making sure that her daughter was safe, she picked up a gun and warning the police and the CPS off she fired the gun into the air. A mediator was immediately rushed to the scene and after some persuading the frightened and reluctant mother released the child. This was only after she was promised that her daughter would be given to a relative and not go into care. Ms Godboldo was then arrested and later jailed.
Family members say that despite the promises made to the mother, the girl was taken into protective custody anyway.
From The Detroit News http://detnews.com/article/20110328/METRO01/103280326/Detroit-mother-jailed-after-standoff#ixzz1I6iDT08L and http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/790/9/
Ms Godboldo has since been released from jail on a $200,000 personal bond, which has been hailed a small victory. Sadly her daughter remains in the care of the state. Ms Godboldo’s attorney says:
“My client did NOT shoot at the police,” Folmar said afterwards. “Child Protective Services was trying to force her child to take a dangerous medication, Risperdal, against her will. We have been able to get a court order signed by [Wayne County Circuit Court] Judge Richard Skutt, staying the administration of this drug, which is not approved by the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) in such cases. That’s why they put her in Hawthorne, so they could dope her up.” http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=5998
Here we have the story of a healthy young teenage girl, who up to the age of 13 had been home tutored. To enable her to enter a public school she is force vaccinated with vaccine after vaccine. After she suffers a severe adverse reaction, her desperate mother asks for help. Instead of help, she is advised to give her teenage daughter a dangerous anti psychotic drug that further poisons her daughter. Through sheer desperation she sought a second opinion. As soon as the child shows signs of improvement CPS moves in to steal the child to continue the treatment no doubt.
In an article ‘Too many young children are medicated with powerful drugs’ Claudia M. Gold, MD describes a lecture she attended in 2001. The lecture given by Dr Janet Worsirak entitled “Juvenile Bipolar Disorde’r: An Overlooked Condition in Treatment Resistant Depressed Children.” had little impression on Gold at the time but since then she has seen a staggering 4,000 percent increase in the diagnosis o Juvenile Bipolar Disorder. Gold writes:
“As this was in a sense a new disease, there were no controlled treatment trials. Wozniak described how she and Biederman reviewed charts of children seen with this constellation of symptoms in a psychopharmacology unit from 1991-1995. Patients received tricylics, stimulants, SSRI’s, and mood stabilizers. Neuroleptics were used in 10% of visits. Mood stabilizers seemed to be the most effective, SSRI’s seemed to be associated with risk of inducing mania. Wozniak did not mention atypical antipsychotics”.
Gold says that between 2000 and 2010 six atypical antipsychotics, Clozaril, Seroquel, Zyprexa, Risperdol, Abilify and Geodon were approved for treatment of paediatric bipolar disorder. For more please read http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/08/young-children-medicated-powerful-drugs.html
Over recent years we have found ourselves in a situation where we have an epidemic of psychotic children. However, every professional knows that for every action there is a reaction. So to understand why we are being suddenly faced with millions of children requiring anti psychotic medication, we need to look for a possible cause.
To enable us to delve deeper we need to look to when the changes in children’s behaviour began. According to many paediatric psychiatrists the problem began to become apparent in the early 1990’s. Another event began to occur around this time and that was the sudden, dramatic rise in the numbers of children being diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. Is there a link here? Well, I believe that there is.
As we know the conditions autism and ADHD have been linked to vaccines for many years. In particular they have been linked with the MMR vaccine. The monovalent measles vaccine was replaced by the trivalent measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine in January 1990. Since that time hundreds of thousands of children suffering from autism and ADHD have been prescribed anti psychotic drugs to control their behaviour.
Risperdal is an anti-psychotic medication. It has been used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar mania, autism and ADHD . According to Health Central http://www.healthcentral.com/adhd/c/849319/131942/risperidone/ , it is currently the only drug the FDA has approved for use in the treatment of children with autism. In fact in 2002 a study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that:
“Risperidone/Risperdal ‘ was effective and well tolerated for the treatment of tantrums, aggression, or self-injurious behaviour in children with autistic disorder.”
The study called ‘Risperidone In Children With Autism And Severe Behaviour Problems’ was weak to say the least. Their sample was small and the study was only eight weeks long. The numerous and quite worrying side effects, i.e. tachycardia and upper respiratory tract infections, were played down to boost the drugs capabilities. As a result the drug is offered to many children with autism and ADHD. http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa013171
Are we as parents turning to psychiatrists and drugs as a quick fix solution? Dr Peter Breggin believes that we are. Hailed the ‘conscience of psychiatry’ Dr. Breggin is especially concerned about the psychiatric abuse of children and the failure to provide more effective solutions through improved parenting, educational reform and community resources.
He feels that the drug companies and organized psychiatry have sought larger markets for pharmaceutical products. He is convinced that children are being over diagnosed with ADHD and psychiatric disorders for this purpose. To read his views read http://www.breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38
He is not alone. Dr Sami Timimi is so outraged by what he believes these drugs are doing to our children that he now dedicates his life to weaning children off these drugs. Timimi calls the diagnosis of ADHD biobabble and reports that many children say that while on the drugs they actually feel worse. He says:
“ADHD fanatics have been overplaying the evidence of the effectiveness of Ritalin. The most recent metanalysis concluded that evidence that Ritalin was useful for more than four weeks has yet to be demonstrated.
Most children do not want to be on medication. They get called names like ‘druggie’. And they do not like the effects of the drug. They feel light-headed, dizzy or complain of being ‘not me'” he says. http://www.psychminded.co.uk/news/news2005/oct05/ADHD%20is%20biobabble.htm
I believe that although Ms Godboldo may have over reacted, she was totally justified in all that she has done to protect her daughter. As parents we have a right to do what we feel is in our children’s best interest. The world has become a sorry place if when a parent wants to take her child off a dangerous drug, she is prevented, losing both her own freedom and her child’s as a result.