Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Proof America's Kids are being Drugged Like Never Before

Big pharma and the psychiatric industry are behind it and Obamacare will only make it worse.

Sarah Kliff reports (My bold):



This comes from a new Health Care Cost Institute report, which has access to huge troves of private health insurance claims data. Across age groups, most of the cost growth had to do with rising prices. The cost of a surgical admission rose 35 percent over the four years studied, hitting $35,496 to 2010.
Among teenagers, however, there was a separate factor also driving up spending: The increased use of mental health services. In 2010, the average teenager was prescribed 1.2 central nervous system drugs, which treat conditions like depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“The average mental health and substance abuse facility fee was $8,002 in 2010 — an increase of 20.6 percent from 2007,” the report finds. “During this period, there was a 6.8 percent increase in the intensity of services provided.”

5 comments:

  1. Perhaps the increase mental health use is being perpetuated by the increase of video game useage. I see a major change in the teenagers in sports. Many of them are dropping the sports to spend the time on video games. The video games have become the new baby sitter. allowing the parents to focus on other aspects of thier life instead of the kids. When the kids start having mental and social issues due to lack of excersize and lack of social interaction with others. The parents then look to the medical world to fix the issues. The medical community is more than happy to prescribe the drugs.

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    1. Completely true. Not to mention the direct effects sitting inside playing video games all day has on an individual's health.

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  2. In three years, per capita spending across all age groups was up 13-22% ?! Holy cow! And this is approximately the same time span where average net worth for the middle class dropped 40%. Incomes have stagnated. So where is this extra money coming from? Surely inflation is not occurring! The great bearded wizard of Eccles says so.

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  3. Jim Farmer -

    I think there are may reasons but yes, video games and the goggle box in the corner of the room pumping mush into their minds is a factor.

    Another one is big pharma of course. From yesterday:

    "GlaxoSmithKline fined $3bn after bribing doctors to increase drugs sales

    The pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline has been fined $3bn (£1.9bn) after admitting bribing doctors and encouraging the prescription of unsuitable antidepressants to children. Glaxo is also expected to admit failing to report safety problems with the diabetes drug Avandia in a district court in Boston on Thursday."

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/03/glaxosmithkline-fined-bribing-doctors-pharmaceuticals?newsfeed=true

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  4. When you have no purpose, no reason to exist, you naturally get depressed. The best thing young people can do is to get married young and have children. This may make things financially tight -- but they will suffer less from the "need" for antidepressants.

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