Australian youth mental health shocker

Firstly some statistics that reflect the poor state of Australian mental health scene,mental health is the third largest contributor to the national health burden yet it only receives 6 percent of total health expenditure,virtually all of this goes into clinical support and virtually nothing on prevention.There are 6755 mental health beds in this country with a population roughly similar to California this translates to 30.1 beds per 100,000 of these 5.4 per 100 000 are for youth mental heath,this is far lower than in the US or Europe and puts Australia on a par with places such as Mongolia and Brazil.

14 percent of children 4-17 are believed to have mental health problems,12 percent of 13-17 year olds contemplate suicide and 4.2 percent of this age group actually attempt it so youth mental health is a big problem but how is this being attended to,are these children given psychologists and psychiatrists,no they are not.I myself am a schizophrenic and whilst I have nothing but praise for our States mental health system employees they are overworked and under resourced even I will not get to see them unless I am having a psychotic episode and even then there may not be a bed.

The burden of analysis and prescription has been forced upon GP's or General practicioners,now we have good doctors but the truth is it takes you five years to be a Doctor but twelve to be a Psychiatrist,there is definately a shortage of knowledge there dont you think.These Doctors are given training via pharmacuetical company training packs and incentives by these companies to push their products they are not necessarily given specialist training.

General Practicioners now prescribe 72 percent of antipsychotics in Australia and they are being pressured to do highly speculative diagnosis for children as young as three.Between 2008 and 2010 the number of children taking anti psychotics jumped from 5727 to 9683 or 69 percent.

Now heres the kicker,imagine a street drug that had the following side effects,
sudden jerky and involuntary movements,dizziness,tiredness,fatigue,fever,diabetes,nausea,confusion,uneven heart beats,nose bleeds,trouble swallowing,convulsions,massive weight gain,insomnia,constipation,acne,bitch tits,rise in chloresterol,decreased sexual desire and inability to produce sperm to name a few of the recognised side effects of the drug risperidone.

I will add I was on this drug between 1998-2008 for schizophrenia it also makes you a zombie,I personally put on 35 kg which try as I might I cannot loose plus it caused me untold dental damage.

Well 79 percent of Australian children on antipsychotics in Australia are prescribed and on this drug.

A drug for only 3 percent of the population for which it is approved to do i.e schizophrenia/bipolar.

In the US the company which owns this drug has been sued by various States for false and misleading representation as to what this drug can do to the tune of 1.2 billion.There are in the US currently 500 lawsuits against this drug estimated total payout so far is 2.3 billion,of course most are settled out of court.

How much longer before using this drug for non intended purposes continues?

reply to post by khnum

That all sounds terrible. As for your question how much longer will it go on. Till the money stops coming in.

after being diagnosed with apergers at 53 years old, it took me three weeks to figure out
that cayenne stops the psychotic symptoms cold
betcha it will work for a lot of people that are suffering from neurological inflammation related psychoses

The situation in the uk is no better, anti psychotics are prescribed to people in care homes who suffer from dementia, they call it a chemical cosh. It keeps the oldies quiet and makes them easier to care for.

Attempting to any mental health treatment here is an up hill battle.

Most of the available meds cause side effects worse than the original symptoms they are prescribed to control.

reply to post by ZeussusZ


Last year the manufacturer made $71.3 billion in sales,the most recent Risperidone sales figures are for 2011 1.6 billion,the money wont dry up soon.

reply to post by Danbones

There was a lot of good work on vitamins and minerals for psychiatric disorders in the late 40's and 50's,then big pharma took over then these got canned I agree fish oil improves my condition.

reply to post by eccentriclady


I bet you Cameron has thought about privatizing the National health service,like the Post Office

khnum
reply to post by ZeussusZ

 

Last year the manufacturer made $71.3 billion in sales,the most recent Risperidone sales figures are for 2011 1.6 billion,the money wont dry up soon.

Can imagine 40 million Chinese on Riseridone (Risperdal). Drug companies are making a killing in China alone.

www.wantchinatimes.com...

reply to post by musicismagic

Well the tobacco industry certainly moved there after we killed it here.

reply to post by khnum

14 percent of children 4-17 are believed to have mental health problems

14 % of kids have mental health issues? I dont think so Tim!

that's probably because every time a doc see's a creative, flamboyant or overly imaginative child its locked down into some syndrome to sell meds!

reply to post by Agit8dChop


I tend to agree however that is the Australian Government statistic,it probably is 2 percent and 12 percent poor parenting/teaching.

khnum
reply to post by musicismagic

 

Well the tobacco industry certainly moved there after we killed it here.

yeah, that's quite true, and American smokes are hot sellers, like the maurlboro man

reply to post by khnum


I feel very sorry for you as I do for everyone who suffers from this terrible condition, schizophrenia.

The unwanted effects you outline are pretty standard for all antipsychotic drugs because they all have the same mode of action - they block dopamine at the D2 receptors in the brain.

This is known to have a beneficial effect on psychotic symptoms such as auditory hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder; but obviously, they all have a raft of unpleasant side effects which are similar, because the mode of action is similar.

So not only do they not cure the condition, they aren't really that great at soothing the symptoms, and a number of schizophrenics refuse to take them for that reason.

More research is needed into schizophrenia, because it's a very complicated brain disorder which is little understood.

CJCrawley
reply to post by khnum

 

I feel very sorry for you as I do for everyone who suffers from this terrible condition, schizophrenia.

The unwanted effects you outline are pretty standard for all antipsychotic drugs because they all have the same mode of action - they block dopamine at the D2 receptors in the brain.

This is known to have a beneficial effect on psychotic symptoms such as auditory hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder; but obviously, they all have a raft of unpleasant side effects which are similar, because the mode of action is similar.

So not only do they not cure the condition, they aren't really that great at soothing the symptoms, and a number of schizophrenics refuse to take them for that reason.

More research is needed into schizophrenia, because it's a very complicated brain disorder which is little understood.

What the doctors will tell you if one ask, will my condition return, he'll/she'll say all my patients will have a relapse. For this type of disease there is no cure, only a bandaid treatment that works only if the patient can stay in the hospital for about 6 months and then continuously stay on the drug (risperdal) and not take street drugs or alcohol. But some if not many schizophrenics has such a bad condition I sometimes think instead of taking risperdal, have them smoke pot and drink booze. I kind of wish a closed in hospital study would be done and see what the results would be. I say this because if you ever visit or worked in a homeless shelter, what I mention probably makes more sense, the patients taking these meds simply don't continue with them, now pot and booze, hmm.