COMPLETELY MENTAL

All 'disruptive' children may be forcibly medicated

A sweeping mental health initiative will be unveiled by President George W Bush in July to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions".
A March 2004 progress report entitled New Freedom Initiative has been criticised for protecting the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public.
The president's commission recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages", including preschool children. ... Schools are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students.
The commission commended the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a "model" medication treatment plan.
The Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, sparked off controversy when Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, revealed that key officials with influence over the medication plan in his state received money and perks from drug companies with a stake in the medication algorithm. He was sacked this week for speaking out.
Mr Jones told the BMJ that the same "political/pharmaceutical alliance" that generated the Texas project was behind the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission, which, according to his whistleblower report, were "poised to consolidate the TMAP effort into a comprehensive national policy to treat mental illness with expensive, patented medications of questionable benefit and deadly side effects, and to force private insurers to pick up more of the tab".
[Read the report (PDF format)]

[Eli Lilly -- manufacturer of one of the drugs recommended in the Texas algorithm -- has multiple ties to the Bush administration. George Bush Sr was a member of Lilly's board of directors and Bush Jr appointed Lilly's chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, to a seat on the Homeland Security Council. Lilly made $1.6m in political contributions in 2000, 82% of which went to Bush and the Republican Party.]

Bush on the Couch: professor of psychiatry takes a look into depths of Bush's psyche

Justin Frank, a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, argues that the president's inclination to see the world in black-and-white, good-versus-evil terms, and his tendency to repeat favourite words and phrases under pressure, are not simply politics as usual, but classic symptoms of untreated alcoholism.
"Bush switched from alcoholism to religion. It takes responsibility out of his hands. Being born again is a way of denying the past," Prof Frank said.