Citizens Commission on Human Rights Investigation: Non-Approved Drugs, "Off Label", Given To Florida School Children

Clearwater, FL (PRWEB) February 27, 2007 -- Off-Label drugs, drugs certified for use by the FDA for a specific purpose and then used for other purposes not approved by the FDA, constitute 20% of the drugs prescribed in the US industry per the May 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In a recent disclosure from an extensive investigation, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) Florida uncovered in 2005 that 37,142 children from newborn to age 18 were prescribed "Off Label" psychotropic drugs that were billed under Medicaid. Further discovery revealed out of that 37,142 off label drugs prescribed, 4,556 were prescribed to children 5 years and under.

In the same issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one-fifth of medications prescribed by office-based physicians in the United States were for conditions for which they are not approved by the FDA and that nearly three-fourths of those uses lack strong scientific support.

Arnold Relman, former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine said in a quote to Knight Ridder newspapers the same year, "Sometimes it [Off Label drugs may help, sometimes it may do more harm than good and sometimes it may kill people."

Federal Medicaid law gives each State the option to prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for drugs when the prescription is outside the FDA approved label or not endorsed in specified recognized drug compendia. Florida is one of the states, which prohibits Medicaid reimbursement of prescriptions that are Off Label.

Executive Director of CCHR Florida, Helyn Dunn, is requesting a state-wide investigation into possible Medicaid fraud - specifically into the prescribing Off Label drugs to children.

"When you have one doctor in Clermont, Florida billing Medicaid for a total of 5,572 psychotropic drugs prescriptions for 735 different children ages 1-18, many Off Label; and another doctor in Casselberry prescribing 5,032; another in St.. Petersburg [with over 5,000 prescriptions - a state or federal investigation is warranted," Dunn said.

What is CCHR?
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-profit, public benefit organization dedicated to investigating and exposing psychiatric violations of human rights.

CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the internationally acclaimed author, Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York, Syracuse. At that time, the victims of psychiatry were a forgotten minority group, warehoused under terrifying conditions in institutions around the world. Because of this, CCHR formulated a Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights that has served as its guide for mental health reform.

Acknowledged by the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Commission as responsible for "many great reforms" that protect people from psychiatric abuse, CCHR has documented thousands of individual cases. These demonstrate that psychiatric drugs and brutal psychiatric practices create insanity and cause violence.

For Interviews with Helyn Dunn, contact CCHR Florida at 727-442-8820

CCHR Florida

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