ALERT REGARDING RITALIN/AMPHETAMINE/PSYCH DRUG—

HEART DEATHS

by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD 4/21/00

I have been consulted concerning three cases in which there appear to have been cardiac deaths due to Ritalin and/or amphetamine ‘treatment’ for the fictitious ‘disease’ ADHD. I am also working at this time, with a Texas law firm to launch a class action suit aimed at the perpetrators of the ADHD/Ritalin/psychiatric/psychotropic medication fraud—A Total, 100% Fraud (title of the video I have produced, $21.00 US post included).

The story of one of the three ‘Who Killed Stephanie Hall?’ is on my web site and contains an abbreviated review of the cardiac literature regarding Ritalin and all other amphetamines, as well, and cocaine.

The most recent of these deaths, and the one psychiatry will have the most difficulty denying, is that of Matthew Smith, 14, of Clawson, Michigan, outside of Detroit. Matthew was skate-boarding with buddies, fell down, moaned, turned blue, and died. Matthew had been on Ritalin since 4 years of age. I hear tell that his parents were coerced, pressured, by his school to keep him on it despite complaints of shortness of breath and palpitations. That’s no different than the rest of the country, what’s the big deal? But in this case the facts came to light. Oakland County Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic said that a skateboard accident didn’t kill Matthew, Ritalin did. At post-mortem, Dragovic elucidated: "There was chronic change of the heart muscle and the small blood vessels in the heart." This comes from long term exposure. This kid was on (Ritalin) repeatedly for 10 years." Matthew’s father Lawrence Smith said his son appeared healthy and had had regular physicals. Although undeniable, agents from the psychopharm cartel were immediately dispatched to the scene—to comfort the family; to take responsibility—No! to resuscitate and rehabilitate Ritalin from the big hit it had just suffered.

The facts surrounding the death of Randy Steel, nine of Bexar, County, TX are less clear. He was in a psychiatric institution and was being restrained when he died. There were bruises over the body and he had been on several different drugs. This death was thought to a restraint death, a physical assault death, but, at autopsy, the heart was distinctly ‘enlarged’ and history was brought out that his psychiatric course began with the ADHD label and then with long-term Dexedrine (d-amphetamine). Was this why Randy died when he shouldn’t have died due to injuries in evidence. Is this why children who are patients in psychiatric hospitals die so much more often than we might expect? Randy’s case is being looked into.

What of the two other children in the news now who have died sudden unexplained deaths—one written about in the Chicago Sun-Times, a 13 year old little girl in foster care, wherein, across the country, psychiatrists providing government-mandated ‘consultation’ have 50% or more on one or more psychiatric drugs for their one or more ‘chemical imbalances of the brain’ not one of which is a bona fide disease. The other was an autistic child from Mississippi, also likely, by virtue of he very real health problem, to be in need of psychiatric ministrations.

As of May, 1996, there were 13 cases of liver failure leading to death or liver transplant from Cylert (pemoline), touted to be the "safest," of the stimulants. The Canadian government, attending to the health of Canadians removed Cylert from their market. Our government, our FDA, attending to the health of psychiatry, the pharmaceutical industry and largesse therefrom, leaves US children with the fictitious ‘disease’, ADHD, exposed to the liver toxicity of Cylert. But they, those, here who have health insurance—and not just any insurance, either, can get a liver transplant, can’ they?

Of 2,993 adverse reaction (AR) reports concerning "Ritalin" or "methylphenidate" listed by the FDA’s Division of Pharmacovigilance and Epidemiology (DPE), from 1990 to 1997, there were 160 deaths and 569 hospitalizations--36 of them life-threatening. One hundred twenty-six (126) were cardiovascular occurrences, and 949 central or peripheral nervous system occurrences. There were 6 cases of "cardiomyopathy," 12 of "arrhythmia," 7 of "bradycardia," (slow pulse), 5 of "bundle branch block," (impairment of conduction apparatus of the heart), 4 of "EKG abnormality," 5 "extrasystole," (heart rhythm abnormalities), 3 "heart arrest," 2 heart failure, right," 10 "hypotension," (low BP), 1 "myocardial infarction," 15 "tachycardia" (rapid pulse). But get this—figures from post-marketing, voluntary reporting systems such as this, in which the doctors having bad luck with a drug are the one’s deciding whether to report or not—are estimated to report no more than between 1 and 10 percent of actual occurrences of said adverse reactions.

Given that 15-going-on-20% of our children (and not just schoolchildren, but newborn to 5 years old as well) are being drugged by the psychopharm cartel, I am convinced that all sudden, unexplained deaths in infants, children and adolescents in the US, , should be viewed as due to psychiatric medicines until proven otherwise. Moreover, we must beseech all of our coroners and medical examiners for full disclosure of the facts regarding all such cases and for full information regarding not just their current medications, but those they have been on any time in their lives. [There has just been a report at the meeting of the American Heart Association, here in San Diego, of the increased heart risk posed to adults on any and all of the psychotropic medications. A thorough, psychotropic drug history, therefore, is of essential importance in understanding heart deaths in adults as well.] ----