Hats Off to a Troublemaker

The winner of the Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week: Ben Hansen. Yes, the same Ben Hansen who has been digging up records regarding antipsychotic use in Michigan and the same Ben Hansen whose website you can check out here. Keep up the good work, Ben!

Looking Under Rocks...

Ben Hansen, an activist in Michigan, has been busy filing freedom of information act (FOIA) requests regarding the use of psychotropic meds in his home state. He's currently trying to figure how how many children under age five are on various psychiatric meds, and his request is being denied, citing confidentiality reasons. I'm having a hell of a time following the argument that knowing how many kids are on Seroquel is going to violate patient confidentiality. Drug companies have access to the number of prescriptions that individual physicians write for various drugs and that is considered perfectly legal. Am I missing something?

He's also looking at drug cocktails in adults who receive state-funded mental health care, and here's what he's found:

…the number of adults taking three are [sic] more psychiatric drugs increased by 68 percent within six months last year (5,544 adults to 9,328).

Wow, that’s quite a jump for a six-month period. Regarding the increase in meds for kids…

"I challenge anyone in the state of Michigan or anyone who works for the Department of Community Health or any doctor to prove me wrong," Hansen said. "Step forward with the data and tell me, 'Ben Hansen, what you say is happening is not happening. Our children are not being targeted by the drug companies simply because once they're on these drugs, they are patients for life.' Believe me, I'd love to be wrong about this."

Last week, he was on the phone with a foster care caseworker who told him of a boy, who had acquired a twitch in his neck and was already on at least two prescription drugs. His doctor then prescribed Adderall (an anti-ADHD medicine) to quell the twitch, and the boy suddenly died
several days later. His caseworker suspected that drugs played a role, but shied away from the story when a reporter was mentioned.

Another interesting finding was that, in Michigan alone, almost 13,000 children on Medicaid or foster care were prescribed atypical antipsychotics (Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, etc.) last year.

Full story here. Also check out Ben’s website. Hansen's digging has been discussed on this site previously and I heartily encourage him to continue his work.