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Testimony on the Issue of Psychiatric Drugs in Schools
Before the Texas State Board of Education
November 1, 2000
John Breeding, PhD
Director, Texans For Safe Education

My name is John Breeding. I am a father, and I am a psychologist who works with parents and children. I have observed the massive increase in the numbers of precious children we are placing on psychiatric drugs in the United States, and I have seen firsthand the pressures placed on parents to consider drugs when their children are labeled a problem by the schools. As you board members know, I am also the director of Texans For Safe Education, a citizens group formed for the express purpose of challenging the practice of drugging our children. I want you all to know that I deeply appreciate your decision to convene this hearing, and your time and attention just now in listening to my testimony.

The Data

In 1970, a best guess was offered that 150,000 children in the United States were taking Ritalin. A realistic estimate today is 5,000,000. In 1971, when Ritalin prescription use was approaching 200,000, our country was alarmed enough that the United States Congress convened an investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration classified Ritalin and other amphetamines as Schedule II drugs, a category that indicates significant risk of abuse. Since Ritalin represents 70% of the total prescriptions for amphetamine-type drugs, we can add the other 30% and we have about 7,000,000 school-age children in this country on stimulant drugs. This number (7,000,000) is 40 times the 1970 number (175,000). That is a 4000% increase in the number of children on prescribed stimulant drugs in the last three decades. Yet even this troubling fact is not the whole picture. We are not only giving more and stronger amphetamines like Adderall and Dexedrine to our children, we are also witnessing a dramatic increase in the use of adult antidepressants with our children. Despite disturbing evidence of drug-induced manic reactions, the number of antidepressant prescriptions for children continues to soar. This picture becomes even more appalling when we face the recently revealed truth that it is becoming increasingly popular to put our preschool children on these drugs.

Many times have I seen the common progression from Ritalin to more Ritalin to another even more potent stimulant like Adderall to an adult antidepressant like Prozac or Wellbutrin. Regrettably, the practice of dangerous so-called polypharmacy commonly comes into play. I have personally assisted families whose children were taking three or four of these toxic drugs at the same time.

The bottom line is that I estimate 8,000,000 school-age children in the United States are on powerful psychiatric drugs today. That's 15% of our school-age population, which means we have about 1,000,000 children in Texas on psychiatric drugs today. As overseers of our children's welfare in the schools, your decision to take a close look at this reality is a good one. Other than our neighbor Canada, no other countries in the world are using psychiatric drugs this way with their children; it is a distinctly North American phenomenon.

ADHD Is Not A Real Disease

Some people think that it is good that all these children are taking psychiatric drugs, that science has finally advanced to the point that our children are getting the needed treatment they deserve. These people believe in the tenets of biological psychiatry which hold that failures in social adjustment are due to biologically or genetically-based mental illness, best treated by drugs. Other testimony will address this issue in greater depth, but the unavoidable truth cannot be said too often; the assumptions of biological psychiatry are in no way based on authentic medical science. The stark truth is that none of the so-called psychiatric disorders for which children are given psychotropic drugs has been demonstrated to be of biological or genetic origin. Our country's experts agree that this is definitely and absolutely true of the most popular psychiatric diagnosis for children, ADHD.