Dr Abraham points out that there has been a progressive medicalization of other than desirable behaviors in children. "We have seen this in the enormous proliferation of stimulant medication use," he notes, "far out of proportion to use in other countries."

Now, he says, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children is rising in parallel, and clearly, it is the drug industry driving this medicalization to sell more products.

In what can only be described as assembly-line customer recruitment, Rebecca's psychiatrist, Dr Kifuji, also prescribed the same powerful drug cocktail to Rebecca's older brother and sister when they were diagnosed with the same illnesses several years earlier.

The Rileys' attorneys say the parents are unsophisticated people who did not question the doctor. Michael Riley's lawyer, John Darrell, told the Boston Globe on February 7, 2024, that neither parent knew enough treatment to have challenged Kifuji. "You've got two poor parents here of minor means financially, of minor education," he said.

A reading of all the official reports and court documents in this case definitely indicate that be true.

As so often happens with families like the Riley's, who are covered by public health care programs, and with the great assistance of Dr Kifuji, the entire Riley family become a cash cow for the psychiatric-pharmaceutical industry, including the mother and father.

Another incentive certainly worth noting is the potential monthly income Dr Kifuji generated for herself by the legal pill-pushing to the Riley family. A 2003 study by the American Psychiatric Association found doctors could earn about $263 an hour for holding three 15-minute medication management sessions per hour, compared to about $156 for a single therapy session. That represents an hourly pay cut of 41% for doctors doing therapy only, the APA study said.

Critics say more blame should be focused on the prescribing doctors. "While the pharmaceutical companies certainly are getting rich providing mind-altering drugs for psychiatry's made-up mental disorders, the fault lies with the psychiatric community," says Kelly Patricia O'Meara, author of "PSYCHED OUT: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill".

"Until the fraud of psychiatric diagnosing is exposed," Ms O'Meara warns, "the American people will continue to hear about more and more of these tragic outcomes."

And it always goes back to the chicken and the egg theory. Was there an epidemic in this family where all 5 family members were so severely mentally ill? Or did the psychiatric-pharmaceutical industry convert them into life-long disabled customers through the administration of a powerful drug cocktail for years on end?

According to Dr Ann Blake Tracy, Director of International Coalition for Drug Awareness, and author of "Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?", she expects a person placed on one of these drug cocktails to be on disability within a 3- to 5-year window of time.

"And for a decade and a half," she says, "she has been trying to figure out how our economy will survive the skyrocketing disability rates."

The chicken and the egg theory arises a second time in this case when reviewing the allegations lodged against the parents. Were the bizarre behaviors of the parents cited in official reports and the media the result of ignorance, bad parenting or a wish to harm Rebecca? Or were the behaviors in fact brought on by the combination of drugs the parents were ingesting?

"Naturally," Ms O'Meara notes, "one has to wonder that if the entire family was being 'treated' for their alleged mental illnesses, why then didn't the drugs work?"

Dr Tracy says, "Is it absolutely possible that some of the alleged behaviors of the parents in this family could have been caused by the prescribed drugs they were taking."

She explains that the hypothesis behind these psychiatric drugs is backwards, meaning they often end up causing the conditions that they were prescribed to treat.

Leonard Frank, author of "Zyprexa: A Prescription for Diabetes, Disease and Early Death", concurs. "Psychiatrists and other physicians," he explains, "prescribe drugs in attempt to suppress objectionable conduct but the drugs often make the conduct even more objectionable, in which event the prescription is changed."

Then he explains, one drug may be substituted for another, or one or more drugs may be added to the mix, or the dosage may be decreased, or more likely increased, and this process may go on endlessly, he says.

Following Rebecca's death, the Department of Social Services placed the other two Riley children, Kaitlynne 6, and Gerald 11, in foster care and sought an independent opinion on their medical care, and doctors determined that their medication needed to be changed.

Persons injured by Serotonin Syndrome and seeking legal advice can contact the Robert Kwok & Associates Law Firm, at (713) 773-3380; http://www.kwoklaw.com/about.php

Evelyn Pringle
Evelyn-pringle@sbcglobal.net

(This article is written as part of a series on emerging issues involving the pharmaceutical industry and is sponsored by Robert Kwok & Associated, LLP)

Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.

Doctors Fail to Recognize Life-Threatening Serotonin Syndrome - 4