Press Release Summary = FDA panel will meet on February 9, 2006 to review ADD drugs'
risks to deaths and heart attacks. Parent and child advocates ask that panel member
step down due to bias concerns.
Press Release Body = Victims and Advocates who plan on testifying before the
February 9th FDA Risk Management Advisory Review Panel on ADD Drugs' Link to Deaths,
Heart Attacks are asking for one of it's panel members to step down due to a concern
over a conflict of interest. Stephanie Crawford, an associate professor at the
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy has been selected to sit on
the advisory panel to weigh-in on ADD Drug Risks.
Parent and child advocates question Ms. Crawford's longstanding affiliation with the
University of Illinois and its long history with ADHD Research. The University of
Illinois receives millions of dollars in Attention Deficit Drug Research. Both ADD
and ADHD known as Attention Deficit Disorder with or without hyperactivity are
subjective psychiatric labels for which there are no demonstrable objective tests.
Without legitimate scientific testing to verify the existence of these labels,
researchers have resorted to using highly subjective questionnaires, surveys, or
rating scales in determining a diagnosis. A widely used and controversial rating
scale, the "Acter's profile for boys (or girls)" comes from the University of
Illinois and its research department. This one screening method or random survey
is being unlawfully used within the public education system without the approval of
any Local, State, or Federal Government to diagnose school children throughout the
United States. These research screenings are being casually passed off to parents
and school personnel without full informed consent and are currently being legally
challenged within Federal Courts. "Parents are simply not being told that their
children are participating in research," says Sheila Matthews Founder of Ablechild a
non-profit organization.
Ms. Crawford's own participation in ADHD Research under grant application PA-98004
Drug Abuse and ADHD in Adults and Their High Risk Offspring further demonstrates the
just cause for her removal from the panel. Though the FDA has a conflict of
interest screening process and waiver criteria, there are still some conflicts of
interest that are simply not manageable and should be challenged.
To have a panel member that works for this particular University that receives a
tremendous amount of pharmaceutical and psychiatric financial support to conduct
research on this very same label defeats the purpose, authority, and function of the
panel itself.
Ablechild is an IRS approved, nonprofit, tax-exempt, Section 501(c) (3) charitable
organization, and donations are tax deductible under the provisions of the IRS Code.
Ablechild and the Ablechild logo is a Trademark of Ablechild, Inc. For more
information, go to http://www.ablechild.org
Web Site = http://www.ablechild.org
Contact Details = Patricia Weathers
P.O. Box 1084
Millbrook, NY 12545
President & Founder
845-677-4118
Sheila Matthews
National Vice President &
Founder
(203) 966-8419
2022
