Our criticisms have suddenly become even more important in light of the FDA's determination to condone and to legitimize further such research. The children in the ongoing New York City studies were exposed to fenfluramine, a drug used for weight control that was banned by the FDA in 1997 for causing heart valve defects. However, the controversy concerning these adverse effects extended back years in time before the experiments on children. The drug was already known to be dangerous. In addition to heart valve dangers, fenfluramine is neurotoxic, causing the death of brain cells in animals at therapeutic dose levels.
Animal research shows that it overstimulates and then kills serotonergic brain cells.
Neurotoxicity creates regulatory dilemma. These studies exemplify several dangerous trends in modern psychiatry, including Hi Tech Child Abuse and Racism . First, these NIMH-funded studies at Columbia and Queens College exemplify the growing trend to abuse and suppress children in the name of psychiatric research, technology, and treatment. In a nation where millions of children are being behaviorally controlled and subdued by means of psychiatric drugs such as Ritalin, Dexedrine and Adderall, it is inevitable that our most vulnerable groups of children will be subjected to especially abusive drug experiments. Second, these NIMH-funded studies exemplify psychiatric and medical racism at its worst.