TeenScreen - Controversial and Unscientific

National Public Radio: "This is a program that has some very vocal critics. They say Teenscreen usurps parental authority, sends kids to therapy who might not need it and they say the program encourages families to put adolescents on antidepressant drugs."

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
January 22, 2007
Local public schools have resisted TeenScreen. San Francisco Unified School District, for example, passed on TeenScreen because it can generate false positives and drain counseling resources, said spokeswoman Gentle Blythe.

The Washington Post
June 16, 2006
"There is weak evidence that screening can distinguish people who will commit suicide from those who will not...And screening inevitably leads to treating some people who do not need it.".
—Ned Calonge
Chairman, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Chief Medical Officer,
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

The National Journal
May 20, 2006
"We are still very much groping in the dark, but we know more than we did 25 years ago."
—Laurie Flynn
Executive Director
TeenScreen

The Washington Post
June 16, 2006
"By and large, brief diagnostic tests -- especially doing broad screening in children -- are not well validated, and one has to be concerned about missing real illness or, conversely, interpreting transient life troubles as a mental illness requiring intervention... if your instrument is poor, or you don't know how to intervene to prevent a condition like suicide, there is actually a risk of harm. Besides cost and intrusiveness, there is a risk of harm in terms of stigmatization, but also interventions that backfire."
—Steven E. Hyman
Provost at Harvard University,
Former director of the National Institute of Mental Health

The Minnesota Daily
February 2, 2006
"Moreover, the test has a disorder label for the most ordinary of behaviors, having technical terms for simple laziness and arguing with parents, both qualities that most children and young adults have experienced at some point."
—Editorial

The Philadelphia Inquirer
February 9, 2006
"We're going to screen these kids, slap a label on them, and then what?"
—Joseph Rogers
President of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Indianapolis Star
September 18, 2005
A history of giving the test to some students without parental permission, has put TeenScreen in the hot seat. Friday, a lawsuit outlining these complaints was filed in federal court in the Northern District of Indiana in South Bend by a Northern Indiana couple and their 16-year-old daughter. They charge that the test violates parental and child rights at federal and Indiana levels and invades privacy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY