New Report On Lanza: Parental Denial, Breakdowns, Missed Opportunities

[Scairp]

Source: Hartford Courant

In February 2007, Yale clinicians identified in Adam Lanza what they believed were profound emotional disabilities and offered him treatment that could give him relief for the first time in his troubled life..

But Adam was angry and anxious, and he didn't want to go. His mother, Nancy Lanza, constantly placating her son, was inclined to pull away from the treatment, prompting a psychiatric nurse to reach out to his father, Peter Lanza, in an urgent email.

"I told Adam he has a biological disorder that can be helped with medication. I told him what the medicines are and why they can work. I told him he's living in a box right now and the box will only get smaller over time if he doesn't get some treatment."

Nancy Lanza rejected the Yale doctors' plan. Adam was 14.


<snip>

A report released today by the Office of the Child Advocate pointed to the Yale episode as one of dozens of red flags, squandered opportunities, blatant family denial and disturbing failures by pediatricians, educators and mental health professionals to see a complete picture of Adam Lanza's "crippling" social and emotional disabilities.



Read more: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-newtown-adam-lanza-child-advocate-report-20141121-story.html#page=1

---

[hfojvt]

1. I don't have the same faith in their treatment

they make it sound like they can cure him as easily and completely as they could take care of appendicitis.

[Scairp]

4. I didn't read it that way at all

I read that it was so very obvious that he had serious problems that would only get worse without proper therapy/treatment. He was a time bomb and it seems many people knew it and had zero luck getting through to the mother. If this isn't a wake up call to any parent resisting treatment for their mentally unstable child I don't know what would be. I guess for this particular mother, nothing was going to get through to her she was so deeply entrenched in her own position on what her son needed, and the father pretty much checked out and allowed the mother to call the shots.

[hfojvt]

6. but you have already bought the assumption

that there IS a "proper therapy/treatment" (and Yale's idea of "proper" treatment seemed to be - pills) that is both
safe
and
effective

I am just not that sold on the validity of those treatments.

[sybylla]

8. Lanza wigged out and shot up an elementary school.

I think the doctors get the benefit of the doubt here.

Especially, when in the face of all these medical professionals telling the mother there were problems that were only going to get bigger, she thought the solution was to take him to a shooting range.

[hfojvt]

12. does that compare to this?

http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/

[Cal Carpenter]

25. Ummm, I don't think using an article from a Scientology group is going to help you

prove your point... a group that thinks all psychiatric medicine is fraudulent.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to "eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections."[1] It has been described by critics as a Scientology front group that campaigns against psychiatry and psychiatrists It was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

The organization holds that mental illness is not a medical disease and that the use of psychiatric medication is a destructive and fraudulent practice.The organization links psychiatry or psychiatrists to school shootings, eugenics, and terrorism

[Warpy]

9. Do you think ignoring the problem was better?

I can tell you that when a treatment isn't working, the medications are continually changed around until the proper combination does work and that medication isn't the only thing involved with treating severely ill children whose parents can afford inpatient treatment.

His mother does seem to have been in deep denial. And remember, she was his first victim.

[Scairp]

11. Exactly

I can say with confidence that something is better than nothing, and probably better than almost everything the parents, or the mother I guess, did, which was minimal in light of this report of how many serious problems Adam actually had.

[hfojvt]

14. in that case

I propose the amputation of your right arm

For which procedure I will charge you several thousand dollars.

By your argument here, THAT, being something, is better than nothing.

If that doesn't work though, we may try electro-shock, and if that fails a lobotomy. But we will experiment with your brain until we find something that "works".

[Scairp]

15. Please

Be obtuse on your own time.

[hfojvt]

17. this IS my time

and what is "obtuse" about not accepting an absurd statement like "I can say with confidence that something is better than nothing,"

You made the statment, and, like Socrates, I reduced it to an absurdity.

Of course, one of the main attributes of Socrates is that he managed to piss off everybody that he ever talked to.

Pass the hemlock please, that too, is "something".

[Warpy]

18. Amputation of a gangrenous arm is medically necessary

Appropriate therapy for Adam Lanza had a good chance of saving his life and the lives of a lot of first grade children.

Your argument is absurd, fallacious and insulting to medical professionals who know what they're doing.

[Demeter]

19. Doing nothing did nothing for his victims

and pills do help, when properly prescribed, administered, monitored and adjusted.

This mother was a failure. She didn't keep her child safe, she didn't keep other people's children safe. She had a mental illness of her own, probably bigger than just denial.

This father was also a failure.

The authorities, who are more than willing to jump on the backs of any impoverished family who is unlikely to fight back, also failed in their professional duties.

There's more than enough blame to go around.

But to blame pills? That's silly!

[TM99]

22. Safe, effective, & valid?

What if the family had at least given the professionals the opportunity to try these interventions.

Those children may still be alive.

[RobinA]

29. From the Way Things

Turned out, treatment could hardly have made the situation worse.

[Yo_Mama]

33. While not magic, I have seen many patients on pretty strong psych meds

that allow them to live strikingly functional lives.

That doesn't mean it is ever cured, but where you have very early illness such as this, an organic cause is likely, and mitigating the organic cause is part of effective treatment.

[YarnAddict]

2. Here's a link to the actual report

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/00_2014/11-2014/Office-of-the-Child-Advocate-Report-PDF.pdf

[99th_Monkey]

3. 20/20 Hindsight is nice but

its too little too late, obviously.

[Scairp]

5. It isn't all hindsight

Of course no one could say specifically what might happen but it does seem many professionals who came into contact with the Lanzas then felt things would only get worse for Adam if he didn't get the treatment he needed.

[hfojvt]

7. of course that is a selection bias

They get to hold this example up and say "we were right".

But how many other people GET their treatments, and it MESSES up their lives? How many other people do NOT get the treatments they prescribe, and go on to live pretty much happily ever after?

But, of course, this article "proves" that you MUST do what the doctor orders.

[sybylla]

10. There is nothing in this scenario that proves the doctors were wrong.

Adam Lanza was not under treatment of any kind when he did what he did.

Hang on to all the anti-science woowoo that you can. This case is, in fact, proof that your way of doing things didn't work, which apparently was also his mother's way of dealing with it.

That worked so well.

Of course this is Monday morning quarterbacking. But when there are so many children laying dead in a school, we get to do that.

[Scairp]

13. Yes

And the fact that the parents had a number of good opportunities to help Adam so he might be able to care for himself. I don't understand what this mother was thinking. Did she plan to live longer than her son? It makes little sense to me she didn't avail her family to these chances with an eye to the future. Most parents do think about that especially if their kid has special issues that might make it difficult for the kid to care for themselves, and IMO, she had a duty to try the things professionals recommended.

[hfojvt]

16. it's not scientific

to "prove" something by ONE example.

Where's your control group? How many times do they make a prediction, and somebody refuses their treatment and "gets better" anyway?

How many times does somebody get their treatment, and it a) does not help, or b) makes things worse?

There is absolutely NOTHING in this case that PROVES that they could have helped.

But I know, I know, it is "anti-science woo" not to latch onto a spurious "proof".

[RobinA]

30. No One Said

anything about proving he could have been helped. No help will never help, help sometimes helps. So smart money would try the help. From what I've read about the situation, Mr. Lanza was WAY past the point where he was going suddenly start getting better on his own. That kid was in trouble in hindsight, foresight, or any other sight.

[appalachiablue]

20. Where was the FATHER? Free and clear on Wall Street pulling down 100's of thousands me thinks.

Only time I saw him, the 'Father' was a brief TV piece basically saying in horror, "He coulda killed me!". Me, Me, Me. Totally Self, Self, Self, Self-ish to the hilt. Tell me I'm wrong somebody.

[Scairp]

21. The man was MIA

He does not figure prominently in this report at all. The mother was in charge of at least this kid. Not sure about the other son. I suspect that with all of his brothers problems taking up all of his mother's time he was somewhat neglected.

[GliderGuider]

23. You're wrong about him.

If you want to know a bit more about Peter Lanza, here's an in-depth interview with him:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/17/the-reckoning

He doesn't sound at all like the two-dimensional caricature you want him to be.

[appalachiablue]

24. Righto. Daddeo was nowhere in sight, away & safe, just sent the checks, the easy part.

Tragic for all. Yes, the other brother will have a tough time it reasons, esp. with a 'Dad' like that. Maybe he can find a nice partner & build a life of his own, far away, with funds from good old Dad. The least he can do. Mom didn't seem a total flake apart from the lethal guns, who knows, she had the responsibility and gets it as the custodial parent. So sad, 'perfect' community, affluence, lovely home- but no protection from the illness, sickness. Interviews of neighbors in the aftermath quietly admitting they never really made any attempt to know or befriend the family were sad but typical. God awful.

[POE-PurityOfEssence]

26. No medication , but instead guns

Nancy Lanza was reckless. Knowing what she knew & ignoring treatment was ignorance at best and child endangerment at worst.

Knowing what she knew and giving her child guns was criminal.

She should be listed as an accomplice in the tragedy.

[Scairp]

27. Yes

I wish they could also do a post mortem psychiatric report on the mother. Something was going on with her, I think.

[KinMd]

28. The reports says Adam Lanza was 6 feet tell and weighed 112 lbs

and was suffering brain damage from malnutrition. Shouldn't he have been hospitalized for that?

As for Nancy Lanza, this is from the Hartford(Ct) Courant:

Nancy developed a preoccupation with her own health, telling friends in emails that she suffered from a potentially terminal disease and that she did not have long to live. She said she worried about the future of Adam and his older brother, Ryan.

But the authors, in investigating her medical records, found no evidence that Nancy was suffering from a terminal illness. The report suggests that Adam might have been affected by his mother's preoccupation with her own health.

[RobinA]

31. In All Fairness

to these parents, families with a member this sick struggle mightily and do many things that seem odd from the outside. On top of which, it can be very difficult to get help. Add the fact that Adam was an adult who could not be forced to get treatment and what you frequently get is a tragedy, thankfully rarely on this scale. The guns were idiocy, but other than that these people were pretty typical of many families struggling with serious mental illness. Complete with busted marriage.

[Scairp]

34. You should read the entire report

They had many great opportunities to get Adam the help he needed before he turned 18. Mom wouldn't allow the Yale doctors to treat him. She allowed Adam to eschew all medications because the only one he ever tried had difficult side effects. The dad I think was trying harder than this report suggests and in fact his son refused to see him for the last two years of his life. He continued to try and see Adam, the mother was trying, but no one really knows why Adam stopped seeing his father.

[mackerel]

32. My parents, although not saints, struggled very hard to help

both my brother and sister with their mental illnesses. When my Father found out my schizophrenic brother had a rifle and a gun he reported it to the police. (My brother was 21 at the time.)

My parents firmly believe that both of my siblings were born with their disorders.

I think you have decide what you want to offer the children you bring into this world. Everything I'm reading is about the mother temporarily getting her son through the day. Not really seeing the big picture of behavior management for life.

The Father may not have been emotionally available but he was the one who prompted the Yale study. I think the Father did have concerns. He had commented in interviews that Adam was so much different than their older son, he always knew his younger son was different.

The mother is dead, murdered by her son, Adam, it's hard to know exactly what her true concerns were.