60 Minutes Report: Who Killed Rebecca Riley?

Last night 60 Minutes broadcast a report on the death of Rebecca Riley, and on the storm of controversy that has resulted when it was found out that the 4 year old died as a result of an overdose of psychiatric medication for bipolar disorder, the disease formerly known as Manic Depression.

Bipolar disorder in a 4 year? Are the psychs crazy? In my opinion, yes they are.

The full 15 minute report is available on the website, including streaming video through CBS's own Flash player and a transcript. It is too long to provide in full here. Instead, we can provide some snippets that we find interesting.

"According to the medical examiner, her heart and lungs were damaged, and this was due to prolonged abuse of these prescription drugs, rather than one incident. Prolonged abuse of these prescription drugs," Couric remarks.

"Yes. And the doctor had Rebecca on .35 milligrams, daily, for months. And I didn't know anything about dosages. How much was fatal," Riley says.

The medical examiner ruled that Rebecca died of a drug overdose from a mix of medications. And that the amount of Clonidine alone would have been fatal.

Today, awaiting trial, Carolyn Riley says she now knows more about bipolar disorder than she ever did when her daughter was alive.

Asked if she thinks Rebecca was really bipolar, Riley says, "Probably not."

"What do you think was wrong with her, now?" Couric asks.

"I don't know," she says. "Maybe she was just hyper for her age."

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The prosecutor alleged at their arraignment in February that they were overdosing Rebecca by repeatedly giving her more medication than she was prescribed. "It was used on Rebecca, her sister and her brother for one simple purpose by these defendants: to knock them out and make them sleep," the prosecutor claimed.

But the Rileys claim that they were following doctor's orders. 60 Minutes wanted to talk to the psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, but she declined. Instead 60 Minutes got a statement from her hospital: "The care we provided was appropriate and within responsible professional standards."

60 Minutes did obtain a copy of Rebecca's medical records. In them, Dr. Kifuji notes Rebecca's increased risk of mental illness because of her family history. She diagnosed Rebecca after Carolyn said her daughter was - quote - "driving me crazy" and her mood switches within a minute. She would eventually prescribe the preschooler more than ten pills a day.

Riley says she did feel that that was a lot of pills for a little girl, but she says she went ahead and gave Rebecca the prescriptions. "I trusted the doctor," she says.

Dr. Kifuji has stopped practicing, pending a ruling by the state medical board. But her lawyer has said she was just practicing mainstream psychiatry. It's now estimated that nearly one million children like Rebecca Riley have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or manic depression. And while some psychiatrists told 60 Minutes that early diagnosis is saving lives, a growing number of doctors say it is being over-diagnosed.

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Dr. John McClellan [...] says the children's psychiatric hospital he runs in Washington state is filled with kids who have been misdiagnosed as bipolar. He says it has become a catchall for aggressive and troubled children.

"I think it's a problem to label kids with a major adult psychiatric disorder when they're five years old or when they're three years old," Dr. McClellan says. "Little kids are not adults. And little kids do things that if an adult did them, it would be evidence of a mental health problem."

"Having said that, if someone is bipolar and it presents later in life, doesn't it make sense that these issues exist really from birth?" Couric asks.

"No, that does make sense," McClellan says. "The problem is symptoms like irritability or recklessness or high energy when you're an eight-year-old don't necessarily predict in the long run developing bipolar disorder. Some might. Do you expose all those kids to medications to prevent the one kid that's going to get it?"

Maybe we need to ask if psychiatry kills. After all, the psychiatrist is not being investigated by law enforcement, and maybe psychiatrists should be, especially when there is a death involved. The death of a child.