Are psychiatric meds safe for kids?: Panorama: Rocky Mountain PBS: a1

Denver

30°

Blogs Health Care Tech Talk Green Living National Parks Super School News The 1930s

Facing the Mortgage Crisis
Colorado State of Mind - Budget Cuts to Higher Education
Public lands in the media spotlight
Women in power: what drives them to lead and what holds them back?
Native American Heritage Month
Health Care

Masterpiece Contemporary: Collision (Part 2 of 2)
Sunday at 9pm

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Wednesday at 8pm

True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Code Talker
Tuesday at 8pm

Nova: Why Do We Dream?
Tuesday at 7pm

Movie: Harry and Tonto (1974)
Saturday at 8pm

Are psychiatric meds safe for kids?

posted Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008 2:26pm

See more on: Blogs, Children, Denver, Documentaries, Frontline, Mental Health

Say what you will about today's record number of children on psychiatric drugs (over one million and rising). What would you do if your child, like so many today, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder?

Tonight at 9, "Frontline" presents "The Medicated Child," a one-hour report that investigates the practice of prescribing psychiatric medications to children as young as 4. This program is a follow-up to "Frontline's" 2001 "Medicating Kids" and it features families from the Denver area.

My heart aches for parents in this situation and more so for the children themselves. Especially knowing that the path to treatment is not simple or straightforward.

While today's psychiatric drugs effectively treat some children's symptoms, in many cases, the long-term effects of the drugs on kids' developing minds are not known. Worse yet, most aren't approved by the FDA for use in children.

It's hard to deny a sick person of any age a so-called cure. But is this gamble with children's long-term health worth the risks?

Do you have any personal experience with this? Even if you're leery of medication (I confess I am), what in the world would you do in this case?

-Allison, Rocky Mountain PBS

Tune In

Frontline
"Black Money"

What's your point of view?

Ray G.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 › 4:32pm
I think our society needs to look beyond medicine to fix its problems. The answer too often seems to be taking pills without seriously pursuing other types of interventions such as psychotherapy or even diet and exercise. As for young kids on drugs, it seems a little cruel to me but I haven't been in that situation.

SHARON
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 › 10:34pm
our 8 year old twin grandsons are ADHD , and are on medication to function. They cry to their parents that they don't WANT to be bad boys, but without the medicines, they cannot control themselves at school.I can really see the difference when they are not on the meds, and my heart breaks to see them struggle through the day when they are off the meds. Diet and psych.counseling didn't do anything but bankrupt the young family, so I feel the medication is worth the risk.

Judy
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 › 8:52am
This issue is heartbreaking. Having children with behavioral problems is very stressful. Simply getting through each day's activities, meals, getting dressed, bathing, etc., take so much energy when their is perpetual drama. But relying on meds to solve every problem seems lazy and risky to the very people "we" are trying to help. It seems cruel to use children as guinea pigs but equally cruel to let them suffer without help.

In the end I don't know of a good answer but certainly I hope that doctors and parents use extreme caution when prescribing mood medications to their precious patients/children.

peg L
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 › 9:15am
I too feel very uncomfortabel with a drug solution. It seems to me an Holistic approach would utilize ALL of societies tools and just might rule out untested drugs on children.

scott carmack
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 › 10:24am
I missed most of last nights show, can I request a transcript.

Allison, Rocky Mountain PBS
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 › 10:27am
Scott, we don't have transcripts here, but you can watch the entire show online (and most of Frontline's other shows) here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/medicatedchild/

justmyopinion
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 › 1:46pm
We have too many cases in our news headlines that prove medicating children for psychiatric reasons does more harm than good. Furthermore, let's take into consideration past American parenting practices when dealing with children's behavior. No one can deny that the past clearly demonstrates children and American society fared better when drugging children was not as readily an option. Finally, don't you wonder whose behind all of this drug promotion? Check out the commercials on television any given time of the day or night. The pharmaceutical companies have no shame about the profits they are out to make. Drugs are not the answer and that's what most of these so called medications are--drugs. The primary purpose for a person taking medication is to assist the the body to heal itself. We have been steered away from looking at medications from this point-of-view by those who make lots of money on drugging American children--legally.

Loretta P
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 › 7:35pm
Does everything have to have a label? The Dr.'s & The Pharmacist's or Pill manufactures are getting rich off of people who no longer have a mind to think on there own. I believe, there may be a few cases that could be serious that do need a Dr. , but truly ever think you can change just the eating habits & that would be help? Natural or organic...the drugs are killers in one way or another. I believe yes, some children do have more energy than others start enjoying nature. That would be going back to the basics ...don't you think?

Jane
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 › 3:08pm
Medication can be helpful in some cases for adults. I know this from first-hand experience. Whether or not it is a good idea for children is a seriously thorny issue.

What is absolutely true is that the line between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession has been almost completely erased since at least the 1970s with the revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders .

The desire (a desire with a debatable and probably complex source) for humanity to maintain uniform emotions and behaviors has become license to label and medicate that which was at one time, and still should be now (in my opinion), part of the normal range of human emotions and behaviors.

"Debilitating" behavior is a far cry from "different" behavior. Knowing which is which is an important distinction.

Did I just write a screed? I'm sorry.

scott carmack
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 › 10:24am
I missed most of last nights show, can I request a transcript.