The Medicated Child: PBS Takes On Pharma
6 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // January 8th, 2008 // 9:08 am
Good medicine or an uncontrolled experiment? That’s the question a Frontline documentary that airs tonight will attempt to answer. This is from the press release issued by PBS:
“In recent years, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of children being diagnosed with serious psychiatric disorders and prescribed medications that are just beginning to be tested in children. The drugs can cause serious side effects, and virtually nothing is known about their long-term impact. ‘It’s really to some extent an experiment, trying medications in these children of this age,’ says child psychiatrist Patrick Bacon. ‘It’s a gamble. And I tell parents there’s no way to know what’s going to work.’ â€
The program is likely to further galvanize those who have complained about the way various meds - for depression, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder - are prescribed for kids. The film was produced by Marcela Gaviria, and here is a brief video clip.
Cari Lendrum
I am dismayed that I missed the first half of the show. Hopefully it was all about parenting or the lack of it. The FIRST line of defense should be extreme parenting makeovers, not acting as if there is a problem with the child’s brain in every case. There are of course exceptions, with Asbergers, etc. But why aren’t (mutually agreed upon) cameras in the home first to eliminate possible parenting deficits. All of you need to watch the tv show Nanny 911 for the full hour, no kidding. Those kids all look hopeless and psychotic until she is done showing the parents how to parent and there is a “miraculous” change. Wow, to tell a kid that they can’t help their “temper problem” is tantamount to abuse. I see and hear kids all the time saying “Oh, I can’t help that because of my problem” and go on doing what they WANT to do. Self control, under MOST circumstances is taught, not medicated. “Temper problems” are not tolerated in my house. Tons of talking and guiding is the norm. I have noticed that when our kids were young, moms would admit they tune out a lot of the time. You can’t do that! Parenting is a 24 hour a day job, never being able to clock out. I am not saying fawn all over them but geez, GUIDE THEM, constantly during the day and the evening.
Also, one of the best articles I ever read was in my paper today with the title of ‘Your Family Guide to Having a Happy 2008′ By Betsy Flagler. The only thing she was missing was that she did not address drinking/drug abuse in the home. Other than that, she hit it on the head. If you follow her rules first, I can guarantee you would have to prescribe fewer drugs for these kids. I simply don’t believe that so many kids are now “born” with Bipolar or psychotic behaviors. Possibly some, but not to the extent that is now evident. Please email the author of this short, common sense, article at p2ptips@att.net and get a copy, soon!
Maria R
This was a distrubing documentary, even for someone like myself, a special ed teacher who’s all too familiar with this problem.
I don’t even know where to begin:
- there’s the parents of a 4 year old who takes 3-4 different meds, including a sedative and an atypical antipsychotic, who say they’re not in favor of medicating their child but *they* couldn’t function as a family without the meds…not to mention, they show the mother feeding the boy a 20 oz Gatorade and mircowavable hotdogs to quench his food craving triggered by the antipsychotic, while she talks about how “anything you put in front of him, he’ll eat” even though, the narrator implies, she’s aware of the problems of obesity and diabetes these meds often cause
- there’s the evasive, illogical FDA rep who can’t (or won’t) answer simple questions and rolls his eyes dismissively and condescendingly when asked those simple questions
- there’s the seemingly normal, smiling and energetic boy whose teachers - teachers, not school counselor, diagnostician, therapist, or MD of any sort - repeatedly told his parents he needed meds until the parents caved, and the boy ended up a teen with multiple dx’s, multiple rx’s, and tics that did not go away when the drugs were scaled back
- there’s doctor after doctor who don’t know really what childhood bipolar disorder is about or how to treat it, and who prescribe and re-prescribes meds on a highly experimental basis
- there’s the young girl who presented at age 5 with a very clear case of Bipolar I (”classic” cyclic Bipolar, not the weird, amorphous Bipolar II dx that most kids get), yet all the doctors offer her are meds to make her, in her own words, “how I’m supposed to be” while her mother cries in apparent despair about her daughter’s future because she’s been convinced (by whom? good question!) that her daughter will always need to be medicated if she is to be a successful adult
….you get the picture.
It’s a really ugly picture too. I wish I could say as a special ed teacher, this doc blows it out of proportions because it condenses so much into an hour program, but I can’t.
I agree with the first poster that this doc raises the question about parenting. This is not addressed. In my experience, once a child gets an official dx, parents are off the hook, or at least they think they are. Now they can blame their child (under the guise of blaming the disorder or symdrome) rather than take accountability. And when it’s not enough to blame the child/disorder, the parents then blame teachers, school administors, therapists, counselors, doctors, and whomever falls into their line of fire.
There’s also teh issue of physical activity. We know physical activity levels directly affects brain development and health. I loved the report a few years ago that said 10% of ADHD kids who did not respond well to medication responded very well to increased outdoor exposure and physical activity. So why isn’t increased outdoor exposire and physical activity recommendation first, before resorting to meds? Why aren’t doctors and therapists advocating schools to accomendate students who may need more physical activity to cope with their developmental problems? They certainly don’t have a problem demanding the student leave class and march down to the nurse’s office to take meds everyday!
There is a very methodical madness at work here, and it’s that methodology that makes it so insidious and entrenched. You can bring up valid counterarguments about parenting and physical activity, or any other host of contributing factors from diet to overstimulation from TV, video games and computers. But at best you will get some nods of agreements followed by sighs of resignation that say “But what are you going to do?” We can blame the big pharma companies for seeding this dysfunctional, self-deefeating culture, but we also shoudln’t deny that the “status quo” of medicating children has been so widedly accepted by doctors, parents, schools and society at large that fighting for other, potentially better and healthier options is agonizing, soul-draining and all too often fruitless.
Hank
I found the documentary pretty disappointing - superficial, overall, and certainly not up to Frontline standards in my view.
I know a number of people here have been deeply involved in these issues. I’m wondering how it played for them?
Lark
Oh, wow! Carl and Maria, you said exactly what I did in my response on the Frontline website to this documentary this evening. (I mentioned SuperNanny as my example!) And I personally know…my niece is medicated to the hilt by dysfunctional parents who haven’t a clue about parenting, nutrition nor the willingness to take the time to learn and address either! This child was plopped in front of a TV during her toddler years by one unengaged parent with reading and interaction at a minimum. This poor beautiful little girl is on multiple meds to help her ADHD(?) and calm her anger…when in actual fact, the child is actually factually pissed at her parents who are in constant discord, have moved homes multiple times, who disregard nutrition, who abuse prescription meds, and who are ultimately self-absorbed. When this same child is with me or other relatives, she thrives! If we could only disengage from the drug-happy psychiatrists and big pharma on their doorstep!!
stacy tao
If you want a closer look at how Psychiatrists make diagnosis for these “so-called mental illnesses” check out this short video:
http://www.cchr.org/video/psychiatry_pseudo-science/dsm_inventing_mental_illness.html
DRV
This was perhaps the most disturbing documentary I’ve seen in years. The facts have been very clear for decades that bipolar disorder, aka manic-depression, does NOT manifest itself until early adulthood and that it has, by defintion , very clear , identifiable diagnostic criteria. What is happening today is that psychiatrists, primarily, have stretched the definition beyond any reasonable bounds so that virually anyone can be diagnosed with this condition at any age. The diagnostic work , as evidenced by some the cases in this program, was shoddy and unprofessional and one wonders if psychiatrists are taught anything at all in the way of critical thinking in medical schools . The psychiatrists on this program, in my opinion, ought not be practicing . I was struck by the one case wherein each time the parents q’d the use of medication , the “good Dr” threw yet another script at them and discouraged any other attempts at treatment, such as psychotherapy. Ironically, in the one case where the teenaged boy opted for real, psychological treatment,it was reported that he began to function better than ever. This was merely mentioned in a few passing seconds and was probably the most telling statement in the program. The use of multiple prescriptions of heavy-duty psychotropics in children, but for extremely rare exceptions, is totaly irresponsible and unwarranted. In addition, response to a heavy tranquilizer does not prove the existence of any condition. That is, anyone prescribed these medications will slow down whether he/she carries a diagnosis or not.
Overall, this documentary demonstrated that psychiatry, or at least its representatives on this program, has abandoned the concept of the mind and comprehensive treatment of mental disorders in favor of doing quasi drug experiments on an unsuspecting population of patients and their parents. I found the whole thing to be disgraceful , discouraging, and disheartening. This, in my opionion was an a display of child abuse.