FRONTLINE EXAMINES WHY MORE THAN 6 MILLION AMERICAN CHILDREN ARE TAKING POWERFUL PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS

FRONTLINE presents
THE MEDICATED CHILD
Tuesday, January 8, 2008, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS


www.pbs.org/frontline/medicatedchild
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,” child psychiatrist Dr. Patrick Bacon tells FRONTLINE. “It’s a gamble. And I tell parents there’s no way to know what’s going to work.”
In The Medicated Child, airing Tuesday, January 8, 2008, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE producer Marcela Gaviria confronts psychiatrists, researchers and government regulators about the risks and benefits of prescription drugs for troubled children. The biggest current controversy surrounds the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Formerly called manic depression, bipolar disorder was long believed to exist only in adults, but, in the mid-1990s, bipolar in children began to be diagnosed at much higher rates, sometimes in kids as young as 4 years old. “The rates of bipolar diagnoses in children have increased markedly in many communities over the last five to seven years,” says Dr. Steven Hyman, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. “I think the real question is, are those diagnoses right? And in truth, I don’t think we yet know the answer.”

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The problem with using drugs that affect neurotransmitters in children, is that the brain in children is still evolving.

Now in adults we see changes in neurotransmitter receptors on the modern drugs. And when discontinued there is typically a serious adjustment, and Serotonin withdrawal syndrome results. I have seen studies showing that SSRIs actually kill some brain cells, and stimulate others.

So what happens in a 3, 5, 7 yr old? Brain altered forever? In ways we cannot understand yet? Would we change another organ in the body? Change the heart? Liver? I don't think we should medicate children with unknown substances. Basically the medical community is too inexperienced at this time to handle this subject, IMO.

i am not a mother so i want to first say that "if you were in my shoes" thoughts from those who are mothers, i must accept hands down. but i have read a lot. Not only on bipolar and meds, but also on child psychology and developmental stages.

Consider how up in arms we are about how young kids are taking street drugs... and the forefront issue being how they "mess up their brains." And YES, they DO. Street drugs, esp. strongly psychoactive ones like LSD, ecstasy (however you spell that!) the older qualudes and amphetamines, but even marijuana, milder in its effects, are psychoactive and, in pre-adults can alter the brain's development. That said, let's toss in some olanzapine and haloperidol ... well, these would only "correct sx" ?? afraid not. The evolving brain is extremely sensitive to ALL psychoactive drugs, prescribable or other. Consider how most (if not all? not sure) APs for instance are not even approved/tested for children under 18. That is the reason.

in sum, in adults, psychoactive drugs (incl meds) affect neurological functioning. In children, they ALTER neurological DEVELOPMENT. A clean difference there. The administration of psychoactive drugs may "fix" a child's undesirable sx, but the long term neurodevelopmental results are unknown: It's a russian roulette!

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....

i am tendentially against medicating children, in particular very young ones: 2-5 years old especially but even up to 10 years where the neuronal axons are not yet myelinated and neural modification is the norm... the basis of a child's learning abilities - acquisition of language and integration of new concepts, memory.

adolescents too i am skeptical about, tho not totally against medication - i am skeptical due to that time being so hormone-loaded that a real reallll careful evaluation needs to be made as to whether "strange" or manic-seeming behaviours are indeed such, or whether there be other reasons - influence of transgressive peers, or a strong rebellious nature, or ... many things.

Suicidality in teens is high partly because of the hormone cauldron they find themselves suddenly steeped in, which causes huge emotional disarray and often great distress. (Picture this: PMS 100 times worse and 365 days a year!) I feel that rather than medication, EARLY (pre-pubescent) family participation and contact with these young adults could make a big difference.

I believe parents need to EDUCATE THEMSELVES about phases like the terrible two's, child sexuality and discovery, prepubescent and adolescent phases, and ALSO be very mindful of whether there is FAMILY HISTORY of mental illness, esp bipolar, unipolar depressive, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders.

Particularly in prepubescence i believe that parents need to INITIATE CONTACT with their children, in an accepting way, of the hormone broth that will come, to favour a child's ease in communicating their feelings and any emotional turmoil to the parents - right away! the point of this is not to avoid medication, nor to pre-empt full mania, but to give the children the communicative tools to cope (family support) with their transition into adulthood, as well as to give the parents an early panorama, and, consideration of family history but also respecting a child's PERSONALITY, make decisions as to whether any strange behavior be thought of as a growing phase (with due vigilance, mind!) or if it be red flags for a true mental disorder.

~ waves ~ warily stepping off the pulpit

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taking the kids to school this morning there was an ad on the radio. a clinical trial for depressed kids. all medcication and dr care is free.

i can just imagine how many parents taking their kids to school after a not so good morning will make the call.

mari..i agree..it's just not that easy. some parents are clueless and either don't know how or don't want to find other answers. we do know of the ones that it breaks their hearts to resort to medicating.

my prayers for all.

from the show:
http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/M...terview.html#1

pictures wrt Ritalin:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/new...r2/add122.html

I saw some of that show. I just think (and I am not a mom) that giving children these adult drugs when their brains are still developing, and there hasn't been enough studies done, it is truly scary.

I don't know, because maybe I would feel differently if I had a child with a problem.

Nikko