The Medicalization of Childhood?

[Honeykiss1974]

I watched this and it broke my heart. These kids have no advocates for them.

On a personal note, my nephew is now 13 years old and his mother (I think she is bat sh*t crazy anyway but...) has had him on psychopathic drugs since he was about 6 years old. She sees something and will shop him around to doctors until she finally finds one that agrees with her and will put him on some medication. He takes bi-polar meds, sleeping pills, pep pills, and ADHD meds and honestly, I don't think he needs any of it. For example, when he was 7 years old, she said that he never listens to her so he must have ADHD (never mind that she never disciplines him) so she shopped him around from doctor to doctor until someone agreed and put him on a medication.

That behavior is from someone WITH a mom, so I can't imagine what foster kids go through - I'm sure drugs are thrown at them from every angle.

[AXOmom]

^^^Not to take this off track, but a child who truly has ADD and ADHD would actually focus better if given a Mountain Dew. ADD and ADHD drugs are stimulants (that normally begin in very low dosages). When we had kids who were on meds for ADD or ADHD and forgot to take them, we'd give them 1/2 a Mountain Dew. Isn't the same effect obviously, but it helped them get through.

Other than that - everything MysticCat said - ditto.

[DrPhil]

Mountain Dew is the best soda. That's all.

[DrPhil]

Across contexts, misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis seems to have been more of a problem than underdiagnosis in the past 10 years.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...sis-rules.html

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Across contexts, misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis seems to have been more of a problem than underdiagnosis in the past 10 years.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...sis-rules.html

I wonder to what extent this coincides with both malpractice pressures (in my experience, a misdiagnosis via the wrong assigned malady is much less problematic for juries than a non-diagnosis, or inaction), and the changing view of doctor as solution, rather than as an aid in management/prevention.

In short, are doctors themselves thinking they 'should' be diagnosing more, leading to overdiagnosis?

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

I wonder to what extent this coincides with both malpractice pressures (in my experience, a misdiagnosis via the wrong assigned malady is much less problematic for juries than a non-diagnosis, or inaction), and the changing view of doctor as solution, rather than as an aid in management/prevention.

In short, are doctors themselves thinking they 'should' be diagnosing more, leading to overdiagnosis?

Excellent question.

I know that it is difficult to come across children (and people) who do not have some diagnosis or some prescription for something.

I think that is doctors overdiagnosing combined with the booming prescription drug industry and combined with parents thinking that their child has every illness under the sun.

[WCsweet<3]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Excellent question.

I know that it is difficult to come across children (and people) who do not have some diagnosis or some prescription for something.

I think that is doctors overdiagnosing combined with the booming prescription drug industry and combined with parents thinking that their child has every illness under the sun.

I agree.

On the other hand, I have noticed that some parents are resistant to having their children checked out because of the overdiagnosing. I have noticed this with parents of my friends and with my friends becoming parents. Since so many children, or the parents themselves, are (were) being so overdiagnosed they resist taking their children to be diagnosed even when they have problems. Some of my friends will not listen to their doctor (or doctors) when it comes to potential health issues with children. I am all for getting a second opinion, in fact I'd strongly recommend it at times. One friend who is currently pregnant child 2, refuses to take advice from her doctor even though she almost lost child 1 due to complications that most likely could have been avoided if she had taken the doctors advice. She refused to allow her first child to take antibiotics when the baby had an infection. This was until the baby's father and the grandmother basically forced her.

I realize that many people are more interested in taking a pill to fix all. I do wonder, however, how far the resistance goes.

[christiangirl]

What I'm wondering is if it's now seen as better to label someone with a problem they don't have than later find out you missed something. Theoretically, it might be easier to defend oneself in a malpractice suit if one can say "Oh, I gave the wrong diagnosis but at least I took action and was sort of on the right track" then to say "Yes, the patient came to me for help prior to [insert catastrophe here] and I completely missed this." I think it used to be (and to an extent still is the case) that doctors were afraid of diagnosing someone when they did not have to because of the stigma surrounding mental health diagnoses and the effect that label could have on a person's life. However, this concern has taken a backseat to a number of factors including fear of not getting paid by insurance companies.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

What I'm wondering is if it's now seen as better to label someone with a problem they don't have than later find out you missed something. Theoretically, it might be easier to defend oneself in a malpractice suit if one can say "Oh, I gave the wrong diagnosis but at least I took action and was sort of on the right track" then to say "Yes, the patient came to me for help prior to [insert catastrophe here] and I completely missed this." I think it used to be (and to an extent still is the case) that doctors were afraid of diagnosing someone when they did not have to because of the stigma surrounding mental health diagnoses and the effect that label could have on a person's life. However, this concern has taken a backseat to a number of factors including fear of not getting paid by insurance companies.

That all depends on who's doing the labeling. One of my friends refused to have her children put into the special ed program (they are supposedly mildly autistic, but I personally think it's because their blob of lard father who was at home with them when they were toddlers did nothing but sit and watch tv) at their school because once you are on that track (and bringing in funding for the school) it's nearly impossible to get off. I'm sure she signed some sort of waiver when she made this decision.

On another note, a friend's daughter got kicked out of preschool for being loud and jumping on things. Isn't that called...being a 3 year old?? This is the thing that worries me the most...that even though teachers do know better, they'll start thinking of medicated, overly docile children as the norm.

[DrPhil]

This is the thread I referenced in the ADHD thread.

[amIblue?]

Thanks, DrPhil.