The Medicalization of Childhood?

[DrPhil]

So, I watched 20/20 and thought of the Conrad Murray thread. 20/20 was talking about foster children being given multiple drugs. Some of these kids are being prescribed drugs by the age of 4. 4! 4!

One boy said "I was given drugs for ADHD, I'm not ADHD I'm just naughty...I was given drugs for bipolar disorder, I do not have bipolar disorder...I don't have any disorder...."

This little girl who was adopted was given 5 psychopathic(?) drugs for a number of mental disorders. They showed a tape of her "going crazy" and running around the house screaming. These drugs were messing with her head. How can some medical professionals say that CHILDREN have these disorders and need medication? Do they really need to change the brain chemistry of children? Is there no consideration of the side effects?

Another girl gained like 100 lbs from all of the drugs.

They talked about the case of little Gabriel Myers: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...46-504083.html

[KSUViolet06]

I have worked in the mental health field with teens/preteens.

Personally, I've seen amounts of anti-anxiety or psych meds prescribed to kids as young as 10/11 that are enough to put down a fully adult male.

The crazy part is that there are lots of parents who take their kid's behavior and self-diagnose it or compare it to another child's behavior then INSIST to the Dr. and any other professional that will listen, that Bobby has (for example) bipolar disorder.

Part of that comes with the "popularization" of certain disorders, too (if that makes any sense.) Ex: autism is very much in the "spotlight", these days, ergo more people tend to self-diagnose their kids with it based on like one or 2 isolated behaviors.