he'd look just like you'd want him to, some kind of slick chrome american prince

two posts in one day?? whoa.

i just had to post about the PBS frontline video we watched in my REHAB 330 course this evening. the video centered on the increasingly prevalent diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and their subsequent medication. the video looked at 3 or 4 case studies. i want to bring up several points from the video:

1. the first attempt to correct the child's behavior is to medicate them. one child was put on medication when he was 4 years old. he developed a tick [he rolled his head quite frequently]. a tick is a common side effect of medication, however, when medication is ceases for an adult so does the tick. when medication was ceased for this child, his tick did not go away. a child's brain is not fully developed and i would be willing to bet this medication effected it.

2. i can only attempt to understand the hardships of the parent in deciding what they are going to do for their child. i don't know how i would handle a situation in which my child would bang his/her head against a wall or physically hurt themselves. i just wish there were some alternative to heavily medicating a child.

3. at the time that bipolar disorder began to be diagnosed in children more frequently, the doctors admitted that they knew very little about the long-term side effects of medication, or the initial side effects or how the child would react to the medication. this is extremely risky. there was a case in the video where a 4 year old girl died of an overdose. her teachers described her as "always tired" and having to "lift her off the bus" as a result.

4. bill clinton signed a bill into effect that would require drug companies to perform studies of tthe children's usage of their drugs. however, as an incentive they would recieve a longer patent time period. that means, over a billion dollars more annually for their participation.

5. many of the advocates for medicating children [including medicating potentially bipolar children] are/were being compensated by these drug companies.

6. one child was sent to a psychaiatrist when he was around 14 years old and showed signs of improvement. why wasn't this used earlier in his life??

7. the use of anti-depressants were lessened after the notification that some were known to cause suicide in teens. however, their replacement was anti-psychotic drugs which had equally terrifying side effects, but did not require a black box label on them. ironic?? yes.

i have a hard time justifying putting children on medication when they are so little. i think behavioral problems are a large reason to seek help for children, but i don't necessarily think that drugs are the answer. a parent has to think long and hard about what they want to do for their child. are the risks worth the benefits?? and what are the drawbacks of medicating your child at such a young age. who is a parent supposed to trust?? there is little data about the long-term side effects of medicating children, but one has to realize that medicating a developing brain is going to effect it in some way, shape, or form.

that being said, i am off to try to do some homework.

sweeter dreams.
k