Are Children Medicated for Convenience, or Necessity?

By Dr. Mercola

Millions of children are taking powerful mind-altering drugs, often before they're even old enough to attend school. The long-term effects of psychotropic drugs on children are largely unknown, while serious short-term side effects are unfortunately common, including seizures, suicidal ideation, violent behavior and more.

According to WebMD,1 nearly five million American children have been labeled with some type of serious mental disorder. In any given year, 20 percent of children will be diagnosed with a mental illness.

The most common diagnosis for kids age 3 to 17 is ADHD, followed by behavioral problems, anxiety and depression,2 and many of these children are being prescribed powerful and potentially dangerous psychiatric drugs.

The BBC documentary "America's Medicated Kids" takes a look at several families with children on psychiatric medications. Journalist Louis Theroux gets a close look at some of these kids and their families by actually living with them for a time, hoping to understand what drives parents to put their kids on drugs.

 

Bad Behavior or Pathology?

Theroux identifies a fine line between ordinary bad behavior and pathology and poses the question of whether the latest drugs are taking the place of "good old-fashioned parenting."3

What happens to children when they are medicated at a very young age, during some key formative years? Do they grow up never knowing who they really are? What passions might they have developed were it not for the drug's influence?

Psychotropic agents can influence a child's brain development, and chronic drug exposure during sensitive periods can produce alterations of his or her nervous system that have unpredictable and potentially harmful effects.

Behavioral problems in children—including what might appear to be serious mental disorders—are frequently related to improper diet, emotional upset and exposure to toxins. These underlying issues should be resolved before suppressing symptoms with potentially dangerous medications.

The Diagnosis of Mental Illness in Children Is Subjective

The diagnosis of mental illness in children is far from an exact science. Modern psychiatry has expanded its reach to the point that even the most normal of emotions and mental states are now labeled as one "disorder" or another.

In many cases a child is labeled with a "disorder" such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) based on subjective observations of behaviors that nearly all children exhibit at some time or another, such as excessive fidgeting or becoming angry after losing a game.

Ironically many of these behaviors are a result of forcing children into unhealthy patterns like sitting in a chair at their desk for 6-8 hours, which will not only contribute to the restlessness diagnosed as ADHD, but also increase their risk for a variety of diseases.

 

The Rampant Misuse of Psychiatric Drugs

Data from the National Health Interview Survey (2011-2012)4 revealed that 7.5 percent of American children ages 6 through 17 take a medication prescribed for emotional or behavioral difficulties.

In recent years, there has been a stunning increase in off-label use of atypical antipsychotics. While most are approved only for the treatment of serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, this class of drugs is now increasingly prescribed for children anxiety, insomnia, and/or behavior problems.

Children as young as 18 months are now receiving them, despite the fact that the diseases they're designed to treat rarely develop before adolescence.

Sales of antipsychotic drugs for children have increased eight-fold since 1993. Sales to teens have quintupled, while adult sales doubled in the same time frame. In 2008, an estimated $6 billion was spent on off-label antipsychotics in the US, of which $5.4 billion was for uses based on uncertain science.

Aggressive, and oftentimes illegal, marketing by drug companies is believed to be a major contributing factor to skyrocketing misuse of antipsychotic drugs in children. In recent years, a number of major manufacturers of atypical antipsychotics has been caught illegally marketing their drugs for unapproved uses in children and adolescents.

Foster children are prescribed psychotropics at a rate 12 times higher than other children on Medicaid. The high rates of psychotropic drug use among foster children and poor children are likely a direct result of drug company tactics that target doctors in the Medicaid program, influencing them to prescribe more drugs to this population.

ADHD Is Overdiagnosed and Overmedicated

ADHD seems to have become the catchall designation for children who do not "behave well," which is the subject of another excellent documentary, The Drugging of Our Children. One study5 estimated that 20 percent of children have likely been misdiagnosed, which amounts to nearly one million children in the US alone.

In 2010, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed that one in 10 American children had ADHD, representing a 22 percent increase since 2003.6

Many of these kids are diagnosed based on highly subjective observations of parents, teachers and guardians, and about two-thirds of those children were put on some form of prescription medication. In 2011, 48.4 million prescriptions for ADHD stimulants were written, up 39 percent from 2007.

ADHD drugs are indeed powerful mind-altering  hard-core drugs, regulated by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as controlled substances because they can lead to dependence.

ADHD drugs include amphetamines (Adderall) and stimulants (Ritalin and Concerta)7 with well-established risks, including heart attacks, strokes, and seizures. ADHD drugs can also stunt your child's growth or delay puberty.

It isn't just stimulants that have exploded in number—benzodiazepines (for anxiety) and narcotics (for pain) are on the rise as well, and all pose serious risks for children. Taking a narcotic painkiller for 180 days or longer can increase your risk of depression by 53 percent.

ADHD drugs, by definition, stimulate a child's central nervous system and may interfere with the intricate workings of his or her brain and personality. In 2011, ADHD drugs were responsible for nearly 23,000 emergency room visits, representing a 400 percent increase in just six years. For example, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),8 Ritalin's potential side effects include the following:

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