Child dangers due to antipsychotics

Kyle Warren of Opelousas, La., was given antipsychotic drugs at 18 months old to mollify outbursts. The NY Times reports on his diagnosis when he was three. He was diagnosed with autism, bpd, hyperactivity, insomnia and even oppositional defiant disorder. The medication turned him into “a drooling, sedated, overweight zombie.” His mom said this about him. Because of cases for instance this, experts are looking more into whether small children should be receiving antipsychotics.

Making sure the antipsychotic prescription doubles

Antipsychotic drugs are being used on more than 500,000 children and adolescents, reports the Food and drug administration in a September 2009 study. It is believed that teenagers dealing with schizophrenia is the biggest part of that industry thinking about that is when the disease is supposedly manifest. Of course, that is wrong thinking about pharmaceutical companies now have “tens of thousands” of preschoolers as customers.

A Columbia University study was shown in the Times to have surprising results about kids, privately insured, ages 2 to 5. It showed that from 2000 to 2007, the amount of toddlers getting antipsychotics doubled. Of those kids involved in the survey, only 40 percent actually received what is considered a proper mental health assessment as defined by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Weaning America off the antipsychotics for toddlers habit

There is a major concern that kids are getting antipsychotics too early in their lives. A professor of clinical psychology consulted for a Lane University program aimed at assisting low-income families with children who have mental health issues, Dr. Mark Olfson, is horrified by the practice.

“There are too many children getting on too many of these drugs too soon,” he told the Times.

In numerous cases, experts like Olfson say that doctors are much too willing to write prescriptions for heavy medications when the patients are young children or even infants. It is hard to determine if children really have mental illnesses. There is not a science to it. Numerous were very amazed that even the FDA has accepted certain AstraZeneca- and Bristol-Myers Squibb-branded antipsychotics for use on kids. This is because there is nevertheless an unanswered debate on whether a child’s brain is capable of taking in these strong drugs at such a young age.

Thus, doctors can legally prescribe antipsychotics for toddlers for off-label use, despite a lack of safety research. All the while, pharmaceutical corporations profit handsomely.

No longer can it be said that

My peers and I care about this earth

It will be evident that

My generation is apathetic and lethargic

It is foolish to presume that

There is hope.

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.

-From “Lost Generation” by Jonathan Reed

Additional reading

NCBI

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20215922

NY Times

nytimes.com/2010/09/02/business/02kids.html?_r=1 and partner=rss and emc=rss and pagewanted=all

Bio Med Central

biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/9/80

Actupny

actupny.org/reports/durban-licensing.html

Generations lost

youtube.com/watch?v=MR4EWSbXLWA

Alternatives to toxic psychiatric drugs

youtube.com/watch?v=sBN2Zjz4W-