Researchers from Columbia University and other New York institutions found a dramatically increasing use of antipsychotics to treat ADHD and other behavioral problems in children and adolescence. “Only a small proportion of antipsychotic treatment of children (6 percent) and adolescents (13 percent) is for FDA-approved clinical indications,” says the lead researcher. The results, showing a seven-fold increase of antipsychotic use in children and a five-fold increase in adolescents, were published online yesterday in Archives of General Psychiatry.
Article → Olfson, M., Blanco, C., et al; “National Trends in the Office-Based Treatment of Children, Adolescents, and Adults With Antipsychotics.”
Archives of General Psychiatry. Published online August 06, 2012. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.647
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More Kids Taking Antipsychotics for ADHD: Study
More Kids Taking Antipsychotics for ADHD: Study
The psychiatric drugging of kids is insane.
Duane
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Insane.
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It’s not only insane, I think it’s criminal and that psychiatrists who do so should be prosecuted to the fullest extent. But this will never happen, unfortunately.
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And any parent who gives permission should be ashamed. This is rampantt among the poor. Pressure is put on them to choose the drugs and they are threatened by officials that their children will be taken away from them if they don’t comply. Other parents agree to the drugging of their kids to be able to keep what small benefits they get from the government. I overheard a conversation while riding the city bus one day in which a mother was talking about how her two year old daughter was “bi-polar” and had to have the “meds” that the psychiatrist told her she must agree to give to her child. I wanted to jump up and scream that two year olds are not bi-polar but didn’t want to get thrown off the bus at that point.
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