Prozac Preschool

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From Pacific Standard: Young children are increasingly being prescribed psychiatric drugs. However, there is very little research on the safety and efficacy of psychotropic drugs in this population.

“Widely reported data collected in 2014 from IMS Health show that more than eight million children are prescribed drugs for anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and bipolar and behavioral disorders. More than one million of them are younger than five.

But rigorous studies of these drugs in young children is ‘incredibly poor,’ says Mary Margaret Gleason, a pediatric psychiatrist at Tulane University. ‘We don’t know much, especially with preschoolers,’ she says. ‘The older kids get, their brains have already developed, and we have more information.'”

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2 COMMENTS

  1. You know, we already know that these toxic drugs are deadly dangerous to adults so it’s a no brainer that they are going to be destructive to the lives of children who are forced on them. And then you have the real problem of giving these drugs to children who cannot give truly informed consent. I’m glad that someone is investigating this but we don’t really need articles to convince us that these drugs should never be given to kids, ever. Kids have been put on the so-called antidepressants” and a few days later go and hang themselves in the closet. Young men and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria are put on the “antipsychotics”, often more than one, and go to sleep, never to wake up. And we put children on these damned things?

    When are Americans going to say that enough is enough and refuse to allow their kids to be dosed with these drugs? You can never convince me that two year old children are bi-polar. Two year olds are meant to stomp their foot as they say no, and they’re supposed to throw tantrums when they don’t get their own way. This does not prove that they’re bi-polar. And teenagers are put on the so-called “antipsychotics” because they’re defiant of adult authority. Well, I think it’s the job of teenagers to be defiant towards adults, this is how they learn to grow up and become their own persons. But we drug them into submission.

    I don’t need any more studies or articles to know that these drugs should never, ever be given to children, period.

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    • After reading the responses of the parents in this article all I can say is that I’m really glad that none of them were my parents. I suspect that the therapist who talked about relational problems was the closest to pinpointing the problem behaviors of the children. Perhaps the parents need to read up on attachment theory and how mother and baby not being able to connect properly, for many reasons, leads to great problems of trauma. This trauma from not being able to attach to one’s mother properly leads to trauma, which then leads to the high anxiety.

      And then we can talk about how so many babies end up in daycare just weeks after they’re born because both of their parents have to work to make ends meet, or because they want big cars and huge houses and the prestige that comes with such things. I don’t believe that being taken care of by strangers five days a week is a very healthy thing for our children. Sorry, but that’s what I believe. Babies need to be able to stay in their own homes with their own mothers as they grow and develop. Being taken care of by strangers who want to dose children with things like melatonin and Benadryl is not conducive to anxiety free lives. I support Women’s Liberation and always have but our children are paying the price with growing up in daycare centers.

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