Monday, February 18, 2019
enEnglish
zh-CNChinese (Simplified)enEnglishfrFrenchdeGermanitItalianjaJapaneseruRussianesSpanish

PARENT RESOURCES

 

Mad in America is a webzine devoted to rethinking psychiatry’s current “disease model” for diagnosing and treating psychiatric disorders. This Parent Resources section is designed to provide information and resources for parents who wish to explore alternatives to conventional, drug-based psychiatric care for children and youth.

Join the Discussion

Support Group: Signups have begun for our moderated, online peer-support groups for parents of children 18 and under. U.S. group meets monthly beginning February 5; European group meets monthly beginning February 14. Learn more and sign up here.

Q&A: May I take my foster child off her drug cocktail? Steve McCrea, M.S., answers a parent’s question. Have a question of your own? Submit it for an online reply from one of our experts.

Drug Info

Did you know:

  • That longer-term studies of ADHD have found worse outcomes for the medicated youth?
  • In a large NIMH study, researchers concluded that few youth “benefit long-term” from antipsychotics.
  • That marijuana, stimulants, and antidepressants increase the risk that a youth will be diagnosed with bipolar disorder?

Research on psychotropic use in children and adolescents 

 

Research on non-pharmacological treatments 

 

Featured Resources

boy jumping

“ADHD: A Return to Psychology” Video Series

-
0
Most people believe that children diagnosed with ADHD misbehave because they possess an inferior inhibitory system that renders them less able to suppress unacceptable actions. However, this belief has numerous shortcomings. This series of videos challenges these assumptions and offers alternative explanations for why a child may exhibit ADHD behaviors.
helping children angry child

Helping Children With Angry Outbursts

-
7
Finnish psychiatrist Ben Furman reviews various non-drug therapies for children with aggressive outbursts of anger, including the Kids' Skills approach that he and social psychologist Tapani Ahola developed. These approaches focus on helping children come up with their own ideas for overcoming their problems with the help of family and friends.
parenting today

New Video Series: ‘Parenting Today’

-
5
This series of thirty video interviews with leading experts from around the world is designed to help parents better understand how to raise strong, resilient kids and how to deal with the pressures exerted on them by the current dominant “mental disorder” paradigm. We hope that this interview series will provide helpful ideas that you may not be able to get anywhere else. The interviews can be found HERE.

Webinars

Antidepressants in Pregnancy   

In this webinar, Dr. Adam Urato, a practicing OB-GYN, reviews the risks of SSRI use during pregnancy.  He details the role that serotonin plays in normal fetal development, and reviews the extensive literature, from both animal studies and human studies, that warns of potential harm to the fetus and newborn child from exposure to a drug that disrupts normal serotonin function. Dr. Urato also discusses the financial conflicts of interest that have led to a societal failure to warn pregnant women of this risk.

Blogs

school refusal

“I’m Not Going, You Can’t Make Me!”: A Community Approach to School Refusal

Ben Furman, MD -
31
Consider an imaginary child called Jack who has been avoiding school as much as possible for a month. Standard practice would be cognitive-behavioral therapy or psychoactive drugs to help Jack deal with his anxiety. But what if Jack's social network instead mobilized to help him regain the role of student?

7 Tips to Help a Distracted Child

Marilyn Wedge, PhD -
26
Simple changes such as keeping a calm home environment, limiting media distractions and enrolling your child in sports will help a child who is inattentive or having problems focusing on his or her school work. They are also useful for any child and can even prevent inattentiveness in an ever-more-distracting world.
young girl at a window on rainy day

7 Tasks for a Parent Whose Child Is Diagnosed with a Mental Illness

Chaya Grossberg -
12
When I teach workshops or lead discussions on coming off psychiatric drugs and alternatives, there are invariably parents present who are at loose ends. They want to know how best to help their children, and how it can be possible for their child to live without medication. Here are seven ideas I share with them that may also help you.
childhood bipolar

Childhood Bipolar Disorder, Deconstructed

Eric Maisel, PhD -
26
Diagnosing children with juvenile or pediatric bipolar disorder is largely an American phenomenon. Do we actually have more “bipolar” children in the United States—or are we simply labeling more of them as such? If it is ever fair to call a child “manic,” isn’t the child’s environment the direction in which we should look?

Research Findings

MIA Radio Podcasts

Archives: Popular Posts from the Past

Featured Video
“ADHD: A Return to Psychology” Video Series, Part 1
23:54
Dr. Furman explains Kids'Skills (20 min, multilingual subtitles)
19:27
The Science and Pseudoscience Podcast Episode 2 Darcia Narvaez
01:03:44
© 2018 Mad in America Foundation