Toddlers And Prescriptions Essay, Research Paper

“Toddlers and Prescriptions”

According to the research made by Patricia Mullan et al., “Children aged 3 years or younger had Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosed and receive markedly variable psychotropic medication regimens ” (1).

It seems that today s society demands more time for making a living, rather than raising a family. A situation in which raising a family demanded the wage of one parent, usually the father, has vanished. Both parents require to work in order to sustain a family in today s world. This sustenance would include education, healthiness, happiness and mental health. It is not unusual today to find a family situation in which both parents go to work, and arrive home late. Once they get back home after a tedious labor routine, they are not in the mood for dealing with any minor problem that their kids might have, especially when the child has a behavioral problem. They do not even have the time for helping their children with neither homework nor deal with some conduct problem that might arise. It is worth mentioning that one of the most common ways children call for attention is by misbehaving, specially disobeying. One easy and impersonal way of dealing with these problems is by making a visit to the doctor, a psychiatrist. The most common bases for this decision is that the kid is too much of a trouble. He misbehaves continuously, and has some learning impairment due to poor academic performance. This is the point where the professional comes into the scene. The clinician must make a diagnosis and suggest a treatment. Drugs have become the most popular choice of action, and prescribing psychotropic drugs, stimulants and antidepressant to children might not be the adequate choice of action. The drugs doctors are prescribing to these children may cause some serious side effects on a brain that has not reached a full developmental stage. Parents do play a vital role in the approval of this treatment.

Children between the ages of three and four years old are being over-prescribed by professionals with powerful drugs called psychotropic drugs. Some of the drugs listed under this category are Prozac, Ritalin, and other types of antidepressants, stimulants and neuroleptics. A research conducted and discussed by Magno Zito et al. in “Trends in the Prescribing of Psychotropic Medications to Preschoolers” demonstrated that ” psychotropic medications prescribed for preschoolers increased dramatically between 1991 and 1995 ” (1). Every day children are being diagnosed with some disorder and place into drug therapy, the study shows that these figures have been increasing dramatically over the past few years. Magno Zito et al. analyzed the increasing number of psychotropic medication to preschoolers over a five-year period. By studying the prevalence of these drugs by three types of insurance programs (Midwestern state Medicaid (MWM), mid-atlantic state Medicaid, and a HMO located in the Northwest), their findings show a “Sizable increase in prevalence were noted between 1991 and 1995 across the 3 sites for cloidine, stimulants, and antidepressants” (1). One highlighting case is the one of Methylphenidate, which revealed a prevalence of 200 percent in children within the ages of two and four-year old. Some of the questions that arise while observing the increment of these figures are the following: Are they increasing because parents do not give their children the appropriate amount of time and dedication? Why do doctors prescribe young children with these medications?

Although there are some successful cases in which children do improve their behavior with drug treatment, in the case of antisocial behavior there are still no studies made concerning side effects in the long run. This means that doctors are testing the medicine with kids, since there is no previous approval from the FDA to allow the prescription of these drugs for young children. Supplying a four-year-old kid with some medication that will alter his brain activity, which is just beginning to develop, is a way of testing the drug, and does not have a good image. Mullan et al. asserts in their research that “Diagnosis of ADHD and psychopharmacologic treatment for very young children are not well supported by medical literature or published experience” (4). The types of drugs prescribed to these kids directly affect the functioning of the brain; it affects the amount of certain neurotransmitters that are being released by neurons, thus altering their nervous system as a whole. These drugs called psychotropic, psychoactive, stimulants, antidepressants, are approved by the FDA, only for 18 years old and older since they have reached a full development of their metabolisms. An article written by Shute, Nancy et al. “The Perils of Pills” describes the scenario of psychotropic medication prescription and the role of FDA, ” Prozac is not FDA approved for children under 18 Ritalin is not approved for children under 6. But doctors can still legally prescribe those drugs to children” (47). Administration of these drugs to 4-year-old children is testing the medication, since there is no knowledge about any type of side effect that might be caused due to a prolonged dosage of it. The only suggestions we have concerning the neurological fact regarding developing brains, is that animals developing neurological systems are extremely sensitive to drugs, and may cause permanent changes in their adult lives. Consequently, tolerance and addiction might be the more plausible side effects, as well as permanent changes in human adults. Therefore, the prescription of antidepressants, stimulants or other type of drugs not approved by the FDA for young children, is neither appropriate nor ethical.

The data analysis suggests that professionals are in fact over-diagnosing patients, but it is important to note, that this can only be with parental approval. Parents do play a major role when drugs represent a fast solution. However, they have a responsibility to become knowledgeable when considering all the possible implications of prescribing their children with any type of stimulant or psychoactive drug. Parents are responsible for researching the possible medication, they should inquire about any possible consequences or problems that might arise due to the exposure of the drug to the kid. There are two possible explanations concerning the parental approval of prescribing their kids with psychoactive drugs. The first one is due to a lack of knowledge concerning the consequences and problems that could arise with the prescription these drugs to kids. Parents might be unaware of alternative treatments such behavioral therapy, thus they comply with the first solution that comes along their way. Here again we find ourselves with the issues of time and dedication. The second explanation is linked with the first one, a lack of research time due to their laborious lives hence they are not able to learn about alternative treatments. Parents choose drugs as a solution for their kids problems, in order to have their own time and not spend time and dedication while dealing with their children.

While considering a possible explanation to the increasing figures showed by Magno Zito et al. is that in a number of cases, children have been diagnosed with some behavioral disorder and prescribed a certain drug as a form of treatment. Months later, the kid does not show any kind of improvement, or antisocial behavior might arise as a side effect. Under this situation, the kid is diagnosed with a different disorder and placed on a different drug. All these switches in diagnoses and treatments lead to a “cocktail effect” on the patient s brain, altering his whole neural activity. A possible explanation for this brutality is that professionals are making extremely poor diagnosis due to lack of knowledge or any other explanation. On the other hand, an alternative explanation for this prescription dilemma, might be the commercial-medical market between doctors, and the pharmaceutical industry that lies behind the scene. A combination of factors such as society, parents, professional counseling and others, are responsible for the increasing number of children being prescribed with the drugs mentioned. However, there is one element that interacts with each one of the factors, this element is money. It is because of money that both parents need to have a job in order to sustain a home. With an optimistic point of view, this time parents gain from not solving their kid s problem is for having a job. On the other hand, professionals might receive higher wages by their medical insurance for having more patients; thus, they diagnose anyone who might qualify for any disorder. The hypothesis of earning a higher wage associated with the number of patients under prescription is very tempting, and it is worthy keeping it in mind.

A critical point in psychiatry and the drug administration today, is that professionals are being trained in a systematic way. Patients are labeled by their clinicians on the basis of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV), which consists of a list of categories, under which disorders are described. The system shows how categorization and labeling are expressed in their fullest way. In order for a patient to be treated by a professional with the aid of a medical insurance, the patient should fit into one of the disorders and its symptoms, if this is not the case, no medical insurance will pay for the treatment. Schools are introducing psychology students into this field by an automatic and systematic procedure. Psychiatry took a different perspective regarding therapy according to M.D. Peter Breggin, in his book “Toxic Psychiatry” where he claims that “love and care, and supporting the patient s self-determination, were the most effective elements in helping people” (9). However, medication, hospitalization or even technological and pharmaceutical solutions have replaced the old “talking therapy”.

Alternative therapy is available for the treatment of certain child disorders, especially for ADHD. These treatments are carried out without the aid of any drugs, and require a lot of time, as well as after-session dedication. This means that parents must take some time off their duties and work together with their kids. These types of treatments are successful ones; they do show positive outcomes, and even better ones than the pharmaceutical ones. Psychosocial therapies like family therapy, help people overcome depression, attention problems, and other type of problems such as panic attacks. These treatments are held by means of talking therapy as their main course of action. One of the best known methods is the Reinforcement program, positive or negative. Positive reinforcement reefers to any kind of thing, such as an object, that increases the probability for a certain behavior to be executed at the presence of the same stimulus. Negative reinforcement on the other hand, refers to something a subject will work to avoid. Brestan and Eyberg assert in their article “Treatment for Misbehaving Children”, that “Two treatments were found to be well established” for the treatment of behavioral problems, “The first was parent training, which involves teaching parents how to monitor the child’s behavior and reward or punish effectively” (1). Barlow and Durand, describe some of the treatments available for ADHD, one of them is a Reinforcement program which “rewards the child for improvements and, at times, punish misbehavior with loss of rewards” (443). Breggin analyzes the cons of drug therapy and sates that ” Children with problems that once were handled by remedial education or improved parenting are instead being subject to medical diagnoses, drugs, and hospitals (Breggin, 12).

However, while considering the adequate treatment for youngsters, treatment should begin at home with the parent s full dedication. Schools are not the ones responsible for educating children, they are in charge of nourishing them with knowledge. Parents are responsible for the behavior of their kids, they are the ones who set the limits up to where misconduct can reach. Today s situation have reached the point in which parents who have kids under medication, place in charge the drug to the school in order to administrate to the kid.

As conclusion, first, parents who do not have enough time nor interest for raising their kids should think twice before having a child. Parents are responsible for the education of their children and must cope with problems together. Impersonal solutions such as psychotropic drugs might seem very attractive, but they might not be the adequate one. Drug treatment is definitely not the adequate one for a three year-old child whose metabolisms is developing at a high rate when comparing with an adult. When considering the testing of psychotropic drugs with infants, a position must be taken, since there is no approved evidence complying with the prescription of these types of drugs to young children, only for eighteen years and older. Parents should consider their child s condition before accepting any type of treatment, and research about alternative treatments such as behavioral therapy.

Work Cited

Barlow, David H. and Mark Durand. Abnormal Psychology. California: Brooks/Cole, 1999.

Breggin, Peter R. Toxic Psychiatry. New York: St. Martin s, 1991.

Magno Zito, Julie, et al. “Trends in the Prescribing of Psychotropic Medications to Preschoolers.” JAMA 283 8 (2000): 1.

Rappley, Marsha D., et al. “Diagnosis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder and Use of Psychotropic Medication in Very Young Children.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 153 10 (1999): 1.

Shute, Nancy, et al. “The Perils of Pills.” U.S. News 6 Mar. 2000: 128.

Elizabeth V. Brestan and Sheila M. Eyberg. “Treatment for Misbehaving Children.” Harvard Mental Health Letter 16 5 (1999):