Mind-Altering Psych Drugs for a 7-Year-Old

LogicSoDeveloped

LogicSoDeveloped

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Not long ago, 7-year-old Brooke was on a medical regimen that might seem extreme, even for an adult: The 43-pound girl was prescribed multiple mind-altering psychotropic drugs.

Dealt a tough hand early in life -- her birth mother had a history of drug dealing and prostitution -- Brooke was prone to extreme tantrums and wild behavior. Her foster mother, Lisa Ward, says a Florida foster care agency instructed her to take the girl to a mental health clinic. The clinic prescribed anti-psychotic medication, often used to treat schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.

"Within a few weeks, probably two, they decided that it wasn't working. They needed to do something else," Ward recalled. "At this point, she's getting worse, she's not getting any better."

Brooke was given 10 different prescriptions in four months, with the clinic frequently increasing her doses.

As a foster mother, Ward felt she had no choice. She worried that the state would take Brooke away if she didn't give the girl the medication.

"We were told to put our faith in the system and that's what we did," Ward said. "They kept saying she needs more medication."

Foster children are medicated with psychotropic drugs up to 13 times more than other kids. Michael Piraino, the founder of the National CASA Association, a foster children's advocacy group, said that, as a population, foster children tend to be more troubled than their peers.

"If you've been hurt the way these kids are, you or I would feel the same way," he said.

But Piraino said helping the children is not about always trying "to change their brain chemistry."

"When a doctor tells me that the drug is working, I would ask, 'Who's it working for? Is it working for the kid? Is it working for the caretaker? Is it working for the system? It only matters to me whether it's working for the kid," he said. "Frankly, we want the doctors and nurses who are prescribing these medicines to look at their behavior and think – and ask this question: 'Are we doing something wrong here?' And to the extent that we are, individually or collectively, let's change that."

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper held a congressional hearing Thursday, demanding changes in the foster care system.

"In my judgment, no children in this country should be taking at the same time five different kinds of psychotropic drugs," he said. "None."
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read more at: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mind-altering-psych-drugs-year/story?id=15066848#.TtjpQnM4NL4
 
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Buzzwords everywhere. Oh, how I detest the term "mind-altering."

But Piraino said helping the children is not about always trying "to change their brain chemistry."
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Actually, it is. Drugs are just one avenue to change it.

"In my judgment, no children in this country should be taking at the same time five different kinds of psychotropic drugs," he said. "None."
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Okay, that's a great quote to give people so that you seem all good and stuff, but could you give more than just your opinion? If you want me to believe that no child should take five kinds of psychoactive substances, I'm going to need more than that.

"The first thing we've got to think about: Is the medicine causing this?" he said. "There always has to be a high index of suspicion when we're using these agents."
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Considering the symptoms existed prior to medication, the answer is a very simple "no." Whether or not the medicine is exacerbating it is another question.
 
The fact of the matter is that giving psychoactive medications to young children WILL change their brains. To be fair, there are certainly some children with a genuine need, though I'd be damned if I could find a doctor that genuinely knew the right way about medicating a child in this manner.
 
I am curious as to why Aether thinks that helping such children is *always* about trying to change their brain chemistry.
Are you saying that there is no other way to help then?
Therapy, etc. are not possibilities?
It seems to me that behavioral therapy would be the best choice here.

And I really liked this part of the article:
"When a doctor tells me that the drug is working, I would ask, 'Who's it working for? Is it working for the kid? Is it working for the caretaker? Is it working for the system? It only matters to me whether it's working for the kid," he said.
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The TV "works" really well in taking care of kids, from the caretaker's perspective, but if you are worried about their emotional and intellectual development then it is not so successful. Some of these drugs are the same - they work to shut kids up and stop the surface problems, but they don't actually help the kid.

Therapy, however, has the goal of helping the kid, and long-term.

Of course, if there are imbalances or lacks of certain chemicals in the brain, taking drugs may be the only way to deal with it. However, it is very difficult to know if/when this is the case, and the system the way it is now simply wants to shut the kids up, in the majority of cases.
 
slimvictor said:
I am curious as to why Aether thinks that helping such children is *always* about trying to change their brain chemistry.
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I think he means that brain chemistry can be altered in ways other than drugs I.e doing things that make you feel good change your brain chemistry too and maybe a safer and more effective way of 'changing their brain chemistry'
 
I meant it in the sense that any change in their condition will be a change in brain state; that is, administering psychoactive substances, engaging in pleasurable activities, or undergoing therapy, etc., all alter brain state.
 
^ Everything alters brain state, but that is not what they were talking about in the article.
They were talking about brain chemistry, which is (to my understanding) a different thing.
So it seems that you missed their point, or were looking from a different perspective?
 
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The idea of giving anti-psychotic medication to a 7 year old terrifies me. How fucked up is that? How much damage are these chemicals going to cause that poor girl's brain, especially whilst she's growing up. It makes me laugh in a way, adults are not allowed to choose whether to take drugs like Amphetamines and Psychedelics, with fully developed brains, yet they prescribe drugs like this to a 7 year old with a developing brain.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen, some pretty disturbing fucked up shit right there...
 
Brain state = brain chemistry, drugs are just a crude, potentially dangerous way of altering it. But they're so easy and profitable they get pushed on people as the main, often only, treatment.
 
^Exactly.


Aether said:
Buzzwords everywhere. Oh, how I detest the term "mind-altering."


Actually, it is. Drugs are just one avenue to change it.


Okay, that's a great quote to give people so that you seem all good and stuff, but could you give more than just your opinion? If you want me to believe that no child should take five kinds of psychoactive substances, I'm going to need more than that.


Considering the symptoms existed prior to medication, the answer is a very simple "no." Whether or not the medicine is exacerbating it is another question.
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You seem unduly trusting of pharma... I don't see how you can be critical of this article.
 
Actually I was a bit wrong. Ziprasidone is approved for treatment of bipolar mania in kids as young as 10.

I used to work in a pediatric psych unit, and some of the patients were killers and rapists that would frequently relapse and were really fucking dangerous--like, Children-of-the-Corn dangerous. Neuroleptics are probably necessary for those extreme cases; they're probably more humane than prolonged 4-point restraint and constant beatings by psych-unit staff.
 
235360287471352662 said:
Actually I was a bit wrong. Ziprasidone is approved for treatment of bipolar mania in kids as young as 10.

I used to work in a pediatric psych unit, and some of the patients were killers and rapists that would frequently relapse and were really fucking dangerous--like, Children-of-the-Corn dangerous. Neuroleptics are probably necessary for those extreme cases; they're probably more humane than prolonged 4-point restraint and constant beatings by psych-unit staff.
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8o !!! Ziprasidone is pretty heavy duty stuff! I'd only hope it was prescribed in extreme cases (such as the child endangering themselves or others). Using something like that for maintenance therapy sounds horrific!
 
Risperidone is approved to treat aggression associated with autism spectrum disorder. I don't have the age limits off hand, though I've seen guidelines, as well as patients on it. The one that I can recall off hand has scripts for Concerta and other such stims. Makes me wonder if a lot of this is just polypharma chasing side effects.
 
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