Study: Anti-psychotic drug use soars among U.S. and U.K. kids

Study: Anti-psychotic drug use soars among U.S. and U.K. kids

www.cnn.com

American children take anti-psychotic medicines at about six times the rate of children in the United Kingdom, according to a comparison based on a new U.K. study.


Side effects including weight gain and heart trouble have been reported in children using anti-psychotic drugs.

Does it mean U.S. kids are being over-treated? Or that U.K. children are being under-treated?

(visit the link for the full news article)

Experts say that's almost beside the point, because use is rising on both sides of the Atlantic. And with scant long-term safety data, it's likely the drugs are being over-prescribed for both U.S. and U.K. children, research suggests.

This is such a disturbing trend to me. How did we get by without all of these anti-psychotics before? Correct me if I am wrong here, but wasn't the world a safer place before we medicated our children?

Every day that goes by I become more and more jaded by big pharma.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Karlhungis


At around 19 I was put on Haldol (an anti-psychotic)
and it almost killed me and it would have if my Dad hadn't threatened the doctor with a shotgun to take me off of it.
As soon as I started on it, it made me physically ill, followed by loss of memory after that I lost 8 days, where I was almost a vegetable. I halucinated.
The doctor told my parents it was something I had induced OUTSIDE of the mental facility,(I was there for depression)
AS soon as they took me off of it, I 'woke up' and was surprised at what had happened! Horrible.
Don't put all your trust in doctors.

[edit on 5-5-2008 by Clearskies]

I once went to the doctors with chest pains at around the age of 19-20. After X-rays and other exams, my GP determined I must be "depressed" and prescribed my Cypromil. I only took one dose and felt physically ill for two days. I stopped straight away and never continued the course.

But for the doctor to prescribe me an anti-depressant for physical pain was basically a cop-out for him because he couldn't come up with an answer.

I eventually worked out it was due to my posture, as I use a PC at both work and home alot. After making efforts to change my posture, the pain went away.

Just goes to show that 8 years of medical school and a title doesn't mean you are the be all and end all of knowledge.

I have now since changed GP's.

[edit on 5/5/08 by stumason]

I've been saying for years now that this is nothing but an experiment being conducted on the kids of America and, sadly, parents go along with it because they are touted as a "quick-fix" for *perceived* problems the child has.

WTF -- a kid, is a kid, is a kid... the problem is the upbringing, imo. They are no different then when we were ones ourselves. I'm not putting all the blame on parents, as some goes to the popular methods of consequence (mainly the "time-out" -- what a joke -- esp. when a kid gets sent to his room, only to play video games or surf the web) and to society/media in general and we could probably add in all the food additives/hormones, as well. The "State" has been raising your kids, and most of you have allowed it. The easy way out...

Ultimately, the blame must lie with parents who are so wrapped up in their jobs that they don't take on this responsibility of raising their own kids, as they should, and on the ones who are simply worthless and incompetent in the role of parent (which are usually the ones who keep pumping out the kids). And they go looking for the "miracle drug" they heard about to "fix" the problems that they do not want, nor have the time, to deal with.

Now... factor in all the kids who are adjudicated delinquent or in a "home" of one type or another. Ones who are literally raised by the "Nanny State." Now bring in a psychologist to see all those kids... with "psychiatric reviews" written up by a single staff member who perceives the kid as "having problems" in certain areas... with the Doctor reading that and speaking with the kid for 30 min... and then psychotropic meds showing up that very night for the kid to start taking. A captive group of guinnea pigs for the Big Pharma experiments... with doctors being paid by them and more than willing to take part for the extra cash... changing from one drug to the next, seemingly on a whim, or prescribing drug "cocktails" as the experiment.

Bottom line... it's parents looking for the easy way out who have let this occur. Fire away folks, but you know I'm right... and, yes... I have been smart enough to not bring any into this world myself, as I knew I did not want to deal with a young version of me... you all should have seen it coming... now you see what a little pain in the @ss you were to your parents... but they didn't go put you on drugs, did they? (I imagine some of the younger parents were drugged by theirs).

**And it's all become such the "norm" that the 2 prior posters allowed it to be done to themselves!!**


[edit on 5/5/2008 by RabbitChaser]

There is no great mystery about the overwhelming difference between medication prescribing here as opposed to elsewhere.

In America, Big Pharma is part of the triumvirate. Here doctors prescribe as the market dictates, or they don't get any support. Forget that it's children, the patients age has nothing to do with it. They do it to the elderly, to the students, to anyone who is can be justified as an appropriate repository for their 'product.'

Parents can easily be 'guilted' by medical community into doing anything for the kids, untried medicine, surgeries, you name it. It's not something that they can lightly resists without risking a drug-zealot accusing them of not caring for their children appropriately and bringing the government in to enforce the dosing.

It's neither an issue of prevalent disease nor 'trends'. Its about money - and Big Pharma will get the money.

[edit on 5-5-2008 by Maxmars]

I'd have to narrow it down to a few points.

1: Parent's aren't allowed to discipline their children. Hence, they have to dope them just to keep them in control.

on top of this...

2: Too many doctors in the states are far too eager to find a problem, children are psychotic by nature, it's part of growing up. The doctors see this instead as a problem, and prescribe anti-psychotics... there was nothing wrong with the kid in the first place other than not being disciplined.

causing this...

3: Big Pharma. Really when it boils down to it, the pharmaceutical companies are really writing the American medical dictionary.

Family member just died? You're depressed, thats a sickness, heres some pills.
Feeling excited? Thats just wrong... heres something to knock you down a few pegs.
Got PTSD? Well, don't seek help from friends, or from a psychiatrist... here's something that will stop those nasty memories... and every other free thought you might have too.

I swear, we're living in a world of hypochondriacs... at least the states is.

Whereas, it would seem the old British motto of Stiff Upper Lip still works in Britain.

I think a major part of the problem lays with the doctors prescribing the pills. I believe that, especially in psychiatric circles, the guidelines for prescribing these pills is too loose. It relies on the patient's ability to accurately describe what is ailing them.

When you go to a normal doctor with a sore throat he can investigate and see how severe it is but if you go to a psychiatrist because you're depressed you have to explain to the doctor how it feels and there is nothing concrete to compare it to. There's no real way to determine how "depressed" or "psychotic" someone truly is. You can't concretely say this one person is more depressed than this other person and must therefore take twice the dosage.

Many of these pills also do many more things to your brain than the doctor will let you know. I was prescribed these types of pills much of my adolescence and I refused to take them after I found out, first hand, that they simply removed your emotions rather than cure some "chemical imbalance" in your brain. We should all be eternally thankful that we were born after the medical industry abandoned the frivolous use of lobotomies.

Lobotomies were very common and could be preformed in a psychiatrist's office in under half an hour with no real surgery thanks to the "Trans-Orbital Lobotomy". Children were lobotomized for any number of childlike infractions much as they are prescribe endless amounts of pills for normal childhood behavior. JFK's sister died from a botched lobotomy and to be honest it was never much of an exact science, sometimes it worked well, others the patient would be a drooling vegetable and in others you would see violent seizures and death.

Psycho surgery fell out of favor with the advent of......dum dum dum....Psycho Chemistry and Psycho Pharmacology! Which is still not an exact science and still seeks to cure the same symptoms "cured" by lobotomies. I still don't trust the psychiatric industry at all and I promise you that in 40 years we will look back and be horrified by what we did to people while attempting to "cure" them.

This is just a travesty, in one more way for Big Pharma to make sure that once the baby boomers are completetly gone they have a fresh supply of patients so they can continue to hook on their drugs.

All this illnesses that are been "discover" and diagnose to our children are just the latest scam to keep our childs hook on drugs at a very short age. I remember when I was a child I was diagnosed as a "hyperactive child" which in todays day would make me elegible for about as many drugs available for kids with attention deficit disorders. But I remember that consultation with the doctor I was about 6 or 7 years old and I remember the doctor telling my parents that I need it to be involved in activities that would channel all that energy. Soon there after I was in track and field, soccer, baseball and basketball and so it happens that I got really good at it and got a scholarship that ultimately paid for my college education, I read this cases now and it just makes me think what would have happen to me of my doctor or parents had just decided to just sit me in the couch like vegetable hooked on drugs at a young age. Or better yet, how many good artist, thinkers, athletes are we killing each day with this drugs.

reply to post by Karlhungis


I believe prescription drugs to cause more harm than good. It seems almost everybody's taking a pill to fix everything. This can only be good for pharmaceutical companies. It's certainly keeping their pockets lined!

I wonder what would happen if we were in a crisis of some sort where people couldn't get to their pills. Look our Mutant Ninja Turtles!!

This is a very serious problem and the administration of these powerful drugs is what is taking the place of discipline in our schools.

In fact, when you combine this story with all those stories that we see about kids being tased, hand-cuffed and arrested for normal, but stupid, kid-like behavior, you get a very grim picture of our school system and the future.