Over Medicating Children
meHasan Akber
English 1302
Professor Carlton Downey
January 18, 2012
Overmedicating Children Five year old Jacob Solomon was first suffering from deficit disorder for which he was put on medication, later he was put on more medication for over five years to control different side effects by each medicine; due to the prescriptions Jacob developed tics in his neck which was a side effect of all the medications. He still took more and more tablets to cover up side effects from the first one without solving his initial disorder. Jacob and millions of kids like him in America today are put on medications by psychiatrist; medications which are so powerful that even adults think twice about taking them due to their side effects. Are we medicating kids with confidence about their illness or should we try alternative methods first? Do we know the possible side effects on children and how they affect them in their adulthood? Who is most responsible for a child 's loss due to medication? The chance of getting kids the right drug for their various mental illness is very low. It is so low that even doctors them self on many occasions have denied by saying that the medication prescribed by them are merely judged by their observation of the children and prediction of their illness. Many of these psychiatrist are influenced and paid by pharmaceutical companies to promote their products or fund the psychiatrist research which could result in a bias opinion. These psychiatrist in return try to prescribe patients the companies ' drugs which are expensive sometimes and irrelevant. A study shows that placebo effected children almost exactly as same as the medicine. Therefore, this raises a major question of if these medicine really work? We should look to alternative methods before we assume that medicating children with powerful doses is the only solution left. Therapy is one of the alternatives to go with helping children 's mind. There are many types of therapies such
English 1302
Professor Carlton Downey
January 18, 2012
Overmedicating Children Five year old Jacob Solomon was first suffering from deficit disorder for which he was put on medication, later he was put on more medication for over five years to control different side effects by each medicine; due to the prescriptions Jacob developed tics in his neck which was a side effect of all the medications. He still took more and more tablets to cover up side effects from the first one without solving his initial disorder. Jacob and millions of kids like him in America today are put on medications by psychiatrist; medications which are so powerful that even adults think twice about taking them due to their side effects. Are we medicating kids with confidence about their illness or should we try alternative methods first? Do we know the possible side effects on children and how they affect them in their adulthood? Who is most responsible for a child 's loss due to medication? The chance of getting kids the right drug for their various mental illness is very low. It is so low that even doctors them self on many occasions have denied by saying that the medication prescribed by them are merely judged by their observation of the children and prediction of their illness. Many of these psychiatrist are influenced and paid by pharmaceutical companies to promote their products or fund the psychiatrist research which could result in a bias opinion. These psychiatrist in return try to prescribe patients the companies ' drugs which are expensive sometimes and irrelevant. A study shows that placebo effected children almost exactly as same as the medicine. Therefore, this raises a major question of if these medicine really work? We should look to alternative methods before we assume that medicating children with powerful doses is the only solution left. Therapy is one of the alternatives to go with helping children 's mind. There are many types of therapies such