Medicated Child Essay Example

Reaction Paper to The Medicated Child There are many pros and cons to both medicating a child and not medicating child which is why it is such a controversial subject. In my own opinion, I think that medicating a child should be a last resort and only used in extreme circumstances because of my own experiences and because I feel that there are more disadvantages than benefits in giving children medication. First, the anti -depressants and anti-psychotics that are prescribed to children mostly have only been tested on adults and are made for adults. Even over-the-counter medicines, such as Tylenol, are broken down into child and adult categories so I feel that more powerful drugs that change the chemicals in the brain should at least have these categories as well. Second, a child's brain is constantly developing and giving children medication that affects the brain and its chemicals can be highly detrimental to the development of the child's brain, especially in the prepubescent years. Third, the fact that many children have been misdiagnosed as having ADHD when in reality they have bipolar disorder shows how ridiculous giving children medications in the past and now actually is. A doctor is not only prescribing powerful medications that affect the brain but may be giving the child medication that doesn't even help with the problem. Most of the children showed in the videos, I feel, should have had alternative therapy before they were prescribed medication. They could have taken classes, talk therapy with a psychologist, exercise, or meditation to help the problem before being medicated. The fact that one of the children at one point was taking up to 8 medications is unacceptable and constantly adding a new medication to counteract the side effects of another is too detrimental to a child. The only case that I felt would require immediate treatment with medication would be the girl, Jessica, when she was five years old. Clearly, a child who is in a