well, we're getting down to the end of it now. So i'm almost finished with my final paper, i turned in a rough draft last week so we shall see how that turns out. so far my paper looks like this: Psychopharmacology is the use of psychological drugs to treat disorders of the mind. There are many issues concerning psychopharmacology. The most talked about concerns are ethics. Prescribing these drugs to adults has been around for a few years now. However, the prescribing of these psychotropic drugs to children has been on the rise. Many questions arise such as, is it ethical to be prescribing chemistry altering drugs to our youth at ages such as three or four years of age? Many argue yes and many argue no. By using such medications as stimulants, depressants and anti-depressants we may be causing more damage than we think or we may be bettering children overall. This paper serves to offer a two sided approach to the issue at hand to hopefully provide the reader with clear information to weigh both sides of the argument. Should children in preschool or middle school be prescribed these drugs that could or could not cause long term damage to their brain chemistry or structures? It will also serve to provide some background on who is suggesting or prescribing these drugs and who should really be kept in charge of prescribing these drugs.
As a nation we are finding that our children are becoming depressed at a young age as well and young males are more at risk for suicide. Cummings Wiggins (2001) state that, “Antidepressant medication has become the most popular treatment for depression, and antidepressants have become among the most prescribed psychotropic drugs in America” (122). This may correspond with that since SSRI’s are effective on the treatment of depression then it is easier to prescribe a pill to treat it. This may also mean that the doctor has complete faith in something that he may know little about.
One might think “oh I would never give my child amphetamines or speed”, but needless to say primary care doctors are prescribing Ritalin, Aderol and other types of stimulant drugs to children who are just learning how to read and write. You might wonder why this would happen. The simple fact is, adults want their children to act more like adults and less like children. Play is essential in the development in children. By taking this away from them it could severely impact their development. Parents are not the ones taking all the blame either. Teachers and primary care doctors should be held responsible as well.
Teachers should take responsibility for monitoring the kids closely. They should act like mature adults when dealing with situations concerning whether or not a child should be placed on psychotropic drugs. The teacher’s job is to enhance development of a child’s brain. By suggesting a child is placed on chemistry altering drugs you run the chance of damaging that young brain by over stimulating it. Studies involving rodents suggest that when a young rat is given these stimulants the brain is over exerted and stimulus that should be interesting to a rat is shrugged off almost like an every day occurrence. Evidence for this in humans is starting to emerge but simply put the studies on this are very young and will be interesting to see the data ten years down the road.
As for primary care doctors, they tend to under medicate a child. Meaning that since a primary care doctor’s job is basically over all well being of a patient they are not too focused on what is going on mentally. Primary care doctors only give patients about ten minutes of their time. Think about that, only ten minutes to hear the symptoms and make a quick diagnosis and send you one your way with a prescription. Does that sound very accurate to you for something that could potentially damage a child’s brain for the rest of their lives? Another problem with primary care doctors prescribing these drugs is that there are seldom follow up consultations hence why the drugs are under medicated. Today’s society believes that medicine is the cure to every problem. By having doctors prescribe you one month worth of drugs it might alleviate the symptoms for that month but as soon as they are done then the symptoms return and we get what is known as a rebound effect.
Studies have begun to report a rise in the prescribing of these psychotropic drugs. “Surveys of Medicaid and insurance company databases, however, suggest increased use of psychotropic drugs in pediatric populations. (Brown, Simmons, 2002) Meaning that primary care doctors are prescribing these drugs to children at alarming rates and it is continually increasing.
The job of prescribing these psychotropic drugs should fall upon, practiced and licensed psychiatrists. These individuals are trained specifically in these substances that they are prescribing to our youth. They know the side effects and the durations that children should be kept on. Psychiatrists also factor in the weights and dosages that doctors might not take the time to do. These drugs are made specifically for adults sometimes and by placing a young child on these they often forget that they might need to adjust the dosage on someone so young and small.
So i def need to start working on it some more because its due at the end of this week, so i feel i need to discuss more of the ethical issues that are made here. so my goal is to do this tomorrow on 4-25-06 and have it completley done and to turn it in on thursday.
