Drugging Children

“In my practice of psychiatry, I am frequently consulted about children who are taking three, four, and sometimes five psychiatric drugs, including medications that are FDA-approved only for the treatment of psychotic adults. The drug treatment typically began when the children developed conflicts with adults at home or at school. In retrospect, the conflicts could easily have been resolved by interventions such as family counseling or individualized educational approaches. Usually under pressure from a school, the parents instead acquiesced to put their child on stimulants prescribed by psychiatrists, family physicians, or pediatricians.

When these children developed depression, delusions, hallucinations, paranoid fears and other drug-induced reactions while taking stimulants, their physicians mistakenly concluded that the children suffered from “clinical depression,” “schizophrenia" or "bipolar disorder" that has been "unmasked" by the medications. Instead of removing the child from the stimulants, these doctors mistakenly prescribed additional drugs, such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and neuroleptics. Children who were put on stimulants for "inattention" or "hyperactivity" ended up taking multiple adult psychiatric drugs that caused severe adverse effects, including psychoses and tardive dyskinesia.*"

It is time to recognize that the supposedly increasing rates of "schizophrenia," "depression," and "bipolar disorder" in children in North America are often the direct result of treatment with psychiatric drugs….”

—Peter R. Breggin, MD, Dir., Int’l Ctr. for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, "Confirming the Hazards of Stimulant Drug Treatment," www.breggin.com

*a movement disorder caused by neuroleptic or antipsychotic medications