USA Today reports on a new study that kids diagnosed with mental and behavioral problems increasingly get multiple drugs, even though the drugs aren't always tested for efficacy on kids or in combination with one another. Why the explosion?
• Drug companies are marketing their products more aggressively to consumers and doctors. "Many parents come in and want that 'quick fix.' "Now Cruise hates psychiatry in general and opposes ALL medication for mental illness, which is crazy. (Pun intended.) But that shouldn't cloud the fact that young people seem over-medicated and that it's easier for schools to demand that parents put their kids on pills rather than just deal with a kid who may be perfectly normal, just a little bored in class (maybe they're too smart?) or just, you know, a kid.
• One drug often causes side effects; since more medications than ever are available, kids get another drug to deal with these side effects. For example, stimulants may cause insomnia, which leads to prescribing sleeping pills.
• Insurers often are more willing to pay for pills than for therapy.
The best part of a serious debate would be to recognize that some people do need medication and it needn't be any more stigmatized than knowing that one kid needs insulin for his diabetes and another needs medication for their ADD.
