Posted by Simcha on December 18, 2003, at 22:51:15
In reply to Re: UK Has Banned Medication for Depressed Children?, posted by KarmaFairy on December 18, 2003, at 22:38:23
> Prescription medication for depressed children is often hastily prescribed...most adults aren't fully aware of the dangers of these prescriptions, so I think it's fair to say that children and adolescents would have trouble making informed decisions. Perhaps this is for the best?
Um, no...
I work with depressed children. One boy comes to mind. He was nine. Every morning he would arrive at school wailing and screaming, "I want to be dead! I should be dead!" After we could calm him down a bit (a process that would take hours) he would sleep. He was clearly depressed.
We gave him plenty of therapy and counseling. If you are in California, these are your tax dollars hard at work.
We begged his Mom to have him evaluated by the County Psychiatrist. She refused because she thought that all of the antidepressants were addictive and she is a recovering addict herself.
Eventually, after months of this awful suffering for the child, she agreed to have her child assessed by the psychiatrist. The child was put on antidpressants and this cycle of suicidality stopped. Since then he has exhibited no signs of depression. We are going on a year now...
Most of the time it is the parents, IMHO, who stand in the way of good mental health for their children. Yes, this is because they are not educated about mental health issues and medications especially.
Working in this field I cannot imagine taking our children off of medications. Suicide would go up by leaps and bounds, I assure you. I believe this would be malpractice.
I hope that the British Government knows what it's getting itself into here. They have 50,000 little lives in their hands. They still have these souls among them. My suspicion is that suicidality will increase when these children are weaned off of meds that work for them.
Simcha
poster:Simcha
thread:291460
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031213/msgs/291473.html